Mary’s backpack weighed heavily on her shoulders as she gathered all her willpower to make the last step. To say that the last time her guardian sent her to just sign a few papers was a disaster would be a slight understatement. She glanced at her loyal moneysucker, but she didn’t think it would be helpful in this… well, any, situation. Taking the last, deep breath, she pushed the door handle, and…

She found herself in an actually normal office. There were a few people here and there, moving folders from one place to another, chatting with others, and, of course, drinking coffee. There was a middle-aged brunette smiling at her invitingly at an open counter. The sign above her read “Information”.

“Good evening. Can I help you?” she asked as Mary approached her.

“Um, good evening ma’am, yes. I… my mentor told me that I have to hand in those papers, but….”

“Oh, of course, you must be our new heroine! Come, let’s see what you’ve got there.”

Mary handed her the envelope, and soon her eyes widened. The woman at the counter pulled out what seemed like a couple of encyclopedias from not even an inch-thick packet. How did Bromman even stuff it in there? Heck, how did she carry it just a moment before? It didn’t feel heavy at all… (unlike the backpack that had already begun to grow uncomfortable).

“Let’s see, let’s see…,” the woman muttered, “oh, you’re signed for a full package! You need to move quickly if you want to use the dormitory tonight - we’re closing in an hour.”

Mary shifted uncomfortably, already imagining herself wandering through the city after dusk, looking for a relatively safe space to wait out until the morning,… She had once heard that the desert can get quite cold quite fast after sunset. So, make that safe and relatively warm…

“How about this,” the nice lady said, noticing Mary’s expression, “you go on ahead with handling the dormitory permit, and I’ll take care of the rest - I’ll need your signature at the end, but the reality won’t collapse on itself if you do it tomorrow.”

“That…, that would be great, thank you.”

“Oh, no problem, really. Just go to room 21b, give Ms Redding this form from your mentor, and fill yours, form 313a.” She smiled, handing Mary a document pre-filled by Bromman, and another one with clear instructions on how it should be filled.

After filling the document, Mary left towards the stairs with a bit of wariness, but also a glimmer of hope. There were clear signs indicating where to find each room, and the 21b was on the second floor, the second door in the first corridor to the right. Was this actually going to work? She knocked on the wooden door, and a steady voice from the inside called “In!”

The first thing she noticed when the door creaked open was the smell. It was hard to place it in Mary’s previous experiences, but maybe if a bunch of clothes after PE was left in the sun for six hours, then marinated with a cold, too strong coffee and boiled in a thick, rosy perfume… This could probably work.

The door hit the stopper, and behind a small desk, surrounded by scattered magazines and a few overturned cups, Mary saw a woman. Have you ever seen an ice cream vendor foolishly agreeing to add more of the whipped cream until the child tells him to stop? It was kind of like this, only the woman filled the role of cream, and the poor chair on the verge of breaking - the ice cream cone. Two pinpricks of darkness stared at her from the pile of flesh, almost too small to make out below the strands of oily hair.

“What d’ya want?” she spat out.

“Um… I have these documents, I was told to deliver here-” Mary said.

“‘And it over,” the chair’s occupant said, stretching her almost perfectly round hand. She took a glance at the papers and threw them on the desk. “Ya need occupation permission. Get one, and ‘urry up - we close soon.”

Mary bowed politely and strode quickly backed out of the room, trying not to breathe through her nose. Outside, she glanced at her watch - she still had almost a full hour left… She felt a chill in her stomach - she could almost hear her hope crash on the polished floor.

Down in the ‘Information,’ the nice lady smiled at her sympathetically. “Oh, yes, you need those at some cases. You need to go to room 43c - just ask, and they should simply give it to you.”

An older gentleman in the room four floors up and in the third corridor from the stairs gave Mary the permission with barely a glance. He seemed to barely see her through inch-thick glasses. Mary went down two floors and handed the necessary form. Unfortunately, it turned out that she needed her grandparents’ permission for the occupation permission to be effective, and since that wasn’t going to happen anytime soon, she went to the ‘Information’ again.

“Right, right, that can be required… Don’t worry, you’ll just have to go to room 52c and apply for the permission for your mentor’s permission to be taken into account instead. Look, he already included it here!” The lady gave her another piece of paper from the growing stack that seemed to all come from that one, thin envelope.

Five flights of stairs up and another three down, she handed the plump woman newly acquired documents. Unfortunately and unforeseeably, it so happened that she needed a birth or death certificate from room 35b. And a damage liability declaration from 11a. And the answer to the Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe, and Everything from room 42, which she had to copy manually from a dusted old tome with mouse-leather cover.

Finally, with her knees almost giving up, Mary found herself panting before the door 21b two minutes before the closing time. She knocked but didn’t receive any answer this time. She did it again, with the same result. There was no time - Mary entered the door without an invitation.

Immediately, a pair of small, beady eyes glared at her. “What d’ya want? I’m on a break.” The round palm nudged a cardboard sign at the front of the desk, reading “Coffee break - I’ll be back in five minutes”.

“But…,” Mary uttered, “will you take my documents after the closing time?”

“‘Course not!” The swollen lips twisted maliciously. “Come tomorrow, ‘e’ll talk again.”

“But…”

“Tomorrow!”

Mary slouched, the image of herself spending the night without a roof over her head clear before her eyes. She wouldn’t be allowed to stay within the walls without this permit - the nice lady told her that much the last time she asked for directions. And after the workout she went through with the stairs, she doubted she could walk to the city. Maybe her SJW could serve as a heater? But it didn’t seem to generate much excess heat, not even when flying at full speed… A single tear rolled down her cheek and fell to the floor.

“Ya hadn’t ‘eard me?” The woman spat out. “Go away, ‘s closed!”

Something broke inside Mary. And something else stirred. She could feel some heat creeping from her heart and spreading with every heartbeat, which suddenly came slower… and slower…

The wet stain where her tear landed grew a bit darker, and wider. A second tear joined its predecessor, and this one seemed to silently boil where it landed. Mary didn’t understand what was happening, but it felt so… natural. The lamp above the desk brightened for a moment, then dimmed again, and again, its light diminishing as Mary’s shadow lengthened. She slowly raised her head.

The woman behind the desk sneered and pressed a red button on the side of her desk. A blue-ish forcefield came down, separating her from the tormented girl. The light gave everything an unnatural tint but failed to affect Mary’s shadow in any way. The woman’s twisted lips started parting, but before any sound escaped them, the screen crackled, and a bunch of sparks danced across its surface. A crack appeared directly in front of her face.

“What ‘s this…” she said, watching the crack grow before her eyes. In seconds, it was already an entire web, over which electricity arced back and forth, trying to repair the damage. Mary’s gaze fell on the button which activated the defence system and saw a wisp of smoke rising from the device. The girl met the clerk’s eyes, and the energy field shattered like a pane of glass hit by a baseball ball.

“I… I t’ink I may make an exception….” The woman behind the desk didn’t sound confident any longer. The unnaturally dark shadow fell upon one of the cups laying around, and a breaking sound rang in the room, then another, and another… “Y-yes, see?” the woman stamped a piece of paper with a few lines hurriedly written in an almost illegible script. “There, show it at the dormitory, and they’ll let ya in.”

Mary stood still for a couple more seconds, staring at the trembling hand pushing the document towards her. Then, she blinked a few times, and the darkness receded. She snatched the paper before the bureaucrat could find her voice again and escaped the office.

Okay… what the heck?