Count down with me--Day 10

"Grayer Than Lead, Heavier Than Snow" is another colorful island story featuring Kiriko, a craftsperson who works there as a colorless laborer.
For her, I wrote some words. I hope you enjoy them.

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Miya almost dropped a chunk off her soft omusubi as she tried to wave back to her friend—she should have made the omusubi tighter, harder—but the friend came in to the shop, anyway. Kiriko, a craftsperson working at the atelier a few blocks down the road, who was a few years older than Miya herself. "Hey Miyako," the craftsperson said as she pushed open the door with her shoulder; she always had a huge bundle of wrapping cloth in her arms. "Anything new?"
Miya grinned. "I was just going to call you, Kiri. Look at this beauty!"
This place worked both as a shop for the locals, and as the backyard for the shop on the High Street, which stood there for foreigner tourists to wander in. The shop mostly handled second-hand jewelry and artifacts, and only the eye-catching things went to the shop at the front, after Miya examined and cleaned them. Today, she had been tending to a very peculiarly shaped ring; or rings, perhaps. Two rings merged into one, so that you had to wear it on two fingers, restricting the movement of the fingers a little but providing a space for more gems and other materials to cover the oval table on top. There were many butterflies on the table, made with amethyst, aquamarine, seashells, and some kind of fossil. And a few flowers and leaves, sprinkled with seed pearls and connected with vines made of jade.
Kiriko let out a laugh at the sight, amused. "Wow. The maker couldn't be satisfied with one ring, obviously."
"Obviously."
"Can I touch it?"
"Sure, why not? We don't know if this one is going to the front shop, anyway—too bold in design."
The craftsperson laughed again, but then sobered. She sat down properly at the counter and started turning the ring this way and that. Then...Kiriko smiled.
"What?" Miya almost demanded.
"Miyako...you know you are a butterfly-colored person, right?"
"What?" Miya wondered if she'd just misheard, or if her friend had lost her mind. Miya was working here like this because she had no special color on her skin, something she could show off to the foreign tourists. Let alone...butterfly? "I have no idea what you are talking about."
"Oh! I truly thought you knew but worked here because it was just not as showy as you liked. Your skin is homogeneously covered with a very thin layer of pearlescent particle, like butterfly scales. Perhaps it's too subtle for ordinary eye to see."
"Oh." That rang true, kind of. Miya had been complemented on her smooth, shiny beautiful skin many times especially by foreigners, even though not for its color.
Kiriko shook her head. "I really should make a habit of saying these things aloud. Anyway. Unlike butterfly scales, you are perpetually shedding the particles off your skin. I guess it's because the particles are not entirely natural to human. It's completely microscopic in size, mind."
Miya self-consciously touched her cheeks.
"This ring..." Kiriko heaved a sigh. "This thing was made by someone like us. Me and my sensei. People who can hide pattern in pattern. There are engravings all over this piece, as you can see. But there are messages hidden within in these engravings. I wouldn't have been able to see it without our microscope, but now I can. Because some grooves are engraved in a way they attract your particles into them, making the grooves glow and show better. I'm sure you can see this now, too, with a simple loupe or something."
Miya blinked, and then narrowed her eyes at the thing. She could see nothing. "What does it say?"
The craftsperson looked closely at the ring, as if to make sure. Then she said, "It's a love letter. From someone, to a butterfly-colored person. The maker had so many things they wanted to tell the butterfly person, that's probably why this ring is shaped so strange." Kiriko let out a breath. "I think this used to belong to someone related to you."
For a long moment, Miya didn't know what to say. There weren't many shops that were involved in this business in this city, so it wasn't too hard to believe something like this could happen to her working here. Still. "Do you think..."
"Yes, I think you should keep this thing, Miyako. Talk to your boss. I'll help you with the payment if he proposes a large sum, but like you say the design is too bold and not for many people. So."
Miya held the piece up, in the light. She still couldn't see the particles, on the ring, or on her skin. But she knew this craftsperson wouldn't lie about such things. "This is beautiful, isn't it?"
The craftsperson nodded. "It would look even more beautiful on your fingers, Miyako."
Miya slowly slipped the thing on her fingers, and smiled at her friend.