Eryk lifts me up to sit on the edge of his table, and I'm sure it's not a proper thing to do going by the downright offended expressions on many people's faces. Only acknowledging it with a smile, he puts a hand on my head and starts to speak. "So, Aria closes her eyes, someone selects an ore from our good friend Arnold here, it goes in the box, and Aria reaches in to identify it. Sound good?"

"Ehh, I feel like any competent refiners and smiths could tell most of them apart..." Terrance shrugs.

"It would be impressive for someone her age though," Mallory hums, a hand rubbing along his chin. Despite my nerves, I notice that all of the gathered refinery owners don't have their wives with them anymore. I wonder where they are now? Eyes searching the crowd between their large bodies, I don't immediately recognize them, but I do spot Beth watching from beside the door to the foyer. She raises a hand, wiggling her fingers in a playful wave when our eyes meet, and I smile back, before my attention is drawn onto topic again.

"Alright Aria, think you're ready?"

"Y-yeah." I swallow, nervous because I already know I can't identify all of the metals by touch. There's more testing necessary to recognize some of them that I just can't do in this situation. Still, as long as I can get a good number, it will prove our point, which should keep Eryk's competitors off his back...

I'm spinning in my own head while Eryk motions for me to close my eyes. I hear a little rustle and a thump of them depositing one ore into the box, then he calls me to reach in. I feel a little silly, needing to open my eyes again to reach for the box, held in Laslo's hands, of all people. He still gives me bad person feelings, but I ignore them, lifting the lid slightly so I can slide my right hand inside. The way it sits on my arm still blocks anyone from looking into the box, so I don't need to worry about anything visible...

"Alright, Aria. What do you think this one is?" Eryk prompts. I have to take a moment, searching the box with my fingers before they land on the bumpy little rock inside. With a small push of mana through the shard of mollite in my wrist, I get it, and let out a little breath.

"Tin." That one was easy.

"Correct." He smiles and nods, and the other men show so-so expressions, some more impressed than others. I draw my hand back, close my eyes, and there are a number of scuffling sounds as the men argue in whispers to select the next ore. But soon enough, the box lid clicks closed and Eryk asks me to go.

I reach inside, a little more confident now. At a touch, the next rock doesn't reveal anything. With a small push of mana... It kind of feels like it softens. Almost like a liquid- I drop the mana field as soon as I realize it's illium, not wanting to melt it straight out of the ore.

Although, it sort of felt like there might have been something else, but I didn't have enough time to get a good read on it. "Illium," I say. "There might be something else, but I can't really tell."

"Well, you're right about the illium," Eryk responds. "But that's it, just illium here."

"Oh, ok." But... I definitely thought there might be something else... The reaction from the crowd is a bit mixed too. I got it right, but... not completely.

"Moving right along," Eryk tries to pick things up again, and soon enough, the men are back to bickering over which one to choose. It actually sounds like they're starting off with the 'easy' ones, though I don't really know what they would think makes them easy or hard. All I can do is wait patiently for them to drop the next ore in the box and try my hand at it too.

When my fingers close around the rock, I don't immediately get any feeling from it. Some mana doesn't help either. So... one with no effect I can feel? That could be titanium or copper... I push a little harder. I'm not feeling the hairs on my arm standing up from lightning energy, so probably titanium.

But again, there's another feeling. Something a little different, just like the last ore. Even in a decent strength mana field, it's weak, but now that I've felt it once, I immediately recognize it this time. It's like a magnet. Or rather, like the opposite of a magnet, pushing away from the mollite in my wrist instead of being drawn in. Didn't chromium push away from magnets?

I can't help but tilt my head and look at Eryk. "Umm, titanium, I think. But there's definitely something else in this one too. I don't recognize it."

Everyone blinks. "What do you mean you don't recognize it?" Eryk asks.

"It has some similarities with chromium, but isn't exactly the same." I can't say anything about its magnetic effects in front of Eryk's competitors. Could it be silver, gold, or platinum? Those are the only three metals I've never had a chance to test for myself. But no, they wouldn't be in the same ore as titanium. Eryk said he doesn't produce them at his refinery, so I'm stuck...

Eryk clears his throat loudly. "Let's leave that for now. We can look into it later, alright?"

"Y-yeah, sure..."

When I pull my hand out of the box, Eryk says, "Well, you were right about the titanium, well done." I smile weakly at the praise. The surrounding men definitely believe me more by this point, but I'm feeling more troubled by the part of that last ore I couldn't identify. Why is it bothering me...?

I don't have time to think about it though. "Let's see a peasant girl get this one," Laslo comments, and there are a couple stifled gasps and coughs. I have to fight not to peek an eye open. What did he do?

"Alright, Aria," Eryk prompts, and I open my eyes. His slight frown, and the smug expression on Laslo's face as he holds the box out for me makes me worried. When I touch this ore, I immediately notice that it's mostly round and smooth, only a few jagged bits of rock bumping out. Did they shape the ore somehow?

Despite the unique feeling, it's obvious as soon as I put it in a mana field. "Nickel." There's a pause, and their looks alone tell me I'm wrong. Turning my attention back to the feeling for just a moment, I know where I messed up. "Wait, no." I narrow my eyes at the little wooden box. Inside, the ore produces absolute mana just like nickel, but it doesn't get cold. A different metal that produces the same mana type then? And besides that, I'm feeling the same push as before, something in the ore being repelled by my mollite. Is it one metal that does both, or two different metals? The push could come from the same thing as the others - it might appear in all three ores I noticed the effect in...

But what about the absolute mana? Besides nickel, the only one I found was that silvery metal in the mysterious rail unit building. I frown, my lightning-aided intuition is kicking in, telling me I can connect the dots here. "Mmm..." The men start to grin slightly when they see I'm having trouble, but I try to ignore it and think.

Eryk told me about Laslo, he's the head of Lord's Refining and works with the nobility. So it's probably one of the noble metals. Alba is out since this doesn't carry mana, and gold is out because it's supposed to be, well, gold, and the one I remember was silver. That just leaves silver and platinum. I don't know if platinum is also a silver colored metal or not, but... what are the chances he carried such an absurdly valuable ore with him to a party like this just to show off?

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It may not be the most certain thing, for all I know Laslo loves to throw his wealth in the faces of the other business owners, but it's my best guess... I fix them all with my gaze.

"I think there are two different metals. One is the same I don't recognize from the illium and titanium ore, and the other..." Let's see if I'm right... "Is silver." I know I guessed right when the jaws fall open around me.

"How does a peasant girl-" Terrance doesn't even finish the thought before he's spoken over by Mallory.

"When did you get your hands on silver?" Mallory loudly directs the question at Eryk, instead of me.

His hands go up as he shakes his head quickly. "I didn't, I have no idea how she knows this one. Like I said, Aria's just amazing like that." The random praise makes me blush, even though I've been trying to keep calm here.

"How do you know about silver, girl?" Laslo asks. His voice, and the way he says 'girl' sends a shiver up my back. It reminds me of how the nobles called me.

Forcing myself not to show my nerves, I scratch my cheek with a finger to keep my hands busy, and answer, "I had a chance to look at some one time, so I remembered what it was like from that." None of them look too happy with that explanation though...

A small smile touches Eryk's lips, just for a moment, he must know just what to say. "She may be an orphan, but remember, I told you she has some involvement with the nobility."

"Right..."

"Mm..."

"You did..." Everyone has various muttered responses, but it clearly does the trick. As I start to relax, I try to be inconspicuous when I clench a fist happily. They definitely believe me now. Not just that I am good enough to hold the key to the star metals, but that the nobility have me under their protection too. This went even better than we could have expected.

But apparently, even though they believe me, they aren't satisfied quite yet. Well, mostly Mallory, who wants to go through a few more. "You brought them, may as well!" he says in his loud voice, slapping Arnold on the back. That draws a few laughs and one very displeased look from Arnold, of course. I just close my eyes and go along with it.

While they work on picking out the next ore, I'm starting to worry. I soon realize it's that worry from earlier, that I didn't have time to think over properly. Why am I still worried about that? It must be thanks to my intuition, and I know it relates to that unknown metal I felt in a few different ores.

"Ok, next one." Eryk's call forces me to shelve the thought again. I reach in, and with another small push of mana, I get a good deal more to work with this time. Absolute mana. Earth-air combined mana. The ore even gets colder to the touch and shifts in my hand somewhat.

I tilt my head a little. This has so many different metals in it... "This one is... Nickel, iron, chromium, and sulphra," I call them out one at a time as I pull apart the different effects in my head. As soon as I say that, I try to get back to figuring out what my brain keeps telling me I should be worrying about.

Thankfully, Maven and Kiara took the time to think about it and dig through my memories for me while I kept getting distracted. "It's the waste slag Eryk talked about," Maven tells me. That's right, he said it contained the stuff from the ore they couldn't use. That means there's other metal in the ore that I don't know about. Metal that I have no idea how it might react to mana.

This... could be dangerous, I finally realize. Just in time for Laslo to hold out the box for me to test another. But now I'm really worried. No, I tell myself. We've been through all those ores already and there's been no problem. The only outright dangerous metals have been star metals, so while it's possible, the chance of running into something truly dangerous right now is probably very low.

But what if we do? Now that I've realized the problem, I can't shake my worry. "Umm, Eryk?" I speak up. But I can't explain all of this to him right now. Can I just tell them I'm done? That I don't want to do any more? Would they get mad? "Can we stop here?"

He raises a brow, he knows I wouldn't ask without a good reason. "You want to stop, Aria?" I nod hesitantly.

"Why now?" Laslo asks, his eyes narrowing suddenly. "Why so suddenly?" A shiver runs straight up my back. It feels like he sees straight through me. And I can't come up with any good excuse now. "Do you not know this one? Don't want to embarrass yourself?"

"W-well, no, I mean..." What do I say?

"How about we make this the last one?" Eryk jumps in to save me. "Is that alright, Aria?"

It's... well... "Yeah... Probably." As worried as I am, I know the probability of trouble should be low. I keep trying to think about it logically like that to push down the boil of worry in my heart. With a gesture, Eryk has me reach inside the box. The men around me have picked up on my nervousness, even if they have no idea why. But it should be fine.

I touch the metal ore and give a little push with my mana. Nothing dangerous happens. Alright, I figured as much, I reassure myself. I just got some mana back. Water, absolute,

As soon as I feel it, my eyes shoot open and I yank my hand back. The tears come all at once, my stomach clenching like I'm going to puke.

"Aria?!" Eryk gasps, and everyone reels back. Eryk has only started to lean forward by the time Beth, blond hair flying behind her, breaks through the surrounding men and scoops me up into her arms.

Her words come so fast I hardly hear them. "Sorry gentlemen, looks like she's overwhelmed and needs some time." Then she's burying my face in her chest and rushing me from the room. Out of the corner of my eye, I see the kitchen and storeroom pass, before we're heading out the back door, but Beth pulls up short when there is a whole crowd of party-goers out back too.

She rapidly backtracks, her shoes clicking loudly on the wooden floors even over the questioning voices of the servants working in the kitchen. She stops briefly, directing the sliver of my still functioning attention into the pantry off of the kitchen. Selena showed it to me while I was staying here. I point out the trap door in the back that leads to the cellar with a shaking hand, and she goes straight for it.

The next thing I know, we're down in the dimly lit cellar, Beth sitting me down gently on a big sack of flour or something. My breath is coming fast and I keep wiping at my eyes. Why now? Why here? I was trying to hold it together today, but then...

"Shh shh," Beth whispers, rubbing my back gently. "It's alright," she assures me. She pauses, long enough for me to control my breathing better. "Talk to me," she suggests quietly, "tell me what's wrong."

"I- It's..." How could I possibly explain? How would a human ever understand? It doesn't matter. I can't keep this inside, I have to let it out. "That- it gave me special l-light." I know she has no idea what that means, or why it matters. "The same type I- that th- I- That I- I got f-from-" My teeth chatter as I push the stuttering words past my lips, hands coming up to cover my eyes. "F-from dest-tro-tro-ying a-a s-soul." One hand comes up on its own, and I push the mana out, forming the tiny, shiny gray manastone for her to see.

In the silence that follows, neither of us can miss the click of shoes. Both of us snap to look at the person down here with us, in the cellar that should be deserted.

Selena?

I can make her out clearly enough from the light filtering in through the gaps in the trapdoor above and a candle on one wall I didn't notice before. What is she doing down here?

How much did she hear?

How much did she see?

My hand snaps closed around the manastone as I pull closer to Beth. What do I do? What do I say? Selena is staring in wide-eyed shock, just for a moment, before her face turns back to the floor like she always does.

"You!" Beth snaps out of nowhere, putting herself between us with her arms spread, like she's trying to protect me. "You're Eschallian!"

She's-

Selena is-

I don't understand. She's one of them? Selena is an enemy?