Amalarys was more than pleased with the choice, even offering to sponsor a dinner out in the city, a thought that quickly crashed when remembering the stark reality of the infrastructure.

While restaurants die, the same can’t be said for pubs, the need for alcohol persisting even in the worst of times. So it was settled then that she would cover some drinks for us, no budgetary questions asked. Better that we were still working for the city guard instead of fleeing, afraid of our standing without our noble leader.

After a quick dinner, we went out to the still standing pub near the barracks, filled to the brim with those trying to avoid remembering the horrors that had plagued them not long ago. A sole table at the back was the best we could manage to squeeze into given the crowded nature of the establishment.

“To Alain,” we cheered for our first round of drinks, slouching over the shoddy wooden table. The beer tasted awful, like sludge filtered through bitter roots, but I could also feel the warm feeling inside of me, the alcohol starting its work.

“You’ll do great, Alain,” Vera said, attempting to gently pat him on the back. She was already feeling the beer, her gentle pats coming off as forceful strikes, Alain gasping with each impact. He refused to acknowledge the pain, treating it like the encouraging attempt it was meant to be.

My eyes locked with Mia, both struggling to refrain from bursting out laughing at his silent suffering. It was nothing another drink couldn’t handle, the bitter liquid sliding down my throat. I shook my head with disgust at the taste, wishing desperately that someone would find the time to invent a drink that didn’t taste like this awful concoction, but that was evidently too much to ask in the remnants of the attack on Titan City.

The bartender walked over, depositing another drink in front of me to my confusion. I didn’t realize I had ordered another one already. They caught my glazed over look, and motioned to a small woman standing off to the side, who gave a timid wave and walked over in our direction. “She got that for you,” the bartender needlessly explained.

Vera’s assault on Alain halted, the group staring at the woman who inched closer and closer, weaving her way through the horde of people. She had curly blonde hair with ringlets dripping down to her shoulders, a sharp nose and cold blue eyes. I refrained from drinking my new beverage, waiting for her arrival to the table. My mind raced with the possibilities: did she see my body pulled out of the spike feeder? Was she just flirting with me? Was this a generalized thanks for the city guard and the other’s drinks hadn’t arrived yet?

I wouldn’t have to wait long as she closed the gap, the deafening noise of the room falling to a quiet subtle background roar as she started unerringly at me.

“You’re the one aren’t you,” she said, pointing at my chest. As though noticing I wasn’t alone, she scanned the rest of the table with a quick glance, frowning at the occupants.

“Get rid of your friends. We have something to talk about.”

“My friends can hear whatever it is that you want to tell me. Nothing’s so important that they can’t know.”

She raised her eyebrows and sighed, drawing a chair from a recently vacated table and sliding next to Vera. “Fine then. Not like more people won’t hurt. There’s already enough problems on this cursed continent. Go ahead, drink. I didn’t do anything to it. You might as well get settled in for this. Your friends too, I guess.”

She waved back to the bartender, catching his eye, the man preparing further mugs to bring on over.

“Who are you?” Mia interjected, refusing to let this farce go on any further without any context.

The woman sighed, playing with her ringlets. “Ugh, that’s a good place to start, isn’t it. You can call me Candace, of Academy Aranc.”

“Academy Aranc?”

Her hand flew to her face, annoyed at whatever slight we seemingly had given. “I don’t know why I’m surprised by this. Yes, Academy Aranc. We specialize in the formulation of magic and other related items and apparel.”

“You what?” was the forthcoming reply. What she said wasn’t making sense.

Candace bit at her lip, eyes searching for something we couldn’t see. “How can I put this in a way you would understand?”

She snapped her fingers, eyes glowing with recognition. “I’ve got it. You could say that we were responsible for your beast souls system. I can’t say it was developed in the most ethical manner… but it’s still doing its job, I suppose.”

Responsible for the beast souls? Excuse me? Vera looked ready to attack Candace, unwilling to hear this sacrilege. “Maybe we should go back to who you are and why we should trust you.”

She shrugged, seemingly relieved to be moving away from that subject, if even for a moment. “Do you need a demonstration? I can’t make you trust me but I can try and provide you with some evidence.”

“It’s a start,” Alain said, his eyes locked onto Candace. That look on his face spoke of a need to know everything and fast. He abhorred this knowledge vacuum.

The ringlets shook as Candace groaned. “Fine. I’m already doing some magic but I guess I’ll make it more obvious.”

She twisted at the air, and the noise around us grew back to the levels it had been at before; another twist of her wrists and the audio died down again. I squinted my eyes, trying to see if I could discern what she was doing, but whatever it was existed out of my reach.

“Was that enough for you?” she said, a smug look sitting upon her face.

“You’re saying that wasn’t a technique of your beast soul?”

“I do not have one of those, nor do I think I would like to have one of those. That was a common technique amongst any graduate of the Academy. Really helps to study when you block out any external noises.” She rolled her eyes, another insult passing onto her.

I blinked rapidly, trying to make sense of what she was saying. If it wasn’t via a beast soul—

“I can’t say I’m surprised that there’s other things out there, but your Academy created the beast souls? That’s absurd.” Alain slammed the table, incensed, fingers gripping into the wooden surface.

“That’s why I’m here. Your friend over here seems to have gotten into the old admin tools.”

“I don’t care about that,” he raged. “You’re saying your Academy is responsible for the hierarchy between prey and predator beast souls? You’re the ones that enabled this oppressive setup? Why should we even speak to you?”

He panted heavily, drawing attention even through the muffled noise at his standing figure. Candace’s eyes widened, staring at Alain as though she was properly noticing him for the first time.

“Look,” she started, “I can’t speak as to what happened over here in the Eastern Continent after the Academies departed. I can tell you we were the origins, but our project only went on for around a hundred years. Anything after that we weren’t involved in. Do you know when this hierarchy was constructed?”

“The doctrine’s records aren’t so tight when it comes to the timeline of history,” Vera said hands over her face. I could tell she didn’t want to see nor hear anything that was happening, but she couldn’t look away.

“There you have it. Have you interrogated me enough or can we continue with why I’m here?”

Alain remained standing, face flushed violently red for a few seconds before he let out a heavy exhale and collapsed back into his seat. “Very well then. We’ll table this.”

“However you have to sell it to yourself, kid. So as I had mentioned, your friend over here seems to have gotten some administrative access to the beast soul system and I want to know how. For those of you that it may not be clear, that means an ability to interface with the system. Does that sound accurate to you?”

She looked at me, my own cheeks flushing pink, her words hitting home to the late nights practicing with whatever it was that had come into me. I could only silently nod.

“Great. Maybe we can make progress then. Honestly, I haven’t studied too much of the beast soul system, nor what administrative rights for it can do. I did manage to get my own read-only rights, but as you would… I guess not know, those aren’t as useful as administrative rights. I’m essentially locked out of anything meaningful. Most of the admin keys were disposed of with the closure of the project, but it seems like yours escaped destruction.”

“I can’t say I understand any of this yet,” Vera said, scratching at her head. “Is there a way to simplify this.”

Candace sighed, crossing her arms over her chest. “I don’t know how else can I state this. Your friend here can manipulate your magic. Does that make sense?”

Vera and Alain’s expressions were more befuddled than Mia and I’s, but Candace wasn’t one to be deterred by the lack of understanding. “Ugh. Do you need a tutorial or something? We can work on that if it’s easier.”

“Maybe we should then,” Alain said, his face no longer showing signs of his rage, all emotions smoothly under control once more.

“Do you know of a place away from prying eyes? We’re already at three more people in the loop than I had hoped to start with.”

“Nowhere good. I do know places where no one will casually go, but that’s because they’re dangerous. So unless that works, I’m out of ideas.”

“What makes it dangerous?” Candace asked, idly staring at her hands.

“The prevalence of the spike feeders there. It’s infested. Ergo, no one will want to go there outside of needing to go there.”

“Spike feeders? Oh, you mean the bio weapons? You’re making this location sound more and more interesting, although the bio weapons aren’t really a concern. That sounds like a fine place to get this handled. Let’s do this tomorrow though. You’ve been drinking and aren’t in a fit state of mind to go, methinks.”

“Agreed then. It is quite some distance away though. Are you alright with that?’

“Don’t you worry about that,” Candace said with a dismissive gesture. “It won’t be a problem.”

It certainly wasn’t worth fighting with her about her misconceptions. Alain sighed and nodded. “And you’ll find us how?”

“Same way I did in the first place. That one’s administrative rights are searchable if one knows how to look. Don’t worry. I won’t let you go without getting to the bottom of this.”

She walked off, the din swelling to its former volume, leaving the four of us to look at one another, still processing the events we had just passed through. “So you don’t know her, right?” Mia started, prompting me to respond.

“It wasn’t like she ever addressed any of us by name, and we never said who we were. She did that trick with the sound, Mia. I think she’s legit,” I said, trying to avoid looking at the others. While Mia had been aware of the situation, and to a lesser extent Vera had some inkling of the matter, Alain had been cut out of the loop.

“That’s true. I trust we’ll learn more about what you’ve been hiding from us, Perry,” Alain said, a sour look on his face. First day as our leader and he was already learning of the secrets kept from him.

“Look. When you allied up with Javier and the guard instead of chasing after Mia, that spoke volumes, Alain. You were so married to the procedures of the city guard, you let our friendship lapse for the sake of your own goals or aspirations. I can very well understand that, but that didn’t make you instantly worthy of trust once again. Going through a near death experience, and knowing you helped rescued me from the inside of the spike feeder definitely contributed towards restoring that weakened connection, but that wasn’t quite enough to justify telling you everything with no caution. Are you telling me you’re not planning on going to Amalarys with this information after we depart? Really?”

He stared down at the table, the situation already turned on its head. Even with the persistent roar of the crowd behind us, it was quiet as though Candace was back muffling the sound. “I can see why you would think that way, Perry. It was unfair of me to lead with that, when you’ve put it that way. You’re not wrong that I will have to tell Amalarys something, but I’ll see if I can put in terms that won’t raise the wrong kind of suspicion. Not until I’m sure of what’s going on, and that we all can come to a consensus on how to handle this matter.”

I reached out to Alain, grasping his hand in mine, our firm handshakes broken by Vera forcing our bodies into a hug. “Don’t be so shy over this, you idiots. You’re allowed hug.”

My smile beamed out, Vera continuing to be an unrelenting force for the truth. Maybe it was the alcohol still singing in my blood, my guard down, but maybe it was time to really let go about the aftermath of the incident. Even with Alain there, we wouldn’t have been able to save Lord Nonan, and it didn’t appear like she was holding a grudge. At least, I wasn’t privy to that knowledge.

Whatever it was, it was time for us to leave the tavern before we got even more drunk and too inebriation to continue the following morning on our unplanned excursion. It was going to be a long day. No reason to make it even more insufferable.