When they left the temple of Hero Teddy had been very unsettled. They had decided to get him home to rest. The next morning they planned to get up and meet up to open the mystery gift from the clergy.

As lazy as James appeared to be he slept pretty light and woke pretty early. He made breakfast for Lucy and himself and they meditated for the day. He started to get antsy, he completely understood the need for Teddy to recover and be given space but he was impatient and wanted to see his brother and make sure he was ok.

“I’m just going to step outside and get some fresh air.” He said to Lucy.

“Yeh right, you want to see if you can hear if they’re awake yet or not.”

He ducked his head out without giving her the benefit of telling her she was right and took in the street. They had chosen it because it was out the way and cheap, the modest huts were packed together in the condensed city, all terraced together. The only two that they could find near each other had been on either side of one of the narrow alleyways and he moved into it to ‘get some fresh air.’

He stopped, looking at a person sleeping on the floor of the alley. It was rare to see vagrancy in the city. Especially with essence users. The young girl in front of him was iron rank and obviously new to sleeping rough. He could tell this wasn’t a drunken stumble and sleeping it off, she had a new-ish set of blankets to sleep on and a plain bag of supplies. Her clothes looked fairly new and looked after so she hadn’t been at this for long.

[Hey guys, theres a homeless girl in the alleyway. I’m going to see if she’s ok.] He put on the group chat before bending over to wake her up and see if she wanted some breakfast.

Before he could touch the skin of her arm he saw a streamlined black creature swim through her arm to the point he was about to touch and spread its tentacles wide in warning, the tips reaching from her fingertips to underneath her T-shirt sleeve probably to her armpit. Underneath its intelligent eyes it had a monster mouth instead of a usual octopus beak and it had a pointed head like a squids. The tentacles themselves had spikes all the way along with the suckers and the ends had hooks. James jerked his hand back but leant in for a closer look. He recognised it as a Kraken but swirling in jet black ink through the skin like a living tattoo.

He looked up and saw the girl fearfully watching him looking at the tattoo floating on her arm. He recognised her as the young woman who had bounced off him the day before. When he met her gaze she stiffened then gathered her resolve.

“Yeh, what?! You never seen a tattoo before?” She rudely burst at him. Scrabbling to sit herself up. And pulling her blanket around herself. The kraken swam up and parked itself just off to the side of the hollow of her neck, wrapping its tentacles round her throat like it was hanging there.

“No, definitely never seen one like that before! That’s awesome.” James said, not taking offence and backing off to lean against the far side of the narrow alley. “I had a tattoo at iron rank but it was just a cartoon bear wearing a wizards hat with a staff, gave a burst of mana. How about yours?”

“It’s my familiar, you cant have him!” She started collecting her things.

At that point all three of the others came round the corners of the huts. They saw her her scrambling to pack up her things. Kyra and Lucy went to her.

“What did you do you oaf?” Kyra admonished as she held her hands out to show no harm before kneeling down next to the girl and put a hand on her arm to calm her.

“Nothing! We were just talking about tattoos!” He insisted.

“James she’s terrified.” Lucy said poking him in the ribs. “Don’t worry about him, he’s a dolt but he’s a softy.”

[What did I do wrong?!] James asked on the interface.

[Where do I start?! You’re bronze rank she’s barely iron, you’re huge she’s tiny, you’re a man in an alley and she’s a vulnerable homeless girl, you’re wearing you’re silly armour and she’s not got much more than the clothes she’s in and her blankets.] Kyra ranted, the interface conversation quick as a thought.

[I was just trying to be nice…]

“Do you want to come with us? Let’s get you cleaned up and some food in you?” Kyra asked the girl.

“I thought he was after my familiar…” she said, protectively putting a hand to her throat, the tentacles of the kraken appeared on her hand as it made skin on skin contact, holding hands with her.

“Oh it’s a familiar! That’s pretty special. I have one too if you’d like to see?”

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The girl nodded and Kyra released Lucky who wagged his tail so hard his butt waggled and opened his mouth in a doggy grin with his tongue hanging out. The girl laughed and held out a hand to stroke him and the kraken swam down her arm to take position on her hand, tentacles crowding the fingers. Lucky sniffed the hand carefully a little unsure as his tail stopped wagging but he deemed she passed the sniff test and he enthusiastically allowed scratches to his head.

They got her up and into Kyra and Teddy’s hut, as he hadn’t been around to stop her she had gone all out making it as homey as she could, her stress and worry over her husband’s absence was channelled into a heavy amount of retail therapy. The girl was given access to the bathroom and a vial of crystal wash as a luxury, new clothes waited for her curtesy of Kyra and all her clothes and blankets chucked into a wash.

When she came out they got a good look at her clean and fresh instead of dirty in an alley. She was a pretty girl, late teens or early twenties. Slightly tall for a girl with long straight brown hair. She looked a little unsure about everything and was nervously playing with her kraken on her wrist with her other hand. She lasted a few more seconds standing there awkwardly until she saw the cooked breakfast on the table, she got the nod from Kyra and pounced on it, bumping a chair over in her haste and almost toppling a vase.

The others let her eat in peace, they sat down and grabbed plates and joined her, they talked amongst themselves about nothing topics until the girl had her fill.

“Right then. Cleaned, clothed and fed. How about a name?” Kyra asked kindly.

“Err, Dorianna, my friends call me Anna.”

“Hi Anna, I’m Kyra, this is my husband Teddy, the dolt is his brother James and his wife Lucy. We’re all adventurers just stopping through.”

“Hi. Sorry, thank you for this. I’ll go away, I’ll get you some money.”

“We don’t want money Anna we just wanted to help.” Lucy said kindly, giving an obvious side eye at Kyra who was sat there in diamond encrusted armour to make it obvious they didn’t need money.

“Can you tell us why you were in the alley? Maybe we can help?”

“It’s a long story…” Anna said uncomfortably.

“We haven’t got any plans, if it’s a really long story then you might be lucky enough to still be here for lunch.” Kyra said with a wink.

Anna giggled. “Ok.”

………

Anna was cleaning the house while her parents were out. They both worked long hours. Her dad was a miner, working the famous mines of Honshuraskil. Her mum was an administrator, doing the paperwork to keep the mines running. She was very proud of both of them.

They lived on the bottom layer of the city, the air was less fresh and the houses smaller and more clustered together. There were many more people living on the cramped streets down here, drawn to the city to work in the mines but without the money to buy accommodation. Her family worked hard to earn their house and they kept it nice.

Anna was working part time in a food procurement plant. Growing edible fungus for the cheapest food available to the population here to work. She had a small group of friends that she felt close to and most importantly her boyfriend. She felt so lucky to have Claus as he was too good for her but he allowed her to dote on him, bringing him extra food and she paid for them to go out on the upper levels sometimes. She was meeting him for a date later that day and she wanted her parents to have no reason for not letting her to go out.

Her parents came home together, their shift patterns aligned. She wasn’t very close to her mum but she adored her dad. He was a very hard man but he cared for her.

When they came in her dad looked quietly happy while her mum gave her a complicated look before disappearing to get changed.

“Hey dad, how was work?”

“Excellent, we struck a new vein of ore today and the overseer was so happy he gave me a bonus!”

Her mum came out. “Yes a good bonus that could get us moving up a level maybe.”

“Sharon, we talked about this. It’s an investment in our future.”

“And I said you’ve already made the investment. Whatever, I said you could do it you might as well give them to her.” She started clearing the living space, moving chairs and tables to the side of the room.

Anna looked at her father in confusion. “Dad?”

“Your mother and I made a decision yesterday. We have enough coin to cover it and we bought you your first essence!”

“Daddy!” She ran and hugged him. “Oh thank you, oh thank you!”

“And thats not all, the overseer’s bonus today was another essence which,” he looked at his wife. “We have decided to give to you also.”

“Wow. Mum, Dad, thank you!”

“Ha, are you going to ask what they are?”

“Oh! Yes. Oh thank you, what are they?”

“The first one we got you was the Might essence, its common but popular, the second is a rare one but perfect for you to join me. It’s the Deep essence!”

Anna took a beat to get over the fact her dad was planning on her being a miner with him and was still overjoyed she was getting not one but two essences.

“Oh daddy this is amazing! I have some money saved, I can pay for the ritual room and a magic society person to do the ritual!” She said trying to be helpful.

“Nonono, your grandpa Joe taught me how to do the rituals for myself and I’ll teach you to do it too.” He smiled, pointing at the large space on the floor her mum had just cleared for her.

“Thank you mum.” Anna said, painfully aware her mum would have rather sold the essence from today.

Her mum came over, softening slightly and kissed her cheeks. “Just make us proud.”

Her dad sat her down and taught her the basics of ritual magic, he had a very basic understanding himself so passing it on to a beginner was easy. He showed her the ritual before rubbing it out and guiding her through drawing it herself. She was disgusted by the powdered monster cores. She finally got it right and absorbed the Might essence.

It felt amazing, she walked over to the sofa and picked it up with one hand, she walked over to her father and hugged him, picking him up easily.

“All right, all right, you’ve still got the other one to go.”

She drew the ritual out faster this time and got it right her second try. She absorbed the Deep essence and stood trying to figure out what it did.

“I was always told your meant to just be able to feel what your powers were.” He said and she concentrated.

“I think, the Might essence gave me an attack, I could hit something really hard. “

“Depends if its something or someone. There’s some that have to be against a person or monster and some that can be used against anything, hitting the rock really hard is kind of the idea!” He said impressed with his own humour.

She smiled nervously at him, still unsure about working in the mines. “And the Deep essence I… I think I can go really deep without it hurting?”

Her father looked confused, even deep in the mine they still weren’t at sea level the mountain was so big, the city stood at the peak of the mountain then mined down into the centre.

“Not to worry, you can’t help it, its a lottery what powers we get from essences.”

“She only got one useful power? That’s brilliant, that was the expensive one as well!” Her mum commented.

The atmosphere was a little chilly after that and Anna quietly helped her parents put the room straight.

“I err, I made dinner for you two?” She said with a slight question in her voice.

“Oh?” Her father said picking up on it.

“I was just hoping, I made plans to see my friends.”

“Has that boy got a job yet?” Her mother pounced straight away.

“He’s… looking for one.”

“What do you mean looking, theres always work. He’s lazy and stupid and you’re silly for seeing anything more in him.”

Anna bit her tongue to stop her retorting and ruining the chance of going out at all. She looked at her dad with hopeful eyes.

“Go, but be back before middle bell.” He was tall enough to kiss the top of her head.

She dashed off to grab her jacket from her bedroom. She eyed her dresser then in a spur of the moment decision grabbed all her savings, she felt like celebrating.