Chapter 9

While Miriam was against it at first, Lita started staying around her clinic as a helping hand. She was slow, as she was still recovering, but the old woman did not cut her any slack. It was not that she was overly hard on her, she had actually forced the girl to take a break on multiple occasions, as she was clearly over working her weak body. She needed to build up her strength, and stamina, before she was to be of any real use, and the work let her keep her mind occupied. Miriam did not mind the girl, even as she struggled to complete menial tasks, because Lita always gave all her effort to the task at hand.

Not being able to bear seeing the two dressed in the scraps that they originally had anymore, Trace took them into the city at one point. Trace was not rich, but she was not bad-off, so affording the two of them some clothes did not hurt her any. Despite wearing the same thing every day, she could manage to buy the two of them some clothes, right?

While in a clothing department store, as Lita was having her measurements taken by a rather flamboyant bat-winged, and otherwise human looking, demon, her son was being minded by Trace. Keeping a hold of her hand, as they stood off to the side, he looked around curiously for a moment. With a little tug on her hand, he got her attention as he looked up at her.

Squatting down to be closer to eye level with him, Trace spoke to him, a smile on her face. "Yes, little one?" She cocked her head to the side a little as she spoke, a habit of hers whenever someone got her attention.

Pointing over at the back wall, Roe started to try and walk that way, pulling Trace along with him. It was lined, from one side to the other, with bolts of different clothes – from the mundane all the way to the most luxurious of silks. The collection was colorful, ranging from the fabrics natural color to a multitude of dyed variations. "Do you want to look at the different cloths?"

"Fabrics!" Corrected the incubus, never halting as he pinned a prefabricated dress, preparing to alter it so it would better fit Lita. Because of her stunted height, he had to use one for a child, but Lita seemed excited about it regardless.

With his unoccupied hand, Roe reached up to a roll of shiny purple silk to touch it, "Pwetty…" He looked to be enamored with the material, as he brushed his hand across it. Squatted down, beside Roe, Trace entertained him by mimicking his feeling of the silk. It really was soft, and… well… silky.

"All right, I am finished with the prep work for this one. The boy is next, no?" Trace walked the boy back over to his mother, Lita, who was already back in her scraps. She would, doubtlessly, need to keep his attention while he stood there for the tailor.

Trace leaned up against the wall beside the store's large front window, peering out over her shoulder while she twiddled her thumbs together. It had been three days since Lita woke up, and like her son, a healthy pallor had returned to her otherwise scarred skin. Lita was an intelligent girl; she just lacked any self-confidence. She seemed to be adapting to her new environment fairly well however, but the language barrier made things difficult.

The humans that lived in Ever-frost were from all walks of life, and their native tongues differed as much as their appearances did. While all the, so called, demons in the city, however, spoke Ni'Glesh, the darkling's native tongue. The human settlers had learned the language as well, but neither Lita nor her son, Roe, had the chance yet. Miriam was teaching her some words here and there, and she was picking it up quickly, but she was a long way from being able to hold a conversation. Trace had lucked out, in that she spoke the same human language that they did, and Miriam had supposedly learned all of the land's common languages.

A few weeks were all that remained until Trace needed to be down south. She was procrastinating so far, but she still had time to make it. If she missed her window to run there, however, she had another way – she just did not like to use it. The fox was not looking forward to her visit anyway. She was still thinking about the apples that grew in the area, but that one thing was not enough to make up for having to attend the calling.

With a sudden light groan, she squeezed her eyes shut as she remembered who else would have to attend. Malice. Which meant that his annoying son was likely to accompany him. That meant that she was going to need to bring something else to wear. The flowy kimono that she always wore was initially an engagement bribe from Asmeus, Malice's son. Trace had no intention to take him up on the offer, but it was the only clothing that she had ever found that would stay with her as she transformed.

She had other ways to keep whatever she was wearing safe, but she would always end up nude when assuming her human form. That was until the curious dress that she now wore. It would not stain, wrinkle, or tear, no matter what she did to it. But that was because it was woven from the silk of a very specific spider that had all of those properties naturally, when it was empowered with mana. It had an enchantment on it as well, that Trace was unable to reproduce, which allowed it to stay with her the way that it did, as well as a few other useful features that she rarely, if ever, used.

In all honesty, she was in love with the thing. But the hells would rise, and the heavens would fall before she ever, under any circumstance whatsoever, admitted that to either of the two kitsune. Malice was, at the least, amiable for the most part. Asmeus, his son, on the other hand was an absolute pervert, who already had three wives on top of everything else.

With that realization in mind, Trace started to browse the selection of already crafted clothing. Not being able to find anything that interested her, however, she started to mull over where she might have left some of her old clothing. But it had been ten years or better since she had worn anything else – in part because of how handy it was, but also because she was too lazy to want to deal with keeping several sets of clothes on hand.

Turning to look at the incubus, who was still getting a rough measurement, Trace tried to recall his name. Roe would not need anything finely made, as he would be expected to grow out of anything too quickly at his age. "Caleb, do you have anything like this?" Getting his attention, she pointed at her own dress. "Doesn't have to be fancy, I've just grown attached to it, and I need something else to wear for a uh… function that I have to go to."

With a finger on his chin, he hummed as he took a mental stock. "No… but I could put something together." He looked a little too excited for Trace's liking. "Give me a few days and I can put something together. You will need to come back for a final measurement, of course, but those alterations should not take long." He had a devilish smile as he planned it out in his head.

"Something simple, please." With a worried glare, she locked eyes with the tailor. He replied with a girlish giggle as he returned to finishing Roe's measurements. With a sigh, Trace returned to the wall she was leaned against before.

Two days later Trace returned to the shop for her dress, for the calling. What she was greeted with was a primarily red dress, styled like a European take on the kimono, with bright golden thread used for the hemming holding it partly together, in the unfinished state that it was. It was pretty, and thankfully simple, for the most part. There were a few frills that the fox could have done without, around the ends of the sleeves, but she liked it. The final measurements and sewing took the rest of the day.

It was the next morning that Trace decided she would say her goodbyes. For now, she still wore her usual sky-blue kimono, while she kept the red dress that she bought from Caleb stored away. When she initially broke the news to the trio, Lita started crying. It was the same face that she made when she thought the fox had left her and Roe in the woods.

"That's not fair…" She Muttered under her breath as she kneeled down to give the girl and her son, who started crying too, a hug. "You two'll be fine, you're in good hands." Trace was still uncomfortable with how attached she got to Lita, and how quickly at that, so she was a little glad for the chance to get away in truth.

Miriam stepped up and ruffled the twos hair, a warm smile on her face. "Don't forget what I said now, you hear me you fox?" Getting Trace's attention, she gave her a light glare. "I won't look after these two for forever. That's on you to figure out deary. Now I'm going to rest these bones before some accident-prone idiot makes their way in here, heheh." With a chuckle, the old bag waved as she walked back into her clinic.

"Where is your new dress?" Lita suddenly spoke up as she watched Trace stand back up and dust her knees off.

"Hmm?" With a start, she looked up to answer her. "I have a secret little place that I keep things that nobody else can get to. Wanna see?" Excited to show off to the two, she put her hands on her hips triumphantly. Seeing Roe nod his head furiously, Trace clapped her hands together. Suddenly, starting at a single point, the dress formed, seemingly from nothing, and fell into her arms.

Both of them gasped. They had seen her do that from time to time, but Trace had never let them see it up close. "How do you do that?" Lita, who grew more and more curious with the more that she got to experience every day, was quick to ask.

"Watch this." She squatted down again, so that the two could better see. A strange dark spot appeared to form above the dress, as everything appeared to warp around it. "That right there, see it?" Each of them stared at it, wide eyed. Even while magic was known in the land, servants, like she used to be, seldomly came into contact with anything outside of, so called, lifestyle magic. It was a form of minor magic that most humans were capable of, with a medium of some kind.

Lita tried to poke at it, but as soon as she did the dress was sucked into it and the spot disappeared. "Don't touch things like that unless you understand what they are, okay?" After a light reprimanding chop on Lita's head, she gave her a smile. Trace mimicked Miriam's act of ruffling their hair, and she then stood back up.

This time Lita forced herself to smile as she gave her goodbye, hugging Roe, her son, to her the whole time. "You'll come back? Right?"

"Of course, I will. This place is my home." After another triumphant pose, Trace shifted into her large fox form as she walked away. Looking over her shoulder only once more, she started on her journey. It was going to take most of the time she had left to reach her destination.

It would likely be a few months before she was back in Ever-frost, and she wanted to use that time to re-evaluate her own recent behavior. Ever since meeting Jay and Derik in Philip's office, she had been acting weird. After Lita and Roe, things had only gotten more complicated, mentally. Neither Lita nor Roe were the first humans to have been aided by Trace, but they were the first that she cared about, past getting them out of whatever situation she was butting into at the time. Past that, they did not warrant a second thought.

That was why she could not recall all of her past escapades, in truth. It was not limited to humans however but was rather extended to everyone. She would sympathize with their current predicament but saw no reason to do anything after that. It was half assed at best. Trace did care about the overall treatment that humans gave… well, everyone, but she could not bring herself to trust others enough to aid groups specialized in dealing with that treatment on a country level.