The nearly vacant train continued along it’s extended circuit as the shadows of the evening took hold over the sky. Quickly the natural light of the city was being replaced by the ambience of artificial light, the gift-powered networks of street lamps remaining the sole contribution of light.

Khyzae looked over the evening city, herself pondering being so self-aware that the lamps around here would work as she surmised. It would mean there was a network of people responsible for keeping the lights going, maybe into the night. She pondered the thought in doubt, not fully certain if such staff would actually keep going until morning. Certainly people would be given a break once the night took over, bringing a cover of darkness to the city. Khyzae took a chance to look up to the sky, the black of the sky appearing almost devoid of the stars she loved. Certainly, it would only make sense for there to be a time when the beauty of the night sky was given it’s chance to shine, letting everyone relax for once.

Vwyx herself wasn’t all that relaxed, also having peeked out the window. The train had been travelling along a raised track the entire trip, elevated high above the ground. The view from the window to the ground was staggering, reminding her in a subtle way of the view from the observatory window. She had become interested in the sight out of curiosity for Khyzae’s apparent interest, but a sudden shot of fear dissuaded her from keeping to the window any longer. Vwyx was almost shaking, recalling Khyzae’s broken form after it had been thrown from the observatory, evidence of exactly what a catastrophic fall could do for a person. She might not be compensating for the propulsion from the included explosion, but that was beside the point.

Sryine took the offered window seat after it was abandoned, taking account of the city as they drove past. Things had suddenly gone a bit awry, having lost contact with their original guide. The information posted did say that the trains operated in a one-way circuit, making a loop around a predetermined path along its tracks before eventually returning to its place of origin. Certainly that implied that they would only need to wait and they would eventually return to where they started. Then it would only be a matter of finding Fhyernx and figuring out everything from there. Still, it was troubling, they were the last one’s riding in their cart, the entire system having slowed down considerably with lack of sufficient gift to keep it going. They had already been riding the train for quite a while, just how long was this particular circuit?

“Next stop, Riverside District. Next stop, Riverside District. Please be aware that this is the final stop of this train for the night. All passengers are asked to disembark promptly.” A voice echoed across the train from it’s intercom system, a message from the drivers. Wait, final stop? This train wouldn’t be going any further? Khyzae was brought back from admiring the sights outside the train to witness things from the inside. Of course, if the train was this empty, there would be no reason to suffer keeping it going. The three girls had been making small contributions with their gift with the support of their transit pass as a focus, but just as she was suspecting of the lights outside, the train and its staff would be needing time to rest as well.

“Let's just get going. We can find a place to spend the night, and figure out what we’re going to do in the morning.” “But.. what about your friends?” “Sryine, you two are my friends, I still know Fhyernx about as well as you do. From my perspective, Vwyx has more of a history with Fhyernx than I do.” It was something that was really troubling her, something bugging her at each turn along the way. There was all the obligation for being friends with someone, the weight of obligation suffocating her in her inability to deliver. She was the Khyzae he knew, the Khyzae they all knew.. and yet she wasn’t, not by how she felt. As they kept going along with everything, Khyzae had been left wondering just how much of a good idea this really was. Meeting up with friends who knew her, but not her them. Everything felt like she was trying to live a lie, and it was becoming too much. As they got off the train and started to make their way from the train station, she decided to open up to her actual friends about her feelings.

“Look, I’m sorry, I don’t think I can do this anymore. I can’t keep pretending to be someone I’m not, I’m just a fake.” “Khyzae, you’re…” “Yes, I know, I’m a real person, I am my own person, but I don’t think that just makes me the person everyone else seems to want me to be. I’m like Khyzae, I’m so similar to her, I look like her, think like her, I know I am practically her.. but I’m not exactly her. People keep expecting things of me, things that Khyzae could deliver upon without blinking an eye, things I can only struggle to keep up with. I think instead of pretending to be someone I’m not, I need to start figuring out exactly the kind of person I actually am, figure out where Khyzae ends and the real me begins.” Khyzae was in tears, the grief compounded upon her finally getting a chance to spill out. Sryine stopped trying to protest, offering a hug instead. She hadn’t considered how all of their expectations might have weighed too heavily on the otherwise shattered mind of someone who had gone through so much change. The Khyzae here might be made from almost everything the previous Khyzae had been, but that’s almost like the parallel of a daughter or twin sister, just with some added memories.

“So how about.. Riyxia?” “Huh? What?” “Well, if you’re not Khyzae, you need another name then, right? Khyzae is just the start of your name, so why not shorten it to the end of your name. You might have started with Khyzae, but you end up as Riyxia. I don’t know, it made more sense in my head, honestly.” Vwyx was being weird, but Khyzae.. Riyxia passed her a smile regardless. It was such a subtle gesture, but left her feeling much more comfortable. She wouldn’t have to be Khyzae, she could just be Riyxia. Even that small change felt like a weight lifted from her shoulders. Riyxia grabbed Vwyx to be included in the current hug, happy to have such precious friends there at her side.

“Thank you both. Thank you for coming along with me in this wild mess of a journey.” “No problem, both of us came to support you, after all. Well, we both kinda have that bit of an obligation to the village too, something about learning the ways of the civilized world, but that seems to line up well with everything you’re doing.” “Yes, yes, in fact, maybe we should focus more in that area. I really don’t want to face Fhyernx and his friends anytime soon, not while I’m left trying to figure out myself like this. You’ve both been picking up on things around the city very well, almost like a second nature, maybe we should just see what we can do on our own?” Riyxia knew her friends would be able to support her self-discovery, Sryine even sharing her own words of encouragement. The two of them had honestly known her far more as Riyxia than as Khyzae, even despite her not actually going by that name thus far. Fhyernx however was the other way around, his expectations of having Khyzae return all too obvious. Riyxia didn’t need that sort of problem in her life, not right now.

Leaving the train station, the three girls took account of their new surroundings. This side of the city wasn’t quite as well maintained, with a semi-broken street light flickering above them. Many of the buildings nearby even appeared to be slightly run down, while the streets were completely deserted. There was very little about sleeping on the streets that left the girls feeling safe. Still, they were running low on options, they would need to figure out something with what they had before them. The three girls continued along, passing block after block in growing exhaustion, looking for anything close to suitable.

Passing around a corner, Riyxia spotted a semi promising sign. ‘Riverside Inn’. At least, that’s what she expected it was supposed to say, if the top right corner of the sign wasn’t broken, cutting off part of the name. The slate gray building itself wasn’t that much to speak about, the bars across the windows giving it a prison like feeling, even if it was more designed to keep out any unwanted guests instead. It might not be much, but it was at least better than nothing at all. The visible security would at least ensure they had less to worry about overnight. Riyxia led the way to the Inn, the other two girls silently accepting the decision in lack of any suitable alternative.

“Hello girls, which room is your reservation again?” “Reservation? Oh, we’re here to request a new room for ourselves.” “Oh, really? I’m sorry, but the registration deadline is by sunset, we can’t prepare you a new reservation this late in the evening. I’m terribly sorry.” The human girl at the front counter was the bringer of bad news, turning down Riyxia’s request for a room. Sryine picked up one of the brochures from the desk, flipping through it to find it sharing the same regulation. The girl wasn’t making rules up, and she wasn’t exactly compelled to find ways around the rules of the business. She continued to flip through documentation, searching for anything that might be of help, only getting more and more of a feeling that they would have to give up. Riyxia was left pondering the situation before the receptionist, trying to figure out anything to say in this situation.

Vwyx was shoved out of the way, having been blocking the main entrance unknowingly. Three other human girls walked in, looking rough off of the streets in their generally black tattered attire and stern uncompromising expressions. One of the girls walked over to a nearby table and took a seat, while another advanced on the front counter. The third, visibly the leader of the trio, simply stood open in the middle of the room. “Hello, do you have a reservation?” The receptionist jumped at the key slammed on the counter, marked for room B2-7. “You are aware that this room is currently reserved for one person? If you are going alone, I’m sorry for the confusion. If you need to upgrade your reservation to include more people, that will cost you extra.” The receptionist was clearly getting to be the bringer of bad news this evening. Sryine flipped through her brochure and found details supporting this claim as well. The room would have cost 25 Qeld, plus 10 Qeld per additional person, to a maximum of six people. There was nothing saying such an upgrade had its own deadline.

“My girl already paid you in full for that key, and here you are already asking for more money. That’s extortion, you know? Let’s make a deal, you just let us get some well deserved rest, and this little misstep won’t come back to cost you anything extra.” The leader in the room was taking stage of the proceedings, with the girl shaking subtly but putting on a brave face, holding her ground even as the ruffian at the counter pulled out a metal bat. Riyxia stepped away from the counter, herself alarmed at the proceedings and how things were quickly escalating.

“Wow, so brave. Yes, I know how the Hunters got this place all looked after, keeping the staff of your fair establishment protected. Lay a finger on you, I’ll find myself in some pretty dire straits. But that protection only extends to yourself, does nothing for the condition of your business.” As if the leader’s words were a signal, the girl at the table stood up, brandishing a small axe. With hardly any warning, she brought the axe hard down upon the table, breaking it in two. The receptionist was almost in tears, at a loss for how to properly deal with this situation. The leader gave a cruel smile, clearly waiting for the receptionist to submit as the girl with the axe moved towards another table.

Vwyx looked down at the broken table, really not in the best of moods. Through all of the suffering the place visibly endured, such possessions looked of considerably high quality in comparison, small gestures of comfort to bring in more business. The fact that there were plenty of weapon brandishing threats wasn’t sitting all that well with her either. Vwyx picked up the broken table leg, melding her gift into it until it reformed into a long hammer. She then approached the ruffian bringing an axe down on another table and smashed upwards with her newly crafted hammer, smashing the handle of the axe in its descent. The sheer impact forced the woman to lose the axe, which fell on its side to the stone flooring.

The one with a bat turned to react, brandishing the bat now as a weapon. Sryine was left standing and watching in the space between both threats, realizing that the bat-wielder was going to intercept Vwyx from behind. Sryine formed the illusion of a sword, looking as if straight out of her stories, appearing otherwise as if she pulled it from thin air. She turned to intercept the bat-wielder, who tried to block with her bat. Obviously, the sword passed straight through the bat, being nothing more than an illusion. Through the same motion, Sryine caused the sword to impact with the ruffian, bringing a new illusion, the illusion of immense pain. There was no cut or wound, only an illusion affecting the sense of touch. The ruffian dropped the bat and collapsed to the floor, gripping her falsely slashed arm in her agony.

The other ruffian went to pick up the axe, but Vwyx was faster. A quick touch from her gloves, and her crafting talent caused the axe to fall apart into tiny fragments. The ruffian backed away in concern, realizing that she was now weaponless before someone not as unarmed. Seeing things go sour, the leader pulled out a weapon of her own, a metal crowbar. She turned to advance on Sryine and brought the weapon down quickly upon Sryine’s back. The weapon connected a lot slower than expected, and bounced off her back harmlessly. Riyxia stopped focusing on her bracelet, allowing the leader’s strength and speed to return to her. It was an interesting thought, if she could increase someone’s natural abilities, maybe she could decrease them as well. Fortunately, the instinctual theory had paid off, the leader ruffian confused as to the source of her momentary weakness.

“Please, the three of you are making a scene here, trying to destroy the place like that. If you’re so cranky after lacking sleep so much, maybe you should just go to sleep?” At Ryixia’s insistence, all three Ruffians collapsed to the floor and fell asleep. Ryixia lowered her left hand, letting the fundamental effects of her gift run its natural course. Vwyx and Sryine jumped back in surprise, not realizing how convincing Ryixia could actually be in the right circumstances. With that problem dealt with, Vwyx brought her hammer back to the table it came from, and set about repairing the table. After a few added moments, the table was restored back to the state it was originally.

“Hi. Sorry for calling you so late. I’ve got three girls who fell asleep in the front hall, I don’t think I can get them out of here on my own. Can you send a few hunters here to bring them somewhere else? Thanks.” The receptionist was on a Cell soon after finally recovering her own complexion, turning to the key on her counter soon after hanging up. “To think they even paid for a key, and now have to surrender it.. Hey, actually, in appreciation for making sure things are cleaned up, do you three want it?” “A room for one, but we have three. That would mean we would owe you 20 more Qeld, right?” “Oh, uh, yeah, kinda. But I’ll make sure to give you guys an extension on occupancy, you won’t have to leave until lunch time tomorrow.” The receptionist was obviously doing them favours, as far as her obligations allowed at least. Sryine had been pondering the amount owed, only to pause at the matter of lunch. It seems the usual terms lasted until mid morning, making for a slight extension.

Being unable to split the cost evenly three ways, Sryine just covered the cost personally in full, leaving the other two to owe her for it later. She had been tempted at first to just pay 8 Qeld and have the others invest 6 each for her, but considering the unwelcome sleepers in the room, she just wanted out of there as soon as possible. Their room was downstairs, seventh room on the left. It made the place look especially dark, but it somehow left Riyxia reminded of the laboratory, a faint memory of home. The small room itself had six beds, three on each side. Vwyx plopped right down at the closest bed to the door, on the left side. Sryine gave a slight grin, realizing that instead of being lazy, that spot had been chosen strictly because it was closest to the door, Vwyx would be a type of room guard. Sryine took the next bed beside her, with Riyxia taking the one below the window next in line. All of their stuff was otherwise discarded on the beds opposite each of them, the three of them too tired for anything more.

Even tired, sleep proved fairly elusive, even after Vwyx melded the door into more of a wall. More than just an insecurity of their current safety, there was an unignorable uncertainty about the days to come, leaving the room in a restless state.