Free of all formalities, and with Idleaf on my tail, I followed Deckard through the barracks, past the mess hall to the staircase supposedly leading to the roof. That was as far as he was going to take me, seeing no reason to come up with us.

No training today.

And the reason? Idleaf, obviously. But to be fair to her, she wasn’t the only issue. There was the matter of my quick level-ups, unspent skill points, and the skills themselves I had to sort out before the more serious training could take place.

Well, ideally by tomorrow, when I’m supposed to go to Fallens Cry with Squad Four. Going into the labyrinth with a mess in my status was not a good idea. It could get me and my squad mates killed.

Nor was it good to walk around the city on an empty stomach. The smell of food coming from the mess hall we passed was enough to make my stomach growl and make me more cranky. It was long past the breakfast I hadn’t had. Hell, the last meal I had was a ton of lettuce moss, and although it was enough for my body in terms of nutrients, I needed something more...tasty to satisfy my taste buds; preferably a good-sized piece of roasted meat.

But Idleaf came first. 

As we walked through the barracks, her curiosity grew with every room she saw, every guard she met, and every window we passed. We weren’t even halfway when her enthusiasm rose to heights where I expected her to start asking the question I used to pester my parents with when I was a kid on holiday trips: “Are we there yet?"

It made me wonder why she didn’t squeeze past me on the spiral staircase, the last parts to the roof, and instead bounced eagerly up and down behind me. After all, she could move within 20 meters of me, not limited by solid objects like the little me, and just shift there in the blink of an eye.

My hopes of finding ourselves alone on the roof were dashed even before I reached for the door handle when the voices of the women bickering reached my ears. Trying not to listen, I withheld my hand, as I considered it rude to enter into the conversation of others, let alone an argument. And then there was the fact that I was uncomfortable with arguing in general, whether I was involved or not. Too many negative emotions, including raised voices that made my ears suffer.

“Something wrong?” Idleaf asked, seeing my hesitation.

I rushed right out with a lie. “No.” There was no reason to tell her about all my quirks and faults. And so, despite how uncomfortable I felt doing so, I had no choice but to disturb the two. For a moment, I even considered knocking before I quickly abandoned the idea, grabbed the door handle, and walked out with a clearing of my throat to let them know about Idleaf and me.

The spirit wasn’t so mindful. Once she got a glimpse of the view from the rooftop terrace, she popped up in front of me and dashed to the terrace railing in awe. 

“Wow, you see that Korra’leigh?”

I sure did. “That’s Castiana.”

“All that is a human dwelling?”

“It is. Dens of humans, terrans and more,” I gestured to the buildings sprawling out in front of us as far as the wall on the horizon.

“...so many people down there.”

Letting her marvel at the sight as she ran from one side of the roof terrace to the other, placed oddly on the ridge of the roof, I looked at the two women. They stopped bickering the moment we stepped onto the terrace, now staring at Idleaf and me.

“Hi, Elira, Vara. How come I always run into you?”

“Do you want to hear the truth, or should I make something up?” Vara asked me quite bluntly, her eyes darting between the spirit and me.

“Of course, the truth,” Elira said wearily, eyeing Idleaf in particular. “Who would want to hear a lie you pulled out of your ass?”

Well, she was right. “Honestly, I’d appreciate it if you’d give it to me straight.” In the last few hours, I’ve heard too many things that sounded like a fairy tale, vague things that I just had to accept as they were, despite the lack of information. 

“Well, we kind of noticed you as you made your way down the hallway to the mess hall...”

“Noticed?” Elira raised an eyebrow. 

“Fine. We were looking for you and heard you telling her...” Vara pointed at Idleaf. “...where you were going. Then we ran to get here before you did.”

“Why?”

“Do you really have to ask?” Vara wondered, pointing at Idleaf again. The spirit was still marveling at the city, spouting one question after another, oblivious to the fact that I wasn’t answering her. “Traiana’s tits, look at you. How long has it been since you went through evolution? Three days? I thought I got my shit together, trained hard, but damn, twelve levels? The two I got seem like a joke now.”

“She really put in the work,” Elira added when she took her eyes off Idleaf for a moment. “I’ve never seen her so focused; almost caught up with me in levels.” 

[Guardswoman: lvl 129]

[Guardswoman: lvl 130]

It wasn’t just Vara. If memory serves, Elira had also gained a level, which made her still the stronger of the two.

“Fuck yeah, a day or two, and you won’t be able to bash me for it.”

“I hardly ever did,” argued Elira. 

“Whatever. My two levels seem pathetic now, anyway. How the fuck did you do that? Tell me...” she stopped when her friend elbowed her in the ribs. “...What?”

“Not why we wanted to talk to her, Vara.”

“Why not? She disappears somewhere with the Imperial Chief Healer and comes back twelve levels stronger. Tell me how that’s not related?”

“Related to what?” I foolishly asked, not knowing what a mistake it was.

“To the shit that went down last night. I slept soundly in the embrace of the dude I’d had some great fun with, only to be woken up a few hours later by that dreadful scream in my mind,” she lamented, telling me details of her night that I didn’t need to hear. “So instead of a well-deserved sleep and morning grind, I was forced to run around a city that was turned on its ass, wondering to myself what the fuck was going on. And you know what I came up with?”

I had a feeling. 

“Call it a hunch or whatever you want, but I’ll bet my wage you had a tit in it.”

“N-not words I would use, but a reasonable assumption nonetheless,” Elira agreed with her friend. “So the question is...w-who’s your friend over there, Korra?”

“Damn it, Elira! If she’s making you wet, just go and ask her...it’s not that hard.”

“Easy for you, not me, and you know that.”

“But how else do you hope to find someone?”

The fair-skinned guardswoman clenched her fists as her ears turned red. “I don’t need to spend every night with a different guy.”

“Is that envy I hear?”

“Fuck you!”

“Oh, you wish.”

“She doesn’t seem surprised…do they want to mate, Korra’leigh?” butt in Idleaf, intrigued by the spat. And to be honest, I had a hard time answering her, as I wasn’t sure myself. Was Elira gay? She never mentioned it, did she? Perhaps...no. Or maybe the interest she showed in me earlier went deeper than my somewhat unique appearance. If so, should I be flattered? What about me? I’d never looked at a woman that way before.

“M-mate?” Elira stammered, clearly embarrassed now that Idleaf was standing next to her. 

“Yeah, careful with this one. She’s pretty shy about stuff like that,” Vara remarked, eyeing Idleaf, no less. “Who are you? Some kind of specter? Why isn’t the system working on you?”

Idleaf frowned. “I was told to tell my name if I wanted to know the other’s.”

“What kind of idiot told you that?”

“My Guardian. Korra’leigh,” Idleaf said defensively, shifting next to me.

Vara stared at her, bewildered. “Who?”

“Korra’leigh,” the spirit of the World Tree proudly repeated my name. “My Guardian.”

“What bullshit is she talking about, Korra?”

It was time to come clean, and I could. Not just because they both belonged to the Castiana City Guards, but because down there in that crowded room, they all agreed that it would be impossible to hide the existence of the World Tree in Esulmor. Snippets of information were already out as her cry reached who knows how far. No doubt the elves were already in a hurry to find out more, and it couldn’t take the mind mages long to put two and two together when they knew about the seed in the heart of the woods. 

And so I told them who Idleaf was and who I had become; about my new-ish name.

For the first time since I knew Vara, the chatty guard couldn’t find the words and was just opening her mouth like a fish out of water. It was a rare sight that made even Elira chuckle. After absorbing the reality of who Idleaf was, she brushed it off rather quickly, and even seemed to lose her shyness.

“It is an honor to be in your presence, Idleaf. My name is Elira Truthorb. It is indeed a courtesy to introduce myself. Your Guardian taught you well, and I apologize for my rude colleague,” she said with a curt bow, the flame of interest with which she had previously eyed Idleaf changed. Not quenched, she simply looked at her differently. “Vara has no manners.”

“Elira,” Idleaf said her name with power rolling off her tongue, already forgetting the rudeness of the chatty guardswoman. “Your name is...interesting, telling a story. Rare in humans.”

While Elira was confused, I wasn’t. “She lived up to her name?”

“One part of it,” Idleaf clarified, bouncing around the guardswoman in question.

“What’s the story behind her name?”

“Korra’leigh has a lot to learn. If you can’t tell yourself, don’t ask others to tell for you.” In other words, I wasn’t qualified to know. Shame, still...

“Can you tell Elira? I’m sure she doesn’t know a thing about the power of names like most humans.”

“Humans are really odd. It’s her name. She should know,” Idleaf remarked, crossing her arms over her chest.

“I-I don’t mean to be disrespectful; what are you two talking about?”

Oh, Elira, I’m sorry. “Idleaf, why don’t you tell her? She might tell you about Castiana in return. Who could know more about the city than its guardian, right?” 

The spirit pondered that for a moment before she cheered. “That’s a great idea.” She then grabbed Elira’s hand and dragged her to the terrace railing, pointing to the streets of Castiana. “What are they doing over there?”

That went well. Better than I thought, actually. Though I had a little guilt in my heart, I was glad it wasn’t me who had to answer the barrage of questions Idleaf had. Of course, I would have answered them all if the task were up to me; however, it could get tiring.

Speaking of which, I would love to snuggle up in bed, close my eyes and leave the worries of this world behind me for a few hours. I wasn’t picky. The not-so-comfortable straw bed at the Broken Inn and itchy blankets would do. Sadly, it seemed that not even a minute of well-deserved peace was in store for me.

“Are you okay, Vara?” Her stare was giving me a genuinely unpleasant vibe on the back of my neck.

As I asked, focus returned to her eyes, and she stopped muttering to herself. “If I’m all right? Are you fucking kidding me?!” With a few quick steps, the guardswoman moved in front of me and gripped my shoulder so hard I had to swallow a whimper. “You know, when I found out where you were going, I went to see Rayden. B-begged, I begged her to send me with you.”

She certainly didn’t do that out of concern for me. But if I knew her a little, which I did, it had something to do with the fact that the trouble followed in my footsteps. Yeah, I was aware of that.

“I suspected...no, I knew some shit was going to happen. And it did,” she said, pointing to Idleaf, who was passionately explaining the strength of the names to Elira. 

“Rayden didn’t send any city guards,” I pointed out, trying to ease her frustration from missing the action.

She growled and gripped my shoulder tighter. “I know. Our job is to protect the city, not go on adventures; that’s what she told me.”

“It wasn’t exactly a nice...adventure. People died out there.”

“I am aware. I’ve seen the bodies.” 

“Strong people,” I said, wary. There was no gentle way to point out that she was weak. Well, compared to the imperial soldiers, whose average level was 250.

She sighed and let go of my shoulder. Then she slowly walked to the railing and leaned against it; I did the same, waiting to hear what she had to say. “Yeah, a lot stronger than me. Look, I’m not blind or stupid enough not to see that. It’s just...the dullness of my work is killing me.”

“Okay, then change jobs.” It couldn’t have been that hard. Sure, she signed some contracts, agreeing to serve in the City Guards for a number of years. But Rayden didn’t strike me as someone who was overly concerned by that. “Captain surely...”

“I’ve already spoken to her, and she agreed.”

Huh? “Really?”

“She was actually quite happy with my decision, even promised to do what she could to help me.”

“Wait, wait, wait! You really are quitting the City Guards?”

“Traiana’s tits, no. Why would I?”

“Didn’t you say you hated it?

“Oh, that. I hate being a patrolwoman, not being a city guard.”

“Okay?” I wasn’t quite sure where she was going with this.

“The problem is, I’m not cut out for much else. With my strength, I can either walk the streets every day looking for petty criminals or stand guard at the gate,” she said, running a hand through her auburn hair in frustration. “Fuck! When did I give up my dream and settle for...this,” she gestured to herself.

“Ehh...you mean a chatty guardswoman looking for gossip and making fun of the people?”

“What? Is that how you see me?” She raised an eyebrow, but then waved it off. “You summed me up pretty good. I’ve always been like that. But not quite. When I joined City Guards, I wanted to become someone people could rely on, you know.”

“Can’t they?”

“Yes, when it comes to a dispute between neighbors, a lost cat, but not when things get tough. Then I just report what’s going on, and someone more reliable comes to sort it out. It’s... frustrating.” 

“I get that,” I said, scratching the back of my neck. “What I don’t understand is why you’re telling me this.”

“Me neither!” she threw up her hands in despair, her eyes falling on me. “I guess because I felt so powerless since you showed up. Because of you, things started happening in the city.”

“And you missed all the fun,” I added, knowing what she had complained about so many times.

“Yeah, and you know why? Because I couldn’t do shit in those situations except keep order on the streets. Don’t get me wrong, I understand the importance of it; it’s just...” She paused, trying to calm down. Then, when she looked up again, there was a determination in her eyes. “I want to join the A-Team.”

“The Master Guards? Is that what you spoke to Rayden about?”

“Yeah. Quite a goal, isn’t it? They’re the guys that get called when the shit rains on you; they’re the ones people rely on, and...the last few weeks with you making a racket in the city have made me realize that this was what I wanted, this was the dream I was entering the guards with and which I had forgotten, or rather the one I gave up on.”

Technically, I wasn’t the one making a ruckus in the city. It wasn’t me who stormed the barracks or chased an innocent girl around the square just to put a collar around her neck. Nevertheless, putting that aside, my wish now seemed rather selfish. I wanted to become stronger, just for my own sense of safety, while she to make others feel safe.

“That’s a nice goal you’ve got there.”

“More of a pipe dream. At least that’s how my folks saw it. And over time, I, too...let’s just say the slow progress and general mood among the guards made me think that where I was...was enough. Why try harder and make your life miserable when the results aren’t worth it, right?.”

“Is that how the guards see it?”

She nodded. “Sort of. It’s a decent job with a decent wage, and in the positions that Elira and I are, not as dangerous as it might seem. As I said, if things get ugly, we’ll just report it. There’s not much we can do against a level two hundred seekers, and it’s damn frustrating.”

I could relate to that. There wasn’t much I could do against slavers or beasts other than run away.

“Because of how weak I am, I missed all the fun, all the shit when people needed someone to rely on, and that’s hardly going to change if I stay the way I am, sitting with my thumbs up my ass,” she said, topping it off with a rather expressive gesture. “So I took extra shifts and started sparring with Clay.”

“The same one I fought with?”

Vara grinned. “Yeah, that’s the guy. After he sobered up, the reality of having to face you again struck him hard. He has barely won against you, and he knows it. Not sure his efforts will be enough...honestly, seeing you make me feel like we’re doing something wrong. Seriously, Korra, what’s your secret?”

“I’m just trying to survive and do my best...” I said, reconsidering my answer when I saw her don’t give-me-that-bullshit expression. “...which includes training with a 300-level mossbear. I thought I mentioned that.”

“You weren’t kidding?”

Drooping my wings and ears, I shook my head. “I wish. You don’t know what a dreadful experience that is. I can still feel the beast’s fangs in my flesh...and the moss...argg.” I winced at the memory of the bland taste of that lettuce.

“Moss? The one on your head?”

“Trust me. You don’t want to hear what this thing can do. Anyway, it wasn’t my near-death experience that made me level up; it was me pushing my limits, human limits,” I said, wagging my tail and flapping my wings to make it clearer. “What makes your class tick is something you have to figure out on your own.”

“Damn, you sound just like Rayden.”

Was that a compliment or an insult? Better to take it as the former.

“No straight answer, just bullshit like open your mind.” She shook her head but then seemed to make her resolve. “Fine, I’ll do that, or ask Elira. She came up with some pretty good ideas.”

I looked at the woman, talking keenly with Idleaf. “Does she see it the same way you do? I mean, about your positions in the City Guards, leveling and stuff.”

“No, she has no ambition to become a Master Guard. She could; she’s brilliant.”

“But?”

“Shy as fuck.”

“Her?”

“I know...seeing her talking to someone you wouldn’t be able to tell. She’s actually pretty good at it. But I bet you she’s sweating her ass off right now.”

To be fair, talking to Idleaf, knowing who she was, was nerve-wracking for anyone. So, not entirely her shyness’ fault. However, I was able to relate to her. I, too, found talking to strangers uncomfortable, to say the least.

“She’s even more timid when it comes to talking to someone she finds hot. She usually gives up rather than try... in fact, as far as I know, she hasn’t gotten laid in over a year.” 

Not the information I needed to know. It threw me off so much that I hesitated to ask another question. “And...s-she’s into chicks?”

Vara chuckled. “She plays it both ways. You?”

Fuck! I shouldn’t have asked. That was too personal a question. “S-straight.”

“Shame, she likes you. Same here, though,” she said, pointing to herself, and then she glanced at the two of them. “What about her? Is she really the spirit of the World Tree?”

“She doesn’t look it, but she sure is.”

“...and you her Guardian?”

“Somehow, yes.”

“Damn. I thought it was just some bullshit legend about elves.”

Speaking of which, the content of the legend pulled me by the wing, demanding my attention. “Korra’leigh look.” She stood there straightened up with her chest out, waiting for me to notice her new look. Her spirit form was no longer naked, at least not the human part.

“You have a shirt. It suits you. I love it.”

She giggled, happy. “Elira taught me that people cover their hide. She taught me many things.”

“That’s wonderful,” I told her, mouthing a silent thank you to Elira, who blushed in response. Not the intention I did it with; I was simply grateful to her for talking to Idleaf. Apart from Lord Wigram and me, hardly anyone had spoken more than two sentences to her so far.

Not that I blame them.

But it would be better if they did. Idleaf needed to learn the ways of humans if she were to work with them in the future.