"Hi?" Mia called out, knocking softly on a closed trapdoor in the middle of a living room. "We took care of the monsters outside. Can you open the door so we can look at any wounds you have? We have food and water too."

Mia waited for a few seconds, hearing only weak shuffling from the basement and hushed whispers. She looked back at Camie and Helene with a helpless look on her face, which quickly transformed into a dark frown as she saw the look on Carmilla's face.

"What?" Mia said in a sibilant whisper.

"We should tear it up," Carmilla said, her voice grave. "They won't have enough power to even just open the latch."

"Oh." Mia digested that tidbit of information, not at all liking the implications. Especially because the two shuffling humans hiding down there sounded … light, their voices weak and had a childish lilt to them. "Can you then … ?"

"Sure," Camie said softly, and a single claw formed over her index finger. In a few quick movements, she cut through the hinges and dug her fingers into the wood making up the trapdoor. Then she pulled it up and gently placed it off to the side, before taking a few steps back off from the opening.

The smell that burst up was horrid, only the pile of decomposing goblin corpses they had made after hunting the little green monsters to near extinction in the city came even close to it. Something died down there … or rather, someone.

Mia's stomach dropped, a heavy knot forming in her guts. There was no mistaking the weak yelps as anything but the sound of a pair of terrified children.

"I'll handle this," Helene said softly, placing a hand on Mia's shoulder and stepping up to the opening after taking a deep breath to centre herself. She turned her head back and whispered, "Prepare some healing potions, and ask the soldiers for something even starved and dehydrated kids can eat."

Mia nodded jerkily, then watched her mother drop into the dark basement without making a sound. Then she turned tail and practically ran, an immense sense of relief washing over her that she didn't have to be the one to handle that situation. That thought earned her a new onset of guilt surging in her heart, but she didn't regret it one bit. She was not built to handle a social situation that delicate.

Rushing out onto the street, she took a deep gulp of fresh air then took a look back at the busted open door. There were still rusted, metallic bits of fur sticking out of the wooden door frame in places, filling out the last piece of the horrific puzzle that she had just ran away from.

She found the Lieutenant of the platoon following her group, and jogged over, waving to get his attention.

"How many?" He asked simply, with deep shadows under his eyes and a grim look on his face.

"Two children," Mia said. "They hid in a basement. They'll need some food, that even starving kids can process and drink water quickly."

The man's expression darkened even further at the mention of this tiny batch of survivors being kids. He turned around immediately and shouted a name Mia wasn't familiar with.

A twenty-something man in a private's uniform rushed over and saluted. "Yes, Sir?"

"Get the food boxes set aside for starving survivors," the Lieutenant said. "Grab two bottles of water, then be inside that building yesterday."

"Understood!" The young man said, then ran off towards one of the jeeps parked nearby. It only took him twenty seconds before he disappeared into the building.

"Anything else?" The Lieutenant asked in a clipped tone.

"They were likely locked in the basement with the remains of their parents for weeks," Mia said in barely a whisper. "They might need a proper healer … and probably a therapist or something."

"I see," the man said softly, his eyes squeezed shut for a second. A deep grimace flickered across his face before he let it fall and showed a man dreadfully exhausted by all the challenges life kept throwing at him. "We will see what we can do about that. Thank you for your help. Do you hear anyone else?"

Mia just shook her head. This basement had been the only sign of human life she'd heard in hours. Either every other pocket of survivors was already dead, out of her range, or escaped to one of the larger shelters early on.

"Do you have the statistics?" Mia asked, not really sure whether she even really wanted to know. "How many people are even still alive in the city?"

"Last I heard, a third." He shook his head. "Doesn't matter. We can't do anything to help the dead, but there are still thousands out there, huddled up in shelters deep inside monster-controlled territory. We will save all of the ones we can. We have lost much, but there are still many we can save … remember that, Miss. Take a look at some of the shelters if you have the time. You and your friends are likely responsible for a large fraction of them still being alive. Without you, we wouldn't have gotten to a lot of them before they ran out of food and water."

Mia just nodded mutely, a part of her once again feeling guilty at just how much she'd avoided even going near those shelters. Sure, she'd worked as a spotter for pockets of survivors for a while now, but she had almost never come in direct contact with the actual people themselves. Exactly because she did not want to see scenes like the one she could hear playing out in that basement. The gut-wrenching screams, the bawling, she just couldn't.

A larger part of her felt a great weight coming off her shoulder at the man's words though. Sure, he was just a stranger, but his words hit something deep in her heart. She had made a difference; she had changed the world for the better just by being in it and doing her best.

The Lieutenant ran off quickly, having to sniff out another metaphorical fire, or another and left Mia waiting all by herself until Camie came back out a minute later.

The vampiress only took a second to take in Mia's forlorn state before walking over and plopping herself down on the edge of the sidewalk. A moment later, she tugged Mia to sit down next to her, which she did.

"That … " Camie started in a whisper, chewing over her words. "Sucked."

Camie was, of course, referring to the whole situation. The setup, the monsters, the kids, the probably dead parents and the fact it was them who had to find it. Mia couldn't help but agree with the sentiment.

"The world sucks," Mia murmured, leaning her head on the vampire's shoulder who grabbed her waist and rubbed her side comfortingly. "Getting magic wasn't worth … that."

"It will get better," Camie said with conviction, so much of it in fact that Mia jolted in surprise to stare at her. The vampiress gazed back at her with her pair of ruby eyes hiding both pain and certainty. "These are … growing pains. If the world can get through the first few years, we will be better off than before. I'm sure of it. We are just barely scraping the surface of what we can do with magic and Skills."

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"There will have to be someone alive to enjoy the benefits," Mia said dourly, letting her gaze pan over the ruined urban landscape spread out around them. "At the pace Rifts are growing … we'll be lucky to survive the next few months. And if we need luck to survive, most others will need a steady supply of miracles to get through it."

"Good thing we can manufacture miracles," Camie said with a wry smile. "Once we have that damned obelisk, we'll catch up with the monsters in short order. If we don't mess up, we should be able to keep up, too. We can be the miracle they need to survive, we and others like us. I very much doubt that we are even close to the strongest people just in this one country."

Mia smiled, some hope trickling back into her heart.

"Making miracles," Mia muttered. "Sounds like a better job description than any I had before."

*****

"How are you feeling?" Mia asked as she sat down at the kitchen table, making Nikki look up at her with a weary look on her face, her temples still cradled in her hands.

"Horrible," Nikki said, her voice a hoarse whisper barely audible to a regular human's ears. She winced a little, clearing her throat before coughing. "Will be fine by tomorrow."

Mia nodded, glancing down at the warm mug of tea the ice mage had before her. As far as non-magical salves to an aching throat went, few things beat a good warm mug of honeyed tea. Though Mia suspected Nikki's aching throat had more to do with her Chanting a two-layered spell as a Rank 0 than any regular illness.

As far as Mia was aware, that fact should have required one to be a proper Junior mage, which included being Rank 1.

"I made sure to grab the cores like you said," Mia said, grabbing the small bag she'd snatched up for the occasion and putting it on the table. "The two Guardians' plus a dozen Iron Wolves' cores are in there."

"That should do," Nikki whispered, gingerly prying the bag open to take a glance inside. She nodded in mild satisfaction. "We can do the ritual tonight … though you'll have to do the heavy lifting. I'm in no state to cast ritual magic, and arcane will work better than ice or water elemental mana for this anyway."

"What rituals?" Mia asked warily, a tidbit about mages messing up rituals going boom in a very lethal way coming to the forefront of her mind. "I've never done any rituals before. It might be better to wait."

"These are simple," Nikki said, shaking her head a little. "A mana calming ritual, a purification ritual and finally, a condensation ritual. All rudimentary rituals aside from the first one … but I'm sure you'll manage. These rituals are practically foolproof; ten-year-old mage academy students do the latter two of them."

"What's a mana calming ritual?" Mia asked.

"It might not be necessary," Nikki said slowly, then waved a hand around, gesturing vaguely at the surrounding air. "But with the ambient mana being as chaotic as it is, I don't want to risk it. The mana calming ritual will turn a tiny bit of the ambient mana into a still, serene cloud. Perfect for casting other, finicky rituals in. Not that the other two are finicky, but it pays to be careful when it comes to rituals."

"Alright," Mia said, doing her best to banish all her doubts and anxiety. "And I'll need to do all that to get my runic-model upgraded manually?"

Nikki just nodded, tugging out the largest monster core from the bag and holding it between her fingertips. It was almost as large as a walnut.

"We will purify this, banish whatever spiritual miasma the monster left behind," Nikki said, putting the core back down. "Then condense it down into a mana crystal, filled to the brim with Rank 1 quality mana. That's what you'll need to absorb to serve as the foundation for your runic-model."

"Can't people just upgrade their runic-models to Rank 5 then if they can buy a mana crystal at that Rank?" Mia asked, raising an eyebrow. Nikki gave her the stink-eye, which quickly reminded her that the woman was speaking through an aching throat. "Sorry."

"It doesn't work," Nikki said in a croaky whisper. "A whole lot of academic study has been done on it, but the essence of it all is that you have to take part in the crystal's creation process. Be that by condensing your own mana somehow, or by doing what we are about to do to the core of a monster you helped kill. That forms some … resonance? Metaphysical links? Something of the sort."

By the end, the poor woman sounded like the inside of her throat was being scraped down with sandpaper every time a word came out of her mouth. She took a deep gulp of her tea and let out a satisfied breath.

Magic was weird. Sometimes it acted like pure science, with clearly quantifiable variables working according to a general rule. Sometimes, though, things got strange. Like with spell circles, where you had to consider symbolism, symmetry, opposing meanings or other such outwardly nonsense stuff.

"Sorry," Mia apologised preemptively, then asked the question that had been bugging her. "After we do all that, what do I do with it? Do I just nibble on it and my Skill will just do its thing, upgrading by itself?"

"Yes," Nikki said simply, glaring back at her and daring Mia to ask another question.

Feeling like she was likely to get an icy spike shoved up where the sun doesn't shine if she kept bothering the other woman, Mia took it as her cue to exit.

"See you later," Mia said, standing up and taking a few steps back. "We still have almost half a day till evening, so take care and rest up. I don't know how you did it, but it couldn't have been healthy to cast that two-layered spell."

Nikki just gave her a tired little wave with her fingers before going back to sipping on her steaming mug.

*****

"What are you reading?"

Mia jumped at the sudden voice, her fragile mental image shattering and slipping through her fingers like a handful of sand.

She looked up and let out a little sigh, finding Camie already plopped down next to her on the couch, her curious ruby eyes staring at the thick leather-bound book on Mia's lap.

"Apparently, the mental exercises in this book are supposed to help me build up some resistance to outside mental influence," Mia said, jabbing her finger at the uncooperative, obtuse book. Whoever wrote the damned thing did so in some archaic script and just loved to use strange metaphors that made absolutely no sense when translated to German. "But it's a damned pain deciphering it. Look!"

She shoved the thing at the vampire, who took it with a start, an amused smile on her lips as she did. That smile slid off as her gaze travelled over the lines on the page.

"Is this a prank prop?" Camie asked after a few seconds. "I mean, did one of the soldiers sneak a book filled with random magic-babble into their library just to mess with you, or someone else who grabbed it?"

"I got this one from the Rift," Mia said, a mild glare aimed at the book. Its title sounded impressive, and Mia knew mental magics were one of her biggest weaknesses, so she'd pounced on the book … the moment she remembered she had it. It might have been collecting dust for the last week or two while she focused on her training manual and lexicon filled with practical, and understandable meditation techniques.

"Oh." That was all Carmilla managed to offer as a reply, an awkward look fluttering across her face as she gingerly dropped the book to the side.

Mia smiled in amusement, never getting tired of seeing the powerful vampiress squirm. It was strangely adorable. Even if she knew it was a side effect of her isolated childhood.

"Yeah," Mia said. "It might be a lost cause … or I just don't have the Mind stats to get it. Apparently, Psionics and Psychic bullshit is a thing and is mostly dependent on that."

"Like telekinesis?" Camie asked, glancing back over at the book.

"Yep." Mia shrugged. "But that book is about building up mental shields, not telekinesis … which Force magic should be able to handle as well. So more like telepathy. I think?"

"Don't you have some spell for that?" Camie asked. "Mind Shield, or something of the sort? You're already juggling a dozen different types of training, I don't think adding whatever this book is attempting to teach you is a good idea."

"You're probably right," Mia said, slumping back with a weary sigh. "I just … Mind magic is terrifying. Jeff only used it once on me, but I don't want to feel that slippery mana in my head ever again."

"You are an Arcane mage, though," Camie said, then elaborated when Mia just stared back at her blankly. "Your mana should naturally fight off foreign influences affecting your Body, Mind or Spirit. … no?"

"I suppose?" Mia said, doubt clear in her voice. "It still affected me. For a second or so, and that would be enough to slit my own throat if I was commanded to do so with mind magic."

"Practice might help?" Camie said, some hesitance tugging at her features. "I … I could help. I have some minor mind-influencing abilities as a vampire. Could you practise shaking that off?"

"You have stuff like that?" Mia asked, only realising she'd flinched away from Camie when she saw the vampire's face fall. Mia loathed mind magic, mostly because it stood as one of the greatest threats to the precious little smidge of control she'd managed to scrape together. She took a calming breath and quashed some of her darker emotions from flaring as she scuttled back and pulled Camie in for a warm hug. "Sorry. You were just trying to help … and I'm just jumping at shadows."

"It's fine," Camie said, relief evident in her voice as she gingerly returned the hug. "So … uhm, do you want to-?"

"Yeah," Mia said before a senseless bout of renewed paranoia could dissuade her. "Yes, and thank you. I'd love to get some help with training."

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