An Owl's Rise

After finishing what was a lavish meal for Aralee and Verrader, Evelyn took them to the next of the major halls to show them around.

"While I may be biased since my shop is here, I believe that the alchemy hall is the most important. You can find many life saving items here and it is always best to have a stock of at least the basics. You will find that having a means of recovering magical energy or healing wounds can make a great deal of difference." Evelyn said, extoling the virtues of alchemical items.

"You are an alchemist, sister? But in your match, I only saw you using wind magic?" Aralee said, a confused look on her face.

Normally to truly e able to practice alchemy one needed to have an affinity with fire magic. Though magic tools could be used to compensate to some degree, one could never truly master the craft without the ability to control their own fire.

"Yes, I do practice alchemy as my main profession. As for why I did not use my fire magic during the match, it is simply a self-imposed restriction on my part. My wind magic was falling behind since I was relying too much on my fire magic. In order to become more proficient, I have been using only my wind magic in matches." Evelyn said, telling a half truth.

She did not yet trust her siblings enough to inform them of her heavenly flame.

"I see, so you have the same affinities as our father did. I am a bit envious, since I only have wind." Aralee said, a slight pout on her face.

She then turned to Verrader and asked him what affinities he had.

"I have wind and lightning. But I only got my second affinity recently after reaching the awakened rank. There is still hope for you Aralee to get anther one. And most only have one affinity to begin with so there is no reason to fret about it."

"On another note, you said that your store is here. Could we possibly see it?" Verrader asked, his eyes filled with intensity.

"That might be a bit difficult. My shop is on the second floor and Aralee would certainly attract some attention being escorted by us. I have some enemies that are envious of my success and wish to do me harm. I would not want to make a stir and have either of you targeted by them." Evelyn said, her tone conveying her concern.

Frankly she would have found it incredibly annoying if Verrader and especially Aralee were harassed because of her.

Thankfully Verrader did not push the issue. Clearly, he did not want to get involved with and unnecessary trouble.

"Now let me show you both around and point out some shops that have quality goods. I may not be buying you any goods, but I can at least share a bit of my expertise and lead you to some good deals." Evelyn said, leading the way.

Heading through the Alchemy Hall's first floor, Evelyn pointed out stalls that she found had decent quality items for low prices and the ones that were carrying the highest quality goods.

She gave her wisdom freely to her siblings and taught them what she knew. Wanting to help them in a way that would not make them overly reliant on her.

Once they had finished with the Alchemy Hall, Evelyn instead brought them to the Inscription Hall which she personally believed was the second most important.

"Here you can by all manner of magic items, from weapons and armor to talismans that have magical effects imbued into them. Though what I consider to be the most useful are definitely the dimensional storage items. Which I recommend that the both of you save up for and purchase as soon as possible. Even smaller ones are immensely useful." Evelyn said, holding up her own storge cuff.

Of course, even the cheapest storage items were several tens of thousands of credits and not something that Aralee or Verrader could hope to afford anytime soon.

"Now in the Alchemy Hall, I showed you around and pointed out what I thought were the best stalls in terms of price and quality of goods. This time I want you both to navigate the inscription Hall yourselves and showed me that you can put into practice what I taught you."

Leaving Verrader and Aralee to find their own way through the Inscription Hall, Evelyn sat back and watched their progress.

As they went on, she noticed a distinct lack of interest from Verrader though. He was going through the motions to keep up appearances, but next to Aralee's enthusiasm it was clear he did not really care.

Seeing this Evelyn wondered why, but perhaps he simply already knew an inscriptionist that he trusted.

'Whatever it is, what matters most is that Aralee is getting something out of this. She has already figured out one of the tricks to finding good deals.' Evelyn thought, turning her attention towards her little sister.

Just like in the Alchemy Hall those that had only just started their shop were selling their goods at lower prices to get exposure.

And while plenty of these newer shops were filled with lower quality goods for the most part, some of them were actually pretty talented and had made decent items that were cheaper than what could be obtained from more prominent shops.

Aralee with her low funds had locked onto this fact and was putting into practice what Evelyn had shown her in the Alchemy Hall.

Verrader on the other hand was mostly just following along behind Aralee and making little effort to search out shops that were good deals.

By the time they had finished with the Inscription Hall the place was near closing and the day was almost over.

"Thank you so much for sharing all of this with us sister. The classes we had only went over the basic functions of the halls and did not delve into the intricacies of them like you did." Aralee said, a bright smile on her face.

Seeing how grateful her younger sister was made Evelyn feel warm inside and she proudly held her head up high.

'I think that I managed to follow your example well enough Mason. I need to by a good older sibling just like you were.' Evelyn thought, imagining her older brother being proud of her.

"I also am appreciative of the help you gave us today; it was most informative." Verrader said. "But when might we meet again?"

Tilting her head, Evelyn thought about this and decided that ten days from now would be best.

"I have a great deal to do and have pushed things off to show you both around today. If it is fine with both of you then we can meet up again in ten days." Evelyn said.

For a moment a flash of visible discontent appeared on Verrader's face and he obviously did not want to wait so long.

Still, he quickly fixed his expression and gave Evelyn a smile while agreeing to meet in ten days.

Aralee likewise gave her approval, and said that she would clear her schedule.

"I am much looking forward to it. I enjoyed today very much sister and cannot wait for these next ten days to pass." Aralee said, genuinely wanting to spend more time with Evelyn.

With the day coming to an end Evelyn parted ways with her siblings feeling happy about her interactions with Aralee had went.

'I may never fully be able to get along with Verrader, but at least he was not as bad today.' Evelyn thought as she flew home.

…

Unbeknownst to Evelyn though, Verrader did not head back to his home after parting ways with her and Aralee, but instead made his way directly to the Warp Hall. It was one of the few facilities within the Roost that was always open, and despite it being already near morning when most owls slept, he was going out.

Luckily, despite not having informed Aralee, he had actually already passed the necessary classes to leave and could go out of the Roost whenever he wanted.

Once he had bought the necessary tickets to leave and return, he warped to a lesser used area that few in the Roost went to.

When the light of the warp portal faded away Verrader found himself surround by large tree in an area that barely had enough magical energy to support an awakened rank and was lacking in a diversity of valuable resources. Making it an unpopular spot to gather from.

Nevertheless, Verrader had not come here to collect any resources and instead flew towards a spot he had already visited several times in the past.

There he found the magic tool he had buried and pulled out what looked like a small notepad from the ground.

Swiftly he scrawled a message onto the pad and ripped out the page. Turning it into a small bird that began flying off towards its designated recipient.