“I knew it would never be easy,” Zlea muttered. He stood up and walked to his room, a muffled click signaling him locking his door.

Buck sighed, taking a bite of fish from his plate, “Don’t mind that bastard. He gets his britches in a bundle whenever something goes wrong; surprising considering his previous career choice,” he said.

“We never did get to know how he got his hands on a Purist standard procedural document. I assume it has to do with his old occupation?” Kain asked, eying Buck.

He nodded, “I know. He was a Yesli agent before he came here, but he moved here a decade ago, though his old buddies in that quagmire got him a copy of the standard procedure for extradimensionals. It’s not even a year old, so that’s a blessing right there; normally those uptight hacks in Yesli don’t… like to have their standard procedures exported to resigned members. Letting this slip through means that it’s probably not that important.”

“Wait,” Luna said, “How was he an aj… age… ajent for those people? Isn’t he a demi?” Luna asked skeptically.

Valerax giggled a bit and nodded, “For here, in Olsvania, that’s very true, but in other places with different denominations of purism, Zlea would get other reactions. Yesli, for example, treats mixed humans as a unique race of humans made by their god to ensure humanity’s survival or some other nonsense. In some of the more remote areas, such as Olin, mixes are considered divine angels of love and fertility. It’s quite fascinating to me, but we have more important matters,” she said seriously, getting a nod from Buck.

At that moment, Gus climbed down the ladder and landed on the concrete floor of the basement, stretching out his limbs, “I agree. That guy, Phil, is a Speaker. Long story short, they’re a group of esoteric mana-wielding monks who aim to bring peace and reason to the world. Unfortunately, their original goal has been mired in the politics the world is full of these days. For that reason, they are in deep with the Purists and the Purity Union especially. The point is, they now know you three are extradimensionals and I don’t think they’ll hold back until you three have left or are dead. Luckily, I’ve been planning for those three to get out for a while and adding two humans and a floating crystal shouldn’t be too hard to arrange. I know you three are confused, but I have some calls to make. Ask Val or Buck about anything confusing,” he rambled. Once finished, he climbed up the ladder as fast as he came, leaving the extradimensionals confused.

Buck sighed, “Looks like you three are gonna be joining our little escape attempt. That’ll be a lot of fun,” he said with a smirk, “But you three need to be caught up first, so let’s get this straight. The plan revolves around a little… legally grey-”

“Illegal,” Valerax interjected.

“Legally grey boating group: Goblin and Gremlin Shipping. They used to be a normal small trading company under the Gold and Spice Company. After the Day of Purity, the partners went underground, ferrying demis out of Olsvania and into either Vitat or Rakei. We’ll be heading to Vitat for now, though I think Elder Valerax will be making an appeal to the abyssal species. Last we talked about it, we were going to leave in two weeks but we may have to shift the schedule based on what G&G want to do with three extradimensionals on board.”

Luna raised her hand, earning a confused look from both Valerax and Buck. Ythane laughed a bit as she gazed at their confused expressions, “She does that when she wants to ask a question. It is a habit she picked up from her ‘older brother,’ as she calls him,” Ythane explained.

Realization dawned on Buck and Valerax as they giggled, “Alright Luna, what’s your question?” Valerax asked in a matronly tone.

The fleshbender, for her part, nodded and looked at the two demi-humans, “What’s the Day of Purity? Also, what is a Vitat and Rakei? Also, what does elder mean? Are you calling Ms. Valerax old?” she asked in a flurry of questions.

Valerax’s smile seemed to crack a bit as she turned to Buck, fire in her eyes, “I don’t know, Luna. Is he calling me old? What do you say, Buck? Am I old?” In lieu of answering, he simply cleared his throat and turned away. Sighing in contentment, Valerax turned back to Luna, “It seems your last question must be saved for later, but the first two are much easier. The Day of Purity was… a massacre… For decades now Olsvania has been gradually shifting. Fifty years ago, you could see demis and humans acting entirely normal around each other with nary a hint of malice between them. Generally, anyway. Forty years ago, small bands of young men and women may pick on the occasional lone demi, throwing slurs and the like. Thirty years ago those small bands turned into large bands and gangs attacking small groups of demis. Twenty years ago, mobs formed to hunt down famous demis to burn and ‘cleanse.’ Ten years ago, a demi couldn’t be out without being in a large group and armed to the teeth. The culmination of… that… was the ‘Day of Purity.’ Giant mobs fanned out across the city and burned any demi they found. The only place they dared not venture was into the hallowed halls of the Spice and Gold Company and the slums. Not-so-coincidentally, it was not a day later that Pope Helix the first took power as the head of state. Ever since… demis are considered enemy combatants and are to be killed and ‘cleansed.’ No matter the cost. Zlea may be worried about the chances of another Day of Purity and the crackdown that will cause, but I think it’ll be the opposite. They have probably been building up their forces for these last few weeks in preparation of enacting martial law. After they stamp any resistance out of the slums, the mobs will roll in to tear the place up. When that happens, every demi will be killed. No exceptions,” she concluded, shivering at the thought.

“Ahem,” Buck vocalized, “As for your other question, Vitat is a archipelago nation that is friendly to demis while Rakei is a republic north of Vitat that is also friendly to demis. Both of them are north of Olsvania and Vitat is our destination.”

“Why can we not simply fly over the ocean? It seems like a waste to wait for so long,” Ythane inquired.

“You guys can… fly?” Buck asked disbelievingly.

Kain nodded, “Kind of. I can make things that can fly, but… I have a feeling that the Ether density is going to be a problem,” he admitted.

“Indeed, it will be,” Ythane agreed, “In… wherever we were, we had ample Ether to use in creations. Here, however, we will have to be mindful of how much Ether we use. Speaking of which, how much Ether does your collector have?”

Kain contemplated for a moment, then pulled his collector out from his amulet and pulled the top off to check the Ether level. “Hmm… We used a good third of what we had in here. Luckily, whenever we find whatever spot we need to, we can go back to… that place with the Ether we have,” Kain confirmed, putting the collector back into his amulet.

Valerax gazed at the exchange with curiosity, “What is that? Wait… is that a portable mana gatherer? I would say that it seems unwieldy, but being able to pull random things in and out of your metal satchel bag seems to negate such design flaws. How did you make such a thing, anyway?”

Kain shrugged, “I didn’t. I found it in… her home,” he said, pointing to Ythane, “She couldn’t use it, so I took it.”

Ythane took a moment before hesitantly nodding, “Indeed, I could not… use it in my current state. It was… for the sake of convenience.”

“I see. I won’t ask about it anymore. Anyway, we’re kind of stuck down here until we get the news from Gus. For now, I’ll be reading if you need me,” Valerax said as she walked into her room. After a moment, she walked back out with a thick book and sat on the couch reading.

Buck shrugged, “Anyway, to answer your earlier question: No, I don’t think trying to fly past the army of patrol ships would be a good idea. Anyway, I’m going back to what I was doing,” he said. He walked over to the armchair and fell into it and switched the television channel to another show.

Kain looked at Luna and Ythane and gestured to the hallway. They followed him as he walked into their room and closed the door behind him. “Well, we’re stuck down here for a while, so I think we should go through the stuff we’ve collected so far. Is that good?” he offered.

“Yep,” Luna said, “I think we should go through it and know what we have at our disposal. Ythane?”

“Agreed. You collected a large amount of items from… well, my old home, so I need to see what you took and what you left. After we are done with that, it may be a good idea to restart our Ether lessons.”

*=====*

“Finally home,” Mary groaned as she fell onto her bed. She threw off her coat and boots as she lay there, resting her eyes for a while longer. “Ugh… Why don’t I feel sleepy? I just want to take a nap... “

[...I can force a rest cycle onto your brain for a few hours if you want. The only problem is that I don’t know what other side effects could show if I did that,] Abe pointed out, [And besides, you have a day and a bit to make yourself as strong as possible. In my opinion, that should be our first priority.]

Mary groaned again, “I know that… but I feel exhausted. I began today in a cell, about to be sacrificed to some god, and ended the day with a human soul in my chest, a new mission, and a first step to complete it. Honestly, I need to take a breather or I’ll run myself ragged,” she explained.

[I get that, but we still have to be strong enough to survive the first step. In my opinion, we should try something with electricity.]

“Because it’s your specialty?”

[Yeah, because of that. I have an idea for something like that, but it may not be the best thing we can come up with together.]

“I’m listening. We have to start somewhere.”

[Alright, I think a good idea would be to make a few pylons that we can stick to anything and run arcs of electricity between to make either a trap or two connected weapons.]

“Hmm… that could be an idea, but there are a few problems I can see with it. The main one being the question of how we are going to get an arc of electricity running through two rods and not burn my hands.”

[Hmm… do you guys have rubber?]

“Yeah. Because rubber is going to stop electricity enough to kill someone.”

[Well, we kind of need a circuit to make this really work, so we don’t need to… hmm… we can work out the design flaws later, but what we need to focus on is how we get the materials to make anything.]

Mary sat up and walked over to her dresser. In one of the drawers was her wallet with all of her money in it, “I have some, but for metal with both enough strength to work as a weapon and enough conductivity to work as a method of moving electricity we will need to fork over some serious money. Luckily, there are some… less than legal ways to get money that are nonetheless moral,” she said.

[... You’re not becoming a-]

“There’s a fighting ring near the docks of the slums. Over there, most working class residents of the slums can go and watch people fist fighting or using mana weapons to fight. Luckily, we have an advantage in that regard,” she explained with a sinister grin.

[“The winning player always cheats.” I think that’s a quote from someone important, I don’t know. But that’s a good idea, let’s do it. When does it start? It’s already morning.]

She gave a muted laugh, “They’re always open, day and night, so we can go apply right now. Unfortunately, we will have to be sneaky about it; I don’t want to get caught by those Purity bastards,”

[Agreed.]