When we reach the clinic, we have to wait for a mother and daughter to leave, before Nina waves us inside. Beth stands straight up when she sees me. Alarmed, but clearly not shocked by my injuries anymore.

"What was it this time?" she practically sighs as she plops me up on the table and begins to look me over. That weird spinning, flipping feeling has slowly gotten better, I don't feel so dizzy anymore...

"There was an accident in the workshop." Eryk pauses, frowning at me for some reason, then tells her. "Some molten slag suddenly exploded, and Aria ran into danger. She saved Patrick's life." He smiles a little, before pushing the expression back off his face. "But she got sprayed with molten metal slag to do it. If it wasn't Aria, she would be dead."

"If I wasn't me I wouldn't have done it..." I mumble at the floor, but that just gets an unamused look from Eryk, so I keep my gaze aimed away from him.

"Oh..." Beth's expression is complicated when I look her way. Shocked, scared, relieved, proud... It's hard to tell what she's thinking when the look in her eyes keeps changing like that. "That's... umm..." Her lips move to start forming words a few times, but she keeps stopping, then starting over again. What is she thinking about...?

"Beth?" Eryk questions when she doesn't really give any response. His tone gets her to turn back to him, and she quickly straightens herself out.

"I see. That was really dangerous, Aria." She starts with a scolding tone, but there's no feeling in her words, like she's just pretending. Why would she even...

Oh-

Now I get it. She knows I'm a rail unit now and I've told her about my duty to protect humans, so she knows exactly why I did what I did. There's no reason to scold me for it.

But she can't let Eryk know that. That's why she's stuck...

Clearing her throat, she pushes on, much more convincing this time. "I know you've been through a lot before, but that doesn't mean you can be rash. None of us like seeing you hurt, Aria. Do you understand?" This time, she actually means it, so I try to be sincere.

"Yeah, I know. I'll try to be as careful as I can." I mean it too. If I hadn't been preparing for our upcoming tests, I would never have caught onto the explosion so soon. As troublesome as air mana is, it can be incredibly useful too. I wouldn't have had enough fire mana to avoid terrible injuries either.

"Good. Now, you got like this from molten metal?" Of course, her face shows a bit of dull astonishment as she speaks. When she begins to go over my injuries, I relax and let her work.

Like I thought earlier, my injuries really aren't that bad. For those few moments, I had at least ten fire mana. About double what I can hold normally, which is why my barrier feels kind of... bruised or something. Still, ten fire mana saved me from fatal burns. Well, that special water mana helped a lot too, since it let me get the burning metal off as fast as possible, or it would have had time to burn me way worse.

In the end, I made it out with a bunch of burns over my arms, legs, and some on my stomach and chest, minor enough they'll be gone in a day or two. Since they don't even hurt that much, Beth dabs some ointment on them. That's all she has to do before she's finished, and she sends me home.

She does keep her promise from the last time I got hurt at work, and asks Eryk a ton of questions about the safety measures he's taking in his shop, and charges him a bunch more money for my treatment.

I don't know if I should apologize for that, or if it's better to just go along with it...

"Bye, Miss Beth," I call as we leave, and Eryk sends me home with John, while he starts on his way back to the refinery to deal with the rest of the cleanup.

John carries me, going most of the way through town in our usual, comfortable silence. I keep an eye out, as I have been, and eventually do point him off onto a side street, when we're coming up on someone suspicious, leaning against the side of a building a couple blocks ahead. Though they're mostly covered up with a raggedy cloak that matches similar ones on plenty of other people in the street here, the edge of their collar beneath is wrong. The hem too neat. A detail only Chisa can make out with her incredible eyes as she flies overhead.

Since I've never let us run into any of the suspicious people while we've walked, I still have no idea if any of them were actually dangerous or anything, but... what's that saying? Right, 'better safe than sorry.'

It's definitely better to never meet them. I've had Chisa's help a lot lately. I considered getting another bird to help so I'm not relying on her all the time, but I don't know where I would search for one that would be willing to help me out...

I'm eventually brought out of my own head when John speaks, not long before we make it home.

"I'm sure the others chewed you out already, so I'll just say, you have to be more careful, Aria. Your habit of running head first into danger is going to keep getting you hurt. You know that, right?"

I pause, just for a moment, to think how neither Eryk or Beth actually scolded me that badly either, before answering, "I'll try, but..." I shrug. "I just have to sometimes. With the things I can do, I'm the only one who can help, you know?" Like Eryk said, anyone else would have died. Even if it's just one person, and even if I do trade my life for theirs, it would still be worth it. Their lives have value mine doesn't.

Not that I want to die... If I died, I know a lot of people would be sad, and I'd never get a chance to help anyone else, ever again. Like Reena. What would she do without me? Try to find someone else to help with her plan?

While John sighs at my response, that random thought sets my mind wondering. What would she do? She's given the impression that I have her full support, but does have a backup plan for when I die in battle, or even from an accident like earlier?

Hmmm...

I'm still wondering about that when we get back and I wave John goodbye for the night. Then I turn around, and head inside. It's louder in here than it used to be. Especially since it's barely after ninth bell. That means a lot of the kids stayed home, or came home earlier today than before.

In the weeks since the new caretakers came, everyone's started to get more energetic and way happier. They don't have to struggle just to survive from one day to the next, and at least so far, no one has been taken away from us. And no one has been beaten...

I grimace at the stairs under my feet when I remember that, before shaking away the thought. It's not like they haven't punished anyone when they were bad, but a few harsh scoldings, 'time outs,' and a single spanking when one boy punched another, has kept everyone mostly in line so far. Though Marrianne is here the most, Kerra feels like the one in charge when she's around. She did say she has her own children at home...

Reaching our door, I go inside and see Helen is already inside, sitting cross-legged on her bed and carefully sewing a shirt. We exchange quiet greetings, but her eyes don't move from her work, so I don't disturb her and go over to my own bed. I take some time unpacking my things from my basket, then get to my homework.

Sitting with my legs hanging over the side of my bed, I shuffle my papers and start to read. It's more economics today, talking about contracts between businesses. It seems kind of complicated at first, but ends up being easy to understand. Since it's in Claire's handwriting, she must have written it up herself in a way I'll get.

My reading speed has definitely been increasing lately, and I don't trip over the longer words as much, so I end up making it all the way through surprisingly fast. When I set the papers down beside me on the bed and mentally check the time, it's hardly after the tenth bell.

"Oh right, I got home early today..." I mutter. I give myself a once over when I think back on what happened, and prod at a few of the holes burned through my clothes.

There are so many little spots scorched and burned through the fabric, it probably wouldn't be worth the time or materials patching them. So I guess I'll scrap them for patches and replace them with something else instead.

Why do I keep destroying my clothes...? My face falls with a sigh. At least they're all peasant clothes that are easy and cheap to replace. I don't know what I would do if I destroyed expensive clothes like Eryk has.

Well, it's just one more thing to do over the weekend. For now, I turn my thoughts inward. I have to keep meditating and practicing with mana if I want to get good enough controlling it to survive. I did well earlier, controlling as much as I did as well as I did.

It doesn't really occur to me much unless I think about it, but I have gotten a lot better. It used to be a fight just to push and pull my mana around inside me, but now I can do so much with it, all at once. Closing my eyes and nodding to myself slowly, I try to go back over the feeling from earlier today, how it felt in the moment, and focus on that as I continue my practice.

The first thing that becomes apparent is how immensely useful it is. That feeling, the way I worked under pressure, serves as a huge help and immediately pushes me forward with my practice far more than I've managed lately. It was dangerous and painful, but turned out to be unexpectedly useful too...

Even now, there were still problems. Places I know I could improve. Going over those moments, there were a few gaps, spaces here and there where I had to switch between focusing on one thing and the other, like right when I had to grab the special water mana to use it. If I could close those gaps and delays, wield my mana faster and more precisely...

Like mastering any weapon, it takes a ton of practice. So I keep practicing.

Since I have the time, I decide to bathe and do laundry tonight, and head downstairs a bit before Emily gets home. When I pass Eve on the stairs, I let her know and ask if she'll get the water. That'll save me having to find a way to do it myself.

Then I walk into the storeroom and search until I find the big wooden basin we've been using. It's in a completely different spot though and takes some time to find, despite its size. I think the caretakers have reorganized everything in here since they started.

I'm hauling the basin along with me when Kerra stops me by the stairs. She puts one hand on my head lightly, the other holding a broom at her side. "What are you doing with that, little one?"

I heft it up at my side as I answer, "We're going to bathe."

For some reason, Kerra pauses, her chin lifting like she's thinking about something, then she asks, "Do you need help?"

"Help?" I blink. "No?" Right about then, the front door opens and Eve comes in with a bucket of water and a younger boy at her side. I've started to look back up at Kerra again, before I stop. Didn't I see that boy earlier? It didn't even register at the time, but that same boy was beside Eve on the stairs.

"Mm?" Kerra makes a sound, while I notice Eve looking up at the woman nervously. Putting aside the boy for now, I ask Eve if something is wrong, which just has her shake her head, the nervous look disappearing... mostly. "So..." Kerra speaks to Eve this time. "What are you up to?" Her tone is noticeably more stern now though...

"N-nothing," Eve denies immediately, "just, umm, helping Aria." I glance between the two of them as Eve speaks, confused. Why does she seem so different than normal? Because of Kerra? The woman pauses, her lips pursing for just a moment, before she shrugs.

"Alright. Go on, girls."

"Sure," Eve responds, and keeps her head down as she moves, bumping me lightly with her shoulder to get me to come past Kerra with her. The boy follows, and we start on our way up the stairs. Partway up, I throw a glance back at Kerra, catching her planting her hands on her hips and sighing. Then she looks and spots me watching. The odd, amused grin that forms on her lips makes me even more confused before I'm jostled up the stairs again.

"What was that about?" I ask when we make it to the second floor.

"She doesn't like me," Eve kind of groans and grumbles at the same time.

"Huh? Why not?"

She takes some time before answering this time. "Well, she's just kind of strict and mean..." Just from the way she says it, that obviously isn't the whole story. I let it go for now though, because there's one other thing I really want to know.

"Anyway, who is this?" I ask and point at the boy. He's obviously younger, probably five years old, and has pretty bright blond hair. It hasn't been cut recently, so it's pretty similar to Eve's. They even have the same kind of faces-

Oh.

"This is Ralph, my little brother," she introduces him right as I figure it out myself. If I'd taken any time to look earlier, it would have been obvious. I brush it aside now, and smile back at him.

"Hi, Ralph, I'm Aria. Eve's told me about you." What did she say again? Hasn't it mostly been complaints that he's been a brat lately? I shouldn't mention that... "Uhh, it sounds like she really likes you!" Before he can really respond, I end up tripping because of my bad hold on the big tub while I'm turned around and distracted.

I stumble a step before Eve lurches and catches me with one arm. A moment later, the bucket in her other hand follows her movement and swings. The water sloshes out, catching the side of my shirt and skirt, and spattering out over the floor. I wince at the freezing cold running down my leg before pushing the feeling away.

"Whoops..." Both of us have similar responses, and we pause for a bit, watching the water spread across the floor around our feet. The other kids in the hall back up a few steps, before I speak up again. "Uhh, I have a bunch of rags and stuff under my bed, maybe we could use them?"

"Y-yeah, let's do that," Eve agrees.

Just as we're starting to move again, someone clears their throat behind us. Loudly. We all stop, turning back slowly to find Kerra right there behind us, at the top of the stairs. She holds out a mop in one hand, and a bucket in the other, then arches one eyebrow.

That's all she has to do. "I'm sorry," I start by apologizing and bowing as much as I can with the tub in my hands. At least it isn't like before. Mister Fredrickson would have beaten me...

"Just be more careful next time," Kerra responds. Her slightly scolding tone has me lowering my head. She really does remind me of Irene...

We have to stop and clean up before she lets us continue. I end up fighting with the mop that's taller than I am and learning how to wring it out into the bucket, but with Eve's help, we eventually manage to get the water up off the floor. Kerra watches and instructs me on how to do it since I clearly don't know, then takes us all the way back downstairs to dump the water outside and put everything away. It's only after that, that she tells us we're free to go. I get what Eve means about her being strict...

When we all make it back to the stairs, I grumble to myself. One little mistake just cost almost a half a bell of time to clean up...

We're most of the way back to our room before I realize that bigger mistakes can have way bigger consequences. Spilling molten metal is a lot worse than spilling water...

I guess if it's just some time to clean up and no one gets hurt, then it isn't so bad.