I woke to knocking. It was the distinct sound of knuckles on wood, complemented with an irritated yet amused huff. I recognized that breathing pattern. And if not that recognition, I could also track the approximate height of the perpetrator. Otherwise, I might have begun my day a tad more alert. But as I knew the person, I continued to laze.

I was laying in bed, tangled in sheets and a thin woolen blanket, exactly where I had fallen in the hours of the early morning. I felt entitled to sleeping in. In fact, that had been the entire point of changing my shifts around, allowing me to focus on that which I excelled at. Afterall, there was no reason to burn my candle at both ends.

In fact, that had been the exact advice I had been given by the very person that was now attempting to awaken me. This was hypocrisy. Naturally, I protested.

I tried grumbling.

However, the knocking continued.

“I’m sleeping…” I mumbled.

The shutters were thrown wide, allowing in the diffuse daylight–it must have been around noon, at least judging by the blinding brightness.

I threw a pillow over my face. “Whyyyy?” I asked.

“Oh please!” Marianne laughed. “Don’t be so dramatic!” Marianne said, her voice far too cheerful.

“Shouldn’t you be working downstairs?” I said, voice surly. I made a half hearted motion to swipe the sleep from my eyes, though I hesitated to truly commit, because if Marianne left, I would definitely attempt to rest for a bit longer.

“Yep, I should be down there. Lunch shift and all,” she said. After a little pause, she added, “Actually, I’ll need to be getting back down there pretty soon here, so…” she trailed off, wiggling slightly.

I began to doubt I would get off with going back to bed. It was daylight, I had things to do, and if whatever Marianne woke me up for brought her up in the middle of her shift, then whatever it was must have been important. I finally removed the crust from the corner of my eyes and glared at her.

“Well what is it?” I huffed. “Unless you just felt compelled to come wake me up just because?”

“Sometimes you’re such a kid, Jackie,” Marianne said, a twinkle in her eyes. “But while you should totally have already woken up by now, that’s not what I’m up here for.”

“And just what do you mean by that?” I protested. “You’re acting as though I’m sleeping in! I got to bed maybe an hour before you woke up. We are on different schedules here, and it is unfair for you to hold me accountable to your own.”

“Jackie–” Marianne gave a dubious look full of doubt, though softened with a wry grin “-it’s past noon.”

“Oh,” I deflated. If it were past noon, then perhaps it was about time to be waking up. I did want to get some investigation done prior to my night shift. Plus, I had to begin searching for the white Kaiva, otherwise known as Cook’s previous employer. The list of people I was looking for only seemed to be growing. And that reminded me that Marianne still had a promised contact for an information-broker, though the recent conflict with the Garnets seemed to have put a pause on me deriving any usage from that.

While I began to feel overwhelmed by all the tasks I had to take on, most of which I had made little to no progress on, Marianne continued. I remembered that she was rushed for time currently, especially as she had a shift to return to.

“I’m here for two reasons,” Marianne started. “One, I’ve got some great news from Esmerelda! I was originally going to wait, but now that I’m up here I don’t think I can not share it!”

I had a feeling I knew what she was going to say. Esmerelda had been attempting to secure funding for both of us to attend the Academy. While I had some mixed feelings about attending school with entitled teenagers, I knew that it was a big deal for Marianne. As Esmerelda had known Marianne for much longer than myself, I expected that Marianne would have her way paid prior to mine. I was already preparing myself to encourage Marianne onward, while possibly missing the opportunity that I was on the fence about anyways.

All of that was distilled down into a simple and amused, “Oh?”

“Yep!” Marianne almost cheered. “She just told me this morning that she finally acquired enough funds to pay for both of us to attend the Academy! Both!” She squealed in excitement. “Isn’t that great! It’s amazing! Just think Jackie! We’ll both be attending the same classes at the same time! I just can’t wait!”

“Wait… What?” I asked, befuddled by both Marianne’s excitement and the fact that Esmerelda had succeeded. “I knew Esmerelda said she would try to put together some of the funds, but she actually did it? Isn’t attendance incredibly expensive?”

Marianne stumbled over her words at the same time she flinched.

“Y-yeah…” Marianne said, trailing off. “Maybe we shouldn’t think too hard about what went into paying for that? You know?”

“Valid point,” I said, making a concession. Because considering exactly what Esmerelda did for a living, I imagined that neither Marianne nor I would care to delve too deeply into just how Esmerelda acquired those funds. Or favors. I know in the past that I tried not to think of how she acquired enough favor with Phillip Blackrest either.

“Besides,” I offered weakly, “Perhaps her boss helped pay? It will only help the prestige of Ma’Ritz…”

“Right! Yeah!” Marianne said, seizing the opportunity to willfully ignore the facts. “But anyways,” she changed the subject quickly. “Class starts in a week! You ready for that? It’s crazy how fast it’s happening, right?!”

“... I… I beg your pardon?” I asked.

While I knew, intellectually, that the Academy term was beginning soon, it had only been in an abstract sense, as a large portion of me never expected to actually attend. But Marianne was right. And it was coming incredibly fast. Which was problematic, as there were many logistics that still needed to be worked out, such as text-books, other study materials, if there were uniforms or not… suddenly it all felt very overwhelming.

It was.

As I verged on the edge of a small panic attack, I decided the best course of action would be to ignore everything and maintain the conversation previously.

“But is that enough reason to come up here and wake me up?” I asked, shelving my concerns for later. Hopefully, much later.

“Ha!” Marianne slapped the wooden bed post. “Jackie, you should have been up already! But no, that’s not the only reason. Remember, I had two reasons!” She illustrated the point by holding up two fingers, unintentionally forming a sign of victory.

“Right…” I said hesitantly. “And what was the second?”

I sat up and began to stretch, still in my night clothes. The fact I was still in my thin gown was not missed by Marianne, who quickly gave me a somewhat critical eye.

“And I’ll tell you,” she said hesitantly, “but you should probably throw on some clothes as I do.”

“Why, exactly?” I asked, while at the same time opening my trunk and selecting an outfit. “You’ve seen me dress plenty of times.”

“Well–” Marianne started to answer when the door opened.

A familiar giant of a blonde stepped in. It was Sir Kate Guardson.

What is she doing here? I thought.

“Can I come in yet?” Kate asked, already stepping inside even before she asked. “I’ve been listening to your voices for a while now, and I’m feeling awkward standing out in the hallway. Non-customers usually don’t come up here, right? I don’t want anybody getting the wrong ideas, yeah?”

Ignoring whatever delusions or imaginations that Kate may have held about the hallway outside our room, Marianne immediately shrieked, “You were supposed to wait!” As she scolded the larger girl, Marianne interjected herself between Kate and I, even though Kate could see over the top of Marianne.

“Oh, changing?” Kate asked, hardly bothered at all. “Looks like I came just in time…” The way she was looking me over left me feeling gross and awkward.

“I wouldn’t have brought you up if I knew you were going to creep!” Marianne stamped her foot and pointed at the door. “Out! Wait for her to change!”

Kate held up her hands and backed out the door. “Alright, alright… I’ll wait a bit longer… Not like I won’t be seeing more of her sometime later…” Her eyes ran across me once more, causing goosebumps to pimple on the back of my neck and arms.

The moment Kate was on the other side of the threshold, Marianne slammed the door in a huff and turned back towards me, her face red. “Sorry about that! Hope you’re not mad.”

Deciding to downplay everything, I affected my most disinterested tone. “Why would I be mad?” I asked with a cool voice, only hurrying slightly to finish dressing. I slipped my pants on before turning my back to Marianne and taking off the nightshift. Next came a wrap, and then a tunic. “We’re all girls here.”

“Ugh! You know why,” Marianne said, huffing in irritation. “Now that we can really do anything about it. Gods, it might not even be that bad of a thing to have her see your assets. But I know when you’re changing subjects–”

“-Marianne,” I interrupted her deluge. “Thank you for stepping in. I appreciate that.”

“Well,” Marianne blushed, before shaking her head. “But anyways, now that you’re decent, I really need to get back to my shift. You good up here?”

“You mean with Kate?” I asked.

“Yeah, that one.” Marianne glowered at the door. “I normally wouldn’t have brought her, but she insisted. Vigorously. It’s hard saying no to the girl.”

“Oh, I’m aware,” I answered. “Though, I should be fine. Thanks for waking me up and covering for me Marianne! I appreciate it!”

“Course!” Marianne smiled.

As soon as Marianne exited, I heard her spare several words for Kate, before Kate loudly apologized and stepped back into the room. I turned to face Kate while running a comb through my hair. She was grimy and covered in dust from her morning practice. The sand stuck to creases of her boots matched the Mercenary Quarter.

“Sir Kate,” I greeted her with a terse nod, wary of revealing any of my conflicting emotions. “What brings you here? I don’t think you’ve visited up here before.”

She snorted, giving a quick glance about the room. “Place is kinda a dump,” she said, likely unaware of the condescension implied by her statement. Naturally, I ignored this.

“All the more reason to leave me curious as to the reason for your visit?” I prompted.

Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

She pointed a finger at me and grinned. “You!” Kate said. I could not help but notice the filth collected beneath her fingernail. She followed my eyes, then coughed and blushed while lowering her finger and wiping it against her tabard. “You skipped training this morning.”

“I did,” I said, nodding patiently, already thinking of how I would begin my search in the slums, and how to go about finding either Emboru’s sibling or Cook’s former employer.

“Oh… Uhm…” Kate hemmed and hawed, clearly failing to have thought ahead before broaching the subject. That, or my lackluster response had caught her flat-footed. With her, it could go either way. “Did you just oversleep then?” Kate finally managed to ask, before muttering, “happens to the best of us I suppose.”

“No,” I said, answering bluntly. “I have had a recent shift in priorities. I likely won’t be attending training in the foreseeable future.”

“What?!” Kate demanded. “But… why? That’s… that’s our thing!”

I flattened my lips and adopted a regretful and conciliatory tone.

“Yes, it is unfortunate,” I said, slowly explaining myself. “But with the Academy commencing soon, and with my evening job of securing this establishment, I truly lack the time to also better myself in the training yard. It is regrettable, surely. However–” I switched to a slightly sharper tone “-can you honestly say that my time there was the best use of it? How much have I actually been learning there?”

“Nu-huh! You’ve been learning a ton!” Kate protested. “Didn’t you just unlock a new glyph?”

She was referring to Gymnastics, which she could now see the glyph of, but not read. I had yet to tell her much of it, preferring to keep my abilities to myself.

“Who’s to say if that resulted from our training or not,” I said, although I avoided the details of my nocturnal habits. “But regardless, I have insufficient time to pursue all these avenues of self-betterment currently. More so now, with the Academy. Unless you believe the practice yard should replace a formal education?” I posed a rhetorical hypothetical.

“Uhh… No?” Kate answered, sounding uncertain. “But, like, why does it need to be one or the other?”

“Kate,” I said firmly, giving her a stern and level look.

“Hmmm yeah?” She said, meeting my eyes. Hers were quite blue, and I noticed they widened slightly, with pupils dilating ever so much.

“Have you ever worked three jobs at once before?” I asked, hoping to put things into context for her.

“Of course not,” Kate said, giving a confused scoff. “What sort of ridiculous question is that?”

“Think about it,” I said, holding up one finger after another. “I work at Ma’Ritz.”

“So that’s one,” Kate said.

“I used to work the lunch shift and the night security shift, so I count it as two.”

“Nope! Just one job, with lousy hours. So that puts you at one, maybe one and a half. What else you got? Not like you can call our morning training sessions a job too.”

I frowned. Depending on how these activities were counted, I might not reach a full three.

“Well, there’s the Academy too,” I said. “That will take much of my time right there.”

“Ha!” Kate exclaimed, as though she won. “That hasn’t even started yet! O course, I admit, I admit, working while schooling is going to suck, and I see where you’re trying to go with your argument, but you’ve gotta make time for training if you wanna rise above it all!”

In a manner, Kate was correct. It was important to make time for self-betterment. I believed that some might have called it ‘sharpening-the-saw.’ However, what Kate was missing was the fact that I had other items on my agenda. And it was not as though I could simply tell her of them. But as we spoke, and as she continued with a heavy gaze, weighing into me, it became clear that I would need to give her at least some plausible reason for my alternative commitments. Which was frustrating. I should not need to justify myself to anyone.

“At least you acknowledge my original point,” I said, taking whatever conversational points that I could. “That I have far too little time.”

Deciding that we should change to more valuable topics, I sat down on the edge of my bed. I patted beside me for her to sit down beside me.

Kate gave a dubious glance back towards the open door and hallway, before glancing back towards me with a playful hunger.

“You sure it’s alright to have a girl to bed?” she asked. “I would have thought I needed to pay for that.”

“Nevermind!” I said, jumping to my feet. “I am not a night-worker,” I hissed, with a glare. Notably, I had no need to fake this expression. As I turned her words over and over again, I could not help but wonder just what she was thinking in speaking something so crass.

“Woah, hey!” Kate tried consoling me by patting the air. “DIdn’t mean anything bad by it. Work’s work, yeah?”

I let out a deep breath, reminding myself that I would rather stay in Kate’s good graces, and that perhaps I may have overreacted. Likely, Kate had simply blurted the first thing that had come to her head. She had spoken without thinking, a norm for her, I was finding.

“Forgive me,” I said finally as I settled back down, once more resuming my perch upon my bed. “It’s just… I have a lot on my mind currently.”

“Yeah?” Kate said, coming over and plopping down on the bed besides me, near enough our hips touched. I noticed that she had left the door open. I was unsure if the door being open was a concession Kate had to make towards Marianne or something else. It seemed unintuitive that Kate would do anything other than cease the moment privately.

“Wanna tell me about it?” Kate asked.

Her serious, understanding tone… it caught me off guard. I was unused to this side of her. It was almost as if she were practicing active listening. I decided to take advantage of it while it lasted. Because there were things she could help me with.

“The Academy,” I said, allowing some stress to leak out. “I’m hardly prepared and it starts in a week.”

“Less than a week actually,” Kate corrected, before wincing slightly. “But, yeah, go on?”

“I know near nothing about what will happen. What I need to do. What steps I must take currently. I lack even a basic syllabus! Where do I go on the first day? What do I wear? Should I buy any preparatory material?”

“And don’t forget getting to a proper Sacred Artist,” Kate added to the list. “That’s honestly probably the most important part. No, definitely the most important part.”

“Sacred… Artist?” I asked, some small amount of fear leaking in.

I knew, of course, what Sacred Artists were. They were the mystical tattoo artists that somehow made Glyphs and Sigils work. They were incredibly expensive, and the better ones were difficult to schedule. In fact, I was under the impression that the nearest Sacred Artist was out of Bath, which was the next city north. Of course, there were rumors of under the table and back-alley Artists, but those were often accompanied with horror stories of deviations, experimentation, or worse.

“You didn’t know?” Kate asked, concern washing over her face.

I shook my head slowly. “I was under the impression that the Academy would take care of anything of that sort. Although, now that I think of it, I have no idea why I ever assumed that. Why–” I wet my lips “-why do I need to find a Sacred Artist?”

“Yeah… this might be a longer discussion than I had thought,” Kate said, before realizing how that might have sounded, and hastening to correct herself. “Which is no problem, of course. But if I’m gonna be doing all this explaining, I might need something out of it.”

I rolled my eyes, quickly losing a portion of anxiety as I exchanged it for irritation. Of course, Kate would attempt to leverage her aid for a material benefit. And knowing her, it would be either fighting or, well, of another intimate nature.

“But!” Kate put an arm around my shoulders, pulling me in so that I leaned against her. “I’m willing to help, of course! Can’t have my best girl getting stuck with some sort of shit.”

“If you were going to help me either way,” I said, “then why act like you’re holding your aid hostage?” I asked, twisting out from under her arm and scooching away.

“Because if someone had attended practice this morning, then we could have talked it out then!”

Ah. Of course it came back down to that.

“Unfortunately,” I explained, “I was up until nearly dawn. I would have been dead tired if I managed to somehow make it to the practice yard.”

“Up late partying?” Kate asked.

“No...” I frowned. I was certain I had told her at some point. I must have. “I was working,” I explained once more.

“Oh, that’s right…” Kate looked away and scratched the back of her head. “Anyways! So, yeah, you know how the Academy is split into paths, yeah?”

“No, not really.”

Truthfully, besides what Marianne had told me, or that I had overheard from patrons in the tavern, I knew very little about the actual Academy. It left me somewhat surprised I was willing to go through such lengths to even attend. Except, I knew there would be tangible benefits to doing so. Even if I had little knowledge as to what those benefits were, exactly.

“Oh. Well alright. So it’s like this…” Kate explained, taking a deep breath as though resetting herself. “The Academy offers a few different paths, to help people fit different roles later in life, and more importantly, so that kids can network with the right group of kids.

“Like a cohort then?” I asked. It was not uncommon for groups of students to attend a series of classes together, at least not back home.

“Maybe?” Kate said. “Not sure about that. But, so anyways, multiple paths. Your is likely gonna be the Path of Grace.”

“Which is?” I pushed for more details.

“It’s for entertainers, courtesans, maybe some spare daughters.”

I felt partially offended. But before I reacted, I thought I would find out more. “And what other paths are there, to compare?”

“Military, Management, Architecture. Mining? I think. There’s probably a few others. But the important part is, that for each path, each student needs to get a Mark, to help solidify the lessons. Otherwise, it’s a whole lot of doing for a whole lot of nothing.”

Interesting, that given the fact Marks could grow with a person’s development, that they would be used as the core method to measure success in an academic program.

Following that train of thought, I asked, “do students receive credentials from the program?”

“What? No, I don’t think so, anyways. The Mark is enough. Well that and the networking. But that’s why I’m bringing up the Sacred Artist! If you don’t have one lined up, then… I don’t even know, but I’ve heard awful things about people that rely on the hand outs from the Academy… we’re talking single Sigil levels of bad.”

I winced. Greater Glyphs were the best a person could reasonably get, with each composed of three Lesser Glyphs, and each Lesser Glyph would be composed by three Sigils. But a single Sigil offered no advantage of evolution, and would merely grow more effective in a single, linear category, if that.

“Surely not?” I asked. I wanted to point out that providing Sigils would be worse than unfair. Especially since a Sigil would take the spot of a Mark, and there were only nine spots on the body that a Mark could go. And considering I had yet to hear of a method of removing a Mark, that meant that it would permanently worsen whoever received it, at least if compared to their original potential.

“Yep,” Kate said. “And there’s no guarantee that they’ll have appropriate materials either. I don’t even know what the cheapest sort of ink they could use would be. Maybe carbon dust?” She shuddered. “Yeah no. We’re getting you fixed up right and proper.”

“But how?” I asked.

Kate gave a boyish and confident grin. “Easy. First, we figure out which type of Mark you want. It will need to fit the list of Grace approved Marks, but we’ll find you something.

I was already beginning to feel better about this situation. The sheer enthusiasm that Kate had left me warming up slightly. I knew that staying on her good side was the right option.

“Next, we need to figure out which sort of ink will work best. That means picking the right material for the best result.”

“How?” I asked, perking up at the thought of expanding my repertoire, even if it were for a Mark named Grace.

“Oh, don’t even get me started! There’s an entire catalog back at the garrison. So many different choices.”

“And what difference do these inks make?”

“Alright, for example, say you use living ruby as the base material,” she glanced my way and I nodded, to show I was following along. “Alright, so that would grant a heat aspect to the Mark. Which would be weird for anything involving Grace, but an example would be maybe immunity to chilly air…” Kate gave a lascivious grin.

“Why would that be helpful?” I asked.

“Well, it was just an example of what a material could do. But I could think of several reasons for a dancer to want to keep warm against the chill.”

I scoffed and gave her a dirty look. What a foolish thing to say. Dancing was typically a sweaty affair. Feeling the cool air would likely be a blessing.

Ignoring that folly, I pressed, “I assume the catalog you mentioned lists the materials and their effects upon Marks?”

“Yep! It gives the compatible conductive metals too, though most of the time you’ll just want the best you can afford.”

“Which brings me to my second question, how can I afford all of this? And even if I could, how could I reserve a Sacred Artist to install the Mark?”

Kate frowned for a moment, before her eyes widened, apparently having had an idea. “Not so sure about paying for it,” Kate said, “though I have a few ideas there. But for actually finding the Sacred Artist, I’ve got some pretty good news for that!”

“Oh?” I asked, all while congratulating myself for maintaining connections with the girl.

“Yeah! The Crown approved Sacred Artist from Bath is in town to Mark the Knights. I figure we can get them to do the work!”

“Would they be willing to work on a non-knight?” I asked. “Because, I must confess, I am reluctant to join the army.”

“Ha!” Kate laughed loudly, echoing painfully in the room. “Too young! Not that they wouldn’t have you, of course…” she said, quickly backtracking. “But alright!” She leapt to her feet, before forcibly pulling me to mine. “Next step! The garrison! We’ll figure out which Mark you’ll get, and which materials. Then I’ll convince the Sacred Artist to pencil you in for this week. So let’s go! Times a wastin!”

She began dragging me out the door.

“A quick question,” I asked. “How much would all of this normally cost?”

Kate shrugged, “Maybe a few thousand Cee?”

I mentally tallied my entire savings of Chargers. I only had about eight-hundred.

“Oh, it’s not that bad!” Kate protested. “I’m sure we can get you a discount. And like I said, I have some ideas for how you can pay…”

For some unknown reason, the fact that she had ideas failed to put me at ease.