“Since the earliest days of my apprenticeship, it was always something of an open secret that I would be groomed to succeed Melvina as co-director of the Ghizo’s Crossing chapter. My mother and father were so impressed by their little prodigy. Leading the Guild of Artificers became the only career path I ever felt fully encouraged to explore.” Penny sat on the edge of her cot, swiping the screen of a Gnomish Liquid Crystal Display that she had brought in from the showroom.

  “You’re sure we won’t be in any trouble for using that thing during non-business hours?”

  “Yes, I am certain. The chief artificer is permitted to bring just about anything she wishes back to her workshop.” She scoffed. “If only Melvina had ever been so lenient. I might already have a class.”

  Seymour had decided to occupy himself by tidying up the room a bit while Penny browsed the shop’s selection of essences. First and foremost that meant scrubbing wine stains from the floor. “It’s wild that she got away with not letting you all catalyze any sigil powers.”

  “Doing so was forbidden by the contract which every apprentice was forced to sign in order to join her chapter.” She scoffed again and swiped the GLCD’s screen, bringing up another page of essences. “The parent guild’s charter states no such restrictions, but each directorship is given discretion to run their own branches as they please, within reason. Melvina’s contention was that because her teachings were so tightly focused on artificery and artificery alone, adding sigil powers prior to graduation could only serve as a distraction.”

  “Smells like a lot of bullshit to me.”

  Penny laughed. “Such crude utterance. But I do comprehend your metaphor, and I’ve come to agree. I now suspect that she forbade her students from adding sigil powers because she feared her corruption would more quickly be revealed if someone close to her possessed scrying abilities or the like.”

  “Speaking of, you still haven’t really told me what they were up to. You know, corruption-wise and whatnot.”

  “For many years they have been enslaving Riftborn like yourself – those with the power of Infringement.”

  “Holy shit, seriously?” He cast a quick glance toward Dathon, who still hadn’t stopped snoring for even one second. “Is that why they used ol’ squid-chin over there to bring me an Essence of Invention? Were they looking to put your boy Seymour in chains?”

  “Indeed.” She nodded. “They would have forced you to work in their refinery, reproducing massive quantities of rare crafting materials. The guild operates a storefront in Ghizo’s bridge market, and they were combining the materials produced by their slaves to manufacture the majority of their inventory. Minor magical items mostly, but with the cost of producing the wares having been reduced to practically nothing, the Malveaus were reaping massive profits.”

  “So they probably had a fortune stashed away somewhere, just in case they had to disappear in the middle of the night.”

  “Correct, a fortune larger than most are capable of even imagining. And when they fled, I assume they took it with them via movable abyss.”

  Earlier in the week during one of their workshop brunches, Penny had told him that the directors had already skipped town. Evidently, when they realized Ridley had been busted they decided to cut their losses rather than face the inevitable confrontation with Dragon Dan and the law. As far as she knew, they had taken their roster of Riftborn slaves with them, too – including Gaspar and Janez Stuczi. Seymour had breathed a little easier at the news.

  “So, do you think they’d been forcing the Stuczi Bros to pop out crafting mats, too?”

  “Almost certainly, since it seems every Riftborn who originates on Earth manifests the requisite Sigil of Greed. Though the Brothers Stuczi were fortunate to also possess such a prolific aptitude for violence, a trait which afforded them many opportunities to work outside the refinery.”

  “I wonder how they wound up with the Malveaus. Like I got swooped up by the local authorities or whatever and dropped off at Hedwick’s place, so how come they didn’t end up there, too? I mean not that I’m bitching about how things turned out. Not like I would have wanted to be roommates with them instead of snoring ol’ squiddy-britches over there or anything.”

  “The Directors employed the same rift detection magic as the Ministry of Alien Affairs. I assume that because you arrived first, you were quickly interdicted by the Ministry, but the Brothers Stuczi, according to the testimony they gave while under the effect of your Silver Badge of Full Transparency, entered the portal a short time later. Their hesitation to immediately follow you and the vampire through the demonic blood gate ultimately cost them their freedom.”

  “The Moonlight Express,” Seymour noted. "Is what Rusk’s letter said the portal is called on the Earth-side. The portal Janez claimed they found in a closet at the back of my uncle’s antique shop. What you called the uh, demonic blood gate. Man, this shit is all so weird.”

  “Yes, and at that I must digress briefly, as I continue to be distressed by this naming convention.” For a moment she lowered the GLCD and looked at Seymour, suddenly too bothered to keep perusing essences. “The Moonlight Express on Earth and the Midnight Express, here on Heschia? What manner of villain would devise such nearly-identical and easily-confused monikers? It would be as if I were to scribe a story where the main character is called Jake and his rival is named Jacob. Surely there could be no reason for such an act but to torment the reader.”

  Seymour laughed. “Yeah, I mean, it wasn’t me. I didn’t name them.”

  “I am aware. I am merely saying.” She turned her attention back to the blue-green glow of the tablet. “Anyway. Whoever is responsible should be ashamed.”

  “So, what will happen to them if and when the law catches up with them? The Malveaus, I mean. Will they get fed to Dan or something?”

  “Nothing so barbaric,” Penny explained. “First, they will be enlisted to use their powers for the benefit of the public. And then, once that period of restitution has been completed, they will each have their sigils removed through scarrification. For a magic user, being forced to live the remainder of their lives without a means to express their mana is perhaps worse even than being eaten alive by a dragon.”

  “Ouch.” Seymour stood then with his hands on his hips, admiring the results of his wine stain scrubbing. “Well, my work here looks like it’s done. You gonna hurry up and pick an essence out already, or what? Let’s go make a mage out of you before the sun comes up and we both have to go to work at our day jobs. It’s gotta be like two in the morning already.”

  “Don’t say that. Don’t you dare tempt the Fates.” She shook her head sternly. “You can’t know for certain that I’ll evolve any class, let alone a mage-type.”

  But Seymour did know for sure that she’d evolve some sort of class, because over the past week it had happened every single time he’d applied a catalyst for some young person who had yet to evolve one. Eusebio had even gone so far as to say he had the touch, but it was impossible for Seymour to know if that was just more smoke being blown up his ass. Eusebio loved to inflate him in front of the customers – turned out he did it to all his salespeople to some degree.

  As for Penny, she obviously wanted to evolve a class that was magic-oriented rather than combat-focused, but that would be trickier to achieve without a Sigil of Purity. Charity, which she had manifested at age seven, was the premier sigil for producing healing magics, but Penny didn’t want anything to do with the pressure of keeping a whole team alive.

  It turned out that on Heschia, if someone was destined to manifest a sigil it would happen on every seventh birthday, which explained why Seymour now had four, having just turned twenty-eight.

  At fourteen and twenty-one, Penny had been cursed with back-to-back Sigils of Diligence. They hadn’t been at all what she would have chosen for herself, but her parents had sent her to Ghizo’s Crossing to work in her uncle’s smithy when she turned ten, hoping she’d develop Diligence, and it was during her time there that she first demonstrated her prodigious talent for artificery, which in turn led to her discovery by Melvina.

  Her recruitment into the guild had happened so fast, Penny never had a chance to say no. And then the workload Melvina forced onto her, and her innate dedication to her studies, led to the manifestation of her second Diligence at age twenty-one. She had actually cried upon seeing it. More than anything, she had been hoping to earn Purity.

  You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.

  “Look,” Seymour said, “I know you’re worried. It’s too risky to catalyze your charity sigil – you might end up as a healer. And putting just about anything on one of your Diligences is more likely to make you into a fighter or something. Like, we could use a Page of the Greatstaff, which I’ve heard at least has the potential to evolve into a wizardly class, but you might also end up as a monk or a melee-focused cleric or something.”

  “All the best catalyst options are out of my price range. A Card of the Magi would be ideal, but the cost is fifty-thousand chits.” She set the GLCD on the cot beside her. “And the parent guild only saw fit to reward my efforts to expose the Directors’ corruption with a sum of two-thousand.”

  “What’s up with that, anyway? I thought you were being groomed to take Melvina’s place. Why didn’t they just reward you by giving you the gig now?”

  “They wish to wait until I celebrate my twenty-eighth birthday.” The disappointment in her voice was palpable. “Mostly for appearances, I believe. To the parent guild, it seems most important that the corruption I’ve exposed doesn’t become exposed any further, to include the general public.”

  “They’re doing damage control, and you’re the one who gets screwed.”

  “Only if I allow it. And, frankly, Chief Artificer of Dragon Dan’s Adventure Depot is a title which carries at least as much prestige as any directorship.”

  Penny now intended to forge a slightly different path for herself, starting with her decision to evolve a class and investigate the magic shop’s hedge maze with Seymour. If that went well, her plan was then to spend the coming years crawling Vol’kara, until her twenty-eighth birthday when the directorship would finally become hers.

  And if the dungeon didn’t suit her, she might leave the region behind in pursuit of other adventures. It might have been the wine talking, but she claimed she’d leave the guild behind entirely, if she had to. The directorship no longer held the same luster now that she’d seen more of the inner-workings of the parent guild, and she was searching for herself. Seymour could see that.

  Which got him thinking that maybe she should try placing an Essence of Seeking on one of her diligence sigils.

  “I know it sounds kind of weird, but hear me out. I think with your history of diligence being focused around your magical studies, there’s a decent chance it could result in a mage class. Maybe something based in divination, if I had to guess.”

  “And worst case, even if I don’t evolve a class, perhaps I end up with a suite of sigil powers that help me seek better, correct?”

  “Right,” Seymour agreed. “And best of all: it’s in your price range.”

  “You’re becoming quite the sigil power salesman, aren't you?”

  “Yeah, looks like Eusebio was right – I’m some kind of prodigy.”

  She looked at him and smiled nervously. “Then I suppose the question has become: for what reason are we still waiting?”

  Penny’s original Diligence was still drawn entirely in glittery white, like all unaltered Virtue Sigils, but its design was more unique: a stack of books with a candle placed beside it, melted down to a nub. It had manifested high on the underside of her right forearm, tight against the pit of her elbow.

  She and Seymour had managed to move in relative quiet to the testing chamber even though Penny was close to bubbling over with excitement. The way she’d been clutching onto his arm reminded Seymour of taking his high school girlfriend to a haunted house once back on Earth. Until they reached the chamber she never eased her grip, not even when Seymour stopped to retrieve her Essence of Seeking from the vault.

  Unlike Thornton Gring, Penny didn’t climb up onto the platform in the center of the Testing Chamber. Instead, she simply sat on its edge and waited while Seymour removed the essence from its vial.

  The Essence of Seeking manifested as a spark of light, like all essences, but this one was colored pure white—whiter even than a virgin Virtue Sigil—and too brilliant to look upon directly. Seymour was forced to carry it low and off to the side as he approached where Penny sat, or he might have been blinded and tripped right over her.

  “Are you ready?” he asked, drawing near. The sparkle of the essence reflected off the chamber’s crystalline perimeter, causing the entire room to brighten and shimmer like they’d been shrunk down small enough to fit inside a disco ball. Even as magic went, their current environment felt extremely magical.

  “Yes,” she replied, presenting her forearm. It trembled. “The anticipation is nearly too much for me to bear.”

  Seymour touched the glittering essence to her sigil without another word and a surge of magic pulsed through Penny’s entire body. She slumped forward and he quickly sat himself down and caught her before she could fall. Held in his arms, he felt her breathing change as her anxiety melted to become pure ecstacy. She buried her face against his chest and clutched him around his torso.

  “It’s…. It’s so….I’m….” she stammered. The way she was quivering all over, her voice came out barely above a whisper. “What does it look like?”

  “Have a look for yourself.” He gently lifted her forearm and turned her face away from his chest so she could see.

  The sigil had been completely redrawn. The design was still largely white but a swirl of rich gold rippled along every line. The melted candle was nowhere to be seen and the stack of books had been reduced to only one. It had been flung wide open and radiated lines of golden light.

  Penny stiffened, and then a look of concentration crossed her face. She had gained her first sigil power – and without any further delay she activated it. She rose to her feet and Seymour did the same, backing off a few steps to better observe her.

  A cloud of golden magic whorled in the air just above Penny’s head, forming the shape of a short, spectral bookshelf. Once completed, it looked like a sepia-tinted hologram and contained only a handful of tomes. Seymour thought it was somewhat odd that the bookshelf looked like it had been crafted by a complete amateur; little more than a parallel set of flat boards connected at the corners to four simple legs.

  Nearby, a section of the crystalline wall lit up with the sigil power’s description:

  From the spectral bookshelf levitating above Penny’s head, a single book emerged like a bird with its pages flapping madly. The crudely-built bookshelf dissipated back to nothing but the book remained, similarly spectral and emitting a soothing, sepia glow. Its flapping pages settled and then it came to hover, bobbing slightly in the air just over her right shoulder. She turned her face up to it and smiled.

  “Whattya think?” Seymour asked, despite the fact Penny looked close to crying tears of joy. “A familiar seems like a pretty sweet first power if you ask me.”

  “I think he is absolutely amazing.” The book slowly floated down until it would have actually been perched on her shoulder if it had possessed a material body with which to perch. Penny tilted her head and the book also leaned in and they touched foreheads – or at least what Seymour approximated was the book’s forehead.

  “Something’s happening.” Penny straightened her posture like she was listening to a far-off train and the Teacher’s Pet floated back up to hover slightly higher, giving her space. A warm, golden aura began to grow out from her in every direction.

  “It’s your class evolution.” Seymour smiled. “I told you we’d make it happen. Seymour Little’s still batting one-thousand.”

  Unlike the green rays which had shone out from Thornton Gring, the light which Penny projected was warm and easy on the eyes, inviting Seymour to observe the entire evolution. He watched while Penny closed her eyes and embraced the sudden gush of pure power coursing through her body.

  As soon as the glow began to fade, she projected her status panel for Seymour to see:

  “Oh!” she exclaimed. “The Arcane Tutor trait just ranked up my familiar! Now it possesses an adept-ranked power, as well. This is amazing!”

  She projected the new power her Teacher’s Pet had just gained:

  The ghostly book slowly hovered back down and returned to Penny’s shoulder, where again it sort of awkwardly perched, reminding Seymour of something like a pirate’s pet parrot.

  “Penelope, eh?” He smirked. He’d been meaning to give her shit about her given name forever now.

  She punched him hard in the gut, but the smile never left her lips, nor her eyes.