Sophie attempted to observe the fire a few more times, only stopping when the friendly bartender, Felicity, brought in some food for them. Sterling murmured a thanks, never glancing up from his seemingly endless paperwork, and Felicity smiled at him fondly before pushing a large salad and a plate of potato wedges in front of Sophie.

Sophie was sorely glad for it – she was surprised at how hungry she was – and she thanked the bartender sincerely before digging into the salad full of fresh, crunchy vegetables and some sort of creamy ranch-like dressing. After a few moments, she poked at her own mana reserves curiously, further surprised to find that they were slightly lower than they had been.

“Does observing something deplete mana?” she asked, and Sterling finally looked up from his paperwork.

“In the beginning it will,” he explained. “As you become more skilled, then no. Not unless you are observing something much more powerful than yourself.”

Sophie tried to work out how that made sense, but she supposed it didn’t really matter. At least at the moment, the candle was still getting the better of her. She bit into a potato wedge grumpily. The corner of Sterling’s mouth curled up into a small smile. “You have to start somewhere,” he said, and it was almost consoling.

After they finished their food, and Felicity took the plates away, Sterling began to pack up his papers. “You’re welcome to stay here as long as you’d like. I expect to see you back again tomorrow, perhaps a bit earlier.”

Before Sophie could raise a protest, he left, leaving her alone in the room with the still-lit candle. Sophie buried her head in her hands and sighed. This was not how she wanted to spend her mornings.

At the sound of the door opening a few moments later, she sat up guiltily, embarrassed that Sterling might find her slacking, but it was only Felicity.

“Would you like some tea?” the bartender asked. “I see Sterling‘s got his claws in you now. I suppose he misses it –”

Felicity pulled out a chair and sat down next to Sophie, smiling at her fondly like Sophie was doing Felicity some sort of favor.

“Misses what?” Sophie asked, not getting the full picture.

“Having someone to mentor,” Felicity explained. “The college is on break, after all. I’m glad he spends the summers here, but I think he gets bored. The city saves up tons of work for him to do, but it’s not the same.”

“The college?” Sophie repeated. “Does he work as a professor then?”

“Oh yes of course! He didn’t tell you?” At Sophie’s shake of her head, Felicity continued. “During the year, he’s usually gone to Sentus. He comes back some weekends, but without the town portal working, it’s a long journey.”

Sophie had so many other questions – namely how the town portal connected to Sentus – but Felicity pushed her chair back and stood up. “I’ll go get you that tea,” she offered. “Would you like anything else?”

Sophie shook her head. “No, thank you.”

After Felicity left, Sophie stared at the candle flame again while she thought. Sentus, huh? She wondered if she’d ever be able to go there. Maybe if they got the portal working…

But if she got the portal working, wasn’t there still the small possibility that it might take her back? Back to Seattle – back to her old life?

She buried her head in her hands again, not sure what to think about that at all.

***

It took Sophie an embarrassing three days to feel like she had any sort of control over observing the candle’s flame. Sterling never scolded her or even gave her any indication that her progress was lacking in any way, but when she finally got it, he also seemed to barely take notice. “Now you’ll try channeling again,” he said, and that was that.

In fact, Sophie was on her second day of trying to channel mana into the flame without causing it to flare, when Sterling surprised her by immediately standing up from his spot at their usual table in the back room and gesturing for her to follow. “We’re going to try something different today.”

He left all of his papers where they were and Felicity glanced at them curiously as they made their way through the front of the tavern. Sophie gave her a cautious wave and followed Sterling out the door into the streets of Caulis. In fact, he led her all the way to the Adventurer’s Guild.

The place had seemed livelier when Linden got back from his quest, and today was no different. Sophie was surprised to see several tables full of adventurers of all types.

Calli waved at them from behind the counter, grinning. “Business is great, isn’t it?” she said, catching Sophie’s gaze. “It’s hard to be annoyed, even though that witch is here again. Anyway, what can I do for you?”

“Ingrid is here?” Sterling didn’t sound pleased.

Calli nodded, waving a hand airily. “Well she’s not here. She’s staying at the inn. She’s back to do purification work for a while – at least until our resident shrine priestess gets it figured out.”

The mention of purification made Sophie’s ears perk up. “A priestess?” she asked. “There’s another priestess in town?”

Calli nodded and began to answer, but Sterling cut in.

“The artifacts – she hasn’t already purified them all, has she?”

Calli grinned slyly. “Aha, so that’s what you’re here for!” She looked pleased with herself. “Well,” she began, drawing it out a bit. “She wanted to, but I might have stowed a few away. Just a sec.”

Calli stepped over to talk with her father for a second before she gestured for Sophie and Sterling to follow, leading them back to the storeroom. She made her way over to a set of shelves, pulling out a heavy-looking wooden box and setting it on the nearest table. Sophie watched as Calli unlocked the box, lifting the lid to show two familiar items.

Both the dagger and the locket were carefully resting at the bottom of the box, and Sophie could feel the air of corruption still around them – especially the locket.

“I saved these two,” Calli explained. “Since you seemed particularly interested in them and all. Hopefully that will be enough for now. Linden’s building a team to go purify a mana well nearby in a few days, so I’m sure they’ll find other stuff to bring back.”

Sterling frowned further. “I suppose this will do,” he said. “At least you had the sense not to let Ingrid get to all of them.”

Calli rolled her eyes at him. “Anyway, I need to head back to the front.” She gestured to the box. “Just put it back when you’re done with it.”

Sterling nodded curtly, but Sophie turned to catch Calli before she could go. “Hey,” she said. “Could I talk with her? Ingrid, I mean. The other priestess?”

Calli made a sour face. “Ugh, I guess. I mean, I can see why you’d want to. It’s just that she’s awful. But she’s staying at the inn. I’m sure I could get a message to her that you’d like to meet, or you could stop by there and leave a message yourself.”

“Thanks,” Sophie replied. “I’ll do that. I can stop by the inn on my way out.”

Calli shrugged and made her way to the door to leave, and Sophie turned back to Sterling. Sterling had a strange expression on his face, but he shook his head and sighed before Sophie could ask further.

“I suppose you’ll meet her eventually,” he said, but that was all he seemed to have to say on the matter. “Today, we will work with these.” He gestured to the locket and the dagger, not touching either of them. “Can you tell which has the highest amount of corruption?”

“But –” Sophie began, oddly resistant to working with the corrupted items again. Just the thought of touching their mana felt utterly unappealing. “But I still can’t even do the candle flame.”

Sterling shook his head. “It’s no matter. We’ll still work on your mana control, of course, but it’s good to challenge your abilities. How else will you know whether or not you’ve improved? Now, again – which is the most corrupted of the two?”

Sophie supposed he had a point, even if she didn’t like the idea of working with the corruption so soon. “Um, the locket. The locket has a much higher amount of corruption.”

Sterling nodded. “Good. You can tell that much at least. Okay, so let’s start with that one.”

“Not the dagger?” Sophie asked, already confused again. “Why would I start with the most difficult one?”

Sterling sighed, as if already disappointed in her. “Why do you assume it will be the most difficult? Have you considered that perhaps it’s more difficult to target a small amount of corruption?”

Sophie blinked at him blankly. The thought had never occurred to her.

Sterling chuckled. “I see,” he said. “Well, consider this your lesson for today. Things that have the least amount of corruption are the hardest to work with. Once something has been corrupted, it’s exceedingly difficult to purify it completely. It can be challenging to even find the last remaining bits of corruption, even for a high level priestess.”

That seemed completely backwards, but Sophie supposed it made some sort of sense. Sterling waved a hand at the locket. “Now, please get started. I don’t have all the time in the world, you know. The council has me running around town all afternoon.”

He sounded especially grumpy about that, and Sophie had to repress a laugh. “Anything I can help with?” she asked.

Sterling looked surprised at the offer. “Perhaps,” he said. “Although I don’t know if you’ll be in the shape to help after this.”

That sounded ominous.

He gave her another pointed glance as if telling her to hurry along, and Sophie reluctantly turned her attention to the locket, finally out of ways to procrastinate.

She supposed there was nothing to be done but to try. She glanced down at the innocent-looking piece of jewelry that seemed completely seeped in corruption and felt cold sweat gather at her spine again.

It was just a locket, after all. She could totally do this…

Right??