Mom wasn't okay, Mirn could tell that much. The woman who had adopted them had been lost in thought ever since she had seen that news program. She didn't act with as much of her normal cheerful and fidehusiasm, and seemed sad and fused sometimes. So Mirn decided to ask her to do things that she had talked about doing with them that she had seemed excited about. Starting with clothing shopping, following a side stop to sell the byrinth loot.

  Clothing shopping involved a vast and fusing array of choices, many of whi dismissed as too expensive. Pity, that one dress had been particurly nid looked like it would be more fortable than pants and such. So Mirn picked one a lot like it that was much lower in price. "This one."

  Mom's ears perked up happily. "Oh! Cute and flowery! I see it fitting you very well! Okay, let's buy this and find you more!"

  "I need more?" Mirn pihen began to rethink their pint. If it made Mom happy, so be it. "Okay, more would be okay."

  "Okay, let's take a look at this! And..." With that Mom made Mirn try on way too many dresses. They tolerated it and, well, some of those dresses were okay. Also a few pants and shirts, but Mirn decided they preferred less fining clothing, like dresses.

  Still, it took too long for Mirn's taste and they could see Mom was beginning to get sad again.

  So Mirn said, "Okay, that's enough. Let's do something else."

  Mom paused, brushing her own new denim dress with her hand. "Oh, tired of shopping? Alright, guess we've bought enough dresses for now. Whie of those do you want empowered for battle?"

  Mirn thought for a moment and decided to go with their favorite. "The first one."

  Mom nodded. "Okay! We'll find someone who specializes in flowweaving. It's more expensive, but far more perma without any need for recharging aer overall than simple Word imbuements not to mention that flowweavers are more versatile sihey aren't limited to a few ideas like Word users are. Oh, flowweaving is a Mystery that's harder to learn and way slower than Words but is really good for long-sting empowerments pared to normal usage of Words. Oh, but a, which's ah mastery of part of a Mystery to a Transdental level, do enough of a good job at empowerment that it really doesn't matter, though flowweavers are still the most versatile."

  Mirn sidered this, then a thought occurred to them. "You have a Transdent Sigil. Does that mean that you're a?"

  Mom shook her head. "No, you o have full mastery of a Word to the Transdental level. Oh, but getting Transdent Sigils is a step toward that. And then there are Adepts then there are High Adepts, and finally Grand Adepts. The division isn't as as that between nos and Adepts, but one idea is that High Adepts affect things on a major scale such as a whion or even a whole nation, while Grand Adepts make world-shaking effects. That's just one of many such ideas and some tries have different ranking names and divisions, some even having even more than three ranks. Anyways, empowerments by even a are too expensive for our budget, so let's just find a good flowweaver!"

  After giving the dress to the flowweaver, which Mirn only accepted because of being assured that they would get their dress back eveer, Mom found a cheap hotel and reserved a room. Then si was still too early to sleep Mirn suggested she show them a movie, ahing she had beeed for. As it turned out the movie was a bit fusing but enjoyable. "I get why she died for her sister, that's just proteg family even if it kills you, but I don't get why she kept talking about proteg her sister's honor and all. Why 't the sister protect it herself?"

  Mom shrugged. "It's the job of the strong to protect the honor of the weak, sihey 't protect it themselves. One of those duties that es with being strong. If the sister for example spped that guy who was insulting her iy, he probably would've done worse than spping her, like breaking some bones or even killing her. But because the one who spped him was strong, that guy had to stand down or risk a real fight. Besides, if the strong doesn't step up to protect the weak, who will? The police just protect the is of the people paying them."

  "Duties of the strong..." That definitely was a lot of food for thought for Mirn to digest. "Is that why you were proteg me?"

  Another shrug from Mom. "Partly that, partly because you're cute, and partly because I've grown attached to you. I think of you like my child. Um, are you okay with that?"

  Mirn smiled. "It's fine, I already think of you as Mom."

  "Argh! My heart! Too cute!" Mom clutched her heart.

  "Are you okay?" Mirn asked worriedly.

  Mom just nodded. "Yeah. I was just exaggerating."

  Sometimes Mom could be strange.

  ~~~

  In the m, Mom decided the two of them o see a onsmith that specialized in ons for monsters and natural on amplifiers. She expined, "We'll pretty much have to go byrinth running ihan a week with all those expenses, but they'll pay off in the long term with greater safety when we go back. And with that, we work oing a good reputation as successful byrinth runners, which we use to get more kinds of jobs aually work our to safer careers, plus get you some good education."

  Mirn already felt like Mom was doing a perfectly good job teag them, but they supposed they could learn a lot more. After all, there was a whole world they apparently didn't know much about! With that thought, they tilted their head. "You 't teach me everything?"

  Mom shook her head. "I'm not someoh the Word Teach or otherwise skilled at it. I've been only teag you simple things so far. There're far more difficult things that'll be you to learn. Evolver also teach you some things, but a quality education 't be uimated."

  Hmm. Mirn would just have to adapt and learn. "I want to learn from someone as nice as you."

  Mom nodded. "I'm sure we find someone--oh, there's the smithy! You knoroduced stuff is cheaper, but you 't beat the quality ing from someoh the right Mystery masteries, and quality'll save our lives..."

  Mirn stared at the angur opal building. It looked too quiet to be a pce where ons got made. But onside the lobby, a wave of heat hit them and they almost beat a retreat back outside. However, the heat proved not too bad, probably because there was a line on the floor between the lobby and a pce with some kind of r fe. On the line was a sign reading, "Heat shielding provided for your prote."

  But wait, if it was this hot outside the heat shield, just how hot was it ihe monster inside didn't seem to care, her massive rippling muscles hard at work as she shaped some metal with careful pounding from her hammer... while another hand alterrikes with a sed hammer and two hands held firm the tongs. In appearahe four-armed smith was rather reptilian, covered with fiery e scales. She had four eyes, eae with a burning iris, and her snout was rather crocodilian. A pin on her apron which seemed more there to protect her clothes than herself stated that her pronouns was she/her. Not pausing in her work, the smith said in a high whistling tone, "Your orders?"

  Mirn caught Mom staring at the smith's arms. But Mom also seemed to catch herself and said, "A polearm of whatever type you thi for my child here and a versatile core to amplify their mimic abilities. And a hex core plus cw extenders for me."

  The smith grunted. "Not a cheap order. o know yood for it."

  "Certainly." And Mom poured nearly all of the leftover byrinth money into a jar beled 'Payment' on a lobby table. "I checked your listed rates online for those things."

  The smith raised an brow. "Cash? Judging from that and your order, byrinth runner?"

  "Yeah," Mom affirmed.

  That got a nod from the smith. "Not judging, lotta my ers are runners. Not judging you either for eyeing my muscles. I'm Grace, and you are?"

  "Um, a curse prevents me from having a name." For some reason Mom seemed atypically nervous.

  "First time heard of that. But I knohacky business curses be..." It seemed as if Grace was about to say something but it came out as a cough instead.

  "Ah... I felt that. You tried to give me a name? A sexy one no less, naughty you." For some reason Mom was grinning.

  Grace just chuckled. "Had to check. Sexy name would've fit you. Okay. Just a bit and I'll measure you two for the cw extenders and the polearm."

  "Leaving pretty little me no choice but to watch your rippling muscles at work?" Mom grinned again.

  "You aren't a slou that departmeher." Grace winked before turning her focus back to her work.

  Baffled, Mirally asked Evolver about those two's behavior. The following expnation was lohan expected and very informative. Mirn asked Mom, "So you were flirting with her? Because you wao mate with her?"

  Mom was drinking some water from a water cooler when she heard the sed question and for some reason she spat out said water in surprise.

  Grace had to pause to ugh hysterically. Mirn had the thought that it was fortuhat Grace had fihe hammering part of her current job for the moment.

  ~~~

  In the end, the on the smith gave Mirn ter in the day was... a pin and b spear. But when Mirn asked why, Grace expihat a light and fast on was the best fit for someone like Mirn. And indeed when Mirn tried out a few pokes and other motions, they found the spear far easier to hahe more they tried it out the more they liked it. They could get much more speed with it, making for more deadly stabbing, and they could still hit someone (in this case, the battered looking target dummy in the smithy's back yard) just below the tip for a more blunt hit, which would help against armored oppos.

  "Like it?" Grace asked. "Look, I empowered the tip here for better stabbing. It also extend cutting energy for slig when you , if you activate it with your energy like this..." A demonstration removed the head of the dummy, which Grace just shrugged at and then pluhe head ba, doing something that made it fuse back with the body.

  Eagerly, Mirn nodded and Grace tinued, "That drains the spear's energy faster, so you better save that for when you really o cut up something. It'll replenish itself, of course, so you just o let it rest. It's also empowered for easy handling, durability, and self-repairing. I used flowweaving, so that stuff'll st. Now let's look at your versatile core. It isn't quite as good as a more dedicated core, but it'll enhance just about any ability you mimiow, to use this, you just o swallow it."

  Mirn looked skeptically at the multi-faceted prism of pure energy in their hand, then looked at Mom olfing down her own hexer core without aahat reassured Mirn enough that they carefully swallowed the versatile core... a it melding with an immaterial part of themselves. To test it out, they extended out their shadow cws and found them longer yet easier to handle, plus sharper. They felt sure they could do a more deadly acid spit, but decided not to test it ht here.

  Mom was grinning while flexing her hands, causing cws about as long as Mirn's shadow cws to pop out. "Okay, between those awesome cws and my core-strengthened afflis, I'm raring to go! Wanna do a quick byrinth jog?"

  Mirn looked directly at Mom. "Mom, you said we had a few things to do first."

  Mom defted a little. "Right, right, hey, I bet your battle dress is ready!"

  Holy Mirn was so excited to get their new dress back that they had trouble sitting still for the flowweaver tailor's expnation about the improvements to the dress. But increased durability, self-repairing and self-sing, increased prote, and the new pockets that could hold a lot more than they looked like all sounded nice. Seeing how much Mirn liked those pockets, Mom promised to get ones like them oher dresses ohey had th money for it. Apparently the other pockets would be simple Word imbues, so cheaper but also drawing on Mirn's energy for every use.

  As they sat on the bus bae with Mirn being careful to keep their spear out of others' way and the tip covered with padding like Mom taught them, Mirn caught Mom frowning again. "You seem sad again," Mirn said.

  "It's just... Mirn, do you think I'm a bad person?" Mom asked.

  Mirn just shook their head. "You taught me about what good people do, and you taught me about the duties of the strong to the weak. I don't think those're things bad people do."

  "Hm.... Ah, you're right!" Mom immediately brightened. "I must've had a really good reason for killing those people. Either that or someone forced me!"

  It was good to see Mom happier, Mirn thought.