The act of killing the pests proves to be easy, only taking you a few minutes-- though finding them does take up a more significant chunk of the day as they cleverly hide within the shrubbery. It’s a developed consequence of sending adventurers here so frequently to exterminate them.

Along your travels you meet Lakiki Laki, a kind but pragmatic marauder who finishes off a jellyfish that gets a bit too close for comfort. You decide not to count the one she finishes off as part of our assignment, but thank her for her services regardless. She offers if you’d like something to eat, and you were going to decline before getting the distinct impression that doing so would offend her. You agree to have something small ‘as long as it’s not too much trouble.’

She hands you a coffee biscuit and a small water, which you eat very slowly in case it’s poisoned. Adventurers pass by the two of you with such frequency that the idea of her attempting to kill or drug some random passerby she helped seems completely unfounded, but it never hurts to be extra careful.

She strikes up a friendly conversation with you, asking where you’re from and what has brought you to Limsa, immediately identifying you as a foreigner due to your mannerisms and ‘fancy’ posture. You are mostly honest with her, only deliberately leaving out your family’s prominence. You fear that being marked as royalty-adjacent may draw unwanted attention from pickpockets and pirates alike.

She is elated to hear of your origin and mentions that she is from Ul’dah as well, though she has spent most of her recent years in Limsa. She has been journeying across Eorzea and trying to find her place in the world, and currently has dedicated herself to the Marauder’s guild.

Eventually you both part ways and you resume your work, finishing up around as the sun begins to set, painting the ocean a radiant orange unlike you have ever seen before. As the wind gently blows through your hair and you catch a whiff of the saltiness of the sea. For the first time in your journey, you feel that you made the right choice coming here. Throughout your time in Limsa you would come back here many times when you needed to feel a sense of security, but it would never be quite the same as it was in this instant.

You get the hang of navigating Limsa quickly, but only the lower decks, as you’ve never been particularly great with heights, and looking at the tremendous fall from the decks above deeply unnerves you. On the way back to the guild, Ace surprises you from behind and pulls you into a big hug, causing you to involuntarily flail for a moment before you realize what’s happening.

His get-up, which he insists is ‘not a uniform,’ even though it is identical to every other rogue in the guild’s attire besides their leader’s, is a bizarre half-shirt with a bare midriff and a single sleeve. You ask how he manages to fight pirates on a regular basis without getting completely maimed, and he argues you only need armor if you get hit, which you begrudgingly suppose is true.

Ace apologizes for not having met you when you arrived as he was on a ‘mission of great importance,’ though he is of course not able to elaborate. He offers you a place to stay with him, which you respectfully decline, seeking to stand on your own. He respects the sentiment but says that if you ever change your mind his door is always open.

Since it’s late, the two of you part ways shortly after but agree to meet by the Inn for lunch. His treat to ‘welcome you to the city.’ Once you make it back to the guild, Thubyrgeim congratulates you on overcoming the entry trial and offers you one of the bunks available to all arcanists, which you accept, though you do plan to get a place that is truly your own once you start making adequate gil from research and adventuring.

The dorms are mostly empty and space-limited, fitting six bunks in each of the three rooms available. Later, you’d learn that the coziness was unique to the Arcanists’ guild, as low membership numbers meant little to no funding. (“The world just doesn’t appreciate Arcanistry’s brilliance!” She would bemoan.)

You are given a notebook and a fresh quill with ink for your bed’s side table. You are told by her that originally Arcanists were expected to write only in their grimoire, but later notebooks were employed so that the tomes can be kept clean to make combat easier. You spend a good portion of the night combing through basic arcanistry codexes by candlelight, taking notes on their geometric sigils

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You begin with curative magic, partially due to the strategic value of being able to tend to yourself on the field, but mostly because Clemency was the first Paladin spell you were taught how to use and it holds a special place in your heart. To your disappointment, the information on what you seek is sparse at best.

Curative magic geometry seems to be largely the same as what you were given to start with, with an added component of a circular source. Importantly, curative magic must be cast in a parallel motion to the target, usually upwards. This moves the unleashed aether through the body, meaning the healing is more focused rather than the perpendicular force which is ideal for destroying targets.

Opening to the first page of your Grimoire, you re-examine the pattern before you. At the center of the page sits a sharp spirograph, connected by a thin line at its base to the bottom right of the page, where the still unaspected circles lie, going off of K’yoko’s explanation of them. Were you to fill them with light-aspected ink, you suppose, it may heal instead of harm.

Returning to the textbook, the sample spell’s geometries are much easier to understand. It is identical to your page of Ruin, but instead of a line leading downwards and into the three unaspected circles, a line leads to the right into one much larger circle. Inscribed within is a complex, hexagonal, almost flower-like shape.

You do your best to copy it down into your notebook and wonder if they can somehow be combined, but resolve to get ready to sleep for the evening, not wishing to keep the other arcanists up with your writing. After you snuff out your candle, you ‘sleep,’ but the bed is uncomfortable and you haven’t ever needed to sleep in the same room as anyone else, so you’re a bit restless.

While your dorm has two other members, both are out when you arrive, and only show up just before you begin to pack up. One is a midlander Hyur man, whose eyes have so many bags under them you quietly marvel at the fact he made it here. He weakly waves hello to you before promptly passing out on the bunk adjacent to your own.

The second you would not meet until the next morning when she returned from an archaeological excursion searching for the ruins of Nym. She’s an Au Ra with short hazel hair, and would frequently come and go from the guild with few new findings to report. It takes you an embarrassingly long time to learn her name, Mina Akagane, due to this fact.

You also learned the details of your other roommate, Vincent Slater, an academic who was so dedicated to his research that he would spend days on end away from the guild and return with information on magic from other city-states and towns. While both were excellent at their work, this meant that you most often had the dorm completely to yourself, which is exactly what you preferred.

You discuss the material you read last night with Thubyrgeim, and watch her heart melt as she realizes that you’re just as much of a nerd as she had been hoping, and tells you that yes, these can be and often are combined to save valuable pages of the grimoire. She gives you a scribing compass to make a ‘perfect’ circle, one which will be required to have a sufficiently potent heal.

After you finish it, She proudly remarks that your circle is very precise, and asks if you have ever been an artist, which you haven’t, but the compliment sticks with you longer than she realizes. Sadly, the spell is nowhere near the strength of Clemency, even if it is significantly less draining for you to use.

You attempt to simply channel more aether into the spell, which still does not cause it to reach the power you desire, and also takes significantly longer than casting it by hand. Still, though, it will certainly do for now, and luckily it will allow you to heal much more often without straining yourself.

Excited with your quick interest and the progress you’ve already made in understanding arcane geometries, she offers you your first Carbuncle, and gives you the option between Ruby, Emerald, or Topaz. You are told that ruby excels against a single target, emerald excels against multiple, and topaz provides a uniquely defensive angle compared to the other two, able to tank hits for its arcanist.

While you initially lean ruby, since it’s rare that you ever find yourself fighting multiple creatures at a time, you ultimately decide on topaz, as it means the two of you combined can be the defensive force you had always wanted to be as a paladin. She gives you a topaz gem, which you channel your aether into until a carbuncle springs to life from it.

The orange, rat-like creature does a backflip as it is forged, before perfectly landing on all four feet and beginning to look around. It seems nearly as curious as you are, and immediately starts to inspect every nook and cranny of the immediate area. Once done, it returns to you and nuzzles against your leg, which makes you want to cry from the simple joy of it.

After you spend a few minutes talking about basic Carbuncle care and dismissal, you leave to ‘train’ with your new companion, as well as start to look into job listings to make some gil while you’re at it.