I’m long overdue for a haircut. I’ve been meaning to ask Georgie to give me a proper cut, but I can at least trim off some of my dead ends in the meantime. I twirl a lock around my finger. It’s almost at my elbows these days. I ruefully think of how annoyed my father would be. He always liked my hair to look tidy, and he used to trim it for me every week on Friday afternoon.

The man observes my hair and sucks his teeth, his watery eyes sharp. “Now, for the spoon itself,” he says, with what sounds to me like a little less grump than before. “I have somethin’ I think you’ll like.” He kneels to search through the recesses of an old chest, then rises holding a nondescript box. “Instead of a new Heliotorch, maybe consider this one, which needs a new owner.” He opens the box, and my eyes widen.

The size of a small harmonica, the spoon is inlaid with a mosaic of dark green stone around a harp made of mother-of-pearl.

I want it.

“I don’t have much sense, and that looks expensive.”

“The cost is a lock o’ your hair, three inches long and one inch wide.”

My skin prickles. “Um, that’s super creepy.”

“That’s the price if you want it.”

I don’t want to give this crotchety man my hair to do who-knows-what with, but the spoon is so lovely.

“Who did it belong to?” I ask.

“An old friend. He told me to hold on to it till he comes back, but I have a feelin’ he won’t be comin’ back anytime soon.”

I should just buy a new, simple spoon for a normal price, but my hand itches to hold this one, as if I’m meant to have it. “Okay, I’ll take it,” I find myself saying before I’ve even finished deciding.

The man assembles and attaches all my chosen mods to the spoon and then uses the new scissors to discreetly clip off his payment from an underlayer of my hair.

With my hand in my pocket clutching my new spoon, I join Michael, who’s still distracted at the book stall. Among the piles, I find a beautiful deck of hand-painted cards with dragons, wind horses, and unicorns instead of royal face cards. It makes me think of Izzy. She’s always been excellent at card tricks. I miss her so much. I’ll have to ask Kor if he’s learned anything new about what she’s up to and see if he can convince Roman to put her in touch with me.

When Michael sees the cards, he says he wants to teach me a Maker game called Beg and Plea, and he purchases the deck.

“A Quorum gift,” he says.