As Elania stepped out of the third Artificer shop, she began to question her choice to shop around for a higher price on her Monster Core. The nine large silvers in her new coin pouch pressed against her from inside a new string nestled under her shirt reassuringly. Her shard’s final contribution to her journey was to provide her with enough funds for over a week of rest. She would have much rather have had her shard back, considering how critical it had been to her survival.

‘Just call me [Mana Shard Drainer], spend incredibly expensive shards for one hit kills everywhere… Yeah, no I need something more feasible.’

Unfortunately, the ‘manashard shortage’ meant that the precious things were going at a rate of over six small golds for a tiny one --- and Elania had learned that her crystal had been oversized. Tanyan hadn't missed the mark when he said it was worth a 'fortune.' She doubted the smaller ones would give her as much utility as her destroyed one had. Ranolf had even asked her just how many shards she’d vaporized in her pack to create so much dust.

The memory of the large chest of shards the cultists had offered her made her wonder if they were the ones responsible for the shortage in the first place.

Looking down the street, she decided to try one more shop before giving up for the day. With money to her name, she wasn’t going to have to sell the core immediately, and maybe the price would improve. She didn’t think Ranolf would be too disappointed if she didn’t return with the core right away. The man had seemed completely secure in whatever choice Elania made in selling or not selling to him.

None of the shops stood out to her, all looking the same for the most part. It didn’t take long before she reached the end of the row, visiting a few along the way before she came to the last shop blocking off the end of the street. She supposed that it would do for her last stop, but a sudden raised voice had her pause just before she reached the door.

[Human - Artificer - 56]

[Human - Trader - 176]

“Father would have never sold the shop to you! I won’t either!”

“Be reasonable girl, the shop is saddled with debt even your father couldn’t repay. I’m trying to help you.”

“Debt he took on because of you!”

“And I repaid my share, more even as I’ve paid your father’s payments up to his death so he could keep the shop. Now---”

“Get out, damn you! Get out!”

“Calm down woman! I am out! Why can’t you be rational?”

Elania wasn’t sure what possessed her as she diverted away from the other shop’s door and interrupted just as the yelling reached a crescendo.

“Excuse me. I have a Monster Core I’m trying to sell, and wondered if it could be appraised.”

The young woman and the man both turned toward her in shock, their small bubble that had encompassed only them bursting as if pricked. Elania kept her smile neutral as if she hadn’t seen or heard anything.

The man acted first, turning back toward the young woman, “I’ll be back tomorrow with the purchase agreement.”

“Don’t bother. I won’t sign it!”

The man didn’t answer as he turned and marched away. Elania stayed quiet for a moment, wanting to give the other girl some space to calm down. It didn’t take long.

“Sorry you had to see that. I’m Yolani. I’ll take a look at your core, although I’m not sure I can offer to buy it.”

“That’s alright. I’m Elania, I would appreciate you looking at it.”

Elania pulled the core out of her pack and handed it to her, but Yolani skipped a beat and almost fumbled the exchange when she got her first good look at Elania.

‘There it is, that constant blip everyone gets when they see I’m a stupid demon.’

She managed to keep a straight face and not show any outward sign of noticing the lapse, but Elania was starting to wish she had just skipped back to Harlock to collect Tina and made for the Inn he had pointed her towards.

The shop was much like the others she’d seen. It was much smaller, cramped, and sized for just a few people, unlike the other shops, which generally had a master and a few apprentices apiece. All of Yolani’s tools were centrally located on her outfit in a multitude of little loops, pockets, and straps instead of strewn about like the other shops, while the odd bits were tightly packed on shelves.

The lack of mana shards everywhere fed into the narrative of the other woman’s financial crisis and Elania suspected the frequently mentioned ‘shortage’ probably wasn’t helping her. Then again, maybe she had sold all the shards to keep things going? Elania dismissed her line of theorycrafting as unimportant and zoned out as she watched Yolani repeat the same process as the other artificers had followed.

Instead, she studied the other woman. Her jet-black hair that came down to the middle of her back had just a hint of blue hue that shifted in the room’s crystal lighting. Her outfit was more in-line with the younger apprentices she had seen, fully utilitarian, unlike Master Ranolf’s gilded robe. The soft lines of the side of Yolani’s face were pleasing to the eye, and Elania couldn’t spot a single spec of the dirt and dust that had covered most of the people she’d seen in the Mercenary District. As Yolani continued the core’s examination, Elania found her eyes settling into a neat little cycle moving between the tools on Yolani’s belt without much more thought.

As she finished, there wasn’t any new information, and Elania had suspected as much. The core was nice, a B-class, and worth 4-6 small gold if it wasn’t for the shortage, which meant the going rate was probably half that at best. All of it was what Elania had heard before from the other Artificers.

“I can’t really offer to buy it from you. I can’t even afford…” Yolani stopped mid-sentence and looked at Elania appraisingly for a second before continuing.

“Does your master permit you to sell energy…? Would you be willing?

“Uhh, pardon?”

“I have some tools and manashards that are out of charge. Normally we all go to Ranolf and pay him a fee to charge them, but I can’t actually afford it right now, either. If you need some money, maybe I could purchase a recharge from you and avoid his fee?”

Well, she knew how to charge mana shards, her experimentation during the journey to Neftasu had taught her that much, but Elania was hesitant to commit to selling her ‘Power’ right away. She already had concerns about how she was going to get more herself. Elania’s eyes settled on her [Hud] as she considered.

[Hud]

Power: 259 / 277

Level: 48

Clock: 11:39

The altercation with the thugs had brought her power down a bit, even with just the relatively tame light show, but it wasn't actually that low from an absolute point of view compared to when she first arrived, thanks to the expansion of her max limit.

Still, Elania had only been in the city for a day, no matter how much like an eternity it felt like now, and she had already used twenty points. She knew she definitely shouldn’t let her power run down, considering how much of a force multiplier it acted as. Allowing herself drain down to a low level would leave her as weak and vulnerable as a skill-less human.

“There isn’t any prohibition on it… but I don’t know about selling any, it would really depend on---” Elania froze mid-sentence, a sudden barrage of system-notices appearing and snatching her attention.

[Contractee Initiated Contract Termination.]

[Contract Completed]

[No violations have been assessed.]

[All clauses fulfilled. System-termination of Contract completed.]

Tina! The first thought that Elania had was that something had happened to the orphan girl, but she quickly realized that the system had said ‘Contractee Initiated,’ meaning Tina herself broke the contract. Elania had left it easily broken because she hadn’t wanted to tie Tina into anything permanent or trapping, but she hadn’t expected the orphan to break it before…

Elania looked past the prompts and could see that her shock was mirrored on Yolani’s face. Elania figured that the other woman had realized something had happened too, with Elania’s eyes shifting from a deep blue to crimson red.

The second Elania opened her mouth to say something, though, Yolani moved.

Time seemed to compress to Elania, and her eyes followed the woman’s hand darting down to her side to some tool hanging in a belt loop.

Elania reacted instinctively, moving as fast as she ever had, making the space between them disappear with a crash. Tidbits flew off shelves and crashed to the floor as Elania left a vacuum behind her, one hand sliding behind Yolani to prevent retreat and the other capturing the other girl’s hand just as it landed on whatever the tool was, with just enough pressure to prevent her from being able to pull it out of the loop.

The instant step had brought them almost nose-to-nose, and Elania caught a faint trace of something like lavender off the other girl’s hair. Both of them were breathing heavily from the sudden confrontation but couldn’t help but remain frozen for what felt like an eternity.

Elania was the first to break the silence, her eyes sliding down to look at the captured hand, “Were you going to shoot me?”

Elania had seen the tool carried by all the Artificers, but none of them had used it, and when Yolani had reached for hers, a scene from a Harry Potter movie came to her mind, and she had reacted.

Yolani swallowed, “Were you going to eat me?”

“I hadn’t planned on it.”

Elania could sense the other girl's heart thumping rapidly somehow, mirroring her own.

“Ahh…”

Elania removed the pressure on Yolani’s hand, but she didn’t pull away immediately. Not until the main entrance crashed open a few seconds later.