Mustafá is waiting for me right outside of the building, on a bench nearby. She is looking at her phone with a rather… intense expression. I’ve found it difficult so far to understand what this woman is thinking or feeling, and yet right now I can see that something is wrong. Deadly wrong too, to really get the mage in such a weird mood.

I carefully take a seat beside her, trying to spy on her phone, but she immediately pushes it in her pocket. Saints damn it, I wasn’t fast enough to really see! Mustafá immediately regains her usual chill, and without even blinking she asks:

“What’s your opinion on civil wars?”

“I, uh…” Well that was a bomb to drop on me all of a sudden! “Some issues, uh, can’t be solved peacefully if one of the sides is unwilling to cooperate or negotiate, so… I-I don’t know, I don’t want to say I like them.”

“Trick question. It doesn’t really matter how you feel about it, they happen anyways.” Mustafá shrugs softly.

“What is that supposed to mean?!” I turn to face my teacher, and she doesn’t answer me. Instead, she snatches the Spell Chart from my hands. “H-Hey!”

“Hmmm. Telekinesis, mending and water control. Basic stuff, inoffensive, hard to weaponize.” She shrugs again. “I guess some things never change.”

“The government wouldn’t want to arm its citizens, that’s basic ruling.” Now I shrug and then check the pamphlet I was given. “Let’s see, my assigned Elysium is at… huh?”

I totally expected them to assign me to Saüle University, and to have to endure the shame of walking around there again, but no? I've been assigned to a random building not too far from my apartment. Apparently it’s one of those ‘cat café’ thingies…

“Have you visited this one?” I ask her, passing her the pamphlet.

“I have not visited this city in decades.” She takes the paper and passes me the piece of cardboard back.

“...You don’t look that much older than me. How old are you?” Honestly, by the way people treat her, she must be either ancient, or the daughter of someone ancient.

“Never.” She points at me with her finger, finally turning to face me. “Never ask me that.”

“Alright then, duly noted!” Defensively I look away, already noticing that I have somehow touched a nerve there. “But anyways… I got my license! Hooray! What now?”

“Now…” Mustafá takes a deep breath. She seems a little distracted, actually, and that’s kind of unnerving. “... Now you go back home. I will get to you in a moment.”

“What?! What was all that about having a good breakfast a-and the talk we just had?!” I can’t help but feel a little disappointed.

“You should always have a good breakfast, and we haven’t finished speaking about that.” Mustafá gets right up, cleaning her hands and passing me Gato’s Guide back. “Talk to your therapist and schedule an appointment. Read a few pages of Gato’s book. Practice the runes you just got, writing them on paper and then pronouncing them. Do not try unwritten sorcery on these, you hear me?”

“B-But why not?” I try to protest.

“You hear me?” Again she looks me straight in the eye.

“...Y-Yes ma’am.” Gulp.

“Good. Now, wait for me at home.” Without another word, Mustafá claps her hands. In the blink of an eye, she vanishes.

… It’s the strangest thing, loneliness doesn’t bother me that much anymore, except in the moments after I get company. Maybe I can only really feel absence after experiencing the thing I am yearning for…? Or maybe my body just eventually forgets again what it is like to be in the presence of others. Of people who actually care.

With a heavy huff, I stretch a little bit and after some consideration, I decide to walk all the way home. Maybe the extra air in my brain will actually help me think.

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Mustafá arrived at her room as soon as she could, mere seconds after disappearing from Tav’s view. She walked to take Universe Gamma’s feeder and hurriedly filled it with dried up insects, lettuce, nuts and fruits from the fridge. For a moment, the thought that her minifridge was often filled with more crab food than actual people food came to her mind. Truth was, while she advocated good habits for Tav’s sake, she never really took care of her own body… after all, she didn’t need to.

No matter how much hunger would cramp her stomach, she knew it wouldn’t hurt her. She could ignore it as long as it didn’t start affecting her faculties.

But now wasn’t the time to think of that.

After fulfilling her obligations to Plato and Socrates, the old alchemist jumped to her computer and checked on ‘The Belltower’.

The news were all over the place, and for the first time in a long time, the Brotherhood hadn’t even bothered to censor it: the Emperor of Bisontia, along with at least ten others, had been murdered. And the main theory right now was magical foul play. Of course, people were panicking. This was the closest the secret had come to being broken in a massive incident since the days before the Great Empires.

Ignoring the comments for now, the alchemist began checking each picture posted about the subject. They would never post pictures of the deceased, so she had no real way to analyze the situation, but she could glean a few hints from the pictures of the scene. Apparently, this all had happened in the bathroom of the Imperial Palace, or well, it had started there. Then it spread back into the Great Dining room.

If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

The photographs showed charred parts of the building, blood staining the beautiful marble of the bathroom, burnt furniture and broken tables… it had been a violent and merciless affair.

The mage took a deep breath. She wouldn’t learn anything from afar… but she really, really didn’t want to get involved. Not now that the Brotherhood was taking care of the situation. They would start asking for favours if she did.

So, there was only one person she could call… and she hated him almost as much as she hated Giovanni.

Without any other choice, she picked up her phone and called Blanco’s number.

He picked up instantly. Of course he did, he had probably been spying on her all this time.

“Took you long enough~.” Said the vampire. “G already got his info-bundle from me. He’s ahead again~!”

“Shut up.” The alchemist had to bite her lower lip down to not yell. Keep composed… “Just, tell me how much and I’ll make a deposit.”

“I am sending the amount riiiiight…” Blanco had this whiney, annoying voice even when he was happy. Mustafá despised it. “... Now!”

A message rang on the computer and Mustafá stared at it for a moment. That was a lot of zeroes.

“You’re an abusive son of a whore.” She sighed. This would dent her apparently unending resources quite a bit.

“It’s gonna be war out there, baby! Bloodbags are not cheap and I am not hunting ever again.” The vampire was far too happy to scam his so-called ‘best friends’.

With another, deeper and even more defeated sigh, the mage accepted the transaction and deposited the money on one of Blanco’s many offshore accounts… Soon after, she received the grim, disturbing pictures of the dirty deed done in Great Bisontia.

Bodies had been twisted, dismembered, cut in twain. Bite marks covered their skins, sometimes charring it to a crisp black, sometimes leaving it nice and raw. The wild nature of the attack, the desperate claw marks left on the walls, everything indicated that this was not a mere terrorist attack. This was not a bombing, not a shootout.

This had been a beast. A magical creature.

That conclusion should be enough to appease the people at Tranquility Castle, “should” being the operative word there. The far-right members of the Council were just waiting for a reason to squash the Resistance and their screams for more magical freedom. The Sleeper authorities also wouldn’t shut up, demanding explanations and (worst of all) compensations for this. Favors would be traded, unscrupulous demands would be made.

And if the communications failed at this stage: War.

Mustafá couldn’t help but wonder if this was somehow related to the coming of the End of Humanity.

People assumed it would be an instant thing, so once the year actually came, they just stopped caring about the prophecies… Sleepers and old Mages could be so alike sometimes, the alchemist thought.

Checking through the pictures of all the victims, she felt her stomach become smaller and smaller. Her emotions might have been dulled, but one never truly got “used” to seeing massacres and atrocities such as these. People coped in many different ways, yes, but it is impossible to become completely disconnected to it… at least, it was impossible without incurring some concerning consequences for the mind and the soul.

Eventually, the pressure grew too high on her, and Mustafá had to stop. She took deep breaths, closed her eyes and tried to meditate on those images rather than letting them just sear themselves in her subconscious without explanation.

It had to have been a magical creature. Mages didn't know this sort of violent, animalistic magic anymore… but, what creature? The beasts that roamed Jericho had either gone extinct or disappeared without leaving a trace after the First Sacrifice. All that was left were spirits, pixies and jinxes of many types, but none strong enough to do this sort of damage.

The answer was becoming clearer and clearer by the second.

“So?” Blanco said, still waiting on the line. “What do you think?”

“Dragon.” She finally worked up the courage to say it.

“Yeah, G said the same thing. He also said it was impossible.” The vampire didn’t seem really impressed, one way or another.

“That’s because it should be. But I will have to look into it…”

Mustafá hung up without warning, throwing her phone away and just laying on her bed for a moment, staring into the ceiling.

Problems kept accumulating, one on top of the other… for the first time in a while, she didn’t feel on top of the situation.

For the first time in a while.. she may need to visit Palien.

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It didn’t take even five streets for me to absolutely regret my choice of walking home. Not only are streets gross, full of people and noise, it is also tiresome to walk through them! My depression soon gives way to a generalized feeling of discomfort and annoyance. Worst part? Every time I am tempted to just say ‘screw this, I’m taking a taxi’, my head laughs at me!

“Look at you, winded after walking a few streets! Oh how embarrassing, please, stop talking to me right now.”

And that is just way too much for me to take. I immediately take a deeper breath and continue walking, purely out of spite for myself.

For a moment I consider reading, but as I’ve already established, the self-consciousness would kill me if I even tried such a pretentious move! So, I am trapped! My music can only protect me so much from the noises of the entire world, the construction workers, the yelling drivers, the fact that I am being seen and perceived by everyone right this instant…

Eventually, after a tortuous way, I manage to get back to my apartment building. I wave at the guard as I walk right back into the elevator and sigh, finally getting a short moment to rest and recover my breath.

Saints above, I really am out of shape aren’t I?

“Yeah.”

“Just a little.”

I walk out of the elevator and trudge my way back into the house, straight to the computer and my comfy, soft, no-longer-reclining chair. I take a seat, closing my eyes and just letting the comfort set in, before I open my computer and go back to check the forum. It has been my main occupation these days, really.

There are a few new posts on the Sleeper threads, no new translation efforts… Everything seems chill in the world.

Until suddenly, I get a message. From Vito? Huh…he’s up early for a Saturday.

UndeadVito: sup boye.

xXxCallMeBigCookiexXx: Sup boy! n.n How are you feeling?

UndeadVito: in pain, but that’s normal.

UndeadVito: I’ll survive.

UndeadVito: how aboutcha? you’re up early

xXxCallMeBigCookiexXx: That’s my line! xD

xXxCallMeBigCookiexXx: And I am fine -u- just chilling before the day starts

UndeadVito: cool, cool

It seems like he just wanted to keep in contact. I can’t help but smile a little at that, this boy could be so nice when he wanted to be!

UndeadVito: oh by the way.

xXxCallMeBigCookiexXx: Huh? o.o

UndeadVito: what’s your opinion on civil wars?