“Thank you!”

  No response; the person behind him bumped him, so he got out of the way and walked outside of the cafe. He saw it yesterday upon arrival, and thankfully they did have food; he had never had a chicken sandwich for breakfast before, but he was so hungry and it smelled so good, he wasn’t about to go and compin. Luca looked around and saw one of the nearby trees; the few that were there were in the part of the grass where the sun wasn’t blocked by the floating fortress, so he walked over there with his little bag and his paper-wrapped delicacy and sat down.

  Unfolding the food, it had cheese, lettuce, and chicken—simple yet the smell and texture of the toasted bread under his hands made his mouth water even more than it did when he was seeing the employees cook it. All his hunger was returning, including the pain in the stomach, but after a quick bite, bliss finally arrived; he leaned back and enjoyed every bite, which he was determined to do even if it was bad; the 8 copper he paid for a sandwich already made sure of that; he’d have to find a better pce for eating when he didn’t do it in the university's canteen, which was shared with the guild according to the instructions book.

  Few people walked around the inner walls; occasionally he’d see a couple of guards patrolling; apart from that, no one but him was in the open area, the muffled sounds of the city beyond the walls and him biting and chewing his breakfast were the only sounds, not even wind got past those walls, so he could only rex and think.

  He thought about home, about his family, about walking down the path to the well with his shirt off and feeling the sun on his skin, the taste of his food right now, the view of the diamond-shaped magical structures that kept the fortress floating, and more. He skimmed past these thoughts, it was only his second day, and yet he felt bad for feeling bad still, he didn’t feel like he was going to get over them anytime soon, and that frustrated him. He now had free time, which he never liked because it meant thinking, but he didn’t want to eat and at the same time look for the mail, so he had to put up with it.

  He hated thinking about everything bad, but for some reasons in these times where nothing else occupied his mind, he couldn’t help doing it. Suddenly the food didn’t taste so good, and the silence wasn’t so calming. He felt sad and helpless.

  Suddenly, he threw his head back and hit the tree behind him, which hurt but stopped his train of thought. If his brain was going to think only of the bad things, he would force himself to think of the good things—the good things of Zenith.

  "C'mon, Luca, the bed was comfortable, no?” He whispered to himself, he had slept well after the crying, and though he had to share a room, the raining closet was incredibly convenient, as was the paper to clean oneself, and the wardrobe was spacious, and it was nice to not have to share it with Cory, that way both of them had enough space for their things.

  This made him think of Cory; he seemed nice and friendly, it would be nice to have more friends than the people he had known all his life; he also thought about his words that morning when he came home drunk, which he appropriately shook his head to;sorry Dashiell, but that would keep being repressed a bit longer, just a bit more. But in all fairness, he did like the idea of having friends; his thoughts then drifted to Alyska.

  Was it bad to fall a bit for the first girl you meet when you get out of town for the first time? Maybe, but he wouldn’t deny to himself that he felt nice with her; he met her only yesterday, and yet he already couldn’t wait to hold her hand again, no matter how clingy that made him. He wanted to see her again; she was probably in physical training; he had heard the crowd echo through the inner walls as they ran towards the fortress from wherever the canteen was while he went to the cemetery, so she was probably among them, he’d see her again ter, at lunch, which made him smile again.

  “Corny.” He whispered to himself once more as he balled up the crumpled paper after finishing his food. He got up and walked towards one of the trashcans nearby, then walked towards the southern entrance, and from there contempted the city in all its glory. From there he could see all, the wide street with all sorts of people of races he had never seen, the main entrance from where carriages entered and left the city with its goods, the blue sky stretched above them, and the wide pins with kes and a forest in the very distance, all covered with green grass, and the architecture of the buildings, advanced and ancient, big and small, all different. To the right he could see the mail office, so he contempted the scene once more, took a deep breath, and smiled, the situation finally settling in fully.

  If Zenith itself, the situation, and his own mind were going to py against him, he'd have to fight back with all he had: a positive mindset and perseverance.

  “Of the fair and just...” He mumbled and then started walking towards the mail office, a wooden building with a sigh of a big letter envelope on a blue background that appeared to be soaring through the sky that stood to the right of the street.

  Time: 8:40