Let Me Find Your Omega - Ashe Moon

1 Kole

For some odd reason, a song I used to love was back in my head again. So very strange that it would suddenly pop into my mind now, randomly. I hummed it softly as I rearranged the bookshelf by my desk at the front of the office and used a feather duster to clean away the thin film of incense soot that had collected on the wood. The wall tapestries needed a good cleaning too, so I got out a vacuum from a hidden closet and ran the nozzle across the blue velvet until the little silver embroidered stars had their shine again.

I really enjoyed cleaning the Moonstar office. Such a fun way to relax the mind and get things done at the same time. My agency was my pride and joy, the fruits of many years of hard work and hardship. It was my safe space and a place where I could help others, and I prized it more than anything else in the world.

After cleaning the wall tapestries, I exchanged all the floor candles for new ones and then brought an old stack of customer divination papers out to the back alley, where I burned them in a small copper brazier along with a sprig of veckwood for purification. It was a beautiful day, the perfect kind for cloud-watching, and I spent fifteen minutes with my head tipped back and my mouth open, watching the big poofy cotton balls float across the blue sky.

"Kooooole!"

A shrill voice howling my name snapped me back to reality. A little wolf scampered towards me, shifting back to human form as she got close.

"You said you'd let me help you burn the divination papers today." She pouted. "You forgot!"

Elise was eleven years old and lived nearby. Her family had opened up a new cafe somewhere down the street, and she'd started showing up here on her way home from school about a week ago with a whole boatload of questions about reading and divination. She’d continued to pop in every day since. Her big, red circle-framed glasses reminded me of myself at her age—I still wore thick-framed rectangular ones—and she always looked so serious, like she was in the middle of figuring out a never-ending puzzle. It was always a delight to see her, so I didn't mind indulging her curiosity. I'd showed her the very basics, the stuff I'd picked up when I was her age, and she absorbed it all like a sponge.

I looked down at the smoldering remains of the divination papers and cringed. "Oh!" I exclaimed, feeling terrible. "You're right. I'm sorry, Elise..."

"You're such an airhead, Kole!" she said, laughing. "I don't know how you can be so good at telling fortunes and be so spacey all the time."

"You've got me there," I said with a laugh. "Next time, I won't forget."

"Let's hang out!" she said. "You're not doing anything right now, right? You were staring up at the sky."

I smiled. "You can help me do some cleaning, then."

"Okay—if you teach me more about readings." She followed me back inside.

We cleaned and organized my cabinet, pulling out each little rectangular drawer and tidying their contents. I explained each thing to her—sheaves of veckwood twigs, divination crystals, beeswax candles, aromatic jars of various crushed herbs, tiny thumbnail-sized totems carved out of deer bone for those extra tricky readings, and more. Elise looked at each thing with wide eyes, listening attentively as I explained about them.

"I have a question," she said, adjusting her glasses. "Which ones tell you about love?"

"Who wants to know about love?" I asked. "You?"

She blushed and looked away. "I just... It seems important, that's all. Isn't that what you do readings for, mostly?"

"This is a dating agency, yes," I said, nodding. "But people come to readers for all sorts of things. So, why are you so interested in love?"

"I'm not, really." She mulled it over for a moment, and her face lit up. "Kole, do you have an alpha? Are you mated?"

My glasses slid down my nose. A kid's innocent question shouldn't have been the cause of so much embarrassment, but there I was feeling my face getting hot. "Um, no. Just me, just Kole."

"Have you ever been in love before?"

I picked up one of the reorganized drawers and stood on the step-ladder to return it to its spot. "Sure. I love my practice. I love my bed, and cheese sandwiches, and good tea..."

"No!" she cried, giggling. "You know what I'm talking about."

"I haven't," I said.

"How old