"Stress levels down to 10%? Looks like yesterday's sermon did you some good then kid." Officer Penny says as I scan my microchip, the first step to everybody's work day.

My feelings about the preacher haven't really changed, I still don't know how to feel about him but patching things up with Sebastian have really helped me, well, it has according to my stress levels.

"I was starting to worry about you but The Worm is never wrong when assigning careers is he?" Officer Penny continues into a long speech which personally signals the start of my working day. "I bet that friend of yours - Seth was it?"

"Not Seth. Seb. Short for Sebastian." I correct her to which she waves me off."

"Yeah, well, I bet he did you some good too. You should stick with him. I can tell that you like him-"

"What?" My eyes widen.

Officer Penny raises an eyebrow. "Hmph? You said he's your friend right?"

"Yeah." I internally sweat drop at the misunderstanding. "He's my friend."

"Then make sure to treat him well." Officer Penny wags a finger at me. "Not just him but all of your school friends. It's a shame that we don't have any other Officer's around your age so it's important to keep in touch with your old friends. Regardless of the situation you should maintain all your friendships because it's those memories which you hold most dear."

Be it coincidence or not, as soon as Officer Penny mentioned my old friends the trickling sound of running water became apparent. As we walks nearer towards wherever we're going the unmistakable Mytopia lake comes into view and by chance I see a orange koi jump out of the water or rather by chance Officer Penny noticed it first and brought its attention to me.

Its flaming orange color which all Mytopian's know from a young age account as an omen for good luck to whoever casts their eyes on it. I don't quite remember how the legend went exactly but the rumor of Mytopia lake is part of Mytopia's genesis;

In the beginning of Mytopia, The Worm coiled itself around our ancestors creating a protective barrier between them and The Outsiders, monsters which lurk outside the walls. This barrier eventually turned into stone but because The Worm is omnipotent or whatever only his skin became stone. Because our ancestors were then disconnected from the outside The Worm helped us build a autonomous society through the chosen ones which we now call Preachers. The Preachers were, and are still supposed to be our guides, our connection to The Worm but as Preachers' are only human our ancestors eventually ran out of resources which humans need in abundance - water. The first Preacher then prayed to The Worm to bless us with eternal water so The Worm did. The Worm descended from the heavens and burrowed a hole into the ground which slowly overflowed with water. The water then became Mytopia lake and until now that's where all our (purified) water comes from. Legend has it that a fish then ate The Worm, somehow, and gained a beautiful orange colour which we now know as the orange koi. Since then The Worm has done countless other things but unless my name suddenly changes to 'Sylvia' legends like those don't really interest me especially when we discovered its actually a spring, not a lake.

One of the bad things, or should I say good things, about Officer Penny is that she doesn't seem to be able to recognize if someone is actively or even remotely paying any attention to her. Normally I would as about this time she would explain to me what my mission for the day is but from her body language I already know that she's rambling on about something which doesn't have anything to do with where we're going. Suddenly she stops talking and grasps my shoulder and extraordinarily she points out another orange koi.

I'm stunned at how large it looks and judging from the distance it's at least a kilometer away. It barely moves as if floating in the sky itself and if I didn't know better I would say that it wasn't even alive. It glides in the air for a few seconds and then for a few and then for a few more after that. All the time it remains relatively still the only changing feature is that it gradually gets larger as we get nearer.

I don't know how long fish can jump for but I remember somewhere that I heard of flying fish before in the past. Koi don't have wings or very large fins so I doubt that it should be able to stay out of water for that long but as I squint my eyes I see that the koi isn't even near the lake but rather perched upon something gray. Something gray attached to a larger gray stump. A stump with two long appendages sticking out which is slowly lowering something round which closely resembles a hat on top of the koi.

"Ahem." I cough to attract Officer Penny's attention. "I don't think that's a koi."

"Then what is it?"

"I think it's a-" The koi stump figure slowly turns around to meet my gaze. "Darwin?"

"And what's a Darwin?" Officer Penny looks at me as if I've lost the plot.

I shake my head trying not to laugh unless she takes that as confirmation. "Not a what. A who."

"Then who is he?"

I give Officer Penny an audacious grin. "He's Darwin."

"Don't play with me boy!" Officer Penny reprimands me but I can tell she's not being serious.

"Fine. Fine." I tut. "Darwin was one of my old classmates."

"Then why not go talk to him for a while? I think the miners still have a few minutes left before they have to start mining or other mine related stuff."

"Aren't we going to help them anyway?"

"No." Officer Penny shakes her head. "We can help with most jobs but careers like The Mayor, Preacher and Miners are exceptions. You know about the mine secret don't you? Well, that's the reason we can't help even if they need it. To get into the mines you need to have a mine pass which we don't have."

"Then where are we going?" I ask perplexed.

"Not we. 'You' are going to catch up with Darwin for a bit. Learn something about the mines of you can and I'll be going to the shopping district. You can meet me there in a few so don't chit chat all day alright?"

Officer Penny frowns slightly meaning what she just asked was a rhetorical question. I don't mind either way. I talked to Darwin yesterday but he's fun to be around so I don't mind saying hi.

Officer Penny is still frowning at me as we walk closer to the mines and I wonder if I don't respond how long could she keep that expression for. I decide not to push too many boundaries too soon but one I might but for the meantime I nod to which Officer Penny seems pleased whether it's due to my answer or that she can relax her face again I don't know but I'm not weird enough to ask.

"Hey Darwin!" I call out as I wrinkle my nose, already detecting the thickness of the air around us.

"Oh, Hey Aegis! Are you hear to help us?" Darwin says offering me a helmet to which I decline.

"No, sorry." I give Darwin an apologetic look. "What do you even need from the mines anyway?"

Darwin scratches his nose. "Sorry I can't tell you."

"But Myopia runs completely on renewable materials."

Darwin shrugs. "Yeah I know but the reason I can't tell you is because frankly I don't know myself. I just know that I have to pick at rocks all day and then if something looks interesting I put it in the mine cart."

"Interesting?" I repeat. "What do you mean by interesting?"

"You know interesting."

"But everybody has different views on what's interesting."

Darwin hesitates as he looks around. "Come on Aegis. I really don't know anything more than you do. If I see something shiny I put it in the cart. If I see something that has a cool pattern I put it in the cart. If I see something that has lots of different colors I put it in the cart. That's all I do I swear! I put interesting rocks in carts and then they get sent to someone else who then filters out what they think is interesting which then gets filtered again and again until we amass a small pile of exquisite rocks which are stored somewhere but you know what?"

I fold my arms. "What?"

"The pile never seems to get any bigger no matter how many rocks we find! Maybe it's just a repetitive job for the aptitude test flunkies, maybe it deserves the negative stigma that so much energy is put into to keep on low profile, maybe it's because... because..."

"Because what Darwin?" I feel myself becoming slightly impatient. "Just say it already."

"Because I can't do anything else!"

Darwin's eyes fill with tears and I'm left speechless not knowing how to react. I keep on forgetting how sensitive Darwin is and I suppose I shouldn't have crossed my arms or gotten slightly frustrated like that. Darwin reads way too much into body language and knowing how persistent I can be when asking questions I can sometimes come off as a bit harsh. Perhaps my curiosity got the better of me and the reason the workings of the mine are kept hidden are for the sole reason of preventing situations like these...

I bite my lip as I stare at the ground. That can't be right! I refuse to believe that the miners are useless and even if the rumors around them make them out to be the dirt they work in I know for a fact that's not true.

Lifting my arm slowly I wipe the tears away from Darwin's eyes hoping that he won't react negatively. "That's bullshit!"

Darwin looks at me in surprise but at least he stopped crying.

"That's complete bullshit and you know it!" I confirm keeping my voice low and glad that Officer Penny isn't around right now. "You are not useless and the only reason there's a rumor is because of the mine's secret. Did you or did you not tell us all how much fun minion is yesterday?"

Darwin nods slowly.

"Exactly! And I'll tell you what..." I purse my lips as I prepare for a gamble. I don't know if what I'm going to say is the truth but sometimes it's better to take risks if the stakes are high. "I think I may know where the special rocks go."

"What?" Darwin says in surprise.

"Shhh! Keep your voice down." Nobody is around but I still feel slightly uneasy. "You know how The temple has all those rooms right? Well, Sylvia told me there's a room that smells exactly like the mines."

"Really?" Darwin's eyes light up and I can see my gamble taking effect. "Sylvia said that?"

I nod. "Yeah but don't tell anybody else. I don't think Sylvia wants everybody to know about preacher business. Just know that what you are doing is for the benefit of Mytopia and even if you and I don't know for what exactly just remember that your doing a very important job."

Darwin beams and I can't help but smile back.

"Thank Aegis. I've got to go now and do some important business for Mytopia."

"Don't worry about it." I grin. "Just don't tell anybody else okay?"

"Yeah sure! Oh and Aegis." Darwin calls back.

"Hm?" I turn around and walk up close to Darwin.

"There is no mine secret. The secret is that there is no secret." Darwin whispers. "But I don't think I should have told you what we do either so, umm, if you don't mind not telling anybody else that would probably save me some trouble."

"A secret for a secret then?" I offer putting my hand out. "Like the old days?"

"Definitely." Darwin locks pinkies with me before sealing our promise "Like the old days."

Once the deal was done Darwin runs off to the mines to do his work for the day. Whilst Darwin may just be starting it looks like I've already fulfilled my daily quota of helping someone. It may not have been physical work but sometimes helping someone mentally can make all the difference in efficiency.

Looking at my hand as I walk in the directions Officer Penny told me to rendezvous at I wonder how many pinky promises I made with Darwin before. They always seemed so trivial and if I remember right the last one was not to tell anybody about an ant he stepped on accidentally. Trivial or not they always seem to work and seeing his smile reminds me of why I love my job so much.

Although Officer Penny said for me to meet her at the rendezvous point I think she meant let's play hide and seek within the shopping district because that's how it feels as I exit the 5th shop I've looked in. The next shop on the agenda is called 'The Scribe Shop' and I suppose I have to give them props for originality but peering in through the window it looks a lot more interesting than the title says.

I hear a small bell chime as I slide open the door to the shop but it doesn't look as if anybody is here or they're in the back doing bookkeeping or something. As the name of the shop suggests the aisles or chock full of varying sizes of parchments ranging from pure luminous blank sheets of colour to dingy slices of mulch mixture. Pots of ink lay precariously on top of the shelves boasting with more colours than a rainbow and a multitude of writing utensils be it ordinary pencil or alluring quils are crammed into any noticeable nooks and crannies.

At first glance it appears to be the hoardings of a retired penman with luxuries and trinkets scattered throughout with no particular sense of order but looking at the arrangement creatively you can see each aisle is split horizontally in descending warmth of colour and each shelf is assorted in ascending order of size difference.

Suddenly I hear a bell chime as the door slides open and I see a shadow cast on the floor beside me. I'm pretty sure it's Officer Penny's but if I'm wrong and I jump scare some random citizen the repercussions are probably more severe than if I don't do anything at all.

"Oh Aegis. So here you are! I've been looking all over for you." Officer Penny says innocently but as I turn around the slight twitch of her mouth says otherwise.

"Really?" I play along holding in a scowl. "Well, I am 'super' grateful that you've found me."

Officer Penny leans in to pat me on the head and from the outside it looks like a senior treating their junior nicely but in reality it means she has something private to say.

"I hope next time you don't leave me frowning for a indefinite amount of time as perhaps next time I'll have to file you in for insubordination." Officer Penny sheds a closed eye smile but behind those pearly whites is tongue which has been sharpened more than a roses thorn.

"Touché." I admit. I can't say I wasn't expecting this but like with The Worm incident the other day once Officer Penny blows off some steam with a lecture which lengths may sometimes rival the Mahābhārata, everything goes back to normal which is one thing I really like about her.

Letting go of my head, I feel it expand slightly after the compressing force under Officer Penny's hands. I comb a hand through my hair to regulate the disheveled look which I have come to adore over the years causing Officer Penny to roll her eyes before starting to make her way to wherever we need to help today. I take one quick glimpse of any potential purchases for the future before following Officer Penny out of the small shop but we stop when we hear a noisy rustle at the back of the shop.

"Umm. Excuse me Officer Miss." I hear a familiar voice call out. "Are you busy right now?"

"Not at all. Do you need help with anything?" Officer Penny turns around and I dodge into one of the ailes to give her space.

"Uhhh. Well, you see the shop owner, Pölipösé, got sick earlier so I took her to the hospital and with her gone I need to mind the shop as well as the usual bookkeeping. It's a bit much for me right now so I would be very grateful if you could just spare an hour or two helping me look after the shop. If you're busy I under-"

"No, no. This is actually perfect as we haven't been freelanced for today yet and I'm sure my lovely apprentice, Officer Aegis, would be thrilled to help. Wouldn't you?"

I nod straightaway to her rhetorical question this time not wanting to be filed for insubordination.

"Aegis? Do you mean Aegis 000027?"

"Only if that voice belongs to Bartholomew 108113." I peek my head around the aisle to confirm my suspicion.

"Is he another friend of yours?" Officer Penny asks in bewilderment.

"Yeah."

"Then this is even better!" Officer Penny clicks her fingers as she slowly walks out leaving only Bart and I behind. "Meeting two friends in one day? It must be because of the orange koi, huh? The Worm is good! Don't doubt The Worm!"

"Don't doubt The Worm." I repeat with Bart although Officer Penny has already slid the door shut behind her.

With Officer Penny gone the small shop falls into a void of silence again and a slightly awkward tension arises as Bart and I hold a quasi staring competition.

"Will she be back?"

"Only at the end of the day. She normally leaves me to handle things like these by myself whilst she goes off gallivanting elsewhere."

"So other than the orange koi who else did you see today?" Bartholomew leans against a shelf which I would be worried about if he didn't work here. "Was it Sebastian? You were always close and you only seem to be getting closer every time I see you together."

Bartholomew isn't the first person to point this out but I don't see how it's so obvious. I try to share my time out equally with everyone but I suppose it doesn't really help that Seb has around the same working hours as me meaning he bypasses the station whenever I do. I don't even think about Seb that much unless I'm with him. The only other times I might think about him are when I first wake up or just before I fall asleep but honestly I could think about anyone right?

"No. Not Seb. I saw Darwin at the mine before coming here."

"And you made him cry no doubt." Bart says more as a statement than a question.

"What? Why would you think that?"

Bartholomew shrugs. "I dunno. Intuition I suppose."

"Yeah well. Intuition isn't always correct." I say offhandedly not wanting to really admit that Bart is right. "So what do you need help with anyway? I'm here for the whole day so you've got plenty of time."

"Pölipösé just got a new shipment of supplies before I took her to the hospital. She should be back later this afternoon but she wanted me to update the inventory before she gets back so let's start with that."

Pölipösé arrived just after lunch, slightly sooner than expected so we didn't manage to finishs inventory. It didn't really help that Bart has only done bookkeeping once before so he didn't fully understand the technical terms and as almost all the papers are so similar it was really hard to distinguish between some of them especially a dichromatic parchment which we couldn't decide whether it was white and gold or blue and black even though the mentioned colours are almost completely opposite on the spectrum. Pölipösé confirmed that the paper was in fact blue and black much to my dismay yet Bart seemed pleased enough to stick his tongue out when Pölipösé turned her back which I could merely only roll my eyes at. I did get him back though, or rather trip him so that he landed on his back. That evened the score, although Bart did scowl at me but other than that he didn't do anything to retaliate deciding to comply with the unsaid rule we made up when we were younger.

With Pölipösé around, sorting the inventory went a lot faster and as I had already cracked her unconventional way of sorting things the job was done even faster but no matter how efficient we were time flew by as usual. My knowledge of different weeds also came in quite helpful which came as a big of a surprise to me as the amount of knowledge I had amassed did to Pölipösé and Bartholomew.

Most inks are made from flowers, however, in order to emphasize or dull out the colors weeds are used. Although parasitic weeds get sent to be turned into mulch their thorns are particularly vital in creating dark hues, especially jet black when mixed with octopus ink. The most vibrant colors are created from dormant weeds but because dormant weeds have the potential to differentiate into other plants they are in limited supply so they're kept in the back for request only purchases. Bart told me he's only sold one batch so far and that was to Celine who bought out the whole stock of cerulean. The other colors which aren't pressed or extracted from biological organisms are made synthetically from byproducts at the recycling plant. 

Apart from the ink, most of the papers also come from farm produce which makes sense as they're made from wood. The vast amount of types though created from just a single material with a few additives was quite enlightening and as Pölipösé explained the different processes which separated the creation of newspapers from school books I felt humble but a lot more glad that I became a MOM instead of anything else. Don't get me wrong; I like finding out little fun facts about everything like how weeds can be useful, how miners spend their days digging up shiny stones and that a single piece of wood can practically turn into any style of paper but as soon as you get into specialization my mind completely loses all absorption and becomes exponentially saturated. Nonetheless, it's important to remember that all things have an exception and as Bart and I simply nod along, although I'm hoping Bart understands more than I do, whilst Pölipösé relishes in illustrating every single variant of paper, my ears perk up when she describes the composition of the paper which I found within the Tardis.

"What did you say that was again?" I interrupt Pölipösé but she seems to be happy that I'm showing an interest rather than annoyed that I've interrupted. "The paper that's more flexible and less rigid than the normal paper. The one that can last indefinitely under careful conditions."

"Do you mean papyrus?" Pölipösé smiles to which I nod. "That's the best type of paper The Worm has blessed us with which is reserved for the repair of the rarest books only available to people on high positions like the mayor."

I nod slowly having understood what Pölipösé said and from my silence she takes it as a sign to continue talking. I zone out again though as the cogs in my brain start to turn again having found another clue to the ever expanding mysteries I've come across.

Papyrus is used for the repair which also means the creation of rare books. Rare books reserved for people like the Mayor... Or the Preacher.