The train station of Linden was quaint, a single small platform with a dainty ticket booth beside the stairs, manned not even half of the time. Today there were only a handful of waiting passengers, all Mages. Since sunrise they had been waiting for the train to arrive, sitting side by side on various benches. On one of the benches sat a young woman with long chestnut-brown hair, a large-brim straw hat, and an expensive seeming white cotton blouse, a long brown skirt falling to her feet. Two suitcases and a briefcase packed with her things were on the stone floor in front of her, a small box filled with sleeping chicks on top.

Amy Wachlund looked to her side to see the familiar Apprentice Mind Mage she had met several days before or - as she got to know him better on the carriage ride down - William Becker looking exhausted, slouched and half-asleep. Everyone here was waiting for the train from Harth, where most of the people had been called from to create the crisis teams for Triesen. From memory of going through the city a few years ago, it had been well in the throes of industrial revolution, of both the mundane and magical variety. Magical society was out in the open in the city, and it flourished because of it, likely kickstarting the revolution in the first place. Usually, it was only the big cities that had industrialised as of late but it seemed Harth, a relatively small one, had gotten a head start.

The trip from Harth to Linden then Triesen was the same Amy had taken when she had first arrived to be a ward, so seeing how similar still was jarring. Completely surreal. I mean, I've dreamt about this day so many times and now it's here. I'm finally getting the Hell out of Triesen. I kind of feel bad for leaving Frieda behind and pretty much abandoning my patients, but what could I have done, especially with the healers there? It's no longer my job anyway... at least for a couple months. And Maria... Too late to worry about that now. If I remember correctly, you can take the train from Harth to Evyria too, and a couple of people from School went there to work. Might be able to meet up with them.

Amy was brought out of her thoughts by William seeming to jolt up, looking out into the distance towards the train tracks squinting. Lo and behold, the front of the incoming train could be barely made out over the horizon, the sound of blaring horns able to be faintly heard.

"You spotted that fast," She commented, getting up from her seat.

"My Detect Thoughts is rather specialised towards crowds," William yawned, blinking rapidly, "And that sort of thing lends itself well to long distances."

"I see. I thought Mind was only really useful for close range or individual work though?"

"That's... It's not too much of a Web secret - or even a secret at all - so there's no harm in telling you, but more than one Element of the same name can exist," He revealed.

"Really?!" Amy exclaimed, feigning surprise. Maybe this is the Advanced Mind Felin talked about?

"Yes! Esoteric Mind, which is the useful one, is the one almost all Weavers use. Advanced Mind on the other hand is the one I employ. Lends itself well to the idea of a 'collective consciousness' which it focuses on and targets. You may be wondering why it isn't more popular, but really Advanced Mind is very technically demanding, and requires a lot of precise work to achieve even the simplest of Esoteric Mind Spells. Add onto that the fact its crowd-control Spells are often bested by later Tier Esoteric Mind Spells, it becomes pretty defunct the higher up you go."

"Why even bother with it then?"

"Because Esoteric Mind crowd-control Spells exist only in the higher Tiers. Advanced Mind is the way you get around that to make lower Tier Spells for it."

"I see... And higher Tier 'collective consciousness' based Spells aren't useful at all? I can think of a couple ways to go with it right now," Amy said, picking up the nest, luckily not waking the birds up.

"They do exist but I haven't put too much thought into - hah! - into them but I know they exist. I'm only interested in specialising so far. I don't want to become a true Weaver - that's a Journeyman - as an Advanced Mind specialist. I'd rather go mainly Esoteric with some Advanced on the side."

"Fair enough."

"Anyway, train's here."

His last words drowned out by the blaring train horn, the train came in fast, feeling like it barely managed to stop in time to meet the station properly. The conductor called out from the front, the doors to the carriages folding open. Steam bellowed out of the chimney, infused with specks of Fire and Steam mana through her senses. A magical engine?

One by one, Amy and the Mages lined up to get their tickets stamped by the conductor, letting them through. All in all, it only took a couple minutes, Amy fully seated by the time the train got moving again. The insides of the carriages were almost all wooden. It was small but comfortable, the seating well padded with green cushions, with tables between each chair. Every grouping of four chairs also had a window looking outwards, the glass a bit grubby on the edges. William joined her, sitting opposite, while she sat the nest down on the table after packing her things into the overhead compartments. This time, the chicks were well and truly up and warbling away, William taking notice.

"You have birds?" He asked politely, looking over to try and see inside.

"Just a couple of hawk chicks I found. They had been abandoned and well... I didn't want to leave them. I know I can't take care of them forever - they need to be in the wild after all - but until I find a good place that'll take them in, I'll just have to look after them."

This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

"One of my friends is into pets and all that, so maybe I could ask him about a nice place that'll take them when we're back in Harth," William offered, smiling.

"That would be nice, thanks," Amy smiled back, digging out a pair of tweezers and some sliced rat meat that Felin had caught before she went.

"Want me to help?"

"Please, but be careful," She accepted, pulling out another pair of tweezers. After arriving in Linden, Amy had ended up buying a pack of them, alternating between them as she cleaned between uses. "All you need is to hold the strip and then tap them on their noise lightly. This'll get them to open their mouth and bob up and down in a sort of swallowing motion. Only feed them when they're bobbing. Make sure they can breathe during it too by giving breaks. Once their little 'neck sack' looks full then you can stop."

"Got it."

Awkwardly taking the offered pair of tweezers, he carefully lifted one of the meat strips from the tray, waving it gently over one of the chicks' beaks. His face was one of absolute concentration and determination, his hand barely shaking. With one of their random movements, a chick went into the meat and noticed it. Opening its beak wide, it started bobbing instantly, practically jumping up a bit for it. After that it was mostly smooth-sailing, the bird able to bite into and chew it easily. Seems good. Though...

"...How would you contact me then? If your friend finds something," Amy wondered, pausing her feeding of one of the other bigger chicks.

"Don't you have an FPG?"

"Yes...?"

"It does have a messaging service, you know?"

"Oh! That," Amy realised, wincing. "I didn't end up using it much and I disabled it in the settings when I took up my ward position as it got annoying popping up every time. Not many FPGs around in a mundane village."

"Want to add each other then?" William smiled, taping his bracelet.

"Sure... How do we do this?"

"Just tap the bottom of each other's FPGs together and direct some mana towards it. It'll send or accept the request," He instructed, holding out his hand.

"Got it, and..." Amy nodded, tapping her bracelet with his, a mote of mana from her pool with it. The bracelet flashed blue for an instant, before projecting a screen into her eyes.

_______________________________________________________________________________

Alert!

You have received a Mage Messenger friend-request from [William Becker]

Would you like to accept?

YES / NO

_______________________________________________________________________________

Yes, Amy thought into the screen, vanishing away. William's own eyes glazed over for a moment, as if reading something, coming back into focus looking at her a moment later.

"There, now we're friends!"

"I guess..." Amy said, not bothering to go through her FPG settings to activate Mage Messenger again. I'll do it when I'm somewhere private.

"Back to feeding then? Or is this one full?"

"It seems..." Amy trailed off, looking around to get better angles at the chick. "A bit more and then that should be enough."

"Alright!"

As William went back to dutifully feeding the chick, Amy couldn't help but feel a bit guilty. He seems nice, and I am warming up to him from how his first impression was, but... well, it's just a bit much. Maybe if I wasn't so awkward then it'd be better but... yeah, it's just rough. I am interested in how the Weaver's Web works though... Maybe that can be a conversation starter?

"You said Journeymen were called Weavers, right?" Amy asked, William nodding absent-mindedly in response. "What are the other Tiers called then?"

"Ah, well, it all comes down to the Founder, the original Spider King," William said, rolling his eyes. "He was really into spiders and went deep into the imagery and references of them; so much so he invested a lot into Elemental Spider of all things. Worked out for him though so who am I to complain? Because of all of that, Apprentices like myself are unimaginatively called Apprentice Weavers, and Journeyman you know as Weavers already. Archmages are actually called Spiders, in line with him, with Monarchs being Spider Kings or Queens. Only a few of those around nowadays. Most of them either fucked off somewhere before the Mage Wars or died during them."

"That Founder sounds... interesting," Amy shuddered. Who uses Spider of all things as an Element? I know he did but really? How does that even work? And those Monarchs who disappeared before the Mage Wars... Could they have Ascended? Become gods? Felin also told me about Ascendants during Apprentice, and William seems farther along the Tier than me. It could be that he doesn't want to tell me the truth about where they went because he assumes I don't know, but with the way he worded it and his personality that's... unlikely. Is no-one told about them then? I assume at least Monarchs and a decent number of Archmages know as they're old enough to have experienced the Mage Wars. Strange. It could just be different in the Web though and only Journeyman, or Weavers, are told. And, another thing, why aren't we made aware when we begin on the path of a Mage? Yeah I understand it partially why they'd hide it but all the way to Apprentice? Seems strange. Definitely something to ask Felin about later.

"Just tell me about it," He moaned, slumping. "All my lessons are 'the Founder did this' or 'the Founder said that' and yet, even with them teaching me all this important stuff, it feels pointless. The only interesting thing I've got from those is how he uses Spider in conjunction with Mind."

"Oh? How then?"

"Ah- maybe I shouldn't have said all of that. That sort of stuff is definitely School secrets," William winced, making a face. "Sorry."

"Don't worry about it," Amy dismissed, giving him a lopsided smile.

"Well, enough about me, how did you become ward of Triesen?" He grinned, pointing the tweezers at her.

"That's... an interesting story."

"Do tell!" William shot up eagerly, sitting closer to the edge of his chair.

"Well, I guess it began at my School. I went to this government-run place due to my affinities-..."

* * *

"We're here," William said with his mouth stuffed, munching on his sandwich.

Taking her eyes away from the food she had bought from the inn she stayed in, Amy looked out of the window, trying to get a good look at the city ahead. As the tracks and train turned away at the right moment, she got her view. Nestled in a relatively flat region of the country was Harth, smokestacks bellowing out in the distance, larger than the city itself. Farmland spread out far away from the black and grey city centre, the colour only broken up by tile roofs, but the modern industrial architecture of it was its major style over the village look she had left behind in Triesen and Linden. To be honest, it looks kind of...

"Yep, exactly as it was when I left it," William nodded to himself. "Like a steaming pile of shit in the middle of a field."