"Can I, really?" Ria asked, eyeing Sage like a predator eyeing its prey.

Wiggling my tail, I nodded. "Yes. A promise is a promise."

"Yay," the little kitare squealed and pounced on my fluffy tail, almost disappearing in its long hair. "Aw… she's so soft."

Ready for a whole new set of feelings - as so far, I had been the only one to touch my tail; not even Dungreen, that deranged asshole bothered to lay a finger on it except to check where it grew from - I still gasped for breath when the little kitare hugged it. She was very gentle, obviously knowing what she was doing. Her hug gave me no discomfort, let alone any pain. If anything, the opposite. As she gently stroked Sage, enjoying the softness of her, the blood rushed to my cheeks, making my heart melt.

'It's so nice.'

It really was. Not in a weird way. Just nice, like having your hair petted or your mom brushing your hair - maybe a little more intense.

"Sage is as soft as my mother's tail," the little kitare hummed, tangled in my tail.

"It is?"

"Um-hmm."

Innocent, perhaps, but her remark made me wonder if the tail was so significant among the Terr'den that Ria always compared mine to her mother's. Was it something like a dick-measuring contest, only instead of men's junks and women's jugs, tails were compared? Whatever the case, it flattered my pride.

'Was mine perhaps bigger than hers, softer? Ridiculous.' I chuckled at the thought, which prompted Ria to raise her head from the fluff to ensure everything was fine. But as soon as she saw I wasn't laughing at her, she turned her attention back to my tail.

Honestly, this whole thing kind of reminded me of my own mom. She often told me how she didn't have time when I was little, that she had to take care of me and my brother while doing other stuff, and that sometimes she could use an extra pair of hands.

No doubt that with their tails, the Terr'den mothers had an advantage in that.

Smiling to myself at the fond memory, I looked at the kitsune, who was just introducing her tail to mine.

"Sage, this is Lia. You can be friends ..." she giggled, wrapping her tail around mine. Just for the fun of it, I did the same, which made Ria laugh even more. Unexpectedly, I found myself in a rare moment of joy, blind to all the people around me, neither ashamed nor embarrassed.

But all good moments were bound to come to an end, otherwise, they wouldn't have become fond memories.

"Uh, Ria?" I asked, a tent of some sort in one of the corners of this black monolith catching my eye. "What is that? Is that where you register as a seeker?"

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She giggled at my silliness. "No, you do that at the City Hall. Tents like those are set up by scholars, mages, and tinkers."

"Oh, they are studying this monolith?"

"Monolith?" The little kitare gave me a questioning look, but then shook it off. "Yes, they are. They say it's the way they figured out how to make spatial tools - that they studied runes on a teleportation platform."

'So this was a teleportation platform, good to know.'

"I see. Are there other tools they've invented this way?"

The one the city guards used to communicate with each other came to mind. My little guide, however, frowned in thought and shook her head. "I'm sorry, Korra. B-but I don't know."

"That's okay. I was just curious." The tent down here, though, reminded me of those up on the square. "What would you say to browsing the stalls? You mentioned an inn, a cookhouse, or was it a restaurant?"

'Restaurants - was that a thing here?'

"Yes, restaurant, Gilded Feast," she beamed, letting go of Sage a bit reluctantly to straighten out her uniform and satchel, all professional. "I'll take you there. Follow me, Korra, Sage."

─◇─◇─◇─

Well, Gilded Feast turned out to be everything I imagined and Ria made it out to be. A mouth-watering place that was way out of my price range. Actually, all the stalls in the square were, at least the ones I saw. The Labyrinth Square was huge, and although we spent a good two hours going through the stalls, I hardly saw half of them. Nevertheless, there were stalls of all kinds, having almost everything I could imagine, from food to clothing, armor, weapons, art, magic tools, and magical supplies. I saw stalls selling potions to the seeker, beauty products, and things promising safe and intense lovemaking but also stalls buying up what seekers brought from the depths beneath the city, whether it was raw materials or dead beasts. From what little I had heard, as we walked by, there was quite a bit of money in it to be made.

'Should I give it a try?' A tempting thought.

Actually, one that reminded me that I shouldn't spend my day browsing stalls while paying my guide but looking for a job instead.

Sure, you could argue that by being here I was learning what it meant to be a seeker. After all, diving into the depths of the city, as I understood, was an option even for me. However, I wasn't stupid to go there equipped the way I was. No, I had to earn a few coins first.

'Where, though?'

Of course, there were the message boards at the City Hall. According to Ria, they were used for everything from gathering materials to offering jobs. A good place to start, if only the mere memory of the crowds in front of them and the thought of me pushing my way through them didn’t give me goosebumps.

'Heck, no.'

Annoyingly, though, Rayden refused to take me on as a cleaning lady even after I agreed to be bait. Which didn't leave me with too many options. I could either look for a job on my own or...

"Ria?"

"Yes?"

"Take me to the Scoresbys."

I felt bad for taking advantage of the old man, but it would be stupid not to take the hand offered. Not to mention that I owed them both an explanation for not showing up last night as promised.

Well, as it turned out that the old man wasn't in the shop, so I was left at Mrs. Scoresby's mercy.

As soon as I walked through the door in my new clothes, she asked me what had happened and wouldn't let me leave until I told her everything - within the bounds of what I was allowed to tell her, of course - and listened to her complaints about the lack of city guards on the streets, the greed of the city lord, and the arrogance of the nobility in general. Only then did she let Ria and me know that her husband was in the stables, tending to their scalehoof mares.