The crystalline chamber wall slowly closes and the moment it does the girls suddenly plunge down as if they’re falling in water. But instead of a harrowing fall, the girls gracefully float down as if they’re slowly being guided by guiding crystalline lights as they go down the seemingly endless abyss. After a few minutes, the bottomless pit brightens and the first thing they see is wood. Wood floorings, furniture, and even beds all of them neatly organized to make a hospitable guest room for three. When they finally reached the floor, their senses perked up and felt like they have always been in the room ever since. Everything from M, the crystal chambers, and even the Faith Crawler felt more like a dream than a reality they’ve all just experienced. But as mages they can feel the slight tug and pull of the mana used for their transportation that is making them a bit nauseous

Selica shakes her head as she brushes off the effects of magic’s after effects as she takes a firm grip on her surroundings. The quaint wooden furnish reminded Selica of her evening stay in Mushvel.

“Ughh. Well that was horrible.” Ashlin shakes her head as she takes a good look around as well. “Are we in an inn?”

“Woah, woah!” Gallian, on the other hand, falls down from her bed and into the wooden flooring head first. “Ugh, she could have let us leave properly.” She says as she tries to stand up. “Where are we?” But Gallian’s accident actually triggered some action as the moment she fell, two people immediately entered the room worriedly. From first glance, these people are wearing white aprons and are fully covered from head to toe with a white suit, even wearing face masks. Selica guessed them to be medical people and had been stationed to check up on their well being.

“Are you girls alright?” One of the medical personnel immediately rushes towards Gallian and helps her stand up. Their movement is very careful, as if they’re handling Selica’s red-headed friend like a newborn child.

“I’m okay! I’m okay!” Gallian immediately tries to shrug as nicely as she can. “Who are you people?”

”Oh yes.” The other medical personnel step forward. “We are medics assigned to you guys by the city’s department of health. My name is Adrin, and the one helping you there is Kashni. We were assigned to take care of those who are assigned to this floor.”

”This floor? Where are we exactly?” Selica notices that both Adrin and Kashni were not the type of healers she was expecting them to be. She was expecting Kashni to preemptively light a healing spell to cure Gallian’s nasty fall, but instead she brought out a small first aid kit and started medicating her as if she didn’t have any magic. But when Selica tries to sense if she has any mana, she does feel mana flowing within her. So why is she not using her mana to cure Gallian? Instead of answering Selica, Adrin walks closer to her and starts checking her up. Again instead of using magic, Adrin uses a small light source to check her up and even places his finger on her neck, and her wrist. Standard medical protocol for doctors and nurses without magical power.

After a few minutes of checking her up, Adrin stepped back and did the same with Ashlin who passively agreed. Selica once more tries to see if he has mana flowing inside him and she quickly finds out that he does.

“Good, you’re all in perfect condition.” Adrin steps back after checking up on Ashlin. He looks back at Selica. “Apologies for the delayed answer. All three of you are inside of the Glintlade Hotel inside the Cartazarin District, the Commercial District of Magecraft City.” Adrin tries to pull something out of his pocket, a small parchment, and begins reading it. “Based on the report here. After all the survivors have been neutralized by Lady Caspian with a Grade C Sleeping Spell and a direct dosage of a Grade A Sleeping Spell for those who were immune to the prior dosage, all of you were transported here in this district and fully renting 4 of the major hotels for housing. During the survivor’s slumber, medical personnel, headed by Dr. Pintran herself, was assigned to keep them in perfect medical condition as Aids while a third-party personnel - in this case, Lady M - is asked to do a thorough investigation of what happened by communicating with the survivors through their dreams.” He closes the paper and pulls out another one. “As of today, 80% of the survivors have awoken from their slumber and 7% of them have shown visible side effects caused by the approved amnesiac spell by the council.” Adrin takes a big breath of relief after reporting to the girls.

The girls, on the other hand, are just staring blankly at him and could barely understand what he said.

Kashni sighs, “This is why you don’t have any dates lined up Adrin.” She pushes his friend by the side and replaces him in front of the girls. “Okay the gist of it is, you’re all under care of the city after the whole fiasco that happened during the test. We, me and Adrin here and more medical personnel in the other floors, are assigned to keep you guys in check while Lady M does an investigation on what happened. Is that clear?”

”Yes, crystal.” Ashlin answers. Compared to the drolly explanation by Adrin, Kashni swoops in to explain things better for the girls. “But what about the amnesiac thing?”

”Oh, that.” Kashni folds a bit after being asked about it. “I thought M already told you, but you guys were given a choice to take the city’s offer to be its new residents or leave after what happened. Of course no one will blame you if you did decide to leave, but we have to give an amnesiac spell on to everyone who does decide to leave and forget about what happened during the test day.” Kashni then realizes what her words sound like and suddenly doubles back. “I just want to be clear! The amnesiac spell is done to all tests prior to this one, this is not just the city’s way of covering its ass from that disaster.”

“Yeah, that’s really not helping your case here.” Gallian gives Kashni a stink eye, but eventually sighs. “But I guess it’s not your fault. So what's the next step in your illustrious plan for us?”

“Umm, let’s see.” Adrin fidgets as he tries to look for a piece of paper in his pocket, but fumbles in doing so. Making all the paper in his pocket fall out. “Oh no!”

”Please let me help!” Selica immediately leans forward and helps Adrin. She can visibly see that Adrin is a nervous wreck already and Gallian’s comment didn’t help. “Galli, could you please also help?” Selica gives Gallian a stink eye of her own. Ashlin follows suit and helps the girls without being asked.

“Ugh, fine.” Gallian reeled back at first but eventually gave in and helped pick up the paper. “Sorry about that,” She meekly says to both the aids while helping. “I just naturally don’t trust people who casually give amnesiac spells to people.”

Kashni sighs and helps as well, “It’s fine. I wasn’t okay with it in the first place either.” Kashni responds in kind. “But over the years, it has become a necessary evil to further prevent unwanted individuals from entering the city. I’ve heard there’s even a similar case of said individuals during the test, right?”

”Yes, those Tamageres guys.” Gallian answers. “Lady M made a big deal out of them as well. So I guess they are a true threat after all.”

”Guys?” Kashni tilts her head, “Huh, so there are more than one. This is really getting bad.” She collects all the paper the girls have collected. And rearranged them and gave it to Adrin. “Here Adrin.”

”T-Thanks, Kashni.” He gingerly takes the stacks of paper off Kashni. He looked at the papers carefully and after a while his eyes widened. “In regards to your next step. There actually isn't.” He answers in full disbelief himself. “Says here the new tenants are asked to remain inside the Cartazarin District for approximately 1-2 weeks as the paperwork for their transfer and the final verdict for what happened during the test is finalized.” He flipped the papers more and then returned it back orderly. “And then nothing. The rest of the paper is just the medical records of the survivors.”

“So we get to live in this room for the next couple of weeks?” Selica asks. “Can we contact outside of the city?”

”Hmm let’s see.” Adrin checks the papers once more. “Yes, you can. But there’s a note here stating not to mention anything about the test or the psy rain in general. As the investigation continues regarding the Hameza test, the survivors are explicitly asked not to mention any of the details on what happened during the test for now. For those who are still stubborn enough to do so, the entire district is put under “soft lockdown” mode and has set up countermeasures to discontinue any communication if anything about the details of the test, even if they are implied, is mentioned during the said conversation.” He replies.

“If anyone asks you about the test, just say you all passed.” Kashni answers as well. “...I think it’s safe to say that it was a hell of a test. But try not to elaborate further for now, okay girls?”

”You really are a secretive bunch, huh?” Gallian first replies. “Fortunately for me, I don’t really have anyone to talk about outside the city right now so you don’t have to worry about me. I don’t know about these two though.” She points at her friends.

“With how things are handled here, I won’t be surprised that the city is hiding a building’s worth of skeletons inside its walls.” Ashlin replies. “But to a degree, I agree not to talk about the test with incomplete information. That public will only twist it to their needs the moment they hear about it. You have my word not to talk about such things when I do contact others outside.

“Thank you. Kashni answers. “To be honest it’s less about the test, and more about the rain itself you see. Having the information leak that the psy rain caused tremendous damage to the city is like a flashing invitation for our city to be attacked.”

“I-I see.” Selica initially thought it was about the city being secretive again, but thinking that leaking said information about the rain would seriously be detrimental to the city. Though she is still conflicted in not being able to share her experiences with her parents, she could at very least let them know that she is okay right now.

“Will there be a public announcement of what happened during the test?” She asks the aids, knowing full well that they are not the right people to ask them about this.

But the aids can see worry underneath Selica's eyes and nod sagely. “Normally, a congratulatory party is publicly held for all the mages that have passed the test.” Kashni answers. “But the catastrophic incident forced the council to keep you guys in and celebrate your “success” in private while the investigation is happening. Not only that, every other district is expecting a result from said investigation and are keenly waiting for them.”

Adrin adds. “Remember, you guys were not the only people who got affected by that tragedy. While you guys were fighting for your lives, us outside of the test were also greatly affected by the tremendous Psy rain that happened that day. If you don’t know, a Psy rain just before summer is unheard of. And because of its sudden downpour, many spring and summer projects mages have invested years of their lives were utterly decimated by the rain within a matter of minutes. Not only that, the city’s magical defenses-which is up around 90% during summer- were also destroyed and has actually put the city in a precarious situation. The whole city was in absolute panic for the last couple of days and has only just calmed down after the defenses were barely brought up just yesterday.” Adrin begins his tirade as he lists down all the problems the said rain has caused.

Selica is actually taken aback by how passionate Adrin is. She wasn’t expecting him to suddenly burst out with so much emotion after hearing him talk earlier. ”Okay, okay you’ve made your point Adrin.” Kashni pats her friend on the shoulder. “Apologies. Adrin is one of the emergency personnel deployed during the whole Psy rain fiasco, so he has a lot to say about it than me.” She then looks back at the girls. “As you can see, no one is happy about this. So if you’re worried about having your suffering be brushed under the carpet so to speak, don’t be. If anything, a lot of the district citizens have opened up the council’s slow, secretive process regarding the incident by talking about the “unfortunate Hameza district citizens” and how they have to suffer the council’s archaic methods first hand.”

“We’re not even inaugurated and we’re already popular.” Gallian responds, a bit of laughter in her voice.

“Oh everything about you guys has made a lot of people very interested, that’s for sure.” Kashni replies as she packs up. “You are both the city’s hottest topics and its greatest mysteries right now. Especially you kids; the mere fact that you guys went through all of that, survived, AND still decides to join the city afterwards has raised enough eyes to form a collective interest. “The Children of Hameza” they call you. Rumors say that you are either a bunch of child soldiers who were employed by the other mage cities to enter Magecraft City, while others say that you are ridiculously talented children who were able to overcome the Psy rain with your ancient and totally unbeatable magic alone.”

“Hahaha! That’s ridiculous!” Selica couldn’t hold her laughter. If the rumors about them were not so over exaggerated she would have been concerned with how mythicized they are. Imagining her as a child-soldier of a mage city or a once-in-a-lifetime genius who can overcome any obstacle with a flick of her wrist can just only make her laugh in its stupidity.

Ashlin sighs, seemingly disappointed with the newly-found rumor. “So just like back home, huh. I can’t seem to escape the ridiculous pressure people put on me.”

”Oh don’t be such a sour fish, princess.” Gallian nudges her blond friend. “This is a good thing, this mean no one is going to mess with us any time soon.” Gallian seems to be relishing the news. Selica imagines her redhead friend to be the kind to enjoy fame rather than shun away from it. ”Ugh, not from experience.” Ashlin responds in annoyance. “That never stopped idiots from challenging me every chance they get.”

“Anyways. As officially stated, you girls are free to roam within this district for the next couple of weeks. The district has tons of shops from the mundane to the magical. But if you wish to meet your new neighbors, the Glintlade hotel has exclusively opened its event hall for all the Hameza district citizens only. Just ask the concierge downstairs where it is. For now I’ve heard it's optional to visit, but I’ve also heard that eventually they would call all new Hameza residents to the hall for the aforementioned celebratory party.” Kashni gently pushes Adrin out of the room.

Once the two aids are by the door, Kashni turns around. ”Also,” She places her hand over the switch beside the door. Selica didn’t notice it at first, but the switch was more than just the typical light switch. It had multiple buttons on it with some glowing with different colors. “If you’re getting tired with this rustic room, you can just switch it up like so.” Kashni presses a button which suddenly changes the room’s rustic decor immediately. The once wooden windows and walls are replaced by wall-sized glass windows. The bed’s rustic frame became black and metallic with its pillow covered in white and black sheets, the ceiling turned to pristine white, and the floor became gray with a dark carpet on top of it. The entire room changed in a blink of an eye. A magical circuit made to process mana instantly surged throughout the room liquifying the interior and forming it into another form. Selica watched speechless as the entire room they were in transformed, but her jaw dropped even more when she looked outside of the window.

The first thing she sees are familiar walls over a scenic view of a white mountain range. The same dull white walls she has seen before, fully encompassing the entire Cartazarin district within. The district is full to the brim with buildings of different sizes and colors, lights in every spectrum imaginable and even people in all walks of life casually walking and interacting with one another. It was a bigger cultural melting pot than Heroes’ Hill, Selica says to herself. And she watches them all together under the bright rising sun nestling between the Sillicon mountains. Even Gallian and Ashlin are both captivated at the beautiful display of the district from their bedroom.

“Welcome to Magecraft City.” Kashni casually says as she closes the door behind the awe-struck girls.