Vera quickly finished the pastry she was eating and got up messily. I glared at the confection I was nibbling in my hand and sighed at Vera’s hypocrisy. I followed her lead and finished it in one bite. The energetic girl frowned at me judgementally but I ignored it.

“So,” Vera rushed, “there’s so much here I want to show you. There’s so much to buy. So much to do.”

She paused and looked at the meagre remains of her pittance in her hand. A few copper coins at most. “They give you a certain amount of money every week. You go to like this building and they give you money.”

I frowned at her skeptically but followed her as she began to move. She pointed things out as we went. The buildings felt surreal in how lavish they were. I wasn’t a Noble and Vera wasn’t either, but walking through these streets made me feel like one. It wasn’t just the adorned buildings or the geometry of the structures but the ambience as well. There wasn’t the overbearing sound of haggling or the putrid smell of uncleaned sewers. I liked it.

Vera slowed her pace to a halt as we stood in front of an unsuspecting building. It was smaller than I had expected and lacked the grandeur that many of the other buildings had demanded. We made our way in to be greeted by a small interior with a near-empty board with the words “Commission Board” written across the top along with an unmanned receptionist table.

“Would you like help?”

I whipped my head around to see a woman around my height with a clean haircut and calm eyes. I hadn’t noticed her presence and almost jumped back on instinct when I heard her voice.

“Yes, I–”

Before I could finish my sentence, Vera interrupted me.

“She wants her weekly allowance.”

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The woman eyed me for a second, then threw me a small bag of coins. “There. That’s your allowance for the week. You can collect this amount at the start of every week.”

I glanced through the pouch and noted that the currency was different to what I was used to. I counted ten silver coins. Either Nobles used a different currency to the rest of Choron or the Academy had its own unique currency. The latter was more likely but Nobles were pretentious enough that I wouldn’t put it past them.

“Thanks,” I said, not looking at her. But by the time I looked up again, she was gone. I made my way up to the board I had seen earlier and looked at the one mission it held. It asked for the capture of a ‘Shifter’ offering twenty gold coins for it. Its difficulty was listed as difficult.

“What’s a ‘Shifter’?” I asked Vera.

“No clue,” she said with a shrug, “I just know it’s what the rest of the students are out to hunt. The board says it shifts forms,” she stated as if it wasn’t obvious, “I would’ve gone too but the difficulty is offputting. Plus…food.”

As much as I hated to admit it, I knew that Vera and I were weak compared to the others. If it was listed as difficult even for them then it would be difficult for me–us– too.

I nodded to show I agreed with her. “Actually, I was thinking of buying a weapon. There was that shop you pointed out earlier right? We could check it out since we’re not doing anything else today.”

She hummed thoughtfully as she considered. “I’m almost out of money but it’ll be fun to see what they offer.”

“I miss Christopher,” Vera lamented suddenly and her confession shook me. She had never struck me as sentimental. Or as someone who would confess to missing anyone.

“He made travel so much easier,” Vera continued and I took back my words. Vera wasn’t sentimental; she was just lazy. As we walked to the weapon store we had seen before, I clutched my pouch tightly even though I knew I wasn’t going to get robbed. I also knew if anyone here wanted to rob me, it wouldn’t matter how hard I gripped my bag. I knew all this logically but I didn’t care. This ten silver was worth a hundred copper–if normal conversion rates were applied for this currency too. A hundred! I’d scarcely seen this amount of wealth let alone possessed it.

We slowed as we drew closer and stayed silent as we entered. None of the weapons here seemed to catch Vera’s eye. But one of them caught mine. I paused to admire it then reached out to touch it.

“I want this one,” I said to both everyone and no one at the same time.