Mel woke up in a haze the next day, feeling like she barely remembered what had happened yesterday after she’d taken the mother’s embrace at the church of the sun. Her mind still felt cloudy and her limbs had trouble waking up. Mel stomped her feet against the floor, trying to get that twitching feeling to leave her foot.

Gabs had left their room early this morning, venturing out before Mel had even been able to lift her eyelids. She had heard her walking around and then closing the door after her. But Mel felt like it had mostly been a dream and wondered if everyone got like this after visiting the sermon at the church of the sun. How would they get anything done on Sundays in that case?

Mel wrapped Gabs’ purple cloak around her and let out a deep sigh. Today she needed to look for a job. Her mission was to earn one gold in only a few days, something she believed she could do if she only put her mind to it. But she could not stay home, resting. She needed to get outside into the small drizzle covering Aldrion with a thick veil of clouds.

She dragged her hood up over her hair and tucked in the few strands that fell against the front. Mel made her way down to the town square and walked up to the first merchant stall she recognized. It was the man who sold hats and bags that she had wandered into when she had followed Austin that night after the history test.

“Are you looking for a hat or a bag?” the merchant asked.

Mel shook her head. “Actually, I’m looking for a job. Do you know if anyone is looking to hire?”

A frown descended upon the man’s face, and he gave her a sigh. He gestured with his hand to go away, but Mel stayed put.

“You have to have heard if anyone is looking to hire,” Mel said. “Please, help me out. I will do any kind of job.”

The merchant raised one eyebrow at her and looked Mel up and down. “With that cloak around your shoulders, not many would believe you want any kind of job.”

Mel looked over her shoulder and saw the purple fabric gathering along her arms. Gabs’ cloak was of quality fabric and had an intricate black embroidered pattern along the hems. It was probably worth a lot more than just one gold, and Mel felt like she understood the merchant.

She dragged the cloak off her body and wrapped it together in her hands. She tucked the fabric underneath her arm and straightened her back. The merchant observed her again and Mel gave him a leveled gaze.

“Fine,” he said. “Audrey is looking for a barmaid at the Last Stance. Don’t tell her I sent you. I don’t want to be responsible when you mess up. Okay?”

Mel nodded and gave the merchant a thin smile. “Thanks.”

She walked away from his stand and without her purple cloak over her shoulders, she could feel the cold creeping into her clothes. The small drops of rain sunk into the fabric of her brown shirt and Mel shivered against the chill. But she didn’t put her cloak back on, for when she walked through town square like this, no one seemed to take notice of her.

No one asked her to purchase their goods or taste their fruits. Once in a while she even got a distrusting eye cast upon her and Mel couldn’t help but smile. She liked not being noticed. She liked to not be the dragon cult girl or the noble.

At the Last Stance, the bar was filled with people yelling and ordering new drinks. The tables were dirty with beer spill but no one seemed to even care. Mel had noticed more people attending this place since after the attacks started and really, she thought it was the only business that was actually making more money today than before.

She struggled against the crowd of drunken people and made it up to the bar. Mel was pressed against the shoulders of two sturdy looking men and had to make herself small to fit between them. They didn’t even seem to notice Mel and were yelling at the bartender to fetch them more beer.

Mel waved her hand at the bartender, but she didn’t even seem to look at her. Mel felt annoyance and frustration rise in her chest and finally it was just all too much. She elbowed the man to her right in the side and he moved away from her, creating a big enough hole to fit.

“Hey!” he said.

Mel threw him a dirty look and then waved again at the bartender. This time, she saw Mel and gave her an unimpressed look.

“What do you want?” she asked.

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“I want a job. I heard you were hiring.”

The bartender walked closer to Mel and studied her face. “You think you can handle this crowd?”

Mel nodded. “I made it up here to the bar, right? I think I can handle it.”

The bartender shrugged and poured another beer from the tap. “The pay is two copper a day and food is included. You can start today.”

Mel leaned back from the bar, and her face paled. Suddenly she felt ashamed of having gone all the way up here to the Last Stance and taken up both the merchants and the bartenders time without even realizing how little they would pay her. With this wage, she would be able to pay for her room after months of working here.

“Oh, sorry, I didn’t know the pay would be so low.”

The bartender snorted at Mel, and a burly laugh escaped her lips. “We’re not in the business of entertaining nobles here, as you can see. The pay is fair and any real worker would be glad for it in this economy.”

Mel took a step back from the bar, feeling her cheeks hot with shame. “Do you know where I could find something that pays a bit more?”

The bartender put up two beers on the bar and the liquid sloshed over the rim of one of the glasses. She looked back at Mel with a serious face.

“You could look for jobs at town hall or from the Tavecks,” she said. “But just remember that you will have to do things you will never wash free from if you do take employment with them. They handle far messier things than just some spilled beer. I wouldn’t do it if I had another choice.”

Mel swallowed hard and gave the bartender a thin smile. “Thanks for the advice.”

Outside, Mel put her purple cloak back on and felt the weight of it over her shoulders. She needed the money and Mel didn’t think she had any other choice, not a choice that wouldn’t leave her in debt to her friends, at least.

She felt like she had already invested this much time and effort into looking for a job and she wanted to see this through. Sure, if she couldn’t find anything, then she might have to surrender to the idea of living for other people. But she didn’t want to give up yet.

Mel made her way to town hall and walked up the stone steps to the building. She entered a hall as big as the room inside the church of the sun. Only here there were no paintings of religious icons or altars at the top. At town hall the only paintings were depictions of dusty old men and the altar was a receptionist desk with two primly dressed women sitting behind it.

She walked up to the receptionists and one of them looked at her with a deep frown on her forehead. The other seemed to barely take notice that she was here. There was a man dressed in a gentleman’s suit who stood to the side, reading something he seemed to have received from the reception desk.

“Hi,” Mel said. “I’m looking for a job and was told to come here and ask if you have any openings.”

Mel put on a bright smile and focused on the receptionist, who wasn’t watching her intently. The other one made her feel uncomfortable.

The woman looked up from the desk at Melissa and scrunched up her nose. “Perhaps,” she said.

The other receptionist, who was still staring at Mel, interjected. “No, not for you.”

Both Mel and the woman looked at her with startled expressions. Her no had been hard, like it could cut rock.

“Why not?” Mel asked, taking a step back from the desk.

“We know who you are,” she said. “Melissa Temper from the dragon cult. The void will have to win before we let one of you spies into the government.”

Mel swallowed hard and felt her eyes bulging out. Spies?

“What?”

“I’m watching you,” she said. “Don’t think for a second that we trust you to not report everything to the void or to those wretched dragons.”

The other receptionist had turned her gaze back to Mel now and seemed to understand who she was. She gave her a distasteful look and Mel backed away from the desk. The man in the gentleman’s suit had stopped reading his papers and was now also watching Mel. His face was full of contempt.

Mel felt her heart banging in her chest like a caged animal. She couldn’t breathe any longer. She knew they hated her, hated the dragons. But she had never even considered they might think she was spying for the void.

She turned around and ran straight into a broad chest, feeling her hands brushing metal buttons on a vest. Her eyes focused on the blue fabric, embroidered with silver threads, and then turned up to take in the face of the man. It was hard and had too many angles, just like Austins. It was his brother Derek Taveck and Mel took a step back from him immediately as she recognized the man.

He stared down at her, first in shock, but then his face changed into disgust. Mel felt her limbs growing heavy, and she wanted to run away from there, but she was frozen into the ground. Someone opened the large door behind Derek and a cold wind blew in from the outside. The weather must have picked up into a mild storm while she had been in here.

The wind ripped at Derek’s blue cloak, and Mel suddenly felt like she recognized it. Not just as the Aldrion blue worn by soldiers and elemental warriors, but this exact nuance of blue. It had fluttered past her eyes once before, out in the wastes, when she had been saved from the shadow. Maybe she had been saved by Derek himself.

He seemed to regain his reserve and walked past Mel, keeping his gaze on her the entire way. Mel willed her legs to move and stepped out through the door onto the steps outside. He had watched her with such hate in his eyes, and Mel felt like she didn’t understand what was going on.

Why had Derek saved her life if he hated her? Why did the receptionist at town hall think she was a spy?

Mel didn’t know the answers to these questions, but she knew of someone who might.