{The Day Before the Mission}

Finally, Rin got around to reading the letter her mother had sent back. And, predictably, it got to her.

"Uh, Are you okay?" Elisa asked, from across the room as Rin wiped a tear away. Half because she didn't want to be seen crying, and half because she didn't want to be seen crying in front of Elisa, specifically, who Rin was still annoyed at.

"Y-Yeah, I'm good," Rin took a deep breath. "Just... Nothing, nothing."

They didn't talk much that day. With the mission taking place the very next morning, there was a lot of last-minute preparation everyone needed to do. Rin headed to the cafeteria, alone, where she brought with her a small notebook filled with little reminders of the lessons Maria had taught her.

"Fuck." Rin sighed, as she read through them.

"Got your hands full, huh?" The lunch lady asked from a distance.

"Uh, yeah, you could say that," Rin replied and the chef laughed.

"It's always like that. Don't worry too much." She said as she served up a small plate of salads. "No matter how much preparation you do, it won't be worth much if you can't calm down before the moment of truth arrives. That's how I got this little gift." She tapped the scar over her left eye.

"Were you an adventurer too?"

"Yeah, for about ten years."

"What happened?"

"Ah, same as everyone else who's in this business for too long." She smiled and Rin could see both some nostalgia and pain in her expression. "See, when you're an adventurer, things usually end in one of three ways. You end up dead, you get too hurt to keep working, or you retire peacefully and teach what you learned to the next generation. That last one though, barely ever happens."

"Uh, which one happened to you?"

"The last one, thankfully." She laughed a little. "I did my best, worked with this squad of, like, six people. We went pretty far out into the world, visited the eastern part of Aerum a few times. Found treasure, killed monsters, had some casualties too but, well, that's the job. About six years ago I decided to put my weapons down and pursue other things, you know?"

"Sounds pretty good." Rin smiled.

"Yeah... Not everyone is as lucky as I am though," she said with a voice that hinted at many experiences Rin couldn't imagine, "a few of your teachers can probably attest to that."

"Huh?"

"You haven't heard much about them, then?" The chef asked and shook her head. "Eh, you'll hear about all their drama at some point. Just know, there's a whole lot of experience behind Maria's kind face and Cara's hard skin. Eli's cold eyes and Harriton's cocky smirk. They all have plenty of stories to tell, trust me."

"Really?"

"Yeah, for now though, here. Made you this. Seen you walking around all tired a few times, figured you could use it."

"What is it?"

"It's a simple dish, just some veggies, and bread, but I enchanted it to give you a little boost in energy for the rest of the day."

"You know," Rin said with a smile, as she stood to grab the food, "I've been meaning to ask about that, how do enchantments work? Like, how do you cast a spell on food?" She laughed and the chef crossed her arms.

"Pretty simple, actually. You cast a spellsign, aim it at a container and it keeps the spell inside. See, Divine spellsigns like healing spells and the like only affect living things and they can't go through inanimate objects. If they're placed in something that ain't alive, the magic will just sorta stay there with nowhere to go."

"Wow, that's pretty cool," Rin took the meal.

"Eh, after you eat and drink enough of these things, it'll all start to feel like just another part of life."

---

Sometime later, the moon came out. Rin was in her room, alone. Elisa was somewhere else and Rin had caught Eve flying to the upper floors.

Rin didn't have anything to do, and, as anxious as she was due to the coming day, she felt like she was going to get no sleep tonight, so, she decided to walk around for a while.

For no real reason, she went up to the fourth floor. Once there, she started to look around, aimlessly. In the gym room, she saw Seth getting a last-minute workout in, shirtless as he bench-pressed a few plates.

Rin kept going and heard voices coming from inside the nearby library.

"So, this is how the Burst Heal spell works?" She heard as she looked inside.

In the back of the room, between two bookshelves were John Ates and Carla Bianchi. The pair were discussing spellsigns, it looked like. At the front, Varyn was reading a book alone.

"Yeah." Carla nodded.

"So, if I draw a line here... It turns into Regeneration?"

"Mhm."

"Alright, alright. Seems we're onto somethin'." John smiled at her. "Thanks for helping me out here."

"Not like it's the first time," Carla smirked.

"I'll pay you back eventually." John shrugged.

"You've been saying that for years, dude."

"And I guarantee whatever help I offer you will be worth the wait."

[Hm. Looks like they're hard at work,] Rin thought as she continued her walk.

Then she passed by the meditation center where she often trained with Maria nowadays and heard some clanging noises. What the... The door was unlocked. She pushed it open and saw Sara inside, along with someone else.

She was trading blows with Dylan, of all people. Sara had a wooden sword in her hands while he was using a spear. Their weapons clashed against each other, producing quick panging sounds and whooshes as their feet glided over the floor. They seemed fairly into it.

[Hm...] Rin stood by the door for a second. [Maybe...]

"Hey."

As Rin called out, the ashen-haired boy halted and Sara immediately stopped.

"Can I come in?" Rin asked.

"Certainly," Dylan bowed.

"Uh, don't get me wrong, I don't mean to interrupt."

Dylan shook his head.

"You are doing no such thing," he let her know. "I came up here to train for a moment before the mission. Rehearse a few techniques. And, I found her here."

"Oh? How'd that turn into you two hitting each other?"

"Well, she was sitting down, cross-legged over there." He pointed to where the open wall allowed for a view over the back of the academy and the rest of the city behind it, "in contemplation it seemed like. I asked her if she would help me train, and she said yes."

"Wow." Rin was pleasantly surprised.

"She is skilled. Quite so, in fact. I am thankful for this opportunity," He stated, looking towards Sara with his crimson eyes that didn't reveal any lies as he bowed once again.

Sara didn't react at all. Her face was just as blank as it was when Rin entered the room.

An idea came to Rin, and so, she walked up to her.

"So... Can I train a little bit with you two?"

"I think that's alright," Dylan responded.

Sara slowly looked back at her. With those emotionless eyes centered on Rin, she nodded.

"Good." Rin stood next to her.

Sara looked away, down at the ground, and then back up at Rin.

"Ready?" Sara asked.

"U-Uh, give me a second..." Rin said as she started stretching a little.

Standing in front of her like this, it struck Rin just how frail she actually looked. She couldn't see much of her body thanks to the robes she wore, but her wrists and hands were slender and she was a few inches shorter than Rin, who was already pretty short herself.

"Okay... Let's do this," Rin said and Sara nodded.

"I will let her go first," Dylan said with a smile. "I need a breather."

Sara prepared herself, placing her wooden sword between them, and Rin gulped.

[This is going to suck, isn't it?]

And it did.

The two of them traded a few blows, and once Rin decided she was taking too much punishment, she tagged out and Dylan came back in, then, he'd tag out and Rin would take his spot again.

Every now and then though, she noticed that Sara's eyes would leave her. Her body would still and Rin would have to stop, otherwise, she'd risk hitting the girl. Every time, she would shake her head and look back at Rin with something like shame.

[Uh... Is she okay?] Rin thought at one point.

But Sara never said anything. Instead, they trained in silence for quite a while.

...

Still, though, even after all of that, Rin couldn't sleep.

Elisa had come back by now, though, and she was snoring just a meter or two away from her, but no matter how long Rin kept her eyes closed, she couldn't will the night to pass.

So, she sat up and thought about what she could do.

[UGH, you know what? Fuck it, I'll walk around again. Maybe get some water this time.]

However, before she left the room, she remembered something.

[Oh, right. I haven't written my response to mom yet.] Her eyes hovered over her backpack, where the wooden messenger bird was. [Hm... I think I'll write something after I get back from the mission.]

She walked out and the cold air hit her straight across the face. The moon was out in full view with not a cloud to mask it.

[May as well head back to the meditation room. Sit down for a bit. Who knows? Maybe I'll fall asleep there.]

She went up to the fourth floor and her instincts took her to the meditation center, but before she could get there, she heard some kind of spark come from the library.

She opened the door quietly and, instead of John and Carla, she found Alea trying to cast some kind of spell.

"How's this work? Come on, fuck. Alea, can't you do anything right!?" She was saying to herself as she drew a hand through the air and failed whatever she was trying to cast.

Rin closed the door gently.

[Glad I'm not the only one having a rough time right now,] she thought and kept going.

Finally, she arrived in the meditation room for the second time that night.

It was empty, save for one lone fairy sitting at the edge. Rin walked all the way to the edge and sat down next to her. Eve barely reacted as she looked out the open wall.

"The pressure is on, huh," Rin said aloud, lying back.

"Yeah... I guess this is it," Eve said, nervous. "I guess tomorrow, we'll see if we have what it takes to be adventurers."

Every sad day she spent working at the Silver Rose flashed before her eyes. Every dirty person she'd worked for, every smack across the face that she received at the hand of the more unruly, drunken clients, every varol she was paid in exchange for her pride.

One thing was certain. Rin was going to try her best.

"I think we've got this," Rin told her. "How are you feeling?"

"I don't know. I've been doing my best to memorize spellsigns and I've been trying my best in the physical classes too... But, you know," Eve said. "At the end of the day, I'm still just a fairy."

"What does that matter?" Rin asked. "Isn't that why you came here? To prove fairies could be heroes too?"

"... Well, talking about it is one thing, Rin, doing it feels like another."

Rin wrapped an arm around her back, touching her wings and she pulled Eve in.

"H-Hey!"

"I think you'll do fine," Rin said to her with a smile. "You're a natural-born sorcerer and you're putting the work in. It'll be okay!"

[I, on the other hand, am fucked.]

"..." Eve looked up at her, with those multicolored eyes gleaming in the darkness. "Thanks for the vote of faith, I guess," she said as she sank into the hug and smiled.

"Glad I could help," Rin chuckled.

Then, after a silent moment, Eve spoke again.

"... You wanna know why I came here?"

"Huh?"

"Why I want to become an adventurer?"

"To prove that fairies aren't all just customer service workers or something? I just said it," Rin giggled. Eve giggled and replied:

"Yeah, but... When I was a kid, I read this book. It was called the Miraculous Talia Stormheart. It was a novel about this fairy that, like, becomes an adventurer and takes down dragons and stuff. She uses an ax that's bigger than she is and she's awesome. She can crush buildings and command dragons to follow her and stuff. The ending was a bit depressing, she dies in one of those typical self-sacrifice moments, but it was so... Eye-opening." Eve sighed.

"Really?"

"I remember, after I read it, I came to Libera for the first time, just visiting with my family. And, every fairy I saw was nothing like that. They were all just... Normal. But, I saw a lot of humans that weren't normal. Massive dudes, like, Lightning McDarkcock kind of guys, you know?"

At that, Rin laughed.

[Yeah, I've seen them. I've slept with more than a few of them, too. They're highly overrated.]

"I just... I wondered. Where are the fairies like that? No matter where I looked, I never heard stories like that about people like me. So... Yeah, I grew up and came here."

"Couldn't find one, be one, sorta thing?" Rin asked and Eve nodded.

"Yeah, and... Now, I'm going to find out if I can be one."

Rin felt her heart swell. She reached over and put a hand on Eve's shoulder.

"We'll be fine."

Eve smiled back and nodded.

"Yeah."

Rin returned to her room, night turned into day, and the time had come.