Early the m, as the sun began to dawn on Primrose Acres, Alicia woke with a groan. She was extraordinarily unfortable and, as she came to, also felt strangely exposed. She thought back to st night, w what might have caused this, when she remembered her vampiric visitor.

  “Katrina!” Alicia gasped, attempting to sit up.

  Unfortunately, in her excitement, she failed to realize she had never rejoined her Heart Tree. She didn’t have the support she’d expected, and her sudden movement only served to shake her already tentative grasp on the branderh her. She shouted as she plummeted from the tree and, with a loud thud, hit the ground hard.

  She groaned again, louder this time, as she stared up at the pink and green opy above her.

  Alicia, you idiot! The first visitor you have in years, the most beautiful girl in the world, and you scared her off with all your questions!

  The pain from her fall almost felt right somehow, as if it was vindication for her crimes. She thought back to st night, remembered the feeling of someone pying with her flowers, then holding her hand aly squeezing it. She could feel herself blushing at the memory.

  She stayed on the ground much lohan intended, and had to shake loose a few roots that had sprouted whe up. With a heavy sigh, she decided to jump bato her normal routine.

  Her first stop, as usual, was the eborate fungal work door. She rearranged some of the dirt, added a bit more mulch, then paused. She gently ran her fingers over the cap of one of the bigger mushrooms, recalling the touch of Katrina’s skin on hers. “I met someo night, did you know that? She was this tall, super pretty Vampire named Katrina!” The fungi, as usual, had no ent.

  Across the street, as she checked the roots of the oak tree, she tialking. “She had super bright, red eyes, and they were glowing! I bet she was just really hungry, ‘cuz I’ve heard there’s a blood she going on. But she was so graceful, even when she jumped out of my tree she looked like a model… Oh! And she fly! Isn’t that cool?” The sapling, much like its neighbors, also stayed quiet.

  In the yard over, she cautiously made sure the rose bushes were staying on their property. “And she said she’s a Bard! She didn’t have her guitar with her, but I bet she’s amazing; I’ve always heard great things about Bard performances. I would’ve loved to hear her py, it’s been… oh wow, I think it’s been years since I’ve heard any music.” The rose bushes, as well, refrained from versation. As Alicia prepared to leave the lot and make her daily trip to the river, she paused with a heavy sigh. The camaraderie she was used to feeling from her pnt friends simply wasn’t there today.

  Her walk to the river was slow, and an air of maise hung over her head. She dipped her feet ier, then id down to stretch her arms out.

  What could I have done differently? I really didn’t mean to scare her away, but I haven’t talked with aside of work since… sihe st time that dragon came back to out its house, and that was at least 3 years ago.

  Oh.

  Three years since I’ve had any human tact.

  That might expin this feeling.

  After shaking her roots free, Alicia grabbed her watering and started walking home. The hundreds of flowers she’d pnted sihe ge were all i shape. They got plenty of sun, all the water they needed, and lots of attention. They weren’t lonely at all, but they also never spent 20 years as a human before turning into a pnt.

  I don’t even remember my 21st birthday. Or my 22nd, or my 23rd… I’m not 24 yet, am I? I should really check that.

  Arriving at home, she set her watering down. She carefully dragged her feet through the iion she’d made earlier, then gnced up at the branch she’d slept on st night. She could still picture Katrina there, cherry blossom petals floating around her, getting stu her beautiful bck hair.

  But no one was here now. She was, as always, alone. Separated from society by miles of abandoned suburbs.

  Looking at the sun, Alicia realized it was time to get to work. She rejoined with her Heart Tree and floated up to her bedroom, then paused. She barely spent any time here, but in the first few months, she’d done her best to up the spots where the room met her heart tree. She made sure to leave room for her Tree to grow, but she also inspired some pnts to fill in gaps in the woodwork. As it stood, her bedroom erfectly funal, other thaable ck of a bed.

  What would I even do if she came back? Ask her to water pnts with me? No, you’re not supposed to water at night…

  She grumbled as she turned her puter on, the gre of its s particurly frustrating today. Work went by slower than normal, and her ts weren’t even that irate today. One of them, an older woman that had just hired an Aasimar, was even someleasant. She found herself expining somewhat simple terms, as the woman had never even heard of Aasimar before.

  “All Aasimar have an innate Racial Feature referred to as a Wellspring. It will be tied to a specific emotion, something like pride or happiness, and that emotion is broadcast out of the Aasimar at all times. They try to mute it, but it takes effort, and it even be dangerous to mute its effects for too long. To be ORpliant, I’d reend training all your existing employees about the specific Wellspring they’ll be w with. If their Wellspring is tied to aion you feel would interfere with work, I reend scheduling times and pces where your employee let it free safely.”

  “…”

  “Well, not all Wellsprings are tied to happy, calmiions. They might have something like rage, jealousy, or even lust. I’m sure you imagine how those might make work difficult.”

  “…”

  “Yes, they always take Status Breaks wheuation bees dire, but they really should let their Wellspring flow as often as possible. Imagine if your bdder was full to bursting 8 hours a day, and you just had to hold it in.”

  “…”

  “Precisely, it wouldn’t be very fun, would it? Sometimes, workpces will find ways to positively el their Aasimar’s Wellspring, so I’d ence you to talk at length with your employee to uand how it works.

  “…”

  “Of course, the pleasure is all mine. You have a great day.”

  Alicia hung her headset ba its stand and sighed. Another long day of work over, but at least this one ended on a high he woman had seemed genuinely curious about her new employee, and had reached out to ORC of her own accord to try and be as aodating as possible.

  Calls like that were in the minority, however. The most on calls came from the hundreds, if not thousands of people that still pined about sex work being legalized. They didn’t care that certain Races physically needed sex to survive, and they seemed determio cause problems because of it. It was actually fairly on for ORC employees to be called as witnesses in various court cases and depositions, and a vast majority of those cases teo involve employers discriminating against sex workers. Alicia had never been called, but she assumed it was only a matter of time.

  She sent a goodbye email to her boss and happily signed off from her work at. When she went to turn her puter off, however, she hesitated. Memories of her past flooded her mind, of all the time she used to spend online. Watg TV, pying music, talking with friends, she’d been a retively social person. In the chaos of the ge, all that had been lost.

  Another wave of loneliness washed over her, and she decided to recover all her passwords from her old social media ats. Over the hour or so, she let herself catch up on the lives of all her old friends. Many of them had ged Races, and quite a few were now w as Delvers.

  She got lost in all their feeds, and realized she knew o nothing about delving. She khe basics, of course; Dungeons had popped up all over the world during the ge, and they were filled with monsters and perils. Delvers made it their job to explore these Dungeons, both for personal gain and to make sure the monsters didn’t wander out and attack civilians.

  As Alicia kept looking, she learned just how hard Chicago had been hit after the ge. Apparently, when the main Chicago Dungeon appeared, thousands of monsters had poured out and overruy. For the first two years, the streets of Chicago had basically bee an active war zone, with Delvers doing everything they could to push back the monsters. During that period, the city gover had been paralyzed, which meant many of the Delving Guilds had essentially called the shots. They did their best tahe recmation effort, and even allowed signifit portions of the popution to freely utilize Css and Racial abilities.

  Once order had beeored, the Guilds and the City tightened some restris, and now only certified Delvers could freely engage monsters, both ihe dungeon and out.

  In time, she grew tired of reading about Dungeons and delving, auro her social media sites. Some of her old friends were incredibly active, food reason, but she couldn’t shake the feeling that her news feeds seemed to be missing names. She opened up her old messenger apps, memories returning in waves as she read through the list of all her old friends. She began clig through their profiles, trying to see what her non-Delver friends were up to, when she realized the s truth.

  Many of her old friends hadn’t survived the ge.

  Alicia was intimately familiar with the statistics, she worked for the gover after all. She knew, on some level, that roughly a third of humanity had perished in the first years of the ge, but she’d never experiehat loss personally before. She found dozens of profiles that now served as digital gravestones, filled with posts of those in m. She read through every single post, identified every single friend that hadn’t survived, and paid her own silent respects for each of them.

  Eventually, the gre of her puter s started to hurt Alicia’s eyes, and she shut everything down. She walked back outside, and when she saw the sun, realized just how much time she’d spent reading up on Chicago’s ret history. Still, there lenty of time to get back to the biggest problem at hand.

  She started off towards the Dungeon.

  In all her research, evehing she’d read today, she still couldn’t find the answers she was looking for. There were no records of new Dungeons appearing out of nowhere, other than during the ge. It also seemed quite difficult to know how big or dangerous a Dungeon was until it got explored.

  Alicia had no i in trying to solo this random new Dungeon, but thankfully she had other options. Today, her goal was to try and block off the entrao this Dungeon, and hopefully that would be the end of her problems.

  As she approached the destroyed ruins of the Dragon’s old manor, she swallowed nervously. With a quick check of her Status, she firmed that her health and stamina were maxed out, so she could afford to take a few hits. So long as the moayed as weak as the zombie from yesterday, of course.

  The house was still, and Alicia held her breath as she crept towards the basement stairs. Each step made her more tense, but as she desded, she didn’t hear anything.

  That’s a good sign, right?

  Peeking around the er, she once again saw the eerie tuhat had repced the far wall. The entrance, and the entire basement, seemed to be empty, and Alicia sighed in relief. It was time to get to work.

  Back up the stairs, she started colleg pieces of rubble and debris from the colpsed house. Each time she found a suitable piece, she would pce it in the basement stairwell and summon a series of vio hold it i took a few hours, but by the end of the day, she’d blocked off the entire passage with a cobbled together mess of brick, stone, and lumber.

  Alicia was incredibly pleased with her efforts. As far as she khis would prevent monsters from esg, and because the Dungeon was hidden uhe house, she doubted any Delvers would be able to find it. She dusted off her hands and happily started walking bae.

  I wonder if Katrina is a Delver. I hear Bards are great support csses, and with her looks, I ’t imagihere would be many people that don’t want her around. I should ask if she ever es back.

  Her st thought made her pause.

  Of course… she might never e back. Why would she? All I did ester her…

  As her train of thought soured, her steps grew heavier. Was this her life now? Sitting around and hoping that iing people wandered out to say hello? As she reunited with her Heart Tree, her thoughts lingered orange Vampire that had appeared out of nowhere st night. She drifted off to sleep, a mess of flig emotions, w if it was time to make a ge.

  A few hours ter, she woke uedly to the peaceful sounds of a guitar drifting through her opy.

  —

  Well, that was a little tense, wasn't it? I'll admit, I'm so happy that the core cept of this Book is finally out in the open. It was a lot of fun building up to the reveal, and now I finally dig in to the meat of the story. I've got some fun things pnned, so I really hope you're as excited as I am.

  "Ahem."

  I was getting there! They're my audieoo!

  ", I haven't got all night. The sun is almost up."

  Right, well, Katrina wants me to share this Chapter's song; "Asturias (Leyenda)" by Isaac Albeniz.

  "That's right! We've got another piece by Albéniz! I know, I know, my tastes are showing, but he's a fantastiposer. This song in particur takes us on a bit of a journey. In the beginning and the end, there's this fantastic, high energy melody that always roots itself in a sie that pys tinuously in the background. It's a little stressful, which felt very appropriate for this chapter. The middle se is just as beautiful, and some of the call and response here reminded me of my versation with Alicia."

  Are you done?

  "Y'know, I'm not appreciating this attitude."

  You're practically breaking aering!

  "Psh, if you say so."

  Well, now she's gone. Hope you enjoy her musid I'll see you ime!

  Nyx <3