To be honest, apart from the higher price of the food, the lunch with my new colleagues wasn't all that bad. The Blue Chair was a lovely-looking tavern, the kind I imagined when reading fantasy books. The quality of the food matched the price, and the curiosity of my new colleagues, especially Naeryn's as Moira had warned me, echoed my worry.

"Where are you from?”

"How did you become a slave?"

"Did they make you take the array?”

"Are you half Terr'den?"

"What kind?"

"Is that why you can talk to animals?"

"Mr. Hale's tight-lipped about it, but... I hear you can throw out a presence, a powerful one.”

Yeah, the rumors had reached their ears, like so many seeker companies in the city.

Have the mind mages reached my new colleagues, too, though?

Annoyingly, I wasn't able to tell. Their curiosity seemed logical, and I knew them too little to be able to tell if they acted out of their way. As such, that left me with no choice but to do my best to quench their curiosity while not giving too much away. And that was more exhausting than the whole morning's work - nerve-wracking, too. Seriously, instead of being happy with having a full stomach, I returned to the stables more drained and suspicious of others than before.

Of course, that lunch with my new co-workers wasn't just a chore. There were moments when I completely forgot all my worries and felt - well, like a mere human being and not a hunted beast.

'Why can't the mind bastards just come and be done with it?!' A stupid thought that I couldn't shake off, constantly popping into my mind as if planted by the mind mages themselves to destroy my mental health.

»Lady, worry too much.«

»No strangers here.«

»You safe.«

It wasn't the least bit funny how the tables had turned. Just two days ago, I had been the one assuring the scalehoofs that they were in no danger - from me. Now, despite my best efforts not to let it show in my voice, they were the ones feeling the need to calm my fears.

Sweet and frustrating at the same time.

Not only was I putting them in danger by being here, but being cared for by animals, something that should be my prey, simply rubbed my beast pride the wrong way. I should be out there, stalking my prey, not sitting around with my thumbs up my ass waiting to become one.

'I am NOT the prey, but the bait!'

The truth to calm my inner beast, one that I had to remind myself of more and more often, knowing well that the line between the two was really thin. And just like that, wearing me down with dread and suspicion, my second day of work came to an end.

Unfortunately, not the threat of mind mages.

My only solace when I hit the streets of Castiana was the ten pieces of silver I got from Stable Master Hill, the knowledge that Lieutenant Blaine was out there somewhere, and that my plan for Sage had worked. To be more specific, my attempt to force myself to focus more on my domain by not bothering to hold my farts back. It happened just as I was on my way to collect my coins, swerving in the corridor to avoid Moira, making sure she didn't brush against my tail, that the inner side of my skull tingled with the Lattice notification.

* 14th glyph engraved on Spatial Domain (⦿⦿)

'One small step forward.'

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The downside of not holding back my poison farts came to light the moment the first recruiter from another Seeker Company approached me.

"Hello, miss. Would you mind having a word with me? I'm from Azure Bond, and I have an offer for you," a tall, beautiful woman in a lovely dress asked me in the middle of the street. At that moment, I realized it wasn't a bad thing to have the ability to release a cloud of apple-scented poison at hand, just in case.

In fact, it put me in quite a quandary.

'To hold back my farts, or not to hold back my farts?'

Well, there wasn't much I could do about it right away, so I listened to the woman, while paying close attention to any hint that she might be a thrall sent to speak to me by mind mages. Paranoia? Honestly, it was starting to feel that way.

'What am I actually searching for?' Despite looking through my domain, all I found was how her clothes were better tailored than mine and how flawless her skin was. Obviously, it would have been too much to ask to see the sign [Brainwashed] hovering over her head, but I didn't notice any lies in her words either. She believed what she was saying, which made me wonder if Azure Bond was one of the more honest seeker companies. That, and whether a thrall could even be discerned that way. Would the lies put into thrall's heads by the mind mages seep into the intent behind the words and become their truth, or would the true meaning of their words reveal the lies? Something to ask Rayden the next chance I get.

Nonetheless, her offer of 50 silver a week, the opportunity to train with experts, and the support in the Labyrinth while delving didn't sound bad at all. The same could not be said about the price for it, though. They wanted to explore the possibility of using my "mighty" talent.

'Big no to that!'

While I would like to find out more about the beast might, maybe even learn to control it, the thought of doing so under the supervision of who knows who and who knows where while unable to say no gave me the creeps. Stupid in a way, for sure. Unless I figure it out on my own, I would have to ask someone for guidance at some point and let them teach me how to do it, anyway.

'But it will be on my terms, not theirs.'

In fact, the reason I was heading to City Hall before the woman from Azure Bond stopped me - to find my language teacher there, to free myself from my dependence on the Lattice's translation.

As always, however, life saw it differently. Before I could make it one block closer to my destination, having thanked the woman and taken her business card with the promise to consider her offer, a familiar meow reached my ears.

»Lady, here.«

Alley, the cat that had found a home with Lieutenant Blaine, was basking on one of the windowsills of the houses lining 1st Main Street. There was no way I could just walk by, and so, pretty sure I was about as stealthy about it as a fox in a henhouse, I made my way over to her.

"Hi, little one," I greeted and petted her, trying to convey my "inconspicuous" intentions of being the bait.

»Paper.« Of course, Alley wasn't there just for a scratch behind the ear. As before, there was a note tied to her neck. However, I couldn't help but admire Lieutenant Blaine's work. If I hadn't known what to look for, I would have missed it.

That said, having learned from my previous blunder of standing at an open window reading a note, I untied it, “pretending” to scratch a cat under the chin, and shoved it in my pocket; one question on my mind: 'Where should I read it?'

Finding a back alley was out of the question, for obvious reasons, and waiting until the evening when I would be alone in the room might not be a good idea. Lieutenant Blaine saw fit to give me the message now for a reason.

'Perhaps, hide in some shop?' I thought as Alley stretched under my stroking.

»Nice day, Lady,« the cat meowed, jumped off the windowsill, and disappeared into the crowd. A bit stumped, I tried to follow her through my domain, only to realize that might be the way to go.

While my outer domain allowed me to perceive a decent seven and a half meters of unobstructed space around me, it was not in the details and colours that I perceived the world through the inner domain. Never did I try to read through it, though.

'Was it possible?'

Spurred on by the thought, I unrolled the note in my pocket and focused. As easy as one would think it would be, it wasn't. All those folds and twists of fabric protecting my modesty kept drawing my attention away. The fact that I got moving so I wouldn't stand there like a fool didn't help either.

'Come one, just a bit more...'

Just as I made my way to Seeker's Square, where the City Hall lay, the words on the note sprang up before my eyes.

│City Hall. Ask for an instructor to evaluate your fighting skills.

│Don't worry about the coins. All taken care of. Will be given back.

'What the fu...?'

However, before I could finish my inner thoughts, they were interrupted by yet another tingle of the Lattice notification.

* 15th glyph engraved on Spatial Domain (⦿⦿)