Hwang Sung led Lee Jia into a small building that smelled strongly of ink and paper. Inside, half a dozen people dressed in the same uniform robes bustled around, sorting and filing various papers according to some system that was entirely arcane to Lee Jia. Two men sat at a desk at the front, one slouched lazily, looking extremely bored, and the other had the rigidly straight posture and serious expression of a soldier on duty. The straight-faced one greeted them as they entered.

"Greetings, Elder Hwang. What can I do for you?"

"Disciple Guan, Disciple Xin, it seems we’ve had an unexpected visitor. Could I trouble you to handle her registration and assignment for me?"

"Another one?"

The last grumbling comment came from the lazy looking one, who was eyeing Lee Jia with undisguised contempt. The stone faced disciple continued as if the lazy one had never spoken.

"Of course, Elder. We’ll see to it immediately."

Hwang nodded at that and turned back to Lee Jia.

"Well then, I have my own duties to take care of so we’ll part here for now. Before I go, there’s one more thing I can do for you. Stay still a moment—oh, and hold your breath."

Lee Jia was about to ask what he meant when he produced a small paper talisman and held it out towards her. With a blue flash of light, the talisman disintegrated in a way that reminded her of what happened to the token after she’d crossed the shield formation’s threshold. Water coalesced out of thin air around her before enveloping her in a frigid, swirling torrent. A moment later, the water dissipated back into the air leaving Lee Jia clean and dry—albeit also cold and shivering.

"U-u-um t-thank you?"

Hwang Sung chuckled at her chattering teeth before turning to leave.

"Best of luck to you, Miss Lee! It was a pleasure meeting you."

Lee Jia watched him leave with wonder. That was magic! A magic bath! It was so convenient! Was she going to learn to do that too? She was starting to get excited about the prospect when the sound of a polite cough broke her out of her reverie.

"Ahem, name and age, please."

The lazy one—Xin, she remembered—addressed her with a tone and expression that said he’d been through this hundreds of times already. Or maybe it was just his natural state of being.

"Um...Lee Jia. Fourteen or fifteen? I think."

"You think?"

"I...don’t know when my birthday is. And I haven’t always been counting."

Lee Jia wilted under the exasperated glare of the man, feeling a bit embarrassed about being unable to answer such a simple question. Luckily the next few questions were simple enough to answer, such as her city and country of origin. There was one that stumped her entirely, however.

"Cultivation level and discipline?"

"...what?"

The two men exchanged a look that Lee Jia was unable to interpret before he tried again.

"You’re a beastkin from Goryeo so you’re obviously a mage. What level of mage are you?"

Lee Jia was a bit annoyed at the casual use of a pejorative like ‘beastkin’, but decided to let it go and just answer the question.

"I’m not a mage."

Xin blinked in surprise.

"Really? A spiritual cultivator then? Or perhaps a martial artist. I didn’t think your country had those."

"Uh, I don’t think so? I don’t think I am any of those things."

Xin stared incredulously at her for a moment before shaking his head.

"What are you even doing here? I’ll just put down ‘unawakened’, I guess."

Lee Jia frowned as the man scribbled the details down onto a document and filed it away. She couldn’t deny that she was out of place here, but it didn’t feel good to be reminded of it.

"Miss Lee."

The other man—she mentally labelled him Stoneface—got her attention and handed her a bundle of cloth. His stoney expression never changed as he explained.

"This is your academy uniform. There are some basic enchantments on it to protect it from minor wear, but you should take care not to let it get too damaged, as you will be required to replace it at your own expense."

Lee Jia stared down at the bundle in wonder. It was the same kind of robe worn by Stoneface and Xin, as well as most of the other people she’d seen in town. Mainly dark green in color, with a lighter green forming a brocade pattern and a gold-colored trim along the edges. The material felt soft, like silk and she was pretty sure that if she tried to sell this back in Nayeong she’d be set for life—assuming she wasn’t arrested on principle just for having something that was so obviously out of her class.

"A privacy ward has been prepared for you to change into your uniform. I would recommend that you take the opportunity to do so now."

Stoneface gestured towards an impenetrable gray shroud in the corner of the room. Had that been there before? The sounds of the busy room were dampened as she crossed the threshold of the formation, and inside was a small changing room with a bench and a mirror. Lee Jia wasn’t quite so shocked by this application of magic—simple, self-powered formations and talismans were commercially available in Goryeo to anyone who could afford them. Not that she had ever been able to afford them, herself.

As she began getting changed, Lee Jia took the opportunity to examine herself in the mirror. Though Magus Hwang’s spell had cleaned the filth from her journey off of her, it did little to help her ragged appearance. The filthy rags she wore—too stained to have been cleaned entirely by the mage’s spell—were worn down to a scandalous degree.

Lee Jia blushed as she realized she’d spent the better part of the last hour being scrutinized by several men while showing so much skin. The fur on her ears and tail was patchy and unkempt, and her short uneven hair was a tangled mess despite barely being long enough to have tangles in the first place. Her skin—what little of it hadn't been tanned by a life without proper shelter—was a sickly pale pallor, and her ribs were visible from malnutrition.

Lee Jia met her own golden eyes in the mirror, the vertical-slit pupils narrowing as she steeled her expression. This was her lowest point—on the verge of starving to death, forced to make a deadly gamble that had somehow paid off more than she could ever have hoped or imagined. She’d never been so helpless before and she vowed here and now that she never would be again. She was still skeptical of what this place had to offer, but for every inch it gave her, she would take a mile—no, a hundred miles. Lee Jia’s ears twitched as she heard a quiet voice, barely audible, come through the shroud and interrupt her thoughts.

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"—have no idea where I am supposed to send the filthy beastkin for lodging."

She frowned as she recognized Xin’s voice. She didn’t think she’d been meant to hear the conversation happening, but the foreigner had underestimated the heightened senses of a half-spirit—they were much more common in Goryeo than elsewhere on the continent. Lee Jia heard Stoneface’s distinct monotone respond and decided to listen in carefully as she dressed.

"Can you not simply lodge her with one of her countrymen?"

"Genius, Guan. Why hadn’t I thought of that? The only openings are the Hyeong boy and that other troublemaker. I’m not about to send her to the boy’s dormitories, and the other one—well we were instructed to keep that one away from other Goryeon students for now."

"Hmm. Most humans likely wouldn’t tolerate the beastkin. Perhaps someone from Yamato? They interact with spirits more often, don’t they?"

"A commoner perhaps, but the last opening was taken by some Goryeon noble. Probably an intentional insult."

"I thought this place was meant to be free of politics, Xin."

"Guan, please leave the sarcasm to me. I can never tell if you’re joking with that face. Private accommodation is, of course, out—I’d insult every noble from every country at once with that. Which really only leaves—"

"The troublemaker after all."

Xin sighed.

"Yes, unfortunately. Hwang is going to be upset with me, but I’m forced to weigh one foreign instructor’s irritation against that of basically everyone else’s."

"It seems an elegant solution to me. Neither can be paired with anyone else, nor can they be granted private lodging. So put them together and be done with it."

"Refreshingly direct as always, Guan. That’s why I keep you around."

"That and your family demands it."

"Yes, and that."

Lee Jia had already finished dressing by now, and decided to cease her eavesdropping. Checking herself one last time in the mirror, Lee Jia was begrudgingly satisfied. The sleeves and skirt had been the right length, and the cut of the dress allowed for a surprising amount of mobility without being too revealing—but the robes were too loose and she had needed to cinch the belt sash uncomfortably tight to keep everything in place.

The wooden sandals provided didn’t seem weather-appropriate, but at least there was a pair of warm white socks to go with them—she’d certainly made do with worse. There was also a small comb provided, but after a fruitless attempt to straighten her tangled hair, Lee Jia gave up and elected to just tuck it into the oversized sleeves of her robe.

Xin eyed her critically as Lee Jia emerged, and she forced herself to meet his gaze defiantly. She was dressed the same way he was now—any problems he had with her appearance would be pure prejudice. Xin smirked slightly and shrugged before breaking eye contact and producing a small charm of engraved jade.

"Here, this is the key for your lodgings. Keep it on your person and the door will open for you. You’ll find the girl’s dormitories due west of the town center. Your building will match the engraving on the key."

Lee Jia accepted the item then looked around a bit awkwardly.

"Thank you, um—what am I supposed to do here, exactly?"

She immediately hated herself for wilting again under Xin’s condescending gaze. She still felt so lost and out of place, despite gathering her resolve earlier.

"Well most of the early arrivals volunteered or were drafted into helping with preparations like Guan and I were. You, however, have arrived rather punctually. The initiation ceremony will be first thing tomorrow morning in the central courtyard."

Lee Jia nodded—at least now she had some kind of direction. She was about to turn to go, but something about Xin’s smug expression put her off. She didn’t want to leave the impression of some meek little girl he could just bully around—it seemed like a bad precedent to set if she was going to survive among mages and...whatever the other countries’ equivalents were. She stopped and looked back over her shoulder.

"By the way, Mister Xin, a word of advice?"

"Hmm?"

Xin raised his eyebrow curiously, his expression only growing more smug as he gestured for her to continue. Lee Jia glared at him.

"I don’t know how they do things in Qin and Yamato, but you should watch who you call a ‘filthy beastkin’. If you aren’t careful you might actually insult someone important—and Mister Guan, half-spirits are still human."

Xin’s jaw dropped open and his eyes widened in shock. Guan’s stoney expression remained impassive, but Lee Jia thought she saw his eyes widen just a fraction for a moment. Or maybe she imagined it. The silence was broken by Guan, who nodded to Lee Jia.

"Very well, Miss Lee. I will take your words under advisement, thank you. I apologize for the breach of etiquette."

Lee Jia returned the nod and fled the building while she still had the upper hand. She might pay for it later, but she relished the cathartic feeling of scolding someone with higher power and status than her. She heard Xin sputtering as she left.

"How in the Emperor’s name did she hear that!?"

It didn’t take Lee Jia long to find the town center, which consisted of a large square and a central courtyard. Following the road west, she soon found what must have been the dormitory. It was a small, gated residential district with neatly arranged rows of small houses. The size and quality of the houses varied quite a bit, ranging from what looked like tiny single-room domiciles, to small manors with their own courtyards. Each dwelling had a unique symbol engraved above the door and after a brief search, she was able to find one that matched the key she had been given.

Unsurprisingly, it was one of the smallest dwellings. As Lee Jia approached, she considered what she had overheard before. Apparently she was to have a roommate—some kind of troublemaker who didn’t get along with other Goryeon people? Lee Jia wasn’t sure who that could refer to except possibly herself, not that she had any intention to cause trouble if she could help it.

Stepping inside, Lee Jia was greeted by a small antechamber where she could remove her wooden sandals before entering the main room of the house. She noted an identical pair haphazardly discarded here, indicating that her mystery roommate was likely already present. The main room was a humble living space consisting of a pair of couches flanking a small tea table and a wood burning stove that appeared to serve the dual functions of both heating the house and cooking.

Lee Jia saw no sign of her roommate, nor was there a fire in the stove. She looked inside it, only to see that the stove had no fuel in it, but rather a formation of some kind engraved within. Lee Jia didn’t know how to operate the formation so she decided to just leave it alone and continue exploring. Not that there was much to explore—there were only two doors leading out of the main room. The first was a small and mostly featureless room with a slight slope in the floor leading to a drain of some kind and a bucket in the corner. Presumably a room for bathing, though Lee Jia wondered where they were meant to draw the water from.

When Lee Jia opened the door to the last room in the house, she was met by near pitch darkness, the only light entering the room coming from behind her. Her eyes adjusted quickly and she saw that it was a bedroom. On each side of the room was a single bed nestled into the corner, a small chest at the foot, and a wardrobe on the opposite wall. Opposite the door was a window, which had been shuttered. On one of the beds, curled up in the corner, Lee Jia saw the silhouette of another girl with her knees pulled up against her chest and her long, straight hair falling over her face. She stirred as Lee Jia entered, her head lifting fractionally to regard her.

"Go away."

The other girl’s voice was low and threatening. Lee Jia didn’t know how to respond, but felt like she had to at least try to be friendly if she was going to be living under the same roof as this girl.

"Um, sorry to intrude. My name is Lee Jia. I’m going to be—"

"I said fuck off!"

The girl’s shriek cut off Lee Jia’s attempt at introductions and was quickly followed by something hurled towards Lee Jia’s head. Though she ducked instinctively, the object flew well over her head and struck the door frame with a dull thunk. Looking up, Lee Jia saw a knife stuck halfway into the wood and began to sweat nervously.

"I don’t care who you are, mage! Don’t think I won’t kill you because of your status—you wouldn’t even be the first! Now leave me alone!"

The other girl’s threat was backed up by the gleam of another knife reflecting the sparse light coming into the room from behind Lee Jia. She raised her hands in a placating gesture and attempted to resolve the misunderstanding.

"Wait! I’m not a mage, I just—"

Lee Jia saw the other girl's arm swing back and quickly ducked back out of the room, slamming the door shut behind her just in time to hear another thud as the projectile bounced off the other side. What a psychopath! Wasn’t ‘troublemaker’ putting it a bit lightly? And nevermind other Goryeons, this girl didn’t seem inclined to get along with anybody.

Lee Jia sighed heavily as she let herself collapse onto one of the couches. Looking outside, she saw that the sun was setting. It was cold, she didn’t know how to light the fire, she had no blankets, and there was some knife-throwing psycho in the house with her. It was...still an improvement over her last living arrangements, she admitted begrudgingly.

She’d have time to figure out how to fix all those problems later. For now, she'd had a long day after a week of travel, and she felt the exhaustion catching up to her. Her eyelids grew heavy as she curled up on the couch—thankful for once that her small stature gave her enough space to do so. Though she couldn’t help but cast wary glances towards the door leading into the bedroom, eventually she lost the battle against her exhaustion and drifted off into a restless sleep.