On her free days, when she was not expected to be in class, Orenda had taken to walking to the print shop owned by the lady Spring who seemed to have taken a liking to her, but also ran a business that frequently seemed to be busy, which Orenda did not find surprising as she was the closest print shop to the academy, as far as she knew. This meant that they did not often have time to discuss things, and even if they did, Orenda did not know which questions to ask. All she knew was that this lady followed the White Rabbit, and had painted over the graffiti that had once graced the side of her shop, the day Orenda had arrived in town.

However, on this particular day, Orenda found something out of place as she walked, alone as she always was, from the academy to the print shop.

There was a strange sound of silence; not complete silence, still she heard the murmur of the crowd and the whirr of machinery from inside some of the shops, but something was decidedly missing.

No one told her she was blindly following a false prophet.

No one told her that she would be smote for doing so.

No one warned her that the true Chosen Child of Thesis would arrive with the Sacred Sword and put an end to her for believing Xandra’s lies.

Orenda paused and looked down at the street where no fliers littered the cobblestone.

There was a box in the place the man had once stood, which she could now see was a shipping container that had once, if the label was to be believed, contained soap for bathing that produced more lather than any other soap, detergent or oil, but no one stood upon it.

Orenda stood in the crowded street and absorbed the sound of silence.

“Rendy!” Kassie ran up to her with Tiala in tow, and Shelly walking briskly behind them.

“Oh,” Orenda said, “Hello.”

“What are you doing?” Kassie asked, “We’re going to have lunch soon at the cafe with the adorable tiny cakes! Do you want to come?”

“Do any of you know what happened to the man who once stood here?” Orenda asked.

“I imagine someone finally took him away,” Shailendra said, “he was a dreadful sight, wasn’t he? He was frightening the children.”

“I wasn’t frightened,” Orenda turned and stared into her eyes.

“I wasn’t either,” Kassie said, “I felt bad for him. I gave him some copper coins, once, but my father is a scholar and he told me never to do that again because that means you’re enabling addiction.”

“What does that mean?” Orenda asked, “Enabling addiction?”

“I’m not sure,” Kassie responded, “but it’s quite important.”

“Honestly,” Shelly rolled her eyes, “it means that he’s only going to spend it on alcohol. He probably wanders down to the docks, to the boardwalk, where the rest of the dredges of society stay.”

“Not all of them,” Orenda said, “for I would count myself among them, being a street urchin as I am, and I’ve never ventured there. After what I did to the bathhouse I would hate to think what I would do to the ocean.”

“No one believes that, matey,” Shelly said in a voice too pleasant for her words.

“Yeah!” Cassie said, “We know you’re a princess!”

“You can come eat with us, if you want,” Tiala said, apparently ignoring the rest of the conversation, which she seemed to do quite frequently. Orenda appreciated her quiet, unassuming attitude, and the paintings she hung of distant, imaginary landscapes on her section of their room.

“As much as I would enjoy your company-” Orenda began to tell her, but Shalendra spoke over her.

“She can’t afford it,” she said dismissively, “she hasn’t any money.”

“I can’t imagine it would matter,” Orenda said, “but by pure happenstance you’re factually incorrect. I simply have a prior appointment at the print shop.”

“You read so much, Rendy,” Kassie said, “people think you… kinda have your head in the clouds.”

“I like to read,” Tiala said, “actually… I was wondering if you’ve read the new Jester Romance… I saw you with the Countess and the Stablehand before break and I was really wondering if I could borrow it…”

“Oh, I’m dreadfully sorry,” Orenda said as she turned to walk in the direction of the print shop, “But I no longer have it in my posession. It wasn’t particularly good, at any rate. Formulaic. She divorces the count for a stablehand who, judging by the cover art, cannot even afford a shirt. You missed very little.”

Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

“Where did you get those earrings?” Shalendra asked.

“They were a solstice gift,” Orenda said.

“From who?” Shalendra pressed.

“One would do well,” Orenda said, looking over her shoulder at the place the man on the street had once been, “in these troubled times, to focus their intentions on business that was their own, it seems.”

“Sure,” she said.

When Orenda turned to look forward again she cursed internally.

Tolith and Voron were walking toward them, and would be upon them far before they reached the print shop for her to duck into.

At the very least, Tolith had more or less healed; his skin was no longer peeling and had faded from a red to a light shade of brown, like a drop of coffee mixed into a cup of milk.

“Hey,” he said as he met them, apparently expecting the group to stop, but Orenda kept walking, so the boys turned and joined what was apparently now an outing.

“I didn’t know where the Java Pond was,” Voron said, “I thought Toli knew-”

“Why would I know that?” Tolith asked, “I thought you knew!”

“Because you’re rich,” Voron said, “that’s why those adults are always following you.”

Tolith turned in the direction he was pointing and saw that two adult earth elves wearing uniforms like the guards at the school were following behind their group.

“Oh my god!” Toli huffed, but seemed resigned to his fate. After a few seconds something perked his interest and he exclaimed, “Hey, you’re wearing my earrings!”

“Are they yours?” Orenda asked, “I thought you meant to give them to me. I can give them back, but you need to wait until tonight, if that’s alright. I have to put my other pair back in or the piercing could grow up, I think. I wasn’t quite sure.”

“No, I didn’t mean…” Tolith said, “I meant the ones I got.”

“I’m unsure where you found these,” Orenda said, “I’ve had difficulty finding fire crystals.”

“There are dwarven merchants in the industrial district,” Toli said, “My dad knows them and they’re hard to catch, but they make that kind of stuff.”

“There were dwarven merchants who often dropped off ore at the workhouse,” Orenda said, “or perhaps sold it. I’m unsure. Either way, I am fond of red.”

“Cool,” Tolith said, “Do you want to come get a cup of coffee?”

“Captain Moneybags is paying,” Voron said, throwing an arm over Tolith’s shoulders, “his mom has accounts all over town.”

“Yeah,” Toli said, “I’m paying. I mean… my mom is. She told me to make sure I ‘ate well’ on free days so any time you want to get some food I can get some food. Like if you want to eat. Food.”

“Good job, Toli,” Voron said, “nailed it.”

“Shut up,” Tolith said, sounding far more annoyed than Orenda thought the situation warranted, but she would admit that she did not understand their friendship.

“I actually have a prior commitment,” Orenda said, “Ms Kearie is expecting me.”

“Oh,” Toli said, “I mean… we can come with and go eat after.”

“It may be quite some time,” Orenda said, pausing in front of the print shop, “we’ll be discussing a quite difficult restoration project that is very dear to my heart.”

“Oh, ok,” Tolith said. “See you… later then?”

“I assume so,” Orenda said, thinking it would be highly unlikely that she would never see him again, as they went to the same school.

“Bye, Rendy!” Kassie said, “Have fun with your book restoring or whatever!”

“Yeah, bye Rendy!” Voron said, almost as if he was angry or annoyed with her, though she could not imagine why.

Tiala merely waved, which Orenda appreciated.

Orenda did not dawdle to watch them walk down the street, though she did notice that the two guards stayed hot on Tolith’s tail and never let him out of their sight, it was impossible not to notice such a thing. Instead, she made her way into the shop, which was, somehow, less busy than it usually was.

“Orenda!” the human woman behind the counter called, “You just made it! Head on back!”

Orenda walked past her into the room housing the machinery that normally heaved and shook with workers adding blocks, replacing blocks, stamping page after page, but that had now fallen silent. Further still she came to an area where a table had been set out, where Ms Kearie sat at the head, surrounded by her employees, human and elven alike.

“Here kid,” A boy not much older than her said, “I made you a bowl.”

“Thank you!” Orenda said pleasantly.

“Rendy,” Spring bent to speak quietly, “We’ve found a new safehouse in the industrial district. Everything is going to be alright.”

“Is anyone here leaving soon?” Orenda asked, “Also, do I need to know where it is?”

“It’s a clothing shop,” Spring explained, “not too far from poor Ellie’s library. We had to get a Knight of Order in there to buy it and have it operating for nearly a year, but we’ve got it now. Good, upstanding citizen.”

“Lovely!” Orenda said.

“Yeah…” one of the human women exchanged glances with another, “lovely.”

“Would you be willing to do me favor?” Orenda asked, “When you get to Huriyat AlIinsan, would you tell a pair of siblings named Johnny and Jill that I am alive and well? If you happen to find anyone like that inquiring after an ‘Orenda’?”

“Them’s pretty common names,” the woman said, “but I’ll keep an eye out, little bit.”

“I appreciate it,” Orenda said.

“Rendy, we need to talk about your book,” Spring said, “Do you actually want me to copy that for Felearn? I’ve started working on the template, and we absolutely need this information out there, but I’m not making a copy for him until I run it by you.”

“You were able to make a template?” Orenda said, knowing her voice was full of hope, “I was so worried it was destroyed beyond repair! There was so much steam… so much water in the air…”

“The long and short of it is that I only lost the interior title page,” she said, “I think I can figure out just about everything else. I’m working on the restoration. I can actually make the copy faster than I can restore the original.”

“I would so like to have the original,” Orenda said, “Ellie wrote it out by hand, you see, and… it’s all I have of her. I wish I could make such beautiful images, as she did…”

“Yes, she was skilled,” Spring agreed, “and she was the foremost expert on precolonial history, as far as I know. I don’t know who’s doing what beyond that mountain. I would think a fire elf would be a better expert.”

“But you can restore it?” Orenda asked.

“It might take until winter,” Spring said, “But I will have it for you. Just come in and pick it up. If you want him to have the copy, tell Felearn to come and get it.”