Glenn and Zerine.

“I filled this today.” The woman in front of Glenn says and hands him a document. It is the usual citizenship paper that this creepy alchemist Aclysia designed. That is of course an opinion Glenn keeps to himself, saying it aloud would be his end. “The people there said you are in charge afterwards.” “P-pretty much.” He stumbles as he looks over the document. He always is a bit nervous when dealing with people.

“It says you were a dancer in Brikstrat.” Glenn’s eyes dart up for a second and spy at the woman’s cleavage. Her service surely had been in high demand. “If you want to follow that occupation, I suggest that you settle over in Erschja. It is the district for the more.” He clears his thought, “Free minded people.” The woman nods, “That sounds great. What do I need to do?” As she says so, she bends over the oaken table, her breasts pressing against the surface as she takes back the paper from Glenn, who is barely able to concentrate on her eyes.

“Ehem, you, you need to write your name into this list, please.” Glenn says and points at a list right to the door. “Afterwards you settle there, take whatever house is empty. After you did so inform the local branch of the ministry of control about your address.” The later was something they only recently added. As usual with these organizational things, it was a suggestion of Aclysia. Her District is still empty but the amount of contributions she is making is only overshadowed by Tarzana, whose cult is pretty much what is holding the schooling effort as well as the administration of the city together.

Catherine and her mages inventions are doing their share as well. He and Zerine on the other hand seem to be just ‘there’ – only acting as proxies between the services. Speaking of Zerine he is going to have a meeting with her in the next hour, so he should probably start moving. The woman says goodbye, writes her name on the list, and leaves afterwards.

Glenn pulls a bit of dried pork from under his table and starts chewing. It is one of the luxuries he allows himself these days. After he ran away from his mistress and somehow managed to attract more and more people of the same mind around him, he was stuck in the wilderness for the better part of fifteen years. Out there best you get is deer, most of the time rabbit, but pork and cow where two sorts of meat you rarely get your hands on. Unless you get to steal it.

With Brikstrat gone however, the rebuilding efforts have been slowed to close to a halt, the outer agricultural districts laid in their sphere of influence now. Including the cattle. Much to Glenn’s surprise, many of the men had nothing against returning to the fields. He asked a few of them and they said that, as long as they were treated right, they had nothing against the work itself. That made somesense to him, but he himself would not return to being a drone even if he was to be treated right. However, that is another matter entirely.

He throws the rest of the dried meat into his mouth and then stands up. On his way out, he grabs the metallic bottle he bought the other day. The thing is, in his opinion, the perfect example of the luxury they are currently experiencing. From the outside it looks a lot like a metal tube, only the bottleneck and a cog like piece under it are a bit weird. What it does is provide him with water wherever he goes. Catherine explained it to him when he asked, he didn’t understand all of her science talk but he roughly got the idea.

In essence, the bottle creates an ice block inside and then he can use the cog at the top have it be heated to certain temperatures. Sadly, this wonderwork ran out of energy after a day or so of using it but thanks to some ‘battery’ it regained its energy after being placed on a charger. The items are massively popular and more of its kind are created every day. Although the supply is still limited. Glenn himself has to thank his ludicrous pay as a District Leader that he is able to afford such and other items ahead of time. The cold weather in mind he turns the cog high and walks out of the building.

In the Erschja District Zerine is drowning in her work. The office in a dome at the heart of the city was orderly and empty when she moved in. High ceiling, a magical lamp in the form of a chandelier hanging from it, the marble walls sprinkled in different colours from the toned windows. Now however…

“What is that?” She asks and points at one of the pillars of documents on her table. Amelia looks over and reads: “Asking for materials.” “And that?” She points at another pillar on her table. “Same.” Amelia answers, a bit confused. “AND ALL OF THOSE?” Her voice is a panicked high-pitched shriek. Amelia holds her ears and looks over the pillars that are scattered all over the office floor. Some of them are so high that the girl has to get a stool to spy at the topmost document. “Materials, Materials, Materials, Ma – Oh not wait these are new citizen applications.”

“Why do they need so much stuff?” Zerine falls into her chair. “Artists like to create and are a bit weird. At least that is what Lady Catherine told me.” Amelia says and puts the stools back in front of the empty shelves where she took it. “I thought I am here to fight for equality.” She cries and falls forward on the table. A gesture she immediately regrets as the worse and still remaining torture wound send a wave of pain through her chest. She clenches her teeth and blinks the tears away.

“Lady Zerine, ehm, we are all already equal by Lord-Regent Ulal’s law, aren’t we?” Amelia asks. “Yes, but many of the man are still angry and many of the woman are still feeling superior.” Zerine answers and flops with her hand. “Are you sure?” Zerine looks at the thirteen year old. “Yes. Well, discussions aside you are a godsend, I need help with this.”

Amelia lowers her head and hits the ground with the tip of her left foot a few times. “Actually…” ‘Oh, please no.’ “Lady Catherine sent me to give you this.” She takes a stack of paper out of the satchel that hangs from her shoulder and puts it on the only empty part of her desk. “These are items we want. The very least of our mages are able to create, most only able to enchant, therefore we need the base from you.” Zeline picks up the paper with jittery hands. Detailed designs with numbers and payments for many different items. “I will try to get to it.” “Lady Catherine was quite insistent….” Zerine gulps, she doesn’t want to incur the wrath of the witch on herself. “I will get to it as soon as possible, tell her that.” Zerine corrects her former statement. Amelia nods and leaves.

The footsteps lose themselves in the hall. Zerine, surrounded by stacks of papers sniffs and starts to cry. “What was I thinking when I stepped in front of the people.” She laments, “Stupid girl.” Back then, she was so confident and now she is unable to work with all of these documents. Maybe she should get her mother to help. No that was impossible, her mother was part of the people that still tried to rebuild Brikstrat and the two of them do not speak much since Ulal welcomed them.

Zerine hears someone clear her throat and only now realizes that Glenn stands in the doorframe. “I-I knocked.” He defends himself as Zerine turns crimson, not in anger but in shame. She buries her face in her hands as Glenn slowly walks closer. “You, ehm.” She hears the sound of paper rustling, he has even more work for her. “You need help with this?”

Zerine raises her head. Glenn gives an unsure smile as he fails to put the papers he carries with him back into his satchel. She sniffs and weakly answers “Yes.”

An hour later the workload has diminished immensely. “See, with Aclysia’s system you just have to file in material here and give it to somebody of the local ministry of communication. They will then give the request to the traders or the mages, depending on the material and then you will get an answer from them.” Glenn explains, his usual nervousness almost gone as he concentrates on the paper.

“O-okay.” Zerine says and takes up a pen to work on that. Glenn goes back to another stack of papers and works on that. He is completely focused on the task. Zerine, uncomfortable with the creeping silence, attempts some small talk. “So, ehm, what did you do before you came here?” Glenn hesitates in his work. Slowly he says, “I was a runaway.” “Oh.” Zerine knows he doesn’t want to say more but she still got to ask, “What did you run away from?”

“Nothing, I guess…” Glenn scratches the back of his head, “Sorry, that sounded a lot more confusing than I wanted it to.” He apologizes, “So, ehm, it is not that interesting, but…well…I come from a line of drones and I didn’t really managed to kill my personality like required…so it was either acting all the time or running. I am not a good actor.” He forces a small laugh but Zerine looks at him with a shooked expression. “A drone? That is one of the inhumane traditions we have in Estara.” “Well, yeah, kinda.” Glenn says an tries a calm tone. It doesn’t work on Zerine, “How do you not hate us for doing that to you, your family?” she asks. “Do you hate every man for torturing you?” Glenn sighs and returns the question. “Well, ehm, no…” “There you have your answer. I know not all women are slavers just as you know not all men are rapists.”

With another insecure laugh Glenn gets back to work. So does Zerine, but the silence still bothers her. She tries another, hopefully less heavy question. “Did you know Lord Ulal before all of this?” She asks. Glenn takes a deep breath and looks around. Then he walks to the table and says, in a very quiet voice, “I knew him before he took that new name.” “Why are you whispering?” Zerine wants to know. “Because this is a dangerous topic. Uklag was a demon in human skin and Ulal is just a monstrosity.”

Zerine’s eyes open wide. The man that saved her, no, the whole city from degradation, a monster? “How dare you say such a thing?” She asks with slight anger, “You asked if I knew him before this. Not very well, no, but neither do I want to.” Glenn is genuinely afraid as he says that and Zerine stays silent, worried by his tone. “When I met him for the first time he exchanged our labour against sex with his slaves.” Zeline raises her hand to her mouth as Glenn continues whispering. “I don’t know how he got them. He married demon’s. I know you will condemn us for this but we continued to work with him, after ten years in the wilderness we wanted each bit of luxury we could get. Then someday he appeared before us as what you see today and stormed into a cave he had us dig free. He returned with Aclysia, the witch of her south herself. He ate a man’s soul without remorse. He is a monster.” Glenn repeats. “Why do you tell me this?” Zerine asks in a bewildered toned. “Because you need to know. Don’t get me wrong I will work for him and this city because I believe in the ideals he represents. But don’t believe for a second that he believes in these ideals himself. All he really cares about is himself and power.”

“Yeah, isn’t he interesting?” A voice asks from the ceiling. Shocked the two stare at Alratha who sits at the top of the chandelier. Glenn’s mouth is wide agape as all colour drains from his face. In a panic he darts for the exit where Erica and Reinal stop him, wearing facemasks that hide their true identity. “How did you?” Zerine asks as Alratha jumps down, her fluid movements underlined with small giggle.

Her dagger twirling in the air as she absent-minded throws it into the air with her left hand she grins at her. “I have my ways to get everywhere. Don’t think about it too much.” She says, “But, wow, Glenn, I didn’t expect you to have the balls to do this this soon.” She praises the chalk white man who slowly stumbles away from the two masked women at the entrance and back into the room. He trips over his own feet and crashes very inelegantly into one of the remaining stacks of paper. Alratha chuckles, “Wow, have fun cleaning that up later.” She says. “Don’t you think that is enough, teacher?” Erica asks. “Don’t spoil my fun child.” Alratha sheathes her dagger and walks to Glenn. He doesn’t even try to get away anymore, simply starring at her with fearful eyes. She squats down at his side and tips her finger against the tip of his nose. “Bop.”

Glenn is now as confused as he is afraid. “Relax; I am not going to kill you.” She says, “Ulal doesn’t want that. I am just here to warn you. Also because I get off on the fact that you almost pissed yourself.” She makes an unhappy expression. “But really, you don’t even mention me? I mean I wrung out a good deal of your people back in the bath…I miss those baths, Saeletra approves of such debauchery. Did not know you were a drone. Interesting really.”

She gets up and leaves behind a Glenn that is slowly regaining colour. “Zerine~ I think you only briefly saw me before.” Alratha says, “You are the messenger.” The brunette says, her voice a bit shaky. “Yep, Alratha my name, killing is my game. So to tell you the complete truth: Ulal is an absolute monster.” Alratha shrugs, “But he is going to make sure you both get what you want. Just wanted to tell you that. Students, we are moving the class!” Alratha struts out of the room. Glenn and Zerine only hear one of the masked women groan and say, “We are not going to follow that guy again are we?” and a pained shriek that follows.

Glenn slowly rises from the mountain of paper he created when fell. His legs still a bit unsure he starts to organize the papers. “So, ehm…sorry if that burst your bubble.” Glenn apologizes, “Better sooner than later…” Zerine says slowly and continues her perplexed staring at the entrance. “To be honest though, it feels great to not be the only normal person stuck with these.” He makes an unsure gesture, “just these.”

That makes Zerine chuckle nervously a bit, “I can imagine…so, can you help me with this?” she asks and for the rest of the day they try to get a bit more of normality into their lives.