The sensation of moving between Earth and Arx was... indescribable.

Like being pulled through liquid metal while simultaneously being stretched and compressed. Snowflake-like fractals danced across my eyes. Gravity seemed to go from pushing down on me to slapping me in the face as I swam/floated/was squeezed forward and emerged out of a silver pool.

An older-looking Omnid offered me his long-limbed hand. I recognized him as a Domovoy.

The Domovoy helped pull me out of the silver pool. He was wearing a simple brown robe with gold trim. His face was weathered and kind covered in a thick layer of dark fur. I recalled that Domovoys usually bound themselves to a specific building for life, drawing power from it. In their particular chosen domain they were nearly impossible to put down.

"M' Brother Vassily, Keeper of the Transit Gate Chapel," he introduced himself. "First time on Arx, ye?"

"Yep. Thank you for the assistance, Keeper!" I nodded, stepping aside just as Cinder emerged from the pool with a splash, her wings dripping silver liquid that evaporated into mist.

Brother Vassily helped her up as well, then assisted Io, Vespera and Katherine, using both of his ridiculously strong and stretchy limbs to heft the wheelchair and all onto the polished stone floor of the Omnithean chapel.

I looked around. The chapel seemed to be carved out of a large, cozy cavern, similar in design to the Lazarus cave, covered in gold glowing crystals. Kitlix lanterns hung from the ceiling adding shimmering light to the environment. Another chonky Gate Weaver spider sat in the corner, staring down at me with silver eyes.

My body felt wobbly and I sat down onto a nearby wooden bench, trying not to throw up as my insides felt like my outsides on and off.

"Welcome to Shandria, young delvers," Brother Vassily said warmly. "We're currently six clicks below the city. That stairwell up will lead you to the Arx Bank vault. There you can procure local currency using your delver bank cards if you have such. The Adventurers Guild cathedral will be on the East side from the bank. You'll see it right away, it a very big white stone building with many spires. Can't miss it."

I nodded. My nausea was slowly settling as my body adjusted to Arx.

"Remember to register your team and obtain your iron rank badges before venturing outside the city walls. The market district is directly west of the Adventurers Guild. And please, do mind the time - Shandria's nights are quite deadly."

"Thank you, Brother," I bowed slightly. "Any recommendations for lodging?"

"The Guild has rooms that vary in prices," the hairy man replied. "I recommend the Gilded Gryphon Inn near the market. My cousin Nikkola owns it, he'll give you an excellent rate. It's in the 'Wecome to Arx' brochure on that table by the stairwell up."

"Much appreciated," I said. "Wait. Stairs? You don't have like an elevator or..."

Katherine gritted her teeth, standing upright. She grabbed her chair and folded it up, strapping it to her back along with the backpack and magisteel armor plates.

I blinked at her.

"What?" Katherine growled, catching my surprised look. "You think I can't walk? The chair's just easier most of the time. Less painful. Killed myself this morning. Always do before delving class."

"Ah," I nodded, feeling bad for her. "Still, six clicks of stairs seems excessive."

"It's Shandrian clicks, not Earth miles," the Domovoy pointed out. "About a mile of stairwell. You'll be up in a few hours."

I winced.

"I'll be fine," the Stollwurm said. "I'm much stronger underground. Arx has incredibly high aetheric density which helps with my... condition."

"Welcome to Arx," Brother Vassily said. "Where everything is either trying to kill you or inconvenience you to death. The stairs are warded against most forms of magical transportation - security measure for the bank vault above."

We began our ascent, Katherine moving stiffly but steadily. Cinder hovered close to her, ready to help if needed, while Vespera and Io took point.

The stairwell was wide, carved directly into the rock. Tiny Kitlix lanterns ignited to life as we came closer, dimming behind us.

After what felt like an eternity of walking up endless stairs, we emerged into a gloomy, stone vault.

A gray and black striped catgirl attendant rushed to our side from where she was reading a thick romance novel, opening a magisteel gate.

A catgirl?!

I sneakily pointed Yulia's camera at her. "Cryptitype not found," Yulia whispered into my ear.

"Welcome to Shandria, honored children of Omnifomrnnia," the attendant smiled at us, slightly butchering the name. "Please follow me."

The catgirl quickly scanned us with a cyan Kitlix and then unlocked a magisteel vault door about ten meters thick in front of us. The massive door swung open silently, revealing a very long tunnel, going up. The tunnel lead us to another stairwell and vault door which opened up into a grand marble hall filled with tellers' windows and currency exchange booths.

The other teams weren't anywhere. I mentally tabulated that the two hours of Earth time turned into 168 hours on Arx, which meant that the time dilation was x84. This mean that the few minutes between each team's entry stretched to hours.

"Remember to declare any magical items you wish to sell," the catgirl attendant said, stepping behind a counter. "The bank takes a 5% commission on all transactions."

"What about mundane items?" I asked.

"The value of any item will be evaluated by my Infix Kitlix, Cheeski," the woman smiled, whiskers twitching as a violet-cyan crystalline kitten rushed from her shoulder down her arm and onto the teller's table. "I'm Arx Bank rep Gabriella Matrosin. The current exchange rate for one O-dollar is..."

She listed the conversion price and the explanation of how "Ten coppers make a silver. A hundred silvers make a gold. A hundred gold make a platinum. A hundred platinum make a magisteel. A thousand magisteel make a celesteel." Which Yulia noted down.

Vee stepped to the table with her delving card. "I'd like to..."

"Don't," I said. "Not done."

"Not done what?" Vespera asked, pausing mid-motion.

"Learning," I said. "Miss Matrosin. Can we go to a private room? I have many items to sell."

"Very well," the catgirl nodded, stepping out of the booth. She lead us to a private guided office and sat behind a large wooden table.

I went into Lance's backpack and pulled out a bag with about a thousand different small items and materials.

"Please evaluate the value of each," I said dumping the bag onto her desk.

"Sir," Gabriella's whiskers twitched with annoyance. "There are other customers that I..."

"They can wait or go to another rep," I said. "I need to know the exact value of everything."

The catgirl sighed and began scanning items with her Kitlix. Each item's value appeared on a small crystal ball display.

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I kept my wrist cam pointed at the ball, building a price database with Yulia's help. As I expected, some items that were considered worthless on Earth held higher value on Arx, while others were practically worthless despite their Earth-side expense.

"Are you quite done?" Katherine growled after about twenty minute of the attendant going through random small items pilfered from Earth.

"No," I said, pulling out another bag.

"Ughhhh," Katherine groaned. "This is going to take forever."

"Knowledge is power," I replied cheerfully, dumping more items onto the table. "And power is money."

"Sir," Gabriella's whiskers twitched more violently. "Perhaps you could come back later..."

"Nope," I said. "Need to know now. How much for this paperclip?"

Vespera snickered beside me. Cinder had gotten bored ten minutes ago and was now sitting in the waiting area across the hall, playing candy smash on her phone. Io was snacking on interdimensional chips beside her reading what looked like an old, yellow-paged science fiction novel.

After nearly two hours of methodically cataloguing item values, I finally had a comprehensive database of what was worth selling and what wasn't. The catgirl attendant looked ready to claw my eyes out.

"Now we can exchange currency," I announced cheerfully.

"Finally!" Katherine growled. "My legs are killing me."

"You do know that you can sit down with the others over there?" I said. "Riiiight?"

"I've done enough sitting on Earth," she shot back. "I can actually walk around on Arx."

"Why don't you live on Arx like the Chapel Keeper and his cousin if you feel better here?" I asked her.

The Stollwurm looked at me like I was an absolute idiot.

"There are no incarnators on Arx," she said after a few seconds of glaring at me. "I'd just be dead in three-four weeks here."

"Oh really?" I smiled. "Well, that changes everything."

I dug into my bag again and pulled out a thermos filled with incarnator fluid.

"Please let me know the value of this liquid," I said, opening the thermos.

The catgirl's eyes widened as her Kitlix scanned the thermos. The crystal display suddenly lit up with a string of zeros.

"Sir," Gabriella's voice dropped to a whisper, her tail suddenly very still. "Where did you obtain this... substance?"

"Oh, you know," I waved vaguely. "Around."

Vespera stared at me. Then she reached out with a claw and send a spark flying into the thermos. Then her eyes went wide.

"You..." she breathed out. "You dumped THAT on Em?! You're selling THAT?!"

"Is that illegal?" I asked.

"Urm," she blinked. "You know what? I have no idea. I consider myself clever but I never thought of selling lint or paperclips or rubber bands or rocks or... THAT on Arx. How do you even... think of this shit? How are you so funny?" Her gray eyes sparked with uncontained mirth.

"What is that stuff and why is it worth so much?" Katherine asked, clearly not recognizing Genesis fluid at a glance.

"If you don't know I ain't telling," Vespera clicked.

"Whatever, like I give a shit," Katherine huffed.

"Sir," Gabriella cleared her throat. "I'll need to call my supervisor about this... particular item if you wish to sell it to us."

"No need," I said, recapping the thermos. "Just wanted to know the value. Here, take everything off this bank card and convert it into cold, hard cash."

Katherine and Vespa read the name on the gold card. Both of them choke-gasped as I typed in the pin and the card was accepted.

"Three hundred platinum, one hundred and eleven gold and sixty coppers." The attendant handed us a bag of coins after a minute. "Will that be all?" She asked wearily.

"Yep, thanks a whole bunch, see ya," I grabbed the card back and stuffed it into my pocket.

Both girls were giving me wild looks as we walked over to where Cinder and Io were sitting. As I had killed about two hours bugging the bank teller, Cinder had dozed off, her head resting on Io's shoulder while the Mothman continued reading his "Sixty Nine Thousand Leagues Inside the Moon" book by Julie Verne.

I shoed Io off the bench and placed Cinder on my lap and then shook her awake.

"Mrmph?" Cinder blinked awake.

Her ocean-blue eyes widened as she realized she was using my lap as a pillow, and her feathers shifted rapidly through embarrassed pinks and startled violets.

"What... why am I..." she started, then noticed our teammates' amused expressions. Her feathers darkened to mortified reds.

"You fell asleep on Io," I explained cheerfully. "I upgraded your pillow."

"I did not!" She protested, quickly getting off me.

"Did too," Io confirmed, slipping his book inside of his bag. "You were muttering something about annoying humans in your sleep."

"I did not!" Cinder huffed.

We emerged from the bank into what appeared to be a bustling medieval fantasy city on steroids. The crowd was absurdly diverse featuring rock, tree, metal and animal-people and not a single person was human or an Omnid. Massive mage-towers curved in whimsical patterns, leaning down slightly. Red flags flapped in the wind featuring what looked like a nine-eyed monster in a crown. Kitlix were practically everywhere, sitting atop of people and in windowsills. Strange creatures that looked like a cross between cats and owls fluttered between rooftops.

"Ughhh. Did you seriously spend two and a half hours bothering the teller?" Cinder whined at me after about five minutes of walking as she pulled out her phone and checked the time.

"Yes."

"Whyyyyy?!"

"I learned things," I said.

"Like what?"

"The Arx Bank values items based on their magic. For example, a gold ring from Earth is almost completely worthless here," I said. "While a drop of Genesis fluid could probably buy a house. Maybe the whole thermos would get me a flying castle. I dunno. Gotta shop around."

"Genesis fluid?" Cinder's eyes widened. "You... you brought Genesis fluid to Arx?!"

"Yep," I nodded. "Also, check this out - I got us some spending money." I jingled the bag of gold coins in front of her. "This is like thirty thousand gold."

"Did you... sell something that expensive?" Cinder squinted at me. "Please don't tell me that it was the paperclip or a pencil."

"Nope," I grinned.

"How do you know HER password?" Vespera hissed, unable to help herself anymore. "Why do you have Em's card?"

"Put a spycam on her yesterday," I shrugged. "She uses the same password for all of her cards. Not very wise. Got her delver gold card while I gave her a hug."

"Holy sheet, dude, you're evil! I love it!" Vespera cackled.

"Wait... what is happening?" Cinder demanded. "Where's this money from?"

Vespera put her beaks to Cinder's ear and begun whispering furiously.

"WHAT?!" Cinder rounded on me. "YOU DID WHAT?!"

"Are you sure this is wise?" Katherine asked. "Em's already trying to get you expelled..."

"She can't hate me any more than she already does. And now she'll have to explain to her parents why she spent so much money in Shandria," I shrugged watching as Cinder ignited like a firework.

"And when she claims her card was stolen?" Katherine pressed.

"Stolen by whom, where?" I asked. "I can drop her card in the middle of the Shandrian market and that'll be that. If that endless stairwell and the magisteel vault doors are anything to judge by, the Shandrian authorities don't trust Omnithornia in the slightest. Does OFBS have ANY authority here? Can Omnithean Scrutimancers interrogate the bank rep about bank cards?"

"Ummm... nope," Vespera answered. "The Arx Gate to Shandria is owned by Skyfall Academy and operated by Zalimar Evernacht. Random scruts won't be permitted to go in. I'm pretty sure Zalimar has a premium account in Arx Bank and gets a % whenever a student sells something or trades currency."

"Do you know what this means?" I asked Cinder who looked like she was about to explode.

"What?" She growled.

"Emerald will be going through last with Quint since she got herself punched into a wall so hard. Also, right before we left, I texted the school nurse to patch her up, that'll delay her even more." I said. "Due to this, we'll be ahead of her by an entire day. That's a lot of time for me to be ahead, my dudes."

"So dastardly," Vespera cackled. "Remind me never to get on your bad side."

"Alex," Cinder said. "You can't just..."

"Cindy," I shot back. "Yes I can. I'm not permitting Em or Zal to get away with this shit anymore."

"But," she began.

"No," I shook my head. "You don't get it. All crimes committed against Omnids in Shandria are legal. Do you know what happened to Sarah Nisteroff, Ci?

"Oh," Katherine said.

"She... went out... at night," Cinder said. "Em said that..."

She fell silent.

I raised my eyebrows. "She didn't go out. Emerald tricked her into going outside and closed the door on her. Sarah died clawing against the doors as the living Shadows chopped her up. They started with her toes and fingers and then went up. The Shadows toyed with her, chased her down the street as she tried to run, tried to find safety. Her assigned team captain lied on the team report. Emerald lied as a witness. Zalimar knew about it and let it happen. He's been letting it happen for centuries! If I didn't challenge Zalimar to a duel, if I never found four friends to stand by my side-it would been me out there, getting chopped up by the Shadows next. One does NOT go to Arx alone without people they can trust, without a plan of action!"

Cinder swallowed.

"There's a reason why I'm Skyfall's only mixie student on a nearly all-covering scholarship. You don't get to tell me what's ethical on Arx, Ci. I know what Zalimar and his patsies like Emerald did to other half or quarter-human students here. Yulia talked to their families via email, conducted interviews as a journalist. I'm simply the shadow of justice that's catching up to everyone's crimes."