{The Next Day}

Rin woke up at dawn, just as the sun began rising over the horizon, letting its dim morning light pierce through her open windows. Next to her, Elisa was still asleep, but Rin stretched and rolled her neck as she stood up.

[Okay,] she thought as she yawned. [Shit. A lot to do today.]

There were a few things Rin had thought of during her travel back to Libera. First, she needed to find a way for Xhez to walk around with her, so she wouldn't have to sit in that bag all day. Granted, sprites could sleep for very long periods of time, so Xhez was fine with it, but still. Rin wanted to show her the city. Second, Rin intended to speak to Maria. She wanted to get back to work, now that she knew how far she had to go and how weak she really was.

So, she got up, grabbed her towel, and went to go take a shower before the day got going. Once she was done with her morning routine, the first thing she did was head up to the meditation center, hoping to see Maria there.

She walked up the steps, and as she reached the fourth floor, she went up to that familiar room and tried to open the door, only to find it locked.

[Hm... Damn. I guess I'll...]

Before she finished that thought, the elevator, just a bit to Rin's left, dinged and she turned toward it. The elevator door opened, and out came a short woman with smooth, brown. hair, dressed in white robes. She saw Rin, and Maria gasped, freezing.

"... R-Rin!?" Maria asked and Rin smiled a little.

"Hey, Miss Camille," Rin said, gesturing at the room next to her. "I just wanted to see if-"

But, she was interrupted as Maria wrapped her arms around her and gave Rin a tight hug.

"Uh, Miss Camille?" Rin asked.

They remained in that slightly awkward position for a few seconds, before Maria pulled back, clearing her throat and taking a deep breath.

"... I am glad to see you are okay, Rin."

---

A few minutes later, Rin was sitting across from Maria, on the floor, with her legs crossed.

"I see..." Maria nodded as Rin finished telling her what had happened.

"So, yeah, I fought this skeleton thing that was a bit stronger than the others and I nearly died," Rin explained. "I don't want that to happen again."

She, of course, left out everything that had to do with Xhez. She had yet to meet a pro-monster adventurer, after all. Rin assumed that anyone she told about the water sprite would only cause problems. Especially Cara.

"Skeletons, although Rank D, can be difficult for a beginner," Maria let Rin know. "They're deceptively quick and agile, which makes them hard to hit, but they also have clear weaknesses. I... I am sure Cara can explain this better than I can. Regardless, I understand what you're getting at. And, I agree."

"Yeah?"

"Indeed," Maria continued. "What happened on your mission is just one example of the unpredictable nature our occupation has. Even if your specific case was... particularly strange. Still, I thought I would have more time before I really had to prepare you for the worst. I believed I could ease you into this path. I see now that I was wrong."

Maria stood up and extended a hand toward Rin. Rin took it and Maria pulled her up to her feet, easily.

"Tomorrow, Monday, your classes will start again. Next week, the students will each have their next mission, which, of course, was delayed due to what had happened to you and Cara being forced to work for so long outside of the city, and Harriton having to organize things with the Mages Guild. You, however, will not be participating."

Hearing that honestly broke Rin's heart a little. She didn't want to fall behind any further than she already had, after all.

"Instead, we will take that day to make up for the lost time. In the interest of getting you where you need to be, power-wise, we will only be covering the basics this week, and once the week's passed we will move onto more advanced techniques."

"... Okay," Rin nodded. "I understand."

"If you're still serious about becoming a martial artist, we cannot take any days off, Rin. At least, not until we can be sure that you won't be having life-threatening battles against some of the weakest monsters in Ilyrum anymore. Are you okay with this?"

"Yeah. Absolutely."

With that out of the way, Rin moved on to her next problem.

[What am I going to do about Xhez?]

Rin walked back down to her room, where she opened the door and found that Elisa was still sleeping. Walking in, Rin grabbed Xhez's little bag and exited the room again, moving over to the bathrooms which were currently empty.

[Okay, now...]

Rin placed Xhez and her bag on one of the bathroom sinks and opened the bag up, loosening the tie.

"Hey," Rin said, tapping Xhez's shrunken body gently. "Xhez."

"U-Uh, what?" She heard Xhez ask as the sprite woke up. "Rin?"

"Yeah, how are you feeling?" Rin asked, smiling down at her.

"Um... Strange. I am still not used to having such short rests... You look a little funny when you are this big, by the way."

"Pft, okay, glad to know you're alright," Rin replied with a chuckle. "Sorry for keeping you in there for so long. I'm still working out a way for you to be out here with me."

"I see," Xhez replied, yawning.

"Yeah... Anyway, uh, just wanted to check in on you, and let you know. I'm gonna close the bag again, but I'll be right back. Okay?"

"Well... It is starting to feel slightly cramped in here, but um... Sure?" Xhez told her and Rin sighed.

"Yeah, I know, sorry though. It'll just be a bit. Promise."

With that, Rin tied the bag up again and brought it back to her room, before walking out and moving up a few floors, until she reached the library.

Here, she was hoping to find Harriton. He had mentioned that he would often spend his time at the library and that if anyone wanted to learn spellsigns they could go to him there, so she decided to check it out. Considering that Maria got up so early, if she wasn't a special case, then she guessed Harriton would do the same.

And, thankfully, he was sitting at a table near the door, his feet up on the wood. In his hands, he had a large book that Rin couldn't imagine anyone would seriously read all the way through. He turned to Rin and smiled.

"Oh, Rin!" He called out with a grin when he saw her. "I had heard you came back. Welcome, welcome. Hope you didn't have much trouble out there."

"... Nothing that stopped me from getting back here," Rin shrugged.

"I see. Well, what can I do for ya?" He asked, closing the book. She was a little surprised to see that he didn't have any more questions for her, but she was glad, as it let her get right to the point.

However, she did maintain just a bit of her manners, and so, she said:

"Uh," Rin scratched her head, "I don't want to interrupt though."

"Hm? Oh, this?" He held the book up. "I've already read through this."

"What?" Rin gawked at him. "Seriously?"

"Mhm," Harriton continued, "I was just having a bit of a refresher. Let that be a lesson," he declared, "that's what separates the people who go far in this job and those who don't. Fundamentals. It's true in swordplay and in magic. If you forget the basics, the later lessons won't have a foundation to stand on. Anyway, come on, what's botherin' you?"

Rin tried to find the right way to word this. She didn't want to sound suspicious, but as she thought about it, wasn't the school of Illusion inherently suspicious?

"I was wondering what kind of illusion spells there were that could hide your identity. And, uh, how effective they are at that."

"What, you want to rob a noble or somethin'?" He asked with a smirk.

Rin realized she had basically just asked, "hey, is there anything out there that could help me be a criminal?"

"No, I just..."

"Nah, I'm just fuckin' with ya. You wouldn't be able to get away with anything like that, anyway." He told her and Rin raised a brow. "Guards are trained to see through low-Essence illusion spells. And, yeah, anyone who can actually cast high-level Illusion spells usually gets put on a list somewhere, so, yeah." Harriton shrugged. "But, I have to ask, you're not a mage, so why do you need a spell like that?"

"It's not for me, it's for a friend," Rin responded.

"Ohhh, what, a girl wants to make herself a little prettier before a date or something?" Harriton chuckled.

"Yeah, something like that."

"Well, let me think..."

He stood up and walked over to one of the shelves. Each one was marked with a different topic, most of them were just the schools of magic, but there were a few sciences and cultural denotations as well, although these shelves held far fewer books than the rest.

"Hm. I think you could probably make use of these three." He handed a book over to her, with a bookmark on the page he was searching. "The spells at the beginning are pretty innocent. Guards will look you a little weird if you act suspiciously, but other than that, you'll be fine."

"Uh, okay. Thanks!" Rin bowed and stomped away.

[Well, that was easier than I thought it would be.] Rin smiled to herself. [Let's see...]

Then, she read from the books as she walked down the stairs and back to her room. There were three spells being described on the page and they were interesting, to say the least.

One was a spell Rin was very familiar with since it was used at the brothel all the time by men and women alike. An enlargement spell that was used to, well, make certain things look and feel bigger. The second was stranger, a spell that prevented anyone who saw you from memorizing your face. Harriton did say, however, that guards can see through these beginner ones, so Rin guessed it wouldn't affect them if they were chasing down a criminal.

Finally, she got to the third one but didn't get to read it just yet because she bumped into someone. Although, to Rin, it felt like she had sprinted into a wall.

"O-Oh, I'm sorry, I..." She looked up.

It was Elisa. The blonde stood in front of her, as proud and strong as ever, dressed in a boyish white shirt and black pants as her sunlight hair fell over her right shoulder, as it had been braided.

Rin hadn't even moved her. For a moment, she forgot her rude comments toward Eve and she stood there, almost in awe.

"Uh... Hi." Rin stepped back.

"Hey," Elisa replied, with a voice that was far smaller than any Rin had heard the blonde use before. "Can I talk to you for a minute?"

"Um, sure, what's this about?" Rin asked.

"I just wanted to apologize," Elisa told her hastily, "for what I said about your friend."

[Wait, seriously?] Rin thought.

"Really? I mean... You're kinda catching me off guard here." Rin said, looking away shyly.

Her mind was in a few different disconnected places at once. One part of her was telling her how she should still be mad for what she said about Eve, another wanted to tear that shirt off just to, once again, see the glorious body she was hiding underneath, and another was thinking about the illusion spells in the books she was carrying and just wanted to get back to Xhez.

Each one of these thoughts was currently fighting for control in Rin's mind, as Elisa kept going.

"Mhm. Sorry about that too, but it won't take long." Elisa bowed. "I... I didn't realize how messed up that was. What I said, I mean. And, if it's worth anything, I know I kind of misjudged her. Honestly, I've been really impressed with her, lately. She's been putting a lot of work in and, uh, well, yeah. I shouldn't have judged her so quickly."

"Um... Apology accepted." Rin shrugged. "But, I don't think it's me you should be apologizing to, Elisa," she said, before waving her hands. "Well, uh, I think you never insulted her directly, but, you know... My opinion doesn't matter."

"Right..." Elisa nodded. "Right. Well, that was all I wanted to say, roomie," Elisa chuckled. "I was just heading up to the cafeteria to have breakfast. I guess I'll catch you later."

"... Yeah."

And, with that, Elisa turned and walked away. Rin's eyes lingered on her for a moment as she left.

[What was that about?] Rin shook her head. [Anyway, let me go take this over to Xhez.]

When she returned to her room, she opened up Xhez's bag and the sprite looked up at her, producing a natural smile.

"Alright, I might have something for you," Rin told her with a smile of her own.