"This is better than I thought," Matt said. They were in a food stall as he ate the smoking fried rice in front of him. Beside them people and horse-drawn carriages hurried about in the sandstone road. The shopkeepers in front of their stalls were promoting their goods to anyone they can find. Lanterns lit the shops and stalls, making the silver or golden goods glint.
Matt was sitting beside Aelia, eating what she called the best fried rice in all of Dreaming City. "Of course it is! I come here all the time. They're cheap, quick, and delicious!" Aelia said.
"Hey, do you think we have time to eat? When I died, I was kinda in the middle of something."
"Don't worry," she said while feasting on the rice, "Time here is much faster. One day here is one second in the normal world."
"That's way too convenient..."
After Aelia woke up, they walked to the city. She wanted to fly, but he was worried she might still be tired.
They were heading towards the tower in the middle of the city, but Aelia was starving, so she suggested the fried rice. Matt hadn't eaten since the museum incident, so he didn't object. Matt also noticed that the people here didn't care about their blood-stained clothes.
His money was all gone when he woke up here, and they probably wouldn't be worth anything. So Aelia bailed him out by paying for the food.
"Agh! I need to take this off!" Matt said. He was talking about his jacket. It had collected sand in random places and even though it was already nighttime, it was still hot inside it.
Aelia turned to him and said, "Maybe you should take it off and wear your shirt instead."
"But where am I going to keep it?"
"Just throw it away. Once you go back, you'll be back to your torn clothes, anyway. Since only your soul gets sent here."
Matt sighed and threw the jacket into a trash bin beside him, revealing his black shirt. When he turned to the side, Aelia was still feasting with a blissful expression.
"Aelia, how did you kill those wyverns back there?" Aelia wiped her mouth after finishing her food.
"It's quite simple," she said, "Every Manipulator is given an ability once they activate their Ethos. It's like your starting power and it defines what type you are. Also, abilities can't be learned and you can only have one of them.
"If you want to develop more powers than you'll have to learn skills. Skills are like abilities, but anyone can learn it. You can't upgrade or improve abilities but, you can with skills.
"Guardians usually adopt their Spirit's skills with our abilities, meaning what the Spirit learns gets sent to the Guardian.
"Since the ability isn't exactly helpful. All Guardians learn two or three skills before they get assigned. So the answer to your question is my skill, Wind Cutter. It's pretty well developed though, level 3. Flight is also a skill, but mine's only level 2."
Matt thought back to the fight in the parking lot. Colt had done something similar to Aelia's skill, but it was much slower and less destructive. It must've been a lesser version of the same skill.
"So if I activate my Ethos I'll get an ability?"
Aelia nodded. "Since Guardians get easily tired without a Spirit, we'll also need a bond. Basically, we sign an agreement to work together. That's why we're heading to the tower. It's where we'll activate your powers."
"A special bond, huh?" Matt murmured while staring at his unfinished rice.
"Are you going to finish that?" Aelia asked. Matt shook his head and slid the plate to her. "Thanks!" She said before she gobbled up the rice.
