"Coming up, sir. Hilda, please take care of the gentleman, the lady and that ginger here."
Hilda, a middle-aged blonde, seats you and takes your orders. She stops as she comes to Nadja and studies her for a long moment.
"You remind me of a girl that used to work here many years ago. Are you related to... what was her name... Natalia, Nora, something like that?"
Nadja decides to go along with the white lie she has been using earlier. "Nadja, yes, that was my mother, who named me the same."
Hilda nods. "Mhm. Nadja, yes, that was it. Pretty bright for a ginger, and genuinely nice even for the standards of a normal person. Your mother was always really eager to please, sometimes maybe even a bit too eager for her own good. Took really well to being disciplined - in fact, I think, she actually enjoyed it when others took control of her. If she has raised you to be the same, I think you would be a good fit."
As Hilda leaves, Nadja nestles with the twine string holding her holy symbol.
If you promise not to tell anyone... I'm a follower of the Summer Lady. Old family tradition I have to keep up, or else the wee people will come after me to take from me away much more than just my soul. I'm not even a strict believer - I mean, all my life I've been a city girl who has rarely seen as much as a cabbage patch, even less so true wilderness. I have no idea why those fey protecting nature would care about someone like me, but they do, and raising their ire is both easy and unwise.
I'd rather have been a real person, with a boring life, but that choice was never offered to me. I can't help it, just as it makes me anxious to accept money and gifts from real people like you and risk being a selfish bad girl at the expense of my betters.
She thinks a moment more.
Your missionaries, do they need to stay celibate? I'm not easy if that is what you think, I just want to find a good husband some day who loves me even as a ginger and keeps me on the good path. And children that will hopefully not share my curse, and be able to grow up into real people unlike me.