Sinora stands in the doorway, enraged.
I’m barely able to pull Nibi behind the house before she notices us, but her ire isn’t directed at me.

“Sister, please! I’m sorry!”

“You know what I said! Time for you to learn your lesson!”

*Shcrik*
In a fit of rage, she takes one of the dolls and just rips its head off.

“Aaaaaahh!!! Please! No! Waaaa!”

“Let’s see how much noise you make after this!”

*Shcrik*
And another one.
Ugh, I can’t watch this.
The window stands open for our escape and everyone is distracted.
No one would notice us if we flew out now.
But…

It may be the essence messing with my head; however, in this situation, I’m not sure I’d mind it if it was.
I can’t leave the poor girl like this!

“Nibi. Can you do something? Without serious harm or killing.”

I have nearly no experience yet with using my magic, and in no way do I want to use it to attack someone without knowing exactly what would happen.
At least, not with Emira in the room.
Yet if Nibi has one thing that she seems competent with, it’s her magic.
Especially so with water magic.

“Miep!”

She rises from the ground, and soon I see her gather six spheres of water around herself.
As Sinora is moving toward a fourth doll, one sphere gets launched and hits her side, and another flies towards her face.

*Sploosh*Sploosh*

“Ieeek!”

“Miep!”

Nibi triumphantly takes a victory pose while hovering in the middle of the room.
Seems she picked it up from my sister while we were playing games.

“Wh-what?”

Sinora has spotted her floating there so I may as well come out as our secret is already revealed.

“You know, I could overlook just how much of a stupid swine you are in general, and how much trouble you’ve made for me my entire life in this town. Yeah, sure, I could just leave. But as someone with a little sister as well, I can’t merely stand by and watch an evil brute do such a thing! Now listen well! If you do this just one more time, the next day you’ll be missing all your useless paints. Who knows, maybe you’ll find them in the refuse pile. I’ve heard misplaced items tend to be discovered there.”

Performing some training with my magic right now is so very tempting.
If only Emira wasn’t here.
There’s no need for the little one to see such things.

In all likelihood, my threats sounded positively ridiculous with my voice, but I think the meaning came through.
Still, this barbarian tries to grab me since I moved closer to ensure she heard my voice.
*Sploosh*
Which leads to another projectile flying past us then curving down and slamming into the back of her knee, forcing her to topple to the floor.
Nonetheless, she quickly gets an arm under herself and tries to get up again.
*Sploosh*

“Aaaah!”

*ditiditidit*
Only for this giggling water fairy to smash another waterball into Sinora’s arm, sending her crashing down once more.
Followed by two more to the back, pressing her firmly to the floor.
*Sploosh*Sploosh*
*ditiditidit*
Seems someone is enjoying herself.

Now that Sinora is trembling, lying flat on the ground, perhaps she’ll listen.

“Maybe I wasn’t clear enough, Sinora! From this day forward, you will behave yourself like a good little girl or face the consequences! Yeah, sure, I expect you’ll try testing me, but please don’t delude yourself that it’ll only be a bit of water next time. Now get out!”

“Ieeeeek!”

Absolutely terrified, she crawls out of the room, hurriedly gets to her feet, and runs off.

“Nibi! Clean up all the water! Emira, as I said, not a word about fairies. If anyone asks, you should tell them that nothing happened here and there was never any water in your room. Understood?”

“Y-yes. T-thank you.”

This little darling is exhausted.
I fly up and give her a pat on the head.

“There, there. If she tries to hurt you again, I’ll take care of it.”

“Ter, ter.”

Nibi!?
Did she just talk!?
She flew up beside me and also pat Emira, so I think she was simply mimicking me, including the sounds.
However, there’s no more time to dwell on it for now.
I grab her, and as fast as I can, fly out of the open window.

Down below, in the central plaza directly outside the wall, I find my sister waiting.
I rush directly to her shoulder and hide myself behind her hair, with Nibi immediately behind me.

“Talia!”

“Oh thank goodness you’re alright! I was getting worried, again!”

“Yeah, sure, but it was, again, not my fault. At least nothing incredibly bad happened this time, just an encounter with a little girl. I even got these clothes!”

“You stole from a child!?”

“I didn’t steal! These were absolutely gifts! Emira asked me to take them! Also, when we return home, you should tell mum that we merely went for a stroll and obtained some dresses. There’s nothing else regarding this trip that mum needs to hear about.”

“Hehe. You mean how you got bought and taken away as a toy?”

“Yes, exactly! She doesn’t need to know such a thing, and I’d appreciate it if you would never speak about it, ever again.”

“Pfft! Okay. This will be my secret then.”

“Thanks. Can we please just go home now?”

“Sure, just stay hidden. We wouldn’t want any other little girls snatching you away, now would we?”

What did I ever do to you, world!?

Unfortunately, I soon realize that when we arrive home, we’ll have to explain where we got the clothes despite having used almost no money.
Talia managed to quickly buy two small beds from a confused Mr. Howan, before Nibi came out of the workshop and noticed I was missing.
As I said, not one to waste a discount.
Sadly for me, mum would never believe we got the beds and these high quality dresses for a pittance.

Sis calls out as soon as she opens the door of our home.

“Mum, we’re back!”

“Welcome back, girls. Did everything go well?”

“Eventually? I think? I’ll let Akari explain.”

Geez thanks, sis.
As it’s difficult for us to see one another while I’m here, I leave my hiding spot on Talia, and do my best to hover in the air at their eye level.
Nibi appears content to remain on Talia’s shoulder, after crawling out from under her hair.

“Pffft, hahahahaha.”

For some reason, Talia bursts into laughter, and mum is struggling not to do the same.

“Aki, I, I don’t believe I’ve seen that particular hairstyle on you in years. Heh. Even then, I don’t think it was ever with ribbons of that wonderful color. Hehehe.”

Oh, shit!
I forgot!

“It, it wasn’t my choice!”

Hurriedly, I undo the ribbons and do my best to restore my hair to its usual free flowing style.

“I-I, I had to in order to procure these dresses!”

“I see, hehe. Why don’t we sit down, and you can explain everything.”

…

…

…

“So, let me get this straight. Emira. The youngest daughter of Marson, the wealthiest man in the region. Has seen and bought you as one of her dolls. Then she played with your hair and gave a dress to both you and Nibi?”

“Y-y-yes.”

“Hahahahaha! Hahaha! Hihihihi!”

“Mummm! This is why I didn’t want to go to the toy store!!”

“Hahaha! Hehe. Heh. Hah. Just, just what have you gotten yourself into?”

“It’s not like it was my idea! None of this was!”

“And, mum, you must admit she is extremely cute! It’s completely understandable that all the little girls will adore her!”

“Talia! You’re not helping!”

“Miep!”

“Nibi!”

“See mum? Nibi agrees!”

“I never said your fairy sister doesn’t look cute. In fact, that dress looks quite lovely on her.”

“M-m-mum!”

Both Talia and mum’s faces suddenly change to a look of surprise.

“Sis, your wings! Are you okay!?”

I turn my head to look back.
Instead of the usual orderly patterns, I see colored circles of all different sizes and shades scattered across my wings.
Still the colors of the essences I hold, but seemingly no order to them.
What happened?
Am I ill!?

“Talia, I think you may have just teased your sister a little too much.”

She thinks this is...
Oh!
Immediately, the circles split into even smaller forms and once again scatter.
My wings becoming covered by a myriad of tiny dots spread randomly.
An oddly familiar tingling sensation across my wings accompanies the change.

“Hehe, I think that was your fault, mum.”

I thought I didn’t have to worry about this anymore!
My face doesn’t feel hot, but this is even more obvious!

“Gaaaah! Can’t I keep even the slightest bit of dignity!?”

“Uh, do you really want me to answer that, sis?”

“Noooo. Not really.”

I’m fairly certain I know it already.

Turning away doesn’t even help anymore.
A blushing face can be hidden, but these wings are visible from any direction.
Maybe if I just fold them together, for a short while I can forget they exist behind me.

“Aki? What is that on your back?”

“You don’t have to point it out more!”

“Sorry, but that’s not what I was talking about. Could you come here a moment? I thought I saw something else.”

*Sigh*
Slowly, I walk across the table towards mum and then turn around.

…

“Erm, Akari, what exactly happened when you were with Emira?”

Why does it feel like I’m suddenly in trouble?

“She took me up to her room, and we played for a bit, as I said. Why do you ask?”

“Mmhmm. Wait here a moment. I’ll be right back.”

 

What did she notice?
I crane my neck and twist my shoulders in an attempt to examine my own back, but I can’t see very well.

Mum returns carrying a small mirror from her room.
It’s an heirloom passed down from her mum, and the only mirror we have in our home.
She places it down in the center of the table, and I approach it.
For me, it’s larger than a full length mirror, making it easy to examine myself from behind.

There, in the gap between the base of my wings and the edge of my dress, on either side of my back, are dark black letters on my skin.
Once I deal with the reflection twisting the letters, I make out E. M. down one side, and I. R. A. down my other.
And then I notice Talia moved to get a view for herself.

“Pfft! You really did become Emira’s toy. How much do you suppose the finder’s reward would be?”

She’s right.
I was bought and played with no differently than a doll.
Carried and manipulated by a child to enact her dreams within a toy house.
Everything inside it a perfect fit for me.
Even my hair done up to her liking.
A doll, with the owners name written on it.

“You’d better hurry back, before she starts crying for her doll. Hehe-”

“Talia! That’s enough!”

But why!?
Why did I allow her to do so!?
I would never permit someone to do that to me!

*sob*
The embarrassment and confusion is too much.
My tears begin to fall as I speed toward my room.

“Aki, wait!”

What was I thinking!?
I wish I was invisible right now!

“Sis, I’m sorry! I didn’t me-”

“Just leave me alone!”

*Slam*
A gust of wind drives the door of my room shut behind me.

I land on my bed and crawl under the massive blanket.
Inevitably joined by Nibi a moment later, who wraps me in a hug.