It was late evening by the time Melanie turned in at The Hourglass. The day had gone pretty smoothly with her comrades. Johna, Holskwyb and Suyaya had already taken the next airships leading to their respective cities in order to report in with their mentors. Reubemont also had split off hours ago to the gladiators' guild, which left Melanie to report in with Cocobuki. Cocobuki was more than impressed with Melanie's progress that he even went as far as handing her a unique robe and a staff crafted from bone and marble. "Since your abilities to weave magic are growing so quickly you'll need something more than just a simple sceptre. This staff will allow you to channel in more aether for much more devastating attacks, and where you'll be venturing next you're going to need it."
The robe was made of a grey linen material with a black cloak over the top with soft leather cuffs, collar and shoulderpads. A large metal amulet was hammered into the leather collar but appeared to have no other use other than as decor. Whilst it wasn't entirely hideous it wasn't something Melanie would've chosen, however it was free and judging by the material was more comfortable and less scratchy than the previous robe Melanie had been wearing the past few days and no doubts would help her remain more focussed during her spell weaving and less so on the number of times she wanted to badly scratch her back.
Even though just a couple of days had gone by Melanie could already tell her magic was becoming stronger the more time she spent practicing and studying. When she wasn't with her comrades fighting random beasts outside she was either practicing her magic on target dummies outside of Scorpion Crossing or studying inside the thaumaturges' guild. She was also picking up on the Eorzean alphabet more quickly to where she could read basic words without having to translate it in her head. Thanks to her studies she got to learn more about the different methods in how aether was used not just in combat but also for other tasks such as teleportation magic and even for something as simple as making a bowl of soup. It was a lot to take in and surprising just how much these people depended on aether considering how finite it was and how dangerous it was when misused.
Sitting on the floor practing her meditation she began to sense something amiss, as if someone was watching her or trying to speak to her. She could hear it, a sound inside her head that was so quiet it was like a whisper that was barely audible. She quickly stood up and looked around the room. "I know you're here. Why don't you show yourself? Talk to me! What is it you want?" she said outloud. The sound stopped suddenly. Melanie remained standing for a couple of minutes but nothing else took place. She walked over to her bed and lay herself down, her head resting heavily on the pillow feeling frustrated as well as fearful. Who could it possibly be she wondered. Hydaelyn? An Ascian? Maybe even Feo Ul? Or perhaps...
Melanie quickly brushed aside the idea that this was all some imaginary recreation and that someone was trying to wake her. It felt too real and far too linear. Whilst she had many dreams that felt real enough there was always clues they were dreams such as not being able to taste food, random events merging into her dreams, or irregular patterns in things such as books and posters. What was happening was more vivid than any dream and didn't have any tell tale signs of it being imaginary.
Melanie stopped trying to think and turned onto her side readying to sleep. Whatever was trying to reach out had cleary given up. She needed to be fresh for the next morning so she could squeeze in some extra study time before meeting with her comrades. Time was ticking, her Scion friends were still trapped on the First and this realm was still without its champion.
