Mentor and apprentice made their way back to Darabaile with a hurried gait and having to navigate the roads with more people on it than the previous night. Though thankfully it wasn’t enough to overwhelm Willow.

  The morning had been a tad hectic, with Willow wrangling her spirits back into their spaces taking a surprising amount of time since Calypso had wibbled away sometime in the night. Thankfully the little raindrop was unharmed and relatively close by, but it still took time to track them down.

  Willow had many worries for what the day could bring, but she was hopeful that she’d solve the crowd problem and get to see her sister with minimal fuss. She was ignoring the lingering anxiety of her sister potentially rejecting a new aspect of herself.

  Worst case she’d still get to see her family a bit later in the day as they got ready to leave for wherever their new home lay.

  That’d just have her kicking the problem down the road though, and she was determined to solve this annoying issue as soon as she could. She didn’t want to be stuck on the outside of cities for the rest of her life, who knows what neat people and curiosities lay inside them!

  As they walked Willow tried out a few variations of the mental technique Mu had used on her, supplying it with different ratios of Harmony and Change’s conceptual energies.

  The ways these techniques messed with her thoughts couldn’t be overstated. One combo made her feel others emotions as her own, which was disorienting and took some time to pin down what exactly was happening.

  Another, that was weighted more towards Change’s concept, made her thoughts infinitely more disorganized. Considering how scatterbrained Willow was normally that was impressive and she immediately dismissed the technique due to a lack of focus more than anything.

  All the while her teacher took notes on what each combination did with a pencil nub in her travel journal.

  Some of the passerbys definitely looked at the pair oddly, especially when a combination made Willow behave particularly erratic or strange, such as when one made her have wild mood swings.

  Which was not a fun experience for anyone involved.

  These experiments were starting to give her a headache both metaphorically and very literally.

  Something that didn’t go unnoticed by her spirit friends.

  “Child, you should put a stop to this for now, there is no true rush to get it done in a day.” Harmony warned her "Give your body a chance to rest before you damage yourself irreparably.”

  But she was so close! She could feel it!

  Change tried a different tact. “C’mon, do you wanna be stuck in bed again? That’s what’s gonna happen if you keep pushing yourself like this.”

  Willow let out a sigh and stopped channeling her friends’ concepts.

  “You’re both right.” She sent to the two of them. “Sorry for not listening.”

  She had her projection give the two of them a hug, and since she was in a particularly huggy mood decided to give one to all of her friends.

  Willow informed her mentor that she was stopping for now due to a headache. She could feel Mu’s disappointment, but outwardly the wanderer woman only expressed satisfaction at the gained knowledge, and concern for her students' pain.

  You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

  “I was gonna suggest a break soon anyways.” She said, snapping her journal closed and putting her pencil stub away.

  She placed a gloved hand on Willow’s head as they continued to walk, cycling some spring energy to lessen her pain.

  “How bad are ya hurtin’? I remember gettin’ some real bad aches when I was developing the technique, so I can imagine you’re goin’ through something unpleasant.”

  “Not too bad” She lied, not wanting to worry her mentor unnecessarily.

  It certainly made the rest of their walk unpleasant for the girl, but otherwise they’d made good time. The fact there were also far more people sharing the road with them made it even more difficult for Willow to ignore her discomfort.

  Her stomach rumbled loud enough for Mu to notice.

  “Right, I promised you some grub, almost slipped my mind. I was hopin’ to bring you to a place a bit deeper in the city, but since that’s not an option I’ll just snag some street food while you wait by the guards, if that’s fine with you?”

  Willow nodded, though she was a bit hesitant to be left in the care of strangers no matter how temporarily.

  “I’ll also try to get word to your family so they know to meet us out here. Don’t want them to get too worried about your whereabouts.”

  The two of them approached the familiar gate guards from yesterday and Mu explained that they’d be waiting for her apprentice's family out here with them, but she wanted to pop into the city to grab some food to break their fast first.

  The younger guard was annoyed at the prospect, but was polite enough to not show it on his face. However the older one seemed to be more than happy to look after her.

  “I have a daughter about her age who comes around from time to time, it’s no trouble. Though I do have to wonder why you can’t take her with you, Miss Mu?”

  “She has a tendency to wander off, and I don’t want to catch any grief from her father for losin’ her in the crowds.” She lied without missing a beat.

  Willow was annoyed about the cover story her mentor had chosen, but decided not to reveal the deception, even if she was gonna pout a bit.

  “I don’t wander off, you just can’t keep up with me.”

  Which made the majority of the adults chuckle.

  “Sure ya don’t, kid.” The older guard said while tousling her curls. “If you stay put I got some candied fruits for you to snack on while you wait.”

  Candied fruits? She hadn’t had those before, and they sounded tasty. Plus she wasn’t planning on wandering off in the first place.

  “All right.” She said shyly.

  “Don’t have too many, don’t want you bouncin’ off the walls while we’re waitin’ later.” Mu warned while she started to head into the city, leaving the girl alone with the two guards.

  The wait was mostly fine, the older guard was nice enough to balance out the other guards' prickliness. Plus those candied fruits were delicious even if she didn’t quite like the texture of them.

  They were too hard and crunchy on the outside, she’d even loosened one of her baby teeth by chomping into the first one too enthusiastically. Which at least gave her a distraction from her headache, it was always fun to try and wiggle her loose teeth.

  Her mentor eventually returned with some meat and vegetable pies wrapped in some kind of waxy parchment to keep the worst of the grease off their hands.

  They were absolutely delicious, even if Willow could barely taste them due to burning her tongue on the first bite in her eagerness for some proper food.

  What was with her hurting herself on food today?

  All that was left was to wait for her family to arrive and she’d finally see her sister! Apparently Mu had sent Huey with a message wrapped around his leg to the inn she was staying at, and he arrived some time into their meal so that hopefully meant they’d be on their way.

  Her teacher was in the middle of a somewhat interesting lesson when Willow caught sight of a corona of light above the crowd moving quickly towards the gate.

  Maple hit the ground running and scooped up her sister in a big hug.

  “Hiya sissy!” Willow’s muffled voice cried out from her sister’s tight embrace.

  “Heya, little gnome.” came the familiar reply.