“That’s definitely enough out of me,” Aya said pulling her VR Gear off her head and keeping it aside. She fell ba her mattress hard, panting from the stress it took to py the game.

  The results of her a within the game would e ter right now she simply o catch her breath and stretch her legs.

  “Crote The Terrible has beeed huh? I wonder if Risel see it all the way from Bloom Haven?” Aya said lying down and looking up at the cracked ceiling.

  After a moment of quiet ption, it occurred to her that soon this pce would only be a memory to her, in a few days she would be leaving Axen, the city her mother loved. But Aya had outgrown Axen.

  It was something to her once, when she would look past her grandmother’s house on the horizon and wish she could be iy, her grandmother would tell her stories about the pces she had been, the shops she had been to, and the food she ate.

  All things Aya hoped she would experience when she finally moved here. Instead, Axen had been, to her, a cruel dream—something from the depths of her nightmares.

  “Mom may have loved you but I certainly do not,” Aya said to the air, as if it would carry her words deep into the city’s heart.

  “I just need some fresh air.”

  ----------

  She stepped out of the room dressed in a full coat, ready to walk out into the apartment hallway when she saw Mars.

  Before Aya could speak the dark haired girl already had her finger in the air, sileng her.

  “I already know what you want to do, just watch yourself out there, things have gotten even worse tely,” Mars said with a frown.

  Aya could tell Mars’ ire wasn’t directed at her, but at the forces that drove the city to bee worse. The dark haired girl, since living here had boro the living ditions in Axen, felonies itted left and right in the open.

  “As the ey worsens so do the people,” Aya said.

  “You got that right,” Mars said folding her arms, she pressed her lips together in thought ao sit at the table. “Don’t let me keep you Aya, just watch yourself out there,”

  Aya nodded, heading towards the door to pull it open. She began her walk down to the front and through the small area that made up the outskirts.

  “See you ter,” Aya said.

  Mars only exting on her phone as the door closed behind her roommate and friend with a gentle click.

  ----------

  The apartment’s hallways are silent when Aya steps in from her shared apartment. It was close to evening now, the sun sinking into the sky slowly after the winding down of a long day.

  Aya said nothing, quietly desding the stairs with the hope Lydia would not see or hear her prese was to to speak to the woman today.

  Crote had taken enough out of her.

  Aya’s mi back to the frog and wondered about its story, there were so many lore bits she would never see, but an MM was big enough that not everyone would have been able to figure out everything by themselves.

  It’s no wohere were guilds.

  ‘That’s the beauty of it I suppose,’ Aya thought, finally making it out of the destitute building. She turo look behind her, seeing only the dingy windows, some even boarded up due to the disrepair.

  Lydia would see to it that the pce was never fixed and Aya could only wonder why she ran a building that looked this bad.

  Her aunt wasn’t happy aher were her tenants, but no one came here looking for the most fortable aodation, it was just cheap, and sometimes that was good enough.

  It certainly had been for her.

  Aya shrugged, stuffing her hands in her pockets and walking off to stroll. She had nowhere in mind and only let her feet carry her. She khe neighborhood like the back of her hand, getting lost would be impossible by now.

  The Seelim bus’ shift would be over by now, and the driver had most likely clocked out if she wao go anywhere.

  Aya looked up at the darkening sky, thinking of Moon Valley and the Miasma that pgued it, would she soon outgrow Bloom Haven too? Is that why Rael left?

  She knew he went to find a cure for Viseli but to some extent did he feel like he could no let what he needed from the small town of Bloom Haven?

  The girl half expected a notification to pop up, telling her she had added more info to a quest, Aya giggled.

  “e on, it’s the real world,” she ughed softly. “No quests out here, it’s not that easy,”

  How nice would it be to be born knowing what you o do, where you o go, and who to talk to about it?

  Life was only a game in the worst way.

  Aya kicked a roto a er of an alley as she pted some more. It wasn’t long before she wandered into the venieore she had shopped at not too long ago.

  The shop was almost empty save for a few teens hanging around and talking in hushed voices at the snack se. Aya reasohey must have been from one of the other apartment plexes around the area.

  The same cashier from before was there too, uhe fluorest lights Aya could make out the brown skin so much like her own. She watched the woman flip through the magazine in boredom, not really reading the words but gng from page to page to keep herself occupied.

  “Oh she ged her hair too,” Aya said in surprise, the cashier that had once had a pixie cut was now rog a full Afro in all its glory. The style suited her but Aya didn’t have the ce to tell her that just yet.

  She looked up from her magazio briefly aowledge Aya before looking back down at her magazine.

  Aya nodded, walking over to the refrigerated se to get some something cool to drink. The teens had left by now, paying for snacks and whispering some more on the way out.

  “Just this please,” Aya said pushing a of soda towards the woman. That cashier looked up from her magazine again, allowing Aya to see it was a gaming magazine.

  On the front cover, Moon Valley headlined, showing the game’s pany only tio rake in more profits than ever.

  ‘Did mom work at Lumos Inc?’

  “Do you uh...py?” Aya asked as the cashier used a single hand to s her drink into the mae.

  “So what if I do?” the cashier retorted in a bored tone, “Your total is 0.50 Lue,”

  Aya shrugged and opehe soda to drink the refreshing e fvor, much better tasting than any potion she had brewed in the game.

  “I just noticed the magazine, I mean I py too,” Aya said as she paid for the in her hand. It was iing how the irl did not stop her from ing the product before she paid.

  A bit of life returo the cashier’s eyes at Aya’s words.

  “I py,”

  “Oh? What’s your css?” Aya asked iement, she didn’t think Moon Valley would reach all the way out here but the game had quickly bee an ht sensation.

  “Mage.”