Noah woke to a faint click. He sprung from his bed, wind swirling to his fingertips and his hands raising defensively in front of him before his eyes had even fully opened. The door stood slightly ajar, and a wide-eyed girl several heads shorter than him stood on the other side, her face pale. She had long black hair that nearly touched the ground and dull yellow eyes.
The girl quickly raised her hands and backed up, leaving a small, brown paper wrapped package on the ground before him.
"Please don't attack!"
Noah lowered his hands, confusion marring with his pumping adrenaline. "What? What are you doing? How did you open my door?"
"I'm delivering your mail," the girl stammered, pointing at the package on the ground. "I'm sorry! You had it listed that couriers could enter your room to deposit any packages! I'll be sure to update things immediately. I'm sorry, I'm sorry. Please don't hit me!"
Noah let his hands drop and dismissed the magic. "Crap. I'm sorry. I won't attack you, I swear. I just had a small bout of amnesia and forgot about mail. Ah – is there another way to receive mail in the future? Maybe you could knock?"
The girl swallowed and gave him a jerky nod. "I can knock."
"That would be best," Noah said, making his voice as soft as possible. "I'm sorry for scaring you. I've been fighting monsters a bit too much as of late, and it's made me jumpy. Do you take tips?"
The girl blinked in surprise. "Tips?"
Noah grabbed the pouch of money that Moxie had given him from his bedside and fished several silver coins out of it. He held them out to the trembling girl. She eyed his hand for a moment, then slowly extended hers and let Noah drop the coins into her palms.
"Why?"
"Because you didn't deserve to get the daylight scared out of you. I promise it won't happen again."
The girl swallowed again, then straightened up. "I wasn't scared."
Sure you weren't. And I wasn't about to blast you like one of the monkeys in the Scorched Acres. At least it wasn't a vision this time. My soul must must be healing.
"I'm sure you weren't, but it would make me feel better if you took it. Think of this as a bribe," Noah said, hiding a laugh. "I'm No – ah, Magus Vermil. You wouldn't want to make me feel bad, would you?"
"I'm Courier Tibbs, but everyone calls me Amy." She gave him a small smile, then nodded. "Thank you, Magus Vermil."
Noah walked up to the door, moving slowly to avoid startling Amy, and picked the package up. Her eyes tracked his movement and Noah raised an eyebrow.
"Is there anything else I need to do? I may have forgotten. Amnesia and all that."
"No, that's it," Amy said with a shake of her head. She paused for a few moments. "You don't seem like a weirdo."
Noah choked. "What?"
"The other couriers said that you were one, so they gave me your route. I bet they'll feel real stupid when I show them this!" Amy held the coins up with a victorious grin. She glanced over her shoulder, then quickly stuffed the coins into a pocket in her overalls.
"Maybe you shouldn't show them. If they sent you to meet someone bad, wouldn't they be mad that they didn't get paid?"
Amy blinked. "Oh. I didn't think 'bout that."
"Maybe keep the money to yourself," Noah suggested, trying to pretend that his reputation hadn't somehow preceded him with literal children. If even they knew Vermil was strange, there might really be no saving face with the general public of the school. "And if they cause you any problems, you come tell me. That money's yours, okay?"
Amy beamed and nodded, their initial altercation completely forgotten. "Okay! Thanks, Mista Vermil!"
She bounced down the hall and vanished around a corner. Noah shook his head and shut the door behind her. He hooked a finger into the package and tore it open, revealing a small pile of golden coins.
Noah counted them out and his eyes narrowed. There were ten. Moxie had given him twice that. If he'd gone through everything, he wouldn't have been able to pay her back. There was always the possibility she was rich and had no idea how much money he earned, but Noah wasn't so sure that was the case.
Was she trying to get me into her debt?
Noah shrugged to himself. It was irrelevant now. He tucked the coins into his pocket and threw his cloak on, taking a moment to fruitlessly try to tame his curly hair before giving up and striding over to find Moxie.
He drew up to her door a minute later and rapped on it. A few moments passed and it creaked open, revealing Moxie's irritated face.
"What do you want? It's too damn early, Vermil."
"Is it?" Noah asked, peering past Moxie to look through her window. The sun had barely just started to rise over the silhouette of the school behind them. "Whoops. Well, this won't take long. I'm just here to pay your money back."
"Oh? You have it all?"
"Yes," Noah replied evenly. He took Moxie's pouch of money out and added five gold coins to it, then dropped the pouch into her outstretched hand. "With some extra silver as a thank you for the loan."
Moxie's expression tightened imperceptibly. If Noah hadn't been watching for it, he would have missed it entirely.
"What?" Moxie asked. "Do you want a written letter of congratulations for doing the bare minimum?"
"Feel free. You know where I live. Make sure to kiss it before you slide it under my door, though. Otherwise, it might get tossed. I get too much fanmail to keep the boring stuff."
Moxie slammed the door in his face. Noah smirked and set out for the market. Despite his outward confidence, suspicion bubbled. Moxie had just risen several spots in his very short list of suspects of who might have tried to kill him.
I'm pretty sure she just tried to set me up, but it's not like she knew I'd come to her for money. Maybe she's just taking opportunities to be petty? Always possible, but I'm going to need to keep my guard up around her.
Noah remained lost in thought during the rest of his trip into the market. Before he knew it, he was standing before a shopfront and peering through the window, still moving on autopilot. He blinked back into awareness and shook his head. Moxie was right. It really was early.