The town of Cliffhome looked very different when not covered by a shroud of rain. Streetlights, I assumed to be torches filled with oil inside glass cases. Once the weather cleared, I knew that wasn't the case. Glass bulbs helped illuminate the now bustling streets of Cliffhome. Denizens pushed through the streets en mass despite the growing hour, and businesses didn't show signs of closing soon. The rest of my group seemed just as shocked to see the bulbs as I was.

"Does everybody see how weird the torches look?" Gemma asked.

"Yeah..." Leif replied. "How did they get the fire to be so round?"

"It's not fire," Berthold replied. "I read about these in Duclrois, it was never fully utilized, but if you run certain kinds of energies through specific metals, it can create a luminous effect. Only the metals would burn out so quickly that it was deemed impractical."

Bert had half of it, but I struggled to think of a way to explain oxidation quickly burning out the filament. Also, the implications of me knowing exactly what lightbulbs were.

"Unless," Bert continued as a throbbing vein appeared on his head. "Something in the air causes the metals to burn faster, so the bulbs act as a protective layer. If you had a choice of gas, you could fill the bulb with maybe...."

Colter gripped my arm tight as he watched Bert ramble to himself. "Is he gonna be okay?"

"Yeah, this is normal," I replied. "Bert can just be a little extra sometimes."

Bert looked at me and then saw the discomfort across Colt's face. His vein disappeared as he returned his brain to the standard amount of grey matter.

"Sorry about that, Colt," Berthold said, comforting the boy with a pat on the shoulder. "I like to think about stuff really hard, but I'm okay, I promise. Do you know the best place to grab a bite around here?"

Colt's eyes lit up at the mention of food. "We're pretty close to the food hall. It should take only thirty minutes with the gondola."

The 'gondola,' as Colt put it, was a tram system that looked like it had been taken straight out of a modern San Francisco.

"So when do the horses get here?" Nev asked.

"No horses," Colt replied. "It runs by itself."

"Maybe some kind of magic power source?" Berthold asked.

Colter shrugged. "There's a guy who pushes and pulls some sticks. Maybe he's magic?"

The inside was just as mundane as the out, with seats lining the inside of the tram and a couple of poles to help stabilize standing passengers. Our group received some looks from other passengers as Bert attempted to investigate every inch of the tram.

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"Can I help you with something?" The gondola operator asked as Bert attempted to push one of the levers at the control station.

"Are these pulleys pneumatic, or is there some arcane power source?"

"Uhh," the gondola operator replied.

"His question wasn't serious, Boss," Gemma interjected, tapping the seat beside her.

Berthold resigned and sat next to her, much to Gemma's delight. I stood before our group, sharing a pole for stability with Nev. While Leif moved to the top of the cart, claiming, "There's like way more room to sit down up top."

The tram ride was smoother than expected, following rails buried beneath the city's roads. Occasionally the tram would stop short, allowing passengers to depart or the occasional pedestrian to cross. The people living here were clearly used to the tram's presence.

"When did Cliffhome get this Gondola system?" I asked Colter.

"I dunno, it wasn't here when we moved here about a year ago," Colter put simply.

"I can answer that if you like," an older woman said, seated beside Colter.

She was an older human woman with olive skin worn from a life of hard work. She took our group's silence as her cue to continue.

"When Unbat installed Sindaco Roberto, they implemented many changes overnight. They did a lot fast, with these gondolas, new lights, and some security throughout the city."

"It kinda reminded me of you, Mersault," Colter interjected. "Just how quick it was, I mean."

"This town was struggling before Unbat came. People had to send their children off to work with traders to avoid having another mouth to feed. Now anyone can go where they want inside the city without fear of starvation. You may even be lucky enough to be chosen to live inside the Bastion," the older woman gestured toward a bounding estate with three towers jetting from the top.

It was one of the only buildings outside a cliff face and stood on a plot of unnaturally smooth land. The land sloped downward surrounding the keep as if initially it was the tip of a mountain sliced clean off. Colter sunk into his seat and pulled his collar over his face as the stranger gestured toward the monstrously large castle. Nev must have noticed it, too, as they couldn't help but speak out.

"Hey, Colter, does that place make you scared?" Nev asked.

Colter nodded in response.

"How come?" I continued.

"That's where they took my sister..." Colt replied.

"Oh, that's wonderful news!" The stranger seated beside us commented. "Your sister is a very lucky girl. To be chosen by Unbat is a spectacular honor. Your mother must be so proud."

Colter sunk even deeper into his seat, looking away from the stranger.

"Sorry, he's shy," I lied. "Thank you for your help."

The food hall was the next stop on the tram and rested on a cliff face similar to most other homes and businesses inside Cliffhome. We pushed past two wooden doors and a sign with a cornucopia carved into it. Much like the tram and lighting systems throughout the city, the food hall had been... updated.

Iridescent lights illuminated clean white tiles throughout the food hall. People gathered at tables laughing and eating a variety of different foods. Different vendors traced the hall's perimeter, with lines forming at each stall. Muzak played as background ambiance while people chatted and ate.

"They made a food court?" I said, perplexed, under my breath.

"Hey, Mercy," Berthold shouted. "Check it out, pizza!"

A vendor name Cigarros Pizza had one of the longest lines. I paused for a moment, thinking of our time in Poilspont. Wondering if someone overheard my plea for cheese, bread, and tomato sauce, then made this dream come to fruition. That's when another vendor caught my attention.

The smell of sweet and savory meat wafted over my direction. A vendor was set up with patrons seated around their booth and a large grill between the hungry customers. People were grabbing portions of meat, cooking it themselves on the grill before them. The concept of communal grilling in an eatery isn't so extreme to give pause. What forced my jaw to drop was what the vendor named their restaurant. A large sign above the grill read out four simple letters; KBBQ.