“Alright, hey, enough, enough!”

“Aww, already?”

“We’re in a bit of a hurry here.”

“Well, fine...”

Fayette reluctantly released Olivia from her crushing hug, while Mireille rubbed her forehead in the background. The Seamstress had more practical concerns. “So, Olivia, welcome to the team and all that, but how exactly are we going to get out of the city? I don’t think assaulting the gates at this hour is going to be an easy task.”

The [Doctor] took a moment to smooth out her ruffled dress, then took a swig from her flask. “Do you think I would stick in a place like this without an exit plan? I didn’t choose this dilapidated husk of a house to dwell in for the look you know.”

“Wait—” Elise said, eyeing the room around her. “Do you mean the undercity? True, I think there are some tunnels under here too...”

Olivia let a small hint of smugness flash through her expression, before returning to her normally deadpan countenance. She walked to a corner in the room where she moved the remnants of a rotted wooden crate, revealing a passage underneath. “Exactly. Some old mining tunnels run right under here, and they should lead outside to the riverbed, just a bit beyond the wall.”

“Wait. Should lead?” Mireille asked, peering into the hole with some hesitancy. “Have you actually checked?”

“Well, It’s not like I’ve really had the time...”

“Hey!” Fayette interrupted. She waved her broom around, as if warding away pointless talk. “No point debating it anymore. We’re in a hurry, right? Nothing to it but to head in.”

She patted her pockets one more time to make sure she had everything on her, trotted over to the passage, then peered down. “I’ve still got the lanterns from our previous jaunt underground, so we should be all set.”

She dug around in her pouch, then handed one lantern to Mireille, and one to Olivia. She almost started to hand out a third, before she hesitated.

Oh, right. I guess this one is for me. She turned to Elise, the one who would be staying behind. The [Labourer] looked fragile there, standing aided by a walking stick, watching the others prepare for travel. There was a gulf there—the people leaving off for new adventures, and the person staying behind. A tale as old as adventure itself.

“So...” Fayette started, eyeing her brief friend’s injury. “I guess this is goodbye then.”

Elise looked caught out, surprised that she had gotten addressed. The young woman sighed. “I guess it really is.” She closed her eyes for a moment as if internally fighting over something. She gripped her stick tighter, then raised her gaze back up, this time holding some remnants of fire in it. “You... you all really are amazing, you know? I didn’t think it was possible for people like us to actually do things like this—to fight back.”

She touched her recovering wound with her left hand, then winced back. “Well, at least some people.”

Fayette felt some guilt hit her again—she felt at least a bit responsible for the girl’s wound. Well, worrying myself over that won’t help. We are in a hurry after all.

She nodded at the woman, then turned back to the passage, lit her lantern, and jumped in.

Mireille also said a brief goodbye, then followed. Last of all, the [Doctor] also followed them in, sealing the passage closed behind them.

“Alright doc, which direction are we headed?”

“I told you not to call me that.”

“Fine, fine, but still, what direction?”

“I think.... that way?”

“You think?” Mireille huffed. “I thought you had this all planned out!”

“It is the right way! Let’s go.”

Fayette had already begun moving, leaving the others to their debate. If they’re not sure, what does it matter? The tunnel around her was similar to the ones they had traversed earlier, and that set her on edge. Did we ever get all the rats, I wonder? Are there more like that big one, just waiting and lurking in places like this?

She kept her broom out and her eyes sharp, taking care to not let any sneaky rats or spots of tar escape her notice. The more she thought about it, the more she felt on edge, unsatisfied. As if something was buzzing inside her head. It took her a moment to realize the reason for it.

Here she was, making an escape from town, but she really didn’t feel like she was finished.

Fayette paused for a moment, looking at the tunnel ceiling above her. Up there, the city of Palogne remained almost just as it was when she had arrived, dirty and poverty-stricken streets, cluttered and full ghettoes, looming vagrants, and above all, those always visible plumes of smoke, rising higher and higher into the sky.

What had she really achieved here?

“Hey, Fay? What are you spacing out for?”

Fayette twitched, awakened from her moody thoughts by Mireille poking her back. She turned to look back, meeting her friend’s concerned eye. “Oh, nothing, let’s keep moving.”

She moved on, quickening her pace to a brisk jog, but soon felt a poke at her back again. “What?” She asked, not stopping to turn back.

“Don’t say it’s nothing—I know that look. Something’s bothering you.”

“It’s nothing important.”

“That always means it’s important.” Olivia pointed out. “Sadly, I can’t [Diagnose] ailments of the heart and mind. Yet at least.”

Fayette ignored the chatter and kept moving on, scanning behind every jutting stone for signs of danger. Now that Mireille had said it, she did really realize she was feeling bothered. Arriving in this city, it had filled her with an urge to fix things, clean things, make things work as they should.

She had managed to kill some spooky rats, take out some thugs and stop one factory from polluting one district. Was that really enough? Could she really just leave like this, barely having started, not being thorough at all?

“Oh, now I know!” Mireille said behind her, snapping her fingers. She shuffled next to Fayette and bumped her with an elbow “I knew I recognized that expression—that’s your ‘I didn’t get to clean enough’-face, right?”

Fayette sighed. “Look, it’s just tha—”

Suddenly, she felt an overwhelming presence take hold. A searing pain hit her mind.

The [Maid] collapsed to the ground, as a growing, throbbing pain began to grow and expand deep within, inside her being. Not from her body or mind, no, it was emanating from her class.

“Fay!”

She tried to stand up, to rise to her knees, but the crushing pressure she felt enveloping her was too much. It was in that same spot as before, what had been an itch when facing the Noble [Guard Captain].

That spot where her class was missing something.

A master.

The intensity of the pressure started growing, and Fayette began feeling an instinctive urge, an instinctive need to obey. It was similar to when she had been forced to fight back in the mansion, but greater in strength, while lesser in focus.

She was dimly aware of Olivia’s and Mireille’s touch on her as she slowly stood up to her feet, steadying herself on the tunnel walls. She slowly raised her broom up.

Then she thrashed control back to herself, gripped the broom in her hand tighter, and hit herself on the head as hard as she could with her broom.

Fayette came back to consciousness slowly, feeling drops of cool autumn rain on her face. She opened her eyes, and saw the clear starlight sky above her, framed amidst trees. She was laying down on her back and felt soft grass under her. She groaned, still feeling the remnants of a headache on her, and rose up.

Footsteps neared her. “Thank the saints, you’re awake!”

A gentle embrace enveloped her, and she blinked her eyes, slowly gaining focus of Mireille’s worried face. She returned the hug. “Hey, I’m fine, I’m fine. All according to plan. Damnation, that hurt. What was that?”

“Well, I can make an educated guess,” Mireille said, releasing Fayette from the hug. She gently helped her friend up, supporting Fayette’s head to let her see the view ahead. She pointed with her finger. “I think that had something to do with it.”

Fayette squinted her eyes, trying to make sense of what she saw ahead of her. First, she saw those distinct plumes of smoke, rising high up into the starlight sky. She could see the beginnings of morning in the horizon ahead—the first morning shifts at the factories must have gotten started.

Next, she saw the riverbank, a good distance away from them, and the city walls rising up beside. They looked as grand as ever, imposing against any assault that might come their way.

However, even those grand historic walls were dwarfed by the phantom figure looming over them. It was a giant in the shape of a man, one dressed in the finest livery afforded in this country, a face adorned with age and a grand beard. A very, very furious-looking face.

The figure was a silvery-blue thing, projecting from the center of the city, rising high up into the sky, from where it peered this way and that, examining the city around it, and growing angrier by the second. A glimmering field spread out from it, covering the city inside the walls wholesale.

Ah. So that’s what a high-level [Lord] can do. What even is that supposed to be?

She felt Mireille tremble slightly against her.

However, Fayette didn’t really feel all that frightened or intimidated by the thing. Sure, whatever this skill was, it might have almost forcibly wormed at her mind, and forced her to knock herself out. But that wasn’t what she saw ahead of her, looming over the city. She didn’t see an obstacle, an enemy to be overcome.

She saw power.

So that’s how it is, that’s the type of power one can wield in this world. I wonder, how small do the ails of the world seem from up there?

She now realized how small she had been in her foray to Palogne, but that didn’t really upset her. Now things made sense. Of course I can’t do much more than handle a few rats and one factory, small little [Maid] as I am. But that, that right there, that is power.

Levels.

She slowly stood up and noticed that her broom was next to her laying against a tree. She picked it up and felt at it in her hand—a sturdy tool, sure, but still a very mundane one. She turned back to the city, and imagined what it would be like to one day stand that tall, to wield power that overwhelming.

She closed her eyes and pictured it. Small, tiny factories down below her, still spewing out that same troublesome soot in endless plumes. She raised her broom, then swept it across the sky, collecting the smoke into tidy balls.

With power like that, what were some factories? They could bend, or break like the little toys they were.

“Hey, Fay? What are you doing?”

Fayette opened her eyes, returned to the moment, and turned around. “Just thinking on the future. Where’s Olivia?”

A shuffle in the woods answered. “Right here. Went scouting for a bit, we can travel beside the road for a while, should keep patrols off our back.” The [Doctor] measured Fayette with her gaze, a skill flashing in her eyes. “Are you feeling fresh enough to walk?”

“As if I had just rested for a week,” She answered, and started walking forward. The [Maid] turned back for one last look, and felt her eyes meet with the gigantic [Lord]-figure for the briefest moment. The moment passed, the phantom figure looking away, none the wiser. Fayette, however, had made a vow with that brief moment.

She would be back. Eventually. And one day, she too would stand that tall. She had gotten through step one, getting an uncommon class for her first upgrade, but the future would be much tougher. A rare class, then maybe even a legendary class after that. Perhaps even the distances only legends trod, the realms of unique classes and saints.

What would a legendary Maid look like? Could she one day stand that tall, overwhelming power in her grasp?

She was smiling again.

zechamp

We're finished with this arc! Well, next chapter will still have a short look back on how things have gone, but the main plot is done!

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