( Manoah control )

"That allows humans?"

"Yeah. some people are open-minded when it comes to integration but most are against the idea. Thankfully for us the ki... The former king supported the idea of human-elves coexistence, so he allowed humans to live here. But to appease the majority he set rules and regulations that restrict humans from going to the nicer places in the kingdom. It's gotten worse ever since Giilvas has come to power."

"Now that I'm thinking about where's the queen in all of this mess, shouldn't she be the one to take the throne after the king?"

"The Queen was born a common woman so by elven law she is not permitted to take the throne."

"Then what about the daughter could she not make a push for the throne even if she is younger?"

"You're right but the thing is, she's..."

Before Mia can finish Jere suddenly shouts "Hey! Whistle! Taxi, " to a large carriage pulled by two large lizards almost identical to the ones he had seen when he first came to An-diva. The carriage pulls up next to Jere, giving Elijah a better look at the wooden sign that is atop the vehicle. it has two types of writings on it, one that is very neatly carved but cannot be read by Elijah, and one that is messily painted and reads 'humans allowed.'

"Not so fun fact, Giilvas made it where you have to specify if humans are allowed, compared to the king's old law that you have to specify if humans aren't allowed, to drive business away from human allowing businesses," Mia whispered to Elijah.

Jere walks up to the driver of the carriage and starts to talk to him "Hey herb you think you can give us a ride to the guild hall."

"Do you have the coin?" Herb asks in a deep monotone voice.

"I do but do you think you can give us a discount, these guys are new in town and we've been a bit tight on cash."

"No, if you don't have the coin then you can't ride."

"Please, and while you're considering remember I did save your daughter that one time."

"huuuuuuhh, fine fifteen percent off."

"Thanks, Herb I know I can always rely on you."

Jere motions to the group to approach the carriage. As they approach the carriage Mia whispers to Jere "Did you bring it up again?"

"Yes, but..."

"I thought I told you to stop doing that, you know how I feel about stuff like that," Mia whispers angrily.

"I know, but you know we're pretty tight on money and it's not just us anymore. We need all the 'favors' we can get. Or would you rather not eat tonight"

Mia starts to get in the carriage with a very annoyed and angry face before saying "Huh, favors, sure."

Everyone gets on the carriage and with one whip of herbs leash, they head off towards the guild.

"Alright, now that we have some time alone it's time for me to explain how to flow your Manoah into your IDs."

Everyone starts to pull out their IDs from their pockets waiting for Jere's instruction.

"So the first thing you have to do is relax your muscles, and clear your mind of all stray thoughts."

Elijah follows her instruction, putting all his thoughts to the back of his mind and relaxing his muscles.

"Now imagine a river flowing up from your heart and down from your shoulder to your hand. Once your river is flowing, fill it with all of your emotions, anger, happiness, hate, all of it."

"How exactly do we fill this imaginary river with 'all of our emotions'" Luke asks.

"shhhh, pay attention." Lola remarks.

"uuggghh, this makes no goddamn sense, "Luke whispers.

"Now have the river crash at your fingertips and let it seep through your muscles and skin."

Elijah reminds himself of the memories before the towers fell, He reminds himself of the feeling of contentment, happiness, and fulfillment. He then starts to recall memories of what happened after August fifth, The helplessness, Fear, and Death. Finally, he comes to the moment in which he meets Cecil and the others, the lingering pains of his old life's demise, mixed with the gradual healing of his new reality. This all combines to make a raging river in his soul that crashes with his hand, leaking Manoah out of his hand into his I.D. The piece of bark starts to carve itself with his personal information and pictures. Eventually finishing Elijah looks up in disbelief, and amazement looking at what he has just done.

"Whoa, I... did it."

"Congratulations, you've just learned the first step in Manoah control..." Jere says contently.

"...But unfortunately you just got beat out."

Looking over to his right Elijah sees Cecil holding her already carved I.D in her hand.

"You're always trying to one-up me."

"Not trying, I am one-upping you. You know what this reminds me of?"

They both say in unison "Basic training."

"You will never let me live that down will you."

"Nope." Cecil smugly says.

After thirty minutes of riding they arrive at the guild building where Herb says. "We're here, and next time you're not getting a discount, ya hear."

Jere shows a thumbs up before Herb whips his reins and rides off.

"How did you two able to get your bark to carve," Makoa asked annoyed.

"I don't know, maybe we're just better than you guys," Cecil responds boastfully. 

"Here's my question, how does one 'fill an internal river with your emotions'? That makes no godamn sense." Luke snapped.

"It doesn't come to everyone naturally, it took me three days to learn this part of Manoah control. Honestly, I didn't expect any of you to get it first try but you've exceeded my expectations, good job." 

Cecil gives Luke a pretentious smile and a hard side-eye. Luke rolls his eyes and crosses his arms in annoyance.

Lola comes behind Cecil and Elijah grabs them by the shoulder and says "Look at you two, you're basically like Ron and Herminoe now. But how are the people who couldn't carve our I.D. register for the guild?"

"In that case, I'll just force the manoah out of you guys and into your cards.

Everyone looks at each other before looking back at Luke before he screams out "It was this easy the whole time!"

Cecil hits him on the top of the head before shouting "Low profile remember!"

Luke screams back "Ow, you're louder than me."

"I'm only loud because you're loud!"

"That litera- fuck it. Why didn't you lead with that?"

"That is because forcing Manoah out of a person's body goes against the natural flow of Manoah in your body, so it's extremely stressful on the body, some say it feels like you are being bit by a whole colony of bullet ants simultaneously. Fun fact, it's commonly used as a... interrogation method here by the ."

"Interrogation,... very fun." Makoa comments.

"You know Luke you've always had a great pain tolerance right." Lola quivers.

"Yeah, I remember him saying that during training. You said something Like 'they use to call me the Iron Man back home'" Makoa adds.

"Wait wait wait wait wait, I've never said anything like that!"

"No, I'm pretty sure you said that before," Cecil says.

"I remember it," Elijah adds.

Jere walks up behind Luke and puts her hand on his shoulder with a slight smirk on her face before saying "Welp seems like the jury has spoken." She then starts to drag Luke towards a small alley by the guild hall. As they disappear into the darkness of the alley only the muffled screams of Luke can be heard until after a couple of minutes they stop. Jere walks back out and asks "Who's next."

Makoa and Lola look at each other in Pure distress and Fear Before screaming out each other's names.