In the morning, the snowflakes were salty. The deer knew it first, gathering in open fields and empty roads to lick up every delicious morsel. Farmers cursed as they tried to wrangle dairy cows in from the field. By morning meal, every child in Kinseddy had bundled up for sledding and snowball fights in the winter magic.

Ellis let the hood of the cloak shadow her face as she trudged to market. It did no good to be a curse breaker on days like this. She could cure someone of green hair or scare off a minor rhyming curse, but it took big magic to break a weather enchantment.

Fairies! She stomped through a pile of magical slush, shoulders hunched against the cold. Couldn’t they give her just one day off? Was it too much to ask they refrain from mischief a mere 24 hours? Why should —

“Watch out!” A shout broke Ellis’s train of though, and she barely had time to dodge the oncoming bicycle. Snow splattered her cloak as the cyclist came crashing to a halt.

“Are you alright?” Ellis hurried forward and helped the cyclist - a young man near her own age - pull the bike away. The front wheel spun at an odd axis.

“I’m okay!” He brushed snow out of his blond hair and grinned sheepishly. “Sorry. So sorry. I’m so, so sorry.”

Ellis laughed. “Blame it on the enchantment,” she joked.

“The enchantment?” The man paused, one hand ruffled in the hair on his forehead. “How do you know about the enchantment?”

“Um...” Ellis licked her lips, salty as ocean water. “I mean, it’s kind of hard to miss.”

“Oh, man!” The cyclist’s face turned tomato red, and he yanked his bike up from the ground like a shield. “I was hoping no one would notice!”

Ellis laughed, and immediately slapped a hand over her mouth. “Sorry,” she apologized. “It’s just, it’s so obvious. Anyone could tell.”

“The bicycle was that much of a giveaway?”

“The bicycle...?” Ellis looked at the wrecked bike, her eyebrows knotted in confusion.

“I just thought rubber handles would help with the slipperiness. You don’t think it will help with the slipperiness?”

Ellis paused before answering. “Excuse me if it sounds silly,” she said, adding a laugh in hopes of sounding light-hearted. “You’re talking about the weather enchantment?”

“The weather enchantment?” Now the cyclist looked bewildered. “I meant the fairy curse. Slippery silver. How clumsy I am.” He fiddled with his coat as he spoke, and one finger was caught in a button hole.

Ellis laughed. Really laughed this time. “I meant the snow!” She shook fresh powder from her hood and pulled it tight again. “I meant the salty snow. The weather enchantment.”

“Salty snow?” The cyclist stuck out a curious tongue and added a laugh. “I thought it was just sweat!”

“You said slippery silver, right?” Ellis dig through her satchel for an extra flask. “I have an elixir that should help with that. Water strained with mint at midnight. It cures a lot of small curses.”

“Oh!” The cyclist reached gratefully for the flask. “Maybe I’ll stop dropping my silverware at the dinner table! You’ve saved me a trip to the curse breaker in Kinseddy!”

Ellis shrugged. “Well, I am the curse breaker in Kinseddy, so you can just consider your trip shorter.” She brushed fresh flakes from her eyes, thankful for a curse she could break. It felt nice to be useful in the midst of an unbreakable weather enchantment.

“You’re the curse breaker?” He looked at her in surprise, clumps of snow still stuck in his hair. “Aren’t you going to do something about all this salty snow?”