"I'll try not to! Anything I can do to help out with the cooking?"

Remember the little people, etc.

"Just get those plates, I think it's done. Want a bite?"

If she does want a bite, the food proves to be very spicy, but in an interesting way. They gossip about the Academy- The professors are all obsessed with either money or research or fighting, their classmates mostly likewise. They gossip about the Guard and the Army- Liscor is apparently a bit like Prussia, having a large mercenary army that calls the city home and has lots of political power, out of the city fighting for the highest bidder most of the time. It's one of the best places to learn to fight because of that, though!

She's not going to turn down a free meal, no matter how spicy. So she eats as much as she thinks she can get away with, and listens carefully to the gossip in the meantime. Any mentions of popular people at the Academy she could cozy up to?

There's Ancilla Whitetail, a princess of some kingdom of bunny-people down south, the narrative is that she's ignoring her royalty to become a polymath, but from the gossip she's still maintaining and further building an entourage. There's Minza, a Drake (they're Drakes, not lizardpeople, and will get offended if referred to otherwise) who manifests the rare racial abilities that make Drakes related to dragons - wings she can fly with and fire breath, extremely popular among Drakes, doing intense combat training and also tutoring others. There's Samuel Harlow, a devilishly charming wizard from a world-famous academy in the north, with rumors surrounding him that he uses some sort of forbidden magic of some kind. Completely unconfirmed, of course.

... She'll look into this Ancilla character later. 

For now, she needs to go shopping!

Shopping involves trawling across a dozen different stores on two streets, loudly arguing and haggling with the salespeople. If she wants an Adventurer Chic Battle Dress, with adjustable flaps and zippers and fold-out panels to change from a more fashionable take to a more protective one, she can have it in any single color she likes. Though trying to get the price down to 8 silver is a bit like pulling teeth, even with the byplay of Karst pretending to like it and Liath being disdainful and dismissive of the garment's merits. No color-change charm, no additional armor enchantments, no self-cooling or heating. Just the basic self cleaning and the toughness that naturally comes with being heavy cloth and leather. All that can be added later for more money, once she has some, at least.

She will absolutely take the reduced-price cheap-edition battle-dress. It's adventurer chic. 

"I guess that price is acceptable," she says. And she hands over almost all her spending money.

Karst shows a small measure of triumph as they fold up the garment and present it to her in a fancy paper bag.

"You'll look great like that, you'll be dungeon-diving in no time I'm sure!"

"Thank you! I really appreciate the help haggling. I should go change into this!"

"Well, don't let me keep you! I'm getting groceries - see you back at the dorm?"

"See you back at the dorm!"

And she retraces her steps back to her dorm room. 

The dress is gorgeous; she tries it on and smiles deeply. Worth every penny. 

Now, to find where her classes will start tomorrow. She can hardly be late on her first day.

The campus contains many places with strange names, and now she knows how to find a good portion of them.

She checks against the written class schedule her advisor gave her and visits each room and building and training ground in turn. 

There's still some time in the day...

She'll practice the focussing and gathering exercise a little more in her dorm room - that much she knows is safe. For aqshy, ghur and ulgu. Then supper in the dining hall, and then to sleep. She'll be needing plenty of sleep in the days to come.

There isn't really much ghur or aqshy ambient in her dorm room. Just tiny trickles, compared to what was brought forth in that stone room. Though the stovetop fire in the common room is a nice warm source of aqshy. Ulgu is in slightly greater provenance. The dining hall is nice enough but not exactly upscale or fancy - she can meet and greet some more people! None of them are especially interesting, but she makes a good impression.

The new day dawns with a rush of ulgu, seeming to writhe in excitement as the sun peeks over the city.

What and when is her first class?

The Winds of Magic (Theory) from 8:00 to 10:00. Then Basic Sword - Liscorian Army Style from 10:15 to 11:30. Then Supervised Control Exercises (Bright) from 1:00 to 3:45. There's also Spellcasting Theory (Bright), Spellcasting Theory (Sorcery - Cantrips), Basic Tactics, Finance & Planning for Novice Adventurers, another Supervised Control Exercises in the evening, and 'Dungeon Jargon - Know your tanks from your DPS!'.

Well then, best get to it. She turns up for her theory class in her battledress, the leather panels folded away.

It's a fairly small class, maybe thirty people. About a fifth of them are dressed as nicely as her. The professor is a cat-woman.

The class explains the general tendencies and characteristics of the eight most common Winds of Magic, and how they can influence and mutate reality, with examples.

One thing stressed by the class: Do NOT attempt to wield multiple Winds at once. If you have to ask if you're skilled enough to do it, the answer is no. Multiple Winds mixing too closely creates dhar. Doing that within your own body causes all sorts of nasty maladies, ranging from limb necrosis to paranoid delusions. Dhar is seriously bad news. In fact, it's illegal to deliberately create or use. Accidents happen, so you need to take appropriate precautions and only cast when you're clearheaded enough to do so. As for actually studying or making use of it, repeat, DO NOT.

Yeah, she's pretty sure she can get by without limb necrosis and paranoid delusions in her life. She thanks her lucky stars she didn't pull in much but ulgu yesterday.

And... ah, so the fact that ulgu is attracted to boundaries is why it's so strong in the morning at sunrise. Interesting. 

She hurries out to get to her basic sword class. No time to cultivate contacts now.

Basic Sword is full of weedy teens and academic-looking people. They're going to use wooden practice swords, with a focus on stance and footwork. It becomes clear that this is a relatively 'easy' version of the class where the instructor doesn't push less-physically-fit people as hard.

She's insulted, but also thankful. She doesn't know which end of a sword is which and she's not in great shape physically if she's honest. There's only so much she can bull through with willpower, and she's already pushing twelve hour days. 

She trains with the weedy teens and doesn't complain.

After the groaning teens split apart to shower and get ready for the rest of their day, she has a chance for lunch and networking.

She's fatigued too, but at least has the consolation of having felt her stance and footwork and strikes come easier twice in a row. She's been watching the other students, and only a few have advanced as fast as her. It only seems right that she should be skilled at this as well. 

She eats in the dining hall. She doesn't feel like making conversation; she's starving, having had no breakfast and then learnt a physical skill atop that. 

There is lots of filling, reasonably tasty food, conveniently close to campus, in whichever dining hall she picks. The portions are not infinite, however.

The place gets quite loud during busy lunchtimes with everyone chattering and it all turning into an echo chamber in the fairly cavernous room. Her table is shared by a group of friends arguing over who of two people is hotter, and some sort of short green-skinned person wearing grease-covered overalls. There is some sort of altercation over by the drinks station.

She stays out of it. She has a headache and while the food is acceptable it's hardly the gourmet cooking she's grown used to since her ascension. Everything reminds her of how far she's fallen and it grates. 

She leaves as soon as she's finished eating and goes to Control Exercises early.