It started with a knock at the door.

People did not knock at the door to his tower. The only person who ever visited was the farmer from north of the woods, and they typically just barged in with no regard to niceties. Who could possibly be knocking at his door? It was so improbable that the first time he heard it he assumed it was some kind of animal or some such outside and went back to his work.

It came again after a few minutes. A polite, persistent rap. Unmistakable. There was someone at the door. He put down his book, and gathered his robes, and approached carefully. Some very lost traveler, perhaps. He would send them on the correct path back to town and get back to enjoying his afternoon. That was all. He opened the door to the brisk fall air and saw a short, chubby young woman with vibrantly purple hair staring up at him.

"Uh, hi." she said. "My name is Abigail and-"

"Oh no." said the Wizard aloud, before he could stop himself.

The two sat at his table with two cups of strongly smelling, oddly colored tea that only Rasmodius was drinking, in awkward silence. Abigail tapped her feet anxiously against the legs of her chair while the Wizard stared across the room, fingers steepled. She was beginning to get nervous. The man had brusquely invited her in and now seemed to be very deep in thought about something. The interior of the tower somehow looked exactly as a mysterious tower in the woods should: strange teas, a bubbling cauldron, shelves of books. She squinted and tried to read some of the titles from where she was, but they all seemed to be written in an alphabet should could neither understand nor recognize.

"So." he said, finally, breaking the silence and making her jump. "You have finally come to see me."

"Oh. Um, yeah."

He sighed, and took off his hat, and ran his fingers through his hair. Abagail suddenly thought he looked very old. "I thought you would, eventually."

"You did?"

"Of course." He straightened his back. "It was inevitable that you would realize the truth eventually. You must, after all, be a very intelligent young woman." There was an odd note of pride in his voice, as if he were complimenting himself more than her. "Tell me though, what was it?"

"Huh?"

"What is it that finally brought you to my doorstep, girl?"

"Oh!" She said, looking relieved. "I'm here because of my hair."

"...Your hair?"

Abigail took a deep breath, and then words started pouring out at rapid fire. "Okay, so a few weeks ago I noticed that my hair was still super purple, even though I hadn't dyed it since last winter. It hadn't faded at all and I didn't have any roots and that's impossible, right? I told Sebastian and Sam and they thought I was crazy and probably just re-dyed it at some point and forgot, but I know I'd remember because I always dye it at Sebastian's house so my mom doesn't hover around making passive-aggressive comments about it. And it was definitely longer than it had been in winter, at least an inch or so. I swear to Yoba, it was growing in purple. From my head. But that's definitely not possible, I even asked Sebastian's stepdad and he said it isn't. So I thought, maybe it's magic? Because weird stuff happens in the valley sometimes. Everyone knows it, even if they don't really talk about it."

She was talking with her hands now, emphatic but with clarity. "I needed to be sure somehow. So I grabbed a box of hair dye from my dad's shop and made Sebastian help me dye it brown again, and after it dried I was a regular brunette and everything was fine. But then-" her voice took on a high pitch, a tinge of panic, "I woke up the next morning and it looked exactly like this." she said, pointing to her bright purple locks.

"We all freaked out. Obviously something weird was going on. We looked online, and got nothing. I talked to Marlon, the guy in the mountains who handles the monsters, but he didn't have any idea either. So I thought that-" she finally trailed off and got quieter. "...I would come talk to you. Since you're the definition of weird stuff that happens in the valley. No offense. Sorry, I don't mean you're weird. You just seem to know about weird stuff."

The Wizard, who had been listening carefully to all of this, blinked slowly, then finished the last of his tea and placed it carefully on the table. "You are telling me that you came all the way here because of your hair? That's all?"

Abigail looked puzzled, and nodded.

The Wizard breathed a sigh of relief, and thought how lucky he is that he hadn't said anything too terribly revealing earlier. The situation was troublesome, but perhaps not so troublesome as he had feared. It would have to be dealt with in any case, but it could be handled delicately. In fact, he thought, It may well be capable of becoming a boon.

"So, do you know? What could cause something like this?" she asked, leaning forward.

"Causing your hair to turn violet? Yes." He stood up from his chair and pushed it in, and grabbed his hat and replaced it on his head. "Child, you said your name was Abigail?"

"I'm not a kid, but yes."

"Everyone is a child when you as old as I am. You are the one who changed your hair color."

"But I told you, I-"

"Not with anything that came out of a box." He waved his hand dismissively. "It changed because you wanted it to change. You did it with magic."

"What?"

"You, Abigail," he said, "are a wizard."