Marie had refused to explain in detail who Atos was, and after Alice’s pushes were met with an icy glare, she reconsidered the matter, and let sleeping dogs lie. She supposed that if Atos was such a prominent figure, some library in the city was bound to have some information about him.

Nevertheless, nothing good would come out of poking the slumbering dragon that was Marie.

As Alice recharged, she kept asking questions, some pertinent to Aspen and how she should proceed in regards to attaining citizenship, and some that were more random trivia than anything else, like how the coins they had been given, and thus the economy worked, to how did the strange streetlights worked.

Marie answered it all, some more reluctantly than others. In Alice’s opinion, she probably was bored of talking, but Alice couldn’t care less. It was her survival and stay in Mistfall the one at play, not hers.

Apparently, the strange coins, or Sparks, were made using some special Ether gathered up from very specific locations, which was then pushed into a special coin prepared to host said Ether, giving it its main characteristic of a little star in the middle of a metal circle.

The streetlights Marie answered more reluctantly, and Alice could tell that it wasn't something she really wanted to talk about. Infrastructure probably wasn't her strongest point.

Regardless, the white orbs held in their metal cradles were the streetlights, as they gave off light during the night, light they had apparently stored from the hours of daylight.

Alice made a quick mental note to get a small one if she could. A self-rechargeable sunlight flashlight would be immensely useful.

Marie mentioned how if she wanted to be a Delver for sure, she should check out the Hall related to them, where they had originally reunited before setting off towards the Blossom.

Apparently, low-level outworlders usually trained with one another, oftentimes venturing into the local danger near each city to level up as a cohesive unit, mainly to help them find their foothold, style and refine their understanding of Ether, as well as Tier up.

Once asked about it, Marie explained that attaining citizenship was an incredibly straightforward process, if a bit difficult. One just had to reach Tier Two with both class and profession, or Tier Three with only one of them. The latter process was made easier if one chose to shed their class or profession, focusing solely on one aspect of themselves, and thus pushing the selected aspect forwards much faster than usual.

Apparently, this was a thing done if someone knew with complete and absolute certainty what they wanted to do for the rest of their lives, which was exceedingly rare.

After spending a couple of hours talking, Marie gave their session for concluded, citing how a single spell on day two already was blazing progress, even if it left Alice unconvinced.

Deciding to do something productive with the remaining hours of daylight, she set off towards the city, following Marie, who she guessed was walking at her pace as a courtesy towards her.

Now that she thought of it, being arrested or interrogated for being outside and alone on the second day wouldn’t be fun at all.

A single look at Marie had the guards within the guardhouse carved into the inner wall scrambling for some kind of strange crystal, and as they passed, it glowed faintly blue. At that point, Marie cited having someone to meet and promptly vanished instantaneously.

Alice watched in mute apprehension the spot her teacher had filled just a moment ago, and as the idea of cursing her tutor with a whisper crossed her mind, she thought better of it as she glared at the nearby alleyways, corners and rooftops. Maybe she was still watching, maybe not.

Better to not risk it.

The walk back to the Delver’s Hall was a lot faster than the first one, the path to it already ingrained in her memory. She hadn’t really wanted to get lost inside an unknown city, despite what her Profession may say about her, and so she had studied the map in detail the night before, memorising all the main avenues and fastest routes to get to different points of interest, like the gates or the Delvers’ and Main Halls.

Opening the massive double doors of the Delver’s Hall with unnatural ease, Alice noticed how the main reception was a lot more packed now than in the morning. It made sense, given that Marie and Alice had visited the Hall at the asscrack of dawn, and now it was a lot closer to midday. A glance upwards confirmed that yes, this world still had only one sun, and she didn’t know if she should feel relieved or disappointed.

Even if the queue to get to one of the Hall’s clerks was long, the wait wasn’t. Each of the four people attending the deluge of who she supposed were Delvers dispatched each complaint and request with machine-like efficiency. Alice never thought she’d see someone’s hand sign three sheets of paper at the same time, nor check a book the thickness of her closed fist in less than ten seconds, but here she was.

As she waited for her turn, Alice scanned the rest of the people gathered there. All of them were humans, and most of them, she guessed, were also outworlders. The insecure gait, eyes full of wonder and shiny clothes betrayed them, whereas the people she saw that had more rugged clothes or straight-up armour made of a myriad of different materials were obviously the more experienced Delvers. Or golden children that had borrowed their parent’s gear, but she didn’t think it was that as everyone with more personalised gear was leaning a lot towards the older side. At least those she could see the faces of.

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The only people her age in the hall were the obvious outworlders, and as Alice pondered whether she could, or should, ask if she could go without a group, she immediately discarded the idea. She only had a single area spell which she didn’t know the efficiency of, and more people would be able to cover up for her deficiencies. Even then, Alice considered forming a group nothing more than a temporary arrangement.

The thought of someone that wasn’t herself taking care of her back sent shivers down her spine.

No, that wouldn’t do at all. Perhaps at a later date, where she was completely sure of her own security and personal power, she could let some of her guard down, but doing so once she had acquired only a smidgeon of true power was the height of foolishness. Better to stick together until she could really fend for herself.

“-hello? Are you going to keep hogging up the line or are you going to step forward and tell me what you want already?”

With a startle and a small jump, she stared at the redheaded woman across the wooden counter, clearly a clerk, that was glaring at her through big, thin round glasses with a golden wireframe that protected a set of green eyes.

Only after wondering why she’d need glasses in a world with magic, she noticed that there were some tiny runes around the rim of each crystal glowing a very faint blue. As she stared at them, she couldn’t help but wonder what was their function.

“See something you like?” the clerk asked in a deadpan, and Alice coughed, caught staring and spacing out for the second time in less than a minute. “Uhm, yes, I mean no, I mean-”

Fuck.

She took a breath and started talking slowly, carefully thinking over each word. “I’d like to be assigned to a group, if it’s possible.”

The clerk stared at her suspiciously, but didn’t comment on her slip-up. Alice heard some snickers from behind herself, and at that moment she oh so dearly wished to immerse herself in the core of her Ether, and let sweet agony take her away.

“Outworlder?” The girl asked, and before she could answer, a single glance at Alice was enough to confirm it. “Outworlder. Pain Acolyte… that’s a rare one.” She muttered the last part in a whisper, but Alice heard it anyway.

“Do you have any spells yet or are you figuring out your Ether?”

“I only have a single spell, but I’m working on more. It’s a, uh… Domain type?”

The clerk nodded as her hands blurred, abruptly stopping once she put down a small white orb on top of the wooden counter. “Please push some Ether inside. You can keep it, as this is your group’s badge of identification. It’ll help you locate teammates that have been assigned to the same group as you.”

Before Alice could voice her question as she eyed the orb with suspicion, the other girl waved a hand at her. “Don’t worry about being tracked down. It only detects active beacons, and you can turn that on or off at will. Anything else?”

Alice thought it over as she injected a small amount of Pain into the orb, and she perked up as an important question popped in her mind. “Yes, actually. First, are there any training grounds available, and where are they? And second, my Ether apparently has strong traces of Psi Ether. Is there any way to…” Alice struggled with how to word her question without being unnecessarily rude, and the clerk finished that for her.

“To practice it without having the spooks come for your head? Sure, just let me calibrate your identification, and it’ll lead you towards the training grounds where Psi and other dangerous types of Ether are permitted. Beware of residual hazards though. We do our best to clean them up after being used, but it’s not always possible to purge them up completely.”

Alice nodded as she gave and then received her identification back after the girl fussed a bit with it. A knot of apprehension coiled inside her chest, even as it was smothered at the thought of seeing more magic in action, especially one that wasn’t her own.

“One last thing, do you know where I could get some gear?” Alice pulled at her clothes as she asked, and just now she noticed that they were suspiciously empty of grime and dust from being in the dead zone between the Blossom and Mistfall.

“Sure thing. Just ask at Mercury Threads, the shop at the Main Hall. They’ll direct you towards their sibling shop, Mercury Edge. There you’ll be able to get some basic gear for free, or something more to your tastes using the sparks you were given when you arrived.”

Alice nodded, remembering that Sparks were the strange coins with a glinting miniature star in the middle of them, and she nodded. “Thanks, and, uh, sorry,” Alice said, muttering the last part.

“Don’t worry about that, just don’t clog the line next time and we’re good. Next!”

Quickly grabbing her identification and shoving it inside one of her pockets, she made a quick exit from the Hall as she consulted her mental map for the quickest way towards Mercury Threads, and as she did so, she kept admiring the architecture and people she came across.

On her way to the central tower smack dab in the middle of the city, Alice crossed paths with all types of people. Hardy, soft, feminine, masculine, neither, soft-spoken, guttural, armoured, dressed in fine silks… The thing she noticed the most, or rather, the absence of, were beggars.

There wasn’t a single person lying down and asking for alms, but instead, even the most rough-looking, down on their luck people she encountered, had a thing in common.

A manic gleam shone within their eyes. A fire inside the windows of their soul that raged with the intensity of a sun going supernova. Every single one of them moved with purpose, grace and poise. Every single one of them, she felt, had an objective to complete at that moment, and nothing that put itself in their way would stop them.

As Alice approached the Main Hall, she wondered, and actually thought about how she had arrived at Aethas for the first time in almost two days.

What would having a patron Goddess that embodied Victory, do to a society, to a people and culture, as a whole?

Would it inspire them to break the shackles of mediocrity, always pushing forwards without flinching…

Or would it produce a society filled with maniacs that would stop at nothing to get what they wanted?

Perhaps a middle ground?

Alice didn’t know, and, instead of fear, she felt excitement for her budding future, even through the undercurrent of freezing fear that fueled her every action.

She couldn’t wait to see which one it was.