“Hey! Hey! Wake up!”

“Oh, this isn’t good Soot.”

“Yeah, pick them up. Hopefully, we’re not too late.”

…

Hot, unbearably hot.

How did people even live on this planet?!

It should have been so easy… but it wasn’t.

Stars, I’m such an idiot…

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That morning began bright and early – with a healthy amount of blood flowing through Emily’s face.

She pushed herself out of Al’s arms, covering her mouth with one hand. She knew what having a partner was going to be like, but it still didn’t prepare her heart.

That being said… she felt amazing. Etude was a hell of a drug and she would be the first to admit she was an addict.

“Al, wake up.” Emily gently shook the Resonator awake.

“Mrrphg…” The dragon rose from his slumber. He stared at the Maestro for a moment, blinking once, twice, and then yawning. “Fuck, I was hoping that was just a dream,” he grumbled.

“What does that mean?!” Emily pouted, puffing out her cheeks.

The dragon returned her pout with a gruff chuckle. He reached out and ruffled his Maestro’s hair. “Relax, I was joking, probably.”

Emily huffed, turning away.

“Dibs on the bathroom.” Albarich moved faster than Emily had expected, and by the time she could voice a protest the bathroom door was slamming shut.

Once more Emily pouted. “Haven’t you heard of ‘ladies first’? You jerk.”

----------------------------------------

“I will say-” Albarich said with a mouthful of breakfast. “-these terrans sure do know how to eat.”

Emily shot an annoyed glare at the rude dragon. “Fortunately, we don’t have to worry about food,” she said before taking a more dignified bite of her food.

After swallowing his current bite, Albarich spoke again. “So, what’s even the plan today?” he questioned.

The Maestro set her fork down, gently dabbing her lips with a napkin. “We’re going to take the licensing exam, after that, I’m not entirely sure,” she told him.

“So, you’re thinking of staying here?” Albarich asked.

Emily stopped, her mouth open and a forkful of food waiting. She set it down and closed her mouth. “I dunno,” she whispered. “I’m free now, right? But… I also wanna go home,” the displaced princess mumbled. “And we have to do something about the church,” she added as an aside.

Albarich grunted but nodded slowly.

“Why were you even there?” she suddenly questioned.

“Just like you – I saw too much,” the dragon boy said with a shrug. A wicked smirk flashed across his lips. “I was there to cause trouble though.”

“Huh?” Emily raised a brow.

“One of my mates got pinched off the street. I wasn’t gonna take that sitting down, so I tailed them and started fucking with their gig,” Albarich said, pride in his voice.

“I see.” Emily nodded. That wasn’t too terribly out of character for him… well what little of his character that she knew.

The pair finished their breakfast and made their way back up to the front counter of the MA Office to register for the licensing exam.

“Right this way please,” the attendant led the pair to a small office. All that was inside the tiny room was a single computer sitting atop a desk with a chair. “A proctor will be by shortly to preside over the exam.”

And with that Emily and Albarich were left alone. Emily went ahead and took her seat in the exam chair, while Albarich leaned up against the wall.

“You ready?” The dragon asked, breaking up the silence.

“Yeah,” Emily mumbled.

“What’s up?”

“Riterra has some… interesting laws,” she commented.

“Oh?”

Emily hummed in thought before speaking. “Resonators don’t seem to mean much.”

“What do you mean?”

“A lot of the laws on the test talk about like… property rights? It’s very… demeaning to Resonators,” the princess spoke slowly.

Albarich grunted. “Sounds about right,” he grumbled. “If those church freaks had their way, they’d do the same thing to Luna,” the dragon pointed out.

Before Emily could express her surprise, the door opened. Almost instantly, the Maestro tensed up, her eyes locked on the proctor. Why was she nervous all of a sudden? Why was her rhythm screaming at her to run?

“Are you ready for your examination… Miss Seijo?”

Emily’s blood ran cold, a sweat suddenly coating her body. She trembled, unable to even utter a cry. The man who stood before her was radiating pure bloodlust. It was unlike anything she had ever felt from another human being in her entire life.

“Don’t you want to take your exam, princess?” the proctor asked, looking like he was only a moment away from bursting out in laughter.

Albarich stood in front of his Maestro, extending his wings. He didn’t say a word but glared daggers at the proctor.

“Go on, strike me,” the proctor goaded the dragon.

“Al, don’t!” Emily managed to grab her Resonator before he could take the mystery man up on his offer.

“Emily!”

“He’s trying to get us thrown in jail!”

The dragon stopped, he ground his teeth, turning his scowl back on the proctor who didn’t deny the accusation.

“A-al… we need to leave,” Emily whispered to her Resonator. The fear was all-encompassing – what even awaited them outside of this room? How could this have been a trap?!

The proctor remained in place, smirking devilishly. He stepped out of the way. “Go on – leave,” he chided them. “Just know, you won’t be safe here in Naiza,” the man flashed a toothy grin at the pair.

“What’s stopping us from going to the front desk and reporting you?” Albarich asked, continuing to wear his defiant glare.

The proctor made a faux surprised expression. “Oh yes! Please go to the front desk and tell them how you’re here illegally and oh actually she’s a princess. I’m sure that will go over swimmingly well!”

“Tch…” Albarich only deepened his glare at the man.

“Al, let’s just run. He’s letting us…” Emily urged.

“It’s another trap!” the dragon hissed back.

“I know, but anything’s better than being trapped in a room with him.” Her gaze never left the man’s form – he wanted to attack them so badly, but there was a greater purpose that was keeping him in check.

The terrifying part was Emily had no idea when the veil would drop and he’d succumb to his desires.

“Al!” She urged louder.

“Fine!”

Against their better judgment, the two fled from the exam room. They ran out of the MA Office, not looking back.

“What do we do Al?!” Emily screamed, not caring for the looks they were garnering.

“The dude was saying they got people in this place after us – we gotta skip town!” he barked back.

“How?!”

“Like this!”

Albarich extended his wings out, jumping up and taking to the sky, sparkles of blue rhythm fluttering from them. “Jump!” he called.

Emily listened without hesitation and grabbed her Resonator’s hands. As soon as she did so, she felt a draw on her rhythm just like when they cast spells. Red sparkles of rhythm joined Al’s blue as he took her higher into the sky.

The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

“Where are we going?!” Emily shouted, squeezing the boy’s hands tighter.

“We’ll clear those mountains! That’ll put some distance between us and them!”

----------------------------------------

Emily’s eyes fluttered open. The ceiling she was greeted with was one wholly unfamiliar to her. She sat up with a start, her head whipping back and forth as she took in her new surroundings. Underneath her was a normal bed, though the sheets and frame showed their age at a glance. There were all kinds of small knick-knacks on the shelves and even the nightstand next to the bed. Chief among them was a tall, shimmering glass of water. One which Emily choked down as soon as she laid eyes upon it. It was probably the tastiest water she had ever had the luxury of consuming.

Thirst quenched, the lunar princess could devote brain cells to what mattered, like figuring out where she was. The building itself - the walls, ceiling, and floor seemed to be made of some kind of old stone. She moved her legs out of bed, shaking her head slowly.

“What happened?” she whispered.

“I’d like to know that myself,” a new voice spoke up.

“AH!” Emily cried out.

Standing at the doorway was a girl, around Emily’s age. Her brown cat tail swished curiously behind her as her matching cat ears flicked with intrigue. “Found you laying out in the desert. Had I got there any later than I did you would have been toast!” the cat-girl laughed.

The stranger approached Emily and held out a hand. “The name’s Ritika, what’s yours?”

Emily studied the hand offered to her before accepting the implied handshake. “Emelia… er Emily is fine,” stumbled the princess.

“So back to my question: what were you doing out in the desert?” questioned the curious cat. “Tourist in over your head?” Ritika guessed.

Emily hummed in thought. “Not really no. Al and I…” she trailed off. “Oh, my stars! Where’s Al?!” she shrieked, pulling her tuner from her side.

“Dragon boy? He’s in the other room,” Ritika motioned towards the doorway. “He’s a lunar right? They don’t do well in the sun; causes Cloudless Day in them.”

“Huh?” Emily raised a brow.

“It’s a rhythm illness, over-exposure to sunlight causes it in lunars,” Ritika told the Maestro.

“Oh, I had no idea…”

“What’s your deal anyway?”

Emily took a breath before explaining the events leading up to their departure from Luna and escape from Naiza.

“Ah, okay. When you flew over the mountains you didn’t expect a desert and the heat got you, right?” Ritika pieced together.

“Yeah…” Emily hung her head. It was embarrassing, even if it could be forgiven due to her lack of knowledge of the Riterran climates.

Ritika nodded. The cat’s gaze fell on the rat’s nest of hair sitting atop the princess’ head. “So, is that the fashion up there, or are you just a trendsetter?” she snorted, pointing at the disaster that was Emily’s hair.

“Ah no! I just never learned how to take care of my hair!” Emily frantically exclaimed.

“That’s kinda sad, to be honest,” Ritika smirked.

Emily wilted, lowering her head. “I’m not good at a lot of things,” the princess admitted.

The cat-girl rolled her eyes. “Soot!” she called out.

A large man walked into the room, but there was something off about him that Emily picked up on immediately: his skin appeared to be completely dry as if it was sand. Even without that, there was something that surprised her.

“Heat?” she questioned.

“Oh right – Soot is a golem, a really rare type of fire Resonator. To me he’s just my buddy I found in some ruins,” Ritika patted the golem on the back.

“Ah… nice to meet you, Soot,” Emily offered.

The golem did not reply verbally and just waved. The Maestro frowned – did he not like her?

“He’s mute by the way. Golems can’t talk at all. He’s pretty good at writing though,” Ritika informed the Maestro. “He’s also really good at taking care of hair. Probably one of his old Maestros taught him, didn’t want to pry,” she said with a shrug.

To demonstrate, Soot walked over to the Maestro and quickly undid the poorly held-together braids and ties. He took extra care to save the hair ties for future use. Before she knew it, Emily was subject to having her hair brushed by the silent golem.

“I’ll go check on dragon-boy while your hair gets done,” Ritika said with a wink and a giggle.

----------------------------------------

“Hey, you finally fixed your hair!” Albarich exclaimed upon catching sight of Emily, who now sported a simple ponytail and face-framing bangs.

“We almost die and that’s the first thing you say to me?” Emily questioned back, though her tone betrayed her expression as she failed to suppress the big smile on her face.

They had been brought into a living room area, where Soot and Ritika served the guests food and water.

“This is much more impressive,” Albarich snarked.

“What do we do now, Al?” Emily asked.

“We have to find some other way back to Luna besides that elevator,” he shrugged.

“That’s gonna be a problem,” Ritika spoke up.

“Why’s that?” Albarich glared at the cat.

“Cause, lizard boy, the Lutera Space Elevator is the only way to get to space,” the cat replied curtly.

The two glared each other down.

Emily looked between the two tensed-up Resonators. “H-hey!” the Maestro exclaimed, standing up, drawing all eyes on her.

The Maestro wilted under the pressure. “We need to get stronger,” she started. “I don’t know what I’m doing. We could use a guide.” Emily looked at Ritika.

“You want me to be your Resonator?” the cat questioned.

“I-if it wouldn’t be too much trouble!” Emily lowered her head. “If you want to break up at any time, I don’t mind!”

“Emily!” Albarich shouted. “You can’t just ask that!”

“But-! We need the help!”

That proposition earned some fluster from the cat. “Phrasing…” she mumbled, wondering how the Luna-native thought of Maestro-Resonator relationships. Shaking it off, she considered the offer. Her gaze slowly shifted to Soot, who gave a small, nearly unnoticeable nod.

“On one condition,” Ritika spoke up. She motioned to Soot. “If you take me, you have to take him too,” the cat said with a toothy grin.

Emily was surprised. She did recall that duelists needed a team of three to compete, and with the two of them joining her that would make three. “Sure!” she exclaimed. “I’d love to have you both on our team!”

“Oh brother,” Albarich scoffed, rolling his eyes, but accepting that whatever he said wouldn’t matter.

“Then it’s settled. Neither of us have tuners, so we’ll need to hit up an MA Office. There’s one north of here in the town of Kig’la,” the cat informed her new Maestro.

“Great! Let’s get going then!”

----------------------------------------

It's been a year since we came together.

Kalanichi is a big land – we’ve never left its borders, but even so, we’ve gained considerable power.

Now we’re on the way back to Naiza.

We’ll show them how strong we are on one of the biggest stages in the world.

I can only hope things go as smoothly as I dream.