image [https://imgur.com/6V8TafA.jpg]

Uncle was able to fly us all the way back to the train. It slowed down a little after we left, but he was just so speedy that he caught right up with it.

Bells and alarms were ringing on the inside like there was a crisis. I held his hand, worried this was a signal that something horrible was about to happen.

“Attention!” A voice said over the intercom. “All passengers be advised. The train will be reconnecting with the tracks momentarily. Please fasten yourselves into the appropriately marked seats to avoid injury.”

The intercom guy added that we would be coming up on the seaport town of Blue very soon.

Uncle and I went back to our personal cabin. The bunk beds we were sleeping in could be folded up and turned into seats. Once those seats were in place, we buckled up and braced ourselves.

GRUNG!

SCREEE!

Everything was shaking like an earthquake!

“Oh no!” I clung to Uncle.

“Relax,” Uncle calmed me down. “The train is just back on normal tracks now.”

It wasn't like I didn't expect things to get shaky, but it scared me a little bit. The transition from air to tracks was pretty loud and freaky.

Before people started leaving their rooms, I had to slip into a disguise outfit so no one would think I stood out. Snow white hair made it hard to blend in, so a pink paperboy hat was my cover up. Not that anyone was looking for me, but we wanted to be careful anyways.

I didn't mind the hat so much, it was the overalls I had to wear instead of my usual dress that got to me.

Blegh! Overalls are for farmers! I’d never be a farmer if my life depended on it!

The train came to a slow stop as it entered Blue station. People were getting out of their rooms and standing in the middle aisle. We followed the crowd to the doors.

The train let out a loud POOWF! Then we were allowed to step off into the station.

Among the many of the people all hustling around to get where they needed to go, I saw my friends were standing at one end of the station. It looked like they were getting food at a hole in the wall café.

“Good morning, guys!” I waved to them.

“What’s so good about it?” Indena barked, rubbing her eyes. Clearly someone was cranky. “Damn train woke me up when it hit the ground. And Mr. Buzzsaw over here kept me up all night!”

She pointed to Marek, who was putting on his fancy blue coat.

“Blame me all you’d like, but you were snoring too, no?” he remarked.

“That wasn’t snoring. That was me growling in anger at not being able to sleep!”

The tattoos on her arm started lighting up hot orange along with her eyes. Magic fire burst from her skin.

“Guys, please don’t fight.” Yamin said, handing all three of them a different drink and going for a sip of her own coffee. “Can’t we have a little peace and quiet? My head hurts…”

“Quiet? Unlike last night?” Indena put hands over her hips, glaring at Marek.

The three of them had to share a room together, so I’m guessing it didn’t go too well for them.

One more drink was at the counter, and Yamin passed it down to me. It was a fresh hot chocolate, rich and creamy with a marshmallow and whipped cream!

"So good!" I cried out with joy.

"They actually grow the coco for that here," Marek nodded. "It's some of the best you'll ever find in all the world."

Once we left the station, I confirmed his words. It was like a tropical paradise. Trees of all kinds sprawled down a big hill. Lemons, oranges, coco, all the tropical plants that gave us some pretty day to day foods painted its side.

Just at the base of the hill was a bustling little town of white buildings with blue roofs. And at the end of that was a huge sea port with boats of all sizes. Some of them were so big that they carried thousands of cargo containers, others were so small that they might only fit a single person and his suitcase.

This place was seaport Blue, and it was quite the sight to behold.

It was noticeably warmer here, even though we weren’t that far from a colder climate. Girls were wearing these gold trimmed summer dresses, and boys had short sleeved suits with silver accents. You probably wouldn't have guessed it was late October.

“Uncle, why is it so warm here?” I asked.

“This town is on a Longitude Point,” He replied. “Do you see that beam of light in the ocean over there?”

He pointed to this blue beam of light that sent up a pulse of energy into the sky every twenty seconds on the dot.

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“What’s a Longitude Point?”

He explained that these were big towers across the longitude of the planet that were responsible for sending mana into the sky. That way the mana could travel all over the entire planet through jet streams. It wasn't much different from the surface mana pylons, like the ones back in Urnan, but these were very much still active, unlike those.

For at least a few kilometers, they made everything warmer, tropically so.

“These were built by your ancestors to maintain the balance of nature,” he told me.

Wow, so the Exceed built these things? So cool!

“I thought caves gave mana to the surface world.” Indena asked, remembering what I told her not long ago.

Mana caves transported spirit energy from the center of the world to the surface. That way plants and animals could feed on it and live. People made their own mana energy, so they didn’t need to get it from somewhere else.

Uncle said Indena was right, but those caves didn’t put enough mana energy into the air. These beam towers were the answer to that.

“So, why does it make things warmer, Uncle Mel?” Yamin asked.

HEY! He was my uncle, not hers!

I latched onto his leg tightly and buried my cheek into his pant leg. That’ll show her whose uncle he was!

“That is a side effect I’m not sure about. Conversely, there is an alternating variant known as the Latitude Points, which makes things colder."

“Oh, that’s so interesting.”

I was seriously giving Yamin a pouty face, but she didn’t seem to care. That meant I won this territory! Uncle is my uncle! “Muahhahaha!”

“Why are you laughing like that?” Uncle looked down at me with a disapproving scowl.

“Easy, Shrimp. You’ll turn into a supervillain if you keep that laugh up,” Indena claimed.

Oh darn! I didn’t mean to laugh in real life! That was supposed to be in my head. Oh well. I just kept quiet and looked all embarrassed, hoping they’d move on to a different topic.

“Oi, Blue Boy,” Indena called out to Marek. “These people must get rich off of all the fruit they sell.”

Marek nodded his head. “Not just that. Any sort of items leaving this part of Esma have to travel through this port. The 9% tax they take from everything really adds up over the years.”

With how many boxes I saw going into those big boats, I think I understood why 9% tax could actually make a profit.

It’s like, if I was the only one selling lemonade in my neighborhood, everyone would have to go through me to get it. And if there was a high demand for lemonade, I’d make a killing. That was really smart!

Oh, then if I put salt in everyone’s food, they’d get thirstier. I’d have to control the food market too, or at least have some influence over it. This idea will be the beginning of my lemonade empire!

Funny enough, I bring up the lemon example because we were standing under a Lemon tree.

Indena shook her head, clearly upset by something. “You know what sucks? This is gonna’ cost a fortune to get to Erdareich.”

“Why?” I asked.

“Since everyone here is rich, prices are gonna be high.”

Marek looked rich, so maybe he could get us to pay our way through a boat.

He let out a sigh, then reached into his pocket for his red ID card made of crystal.

“We’ll need to stop at a bank. I wouldn’t have enough on me for the ferry boat there.”

“Wait, can’t we just use our crystal cards?” Yamin pulled out her own red ID card.

Marek explained to her that the people here didn't like using ID cards for money. Quite a few people didn’t trust the idea of having all their currency accessible on such a brittle piece of crystal.

“The boats we need don’t take crystal cards anyways. We’ll need physical money,” Marek said.

“Darn.” I snapped my fingers. “What about Pier tokens?”

I pulled out a gold coin with a bob haired goddess on it. I guess her name was Pier.

These remind me of those tokens you get at arcades. Hey, maybe Uncle would take me to that Heaven's Arcade place if I asked?

Er…um…wait, get your head in the game, Yalda!

Marek shook his head at my question about the coins. “They hate Pier tokens here too. Most wealthy people don’t like them.”

“Most ‘people’ don’t like them,” Indena corrected.

These things were everywhere, usually getting mixed in with piles of change. At least they looked cool, and were made of gold.

“Heh,” Uncle chortled. “What a burden they are.” He smiled, pulling his hat over his eyes.

I could always try to cash in on that lemonade empire, but it might take a few years to kick off. I guess finding a bank was the next best thing.

BOOM!

CRASH!

There was an explosion on the docks! What the heck was that?

Smoke was rising up from one of the big cargo boats. It was sinking!

It looked like there was a…a pirate?! He was marching up the docks, carrying a big crate of supplies out from the sinking boat.

Way out in the water, I saw something that looked like one of those pirate sailboats from the movies. No doubt this guy was scurvy scallywag of the sea!

That pirate didn’t look very nice, he was getting in people’s faces and waving a big pistol around.

He kicked someone down to the ground, then the person handed over something shiny. Probably money, if I had to guess.

A band of guards in blue uniforms showed up, holding up rifles and spears to force the pirate out. Sailor looking people were mixed in with their ranks and brandishing similar weapons.

We quickly went down to see what was going on. Railings kept us from getting closer to the docks, but it would have been easy to jump over them.

“Get out of here!” The sailor captain shouted, clinging closely to his rifle. “We told you already, we won’t give you the scrap yard in exchange for protection!”

“Ya’ foolish blokes think wer’ not lookin’ out fer ya’?” A laugh gurgled out from the pirate's gut. “Come on’ now, wer’ tryina’ help ya’!”

“Last chance, pirate. Head back to your cove, or we’ll fill you full of lead!”

The pirate laughed again, then aimed at the sailor captain.

"That's exactly what wer' wantin'."

Bursts of black dust swirled all around the docs behind the pirate. The cloud of darkness quickly formed into other pirates that reinforced the big one.

“Ahoy! What’s this now? I reckon wer’ seein’ some a’ those lads at sea!”

-WARNING! Threat sighted! IFF tags active-

-Pirate Crew tagged; Foe-

-Guards tagged; Friendly-

-Sailors tagged; Friendly-

My Identify Friend or Foe tags were lighting up! Uncle and all my friends tagged “friendly” along with the guards and sailors. Friendlies were highlighted with green, and foes highlighted red.

“Oi, Old Man…” Indena lit fire around her body, turning to Uncle. “I think we’d better head down and help out.”

“I should warn you, I don’t give you permission to kill a human being." Uncle said. "Pacify them, but don't kill.”

Indena agreed to those terms, and the two of them jumped over the railing, ready to battle against real life pirates.