At the end of the corridor was another door, and behind that were more corridors, windowless, and with doors on either side. Up one flight of stairs and after a confusing number of turns, Yaris pointed towards a numbered door.

"This is our room," she said as they entered. "There's five beds, which is why the guild wants us to have a fifth member. The costs of room and board comes out of your reward money. If you haven't done enough during the month to cover costs, then you have to pay your fees yourself somehow. Hope you saved up the previous months."

From across the room, Eim made a gesture at her that might have been rude. "If you have class-debt-" she glanced at Shrike for some reason "-then that comes out of your own savings. Don't go putting that on those of us who made sensible choices."

Shrike huffed at her, sitting down heavily on one of the beds, and Jump-touch got her first look at her new home.

The room was larger than their whole house back on the Mountain, but the way it was set up made it still seem somehow cramped. Five metal-framed beds filled most of the space, two against each wall and one in a corner, with a writing desk and a chair where a sixth might have fitted. Each bed came with a small table beside it, and a box at the end. In the corner between the desk and the wall, there was a large pile of jumbled stuff.

"The chests unlock-" so that was what a locked chest was -"when you touch the lock with your ring. They key to you, and only the guild staff can open them otherwise. Don't lose your ring."

"I'll put it in my Heart," she said, then winced, "my [Pocket Zone], I mean."

Yaris gave her a look, pointing to the bed nearest the door. "That one's yours. Keep it clean, take it in and out of your storage every morning to knock the dust off, I don't care, but if you break it you'll have to pay it back."

"Does that happen often?" Ollie asked, rummaging through the pile of stuff, "breaking the beds, I mean."

Yaris shrugged, tipping her backpack upside-down onto what Jump-touch presumed was her own bed. "Why don't we have the kid store everything and then we can just sort it out later."

"It'll allow us to clean the floor, too!" Eim added, from atop his bed.

"I didn't only mean the beds," Yaris was splitting her stuff into two piles, and Jump-touch could identify none of it. "But all the junk we have piling up in the corner too. We could take it to the Quarter House and offload it all at once."

"Later," Shrike sat up, shuffling backwards until he was leaning against the wall, "my knee is doing alright at the moment, despite somebody's best attempts at otherwise, so I think we should get heading out before it gets too late."

Jump-touch watched, one hand on the bedside table, all a bit overwhelmed.

"Oh, there are toilets at the end of the hall. You can wash there, it's all part of your room and board. If you need a bath, use the bathhouse on Water Street."

She would not be doing that again, thank you very much. She would just... Send herself to her Heart and knock all the grime off that way. Yes, that sounded more sensible.

Jump-touch inspected her new bed, finding herself not impressed.

It was nice that it was raised up and away from the floor, but she would have preferred a hammock, and she would have to find some cushions to sleep on. The mattress looked hard.

Still, she shouldn't complain, she was trying to impress these people, to become a part of the group. Even kobolds could get fed up with complainers eventually.

I didn't mean to call it my Heart out loud, they're going to question that, the Stone said, but what was done was done. Should she tell them she could store people in there, or that she could go there herself?

Jump-touch sighed and sat down on the bed, suddenly tired. Her skin still felt raw, her shoes were too tight, and although the anger at Angel had faded, she could still feel the coals of it weighing down her stomach.

She wished her hair was tied up and not in a cloud around her face. It was too short to tie back, she'd had it cut not long ago. She should have let it grow out. She'd been going to find a hair-tamer, not to go… Wherever they were going to go.

She blinked as Ollie laid a hand on her shoulder, before flinching them off.

"Are you okay?" they asked.

She nodded, blinking, realising her eyes had started to dry out. "I'm alright. Just-" she hesitated, "are you guys fighting?"

Ollie blinked at her. "Fighting?"

She nodded. "You keep swearing at each other, and shouting. I don't understand it."

They glanced at her, and then at the others.

"We're not fighting?" They finally said, although Jump-touch wasn't sure she believed it.

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They sat down on the bed beside her, "where're you from, kid?"

I hate that. I should stand up for myself.

"I'm not a kid," she tried, "I'm-" a hesitation, they wouldn't understand her real name or be able to pronounce it, and she hated the translated version. "I'm Jump," she said finally. "That's my name, and I'm fourteen, I'm an adult."

There was a snort from Eim, and Ollie shot him a look she still couldn't read.

They looked back at her, "you're not from Resper, right?"

She frowned, "the language?"

"It's the name of the city you're in right now."

"Oh," she paused, processing that, "no. I only got here yesterday, to use the Stone."

Shrike knocked his cane against the end of the bed with a resonant clang, causing them both to look over at him, "you speak Resper very well, though."

"The Stone taught it to me, when it gave me my class. I couldn't speak it until yesterday."

He nodded, and Eim looked up from where he was crouched in the corner, only his head visible over the end of the bed, "I didn't know it could do that."

"It happens sometimes," Shrike said, shuffling along the bed towards their locked chest. "It's a Boon, not a skill. It's rare, though. You spoke a different language where you're from, then?"

Jump-touch shrugged, shy and slightly regretting her plan to be more assertive. "Only one most of the time. But I speak that and uh," she thought about it, "a second one well, and-" she hesitated, "two or three others? Maybe four? But not well! Don't try and make me speak them properly!"

I should have stayed quiet!

Ollie gave her another look she couldn't read, "I didn't know there were that many languages?"

"There's hundreds." Shrike answered before she could say anything, "almost every human city has it's own, and some of the bigger ones have regional dialects that could almost be considered languages in their own right. Technically, here, we should all speak both Resper and the King's Tongue, but I dunno, do any of you remember more than three or four words in it?"

Yaris sighed, "they tried to teach us that in school. I know how to say-" she said something in her normal voice, that sounded like she'd memorised it by rote, "- and that's it."

Jump-touch queried her skill, her Boon, for School. 'A building where young humans were grouped together to share a teacher.'

That made sense, in a village this size.

"It never stuck," she had sorted her stuff into two piles now, "too much coughing and spluttering."

"I can speak a bit of it," Eim emerged from his hiding place in the corner, arms full of things. "It was required learning for anyone doing desk-work in the guild. Your accent is atrocious."

Yaris moved up to help him with the load, and Ollie flopped into her spot on the bed, scattering the two piles.

"Are you gonna keep it up?" they asked.

Eim shrugged, dumping the pile of stuff into Yaris's arms and disappearing back into the corner, "maybe," his voice came from somewhere near the floor, "I didn't mind it, and once you get used to the accent it's not so bad. I think our teachers in school let us down."

Yaris dropped the stuff on the bed next to Jump-touch, and she realised she'd sat down at some point. When did that happen?

"Here kid- Jump, I guess, sorry. Put these in your special room, and then once you've recovered we should be good to go."

Jump-touch stared at the rapidly growing pile, as Yaris took another armful from Eim, "I think I need shelves."

Shrike knocked his cane against the end of the bed, more gently than last time but no less jarring, "you actually visualise it as a physical space?"

Jump-touch nodded. "It's a room with a stone floor, made of the same stone as the long road outside town. There's no walls, but sort of…" She waved her arms, "it doesn't matter, stuff won't fall out."

Shrike pointed his cane silently at Ollie, and they rolled their eyes, but also gave a gesture of two thumbs up as they walked backwards out the room. She didn't understand them at all. What did the gestures mean!

Oh, they were gone. Now was her chance. Should she ask the others if they were a boy or a girl, would that be weird? She was pretty sure humans tended to fall into two groups, but she had never met any humans before yesterday, and it wasn't like the other kobolds were experts either.

Why didn't Rat-tail tell me he'd lived with humans?

She dismissed that thought, picking through the stuff on the bed and sorting it into piles. Some sort of fatty jerky, wrapped in oil-paper. A bag of dried vegetables, maybe for soup. Cooking and eating equipment, two pots and a frying pan. Something which might have been a sword, a wooden spear with a shiny metal tip. There was also a box of small bits and bobs. A writing set, small candles, and various bits of broken chalk.

Eim emerged from the corner again, wearing four backpacks. One over his front, one on his back, and one over each arm. Yaris rolled her eyes at him as he fell sideways melodramatically onto Jump-touch's bed, narrowly avoiding impaling himself on the spear.

"These bags have our clothes and sleeping stuff in," Yaris said, extracting Eim from the pile, "we didn't mean to take them out with us yet, but, well, then you turned up. Our fifth member left behind the extra kit, so you can have it, I didn't see you with your own." she paused, "oh, it's in the [Pocket Zone]?"

"I have a blanket," she hedged. "and a fire-kit?"

A pause, "I would like a nice cushion to sleep on though."

"Like a dog," Eim said quietly, for some reason earning a strike on the leg from Shrike, who had to almost stand up to reach him. "I bruise easily, you club-wielding maniac!"

"Don't say stupid shit then!" Shrike shot back. "Stone help us and Gods preserve us-" he switched languages suddenly, from Resper to… She figured it must be the King's Tongue they'd been talking about a minute before. It was guttural enough.

She could feel herself almost understanding it, there was something there, on the edge of her mind. She needed an in.

She had always loved languages, humans alone had hundreds? Wow, the thought struck her suddenly. Exactly how big a magical gift had the Stone been offering her, when it tried to teach her every language.

The two conversed stiltedly for a moment, before Eim sighed, rolling to his feet and lining the backpacks up on her bed. "I get it, I get it. I'll be good."

He turned to her, "Kid- Jump can you stor-"

He was interrupted by a knock on the door, and a moment later Yaris was holding it open for Ollie, who was now burdened by a heavy-looking wooden bookshelf.

"Where did you steal that from?" her voice was wary, or maybe weary, as she helped haul it into the room.

"Oh nowhere anyone will miss it. Don't worry about it. Also sort it out for me, I gotta cover my tracks."

-and they were gone again.

Jump-touch pushed off the bed, walking over to the shelf. A second later she staggered as it was added to her Heart, leaving behind only a cloud of dust.

"Do you feel heavier?" Shrike asked, and she glanced at him before walking in a circle. She hadn't considered that. It was magic, and that was about as deep as her thoughts on it had gone.

"I don't think so? I feel the same as before."

He nodded, and she headed back to the bed to start on the stuff there, making sure to sit down first.

Shrike let out a relieved sigh. "Good, let's get this stuff stowed away, and then let's go."