Some time later, Kaiz awoke. Disoriented.

He rolled to his side and tried to blink some clarity back into his eyes. Before his vision went from squiggly lines to blurring images, he realized exactly where he was. He was in bed. A familiar bed. A bed he knew too well. The memories of not only what just happened but what had happened years ago rushed back.

Nice to see you again Oli. Been a couple years since we’ve seen each other. How’ve you been?

The bed didn’t reply. It being a bed.

I’ve been pretty great, though seeing you again probably suggests otherwise. Life’s pretty good now. The fear of death is still around, but it’s on my terms now. Turns out Otto wasn’t as sketchy as we first thought. He’s a bit...quite the bastard, but he was good to me.

Silence.

Things are looking up.

A sign fell from his lips as Kaiz rolled out of the bed. He looked around. Nothing had changed. Just four cream walls, a bed, a desk, and a mirror. It was odd how nostalgic it made him. He spent some of the most painful years of his life here. Yet, now, he felt a fondness for the space.

He walked up to the mirror. The face that greeted him always surprised him. It never felt like his own. He’d grown used to the red eyes, big pink lips, and curly hair. It was the sharp jawline, sunken cheeks, and a chin lathered with stubble that threw him off. They made him appear grown, sharp, and intense. Kaiz wouldn’t necessarily say he wasn’t those things, but it felt like just yesterday he was a scrawny little boy.

He touched his face; squeezing his nose, tapping his eyelids, and pinching his ears. They were all his. He was himself. As far as he knew anyway.

What am I doing?

He shook his head and walked towards the exit. Thankfully, while his old room was attached to the store, it didn’t connect directly to it. There may yet be an opportunity to escape.

Unless, of course Lyn was just outside the door waiting for him. It had barely cracked open when her voice came resounding into his eardrums. He froze, thinking he’d been caught, but her words couldn’t possibly be directed towards him.

With mild trepidation, he leaned past the door. Peeking behind it, he spotted her standing a few meters away. Instead of facing him, like he feared, she faced away. She also held a titled man by his wrist.

Kaiz winced. The only thing louder than her voice was her fury. She berated the man while dangling him a good foot off the ground. Lyn was aggressive at the most gentle of times, but she was far from hot-headed. In fact, Kaiz had rarely ever seen her more than upset. He was confused what could inspire such anger, but a quick glance around put the pieces in place.

There were two tanlar women on the ground and one had her dress partially ripped, exposing her underwear. It was a grim, yet familiar scene.

Kaiz’s old room exited at the back of Josslyn’s store. Behind her store there was an alleyway between two rows of shops. A common place for crime to occur.

This works though.

Kaiz wouldn’t thank the scum, but he had given him an opportunity to quietly slink away. Kaiz would graciously take it. While Lyn reviled the man, seemingly dislocating his arm at the same time, he tiptoed through the door and around to the front. Once back on the sidewalk, he dashed away.

His escape didn’t mean actual freedom, though. Lyn was one of the few people that knew exactly where he lived. Hiding couldn’t save him. It would only make her more enthusiastic when she found him. It did mean he had more time to think of an excuse, though.

How did this happen? She’s never in town this time of year! Maybe why she was so dressed up?

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He briefly searched for an answer, but he was far too ignorant to make anything beyond a blind guess. Who knew what people of her level got up to when they weren’t being general terrors. All he could do was throw the issue to the back of his mind and move on to his primary goal for the day.

Finally purchasing ‘Restoration and Remedies: Mana Circuits’.

The series of books had been on his wishlist for a long time. Even before he’d dedicated himself to his current purpose, understanding the interactions between mana and the body had always been a goal of his. Though, it could be said that understanding mana in all of its facets was a goal of his.

His accumulated knowledge on the subject was certainly deep—it may even outstrip some low scholars—but there was always more to learn. In this case, he thought he knew enough about the mana engine in the chest to complete the second phase of his rune. The thirty-seven molds he’d destroyed in the last week spoke otherwise.

It could be said that the rune doing something on each attempt was progress.

His pockets would disagree.

Kaiz felt one of said pockets, the decoy one, as a novice thief tried depriving him of his silver. The boy, surprisingly titled, made no show of his failure and simply diverged paths. While watching the youth fail to disappear into the crowd, Kaiz wondered why a young titled would be risking a life as a pickpocket. Tanlars weren’t the only orphans of course, but the battery factories were always recruiting.

Sure, spending a decade as a mana generator wasn’t appealing to most, but it was consistent work and a consistent roof. If one had the talent for it, it could also be very lucrative further down the road. Pockets were slim pickings no matter the talent and pick the wrong one and it's neither prison nor a beating, it's your arms.

Doesn’t know how much he has.

He put the kid out of his mind and continued on his way.

The market streets were packed at this time of day. Reds and greens were everywhere. People spilled over into the roadways, moving to and fro the various vendors. The pavement was actually the less populated of the two, as the booths and stalls saw more traffic.

They didn’t offer anything better than the shops, they just had to clear out earlier. The road was only closed to motorwagons between 9 and 15. By the time late afternoon rolled around, the sidewalk would be unbearable.

Kaiz kept a measured pace as coin was exchanged left and right, ignoring the few lonely merchants calling out to him in the process. They may have had one or two items that interested him, likely signaling to him because of his uniform, but any further shopping in District 7 would be both dangerous and luxury. Two things he had no interest in right now. Right now, he needed to head south.

Every market had a bookstore, even the wallmarkets, but only one had truly trustworthy vendors. District 13. Getting burned on a book was an all too common occurrence. For mana related texts, everywhere outside of an officially sanctioned library had a strict ‘no previews, no refunds’ policy.

Kaiz would love to visit one of the libraries, but they didn’t allow his kind in. While he could fool the average guard’s senses, crown-sponsored facilities manually checked for titles. The sensors they used were foolproof.

Once out of District 7 and into one of the more renovated residential districts, Kaiz stuck to the streets closest to the wall. Though he didn’t have to fear his identity as a tanlar being exposed, his fake identity brought some complications of its own.

The academy whose attire he’d been ‘borrowing’, AnneNuri, happened to be directly north of District 13. North of that and just southeast of him currently were the homes for the majority of the faculty and students that didn’t directly live on academy grounds.

His specific uniform wasn’t just for any regular student, but for an Honored Intellect. A small section of the student body separated for their elevated talent or performance. The type of students professors showed respect and other students sought to curry favor from. It came with many passive benefits, better deals and less inspections chief among them. It also came with expectations, everyone from the academy who saw him on the street wanted to speak with him.

That wasn’t the problem, Kaiz was prepared enough to play that part. The problem lay in the rumor he’d started about himself and the fact that Honored students’ uniforms were updated every four years. His was outdated.

Being outdated itself wasn’t bad, Honoreds graduated and continued to wear the attire after all. He’d gotten his hands on a graduation pendant to complete the look as well. It was the change in the nature of conversation that almost caught him. Apparently, there was no reason for an Honored to graduate young. Unless, you were recruited.

Kaiz, of course, was not.

While he could speak at length about a number of academic topics, what did he know about prestige positions and noble networking? As much as he knew about which residence had the most beautiful girls.

Once his responses started to receive furrowed eyebrows, he’d resolved on avoiding the area as much as possible. If not for the fact that pretty much every person who knew him as Kaizer knew him as an Honored Intellect, he would have downgraded his uniform and avoided the trouble. It was too late to change persona now though.

After about half an hour of circuitous routes he stepped into the hybrid district. Beyond the in-renovation homes, book stores, archives, labs, and workshops lined the streets.

So too did AnneNuri’s insignia.