Leaving Breiðr was not going to be easy. First, I had to get a job that allowed me to acquire even the most basic flight license. We had come to the employment board situated in the town square.

“You could be a delivery person for a lady of the house?” Luo Yu suggested, pointing to a daintily written request pinned to the right of us.

“Ysra would break half the cups,” Nimkii chuckled.

“What was that?” I grinned and ruffled Nimkii’s hair. “You two think I can’t be ladylike?”

They looked at each other before bursting into laughter. I waited a moment in feigned annoyance before beginning to laugh too, eager to snatch a bit of joy from the ever-present tension.

“I suppose I could be a coachman.” my hands grabbed the employment flyer titled, ‘COACHMEN REQUIRED’. “That way I could have access to a carriage - easy escape.”

Breiðr itself was a kingdom of hills and valleys making carriage rides extremely popular with the richest elites, for flight bans meant a lifetime of walking places inaccessible without devastating your legs. Although they’d normally only let back-winged individuals carry the carriages, bigger carriages required additional support that arm winged people like me could fill.

“I could be the assistant seamster for the fabric store,” Nimkii nodded towards another flyer.

We both looked at Luo Yu, whose face was pensive. “I’m not really sure what I can do.”

“Well,” Nimkii grinned, “you can just work with me. We’d be taking a lot of unfinished projects home, I think.”

“If you- I mean if I—If you insist,” Luo Yu said. His flustering had scarcely changed over the years. Nimkii had taken notice, and almost took it upon himself to love Luo Yu more openly than before. It was amusing, as it had always been.

I smiled wickedly at the two. Luo Yu huffed and tore the flyer off.

“Let’s get a job then,” Nimkii walked away towards the familiar sowing shop we went to for our gowns.

Luo Yu looked to me, “Why do you insist on smiling like that every time we interact?”

“Maybe it’s because you two are so irritatingly adorable.” I snickered, before ripping the Coachmen flyer off and tucking it into my cape pocket. “I’m off, keep safe.”

“Keep safe,” Luo Yu had grumbled in response, before following Nimkii.

===

The flyer listed an address to a house I had always passed on my days in the market, situated near the market in the lower ring. The building was tall and windowed from top to bottom.

I had been nervous, not because of my divine identity, but because this idea of acquiring a job felt so new to me. I had gotten used to gaining my resources through thievery, and after we had gained a new status, my father started saving. Those savings had lasted us far longer than anticipated. That money was meant for four people, after all.

The interior of the building was bustling with activity; its long form stretched into the sky and opened like a devil’s trumpet. I struggled to get through the hurrying crowd. A circular desk rounded in the center of the room, there were four attendees standing in front of the largest bookshelf I had ever seen. It was fairly surreal to see so many people flying. I took it in, wide-eyed but serene. The crowd meant this place was certainly booming with business; I could easily blend in as just another employee.

When I finally reached the desk, the receptionist looked me up and down before speaking. “May I help you?”

The tone was one of undisguised distaste. I had presumed she had very little patience for the lower ring residents, which grew ever common as the years progressed.

“I am here in response to this flyer,” I set the flyer down on the table. She leant over and peered at it. “May I have an interview?”

Another rake of her eyes on my body. She was impatient, putting a pen to her lips.

“…Listen, do you know what this job is for?”

“Yes,” my back was straight, and I held her gaze.

“Then you understand that I don’t need a limp armed fledgling in my employ. Carrying carriages has to be smooth for the rich folk,” she leaned forward, putting her palm on the flyer. “Leave.”

I walked out, stunned, and numb. I had not even gotten a chance. Some part of me resented my foolish self, for believing a place like this would have given me one.

But the rest was resentful of that woman, her sharp gaze and lazy voice. Though she had lived the same life I had, she never gave me as much as a passing glance. 

That experience helped me realize that cruelty shapes in different ways; some were eager to help the rest and others were her.

I was able to get a job there eventually. The next week a man was organizing the tables and allowed me to enter, in exchange for one day of unpaid labor. On my first day, the woman looked shocked as I sat in the lobby waiting to help carriage the next batch of aristocrats. She held her tongue, the man who hired me was of upper management after all. We avoided each other on shifts, but some interaction was unavoidable with work like this.

What stunned me more than her pompous attitude was that she was my age, yet she considered me a fledgling. My brothers had been successful at acquiring a job at the sewing shop and worked there from dawn to nightfall. 

I often picked them up at their employ myself, still antsy from our close call that night. Luo Yu seemed jittery, but Nimkii always hid his fear well. It was when we were alone that he truly allowed himself to fully feel. I imagine even he who is so open about his faults and misdemeanors became embarrassed of being raw in front of Luo Yu. 

He was someone who thrived around people to match their emotions. Once those individuals left, he would be weighted again. I do not remember if he was like this as a child, but then again, I had missed twelve years of his life.

If Luo Yu caught him like that, he never let him stay as such for long, introducing him to a task they could do together or a silly joke. Sometimes I would catch them holding hands, but they were always a small quick gesture.

My dreams were now a replay of that vision. Luo Yu and Nimkii grew worried at the amount of time we had left, as did I. But all we could do was be patient and slowly gather up savings.

And amid all this, I had my first soiree in the world of romance. And yes, it was the woman at my workplace.