What just happened?

I sit up, looking around while blinking away... nothing. My eyes are already clear, already awake. I'm sitting in the dark, the rough ground broken up stone against my stinging skin. Is this the middle of the street? Did I fall asleep here? I don't remember being asleep.

With another glance around, I see Emily, lying in the street with me.

"Hey," I shake her a little and she sits up immediately.

"Aria?"

"What happened?" I ask back. Then Emily looks around, obviously confused.

"Well..." she thinks for a bit, then looks away with a deep frown. "How much do you remember?"

I think back, and frown myself. That's why she doesn't want to answer. Spending all that time talking with Beth. Building myself up and getting so excited and looking forward to being adopted, just to have my fledgling hopes crushed. My thoughts halt for a moment, wondering where I learned that strange new word, but I ignore it. I can still remember the complete lack of care that came over me after that. That lack of emotion so strong, I couldn't even properly get angry or sad about what happened. It was like I'd fallen all the way back to when I couldn't feel anything at all.

Fortunately it's receded now. But I can still feel it at the frayed edges of my mind, that overwhelming detachment. I can tell, I was pushed to my breaking point there. No, the way that felt, I went past it. I'm glad that I feel a little more sane now, but I have to be careful, my mind still feels... fragile. I gulp nervously.

Finally answering Emily's question, I say, "I remember everything up to finding out Eryk won't be adopting me. And then, well, how I felt after that. Or I guess, how I didn't feel. I just stopped caring at all," I admit with a sad shake of my head. "But after that... there's nothing clear. E-except for, uhh..."

Right, that dream.

The whole thing flashes back through my mind. Emily raises a brow when I stop in the middle of talking. "I had a weird dream."

Weird doesn't even begin to cover it.

"A dream? Not a nightmare?" she asks immediately.

"Well..." I look around on reflex, only then thinking to get to my feet. I give Emily a hand up as I scan the street. Of course it is completely empty to the horizon in all directions. Wait, what?

I blink a few times, turning in a circle. "Oh, we're in the central plaza," I realize aloud. I've never been here at night, not to mention without a ton of other people around, so I never realized that the distance to every gate is actually past the horizon from here. I never had a clear enough line of sight. "Still, how did we wind up here?"

"Actually..." Emily trails off. "I'm not really sure. After you lost it, you just started walking randomly. I told everyone else I would take care of you and stayed with you. Eventually you collapsed, and then... well, I'm not sure. I held you for a bit, and... then I was here." Her brows knit together. "No wait, that's not all." She turns back, locking eyes with me. "I had a weird dream too."

"Reena?"

"I think so." We're both quiet for a bit, just looking around. Then I notice the shadows on me. I look over to the west, where the large moon is almost over the horizon, the last trace of its edge casting shadows to catch my eye as they ever so slowly travel up my arms.

"It's almost morning," I realize aloud. I look at the moon for a bit, I've never actually watched it fall over the horizon before. I close my eyes, an odd feeling coming over me. Even though I'm never out at night, I feel like I enjoy the moonlight more than sunlight. I wonder why?

When I open my eyes again, I spot some lantern lights entering the street pretty far off in the distance. A few more glances around reveal a handful of people beginning to move on the long, wide streets leading off in each direction. Right, the moon is going down, the morning coming, and the sun is about to rise. People are starting to get up and begin their days.

"What was your dream about?" Emily finally asks.

"Reena... umm, it's kind of hard to explain. She said she was sorry, I think she said things to me that she regretted too. It's weird. The way she spoke to me, it actually sounded like she cared about me. And that she needs my help, and she said she believed in me. I... don't know why." I keep staring out into the distance as I remember her words again. With all the anger gone, they were so much more caring than before... what changed?

"She... I think she said she was going to support me now." I clear my throat and recite her words. "'A hand at your back to push you forward. Arms to catch you when you fall.' I wonder what she means?" Can I actually trust her? Even after the terrible things we said to each other? It did sound like she was really sorry.

A lot of the other impressions I got were sort of disjointed and weirdly metaphorical - another strange new word - but it definitely felt like she was trying to express care for me, I think, even if I can't comprehend why... Emily told me I have good qualities too, but for a goddess to care about me, it can't just be that, can it...?

"Aria," Emily touches my arm. "She asked me to take care of you."

"Really?" I gasp. "I'm sorry," I wave my hands a little. "You don't have to do it just because she's a goddess, why would she ask that all of a sudden?!"

"Hehe," Emily giggles at my response. "That's what I've already been doing, I'm going to keep taking care of you either way." She wraps me in a big hug, and after another moment of worry, I hug her back.

"Thanks for everything, Emily." After we break away again, she changes topics.

"Alright, what next?" She asks aloud. "I've never been out all night before. It's already morning, so I guess we should go to work, shouldn't we? We completely blew curfew..." When she suddenly goes quiet, I look up at her.

"Emily?" her expression is strange. "What's wrong?"

"Oh, it's nothing." She's trying to hide something bad.

I feel a bite of sadness, immediately followed by paralyzing fear. My mind feels so fragile right now, I have no idea how much I can endure. I won't break again, will I?!

I immediately grab hold of Emily, hugging her desperately and blurt out everything I'm feeling. "I'm sorry Emily, it makes me sad when you lie. My emotions are really fragile right now, so could you tell me the truth?" I plead.

She stiffens up in my arms, but quickly speaks anyway. "I didn't want to tell you this, but after what happened yesterday, you should probably know." She rubs my head as I begin to calm down, then explains, "Mister Fredricson... The way he spanked you before was weird. Like he was going easy on you. What he did yesterday was more like how he does it normally."

I have no idea how to respond. With all the stupid things I did to earn spankings, he was going easy on me the whole time? "I don't get it," I mutter. "Why would he do that?"

"I don't know." Despite the worrying realization, I feel my heart ease. The emptiness shrinks back a little.

"Thank you for telling me the truth, Emily," I sigh with pure relief.

"It's fine." She shows a sad smile. "Sorry for trying to hide it, I didn't know it would worry you so much." She keeps rubbing my head while thinking out loud again. "Since it's almost first bell, I guess we won't be going back home until tonight. We're going to get beaten when we get back for missing curfew yesterday, do you understand?" She says it gently, clearly trying to help me prepare myself for when it happens.

"Ok." I give a small nod. "As long as I'm ready for it... It should help, I think. Probably." We just stand for a little longer. We still haven't quite worked through what our next step should be right now though. I release a breath, stopping to think and take stock. It's Arcaday, so I have my first lesson with Claire, and work after. I don't have any of my stuff with me today though, but there isn't much to do for that. Looking inside, I'm currently carrying some water mana, the weird fire-

What is that? There's something completely new. I carefully poke it, it doesn't feel like mana. It's more artificial, like how my divine gear feels. But instead of a gear, the shape is more like... triangles?

As soon as I poke it, it responds all on its own. And with its response, all at once, I know exactly what it is and why it's there. I feel Reena's presence from the mark. Because apparently it's called a 'mark.' Through the mark, I can feel a connection with her, feelings suddenly crossing between us. No words though. Like with the rest of it, I'm aware that the connection it provides isn't for spoken conversations.

Feelings float through my mind. 'I'm with you' is the first one. It actually makes me smile a little. When she said she was going to support me, she... actually meant it, didn't she? It makes me feel just a little bit better about her.

The next one that comes is different. It tells me that I took too long to notice the mark. At first I'm really annoyed by the immediate criticism, but stop myself when I realize it's different. She's saying it really gently, just trying to nudge me in the right direction. I calm myself down and try to listen. She wants me to try and be more aware of my mana all the time, not just when I'm focusing directly on it.

"Sure, I'll try," I tell her silently. It actually sounds like good advice, so I try to think to her politely. I've never had anyone to really guide me before...

Suddenly realizing I got completely distracted, I turn back to Emily, but she's staring at me, her eyes as big as plates. "What's wrong?" I ask nervously.

"Your, your uh..." After the first couple words, she can't seem to come up with any more as she kind of flails her hands in my direction, gesturing to my face.

The answer comes from Reena, telling me it's her mark. Apparently it shows that she has chosen me for... something. She apologizes again that she can't tell me what.

But does that mean I actually have some mark on my face? Judging by Emily's look, definitely. I immediately remember that I can in fact see myself now, I just need one of the animals to do it. But Chisa is still sleeping in a tree outside the city, and Riko is completely unwilling to leave her napping spot right now.

"What does it look like?" I ask Emily.

"Red, like this," she finally responds, tracing out triangles on her cheeks. Well, they have two sides of the triangles, pointing up my cheeks apparently. And then she kind of points around her eyes too. And these marks are red? Like bright red? "And white here," she adds, tracing another triangle, this one over my nose, pointing down to touch my lips.

Why is it something so bright and flashy? I mean, I already have unexplainable white hair, won't this just make me stick out more? I immediately start glaring at Reena. Didn't she say she would help me? Won't this make things even worse?

Reena frantically clarifies. 'Only when channeling the mark' seems to be her explanation. Immediately embarrassed about my knee-jerk reaction, I quickly retract my criticism and reign in my anger. Ok, it's only temporary, something I can control, I tell myself.

Still, I don't really understand her description since I'm not familiar with the concept. It's difficult for her to explain through feelings, without words. After a few more messages about how it involves moving my mana and feeding it into things, I think I manage to figure out what she means.

So, it's basically when I push my mana into stuff? I'm still not one hundred percent sure whether that includes passing it through mollite and nuvrite to get other metals to interact with the mana field it creates, since I'm really just pushing my mana into myself when I do that. But it definitely covers sending mana to my divine gear, since that just consumes it to light up.

And now that I'm actually paying attention to it properly, Reena's mark definitely does the same thing. It's just hard to tell because it's such a small amount that it's hard to even sense the movement, not to mention that it kind of feels like I'm feeding it unconsciously, just by focusing on the mark.

"Thank you for the explanation," I think to her, awkwardly polite after snapping at her. Then I let her know that I'll ask her if I have any other questions. I... should at least give her a chance. She seemed really sincere in that dream, even if I haven't had a chance to really process it all yet.

Before I pull my focus back to deactivate the mark, she tells me one more thing. 'Call for me if it gets too hard.' I frown. It feels weird. Things have always been so rocky between us in the past, I don't really like the idea of relying on her like that.

If I'm really about to break again, can I actually trust her to save me? But she said she would support me, right? Even if I'm still kind of wary, she's clearly trying to be much more helpful now. I guess I can trust her just a little, at least for now. I have to think on that dream more.

Still... when it comes down to it, I think I would rather rely on someone I don't trust than just give in and stop caring. Anything is better than going back to being like that again.

After my long hesitation, I reply, "I'll... keep that in mind," then deactivate the mark. Looking to Emily again, I ask if that got rid of it, and she quickly nods. I sigh lightly. Why does it have to be such an eye catching mark anyway? Actually, if things really do get so bad that I do end up relying on her, won't activating the mark to do it just cause even more problems? "Ugh..." I grumble. I hate not trusting and believing in people, why does Reena always have to make things difficult?

"That mark... It was Reena's," Emily says all of a sudden.

"Well, yeah." I blink a few times, not understanding. Of course it was. Why is she even pointing that out?

"No no," she shakes her head. "What I mean is that it looked like her mark..." she trails off for a few moments, then slaps herself in the forehead. "Ahh, I never taught you about those! I'm sorry... Ok, so basically, her mark is like her symbol, it's used to represent Reena. Hers is called the Kitsu Mark."

"Ok..." I feel like her talking about marks is ringing some bell, but I don't really know...

"The Kitsu Mark," she repeats, "I think it's based off of some magical creature. I'm not really sure what kind, but Reena's mark is supposed to be based on how they look, I think. The simplified version is made up of two red and one white triangle, with two red circles. The mark on your face looked a lot like that."

"Oh," I reply simply. I'm not sure how else to respond. Thinking back on it, yeah, that actually sounds just like the symbol I saw on that weird square plate back in the church. It had her name written over the mark, but the mark was still there. And when I look closely at the mark inside me, I confirm that it definitely looks like she described. Of course, the red triangles only have the two sides pointing up, with a complete, filled in white triangle between them pointing down, while the two small red circles sit right between the tips of the red triangles.

How are those shapes supposed to look like some magical creature? And why did she put that mark on my face? Leaving that aside for later, I say, "I think I understand now, thanks."

Emily's eyes move off to something behind me. "Hey Aria, look," I follow where she's pointing and turn around. Is that John? He's still far away, but there aren't many other people around this early. The first ones have just started entering the plaza to set up their market stands for the day. Of course the handful of them are staring at us since we've just been standing here for a while now, but there isn't much we can do about that. One of them tells us to move though, since we're standing near where he's going to put his stand, so we move a short distance away.

John's quick pace brings him to the central plaza not long after. We wave at him awkwardly, and he walks up to us, looking very confused. "Why are you two here?" he asks.

"That is... a really weird story," Emily answers. He raises a concerned eyebrow, so she gives a crooked grin. "The short version is that we just randomly found ourselves here, no idea how we got here."

"That... is a weird story. And the longer version?"

"It's even weirder," is all Emily offers, which makes John chuckle, but he takes the hint. Then he kneels down, looking at me... uncomfortably intently.

"...Yes?"

"How are you feeling?" he asks quietly.

"Oh," I realize what he means. The last time he saw me, I must have looked like I completely lost my mind, because I actually did. "I'm feeling a little better now. A... little bit." I say it again to let him know that I'm still not in very good shape.

"Well, I'm glad you're feeling at least a little better. You scared the shit out of us last night, you know."

"John!" Emily hisses at him. He seems a bit confused by her reaction, but I put a hand up to stop her.

With a pained smile, I respond. "No, I know. I, uhh, had some serious problems last night." No, not just that. I should tell him more, shouldn't I?

I hug Emily again for support and tell him. "I should probably let you know, I've had some really bad breakdowns before. I have to be careful right now because I can tell I'm still not very stable after last night."

After a long moment, he goes, "Oh." Looking at his face, I think he gets it now. Then he scoops me up in his arms, a little more gentle than usual, I think. It helps, since I still sting all over. "Come on, let's get you to the refinery. Remember, you have your first class today. Think you're up for it?"

"I... I don't know... Maybe...?" I mean, just learning new things shouldn't wreck me emotionally, right? But, what about interacting with Claire? She's so high class, it's always really stressful. Maybe today isn't... No, I promised her and myself that I would do everything I could to learn everything I can from her. Even if the advice came from Reena, I really should keep trying. "Yeah, I'll do my best."

"Good to hear. Class starts at the second bell. Let's get you to the refinery so you can eat first, alright?"

"Sure," I weakly nod. Oh, that explains why he's out so early. Normally he would need to get to the orphanage by the first bell, just to get me to the refinery by the second.

"Emily, you're going to work too I guess?" John asks.

"Yeah. I'll see you later. Also, Aria? When you go home today, wait outside for me, alright? I want to go in together." Obviously, she wants to go in and get beaten together. I really don't want to go through that all alone. Not again...

So I answer, "Sure." I don't say anything else since I don't want to worry John.

"Alright, I'll see you later, Aria."

"Bye Emily." We wave to each other as John carries me off.