Tisane

by prospher

The Peach Terrace Tearoom has everything a customer could ask for: views of the sparkling seaside, tea blends cultivated by master gardeners in the Everbloom Gardens, and hosting so efficient and sweet that it's easy to overlook the days where a CLOSED sign hangs inexplicably in the windows, or when a cluster of unusually gruff patrons walk in, unconcerned with the gentle floral wallpaper and the lacy tablecloths.

Tisane's clientele still hasn't noticed the mob under their noses, and she prides herself on keeping it that way.

She runs the Peach Terrace Tearoom almost entirely by herself, if you don't count the squirrelly young Skydancer who sometimes runs deliveries for her, or the Snapper who occupies the kitchen almost all hours of the day and night alike, baking up a storm and selling only a fraction of it in the shop. Tisane doesn't know their names, or why they work with her. She only knows that it's her job to keep her customers happy and coming back, even if she has to usher them out the door in a hurry now and again.

Really, it's not a terrible existence. A few months ago, she was floundering under the weight of a small tea shop and the blood stains in the alley behind it. If she'd gone to the local authorities right away, she would have likely lost the tea shop and her life. Instead, she panicked and kept her head down, and now the pay is more than generous, thanks to the Ridgeback who offered her a job at the Peach Terrace Tearoom shortly after the Incident.

It hits her, capital letter and all, sometimes while she's serving tea and cookies with the morning sun warming her new shop. A few months ago, there was a murder behind her tea shop, blood and guts and all. She watched it from the windows of her apartment above, and jerked the curtains shut just before the killer left the alley. By morning, the body was gone, and the Ridgeback arrived with his offer, the one stained with or else just below the surface, left unspoken but strong enough to shine through.

The Incident changed everything, and Tisane isn't sure if she wishes she could unsee it. There was an awful lot of blood after all, and she can't forget the shape of that crooked, hungry blade winking in the moonlight.

And yet her pay is now double what it was, her new apartment is filled with all the comforts she could dream of, and someone else fusses over details like rent and business overhead. All she has to do is smile and pour tea with a steady hand, while her baker toils away in the kitchen and her delivery boy vanishes with boxes of cakes and cookies for hours on end.

Except for the tea, the business is really none of her business, and maybe that's not so terrible after all.

Bio by Tues.



oh yes this was a very good decision I made at 2 am absolutely

one day i will burn the scattersights to get you those rare eyes
but not today