“Good evening, Lecturer Gaius.” Mai, the rabbit-eared beastfolk, nodded in greeting. “And hello to you too, Nakama!”

           “…Bully?”

           Mai’s ears quivered, and the people around her shook on the spot, clearly trying to restrain their laughter.

           “Now, now,” Gaius rebuked lightly, “don’t call people bullies for no reason, it’ll make them feel sad.”

           “But I have a reason!” Nakama sniffed, and then clung onto Gaius’ right arm. “They bullied you two weeks ago!”

           “That’s all in the past, right?” Gaius tussled her hair, and then made her sit down beside the teary-eyed Mai. “That said, I still haven’t gotten over how you lot tried to keep mum about the incident yesterday.”

           Mai and her followers tensed up slightly. Gaius wasn’t sure how they were treated, or going to be treated, by the lot who the young lecturer had to rescue personally, but he had the feeling that they were already beginning to feel the repercussions of their cowardice. Ultimately, they had chosen to flee, and even though Gaius’ arrival could have been contingent on them finding backup, it didn’t change the fact that they fled.

           Paradoxically, it was both acceptable yet despised. The former due to the increasingly pragmatic slant of the remnant beastfolk of Ark City, and the latter due to the traditional cultural expectations that beastfolk held and used to judge others. To preserve one’s life was no longer a sin, and yet it still was.

           “I…” Mai looked downwards, at the snow, as she tried to formulate her words. “We thought that they wouldn’t last long, and it would look bad on us if we asked for helped, only for the saviour to find a pile of dead people.”

           “Indeed, it would,” conceded Gaius. “But the fact of the matter was that when I arrived on the scene, most of them were still alive. Had I not grilled you on that matter, and left Heritage with you, the entire group would have died. In that case, you would have been an accessory to their deaths. That won’t hold in a trial, true, but will you really be able to live with yourselves?”

           “I—”

           “—If you people had asked me for help immediately,” Gaius interrupted her words, “Maybe none of them would have died, and one of them would still have their arms attached.”

           She froze at these words, as did the rest of the group.

           “Look,” said Gaius, “it is no shame to not help another if you can’t, but at least make mention of your inability to do so to those who can. As it stands right now, it’s entirely possible that a Harvester had died due to everyone’s silence.”

           There was a moment of silence, and then Gaius pulled Nakama onto her feet. Nodding a silent farewell to Mai and her group, the two made for a relatively empty space, where Senator Alexandre was waving at them. His face was beaming, as the duo made their way over to them. 

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           Gaius wasn’t sure if he was married, but from the looks of it, he definitely didn’t have any children. Or maybe he loved cute little people, like Nakama, in general. 

           A small whirlwind sprang up as the senator doubled down on his handwaving speed, which Nakama tried and failed to emulate. After watching them play at it for twenty seconds, Gaius too sat down beside the two.

           “So,” said the senator, after his hands tired out, “I heard you got an Engine?”

           “Yes, sir,” Gaius replied. 

           “That’s Alexandre to you, Gaius.” He shook his head. “Go and learn from the other lecturers — they don’t go making me uncomfortable!”

           “Yes, Senator Alexandre.”

           “Argh, fine. Anyway, what Engine did you get? Rumour has it that you got the Howling Gale.” The senator tapped his fingers in contemplation. 

           Gaius rubbed the bridge of his nose. He wasn’t too sure about what abilities the Howling Gale had, and if he said something superfluous, he might give himself away. 

           “The ability to fly is really useful, isn’t it?” Gaius flashed a small smile, keeping his face as emotionless as possible. It wasn’t hard — he had practiced in the arts of being overly cryptic on Earth before, when he had…

Had what? Gaius grimaced inwardly. Whatever memory he’d managed to call up just now had receded once again. Shaking his head lightly, he focused onto the senator once again, who was now casting furtive looks at Gaius’ expressions.

           “What are you doing, Senator Alexandre?”

           “You know, Gaius, you should learn to be like your sister more. Look at her! So expressive!” The senator’s answer didn’t make that much sense, but he continued on anyway. “Your face looks like it was carved out from rock or something. Never really saw you make any faces other than the stern one.”

What, and let people figure out that I have the Stellar Core from an overly obnoxious face of gloating? No thank you, sir. Gaius poked at his face in a show of curiosity, and said, “I’ll think about it, senator.”

           “See that you do.”

           Gaius rolled his eyes as the senator went back to making funny faces with Nakama, and then briefly pitied whatever child the Senator might have, or would have.

           Minutes passed, and the Sheltered Duelling Grounds were beginning to get crowded. People were beginning to get into altercations with each other, but before anything untoward could happen, Nalus walked onto the stage.

           The place fell silent immediately as the Campmaster’s son cleared his throat. “Welcome, to the first ever auction of Ark City and Heritage Basestation. I’m the Auctioneer of today, and I’m pleased to…”

           Gaius’ eyelid twitched slightly as Nalus continued to speak the niceties for the next minute or two. He wanted to make a brief complaint about the word ‘Auctioneer’, which had appeared in his short speech of two minutes around ten times, as though as he wanted to get it into the head that he was The Auctioneer and no other. It did fit his image perfectly, however, when combined with the classy podium that had appeared on the stage.

           After re-introducing the rules of the auction once again, Nalus clapped his hands. Two men clad in longcoats walked onto the stage, a sharp sword hanging at their sides as they carried a velvet case over.

           Nalus opened the case, and a faint purple glow emanated from it. “For the first time, we have an ether core. It’s different from the usual ether cores that had been placed on the Exchange recently, and it’s been verified to be of a higher quality. There’s no minimum bidding price for this, and the minimum increment must be a hundred points.”

           Murmurs broke out, and buyers began to yell out their prices.