The realisation that being lifted from the blue system presents a credible threat to her life worried Kiresula, but it also made her realise just how important it was to become stronger. To be able to fight back or at least to be able to help get them out. As soon as she got back to her lovely wife, she explained everything including how level ups seemed only to occur in broken magic, as if the system needed it to check in on people, as well as that the green stats might make them suspicious to clerics, who see those as gaps of someone leaving the protection of the system. Mayana admired the green stats of the glitchling. She suggested to put the free stats into Cunning, as while she loved Kiresula's honesty, their lives might depend on a believable lie.

She did so, albeit with a bad feeling. It gave her a headache, though she was not sure if that stemmed from the stats or from the violation of her general value of honesty. The fact that she understood its necessity didn't make it better. While she recovered, Mayana tested if going into synthic magic actually helped with levelling and for the first time since gaining her (probably emergent) class. The thought that both Mayana and her would eventually change felt strange to her. Emergent classes leading to a change in form upon reaching Level 64 seemed kinda weird as that was not how the blue system behaved. But then, Mayana had gotten used to one change already, so Kiresula hoped that she could do so as well, but if the shape was insanely different, Kiresula was afraid that love was not enough if Mayana suddenly turned into something completely alien.

When Mayana returned, Kiresula felt that she was more colourful and more real. "Did you level up?" she asked.

Mayana looked like the cat that got the canary: "I did! Level 4!"

Kiresula hugged her. "Awesome!"

Mayana nodded: "I actually have gained something of a synthic magic pool, you know, instead of a synthic magic puddle."

Kiresula was happy about this. "That sounds great! Did you get any spells or traits?"

Mayana nodded: "I did, yeah! Very situational though: Minor protection. A slight protection of my works from fire and blue magic. It will get better every 16 levels."

Kiresula smiled: "The systems love powers of two."

Mayana nodded: "Yeah. It might relate to how the systems are set up. 255 is 2 to the power of eight minus 1. I would not be surprised if the green system is also based on something like that."

"Definitely with higher thresholds though!" Kiresula said.

Mayana nodded: "I would not be surprised if you got several million Seren magic capacity when you levelled up enough."

Kiresula shook her head: "That sounds unreasonable with the linear increase."

Mayana said: "I am not sure if it remains this. The second system seems to love having people in different stages. Like emergent glitchlings vs emanating glitchlings, which Kju told me about. So it could increase in higher stages."

"Oh, I see." Kiresula asked. "So, did you find out more regarding the evolution of glitchlings?"

She nodded: "Kju can do something that shows potential forms. I was able to see it but he wasn't. It didn't look all this different, just with a slightly different eye colour. The iris looked glitched."

"I see! That sounds awesome!"

Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

A while later, they talked about the impending trip to Ilkshehir. Kiresula of course had to go there. Mayana would not let her wife go alone. Mayana also suggested Kju to come so he could advise all glitchlings about their future classes. As the class seemed to be related to class progression of others, Kju would level up easier if he helped others. Kiresula thought that it would also be good if more glitchlings gained classes. While there was the risk of hidden stats, there was the opportunity and the endless potential of the new system. Mayana hesitantly agreed but she also was worried about the potential persecution. When they two explained their plan to Kju, he hugged them and was very eager to come with them. They worked out how to handle food, shelter and other things, then, only the difficult tasks remained: talking to the family.

Makit and Father Kanvin were okay with the trip. Makit had seen how she coped in the dungeon and while he knew that Kiresula probably lied about using items enchanted by her wife, he didn't want to ask questions.

Riajenja, that was another topic, they had a lot to talk about. The woman always seemed like the perfect wallflower. She wore beige clothes, her hair was a nondescript brown colour, her skin had faint lines as if she aged several decades per year, her eyes were a dull brown and if eyes could convey a message of the state of the soul, hers spoke of resignation. "Riajenja, can you make time for us to talk alone?" Kiresula asked as she saw her helping mother Haditera cutting vegetables for dinner. Riajenja looked around in fear. Only when Haditera nodded warmly, she went into the sitting room with Kiresula. “Kiresula? What did you want to talk about?”

Kiresula responded: “Ikandijenja.”

Riajenja covered her face in her hands. “You know that she died.” her voice was shaking.

Kiresula put a hand on Riajenja’s shoulder. “I know that there is more to it.”

Riajenja moved one hand a bit: “What do you know?” she asked quietly.

Kiresula spoke quietly and calmly: “She’s… a glitchling. Lived in the forest near the Dungeon of the Bridge in what pretty much is a hut. Now she got into contact with the other glitchlings of the Rainbow House, that is a mutual support organisation of glitchlings, and now goes by Siki.”

Riajenja moved her hands downwards and her eyes widened. “She is well?”

Kiresula nodded with a strong movement: “She is doing well. She might be tired as a bear in winter from the journey, because you know how frail we are, but not in any illness or peril.“

Riajenja’s eyes looked happy, but she immediately covered her mouth with her hands. “Inka… Siki is well…”

Kiresula added: “She is so happy to meet other glitchlings.”

Riajenja looked relieved: “That is good to hear! I was worried… So worried for so long… I had Tamijet, of course, but I never fully trusted that snake to actually deliver the letters. Still don’t know if all of them got through.”

Kiresula agreed: “I don’t know about your agreement with Tamijet, and to be honest, I don’t want to know as knowing would probably force me to take sides. But she mentioned not having a new letter at the very beginning, so she seems to care about them. Or at least to pretend to in front of me. Tamijet is far from my favourite person, but she seemed to be diligent in her part of the bargain.”

Riajenja made a low hum, indicating that she understood. “Does Siki have any plan for the future?”

Kiresula shrugged, stretching her 8 points of cunning: “I would not know.” Which was probably better than alluding to the new developments in being a glitchling.

Riajenja bit her lip and stared into the void for a moment, then suddenly sat upright: “Thank you! For everything! I forgot to say so in all the shock!” She moved in towards a hug, which Kiresula accepted.

While they were hugging, Mayana opened the door to the room and made a hissing noise to shush them.

Like children caught with their hands in a cookie jar, Riajenja and Kiresula radiated guilt with their body language. "We were just hugging innocently. Because of the rescued glitchling." Riajenja said

Mayana shook her head: "That's not really an issue here. A [cleric] is at the door looking for Kirey."

Kiresula cussed.

Mayana added: "I think he is related to that [holy guard], Makit hangs out with. Kedsel, I think. He looks kinda like her."

Kiresula used really bad language in response. The kind that she would not have gotten away with in the classroom.

Mayana agreed with her: "Indeed!"