The Great City bustles with life. Everything is built tall in sandy shades of stone, carved beautifully and trimmed with wood. Industry is everywhere. Wolflings scamper around with parcels, Cores line up together to transport metal bars over their heads, and Dunmer are not-to-subtly trading goods to passersby.

Seungwan follows Joohyun aimlessly through the town square, but a sooty hand grabs her wrist.

“You look like someone who needs a pick-me-up!” Grins a Dunmer, otherwise known as a dark elf. His teeth are yellowish and his jet black hair flows down to his chest. “Rough day?”

Seungwan thinks that she probably does look pretty rough. She touches her face subconsciously, and from that she’s sure that her lip is bleeding.

The Dunmer smiles again and reaches into his tatted pocket. Seungwan gets a brief whiff of whatever’s inside the pocket - it’s murky and intoxicating. “I have just the drink to give you luck.”

“That’s enough, Jeonghan.” Joohyun intervenes with a stern nod. Her yellow eyes communicate a strong sense of authority. Seungwan watches this interaction with confusion as Jeonghan’s purplish face hardens, and he recoils.

Altmer are skies above Dunmer when it comes to the hierarchy of elves.

Joohyun’s soft voice cuts through Seungwan’s trail of thought. “Do you want me to tour you around?”

The human girl nods, scanning her lovely surroundings, “Yes, please.”

“I still would if you said no,” Joohyun smiles, “I’m sure you want me to explain how the Academy works. I mentioned career paths earlier, and now I’ll show you each one.”

There are four. Four careers, four specialities, four different kinds of people Seungwan can become.

The first option she’s shown is Law, as it’s right in the centre of town. The building is plated almost completely in gold, and the door is so grand Joohyun has to perform magic in order to open it.

“On the journey here you demonstrated a strong moral compass,” Joohyun explains as she draws the entrance open, “Law might be your natural choice.”

The entire room is in a low murmur - serious discussions about law, business and politics between mainly humans and high elves. There are rows and rows of ornamental desks, some stacked almost to the ceiling with white parchment.

“Is this what you chose?” Seungwan doesn’t know if she’s close enough with Joohyun to ask this. Her cool demeanour makes her assume she has a lot of boundaries.

But Joohyun responds easily whilst shaking her head, “A lot of my kind go for this one, but it wasn’t for me.”

Seungwan nods along. Joohyun laughs slightly, quietly remarking, “Too boring.”

Seungwan agrees that it does look a bit boring.

Joohyun takes her down a sandy road and suddenly, after a few minutes, all of the buildings have become more modern. Amongst holographic bus stations and touch screens, there’s a huge glass empire plated with blindingly clean aluminium.

“Science!” Joohyun declares.

This entrance is also a hologram. As Joohyun and Seungwan approach, a blue beam scans their faces. The beam then parts into two separate colours.

Joohyun’s face is illuminated with green - they must recognise her, which makes Seungwan fear how much authority she actually has. The beam over Seungwan’s face turns red, so Joohyun calls into the wall (they have in-built microphones?) that she’s on her tour.

As the holographic barrier fades, Seungwan’s beaming with excitement. She’s always been interested in science.

“Are all of the career buildings protected?” She asks.

Seungwan’s smile is so wide that Joohyun has to let out a little smile too.

“Yes, it keeps everyone out of each other’s business.” She pauses, allowing them to walk through. “Some departments have more secrets than others.”

Seungwan laughs at this, but by the nervous half-laugh from Joohyun that comes afterwards, she’s not fully sure it’s a joke.

There’s something so secretive about the Science building that Seungwan feels a belongingness in this career. Her curiosity is aching to be fed, and she eagerly inspects vials and devices and diagrams at every turn. They walk down a clinically white corridor and pass by every type of lab you could imagine, with the only sound being their clanging footsteps.

So, naturally, Seungwan jumps at the loud ding from her eMissary that erupts the silence.

“You’re getting a call?” Joohyun raises an eyebrow, and Seungwan gives her man equally confused look. “Answer it.”

“Hello?”

“Hey!” Yells back an all-too familiar voice, so loud it distorts the sound.

Seungwan laughs in amazement.

“It’s my friend Sooyoung,” she explains, then turning back to her wrist, “Wait, how did you call me?”

Sooyoung responds in a how-could-you-not-know-that sort of way. “Your eMissary lets you see who’s nearby by their pin, and 0221 is your birthday so I hazarded a guess... and I was right.”

Typical, Park Sooyoung being annoyingly impressive. But before Seungwan can respond with some snarky remark, Sooyoung’s already asking a million questions.

“So did you choose Science? I knew you would. When did you get here? One second, I’m coming towards you now.”

Seungwan gives Joohyun an apologetic look for this disturbance. However the Altmer appears unphased, as if she has all the time in the world to continue this tour, whereas Seungwan really wouldn’t mind going to bed now.

The laboratory door to their left swings open, and from it emerges a confident Sooyoung already in a white lab coat. She stands tall above the two of them. Her hair is a brilliant copper tone, tied neatly into a high ponytail.

“You look great,” Seungwan says in a surprised breath, without thinking - and she really does. It makes her heart warm to see Sooyoung has been getting on so well in the Great City. And just perhaps, she will too.

“You’ve looked better.” Sooyoung replies easily. She regards Joohyun with a friendly smile, proceeding to piece her presence and Seungwan’s current state together. “Oh, initiation day, huh?”

Seungwan pulls an exhausted face in recollection of the events, but Sooyoung bombards her with an excited hug. She then brings hers and Seungwan’s hands together.

Her eyes are wide and earnest. “Please do pick Science. I’d love to have you here.”

At this, Joohyun intervenes with a soft yet stern voice. “Seungwan, you shouldn’t pick your career based on friends.”

“No, no,” Seungwan stammers, taking in the buzz of the environment, alongside a faint stench of chemicals. “I was already thinking I might.”

Sooyoung’s grin is ridiculously huge. “Serica is at the forefront of technology!” she states melodically, as if she was in a campaign video for the northern city.

Seungwan rolls her eyes and laughs. “Calm down, I don’t need any more convincing.”

“Don’t speak too soon,” Joohyun says coolly, but it’s slightly like a warning.

Seungwan has been wondering why Joohyun seems a bit apprehensive in this building. Then again, she’s always been unbreakably serious.

“I still have two more careers to show you.”

The more she’s immersed within it, the more Seungwan feels that the Great City is exactly what it says on the tin: great. In its vastness, there are so many types of scenery. Just outside the modern, concrete Metropolis, she finds herself looking at what seems like a whole new dimension. It’s a gorgeous, wide expanse of yellow fields. The late afternoon sun is amber and warming on her skin, and she can pick up the faintest chatter of songbirds.

Joohyun brings her to a grand, cobbled gate in front of the fields. “Here we have Agriculture.”

“Seems relaxing,” Seungwan remarks as she studies the figures in the gaps through the fence. Joohyun almost snorts.

“You’d think so, but I honestly don’t think I could do what they do.”

“So you didn’t pick Agriculture either,” Seungwan deducts, and Joohyun looks at her wide-eyed, “I guess your career will be the one you show me last, then.”

And she might be jumping ahead of herself, but the Altmer might be warming up to her a bit. She gets the impression not many of the people she’s led on tours have been so interested in her life. Joohyun gives her a tight-lipped smile as to not let too much slip. “I guess so.”

Seungwan turns back to looking through the fence with bleary eyes. She doesn’t know if it’s just her exhaustion, but she really believes that some elf must’ve charmed these fields with drowsiness. Her senses are so relaxed, in love with every element in this environment - the light dance of the wheat in the breeze, the warmth on her neck and the soft earth under her shoes.

When her eyes finally focus again, there’s a petite figure a few meters away from the fence giving her a confused look. Oh god, she thinks. It must’ve looked like she was staring at her for far too long.

To overcompensate for some of the embarrassment, Seungwan’s eyes go as wide as golf balls and she gives the girl an anxious, animated grimace.

The girl tilts her head slightly as she watches her, and Seungwan thinks she’s about to get majorly judged. But instead, the girl’s dark eyes screw up into crescents - she sends her the prettiest smile. It’s strangely alluring. Seungwan feels her cheeks flush, hot and even more embarrassed.

“Hey, did you hear me?” Joohyun quips suddenly. Seungwan freezes up like a dog obeying her master.

“Sorry, I-” Seungwan’s eyes shift between the two of them, trying to make sure this stunning girl in the field was real. She is, and is watching her with a highly amused face. Come on, she thinks to herself, concentrate. “What did you say?”

“We’re going through the entrance now.” says Joohyun, motioning towards the gate. Her yellow eyes are especially bright as the sun begins to set, making her twice as intimidating.

Her and Seungwan walk through easily. “There’s no barrier for this one?”

“No barrier,” Joohyun replies. She starts scanning the ground, “But the fields are enchanted to make the route to the Agriculture warehouse change every day. That’s effectively their barrier.”

Seungwan sees that the gravel path is difficult to distinguish from the rows and rows of crops, whilst she also has no idea what the warehouse even looks like. And she’s already becoming desensitised to the magical ways of this largely elven population.

“I can’t spot the path,” Joohyun confesses, full of caring, “I don’t want to step on any produce.”

“I can help.” Comes a voice as smooth as silk.

Seungwan looks up and swallows back a gasp so sharp it makes cold and dry. It’s the girl, and after offering this, she winks.

She’s a thousand times more beautiful close up, and Seungwan realises that she’s a Bosmer - a wood elf. Her hair is an earthy, chocolate brown, with warmly tanned skin from working in the sun and little elven ears. Her right ear is pierced with several rings and, typical of her kind, there’s a reddish enchanted mark on the left of her temple.

The sharpness of her features makes her appear so commanding, and Bosmer women in particular are known to be more aggressive than the men. Seungwan just can’t tear her face away. She’s terrified and she’s in awe.

At this moment, the two elves turn to look at Seungwan simultaneously, waiting for an answer. Joohyun’s eyes are now as bright as the sun. So they’d been speaking that whole time?

Quick recovery. “Sorry,” Seungwan’s been doing a lot of apologising to Joohyun for the first day, “I keep spacing out. I think I’m in need of some good rest.”

“That’s okay,” says the Bosmer girl, so kind and light it’s almost a coo. And there it is again - the sweetest of all smiles. Seungwan’s impression of her personality is definitely not that she’s scary, so why are her hands so sweaty?

“Not everyone in Agriculture is a wood elf or good at magic, so I’m used to helping people track the path.”

She tucks her hair behind her pointed ears and kneels onto the ground, and Seungwan probably looks very confused because she can feel her lips gaping open. Making a light hum, the Bosmer girl’s finger is pressed into the soil.

All of a sudden, the winding gravel path is pushed up from beneath the earth, making it unmistakably visible.

“Thank you very much.” Joohyun nods politely, and the Bosmer girl smiles sheepishly while dusting the dirt off her hands. Seungwan doesn’t know what to say.

She still doesn’t really know what to say after a full tour of the Agriculture warehouse, and she definitely won’t be picking this career because she couldn’t pay attention to half of what Joohyun said. It’s more than likely due to how tired she is, but she can’t distance her mind from that girl. Back home she was friends with quite a few wood elves. Maybe she reminds her of home.

It takes her another hour of walking to the last career location to snap out of it.

“You’ve planned this tour out very nicely.” Seungwan remarks as they walk through a dodgy looking tunnel.

Joohyun laughs. “Thanks, they get further and further out from the town square.”

The sky is fully dark now, so there’s no light source in the tunnel. Seungwan watches Joohyun flip a switch on the side of her eMissary, which now serves as a handy torch.

“We’re getting pretty close.” mutters Joohyun.

Seungwan’s perfectly white teeth are probably also providing some light as she smiles, “I’m excited to finally find out which career you chose.”

“I hope it’s as exciting as you’re brewing it up to be,” the Altmer scoffs. Her tone of voice then shifts into one more serious, “No really, there’s a reason why I’m showing you this one last.”

Seungwan picks up the faint sound of bass thumping and looks at Joohyun suspiciously, who has her eyes trained up ahead. The noise becomes progressively louder, alongside a few low shouts and explosions of laughter. Before long, they’ve approached what she can now presume is the entrance.

It looks like the door to a massive safe, damp and stony. For some reason, it’s slightly opened already. Joohyun takes her wrist and stares at Seungwan with a furrowed brow, so Seungwan tries to ignore the bustling noise on the other side.

“There’s been some… breaches in security… over the last few years.” She nearly whispers it, “It’s just now starting to get to a worrying enough point that we have to take precautions.”

Seungwan watches her with complete concentration.

“You know, like those…” Joohyun pauses for a split second, almost in skepticism, “wolves, you saw in the woods.”

“That’s scary,” whispers Seungwan. She ushers to the entrance, “Why are you telling me this?”

“Everyone needs to have the basic skills of protecting themselves. I’m sorry you didn’t get to have a few days settling into the careers like the other students, but you won’t have been the only one who came to the Academy in a later group.”

“What?” She’s getting pretty terrified now, especially with the intensity of Joohyun’s gaze.

“You’ll be training here for a couple of weeks before you start your career choice,” Joohyun traces her hand over the safe door, then yanks it open.

Suddenly, Seungwan is bathed in strobe lights, and Joohyun has to yell over the booming bass music. “This is the Soldier career.”

A/N: New chapter up! Sorry it took a couple of weeks, I'm a slow writer lol. I thought Seulgi fit so well as a wood elf, and you can be expecting her much more from now on... As always please give me feedback if you have any ♥