Luna groaned, whining in the early summer heat.

  “Ugh, sis, when you said you were going to Arden’s Adventurer’s Guild, I thought you were going to do something exciting.”

  I rolled my eyes and smiled.

  “Like, what, Luna? Did you think I was going to take you on a mission? You do know that even the seventh-years only have provisional licenses until graduation, right?”

  Luna bristled and blushed.

  “Shut up.”

  “I can only take requests when supervised by my mentor, you know? And Mother isn’t exactly interested in that part of my studies.”

  Luna rolled her eyes back at me, huffing lightly.

  “Why do you get to study under Mother directly, anyways? What are you even learning from her? You’re not even a ritual mage.”

  She clicked her tongue in annoyance.

  “Her tutelage is wasted on you.”

  I just laughed.

  I couldn’t say she was wrong, but her reaction was humorous on some level.

  “Oh, I wasn’t under the impression that you cared, Luna. Weren’t you the one last year talking about how you didn’t need Mother’s teachings and that you were going to apprentice under Avernus Sibyl? What was it you said you were going to do, hm?”

  I nudged her with my elbow, grinning.

  “Oh right, you were going on about how you were going to be the one to find the tombs of the Boy in White and the Eternal Voice, no?”

  She was fifteen and still dreamed of those silly fairy tales.

  Honestly, what a hopeless girl.

  Still, it was good to know that even in her juvenile, rebellious years, that little bit of her still remained.

  That little girl, all those years ago, who was so excited on every starlit night in that tiny, broken house to just read, dreaming of the world that was out there.

  Luna just shoved my arm away.

  “There you go again,” she frowned, “why do you and Mother keep dodging talking about whatever it is she’s teaching you? It’s not anything that secretive, is it?”

  She huffed, sniffling.

  “I’m old enough to learn about the Paradox Engine and stuff too. Why can’t I learn about how it works? Is it because of Nindo’s stupid apprenticeship thing? There’s no need to stick to that at home… we’re family, is it too much to ask for me to be able to sit in with you two every once in a while?”

  She finished with a pout.

  I smiled, waving her complaints away and just patting her on the head, ignoring her.

  “There, there, it’s alright.”

  If that was all it was – learning about the operations of the theoretical Paradox Engine, about all of the infrastructure and designs that Mother had built for Arden – I would be inclined to agree with her.

  But I wasn’t exactly learning about how to spontaneously cast Samsara for something so simple, was I?

  Luna did not need to learn about the Void.

  Luna did not need to learn about the Sixth Spell.

  She did not need to know about the truth of her sister and the terrifying truth of Ain Soph Aur.

  She did not need that endless existential anxiety over my life hanging over her with every passing second.

  I could just stay as her slightly annoying, embarrassing older sister for as long as she lived. Just a normal person who was there at the right place at the right time to whisk her away from that cold orphanage.

  Worrying was the duty of the older sibling. The younger one could just live.

  “Urgk, stop that!”

  Luna tried to push my hand away, embarrassed by the childish treatment.

  She failed, and was forced to miserably accept my headpats.

  “Why are you still like this!? I’m fifteen!” She grumbled underneath my palm, reddening.

  “I’m testing your physical strength, silly~” I giggled, “you’re still slacking a lot in the exercise department. You know if you want to become an archaeologist or something similar in the future you’ll need to pick up some stamina, right? You won’t last with those flimsy bones and muscles~”

  “You’re lying!” Luna scowled, furiously tugging at my hand again, which remained firmly planted on her head, lightly bobbing up and down, “you’re just doing this because you think it’s funny to treat me like a kid!”

  “Oops, you caught me,” I grinned, “what are you going to do about it? Push me away?”

  “I get it, shut up!”

  I laughed.

  Well, it was fun, but I couldn’t tease her forever.

  Before long, I had arrived at my actual destination.

  I opened the door to the guildhouse, stepping inside to get a small reprieve from the growing summer heat.

  “Oh, hey! If it isn’t little lady Symphonia!”

  A few rowdy voices greeted me, and more than a few eyes turned my way.

  “Boy, if those white robes aren’t a sight for sore eyes… and my broken arm… and my broken leg…”

  “Hey, Young Lady, mind signing my cast!?”

  Behind me, Luna clammed up and shrivelled.

  It seemed that despite her attitude, she was still nervous when it came to dealing with strangers and crowds.

  I chuckled awkwardly, waving at a few of the familiar faces as I passed.

  The constant rabble and scuffle of the guild had quickly grown familiar over the past few weeks.

  And in turn, I became a familiar sight for them.

  I approached the receptionist with a weary smile, halfheartedly greeting her.

  The woman winced, shifting uncomfortably as her fist tightened, a broken arm locked in place by a stiff cast.

  “Rough day?” I raised an eyebrow, “They still got you working even with a broken arm? That seems cruel.”

  The woman just shrugged, adjusting her glasses with her free hand.

  “Eh, I’ve dealt with worse injuries on the job. All the receptionists are semi-active or retired Adventurers anyways, we can tough it out.”

  She did grimace though.

  “Still kind of rough, though. We’re really busy and really understaffed at this time of the year… this summer in particular is even worse. Everyone’s getting way too rowdy this year. The construction, the rumours, the flood of people… might be the worst year on record, especially for a former border town.”

  My gaze flicked to her cast.

  “And I’m guessing that rowdiness caused that?”

  Her gaze followed mine.

  She nodded.

  “Yep,” she tried to roll her shoulder to show it off a bit, “happened last evening. Was on duty overlooking one of the construction sites, and then a bunch of cultists or something called in a raid and tried to take the site down. Thank Sol your mother was called on site fairly quickly, might have been a disaster otherwise.”

  I blinked.

  “Oh, so that’s why Mother was in such a rush yesterday.”

  I chuckled, smiling apologetically.

  “Sorry. We must be causing everyone in Arden a lot of grief with Mother’s designs.”

  The receptionist just shrugged and smiled kindly, waving my apology away.

  “No, don’t be. A few of us got scratches and bruises-”

  Sometimes, even after a decade of having lived in this world and coming to call it home, Manusyara’s common sense still baffled me.

  Something like a broken arm was considered to be no worse than a mild inconvenience for able-bodied adventurers, unless they were caught in a life-or-death battle where every small disadvantage mattered.

  “-but it’s nothing lasting, and all the construction got out intact. We’re lucky your mother drilled it into all of the engineers to always have the proper safety procedures and equipment set up.”

  She shook her head.

  “If anything, we should be thanking your mother. It’s thanks to her this little frontier town has turned into a bustling city. I would have gotten bored and run off to join the royal army or Sol’s knights or whatever it is ol’ Hywind did. And if I did that, maybe that construction site would have gone down, and we’d be delayed god knows how long. Glad I get to be here for the next step, and see Arden become the frontier of the future.”

  She smiled wryly.

  “Maybe we could afford to be a bit less excited about it all. I’ve been seeing all kinds of new faces recently, our staff is being pushed to its limits. A whole lot of people are getting excited about that new construction of your mother’s, eh, Young Lady?”

  I chuckled modestly.

  “Well, it’s not like I have much involvement in that. I’m not an engineer or a ritual mage or anything like Mother is.”

  “Well, can you blame us for being excited to talk about it, even if you’re not directly involved? The Paradox Engine… a source of infinite mana, after these two decades, we finally get to see it with our own eyes. Honestly, it still doesn’t even feel real just thinking about it. Infinite energy, it sounds like a kid’s dream, doesn’t it? No offense.”

  I laughed it off.

  “Don’t worry, Mother would agree with you on that.”

  I smiled.

  “Still, don’t get too excited or anything. It’s not like it’ll be the whole thing up and running or anything. It’s just a working prototype of one of its mechanisms and principles. It won’t be infinite energy just yet.”

  After over a decade worth of work, the construction project along Arden’s circular walls – which had started before I had even been adopted by Mother – was entering its final stages.

  The Paradox Engine, Mother’s theoretical masterpiece, was a combination of her three impossible spells, Logos, Samsara and Qliphoth, artificial recreations of each axis of the Void’s Spells.

  The most important of its components by far – the mechanism that powered ‘Logos’, which held the ability to create stars – was still a long way away from ever being feasible on a scale larger than Mother’s personal Helios Engine, but the other two mechanisms were more than functional, and while they couldn’t create infinite energy from nothing by themselves, they were still an upgrade compared to current technology.

  The author's content has been appropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

  Surrounding Arden’s perimeter – and what had been causing the ruckus as of late – were the components of the Paradox Engine that represented Qliphoth. After the final pieces finished in their construction, the mechanisms would be interwoven through extradimensional space – the so-called 'Qliphoth Bridge' – lurking in the gaps between the Realms, allowing energy to flow and be cycled in and out of this dimension seamlessly, without resistance or loss.

  By the end of June, construction would finish, and everyone would gather to witness Mother complete the ritual's circuit, suspending the machinery in another dimension, where it would circle and power Arden from beyond, linked directly to the machine’s core, which laid underground at Arden’s centre.

  “Well, all that aside,” the receptionist continued, “glad you can be around, Young Lady. Even if you’re not helping on that side of things, everyone in Arden will always be thankful that you’re around.”

  I blinked.

  “Oh, right, sorry, I forgot,” I chuckled sheepishly.

  I gestured for her to extend her arm a bit.

  She blinked owlishly at me for a couple seconds before realising what I was trying to do.

  She coughed, flushing with a small bit of embarrassment before leaning forward over the counter.

  I brought my staff down from where it rested on my shoulder and held it against her cast.

  A small flourish of light danced around the casing.

  It was hard to tell if anything actually happened, but given the look on the woman’s face and the flexing of her fingers, it was probably safe to assume it worked.

  The receptionist sighed in relief.

  “Thanks, Young Lady, still feels kind of weird having access to healing magic so readily… used to just toughing it all out in the countryside and mountains. Not even your mother could change that… probably made it worse, if anything.”

  We shared a small chuckle over the matter.

  “It’s nothing,” I tried to push away her gratitude.

  I wasn’t really sure how much I deserved it.

  It wasn’t like I had ulterior motives or anything, but it would be a lie to say that I was doing all of this purely out of altruism.

  The main reason I was going on these little adventures around Arden whenever I had a break from my studies was just to clear my mind and remind myself that I was actually capable of healing magic.

  Being able to help people during a rather busy and chaotic time period was just a happy coincidence.

  “Well, I guess you’re here for the usual trip to the infirmary, right?” The receptionist raised an eyebrow.

  I nodded.

  “Got it. I’ll sign you in and let you go on your way, then.”

  The woman reached out with her newly healed arm for a quill, casting a quick glance towards my shy companion.

  “Oh,” she blinked, “and is that… the mysterious younger daughter I’ve been hearing about, Luna, right? Is she with you? Should I be signing her in as well?”

  I turned around and looked at my sister, who had been nervously fidgeting behind me, made restless and uncomfortable by the rowdy atmosphere and the endless stares.

  I smiled.

  “Well, how about it, Luna? You said earlier that what I was doing was dreadfully boring, right? You don’t have to follow me, you know? You were the one who wanted to come with me. If you want, you can still go home.”

  We had ended up moving to Arden temporarily, taking residence in Mother’s workshop at the heart of Arden while the most hectic and involved part of the construction work was going on, which was the main reason I was making these trips around the city; if we were still stuck on that familiar house on Vertandhi, I’d still be running around with Setsuna on Yrd’s rivers and forests.

  In the few moments of free time that I had, when I wasn’t busy either studying rituals or the Void all day or practicing Samsara, I wanted to clear my head by just walking around the city.

  The first time I went out, one thing led to another and, well, now I was here, spending most of my weekends just going around and practicing my healing to take my mind off things.

  It was quite a hell of a time to start doing so, too.

  For better or worse, rumours of what was being built at Arden was suddenly drawing a lot of attention. All sorts of both ordinary and strange folk from all across Manusyara found themselves staying in the city, from the innocent and harmless who were simply here to admire the city, to the overzealous and nefarious, who were causing trouble for all sorts of reasons, from simple ignorance and overeagerness to overt hostility.

  Luna made a bitter face in reaction to my words.

  “Maybe if Mother didn’t lock off the basement. If I could maybe see the Paradox Engine’s core, I’d go back. But for now, I guess this is okay.”

  “Aww, so you do like spending time with me! I was almost worried you were going to choose going back to studying and burying yourself in books rather than going on an outing with your dear older sister!”

  “H-hey, g-get off of me!”

  “Oh, wow, hey, look at that, my leg! It’s as good as new!”

  “Don’t go breaking it again, alright?”

  “No promises, Young Lady!”

  “M-my face! The burn, it’s gone!”

  “Thank you for your hard work yesterday, the people of Arden are grateful for your bravery.”

  “It’s nothing, I was just doing my best to keep the city safe, thank you for helping us through it, Young Lady.”

  “Hey, Little Symphonia, over here!”

  “Did you try wrestling more Archfiend monsters by yourself again? You know I’m not going to be around forever, right?”

  “Hahaha! Maybe, but while you’re here, I might as well push myself to my limits, no?”

  My day didn’t start with the visit to the guildhouse, and it didn’t end there either.

  I had stopped by many other places, just greeting people, running errands, so on and so forth, making a trip or two to the barracks and hospitals while I could while Luna tagged alongside me, naively thinking there would be some exciting adventure or something.

  Sadly, she wasn’t that lucky.

  Life as a seventh-year Nindo student wasn’t that exciting.

  Well, not for me, anyways.

  Setsuna seemed to be having a hell of a time being… uh… ‘trained’ and ‘taught’ by the headmaster.

  Hm, maybe I could bring her to Arden? This place was starting to feel like a second home to me.

  I was getting a bit lonely, to be honest. That was another reason why I was going around Arden so frequently these days, aside from needing to shake off the stress of studying.

  “How’s Nindo going for you, Luna?” I tried to pass the time as I walked down the street, reciprocating the grateful and cheery waves sent my way.

  Luna shuffled uncomfortably at the attention I was receiving before mumbling.

  “It’s fine.”

  I raised an eyebrow.

  “Still spending time with Tywil, Elan and Mika? You don’t need a repetition of last year’s intervention, do you?”

  “Yes,” Luna rolled her eyes, “I’m okay, you don’t need to be that nosy, sis. I still hang out with them, it’s not like I spend every weekend coming back to you and Mother.”

  “Well, that’s good to hear, at least. You almost sounded embarrassed to be seen with them last year.”

  “Hey!”

  “Haha, don’t worry about it, we all have our childish phases growing up~”

  “Then why didn’t you have one!? You’ve been the same stupid, infuriating person for years!”

  Why, indeed, I wonder?

  Really, that was a whole lifetime ago. Literally.

  I giggled, waving her frustration away.

  “Still, you should consider bringing them over some time. I don’t think you’ve ever had them stay around during vacation.”

  “I-I’ll think about it.”

  “Mm. That’s good. How about your studies, then? Is the sixth-year curriculum going alright?”

  “It’s… going. I guess.”

  “Just going?”

  “...Yeah. I-I’m running into a bit of a wall there.”

  “Well, take your time. It’s not exactly like there’s a seventh-year curriculum for you to skip to next.”

  It was always nice getting to spend even a small bit of time like this with Luna nowadays.

  I wasn’t getting the chance to see her that much anymore since we weren’t going to Nindo together with my apprenticeship starting.

  I was going to miss her when I set off for the Eastern Continent at the end of the school year with Setsuna. But, well… it wasn’t like I could continue coddling Luna forever, no matter how much I wanted to.

  She had her own life to live, and I would have mine.

  “Anyways-”

  “Oh, dear Sol, is that you, little Estelle?”

  I paused at the strangely familiar voice interrupting our idle chatter.

  I swung around, where I found myself greeted by an eyepatch fashioned into a black rose, a sight that I hadn’t seen in years.

  “Miss Selenia?” I blinked.

  “Oh, wow, that really is you!” The strange lady laughed, pushing her way through the bystanders as she looked me up and down.

  “L-Lady Nyxth!” Luna stared at the older witch, slightly slack-jawed.

  She hurriedly bowed in reverence.

  “Oh, and is this little Luna?” Selenia giggled, “There’s no need to greet me so formally. You’re daughters of a good friend of mine!”

  “B-but, you’re a tenured professor at the Citadel, it’s only natural for someone like me to show deference.”

  “Oh, hm? Little Luna dreams of the Citadel now, does she?”

  There was a strange glint of… cruel?... amusement in her eyes.

  “Are you still fascinated by archaeology? It’s a rather… strange pursuit for a witch. The Citadel prides itself on always marching towards the future, many view lingering on the past as a fool’s choice.”

  Luna paused.

  I narrowed my eyes warily and hovered in front of her.

  The witch just smiled strangely, a mysterious fascinated mirth dancing in that singular ruby eye of hers.

  “Well, I suppose that’s on par for the Symphonias, no? Certainly, it’s no less strange than Belle’s pursuits, or Arden’s very own ‘white lady’.”

  She cast her unnerving gaze over me, her eerie smile never fading.

  “Oh, little Estelle, you’ve grown so big since the last time I’ve seen you!”

  She laughed cheerfully.

  “My, how long has it been since I last saw you? Three, no, four years, is it? Look at you now, a fully fledged young lady in your own right. You seem to be turning more than quite a few heads now… you’ve made a name for yourself in Arden, haven’t you?”

  She giggled demurely into her hand, approaching us.

  I let my guard down a little.

  It seemed she didn’t mean any harm to us.

  I guess it was just that bit of strangeness that all of Mother’s Expedition friends carried, combined with her background as a Citadel witch.

  “I’ve heard quite a bit about you from the knights, adventurers and labourers. Even a few of the shopkeepers have something to say about you.”

  I smiled wearily.

  “Well, it is a bit tiring at times, but it’s nothing much compared to what the people are doing themselves, or what Mother has been putting me through.”

  A curious glint flickered through Selenia’s eye.

  “Oh, right, I had heard about that. You know, I’m rather curious. Belle was always rather secretive about those spells of hers. Samsara, Logos and Qliphoth, no? I don’t suppose you would mind doing me a favour and performing a little demonstration for me, would you?”

  “Sorry,” I did my best to politely shake my head, “I’m still in the middle of learning them. I’m a rather slow learner.”

  “Right, right, you’re not a ritual mage like Belle, I recall, you’re a ‘healer’,” she flicked her tongue, letting the word linger with a hefty amount of amusement, “how is that treating you in this ‘Sol-damned’ city? It must be tiring being one of the few healers around.”

  I shrugged.

  “I’m getting by, I guess.”

  Well, it was tiring.

  Needless to say, even if it was approved by the king and the Citadel themselves, Mother’s ambitions of the Paradox Engine did not sit right with the Church at large, and the city’s blasphemous designs saw it being shunned by priests and priestesses, leaving it perennially low on personnel like healers.

  “What are you doing in Arden, anyways, Miss Selenia? I thought Citadel witches didn’t like this city either.”

  Selenia just laughed at my words.

  “Oh, ‘dislike’ is a bit of a strong word, no? Maybe some of the real old fogeys think that way, but for the rest of us, it’s just a bit of friendly rivalry and competition between two cities, no? Any city developing at such rapid rates magically and technologically is bound to catch our attention, especially given that you’ve managed to successfully snipe a lot of up-and-coming talent in the past few years. Quite a few of the higher-ups have been getting all hot-blooded and riled up, our admittance rate is at an all-time record low because of this city, you know?”

  She waved a gloved hand in a dismissive manner.

  “Really, don’t go comparing me to those silly Church priests and nuns of all people,” she laughed, “It’s not like I think this city and its ambitions are an affront to the gods or anything, and if I did, I would just think that would be fascinating! An usurpation of Sol herself… what would that look like, what would it take, hm?”

  She cast her eye back towards me, that signature eerie, amused inquisitiveness dancing behind her eye again.

  “And you in particular, did you think I would give you grievance for your choice in becoming a healer, like my compatriots would, or those superstitious priests would? Why would I? Studying something as trite as medicine of all things is exactly the kind of oddity I would have wanted to see from her children. That kind of ‘Sol-be-damned’ attitude was exactly what made Belle so fascinating as a person, and why I wanted to be good friends with her so much.”

  Selenia just laughed even more loudly than before.

  “If anything, I would have been disappointed if after everything, Belle’s daughters decided to go down the path of becoming orthodox Citadel witches.”

  She snorted derisively.

  I felt Luna tense behind me.

  I sighed, and did my best to push the conversation forwards.

  “Miss Selenia,” I rolled my eyes, “I’m glad you think so… ‘well’ of me, but none of that explains why you’re here.”

  “Oh, that’s an easy one to answer,” Selenia smiled, “I’m simply part of the delegation the Citadel set out to make camp at Arden for a few weeks, or maybe a few months! There’s a lot of eyes on your mother and this city, right now, and no one wants to miss it, you know? Especially not so close to the forecast completion of that dimensional tunnel circling Arden. Everyone is very excited to see what even an incomplete portion of the legendary impossible ‘Paradox Engine’ is capable of. I hear the Royal Family has even sent out an encampment of their knights to oversee the occasion. Hell, even the Church might be on the move.”

  I sighed.

  It seemed like the frantic atmosphere surrounding Arden lately was only going to grow worse in the next few weeks.

  At the very least, hopefully, the arrival of priests in Arden would mean that the burden on my shoulders could be lowered slightly.

  Aside from me, despite the humungous amount of magical talent who had flocked to Arden, there were only a handful of other magi trained in healing arts. The only other medical personnel the city had to rely on were mundane doctors, who were unable to keep up with the grand scale of the tide of what the knights and adventurers got caught in.

  Selenia flicked her wrist dramatically, looking at her wristwatch.

  “Ah, it looks like my break is over. Oh well, my curiosity has been satisfied. I did manage to find Arden’s famed ‘maiden in white’.”

  She rolled her eyes and laughed at the title.

  “An ironic name for a girl shunned by Sol in a city shunned by Sol, no? But who knows, maybe one day, you’ll grow as famous and revered as her own legendary champion, the Boy in White.”

  She giggled dismissively, before spinning around.

  “I’ll be paying attention to your ‘legend’, little Estelle. Don’t disappoint me, ‘kay? Oh, and you too, little Luna, I suppose.”

  She gave us one final glance over her shoulder.

  “Now then, if you’ll excuse me, I have to return to spying… ah, sorry, reporting,” Selenia winked mischievously, “for the Citadel. Tata now, see you later~”

  I sighed once she faded from view.

  I really hoped the next few weeks wouldn’t be too chaotic.

  I could use some peace and quiet in my life to help me focus on Samsara.

  With any luck, the fever surrounding the construction of the Paradox Engine would fade sometime soon.