This world didn't exactly have "weekends", but there was a "temple day" that the population generally treated as free time. Selen's family didn't say anything about dragging her to the temple and many places seemed to stay open. The Two Hoots offices were an exception.

She went over to the Knowledge Society again, wearing less than she was really comfortable with. After being asked why she kept wearing her shirts, and seeing how other Aves dressed, she took to wearing just her talon-boots, skirt, and a broad sash. "The feathers cover everything," she told herself, and it was considered normal. Meanwhile, Tradewind had pointed her to a Craftsman with a supernaturally quick mending power.

Selen gaped as she watched the woman sew and seem to do half the cleaning and stitching by magic, restoring the bloodstained clothes perfectly. "What element is that?"

The cleaner looked smug. "It's not a spell; it's a feat. Get a couple of levels of the same class and you can start earning some benefits like this, too."

In any case, the doorman at the Society building wasn't there today. Instead her greeter was a young-looking Elven girl in simple tan linen, who bowed politely and asked, "Are you a member, ma'am?"

"I'd like to join, if you'll have me."

"You're in luck. Master Zahar is present. Come in, and I'll let him know you're here."

Selen went to the semi-public library and fished through the book on magic again, with a better understanding of it now. She fidgeted, feeling like she was waiting for an interview. "Need to get that Focus skill anyway," she said, and tried to ignore her worry.

A slender fox-man in a fine vest and a shirt with the sleeves rolled up walked in. This was one of the Vulin race, said to be natural acrobats "and less honest things" according to Bluemoon. This one looked slightly down at her and said, "Hello, young miss. I'm Zahar, here on a social call. What brings you to our facility?"

"I'm Selen, courier at the Two Hoots, and I've just started as a Mage. I want to get full access to your library, whatever you have beyond this one room."

"For magic?"

"For everything."

Zahar chuckled, and sent the Elf away to fetch snacks. "It's nice to see ambition and people gaining literacy before it becomes just another skill to check off. Have you studied anything interesting so far? I'm not sure the full library would benefit you much when you're just starting off."

Selen's left eye twitched as she remembered a particular high-school teacher who'd underestimated her. "Have you got anything to write on?"

He pointed out a chalkboard on the wall. Nice to see those around. He said, "What do you have in mind? Have you mastered long division yet?"

Selen's feathers flicked upward and she spoke innocently, taking up the chalk. "I had some thoughts about measurements." She wrote out some of the simplistic arithmetic symbols in common use, and the equivalent of an algebra expression for speed.

"You know the notation already? Hmm."

"Yes, but you could do more with it. Let's say you want to measure the total distance traveled by an object with a varying speed. What is speed, but the change in the distance traveled over time? We can express the relationship like so." She began drawing arcs and graphs and demonstrating the principles of calculus.

"I... am not sure I follow."

She drew rapidly. "That's fine. Let's consider a different problem, calculating the total mass of a cylinder. It can be thought of as a set of very thin circular slices, so if we find the mass of each slice and 'integrate' that set of numbers it tells us the total, just as though we were combining slices of time and motion. Now, for the mass of a single slice we begin by imagining a single radius like so... Am I going too fast?"

Zahar's ears flicked back and forth and he didn't speak until the Elf lady returned with a tray of pastries. He picked one up and stared at it as though it were a math problem.

Selen told him, "I'd also be interested in applying this line of thinking to other systems like foot traffic and finance. You could for instance find the total amount of water being processed per day by the city's water plant, by using the flow rate per minute."

"Um." The fox took a bite and stalled. "And you came up with this?"

"I feel that I'm only standing on the shoulders of giants."

#

Now that she had access to the main Society library, she took some time to learn another skill by intensive study. Not magic, though the topic was fascinating enough to help. Instead, she was trying to learn the skill called Focus.

Which meant learning to ignore the group's usual butler and doorman, along with Zahar's assistant when she dropped by specifically to distract the new student -- by Selen's request. Repeatedly she found herself sketching molecules while reading about this world's alchemy.

"What's that?" asked the Elf girl.

"It's called caffeine -- nope, nope, gotta study!"

"Are you sure you don't want to explain it?" she teased.

Selen snorted and buried her beak in her book. Only when the doorman came by to announce closing time did she snap the volume shut and quit taking notes.

[Skill gain: Focus (Sanity).]

"Finally!" she said. "Only took a few days though."

"Improving your skills becomes more difficult at higher base levels of practice."

She left the mansion and went out on a warm spring night. Grandbridge was mostly dark at this hour. She now knew why: "dungeons". As amazing as it was to have glowing crystals, the things only grew inside underground murder-mazes. So, her family and businesses like the Shrike had a few and could afford to replace them every so often as they wore out, but having them at every street corner was too extravagant. Gaslamps? Not invented yet. Burning lanterns? Seen occasionally, with magic assistance, but feared due to how many buildings used wood or thatch. So, she kept to open spaces and stayed ready to bolt into the sky.

As for the dungeons, she had enough restraint to hold off on exploring those until she had some more power. A dark street was enough of a challenge for her, so far!

She now had two of the Sanity skills, and Bluemoon had promised to find her a third skill to go with it.

#

The bird who arrived the next afternoon was a burlier brother of Tradewind and Bluemoon, with a few of his right-side feathers permanently grown pale. Uncle Meteor, who showed up in Selen's scan as a Fighter first and foremost. She had yet to see what anybody's second class was. "Heard you had some trouble on the road," he said, looking her up and down.

"It was pretty bad, but I bounced back more than I had a right to. So you were stationed in the west?"

"Of course. Just routine patrols; the lizards know better than to bother us. I hear you've been using your time well."

Bluemoon had one arm over her shoulder. "She's already flying, and making waves with the scholar types. But she needs some Sanity."

"Don't we all. Well then, we'll do it the easy way. Fetch Sunflare."

Selen didn't know what Meteor meant, but she grabbed the red-feathered messenger and met up again with her uncle.

Meteor led them to a dive bar outside the city, and started buying. The skill Meteor had in mind was "Endure Alcohol". He explained, "If you're not planning to raise your Health just yet, which you should do soon, this is an easy skill to trade in."

Sunflare added, "So that's what you had in mind. I hear it's traditional with Mages. Long study sessions, lots of 'potions'."

Meteor said, "Steel yourselves, cadets, for the night is young."