A pair of dueling violins drowned the soft humming of the engine as the carriage sped along its path, passing in front of stores, restaurants, and apartments. It was a veritable shopping district. People hustled and bustled with the rhythm of a living, breathing city, and the green of bushes and trees planted all along the path gave the place an open feeling that made it difficult to believe the area was enclosed within a building.
 
Celica yawned tiredly, stretching protesting arms before glancing around the carriage. There were other people in the cart with her, but none she could give a name to. Maybe a face or two she remembered seeing somewhere else, but she could be mistaken. The Academy was vibrant, true, but at times there was a certain anonymity to places as crowded as this, and many new faces had moved in with the coming year.
 
Her eyes roamed back to the window, momentarily glancing at her translucent reflection. Clear blue eyes stared back, half-lidded. Dark, straight black hair fell down past her shoulders, framing a pretty face of pale complexion, one of those that remained that way regardless of how much sun one shone down on it. She had taken comfortable clothes that day, some of her favorites. Boots, loose, gray cargo pants and a white, form-fitting t-shirt completed her ensemble. A black, sooty line covered a good chunk of the shirt’s left shoulder.
 
Letting out a soft groan that drew a couple of curious looks, she leaned back on her seat, closing her eyes. The feeling of the carriage decelerating and the announcement that it was her station interrupted her respite.
 
It was with the dancing strings of an acoustic guitar in the background that she left the carriage, pausing to glance as the other people left the car before following in a sedate pace. She pulled her phone out as she walked, checking the time, then fiddling with it, occasionally looking up to make sure she was not about to collide with someone else, music shifting times and genres as she went.
 
At an intersection, she noticed another person out of the corner of her eye. She looked up from her device to the familiar face, and accidentally brushed a button in the screen. Immediately, the music’s volume exploded, and Celica started, quickly clawing the earpiece out of her ear, where it continued to blast the chords of an electric guitar loud enough to be heard from the other end of the hall until she shut it off.
 
“Hey, Alice,” she greeted with a wry smile, returning the phone and its earpiece to her pockets. “How has the first day been treating you?” 

“Nice music.” Alice smiled wryly, “Needs a few more more cats on a stretching rack though.” She walked down the hall in the rigid manner she usually had, as though being casual had been an alien concept until she’d been old enough to look it up. “Heading for the mess I presume?”

“I ate earlier. Thinking of the dorms, actually.” She fell in step with the other woman. “I was thinking of heading to one of the gyms, but after this morning…” She trailed off with something between a grimace and a smile. “I’m not sure I want to do anything else today.”

“Benefit to spending your early life doing nothing but work and exercise- it pays off later on.” She looked over at Celica, “I mean, some of those poor bastards threw up whatever they’d eaten for breakfast [i]and[/i] dinner last night. Trust me, I’ve talked with enough veterans of just about any war that’d still have living veterans, take a nap when you can.” 

“You don’t need to tell me. One puked on me while Shifted.” She rubbed at the black blotch on her shirt. “They did it to the lower years too. I did not think being a Teacher Assistant for Combatives would involve dragons breathing fire on you.”

“I suppose there are benefits to not being expected to do much but stab and blast people at close range and occasionally make sure nobody’s dying of blood loss.” Alice snickered, raising a hand halfway to cover a cavernous yawn. The day [i]had[/i] been completely enervating, even for somebody who’d been fully expecting it like herself. 

She walked up to the designated area for waiting for the miniature trams to pull up, reclining against a wall to wait. “So, anything particularly exciting happen today aside from exhaustion?”

Celica looked down to her shoulder, then fixed Alice with a blank stare. After a moment she shook her head and sat on one of the available benches, resting her elbows on her knees. “No. You?”

“I suppose trying to figure out how magical weapons work beyond ‘Magic’” – she made air quotes – “might count. I mean, with the amount of training in guns I’ve had you’d think I’d have found my way to get something like you have, however you got them.”

“Magic,” she answered with a cheeky smile, before relenting before her scowl. “The guns are completely mundane, for the record. It’s the ammo that’s special. I could lend you some, if you need it.”

Alice raised an eyebrow, “I might just take you up on that.” she smiled with a hint of scheming in her eyes, “Only real obstacle is shipping prices.” She looked back over to Celica, “Assuming they’re not some specially manufactured materials, that would mean you probably make them yourself?”

Celica winked. “Give me bullets, I’ll give you magic bullets.”

“Because bullets are a common thing nowadays, of course.” Alice deadpanned, “Besides, you make things freeze, I prefer to burn them to a cinder.”

Celica snorted, then shrugged. “I’ll keep the good ammo to myself, in that case.”