53: The first salary

"Thank you all so much for your efforts this month! Now go enjoy the holiday!"

The lively farewell message from the boss was matched by praise and shouts of joy from those present. Among the few who weren't so excited, the light-blue haired girl was staring at the wage bill in her hands, puzzled.

Inside the envelope, there was a piece of paper with her name and the amount of money she had earned —Six Silver Lions and four silver coins—, which was enough to pay off the debt and be left with about a hundred silver coins.

"S-so much?!" she internally screeched. "In two weeks I earned what my mother earns in… half a year!?" estimated confused.

The people of the place left little by little, making a ruckus. After all, it was the city's custom to give workers in non-sales jobs a half-time off. Among those people, a hand rested on Airys's shoulder, pulling her out of her monetary trance and causing her some discomfort.

"How much did you earn?" Zamir said waving his own over his. "Hm, not bad for not working the whole month."

"Leave me alone" Airys removed Zamir's hand from her shoulder and hid the envelope.

"Huh? Are you still upset about the kick?"

Airys did not reply.

"B-but I helped you get a job!" Airys decided to keep pouting at Zamir's complaint, he sighed. "Anyway, I came to invite you to the festival tomorrow but I won't."

"Well, enjoy your day" Airys spat and left him with his arms crossed.

Luckily for Zamir, she looked back at him and gave a small laugh after sticking her tongue out at him. Zamir scratched his head and decided to go find something to do. As he left, a somewhat familiar face approached her, a girl with blue hair and black roots, who revealed her teeth with her wide smile. Was Airys always so small...? Perhaps the girl was very tall.

"Hello! Airys right?"

"Y-yes."

"You don't know how much I wanted to talk to you, but there was sooooo much work!" She bowed exhausted. "My name is Mary! Nice to meet you!"

In short, Airys had seen her before, they coincided from time to time on the delivery routes.

"S-Same here!" Airys looked at Mary's astronomical smile, she didn't seem dishonest, perhaps a little strange… "And what did you want to talk about?" she said as soon as she got tired of being shaken hands.

"Oh! Excuse me," she released her hands with a giggle. "Are you also a fan of the legend? Who dyed your hair? It looks spectacular."

"Ah… I did it myself."

"Really?!"

Again the girl took her by the hands super excited, as if she had run into some divine envoy who would teach her and her friends how to achieve and apply the supreme dye to her hair. After Mary's gaze disturbed Airys to a certain degree, some people with their hair partially dyed blue came looking for Mary.

"You're amazing Airys, tell me, would you like to spend the afternoon with us? We'll eat and then go to the lake."

"Eh, thanks for the offer, but I have to go to training…"

"Don't tell me! Your resonance?" Airys agreed. "And what about tomorrow? Can I invite her tomorrow, guys?!" She released Airys to address her friends in the distance, they nodded and gave thumbs up and continued their casual chat. "It's going to be fun! We're going to see the Chosen One's story play."

Airys focused her interested eyes.

"I'll think about it. I have other commitments." In short, she will go to see that work, maybe not with them, but she will not miss this opportunity to find out more details of the legend, regardless of whether are or not verified. "Hey Mary, do you know anyone with natural blue hair?" This time Airys took her by the hands.

"Are you kidding? It would be great if I met someone like that! Is it your dream to meet someone like that too? I'd love to meet a boy descended from Silver Dragons…" Mary melted in loss at her imagination. "They say they are from educated and wealthy families…"

"S-Sure… I-I've always been curious about what they're like…" Her stomach churned at the thought of how disappointed Mary would be if she met Seng. "I-I don't think they are all as noble as you say… my interest, moreover, is of the folkloric and scientific type."

Mary guffawed, Airys faked a laugh; politely.

"Are you sure you don't want to come?" Mary commented about to leave.

"I have to train" Airys waved goodbye.

"Okay, but see you tomorrow!" she yelled as she ran towards her group.

Airys prepared to continue on her way, however, she felt the urge to verify that the envelope with money was still in her hands, luckily it was there; so after a quick glance and count, she headed to the same place as always.

———————————————————————————————————

Since they arrived, Samantha's days have changed. Her plans included spending a good month of vacation with her uncle, with her little sister. Heylin could come from time to time.

But instead, Gregory spends his time practicing with Natsume and Airys.

She watched, as always, from the branch of her favorite tree in the square, the one with the right height to be able to fully see the place and still not have to climb too much. Today was a little different than usual, Airys arrived early. There she was, practicing how to make her hand shine.

"Is that her resonance?" she sighed and rested her cheek on her fist.

"How is going?" her uncle Gregory said.

"I-I don't know…"

The light emanating from Airys's hand was out of focus, flickering, warping, and covering random parts. To have started practicing that a week ago, it was daunting, it was…

"Pathetic" Samantha muttered.

They steal her time with her uncle, with her little sister, to waste it on not achieving something as simple as learning to use a resonance that was there from the beginning, ready to be used. Seeing her struggle to keep her brightness constant caused her revulsion, seeing her little sister play with that girl's creatures, instead of practicing as she should, disappointed her.

"I-I think I have it!" Airys shrieked in disbelief. The white light it emanated had condensed into a neat, easy-on-the-eye, thin glove that generated a tiny, beautiful trail as it moved.

"W-what does it feel like?"

Before Airys could answer Gregory, Sandy —with Melody on top— and Leafy approached Airys, drawn by that source of light, almost like hypnotized dragonflies. No one knew if Airys was stunned holding her hand because she was so concentrated or because she was lost in the depths of the white void, not even she herself knew.

"What's that?" Melody's tone appeased, letting out the innocence of her curiosity, the girl who a few seconds ago was screaming and laughing like crazy, calm down immediately.

"It's the resonance of Airys, my theory is that she can resonate with others" declared Gregory with his hand on his chin, proud of his teachings. "Do you mind if we try it?"

"Y-yes…" Airys muttered, moving her hand with slowness so as not to lose concentration.

She little by little stretched out her hand towards Gregory, the plan was to use it on him —an expert in the use of the soul —in order to discover all possible information and understand the limits and applications as soon as possible; however, Melody didn't resist the temptation and touched Airys's hand immediately. Samantha nearly fell out of the tree at the sudden flash that came from both of them.

"What's this?!" Melody yelled and Gregory started to separate them, worried about his niece.

It was not necessary. The light, the energy, the soul of both was intertwined by a fine thread that disappeared from this reality in an instant. What they both experienced was vastly different to have been part of the same phenomenon. In Melody's eyes, reality became opaque and her field of vision lost its limits. In less than a minute, she rose above the clouds. It was incredible, much more than flying around the city in her uncle's bubble, she could move as she desire, could brush things, feel them by touch without actually touching them, her childish mind was distracted by the sounds of the wind of the stratosphere, it was absurdly cold, to the point that it must hurt her lungs or give her chills, but it didn't affect her.

On the other hand…

"Melody? Melody? Are you okay Melody?" Samantha shook the stupid body of her little sister, to drag her to reality by force.

"Can you stop your resonance?" Gregory told Airys, trying not to sound so exasperated.

"Man! I don't think he's breathing!"

"What?!"

"What did you do to my little sister?!" Samantha bellowed.

"EHHH?! If she, I-I! But, NO!" Airys grabbed her hair and a terrifying pressure ran through her chest.

"D-don't panic" Gregory leaned back against Melody's chest, then placed his finger under her nose. "She's breathing" he said relieved.

"Is she…?" Airys fell to the ground on her knees.

"Yeah, it looks like she blanked out, I don't know/"

"Greg, Airys, I think I finally have a solution!" Natsume approached them, with a slight bloody nose and an undeniable euphoria.

She figured that when they saw her they would ask her what she accomplished or why she was bleeding; Seeing Airys' terrified face and watery eyes, Melody passed out in Gregory's arms and Samantha hysterical, maybe it wasn't a good time.

"Are you guys okay…?" she asked gently and received wildly different answers from Gregory, Airys and Samantha:

"I think."

"I-I don't know."

"Of course not!"