As they traveled toward the capital, Seulhee asked Dongwoo what the test was supposed to be. “It didn’t seem like they were probing me at all, actually.”

“Of course it didn’t,” said Dongwoo. “They wanted you to behave as naturally as possible. They didn’t want to influence your behavior too much. Aside from just gauging your reactions to whatever they threw at you, there was also something magical involved. I think Hoya and Hyora were probably doing some poking around in your head.” Seeing the look on her face, he added, “They weren’t digging up your most private and intimate secrets or anything, just going over the surface stuff, seeing what you were thinking at the time and probably a bit of the recent memories and things in there.”

Despite these reassurances, Seulhee felt a bit violated. But she let it go. Desperate times called for desperate measures, after all. If these strangers were going to entrust her with such an important task, they would have to make absolute certain that she was trustworthy.

They entered the city just before the gates were closing for the night, and it was quite late, so they found an inn to settle down in. Seulhee offered for Dongwoo to take the bed this time, but he declined, saying that he had gotten used to sleeping in uncomfortable positions. Apparently he and his cousin had had similar arrangements in the past.

The next day Dongwoo led Seulhee to the home of her instructor, where she would be staying until she left for the palace. It was a three story structure, connected to other homes on both sides. In the city, they tended to build up rather than out due to space concerns; it wasn’t surprising to see buildings that stretched up to five or six stories. Seulhee had grown up with lots of open space, so the city gave her a mild feeling of claustrophobia.

Right after they arrived, Dongwoo had to leave, saying he had somewhere to be. Seulhee knocked on the door, alone and apprehensive.

A middle-aged woman answered. Her brown hair, mixed with strands of gray, was pulled back and secured in a knot, her sleeves were pushed back to the elbows, and her hands were callused. Seulhee got the distinct impression that she was a no-nonsense type. Aside from this, she also observed that the woman had odd piercings, a lobe piercing and conch piercing on each ear that were connected by a thin silver chain.

“Good day, miss. How may I help you?”

Earlier, Dongwoo had given her a note to present to the lady, so she got that out and handed it over. A quick glance at it was enough for the woman to know what was expected of her, so she invited Seulhee in, sitting her down at a table to pour her some tea.

“So you are here to learn what it means to be deaf and mute, I see. Well, you have come to the right person. I am totally deaf—or was, anyway.”

“Was?” Seulhee echoed, surprised.

The woman nodded. “I wasn’t born that way, but an accident when I was a young woman deprived me of my hearing for the longest time. It wasn’t until recently that I regained it, and it cost a fortune.” She indicated her ears. “These earrings aren’t just decorative accessories, mind you. They were spelled to give me back my hearing. Thank goodness for them. I feel like a woman reborn.”

“That’s great,” said Seulhee. She hadn’t realized that magic could be used in such a way. Of course, her knowledge of magic was confined to hearsay, which wasn’t exactly credible, but even so…

“Ah, by the way, I’m Joora. Pleased to meet you.” The older woman offered a hand to shake, and Seulhee accepted it, giving her own name.

“I suppose we shouldn’t waste any time. We can begin right now.” She sat down across from Seulhee. “First thing is how people will treat you. You have grown up and lived your entire without this handicap, so you probably have no idea what it’s like being deaf. People will treat you like you’re stupid and useless. They somehow equate being physically unable to understand a person’s words with being mentally incapable of comprehending the meaning of what people say. Most likely they will avoid talking to you and instead talk to the people around you. If they talk to you at all, they will yell or talk very slowly, which is unhelpful because what is really needed is clearer speech, not louder or slower speech.

“Pretending to be deaf will present something of a challenge. Assuming that you’re going to be completely deaf, you won’t react to sounds the way most people do. Your head won’t turn to follow things unless you have a visual stimulus. Sound stimuli wouldn’t affect you. The only exception would be the very loud noises. The vibrations caused by those can be felt by deaf people. I remember one time when I was still deaf, someone dropped a plate, shattering it, and I could feel it even though I couldn’t hear it.”

Seulhee found this tidbit interesting. She had never really talked to any deaf people before, so there was a lot she didn’t know about their experiences.

“Basically, you will have to train yourself not to react to most sounds, which will be hard because you actually can hear, and your movements in response to sounds are very much a reflex. However, it is possible to minimize your responses through selective attention. For example, if you’re concentrating very hard on something, you probably won’t hear anyone calling your name.”

She remembered all the times she had been daydreaming and her mother had yelled for her several times before she realized she was being addressed.

“There are some exercises we can do to train you, but I think if you want to get to doing your job in a timely manner, we will have to get some magical assistance. Just as there is magic to help a person hear, there is magic to dampen a person’s hearing for those who are extremely sensitive to sounds. Then you will be, in a way, experiencing what it is like to be deaf.”

“Why can’t they just take away my hearing altogether?” Seulhee asked. “I mean, temporarily, of course. Wouldn’t that make my act even more convincing?”

Joora shook her head. “You still need your hearing, don’t you? Unless you’re going to learn to lipread. Well, I suppose you will need to learn a bit of that because you may not always be at a good distance to hear what people are saying, especially since your hearing sensitivity will be decreased. Anyway, doing that is very risky. The effects of that sort of spell might become permanent, in which case you would become actually deaf. You could try using spelled hearing aids like mine, but using magic to fix magic in that sort of layering way often does not end well.”

“I see. So I guess that means I will need a lot of practice.”

“That’s what I’m here for,” Joora replied, smiling.

**

For the next week, Seulhee spent a large part of her day at Joora’s house working on the training. She would be sitting or standing, and Joora would be somewhere out of sight, dropping various objects at unexpected times. At first, she jumped every time a book hit the floor or a spoon clattered to the ground, but soon enough she was only cringing, and then after even more time, she was barely flinching.

To prevent the neighbors from wondering what was going on or complaining, they had to set up a spell to contain all the sound, similar to the one Dongwoo had showed Seulhee several days ago.

Aside from the sound immunity training, Seulhee also had to learn a bit of lipreading. She found that it was harder than expected. First and foremost she needed a decent view of the person’s face, otherwise it was obviously a lost cause. Depending on clearly people enunciated while speaking, it could be more or less difficult to decipher their words. Also, it made a difference what accents they spoke with, which changed the way they formed their words. Having grown up in a place where everyone spoke in the same accent, this took a lot of adjusting to.

Seulhee finally received the hearing dampeners after a few days, delivered by a surprise visitor. Joora was busy preparing their evening meal, so Seulhee answered the knock at the door. She found Sungyeol waiting for her.

“Oh, hi.”

“Hullo,” he replied. “May I come in?” He glanced behind her at the interior of the house.

“Certainly.” Opening the door wider, she let Sungyeol inside and shut the door. “What brings you here?”

“Delivery,” came the reply. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a small bag that fit snugly in his palm. “Here.” 

She took it from his outstretched hand, brushing his fingers in the process, and flinched. Sungyeol didn’t seem to notice, however. He was sniffing the air, gazing hungrily in the direction of the kitchen.

Seulhee opened the bag and pulled out a pair of earrings. They were silver, set with miniature blue stones. Sapphires, perhaps? “Oh my,” she gasped. “These are beautiful. But why are you giving these to me.” She looked up at her friend questioningly.

“They’re spelled to dampen your hearing,” Sungyeol explained.

“I see. But my ears aren’t pierced.” As a village girl, she could hardly have afforded jewelry. Perhaps when she got married she would have worn earrings, but not any other time.

“I can do that for you,” Joora said, entering the room. “You come eat with us,” she told Sungyeol, who looked pleased to hear this. “And after supper we can attend to the earrings.”

Somehow, with Joora as a buffer, the two former friends managed to get through supper without any extensive awkward silences, though they didn’t really directly address each other, so it seemed more like they were each having a separate conversation with Joora rather than one conversation with all three of them.

Before Joora applied the needle to pierce Seulhee’s ear, Sungyeol gently touched his hand to each earlobe, numbing them with some sort of spell. She didn’t feel the needle at all, so had she not seen its movement, she wouldn’t have known anything had happened.

After a bit, the earrings were in, and the numbing spell faded, leaving a mild soreness in Seulhee’s ears. Sungyeol gave her hand a slight squeeze and left. The gesture felt natural, more like the days when they had been best friends, and she couldn’t help but feel a little warmed on the inside.