After everyone returned home, I returned to the clinic to see doctor Trish and Old Mo. They had asked me to tell them about my first day of school, and promised me a dinner at my favorite fish restaurant. I asked Felix if he wanted to come along, but he wanted to play with binding essence now that he finally had access to his primary essence. Which was understandable, if a little disappointing.

When I arrived at Doctor Trish’s clinic, to my surprise, I found Markus and Old Mo talking outside of the clinic doors.

“Markus! Old Mo!” I said, giving both of them big grins. I hadn’t seen Markus in person since he had asked me to deliver his love letters to doctor Trish.

Once Old Mo saw me, he gave me a quick hug before putting me back down.

“Miria,” said Old Mo, after setting me down. “How was your first day of school?” Then he paused, and his voice took on a more serious tone. “Did you learn anything from the other kids in your school?”

I resisted the urge to wince.

Before I had gone to school, Old Mo had mentioned to me a few times that I was bad at acting like a regular kid. He suggested that I take a look at the other children I met and try to learn from them.

After talking to Iselde, I finally realized several gaping holes in my 'act' as a normal seven year old. The way I thought and acted was so removed from normal children that it was a miracle nobody had ever caught on. Most seven year olds were just putting together a coherent idea of how the world worked. They were filling in their understanding of cause and effect and the world around them. They usually had a rough idea how some things worked, but had misunderstandings about other things. And those misunderstandings sometimes led them to ludicrous conclusions about the world.

Meanwhile, as a four year old, I was going around with fully developed vocabulary and a working understanding of science and society. I still ended up with weird gaps in my understanding of reality, due to the differences in the laws of physics from one dimension to another, but it was way different from a real child.

“I met a girl named Iselde,” I said, eyeing Markus. “She talked about how she wanted to drink fertilizer potions to grow bigger and healthier.”

I saw Markus twitch as he took in my words, but he didn’t say anything else, while Old Mo chuckled.

“Most children are like that. I know that you and your friends are a lot more mature than most kids your age. I hope you can still get along with them,” said Old Mo. He paused for a moment, and I saw his lips quirk in amusement. “I hope you also explained why drinking a fertilizer potion is a poor choice.”

I nodded. “I did my best. I’ll try to make friends with Iselde. I can learn a lot from her, and she’s a nice ki - errr… person.” I nearly called Iselde a ‘kid,’ before I realized that a seven year old referring to another seven year old as a kid was odd. I had a lot of mannerisms that I needed to work on cutting out.

Old Mo nodded appreciatively, before Markus stepped in and patted my head.

“Little Miria,” said Markus, grinning at me. “I’m glad to see you’ve settled in so well. And that you’ve mastered the local language.” He spoke to me in Damilian, and I smiled proudly.

“Yeah, it’s a lot easier to talk now! It was really hard at first, but I got some help from doctor Trish. Now I can talk with everyone I meet! Thank you for your help when we were entering the country. It meant a lot to us at the time. Thanks to you introducing me to doctor Trish, we had an easy time settling into the city.”

“Is that so?” asked Markus, rubbing my head. “I was a bit surprised when Doctor Trish said that you were learning medicine from her. Usually kids don’t enjoy such dry topics.”

I nodded. “I want to learn how to heal my mom. She doesn’t wake up very often. Old Mo hired one of Doctor Trish’s assistants to look after her while I’m at school. To make sure she doesn’t hurt herself or do anything bad while I’m away. If I want her to return to normal, I need to learn a lot.”

I saw Markus relax a little bit at those words. “As long as you’re happy with what you’re doing, I suppose. But make sure to spend some time playing with your friends and having fun, all right? You're only seven once.” I resisted the urge to grin a bit at that statement. It was my third time being seven since joining the Market.

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A moment later, Markus knocked on the door to Trish's clinic.

“Trish! I’m here!” he yelled.

“Markus?” asked Doctor Trish, before I heard a few muffled bangs. Doctor Trish hurried out of the clinic before slamming the 'closed' sign onto the door. Finally, she turned to see us.

When she saw Markus, she seemed to fall into a trance for a few seconds. It was as if she had forgotten that Old Mo and I were there.

She smiled at Markus, and he smiled back at her.

“I thought you were coming next week,” she said.

“I got rewarded with an extra week of vacation by my superior,” said Markus. “He also mentioned that I might get promoted when my vacation ends.” Then, Markus stepped closer to her and enveloped her in a hug. The two stared at each other for a few seconds, lost in their own world, before they separated again.

“I don’t know if I want you to get promoted,” said Doctor Trish, after a few moments. “I haven’t seen very much of you this year. If you get promoted, you’ll be even busier. I was hoping…” she trailed off.

“Then I’ll turn it down,” said Markus, still smiling. “If it seems like it’ll eat up more of my time, I can stay in my current position.” Then, he looked more closely at Doctor Trish’s face, and I thought he was about to go for a kiss. A moment later, he seemed to hesitate, and then brushed her hair away from her face instead. Trish leaned a little bit into the contact. “I missed you a lot.”

"I missed you too."

The two spaced out again, staring at each other for a few more seconds, before Old Mo cleared his throat.

Doctor Trish finally remembered that we existed, and gave me a light hug. “Little Miria,” she said, before turning to Old Mo. “Old Mo and I already have the reservation set up. Should we start walking?”

We started walking away from Doctor Trish’s clinic, and towards the restaraunt.

“How was your first day of school?” asked Doctor Trish.

“It went well! Anise, Felix and I are all in the same class,” I said. "And I made a new friend! Her name is Iselde!"

“That’s great to hear. Being able to see your friends every day would make school a lot better. And making new friends is always fun,” said Doctor Trish. “It’s good for you to spend more time with kids your own age. I know that you’re friends with Anise, and spend a lot of time with Felix, but I never see you hanging out with other kids.”

I winced. I hadn’t ever thought about it, because I always thought of myself as a very social person. But ever since we had joined the Market, I tended to spend a lot more time with adults, or other people from the Market. It was hard to connect with real children, given how long I had lived already.

“I’m glad to hear you’re going to school too,” said Markus, grinning. Then, his grin faded, replaced with a grimace of distaste. “The fact that the war is affecting so many children is a disgrace.” The disgust on his face faded as he turned towards me again.

“Anise and Felix didn't come today?”

I nodded. “Felix wanted to keep practicing alchemy. It’s his dream to be a great alchemist, so it makes sense." I shrugged. Felix probably also wanted a bit of alone time. Since I was still claiming that he was my brother, he lived with my mother and I. My friends and I cared about each other, but that didn't mean we didn't want some space from time to time.

I realized I had trailed off, and focused on the conversation again.

"Anyway, he seems too excited about our first alchemy lessons to focus on anything else. In a few weeks he'll be more ready to socialize again."

"How about you, Miria? I'm a bit surprised that you're also going to school. I mean, when we talked at the fort, it sounded more like Felix was the only one planning to go..."

"I thought that it was a good place to learn some medical knowledge," I said. "Healing my mother is too hard for me to do right now, since my ability can't do everything on its own. I'll have a better chance of healing her if I learn more. And I can also learn to be a doctor if I go to school. Being able to heal without relying on my ability will be a good skill to have in the future.”

Markus nodded. “Being a doctor is a great profession.” His gaze turned slightly playful as he glanced at doctor Trish. “I hear that doctors are all amazing people. They’re very attractive, and compassionate, and…”

Doctor Trish swatted at his shoulder as she turned red. Markus cut off his words, but his grin grew wider.

We arrived at the restaurant, placed our orders, and then went back to discussing my first day of school. Everyone asked me about my teacher, Iselde, and how my first alchemy lesson had gone. I was happy to tell everyone about my day. After the food arrived, we had a pleasant evening eating dinner and chatting. I also sent the occasional message to Anise and Felix, although they seemed distracted. Anise and Felix were talking about some kind of project that Anise had an idea for. I made a mental note to ask them for details later, and see if there was anything I could help with. But for the most part, I just enjoyed the evening and soaked up the attention from Markus, Trish, and Old Mo.

All in all, it was a nice evening, and it was also nice to see Markus again. I’d had a good impression of him when he helped us into the country, and I was glad to see that he hadn’t changed.

It was a lovely first day of school, and a lovely dinner to celebrate it all.