Amy sat in the front area of her inn, browsing through today's newspaper while sipping a cup of black tea as she ate her breakfast: some rashers of bacon and a couple sausages. It had been a day since the heist, and although not much was heard the day of about what they did, this morning's papers certainly covered it as more information became public. 'The Post-War Museum Swindled and Pilfered!' the headline read, the article itself detailing some of the more notable disappearances from the museum. Surprisingly, it did not include her newly acquired robe, rather focusing on the more mundane missing items; things like famous paintings or historical artifacts from forgotten kingdoms and countries lost in the Mage Wars. Of course, the majority of these so-called forgotten countries still existed, the 'relics' stolen from them due to the Iyrtiran Empire's colonisation efforts during the war. It was interesting, reading through the article, as even though they had met up after the heist to talk, they hadn't discussed what they had actually stolen, more so if there was anything that went wrong. Since then, Amy hadn't met up with Beatrice once. However, today, they had planned a small celebration together at the bird shop in advance, Brook also coming along at least for a little bit.

Meanwhile, Felin hadn't been dismissed since she had first returned to her room, Amy not having it in her to dispel him ecstatic as he was. Ever since she had handed him the robe, he had been darting about the room, weaving together Spells to investigate and showering her with his praises. In spite of it all, however, Amy felt a bit strange.

On one hand she had accomplished everything she had set out to do, and it looked like there was little chance of her getting caught. Unknowable erased its own presence so any scrying into the past to look for her would be useless, likewise for the Spells she used to cover up the detectors and sensors. The only two points of worry were her Command and that odd Fae working used to unlock the display case. When pointing that out to Felin - with the exception of the working - he had said her strong Unknowable Witch's Cloak would've hidden those sorts of things well enough and, to a lesser extent, hidden Beatrice's and Brook's involvement too while they were nearby.

Irrespective of all of that still, two small subjects could help but make her feel uneasy. First was an undeniable boon, the gains she had gotten from carrying the heist out. It had happened as soon as she had returned home, finally settling back in to rest. All at once, what felt like an uncontrollable wave of mana roiled from within her as her mana pool expanded to bounds she couldn't even imagine before. More and more of her ascension mana had been attuned to her in that moment and when she had first summoned Felin he had noticed it immediately. At once he had known that not only had her progress through the Apprentice Tier had skyrocketed, but the heist was successful. In his own words:

"The maxim of an Apprentice is a Mind to Wield," Felin had said. "It is all about setting the foundation of your path to Ascension, using your newfound mind and perspective to build new futures for yourself using your own Spells and workings. What better example of an Apprentice exists than what you accomplished today? You forged from your own mind and tools an excellent plan to pull off a difficult task using only your own power and mana. It is of no shock to me that the mana rewarded you for that, greatly."

Now her mana pool had practically doubled in size, reaching over half-way to the maximum an Apprentice could hold. It was that which had let her keep Felin summoned for so long, even during sleep, the drain inconsequential next to both the newfound depths of the mana pool and her natural regeneration. For that too had increased with its size, more mana meaning that even more mana could be attracted into it, as per the old adage that mana likens onto mana. Although it felt incredibly strange to be this free with her mana, as well as the degree to which she had felt the strange within her, it was all bearable.

And yet, Amy couldn't help but linger on the other thing making her worry; that damned Fae working. She hadn't mentioned it to Felin. She didn't quite know if she even wanted to. After all, that working... shouldn't have worked. But saying that, Amy reasoned, I use Unknowable to affect people, right? That's in spite of the fact it's used to trick mana. And yet... something about that feels different to what I did with Fae. Unknowable affects the mana, which in turn trickles down into people. I never really directly interact with people with my Unknowable Spells. Here though, I used Fae directly on mana, on a Spell. It's like I tricked the Lock into dispelling itself, and the Alarm into thinking there was nothing there. It was a lot more than just that, but that was what it was used for in the moment. It felt like a... Trespass. A Slithering Trespass that snuck through the Spells and destroyed them in its wake. On top of that, it felt good to cast that Spell. Quite unlike anything I've experienced when casting other workings and Spells. Oh, I've of course felt good when casting, but nothing has ever felt this right. It was like I was being completed by casting the working, fulfilling some deep urge or craving I didn't even know I had. Is this what Felin meant when he warned me about my Fae affinity? No, it was nothing like the signs he mentioned. I wasn't rhyming, I wasn't conniving, I wasn't judgemental, right? So what is this? Being happy?

"You want another tea, honey?" One of the innkeeper's girls came around and asked as she was passing by.

"Ah- yes please," Amy jolted, giving a hasty response.

"It'll be on the way."

Watching her take the empty tea pot and cup away, Amy lingered on that feeling. Of that strange addicting fulfilment. And, as she leant deeper into that emotion, Amy was left feeling... bereft. Not even the new pot of hot tea coming around broke her reverie. She just stared at the porcelain of the tea pot absentmindedly, searching for something inside her mana pool, feeling around its expanse, desperate for a sign of what she had experienced. She found nothing.

It was so tempting to just... cast the working again. Feel it out once more. Except... how could she cast the same working? After all, Amy began to realise with immense surprise, it left no runes. Impossible, was her initial reaction, searching through her enhanced memories, replaying the events of the heist. That mysterious lost time still bugged her, when she was too deep in the midst of casting that working, but it was a minor thing compared to what she had just discovered. So far, every working left runes. Only this one didn't. Why? That had to mean something. For what reason, Amy didn't have a clue of.

As she mulled her thoughts over, Amy continued sipping her tea.

* * *

With a glass of wine in one hand, Amy leaned against the bench in the aviary of the bird shop for the first time in weeks, Beatrice sitting beside her, drinking from a similar glass of her own. The expensive bottle sat rested on the floor to the side of them.

"So how was it for you in the end?" Amy smiled, taking a drink.

"It was hectic. The rest of the gang didn't even know we were continuing with the heist in the first place. They just assumed it was off when you up and left them. Brook explained it to them after the fact but you could tell they were angry," Beatrice frowned.

"Why did you get me to do that again?" Brook wondered aloud from where he lay sprawled across the bench the opposite side of them, opting not to drink.

"So they'd get angry at you and not me, dummy!"

"I'm always the scapegoat, you know?" Brook bemoaned, turning his head to the side to look mournfully at Amy. "Always the one to take the fall for things like that.

"I thought that would be Tod," Amy giggled.

"No... that slimy rat gets away with everything. No consequences for poor Tod, just because he does the hard stuff that we could do anyways."

"While Tod is annoying, even if you can do what he does, you don't. He needs a bit of respect for that," Beatrice chided him with a small smile.

"Yes, yes, I know."

They had been here for an hour now, Janice having cleared the space out for them while they celebrated. Even if she didn't know the particulars of what they had not - and nor had she connected it to the recent news - she knew there was something to be happy about. Janice had even said she'd get the hawks out for her soon, as it had been so long since Amy had seen them. And according to her, it wouldn't be too long until they were ready to be put up in the aviary proper, rather than just periodically. They were apparently fledging well, and they just needed to learn to fly now before being let go.

This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

"Why did you take the 'Julien' anyway?" Amy cocked her head, taking another sip. "You can't really sell an artwork, can you?"

"There'd be buyers willing to take the risk for it but... it was the thing that made me decide to do it. The grand plan and all of that nonsense," Beatrice reminisced, leaning back and looking up through the glass. "It was the history of it, more than the piece itself, that enraptured me more than anything. The story of how it was passed from owner to owner during the Wars, each one killing the other over it. And all for something so... small. It was just pettiness, looking back on it, that made me want to take it. To steal it one last time like it had been so many times before. Before I knew it, that pettiness became something more, and I began noting a lot more things I wanted to steal."

"Where are you thinking of hanging it?" Brook asked.

"...I'm actually thinking of destroying it. I looked into it, you know. The artist was someone like me. Born on the streets, working their way up in the world when they discovered a knack for art. This was their only auctioned piece, and it got them killed after he got the money for it. The people they grew up around couldn't stand the thought of them finally rising up and taking a place in the world. I think... after all the pain and suffering its caused... for both the artist and its buyers, it might be better for it to simply disappear."

"Hmm," Amy pondered, taking a deeper drink of her wine. As she went to refill her glass, another thought came to her. "I know this isn't a pleasant topic for celebration, but how am I going to get paid for this?"

"Ah, no worries," Beatrice waved away. "I've already started on gathering the funds for it. Selling so much so quickly will surely garner some attention, so I have to do it in parts. I'll be able to get the first payment - about three pounds - for you within the next couple days. After that, expect a week or two more until you get the rest of it."

"That's fine by me. It's not like I'm too in need of money."

"How are you all doing?" Janice popped up from the stairs, a wide grin on her face, and a suspiciously familiar box in her hands.

"We're doing fine," Brook yelled back, still laying down.

"I believe we've got some little ones excited to see someone again here," Janice smiled meaningfully, stepping up to Amy as she rose excitedly from her seat.

"Oh my god, let me put this down first," She mumbled nervously, placing the wind glass on the bench, tentatively approaching the box. Carefully grabbing it as it was handed over, Amy could already feel how much larger they were now, the box far heavier, and the lid barely fitting on. Lifting it up, Amy couldn't contain her joy when she saw three familiar balls of grey fluff, their beady eyes lighting up as they locked onto hers. And from their gleeful squawking, she could tell they recognised her.

Amy barely stopped herself from squealing in delight, as she spoke sweetly to them, "Oh, hello!"

* * *

"I'm telling you Amy, just a bit more time!" Felin pleaded right up in her face, making adorable and wide kitten eyes at her. "I'm almost at a breakthrough, I can feel it! I'm starting to feel how the Unknowable corruption took hold in the first place, and with that I can work on backtracking it to the sort of Spell used to corrupt it in the first place."

"I know, but you've been summoned for two days now, and I need some time alone," Amy said firmly, glancing at the robe carefully spread out on the bedside table that had been moved nearer to the centre of the room.

"...Fine," He finally acquiesced. "Please, at least summon me early in the morning. I simply can't wait!"

"Alright, alright, I'm dispelling you now Felin. Good night!"

"Oh well... good night, my dear Apprentice," Felin spoke softly as he tumbled away into streamers of verdant mana, which soon turned clear as it merged with the Pure Mana Ocean.

Sighing, Amy slumped down onto a chair, exhausted after the day's activities and dealing with Felin. As much as he was a cat, these last couple days he was seeming more like an excited puppy than anything else. And, even though Amy had wanted to bring up that working with him, she couldn't bring herself to do it in the end. She could've made excuses for herself, how she didn't want to ruin his good mood or interrupt his work, but Amy knew it wasn't any of those. Rather, she feared his reaction.

Shaking her head, trying to rid herself of her bad thoughts, Amy's attention turned to something that had been churning in her mind ever since she had reached Harth. It wouldn't be long, she imagined, until Journeyman Jones gave her the go-ahead to finally return home, taking a much-anticipated holiday away from the chaos of the city and recent events. While it would be sad saying goodbye to her new friends, to Beatrice, Brook and William, she didn't imagine she'd be gone for too long. And with all this money from the heist - even if she had a hard time trying to make a way for it to seem legitimate - she could pay off the contract and finally be rid of that stupid job as a village ward. All this meant was that, for as much as she dreaded it, she would have to send a letter to her parents.

It had been too long since she had last written to them and she knew it, and Amy feared that they had written to her while her address was still in Triesen, meaning that they might've been waiting for a response that was almost a month late. Hopefully that wasn't the case, after all it hadn't been too long since they had written to her when the plague had happened, but she couldn't be entirely sure. Even then, she had no excuse for leaving this so late. She had resolved to write to them while she was still in Triesen, and even then she hadn't done it, leaving it alone in her long to-do list so long ago. Out of interest, she leafed through her notebook, finding that same to-do list, and scratching off everything she had done.

Plan:

1. Study Monstrous Visage's runes

2. Think about new Spell ideas

3. Ask Felin about Fae & Unknowable magic

4. Ask Felin about the Tower

5. Investigate Tower if Felin agrees

6. Make letters to family; birthday for Jacob; ask about magic knowledge

7. Investigate the plague going around

8. Look into holiday requests or the like

9. Request a transfer

10. Update Tier at Mage registry

Even if it wasn't in an official capacity, she had updated her Tier by notifying her superior who should pass it along, so, really, she had done everything but write that damned letter. Picking up her pencil, and putting the robe away, Amy retrieved a letter and some wax from her things. She must've stared at the blank paper on the desk for almost half an hour, her pencil almost touching the paper to write multiple times. In the end, after finally mustering up enough courage, Amy wrote.

To Mum and Dad,

Hello! I know it's been a while since I wrote but a lot has happened since then. I'm happy to say but I'm no longer working at the village. My contract will be over soon so I'll be able to come back and pop in after so long. I'm just as excited as I imagine you all are. I'm also finally an Apprentice! It's been a long time coming and I'm finally confident enough to progress through. It surely won't be long until I'm Journeyman too. Then I'll be a proper Mage like I dreamt of.

I know I missed Jacob's birthday, so please apologise for me about not sending him a letter. Things have been a bit hectic in Triesen lately as a plague was going around. Don't worry, I'm perfectly safe. With my new magic, there's not even a chance of me getting infected. As I'm moving away pretty soon, my mailing address won't be the one in Triesen anymore. I've attached an address for an inn in Harth where I plan to be staying for a week or so in the interim between trips. If you send a reply to this letter make sure its to the inn's address. Please don't forget dad, I know how you are.

Also, I'm planning to get a late birthday present for Jacob when I get back. Is there anything he's been wanting in particular or would anything do? I can fit up something slightly magical but it won't be too impressive so make sure he doesn't get his hopes up too much. How much does Jacob know about magic too? I know it's time for him to be tested soon, but if he has the aptitude I can begin training him a bit already. It'll help get him prepared for anything he might need in an Academy, and it also might improve his chances of getting into a nicer place than the state one.

I can't wait to meet you all again.

Love you, Amy Wachlund

Amy stared wistfully at the page for a short while, some wax already heating by a candle nearby. Nodding to herself, she folded the paper up and slid it into the letter, the correct information already written on the front. Smiling all the while, she dribbled some of the wax onto it, and using a small press, flattened and sealed it. As she waited for the wax to cool, Amy looked outside her window, at the night sky outside.

"I think... it was worth it."

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