Without prior interest, it takes too long to engineer proper respect. People need time to adjust, and by the time they've adjusted it's too late.

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The Astralla City transit terminal held twenty identical arrival platforms and an equal number for departures lining both sides of a long sandstone building. In contrast to the often heavily decorated arrival platforms at private residences or high end shops, everything about the city’s public terminal was utilitarian and ugly.

Places like this always reminded Jair of a stable, and not in a good way. Sandstone passages lined both sides of the central walkway, each containing a platform and its control panel, accessible either from inside or out. Despite the many openings and additional slit windows high up on the walls, the atmosphere remained permanently hot and sticky.

It did encourage people to leave the terminal quickly, at least.

Jair took a moment to acclimate as he stepped outside.

Astralla City was one of the larger settlements in Veor, second only to Vaes City itself and rivaling the twin merchant cities of Parein and Silvas. And it was just as unappealing a place as Jair remembered, wholly unexceptional and without redeeming features.

Though he did prefer the city bustling over the muted and subdued version the spreading plague would reduce it to in the coming year, that was like saying he liked a live rat more than a decaying rat corpse. Neither option added anything worth having to his life.

The terminal was built on a low hill, giving a view that someone had probably considered scenic at one point, before Astralla City became this overpopulated mess. What had started as a neatly ordered little upper-class town had expanded in sprawling chaos in all directions. Three different walls enclosed parts of the city, one around the upper districts, another cutting haphazardly through the middle of the lower residences, and the last one enclosing the whole thing in an uneven blob like an overinflated triangle.

Beyond the city’s outer walls, desert sand spread out in all directions. From where they stood, the academy's pale towers were just visible, high up on a distant clifftop, glowing in the sunlight like the fangs of an ancient beast.

Two- and three-story structures surrounded the arrival terminal on all sides, thick-walled and heavy-ceilinged. Pale and whitewashed stone reflected sunlight down onto glassy streets paved with pale brown pebbles held together in a vaguely translucent glue, giving it the look of something leftover and congealed. Bright banners hung from shop fronts to draw attention to them as hundreds of people walked by on their way to and from wherever.

The atmosphere assailed him at once. Crowded, noisy, and full of stale mana afterdrift. Since it was still early morning, everyone was eager to get their business done before it became too hot, but even the current crowds were nothing compared to the throngs that would descend upon them when the intercontinental holiday goers flooded the place for Terlunia.

Jair couldn’t wait to be away from this place. Not just Astralla, Veor as a whole. He missed Eythron’s forests, the sounds of life everywhere, the Oriad’s constant edge of danger. Even the plains of Celsin, overridden with vengeful elves and destructive beastkin, had more character than this.

Returning after seeing so much more of the world put Veor’s lifeless dullness in stark perspective.

“You coming?” Raina’s voice brought him out of his thoughts, and he fell into step behind her. “Why were you staring out at the city all serious-like?”

“Contemplating how much it’d cost to buy the whole thing.”

“More than either of us could dream of, I’m sure.” She glanced sideways at him. “You’re sure the fancy sword upgrade hasn’t given you delusions of grandeur?”

“Couldn’t be further from the truth. I’m painfully aware of my limitations, even with Maelstrom.” He summoned the sword to his hand anyway, just to hold it, to feel the evidence of tangible change. This wouldn’t be like before. He could change things. Was already changing things. It wouldn’t be another pointless repetition.

“If you say so.”

Raina led the way to a healer’s practice in the upper district, not far from her father’s townhouse. Polished marble floors and broad sandstone arches surrounded a small well-secured pool as its centerpiece of the spacious waiting area. Artfully placed mirrors and decorative shrubs helped create an expansive, calming atmosphere.

Even using the Serin name to jump the waiting list, the healer on duty wouldn’t be available for another hour at the soonest.

“See, important to get in early. We can come back after you give my father your proposal.”

“About that, I still have to write it up. Give me fifteen minutes to do a runaround on the commercial district, and I’ll be ready. If you’d like, you could talk to Ajriol while I’m out, warm him up to the idea?”

“I’m still not certain about this myself,” Raina admitted. “You’ve given nothing concrete to go with your grand claims of investment secrets.”

“I’ll make a full argument for each name I end up putting down. I’m going to go check out the options real quick. See you soon.”

Before she could reply, he took off at a run. His body complained, but when did it not these days. He was used to far worse. Still, by the time he returned to the upper district and arrived at the Serin family townhouse, he was gasping for breath and more than a little disheveled.

Not the greatest impression, but Ajriol did know him, so he wasn’t as concerned as he’d have been if this were someone else. He did his best to brush himself off and waited outside a full minute to regain his ability to breathe calmly before knocking on the door.

Carn, the longtime household manager for House Serin’s interests in Astralla City, opened the door, giving a brief nod as he recognized Jair. “Lord Ajriol and Miss Raina are waiting in the library.”

Unfortunately, despite Jair’s best arguments for his case, Ajriol wasn’t nearly as willing to be parted from his nirei as he’d hoped. While Raina pledged her own full allowance to his investment plans in a show of trust, her father would not be swayed.

“As impressive as this presentation is, I cannot pledge such a significant portion of my family’s assets toward an untested plan from an unproven source.”

Reasonable, but irritating. One avenue closed, then.

Unfortunately, this also meant Jair would have to forgo any further contact with Lord Veshin until he secured alternative funding, unless he wanted to admit to overestimating himself financially. That kind of overreach would be crippling to his image, especially if Veshin had already begun making arrangements for delays on his other commissions. He probably hadn’t, but it would still be a mess better avoided in the future.

The author's content has been appropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

They returned to the healer’s practice, but still had to wait several minutes before Jair could be seen.

The inner office was more chaotic, and Healer Mira—wearing a traditional sleeveless white robe to leave her imprints open—rushed about with more strain than what Jair normally expected from pre-plague years.

She caught him eying the untidy stack of information cables, not sorted or reeled, and hustled him on past them. “We’ve been a bit shorthanded this week, nothing to be concerned about.”

Jair chuckled. “Yes, Kilari’s new boyfriend is distracting her pretty thoroughly, isn’t he?”

“Is that what she’s doing?” The healer’s eyes narrowed. “And she told me she had overdue school assignments.”

“To be fair, I’m sure she does.”

Raina squinted at Jair, mouthing ‘Kilari?’

Jair waved away the question.

“Stand here, please.” Healer Mira lost the edge of hurry that underlay her previous actions, taking her time properly as professionalism took over.

Jair took his position in the center of the office and stood patiently while she scanned him with every tool in her inventory. After that she cast several spells, and had him perform a number of basic stretches while observing him through a mana-loupe—though this last was just a cover for her using her soulspell as part of the diagnostic process.

"There does seem to be some significant strain on your body and soul," she finally reported, consulting her notes. "I would suggest you empty your soulspace and focus on strengthening its boundaries for at least two weeks before trying to store anything in it again."

Yeah… He couldn’t afford to lose two days, let alone two weeks. He’d need all the soulspace he could get.

Jair nodded, promised to be careful, and assured the woman he’d not overstrain himself in the future.

"See?" he told Raina as they walked back through the bustle of the streets toward the transit platform. "I told you nothing was wrong."

“Something is wrong. Whatever you did to—” Raina cut herself off and lowered her voice, since they were still in public, “—ascend your sword caused actual, measurable damage.”

“Not damage, strain. It’s no worse than mana overdraw, and less painful by a lot. I’m entirely fine.”

Raina looked at him with concern. “You say that like mana overdraw isn’t a life-threatening condition.”

“It feels like you’re going to die, but as long as you keep your manabody stable so the power doesn’t seep into the lifebody and tear you apart, it’s sustainable indefinitely.”

“Indefinitely.”

“Well. Theoretically.” In practice, even Jair would struggle to sustain overdraw for more than a few minutes at best, unless he reformed his imprints specifically to maximize manabody stability rather than being usable spells. “It does tend to be deadly when treated carelessly.”

“And when exactly have you had time to study mana draw theory on top of everything else?”

“It’s something I’ve been playing around with for years on the side,” he answered honestly. “You’d be surprised how often being willing to push yourself into overdraw is helpful.”

“You only got your class a day ago! How have you had time to overdraw anything? Is that what you were doing in the arena?”

“No, that was all Maelstrom. Like I said, it’s something I’ve been interested in for a long time.”

“I never took you for a masochist before.”

Jair grinned over at her. “I decided to stay friends with you, though…”

“This is serious!”

Jair stopped walking, turning to regard her with calm intensity. “I don’t know what you want me to say to alleviate your concerns, and even if I did I’m not sure I’d be able to say it honestly. I’m not going to lie to you, Raina. There’s a lot I need to do and not much time to do it in, but there’s no point if you’re unwilling to at least trust me that long.”

“I… I do trust you, but…” She growled in dissatisfaction and ran a hand through her hair. “How much of your life have you been hiding from me? The shop girl, armor designs and extreme mana theories… What else are you doing when I’m not around?”

“When you’re not around…” Jair laughed hollowly. Countless lifetimes alone, arbitrary goals to have a reason to continue. That one constant thread of but Raina, I might still find something, could still go back sometime. Behind everything else, the perpetually-growing wrongness that he could live and relive everything forever and yet she never had a chance at even a single full lifetime.

His life eternally meaningless, hers so bright yet cut off too soon.

No. Stop. Not helpful. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath.

It wasn’t over yet. She was still here. Standing in front of him. Alive. It didn’t have to end the same way this time.

“Jair, what’s wrong?” Tears began to glint in the corners of her own eyes. “I don’t understand.”

He blinked and turned away, summoning Maelstrom to his hand. “I’ll be fine.” This was real. Things would change.

"Yeah, I think we need a second opinion on your mental status."

“Oh, you don’t need a second opinion for that.” Jair dismissed Maelstrom and tucked his hands into his pockets. “I’m definitely too far gone at this point.”

“Something happened that you’re not telling me about.”

“Yes.” He started walking toward the nearest apothecary.

Raina ran to catch up. “More than the thing with your sword, or Lian and his gang.”

“Yes.”

She was silent another moment, then, softer, “Are you planning to tell me?”

“Yes. But not today. That’s something we…” He swallowed and walked faster. “Ask me next week, and I’ll tell you whatever you want to know. Right now, I need a lot of construct components and as much frostvine rope as we can get our hands on. Trust me that I’m alright and this is all for a good reason.”

Raina slowed, falling a step behind as she took several steadying breaths, getting herself under control before quickening her stride. When she next spoke, her usual brightness had returned, if a bit forced. “Okay. Let’s do your shopping.”

“And investing. Plenty to do in the city. Like that place there. I have a feeling star-pepper cakes are going to be a huge fad in the coming years.”

“I’ll have to try one and see if it’s worth the fuss, then.” She handed over a pair of heavy square coins to the baker, receiving a small handful of triangular coins in change along with the star-pepper cake. She broke it in half, handing one piece to him, and peered at the center’s gooey yellow texture dubiously. “You think this’ll be popular? It looks undercooked and unappetizing.”

“The filling is fully cooked, that’s intentional.” Jair took a bite, considered the flavor, and shrugged. “I see a lot of potential.”

Raina took a hesitant bite. Her eyebrows rose, and she took a larger second bite. “You might be onto something. It’s not quite a pie, not quite a gravy…” she gave another nibble. “It’s weird. But I want more, so that’s something.”

“So, let’s talk to the owner and see if we can get in on it. Their marketing doesn’t live up to their potential earnings.”

Raina finished the rest of it without speaking, nodding pensively as she followed him inside.

The owner just happened to be present today, luckily for them. Jair effortlessly guided the following discussion into favorable terms for Raina and House Serin, with opportunities to increase their investment over time with proportionally increased returns. He dropped a few hints about cities that would be profitable to expand into, and another chain in Reskas that could be a potential partner for even more increases–suggestions the owner took surprisingly seriously.

Jair wrote up a contract on the spot, both parties read it over and signed, and they left with Raina’s purse considerably lighter.

“It’s about time I convinced you to avail yourself of my resources,” she said. “I’d started to think you took that underdog pride thing more seriously than anyone else I’ve ever met. You did really well in there.”

“Pride has a very different meaning to me now. Besides, I’m going to keep track of every nirei you spend on me and pay it back with interest.”

“Right, with your secret income seducing shop girls.”

Jair laughed. “You’d be surprised how lucrative it can be.”

“Maybe I should give it a try, get some extra spending money.”

“I’d pay to see that.”

“You’d need to outbid all the competition for that. Seats aren’t free.”

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