“Money is an interesting concept that developed among the unshrouded near the founding of the Central Authority. Those that had gathered into the first continental cities required a medium to trade items among themselves instead of simply trading. The idea was novel and slightly quaint to shrouded society. Why would you need some kind of intermediary when your neighbor can produce a theoretically infinite amount of food, and his neighbor can make clothing of any variety you could dream of, and you can build a house in a few minutes? Essentially, the expediency of a shroud made skill and the diversifying of trade unnecessary.

That changed with the introduction of ether. A material that had miraculous qualities of a shroud, but in material form. It revolutionized warfare in an era of constant fighting and death. Suddenly, the idea of scarcity, so familiar to unshrouded, was introduced to shrouded the world over. Thus, within a few millennia, money was incorporated into shrouded society, fueled by and made of ether. The only material of any real value.” Excerpt from ‘The Historical Impact of Ether, Chapter 5: Currency.

Following ranking day was their break. Considering everyone’s class schedule was changing dramatically next week, they all decided unanimously to take it. Maybe continuing to work was the smarter play, the better option. But they were tired. It had been two weeks of nonstop learning and refining with not a single break. They hadn’t slowed down at all. It had been a breakneck pace from the first day to ranking day, and yet they still hadn’t managed to win outright.

Caeden wasn’t sure how to feel about that. They had pushed so hard, done so much more than their peers, or at least they thought they had. Sure, the equipment gap was a problem that Caeden was very eager to fix, but that didn’t explain everything. The unreasonably high IP of all the family members they had fought wasn’t something he could ignore or just dismiss. It indicated some kind of special treatment for those students. A secret training technique or ethertech that could vastly increase someone's growth.

Caeden did his best to abandon those thoughts. It would do him any good to mull it over any more than he already had. He and Lily had gone over it from every angle last night after his anticlimactic final match. They both agreed that no one should be as close to Lily’s IP as they were, so something special had to be going on. But they had no way of finding out what that was, so it became a black hole for his worries and thoughts to spin around endlessly, eating at the back of his mind.

Which was unfortunate. They were walking through Central City outside the Academy for the first time, and Caeden should have been enjoying the new sights and subtle majesty of the world around him. The construction near the Academy was varied to a degree that made just looking down the street a visual spectacle. After all, basically any competent object shroud could make a permanent house out of their domain. When Lily gained more experience and shroud capacity, she could make an ice castle that would last to the end of time, barring unforeseen destruction.

Admittedly, the majority of houses had an underlying structure of stone, wood, or metal, but all of them were adorned with the raiment of the resident shrouded’s domain. The shops were the worst offenders, as the very building became an advertisement for their wares. Every single food shop had some specialty item plastered to the walls and maintained by the shroud who made them. They walked by a shop that had a soup fountain, some tomato-based concoction fountaining from above the door to rain into a trough. Another shop had a hamburger the size of Caeden’s torso sitting on the roof, wafting its delicious smells around the street.

Caeden, being a continental, couldn’t help but look at that and see wasted food and unhygienic practices. He had to constantly remind himself that the owner of said shop could likely produce a literal mountain of the same fare a day, and their shroud could make it permanently edible, never rotting or going moldy.

“This must be weird for you.” Lily was watching him, a sympathetic smile on her face. She must have noticed his staring.

“You have no idea.” Caeden shook his head. “Going from living off porridge every meal with a bit of meat and eggs once a week to seeing all this… It's overwhelming how different everything is.”

Lily nodded, “I’ve seen how continentals live, but I’ve never done it. Obviously, I was raised in all this, so it's just normal for me. I can’t imagine living how you and Erik describe it. Even if he lived in a city.”

“Erik didn’t really live in a proper continental city. More of a large town, but you got the idea. I lived in a city as a kid, obviously, but even those are nothing like this. Honestly, I never experienced what true rural continental life was like because of my job.” Caeden shrugged. Even in the small unnamed town he had worked in his whole adult life, being an ethersmith had given him access to some of the small comforts and conveniences he had known from his childhood in the city.

“Well, now you can try all different kinds of things.” Lily grinned, jangling a pouch she had on a string attached to her belt. Lily wasn’t wearing her school robes, considering they weren’t at the Academy. Instead, she wore jeans and a long-sleeved, loose-fitted shirt. It hung off her frame without looking like she was swimming in it. Altogether, the dark green of the top seemed to fit her, and she looked quite nice. At least, Caeden thought so.

“Actually, I had been meaning to ask about that.” Caeden returned his attention to her money pouch.

“About what?” Lily tilted her head.

“If you have money, why didn’t you buy equipment? It would have been useful.” It had been bothering him as soon as Lily talked about going shopping. Why didn’t she have a weapon?

Lily snorted. “I have money; I don’t have infused equipment money. That’s way out of my price range. You should know, Mr. ethersmith.”

“Ehh, not really.”

“What do you mean, ‘not really’?”

“Well,” Caeden rubbed the back of his head. He couldn’t help but be slightly embarrassed by how unworldly he was. “I’ve never used money. So I don't know how much things are worth, relatively speaking.”

“How is that possible? You worked as an ethersmith for years, right? How could you do that without using money at all?” Lily looked skeptical, but like she was trying very hard to believe him.

“Ah, well that’s pretty straightforward.” Caeden smiled awkwardly, “Up until I left Unc, I was an apprentice, so all the work I did was stuff he had already worked out the price for. I was never involved with the money side of things. When you’re an apprentice, the master provides housing and food as well as knowledge, but there’s no pay. So I never touched any cash. Then, the village I lived in used bartering for everything. All the ethersmithing I did was for the Dromar family. They provided the forge, metal, and ether I needed and a stipend of food products from the farm. It was a lot like being an apprentice, really.” Caeden looked into the distance, “I never thought about it, but not much changed for me after I left home. The only real difference was actually living alone.”

Caeden turned to Lily, who was looking at him like he had grown an extremely ugly second head, just a mix of confusion, disbelief, and pity. “Oh, Caeden. Wow, you got a raw deal.”

“What?”

She slowly shook her head back and forth, complete disbelief written across her face. “You have no idea. Look,” She turned that piercing, no-nonsense stare on him, “You need to understand how insanely valuable ethersmiths are. I…I have no idea how to describe this to you. I can’t think of a good analog.” Lily looked genuinely upset, “It’s one of the most respected professions in the Starry Sea. Like, an accredited and proven ethersmith of high skill is more respected than high-level military officers. When you said you worked for the dromar, I thought you lived in luxury, doing whatever you wanted all day and occasionally forging a piece or two. That’s how most ethersmiths live. Were you good?”

“At smithing? I have no idea.” Caeden shrugged, “the only other ethersmith I know is Unc, and he’s much better than I am. Are you sure about the whole wealth and respect thing?” Caeden found that a bit unbelievable. Ethersmithing wasn’t that hard if you knew what you were doing.

Lily laughed. “Oh, I wish Cat were here to back me up.” The group had split, with plans to get back together later that day, “You have no idea. No idea.” She was shaking her head and laughing softly to herself. “They absolutely abused you. That’s insane. They better hope you’re actually really bad, or the Smith's Union is going to eat them alive.” Her tone suddenly shifted to an almost gleeful anticipation.

“What’s that?” Caeden had never heard of the Smith’s Union.

“It’s the group that assists and regulates ethersmiths. How are you not more upset?” Lily shot him an incredulous look.

Caeden shrugged, “I got exactly what I wanted out of the deal. They may have set the terms, but I agreed to them. I was never dissatisfied with what I earned or how much work they gave me. Yeah, It was shitty of them not to pay me a fair amount, but what was I going to do with more money, or more anything? I was happy as I was. I never needed anything else.”

“They’re still screwed. You are taking forge time starting tomorrow, right?”

Caeden nodded. The Academy provided a list of classes and extracurriculars you could take if you asked for it. One of the items that had jumped out to Caeden was lessons on ethersmithing and forge time, where the school would front the materials for you to make your own equipment, provided the instructor signed off on you using said materials.

“Well, that instructor is going to be a part of the Smith’s Union, mark my words. He’ll ask you about what work you’ve done, and then he’s going to get very upset.” Lily had a slightly evil grin on her face.

“You never explained to me what we were going to buy.” Caeden felt a sudden need to change the subject.

“Oh! Right, sorry.” Lily snapped out of her reverie. Caeden had no idea why she enjoyed the thought of the Dromar family getting in trouble, but he was glad to shift her focus. That violent intensity was off putting.

“So! You know my shroud changed to conceptual when it evolved, right?” Lily continued, unaware of Caeden’s internal thoughts on her apparent bloodthirst. “So that removes most of the restrictions on what I can do with my domain, as far as being an object shroud. That means one of the things I can do now…” Lily paused, looking down the street before smiling widely and darting toward a specific store. She whirled around, Her hair and shirt swirling loosely along with her. “That means I can do things only a creature shroud could normally do.” She pointed at the store's sign, ‘Monster Emporium for the discerning shrouded’ in big gaudy lettering. “I can bind a creature to me. I’m getting a pet!”

“Oh, ok.” Caeden was surprised. He wasn’t sure what to expect when Lily said she wanted to do some shopping, but this wasn’t it. “Are you allowed to have one at the Academy?”

Lily, justifiably, looked at Caeden like he was crazy. “Was that a real question?”

“Nope, realized it as soon as I said it. Just ignore me.” Obviously, a society where people could turn into and magically control animals and monsters would let you take them with you. “So, how does this work?”

“Well-” Lily pushed through the door.

“WEEEEEELCOME VALUED CUSTOMER!!!” An absurdly loud shout rang through the small confines of the room. The shop itself consisted of several small tables and chairs with a clerk counter along the back wall. The source of the shout came from the man behind said counter, dressed in the most eye-bleeding brilliant, color-clashing flamboyant clothes Caeden had ever seen, which would probably now occupy his nightmares. “I’m so very glad that you’ve come to our superior establishment instead of that riffraff down the road.”

“I think we should try somewhere else.” Caeden turned to leave.

“Waitwaitwait, you’ll find what you want here, I promise!” The weird, flamboyant tone and manner of speech dropped off instantly as the man wrung his hands, pleading for them to stay.

“I don’t know…” Caeden let his words trail off until Lily slapped him on the arm.

“Be nice. I’ve read about this place; they have a huge selection. I’ll need that with my domains.” She turned to the man, putting on a charming smile. “Hello, I’m here to buy a pet.”

“AHEM, yes, of course. Obviously, you’ve come to the very best place for such a thing, the very best.” His flamboyant attitude bounced back immediately. He dipped into an excessively deep bow, nearly ramming his face into the counter. “I am Lumiere, purveyor of monsters most wild and varied. I can provide you with whatever it is you seek.” he straightened back up.

“Am I to assume it is the young miss who is shopping? Perhaps her paramour is here as an escort?” He looked between the two of them.

“Para-what?” Caeden looked at Lily. He had no idea what this guy was going on about.

Lily laughed. “He thinks we’re dating.”

“Oh, ha!” Caeden shook his head. “Yeah, I can see how you would get that, I guess. Nahh, we have the day off, and I felt like tagging along. Our other friends are a bit wilder. We kinda move at the same pace.”

Lily nodded along. “But you’re right. I’m the one buying today.”

“AHEM, apologies for the assumptions. Perhaps you might tell me what it is you might be looking to purchase, and mayhaps what your domains are?” the man gestured toward one of the tables, obviously intending for them to sit.

Once Lily told him her domains, he dipped under the counter and came back up with three thick books. He floated them over to the table using his shroud and encouraged them to pour over the contents. Inside was essentially a monster catalog of creatures with either cloud or ice aspects, things that Lily could feasibly bind. It had a picture, a list of general characteristics and diet, and a price.

Almost two hours went by, with Lily sifting through the options and agonizing over every example. Ultimately, she was looking for an actual pet, not something to use in a fight. “I was never allowed to have a normal pet at home.” She explained, still looking through the pages. “I always wanted one, though. Now I can have a super magic pet, so this is even better.”

With Caeden throwing in his opinion every so often, and Lumiere providing actually insightful and knowledgeable comments on some of her favorites, she finally narrowed it down to two.

“Oh, I can’t choose!” Lily thrust the two open books toward Caeden. “I like both of them equally. You pick.”

To one side was the Icecrag Bear, a gigantic and violent species that were nonetheless loyal to a fault once bound. They had devastating claws and fangs that left lingering frostbite in the wounds. They also grew to be even bigger than the form Juliette had taken in her not-fight with Caeden.

The other book was open to a Midnight Roc, a variant of the standard Roc that specialized in nighttime strikes with excellent vision and devastating talons. It also got big, with its adult form boasting a wingspan over thirty feet. Both were technically in the ice domain, though the Roc was also tenuously in the cloud domain.

“You really want pets this big?” Caeden looked at Lily skeptically.

“What? I like big animals. Plus, I’m going to raise them from little babies.” Lily looked almost high; she was so happy imagining her new pet. Her first pet. “Pick!”

Caeden shrugged. He honestly had zero investment in this. “Why not get both?”

Lily sighed. “I can’t afford both. It’s too much.”

“AHEM, I hate to interrupt, but you said you intended to raise them from infancy.” Lumiere butted in.

Lily nodded, a frown on her face. “Is that a problem?”

“Nonono,” Lumiere waved his hands back and forth, “You see, the prices listed are for full adults. Infants are much, much cheaper. Most every shrouded does not desire to put in the effort and time to raise a monster properly.”

Lily’s smile could outshine the Pillar itself.