Beth loved the letter from Harri and found herself reading it several times before putting it down. To her it had obviously been much longer since she’d seen Harri and she missed her. Fortunately the letter was written almost exactly how Harri would speak and as such she could almost hear Harri reading it to her. She would have loved to moved to Lexicoth more permanently but Harri was right it wouldn’t have been a good fit for her. Further her mum needed the familiarity of humans and wouldn’t be able to transition. Further the whole status was taking her longer that it did for Beth. She understood it changes things and mattered but she wasn’t fully engaging with it. At least not in the way she and Pete had. Speaking of she pulled up her status.

Name

Bethany Oakfenny

Title(s)

Solarslut

Mana Type

Cosmic (rare)

Level

4

Trial Credits

76

Skills:

Walking (common)

4 (20 Trial Credits)

Butter Churning (uncommon)

2 (10 Trial Credits)

Trial Taking (ultra-rare)

1 (8 Trial Credits)

Half-staff (common)

1 (7 Trial Credits)

Communication (common)

1 (6 Trial Credits)

Bartering (common)

0 (2 Trial Credits)

Busking (common)

0 (1 Trial Credit)

She’d been working hard and had picked up a couple of extra Credits since leaving Newcastle. She still hadn’t told Pete about her Trial Taker skill despite coming close a lot of times. It wasn’t that she didn’t trust him it was more that she just didn’t know how dangerous it was. She hadn’t even told her mum as of yet. Maybe if it reached a point where she could use it for other people she would tell Pete and use it on him but for now it was a secret and she had to hope Pete wouldn’t notice her general improvements. In that vein she hadn’t shared her Credit number with him yet which she was sure he’d noticed by this point but he hadn’t said anything. At least he hasn’t said anything to her so far.

She drafted a quick response to Harri’s letter much as she had requested. Obviously she couldn’t send it. At the moment her communication skill wasn’t capable of such a feat, but like Harri asked she wanted to compile a list of her response. Ready for when she could finally write back. Having spent a couple of hours alone she wandered back out of her room to see if Pete was still around. Unsurprisingly, he had left and she eventually found him out at the church watching a choir rehearsal. She beckoned him over and he excused himself to go say hi. The two went for a walk until it got fairly late. At which point Beth was exhausted and despite several hints Pete was showing no signs of leaving. It wasn’t that he missed the hints he clearly paused at them before barrelling on with a new topic or generally weak segue to some new topic. Eventually she had to outright ask him to leave, and he did. Not returning to his own house but instead heading towards the nearest pub.

The next day Beth was still thinking about her letter and feeling generally nostalgic. It got her missing Livpul. Not the village itself. After all that was full of people who had been nothing but horrible to her but having created some distance she missed the river and of course Steven. It boiled away at her as she spent the morning doing chores until eventually the design had gotten strong enough she decided to do something about it. She hunted down her mum and explained about wanting to go back. Susanna was less nostalgic about the village. Well it wasn’t that simple. For Beth the village had always been bad, but she left on a good note with Steven. Susanna however, had lived a content enough life in Livpul that had been horrifically torn apart by the accusations levelled against her daughter and her subsequent incarceration. Further while both had technically escaped from prison Bethany’s crime was unlikely to have been reported to any real authority outside of Livpul while Susanna was assumed dead in Newcastle and would be re-imprisoned, or worse, if this was found not to be the case.

As such Beth elected to go alone. Pete had asked to come along, but Beth wanted to catch up with an old friend and didn’t want to have to explain across the boundary who was who when really she just wanted to focus on catching up. Also while she didn’t find time with Pete nearly as draining as time with others, they had been together almost non-stop since leaving Newcastle. Beth felt due a slight break, especially one that gave her a direction beyond the nebulous get stronger.

Having made her decision to visit she took the day to prepare. She did however, write a quick letter to Steven to let him know she was coming. She and Pete had done a very basic experiment with the skill but this would be it’s first real test.

Communication (common): Level 1 (6 Trial Credits)

Having practised your calligraphy, you feel confident any letter you write deserves to reach its target. AS such it will. Eventually

Any letter will begin to travel to its intended recipient and will reach them as long as there is a clear path. The speed of this letter will depend on skill level. Currently this skill can be used once per Trial Cycle.

Having scribbled a quick note to say she was coming Beth scrunched the letter into a ball, causing some small tears in the material. For a second it sat there in the snow unmoving, as though mocking Beth for her assumption. Eventually though, it began to roll in the general direction of Livpul. It was by no means fast and the snow seemed to make it even slower. It was however, moving and unlike Beth on foot, didn’t seem to require rest. The skill also appeared to provide some basic protection to the contents of the letter even though this effect wasn’t outlined in the skill description.

The display of magic still amazed Beth, as well as many in the village and lots of kids followed the ball as it slowly rolled towards the edge of the town. A couple made to continue following it out of the village, despite being told to stay in the boundaries but these kids were quickly grabbed by a parent who was generally keeping an eye peeled for such a thing.

Having prewarned Steve, or at least started the process of prewarning him and letting people know her plan to leave for a short time. She settled in for one more sleep in a real bed before beginning her camping journey back to Livpul.

Travelling back she elected not to take advantage of the extreme speeds that would be offered by her skill. After all, for once she wasn’t in any real rush as she had no plans or deadlines to get to. The next Trial was roughly a week away and she wanted to be home for that but beyond that she had no deadline.

Thinking of Leeds as home threw her for a slight loop. After all she hadn’t really been there all that long all things considered. But it was, she got on well with her neighbours and both her and her family were settled there. While Livpul would always be her first home her time there was never homely which probably contributed to her fairly quickly being able to shift her vision of home to the new town.

Taking a normal walking pace meant that Beth had no trouble at all walking through the day. It being her highest levelled skill she found travel easy when she wasn’t pushing herself and even had found that the cold of the snow wasn’t as prominent as it normally was as though the act of walking was heating her up much more than it normally did. It wasn’t a huge effect, she wouldn’t have felt comfortable removing any layers, but it did make a difference. Again, it was an effect that wasn’t outright stated in the skill description but none-the-less it was a present.

Beth spent three days travelling before reaching the village of Livpul once more, three completely uneventful days where she recharged her social batteries and enjoyed the view and existing for a while without constantly having the space filled with noise. Arriving at the village it seemed as though some changes were underway, the beginnings of a wall seemed to be going up around the houses of the village. In the future if she ever wanted to return again this would make access challenging but currently there were so many gaps in the wall that she could easily slip off the road and access the village proper. Having snuck into the village with ease she began heading towards the butcher’s shop, hoping to hang around near the back and to slip in after closing.