It was so much fun to ride in the water cab, even though it was a chilly day. The cabbie offered Lucille a hand as she stepped into the surprisingly steady boat, before helping Priscilla down. Kavil stared down from where he stood on the street, eyeing the cab and the canal warily.

"Don't be scared, Kavil," Priscilla teased, finding her footing easily. "Aren't you supposed to be comfortable with your natural element?"

She held out her hand out alongside the cabbie's, and that helped Kavil get over the last of his trepidation. His fingers wrapped around hers and the cabbie's, but even with the support, Kavil nearly stumbled as his feet left solid ground.

Laughing, Priscilla looped her arms with Kavil's as they sat heavily on the seat, making the whole boat bob in the water.

"Guess I fell for you," Kavil said with a cheeky smile. Priscilla rolled her eyes at him, shaking her head at the joke.

Lucilla raised a single amused eyebrow before indicating to the cabbie they were good to leave now.

The cabbie pushed off the bottom of the canal with his pole and Priscilla was surprised to sense a tingle of magic from the back of the boat. With each push of the pole, the magic pulsed, spreading down the length of the wood. Corresponding with the magic, Priscilla sensed that the boat began to move faster and faster until the cabbie didn't need to push off at all, just using the rudder to steer.

"How long will it be until Peligran is buried?" Kavil asked as they passed through a section of the artisan district that appeared to only have exotic meat stalls, though he kept his gaze on Lucilla.

"His cremation will be tonight at sunset," Lucilla said, "with the hopes that he will travel the twilight into the Shade Father's arms. The priests will bring his ashes to me at dawn, as I didn't… didn't think I had the heart to watch the cremation itself. I'll bring those back to his estate to scatter amongst his favorite garden.

"But," Lucilla said, shaking herself to rid her of the sadness that had crept into her voice and forcing pep back into her voice, "after the visit with the priests this afternoon, I finally returned to my estate. It's on the eastern side of the Noble District, and you two simply have to come visit."

"Name the time and place and we'll be there," Priscilla promised. "You said something about hosting a tea party soon, right? In Peligran's honor?"

Lucilla beamed. "I did! I drafted the invitations to send out on the morrow, but I had to reply to the letters that I have already received and that took up much of my free time before I needed to collect the two of you."

"Anything interesting coming up?" Kavil asked.

Lucilla opened her mouth, then paused, glancing at the cabbie at the back of the boat and deliberately lowered her voice.

"Vocrel Bersk sent me an invitation to a small get together in two days," Lucilla said, "and I responded in the affirmative, letting him know I would bring two guests. It's a casual sort of thing, where people often bring friends or friends of friends, so I think it is the perfect opportunity to introduce you to high society."

Priscilla tried not to let the excitement get the best of her and just nodded in thanks. "We'll need to make sure our wardrobe is up to snuff then — I assume it's a faux paus to wear the same dress to multiple functions?"

"Of course," Lucilla said blithely, "but if the hems, neckline, or sleeves are adjusted between appearances, you shouldn't get too much scrutiny considering that neither of you are nobility. I think seven outfits for the two of you will be enough to start with. As I said before, I am your sponsor and chaperone, so I will ensure you are adorned properly."

Kavil quietly choked on spit but Priscilla nodded. She had expected as much — she did have five dresses that would be fine enough to wear at social functions, but depending on the current fashion trends, they may not be wearable. Priscilla wasn't one to normally conform to what society thought was best, but she needed her clothes to not be a hindrance to her goals. Appearances mattered when dealing with folks who thought their opinions were worth more than gold, and nothing would ruin their chances at finding information faster than being standing out like a sore thumb.

"Will we need to wear anything particularly special for the tournament?" Priscilla asked. "We'll at least be attending the qualifying round, and the first and second since Illnyea will likely do well."

Lucilla hummed, tapping a finger on her lips as she thought.

"If you want to be open about which fighter you support," Lucilla said, "you should ask Illnyea about which hero she will be embodying so that you can coordinate your color palate."

"I know what hero she plans to be Brixiron Keyyra," Priscilla said, "though I haven't talked much with her about her costume."

Lucilla looked thoughtful. "Based on what I know about Brixiron, I suspect she will go for hues of gold or purple."

"Will you sit with us during the tournament, Lucilla?" Kavil asked. With a wink, he added, "I think you'd look great in gold too."

Lucilla tittered, though Priscilla thought her eyes looked sad.

"I would be honored to support Illnyea," Lucilla said.

The boat started to slow and the cabbie said, "Madame Tisdale's on your right miss."

It was a little more challenging exiting the boat than entering, but Priscilla made sure that Kavil didn't fall into the chilly water.

Madame Tisdale's was a boutique that catered to wealthy clientele, that much was apparent just by looking at the building. The walls were painted a rich teal and the trimmings glinted gold to catch your eyes. Large glass displays took up most of the front, the mannequins posed like they were dancing to show off an exquisite layered midnight dress and a matching suit. The double doors that led into the boutique were a misty type of glass that only gave suggestions of what lay hidden inside, adding to the mystique.

Lucilla walked in confidently, handing off her coat and hat to the doorman as she entered. Priscilla followed her lead, giving Kavil an encouraging nod when he hesitated.

"How may we help you today, madame?" A worker in a neat button down white shirt and a high waisted teal skirt asked politely.

From there, Lucilla was a whirlwind, commandeering the worker and two others to assist her in her quest. She told Kavil and Priscilla to explore the boutique's offerings while she arranged a meeting with the designer.

Priscilla quite enjoyed the process of searching through the clothes for something that both in style and would make them look great. Kavil was surprisingly enthusiastic about it as well, pulling things off the rack to hold it up against Priscilla. His face was scrunched up in concentration as Priscilla tossed her hair as she posed with it before shaking his head and reaching for another. It took some cajoling, but Kavil paused his quest long enough for Priscilla to pick out a few things for him as well.

Lucilla came out soon with the designer and then they were whisked off to have their measurements taken while Lucilla flipped through the catalog. Once that was finished, they were both rushed into a changing room with the pieces they had picked out for themselves and a few that Lucilla had pulled.

The first thing that Priscilla tried on was a more casual look. The white top had a high neckline and what Priscilla would consider to be French sleeves, ending two thirds of the way down the bicep. Purple embroidery stretched from the neckline, blooming around where a brooch was supposed to go in the center of the chest. The top of the skirt was flush against her ribs and waist like a corset but flared out after the hips with four ruffled layers that showed off the glinting gold stitching along the bottom of the skirt.

Lucilla made an approving sound as Priscilla stepped out and gave a quick twirl for a 360 view. Then, it was back into the changing room where Priscilla tried on one outfit after another. She and Kavil kept missing each other until Priscilla stepped out in her final outfit, the one she had specifically saved for last because she liked it the best.

Priscilla had always preferred clothes that hugged her in all the right places because she was of the belief that if one got it, they should flaunt it unapologetically. The situations she had been in so far had demanded that she dress more practically, which was a shame, and she hadn't had much time to explore her options since coming to this world. But this dress had come the closest to capturing her preferred style and she had been surprised to see it hanging on the rack next to her. She hadn't seen anything else like it in the store, but Priscilla couldn't help but run her hand over the deep green fabric before stepping into it. The boutique worker helped lace her up in front of the large mirror, giving Priscilla plenty of time to admire the dress.

It was designed to have a mermaid silhouette, tight around the chest, hips, down to her knees before it hung straight down. Underneath the left thigh the main fabric of the dress parted like a slit, but there were long, silky layers cascading from underneath so none of her leg was shown. The sleeves were only technically attached to the dress on the very edge of the bodice, made of a thinner version of the dress's green fabric. The sleeves flowed down her arms before they were tied off with gold ribbon at her wrists. The dress's sweetheart neckline dipped low as it followed the curve of her breast down. It definitely drew the eye to her assets but it wasn't scandalously low (at least according to Priscilla's standards). Gold accents were threaded throughout the dark green dress, and the contrast between the dress and her red hair was stunning.

Priscilla thought she looked fucking amazing as she walked out of the dressing room and was already imagining what sorts of accessories she would add. There had been plenty in the front but she hadn't looked too closely because she wanted to know what the main piece of the outfit would be.

She came face to face with Kavil, who had just come out of his own dressing room, and her mind stuttered to a halt as she saw him in proper formal wear for the first time.

Kavil's outfit wasn't overly complicated, but there was beauty in simplicity. There was a dark purple bow around his collar, just above the gold top button of his shirt. The ivory white of his long sleeved shirt highlighted just how smooth and warm his dark brown skin was. Gold branches crawled from the shoulder of the shirt towards his chest and down the voluptuous sleeves. It was hard to tell exactly where it attached from this angle, but there were long strips of thin fabric hanging from behind him, stretching almost to his ankles like a tailcoat. His pants were the same dark purple as the bow, and the shirt was tucked into the high waisted pants that were cinched tight with a skewed belt. Metallic leaves had been embroidered down the tight pant leg that hugged his thighs and calves.

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For a moment they just stared at each other, both too stunned at the other's appearance to speak. Priscilla hadn't realized just how thin Kavil's waist was until it was accentuated like that, and she wasn't quite sure what to do with that realization.

"You look fantastic!" Lucilla said, clapping her hands and that shocked Priscilla out of staring. "I knew those pieces would suit you two!"

"We look hot as fuck," Priscilla said, tossing her hair over her shoulder, uncaring of the way the workers winced at her language. "Your fancy friends will never know what hit them."

"They won't," Lucilla said with a quiet sort of wistfulness. She shook it off, clapping her hands again, saying, "We'll get everything you tried on — now we must go find accessories to complete your looks!"

It was an enjoyable afternoon to just focus on shopping, exactly the type of activity Priscilla needed to finally relax after all the crazy shit she's had to deal with since coming to this world. It turned into a great evening when Lucilla insisted on taking them out to dinner over Kavil's protest that there'll be food at home.

"This is when you say thank you," Lucilla said without slowing down, "and ask to take food home for your friends."

Kavil sighed, but he couldn't hide his smile as Priscilla looped her arm with his.

"We can get Sulaiman a desert too," Priscilla whispered as they followed Lucilla, "maybe even two so he can have the full experience."

…

After the whole 'splitting orichalcum alloy in half business with brute strength' nonsense, Illnyea was forced to do so much math.

It was torture, through and through.

Again and again, a paper with an equation was placed in front of Illnyea. It detailed the different components that were being used to make an artifact and how they were being arranged. What Illnyea had to do was to use math to figure out how they all interacted with each other and successfully write down what was being made.

While explaining what she had to do was simple, actually doing the task was one million times harder. Illnyea was only able to successfully get maybe one in every five pages correct, and sometimes she couldn't even begin to guess what type of artifact was being created. There was so much she didn't know, but Lanme did not slow down once, just placing another page in front of Illnyea and stared expectantly until Illnyea picked up the pencil and began again.

It was nearly ten at night when Illnyea was finally allowed to have a break after Lanme's ominous declaration when numbers had started doing the cancan across the page. Arnold had slipped a bag of coins into Illnyea's hand and told her to go take a break while he talked with Lanme, which implied there was going to be even more after the break.

But Illnyea swallowed a groan, just nodding tiredly and gratefully took the opportunity to leave the desk that had served as her temporary torture cell.

Even though math was now on Illnyea's list of nemeses, she understood why she had to do so much. Repetition built the math muscle in her brain until she could do these types of calculations within her mind without hesitation. She had done something similar when she learned how to use a sword, practicing everyday until slashing was instinctual and easy before moving onto parrying.

Illnyea lived by the philosophy that without dedication, you would never get better. Slacking off just hurts yourself in the long run, no matter how tempting it might be at the moment.

She walked out of the back door of Malachite Expanse and into the alleyway with the hopes of doing nothing more strenuous than staring at the wall. Just a moment where no thoughts were required before Illnyea tried to find a place to eat. The canal next to the alley was surprisingly quiet, as if waves had decided to take a break from their constant splashing, letting Illnyea enjoy blessed silence.

But, Illnyea suddenly realized that she wasn't alone in the alley the moment the door closed behind her and cut off the chatter of the store. It was awareness that Illnyea had cultivated in the fens, always listening for signs of life that disrupted the stillness because everything was out to get her.

Holding her breath, Illnyea looked to her right, where she had heard quiet breathing.

Sitting on the ground, with her face half obscured in the shadow cast by a cloud and half-illuminated by moonlight, was a woman leaning against the dirty bricks near the edge of the canal. Her eyes were closed, though she was clearly awake based on the way her fingers tightened when Illnyea looked at her. She had dark, curly hair pulled into a low ponytail, and skin that was dark, though Illnyea couldn't tell the exact tone in the darkness.

The skin around the eye that was in the light was dark and bruised, and blood trailed out of her nose down her lips. Her cheek was puffy, like it had been struck, but the most worrying part of the woman was the angle that her left arm was at. The joint didn't look like it was properly connected, suggesting that it may be currently dislocated.

The stranger was dressed in rough clothes, a long cloak and a brown skirt that spread across the ground around her. Her white button down shirt had the top three buttons undone, the fabric laying askew like she had done it in a single movement in a fit of anger.

A tight silver necklace on the woman's throat was at odds with the rest of her appearance, the gem in the center glinting darkly in the moonlight.

"Are you alright?" Illnyea asked, all thoughts of doing nothing fleeing her at the sight.

The woman tensed, jaw tightening as she growled, "Pretend you didn't see anything and leave."

Illnyea hesitated at the firm refusal because she didn't like upsetting people, but her own resolve hardened. There was no way that she could willingly turn a blind eye to someone's suffering.

"You're hurt," Illnyea said.

"And you're deaf," the woman snapped, finally opening her eyes to scowl at Illnyea.

The woman's eyes were startling clear as she leaned forward into the moonlight. They reminded Illnyea of the paintings she had seen of ocean water illuminated by sunlight, a color so pure that it momentarily caught Illnyea off guard.

"Go away," the woman said slowly as Illnyea was stunned silent, as if Illnyea was particularly slow.

"I'd like to help you," Illnyea said, shaking off her shock at the woman's eyes, "I—"

The woman scoffed, though it looked like the movement pained her.

With gritted teeth, the woman pushed herself to her unsteady feet, scowling deeper at Illnyea.

"Go away," the woman repeated. "I don't want to talk with you."

When she took a step, like she intended to walk away, bravery and perhaps a touch of idiocy made Illnyea shift so that she was posed to block the woman's way.

The woman stilled, her eyes settled unsettingly on Illnyea as her good hand twitched, like she was attempting to figure out if she could take Illnyea down.

Illnyea wouldn't be so easily cowed.

"I know how to fix a dislocated shoulder," Illnyea said firmly, "and I know that it's extremely painful to attempt to fix it by yourself, if not near impossible depending on how bad it is."

The stranger's face looked like it was carved from stone, she was so utterly still. There was something familiar about the way the stranger didn't look away from Illnyea's eyes, her gaze growing even more intense the longer the silence stretched.

But she didn't say or do anything else, so Illnyea felt emboldened.

"That's all I want to help with," Illnyea lied, because she would like to patch up all of the girl's wounds but thought that plan was dead in the water. "Then we can both go our separate ways and never have to meet again."

Illnyea let the offer hang in the air. It would be a shame if they truly never saw each other again, but Illnyea would rest easier knowing that she was able to help alleviate some pain.

The cloud above them finally passed and moonlight fully illuminated the woman in front of her.

In the light, Illnyea was surprised that the stranger didn't seem that much older than her, maybe two to three years at the most. The bruise on the stranger's face was clearly in the shape of a hand and that made Illnyea frown. Obviously the stranger couldn't have gotten all these injuries in an accident, but to see such clear evidence of violence made Illnyea want to know more of her story.

"What's the catch?" the stranger asked, her voice nearly a growl.

Illnyea blinked, surprised at the question. "There's no catch."

The stranger laughed harshly, the sound sharp and cutting.

"There's always a catch," she said, the words steeped in bitterness and cold pragmatism. "Nothing in life is free."

A brief and terrible sadness filled Illnyea for this stranger, whose life until now must have been twisted and cruel for her to say those words with utter conviction, like they were an unalienable truth of the world.

"If there really must be a price for my kindness," Illnyea said quietly, "then, if you get hurt again like this, you must come to me and let me help tend your wounds."

The stranger's eyebrows furrowed in a way and mouth slightly parted so that it finally clicked where the strange familiarity came from. Her expression reminded Illnyea of the same face Sulaiman had first given her when she asked to be his friend. It was the stark confusion and suspicion towards someone showing kindness when they had least expected it.

A moment of silence stretched between them long enough that Illnyea thought she had pushed too far.

"Fine," growled the stranger, though suspicion lurked deep in her eyes. "If I am somehow injured in a way that I cannot solve myself, I shall drag myself before you and beg for your help."

"That's not exactly what I said," Illnyea said lightly, at ease with the prickliness after being Sulaiman's best friend, "but if you reach out for any reason, I would be happy to help you. Now, let me see your shoulder."

Illnyea was watched like a hawk as she slowly and deliberately took steps towards the stranger.

"It'll hurt less if you lie down," Illnyea suggested, voice neutral. Kavil had taught her two ways to pop a shoulder back in when she mentioned it had happened to her once before when she fell off a horse.

"I don't care about pain," the stranger said flatly.

Illnyea inclined her head in acknowledgement, stepping close enough to touch the stranger. She kept her touch light as she grasped the stranger's arm. With a firm tug and twist, Illnyea adjusted the arm just right.

The stranger let out a small sigh of relief as the joint popped back into place, her rigid posture softening just barely as she closed her eyes.

With the stranger's guard relaxed for a moment, Illnyea had a moment to study her face since it was so much closer now. Wisps of curly hair were trying to escape the tight ponytail, small hairs sticking out just above her ears. There was a long scar that stretched from a chunk taken out of the woman's left ear down her high cheekbone and ending just before the edge of her thick lips. Her nose was gracefully curved, but was also scarred across the bridge, ending just under the right eye.

There were long scratches against the stranger's face at the edge of the hand shaped bruise, like whoever had slapped her had dug their nails in to make sure it hurt.

"Who did this to you?" Illnyea asked, unable to help the question slipping out.

The stranger's eyes snapped open, all vulnerability disappearing in an instant. Anger flashed across her face as she sneered. "Sharing that information wasn't part of our agreement."

This time, when the stranger made to leave, Illnyea didn't try to stop her. Pulling the hood of her cloak low, the stranger walked towards the canal instead of going towards the alleyway.

Just before it looked like she was going to jump in, the stranger hesitated.

Turning her head to the side so Illnyea could see the curve of her lips, she said gruffly, "Thanks."

Then she really did leap towards the water and was gone.

Illnyea blinked once, twice, and then rushed to the side when she didn't hear any splashing. The water was roughly six below, and underneath the street, there was enough space for a person to balance upon the wooden beams, if they were willing to crouch. But there was no sign of the stranger no matter how hard Illnyea looked.

Illnyea wondered if she had somehow hallucinated the entire encounter.

But the lingering warmth in Illnyea's hands told her otherwise.

As if the energy had suddenly left her, Illnyea sat where the stranger had sat, staring out over the water.

She sat there during her entire break, not moving until someone came to find her.

"Okay, looks like your brain is melted," Arnold said, hands on his hips. "Let's go home and sleep."

Illnyea nodded and went through the motions as she followed Arnold to the residence. She ate the food that was pressed into her hands as she walked upstairs, and then she laid in her bed and stared at the ceiling.

She should probably tell people about the probably-not-a-hallucination stranger.

It was objectively the right thing to do.

But…

A part of Illnyea wondered if she might be able to have something to herself.

A secret that no one else had to know.

Maybe if the stranger showed back up and maybe if Illnyea could convince her to ask for help, Illnyea would tell her friends.

But for now, selfishly, Illnyea wanted the moment under moonlight to be something only she and the stranger shared.

She fell asleep and dreamed of blue eyes that held as many secrets as the ocean's depths.

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