“No, no, this is wrong.” I cried out as I looked towards Jess, who stood in front of me with that same blank expression as Daddy. “I did everything right! Just like the books said!”

So why? Why did they all look at me like that? As I thought about that, Jess stepped forward and wrapped me up in a hug, but I knew that wasn't really Jess. That was just the Aeon responding to what it thought I wanted. But that meant that it did think, right? So why didn’t it think like Jess?!

I still think like me, don’t I? So what’s different..? Daddy made me better himself. But I used his notes on them. He… waited for a while before he made me better? Wasn’t that just because he had to learn how?

I shook that thought out of my head, and looked towards Jess’s body. We couldn’t go back to the city like this, I understood that much. We had to leave, go far far away. The thought of that made me want to cry, because I had to leave all of my friends… but this was the only way, right?

“It’s okay, Jess… just give me a little time… I’ll figure it out. And then you can go back to your mommy…”

I sent a call out through the black space to summon Daddy, and he appeared in a flash of smoke. Then the three of us turned and began walking, with me hugging myself and doing my best not to cry. We can find somewhere else to live. Somewhere that I can make all of this right.

As we walked out of the forest, I had to make sure that a few of the scarier monsters ignored us. Daddy might be strong, but I didn’t think he could handle fighting how he was right now. He probably couldn’t even use any of his magic anymore!

Thankfully, the roads weren’t used as much as I remember. We only met a few people along our way to the next city, and none of them asked any questions. They seemed really nice, though...

We can’t just stop after one city… we have to keep moving. I told myself, forcing my tired feet to keep going, taking another road to take us further and further away from home. There was a part of me that wanted to stop, to just give up. But I couldn’t, not if I wanted to fix Daddy.

No, I had to make this better. I had to make him better. And to do that… I had to find other people that needed to be better.

Several days after we began walking, we came across a large city. This was the third one that we had passed since leaving, and I wasn’t sure that I could handle walking anymore. I hadn’t even allowed myself to stop to rest at night, afraid that something would sneak up on us.

Before we approached the city, I ducked back behind a tree, out of sight. I told Daddy and Jess to hide in the black space for now. It’d be a lot easier to get into the city if it was just me. With them gone, I was able to sneak in with my usual trick, and barely anyone seemed to notice that the guards didn’t inspect me.

Inside the city, I… wasn’t sure where to go. My clothes were filthy from walking through the mud, my shoes that Daddy gave me now worn and full of holes. I’m sorry… I’ll fix them when I can! I thought to myself.

I approached a nice looking woman on the street, and asked her where I could find a place to stay. She looked at me is if I smelled bad, and I really probably did, but she still gave me directions.

Now having an idea where to go, I began to move through the streets, repeating the directions that she had given me in my head over and over to make sure that I didn’t miss a turn. I wasn’t sure if I’d be able to find anyone else nice enough to tell me where to go so easily.

However, the place I found was… different than I had expected. It was the kind of area that Daddy always called the ‘slums’. People slumped over against worn out buildings, wearing filthy clothes could be seen occasionally along the street. Some gave me weird looks while most simply ignored me. This place is…

I glanced around, seeing all of the people who looked like they didn’t have a home. The woman must have directed me here because she thought I was like them. And I guess… I really was. No home, nobody to take care of me. Nobody to miss me if I disappear… just like all of them.

Perfect.

It was disgusting at first, yes, having to stay in a dirty alley. But that only lasted for the first few nights. After that, this nice man found me, and offered to let me stay in a room in his tavern. I’d have to do some chores, but I could handle things like cleaning just fine!

Once I felt like I was settled in, I got to work, looking around for someone that was being ignored. If someone’s ignored, nobody will notice that they are gone! Thankfully, there were a lot of people like that.

The one that I chose at first was this sick old man that I found sleeping beside a building. The health bar above his head showed that he was almost dead anyways. So, I moved into a nearby alley to make sure that nobody was watching me, and I plucked his spirit out of his body. That last little bit of his health bar faded away as the grey mist floated up from him, but nobody even seemed to pay any attention to it.

Now, I can’t be in a rush… I have to keep the soul… preserved! That’s the word Daddy used. Like his herbs, I have to preserve him! Not sure how one could preserve a soul, I remembered all that time I spent in the black space. That must have been how Daddy did it!

I drew the smoke over to me through the air, and began to focus. Using my own bits of smoke, I made a little bottle around the old man’s. Then, I carefully put him inside my black space where Daddy and Jess were hiding. A month? No, Daddy waited longer… I’ll keep him there for a year.

Back at the tavern, I was starting to be happy with what I had found. The nice man that took me in, Briar Jace, gave me clean new clothes and let me take regular showers. When I told him that my shoes were a gift from Daddy, he even found someone to repair them for me!

I was so happy when he handed me the shoes back, all clean and fixed, just like they were when Daddy gave them to me. “Here you go.” He said with a kind smile. “We can’t have you walking around barefoot, you could get hurt.”

I nodded, taking the shoes and hugging them close to my chest. “Thank you, Mister Jace!” I smiled, jumping over to one of the chairs and putting the shoes on. He had only taken the shoes for a couple of days to get them fixed, but already my feet had started to get sore from walking on the ground outside.

“I keep telling you, Briar is fine.” He said with a light laugh, standing up and stretching his back. “Before you turn in for the night, could you head out to get some fire stones? Winter’s on its way, and I’d rather people not die of cold.”

As he asked that, he pulled out a small bag of coins, passing a few of them to me. This wasn’t the first time Mister Jace had me go pick up something from the market for him. Typically, it was just some bread, meat, or veggies for him to make stew for everyone else.

I knew that whenever he sent me out like this, he’d always purposely give me just a bit of extra money, hoping that I’d get myself something. But I didn’t need anything, so I’d always give him back the change. He seemed a bit disappointed whenever I gave him the money back, but he just smiled and said that I was a good, honest girl.

I skipped out of the slums, heading towards one of the Merchant Guilds. Since he wanted fire stones… I went to the guild district off on the west side of the city. It was a bit further, but they had all the magic products.

As I walked through the streets of the guild, looking at the different stores, I heard people talking. Most of them were the ‘beastkin’ that Daddy taught me about, saying that it was so hard to find anything when the guilds were split into different buildings like this. I thought it was really easy, though! All you had to do was look at the signs!

As if to prove my thoughts right, I found a sign for the ‘Appliance’ store, and quickly went inside. “Hmm… he has… fifteen rooms. Each one is going to need a stone.” I muttered to myself, finding the aisle that had the small red gems. Each one was able to heat a small space, as long as a bit of mana was supplied to it.

“But wait, there’s also the big common room… how many stones did that take?” I closed my eyes, thinking back to the room where Briar would always serve meals for the guests. There were six long tables, each able to hold around ten people. Yet there were always people standing along the walls, or just coming in long enough to fill a bowl.

One, two, three… four. I remembered seeing four fire stone sockets along the walls, one on each wall. So we needed nineteen in total!

I couldn’t carry nineteen of the packaged stones without worrying about dropping some, so I rushed to the front of the store and grabbed a woven basket before I began to fill it up. Each stone was only roughly the size of my thumb, so they easily fit inside the basket.

After waiting in line to pay, I found the clerk, this really pretty woman wearing a red robe. But, the robe seemed like it was a bit too small and wouldn’t close all the way around her chest. I thought she should get a different one, but she didn’t seem to mind it. “Well, hello there. I don’t think I’ve seen you here before.” She told me as she looked at me over the counter.

“I’m Dana!” I waved at her in greeting. “I’m here to get these.” Lifting the basket up, I placed it on the counter, causing her eyes to briefly widen.

“My… what could a girl like you need with so many fire stones? You know that they don’t last beyond a season, right?” She kindly reminded, but I simply nodded my head.

“I’m getting them for an inn! We need lots to make sure everyone keeps warm.”

Realization seemed to dawn over her face, and she nodded briefly. “Very well. Let’s see… that will be two large silver for the lot, then.”

Reaching into my pocket, I pulled out two of the larger silver coins, setting them on the counter. She collected the coins, and set them on a box nearby, where the coins seemed to vanish. “Thanks, miss!” I told her as I watched her put the stones in a paper bag, making it easier for me to carry all of them back. She seemed like a really nice lady.

“Please, it’s just my job.” She let out a laugh as she said that, leaning down low to pass the bag to me. I heard a small gulp from behind me, so it sounded like the man in line behind me was getting impatient. “You run on home now. Be sure to come back again if you need anything.”