A moment later, the door swung open to reveal a grizzled old man. He had metal arms that resembled the arms of a gorilla, and a beard that was almost as large as my head. His hair was a rusty copper color, and his face seemed permanently stretched into a flat line that was neither a smile nor a frown.

“Well hello there little girl. Are you lost?” he asked as he gave me a confused look. “How did you ….. …….?” I missed a few words because he was speaking in Damilian, but I understood enough to realize what he was asking.

“Umm… Me… Miria. Not… not lost, but register abilities!” I said, trying not to stumble over my words. I wasn’t sure if Markus spoke Semurrian, so I did my best to speak in Damilian. Unfortunately, my grasp of the grammar of the language was… questionable. I could understand the language well enough to get by, but speaking it was harder.

“The soldiers outside said talk to you!” I said.

Markus seemed confused by my broken Damilian. He spoke much more slowly with his next sentence.

“Miria ….. ….. speak ….. …. language?”

Unfortunately, I didn't know most of the words in the sentence, so I had no idea what he had just asked.

“Ermm… do you speak Semurrian?” I asked in Semurrian. Without Old Mo to help communicate, I was struggling to communicate. I wished that I had asked Old Mo to teach me a little more Damilian and a little less Semurrian.

The corners of the burly man’s lips quirked up for a few seconds, before they drifted back down. It looked kind of like he was smiling awkwardly.

“Nice to meet you, Miria. My name is Markus,” he said, this time in accented Semurrian. I breathed a sigh of relief. I could actually communicate with him. He extended one giant, steely hand towards me. I reached my hand out and he gently shook it.

“Well, if you need to get your ability registered, you’ve ….. to the right place. But aren’t you a little young to have taken an ability …..?” asked Markus, curiously. “And why register here? In most towns there are ……. …….. to do so.”

“We’re refugees,” I said. "I have an ability because my father gave it to me, before he died."

Markus's expression darkened as he looked at me for a moment, before he forced out an ugly smile. “Ah. I'm sorry for your loss."

"It was a long time ago," I said.

Markus nodded, and changed the subject. "You're doing a good job of trying to learn Damilian, at least! I'm sure you'll master it in no time!"

I nodded, and smiled. "It's hard, but I'll get lots of practice in the future!"

Markus chuckled. “Some of the sentence ….. is a bit hard for people to learn. Don't worry if you struggle with it. Learning a new language is hard." Then, his eyes grew a little softer as he looked at me, before he sighed.

“Anyway. Ability registration. I’ll need you to use your ability so that I can …… it. That way, you can get a …….. to use it in Damilius. What kind of ability do you have?”

“I can heal people! As long as they touch water, I can fix wounds. I can even regrow limbs!”

“Healing, huh. Can you show me? Ah, you need a wound, don’t you. Here, one moment,” said Markus, before pulling out a massive combat knife from his belt. Markus poked his wrist with the knife tip. A very shallow wound appeared on his wrist. I saw a single drop of blood ooze out a moment later. Then, Markus reached over to a little canteen of water on his belt and dumped some water onto the injury.

“There you go. Can you show me?”

I activated renewal, and the injury disappeared in seconds. “Is that good enough?” I asked.

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Markus inspected his wrist, and poked and prodded at the former knife wound. A moment later, he grinned.

“It’s healed. I can’t even see a scar.” he said. “I’ve never heard of a healing ability potion that …… ……. such a good job of removing traces of injury.” I missed a few of the words in the middle of the sentence, but I understood most of what he had said. Markus seemed to sink into thought for a few moments, before he shook his head.

“For even a kid with a healing ability like yours to be fleeing… things must be pretty bad. Normally, your ....... would treat you really well, in exchange for healing. And running to a new home is ......... dangerous. This war is even worse than the usual ones.”

I winced. I had heard a few other soldiers mention that. To be honest, I couldn’t refute them. This war seemed brutal even for a continent that was at war every decade or two.

When he saw me wince, Markus's expression turned panicked for a moment.

“Sorry, sorry. I shouldn’t have - look, I’m not that good with kids,” he said. "I just... I think it's awful how wars like this can do so much ..... to people. But I shouldn't have brought it up. You're probably too young to ...... ...... what I'm thinking about, and I doubt it brings up ...... memories for you."

“Relax,” I said, trying to stem the flow of words shooting out of Markus’s mouth. “Don’t worry, you seem like a nice soldier.”

I saw Markus smile, although it vanished after a few more moments. It was the widest smile I had seen him make since entering his office.

“All right, since you've shown that you can …. healing, do you have any plans for …. future?”

I nodded. “My friends want to go to school, and I heard that healing pays well. I’m going to heal people and get money for everyone. Then Felix can get the education he wants. He wants to learn how to be an alchemist,” I said.

“Earning money as a kid? You should leave earning money to the grown-ups,” said Markus. The corners of his lips quirked up again, and I could tell he was trying not to laugh.

Rude!

“But the fact that you want to help your friends is ……,” he said. I missed the last word, but based on the smile on his face, it seemed like he was complimenting me.

I shook my head.

“I want to help my friends. And healing people makes me happy,” I said. It wasn’t even a lie. Of the things I had done to earn Achievement in the past, my two favorites were exploring interesting places and healing people.

“Is that so?” asked Markus. I could see him think for several seconds. “Well, if you should go see a doctor first, and have them figure out what your healing ability is ...... ........doing. It seems like an ability that isn’t ......., as far as I can tell. There are a lot of ....... healing abilities, but I’ve never heard of one that ....... contact with water. Since your ability isn't ........, you should make sure ........ ...... side effects. What town were you guys planning to settle in?”

“We haven’t figured out where we’re going yet,” I said. “I want somewhere far away from factories though, because they smell terrible.”

Markus chuckled. “Most people want ….. ……. away from factories. Most cities are a reasonable distance away, so you won’t have to deal with .... smell or ....... of lots of factories. A lot of factory owners complain about transportation difficulties, but …… …….. .” Markus shrugged. “Anyway ……., I know a doctor who’s ...... nice. She lives in Vintella. It’s on the ....... side of the country, right on the coast. It has a good university, too. If you don’t know where to settle, maybe you’d like it there?”

“It sounds like a good idea!” I said. “Are there any downsides to the town?”

Markus thought about it. “The bad part of town is a bit worse .......... than in other cities. But I doubt it will ……. your life much. The only other thing I have to say about the town is that it’s a …… town. The local .......... is built around the ………. university. So it’s easy to find a lot of …….. products nearby, and get ingredients, but it’s also harder to make money if you don’t interact with …….students.”

I nodded. “What age does the university accept people? How long does education last?”

“Most universities accept kids who are at least 15 years old, and then teach people for five years. There are also some schools that start earlier, and prepare kids for actual university. I know…. universities start earlier, but not ….. . It might be best for your friends to start there,” Markus said.

I smiled, thanked Markus for the help, and then chatted for a bit more about the town of Vintella. I got the contact information for the doctor Markus was recommending as well. After that, Markus took a picture of me, and printed out a little ID stating what ability I had and some basic information about me. The camera surprised me, since I hadn't known they existed here. I wasn’t sure if that was because I had grown up in the slums, or if they just hadn’t spread to Verne, or what. After I left Markus’s office, Felix entered Markus’s office next, and Anise and I chatted while Felix got his ability certificate ready. In the meantime, I spoke with Old Mo about Markus’s suggestion for what town to settle in. Old Mo seemed amenable to Markus’s suggestion, so we decided to head towards the town of Vintella.

Once we finished getting our new id's, we would head to Vintella and see if it was a good place to settle down.