I was wrestling around with my two familiars when I heard a voice call out, “What in the world are you doing?”
The three of us froze and turned our heads toward the source of the voice.
“Are you goofing off again today?”
It was my friend Fine standing in the doorway.
Fine Cavendish. She was a student who lived in Lapis and was a year younger than me. We’d known each other for more than ten years, and she was one of my best friends.
Fine had lovely facial features and lush blond hair, and she always dressed fashionably—although each article of clothing she wore was reasonably priced. It was easy to tell that she was raised well and had a good head on her shoulders. Especially compared to a witch in training who wore a floppy robe, tied her hair up in a bun to hide how disheveled it was, and never wore any makeup—not that such a character is a part of this story.
“What’s all the hubbub about?”
“Oh, nothing. Just the teensy, tiiiniest little thing happened, but it doesn’t matter anymore.”
I needed Fine to let her guard down. I calmed my familiars and propped my table back up with the same crescent grin from earlier on my face.
“I was just about to make some delicious tea. Here, you can have some in my teacher’s favorite cup.”
“Wow, that’s a really fancy cup.”
I prepared the tea while Fine was distracted by the cup I’d set on the table. With elegant hands, I poured my friend the special brew I’d prepared earlier. My two familiars knew exactly what I was doing and watched with horror in their eyes.
“You didn’t do something weird to this tea, did you?”
Fine took one look at the tea before shooting me a dubious look. She sometimes made sharp, insightful realizations like this that showed how well she knew me.
“C-c’mon, who says no to free tea? You wanna fight?”
“You’re acting strange…”
“It’s really expensive tea, and I want you to try it. C’mon. C’mon, c’mon, c’moooooon.”
“All right… If you insist…”
Though very suspicious of me and my cup of tea, she picked it up and lifted it to her lips. Slowly…the cup moved through the air, and just as it was about to hit her glossy lips—
“Hiyaaaaaah!!!” I stole the cup from her hands and threw it against the wall as hard as I could. The cup shattered into a thousand pieces, and tea splattered everywhere. “Bloody hell!! That really was Teacher’s favorite cup!!!”
“Seriously? What are you doing?!”
I knew I’d never forget the face Fine made when I did that. I’d never seen someone so completely taken aback before.
“You were going to give me spiked tea?!”
“I’m really sorry. I hope you can forgive me. Pwetty pwease? Waaah.”
I clung to her legs, begging for forgiveness, and Fine let out an exasperated sigh.
“Why in the world would you try to drug me?”
“Because I’m running out of options… I don’t know what to do!”
I told Fine everything. That I only had a year left to live, and about the thousand tears of joy I needed to collect, and how despite all this, I’d spent the last week doing assistant work.
Fine thought I was joking at first, chuckling as she listened along, but the reality of my situation soon set in, and her expression became serious.
“Are you really going to die, Meg?”
“Yup, I guess I’m cursed.”
“A curse… Can’t Lady Faust just, I dunno, uncurse you?”
“Nope, she said she can’t. She said this curse is like a chronic disease that I was born with.”
“And that’s why you need one thousand tears of joy. Making people cry tears of joy doesn’t sound very easy.”
“It really isn’t. Look at this. It’s the result of my first week. Two tears, and they aren’t even of pure joy.”
I passed my bottle of tears to Fine, and she looked at the two crystal shards with interest. At the bottom of the bottle were two of the tiniest shards imaginable. These were the clear crystal tears of two people.
“Wow, so these are the crystals. I don’t know much about magic and all that stuff, but these sure are pretty. They seem clear, or pure, to me at least. It feels like there’s nothing extra in them.”
“I still don’t really get it, either, what pure tears are.”
I shook the bottle, and the tear shards rattled inside. I stared at my two shards, when I heard Fine say, “But…you’re not the type to be satisfied with tears shed through medicine, I bet.”
“You know me well.”
“We’ve been friends for over ten years, after all.”
“Yup. Maybe we should get married.”
“I don’t think we’re that close.”
“Awww…”
I was desperate, and Fine was both weirded out by me and sorry for me. She was right, though. I knew forcing the tears out of people with drugs wasn’t going to work. My teacher said I needed to collect shards of emotion.
The tears shed by Dr. Hendy and Anna were extra special, and even if they weren’t pure joy, they were shards of raw emotion. Tears earned from drugs and other underhanded methods certainly wouldn’t be of emotion and likely wouldn’t be suitable for a seed. And even if they did work, I wouldn’t want that to be the foundation for my life.
“I’m at a loss here.”
Fine chuckled at the sight of me in such deep thought.
“What’s so funny?”
“Meg, you’re so nice. You don’t always have to make everything a joke. Maybe you should be a bit more honest with yourself.”
“I don’t wanna hear it. So when are we gonna have the wedding?”
“I’ll pass.”
A question popped into my mind while we shared in our fun banter.
“What brings you to the manor today anyway, Fine?”