Passing at last through the hills, the magnificent presence of Windvale City glowed before the arrival of the transport vehicle. All three girls invested their full attention as more and more details came into view.

Vwyx had completely put away her small trinket of an instrument by this point, her mouth slack wide in complete amazement of the extent of instrumentation standing in plain view. Skyscraper buildings surrounded by a vast expanse of lesser buildings, each project far beyond anything she could have dreamed to be part of. The city was even lit up bright despite the partial departure of the sun with a vast array of street lamps, bright windows, and other luminescent marvels. Sryine felt like she had fallen into a fairytale from one of her stories, comparing everything in sequence to the city scapes of Terran Myths.

They approached a sign, itself dark and dim, but once close lit up with red signal lights. Fhyernx approached the intersection after it at a reduced speed, the street lights in the path also going from dark to red. Traffic in the perpendicular direction was given passage under similar conditions of a sequence of darkness and green lights. Eventually, the lighting situation inverted, presenting their side with green and leaving the previous green in a red glow.

Fhyernx got their vehicle going again, proceeding to a path going under a bridge. Passing over them on the bridge was a strange sequence of vehicles that Sryine could recognize. That was a train from her books, it was so plainly identifiable even from her back seat. Her enhanced elven eyes could pick up the presence of small unidentifiable shadows of people seated at the windows of the train as it continued past them along its track. Vwyx couldn’t figure it out to be anything more than some sort of transport instrument, and with its 5 cart length that made it plenty impressive by itself.

Khyzae was stuck somewhere between seeing things she never recognized, and seeing things she felt she should be totally familiar with. The strangest feeling was that such was true in both cases for absolutely everything around them. That combination of feelings left her even more disappointed, a combination that left her feeling naive, taking away the value of wonder she might have had otherwise. The fact she couldn’t recognize the lights they had just passed, that explained how stupid she actually was. The fact the stop and go patterns for the lights only dawned on her as an afterthought, signs of just how slow her mind really was. She had not actually known why they had stopped and gone at the times they had, but knew instinctively after that such was exactly what the colors had been telling them. This whole mental conflict was quickly starting to leave her with a pounding headache.

As Fhyernx started making seemingly random left and right turns at various streets of the city, the three girls lost all concept of where they were. Various buildings were scattered along the sides of the street during their travels, some places of residence, some places of business. They continued driving along until they reached a large business with a massive stockpile of wood in some gigantic shelters. Fhyernx pulled into the yard and got out. Khyzae was surprised at Vwyx going right back inside, not having caught Fhyernx telling her to deal with the wooden chairs as promised. Khyzae stayed back with Vwyx to watch her work as Sryine caught up with Fhyernx. He had made contact with an elf and a human, two guys who worked at that facility. They both arrived to evaluate the wood that had been delivered to them.

“I don’t know if this is worth the full 5,000 that was promised. I mean, it’s still the requested thousand logs like normal, but some of them have been battered quite something fierce. I really don’t think we can put full worth on their durability, I’m not even sure if they are worth the usual 300 Qeld transit fee, not with this level of damage. Best I could probably get you is 4,000 Qeld and a 200 Qeld fee.” The human staff was shaking his head in disappointment, generally worried about the wood present. With the chairs in the back, a large number of the wood had been warped or damaged in the process, only made worse by Vwyx’s inexperience in loading the vehicle. Vwyx knew right away that this mess was her fault, and that her negligence might have cost Fhyernx quite a sizable sum.

“So, the cost of the wood is decreased because you’re worried about the damage?” “Yeah. As is, the things here are pretty short, it’s going to take a lot of effort to refinish them into a longer beam for some of our more practical purposes. Even the slightest bit of uneasiness is going to cause problems when you start putting them together.” Sryine had stepped in to evaluate the situation, not liking how everything was turning to make Vwyx look bad. Sryine knew Vwyx had done her best given their strange circumstances, and was invested in salvaging her friend’s reputation. Sryine looked around at the other wooden beams stashed around the place. While the stuff they had brought here was only small beams around 5Uyn long, the beams around here were closer to 50Uyn in length. It would then take around a hundred pieces to construct a beam of suitable length.

“So it’s not good that they are so short then?” “No, of course not, the more pieces we have to adhese together, the more the overall integrity of the beam suffers. I know your vehicle just isn’t big enough to support such a haul of the right length, but that still affects the overall value.” “Is that true for all the other wood around here?” “No, of course not. Most of the wood here was hauled in by much bigger vehicles, actual trucks. They managed the full length, because bringing pieces of normal wood at this size wouldn’t even be worth a full Qeld each.” Sryine took into consideration that the elven staff was thus implying that her village’s wood then had a bit of extra value, building some demand, but the conditions for its recovery were then rather limited. Fhyernx was then normally getting 5 Qeld per piece, but could possibly be earning a lot more if the wood’s condition could be.. properly repaired.

“Vwyx, could you come here a moment? Going to need your personal touch here. The wood here is going to need some of your.. melding. Can you reshape them into perfect flat corners, absolutely straight and symmetrical. Should look something similar to this.” Sryine focused upon her ring and fabricated an illusion matching a design of the wood using absolutely straight lines, a perfect rectangular beam of exact measurement. Vwyx took account of the illusion and attempted to replicate the effect, going rapidly over all 1000 pieces and making each of them appear perfectly identical. The staff was shocked at the turn of events, passing glances between each other, as the human staff realized that the pieces even remained with optimum durability.

“This would then be worth the full five thousand then, maybe more?” “Well, I.. yeah. I could see that be worth five thousand, no problem.” “Excellent. Maybe though we could give you a bit more value-added service. Vwyx, do you think you could meld about a hundred of them together like this?” Sryine stepped aside to set an even larger illusion, this one 50Uyn long, matching the beams in design, but again holding the absolute perfect right-angle construction that was requested before. Not even the beams in the room around them had delivered such perfect symmetry, even glancing at the illusion was leaving the staff aghast. Vwyx however pulled out her little melder to help her with the even more challenging project, pulling in a set of a hundred logs in emulation of the helpful illusion Sryine had provided as a source of reference.

“So how much would this make everything worth?” “That.. well.. ten-ten thousand Qeld.” “Double, huh? Gosh, to think the difference really is so small. I don’t know, Fhyernx, do you think we could take all of this wood somewhere else and get a better deal?” “Five thousand.. each. You make another ten of these, exactly this quality, we’ll buy the whole thing for fifty thousand Qeld. That’s not including the usual fees, which you will get at full value.” “Ah, now that sounds like it might be a better deal. What do you think, Fhyernx?” Sryine wasn’t quite satisfied by the rate provided by the human staff, but the elven staff seemed to be able to come up with a more desperate offer. His human co-worker was giving them about the same kind of blank stare as Fhyernx himself was. Fifty thousand Qeld, fifty thousand.. that was quite an increase from the normal. Fhyernx was shocked at just how much Sryine had turned a slight loss into a massive profit. Nodding silently, they guys all waited as Vwyx completed the other nine beams exactly to specification. Khyzae was giggling in the back, totally amused.

After finalizing the trade with the other guys, Fhyernx returned, passing Vwyx three of the same cards he had used before to pay for their food. “Three Obsidian Cards, each loaded with 15,000 Qeld. I came here expecting a value of 5,000, the rest you did yourself. That was not part of our original deal, so here is the amount left over.” Fhyernx had actually managed to earn more than the regular fees worth of goods too, which more than made up for the dinner he paid for. If Khyzae and her friends were going to already be so money-savvy, they deserved to have something of their own hard work to start them off with in Windvale. Maybe this way, there wouldn’t be so many obligations for everything to be bought by him, as well. Vwyx in turn gave a card to each of the other girls, a smile across her face. Khyzae wasn’t sure why she was being paid in the process, having only watched the whole thing, but suspected this was Fhyernx’s way of giving her credit for demanding that such high profits should come along too.

Fhyernx’s next complication was that the vehicle there was only a business rental, one he had an obligation to return by the end of the day. After all the time spent on raising profits, there wasn’t much time left in the day to complete the return on schedule. Worse, with the cargo unloaded, the vehicle was no longer capable of creating the temporary chairs for all four seats. Sure, there was still a small bag of the wood left, stuff he was planning to bring to Liyuzhe, but that wasn’t nearly enough to replace the missing chairs. He knew he could bring one of the girls with him, and that there wasn’t a single one who would accept the idea. There was also the consideration of how he would be bringing the three of them to Liyuzhe. The best solution for that would be to take the train, there was even a train station nearby. His destination was also near a train station. If they were to meet him at that station, they could ride the train together for the rest of the way.

After having this same plan presented to them, the three girls found themselves otherwise alone with some generic directions. Almost as they crossed the first street, Khyzae was left wondering if it was the third or fourth block that they had to make a right turn at. Sryine however had the entire thing memorized, leading the way as per Fhyernx’s directions. Khyzae had to make sure Vwyx stopped at the first intersection with a red light, signaling that they were not to cross at that time. Most of the way there, they suddenly found a couple of male elves sharing the same street-side.

“Oh hey! What are you fine ladies doing about at this hour? If you’re looking for a good time, I’m sure my friend and I could put together something for you.” “Wait, isn’t that one there human?” “Oh relax, she’s still a sweet deal, being that pretty. I’m sure we can still figure something out.” Both of the elven guys looked about as shady as they sounded, not at all helped by the fact that they were fairly obscured by a dark section of the sidewalk. Khyzae had gone pale in concern for their situation, Sryine stepping forward to de-escalate things.

“I’m sorry guys, we already have places to be.” “Really? Come on, don’t be like that. A night like this isn’t something to waste.” As Sryine tried to protest diplomatically, one of the guys grabbed her by the wrist, being even more insistent. “Strength boost, please.” Vwyx passed Khyzae a quick request as she also advanced on the two guys. Khyzae rushed to focus on her bracelet, intent on providing Vwyx with the requested strength, seeing no other rational way out of the situation. Feeling the sudden improvements through her body, Vwyx turned to the elf that had grabbed Sryine and plowed a fist into his chest, sending him flying backwards. His companion scuttled away in fear, not wanting to be next in line.

“That’s what ‘no’ feels like, since you seemed to have missed it the first time.” Vwyx stood between the guys and her friends as they made their way passed, the two elven guys no longer willing to interfere. At this point, Vwyx was on the watch for any other potential dangers en route to their destination. However, it was only a few blocks further to the train station, giving them a chance to rest. Khyzae was still nervous, realizing that their situation wasn’t any safer, and now they weren’t going anywhere. Sryine took a moment of rest before confronting their circumstances. She picked up one of the brochures at the gates, intent on learning more.

“So, it seems we would be able to at least go upstairs if we had a transit pass. The lunar transit pass is 150 Qeld, it doesn’t look like a bad deal if we make good use of it, and it lasts a lunar cycle too. Says here that if we provide some of our gift to help power the train, we could save up a bonus that would offer a discount on future passes.” “A lunar cycle? Do you really think we’ll be here that long?” “How much do you think you can learn in a month? I mean, it was pretty clear that Fhyernx waits longer than that between his deliveries, so this seems actually really reasonable. If it is any shorter, we’re only spending money that’s not even worth anything back home.” Sryine had a good point, Vwyx couldn’t think of anything more to refute with. Sryine took an additional moment to review how they might be able to acquire a lunar transit pass. She walked up to the same place the brochure was taken from, and found a large instrument which appeared to be the most likely candidate. The instrument’s printed instructions made it clear that it would only accept Obsidian Cards for any passes exceeding a day pass. Fortunately, that was exactly what she had, if only she could figure out anything beyond that.

Vwyx stepped in, realizing Sryine was getting confused by the large instrument. She started tapping on it’s control panel, presenting her with choices and options. ‘Purchase’, ‘Lunar Pass’, ‘New’, a swipe of her Obsidian Card, and soon after she was the proud owner of a Lunar Transit Pass. Vwyx then helped the other two to ensure they completed the same process, earning another two passes. From there, they were left to confront the gate, and it’s dashboard displaying ‘TP’, or specifically the Celesi equivalent of the first characters in ‘Transit Pass’. Vwyx exposing her pass to the dashboard and focusing upon the gate resulted in her gift moving the gate to pull her to the other side. This time, she was less capable of helping the other two, but Khyzae took from the demonstration and found her own way to the other side of the gate, with Sryine quick to follow. From there, the three girls made their way upstairs, waiting at the main platform at the top.

Khyzae kept attentive watch at the top, while the other two relaxed. There were two tracks that passed through the train center, not even going parallel to each other. Both tracks proceeded in completely different directions, along its own unique circuit. Along one of the tracks, she watched as a train approached, the front occupied by a driver that was not only controlling the train, but also trying to manage the additional gift supplied to keep the train going smoother. A second driver sat in the seat beside them, visibly resting for their turn to come. It was fairly obvious how the whole process worked. Khyzae however was more interested in spotting signs of the train they were waiting for, eager to get on the move again. Specifically, she was looking for Fhyernx, who did not appear from the current four cart train, nor was he on the next.

When the following three-cart train approached, she identified him from one of the windows. Drawing the attention of the other two girls, they rushed into the door of the train in an attempt to intercept him. Once inside, they found he had instead left by another set of doors, already heading back downstairs. Before they could reach the exit, the doors locked firmly and the train resumed its course. Fhyernx meanwhile went downstairs, finding no one waiting for him. Alarmed, he started asking nearby individuals. A kind elven woman mentioned seeing three girls matching his description go into the train station, herself having been worried about three girls wandering about at this hour of the evening. After thanking her, he rushed back to the train station.

It was only at this point that he realized that by providing the girls with funds, that they would be completely capable of entering the train station, a thought he hadn’t even considered. Asking about the main platform, he found someone reporting seeing the three girls entering a train from the same side of the tracks as he had left. It didn’t take him much more to figure out what had happened, they had boarded the train he was on, totally unaware that they in fact needed to switch to the other train. The train would be progressing around its one-way circuit, coming to a stop long for the night long before returning. The next train on the same track would not even be arriving that night, being a fairly low use route during the evening. At this point, he wouldn’t have a choice, he would have to return to Liyuzhe empty handed and try to resume the search in the morning.

Fhyernx waited for the next train to depart on the other track, which arrived not long after. He was substantially certain he was not in for a pleasant night.