The young, teenaged girl couldn’t help but stare at this newcomer; first it was the grumpy, old man--who refused to tell her his name--who was brought in unceremoniously, resisting as he was physically dragged through the door and shoved onto the floor. A far less gentle welcome than she had received, even if her own one wasn’t all that kind in retrospect.

Maybe this person will be far more open with her than her other companion? Her sharp, pointed ears perked up with that thought, her emotions easily read through their movements. She couldn’t help her bubbling optimism burgeoning under the surface; too long has she been kept in the dark. Too long!

Timidly, this new acquaintance sat down and as her fingertips brushed against the tabletop, a shockingly bright flash of green expanded for a single second before disappearing, the woman now resting her arms on the table. That was magic!

Now able to get a good look at this magical individual, the excited teenager first noticed her hair--sticking out like a sore-thumb; when everyone’s was some shade of dirt, the sparkling blonde hue of hers was like finding a pearl in amongst a bunch of pebbles.

Then, there were her clothes, far more similar to her own apparel than anyone elses’. They were clearly made by hand, with no machines involved, and seemed oddly… Chunky. They were quite crude and, the more she looked, the less impressive they seemed. Unlike her own clothes, this woman’s weren’t cured leather, treated hide, or anything like that--just straight fur.

Did she make the clothes herself? She couldn’t help but wonder. Her own skills weren’t that impressive--only having just began her own education before she had to stop--but she thought even she could do better than what this woman did.

And then, the final, most glaring question appeared in her mind; is she even a woman? She provisionally applied that attribute because every other person she had met so far in this place was an adult, but this woman seemed vastly different from the rest.

She was not only short, barely taller than herself, in fact, but she was so lithe as well! Her limbs looked closer to sticks and even hidden under her cloak, her silhouette was narrow and lean.

But… Skaldian children don’t look like this, do they? She racked her brain for images of young, childish faces, trying to match them up with the face in front of her. If only I was more experienced with them… She relented upon realising just how little to compare she had.

Unable to calm her emotions, she nearly leapt up out of her seat as she spoke rapidly.

“Was that magic? You can use magic?” The words slurred out, the sounds mixing together, as her tone clearly betrayed her eagerness to talk.

“M-Magic?” The woman replied slowly, as if tasting the word.

“Yep, yes.” The teenager nodded enthusiastically.

However, before the woman could respond further, the man interrupted, talking for the first time ever. His voice was husky, sounding like he smoked a few too many dreamfigs in his time.

“What kind of magic was that just now?” Although his voice wasn’t hurried, it had an imperative tone to it.

“Hmm. It’s… Something,” The woman replied, saying a word the teenager had never heard before. Unknown magic? This person was getting more and more interesting by the second!

“Something? I’ve never heard of that aspect. What does it do?” The man asked with barely disguised interest.

“It’s… Hard to explain. Can I show you?” The blonde woman asked politely. Her tone was strange, accent hard to distinguish--though fairly distinct--and the way her mouth shaped the sounds was a bit odd to her ears.

“Go ahead.”

As soon as she received confirmation, the woman stood up abruptly and reached out for the man, causing him to take a step back instinctually, raising his hands for a split-second, before relaxing them.

She planted her hands on his bloodied, bandaged arm and, once again, the bright, green hue sprang from her fingertips, digging into the flesh sharply. Immediately, the blood began to dissolve, sizzling into nothing.

Watching, the man's face immediately contorted into one of horror as he took a few, hurried steps backward, making distance between him and the woman.

Quickly, the woman’s expression softened, looking somewhat wistful, as she asked him a question with a strained voice.

“What did I do wrong?” Her simplistic vocabulary and innocent presentation seemed to coerce the man out a little from his suddenly defensive demeanour.

“That was cleanse,” He explained, naming a forbidden skill. “You should not know that skill.”

His laconic reply didn’t set the young woman any further at ease.

“What about something?” The woman inquired, a different word this time.

“Something?” The woman nodded.

“Something, like...” Suddenly pausing, she moved her arms for a second before giving up. “Something?” She finally squeaked out.

“I don’t know what something is,” The man enunciated each word slowly, “But if it’s life aspect like cleanse, stay far away from it.”

The man retreated back to his wall, though without any threatened hostility.

As the woman sat back down, the teenager didn’t take this as a chance to give her rest. No; instead, she took this as an opportunity to ask questions! The woman seemed willing to talk, after all.

“How did you learn magic? I tried asking him but he didn’t want to talk to me; anyone else I asked didn’t give me a response even if they would talk to me otherwise! So, how did you?” The words rushed out inelegantly, like she was more concerned with just getting them out there instead of making sure she was interpretable.

“My… Magic?” The teenager nodded eagerly, her long, disheveled, dirt-brown hair falling in front of her ears.

“I learn from the something,” She finally replied. Not the response she was hoping for.

“Teacher? The Old One?” The teenager queried. Maybe they call the Old One by something else where she’s from? That seemed to be the case with most Skaldians, anyway.

“Old One?”

“Yeah; like a voice in your head?”

The woman didn’t immediately respond. Her gaze drifted for a few seconds before she hesitantly nodded her head.

“What was it like for you? What was the first skill you took?”

The woman seemed to have trouble with speaking--something that was becoming more and more evident as the conversation progressed. Her vocabulary was limited, she used strange, unfamiliar words, struggled with words and concepts that should’ve been obvious, and paused before talking like she was planning out her sentence.

Her speech lacked spontaneity, fluency, and intuition typified by native speakers.

“Cleanse. Not [Cleanse] but also,” She finally responded cryptically.

“Not [Cleanse] but also...” The teenager spoke aloud as a spectral, twelve-pointed leaf appeared in her vision.

Appearing like veins in the leaf was a branch of skills she believed the woman was talking about; life aspected skills.

“Was it [Heal]?”

“Heal?”

“Yeah; [Heal]. Health. Life. Restore?” Her voice got higher at the end, trying to think of synonyms and homophones to aid in understanding.

“No,” The woman shook her head. “Other one. You hurt, I [Heal].”

“Leech,” The teenager replied with a lower tone than was usual. If it’s true, that’s quite a severe skill to take. “Definitely [Leech]?”

The woman simply nodded her head.

Confirming it sent the teenager into a sombre mood, lowering her gaze so she was staring back into her mug of water. Should she be so casually talking with someone who practised not one but two forbidden skills?

Suspiciously, she raised her eyes to look at the woman. But… She’s so innocent. She can’t be evil, right?

“What… What level are you?” She settled on a decision.

“Level? 7.” As soon as the air escaped the woman’s mouth, the teenager's eyes widened as she looked upon the woman in a new light.

“7? Ho-How did you get above level 5?” Her voice was wavering, faltering, as she struggled to contain the amazement in her voice.

“Kill demon. Level up,” She explained succinctly, as if breaking past the wall wasn’t an impressive feat.

“Kill a demon; like it’s that easy,” The man suddenly butted into the conversation, apparently having been listening to them talk. His voice dripped with condescension.

“Not easy. Very hard,” The woman clarified, apparently unfazed by the man's tone.

“Exactly; and you’re telling me you killed a demon.” The woman paused before nodding slowly.

“Okay, then. Where did you find this ‘demon’?” He asked incredulously.

“Forest. Up hill, big village. There are many demons.” The quicker the woman tried to respond, the less articulate she was.

“The hill? You mean the caldera? You’re saying there’s a whole settlement of demons just beyond this village?” Another nod.

He didn’t respond. The teenager didn’t know whether the man believed what was said but she, personally, took the young woman at her word; she’d heard rumours of villages of demons before--it didn’t seem that far-fetched.

“Are they hard to kill?” She asked, her tone more serious than before.

“Very. Barely killed demons. I was barely killed two times.”

“How did you manage it?”

“Leech. Took all my essence, even with something.”

“What is something?”

Instead of answering verbally, the woman pointed at herself, then at the teenager, then at the man, motioning her hands together.

“No-” She repeated the gesture.

“No group? Oh! No party? So… [Lone Wolf]?” The teenager guessed. It would make sense for her to be talking about boons right now.

So, that means she took [Lone Wolf]?

“Perfect example of why you don’t take [Lone Wolf] as a boon, right there; even with it, you still need a party to kill strong demons and animals.”

“Well, clearly, she didn’t. She survived, and I bet she’s a higher level than you,” The teenager defended the woman.

The attack seemed to hit its mark, for the man didn’t muster a response.

“[Lone Wolf]… Boon?”

“Yup. Consolidation boon. [Boon of Labour], [Boon of Body], and [Boon of Mind] are the standard ones.”

“What… Boon do you have?”

“[Way of Water],” The teenager replied quickly and proudly. She took it as a personal point of pride that she had a hidden boon; not everyone did.

“What does the boon do?”

“You’re even going to tell her all of your secrets as well,” The man muttered, causing the teen to cast a glare at him before returning her face to a soft smile.

“Doubles the strength of any water skill.”

“No… Bad?”

“It doesn’t have a drawback, if that’s what you’re asking. Not like [Lone Wolf] does, anyway.”

“How did you get the boon?”

“I needed a water aspected skill to be level 10 for the Old One to show it to me.”

The woman didn’t respond right away while the man just snorted. She stared into space instead, her eyes darting about, presumably reading whatever the Old One was showing her.

If she could even read, anyway; she had heard that the Skaldians were lacking in that regard, comparatively.

“What skills do you have?” She drew out the sentence, not even looking at the teenager while continuing to stare at the table.

“Well, in terms of water, I have both [Conjure Water] and [Manipulate Water]. [Well of Essence]--which is primordial magic--and the last two are [Maximise Mastery] and [Alteration Mastery], which are both metamagic.”

“Even laying out all her skills for all to see,” Came the inappropriately loud comment.

“More skills than you have,” The teenager hastily replied after the man. He was starting to get on her nerves. Seriously; there’s no harm in telling someone what your skills are.

“So, you’re level 5?” Asked the woman again. It was admirable how little she seemed to care about off-handed remarks.

“Yep,” The teenager chirped cheerfully.

“What level are the skills?” The woman still didn’t look at her, instead using her finger to draw imaginary shapes on the table while staring at nothing in particular.

Unlike with every other question, the teenager didn’t answer immediately. They were actually getting into details that began to make her uncomfortable; knowing skills was one thing but knowing the strength of those skills was another.

For one, having a few high-level skills made you stronger than a bunch of level 1 skills

And, two, she was actually a bit embarrassed that not all her skills were level 10, yet. It was a small, painful hit to her pride but a hit none-the-less.

“Do you need to know?” She leaned in on the table, dropping the volume of her voice, as she spoke.

“Please?” Was all the woman said.

Ugh! How can you even resist?

“Everything is level 10 apart from [Manipulate Water] and [Alteration Mastery]. They’re level 3 and 7 respectively.”

To be fair to herself, [Manipulate Water] was a very hard skill to level if you weren’t near a lake or a river of some kind.

“What… Cost? What’s the cost of the skill?” It was like she was testing out the word ‘cost’. Her idiosyncratic way of speaking was amusing--and a little bit cute. It reminded her of babies and children learning new words.

“Which one? [Manipulate Water]?” A nod.

“A lot! It’s currently at 27 but it was only 8 at level 2!” She answered exasperatedly. With how expensive [Conjure Water] was, she couldn’t deny the substantial fear that [Manipulate Water] was going the same route.

Thankfully, she was thoughtful enough to take [Alteration Mastery] before level 5.

“Expensive.”

“Very.”

The woman didn’t say much afterwards. As the topic drifted off stats and skills, she seemed less confident in herself. Maybe it was because of how limited her vocabulary was, or maybe it was something else, but she withdrew into herself, becoming quieter even as the teenager tried to get her to talk.

“What’s your name?” She finally asked after realising she didn’t know it yet.

“Riza.”

“Nice to meet you, Riza. I’m Lefie.” Riza’s emerald green eyes met Lefie’s own golden ones. So far, most people looked upon her with unreserved stares, taking in her rare visage as the vast majority of people here were Skaldians.

Not Riza, however; she acted differently from everyone else. For one, there was the fact she seemed almost hesitant to talk, hardly ever making eye contact and never sounding confident. She acted the same way when the man talked to her, so she doubted her sharp ears or pointed teeth put her off.

The most salient point, however, was how normal Riza treated her throughout. She was actually treated like a regular person for once, not an exotic specimen nor a prisoner. It was… Refreshing.

Not to mention, Riza’s bluntness and straight-forwardness was a nice reprieve from how little everyone else seemed to give.

For the first time that day, her situation seemed just a little bit brighter.