to treasure a thousand words, a thousand years

Blake woke as normal and looked around. Honestly, she was already starting to get kind of homesick… It hadn’t really beenthat longsince she’d been on her Peregrination, but she missed her siblings and her mother so much already… And not to mention she hadn’t been able to fully comfort Alya when she’d left. She still felt beyond guilty, but the queen had given her the ultimatum: do it now, or wait. She couldn’t wait… Weiss definitely didn’t like being in Sodocroa and would no doubt leave as soon as her contract was up and she closed things out with Queen Maryam. Three months was not a long time to get to know somebody especially for something as life defining as marriage… It felt like she was going to make ahorriblemistake no matterwhatshe did. She sighed and got dressed, putting on her veil last. At least she wouldn’t have to deal with being a tailor as long as Kari thought she was good at what she did. It had only been one day, so that wasn’t really enough time to judge if someone was good at a job or not. She could always come back to Ninlil, of course, but working as a tailor wasn’t high on her list of things she wanted to do with her life. She really just wanted to figure out what would happen with Weiss sooner rather than later, but she needed to read those books… She needed to see if Weiss was just being a human supremacist or not. She headed up to the room with the women and girls, settling down. One of the girls walked over and smiled at her. “So what’s up? You weren’t here yesterday…” “Oh, Ninlil didn’t explain? I’m working somewhere else. I have magic now and it’s geared toward soul jewelry. I’m learning to do that through the local jeweler, Kari.” Why hadn’t Ninlil explained about that…? Surely the family would be wondering where she was when she had been working with them as a seamstress for a little while. Granted, it hadn’t been that long in the end, but even so… She thought Ninlil would’ve explained. The girl shook her head, a couple others settling around. “You’re working with soul jewelry? That must becrazyhard… From what I’ve heard, it’s super complex to do… You need to bereallyhigh in the Echelons in order to do that!” “Iam.I’m definitely on the end of prodigy when it comes to anything dealing with the Seraphic… I’m higher than some people in their twenties and thirties in the family. They haven’t evengottentheir magic yet… Granted, I shouldn’t have but with all of the extenuating circumstances…” She didn’t necessarily feel like going into those. The girls looked at her, obviously hopeful for more details but she shook her head. Their tails and ears drooped. “Everyone in the Donati family is trained to be able to control the weather. I…just didn’t like it is all. So I got my magic while I’m here.” That was about as far as she was willing to explain. “I wish some of us could learn…” another girl said with a sigh, the same one that kept wanting to go out with Kalena. “Magical jobs paysomuch better than seamstressing jobs.” “But most people of our economic standing aren’t able to learn to go high into the Echelons because of the energy requirements and food intake. Not to mentionpayingsomeone to teach you… It’s something that has to go on for your entirelife.You can’t just get halfway up thenstop.You’re lucky to have learned,” yet another girl said. Blake’s ears flicked back. “It was required of me. I haven’t met a person inside the family on a blood level that hasn’t learned.” People that marriedintothe family didn’t necessarily know or learn because teaching startedyoungin the family. As young as toddlers, they could play Seraphic games and start to learn to control it. By time they were ten, a lot had reached Echelon Six or so. Blake had been Ten by then which was how she’d figured out about her soul bond with Weiss… The girls nodded. “Well, you’re still lucky… It would’ve been nice to find someone to teach us. But you don’t have enough time here to get any of us past maybe the first couple Echelons…” One of them sighed. Blake shook her head. “Unfortunately not. The first three or so are easy, but after that…” Yeah. They could get pretty tough. Once to Echelon Nine, itrequireda teacher. She technically shouldn’t have gotten her magic yet, but it was this or not get whatshewanted out of magic. She wanted to be able to work with the soul and help other connect with those they loved. She really was glad that she got this chance… The fact there was someone like that in such a small town was nice too. The capital was fairly large and it usually took some level of travel to get to someone that could do this. So to find someone in a smaller town… She was glad. “So how are things going between you and your girlfriend?” one asked with a snicker. Blake’s cheeks heated up. “She’s not my— Itold youthat I’m not allowed to date!” THat was unbecoming of the Donati family. Shecouldn’tdate; she could onlycourt.Courting was theonlyacceptable way for a Donati of any gender to find a mate. Improper sexual behavior wasnotacceptable. The only time one could engage in premarital sex was if it was with a sacred sex practicitioner or on the Peregrination. She personally didn’t feel any real desire to do any of that… She wasn’t even sure if she’d feel it in marriage. She was under no obligation to continue the family line because there wereso manymembers of the Donati family… “Come on, Bella, give it a rest already,” one of the other girls said. “Sorry about her; she’s a gossipy hen. She doesn’t know when to stop.” Several of the other girls shook their heads. Well, at least they got the message loud and clear Blakewasn’tdating and didn’t want to talk about her relationship with Weiss. It felt like a private affair to her. Nobody needed to be involved as far as she was concerned. She could technically date on her Peregrination if she wanted to, but she had no real desire. She just wanted to get to know Weiss more… She blinked. “Oh, just a moment.” She got up and walked over to Ninlil. “What is it, Blake?” “My mother’s having some language-learning books dropped off here today. I probably won’t be around. I just wanted to let you know so you aren’t confused.” That felt like the least she could do… She was living here and if she was having something delivered, it just felt likebasic courtesyto tell the owner that things were being dropped off. She stillhatedWeiss’ human supremacy views, but those books… They were thick and obviously academic. She ought to at least give them a shot. Right? It just felt like the natural thing to do. Ninlil nodded. “All right then. That’s fine. I’ll have someone take them to your room.” “Thank you.” She dipped her head to Ninlil then went back over to the girls. “Sorry about that. Needed to tell Ninlil something.” “Oh, that’s fine.” Several of the girl’s smiled at her. She still hadn’t really committed too many names and faces to memory. There were justso manydifferent women and girls here. She had no idea how someone could keep everyone straight. Her own nuclear family was pretty small, but the Donati family at large was massive. She didn’t keep everyone straight there. She knew some members of her family better than others, but many were essentially strangers despite the whole family pretty much living in the castle. There were over two hundred members including by marriage, but she couldn’t keep everyone straight. “So what are you planning on doing today?” another one asked. “Eat, go to work, continue scouting the area in order to hunt with Kalena, then go meet up with Weiss. Probably come back and work on some languages.” One of the girls tilted her head. “Why would you want to work on learning other languages? Isn’t Sodocroan enough?” “Weiss brought up some views that concerned me, but she had some pretty thick academic books… I figure I might as well give them a try.” Human supremacy was aseriousproblem and there was a reason that humans were so strictly controlled in Sodocroa as well. Not a lot of humans lived there as far as she was aware. Weiss was visiting and that was it as far as she knew. She lived somewhere else entirely. But, from the sound of it, she traveled a lot, so it did make sense she had to know so many languages. But still… What would it be like to travel as much as Weiss did? Some part of her soul stirred, a deep part that she couldn’t quite read despite being so aware of her own thoughts and feelings. “Why are you listening to ahuman?They’re violent warmongers!” one of the girls said. “Unless she’s a Faunus that doesn’t display immediate traits?” Blake shook her head. “No, she’s human. She said as much.” It had honestly never occurred to Blake until just that moment that Weiss might be lying to her for whatever reason. But part of Blake bristled at the idea that Weiss would lie to her over anything. It was a strange dichotomy. She knew humans to be violent warmongers that would lie, cheat, and steal to get farther in the world…but a big part of her wanted to implicitly trust Weiss. She didn’t know where that part of herself came from. Weiss was human. Why would she be any different than other humans? Whywouldn’tshe lie in an attempt to get close to the Donati family and gain a leg up in the world? But Weiss didn’t seem that way at all… Ugh. She was fighting herself over this. She wasn’t sure what to do. She would go to her chapel but that would require a carriage ridebackto the capital and be a whole day. She didn’t follow any god but the Dark Father himself but…maybe she ought to go to a smaller chapel to get guidance. She couldn’t speak to her saints, though… They needed to intercede between her and the Dark Father. Nobody ought to speak to Him directly aside from priests trained in the esoteric ways. She just neededsomesort of guidance in what to do. She had seen some chapels around here which was only natural for Sodocroa, but she wasn’t sure what denominations they were… “Do any of you know what denominations and gods are worshiped around here?” The girls blinked. “Well, most of us follow Ihab and some of us follow Chandra…Who do you follow?” “The Dark Father Himself. My specific sect is very minor but it’s what a lot of the royal family follows directly. Are there any chapels to Him here?” The girl shook her head. “Not many follow Him directly. How do you feel about talking to somebody that follows Chandra?” “That…might be my best option.” She sighed and shook her head. What a mess. What a mess. She preferred to stay within her sect, but with as minor as it was, trying to find a chapel, even a small one, was going to prove difficult. She would just have to make do with other chapels and sects… She looked at their veils. Some chthonic alignment, most heavenly. That would make it even harder. “Where are the chthonic chapels?” “I can show you later if you’d like,” one girl said. Blake nodded. “I would appreciate that.” She wasn’t sure if she could be late to working with Kari or not… She wanted to be a good employee and make it clear she was dedicated to what she was doing. She wanted nothing more than to work with souls and make it so people could connect. For some reason, that was what attracted her most. She just wanted it more than anything in the world. It felt…familiar. The work, motions, and methods were incredibly familiar, though a bit more refined than what some part of her was used to. “I get off around one or so. Would Ninlil allow you a short break so you can show me where to go?” The girl waved Ninlil over and asked. “I can let her go for a short break if it’s about your soul,” Ninlil said. “Okay. Thank you.” Blake offered a small smile. It was just so hard to know what to expect from Ninlil half the time. She could definitely be very hard on some things, but she was more than willing to help Blake out when it came to work she wanted to do. She was very much the matriarch of the family and it seemed like everyone respected her. Blake just still wasn’t sure what to make of her at all. It wasn’t everyday someone would just let a member of the Dontai family turn away from the work they weresupposedto be doing to go to a new job…or let them have a full day off to go get magic. It was around then that breakfast was brought up and everyone gathered around. The girls seemed sated in talking to Blake, so they mainly talked amongst themselves which part of Blake was honestly fine with. Aside from that Bella girl, they weren’t being overly nosy and were seeming to want to help her… Maybe she ought to spend more time with them. They seemed to have settled in with her and were comfortable to some degree. That…was good. She wasn’t really integrated with the family yet but the girls seemed willing to accept her. She just hadn’t spoken to the adult women a whole lot yet… After eating, she got up and headed outside, saddling her horse and heading over to Kari’s place. The work wasn’t too hard at least. She was oddly familiar with the ability and the work the woman did. She still couldn’t quite explain how and why this and sewing by hand were abilities she had down pat. She hadn’t been engaged in any sort of needlework as a child. Coming to Ninlil’s was the first time she’d ever evenhelda needle, so the fact that she could sew so neatly… It didn’t make sense. But she was coming to accept that a lot of things about her simply didn’t make any sense at all. Around one, she bade Kari farwell and went back to Ninlil’s. The girl led her a small chapel of Chandra that was clearly chthonically aligned for the style of the artwork. She knew what to look for in artwork in order to figure out if one was chthonic, earthly, or heavenly aligned. Each had its own distinct style of artwork which was definitely good… She didn’t want to deal with heavenly alignments whatsoever. Thankfully she noticed the artwork was chthonic which made her breathe a sigh of relief. She really didn’t want to go to heavenly alignment… She couldn’t stand the thought of going upwards toward the sky rather than downwards toward the underworld. The underworld freaked most people out understandably, but it did have its place… Chthonic alignments were much rarer than heavenly or earthly alignments… They were just easier to maintain and much less secret than the chthonic ones. Very few things were written down for the mystery cults dedicated to the chthonic alignments. Everything got passed down by word of mouth and from person to person. They went to a room and the girl knocked on a door. “Mistress Zella, somebody needs to speak to you. She’s not of this denomination, but would you be willing to intercede for her?” “Yes, come in.” The door clicked open a moment later and an older woman with a pig’s snout answered. “Please, come in.” The pair walked in and sat down at the chairs in front of the desk. This was an office just like any other… It was bizarre to think that chaplains and ministers were just normal people that needed to do paperwork as anybody else. She’d been in her chapel plenty of times, of course, but she hadn’t seen this side of it. Never behind the scenes aside from glimpsing the rooms where those who practiced sacred sex would have it with others. She really didn’t want to go with that… She’d just glimpsed the rooms through some doors opening and closing was all. She hadn’t seenthosedoors here while walking through and hoped she wouldn’t be bombarded by sacred sex practitioners… She just had no interest. “So what is it you need?” Zella asked. “Ah, well, I have someone that I’m drawn to interact with but…I’m really not sure what to do about it.” Blake frowned. “She’ll only be here for three months and I need to make a decision by then if I want to marry her or not. And…she’s human. I would normally go to my chapel but uh, I’m visiting from out of town. I follow the Dark Father Himself in a more minor sect so this was the closest I could find on recommendation from Ninlil’s family.” She nodded at the girl that had led her there. “Speaking of, I should head back. See you later, Blake.” The girl smiled and left the room, leaving Zella and Blake alone. “So you want divination done?” Blake shook her head. “Not divination, divine ordinance.” “I’m not the oracle of this place and she’s currently away on sacred rites for a few more days. If you don’t mind divination a stop-gap, I can do that.” Blake sighed. Just her luck… Ofcoursethe oracle would be gone. At least theyhadan oracle here… Some sects didn’t have practicing oracles because they didn’t feel like it was necessary for their state of worship. Blake didn’t use the service very often, but right now, shereallyneeded an oracle to speak to and she didn’t want to go to a heavenly chapel. Ugh… She hadn’t thought aboutanyof this when she’d made the choice to go on her Peregrination. But it was either go or be treated basically like a criminal just for studying what she wanted to instead of following what the family told her to without any thought or question. “I suppose I don’t have any choice unless I possibly want to go to a heavenly chapel… It looks like those are more common around here than the capitol.” Zella nodded. “Much more common. There’s only one other chthonic chapel in this town and it doesn’t practice oracle messages.” Blake sighed. Of course not. “For now, I can do a reading. Would you prefer cards, bones, feathers, or something else? I’m highly trained in multiple divination methods.” “I don’t know; I go to the oracles directly. I’ve never done divination before.” She just… It wasn’t something she particularly wanted to engage in personally. She didn’t see anythingwrongwith it; it just wasn’t what shepreferredwas all. “What would take the least time but still be informational? I have places I need to be soon…” “Feather reading would be quick and easy.” “That then.” Zella nodded and got a container from behind her desk, shook it up a good several times, then dumped the entire container on her desk. She studied it for a few minutes, her expression pensive. “Hm, interesting… It speaks to light and warmth in your own heart, but darkness and hesitation in your mind. It say anything about the relationship itself; it just speaks to your own feelings on the matter.” “Well…that’s not very useful.” She kept her tone even, not wanting to accuse the woman of being useless. But the reading wasn’t very useful. Sheknewhow she felt in regards to Weiss in general… She just… This was why she didn’t like divination. It was too vague for her own liking. Oracles could be equally as vague, but they at least often gave something that could be useful to be decoded later on. Zella shrugged. “You asked for quick and easy. Quick and easy means more vague and often less useful than what you want. I could spend 20 minutes doing a card reading if you want…” Blake shook her head and sighed. “No, I really need to be off. I have a raptor to fly and a person to meet for dinner. Thank you for your time.” She got up and offered a bow before leaving the chapel entirely. That had been an entirely useless waste of time. She appreciated the girl’s help in bringing her here so she knew where it was, but she didn’t get anything she wanted. She didn’t get the divine guidance she wanted. Oracles werefarmore useful than ministers that practiced divination. She knew a lot of people would disagree with her, but divination just didn’t do what she needed it to. And she didn’t want to spend twenty minutes doing a specific reading because it just didn’t appeal to her when she needed to get the food, fly Kalena, and then go meet up with Weiss. She headed over to the restaurant and picked up their orders—the woman asked if she wanted the usual… She was already becoming too familiar with this place—then headed out into the field for a couple of hours. She really did need Weiss out here at least once to show her how to take down a jackrabbit properly. She still wasn’t sure how she’d feel about the life leaving the rabbit’s body, though. She could feel their souls and all the other life around her like any other person high in the Echelons. She just… It was all so horrible. She hadn’t paid attention to when the royal falconer was taking the animal’s life should the eagle not have taken it down entirely. But now facing the fact she would have to take that life with her own hands… She shook her head and put it out of her mind for now. She told Kalena to go back to Ninlil’s and started heading for the dig site. She arrived a little while later and made her way to Weiss’ tent. She knew the route to Weiss’ tent well enough by this point so she didn’t need anybody to tell her. She unfortunately had to pull rank to get in again which was beyond frustrating, but what else could she do if she wanted to see Weiss? A two-hour round trip for Weiss to and from the dig site was asking her to take a lot of time off each day, so it really was just easier for Blake to get their dinner then head on over. She had plenty of time… She really did. Thankfully, Weiss was already in her tent, waiting. Weiss smiled a bit. “Do you have the food?” Blake nodded and got in her bag, pulling it out. “Here you go.” She sat down in a chair and pulled out her own meal, starting to eat. “So when do you think you can get some time to work with me in the field?” She was really worried about not being able to handle falconry on her own. She didn’t want to take Weiss away from work, lest Queen Maryam do something to give Weiss and her whole family a black mark. Weiss had mentioned that, and she didn’t blame her… If they got black marks against them, then yeah, it would bereallybad. They couldn’t lose their only source of income just because one queen had bad opinions about Weiss. “I might be able to wiggle out tomorrow. We’re honestly not making a whole ton of progress. The shaft that leads down to the vault had been completely excavated some time ago and the area around the vault hadn’t collapsed at all. There’s old steel in the shaft, but it’s all corroded and unreliable. Whoknowshow old it is?” She shook her head. “We just can’t figure out how to getintothe damn thing. That’s one reason I was brought in: I’m usually good at finding ways into old magical artifacts. But this? This is well beyond even me. I’m not going to break my contract, but I’m just sitting around most of the day, chucking random objects at the door to see if it’ll open.” She sighed. “That sounds rough.” She wasn’t really sure what to say since she had no idea what was going on. But it sounded like Weiss wasn’t making any of the progress that the queen thought she would. Shereallyhoped that wouldn’t reflect negatively on Weiss and her family. Sometimes, people were just completely incapable of doing something. Even the best in their field often couldn’t do something… She’d seen times even her family couldn’t end droughts or stop something like a typhoon. “Yeah, it’s pretty bad. I don’t want to give up my contract, but there’s not much I can really do here.” Blake frowned. “Even with your walls high, I can guess what you’re thinking.” Blake sighed. “That transparent, am I?” “You don’t want me to leave.” “Both yes and no.” Blake sighed. The human supremacy ideals alarmed her more than anything else, but even so, she felt drawn to Weiss and like she wanted to get to know her more. She hadn’t expected Weiss to leave after about a week or so. She could understand why but…both of them had waited so long for this. Was it really going to come to a highly premature ending? This was why she wanted to talk to an oracle; they would have more direct guidance than something shifty like divination. Maybe she should have opted for something more in-depth… “I’m not going to leave until my contract’s over, so don’t worry about it. It’s just hard to be bored out of my absolute mind here without much to do. I have no idea how to handle any of this. The vault is in pristine condition, more than almost any other ruin of past eras I’ve seen. I’ve seen preserved castles underground, but this is on another level. There are very fine magical plants underneath that are still alive somehow… I would say whoever made it had to have been a Chaos user, but this justscreamsof Order magic… I don’t know of any Order user that wouldactuallyhave this amount of magic though.” She shook her head, obviously frustrated. Blake felt bad. She wished she could help, but she didn’t have the clearance to go down to the vault… Then again, if someone as good as Weiss couldn’t figure it out, what hope did Blake have of cracking the riddle? “Well, that’s something at least… I wish I could help, but if someone likeyouwho does this as their job can’t figure it out, what hope would I have?” Blake shrugged and raised her arms. “Yeah. I’m trying my best, but even my best isn’t good enough. The excavation is completely done so I’m just here to try to crack the vault. I’ve cracked numerous little magical artifacts since I’m pretty high in the Echelons and those usually respond well to the Seraphic. But this isn’t responding toanythingto do with the Seraphic. It seems like it’ll only respond to magic of some sort. But what that magic is, I really have no idea.” She shook her head. “Honestly, I might just ask Queen Maryam for a few days off that way I can refresh my mind and come back with other ideas.” Blake nodded. “I see… Well, I hope she grants it. If so, we can spend some time out in the falconry field together.” She would rather spend time in the falconry field with Weiss before attempting to fly Kalena on her own. She probably seemed hyperfixated on it, but she really didn’t care. She just needed someone with knowhow to help her before she took her first jackrabbit. She hated the fact that she was so tense when it came to falconry, but what else could she do? She hadn’t paid attention when the royal falconer had taken jackrabbits down and even learning on the lure wasn’t really enough for her. Right now, she was just doing lure work with Kalena to keep her in shape. She had at least learnedthatmuch and knew how to keep the eagle fit. “I know I barely just started, but I’m already at a loss. The rest of the crew is pretty much in the same boat.” Weiss shook her head again. “None of them have any idea on how to handle the vault. We might need to start bringing in assorted magic users to see if they can open the vault with their magic.” “Maybe I could try?” “I don’t run this dig site; we’ll have to ask the lead.” “Let’s finish up eating then go ask.” Weiss nodded and they finished up eating quickly, then put their containers back in Blake’s bag. She put her bag down and they left the tent. Weiss’ tent was on the outskirts of the dig site which really did show how separate she was from everything and everyone else. It was getting to be dark by now, but magical lights lit the area around the dig site and the encampment that had formed around it. The camp was of a decent size, at least compared to the small encampments Blake was used to from falconry expeditions. It was mostly me, of course, as they generally worked outside the home while women stayed within it. She did see some women, though, and they were clearly in positions above the men. Men could only do so much without a woman’s touch and supervision. They came to a tent at the center of the encampment. “It’s me, Weiss. Can I come in?” “If you must.” The woman inside soundedveryoff put. Weiss looked at Blake and nodded before they entered. “Who’s this and what’s this about?” “This is Blake. It seems pretty clear to me that this vault will only respond to some sort of magic which is definitely odd. I’ve tried every trick in the book when it comes to the Seraphic. I was thinking maybe we start trying to bring different types of magic users in to see how the door reacts.” “You might be onto something…” The woman rubbed her chin. “But she doesn’t have clearance to be on the site.” “I’m a Donati,” Blake said, her ears flicking back and her expression flattening along with her tone. The woman flinched. “A Donati? On the dig site? I had heard from the guards there was one showing up but—” “That would be me.” “Let’s try it then…Worse comes to worst, nothing happens. I won’t let this get back to Queen Maryam.” “Thank you.” “Let’s go then.” The woman got out of her chair and they started walking. They eventually came to a large, steel door in the ground. The woman nodded to the men handling the door and the massive contraption opened with a huge groan. It revealed an elevator that would go down into the ground. The shaft…definitely looked ominous. It was a decent size, but Weiss was right; the steel in the shaft was definitely brittle and corroded beyond words. They had managed to build wooden rafters that carried the elevator down. They stepped onto it and the elevator groaned a little before starting to descend. It wasn’t long until total darkness consumed them, leaving Blake sliding toward Weiss a little bit. Weiss seemed completely unbothered, but considering she’d probably done this everyday multiple times per day… Well, it made sense. They reached the bottom and Blake couldfeelthe magic pouring over her like a river. It was like walking into an ocean of magic. “Woah.” She couldn’t shake the feeling of her hair on her ears standing on end. They twitched as she looked around. Gentle magical light washed over them from the end of a walkway suspended over a massive cavern. If someone fell, it’d be certain doom. She couldn’t see the bottom even with the lights from the magic plants casting all around them. The cavern went deep and Blake could only imagine how much it would hurt to fall off the somewhat narrow walkway. “Let’s go.” Weiss started walking fearlessly, the digsite manager staying behind. Blake hesitated for a moment before following behind Weiss. The light grew as they drew closer to the vault. Honestly, it was even more beautiful than the pictures that Weiss had shown her. The plants looked straight out of the autumn season with crisp reds, yellows, and oranges decorating the vault. She could clearly see the door, though. It was just a slab of what appeared to be white marble, but she was pretty sure that was just an aesthetic choice the vault’s creator had made. There was no way that such a massive amount of marble could be quarried in one piece without being broken. “Can you see what I mean about it screaming Chaos magic even though it’s clearly Order magic?” Weiss asked. Blake fell silent for a few minutes, simply taking in the atmosphere. But she nodded. “It’s too calm to be Chaos magic.Waytoo calm.” Chaos magic constructions had an underlying energy to them, a sensation of wishing to burst and be free. Her family used Chaos magic enough that she understood what it felt like and they had little trinkets made of Chaos magic. She’d felt the distinct difference between Order and Chaos in the way it was applied to different objects…but this wasn’t applied; this wasmadefrom magic. “And to think this entire thing ismadeof magic…” “I think they at least created a natural cave to start, but the entirety of the vault is magic. Want to try?” Blake hesitated before nodding. “I can try.” She stepped up to the vault’s door and put her hand on it. The magic surged into her hand and she almost shuddered. It was an overwhelming amount of power that threatened to knock the breath out of her. “How do you stand touching it…?” “I did once then didn’t again.” That certainly explained some things. But Blake started applying her magic to the door as best she could. Granted, she was still new with it even if it felt natural to her. She wasn’t the most adept with it yet and would still need lessons on how to be most effective with it. However, after several minutes, the door didn’t budge. Blake frowned and stepped back. “It didn’t do anything.” “I mean I doubted it would, but it was worth a shot.” Weiss shrugged. “I’m basically just tossing shit at the wall to see if anything sticks. I have no idea how these vaults work, but we’ve found three like I said. I think there’s one for the summer season, based on what the other two have shown. We just haven’t found it yet is all… Hopefully this vault will be the key that allows us to open the other ones.” Blake nodded and sighed, her ears going down. “Thanks for the vote of confidence.” That felt like a slap in the face; she couldn’t get over it. Then again, coming out to the real world showed her the skills she had in the castle that got her pretty far weren’t anything that would get her far out here. Annoying beyond words, but she couldn’t do much about it. She was glad that Ninlil hadn’t forced her to stay at the tailor’s office and had so graciously even found her someone to work with to teach her how to handle soul jewelery… For some reason, it just feltrightto do for her. Weiss shrugged. “We need to find other magic users to see if they might have any effect. Well, we should head back up to the surface since this was a bust. C’mon.” Weiss turned on her heel and Blake followed her. The lack of handrails above the black void really unsettled her. Then again, could they even install them? It wasn’t athinwalkway, but it wasn’t especially thick either. One wrong step could still send somebody flying and down into the void below. They got back onto the rickety elevator and Blake unintentionally leaned against Weiss a little bit. Weiss gave her a look and Blake felt her cheeks heat up. “O-Oh goodness, I’m sorry! I didn’t mean to—” Weiss shrugged. “It’s all right; I just wasn’t expecting it.” The rest of the ride up was awkward at best, Blake’s hands clasped together as she looked down. They made it to the top and Weiss led Blake back to her tent. “So is there anything else you wanted to do or talk to me about?” Weiss asked. Blake shook her head. “No, not really… It is late so I should head back to Ninlil’s. It was nice talking to you again. Hopefully you can get a few days off in the near future.” “Well, we’ll see what Queen Maryam has to say about it. See you later.” Weiss smiled and Blake left the tent. She got up on her mount and headed off away at a trot. Well, it wasn’t a bad day, all things considered. She hoped that Weiss could set some time off… She really wanted to be in the field with someone that knew what they were doing. She hoped that she’d get a few days with Weiss if at all possible… She still didn’t know what to think about the human. She arrived back at Ninlil’s about an hour later and the sun had long set. She came into the courtyard between the men and women’s houses and saw a light on in the second story of the women’s house. She went up there and looked around. Dinner had long been finished and everyone sat around, chatting idly with each other. It was a comfortable scene, but one unfamiliar to Blake. She still didn’t quite understand how men and women lived apart like this in normal homes. Her mother and father always slept in the same bed and her siblings had never been segregated from her. Wasn’t it hard to be apart from one’s spouse so much…? It didn’t make much sense to her. It was then that Ninlil approached with several thick tomes and offered them to Blake. “The language-learning books you wanted came while you were gone. Here they are.” “Thank you. I’ll take them to my room. I appreciate it.” She actually did; she wasn’t lying. Ninlil could’ve easily just turned the books away, but she wanted to learn more about the world. Weiss’ insistence piqued her interest. It would take time until she could speak the other languages, but she really did want to learn and see what Weiss was talking about for herself. She took the books and went down to her room. She turned on the illumination orb and settled down, flipping through the books for a little while until she felt herself starting to nod off. She sat them to the side, changed into her pajamas, then fell asleep, the night wrapping around her like a familiar blanket.