Just past seven in the evening, Ais joined the Femi family around the dinner table.
Before they'd gotten far, the couple noticed that tonight's Ais was unusually quiet — keeping her head low the entire time, eating bread in small bites. No intention of touching the side dishes, not a word to Leel.
While certainly more elegant than her usual manner, the behavior was strange enough to concern them.
Seeing his son still wrestling with a steak and completely oblivious to Ais's silence, Owen Femi had to ask himself:
"Detective Fal, is the food not to your liking this evening?"
Ais answered with no energy:
"It's nothing to do with the food. A personal matter."
Ais's tone — clearly off — successfully drew Leel's attention away from the steak to her.
"Ais, is something wrong?"
Something is VERY wrong. Ais's mind was already in enough turmoil, and a close friend asking like this made her say something she instantly regretted:
"None of your business!"
"Oh." Leel, feeling once again that he was being disliked, withdrew his gaze and took out his feelings on the steak.
Owen had been about to say more, but caught his wife's look and fell discreetly silent.
Once dinner was mostly done, Mrs. Mia Dalton gestured for her husband and son to leave first. She sat down beside Ais and asked quietly:
"Fal, is your period coming?"
Wait — this world uses that expression too? In context, Ais was confident the Ruenish word Mrs. Dalton had used carried no other meaning.
You're so considerate it almost moves me, Mrs. Dalton. Surprised as she was, Ais — who had been at a loss for how to even begin — immediately nodded and whispered back:
"Normally it wouldn't show signs until next week. But something's been off since today. It's usually very punctual."
Cooling down through meditation had let Ais recall that periods could come early. The hard part hadn't been finding a plausible reason to ask — it had been overcoming the embarrassment to say it out loud.
Mrs. Dalton gave a knowing nod:
"I understand. Fal, there's no need to feel awkward about it. For a woman, this is a normal physiological occurrence."
Mrs. Dalton, I can assure you the reason I feel awkward is quite different from what you imagine. Listening to Mrs. Dalton's earnest counsel, Ais could say nothing and simply nodded while thinking otherwise.
The truth was that learning the period was coming had renewed the discomfort, and the discomfort itself was what made Ais feel so wrong-footed.
It had been nearly a month since she'd become a Witch. Because a Witch's persistent charm meant so little needed to be managed, she'd largely been living with a male mindset and habits — and without being around others much, that worked fine. Having long since forgotten what her old body had felt like, she rarely experienced strong disorientation.
But the prospect of a period — something uniquely female, something entirely beyond her imagination — was a profoundly unfamiliar experience in a way that, say, going to the toilet crouching or some man's lascivious gaze wasn't. Severe enough that even just imagining herself talking to someone about it made her feel intensely awkward and strange.
"Fal, I'll have the maid bring you some sanitary pads in a bit. Tonight, perhaps you shouldn't stand watch — there's been no activity at all for the past two nights anyway. Maybe your period coming early has something to do with not sleeping properly." Mrs. Dalton said sincerely.
That's absolutely not happening. Ais's head came up immediately, meeting Mrs. Dalton's eyes directly, shaking her head with conviction:
"Please don't worry, Mrs. Dalton. I'm a little physically uncomfortable, but it's not affecting anything important. And two quiet nights don't mean anything — I don't think this is the time to let up. An injury before didn't mean this time can't be worse. I've been paid, and I think I should see it through properly."
Mrs. Dalton looked at Ais's suddenly animated posture and, after a moment, said:
"Since you feel so strongly, Fal… just keep warm and don't let yourself get chilled. I'll have something like brown sugar ginger tea prepared — let me know whenever you need it."
"I will."
What disappointed Ais was that the evening passed again without incident. The outlet she'd been half-hoping for never appeared.
The next day's situation was worse: when Ais used the washroom, her period arrived without ceremony. Thank goodness she'd been carrying a few sanitary pads in her pocket since the previous night — having had no idea when it was actually coming — or the situation would have been even more embarrassing.
That afternoon, Leel looked at Ais sitting across from him — forehead furrowed, hand pressed to her abdomen, still insisting on coming to study Ancient Hermes — and gently suggested:
"Ais, maybe you should rest for these few days. Your brow hasn't relaxed once since I first saw you today — are you really all right?"
Leel's well-meaning words were exactly the wrong thing. At the mention, Ais immediately put her arms on the desk and started talking into them:
"Leel, your mother lied to me. Brown sugar ginger tea, red date and brown sugar water, belly massage, warm water compresses — none of them are doing anything. It still hurts so much!"
Leel, looking at a pitiful Ais, couldn't think of what to say. The knowledge that had been poured into his brain certainly hadn't included how to handle this situation.
So he attempted the only thing he could think of — distraction:
"Perhaps it's because you're an Extraordinary. Didn't my mother say the signs usually come one to two weeks in advance? Your situation — showing signs one day and then having it arrive the next — isn't normal either."
Ais banged the desk in grievance:
"Maybe. But I can't work it out. I can't understand why the potion would affect something like this. What's the point?"
In truth, the pain Ais felt wasn't anywhere near as dramatic as her performance suggested. It didn't affect normal movement at all — she felt confident that even if danger appeared right now, this discomfort wouldn't impede her from running. Honestly, a sudden leg cramp would have been more painful.
The problem was that period cramps had an outsize presence in her life. Not a continuous pain but a cramping kind — arriving and departing in waves. Not strong, but specifically, relentlessly disruptive to her mood.
Ais had already lost count of how many times she'd internally cursed the evil god "Primordial Witch" today. She used a substitute name in her head, naturally — Stupid God. She wasn't actually certain whether the period issue had anything to do with the evil god, but with her thoughts in complete disarray, she defaulted to blaming someone else. Better to attack than to self-doubt.
After releasing some feelings on the desk, Ais acknowledged that Leel's point was valid. She stood and started for the door, saying:
"I'll go rest for a bit then."
Leel watched Ais leaving while clearly struggling to walk upright, and couldn't help stepping alongside her:
"Do you need help?"
Ais's reaction was far more forceful than he expected. She was out the door in two steps — with only "No" echoing behind her three times.
Nobody warned me that women become completely different during their period. Ais hadn't told Leel the real reason she'd refused his help: since the period had started, anyone whose first impression wasn't actively unpleasant to her now seemed somehow appealing. It was the primary reason she'd refused Leel's offer — she was afraid that close contact right now might make her lose control of her hands, ruining her reputation permanently.
Fortunately, this mindset was still within normal parameters and could be managed with reason.
"I completely regret my choice. Why didn't I think of this back then? Being a woman is not easy."
Lying on the guest room bed, Ais felt more regret about a single decision than she had at any other point in her life.
Author's Note (this chapter):"Leel, your mother lied to me. Brown sugar ginger tea, red date and brown sugar water, belly massage, warm water compresses — none of them are doing anything. It still hurts so much!"
It's only been one month. ·