Amelia walked happily past marvellous round kotties, and their windows softly glowed with witch's lights. It looked especially great against a background of slightly shimmering and glowing mushrooms in the distance under the night luminaries, which for some reason seemed larger than usual. 

Unbeknownst to her, she wasn't following the pointed direction.

...a Secretary. I can't even begin to imagine.

Doesn't matter. Here are some deadly secrets and the VST Agent. So great.

Can you relax? Just walk down these streets and feel that it has always been like this. It'll always be like this.

"So dark. It's so late. Where is the house? What if we're lost?

Lost in the sauce, as usual... Yes. We must go back to the blue mushroom and try to remember and follow the directions. That will be a good idea.

But even if we're lost... It doesn't matter. We can walk around the mushroom as long as we like. 

Tomorrow there'll be no working light, and we can get lost forever in this beautiful city. Until the working light comes. 

And, what's more important, never come back to Kantine. 

“Never want to come down, never want to put my feet back down on the ground.” - rang out in her mind, part of a great song she once heard in Prime, reflecting a current mood.

...Nevertheless, the Kantinian soon found her service Omill kotti.

Or... in a place she believed was her kotti, but she was high enough and tired enough to be careless. 

Anyway, it's empty... No one will claim it until tomorrow. And tomorrow we will see with a rested head.

So she just set her bags down on the dusty floor and exhaled in relief. And sat down on the hastily wiped corner of the bed... of her own Omillan kotti! Can you believe it?!

A place that would be her home for half a cycle. A very dusty place, by the way, but why bother? 

She's not hungry, and she's got a roof and walls to protect her from the night chill that was on the other side of the door cloth.

The good thing about Omill's kotti was that, unlike the windy houses of Kantine, with their massive doors and windows, the doors of Omill's warmer kotti were only covered with thick door cloths, which ensured a constant supply of fresh air. And a certain amount of dust. And a bit cold. 

But there were more positives than negatives. Standing unused for so long, a Kantine house would have certain smells of its own. And the smells of those who lived there. Omill's uninhabited quarters smelled of nothing but dust, ground, and clay.

Amelia pulled back the heavy flap of the water pipe and watched the water slowly fill the bowl. Why did it never overflow? And where does it come from?

Questions, questions.

One light we will have to have a look at the local water pipes. In Kantine they got their water from artificial lakes dug all over the city and filled by rain, or from a natural lake outside far from the city if it hadn't rained for a long time. Or they collected rainwater that ran down pipes from the roof directly into a container in the house.

While she was thinking, Ami found a cleaning cloth among her belongings. The kind she took with her so she didn't have to sit on the floor when she took a break. Hopefully she won't have to go travelling or camping any time soon and will have time to clean it. And buy another one. 

It was a strange adventure and a strange time. What a Secretary she is...

After wiping the bedside table, the armchair and the surrounding floor, she dumped the contents of her camping bag on half the bed. 

Food. Clothes. Toiletries. 

I've to put it all somewhere... I've to get some bags. Canvas bags and duffel bags. It'll make life easier.

Is it worth trying to settle down? Yes, she still has deep doubts, no matter what happens.

"Later."

Right... This light, she was tired from the road and the long light. And the remnants of ale in her system were already lulling her to sleep.

It was getting darker. Most of the satellites were gone, and kotti's windows didn't help either.

She found the make-up bag with the dental tape and pulled it from the pile almost by feel. 

As she did so, another bag slipped out and fell to the floor with a thud, maliciously spilling some of its contents all over the floor. 

It was the last thing she needed right now. An extra source of light would be nice right about now.

How do we get some light in here? 

There's a lamp... 

But it's a witch's lamp! It's no use, she can't light it anyway. 

Non-witch difficulties in a witch town have officially begun. Congratulations.

One of the night lamps peered through the open door curtain, casting a soft, enchanting bluish-purple light into the room. 

Very pretty. 

But for Ami's purposes, it didn't suit me very well at the moment. Because it was outside. It's a street lamp. 

"Hmmm. Can we... borrow one? For a while?"

Unlawful conduct by an officer of the law.

So... what? It's not permanent.

She'll put her important things in their proper places, wipe the dust off, pick up the crap that's happily fallen on the floor, wash her face, brush her teeth... and put the lamp back on. That's it. No one will get hurt. 

She hopes. Besides, it's the end of the alley, and it's her fault and her problem that she'll have a dark yard.

Determined, Ami got out and, drowning out the voice of conscience as best she could, went to the pole with the nearest lamps. 

There were three of them hanging from the slingshot.

"Grab one, hide it under your clothes and leave before anyone sees you."

She looked closely at the transparent clay cups on the ropes. They shimmered, giving off a bluish, grass-coloured glow... What was in them? Plants. Wow. They were all... different! Inside one lamp was a group of glowing mushrooms with round caps. What a party people.

Ami grinned.

Wait a moment. Do these mushrooms feel good inside? How do they light up? Do they need an external light, do they shine by themselves?  

"There is no time to investigate the nature of these mushrooms' luminescence, and only one way to find out."

But we can kill them!

"Take them if they don't feel well - we'll bring them back immediately."

She took a transparent clay jar and peered curiously into the other. 

It was filled with glowing moss... Or something that looked like moss. With little pointy shimmering leaves and small flowers. 

She wondered if these plants came from the local Forest or had been specially cultivated. Why do they live in clay circles when it would be more logical to make them reflective linings? 

More questions... And no time to ponder. 

Sorry, mushrooms. We'll bring you back soon anyway. 

Ami herself hates being trapped indoors.

The forced criminal took the chosen orb of light from the branch of a slingshot, hid it under her clothes and went back to the kotti.

"That's better."

She hung the lamp on the first hook she could find on the wall. 

"Now we can see... everything!"

More dust, aha... So. What's that strange sound of something hitting the floor? What's that now? Mother's cards... Damn you, things. Chill now.

Ami picked up the dirty pieces with an exhausted sigh. 

They're crumpled... But they're not afraid any more. After what happened to them, there's nothing to be afraid of. 

The tattered cards and the shattered Ami. Two unwanted creations of a mother... 

...Why did you start if you're too weak to finish?!

Ami lowered herself onto the uncluttered half of the still unmade bed and placed the shards nearby, carefully spreading them out.

Unwanted memories of a past life. Such jagged edges and such small fragments... Could they be joined?

The light bulb was far away and everything was barely visible. 

...like being in a dark barn, where she could only look and read with the door ajar or through a slit in the window... Otherwise her mother would notice... 

The dictionaries were smaller and could be taken out under her clothes so that her mother would not see them if they never left Ami's room... 

But it happened more often than Ami would have liked when unwanted people visited the room.

The punishment was insufficiently severe. But the map…

The Kantinian no longer remembers what her mother's map originally looked like. The ungrown one's eyes were wide and full of tears as she saw her mother angrily destroy such a beautiful thing...

…they were caught together in a barn.

Was it... necessary? Why does she hate them so much?

...What was she like before she settled in Kantine? 

The sullen creature she knew was incapable of creating something like this. To even think of going anywhere to create something like that. She'd barely left the house, trembling at the slightest shadow, draft, noise... It was only by circumstantial evidence that one could conclude that the notes belonged to her or were of value to her. These outbursts of aggression could not lie.

...She did it. 

For sure. She couldn't lie here, couldn't hide it.

There was a chance that Ami had jumped to conclusions based on the fact that the names of her mother and the vagrant cartographer matched. Maybe the impostor she knew had never been Yvette the Restless, but only pretended to be her... 

Indeed... that would explain a lot.

Ami picked out something familiar from the fragments and placed it on top of the others. It was a pity she hadn't explored the Mainland herself, to put it mildly. But at least she saw more than just Kantine's fields. 

Here it was, by the way... 

She placed it in the middle of the bed.

This side would be Prime. On the Prime Mountain. 

Prime's beacon to guide travellers here. How pleasantly similarly drawn... So beautiful. That's why she wanted to see it with her own eyes.

Posh Prime was Ami's favourite spot on the map. It was probably her favourite real city as well.  

The Royal Palace... torn in half. Not great, huh? Not great...

...That's a lot of power and anger to tear a strong fabric like that...

And this is... the VST Academy. There, behind it, a little further away, is a wonderful restaurant, the taste of its crowning spiced vegetable soup seemingly still in Ami's mouth... 

If this were her map, she would definitely add that restaurant. And many others. In general, she would make a map with restaurants and all sorts of other interesting things. For curious eaters like herself. And she'd certainly add a huge volume of menu descriptions.

And that's where you could put Omill's parts. A little further away… A few more beautiful pieces. Now we can see everything for ourselves. Very nice.

There are also some very skilfully painted orienteering mushrooms, kotties, a Forest and a Sacred Hill with a pond on it.

This town was painted in great detail... Maybe it really was Ivette's home town. Maybe not, but she spent a lot of time here. 

Good choice though. Why didn't you stay here, stupid?

And again the jagged edge... The City Chiefment is somewhere around here... Or is it here? No, it's probably not from here at all... But now it's easy to find out by wandering around. 

...assuming she stays here long enough, of course.

"Do. Not. Even. Start. It. Again."