I was alone. With no plan in mind, I continued my frantic search for my mother whenever I had the energy until I couldn't run anymore.

What should I do? What can I do? I spent a lot of time in thought but I couldn't even think of the first step. It was getting dark now, the red-orange glow of the setting sun did nothing to help my anxiety. Remembering that the head priest wanted to see me I tried to find my way back to the tent a couple of times but I had no luck. My sense of direction wasn't great and I didn't pay attention to where I was going when I ran after my mother.

The tent might not even be up anymore. The crowds of people had thinned considerably, only the odd person or ragtag group walked the streets at this time. Once I calmed down I tried to think logically about the options I had available to me.

First, I could use the tower where the rite took place as a landmark. I didn't want to get anywhere near the tower again because of what happened but I could use it as a reference point while I try to memorise the city's layout.

Second, I could walk in one direction until I hit the giant walls surrounding the city, I could then walk along the inside edge until I found a gate that led out. Even if there was more than one gate it wouldn't be too hard to ask around until I found the right one.

Third, continue the search for a guard. I wasn't very comfortable asking for directions from random people off of the street especially now that it was getting dark, all it would take is trusting the wrong person once to end up in a horrible situation. Thus finding a guard was the safest way to get information and help.

Fourth, stay put. Mother works the forge in this city, maybe it'd be best to find somewhere to sleep and secure a meal. It'd be easier to find me if I hung around an Inn or tavern, plus it would be safer for me to be in a public place with many witnesses should something go wrong.

Would she even want to find me after today? The thought was nagging at the back of my mind. Other children complained about being struck by their parents but that was something I thought my mother would never do. If she just wanted to scare me or punish me then surely she wouldn't have taken it this far, she would've come back for me already. The more I let my negative thoughts fester the more sure of my abandonment I was.

If she didn't want to see me again then I would need to take care of myself, so securing food and shelter was my choice. I could decide on my next course of action tomorrow morning. When I went to stand up I realised I'd been chewing my sleeve again, I looked down at the slightly mangled cuff, I had already worn a small hole into the fabric and a piece of the stitching was coming undone. I needed to stop that, I never learned how to sew and I didn't know how much it would cost to replace my dress.

I wandered the streets looking for something that resembled an inn or tavern but wasn't having much luck, now and then I would use the tower to try and make a mental map but it was harder than I thought. The tower itself was taller than every other building but it was completely uniform, every side was just the same pure white. I could use it to get my bearings so that I didn't double back on myself but that was it.

Suddenly, a slow mournful song shattered the quiet of the city, it was the same wordless melody that Animus-blades emitted. Someone had manifested their Animus-Blade and judging by the volume they were probably as strong as the head priest.

It sounded agonisingly slow, the type of song that conjured images of a slow dance in the pale moonlight. Yet beneath it all, I felt something odd, like the singer was sometimes off-key, I listened closer and noticed a pattern in the discordant noises it had a steady rhythm like a heartbeat. It was so loud that I thought the song's owner would be right next to me but there was no one in the direction it came from. The urge to acknowledge the song was welling up within me but I wrestled to keep it under control.

I didn't know who they were but something about the song set me on edge, I really didn't want to meet its owner so I decided to power walk in the opposite direction. By some miracle fleeing from the mournful song led me to what appeared to be a commercial district. The wooden stalls that lined the street were mostly empty, the few that still had people manning them were in the process of packing up their wares.

At some point the song had vanished completely, based on my experiences so far I assumed that the wielder had stopped manifesting their Animus-blade, it did nothing to reassure me though. All it meant was that I had no way of knowing who or where they were, I could easily bump into them and not know until it was too late.

Logically a store owner wasn't any more or less likely to be an evil person but I still felt that it was safer to talk to one of them. All of the main shops looked closed leaving only the street vendors. The stalls sold a wide variety of foods, meat on sticks, pots of soup, various grilled vegetables and a couple of different types of baked goods.

I didn't realise how hungry I was until the concentrated scent of food assaulted me. I walked along the street while reading the prices of different meals. I immediately noticed how expensive everything was. A loaf of bread back home would cost ten copper but here it cost that much for a single slice. I reached for my chest, towards where my pocket should have been but only found bare fabric. It took a couple more moments of blind searching before it dawned on me, whatever small amounts of copper I had were in my favourite patchwork dress.

I was only going to be wearing this white dress for today so I didn't bother bringing anything with me. Well, I did bring something with me, my mind drifted to Alessia's blade that remained strapped to my thigh. For a brief moment, I considered selling it for a meal but the thought was banished once it entered my mind.

I wouldn't sell the knife even if I was going to starve, besides the fact that it was my only form of self-defence, it was also the only reminder of Alessia that I currently had. In the first place, it was unlikely that a store owner would barter their wares for a cheap and shoddy kitchen knife.

But then how do I proceed? In the end, I decided to just find the least busy stall and get some information. There was a clear winner for the most avoided stall, I had no clue why they were so unpopular. They were serving a thick and meaty stew with bread so dense that it looked like you could live for a day off of a single slice. It took me a moment to realise that it was also coincidentally the only stall run by an elderly man, every other stall was run by women aged somewhere between twenty and thirty. The women wore relatively plain dresses of different colours with a sash or ribbon tied tightly just under their breasts which gave them a much more pronounced look.

I walked up to the stall and the bald old man's hollow eyes lit up as I approached.

"Welcome little missy, welcome! What can I do for you? A growing lass needs to eat well."

A pang of hunger and guilt shot through me at once. His food did look good and he was nice but I didn't have any intention of buying his stew. The way his eyes sparkled made me feel like I was one of the first customers he had all day. I should've gone to a more popular stall, I would've felt guilty wasting their time with people waiting for service behind me but it was nothing compared to how bad I felt for this old man.

"I'm sorry, I don't have any money, I was just looking for directions."