Mariana woke at 5:47 AM. Thirteen minutes before her alarm.
Her eyes opened to the ceiling of her quarters in the New Dawn guild hall, and for three seconds, everything was normal. White ceiling, gray walls, the hum of the building's mana-regulated climate system. Then the previous night reassembled itself, piece by piece, and the ceiling became very interesting to stare at for a very long time.
She got up.
Shower. Teeth. Hair dried straight, pinned back, regulation-neat. Foundation applied with steady hands because her hands were steady, because there was no reason for them not to be. Concealer beneath her eyes where the skin had gone purple from a night spent not sleeping and not crying, because she had done neither.
She looked at herself in the mirror.
