Chapter 165: 166: Grit

Jubilee holds out their hand, letting the fairy drop the gruesome trophy down into their open palm. While Jubilee takes a closer look at the eye, making sure that it’s actually fresh and not just store-bought, Basil runs over and heals the fairy. While not a great idea in regards to keeping her priestess class a secret, Fresh asks her to do it nonetheless, whispering into her ear that it isn’t like the fairy knows about such things.

The fairy winces as the light of her spell washes over its hovering body. “Thanks!”

“You can sit down, if you’d like,” says Fresh, offering it a spot on the counter. The fairy hovers there in the air, looking at her for a moment, but then shakes its head, as it holds its hurt arm with its good one.

“No, I’m fine” replies the fairy. Fresh frowns.

“Are you alright?” asks Basil. “Your health-points are back up, but that arm is going to have to heal on its own,” she says. “I can’t do bones.”

“I’m fine,” says the fairy, nodding to her.

“Snack?” asks Shamrock, lifting up a candy from the shelf. Jubilee looks up from the eye in their hand, glaring at him, but then lowers their gaze again without saying anything.

“I’m fine,” replies the fairy, shaking its head again a second time.

“Well, fuck me sideways,” says Jubilee, setting the bloody eyeball down onto the counter. Fresh steps a step away from it, making a disgusted face, as she can’t help but feel that it is looking up towards her. “Not bad.”

“It’s good?!” exclaims the fairy, zooming in closer to Jubilee. “So you’ll give me work?!” it asks, excitedly, wincing as it moves too fast, the momentum causing its hurt arm to swing out a little.

Fresh scratches her cheek. Isn’t she the party-leader? Shouldn’t she be the one that gets asked these kinds of questions? Apparently, Jubilee has the authority here. Not that she minds, that isn’t really a surprise for her. Jubilee has always been the real head of the operation, she’s just fulfilling that role in spirit herself.

“What are you going to do with a broken arm?” asks Jubilee. “Actually, how did you even manage to break a bone without losing all of your four health-points?”

“I have six!” protests the fairy. “I got hit once for five against a crystal,” it says. “I’ll do whatever you need!”

“That’s so dangerous!” says Fresh, horrified, clenching her fists. As she leans forward, looking at it, she sees that there are still tiny slivers of glass stuck in its arm. She looks at Basil and asks her to get a pair of tweezers.

The fairy looks at her with oddly suspicious eyes before it shrugs with its one good arm, turning back to Jubilee.

“You broke your sword,” states Jubilee, pointing at it.

“It was made out of glass,” argues the fairy, holding the broken sword out into the air.

“Fair point,” concedes Jubilee, crossing their arms and nodding. “So how was the kill?”

“The kill?” asks the fairy, blinking once. “I didn’t kill it.”

“You didn’t…” Jubilee places their hands on their hips. “Then how the fuck did you get the eye?”

The fairy looks around, before turning back to Jubilee. “Uh… I stabbed it out?”

“While it was still alive?” asks Jubilee incredulously.

“Yes,” replies the fairy, plain as day.

“How the fuck?”

“I did a lot of push-ups,” says the fairy, flexing its one good arm, but then wincing in pain. Jubilee, to Fresh’s surprise, lets out a small laugh.

“See?” asks Jubilee, looking up at Fresh. “I told you it would be fine! You crybaby.”

Fresh points at the mangled fairy, distraught. “He…! Uh…” she looks down at it. “She almost died!”

“He,” says the fairy, sounding somewhat offended.

“He almost died!” repeats Fresh, still pointing at him.

“But he didn’t, so everything is perfectly fine,” says Jubilee, dusting their hands.

“No it isn’t!” argues Fresh.

Jubilee looks at her, then over to the fairy. “You good?” asks Jubilee.

“I’m good,” replies the fairy.

“See?”

“He’s just saying that so you’ll give him a job!” protests Fresh.

Jubilee looks at the fairy. “Are you just saying that so that I’ll give you a job?”

“Yes,” says the fairy, getting to the point.

“See?” asks Jubilee. “Everything is fine! That’s what I call work ethic! Maybe you could learn something from him, goo-brain.”

Fresh isn’t certain, but somehow she feels like she is on the losing side of this conversation. She looks at Shamrock for an answer, but the man says nothing, simply chewing on the piece of candy that he had offered the fairy before.

“What do you need me to do?” asks the fairy.

“Don’t you want to know what we’re paying?”

“Is it money?”

“Yes,” replies Jubilee, lifting an eyebrow by the looks of it.

“Good enough for me!”

Jubilee places their hands back on their hips, leaning in forward towards the fairy and eyeing him carefully up and down. “You know, if you’re desperate, people are going to take advantage of you, right?”

“Do you want another eye?” asks the fairy. “I’ll get you another eye!”

Jubilee sighs. “Half a year ago, I would have told you to fuck off and get eaten by a hawk. But I guess I’m getting soft in my old age.” They look up at Fresh. “Is there any non-basement work that a runt like this can do?”

“Jubilee…” says Fresh in surprised delight. Despite all of their harshness, perhaps Jubilee really is growing a soft spot somewhere in their body. “Uh…” Fresh thinks as Basil comes down the balcony. “We could use him to model new outfits and equipment for the other fairies?”

“Fairies don’t have money,” says Jubilee. “We’re not wasting our time making items for a worthless segment of the market.”

“Jubileee~! Don’t call them worthless. He can hear you!” says Fresh, pointing at the fairy. Apparently, not all of Jubilee has gotten soft.

“Besides. How by the time winter ends, there will only be… what… half of them left?” They look at the fairy who warily eyes Basil as she approaches with the tweezers. “The ones who want it bad enough.”

“May I?” asks Basil.

“No!” says the fairy, flying away.

“You need to get that glass out or it will get infected!” lectures Basil up towards him, as he hovers up near the ceiling.

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“I’ll do it myself in a minute,” snaps the fairy, eyeing Basil suspiciously, holding the broken glass sword a little higher than before. He’s not a fan of tweezers, apparently.

Jubilee sighs and looks around the room that they were in the process of cleaning. Their eyes wander up along the shelves, until they fall on Shamrock, who, feeling their gaze, looks back down at Jubilee. Both of their eyes wander down along his body towards the floor, following the trail of crumbs that he has left there on the freshly swept wooden boards.

Shamrock, not saying anything, slowly slides his foot forward to obscure the crumbs, as if they never were.

“Congratulations,” says Jubilee, looking up at the fairy. “You’re hired.”

“I am?!”

“Sure are. Your first job is to clean up the storefront. Starting now.”

Fresh scratches her cheek. “Give him a break, Jubilee? At least let him take care of his arm and sleep and then he can start tomorrow?” She looks at her friend. “What’s the rush?” Jubilee lifts a hand, shushing her and nodding with their head at the fairy.

The fairy, without needing a second explanation, cuts off a part of the rag that its wearing with the broken piece of the sword and then sets the weapon down, before flying to the ground where it starts to pick up the crumbs at Shamrock’s feet.

“Sorry,” apologizes the giant, scooting his foot back.

“You are strictly to stay in this part of the store,” says Jubilee.

“Yes, your majesty!” says the fairy, collecting the crumbs into a heap by the door. “Thank you!”

“Never call me that again,” says Jubilee dryly. “If you go upstairs, you’re fired,” they expand. “If you go downstairs, you’re fired.”

Standing by the pile of crumbs, the fairy looks up at Jubilee and nods. It turns to the side, grabbing hold of some of the larger pieces of glass in its arm and pulls them out with a quick yank, wincing, before throwing them onto the pile of dirt. Red trickles out of its shattered, bruised arm.

Fresh rubs her arm. The little guy is seriously intense. “If you bleed on the products, you’re fired,” adds Jubilee, turning around to go behind the counter.

“I understand, your highness!”

“You better!” barks Jubilee in a loud tone, already having a foot on the stairs. “There are a hundred others who want your job. I won’t hesitate to replace you,” they say, heading up the stairs before both the work and the discussion, at least in Fresh’s eyes, are done.

The fairy zips past her, broken and battered and bloodied and covered in dust and grime. He looks exhausted and exerted and as if he were in deep, strong pain. But he simply grits his teeth and gets to work.

Fresh exchanges a confused look with Basil and Shamrock and gestures for them to stay there, while she runs upstairs after Jubilee, who she finds standing on the balcony.

“Jubilee? What was that?” asks Fresh. She leans down, whispering to her friend, who is looking up at the morning sky. “Isn’t it dangerous? Having a stranger in the store?” She looks out to the town, to try and see where Jubilee is looking. “Not that I don’t want to help him, but…”

“Didn’t you see it?” asks Jubilee.

“See what?”

“His face.”

Fresh scratches her cheek. “Uh… he looked really beat up and… determined?” she guesses.

“Not just now, I mean yes, also, but I meant during the fair,” explains Jubilee, shaking their head. Fresh looks out over the crowd starting to run around the city below them. “He was one of those fucks who circled me.”

“So?”

Jubilee sighs. “He had the same face you had,” they explain. “Back when we first met and you asked me where the dungeon was.” Jubilee narrows their eyes. “Dumbest question I’ve ever heard, by the way. As if you couldn’t see the giant, glowing…” they stop themselves and take a deep breath. “Never mind.”

“Jubilee?”

“When he showed up the other day, he had the same face you had, the one you had when we decided to start earning money,” explains Jubilee. “It’s funny how quick expressions can change.” Jubilee looks up at her. “You’ve ruined me, you gangly fuck. I really am getting soft.”

Fresh tilts her head, looking at her friend, but then she smiles as she realizes that that statement might perhaps be true. Maybe their shared moment together with the enchanted mirror was enough to shatter the first layers of the illusions of Jubilee. “I guess I’m a bad influence,” she jokes.

“You’re something like that all right.”

“So…?”

“Don’t worry about it,” says Jubilee, nodding to her. “He wants this job to survive. He won’t risk something so important to snoop around.”

“Yeah…” says Fresh, sparing a nervous eye to the telescope on the side of the balcony. “That makes sense,” she says. But in truth, she knows that it doesn’t. A drive for survival, a drive for thriving and for friendship hadn’t stopped her curiosity back then. In fact, it had only made it worse.

She looks out towards the city.

“So you don’t like the magical floating fairy houses?” asks Fresh, trying to move the conversation forward.

“I don’t like the magical floating fairy houses,” replies Jubilee. “But if you think there’s a way to make money with them, do what you need to do.”

“Mm,” says Fresh.

“Mm,” says Jubilee, looking at her face for a moment too long, before turning back to watch the first wave of customers come their way.

Razmatazz

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