With our hugging session over, Emily went back to her chair across the table and picked up her tea. “Goddess, I haven’t had a crying session like that in so long,”she said. “I forgot how warm and tingly it makes me feel.”   

I giggled. “The same could be said for myself except that was the first good cry that I can remember. Thank you for that,” I said relaxing into my seat and taking a sip of the tea. 

After taking a few sips and a bite of a cookie, Emily started up the conversation again. “I guess since we are in a sharing mood I should tell my new friend about myself,”she said emphasizing new friend. “Gosh where to start. First, I’m Emily Knole of the Knole family in Adel which is about a day walk away from here. We actually grew up in this city until I was about 4 and then my family decided it would be better to raise me and my newborn younger sister in the country air so we moved away. This shop we are in right now was actually my grandfathers. My mom and dad decided to open up a small general store in Adel when they moved out since my mom grew up working in this store and my dad originally was a city guard.” She stopped taking a breather. 

“So if your family is now in Adel, why are you back in Zandrill now?” I asked. “I would have thought you would be working with your parents.”

“Actually, when I turned 16, I begged my grandfather to let me apprentice with him instead,” she said. I’m guessing Emily noticed my head tilt in confusion. “So, how much do you know about the typical way people get jobs?” she asked.

“Umm...I’m honestly not sure,” I replied. “My younger and older sisters both have jobs from what I can tell along with my parents. My mom did mention to me she was going back to work at the place she apprenticed at when she was younger.”

Emily sighed a bit and then continued. “I guess we have a lot to talk about when it comes to common practices,” she said. “So for typical people in our stations of life, by that I mean not nobles, most people start working as an apprentice at the age of 16 like I and I’m assuming you originally did. During that time, you typically don’t get paid until the place hires you around a year or two later depending on your training. For me, I always enjoyed watching my grandfather tinker back here with aether contraptions and helping others who came by to have their items serviced. After a year, I realized I didn’t have my grandfather's gift with manipulating aether but I could at least run the customer service and store side of the business so my grandfather hired me full time. A year passed since that time and my grandfather became ill and eventually passed leaving me the shop and apartment we shared above in his will. It’s been about a year since then now and honestly things haven’t been going too well for me. I can’t take contracts for repairs and new products since I can’t work with aether so I’ve been relying on ready-made products for sale from the merchant guild and my grandfather’s old stock. As you can probably tell, from how we are sitting back here talking during a typical work day I don’t get many customers.”

With that Emily slumped over the table seemingly defeated. I reached out and started rubbing her hand gently to comfort her. “It’s okay,” I said, trying to soothe her. “It sounds like you’ve been doing the best you can with the shop and I’m sure your Grandfather would be proud.”

“I hope so,” she replied. “I just get sad that I can’t be anything like he was when it comes to fixing and making things. He used to let me sit back here as a kid while he was working and show off what he was working on. He would even make small toys for me when I was bored sometimes that moved around on their own. There would be days when clients would come in and we’d sit happily around this table and chat about what was going on in town and tell stories of their pasts. I used to love those times and even when we realized that I couldn’t work with aether the same as he could, he still let me stay saying that I would be a great face for the store welcoming everyone in with a smile.” With that she picked her head up off the table and started to smile a bit. “Welcome to Knole Family Aetherworks,” she said loudly. “That’s what I call out whenever a customer walks in. I guess I also needed to talk to someone too huh.”

I kept holding her hand across the table until we both noticed and I quickly pulled back. “Thank you for sharing that with me Emily,” I said happily. “I’m glad you’re my friend now and if you need anything too let me know even if it’s just company.” With that we both settled back down into our chairs.

“So what is aether by the way?,” I asked quizzically.

“You don’t know,” she replied a bit amused. “I guess you haven’t seen too much of it or never noticed. Hmm where to start, I guess first aether is kinda like the energy that flows around us all the time. It allows us to manifest certain actions such as making light or causing motion by pushing and pulling objects. Skilled aether workers can create even more complicated contraptions like my grandfather in which they embed crystals to hold the power. The crystals take in the natural aether around us to refill, but they have a finite quantity and recover rate depending on the type. Would you like to see one? I should have a few lying around back here.”

“Yes please!” I exclaimed, super excited to learn something new. This aether sounded a lot like electrical energy from my past but more magical so I was extremely curious to find out more.

“Hold on a sec,” she said, getting up from the table and walking to a nearby shelf with boxes. “Ah, here is one. I knew grandpa kept a few spares somewhere around her.” 

Emily returned to the table holding a blue crystalline object about a third the size of her hand. “This is a typical crystal that is used for lighting and simple contraptions,” she said. “They aren’t too expensive at this size, but most people don’t use them inside for lighting since candles are still cheaper. To activate it, you push a small bit of your own aether into the crystal.” She stopped talking and the crystal started to glow dimly. “See,” she said. “I don’t have very good control over my aether, but most people can make a crystal dimly glow like this. Want to give it a try?”

“Yes! I mean if you don’t mind,” I said giddy from excitement. She handed the crystal over to me and placed it in my hand. It felt warm holding it in my hand and I could feel it tugging on my own body somehow. I guess this was my own aether being attracted to the crystal like magnetic forces. Reaching onto that sensation, I tried to nudge it into the crystal…

That was a big mistake since a bright lite blew up in my face followed by a major migraine and dinging sounds. In front of my face a notification appeared.

*Ding* 

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autumnrayne92

Yay! Two chapters released in one day since I had so much fun writing Emily and Lilly's dialogue. Hopefully you are still enjoying this series because I'm having a great time writing it.