ONE POINT FIVE (1.5 in the Amnesia Archives)

Chapter 9

Sarphi's POV

I stopped in my tracks as a woman came into view. She had tan skin and deep chocolate hair which cascaded down her back in beautiful ringlets. Her eyes were a similar brown, but they were cold. She was slender and wore jewellery which glinted in the light. As a prior thief, I knew that this kind of jewellery was a red herring. Nobody with a lot of wealth wore that much gold to run simple errands. There weren't any events within the village today, certainly not any which would call for such dress. I could see the tarnish from several feet away. The only explanation was that she was trying to be intimidating by flaunting her wealth.

"Can I help you?" I asked, trying to be somewhat polite, despite the tone she'd used when first talking to us. I kept my back straight and my hold on Prin rather protective. "Yes, we're very new here. I'm sorry we haven't had the pleasure of meeting you sooner."

She scowled at me. "Absolutely not." She flipped her hair as she strutted closer to us, staring us up and down. "I've heard from the locals that you two will be taking over the bakery?" Her head raised, and her voice indicated it was a question, but I didn't quite know what to say.

"That would be correct." Prin's hand tightened around mine, like she was holding me back. She sounded very happy, regardless of whether or not she's aware of this woman's intentions.

"Predictable." I didn't know what the woman meant by that. She then gave a small laugh. "And your names, what are they again?" Her eyes sparkled, telling me that she knew exactly what our names were.

"My name is Sarphi, and this is Prin." I gestured to Prin with the hand which had held the basket, which now hung from my elbow. "What's your name, miss? If you don't mind me asking."

"Prin?" she repeated, a grin coming to her lips. "You mean, Princess? That's your full name, isn't it?" She leaned forward, causing me to step back, pulling Prin with me. "If that's the case, then I'm Queenie."

I was about to break this queen's crown. I knew that Prin's name didn't come from the greatest of people, who had less-than good intentions. But for this woman to come up to us and simply declare herself as Queenie in order to be above her? I was fighting the urge to reach forward with my nails and dig into her eyes.

"The name seems fitting," Prin commented with a smile remaining on her face, her head tilting a bit to the side. "What's your job here? I understand that everyone has one, right?" Trust her to make an interrogation sound so innocent.

Queenie's nostrils flared. "Correct, I'm the beautician of the village."

I almost snorted. I almost laughed in her face. But I was a skilled actress, so I didn't. I didn't think that she was ugly, far from it. But I was laughing at the very fact that a place like this had a need for a beautician. There were less than a hundred people living in the village. I didn't think that the job was necessary, and I wanted to know what else she did in order to make a living.

"That's wonderful!" I replied enthusiastically, understanding the dynamic which was being presented by her. "Though, I'm not sure if we'll be needing your services, if that's what you were asking. I'm used to taking care of myself, and I don't think that I'd be comfortable having anyone else in charge of it, you know?"

"Oh, I can tell." She looked me up and down once more. "Nobody else would look at you and approve of your appearance. You're blue." The way that she said the last sentence sounded as though that was all she needed to make her judgement. She had probably taken one look at me and saw me as a huge target. "Why is that, anyway? You fell into a barrel of blue dye as a baby, and it stayed? Mommy drop you in there to make you more interesting?"

I leaped for her, and was pulled back by Prin, who laughed and put an arm around my shoulders. "She was born this way," she replied to Queenie. "You know, unlike you being born with anything you present to us." She pointedly looked Queenie up and down, like she had done to us. "I must say that you have to have powerful mage connections to create something somewhat decent from what you started with."

I was speechless as I listened to Prin verbally retaliate in such a bold way. I wouldn't have guessed in a million years that someone as sweet as her would say something like that. Especially since we didn't actually know the woman. I couldn't say that she was lying, but I was the last one to point something like that out. I believed that everyone had the right to look the way they wanted to. I understood that it was simple retaliation, but I wasn't the most supportive.

Having said that, the look on Queenie's face was worth it. I doubted that she'd been insulted much in her life. Or maybe it had been a while. Her hand moved to cover her heart and her mouth dropped open. She made gasping noises, as though we'd taken the air from her lungs.

"How dare you even suggest anything like that." She patted down her dress self-consciously, which told me that Prin was probably correct. "I'm going to ruin your reputation here, girls. I am going to make sure that you get kicked out of the village before the month is through."

I was filled with nerves and anxiety at those words, but Prin just shrugged her shoulders, waving her hand like 'what can you do?'. "I think that the villagers will be able to make up their own mind about us. I don't think I'd like living in a place where you take one person's word as law anyway." She moved her arm from around my shoulder and began leading me back towards the bakery.

"You can't just walk away from me!" Queenie exclaimed as she reached out and grabbed my upper arm.

I wrapped my tail around her wrist and shoved her away. She looked as though she'd been stunned with a spell as her face turned green. Her eyes widened as she stared at the appendage which was holding onto her. I was grateful that my tail was long enough and flexible enough to not show under my dress. That would've been extremely embarrassing.

"Please leave us be," I told her, trying to remain polite. "We don't want to cause any trouble for ourselves here." I thought that was respectable enough as we faced in front of us once more, walking a little quicker to the bakery then we had earlier.

I was tempted to turn back around and look at her expression, but I controlled myself and kept my head held high until we walked through the door. I immediately walked over to Onyx and sat beside him, coaxing his head onto my lap and began to pet him, keeping my head and eyes down.

"Most of that went well," Prin informed Onyx quietly, as his eyes never moved from her. "We just had a small slip-up near the end."

"It wasn't our fault," I pointed out with a huff. "She's just used to being in charge. She wants us to think that she's above us. She wants us to need her and her advice and gossip, when we don't. She wants people to owe her." I bent down and kissed Onyx's head, realising that I had been a little rough with my pets, and whispered a silent apology. I was sure he could handle it though; he was made of shadows. "She's going to make this difficult."

"No, she's not," Prin disagreed as she set a hand on the top of my head, patting me like I was patting Onyx. "We're not going to let her ruin anything, okay? All that's happening is that there's a bit of friction. We'll settle down and she'll get used to us being here. She probably feels threatened."

"But I haven't even threatened her yet," I complained with a huff and looked up at her. "I haven't even said one thing which I could do to her. I was polite and kind, and let you do most of the talking."

"I'm pretty sure we talked the same amount." She gave a chuckle before shaking her head and sitting down, resting her head on my shoulder. "We've had a busy start to our day, but it's all new. We can't judge what living here is going to be like after a day."

I opened my mouth to argue, but I found it impossible. "Fine, okay. You've convinced me." I raised up both my hands ins surrender. "But if she causes us more trouble, I won't be afraid to hold back my tongue. It can be sharper than my knife."