#draily

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ROGUE ADVISORY (21/03, Saturday, 202X)

Good morning, everyone! Exciting news!

There's a trick to producing purified sunlight essentia.

It's a little counterintuitive, so bear with me: Artificial sunlight is easy enough to make— Fire and light are easy to find. But finding the right traces to get a real radiance effect is difficult! Unless you do a reacharound operation. Weather essentia can be made with only basic elements, and you can extract purified sunlight out of it when it's properly aged. It's a self-balancing reaction! Plus, it works with both transmutation and assimilation methods!

Good to see the weather issues had a real silver lining!

—A

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ROGUE ADVISORY (202X, Mar 15th)

Seems nobody else is covering this, but it's worth mentioning. As of this morning, a heat wave was officially announced covering the southern side of Lhasa, in Tibet, China. Unfortunately we don't happen to have any Advisory contributors who just so happen to live there, so our updates on elemental imbalances and other side-effects will be slower. If any of our readers are in the area, though, just send a message and one of us should be able to get your story and point you towards useful resources.

Weird. Right after Ark Paracelsus, we get odd weather in Ark Geng.

—M

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She'd fallen to her knees. Her ability to perceive the inside of the House was always faint, but she couldn't ignore the feeling of four individuals stomping inside.

She looked up. Her captor aimed at her, but didn't fire.

"...You saw it."

She shifted the weight of the gun. "...I did. The others-"

"They were unworthy. They couldn't see it."

Cold wind blew through the valley.

"You understand there is more to this. You could-"

"You don't understand anything." She snapped, lowering the gun. "There's only one way we get our world back. You either accept it, or doom humanity."

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"...How much do you know?"

"Whatever they felt was worth writing down." He answered, facing towards the window. "Probably not enough."

"...No." She stared down at her feet. "You know what I've done. It's enough."

"What, got a couple people killed?"

"That-"

"And you're okay with murdering a couple dozen because of that?"

"Shut your mouth."

"I wonder how many of them had siblings."

"You don't understand-"

"-What, the fake difference you tell yourself about?"

She shot over the couch.

Her sword was at his throat.

He sighed, disappointed.

"There you go."

"What?" She growled.

"You're hesitating. Like a person."

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She took a sip of coffee, and grimaced. Next time, for sure.

She'd been pacing, and kept pausing at the same spot. The heavy wooden door added a knot to her stomach each go around.

"...Fine." She muttered. "Once more."

She bit her lip, and reached down to the steel doorknob. She twisted, and heard the mechanism inside groan. The door unlatched once, twice.

Thrice.

She let go.

The door swung open. She saw the stairway to the basement, lanterns flickering.

"...Stowaway? Idiot?"

She paused.

"Quince!"

"...What?" He replied, groggily, from the other room.

"Earn your stay, for once!"

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He knocked on the door.

A minute later, she carefully opened it.

"...Hey-"

She immediately slammed it shut.

"Hey, what the hell?"

"You're a nuisance! Leave!"

"I need to return your books!"

The door opened a crack. She stuck her hand through, expectantly.

He huffed, and forced the door open. "What bit you today?"

"Leave. I'm busy. There's been... A development."

"...Development."

"Magicite lit up. Another magical site still exists, I-"

He frowned. "No, it doesn't."

"What...?"

"...That was me."

"You... Oh."

He didn't realize she was crying, tearless as it was, until the sobbing began.

"...I should have known."

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She froze in place, slowly turning to face him.

"...Laika?"

"Quince."

"Uh..." He backed away. "Something wrong?"

"Quince."

"Y-Yeah?"

"Where are my books?"

"...Oh." He blinked. "...Borrowed?"

"Where?"

"I— I don't know! Out West!"

"You don't know."

"I don't know where her house is!"

She paused.

"Or, uh..."

"'Her house'." She ruminated. "A house, huh."

"...Yeah."

"Out in No Man's Land?"

"Yeah, that's..."

"...About as weird as everything else you've done the past week."

"...Yeah. I think you understand."

"So." She sat on the couch's armrest. "Are you going back there?"

"I should."

"Good luck. Bring my goddamn books back."

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"...What did you do to me?"

"We don't see each other in thirty years, and you lead with that?"

"Our last encounter ended with me dead. You're one to talk."

"True, true. Shame about that, by the way."

"Try being less disingenuous."

"Well, I couldn't be more if I tried."

"...So? What did you do?"

"Nothing beyond the obvious."

"...Is that so."

"No need to be so disgusted! It's not so bad."

"You turned me into a parasite."

"Well, you wouldn't stay dead. So, living as a human it is."

"And now I can't exact vengeance?"

"A terrible thing, empathy."