First Stitch (Reignfinite)

"Hellooo~?"

Ivah snapped out of it with a blink. "Oh dear, I'm so sorry about that," she said politely, mentally though, she was banging her head against the wall. The brunette laughed at Aria's small jest. 'So she does have sound magic,' Ivah realized. 'I wonder if she could do stuff other than make people fall asleep.' Ivah smiled apologetically.

"Would you mind if I asked about your powers, by the way?"

Ivah gave her another small smile. "There's no need to be so polite, dear. After all, we are going to be working together," she said, trying to lose some of the professionalism in her voice. "I'm an empath. I could feel your emotions as if they were my own," she explained. "My power does have some limitations though. It works through hearing," she leaned back against the couch. "I can tell what you feel, but only if I hear you talk. Well, that and I have to listen carefully to pick up the more subtle emotions," she explained, carefully watching Aria's reaction. "It also doesn't work much if I hear your voice through technology like cellphones and voice recordings."

"We're like totally meant to cross each other's paths! I got sound magic and you've got magic hearing that translates emotions! Isn't it rad?"

Ivah's lip quirked up at her interesting choice of words. That and Aria's enthusiasm was so evident in her tone that she would probably see it from a mile away even if she wasn't an empath. "Yes, rad," she said, some amusement found in her voice.

"I have some questions about your powers myself though. That is, if you don't mind answering them," she crossed her legs and looked at the siren's brown orbs with curiosity. "How does sound magic work? I've only been on this island for a few weeks, and during that span of time I've been busy setting up shop that I haven't had the chance to meet other people." Ivah pushed back a stray lock of brown hair from her face as she talked casually, face reverting back to its usual poker face. "Tell me, do sirens really eat people?" She asked, leaning forward a bit to hear Aria's answer.

Ivah hummed thoughtfully as she listened. "I suppose that makes sense," she said. "The part where humans might eat sirens because they also eat fish. But the same can be said with you," she mused. "There are many sea creatures that prey on humans."

Ivah leaned back on the sofa and made eye contact with Aria. "And for us humans to be considered interesting," she gave out a small laugh, "I think it's a bit amusing since I know that there are people around the world who would give anything to meet a siren."

Talking to Aria felt good. Hearing her talk gave the empath a pleasant feeling. The siren was just so full of so much positive energy and confidence that even a person who didn't have empathy would've felt good talking to her too. And it certainly didn't hurt that she had a nice voice (which was probably a side-effect of having sound magic.)

"Those are all my questions, I guess. And yours, too, apparently. Anyway, you said that afterwards, we would move to discussing my salary?"

Suddenly, Ivah's face remained frozen and blank. There was a short moment of silence before Ivah gave Aria a small laugh. Luckily, Aria wasn't the empath between the two of them. If she was, then she would have probably felt the seamstress melt with embarrassment on the inside. On the outside though, her face remained indifferent and uncaring. 'Idiot! Forgetful idiot!' She mentally gave herself a kick on the head.

"Oh yes, your salary," she gave the girl in front of her a small nod. "I have a prepared chart regarding that. Do wait a second, dear," she stood up and walked towards the counter, which was thankfully only a few feet away from where she sat.

She rummaged around the drawers until she found the sheet she was looking for, along with a few documents Aria needed to sign before she became an employee of the shop. She briskly walked back to her seat and sat down. "Here it is, along with some other paperwork you would need to fill in before I officially hire you," Ivah said as she handed the papers to the blonde.

Ivah let her mind wander as Aria started browsed the papers the empath gave her. Now that she had an employee, she should probably start advertising her shop. Her shop was still new to this city, so she had to make it known somehow. As she watched Aria start signing the documents, she briefly mused if she could convince the siren to just use her voice to attract customers.

Ivah shook her head. Her days of being a fraud traveling 'psychic' were over. She was going to gain customers the right way. Besides, from what she's heard, there was a rich family on the island who liked to hold parties every now and then, and a number of them are of the formal kind. 'I need to make connections somehow,' she thought as Aria finished the signing the papers.

"Thank you, Ivah, dear. You can definitely count on me."

Ivah accepted the documents with a small smile and a nod. "Oh," she said in pleasant surprise when Aria handed her a small bag of cookies as well. 'Hmm, they appear to be handmade as well,' she thought as she opened the pack a little. "They smell delicious," she said politely, feeling the blonde's pride.

"So what time should I come here tomorrow morning? Anything I should wear or bring?"

"Oh, do come here early. Let's say, around 9 o' clock?" Ivah closed the pack of cookies and put them aside for later. "You don't have to wear anything in particular, dear, but do try to match the shop's general atmosphere," she said as she waved her hand to gesture at the store.

"And you don't have to bring anything either. I have enough sewing materials for fifteen people," she said humorously. Panic-buying has always been a problem for her, even though there was absolutely nothing to panic about.