Content Warning for just book 2:

  SpoilerViolence and death (of people, animals, and many monsters), kidnapping and confinement, experimentation and torture, verbal sexual harassment and discussions of past sexual assault, dealing with PTSD, light alcohol use in a social setting, and lots of anxiety mixed with teenage hormones.

  [colpse]

  The day was overcast, but it hadn’t started snowing yet, though the threat loomed in the cold air. Phoenix turned to look at her party leader when he snagged her arm. She had turned south to head from her dorm to the gate leading to the International District of Tulimeir, but he gestured to the west instead.

  “Hey, now’s a perfect time to do a quickie,” Dazien said.

  “What?” she asked in confusion, “We’re still going to the Temple District in the southeast, aren’t we?”

  He gave his usual charming smile, “Yeah, but I told you earlier that we would get you set up with it so you can grab a quickie whenever you want to. Then the blood moon happened, and I totally forgot about it.”

  She hesitated and gnced toward her silent party member as she asked Uriel, “I’m almost afraid to ask him, but what’s a quickie?”

  The tall cinderen smirked slightly, “The Quicksteam transportation system we mentioned before. It will be faster than walking, but you have to pay a little to use it.”

  Phoenix rexed as she gave the fluffy bird nestled on top of her head a quick pat after jostling her Familiar slightly with a nod, “Oh, is that what those gss cart things up along the top of the walls are?”

  “Yeah, there’s a mirrored system below ground as well that’s cheaper than the Skylines, but for your first quickie, we should definitely take the scenic view,” Dazien expined with an impish grin.

  She nodded her head absently as she stared upwards at the topic of their discussion and let herself be pulled along. From this distance, she could just make out the glint of tinted-colored gss capsules swiftly moving along the upper ledge of the towering walls. The single rail that seemed to support them had steam rising from it in little puffs as it pushed the capsules along their routes.

  When they reached the western gate, her companions dragged her toward one of the doors pced on either side of the long tunnel that was passing through the wall to the outer district. The doors apparently led to a rge stairwell leading both up and down within the metal defenses.

  “Up for the Skylines, down for the Landlines, not that difficult,” Dazien expined as he held her hand and led her through the crowds and upward. She made sure to grab Uriel’s hand as well so as not to lose her quiet companion.

  As they were walking up the steps, her little phoenix Familiar surprised her by suddenly leaping off her head to fly towards something on the ground that she couldn’t see, “Ta! Get back here!” she called out.

  She reached out as they got closer and quickly scooped up the bird, only to let out a squeal as some sort of hazy white rat creature dropped from her beak. As it squeaked and ran off, Dazien warned, “Ah, if she’s going to chase after steamers, then you’d best hold on to her or merge. Those avals like to bathe in the jets the Quicksteam produces.”

  Phoenix grumbled, “I am not glowing through the city. I can hold her.”

  Once they reached the station ptform, stopping just before there was nothing but the sky above them, Phoenix was slightly overwhelmed by the crowds spread out with a few different lines that people were organizing themselves into.

  Her guide pointed at the colored signs above each one as he expined, “See, at this station, we can get on the Green, Red, Violet, and Silver lines that go to other stations like this around the city. We’ll want the Violetline to go to the Temple District.”

  As Dazien led them to the line with a pale purple sign above it, along with a list of various notable pces along it, Phoenix found her head on a swivel as she tried to read and see everything at once. She tried to focus more as Dazien showed her how to get one of the Quickpass cards and use it at the magical gate that used an Arcane force barrier rather than a turnstile. She wondered if perhaps some other Wayfarer had introduced the idea of subways here in the past for it to seem so simir.

  Up close, the gss capsules were much rger, able to hold about two dozen people at once, and kind of reminded her of bubbles that had been stretched out. Like the elevator ptforms common in the skyscrapers throughout the city, it had a silvery metal floor and gss doors on the side facing the nding, but the walls and roof were also made of the same tinted gss.

  “So do these passenger bubble-things all go the same direction? And we have to ride the whole route to get back?” she curiously asked Dazien as they awaited their turn.

  “These ones do, but there’s a level below us that goes the opposite direction. So, depending on where you’re headed, you just pick the fastest direction along the route,” he expined patiently, “They’re all running along the same runerail, but see how each port, or ‘bubble-thing’ as you put it, aren’t connected to each other?”

  Phoenix nodded as she watched the ports move along the rail without any sign of a driver or running into each other, “Well, the ports have runes indicating their routes, and the runerail steers them along, causing the ports to turn at the right times without interfering with the others.”

  Then he nudged her forward, and she found herself entering one of the gss ports that was tinted purple, “We just need to get the right quickie.”

  She rolled her eyes at him and asked, “Why don’t you just call it grabbing a port?”

  Dazien gave her a ft look, “If I asked you, of all people, to grab a port, what would you think I meant?”

  Her mind immediately went to her portal ability, [Transversing the Stars], and she simply replied, “Ah. Right.”

  “Don’t get me wrong,” he continued as the gss doors began closing behind Uriel and the other passengers that had gotten on with them, “Plenty of locals will call them ports, too, since we don’t have that many Casters with a portal ability in the city and those are usually for longer distances since you can only use them in designated areas without the officials getting cranky.”

  Phoenix was only half-listening as her attention got caught by the view of the outer city speeding along beneath them to the sound of steam hissing, and she maneuvered herself closer to the gss wall to get a better view of the glittering skyscrapers without squishing her Familiar.

  Before she knew it, they had passed the western Logistics District, gone through the Martial and International districts, and then were climbing out of the port at a station in the Temple District. It had been much quicker to take the Violetline than if they had walked, and she resolved to grab a quickie whenever she could justify it.

  “Are you sure this is a good idea?” Phoenix warily asked as she stared up at the rge pagoda temple where she had first met the goddess, Schor.

  “You’re asking this at the front doors and not back at your pce?” Dazien asked with a ugh.

  “Can’t we just put the whole building into my collection and call it a day?”

  He raised an eyebrow and expined, “That’s actually impossible for you to do, Phoenix. Aside from you not owning the building and everything inside, which the magic can actually sense,” he raised a hand to stall her question, “No, don’t ask me how. I’m not wasting my life researching that esoteric field of study. Aside from that, it would cost more than your mana pool could possibly contain to perform that action.”

  “Um, it’s a Natural Talent, like a passive ability. It doesn’t have a cost like mana,” she pointed out in confusion.

  “Every action requires some kind of energy exchange,” he expounded, “Just because the cost is usually negligible, like pulling things in and out of your personal dimensional storage, doesn’t mean it’s non-existent. Your book likely doesn’t list a cost because it’s probably fractions of a drop of mana and not worth listing.”

  She pouted at him and mumbled, “So, no dropping a mountain on an enemy fortress?”

  Both men ughed, and Dazien shook his head, “No, Phoenix. Quit trying to break magic,” he scolded and walked up the steps to enter without her.

  Phoenix still hesitated as she watched her party leader enter the divine pagoda. Uriel pced a hand on her shoulder in a show of support, pointing out, “You’ve already gained her favor; what more could she do to you?”

  She shivered at the memory of the intense pain of her soul being directly touched by divine power and muttered, “She seemed like the hugging type…”

  He chuckled, gesturing for her to go first, and she complied with a sigh. Once inside, she quickly forgot all her worries and remembered that they were now standing in what amounted to the city library. Books were everywhere, packing every shelf and lining every wall. A few tables and seating areas were spread around and mostly occupied as people quietly read or wrote down notes.

  There was comfortable silence and an air of mutual respect toward your fellow learners as they walked through the aisles. The scent of paper, leather, and ink suffused the temple, and Phoenix thought she could happily spend every day curled up in a corner here.

  When they made their way up to a reception desk, the attendant merely pointed towards the gss lift in the center of the pagoda and answered their unspoken inquiry, “The book you’re looking for is on the fifth floor near the south wall.”

  Dazien didn’t speak like she had expected him to; instead, he gave a slight bow with a hand over his heart before silently leading them to the elevator. When the doors closed, he expined to her questioning look, “In here, we show our respect by not talking unless necessary. Even my tongue knows when to respect another culture’s customs.”

  “Another culture?” she asked, unfamiliar with the usage in this context.

  He shrugged, “Sure. Cultures aren’t always location-bound. They’re tied to a way of living, whether it’s the culture of the noble aristocrats, the families of the tundra, or the clergy of a deity. Their customs, traditions, and goals are what make up their culture.”

  “But you hate being silent,” she pointed out, causing Uriel to chuckle beside her, and Ta gave two cheeps from on top of her head to voice her agreement.

  “I don’t hate it,” Dazien retorted, “I just think it often leads to misunderstandings. However, even if I disagree with some part of a culture, I can still show my respect by adhering to their way of doing things, especially if it’s not directly hurting anyone.”

  “Hmm, a kind of truce?” she asked.

  He shrugged, “Something like that, I guess,” he agreed and led the way as the lift doors opened onto the fifth floor.

  As the party neared the southern wall, Phoenix froze at the sight of the rge sitting area filled with what looked like bean bag chairs and a glowing little girl standing in the middle of it all. The tiny goddess was grinning from ear to ear while excitedly bouncing on the tips of glowing boots and holding a book close to her chest.

  What shocked Phoenix the most, however, was the head of auburn curls framing a pale face with bright green eyes. With the addition of the bck fur-lined schor robes the girl was wearing, she thought she had found the child of Ron and Hermoine. Then, another thought ter, she was reminded that she looked like the child of the pair and was about to ask the Schor a question when her previous thought was addressed first.

  “Who’s Ron and Hermoine?” Schor asked while walking up to her party. All of them were simply staring at the goddess, utterly speechless.

  When her mind raced through memories of seven books, eight movies, a py script, and more fan creations than she liked to admit, the deity responded, “Ooohhhh, well, that kind of cantrip magic that requires wands is basically what Mundanes do here so they wouldn’t be as special in this world.”

  “Why do you look like the child version of me?!” Phoenix redirected, asking a more important question than comparing magic systems.

  Schor grinned happily at her, “Because you’re the newest interesting thing!”

  She groaned as her face fell into her palms. The small deity softly added so that only she could hear, “Plus, I figured this way you’re not so alone and unique in the city.”

  Phoenix gnced up at her, the gentle smile and knowing eyes trying to reassure her, and she felt herself rex slightly, “Thanks, I guess. Um, we came to–”

  “Get this book, I know,” the goddess said and handed it towards her while verifying, “The Encyclopedia of Makera, Common Knowledge Edition. I’m surprised you didn’t come by earlier to get it. Just because I said to not ask for a quest clue until Sapphire didn’t mean don’t come back for anything until then.”

  “Quest clue?” Dazien asked, finally interjecting with a question.

  Schor grinned at him, “Not for you to know otherwise Confidant will get angry at me,” then the grin turned impish and was a match for the teasing gemite’s own as the little copycat added, “If you joined my clergy, however, I could impart all sort of knowledge about–”

  “No. Thank you, Lady Schor, but I will not join any clergy,” he gave a slight grin and added, “But you knew that when you offered.”

  The goddess gave a childish ugh full of glee as she nodded, “Indeed I did, Dazien, but it never hurts to ask. Sometimes, just making the option known can be enough to sway someone’s mind.”

  “What do we owe for the book?” Uriel quietly asked.

  Schor smiled and said, “Just an hour of me directing all of your thoughts with the questions I ask.”

  Uriel nodded and sat on one of the sack chairs as the others followed suit, and Schor bombarded them with questions without ever giving them a chance to speak a response.