Running around like kids in a candy shop, we went through all the stores and trust me when I say this, we enjoyed the hell out of it. The sky changes to a shining evening and exiting a clothing store, I get myself a better designed coat in bck with white decals for style and Lyanna a simir dress to match.

  The door creaks shut and music hums throughout the streets as a band pys country music.

  Walking along the stalls, I really must admire how good this coat is. I mean there's the same straight line-y design in these too, it’s a specific uniqueness to this pce at this point.

  This is more of a robe though, it’s not as thick as a coat but it helps against the cold, and it goes down to my legs too. So now my legs won’t freeze off every time a breeze hits me.

  Lyanna looks at me with the battle ready Esque dress we found that’s tight enough to give her mobility while looking pretty damn good. Reminds me of that one time… No- Forget it-

  We walk with the crowd on the street, and one more thing I noticed; They all have an allocate.

  This likely means they didn’t end up here by pure coincidence, I highly doubt that. Considering they have an allocate, they definitely know about spells, and most importantly circles. If my judgment isn’t wrong… no that can’t be it- I’m thinking too deep in to this, I just want a break from all the shit.

  I sigh as I contempte my life choices, and Lyanna notices.

  “You good Ar?” She turns to with a cheery smile.

  “Yeah, don’t worry. Just wondering how we ended up here”

  Lyanna’s gaze flows to the streets again, and she grabs my hand.

  “Don’t think too much into it,”

  She bumps her head on my arm,

  “Just live life happy!”

  Heh, wish I could do that

  I offer back a gentle smile, and she returns it.

  “Could we get any hair accessories from here? I think there was a shop here”

  “Do you want one?”

  “I mean, not really. But I wouldn’t mind getting one since we’re here”

  You definitely want one, don’t you

  “Sure I guess, at this point, anything you want. Considering the pain I put you through, it’s fair”

  I grab a hold of Lyanna’s hand.

  “So, wanna get one?”

  Lyanna’s eyes sparkle and she replies,

  “Yes!”

  I drag Lyanna as she catches up with my pace, and we get to store diving.

  /////////////////////////////////

  10 minutes ter, we end up with,

  “Nothing”

  “At least we tried” Lyanna replies in attempt to comfort.

  Obviously, people don’t prioritize that here considering the living conditions and the literal situation of being stuck in a maze.

  A little bit disappointed, I catch the eye of a man wearing fully bck with his face revealed leaning on a wooden house wall and following our movement.

  Suspicion grows in me for a second, and I feel like I’ve sensed this signature before.

  I gnce at him and he switches his gaze onto a woman next to us, as if he wasn’t watching us the entire time. Yes, I have felt this signature before.

  It’s best we avoid him; I don’t want unnecessary problems.

  Lyanna lets out a sigh as I’m brought back,

  “Arrr, can we take a break? I’m tired”

  I’ll keep this matter for ter, I am not in the mood for this.

  “Yes pleaseee! I need a chance to rex too.”

  I’ve only slept when she goes to sleep, so I’ve been able to keep up pace. It’s not the best way, but I’m not comfortable going to sleep before her. So, I think it’s about time we find a pce to get some rest.

  “You do still have the map, right?”

  Lyanna opens up the bag we bought and thank god she still has it.

  “Yep!”

  She goes through the map and while she does that, I search for the man again, but I lose track of him, but I see a florist shop behind him. Thinking for a bit, I have an idea as I calm myself.

  “Oh yeah! There is a motel near us! Wanna go there?” She says.

  I face Lyanna again and reply,

  “Before that, I have something I want to check out.”

  Her head snts in question and I guide her to the store I saw. The door opens and the smell of flowers sends shivers throughout my body.

  “I can get you something from here instead of a hair pin. How about that?”

  Lyanna nods with a smile on her face and we enter.

  A variety of flowers fill my vision, and I feel like I’m back home again. It’s… sort of soothing.

  Among the white flowers, some light blue ones stand out. We stare at the pnts over the grass shelves covered by moss, and stop in our step as we reach the counter.

  A man who looks about 24 with long wavy bck hair peeks over the counter as he tries to lift something under him.

  Signaling us ‘one seconds’, he calls out,

  “Jessene!”

  Correction; Looks 24, sounds 18.

  Lyanna sits down on a seat near the showcase, and I notice that his left ear is, cut off… What the hell. Should I ask? No that would be too forward. I feel like I should. Maybe I should see how this pys out.

  A woman who looks around his age comes from a door on the far-left corner of the store with more pnts in her hands; She puts them down on the floor before coming to the counter.

  The woman with fair skin and long bck hair—curled at the ends—walks up to the counter. A ring glints on her finger, and she offers us a smile.

  “Welcome! I’m Jessene and this is my husband, Lyle.”

  My hand twitches a bit.Ah so they are married, I had a small hint of that from the ring she has. Funnily enough I feel jealous.

  Jessene stretches her arms out and lets the tension in her out as I happen to hear bones crack.

  “Anything y'all want in specific? We’ve got a lot of stuff! That includes medicine too” She voices.

  I point at Lyanna and say,

  “Is anything you would recommend as an accessory for her?”Jessene bends over and inspects Lyanna.

  She suddenly looks like she got a revetion and strolls over to the center most table in the wide store. Pointing towards a white flower with a bck ridge and petals with bck lines progressing straight down connecting the ridge and the center of the flower.

  Lines and straight decals are definitely a uniqueness this pce has.

  “It’s a bit on the expensive end, but this flower doesn’t wilt so it makes the perfect accessory! I don’t know if there’s an actual name for it, but I gave it the name [Morning Dawn]. There’s a bck variety of this flower too,-”

  She points to the compost holder next to it.

  “-I call it the [Night’s Dawn]. ” She says in a gleeful tone.

  “Which one do you want?”

  Ooooo, pretty interesting names. My expression reflects my thoughts and I turn to Lyanna.

  “What do you think Lyanna?”

  Fshbacks to shopping with my parents and Gran prints in front of my eyes and a thought comes alive.

  Why am I acting like a dad right now? I literally remember my dad and mom asking me something like this in the same way I did. The fuck.

  “How about the b- No, I’ll pick the Morning Dawn” Lyanna decides.

  Well, someone’s being respectful to names for the first time, she didn’t do that when I expined to her my vessels and, oh fuck you Lyanna.

  “We’ll have the Morning Dawn then!”

  Why do I feel obligated to show her the same level of energy right now.

  Jessene crosses her arms and leans back at Lyle, still facing her body at us.

  “Lyle, could you please grab a Morning Dawn from out back?”

  Lyle responds,

  “On it!”

  Lyle gets up after pcing what he was trying to lift on the roller, but it looks like he’s about to lose bance. Lyle’s body suddenly banks left and he’s about to fall.

  Shit, should I do something? I don’t want to expose myself being able to activate circles when mana’s missing in here. But I’m forgetting Jessene here, maybe she’ll be able to do something. Am I being selfish and egoistic disregarding her here? What am I even talking about…

  My mind races and I’m not sure what to do, but I have an idea. I design a circle in my head and due to linking rules, my name is written into the circle.

  Soul walker activates and deactivates instantly.

  Repeatedly doing it is about to make me throw up but time slows down just enough so that I can segregate my consciousness into two equal halves.

  A circle forms and embeds into the back skin of Jessene and from her perspective, her sudden alertness makes time slower for her.

  I switch back and with the blink of an eye Jessene catches Lyle with the boost I gave her.

  “Lyle!”

  I keep calm, but because of the link I left in Lyanna, she could tell.

  Lyanna comes closer and whispers,

  “Fufu, that was pretty cool bro”

  Giving her the bombastic-side-eye, I signal her to stay the fuck silent.

  We rush towards them and check if they’re all ok.

  “You ok!?”

  Lyle’s head ys on Jessene’s p, and he looks disoriented. Covering his face with his arm he replies,

  “Yeah. Don’t worry, I’m good”

  Jessene lets out a sigh, and I could see some confusion in her.

  “I’m, sorry. I shouldn’t have made you-”

  “Nah Nah,-”He chuckles a bit,

  “I didn’t even know that was about to happen”

  I have an idea, and a smirk curved on me as I think about their reactions.

  “Did you have a severe head injury recently?”

  The man lets his arm go and stares into my gray tinted eyes.

  “Yeah, I got caught up in an accident a few months ago, and I’m still not used to this.”

  This should be fun.

  “It’s likely there was damage done to the inner ear, but I’m sure I can do something for you”

  Lyanna gives me a questionable expression, and the two owners share disbelief and confusion at what I just said, and that’s the reaction I wanted.

  “You mean you can-” Lyle says with his eyes widened

  “Yes”

  I cover my mouth for a second as I can’t help holding my smile back and let go. Jessene’s mouth trembles a bit but she reply’s,

  “Can y-you really? Or are you trying to scam us or possibly kill him in some way?”

  I can see a tiny amount of fear, anger and worry settle in her, but I change that.

  “No no, never. Trust me. I swear on my life, you can kill me after the procedure if I do end up killing him or ‘scamming’ you.”

  As a final touch, I add,

  “I won’t even charge you. I’ll work for free”

  Lyanna turns around to cough, and I can see tears build up in her eyes.

  “Y-Yes! Please! If you can, Please try something!”

  Mmmm, I can just feel the dopamine rush in.

  “Gdly, I’ll give you a location in about 10 minutes and I’ll come get you in about 1 to 2 hours.”

  Tears run down Lyle’s cheek, and I can see Jessene’s eyes glow in joy.

  Just the fucking reaction I wanted.

  God, do I love this.

  I extend her a hand shake and I can feel Lyanna sniffling in the back.

  “We’ll be out then”

  Offering up a gentle smile, we head out as they’re both left speechless. Opening the door, the smell of… rocks and maybe cement hits my nose and we leave.

  The cold air brushes against me, but the rush of dopamine I felt in there hides as the temperature drop. Lyanna smirks and a brow raises on her.

  “Uhm, you didn’t to have to do that you know”

  I shove a hand in my pocket and reply,

  “Heh heh, no one said I couldn’t though. Let me have my fun"

  We continue our path onto the motel that’s on the map and a sudden realization nds. I am not a fucking doctor.

  “Ah fuck” I mumble to myself.

  “Ar…”

  Lyanna pauses like she remembered something.

  “What up-”

  Wait, a minute.

  My memories come back to me, and we dash to the pnt shop to get our Morning Dawn.