"Do you know her?" Ashlin notices her new friend suddenly staring at somebody from the crowd in front of them.

"Oh!. Ah yes, sorry." Selica recollects herself. Shaking the shock from seeing Gallian again. "I was just taken aback. I guess I just didn't know her as much."

Ashlin traces Selica's eyes and tries to locate who she was looking at. She found both Gallian and the young mage accompanied by a small group of similarly dressed mages. Only Gallian stands out from them due to her distinct fur overcoat. She studies the girl's awkward movement, her forced facial expressions, and the very faint stammering audio Ashlin could pick up from where they are to them.

"...She's faking it." Ashlin immediately concludes. She may not know much of the outside world beyond her city, but if there is something she's good at spotting, it's a kiss ass. "And faking it bad actually. I'm surprised the boy hasn't even noticed yet." She sighs disappointingly. She looked at Selica, expecting her to be disappointed as well with her new friend's actions.

But what Ashlin sees instead is a pair of inquisitive eyes studying her new subject. Selica's has been staring at her new friend just like how Ashlin's scientist friends would look at their new projects. It unnerved Ashlin a bit, but immediately shook it off.

"Hey, Ashlin." Suddenly Selica speaks, her stare softened while looking back at her, "I'm sorry, but I need to go." Selica immediately breaks off from the mannequin's center and darts straight towards her friend.

"Hey wait!" Ashlin tries to stop her, but by that time she was already out of the mannequin formation.

*

Interesting. Selica's head starts to race with ideas. She wasn't sure if her hunch is wrong, but knowing Ashlin and her background Selica can believe the credibility of her answer about Gallian's actions. She is just faking it. But why? Why would she need to? Selica is not naïve enough to not know what other people need to do to survive. But if she's a mage, she doesn't need to lower herself as much, right? Or maybe she's a servant of the boy? I guess that's possible? He might have a hold on her life in a way that she can't refuse. But if she does, how did she have the time to help and stay with me for that long before leaving?

Questions upon questions swirl around Selica's head as she marches in the side lane of the inspection line. She was only about a few steps away from Gallian when she regained her senses. Gallian’s group consists of six people plus her. While she is enjoying her overcoat, the rest of the group are wearing matching green robes with golden linings, with only different fur hats to effectively distinguish them from one another. While the rest of the group is wearing either rabbit or a badger's fur, the young man is uniquely distinct with his vibrant fox fur hat. It didn't register to Selica before what Gallian was wearing before when they met, but after closely inspecting her red haired friend Selica can now see she’s just wearing a simple, if not a bit ragged, yellow shirt and pants. If it wasn't for the thick fur coat, she can't imagine how can Gallian could ever endured the winds at all.

"Gallian?" Selica utters her voice, hoping it's enough to break the audio barrier of the gusting winds.

At first Selica didn’t receive any response, but Selica notices Gallian's eye peeks at her and widens, then immediately went back to flirting with the boy, ignoring her completely.

"Gallian it's me. Selica." Selica raises her voice a few more decibels. This time it caught the attention of both the boy and her group.

"Gallian, dear." The boy speaks as he finally felt Selica's presence. "There's somebody here looking for you." Selica can hear the young man's smugness oozing out of his mouth.

"Oh, don't worry about her deary." Gallian responds, her fur-coated hand touching the boy's face gently. Selica can see the sheer panic in Gallian’s eye. How is he not seeing this? "She's just one of my fans. You can have your autograph later darling." Gallian gives Selica what seems to be a death glare, but from Selica's perspective, it’s more like a pleading gaze than threatening.

"Oh I don't mind honestly." The boy waves his hand casually towards Gallian. "Engaging with our fans is as essential as keeping ourselves to be as glamourous as ever, don't you agree?" He asks the other mages in the group and they all briskly nod.

Gallian, now caught in a bind, simply smiled and gave the boy a small kiss in the cheek. "Of course, my dear." She replies. "This would only be a moment.” Gallian starts walking towards Selica with a weird mixture of frustration and relief showing in her eyes.

Gallian is graceful as she approaches to Selica, but when she finally reaches her, her posture immediately changes to the one Selica is familiar with. "What exactly are you doing Selica??" Her voice lost the grace from awhile ago and returned to the weird dialect she's had before.

"I was looking for you everywhere!" Selica mutedly replies, "What are you doing with this kid? Is he threatening you? How can I help?" "Threaten?" Gallian was puzzled by Selica's reaction. "Nobody is threatening anybody here? Except you." She leans closer. "I know you're country bumpkin Selica, so I'll make this quick. Not everything is sunshine and rainbows in life. Sometimes you've got to cling to those who have some power to survive. The sooner you get that in your head, the better you'll do in the outside world." Gallian berates her, her voice seems to rise a bit, but she immediately calms down a bit to avoid being heard.

"Then," Selica replies, she has been looking at Gallian the whole time during her little speech, analyzing her face in its entirety , and finally she has made her conclusion. "why does your eyes seems so delighted to see me?" Selica smiles. There's not a single tear in her eye, but instead she gives Gallian a soft smile. "You're a bad liar, Gallian. I'm surprised the boy hasn't noticed yet." "Wh-what?" This time Gallian was taken aback by Selica’s surprising reaction. "What are you talking about?" Selica watches Gallian’s eye turn from delightment to utter confusion. "I-I've been training myself for weeks already. Do you know how hard it was to put on make up? And the ridiculous hand gestures to make me look enticing." Gallian starts awkwardly posing her hands in different angles, but Selica just sees her like a mannequin being forced to pose in different positions.

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Make up? Weeks? Really? That explains a lot. "Your eyes doesn't lie, Gallian." Selica pointed at her eyes. "They really show how uncomfortable you are with this."

"Uggk." Gallian is speechless. Selica watches Gallian look back at the mage boy and is thankfully not minding them at all. She leans in closer to Selica and angrily whispered. Her eyes are now serious. "Look, this is my first time trying to flirt my way into things, okay? I don't know how you were able to reach the gates here, but I’ve had some luck with that the boy I’m flirting with has a spare coat to protect me from the cold." Gallian pointed at the fur coat. "They even gave it to me, so please just do me a favor and keep it down until we cross the gate. Please Selica." Gallian's eyes are full on pleading for mercy. It’s so genuine that Selica is the one speechless.

Selica learns another dangerous trait about Gallian: if she ever tries to be honest, there's nothing much you can do to oppose her.

"F-fine." Selica sighs. Such ruthless natural charm, an introvert like her is no match to the likes of her. "I'll just see you inside."

"Selica!" Suddenly a voice echoes from where Selica previously came from. A cold chill bristles down her back as she looks behind and see who it is: It’s Ashlin, exhausted with her face covered up with a hood. "You didn't had to run off, like that." She said exasperatedly.

"Huh." Another chill crept up Selica's back as she slowly looked back at Gallian. Both her face and eyes were saying the same thing; utter annoyance at her. "Having the hero's own kid to escort you all the way AND chase you here. You're not as innocent as you looked." Gallian immediately turns back and starts walking towards the young boy's group. "We're done here. Don't even try looking for me inside."

"Galli, wait!" Selica tries to grab Gallian's shoulder, but she immediately snatches it mid air with her own hand. Gallian's vice-like grip made Selica kneel and wince in pain. "It hurts, Gallian."

"Let her go!" In one swift motion, Ashlin broke Gallian's grip with quick palm strike, then grabs her by the wrist and twist it, spraining it in the process. Ashlin's form is flawless and it left Gallian's barely able to register what happened. "Ouuchh!" Gallian screams as the pain finally registers through her body.

Ashlin, realizing what she has just done, releases her grip in horror. "No, no, no! I'm sorry." Selica watches the confident Ashlin shudder and freeze in fear as she lets go of Gallian. She notices her once steady hands tremble as she slowly backs away from the injured Gallian.

"What's going on here?" Finally the young mage intervenes. His prodding eyes quickly assesses the current situation and finds Gallian kneeling in the floor holding her right arm. Then he moves his sights at the one that caused it, and is surprised by immediately realizing who she is. "Ahh, Miss Gollaza I presume. Is there a problem?" Hearing the young boy's voice shakes Ashlin back to reality. "Oh, no. There's no problem. I'm so sorry at what happened to your friend." She looks at Gallian. "I will pay for the medical bills to for her sprained arm." But instead of being devastated, the boy simply smiles. "No need. Trash like her, once broken, has no use for after all." He leans down at Gallian’s -who is still at shock from the pain- ear and says, "You think I was blind, you little bitch? Your friend was right, you know. You are god awful in acting as a suck up that I couldn't help myself but laugh on the inside."

The young mage forcefully strips Gallian off her fur coat, twisting the sprained arm even more in the process. Gallian howls in pain even more as the indifferent boy inspects her once fur coat. "This belongs to me." He dusts off the coat and throws it back to his posse. "The only reason I kept you around is because it was entertaining how far you would bend for me. So sad we didn't reach the city itself, I would have wanted to know you more...intimately." The boy stands up, grabbing Gallian's coat, and starts walking away. His posse didn't even look at Gallian when they followed the boy.

Selica watches Gallian kneel on the granite dirt speechless and devastated. Her eyes darts around in both anger and surprise, but thankfully the pain from her sprained arm reels her back to reality. "Shit!" Gallian growls as she holds her arm in pain. The angelic perfect image Selica had with Gallian has broken, but for her, it’s for the better. She didn’t want any of these to happen of course, but being able to see a vulnerable side of Gallian shows Selica that her new friend too is in need of help, and hopefully she is able to provide it.

"Please let me-!" Ashlin tried to encroach Gallian slowly with her obviously shaking hands. She tries to pick her up but Gallian immediately swatted her hands away with her good arm. "Fuck off, bitch." Never has Selica seen Gallian in so much rage. "Stay away from me." The biting wind is making Gallian visibly shiver, but she continues to ignore it in favor of giving Ashlin a death glare.

Ashlin’s once cool princess’ image for Selica has also shattered. She’s just a girl, Selica thinks to herself. A very frightened one in fact. She didn’t need to know her past to know Ashlin is masking some deep rooted trauma underneath her cool demeanor. Selica wants to help her, or at the very least snap her out of her horrified state. But she has to help her hurt friend first. Selica is praying deep down that Gallian still sees her as her friend.

"Gallian please," Selica, cautious and afraid of Gallian's reaction, slowly walks closer to her again. "I'm sorry this happened, but we can't leave you like this. You said it yourself, you have to cling to those who have power to be able to survive. And right now we’re the only ones who has the power to help you." Selica retorts back what Gallian said to her.

Selica watches as Gallian stares at her and Ashlin. She can see Gallian's brain working as she contemplates what to do in this situation. Then suddenly, Gallian's eyes fixates at the trembling Ashlin and grinned. "Fine,” Gallian replies with an exasperated sigh. “But you better keep your word that you're paying for this." She then looks at Ashlin dead cold in the eye.

"Y-yes, of course." Ashlin stammers. Selica sees Ashlin slowly taking a deeper breath in relief as Gallian agrees to go with them.

"Come, let's get back in line, people might start complaining about us." Selica carefully assists Gallian. She casts the "Wind Shield" spell on her to keep the cold winds at bay as they walk back to the where Bigz and the mannequins are.

On the way back, Selica watches both Gallian and Ashlin at the same time. Though she is physically assisting Gallian to walk, she is keeping one eye on her back watching Ashlin slowly following them. Though not as worse than awhile ago, Selica can see Ashlin still struggling as she softly mutters to herself while holding her still trembling hands. "Focus Ash," Selica hears as Ashlin shakes her head. "He's not here to hurt you." "Huh, I guess princess here isn't as perfect as I thought." Selica is surprised as she sees Gallian also looking back at Ashlin.

"Of course she's not." Selica immediately retorts. "And what exactly is your deal with her anyways?"

"She annoys me." Gallian answers bluntly. Selica even looked at Gallian's eyes to make sure she wasn't lying. "What? I'm actually telling you the truth. She's a rich kid who has everything given to her in a silver platter. What's not to be annoyed about?"

"You can't blame her for that." Selica answers back. "And it doesn't seem to be as happy as a life as you might have think."

"Yeah, yeah, but it's still probably better than scavenging scraps all day long just to live." Gallian's voice sounds melancholic. Selica never doubted that Gallian has a mature side with her, it just that the kind of maturity she’s trying to portray was absolutely not the kind she grew up with. Despite being able to break her facade, Selica still feels that there are more pages left to the mystery that is Gallian.