Gwendith chewed on the end of a stalk of grass as she lounged on the balcony of the residence that the Braxxonian residents had given her group. It was a simple two-storey affair, with a couple of bedrooms, a kitchen and living room, and the balcony. She and Saki shared a bedroom while Heron stayed in the other one.

Braxxon City held hidden depths, and it didn’t take long for her and the others to realise that what the Xothan said when they first arrived, was duplicitous at best, and an outright lie, most likely. The group that they were talking about involved something that the two nations had cooked up, but had little to do with the workings of the city.

It had already been a week since then, and according to Yuriko, nearly three weeks outside of the Chaos Fount had already passed. If there was one fortuitous thing, it was the fact that the path home was clear now. The unfortunate thing was that it would probably take the better part of a Season to use it to escape.

Right after the communication spell Yuriko used ran out, the three of them had gone straight to the central square. The castle cast a shadow that covered the area, and the residents were naturally difficult to distinguish from the numerous statues that dotted the landscape.

Yes, the residents weren’t human, or any other mortal race that Gwendith had ever seen. They were close to those walking statues that came out of that Chaos Fount back then, but they were alive instead of unthinking constructs.

The Xothans and the Ishodirians tried to intercept them before they could make it to the square, but Saki steered them away. There were less than three hundred outsiders here, and the city was huge. It was easy enough to get out of surveillance once they were away from the walls.

Upon their arrival at the square, Gwendith nearly shrieked when a stone statue moved. It… he turned to face them, raised a hand, and called out a greeting in perfectly neutral Wojan.

“Welcome to Braxxom City, adventurers! Come, register with the defence council so you can begin your quest!” The living statue pointed towards a bulletin board that stood right next to the castle’s portcullis. There was another statue there, living too, probably, and the one talking to them gestured expansively. “Please, hurry. We need all the help we can get.”

Wordlessly, Gwendith and the other two strode up to the gate. The greeter statue didn’t move from his spot and practically froze back into immobility. When they arrived next to the bulletin board, the statue there started moving and talking.

“Welcome. Please sign the registry in order to participate in Braxxon’s defence quest.”

The statue presented a large book that was half of its height. It appeared out of nowhere, though Gwendith felt the stirrings of elemental energy and ambient Chaos. The book opened by itself and flipped through its pages until a blank one appeared. On the opposite leaf were several names already.

“Does this represent a binding contract?” Gwendith asked sharply.

“Yes.”

“What are the terms?”

The statue turned his head and pointed towards the bulletin board. Up close, the thing was larger than she expected, fully five paces tall. Along one side were the details of the contract, or rather, the rules and regulations of the Braxxon City Defense Initiative. It was couched in overly precise language, but it pretty much boiled down to:

1. Kill invading Elementals, retrieve their cores to be exchanged for Merits.
2. Do not attack other citizens.
3. Do not compromise the defence force.
4. Merits can be exchanged for rewards.

The other side of the board contained the rewards as well as the general exchange rate for cores. Gwendith’s eyes were immediately drawn to the one labeled: Exit Token - 1,000 merits. Then, at the very top of the list: Elemental Cores - 5-20 merits per piece submitted.

“Fifty to two hundred Elementals slain just for each one of us to leave,” she muttered.

“Ancestors,” Heron swore, “this is a prison.”

“Perhaps,” Saki said. “It depends on how many we can gain and how quickly we can do so. Look at the list. They’re giving droplets of Ambrosia.”

“Eh?” Gwendith gasped and scanned the list again.

There were many items for trade, many of which she didn’t know. Near the bottom was Pure Life Essence Droplet - 1500. The most expensive item on the rewards list was “Tower Entrance Token - 20000”. What tower it was or why it was so expensive, she didn’t know. There were also some things called Truth Fragments, which had several entries with an affix. Truth Fragments (General) was five hundred merits while Truth Fragment (Fire) was a thousand points.

“Expensive, isn’t it?” she muttered.

“If you think priceless things offered for simple labour as expensive, then you have a skewed understanding of worth,” a harsh voice laughed.

Gwendith turned towards the speaker, noting that the man wore an Ishodirian uniform. “And who are you?” she asked haughtily.

The man sketched a bow at her and said, “An Ishidorian. I came here to see who the independents were. I don’t see how you managed to make your way here. Try not to leave the city lest your lives be forfeit.” With a sneer, the Ishidorian left.

Gwendith and Heron exchanged glances. The hostility wasn’t that surprising since they came into conflict with both groups, but what was the point of approaching them?

Saki had pulled out her notebook and began copying the rules as well as the rewards list. Heron turned to the living statue. “Where can we camp out?”

“Any dwelling in the residential district can be leased for the price of your initial merit points. Ten merits for a tiny dwelling, twenty-five for a townhouse.”

Upon inquiry, the tiny dwelling was simply a single room, while the townhouse had several rooms, they ponied up the merits for the latter, though they had to register first to receive a defence force badge that doubled as their merit storage.

That had been a week ago, and so far, they’d managed to accumulate a hundred merits.

A hundred. Twelve Ashen Elementals that gave up their Elemental cores when they were slain, and about a couple of dozen more that just dissipated to ash clouds upon death. Thirty-six elementals over seven days seemed like a lot, but it was nothing compared to the number of elementals the other two groups slew. They numbered in the hundreds to thousands!

The grass stalk snapped against Gwendith’s teeth as she gritted them. A week passed here, three weeks passed outside. Time slipped away, and she felt frustration squeezing her heart. How much longer would it take to leave? The only saving grace was that they found out that the exit token would take all three of them rather than just one. But at any rate, it would take nine more weeks, twenty-seven outside. Two Seasons wasted just to leave and they would bring nothing of worth with them. Something had to change, but she didn’t know what kind of ripples and waves they’d cause when they made their move.

Heron came out onto the balcony, leaned against the railing and stared at the distant walls. Gwendith frowned, then delicately spat out the fragments of the grass stalk from her mouth.

“This can’t go on any longer,” he said. “Both groups are monopolising the easy spots on the wall.”

“What do you suggest? They have Advanced Magi in their central groups.”

“Perhaps we can head out beyond the wall?”

“Active hunt?” Gwendith muttered. “Why do you think that’s better?”

“It is if we know where the elementals come from.”

“Do we?”

Heron smirked. “Saki started scouting a couple of days ago.”

“Huh. When’s she coming back?” Gwendith frowned. She hadn’t noticed that Yuriko’s handmaiden had not returned to their dwelling in a while.

“In a couple of days,” Heron said. “Well, the more important question is, what do we exchange to bring back to Yuri?”

Gwendith rolled her eyes, “Is there any other choice? The Ambrosia, of course.”

Heron nodded, “Then let’s do just that.”

_________

“...the stakes to the wager are high, but when we win, it will be more than worth it. My Nirians, let us once again prove that we are the premier academy within a thousand leagues!” The dean’s speech came to an end. Yuriko got up to head out, but Blanca held her arm.

“The dean will want to talk to you and the other newly promoted professors.”

“Alright,” Yuriko agreed.

The other two new professors had not been entirely new staff. They were assistant professors, one in the Caster Department, and the other in the Arcane Brewer Department. Both were men in their early thirties, Juan Montez and Rey Ramirez. Both had flirted with her during various functions and mixers though she let them down easily. Juan was gracious enough to back off, but the Arcane Brewer was a bit more stubborn. Not that he tried anything, but he had the habit of asking her out once every week.

She nodded to both men as they made their way to the front. Dean Varro welcomed them with a smile.

“Professor Montez and Professor Ramirez, congratulations on your promotion! Professor Davar, a belated welcome to the Academy!” The man beamed at them, but his domain spread out and encompassed them. Yuriko pushed it away with her Anima, but the two men broke out in cold sweat.

The sense of pressure intensified around Yuriko, as well as a ferocious heat, but it was just as easy to resist that as anything else. She also got the sense that the man wasn’t trying to intimidate, but simply to get a better measure of her. Them, actually. She looked at Juan and Rey and found that the two had taken a couple of steps back and were trembling.

“Impressive Will.” The domain pressure eased off suddenly. Dean Varro turned to the other two and said, “Acceptable.” He glanced at her again, then nodded to Vice-Dean Biera and the two of them left.

Blanca chuckled. “Seems like you gave a good impression.”

Yuriko shrugged. “If you think so.”

“I’ll see you later. I’ve got to sort out the mess the dean made.” Blanca scowled but Yuriko could tell she didn’t really mean it. “Well, it's not like fighting bets against Briarwin isn’t common.”

“This happens every year?”

“Well, a dozen times since I’ve taken my post.” Blanca shrugged. “Deans Carlos and Eva have a healthy rivalry.” Then she said in an undertone, “Or an unhealthy one.”

Yuriko just nodded and said goodbye. She left the two new professors to recover on their own, nodded to Department Head Farron’ir, as well as the other five department heads, and made her way to her home.

Ryoko wasn’t there yet as she also had the day off today. So Yuriko fixed some tea for herself then broke open her stash of chocolate truffles. She missed Gwendith’s touch and the chocolates were a reasonable replacement.

After she finished off a couple, she fought off the temptation to eat another and went up to her bedroom to meditate. The rest of the day passed quietly, but she had another errand that evening. She waved goodbye to Ryoko before flying back towards the city and heading to the Adventurers’ Guild building. The receptionist greeted her with a cheerful smile and she waved back.

The training room was deeper into the facility, and it was already occupied by the time she arrived. Laura Mondero, the Adventurer Vigilant who was also Yuriko’s sort-of apprentice, was already in a meditative pose. Elemental energy swirled around Laura, but Yuriko didn’t see a speck of Radiant.

Laura opened her eyes when Yuriko entered, dropped out of her meditation, and sighed. “Teacher, thank you for coming.”

“Hello, Laura,” Yuriko said as she sat in front of the Sha’ledras woman. “Hard at work?”

“Yes, but it's not working as I hoped. I may have progressed a bit in my grasp of the Elemental Truth, but I cannot touch Radiant energy.”

“A pity, but I did say I cannot guarantee anything.”

“Indeed.” Laura fidgeted, then said, “I have been summoned by my family. It is a call to every wandering Mondero.”

“You’re leaving?”

“Yes. I…”  Laura licked her lips nervously. “I wonder if you would come with me?”

Yuriko sighed and shook her head. “I apologise, but I don’t wish to travel at the moment.”

“I see.” Laura sighed. “I expected as much. Forgive my impertinence.”

“No need.” Yuriko patted the other woman’s shoulder. “Where is home anyway?”

“Ah, in the Xotha Matriarchy. The Mondero Family compound is in the Oasis of Amber Springs. It’s more than five hundred leagues away from here.”

“A long journey. Will you return to Nirlith?”

“After a year or so, I guess,” Laura sighed. “But this is goodbye for now, teacher. I appreciate the tutelage.”

“You’re welcome, even if you didn’t reach your goal.”

“It was still fruitful.”

They chatted for a couple of hours, then parted ways. Yuriko felt her Mien twitch, and when she checked, she noticed that Laura’s thread had thinned to the point of snapping. She returned to the Adventurers’ Guild but soon found out that the woman had already left.