The Legendary Monster Layer!

After Ari’s insightful but not-especially-useful perusal of Molehill’s marketplace, she set off for her final destination for the day. Elise lived on the outskirts of Molehill, in a complex of small, old, if fairly well maintained apartments. An apprenticed [Mage] would normally live with their master, but Mistress Selia was a strictly private woman; enough even Elise visited only a few times a week.

Ari knocked, adjusting the bag in her hands, and waited patiently.

Elise opened the door, and she looked like her usual sleep-deprived self—bags under her bright green eyes, long black hair a mess, and, despite her fairly ragged appearance, as heart-achingly beautiful as ever. 

“Surprise!” Ari said cheerfully. “I brought a bribe.” She held out the brown paper bag stuffed with fried, sugar-covered foodstuffs. “Your favorite.”

“A bribe?” Elise asked, opening the door wider for Ari to slip in. “Why would I need a bribe?”

“To hang out with me,” Ari said. “I know you’re super busy, these days.”

Elise closed the door, then turned and frowned at her. “You don’t need to bribe me for that, Ari. I’ll find a way to make time.” She eyed the sugary treats she’d brought from the market. “Though I won’t complain, either.”

Ari laughed as she walked deeper into Elise’s room.

‘Laboratory’ might be more fitting. Like Ari, she had her own financial struggles, and had smashed together her place of work and place of sleep into a single room to save on costs. Notebooks, tomes, diagrams, chalkboards, and all kinds of arcane paraphernalia were scattered around the room, not so much in a ‘haphazard’ way, but with the kind of cram-packedness that prevented a description of ‘neat’, even with a clear method behind the madness.

Accompanying the equipment in random intervals were a half-made bed tucked in the corner of the room, a wardrobe with shirts hanging off the side by hooks, a coffee maker with a freshly made but half-empty pot, and dozens of other day-to-day items. A laboratory crash-landed into the middle of a bedroom.

Ari set the bag of sweets on Elise’s desk, then plopped down onto her bed. Elise sat in her chair and scooted up to whatever notebook she’d been writing in, picking up her pen. She eyed the bag of food but didn’t reach for it. 

Ari kicked her feet back and forth, thumping gently against the bed frame. “Any breakthroughs today?”

“I’m a level eight [Mage],” Elise said dryly. “A novice, not even finished with her first year of apprenticeship. Novices don’t make ‘breakthroughs’.”

“Not with that attitude, they won’t.”

Elise rolled her eyes. “I’m working through Mistress Selia’s assignments.” She tapped her pen, frowning down at whatever was written there. “To very little success. She’s … a demanding teacher.”

“Well, if anyone can do it, it’s you.”

“Your endless optimism is inspiring.”

There wasn’t any bite to her sarcasm. Ari knew she secretly liked the cheering-on—it wasn’t something Ari did for everyone.

“Have some.” Ari gestured at the bag.

“I shouldn’t. I’m trying to watch my figure.”

Well … she was doing a good job.

But everyone was forgiven some indulgence. “Give in to the dark side. It’s fine, they’re only like, ninety percent sugar.”

Elise’s lips quirked. It was the closest the stiffly-composed girl came to laughing on a regular basis, so Ari grinned at her success. “Well, when you put it that way,” Elise said reluctantly. She reached over and rummaged open the greasy bag. The smell of sugar and fried batter permeated the air.

“All for you,” Ari said, waving a hand at an offered sweet. “Had some on the way over.” She wrinkled her nose. “Too many.”

Elise bit in, and she grimaced. “It’s not fair.”

“They’re way too good, huh?”

She huffed. “I can’t believe you’ve done this to me.” She finished off the first, then grabbed a second. Her assignment from Mistress Selia went quickly forgotten, despite ostensibly having wanted to work on it while talking with Ari, by how she’d picked up her pen.

Mission success.

Though, a good friend would be encouraging Elise to complete her studies. Then again, Elise wasn’t really someone who needed urging to be more responsible. Definitely the opposite. She didn’t cut loose enough.

“How was it?” Elise asked. “Your first adventure?”

A grin split Ari’s face.

“Well, I came back in one piece, didn’t I? So there’s that.”

Concern flashed on Elise’s face, but went quickly wiped away. Ari supposed that wasn’t something she should joke about, not around someone who wasn’t an adventurer—and didn’t idealize the life—like herself. Adventurers might not have a problem with morbid jokes, but a civilian friend of Ari’s definitely could. 

“Yes, there is that,” Elise said. “And it’s a good thing you did. Who else would so thoroughly distract me from my work?”

Ari laughed. “I bet those two months without me were so productive.” Elise had grown up in Tark, same as Ari, but she’d received her class of [Mage] at eighteen, two months before Ari’s own bestowal, and been whisked off for an apprenticeship by Mistress Selia, the only notable [Mage] in some distance.

Elise sobered. “Productive, yes,” she said with a sideways glance. “Also … lonely. I’m glad we can hang out again.”

Ari blinked. Elise wasn’t the kind of girl to go saying stuff like that, so she must have really meant it. Ari beamed, her mood immeasurably improved. Ari wouldn’t ever say she doubted their friendship, but Elise could be hard to read—and not the quickest person to share warmth, or her true thoughts. The insecure part of Ari that she tried to keep stomped down did, admittedly, wonder if Elise’s accusations of ‘distraction’ were sometimes honesty masked behind playful sarcasm.

“I’m glad I’m here, too. Tark was even more boring when you left.”

“I bet. But—back to your adventure. The details.”

The details. Ari fought away a rising blush.

Yeah … probably not happening.