— 3 days until evaluation —

Oliver wakes in the course of being dragged out of the chair by an annoyed guard. He stumbles as he passes through the doorway to join with River and another guard. They’re led to the building’s entrance, and their restraints are removed.

“You’re free to go.” Oliver’s belongings are shoved back into his arms, and River was given Paige’s.

The guard gave them a final disdainful look before closing the door.

Oliver thought he was still asleep if he was being honest. He stood there in a daze for a solid thirty seconds before River tugged on his sleeve.

He blinked a few times, shook his head, shrugged.

They began walking through the morning crowds toward Oliver’s apartment. River’s head was on a swivel, taking in the fantasy city she had yet to see since she had entered this world. She still took care not to speak, wary of being discovered even after having been released.

Oliver noticed some food being sold by the road, flatbread. He picked some up. The normalness of what he was doing felt… wrong. But what else were they to do?

They kept going all the way to Oliver’s apartment. He fished out the key, unlocked the door.

And then they were at the dining table, flatbread in hand, eating.

Neither of them spoke.

Then, Oliver’s eyes went wide as his brain caught up to the situation. He smiled, then frowned – then became intensely thoughtful. River was more concentrated on the food than him.

Oliver cleared his throat. “Alright, so there’s a few things we have to do.”

River looked up.

Oliver put down his flatbread, reminded of the first time he’d eaten it. With Levi.

“First of all, we’re both atrociously filthy. You’ll need some new clothes if we don’t want to draw any attention.”

River scrunched the poncho in her fists, holding on to it.

Oliver noticed, “... Well, sure. But you need new clothes other than that… Oh, and some kind of mask.”

Wait… is there much point to continue hiding her identity? Saves the trouble of building a new one, but who knows what connections Paige had…

Thinking of Paige, the gear that had been returned to River was spread on the table. Oliver continued, “Secondly, we need to figure out what to do with all of this.”

A wooden bottle with a cork, a simple knife, a money pouch which held only a few silver coins and a ring with an emblem – possibly magical? And finally, a fancy looking wand.

Oliver picked up the wand, and directed some magic into it. One of the few patterns lit up, and a pellet of ice launched at the wall, impaling itself there. “... This might sell for a lot, but I think I’ll keep it.”

Oliver noticed River patiently waiting for him to continue. He sighed.

“Last and most importantly... There’s a boy I was– am taking care of. I would like to get back to looking for him as soon as possible, but…” Oliver looked the frail girl up and down. “Well, you’ve been through a lot.”

Both of them shared a moment of silence over the events of the previous day.

“Would you rather stay here while I go, come with me, or do you need me here?”

River continued to be silent. Oliver looked at her bandaged face. “You can talk now, by the way.”

“I’ll-” She coughed, not having spoken in a while. “I-I’ll come with you.”

Oliver nodded, and walked over to his room, before coming out with a small bundle in his arms. “Well, here’s some of my clothes for the moment, though they’re too big for you. We’ll buy some while we’re out. Bathroom’s there.”

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—

Emilia makes her way to the Ministry in the early morning, as she usually does.

Emilia passes through the front doors, as she usually does.

She walks through the corridors, passing other Officials without trouble. Receiving less hostile looks than she had previously. Upon opening the door to her office, she finds it in perfect condition. She can’t help but grow a little smile at the sight.

Stephen comes by a bit later in the morning, and stays for about an hour– helping out as he had promised. He seemed to have something else on his mind, as he left without saying much. But overall, the day was quite smooth so far.

The door to her office opened, Emilia looked up, wondering who it might be.

Oliver looked Emilia in the eyes.

Emilia’s steady face faltered, “O-Oliver?”

Oliver, before asking about anything else, had one question locked and loaded.

“Emilia. Have you found Levi?”

Emilia was taken aback for a second, momentarily surprised by the question. “Levi? Yes he’s alright as far as I know. What about you?”

Oliver slumped in relief, looked around the office. Then grew concerned, “If he’s not here then where is he?”

Emilia remembered that Oliver knew nothing of what had happened the past few days. “I would imagine he’s at the Scholarium now, alongside his new friend.”

Oliver blinked a few times.

Emilia continued, “Nevermind him for the moment, it turned out he never was in any real trouble. How did you get out of the guardhouse? Are you alright? And who’s that?”

A short figure was peeking into the room, they wore a blue poncho and a wooden bunny-shaped mask, the kind one might wear during some kind of festival event.

Oliver waved the figure in. “This is Paige, she’s a fellow survivor… I haven’t thought to describe it like that before now, but it’s right enough. We were both prisoners. If you’re asking why they just let us leave, I would also like to know.”

Emilia looked at Paige skeptically, but turned back to Oliver, “So are you alright or not?”

Oliver averted his eyes, “Can’t say that I am. Nothing else to do but continue though, right?”

They left it at that for a second, until Oliver met Emilia’s eyes again. Now, a certain conviction behind them that she hadn’t seen before. “Can I still work for you?”

His answer was a wide smile, uncharacteristic of Emilia. She picked up Oliver’s bag that she had been keeping with her, and handed it to him.

“Rest today, come tomorrow. There have been some pleasant changes.”

Emilia really was having a good day today.

—

Levi was distracted. He’d been distracted since morning. He had woken for the third time in the esteemed Steel family home. Talk around the breakfast table was of the expedition that had returned–what was left of it, anyway.

He wanted to go check. To go find out if Oliver was one of the two survivors. But he was afraid. Afraid that Oliver wasn’t going to be there, but also that if he approached Oliver, and Oliver had been ‘found out’...

It was dangerous. He had been considering it all throughout the first lecture of the day, and he was still thinking about it as the lecturer wrapped up and lunchtime approached.

Mia stabbed him with a fork.

“OW!” Levi jumped.

“Can you hear me now?” Lady Mia waved a hand in Levi’s face, he pushed it aside.

“Yes! What?!” Levi was annoyed, though he was in the wrong, having been spaced out the whole day.

Lady Mia gave him a contemptuous look, but shrugged. “I heard something interesting about the returned expedition this morning.”

Levi’s annoyance faded in a moment. “What did you hear?”

She smiled, “Intrigued, are you?”

The look on Levi’s face was earnest enough that Mia didn’t keep it from him long. “The two survivors have been pardoned by my father.”

Levi was shocked, but soon schooled his expression. There was only so much a nine-year-old could do to hide their feelings, though. Not that it seemed to matter.

“I’ve been told their names. Say, Levi, your brother was called ‘Oliver Crest”, right?”

Levi just stared, waiting for her to elaborate.

“He’s one of them.”

He began trembling. Mia looked on, at something of a loss.

He couldn’t hold back the tears–he was in public, too! He was too old to cry! (Well, maybe not. But he had decided to grow up faster.)

Lady Mia looked on worriedly. Her guard knight oversaw the whole interaction, allowing this learning experience to shape Mia’s understanding of people’s emotional reactions.

They decided to find somewhere to eat lunch.

—

Professor Stephen didn’t need to attend lectures, he would prefer to read all of the information himself. It had always been that way, to take in the information in its most objective form.

That’s not to say that information is written objectively, but in a way, it was easier to parse.

Unfortunately, books were harder to come by than back home. Sure, paper had a certain level of abundance – but there wasn’t much of an industry for books. Or much standardised industry at all, since this society wasn’t industrialised. Not that they needed to be, with all the magic and so-on, but it meant more personalised products rather than standardised, which wasn’t an amazing combination for books.

Books were not formulaically put together for teaching purposes, they were old notebooks, certain famous guides hand-copied from geniuses who lived previously. Some recipe books and such, but often hyper specific and unhelpful.

All that was to say, learning was a slow burn.

Add on to that, Professor Stephen was a man of science. Hence, he had a certain perspective when it came to new information. How did it connect to the information he already had? Does this new information further any current understandings of the world, does it shatter them? Is this world even consistent with the last? Perhaps these were bigger questions than he could answer for the moment, but the gravity, the weight of science was on his shoulders.

Wouldn’t it be nice if he could watch a movie he’d saved on his phone, listen to some music, and relax. Too much shit had been going on. Rest was an important ingredient to efficiency, and all that.

Well, it has been said that laziness is a key part of innovation.

Stephen tinkered with a little mechanism he had thrown together. Simple, incomplete.

The Scholarium provides all kinds of resources to its students for their studies and experiments. Enough for most magic and alchemy. Don’t get Stephen started on alchemy.

Anyway, annoyingly, they didn’t seem to have any magnets.