By the time Sophie got back to the shrine, it was almost full dark, and it was raining quite a bit more than it had been when she first started her journey back. She could barely make out the shrine through the trees, and she was incredibly thankful for the helpful Forester who cleared the path for her. She hadn’t had a chance to meet them yet, but she would have definitely struggled to get back if the path hadn’t been cleared.

Nonetheless, she still had to carefully watch her steps in the falling rain, as water started gathering in puddles in places where the path was still worn down. She was so focused on making it back, in fact, that after she made her way up the short stone staircase, she nearly ran right into Elowen.

The spirit was standing in the rain at the very edge of whatever invisible barrier held her to the courtyard, just like she had been the previous time. This time, however, Sophie stopped short at the stricken look on Elowen’s face.

“You scared me!” Sophie chided. “What are you doing waiting out here in the rain? Are you sure you don’t get cold?”

Elowen shook her head and, in the dim light, it almost looked like she was crying. “I can’t even feel it,” she sniffed. “I was worried about you.”

Sophie felt a little guilty. Maybe she stayed in town a bit later than she had intended. “I’m sorry. I had a lot to take care of today.”

Elowen reached out, as if she was going to touch Sophie’s hair, and then dropped her hand. The motion, somehow, made Sophie feel even worse. “Your hair’s all wet now.”

“It never really dried from my bath earlier,” Sophie admitted.

“Come on,” Elowen said. She lifted her hand up again, as if she was going to take Sophie’s own before she thought better of it. “Get inside.”

The shrine wasn’t all that much warmer on the inside, but at least it was dry. Sophie made her way to the back, setting down all of her parcels and finding a towel to dry her hair with. When she turned around, Elowen was glaring at her, with her hands on her hips.

“What?” Sophie asked, as she rubbed the towel against her head.

“You’re not even wearing the dress anymore! You promised!”

Sophie glanced down at her clothes from the market, which she sorely needed to change out of. “Oh, right. I just put these on after I took a bath at the bathhouse. The dress is in one of those bags.” She pointed to the pile of parcels, which included all of the baked goods from the bakery, her leftover potato wedges, and the clothes from the market.

“But you aren’t wearing it,” Elowen repeated, as if that made a difference.

“Why does it matter?” Sophie asked, curious. “What’s so important about this dress?”

“It’s Tailored! It’s made to protect you. It’s imbued with mana –” The spirit sniffed a bit again. “And it wouldn’t have gotten so wet.” She gestured at Sophie’s current state.

“Really?” Sophie asked curiously. “Weatherproofing?” She repeated the word that Elowen had mentioned before, when Briony came to fix the window.

Elowen nodded, crossing her arms and pouting. “That,” she gestured again at Sophie’s current clothes. “Is totally pointless. Why are you even wearing that?”

Sophie laughed out loud. “It’s not pointless.” It did, after all, cover her to the standards of her own personal modesty levels. She wasn’t sure if this society had taboos on nudity, but she wasn’t about to push her own personal limits in that regard. “But I can see that maybe the other dresses are a bit better…”

Elowen sniffed again. “Much better,” she insisted.

“Well, I think I ordered some more outfits made for shrine priestesses specifically. But they won’t be ready for a few more days. I’m not sure if they will have the same protections on them, but you can test them for me, okay? Make sure they are up to your standards.”

Elowen looked somewhat placated, but Sophie could tell she wasn’t quite off the hook yet. “I will,” the spirit said with a huff. “I’ll make sure they are fit for a priestess.”

Sophie repressed a laugh at Elowen’s insistence. It seemed like the Tailored clothing must have special attributes, like stat boosts in a video game.

“How does Tailoring work, then?” she asked, as she finished drying her hair and began going through the brown paper bags. She pulled out the two loaves of bread from the bakery and brought them over to the little kitchen area.

“A Tailor makes clothing that suits a class,” Elowen explained. “Mostly cloth items, although some do work with leather as well. The fabric becomes more durable and also offers certain resistances or benefits depending on the tailor’s intention.”

“So the previous shrine priestess’s dresses were Tailored?” Sophie asked.

Elowen nodded eagerly. “Oh, yes, of course. Other than being resistant to the weather and other elements, like fire, they were also specially made to help with mana channeling and resist corrupting forces.”

Sophie shivered at the idea of “corrupting forces” but it sounded like it would be a while before she learned mana purification and had to worry about that anyway.

“I’ll…” she hesitated, as she pulled the rest of the pastries out of the bag. She was unsure if she really wanted to make the offer she was thinking about making. She swallowed her pride, thinking of Elowen waiting alone in the rain, thinking she might have been abandoned again for untold decades. Or until she faded away. “If it makes you feel better, I’ll wear the dresses,” she forced out. “Although I won’t like it!” she added at the end.

Elowen stared at her in surprise. “Really? You would?”

Sophie nodded. “At least until I get the new ones.”

Elowen shook her head softly. “You don’t have to,” she said, looking at the ground. “It’s fine. But maybe if you at least wear them if we have another visitor.”

“That seems reasonable,” Sophie agreed. “But, hey, I’m probably going to have to go into town a lot, and I don’t want you waiting outside in the rain for me every time… This shrine doesn’t even have a way for me to take a shower. Didn’t the previous shrine priestess go into town everyday?”

Elowen nodded. “I used to go with her…” she trailed off sadly.

“Well, until I level up enough to bring you along, you’re just going to have to trust me when I say I’ll return, okay? I don’t exactly have anywhere else to go, you know?”

“It’s going to take ages to get you up to speed,” Elowen complained. “You’re not even Level 5.”

Sophie could tell Elowen must be feeling a little better if she was already teasing her about her mana levels. “Yep,” Sophie agreed cheerfully. “So I guess we better get to work, right?”

Elowen grumbled a bit, but she eventually nodded. “You can practice more with the mana lamps in the front of the shrine. If you manage to get all of those lit, we could try practicing with my stone.”

“Okay,” Sophie agreed. She brushed her hands off on her damp clothes. She was already finished putting all of the stuff from town away. “Just let me get changed, and then we can start where we left off.”

Elowen nodded, floating out into the main room to wait for her. It was still weird that she could float through walls. Sophie wondered if Elowen would still be able to do that once she was able to manifest. She shook her head and changed back into the grey dress, hanging up her outfit from the market to dry.

When she made it into the shrine’s main room, Elowen was standing in the middle of it, her arms crossed, staring at Sophie as if challenging her. Sophie looked around the empty vestibule. There were a lot of mana lamps in here. It must have looked gorgeous, before, when it was lit up from ambient mana alone.

Instead, Sophie had to manually light each one. She set to it – and she did manage to get the rest of the lamps lit in the entryway, but she was feeling a little dizzy by the end of it. Not quite as exhausted as she had the previous time, but noticeable all the same. “Should we try the stone now?” she asked, although she wasn’t sure if she’d be able to hold out much longer.

Elowen shook her head, looking a little worried. “No! You’re nearing mana exhaustion again. It would be dangerous to use too much more.”

“Is that why I passed out the last time?” Sophie found herself swaying on her feet.

Elowen nodded. “It’s less noticeable at lower levels, because you have less mana to begin with. But as your level increases, the more dangerous it will be to near mana exhaustion. It’s better to get used to the sensation and to learn when to stop using your mana. This is something most children would learn. I don’t think you’ll be ready for my stone for a few more levels, at this rate.”

Sophie didn’t miss the dig at her mana levels. It seemed like Elowen was still annoyed from earlier. “Well, let’s stop for tonight then.”

If this was “less noticeable” then Sophie would hate to experience “noticeable” mana exhaustion. She looked around the room, pleased with her efforts for now at least, and then followed Elowen back into the personal quarters to get some sleep.

***

When Sophie woke up the next day, the sun was streaming in through the window over the little desk in the living quarters, and she felt totally refreshed, all traces of borderline mana exhaustion gone from the night before. She stretched her arms over her head, her back cracking with the effort. The folding mattress wasn’t the best thing she’d ever slept on, but it was better than the floor by far. She pushed the heavy quilt off of herself, ready to make the customary and quite unfortunate trip to the privy when Elowen suddenly floated through the door that led to the shrine’s entryway.

Sophie dropped the quilt abruptly in surprise. “Please don’t tell me we have another visitor this morning.”

“You leveled up again!” Elowen exclaimed, instead.

“I did?” Sophie asked. She tried focusing on her mana, but… she honestly couldn’t tell. She wished she got some sort of notification like they did in video games.

Elowen nodded eagerly, though. “You must be leveling faster since your levels are so low.” For once she sounded pleased about Sophie’s low mana levels.

“And,” she added with relish. “I thought of a great idea while you were sleeping. Channeling mana into my mana stone might be a little too much for you right now, but we still have the lamps in the courtyard! You can keep training using those today!”

“There are lamps in the courtyard?” Sophie asked. She didn’t remember any, but it would go a long way in helping her find her way back at night. Although the next time she went to town, she was definitely going to bring a lantern. The previous shrine priestess had a good, old fashioned one that used fire and everything, just like all of the other light fixtures in the living quarters.

“Of course! I’ll show you,” Elowen offered. “Since there used to be an abundance of mana, it was never a problem and they always stayed lit.”

That made sense. What didn’t make sense was what had happened to all the mana that made the lamps stop working and that left Elowen to fade away... Eventually, they would have to investigate that, but it seemed so far away from Sophie’s current capabilities. She was still getting the hang of even using mana in the first place.

“Right.” Sophie nodded. “Let me make some tea, and then we’ll get started. Although, I did promise Acacia I would meet her this afternoon.”

“Acacia?” Elowen asked, already frowning at the mention of the friendly baker.

“Oh, just someone I met in town. She is going to give me cooking lessons.”

Elowen didn’t look pleased at the idea, but Sophie would have to make it up to her somehow. She really needed to learn how to cook, otherwise she’d be spending all of her coin on market food, and, well, that didn’t sound so bad actually. But maybe when she found a way to actually make more of it.

Sophie grabbed the bucket out of the kitchen and headed out to the well to begin getting ready for the day. It was only the fourth day in this strange world, but she didn’t think she would get used to having to get water out of a well every morning. She hoped she’d eventually be able to figure out running water, but that was probably a long way off, given her current living situation.

As she slowly lowered the bucket into the well, she felt the increasingly familiar sensation of eyes watching her. She turned around to look over her shoulder, but Elowen hadn’t followed her out. She glanced around at the trees and was pleased to see the little dragon creature from before. She wondered if it was the same one, or if there were many of them. Somehow, it felt like the same one she had seen previously, and she gave it a little wave.

“Well hello there. Aren’t you the cutest little thing? Are you friendly?”

The creature looked at her with wide, curious eyes and tilted its head to the side like a bird. Sophie finished pulling up the bucket of water while the little creature watched from the trees. She carefully set the bucket on the ground next to the well. She found herself wanting to approach the creature, almost like a stray kitten. “Are you hungry? What do you eat anyway?”

She took a cautious step forward. The little dragon – or maybe it was just a winged lizard, it wasn’t very big after all – didn’t shy away, nor did it make any aggressive or defensive motions towards her. Surely something so cute couldn’t be that harmful, could it?

“What on earth is taking you so long?” Elowen’s voice suddenly rang out from behind Sophie.

Sophie glanced back again and made a shushing motion. “Shh! You’ll scare it,” she said.

“Scare what? It’s not like anyone but you can hear me anyway.”

“The little dragon…” Sophie trailed off, but when she turned back, the creature was already gone. “Oh, nevermind.” She supposed Elowen did have a point about other people or even cute little dragon creatures not hearing her. She hefted the water bucket and headed back inside.

After washing her face with some of the warmed up well water, making tea, and eating the rest of her leftover potato wedges from the night before, Sophie finally followed Elowen out into the courtyard. In the harsh light of day, it looked pretty bad out here. If they were going to be having people from the town visiting to receive classes, Sophie probably needed to make it look more inviting. She’s surprised the guy from yesterday – Garrick, was it? – didn’t run off in fear.

“These are the lamps,” Elowen said, pointing to some stone blocks that bordered the courtyard. They were set at even intervals around the perimeter and only stood about as high as Sophie’s shins. Sophie had assumed them to be random decorations previously. Or at the very least, a tripping hazard.

“You can also test your mana levels here,” Elowen added, pointing out the much taller stone that stood off to one side, on the opposite side of the courtyard as the portal stone that she had shown Sophie on the first day.

Sophie made her way over to the Level Stone and placed her palm against the side of it. The surface was surprisingly smooth and cool and it had thick grooves notched all the way up to the top. “Like this?”

Elowen nodded. “Just focus your mana into it, and the lines will glow based on your level.”

Sophie closed her eyes and tried to center herself, focusing on her mana again. All of this focusing was honestly quite challenging. She had never been into meditation, but now she felt like she might need to start practicing. She opened her eyes and saw that three notches were lit up, but it almost felt like the stone was pulling at her mana, like it would drain more if she let it. She pulled her hand away, taking a step back. Even this small effort, already made her feel a little less energetic than she had. “Woah, it really takes a lot out of you.”

Elowen giggled. “At lower levels, maybe…”

Sophie rolled her eyes. She couldn’t wait to level up again, although she supposed Elowen probably wouldn’t stop teasing her until she was at least a Level 10.

“Maybe I should hold off on more mana practice until later tonight,” Sophie said. She glanced around at the sad state of the courtyard. “I could clean up a bit out here instead.”

Elowen pursed her lips thoughtfully. “I suppose that makes sense,” she agreed. “We don’t want you to be totally exhausted if you’re going into town later.”

“Do you know if the previous shrine priestess had any gardening tools around here?”

Elowen shook her head. “I don’t know. I didn’t really pay attention to things like that.”

Sophie was tempted to roll her eyes again, but she managed to refrain herself. She was pretty sure she had seen a shed, overgrown with vines and other weeds near the privy. Besides, it would be good to explore more of the surrounding area in the light of day. She hadn’t really gotten a good look at things other than her few trips to the well and the privy.

Time to go exploring again.