"You're next on the list."
"B-but I--"
"You had to redo your application."
"I know but I--"
"Twice."
"But--"
"You're lucky I let you back on the list at all. Now, leave before I change my mind."
With a flick of her tail, the Grimm and Chimera mix was dismissed. Ka'tija went back to tending her latest batch of stones, all of them in some sort of disarray; One had a scrape, another had somehow been soaked in oil and refused to be completely cleaned. And yet another had a rather large crack in it. Each stone had been half-imbued, mistreated in some way, and then tossed aside. It was by pure luck that Ka'tija had found them in the first place. Here, under the seemingly burnt black tree, they had a home, until someone would be willing to take them.
At the same time, she wondered as she opened the hidden door that led down into her cache, the stones cradled in her arms, why would she really have to wait for them to be imbued? She was perfectly capable, wasn't she? She had more money than she knew what to do with, the tree housed enough room for a huge family...
Setting the stones down, her eyes flickered to a few other stones that had been poorly handled. Cracks, missing crystals, dirty and otherwise terrible-looking. Cast aside and forgotten. Only very rarely did anyone agree to take one to imbue and awaken for themselves.
Sighing, Ka'tija looked around the cache a few times before ascending back to her main room. There, the vast emptiness of the place hit her. Sure, she had customers, and sure, she had people poking in thinking it was an abandoned, spooky house...
Picking up one of the first stones she rescued, missing a chunk and with a horrid scratch on it...she smiled warmly. "Shall we make this place a little less empty...?"
