The next day, Velvet was once again working at the repair’s shop.

“I’m back, and before you ask, yesterday kinda bombed.”

“I didn’t ask, here, the blueprints I need copies of for today.” T was already up and working in a machine resembling a coffee maker.

“Okay…” Dejected, Velvet went to the table, raising her arms to stretch herself before picking the drawing tools.

“Oh, didn’t you want magic artifacts? This one has sigils.” Pointing to the blueprint depicting a mechanical butterfly, she spoke to Hyde.

“Hmm… she is giving you very useless blueprints, or, at least, very common knowledge ones. I saw these butterflies in a few shops.”

“Ngh, makes sense. We barely know each other, and I’m not her selected, so- Oh, this one has chains, look. I need a way to repair the chain pieces.”

The next few days went like that, since Velvet wasn’t interested in searching for more problems. Also, she didn’t dream again with Lothrigern, but something made her feel like He was stalling on purpose.

The last day before the Selection, T gave her the alchemy set.

“Do you have any preference on your Selector?” She asked her that same day.

“That they like me!” She laughed. “No, I’m fine as long as I get into the Mergifari, really.”

“Don’t think like that, read the offers closely.” C said. He had come back earlier with food. Those past days, Velvet had noticed that if she or C didn’t bring or make food, T would simply forget to eat. “Or you might end up spending the rest of your life making blueprints.”

“Become my Selector then!” Velvet joked. She had asked him a few times, but C always answered that he was ‘too lazy for teaching’.

“I can’t, I’m retired.”

“You’re twenty seven, and haven’t worked a single day in your life.” T said, before turning to Velvet. “Forget about him, but remember, if the deal terms include ‘I’ll teach you in exchange for help in one thing’, ‘Join my family’ or ‘Loyalty towards me’, you’ll do better ignoring them.”

“I’ll keep that in mind, thanks.” She wasn’t planning on accepting anyone with such conditions, even before T told her.

“I have a worse one.” C said.

“Is it ‘guess the terms and consequences’?”

“Nah, that one is against the rules. This one is worse.”

“Is it ‘Pick me and get a thousand auris if… something’. I know … used that one once.” T said.

“Nope.”

“Ah.” Velvet said. “Is it ‘Guess who’?”

“Nuh huh.”

“Stop playing and say it already.”

“How many Udulluays are in the Mergifari?” C asked.

“There’s only one.” Velvet answered. Since Udulluay was a hivemind devil, it was just one devil that possessed numerous bodies.

“You’re such a smart cookie. Let me rephrase, how many bodies does Udulluay possess?”

“More than one but less than infinite.” Velvet grinned, understanding the trick question. “See? I’m perfect as your selected!”

“Yes, you’re almost making me reconsider.”

Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

“Really?”

“Guess.”

“So you’re going to pick me? That’s great!” She cheered.

T sighed, knowing she was going to get disappointed later. “Are you two done? Get out of my shop, I want to close.”

“... Aren’t you even a bit sad that we are parting ways?” Velvet said, while being chased out by T.

“If you’re not an idiot, we will see each other in a few days.”

“But I don’t know who you are!”

“But I do! Get out, I need to pack stuff for tomorrow!” She finally managed to push Velvet out, even when she was grabbing the edges of the door.

“Damn, she has some arm strength…” Velvet complained. She turned to look at C, but he had left already.

Sighting, she also left.

…

Like the time she dreamed of the Mergifari’s entrance, the metallic staircase was rusty, but didn’t look capable of breaking.

But the difference this time was that she was climbing them, together with her suitcase. Step by step, she walked around the cliff, and, step by step, the market was becoming smaller and smaller, until it became a mesh of blurry colors below.

“This looked easier from down there…” Velvet complained, after walking upwards for an hour. “But I haven’t seen anyone else climbing…”

The concealment spell had been lifted, since she was away from the market, so maybe there was another spell taking place.

“Why is everything here so secretive?”

…

Half an hour later, she arrived at the entrance. The Mergifari’s lightower was smaller than she expected, but since it was only used for the Selection, it made sense.

A green wooden iron door, damaged by the elements and embedded on the stone precipice separated the inside from the outside. It wasn’t grand nor elegant, more simplistic in design than some of the doors decorating the shops at the market.

Velvet knocked, and the door opened to a stone spiral staircase.

Does the climbing ever stop? She didn’t want to take a break, being so close to the actual Mergifari after all this time.

Still, she forced herself to take a little rest, since she had to do the demonstration to draw in potential Selectors.

She planned to use her paper figurines for that, because both her chaining charms and the actual chain were recipes for problems. And the chain wasn’t even fixed.

Velvet had some ideas for fixing it, but found it better to postpone them until entering the Mergifari.

After resting, she started climbing again. A small window let her see the sea, and, far, far away, a white zone started showing itself.

Permafrost, the frozen continent. Encompassing over a third part of the planet’s surface.

The Mergifari was the closest habitable area, and it was still very far away. Just looking at the frozen coast made Velvet feel a chill run through her spine. She turned her face away, and kept walking.

This time, the stairway wasn’t eternal, and Velvet arrived at another wooden door, where Udulluay was waiting, on top of a black staff.

“What title do you desire?” He asked, once they met eye to eye.

“Title?”

“Every mage needs a title.”

“Do you have any examples?” She really didn’t have any in mind, and no one did warn her about needing one!

“Hasdrubal, the All-Knowing; Queen’s Arsenal, Winter; Kartal, Third Scale.”

Why is Kartal the most normal sounding? “Did they pick those titles when they were younger?” She wondered if a teenager Hasdrubal was really All-Knowing.

“No, they got those titles after becoming official mages.”

“Can you give me non official mages titles?” She found the previous examples a bit over the top.

“Udulluay only gives information about public knowledge.”

So no. “Hmm… What title fits me?” She was asking all three of them, herself included.

Hyde was the first to make a suggestion. “Velvet, Hat Lady.”

“That’s corny… What are the rules for a title?”

“It needs to be the truth.”

She stood in silence for a few minutes. “Ok, I got it.”

…

Adeline Graham looked at the novice mage on the stage. Another noble from an Arhontissian family.

Every Selection, there’s more Arhontissian and less Charlampian mages… She held back a sigh, watching the mage enter the door to the Mergifari.

After that, another mage entered, one Adeline had heard of, since it was the one that killed her son.

Dressed in a brown city dress, with a low top hat, and long orange hair.

“Velvet Consestella Dobastro,” The Director’s voice announced. “The Unchained.”