Chapter 20: Chapter 19

Each day waking up at this gods forsaken time is a little easier. It might also help that my other body wakes up a lot later and can swap out at some point in the day. When I got to the Courier’s headquarters, I tried to see if Julious was there to ask what the other day was about- but he wasn’t there today. I even waited for fifteen to twenty minutes just to be sure but no dice. After that was morning training once again. It was pretty much the same, doing exercises to help us really trust in our footwork and balance- except today we did it with our training weapons. Not held, just sheathed to get used to the extra weight. Deryl also mentioned that at some point we should find some armor we were comfortable with to also get used to moving in that.

 

Normally when showering off, Charlotte lets me mind my own business- but today I think she was trying to see how much she could tease or provoke me before I said something. There were a couple reasons I tended to seclude myself before getting undressed and clean. Firstly, I rely on my boots and socks to hide my talons, and braids to weigh down my ear-feathers- both of which need to be removed so I can clean myself properly. Secondly, I try to act and dress very modestly (which the uniform is very convenient for), so I have little experience around people in advanced states of undress. Heck, I even go into my tiny restroom when changing at home so I don’t do so in front of my other self.

 

This means when I heard thumping and grunting quickly making its way up the floor-to-nearly-ceiling dividing wall between stalls, I panicked a little. The good result of this was that I quickly grabbed a towel and covered myself with it such that from the top of the wall my legs weren’t visible. The bad result was that my til shot out much like a surprised cat’s. However, cat tails aren’t extremely lethal and destructive weapons, so the wall behind me ended up with a large gash. 

 

When Charlotte’s head popped over the wall, she took a minute to look at me being mortified and the destruction of property that happened before muttering “Ahh, oops?” and dropping back down. I wasn’t bothered for the rest of the time we were there, and we elected to not mention what happened. On a side note, my tail is hydrophobic for some reason- which makes cleaning it difficult, if it ever gets dirty in the first place.  

 

After that fiasco, I mostly hid in the library while trying to ignore the guilt and read. I don’t really remember what I read, but my notes still appeared useful for when I went out to the prairies again today. I was able to push down the anxiety of being found out when I remember that my first class was the craftsmanship one. It was only day two, but classes here move fast, so we might be doing something hands-on anyway. 

 

When I got to the classroom where we met last time, a note on the door redirected the class to one of the workshops on campus. When I got there, I noticed each workstation had a basketball-sized cube of wood and some basic wood carving tools laid out on them. I grabbed one of the front stations and started looking over everything while waiting for the class to start. The teacher gave a brief overview of what each tool was intended for and that our goal was to carve a cup or chalice out of the wood. They would be making rounds to give advice and answer questions after a quick demo of their recommended starting procedure.

 

The teacher’s table had a large mirror above it, tilted so that we could see down onto the top of it easily while they worked. Their procedure was actually quite simple: use some charcoal sticks to sketch the general shape you wanted onto each side, take away chunks of material until you get close, then use finer chisels to smooth out the shape. Despite making a simple but nice goblet-thing, it only took them five minutes. I followed suit marking out a simple outline and tried soft-but-firmly tapping the chisel with the hammer. I put a bit too much power into it and ended up taking off more than I intended. It ended up being fine, where I was working was well into excess material- which was probably why they gave us blacks that big. After readjusting, I tried again a bit softer, and ended up undershooting by a lot and had to wiggle the tool out of the small crack it had made. 

 

I think my chisel might have been a little dull, because it kept taking off too much or nothing despite many attempts. When nervously looking to see how everyone else was doing, I was embarrassed to see almost everyone was getting more success. Time to cheat a bit. I grabbed the tip of my tail so the ridge was facing down and started scraping away at the wood with that. The difference was night and day. I didn’t need to put much if any effort in to easily rough out the shape I wanted. Even better, the teacher commended me for applying my Ability in such a creative manner and encouraged the rest of the class to try as well if they had such capabilities. Their phrasing could have been better because people with Abilities were trying them, and those without were giving me glares. I didn’t even say anything, why were they angry at me? By the end of the class soon after, I was the furthest along but still needed a ways to go to get anything good looking, and most others were still working on their first side.

 

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My other class for the day was history- which I was also quite excited for. When I entered, I noticed that like last time, there weren't that many people in attendance. I plopped down in a first row seat, waited for the class to start, and noticed the board up front had “Local Geography” written on it. I had a basic idea of how the city was situated: bay to the west, prairies with stands of trees interspersed to the north, and forest to the east and south.

 

After a few minutes, the teacher started, “Thank you for coming today- as you can see, we’ll be discussing the area around the city and why it has been left as it is.” From there it was almost a solid hour of lecture with a few chances for questions. I of course took notes, which can be summarized like this:

 

When it was first founded as The Academy, the city experienced a population boom. It had previously just had one wall meant to contain the city, but as more people came, it expanded outside until another was built for protection. This continued a few more times until we reached the current size. Even still, the city extended outside the walls. It has been deemed unlikely that another wall will be built- the amount of resources required increase by quite a bit as the radius increases, and as such would require logging and quarrying extensively. 

 

It was decided that maintaining the local ecosystem as it was, was more important than expansion due to the abundance of resources and studies that can be conducted in the area. The only exception is the slow expansion of farms to the north. Every few years, a commission is sent out to investigate the viability of expanding the fields and orchards- however in recent years, they are starting to get quite close to the aetherstream. While building directly under it would increase crop yield, it would also mean that there would be a massive uptick in monster interactions.

 

Monsters like to be places of high aether density, so congregate under the aetherstreams during migration. This was discovered quite early on in civilization’s development as many ancient ruins are built on them and bear characteristic signs of monster attack. In contrast, the oldest cities known are built fairly far from them and rarely have to deal with monsters.

 

It is also deemed important to keep as many farms close to the city as possible to decrease transportation and defense time. War hasn’t occurred in nearly a century, however tensions are high and increasing as time goes on. That doesn’t mean that skirmishes between ‘unidentified groups’ don’t happen- necessitating a quick response. Additionally, the prairies themselves are fairly dangerous when you get deeper into them. If you stick within a day or so of The Academy, the frequency of travelers and Vigilantes has discouraged animals from wandering during the day- but further out than that can be tempting fate. 

 

It is quite a similar story in the forests. In the general area of the city- especially on the roads- it is considered surprisingly safe from non-humanoid attacks. The density of the forest does make it enticing for bandits, outlaws, and other unsavory groups to hunker down in- requiring a sweep when attacks become too frequent too close. There are some aetherstream tributaries going over some of the deeper parts of the forest, again discouraging extensive expansion. 

 

Finally, in contrast, the bay is almost perfectly set up for trade. Unlike the other directions, the ocean within a good few dozen kilometers has almost no places of abnormally high aether. In addition, a natural reef prevents most large waves from entering the bay- which itself is quite large and deep. The city is positioned between two large countries, and acts as a neutral trading hub for them. To better facilitate this, there are a few boards dedicated to calculating the optimal tax rates to encourage trade while providing enough funding to run the city-state.

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