Sixth Moon, Second Spark Day

  It was just before noon when Aida and her father returned from delivering completed laundry to the businesses that had engaged her parents’ services. After the family’s emotional outing the day prior, Aida had felt responsible for lightening the Lorehs’ load as much as possible: she had gotten up early to assist with the washing and drying, using her Water Manipulation to do most of the heavy lifting in the manual scrubbing to remove stains, as well as pull the bulk of the water out of the wet cloths so it was easier to hang the linens up to dry.

  Ray was cautiously cheerful. He confessed the meeting with the other family had gone surprisingly well; they hadn’t seemed angry or vengeful about the arranged union not proceeding as planned, merely regretful. However, they didn’t threaten Ray and Meg with any retribution, so they were hopeful that would be the end of it. Regardless, there were still some moments where Ray would fall into moments of pensiveness, as if he was expecting—or trying to anticipate—ways in which their luck would turn on its head.

  For her part, Aida had been preoccupied turning over the—admittedly minor—details she had discovered while following Lara and Jasper back to the Riolt compound. So preoccupied that Ray had to grab her arm to get her attention before she headed up the stairs back to their fourth-floor home.

  “Aida, your friend is here to see you!” Turning to the newcomer, Ray spoke apologetically. “I’m so sorry, sir. She must be on holiday brain!”

  “That’s perfectly all right, I’m used to her ignoring me,” Levi said with mock regret. “I’m Levi Ashet, by the way. No need to call me ‘sir.’”

  Ray’s eyes rounded as he started bowing. “Ashet! Very pleased to meet you—I’d invite you in for tea, but we’re a bit inconvenient to get to—“

  “Ah, that’s all right, I don’t want to impose. Oh, before I forget, I brought these for you.” Levi handed a small bag of brightly-colored fruit over to Ray, who blankly accepted with both hands. “These are from our own orchards, so I hope you enjoy them.”

  “Thank you so much—now I feel terrible for not inviting you in—“

  “Don’t worry about it, perhaps next time,” Levi said smoothly. “Aida and I made plans for today.”

  “Ah, you didn’t say anything,” Ray said to Aida reproachfully.

  “I’m sorry,” Aida said meekly. “Do you want me to help you bring the fruit in?”

  “No, no, I can manage—go on, go with your friend. I’ll see you later tonight.”

  “I can’t believe you forgot we had an appointment,” Levi muttered as he politely waved Aida’s father off.

  “Sorry, a lot’s happened.”

  Levi didn’t talk until they turned the corner of the road, so that they were safely out of view of Sue and Aida’s building.

  “So to start, I thought we’d go to all the major areas Buddington residents are sure to have visited at least once,” Levi said as he leaned against a sign that had a weathered hand-drawn map of the city, along with several brightly colored lines on it that looked like it had been recently traced over. Clearly a bus stop schedule. Aida supposed it made sense that she had to be familiar with the local public golem routes, but her coin purse was feeling uncomfortably light, especially considering how it sounded like there was a lot of traveling on Levi’s itinerary.

  “Why can’t we just walk—or use our mana to travel?”

  “Ah…” Levi scratched his head. “Good time to learn, I guess. First rule of blending in with society: blend in. It’s better if you don’t flaunt the fact you’re a practitioner so openly, because you might draw unwelcome attention,” he said blithely. He glanced around the street. “Especially in districts like this.”

  Aida followed his gaze, frowning. “You mean… because this is a poorer district?”

  “It’s not the poorest district, but there are fewer practitioners living in places like this, so any use of mana is bound to stand out. So…” Levi shrugged. “Some people are shameless enough to beg for more than they deserve if they know you can utilize mana.”

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  Aida nodded, familiar with the type of characters Levi was describing. Just like panhandlers could sniff out an easy target in her home city, it made sense for her to be more discreet with her abilities.

  “By the way, take this.” Levi extracted a stiff slip of paper from his pocket just as a golem with a red stripe on it trundled up to them. “I got you a daily travel pass for today. You’re welcome.”

  The two of them settled along the bench at the back of the golem. Aida noticed the passengers were careful to avoid their gazes, reminding her of the crowd at home. Only tourists and visitors would gawk at everything and everyone without restraint. Everyone else who lived in the city would keep their heads lowered and gazes averted, trying to blend in to the surroundings. Just trying to get through the day.

  People who stared were almost guaranteed to be people whose radars you never wanted to be on.

  “Where are we going?” Aida asked Levi quietly. She wished she could gawk openly like the newcomer she was, but she only allowed herself the vacant gaze of someone who was so familiar with the scenery they weren’t even taking in the sights.

  “You’ll like this,” Levi said enthusiastically. He pulled another sheet of paper from his fashionable pouch slung across his chest. “I’ve got our whole day planned out.”

  Aida glanced down the list of locations, the names meaningless to her. Market, temple, park, shrine, street fair…

  “Are we going to be able to go everywhere on this list in one day?”

  “Of course,” Levi said confidently. “We won’t linger at all of these places; it’s just to get you familiar with local names. You’re not going to get a full immersive experience of Buddington Town in one cycle.”

  The golem made a few more stops before Levi finally stood up, waving at Aida to follow him. They squeezed past a line of passengers patiently waiting to board the golem, all of them carrying linen bags and rucksacks filled with goods and groceries.

  Levi gestured grandly at the teeming marketplace. “Welcome to the biggest market in Buddington Town, where you can find the largest variety of food and goods, though not necessarily for the best prices.”

  ~ * ~ * ~ * ~

  Aida was no stranger to crowds and cramped public venues, and even prided herself on having enough street-smarts to be able to identify and avoid unwelcome circumstances. However, with her heightened mana senses—or perhaps because of her heightened mana senses—she was having trouble parsing out individual intentions in the crowd.

  The market itself was technically an open-air market, though so many stalls and shops had strung enough canvas over their poles to offer coverage from the beaming summer sun that it might as well have been a covered market.

  The crowd browsing the market was significantly larger than the one when she had first visited the docks at Shale Port, and everybody’s emotions were heightened as customers squabbled and haggled over their purchases. Needless to say, the noise, bustle, and energy all battered at Aida’s senses.

  That was why Levi was thoroughly exasperated with Aida by the time they managed to find a small pocket of peace at the edge of a row, beside a stall selling candles.

  “If I had known you couldn’t handle a crowd like this, I would have brought a leash,” Levi complained. He peered down at her. “What’s going on?”

  “I’ve been among crowds like this before,” Aida replied irritably. She rubbed her temples. It wasn’t necessarily a migraine, but there was a pressure that was exerting on her, making her senses feel muffled. “There’s just too much going on—I think my improved senses are getting overloaded.”

  “I see.” Levi shook his head reprovingly. “Stay here for a moment, and absorb the feeling. I’ll get you something that will help.”

  Aida leaned against the pole with a sigh, watching Levi slip through the crowd as naturally as if he was in his own home.

  With the way Levi portrayed himself, she wouldn’t have expected him to be so comfortable in this kind of an environment. He seemed much closer to being an upper-class boy, used to only sharing space with other individuals of similar backgrounds, than someone who was familiar enough with the ecosystem that was… wasn’t exactly lawless, but was merely too crowded for any rules to be strictly enforced.

  She couldn’t imagine what Levi was going to get that would help her adapt to the overwhelming mass of energy in the location, but she also couldn’t bring herself to care.

  Groaning to herself, she made her way to the nearest exit, where the energies from the nearby entering and exiting shoppers were more relaxed and less cutthroat.

  He should be able to see me out here… it’s not too far from where he left me.

  She plopped down on a vacant bench lining the perimeter of the market, resting her head in her hands. The pressure on her head now was lighter than when in the thick of the market, but it seemed once it started, there was no alleviating the discomfort; she just had to ride it through.

  Focusing on her breathing, she began Mana Cycling to put her own mana in order.

  Unfortunately, there was still too much noise and activity nearby for her to meditate properly, especially when she was already in poor condition.

  Doubly unfortunately, a familiar source of mana seemed to be approaching her.

  Praying she was wrong, Aida stood up to flee—

  “Aida? What are you doing here?”