So it is done: Prevention is better than the cure (Patreon)

Jonathan slowly breathed in the cool night air, then swayed his legs in the air, looking down at the ground at the city below, at Mantle. How much distance from here to the ground, he wonders? A mile, maybe even two. It would be a long trip to the ground…

Jonathan exhaled and rubbed his face with his hands. Whiskey, of course, was a good punch in the head, but Jonathan remembered what the old man had once said to him.

Don't go to bed drunk if you want to wake up alive...

Jonathan wasn't quite sure what the old man meant when he said it - but just in case he followed the advice. The old man never advised him anything stupid...

The Old man, ha... The old man knew what he was talking about...

Jonathan rubbed his face again, then yawned slowly. Even after such a shake-up, he wanted to sleep, now he really would like to go to the dorms, to his bed...

Everything in the world has ceased to have any meaning. It's just... It all happened so stupidly and so suddenly. It shouldn't be that way, life should develop in its own slow way.

Thousands of others like him have gone through this. They first studied, they passed, then they were introduced to the council. After they received their well-deserved title they would become a free agent of the Order. They had their old contacts, teachers, acquaintances, friends... All their damn society, the whole damn Orders to help them slowly gain experience.

They would gradually grow and develop, becoming better and better magicians. In the beginning, when they don’t know their heads from their asses, they would run to their teachers for advice. For their first few months the student remained only formally independent and would ask their teacher for advice on anything they do.

Then, gradually, they grew, developed, received knowledge not in theory, but in practice - gradually, slowly, they became truly independent. Just a couple of years - and the new magician became not only formally, but also really self-sufficient while still having connections with his teachers, with his colleagues. Someone could help and explain his questions.

Man is a social being, all people want a society similar to themselves. The Order of Hermes was imbued with politics, connections, services for this very reason. Because the Order was one of the most united of traditions. And although within the Order a bani Quaesitor may have hated a bani Veriditas, who once stole his girlfriend from him, when they faced problems, the Order would throw back their enmity and help each other.

For only a short while and not always, but usually it happened that way.

And so for everything that supported him to be thrown away so suddenly...

Jonathan wasn't stupid. He did not consider himself a stupid person and did not hear anyone ever call him a stupid person. Therefore, he understood that even the old man had few chances to get out of that... Stuff. Most likely, he’s already dead.

Jonathan was smart enough to understand this, but... It didn't mean that he was ready to accept it so easily.

Damn old man, ha... He was his father - not only a foster father, but a real one. And suddenly, just like that, with a snap of the fingers, Jonathan had lost him. Lost all of his instructions, advice... Ironically, he walked along the Umbral path - and unexpectedly he had lost both his real and his metaphysical path.

It was just so unexpected, so stupid and so accidental...

And so, rather than being on a mission assigned to him by the Order or the old man he was free to do whatever he wanted. He was no longer in the Academy where there are guidelines on what to do and what not to do, he was simply ‘living’. In life, where there was no correct answer to the ‘task’ assigned to him. In life, where he could choose any option, and no one could tell him otherwise. If he chose the ‘wrong’ option, he would not be given a low grade, the wise teacher would not have shaken his head in disappointment and he would not have been sent to additional classes. Jonathan could choose to do whatever he wants, there is no ‘wrong’ or ‘right’ answer, only action and consequences.

Of course there are simply things that he must not do as a matter of common sense.

It was... strange and scary. In a snap of a finger, he was alone. Unexpected is the least he could describe the feeling was.  And he was only seventeen, actually not legally old enough to drink alcohol yet, ha. What nonsense...

His first serious moral dilemma and all without a clear ‘right’ answer. Domestic violence - should he risk himself to solve such a paltry problem? Should he even care about it?

After all, while he did not consider himself a bad person... was he supposed to interfere with this at all? And even if he decided to do so, what was he supposed to do?

Jonathan didn’t know, but endless self-pity will only tie his hands. If you don't make a decision, then the decision will be made for you... The old man said something like that to him long ago, ha.

Shaking his head again, Jonathan sighed.

He will look after Cinder for now and assess the situation closer. He still had enough leeway to just follow her in case something happened...

And no, Jonathan did not allow the thought of how strange those words sounded enter his mind!

He'll just look after Cinder... And, perhaps, if what he saw really turns out to be as terrible as he imagined, then he’ll deal with Miss Sunny. Somehow.

Jonathan shook his head before staring at the ground below.

He had no fear of heights, but such great height nevertheless caused a certain amount of fear to sprout in him like any rational and thinking creature.

A mile and a half, probably... Long fall to the ground...

With these thoughts running in his mind, Jonathan placed his hand on the ground - before pushing off with his left hand. Immediately,  his legs began to fall into the void in front of him. He was falling...

***

And then he landed on the nearest rooftop of the house that he spotted on the way to the edge of Atlas from the hotel.

The sudden change in positioning almost made him fall to his butt and gaze at the ground below him uncomfortably close. Balance regained, he glanced at the fence closing off the edge of the city not far away.

The cliff of the floating city was well guarded - it was fenced off by a decently large fence topped off with barbed wire. But Atlas apparently did not have significant experience of interacting with teleporters, so it was not difficult for Jonathan to get into the closed area. Just as easy as it is for returning back… the place was literally brimming with Aer

Indeed, a place so infused with Aer was the best place to use Aer magic. All he had to do to teleport there was catch a glimpse of the right place, then create an act of Movement, before using his Will to simply ‘move’ there.

Indeed, a free fall, a leap into the unknown, performed with his left hand, the hand correlated with Aer, was enough likeness to complete the task.

And so once again, on the roof of the house, Jonathan repeated the same ritual. After which he found himself below, in a dark alley nowhere near the previous location, close to the hotel.

He pulled his cloak closer and put on his felt hat, covering his face from curious passers-by.

Slowly the light of dawn flooded the streets of the city, which had become so uncomfortable and inhospitable at night. But, for now, the streets were still practically empty - except for some sleepy passers-by, returning home from their nightly adventures.

And so the whole world turns. The world doesn't care about his experiences, about some kind of abusive families, about anyone's problems...

Someone just wanted to go to sleep, someone wanted to get drunk, someone was already going to their job - be loved or hated...

It was all pointless in the end, but...

Jonathan slowly breathed in the frosty air, chilly even in the light of morning, before directing his feet toward the hotel.

He was the bani Bonisagus, finding meaning in nonsense was the calling of his home.

***

The next day, the ninth of August, Jonathan found a tidbit of life a little unexpectedly and much earlier than he would have preferred.

During his life in the dormitory of the Academy, he used to wake up at eight o'clock in the morning for morning ablutions before classes. However, having graduated from his strict educational institution, he had all but forgotten about waking up early, slowly getting accustomed to sleep as much as he wanted.

Actually now that he thinks about it, Jonathan had not received the received official documents certifying his graduation. It would have been given to him later, after meeting the Council. Great not only he’s stuck in this Umbral World, he’s flunked out of school as well.

Anyway, to get to the point, he had turned in to sleep yesterday, it turns out at six in the morning. So imagine his surprise and annoyance, to wake up not two hours later.

Jonathan's head was cracking and splitting - although this had almost no connection with the alcohol he had drunk, as much as with his lack of sleep.

The reason for Jonathan's early and extremely unpleasant wake-up, was a knock on the door, which echoed through the empty room with an unpleasant booming noise in his ear.

Opening his eyes and slowly, yawning annoyedly, Jonathan got up from the bed before hearing the knock a second time, aggravating his headache.

“I'm coming!” Jonathan yelled while hastily putting on his jeans and a shirt just in case. The memory that at the moment he was not at home, but at a hotel reminded him of the need to preserve the rules of decency.

After another moment, trying with all his might to desperately suppress another yawn, Jonathan opened the door, facing... Emptiness.

Blinking in confusion, Jonathan turned his gaze a little lower, noticing two tied small tufts, followed by a forehead - and then two yellow eyes, looking at him from under scrunched up brows.

“Room service.” The familiar voice made Jonathan instantly open his sleepy eyes wide and look at the small girl he was thinking about so much yesterday...

No, enough, it’s too early in the morning to wrangle his mind with how strange and criminal that thought sounded!

“Cinder?” - Jonathan instantly tried to smile. “Helping in the morning?”

However, whether his acting skills were not as great as Jonathan himself thought it was, or it was his lack of sleep, Cinder did not respond to his words. But she didn't look down on her feet anymore - so Jonathan counted it as a small victory.

“Room service.” However, the girl's voice still remained dry and almost mechanical, without any hint of what happened yesterday.

“Does your room need cleaning?” Cinder asked.

“No, no.” Jonathan started sighing, then after strangling in the bud all the obscene jokes that were swarming in his head - continued.

“Although if you come to chat - I would be glad to oblige.”

He didn't even need to look closely to see how Cinder almost flinched at this treatment. Not because it was unpleasant - rather from surprise, before looking at Jonathan.

Her expression was not joyful, not reluctant either, rather she looked… Embittered.

The closest match that Jonathan himself could pick up was the look of a dog who did not believe that a bone was actually being held out to her. It was a wolfish look in which Jonathan could see not just hatred - but hatred mixed with pain and a completely childish resentment for the whole world. It was quite the cocktail of emotions.

“If you don’t need the room to be cleaned, then I’m not going to bother you further.” Cinder expressed dryly..

Probably, if Jonathan were an idiot, her tone of voice would have sounded bored or mechanical even, the perfect picture of a subservient employee. But Jonathan was not an idiot, so he heard the slight note of wheezing at the very end. A note of bitterness and anger, quite the pungent emotion.

It was like a frozen lump in her throat, as if Cinder could barely choke out the words. The emotions, the subservience that stood behind this phrase, was like burning coals in her throat. She then turned abruptly and grabbed onto a cart with cleaning equipment that was previously out of sight.

In a sense, it was a comical look - the cart looked three times larger than Cinder’s childish body, and Jonathan could see that Cinder had to push with all her strength to push the cart along. But this picture definitely did not look comical to Jonathan, not something to be laughed at.

“Wait, maybe.” Jonathan hurriedly took a step forward, blocking Cinder's path.

“Can I help? Well, you know, the cart is heavy and…”

“Please, get out of the way.” Cinder said slowly, with pressure and brimming with emotion.

Now not even an idiot could ignore the bitterness in Cinder’s tone of voice.

“Of course, I just offered to help.” Jonathan faked a wide smile, taking a step to the side.

As he stepped aside, he noticed that the cart handle Cinder was holding the cart with... looked red-ish?

Jonathan blinked his eyes, shaking his head a little, and tried to clear his eyes, only to realize that what he saw was not a product of hallucination due to lack of sleep.

No, definitely, the metal handle of the huge cart had turned red as if from heat.

Jonathan looked at Cinder's hand as she pulled the cart before blinking again.

After another moment, he exhaled and closed his eyes. It would be better if he had his glasses with him, but needs must. Hah… this is going to suck. With a sharp exhale of his breath, he opened his eyes.

By opening his eyes he is able to see the world as it is. When a Sleeper opens their eyes, they wake up from the dream called reality - they see the world that it really is. Just as light is nothing more than a type of wave visible to the eye, so is reality nothing more than part of the Tellurian visible to the mind. By opening your eyes you can see the wave that makes up the light - and you can see the Quintessence that makes up the Tapestry.

Jonathan had opened his eyes, looking at Cinder and the unfortunate still glowing handle.

However, it was not an ordinary act of opening the eye - at least it was something inaccessible to the Sleeper.

And although Jonathan had only used this spell for the first time while not on Earth, and the first time he looked at Cinder, he was still a bani Bonisagus. He therefore was very knowledgeable in matters of a certain occult-mystical sense. So without any difficulty he was able to identify what he Saw. Well to a certain extent anyway.

And what he saw, if he was on Earth, he would classify as an Ars Virium of the Initiate Exemptus level. Or, amending that the used ability was not subject to classification as magia, it was a localized Path of Hellfire, limited not only in the area of action, but also in strength.

In other words, it was a manifestation of a ‘magical’ - from the point of view of the Sleeper at least - ability.

And although Jonathan, again, was not too knowledgeable in the metaphysical laws of this world - he could safely assume that what Cinder was doing was not an ordinary ability everyone wielded.

Jonathan blinked at Cinder, who presumably had just used magic. She had already moved quite far away from him. He could somewhat see that the metal had cooled down and stopped glowing. He then closed his eyes and took a deep breath.

So, Cinder possessed... Magic skills. What were they called in this world? Semblance? A Semblance of what, he wondered? Though he guess it’s not the strangest thing Mages has called Magic.

Jonathan shook his head before a great yawn took him by surprise and he could feel himself nodding off. It seems that his lack of sleep has catched up to him.

Watching Cinder... He'll have to organize some kind of schedule. Furthermore Cinder’s circumstance here was clearly unclean. Not only family problems, but also her magical abilities, and at such a young age at that...

But first - Jonathan realized, almost dislocating his jaw with another powerful yawn - he needed to sleep.

***

Jonathan's next awakening, the normal kind, happened much later. According to the clock, it was past noon,Jonathan's stomach hinted that, after yesterday's experiences, that it was empty and urgently needed to be refilled.

Jonathan slowly got out of bed, stretched and after smelling his armpits he immediately ran into the shower. His cold shower left him fully awake and even, in a sense, in somewhat of a good mood.

With Cinder, he needs to tackle things slowly and refrain from making hasty decisions. And the girl herself, apparently, did not particularly expect such kindness from him. If the meeting with Cinder in the morning hinted at something to Jonathan himself - it was solely that even if she needed help - she just wouldn't accept it... Not that from her point of view she had any reason to trust Jonathan at all.

Sighing, Jonathan pulled his hair into his preferred fashion, a simple tie on his hair, before slipping on his raincoat and putting his glasses in one of its inner pockets. Next, Jonathan picked up his bag, empty, however, Jonathan himself planned to correct this deficiency today.

If he needed to arrange some surveillance, then he needed to be prepared, which means that he had to spend the thousand lien he had on hand.

It wasn't much, but Jonathan hoped it would be enough to buy the things he needed. He... he didn't want to get money the same way he did last time.

After leaving his room, Jonathan walked to the second floor balcony, there he had a good view of the inner dining hall.

Jonathan could easily see that a rather noisy group of several people had gathered at one of the tables. One of which was yesterday's man with the two clubs behind his back - however, this time he was not carrying it, he had most likely left it in his room.

From all the information he was able to obtain, he was probably a Hunter. A hunter was probably the best possible source of information that he could find… At least without having to delve into the criminal world.

However, at the same time, Jonathan feared that the Hunter would notice something strange in his questions. Jonathan was not a great actor, his knowledge of this world was very superficial - and if Hunters really played the role of professional fighters against monsters and, occasionally, criminals, then Jonathan would not dare to possibly shine a light on his own suspicious nature.

Exhaling, Jonathan took a step… and almost stepped into the huge puddle of mud in front of him.

Uncomprehendingly, Jonathan stared at the dirt. It took some time before he could make out in the wad of dirt the footprint of boots. It was rather small, almost childish in size. It took him another second to realize that it was not a single footprint. A whole chain of dirty footprints led along the entire carpet spread on the floor - from the stairs to… Is that a girl? Why is she purposefully dirtying the carpet?

Jonathan was confused by what he’s seeing. The girl that was not Cinder, but, apparently, one of the relatives of the owner of the hotel. As Jonathan himself could remember, the one who had delivered his ordered lunch to his room yesterday.

Slowly, if not imposingly, she stepped forcefully on the carpet as she walked along in shoes so dirty that every trace of mud on the carpet deserved a separate dry cleaning.

Jonathan was confused by the strange sight. Shouldn't the owner of the hotel have scolded her for this behavior? If she treated Cinder like that, then she was hardly so all-forgiving as  to ignore another child dirtying the carpet...

After thinking of her name - Cinder - Jonathan instantly saw her.

Cinder, who was kneeling in one of these galleries. Cinder, who seemed to be wiping a stain off the carpet. Cinder to which the girl in boots was heading towards, leaving huge dirty footprints behind her. Cinder, who had looked at him viciously, as if expecting an opportunity to bite the hand that held out a bone to her out of her anger. Cinder, that could heat metal with her touch… Cinder, who looked one step away from snapping.

Jonathan instantly realized that the situation was not just trashy, it was approaching possibly catastrophic way too quickly.

***

Cinder has been scrubbing this stupid stain for the last six minutes. Someone had spilled wine on the carpet yesterday, but Cinder has only noticed it now, when it was already all dried up. If Cinder only noticed the stain just now, then she had shown a disdainful attitude towards her duties, and this was punishable.

Cinder felt the damn collar on her neck pinching her skin. Miss Sunny had made Cinder wear that damn collar under her layers of clothing so as not to raise questions from visitors.

Questions from visitors were punishable.

Cinder has been scrubbing the damn stain for six minutes, she had only fourteen minutes left before Miss Sunny asked her to bring in the food again for the distinguished clients who were now celebrating some successful mission downstairs.

Bloody hunters, bloody Hunters, bloody hunters… BLOO...Ok deep breath Cinder, no need to clean the stain only to then burn the carpets.

Cinder brushed the stain one last time, she gazed at her handiwork. Okay, okay… the stain has practically merged with the color of the carpet, which means that when it dries Miss Sunny won't be able to see it.

Cinder still had more than ten minutes left to return to the kitchen and cook a few dishes, decorate, after which she could wash the dirty dishes that have been brought to her. Then she would need to check the new guest's clothes, whether it was dry or not. If it was dry, then Cinder had time to iron it before the new portion of dirty dishes from the Hunters arrived in the kitchen. If not - even better, because in that case she would have time to soak Miss Sunny's clothes and even wipe the sauce off her dress and...

“Hmm-hmm!” Amanda's squeaky voice suddenly sounded from behind her. She had learned to distinguish the twins' voices a long time ago. The surprise made Cinder freeze for a while before slowly turning to the speaker, without putting down her brush.

Cinder's gaze came to Amanda - who else, of course? - in…Cinder froze. In monstrously dirty boots.

Then Cinder's mind automatically noted that a string of dirty footprints stretched along the entire floor. All over the carpet.

Dozens of muddy, dirty tracks of footprints. Forty? Fifty?

Each footprint had to be wiped off separately. This would take at least three minutes for each footprint. She had to do it immediately, as if she waited, then it will dry out - and Cinder will have to spend even more time on it. Three hours... maybe even four.

Four hours on her knees.

Miss Sunny will notice this. Cinder will not meet the deadline. Not a chance.

Tardiness is punishable.

“You missed a spot!” With these infuritating words, Amanda took another step forward, deliberately slapping her dirty boot forcefully on the carpet, causing the dirt from the boot to fly, splattering the carpet in mud.

Several muddy, vile dark drops fell on Cinder's hand and clothes.

“Hah!” Smiling at her joke, Amanda broke into a vicious grin.

Cinder gripped the brush in her hands. She could smell it smoldering.

It is punishable. It is punishable. It is punishable.

A moment later, her Semblance went out of control.

She felt the cheap plastic melting and the wood under her hand began to melt, boil and evaporate at the same time. The damned brush melted into liquid, the same damn she had just used for ten minutes to clean one damn SPOT!

Cinder began to swing her hands, to throw the almost fully liquid molten brush at Amanda as she felt a hand fall on her shoulder.

The sudden sensation of a hand on her shoulder made Cinder freeze, interrupting her Semblance, forcing the incomprehensible something that the brush had turned into in her hands to stop melting, falling to the ground in a melted lump, burning the carpet pile at the point of contact.

“Girl…” The voice behind her was quiet and very cold, though it was not directed at her. “Wouldn't you like to go for a walk?”

Hearing these cold words, Amanda flinched, then gazed at the man standing behind Cinder before casting a sharp glance at Cinder and moving away.

Cinder was very familiar with that voice. She had been hearing that voice too often lately.

“What are you doing!?” - Quietly, Cinder literally hissed. Turning to Jonathan, which continued to hold his hand on her shoulder.

“She had to suffer!” CInder barely contained the burning rage.

“You don’t have to tell me that, I agree with you.” Jonathan nodded slowly before continuing.

“But what would you accomplish with what you were about to do? That certainly wouldn't have killed her, and it probably wouldn't have been enough to maime her. In the best case scenario, she would suffer some burns and then what?” Jonathan wasn’t sure of advocating murder to the barely held back girl, but saying something stupid like ‘forgive and forget’ would most likely only end with Cinder burning the whole hotel down

“That would be enough!” Cinder jerked to the side. “Let me go! Let me burn that stupid bitch!” Jonathan did not react to these words, continuing to keep his hand on Cinder's shoulder, from doing what she wanted to do.

“Do you think that this is the best option?” Jonathan looked at Cinder carefully, - “To vent anger on her?”

“The best?! THE BEST?! This is my only option!” Cinder twitched, trying to escape from Jonathan’s grasp. “Let me go or I'll scream!”

Slowly, Jonathan breathed out, "I don't think so. You won't scream because it will draw attention to yourself. And you don't like drawing attention to yourself.” Cinder froze as she heard Jonathan's words before lowering her gaze.

“Let me go. Just go away.” Jonathan exhaled slowly again,

"I'm really ready to talk to you. If you need to.” Jonathan doesn’t need to be a mind reader to know that his choice of words has quite the effect on the girl. A negative one, unfortunately.

NEED TO?! NEED TO?! SHE DON’T NEED ANYONE! NO ONE! EVERYONE SHOULD JUST LEAVE HER ALONE! THEY ALL CAN GO TO HELL! THEY ALL SHOULD DISAPPEAR, DIE AND STOP CRAWLING IN FRONT OF HER EYES!

“Leave me alone”, - Cinder slowly lowered her gaze, - “Why are you so close to me? Why can't you just leave me alone?” Slowly she felt her cheeks get wet on their own.

Why is she so weak? Why does even a bloody traveler can stand up for himself, drive Amanda away, but she can't? Why is she so worthless?

Cinder sniffed, looking down.

“Well, well.” And the damn traveler, why did he become attached to her?! Why did he run his hand through her hair, soothing, as her mother once soothed her?! Why did he get involved?! Why couldn't he just do the same as the others?! Why couldn't he just pretend it was none of his business and walk by?! Why did he feel sorry for her?! Why did he look at her with pity?!

“Don't cry. People are looking at us you know, and the picture it paints from the outside is very damning…”

Cinder chuckled mirthlessly through a sob before pulling away from Jonathan. The man gently removed his hand.

“I need to clean”, - Cinder said quietly, - “Miss Sunny will punish me if I don't start cleaning right now.”

“Punish?” - Jonathan suddenly clung to this cursed word. “In what sense will she punish you?” Cinder bit her chatty tongue in annoyance.

She didn't need this damn Jonathan to feel sorry for her!

“Are you all right?” - Finally, Jonathan was distracted by the voice of some guest. ‘Some damn hunter’ Cinder glanced at the man who had appeared - quite an old man by Cinder standards. He looked like he was already forty years old - with hair pulled into a ponytail and gray hair already breaking through his hair.

“Yes, everything is in order”, - Jonathan answered calmly, but the hunter did not leave, looking at Cinder.

“Everything is fine,” she said quietly, without looking up.

The Hunter glared at Jonathan and Cinder for a few more seconds before nodding and heading back towards the stairs.

Jonathan just sighed and looked at Cinder with a half smile, - “Well, I told you. A very bad picture from the outside.”

Cinder chuckled softly without looking up before turning away. “Go away. I need to start cleaning and you... I don't know, go and see the view, traveler.”

“Ay-ay, little miss!” With a buffoonish salute, Jonathan made an exaggerated soldier's march towards the stairs, forcing Cinder to chuckle once more, before she looked down at

Amanda's already dried boot prints and exhaled.

Punishment.

This will be followed by punishment. Not only one, quite a lot of them. And she's going to have to scrub the damn shoe prints all night so Miss Sunny won't give her another punishment in the morning.

Cinder exhaled, then reached for the brush before remembering that she had melted the brush into a glop a little earlier.

For damage to inventory, another punishment will follow.

Cinder's gaze came across Jonathan’s as he stepped out through the hotel doors to the street, who slowly sighed.

At least not only punishment happened to her today...