Liv strolled down the road, keeping an eye on the bandits that had started following her. She didn't have much on her, currently, simply carrying a brown pack with some supplies within, along with the elven coin. She thought for a moment. The elven coin was probably valuable, actually.

  She was nearing the capital, walking through a small stretch of forest before the city's outskirts. Pulling a wild apple she saw a ways off the path into her hand, she continued, her Will barely strained from the exertion. She was getting better. Pebbles floated, making patterns in the trees, as she carefully exerted it, practicing with her new abilities. The bandits started getting closer, approaching what Liv estimated to be 'start the stealing' range. Well, another group of highwaymen would disappear, she supposed.

  One of them walked deep in the woods to her left, focused directly on her, a club at the ready. Checking all of them, Liv noticed they all had clubs. Huh. How cute.

  Another one jumped between trees with almost no coordination, clearly proud of his talent. A third one waited in front of her, ready to waylay her. Then the main group lay in wait behind her, following the signals they were left by their compatriots. There also seemed to be a couple Spiritspeakers in their group. After talking with Vivian for a while, she'd been educated in the strengths and weaknesses of different disciplines. Why does my world only have Spiritspeakers?, she wondered for a brief moment, just before she came within the line of sight of the bandit in front of her.

  "Ho!," she called out to the man. "How are you doing on this fine day?"

  The bandit, obviously confused, stared at her as she walked towards him. He was carrying a club and standing in the middle of the road, directly in front of her. Did she not realize what he was? "Young miss, you are being robbed. Leave all your belongings and we will let you leave."

  "Oh no! Whatever will I do? I only have this pack to my name!," Liv called out, laying the acting on a little too thick.

  She continued walking at the man during all of this, eventually simply walking past him. The bandit, surprised, simply watched her, before he waved his club at her. "Get her!"

  The bandits behind her had gotten far closer, now trailing her from within the trees. She continued walking, letting the bandits grow closer. As they stepped out of the woods, Liv smiled at them, not stopping her walk. She drew the sword that Vivian had given her, dispelling its cloak of Dream. Now visible to all of them, the crystalline blade glimmered in the light. Liv smiled at the bandits in front, who were being pushed forward by the ones behind them.

  The first bandit swung his club at her. Liv tapped it aside with her Will, knocking the man out with a pommel to the temple. The next man stepped up, swinging his club as well. She continued walking, pushing the man off balance, letting him trip up most of his comrades. She continued to walk, the bandits naturally thinning out as she took care of them, knocking them out without killing them. The Spiritspeakers weren't much of a problem either, the wind and water they conjured easily being turned to Liv's purposes, their own creations choking them until they fainted.

  She approached the end of the forest, the trees abruptly ending in front of her. Stepping out of the canopy, Liv saw the Capital.

  It was a city so great that no one could think of any name to give it other than 'Capital'. There was a massive wall, a remnant left over from the great wars it had been a part of. The walls left so much space inside that it would be many hundreds of years before they needed to be taken down, in order to let the city expand. A town sat at the entrance to the city, many people walking around and buying goods from various stores. Liv approached the town, noting the carefully controlled entrances. She walked up to the closest one, the guard abruptly cutting off his conversation with his companion, turning to her. "Hello, madam. Do you have papers to enter the town?"

  Liv shook her head. "Papers?"

  The guard nodded. "The city has identification papers for each person. They're used for investigating crimes, keeping records of people, tracking spending, and other things like that. If you don't have papers, you have to provide hard coin for each purchase and receive worsened consequences for crimes. Or you can get papers."

  Liv nodded. If the hooded man was here, he'd probably see her papers. That couldn't happen. "No papers, please."

  The guard marked something down on a notebook, rapidly turning his attention back to her. "Next. Are you a Spiritspeaker?"

  Liv asked, "And what if I am?"

  The guard raised his hands into the 'surrendering' position. "You get a few benefits. Places you can go that normal people can't, things like that."

  Liv nodded. "Then I am."

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  The guard sighed. "Demonstrate, please?," he asked, sounding bored. "I hope you aren't the eightieth fraud I've had today."

  Liv raised an eyebrow. "Choose an element."

  The guard shrugged. "I guess this makes sure you're not a fraud, by introducing randomness into the equation. Let's see. Darkness."

  Liv called over a darkness elemental, a swirling globe of nothingness appearing in front of her. The guard stepped backwards. "Relatively powerful too. Now, I'd like you to show me your spirit storage item, so we can tag it as such."

  Liv shook her head. "Don't have one."

  The guard raised an eyebrow. "You do know you're violating hundreds of churches' accords by not sticking spirits in cages."

  Liv nodded. "Yeah. Do you care?"

  The guard sighed again, spitting to the side. "I'm not paid enough to care. Go through." He handed her a green card. "This is the Spiritspeakers' card. Don't let it get stolen."

  Liv opened her mouth once again. "Oh, by the way, there are a bunch of bandits laying unconscious a little ways down this road."

  She rapidly walked past the guards, entering the town. As she did, she felt the silent guard staring daggers into her back. Hurrying into the city to escape his gaze, she ignored the shops, walking towards the city proper. Multiple urchins reached towards her pack, but were all rebuffed by a quick application of Thought, their hands physically incapable of making it through.

  None of the shops intrigued her, all of them looking like mundane, nice places. Eventually, Liv approached the city, none of the people in the town having troubled her. "Kid. You can't enter unless you're rich, are a Spiritspeaker, or have a special job in the city," a guard shouted at her. Surprisingly, there was no line to enter. "Don't bother me."

  Liv conjured another globe of darkness, showing the guard her card before walking directly past his slack-jawed face. Grinning at him, she stepped on his toes before entering the city.

  Immediately, she noticed a difference in atmosphere.

  Everyone was suspicious of everyone else. All the people she saw were furtively looking around them, ready for anything. A small number of people seemed to be relaxed, and they looked to be the most dangerous, Liv guessed, based on the extra time peoples' eyes lingered on them. As one of them got pulled into an alley, Liv amended that. Or easiest to rob.

  As she entered, there were no sounds of fighting. Expecting the worst, Liv hurried, but when she arrived there was nothing to do. The man stood over a small group of muggers. Liv turned, and stepped away, leaving the man to his own devices, when sand suddenly cascaded at her, pulled close enough together to be solid. Liv blasted it away with Will, easily deflecting the attack. She turned to the man, who was panting, turned towards her with his hand held up. "I'm not part of the muggers, idiot," she said, turning away when she heard a comment from behind her. "I, the youngest aspirant of the House of Tiransi, do not need help. Your very offer is an insult that cannot go unchallenged. They are watching, and I will not fail."

  Liv sighed, turning. She tapped him in the temple with her Will, causing him to keel over, fainting next to the muggers. Grabbing him with her mind, she floated him up to the top of one of the buildings, placing him on its roof. She stepped out of the alley, walking around the city. Nothing that seemed to be connected to the hooded man jumped out at her, though there were a few interesting shops. As she noticed a name, Liv cloaked herself in Dream, walking by the shop.

  It offered a wide variety of containers, all holding spirits. There was no way she was leaving this alone. Liv examined one of the containers, her Will pressing down on it and giving her an image of its shape. It was a crystal attached to the end of a staff, though what color it was she did not know. Grabbing the crystal, Liv shattered it without noise, letting the spirit free. It appeared to be a spirit of Lightning. Grabbing a few more crystals, she silently shattered them, the spirits escaping the shop in short order. After building up confidence letting spirits on the edge of the shop escape, Liv moved on to all the rest. If she broke one of these, it would definitely get noticed.

  So, there was no choice but to break them all at once. Liv strained her Will, grabbing them all at once. Pain crashed against her mind. She sunk down a wall, her cloak of Dream still active. Liv steeled her mind for a short moment, knowing what she needed to do. She squeezed with all her might.

  A shattering sound came from the shop, a massive amount of spirit-holding crystals suddenly breaking and releasing the spirits they contained. They flooded out, an invisible mass to most civilians, though a few eyes followed them as they dispersed high above. A fat man came out of the shop, his eyes wild, as he screamed at the sky. Liv felt a little bit guilty for costing someone so much money, but the spirits really didn't deserve to be trapped. The pain that she had pushed away for a brief moment started to return, and Liv quickly asked the Dream spirit she had to make her an illusionary defense before falling unconscious.

  "Someone took out Hao without even seeming to Whisper?," the Tiransi clan member asked. "He was strong, though."

  The woman concentrating in the center of the courtyard opened her eyes. She pointed at the necklace she wore. "I know what I saw."

  The boy nodded. "Yeah, yeah. So what are we going to do?"

  The woman frowned. "Give your superiors this." She scribbled out a message, handing it to him.

  "Sure."

  The boy walked away from her domain, quickly finding a palatial compound. He walked up to a guard in front, lazily giving him the paper and walking away. The guard passed the message on, until it ended up getting to the person who needed to see it.

  Sitting at his desk, the leader of the Tiransi clan examined the letter. He read it multiple times, imprinting every detail into his mind. The description, especially. Mirza knew what she was doing, and what his goals were. Her spirit of Truth did not mess up. "This is her," he said. "This is her!,"

  He got up and started dancing. "I've finally found her," he shouted, acting too much like a child for his age. He calmed down, sitting at his desk. Paper started flying across it, multiple pens held up by the air around them scribbling out messages as fast as he could get them to go. "I can't lose her again," he muttered to himself, managing to speed up the pens.

  Liv suddenly woke up, the pain in her head still blaring at her. She coughed before falling back asleep.