Three days after sealing her first official copper-rank quest, Lyria stood in the Guild Hall staring at the notice board with a mix of satisfaction and trepidation.

  Her guild tag felt heavier in her pocket, still copper, but it had registered five completed quests now. Five simple, straightforward tasks that had involved no combat, no drama, and no accidentally revealing her power level to anyone.

  Herb gathering. Package delivery. Helping repair a fence. Retrieving a lost cat (which had scratched her despite her best efforts). And yesterday, collecting river stones for a construction project.

  Simple. Safe. Boring.

  Exactly what she needed.

  "You're up for Bronze promotion."

  Lyria jumped, her ears flattening in surprise. She turned to find Mira standing behind the desk, looking at her with that same suspicious expression she'd worn since the assessment orb incident.

  "I, what?"

  "Five copper quests completed successfully. No complaints, no issues, good reports from all contractors." Mira pulled out a form. "Standard progression. You qualify for Bronze rank. Unless you want to stay Copper?"

  "No, I, Bronze is fine. Good. Thank you." Lyria tried not to sound as flustered as she felt.

  Mira stamped the form with more force than strictly necessary. "Bronze rank opens up harder contracts. Team missions. Dungeon clears. Things that actually pay decent money." She pulled out a new guild tag, bronze instead of copper, gleaming dully in the morning light. "Don't break anything."

  "I'll try."

  Lyria took the new tag, feeling the weight of it. Bronze rank. A legitimate achievement based on actual work.

  "There's a Bronze-tier contract that’s been sitting on the board," Mira continued, pulling a notice from a stack. "Rat infestation in the sewers. City's offering twenty silver for a clear. It's been posted for three days, most adventurers think it's beneath them. Interested?"

  Lyria looked at the posting. Rats. In sewers. Definitely not glamorous.

  Also definitely not world-ending or requiring her to channel legendary power.

  "I'll take it."

  "It's marked for a party of two minimum. Sewers are dangerous, easy to get lost, and the rats down there can get aggressive in large numbers. You'll need a partner."

  "Oh." Lyria's ears drooped slightly. She'd been avoiding party work, preferring to operate alone where she couldn't accidentally reveal too much. "I don't really..."

  "I'll partner with her."

  Both women turned to see Kara Thornheart approaching, her armor gleaming from a recent polish. The Bronze-rank adventurer smiled at Lyria. "If you're willing, that is. My usual partner's still recovering, and I could use the work. Plus, sewers are perfect for teaching someone the ropes of Bronze-rank contracts."

  Lyria wanted to refuse. Wanted to say she worked better alone, that she didn't need teaching, that,

  But Kara was looking at her with genuine friendliness, not suspicion or hero worship. Just professional courtesy from one adventurer to another.

  And maybe it would be good to have someone else along. Someone who actually knew what they were doing.

  "Sure," Lyria said, hoping she wouldn't regret this. "When do we start?"

  "Now's good. Sewers won't clear themselves." Kara signed the contract, and Mira stamped it with their names. "Ever fought rats before?"

  "Not... professionally?"

  Kara laughed. "You're in for an experience, then. Come on, let's get supplies."

  ***

  Twenty minutes later, Lyria found herself standing at the entrance to Millbrook's sewer system, holding a torch and wondering what decisions in her life had led to this moment.

  "The smell gets worse," Kara said cheerfully, already descending the ladder. "Try breathing through your mouth."

  Lyria followed, her enhanced rabbit senses immediately regretting everything. The smell was overwhelming, decay and waste and stagnant water all competing to see which could make her gag first.

  Her ears swiveled, tracking sounds in the darkness below. Water dripping. Things scurrying. A lot of scurrying.

  "How many rats are we talking about?" Lyria asked, her voice echoing off stone.

  "Report said dozens. But these contracts always underestimate." Kara reached the bottom and lit her own torch. "Stay close. Sewers are a maze, easy to get turned around. And if we encounter anything bigger than rats, we retreat and report. No heroics."

  "No heroics," Lyria agreed, though the irony wasn't lost on her.

  They moved through the tunnels, Kara leading with practiced confidence. The warrior clearly knew what she was doing, checking side passages, marking their path with chalk, keeping her sword ready but not drawn.

  "So," Kara said as they walked, "you're the one who broke the assessment orb."

  Lyria's ears flattened. "That was an accident."

  "I'm not judging. Just curious." Kara glanced back at her. "Most people with that kind of power don't start at Copper rank. They come in already famous, already connected. You're different."

  "I just wanted to start at the bottom. Learn properly."

  "Respect that. Lot of powerful people skip the basics and end up dead because they didn't know how to handle a simple contract gone wrong." Kara stopped, listening. "Hear that?"

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  Lyria's ears swiveled. Squeaking. Lots of squeaking. Coming from ahead and to the right.

  "Found them," she said.

  "Good ears. Let's take a look."

  They rounded a corner into a larger chamber, and Lyria's stomach dropped.

  Rats. But not normal rats.

  These were the size of small dogs, with matted fur and eyes that gleamed red in the torchlight. And there weren't dozens.

  There were hundreds.

  "Okay," Kara said calmly, drawing her sword. "That's more than the contract specified."

  The rats turned as one, focusing on the two intruders. A ripple went through the swarm, tension, aggression, hunger.

  "We should retreat," Lyria said. "Report this, come back with more people,"

  The rats charged.

  "Too late!" Kara shouted. "Fight!"

  Lyria's body reacted before her mind could catch up. Her sword was in her hand, her stance dropping into guard position, her enhanced reflexes tracking the incoming swarm.

  The first rat leaped at her throat. She cut it from the air with a strike that sent it tumbling away in two pieces.

  The second came low. She kicked it, sending it flying back into the swarm.

  The third, fourth, and fifth came from multiple angles. Her sword became a blur, cutting, striking, defending. Light flared with each hit, enough to show through. Enough to be noticeable.

  "Holy shit," she heard Kara say. "You're, how are you moving that fast?"

  Lyria couldn't answer. Too busy fighting, letting her body handle the combat while her mind tried to figure out how to not reveal too much.

  But there were so many rats. And they kept coming.

  She cut through a wave of them, light blazing from her sword, and carved a clear space around herself.

  Kara was holding her own, barely. The warrior was good, skilled, but there were simply too many rats for one person to handle.

  Lyria made a decision.

  She couldn't let Kara die because she was trying to hide her abilities.

  But she could at least try to make it look less impossible.

  "Kara!" she shouted. "Back to back!"

  The warrior didn't argue, moving to press her back against Lyria's. Together, they formed a defensive circle, each covering the other's blind spots.

  "On my mark, we're running for that tunnel!" Kara pointed with her sword. "Three, two,"

  Lyria reached deep into herself and pulled, releasing a burst of power through her sword. Not a massive amount. Just enough. Light flared out in a wave, sending rats tumbling away, creating a path.

  "Now!" Kara ran, and Lyria followed, the swarm closing behind them.

  They sprinted through the tunnels, the rats giving chase. Lyria's enhanced speed meant she had to deliberately slow down to match Kara's pace, had to resist the urge to just go and leave the rats far behind.

  "Left!" Kara called, and they took a turn.

  "Right at the next branch!"

  They ran through the maze of tunnels, the rats always just behind them, until finally they saw light ahead, the exit ladder.

  "Up! Go!" Lyria practically threw Kara at the ladder, then followed, her sword keeping the rats at bay as she climbed one-handed.

  They burst out of the sewer entrance into blessed fresh air, gasping and covered in filth.

  Kara collapsed onto the cobblestones, laughing breathlessly. "That was insane! Did you see how many there were?"

  "Hard to miss," Lyria panted, her heart still racing.

  "And that thing you did with your sword, the light blast? That was incredible! Where did you learn that?"

  "Just... instinct?" Lyria tried.

  Kara sat up, looking at her with new assessment in her eyes. "You're way better than Bronze rank. Why are you even taking sewer contracts?"

  "Need the experience," Lyria said, which was technically true.

  "Well, you got it. And we got valuable intel; that's not a normal rat infestation. Something's wrong down there. We need to report this to the Guild." Kara stood, offering Lyria a hand up. "But first, I need a bath. Several baths. And possibly to burn these clothes."

  "Agreed. First, report to the Guild Hall, then bath."

  They walked back to the Guild Hall, Lyria very aware that Kara kept glancing at her, reassessing, wondering.

  At the guild, they reported to Aldric, who listened with a deepening frown.

  "Hundreds of corrupted rats? In our sewers?" He stroked his beard. "That's... concerning. We'll need to organize a proper extermination party. Maybe get a mage to check for dark magic."

  "Corrupted?" Lyria asked.

  "Rats don't normally grow that large or aggressive. Something's influencing them." Aldric made notes. "You two did well to retreat and report rather than trying to handle it alone. I'll arrange a follow-up contract for a larger party." He looked at Lyria. "You interested in joining that party when we organize it?"

  "Maybe. Let me think about it."

  "Fair enough. In the meantime," He pushed a pouch across the desk. "five silver each. Partial payment for the scouting and intel. The full contract will pay more once we actually clear the nest."

  Lyria took the pouch, surprised. She'd expected nothing, since they hadn't completed the job.

  "Thank you," she said.

  "Thank you. Good work, both of you." Aldric nodded dismissal.

  Outside the guild, Kara turned to Lyria. "Want to grab food? I'm starving, and we should probably talk about what happened down there."

  Lyria's ears drooped. She'd been hoping to avoid this conversation.

  "I need to clean up first," she tried.

  "We both do. How about we meet at the Copper Bell Inn in an hour? My treat, since you probably saved my life down there."

  There was no polite way to refuse. "Sure. One hour."

  ***

  An hour later, scrubbed clean and wearing fresh clothes, Lyria sat across from Kara at a corner table in the Copper Bell's common room.

  Kara had ordered for both of them, vegetable stew for Lyria ("Rabbitfolk, right?") and some kind of meat pie for herself.

  "So," Kara said once they'd started eating. "That light thing. That's not normal Bronze-rank skill."

  "It's just-"

  "Don't say instinct. I've been adventuring for five years. I know power when I see it." Kara leaned forward. "You're hiding something. Which is fine, everyone has secrets. But if we're going to work together again, I need to know: can I trust you? Are you going to get me killed trying to hide what you can do?"

  Lyria stared at her stew, her ears swiveling uncertainly.

  Honesty or deflection? Trust or isolation?

  "I'm more capable than I let on," she admitted finally. "But I'm also trying to learn how to do this properly. Without... leaning on power I don't fully understand."

  "So, you're... what? Limiting yourself on purpose?"

  "Something like that."

  Kara sat back, studying her. "That's either really smart or really stupid. Haven't decided which yet." She took a bite of her pie. "But I can work with it. Just promise me,if things get serious, if lives are on the line, you won't hold back."

  "I won't," Lyria said. "I promise."

  "Good enough." Kara smiled. "In that case, how do you feel about more contracts together? My usual partner won't be back for another few weeks, and you're interesting. Plus, you probably need someone to teach you things your instincts can't,like guild politics, proper contract negotiation, which merchants are trying to scam you."

  "I... yeah. That would actually be helpful."

  "Great. We'll make a proper adventurer out of you yet." Kara raised her mug. "To successful Bronze-rank careers and not dying in sewers."

  Lyria clinked her water cup against it. "To not dying in sewers."

  They finished their meal, making plans for future contracts, and for the first time since arriving in this world, Lyria felt like she might actually be making a friend.

  Not someone who saw her as a legendary hero. Not someone who depended on her completely like Finn.

  Just a colleague. An equal. Someone who knew she was hiding something but was willing to give her space to figure it out.

  It felt... normal.

  And Lyria was starting to realize that normal was exactly what she needed.

  ***

  Later that night, back in her room, Lyria looked at her new Bronze guild tag and smiled.

  She'd fought giant rats in a sewer. Had almost revealed too much. Had made a friend and earned some coin.

  A normal day for a Bronze-rank adventurer.

  She could get used to this.

  Tomorrow she'd meet Finn for training. Maybe take another contract with Kara. Keep building this new life, one small step at a time.

  The legendary hero stuff could wait.

  For now, she was just Lyria. Adventurer. Rat fighter. Person who needed several more baths to feel truly clean.

  And that was enough.

  More than enough.

  She went to sleep smiling, dreaming of normal things like guild contracts and training sessions and a life that finally felt like it was hers.

  No darkness. No impossible tasks. No prophecies or barriers or world-ending threats.

  Just a normal life in a fantasy world, exactly what she'd been building toward.