Olly's admission brings me to 'ready' more or less instantly. Alongside it, he uncovers his arm and starts to inspect the violet crystal that makes it up. By his own standards it's still looking relatively healthy, so what he's experiencing must be moreso internal. With a bit of haste, I dig around in my waistpouch until I find one of the dense Reflexio gemstones we found the other day and toss it at Olly without any warning.

  On reflex, he catches it and instantly gets a vacant look on his face as his eyes defocus, murmuring something about the essential composition of the gem. Listing out small factoids, the age of the specific stone, the location it was found, how pure it is. The state lasts about fifteen seconds before he's left with a handful of colorless powder in his hand that is sifting down between his fingers to fall to the ground at a constant speed.

  The properties of the dust are…strange. It doesn't react to being blown by the wind easily. It's never cold or warm. The tug of gravity from the Terra essence the world is comprised of only affects it minimally. To the touch, it feels like the absence of temperature or contact — an unsettling sensation of knowing something is in contact with your skin but not feeling it regardless. It's one of the many things we need to look into. I feel like it probably can be used for something by someone.

  But after about a minute Olly's dazed look goes away, leaving his eyes sharper — more aware — after he focuses back on me. "Thanks, Ayre. Clever trick with throwing it at me."

  I nod as Lilly lands on his left shoulder and settles down, kicking her feet and sending little sprays of dust as she does and begins humming a tune that seems to emit from everywhere around us. "No problem Olly. This is what we agreed on. Watching out for one another, nice and simple. Might need to find a source of those gemstones though, we don't have a ton and they seem pretty effective."

  He opens his mouth to respond but is cut off by a vibrating-with-excitement Lilly, "Olly, Ayre, let's search the rest of the house! This seems like the sort of place that will absolutely have a place hiding behind a sliding bookcase or a cellar trapdoor under a conspicuously off-center carpet. Keep your eyes peeled! Onwards, Olly!" I have to smile as she hops back to her feet and gestures at the nearest door with a shower of sparkling dust, sending Olly off like a loyal steed. I follow along behind them.

  I have to wonder if he'll recognize this for the distract she's intending it to be. His smile leads me to believe that the answer is probably 'no'. It's better that way — it's definitely not her only motive, after all.

  Over the next hour, we make our way through every room — up to and including moving any found carpets and bookcases. Much to Lilly's chagrin, there is no trapdoor — instead the cellar is accessed via a staircase beneath the main staircase. Much to Lilly's joy, we do find something behind one of the bookcases in what I assume is an office — a small alcove with a small chest inside.

  As I heft it, I announce, "Well, that guard saying that whoever lived here was probably paranoid is seeming more than a little prescient."

  "Well, maybe they weren't paranoid and just had a flair for the dramatic. If I had a house like this I would definitely hide things behind bookcases." She pauses, wings stopping fluttering for a second and causing her to briefly fall. "Olly! Can I hide things behind the bookcases? I know it's your house, so I wanted to check."

  Olly, looking on with a wry smile. "By all means, Lilly. My house is your house, do as you please."

  Seeing an opportunity to try to make mischief at Lilly's expense, I jump at it. "Sharing a house, heart-to-heart connections? If I didn't know any be—" The omnipresent music that plays around Lilly suddenly gets much louder, thoroughly cutting me off and leaving me with a jagged, toothy grin at the rather flustered and definitely blushing fairy.

  "Don't make it weird! We're all traveling companions, Ayre! All three of us!"

  Internally, as I always do, I have to laugh, and the dirty look she gives me gives me the impression that she knows about my smug amusement. She's got the worst crush on him. He probably feels similar, but both of them are either utterly incapable of saying it, or too scared to do so. So I'll keep prodding. Lilly spent the first few weeks taunting me the same way despite my having less than zero interest in Olly romantically, so it's well-earned payback.

  Honestly, while I'm far from the most experienced person with these things — having literally zero experience with any other people than Lilly until about two months ago in my entire life — I just want them both to be happy and I'm getting the feeling that them being a "thing" would help both. But what do I know? I've never had a crush, not even a litt—

  That's a lie, actually. Even lying to myself. I think I felt that way after that knight who wants to kill Olly saved me. But she was ridiculously pretty and had just saved my life, so I don't count it. Anyone would have felt a certain kind of way in a similar situation. Besides, she wants my friend dead, so it's not like that is something I'll be exploring. The Eternal Vigil and everyone within it is an enemy to Olly by default. Until I have a reason to think otherwise, they're going to be kept well beyond arms reach.

  I'm quite comfortable with myself, by myself, always have been and always will. I wouldn't have abided living alone for twenty years otherwise.

  I sigh, spitting a small gout of burning essence that had been coalescing in my throat while thinking about those years of mindless monotony. When I look down, it's causing the carpet to smolder, so I quickly stamp it out while making an effort to look like nothing happened while the other two are gushing about what to best hide behind the bookcase, leaving me comfortably with my thoughts.

  Eventually, we've seen every room and the newness is starting to wear off. Looking outside, unfortunately, it seems night is starting to fall. "Isn't it a bit early to be getting this dark? I think we've only been in the city a few hours, right? We got here at noonish. Or am I missing some time?" I poke my head further out the door and see streetlamps starting to flick on as the falling line of apparent night traces its way over the city. The progression into night happens fast, and as I follow the line of darkness I realize it's cause. "Oh. The mountains. Come look at this!"

  Lilly comes over after shifting her shape and refreshing her glamor, with Olly just behind and all three of us gawp at Khana dropping behind the mountains to plunge this side of the range into a very early night. The process is mesmerizing, and makes the mountain peaks shimmer and sparkle in the glinting colors of countless metals all that crazy distance high above. I can't even begin to guess at how tall they are. All I know is that I could always see them clearly from the forest I lived in. A forest that is a few weeks travel from the base of the mountains. Utterly beyond compare to anything I can imagine.

  "It's really pretty up there. I kinda wanna go sometime. Imagine the view from all the way up there! You could see the whole world!" Lilly is positively glowing with the thought — her excitement managing to pierce her glamor just so with some loose motes of her Elysian essence peeking through.

  Olly chimes in, substantially less excited, but looking more thoughtful. "I wonder when they consider night to properly start. Will businesses close now, or in a few hours when night would be falling more traditionally? It's not like morning would come proportionally earlier, so it really would only affect one side of things, and we do need to go visit the city hall thing, too. You think they'll still be open?"

  After he peters off, I shove him a little, and speak in a tone mocking his voice, ""Why yes, Ayre, that is very pretty and interesting, thanks for pointing it out!""

  Olly, utterly unphased, ignores my mockery and responds. "That's true, too. I was just focused on the thing Marius said we would need to do it. It seems like the sort of thing that we don't want to put off."

  "Well then, how about we go do that, then? We can see if any other guards decide to ignore me and check out both of you."

  "You sound a little bitter, Lilly. I'm sure if you were putting yourself on full display — not toning down your looks and fantastical features — you'd have endless admirers. But maybe being plain does suit you. You've spent so long being the most beautiful princess in the land — maybe it's time the dragon gets the prince and all of the admirers?" I grab the still only half-paying-attention amnesiac by his good hand and drag him out the door, gate, and then into the streets while Lilly tries to recover from the horrible slight I've just inflicted upon her.

  This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

  We get lost. Several times.

  "Ayre, let's just ask for directions again. or listen to Olly! He doesn't forget things!"

  "I did say I'm not one hundred percent sure. I haven't seen a map. We would need to go back to where the last person gave us directions but…that was a while ago now." Olly's voice trails as he scans around. "The building layouts are really hard to commit to memory without some reference."

  "We don't need to ask for directions! They said the building was like four stories tall! How hard could it be to find? The Wayfarer's Rest is only a story and a half tall and everyone in the court can find it no matter what. Four stories should be eminently findable.” I resist the urge to point out that Olly does, indeed, forget things. He forgot literally his entire life. Saying it would be cruel, even in service of a joke.

  Some people nearby are watching our little spat. Folks are shifting between trying to not look interested while others look on with keen interest and wry smiles. Lilly has no faith in me to navigate. It's not my fault the people we've spoken to have given bad directions and that this city is laid out like nonsense in order to limit monsters spawning. The forest was so much better than this. It's utter chaos dressed up like order, which makes it infinitely worse.

  "I'm climbing that building." I announce, gesturing at a three story building down the road a ways.

  "Ayre, you can't just climb buildings! People will get mad!"

  I wave it off, "The guard said there's a right to roam. I'm going to roam up that building to more effectively roam to our destination. Actually. You should support this, shouldn't you? It is your father's words apparently." I jog off, leaving Lilly with Olly as I start to concentrate on my task. I've climbed countless trees. There's even more handholds on the side of the building, so it shouldn't be a remote issue.

  Before I hit the building, I break into a proper run and leap, aiming to get about halfway up, but come up shy — still accounting for wingbeats I can't meaningfully make right now with my right wing all but burned off. No problem though, once I have a handhold it's easy enough to heave myself up a few feet at a time with my arms and the traction I get with my boots. Luckily, the building has poles and crenelations sticking out at what is probably the "ceiling" of each floor, giving me excellent launching points.

  With a final bit of effort and more useless wing flaps I haul myself over the ledge and onto the roof of the building and find that it's been cleared of snow. It also is well lit. And there's a few vulpin — foxfolk — sitting up on top of the building in warm clothes, sharing drinks and some very nice smelling food. Little morsels of meat with some sort of bright yellow cheese bubbling in the center of a plate for dipping.

  The eldest among them looks at me with more than a little surprise in the middle of dipping the food in the cheese and taking a bite. Probably for a bunch of very good and reasonable reasons. "Uh…Hello? Can we help you?"

  All of them trace their eyes over me, top to bottom, looking equal parts interested and confused. "Maybe! Sorry to intrude, I was trying to get a better view because my friends and I are struggling to find what we're looking for."

  One, a younger one, maybe my age, with bright blue dyed hair and matching eyes stands up and drifts my way. "Whatcha lookin' for? I could probably help you out. Wanna join us?"

  I gesture over the ledge to my exasperated fairy friend who's looking up at me with utter disbelief that gets stronger when the younger vulpin pokes their head over and waves. Lilly, not one to be rude, waves back excitedly before glaring at me. "I can't stay, we're trying to get to some city hall building to handle some paperwork since we're just arriving in the city. Someone told me it was really big and we've been wandering around ever since. I thought I might see the "really big" building from up here more easily." I explain warmly, fixing everyone with as charming a smile as I can manage.

  This could be going a lot worse, honestly. Maybe there is something to the whole "right to roam" thing. I should do this more. Good way to meet people while cutting out the awkwardness of starting a conversation with a stranger.

  "Paperwork for arriving in the city..? Probably the public service guilds, I would think, right, Pa'?"

  I freeze for a moment, hearing them refer to their father by the same term I use. It hits me a lot harder than I would have thought it might, but I manage to push it behind a mask.

  "Think so. You are mighty close, actually." The father rises after draining a mug of something that smells flammable, even from this distance. He points down the road we were already traveling down to probably the single largest individual building I've ever seen. "That there is what you're looking for — if not they'll be able to direct you where else you specifically need to go in case you're really looking for something odd. You'll want to get going though. With night falling they'll be closing up shop in the next hour or so." His pointed, satin-furred ears flick in the direction he's indicating.,

  I get a big goofy smile, thrilled to have been in the right and absolutely planning to rub it in Lilly's face. "Thanks very much!" As I turn to go, I realize I've been terribly rude, so I spin back around and offer my name and my thanks again before hauling myself over the ledge and dropping down the side of the building again. I intended to just drop and glide, but my messed up wing obviously fails to grab air, so I have to awkwardly flail to slow my fall before landing hard — the impact jarring my knees up my spine and into my teeth.

  "Ayre! What is wrong with you?"

  "Are you alright, Ayre? That looked like it hurt."

  The two wildly different responses add up pretty well, so I ignore Lilly and answer Olly instead. "I'm fine. Just need to walk it off. Forgot I couldn't glide anymore. I also know where we're going, and I was already moving us in the right direction. Climbing the building was entirely unnecessary Lil, I'm holding you responsible here."

  My blame shifted to Lilly, I stretch, arcing my back and spreading my wings wide, arms over my head. It feels great. What little stress I put on my joints in the landing is already soothing as more Ignia courses through my body to get to its job of fixing me up.

  "So, seriously, though, Ayre. I know you said you didn't want a glamor but stuff like that is going to go above and beyond to get your noticed and draw eyes to us, too!" Lilly all but hisses a whisper at me, sounding a little legitimately miffed.

  And…I have to admit she's right. Internally. I don't have to admit it externally. I'll try to be a bit more subtle moving forward. "It's not like anyone was going to miss me, Lilly. If anything, me doing things like this will draw eyes away from both of you to go be normal together. Let's get going. Those nice people up there told me that the place should be closing soon."

  Demonstrating my now-certain confidence, I head off down the road, smiling at each of the passers-by who are openly looking at all of us in turn to put a friendly sort of punchline on our exchange with an embarrassed shrug that mollifies everyone I can see.

  Good, we can push onwards without any worries. Lilly is worrying over nothing.

  It's another ten minutes of walking before we arrive in the area in front of the huge government building and Lilly boggles at it.

  "I think that's the biggest building I've ever seen that isn't literally a castle. I mean, it basically is a castle. Castles are where governments keep their stuff, so it suits, I guess. It's just a castle that counts the entire city as its grounds. I wonder if they have a king or queen or something more neutral?"

  She gestures broadly around at the entire building. Its front facade is covered in windows with an overhanging roof and carved stone columns supporting it. On the front face I only see a single entryway, though, and it's where the wide, ringed, steps all seem to be leading up to layer by layer — with each layer being devoted to greenery, seating areas, statuary, and performers. There's even some food stands around, which immediately remind me that I haven't eaten anything meaningful since breakfast aside from that drink Lilly gave me. My stomach audibly grumbles a complaint.

  "Should we eat something before we go in there? I'm starving."

  "Weren't you the one who just said they'll be closing soon? Let's just get this over with. it's probably gonna be boring, so I want to be done with it. We can eat afterwards."

  "Have to agree with Lilly, Ayre. Though not about the boring thing. I'm looking forward to seeing how all of this works."

  Lilly stares at him in disbelief, "What is there to be looking forward to? We're probably just going to end up sitting across the desk from a bored accountant who will be rushing to get done with us. I've read all kinds of stories with things like this. They're usually presented as a minor villain of sorts — someone so tied down by bureaucracy that they're a soulless husk of a person who just pushes papers around all day. Nothing at all worth being excited for."

  When the word "soulless" passes her lips, I see Olly flinch. He tries to hide the reaction with an amiable shrug, but with his condition leaving him how it has — quite literally lacking a soul — it definitely hit him somewhere hard. I'll have to make a point of talking with him after this.

  To Lilly's credit, she actually notices the shift in his mood and start to watch him closely, obviously trying to sus out exactly what just caused his mood to change. I'll need to talk to her too. Lilly would never do it intentionally — there's not a mean bone in her body at any scale — but her…unique…views on the world through her lens as a historiad have caused a lot of friction between the two of them.

  Namely because, as she just demonstrated, for most of the stories she mentions, Olly would be a very suitable candidate for a villain to be overcome or a monster to be slain.

  I frown, watching him stride his way up the stairs with his mood dragging behind him in the shape of a five foot tall, mostly clueless, fairy.

  Still not out of the weeds for our interpersonal drama, I guess. More things to learn, more things to manage.

  But first things first, it's time to discover what passes for "paperwork" in the real world beyond my home.