Her second favorite question was why she was given the loft when the other rooms of his house are so Spartan? The loft brims with books and clothes, collections of things that make it feel busy and lived in. She doesn't understand why he isn't staying in it and letting her have one of the empty rooms downstairs.

"Taya? Could you please pass me that basket by the door?"

Jolted out of her thoughts, Taya straightens her posture and grabs the basket in question. Fragrant weeds fill the basket from bottom to brim. They smell a little like the air outside but more distinct, more overwhelming.

"Where do you want...?" She glances from a counter covered in cloth and to another hidden by strings and clips.

"Right there will be fine. Thank you." Sage steps down from a stool to collect a new bunch. Strings zigzag across the ceiling and from each string hang dozens of clumps of damp weeds. Fog covers the windows like in a greenhouse.

"You're welcome."

Through a blurry window she can just distinguish the colored blobs that look like her clothes, hanging from a similar string contraption outside. She supposes that he can't use magic on something so frivolous or the monsters will swarm in.

"So," Sage begins. His back is to her as he wraps a new bundle, then squeezes excess water into a basin. "Someone came to see you yesterday morning."

Taya blinks three times in silence. A visitor? But who would visit her?

"He didn't say your name, just described you. Apparently he and several others had been searching the area for a blonde girl wearing a golden pendant," he continues. Another tinkling of water from herbs to basin. Comprehension trickles through Taya's thoughts. They're searching for me, she realizes. They're going to blame me for the fire, and I'll be put on trial, and...

"Don't look so pale, please." Sage smiles his ghostly smile. "I told them I hadn't seen you. I don't especially care to be involved by turning you in."

His eyes dissect Taya, scrutinizing her sigh and her posture as it settles back into a slump. He stretches out the silence for another moment and climbs back on the ladder to fix the herbs in his hand to the string. "I do think, however, that it would be a good idea if you left for a little while."

Taya feels her heart speed at the suggestion. For a minute she sees Adenne standing in Sage's position, wringing herbs despite the fact her pristine hands would turn greenish and smell of weeds.

"C- can't I stay here? I can learn to be your assistant." Taya stuffs her hand in the basket of herbs and reaches for a tie, trying to imitate Sage as best she can. Sage winces.

"I wish you could, but they're going to come back. There's nobody else in the area and they'll figure out soon enough that I was lying."

"But I have nowhere else to go," Taya mumbles. "Why would you fix me and then kick me out? Can't we just say I was eaten by Nyamals?"

"I'll do what I can to help you out, but it can't happen here." Sage sighs and shakes the water off his hands. He rests them on Taya's shoulders, hand-printing the soft red fabric. "I've asked Koneko if she would escort you to a city that's a few days from here. You can rest up there until you know what you're going to do."

Taya lowers her gaze. The idea of leaving Sage to go live in a city she knows nothing about seems less tempting than being caught and tried for arson. Let alone traveling with an incomprehensible slightly unnerving cat creature. She wishes she could just stay here and be wanted.

Sage's right hand moves from her shoulder to her cheek, tilting her gaze upward. His hand is cold and the smell of herbs mixed with news like this makes her dizzy.

"You will be all right," he says. "And I'll come visit you when I have my monthly house calls up that way. I'll stop in and check up on you, all right?"

Her voice feels dead so Taya only nods. Of course it would be all right. What other option did she have? Except fainting, of course, which was growing in popularity the more she considered it.

Sage smiles and the sadness lifts from his eyes for one brief moment. "Koneko should be back tonight with her things. I'll help you pack once your laundry is dry, and you can head out first thing in the morning..."