As usual, the day starts with Emily doing my hair while we talk. But she can obviously tell that I'm still feeling down. "So, what happened?" she asks expectantly.

"I messed up again," I mumble. "I made John and Frank mad, and then John found out about Reena." I can hear everyone perk up at the name, but they already know about it.

"Ooh..." she hisses as she realizes how badly yesterday went. "Things have been pretty rough for you the last few days, haven't they? Let's try to enjoy our day off, alright?"

Unfortunately, that reminds me that I actually have to go to work because I never asked for the day off. And I still need to apologize to Eryk after everything that happened with the lightning last time... That makes me start crying again. "A-Aria? What's wrong?" From the sound of it, Emily is starting to cry too, which is also my fault, for giving her water mana...

"Are you guys alright?" Eve asks worriedly. She looks over from her bed, glancing back and forth between us.

"I'm fine," Emily insists. "Just, uhh, feel bad for her..." She doesn't exactly sound convincing though.

"Right..."

"I... I have to go to work today," I get the words out, trying to hold back my sobs.

"Is your job... that bad?" Eve asks warily.

"I wanted to spend the day with you!" I address Emily, even though Eve asked the question. I don't think I even answered it. "But I didn't realize that everything starts next week and didn't talk to Eryk about it, so I messed up today too..."

"It's fine, I'll just go with you," Emily says encouragingly. "As long as Eryk doesn't mind..." she follows, not so encouragingly...

"Mm..." I mumble and Eve just backs off from our conversation for now.

Eventually, I manage to get myself to stop crying, and Emily finishes up with my hair. We just sit together for a bit before there's a knock on our door. Since it must be John this early, we wave off Mary and thank her for getting the door all the time, then open it ourselves.

"Good morning, Aria," John says, "Emily."

"Good morning," we both respond.

"Ready to go?" He's keeping a neutral tone, but I wonder if he's still thinking about last night too...

"Mm." I grab my bag, along with most of my money. If I have to go, I at least want to buy azrium and chromium, in case my shard of glass gets broken at some point. But chromium is expensive... I heap the coins in a pouch and drop it into the bag with the ingots.

"Ready," I mumble quietly as I walk back over to him. He picks me up and begins to carry me downstairs. When Emily follows, he glances her way and raises an eyebrow.

"I'm worried about Aria, we were supposed to spend the day together. Is it alright if I come too?" she asks, trying and failing not to sound nervous.

"Sure, just try to keep up, alright?"

"No problem," she giggles a little. He looks a bit confused, but doesn't question it. We tell Mister Fredricson that I'm going to work, then leave. As John begins to make his way down the street, Emily has to go at a solid jog to keep up with his long adult strides. But she's clearly very used to the fire and lightning mana, just maintaining the pace like it's as easy as walking. After we've gone quite a ways down the road and she hasn't shown a single sign of tiring, John catches on.

"Are you like that all the time?" he asks.

"Aria takes the lightning before bed because it causes nightmares, but otherwise yeah."

"Huh..."

"Still, why are we talking the long way? Why not go through the northeast district?" she asks.

"I don't know the area, so I wouldn't be able to make it through," he answers, obviously confused by her question. But then she throws a meaningful look at me, and I look away guiltily. He clearly catches it and asks, "Aria? You know the way through?"

"Mm," I grunt.

"Why didn't you mention that earlier?"

"Because..." I stare a the ground, trying not to cry.

"Because... why?" he asks.

"Mm," I grumble at him.

"Come on, Aria," he prods me, rubbing my head a lightly. "You must have a reason."

"Mmmm..." I squeeze my eyes shut, then force myself to talk. "I didn't want to boss you around or anything," I whisper. "Telling you what to do..." But when I say that, it suddenly reminds me of last night again. I totally shouted an order at John, didn't I? I immediately blush bright red when I remember and bury my face in my hands. "I-I'm sorry for ordering you around last night!" I cry, my heart sinking even more. "I was just caught up in the moment and you were the closest person and I'm really sorry for being so, so p-p-persumptius-" That's when John covers my mouth with his hand to stop my rambling apologies.

"It's fine, stop worrying about it," he sighs sadly. "Just tell me how to get through the northeast district." Since he still has my mouth covered, I guiltily nod. "Good."

Then he removes his hand, so I mumble, "That way," and point to the nearest side street. He turns and heads where I pointed. From there, I keep pointing out the turns to make, though I'm extremely conscious of how I direct him, making sure I don't tell him to go anywhere, and just point the right way out for him.

"So... Aria said she made you mad last night, but what happened exactly?" I just keep staring at the ground when Emily asks, but John offers an explanation.

"She recklessly threw herself into a dangerous situation instead of letting the adults deal with it, and when we reprimanded her, she said she would rather she get hurt instead of anyone else." He's definitely still mad...

"Ahh, makes sense," Emily responds with a nod.

"How does that make sense?" he gapes at her.

"Oh, no, that's not what I meant! I mean that sounds like what Aria would do. She told you, didn't she? She doesn't care about her own life at all." Then Emily looks me right in the eyes and says, "I understand why she thinks that way, but I don't like it." I feel my heart squeeze painfully at her words. Then she looks back to John. "Unfortunately, I don't think there's any way to change her mind."

John doesn't seem to know how to respond. But eventually he speaks up again. "For someone as special as her... that's really awful."

"It is," Emily agrees sadly. Having them talk about this just makes me feel even worse. I want to cry again, but it's not helping. I just... I don't know what to do. I feel terrible, and them calling me special makes it worse. Being special was always what made my life terrible, being different was always bad and always got me hurt... John might not get it, but what about Emily?

John is still rubbing my head, but it isn't helping either. Emily keeps looking at me crying, but can't seem to come up with anything to say. Not that anything would help...

"A-anyway... what sort of danger did you get into this time?" she asks, like she's trying to distract me from how I'm feeling.

"Hmph!" I close my eyes and cross my arms.

"Uhh..."

Then John sighs. "From what she told me last night, she has a deal with Frank to help heal people who have been poisoned."

"Oh. She never told me about that..." I can feel her looking at me, and I curl up tighter in John's arms.

"Well, it sounds like last night was the first time he called on her for that."

"Mmm..." comes from Emily.

"So, here's the dangerous part," his voice drops, deeper. "She said she did something wrong at the end, I'm not sure what. But it caused the man to wake up, extremely distressed. He started to throw swords at us."

"Throwing... swords..." Emily mutters.

John stops rubbing my head briefly to let out a very tired sigh. "That on its own wouldn't be too bad. However, Aria decided to run at him while he was throwing swords at her. She even grabbed one out of the air and used it to parry a strike from the crazed man." The way he puts the emphasis as he speaks, he seems to be making it out that those things were crazy or stupid or something, even though they weren't hard.

"Aria..." Emily growls at me, and I curl even tighter into myself. Why do they have to keep talking about this? I don't want to think about it anymore... After a pause, her voice comes softer. "Aria, you have to think before you do stuff like that..."

"Exactly!" John follows immediately.

"Mmmr..." I grumble back angrily.

"In any case, that was a beautiful parry. If she was a boy, I'd say she had a talent with the sword." John comments, but I don't even want to listen to them anymore. It just keeps making me feel worse and I have no idea how to feel better again...

We keep going for a while longer, before John stops. "Aria, I know you're not feeling good right now, but I do still need you to direct me through here," he reminds me.

"Hmph!" I grunt at him again.

"Come on, Aria," Emily chimes in. "Please?"

"Mm..." I turn a little and point out the way.

----------------------------------------

It's a little while later, weaving through the northeast district, before John speaks up again. "Hey Aria, would it help if you talked about being blessed?" I stay silent for a while, I'm feeling a little less... I don't know, panicked, but I still don't want to talk to anyone right now. "You really don't have to talk about it if you don't want to." But that just makes me feel guilty again.

"Mm!" I curl into a ball, but I'm so guilty... "Emily," I prompt her.

She sighs. "Oh Aria... I'm sorry John, she isn't usually so sulky, I think she's just having a really bad day..."

"Nah, it's fine. It's almost relieving to see she can actually act her age. You kids are way too mature, you know."

"We... had to grow up fast," is all she says. There's a pause, then she asks, "Is there any way to make you feel better?" I have no idea, I end up making a whining sound back at her. "Umm, John? Do you have any ideas?"

"Well, I don't have any kids... My brother's got one, but... Well, when he acts up, my brother just smacks him around some."

"That's, uhh..."

"Probably a bad idea?"

"For Aria? Definitely..." Emily replies nervously.

John sighs. "I don't even need to be a parent to know that's no good. Especially for a little girl. Sorry, but I've got nothing for this."

"Thanks anyway..."

There's another brief silence, then Emily speaks up again. "Hey Aria, you wanted me to tell him about your blessings?"

"...Mm," I grunt at her with a consenting tone.

"Say 'yes' for me, I want to be sure," she prods.

"Mmm..." I grumble. "...Yes..."

"Heh," she chuckles lightly, then rubs my head. "Good girl." Then she addresses John.

"So, umm, I'm not completely sure why Aria didn't want to tell you about this. Probably because it would make things, uhh, sort of complicated..." She clears her throat, then keeping her voice low, says, "Aria has received two blessings from Reena."

"Reena?!"

"Yeah, I thought the same thing. A-anyway, the first was absolute mana, which was the first push she needed to learn to control mana. The second..." She pauses for a while, tension in the air even as I kind of try not to pay attention to the conversation because it just reminds me of how much I'm hiding from everyone and how mad Reena is at me too...

"Aria's second blessing was a premonition." Hearing that, John stops walking.

Eventually, he mutters, "I... see..." He keeps standing for a while longer, then says, "I see why you said it would complicate things..." He finally starts to walk again. "What... what did she see?"

"I can't talk about it," Emily answers immediately. "But according to Aria, she failed at what she was told to do. That's why Reena was so angry at her the last time they talked."

I feel John shudder at her words. "So the last time you talked to her..." he trails off, "Last week, when you asked to go to church..."

"...Mm..." I grumble when he immediately guesses it.

"And you said you weren't religious," he chuckles. "Real sly. So I guess you're going again tomorrow?"

When I don't want to answer, Emily eventually steps in again.

"Yeah, we have to go on Shanadays, but... I don't know, she might still be mad at Aria? It's kind of hard to say."

"How does she talk to her anyway?" John asks.

"The divine totems," Emily answers. "From what she said, she can kind of like, feel a connection to the gods through the totems, so she's been able to talk to Reena a little bit when we pray."

"Huh, so those things actually do something..." he mutters in wonder. "But why Reena anyway? Have you ever talked to the other gods?" he asks me. Not looking up at him, I shake my head a little. I guess just because she started blessing me as soon as I started praying to her, because I'm so important for her stupid plans...

"Hmm... But why Reena?" His question is the same everyone asks...

Still, I blink a little when I realize something. It was because Claire was next to me, and she prayed to Reena that first day, when she taught me how to pray.

But isn't it weird that she was praying to Reena? No one really prays to Reena. But now that I know she's an instructor it makes sense.

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

I... still don't feel like talking. I kind of want to tell them what I realized, but find myself starting to whine at them again instead, so I turn my head into John's chest.

Still, I have her to thank for getting me to talk to Reena, getting blessed, and making it back from battle... In a way, I owe my life to Claire. I'm going to do the absolute best I can in her classes...

We keep going. A few times, John has to prod me to point out the next direction, but all the awful feelings inside me start to ease a little eventually. I didn't really talk things over, even though I know I should have, but Emily sort of did it for me. I don't know if that helps any though...

----------------------------------------

At John's fast pace, we make it all the way through the district so fast, we actually reach the refinery before the second bell, with time to spare. He sets me down, and Emily has to nudge me to get me to go inside. We head straight to Eryk's office as usual.

As soon as I see Eryk, my spirit sinks again, a painful knot forming in the pit of my stomach. I still have to apologize to him for everything...

"Uhh, Aria is..." John starts to speak, but trails off when I walk up to Eryk's desk, clutching my hands together anxiously. He raises an eyebrow at me, like he's telling me to say something. I bow down deeply, staring at the floor. I have to open my mouth a couple times, then force myself to say what I know I have to say. "I'm really sorry for messing up the other day and destroying your tools and door. I should have been more careful." Just talking to him makes hot tears form in my eyes, even though I'm not really sad. I just... I just feel so awful today...

"You're still worried about that?" he asks for some reason. I glance up and he says, "It's fine," waving dismissively. But... but I thought he would be really mad at me! As I awkwardly straighten back up, confused, he continues, "There's no need to cry, really. Anyway, why is Emily here?" tilting his head a little.

"I-I'm sorry for that too," I apologize again automatically. "I..." I gulp hands clutching to my chest. "I..." I can't say the words. I know I should, but this feeling is pushing everything out of my head and I have no idea what to do about it...!

"Umm, I'm sorry," Emily speaks up, coming up to hug me from behind. "Aria is having a bad day. We were going to spend the day together, but she forgot to ask you about taking the day off. I, umm, came with her since she's not doing very well lately. A-as long as it isn't too much of a bother for you, of course!"

"No no, that's fine," he sounds a bit flustered for some reason, but is back to normal just a moment later, and addresses me. "My apologies, I should have realized. You need time for yourself. Once we finish some business, you can go for the day."

At his words, I finally look up. "R-really?" I croak. I can go with Emily today after all?

"See, it'll be fine, Aria," Emily whispers comfortingly, wiping some of the tears from my face. I feel better. Not so... not so overwhelmed...

I gulp, trying to clear a lump from my throat. Eryk is just watching me with a concerned expression. Eventually, I manage to find my voice again. "So, what do we need to do today?"

He gestures over to the table, so I go and take my seat. Emily sits next to me and Eryk sits across as usual. "First, breakfast should be here for you soon. Emily, have you eaten anything?"

"Ah, no, but that's fine." She waves her hands a little. "You don't need to worry about me." Eryk frowns just a bit, but then shrugs.

"Fine, just make sure to eat something later when you have a chance."

"Y-yes," she nods nervously.

"Now, I hope your instruction with Irene went well yesterday?"

I hesitate, surprised by the topic he chose to start on, but then I shake myself. I take a slow breath to ease my nerves a little after everything this morning, and finally manage to actually calm down enough to think properly again.

Then I answer, "I, uhh..." and stop. I still need a few more moments to get my thoughts in order and think back to actually answer his question. Then, "Yeah, I think so. She taught me a whole lot. I don't know how much we weren't able to cover, but so far, I've learned about greetings, showing respect, giving and accepting gifts, signing business agreements, how to act with company, and... some of the rules about using doors at social events?" Now that I'm thinking about it again, that last one was confusing and we never really finished the topic.

"Learning that much that fast... Are you sure you'll remember all of it?" He looks understandably worried.

"I'm not sure," I admit because I'm worried about it too. "But... I think I still remember everything." When I think back on her long lectures, I can still remember every part of them and how to do everything. Whether it's because it was just yesterday, or because I was focusing really hard, I can't really say. But I definitely still remember everything.

"Alright, we'll just have to work with that. It sounds like you've already covered most of the important stuff, there are only a few other manners, like accepting food, so you should probably be fine."

"Ah, that's good," I say, really relieved that I actually managed to cover most of it in the little time I had.

"So next would be... the guard looking for you last night. What happened?"

"Ahh..." I shrink down a little. I don't want to talk about that again, not after everything earlier... But I don't really think there's much reason to hide it either... probably? So I make myself speak. "I made a deal with Frank to cure anyone who got poisoned."

"Poisoned." He says it like a statement, not even making it a question.

"Last night was the first time he called for my help though, so it was pretty difficult. I didn't actually know how to cure poison, but I figured it out." Eryk's eye twitches a little.

"You... figured it out?" at least he makes it a question this time. I just nod, trying not to think too much. Even though I don't know exactly what part of what I did ended up working, I can figure out the details later. All that matters is the man survived. I really don't want to think about the... the rest of what happened.

"Oh, but I'm really sorry if I get called away to cure someone while I'm at work," I speak up again when I think of it. "But it's not like I can just do nothing and let people die, you know?"

Eryk scratches his chin, looking uncomfortable. "I get that you're a good kid and you'd feel bad, knowing you could do something to help, but I can't believe Frank did that. That's way too much responsibility to put on someone your age." He stares me straight in the eye. "Always take care of yourself first. Try to remember that." He's wrong, it is my responsibility, but I don't say anything. He frowns slightly, and I can suddenly feel Emily's worried gaze from the the side. And John's too...

Then Eryk clears his throat. "Anyway, if you're still going to go through with it, I'll keep it in mind."

He pauses for a while, letting that topic rest before moving on. "Now, next would be the business from last time. Yesterday, I told Patrick about what we were working on." He puts a hand up to quiet my worries and quickly explains, "I didn't talk about the process at all, only what we're trying to make, and the results we've seen so far. Yesterday, we went to a trustworthy smith to test our first samples. I wanted to talk over the results with you and Patrick." I give a slight nod. "Good. John, can you call in Patrick? We'll talk in the back room. Emily, you can just wait here for a bit, we'll be done soon."

"Sure," she answers smoothly, though she still seems a bit stiff.

We move into the small room behind Eryk's office, and Patrick comes in shortly after. Patrick pulls the chair over and sits down, so that each of us is on a different side of the table. Eryk with his back to the latched window, me near the door, and Patrick near the left hand wall, only leaving the wall with the big black board empty. I can feel Patrick looking at me closely. It makes me extra self-conscious since I'm still wearing my new clothes, all full of holes because I haven't had a chance to repair them yet.

Patrick leans heavily on the small table. It creaks just a bit under his elbow, and he rests his chin in his palm as he looks right at me. "Alright, before we get into things, let me just ask. Who exactly are you?" I freeze up under the direct question, but Eryk jumps in to answer.

"I hired Aria for the project I told you about yesterday."

"Because she can do things, right?"

"Do... things?" I worry about the way he says that.

"I'm not stupid. I watched her sort a crate of mollite ore and pull just the durite out. She's not normal." I shrink down in my chair, sweating nervously under his gaze. I knew what I did yesterday was too weird...

"You're right. I'm not at liberty to discuss the details." Eryk just shrugs it off.

"Why not?" Patrick turns to him.

"Because it's Aria's talent and if what little she has told me is any indication, it would be very bad for her if the information were to spread. As such, it would be bad for us if we lost her. At present, she is the only one capable of producing the metals I showed you yesterday."

"Hold on, what do you mean only she can make them? They're definitely a mix of tin and copper, why else would you keep pouring them into a crucible together?"

"True, but of course there's more to it than that," Eryk says it like it's obvious.

Patrick rubs a hand over his bald head, but something Eryk said makes me speak up for the first time in the conversation. "A-actually, I have an idea of how to modify the process so you should be able to do it, but I can't say for sure whether it will work or not yet."

I still haven't had a chance to test whether lightning can also get the metals to combine properly, but if it does work, then they should be able to do it with a mixture of copper and some magnets. It would be more work than just generating a mana field around the metal, but they would have a way to do it without access to mana.

"Ahh, I've been wondering about that. We'll have to work on it later when we have a chance," Eryk nods slightly.

Patrick just stares at me for a bit. Then he addresses me again. "You're serious... how do you know so much?"

I hesitate before answering. "Everything I know, I've had to figure out on my own. Eryk is the first person to really help me work through things." I finally look up, meeting his gaze. "Every method and interaction, I've done my best to work everything out as well as I could." It doesn't really explain anything, but it's the best I can do.

Patrick seems taken aback, his eyes widening a little. "You really are a strange girl..." I frown and lower my head, but he's right, so I can't say anything.

"If that's all, let's get on to our real topic." I'm super relieved when Eryk finally turns the conversation around.

"We took the metals we made to a blacksmith to test them out and see whether they could be viable products. Unfortunately, they were not quite up to the standard of iron in terms of hardness or durability, but we did find that the copper-tin mixture was extremely lightweight. While it can't really be compared to titanium on hardness, it has a similar level of durability, and may actually be lighter than titanium. So while it may not work for durable goods, it could certainly fit for anything that does not need to be as tough. And since it is just tin and copper, it isn't expensive to make either. Of course, that's if we can work out a production process that doesn't require Aria to make each batch." I nod a little at his description.

Eryk takes a breath, then goes on. "On the other hand, the mixture of copper, tin, and durite was softer, less durable, and heavier. So we should leave that mixture alone and avoid making more in the future." His eyes lock onto me as he says, "For multiple reasons."

"With the way you were shouting about it at the time, that was the one that blew up on you or something, right? Sounded like absolute thunderin' chaos back there," Patrick comments. He's a lot closer than he realizes...

"Yeah, an unfortunate side-effect of the way it's produced," Eryk admits.

I raise my hand a little to get their attention as I explain, "I might be able to create an alternate method that doesn't cause those problems." Since that was how it reacted to mana, if my idea to use lightning works out, that won't be an issue.

"Good to know," Eryk notes, but moves on anyway. "The metal our work is based on is clearly superior to iron, being both harder and lighter, as well as rust resistant. It's actually more comparable to azrium. It is a little less durable, but apart from that, it is equal or better than azrium in nearly all aspects, especially in terms of weight. So we still have some work before we can replicate that metal, but if it is primarily a mix of tin and copper, we should be able to produce it for a fraction of the cost."

Now that Eryk is finally laying out the whole plan, I actually get it. If he can work out a way to make the same metal that sword is made of, he can do it really cheaply. Tin and copper together cost fifty barr, and the mixture is comparable to azrium. Eryk said that's five times more expensive than iron, so five hundred barr. That's a tenth of the price for a similar product. It really would make him a ton of money, wouldn't it?

But he goes on. "That's just the start. Now that we have the method, we can try making other combinations as well. Iron and azrium may be even better than either individually, or maybe mixing tin and mollite could produce something hard enough for use, for dirt cheap." He grins as he throws out a few ideas. That's when it really clicks.

"That's right, there are other combinations..." I think aloud. I blink a few times, brain spinning through the math. "There are four thousand eighty three different combinations." Well, I'm sure not all of them are actually useful, and just dumping them all in and mixing them together might not accomplish much, but still...

"Yeah, there's a lot to work with. I'm sure we can find useful combinations," Eryk agrees. But Patrick is just staring at me, though I don't know why. It makes me kind of uncomfortable.

"So, umm... what next?" I try to move the conversation forward while ignoring his gaze.

"That one is up to you. Durite didn't work out. So what do you think our next step is?" Eryk asks.

"I, uhh..." I have absolutely no idea. All I had thought of at the time was adding something that would make it more lightning-y since that would make it more like the sword. Lightning means durite, there's nothing else that would really work like that... And that one went completely crazy, so it's out. I don't know what our next step should be, I have no information to base my decision on. Since that's how it is, I just tell him. "I don't know, I don't have enough information."

"Mmm, so that's how it is," Eryk sighs.

"What sort of information?" Patrick asks, not understanding.

"I need to know more about how different metals work if I want to get our result closer to the metal that sword is made of," I explain, "but the only one that fit was durite."

"Fit how?" he asks, but I have to shake my head.

"Sorry, I can't tell you." I look away to avoid his eyes.

"Can't tell me? Why not?"

"It gets into some things I can't really talk about." But I don't want to just refuse him outright, so I try to explain, "Umm... basically, different metals have different properties with how they work. There was one specific aspect of that sword that was missing from the mixture of tin and copper we made. Durite has something similar to that, so I thought adding it might work. But it, uhh, ended badly."

"Huh... and there isn't anything else that has that particular trait?"

"No, not among the metals I've worked with."

"That is tough..." Patrick sighs. But something about my own words starts to bother me. I can't pin down exactly what...

"If that's the case, you should keep thinking on it," Eryk advises. "See if you can come up with something by Arcaday. I take it you're going to study on your own after this, right?"

"Yeah. Maybe something I figure out will give me an idea," I agree. "Oh yeah, that reminds me!" I jump a little when I remember. "I wanted to buy some azrium and chromium while I'm here."

"That's fine, but chromium is pretty expensive. Don't you already have some glass?" Eryk asks.

"I do, but I'm worried it will break at some point, so I should have chromium, just in case."

"That's understandable," Eryk nods. Patrick on the other hand, is just looking back and forth between us like he has no idea what we're talking about. Eryk thinks for a bit, then begins to stand. "I believe that's everything I wanted to talk about for now. Let's get you your ingots, then you can go."

"Thanks a lot, Eryk." I smile brightly. I can't believe it. Not only is he not mad at me after everything that happened, he's letting me off work today. Without saying much else, we all head back into Eryk's office.

"Aria's food is here," John says as soon as we enter.

"Right right," Eryk answers. "Aria, eat before it gets cold." I nod quickly and go over to my seat. It looks like Patrick is heading back into the workshop. I sit down and pick up my spoon, then flinch a little bit just as I'm about to dig in. I can hear Irene's voice in my head, telling me not to just stuff my face. Even if she's not here right now, I try to slow down a bit so I'm not shoveling it in. I'm sure she'd still reprimand me for eating like this, but it's already starting to cool off, so I try to finish pretty quickly. I can feel Eryk's eyes on me as I eat for some reason...

Once I'm done, he rings the bell on his desk to call in one of the shopkeepers, and I quickly wipe off my face on my sleeve because I got some of the sauce on me in my haste. The shopkeeper walks in after a few moments and Eryk directs them to get an ingot of azrium and chromium for me. At least it's not the mean woman this time. As the man goes to do that, Eryk says, "five coppers for the azrium, five irons for the chromium."

I wince, that really is expensive. I don't actually have any iron coins to spend since we always get paid in copper. My only one is the coin I use for making earth mana every day. So I count out the fifty five coppers I owe him. It's a good thing I brought a whole bunch of money with me, because I empty almost my entire bag. He takes some time to count the coppers, then nods.

The shopkeeper eventually comes back with the ingots and Eryk gives him the ok. The man briefly eyes the large pile of copper coins as he walks over to set the ingots on the table. Then he looks at me, mostly my beat up clothes, and frowns a bit as he sets the two ingots down in front of me. Without a word, he goes back into the shop. Even after I've started working here, I still feel so out of place...

"Alright, that wraps up everything for today," Eryk says conclusively. "I'll see you tomorrow for your doctor visit."

"See you tomorrow, Eryk."

"Bye," Emily chimes in, then John leads us outside. He gives a small wave as we leave.

"So, we wrapped that up pretty quick," Emily says as we walk away from the refinery. Going through the northeast district saved us a lot of time and my brief discussion with Eryk and Patrick didn't take all that long either. It's only ninety ticks after the second bell, about twenty percent to the third bell. I idly realize that I've gotten used to counting time without really thinking about it. I've been doing it for a week already.

"Yeah, we actually have a lot of time left," I agree. In any case, we've already started to walk without any real destination in mind. "So where should we go...?" I wonder aloud. But then I remember that Emily still needs to eat. "Actually, let's go to the market to get you some food."

"Food?"

She doesn't seem to understand, so I explain better. "I went there once with Francis. We just bought a couple fruits and ate them, but it was a decent meal."

"Ahh, sure. I am pretty hungry after watching you scarf down all that food," she grins while jabbing me in the side with her elbow.

"I-I didn't scarf it down!" I protest, blushing ear to ear immediately.

For some reason, my reaction makes Emily blink confusedly. "I was just teasing, I'm sorry," she suddenly apologizes, looking away a little.

"N-no, it's fine," I try to calm her down. "It's just... Irene has been really harsh with teaching me, telling me I'm not supposed to shovel down my food and stuff like that all the time. So I was still trying not to eat too fast, and maybe I overreacted because of that..." As I go on, I get quieter and quieter until I'm basically mumbling to myself in embarrassment.

"I-I had no idea." Emily looks astonished, with wide eyes. "So that's why you were eating differently."

"Y-you noticed?" I stammer. Somehow that just makes it even more embarrassing.

"Well yeah, you were chewing and chewing for so long, I started to wonder if there was something different about the food." I have no idea why, but the way she points out exactly how I chewed my food only makes me flush even worse, my whole face burning hot. I cover my face with my hands. Is that why Eryk was watching me eat?

"Nooooo......" I release a quiet, pitiful cry at the thought, but it just makes Emily giggle.

Eventually, I manage to calm myself again, the embarrassed heat leaving my face after a while of walking. Emily leans an arm on my shoulder and asks, "Feeling better now?" I return a shy nod. "Good." She beams at me. "Let's try to enjoy today. It seems like we're going to be really busy for a while."

I finally look back up at her and match her smile. "Yeah."