The girl had made it out of the forest. It was her first glimpse of the outside world.

She, even with her lack of emotion, was astounded by what she saw. She had not imagined that the world was this big- before she had eaten the bandit, her entire world consisted of the forest, and even after that she had been skeptical of his memories. Surely, the world could not be so big. Surely not.

Yet evidence to the contrary was right in front of her- green, grassy plains, rolling hills, fog-covered mountains in the distance, and walls, merely a tiny speck at this distance, which unmistakably belonged to the city of Talur.

She noticed that there was a sort of a road near where she had come out of the forest- although it was more of a dirt track with no paving- snaking its way towards the city. The road curved around the forest- and the girl couldn't understand why, although it would be apparent to anyone else. To her, it would be much simpler to cut through the heart of the forest instead of curving around it, which would cost any traveler valuable time. But, as she doubted there would be any travelers forgoing the road for the forest, and she dearly wanted to see if there were human beings different from the bandit she had killed, she decided to follow the road.

The first half of the journey was very uneventful, punctuated by occasional snack breaks in which the girl caught whichever furry creature was unlucky enough to be near her at the moment. After around four hours of walking, the walls suddenly loomed into view, and the grassy plains gave way to rich farmland. It was there that she found a small herd of cows, placidly chewing grass and occasionally mooing. She walked up to one, and it turned its head to stare at her with its large black eyes. She observed it for a moment, not moving a muscle, and the cow turned back to its grass. Although it would be too much meat for her to eat at once, she reckoned she could cook it using the techniques she saw in the bandit's memories.

She killed the cow, with a cut to its neck. It fell to the ground, writhing in agony as its lifeblood poured from the wound. When it stopped moving, she began the long process of dismembering it. After she divided the carcass into two vertically, she scooped out the organs and ate them first, as they would spoil early. Then, she sat down and cleared the ground in a 3-meter radius so she could build a fire. She gathered dry brush and sticks, then realized she didn't have a way to start the fire. She would need to raid a farmhouse. The nearest one was around 300 meters away, and she walked towards it.

She checked the barn next to the house first. She didn't want to attract too much attention, so she would leave the farmhouse for last. Inside the barn were plenty of tools that she did not need, and loads of dry hay, which she did not need at the moment. If she needed it, she would stop by later. Next in line was the farmhouse- here she proceeded much more carefully, just in case someone was inside. Thankfully, she heard nothing- and she took a tinderbox, a stack of firewood, and a bag to store the meat in.

She returned to the carcass, and stacked the wood so that it would have enough room for the fire to spread. She carefully packed the kindling between the wood, and pulled out the tinderbox. It took her a couple tries to get right, but in the end she succeeded in lighting the kindling on fire. The girl took the dismembered pieces of meat, and held them over the fire as they slowly browned. And then in the distance she saw an approaching figure. She ignored it, and continued to roast the meat. At this point it would be impossible to avoid detection, not with the fire sending a clear signal into the sky. The figure came closer, and she could make out its features. It was a middle-aged man, most likely a farmer. She guessed that he was the owner of the farmhouse, and had seen the smoke and assumed the worst. As he neared, he slowed down, confused at the scene in front of him.

"Young lady, what do you think you're doing?"

The girl ignored him, and continued cooking the meat. When it was done, she put it into the pack. This made the man angry, and when he saw the bloodstains on the ground he fell in a rage at the slaughter of one of his cows. he raised the hoe he had been holding, and swung it downwards.

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The girl, without even looking, caught the hoe in her hand, drew her knife and slung it at the farmer. It flew through the air, hitting his throat and sinking into it. The man collapsed to the ground, a confused expression on his face. The girl resumed cooking the meat.

When the sack was bulging with pieces of roasted meat, she stood up, stalked over to the dead farmer, and tugged the knife out of his throat. She wiped it on the grass, and put it back in its sheath. She looked around. There wouldn't be any way to disguise the murder that had happened here, but as she had made sure none of the blood got on her clothes she could probably get away with it. The girl turned towards the city, and began walking.

Talur, as a walled-in city, could not grow in any way. Because of this, farmers grew crops outside the wall, and went inside it to sell their harvest. Occasional patrols would check the outside for any signs of a monster invasion. Archers lined the walls, and rotated shifts every two hours. At the main gates were at least four guards at all times, stopping anyone trying to enter and checking them. The girl walked up to the gates, and one of the guards stopped her.

"Halt! Do you have papers?"

She didn't, but according to the bandit you could have them issued after paying a small fee. There were two types of papers- a citizenship certificate, and a travel permit. To enter a city, one needed either a certificate from that city or a travel permit.

"I lost mine on the way here. I decided to risk taking a shortcut through the forest, and I was almost mauled by a pack of wolves. In the chaos I lost everything other than what I'm carrying now."

As it was the first time she had spoken whatever language this city used, she was relieved that there weren't any traces of a strange accent.

To his credit, the guard wasn't fazed by the fact that a girl would dare travel alone.

"Alright. What's your name?"

The girl hadn't prepared this in advance, and her mind whirled as she contemplated what might be a good name. The bandit's own name had been Gellart Grimsby, but as that was a male name she didn't think she could take a part of it for herself. So she took the word "Talur", and divided it into two parts- "Tal" and "Ur". With Tal, she added a l and an i to make Talli, which she made her first name. With Ur, she reversed it and added an a to make Rua.

"I'm Talli Rua. How much do I need to pay for new papers?"

"Talli Rua, huh? Hold on- let me check if your name's on the criminal list."

The guard took a look at a line of papers hanging on the inside of the gates. When Talli looked at it herself, she saw that it was a list of names. Presumably, it was a list of aliases used by criminals. The guard finished inspecting the list, and turned back to her.

"Nothing there, good. Now, you'll need to pay two silvers for a travel permit."

The currency used in Talur was straightforward- it used a system of hard currency, made of bronze, silver and gold. Each coin had the emblem of whichever kingdom Talur belonged to, which was an eagle gripping a halberd with both feet. 10 bronze coins were of equal value to 1 silver coin, and 10 silver coins were equal to 1 gold.

The girl fished around in the pouch she had taken from the bandit, and took out two shining coins. The guard accepted them without comment, and handed her a small wooden plaque and what looked like a stylus made of metal. As soon as he took it out, she felt a strange, prickling sensation on her skin, and as she reached out her hand to take it, the feeling became stronger.

"Here, just touch the pen to the card and it'll fill it out for you."

Fill it out for her? What did he mean? Talli brushed these thoughts away, and put the tip of the pen on the card. Instantly, some sort of bright light flowed from the pen, spelling out her name on the card. Then, it traced a portrait of her in a square outline on the right side of card. When the glow dissipated, the shapes the light had made were etched into the card.

The guard, noticing the girl's astonishment, chuckled.

"That's brand-new, that. Something the people at the Magus Academy thought up. Now we don't have to use knives to etch the names manually. It's almost like magic!"

The guard let out a guffaw at his own joke, but the girl's mind was a whirlpool of confusion.

The Magus Academy? Magic? Whatever they were, they could make incredible things happen. The girl resolved to find out more about this strange phenomenon.

Almost subconsciously, the girl dragged her feet through the gates and into the city, while contemplating what this 'magic' would be like.