The sounds from the market drifted down the alleyway and through the open door of the apothecary's shop, and the old crone lifted her head to sift through them. The day wasn't so cold or wet that it had her wanting to close out the fresh air; Lady knew there'd be none of that soon enough. Still, the breeze had a bite to it and she was more frail than she'd admit. It wouldn't be long before she was looking through a doorway of a different nature entirely.

If that time came before the bitter cold of winter, she wouldn't complain.

She'd been planning to close up shop much earlier that year; it was a quiet place set off of the main square, and with all those healers running around these days, few people had any use for crushed leaves. Lady knew it was harder to make a decent living than it ever was. There was a time, long ago, when the apothecary was a valued member of society, a healer in her own right, traveling through town with her medicine bag and doing what she could, and what she couldn't, well, that wasn't held against her. Now it was as easy as a snap of the fingers and *poof* you're well again! Harumph. The young people these days....they didn't know the value of an honest day's labor. Not like *she* used to.

Not like her new apprentice did; no, that twig, she knew what hard work was, and she was the reason this shop was still open and struggling to stay that way. That strange girl was the reason her old bones were caused to suffer on the stool here in a breeze that was just this side of too cool to be entirely comfortable, even wrapped snug in her wool shawl.

"KEAVY!" The summons was rasped out in her withering voice, but with an air of command that her failing health could not diminish. The hag revealed a near toothless grin when she heard the girl start a new stream of fairly clever obscenities. She wasn't so deaf that she couldn't hear what was said in the back room, but the girl didn't know that. She'd learned quite a bit from the "private," one-sided conversations held back there on Keavy's tiny "cell phone." No, she didn't mind that the girl thought she was deaf; she'd never learn a thing about her withdrawn apprentice otherwise. Wasn't healthy into speak to a little thing like that, no matter how magical it is!

The young people these days, they didn't appreciate companionship, either - not like she did. The girl might be socially withdrawn and a little odd, and she was much too old really to be starting out as apprentice....ah, but Old Baba, she appreciated the company, even if the girl *was* slow on her feet. "GIRL, hurry out here! Don't you hear me" Stop talking into trinkets and you come mind the flesh and blood freezing out here on this stool! KEA!VY!"

Baba startled awake when Keavy came back inside over an hour later. The old lady was becoming adept at the nod-and-nap technique. "How's the day?"

"Business as usual, as far as I can tell." As usual, the girl's response was less than enthusiastic.

Over the months, however, Baba had learned that Keavy had much more to say than she offered, if you hit the right chord. "Aye, that's the way of it. The guards keep the trouble down, and there's hardly enough action to keep the blood warm. But if you're looking to buy something, there's no better place for it. Now the Inn, that's the place for adventure! We get your kind passing through these parts every other day, and people falling out of the clouds on the weekends. I'd say it's enough to keep a body on its toes. Oh, yes, don't give me that look! "Your type" is what I said and I meant it all the same!"

Baba did not laugh this time but she was no less pleased than the last. She was thrilled that the girl continued the game! For a long time she'd been worried about the girl's innards; she could do nothing about those with any of her herbs. You never could tell, when you brought home a stray, if it would turn around and bite you just as soon as you got it well again. They sometimes did, Baba knew. But there had been enough of this and that from the girl now to have soothed those concerns. The girl's bark, she decided, was worse than her bite. Even as she watched, Keavy moved from shelf to shelf, dropping leaves and powders into a jar of cream; it wouldn't help her corns, but if anything else had been growing on her feet it wouldn't survive a week of the salve her apprentice was concocting. Oh, she'd find the jar laying next to her bed, right beside a fresh batch of her joint cream tonight, more likely than not. And she wouldn't say a word about it come the morning; she'd made that mistake before.

It had been one step forward and two back, with this one, the whole way. But she was on her way. She'd be alright, soon enough. Soon enough.

"Girl, I know you love me," Baba began, and ignored Keavy's derisive snort, "but you need to get out! You'll be happier, I'll say it again! Have you done what I told you and gone to the Inn" It's a right merry place and you can find your pleasure there! You're too old to be starting an apprenticeship! You ought to have your own house by now, and a good man to go with it! And a family! Children! Lady knows you should have had some of those by now! You're so old-" ("I'm nineteen, woman!") "-you ought to have one at your skirts-"

?"I don't wear skirts?"

"-one on your hips-"

"What hips?"

"-and one in the oven!"

?"Jaysus..."

"I'd be satisfied if you'd just invite someone back for dinner!"

"Sure he'd be as likely to eat us as what we served him!"

Perhaps not quite soon enough. "Child, I'll be dead and buried before you work up the courage to say a simple "How do' to the locals!"

"Sure and here's one now, and you'll chase him off with your prattling!"

Baba turned to the man hovering by the doorway and smiled as benign a smile as she could manage with her witchy appearance. "And we were just wishing for a man, too! Come in, come in! I hope we can do business!"

Keavy slipped into the back room and nearly tore the curtains from the hanger when she pulled them into place.

No one could blame the would-be customer for his hesitant entrance.