“Um.” Zoe stuttered. Sally was old now — this was her twenty fifth birthday. When Zoe was her age, let alone going to a very populated city with trustworthy friends, she was stranded in another world alone and with a few acquaintances she hoped would stick with her.

  But Peter and Lauren were quite protective of their child. She’d stuck around at level eight for decades and was, compared to others her age, frail. Zoe felt at times as though Sally was almost treated as broken, in some ways. Fragile. Kept hidden away, safe from all the dangers of the world.

  As far as Zoe was concerned, if Sally wanted to go to the capital then there was little reason to deny her. It would be safe enough and quick enough to take a trip down there now that Zoe had settled in with enough classes to get her the mana necessary for the trip.

  The only issue was whether or not Peter and Lauren would allow it. Which left another conundrum for Zoe — twenty five was an adult. Her parents loved her, but if they said she couldn’t go and Sally really wanted to anyway then as much as it might put a wrench in Zoe’s relationship with them, she couldn’t see herself not being okay with just taking Sally anyway.

  “I guess, yeah.” Zoe looked to Emma, who shrugged.

  “I’ve got no problems with it. We’ve got our cats out there, is that alright?" Emma asked.

  Sally nodded. “Yup! I guess I’d have to leave Idu here, huh?”

  “Hold on a moment. You haven’t mentioned wanting to go to the capital before, honey. You sure you want to do that?" Lauren leaned against the wall separating the kitchen and the living room.

  “I didn’t think about it before. But yeah. It seems fun. I’ve lived here all my life and I’d like to get out and see things. Think of all the skills I could get? And Zoe could even take me through some dungeons maybe?” She looked over at Zoe and smiled.

  “I guess, yeah.” Zoe shrugged. “I’ve got my own thing to do though so I won’t be able to be with you constantly but I don’t mind a bit.”

  “I know, I know. I won’t get in your hair a bunch. I’m an adult, I can handle myself.” Sally said.

  Peter sighed from the kitchen. “You sure you want to go to the capital?"

  “It’s not too much off you two?" Lauren asked, looking at Zoe and Emma.

  Emma shook her head. "No. I’ve got my own thing too so she’d be mostly on her own in the capital but neither of us really sleep at home much anyway so she can have a room. Zoe and I can share a bed if it comes to it, no real skin off our backs.“

  A knock on the door shook Lauren off the wall she was leaning against. “We’ll talk about this later.”

  “Can I go?” Sally asked.

  “Of course you can, we just worry.” Peter said.

  Lauren headed over to the door and opened it for a young woman around Sally’s age, and they sat in the living room and chatted. A few more people showed up over the next few hours — and even Sally’s cat Idu came trotting down the stairs as the excitement ramped, hopping from person to person sniffing their clothes. He scratched some of the shoes and coats left around the home, and then laid down on the floor.

  Idu seemed to have some mysterious power letting him glide around on the floor and always end up in the path of whoever was getting up to grab something. One moment somebody was tripping over him on their way to the kitchen to grab some water, and the next he was somehow laying in front of the bathroom door, blocking Zoe from getting in. Zoe was half convinced the cat had some kind of teleportation skill and enjoyed causing mayhem — though the quiet tapping of claws on the wooden floor whenever somebody tripped on him begged to differ.

  The party was pleasant, Sally got a number of presents — books, largely. Though there were a few toys kicked in for Idu, and even a blue ring covered in white sparkling clouds sporting a four bag storage capacity from her parents.

  It was strange interacting with Sally, for Zoe. They looked the same age, almost identical even, besides Zoe’s vampyric alterations. She had pale skin with a few freckles and zits, brown hair that came just past her shoulders in a ponytail. Green eyes and nails more chewed on than a piece of used gum.

  But she was so very young, and that immaturity showed through. She was eager and excited — a little sheltered, but smart and thoughtful. She recognized the world around her, she appreciated what it offered, and then there would be a moment of remembering she was just a young girl.

  Zoe hadn’t thought about her age in a while. She was coming up on almost seventy years old now, and didn’t feel a day over twenty three, or twenty four. However old she was when she got bit by that stray beast outside of Flester.

  How much of aging, of that maturity came from the worn body? How much of that youthful excitement was from having a young, fit body? If Zoe wasn’t immortal, if her body was broken and failing would she be a different person? Physically, of course. But mentally, would she see things in a different light?

  She shrugged. It was a bit of an eye opener to see somebody at roughly the same age that Zoe looked, to spend time with them and interact with them. Others would look at Zoe and see somebody like Sally, somebody so young and full of life. Which was what she was, she supposed.

  But maybe one day it might be nice to find a way to look a bit older, too. A little wiser, a little seasoned, in a fitting description. Maybe that was just a pointless personal bias of hers, to think older looking people were wiser.

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  The party ended and the rest of the folks went back to their homes, leaving just Zoe and Emma behind with Sally and her parents to finish their discussion.

  “So.” Sally said, squeezing her arms together in a cutesy gesture. “I get to go to the capital?"

  Peter took a breath and sighed. “Only if Zoe and Emma are okay with it.”

  “Yeah. It’s fine, but again just to be clear we’re not gonna be escorts around town. Like we can get her to the capital and then she can stay with us. We won’t be strangers or whatever, but Zoe’s working on a bit of an ambitious goal, and I’m half thinking it might be interesting to try looping myself. Or maybe just come back home, honestly. I’ve had my fun in the capital, might be about time to bring the boys back to their home.” Emma said.

  “Well I was gonna ask if you could maybe teach me how to get the Cosmos skill?" Sally asked.

  Emma pursed her lips. “When things have settled down, yeah. Soon. It’s pretty complicated, though. You already have space, right?”

  Sally nodded.

  “Yeah so you’d just have to get time and then combine them. That’s not that bad, really. Be easier if you had a class giving you mana sight, though.” Emma said.

  “Actually I was planning to maybe work on that. I was thinking that my enchanting classes kinda seem pointless, honestly. They’re good and the skills are good, but I can get the skills as general skills. Maybe. And then get another class with mana sight, or maybe even figure out a way to get around needing it. Or a way to get it as a feat or something, maybe. The enchanting classes just seem like training wheels lately, I guess.” Zoe said.

  “Well how long will you two be around? It’ll take Sally a few days to prepare, I’m sure.” Peter asked.

  “We’ll be heading back today, can’t leave the cats at home alone too long. But I can come back and pick Sally up in a few days?” Zoe suggested.

  Lauren looked at Sally who shrugged. “Two days? I think I can be ready in two days. I’ve gotta say goodbye to Idu and pack some things up.” She rubbed at the ring on her finger. “And then I’m good to go. So two days?”

  “Alright, see you in two days then. And again, happy birthday.” Zoe said.

  “Happy birthday.” Emma added.

  “Thanks for coming, you two.” Sally said. “I’ll see you in two days then.”

  Zoe and Emma were ushered out by the family and made their way back to their home in the capital. Fennel and Oliver were both quite excited for them to be back after a long day out. Oliver danced around Emma’s feet and Fennel rubbed up against Zoe’s legs, meowing like he had a very important story to tell about their day.

  The following days were spent for the most part on getting the home ready for Sally to come visit — the place was a veritable mess otherwise. Neither Zoe nor Emma minded having some random books or furniture or other projects laying around on the floors. And the rooms they had were all filled with the cats belongings or even more random projects one of them had been working on.

  Zoe headed back to Foizo and brought Sally back. Her joy from being in the city was almost infectious. The excitement from being interrogated at the front gate, from being welcomed into the city, seeing all of the different districts and teleporting through the city.

  The three girls went about their own things, spending a bit of time together when they happened to have a bit to spare. Zoe would give Sally some tips on feats and skills, share some of the knowledge she’d gained from books she read. Emma would walk her through the intricacies of the Cosmos skill as she tried in vain to manipulate the mana to form its complicated patterns.

  Zoe and Emma brought Sally along for a few lower level dungeons, but she’d found more of an interest in wandering through the districts finding different skills she could work towards. Different sports she could learn, enchanting and alchemy, woodworking and smithing. Pottery was one of her favourites, and Sally’s room had become a mess of clay, filled with pots, mugs and squashed failures.

  Every few days, Zoe sent back a message to Peter or Lauren to tell them Sally was well. And every month or so, brought Sally back to Foizo to check in for a few days. Earlier in her journey, the trip might have been a bit out of the way for her. But with the incredible bonuses her classes offered now, the trip only took a few minutes. Walking through the city to get back home was the longest part of it, if she were being honest.

  Most of Zoe’s time for the first few weeks was spent experimenting with all of her new skills and seeing how all of the enchantments worked together. Both Death and Life Manipulation acted as normal manipulation skills when she enchanted something with them, letting her give the object she enchanted some modicum of control over Death or Life respectively.

  Death’s Decay was quite a potent health drain on any object she enchanted with it, ripping health away from anything that touched it to power its own enchantments. It was powerful enough to be dangerous — any flies that landed on it died almost immediately, and Zoe worried what would happen if the cats happened to touch it. A useful enchantment, but one to be used sparingly.

  Life’s Respite was quite the opposite, draining the enchantment itself to heal anything that touched it. It too was quite powerful and had a very potent healing effect, but was restricted to the amount of mana Zoe could fill something with. They made extremely effective papercut healers, but beyond something so simple they just didn’t have the mana needed to make an impact.

  Death’s Call was an even more powerful version of Death’s Decay, but at the expense of the mana in the object itself and was relegated to another skill she’d rarely use as an enchantment. Very powerful for a brief period of time — useful if she were hurling projectiles at hordes of enemies, but not very safe to leave lying around the home.

  Life’s Embrace was a skill that Zoe expected to be similar to Life’s Respite but with perhaps a larger area of effect, but it was quite different. The skill allowed Zoe to enchant an object with a relatively low power mana regeneration effect for anybody who touched it. It took mana from the enchantment itself making it quite an inefficient transfer, but through the enchantment Zoe could give other people mana almost directly for the first time.

  The enchantments worked very well for helping Zoe delve deeper into the lodestone dungeon she’d already grown so familiar with as she worked towards level one seventy six over and over again — with a quick stop back to Flester’s Might as she approached the end for some quicker levels. Each attempt at getting her lowest level sixth class taking several months as Zoe watched the time fly by, and with each reset knowing that she was no closer than when she first started.

  Zoe found herself enjoying the process, though. She had friends in town, and Foizo wasn’t all that far away with her speed either. There was a consistency to her life, a routine, and she was enjoying it. She enjoyed coming home and seeing the cats, she enjoyed spending a few days every now and then with Emma or Sally. She enjoyed taking a trip back to Foizo to visit Joe or Peter and Lauren. It might take decades for her to get her sixth class, and who knows how long for her to get her seventh class.

  But it was pleasant. It was comfortable, and it felt right. She didn’t feel lost, stuck in her ways, wondering what to do next. There was always something to do, always something to work on. Between working on studying her enchanting class’ skills and her mana sight, or throwing cones of Frost at hordes of dungeon dwellers, her days were never without something to do.

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