The weather was miserable, but they walked in the vague direction of where they assumed Mabetshehir to be. They avoided major roads, instead moved through the forest and tried to hide from sight. They travelled in silence, but as the sun rose, eventually, Mayana broke the silence: “So, why did you sic Xekuan on Yi-é? It seems a bit strange as he probably is quite high level with how often he runs that dungeon to settle him with Xekuan.”
Kiresula smiled: “There are a few reasons for that. It gives Xekuan something to do. Like, that was most important for me after I glitched. It probably will help him gain a class and that will just vex the elders. And after yesterday, they need to get mildly vexed. In addition, it might throw the dungeon for a loop as it will be hard to cater to a recently glitched person, and I admit to hold a bit of a grudge against it after how it treated Mayana. And hopefully Yi-é will start a delving group, like Makit. He will love to have someone to delve with him. Seníye seems disenchanted with the idea.”
Mayana giggled as the dungeon was mentioned. “Sounds good! Are you sure that you didn’t get a few hundred points in cunning?”
“I might have spent more time thinking about it as I didn’t want to think about Mabetshehir.” Kiresula said, her mood suddenly dropped like a flower pot on a windowsill.
Mayana asked: “Because it’s the Holy Order city?”
Kiresula nodded: “I mean, yeah, it is their capital city.”
Kju asked: “I thought Ilkshehir was the capital.”
Kiresula responded: “Ilkshehir is the capital of the kingdom. Mabetshehir is the de facto capital of the Holy Order in the Mainland, even though de jure it is Ilkshehir.”
Kiresula didn’t need to go too much into depth of the Duarchy of Mainland, with the secular and the religious side, a King and a Patriarch. It was already known to them. She did explain though that Mabetshehir had several shrines that were used by people who wanted to change their classes, wanted help to understand why their progress plateaued or wanted to gain insight in their possible path progression. It was actually called the city of temples for that very reason. The Patriarch’s official residence was of course in Ilkshehir, but much work happened in Mabetshehir. This was also where the conclave and the Court of the Order met. In addition, it also featured the Academy, in which high-ranking members of the Order are trained.
Kju asked: “I am not sure what exactly happened in Jetahkalesa, I know that there has been a huge brawl between the two secular and the religious side of the leadership, but why did that happen?”
Mayana looked cynical as she responded: “It was about who they hate more: The people of Island-and-Coast descent, that is where the secular government stood, or glitchlings, that was where the Holy Order sat. So, when I mentioned that it seemed that the secular government worked towards glitching the Island-and-Coast descendants, well, the Order was not happy.”
Kiresula raısed her eyebrows in surprise. “I didn’t know that the Jetahkalesa government was so xenophobic.”
Mayana responded: “I didn’t either. But with this strong attractor nearby, the only glitchlings that live there speak Je-ashvehanu. It seemed as if there were no mainlander glitchlings.”
Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
Kiresula thought for a moment: “I wondered about that as well, but didn’t come to a conclusion.”
Mayana admitted: “I spoke with more confidence than I had. But yeah, it kinda rubbed me the wrong way.”
Kju said: “So that was why there was this commotion going on all around the cell. Otherwise we couldn’t’ve gotten out.”
Mayana looked at Kju: “Do I want to ask how you were able to smash that door? Any class feature that I want to know about?”
Kju looked embarrassed: “The same as previously, generous use of Kiresula’s [Enhance Ability].”
Kiresula smiled: “400 Seren of it, yeah.”
Mayana looked shocked, then caught herself: “Good thing that you didn’t use Kysan as a glitchling name. I don’t even want to know how high your magic is.”
Kiresula put an arm around Mayana’s shoulder: “It’s 480 Seren. And as opposed to my lovely wife, it’s also zero Magic Points. I know that we have different paths, but that just means that we belong together.”
Mayana nodded: “Sorry, it is just bugging me that I am Level 5 and I am still at 102 Seren… I feel like I am doing something wrong.”
“You are an [Synthic Enchanter], so your recovery and magic follows a slow and steady pace. Kiresula is a [Seferian mage]. Her magic and recovery is appropriate to be used in immense bursts and then not at all until it recovers,” Kju explains. “And, no, I didn’t use any class functions for that, just common sense.”
Mayana looked at Kiresula and then looked downwards. “I am sorry. This is all new to me and sometimes, I worry.”
Kiresula hugged her tightly: “So do I, my love, so do I.”
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Later in the evening, they started getting hungry. For the first time, they decided to hunt. They had found some purple carrots, and built a pit with their hands, sticks and whatever they could scrounge together. Then, they covered it with twigs and placed the carrots on them. Only to have to re-do it because the weight of the carrots was too much. The group then hid in the bushes and tried to remain quiet. It was unpleasant, dirty and the wind was cool, indicating the imminent end of the warm season and the beginning of autumn. They quietly moved closer to each other. Bugs crawled over them and wasps stung them, but they tried to remain in position, not to make noise swatting them. Kiresula was not sure how much time passed since she didn’t want to cast [Grains of Time] to keep her magic at a high level. Most of her spells used little magic, but [Enhance Ability] and [Wind Step] were the exception. These spells vaguely felt like something that was supposed to be available much later, but for some reason, the Dungeon of the Bridge and the System decided to sequence break. Not that Kiresula minded, of course. [Enhance Ability] was a lifesaver and she could only imagine how useful [Wind Step] would be even though in the heavily wooded forest and the stone structure of the settlement, she didn’t dare to test it.
Eventually, a small goat, a kid, made the mistake of happening by. Kiresula quietly enhanced Mayana's Agility and as it approached the purple carrots and fell, Mayana ran towards it, held it down by pouncing on it and used what the group made to be a vague approximation of a knife, a piece of slate rock with one sharp edge, to end its life. Then Mayana and Kiresula butchered the animal while Kju found kindling as well as twigs and branches for a fire.
The two worked quietly when they heard footsteps, then a male voice shouted in some distance.
Kiresula rushed to the location, as she broke through the foliage, she saw a man accosting Kju.
"Hey, glitchling, what do you think you are doing‽" a large, burly man in green clothes had his hand on Kju's shoulder.
"I… I was just collecting firewood," he stuttered.
"Why did you do so here of all places‽" the man shouted.
Kiresula shouted back: "Keep a fucking eye on your goat! The animal ran into our trap!"
The man turned his head to the scantily clad glitchling, whose skin was stained with goatblood. You could see him process the situation slowly: "Oh, you are poachers? You're not after my still?"
Kju responded: "Oh, you're covertly making booze, you're not with the Holy Order?"