Ferry [https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/pw/AP1GczMzdoZ1pTgFzgXa88D_d7gQ1ovul6dDu_M1wyizxVz1U8U_XaiU0PUOoPJQyeXx6YmyM6nKTIlYSfy7hgQhlqi5tav61xfxot4LCQQoWBu2z5IRdMKMmnyGwzu2eY_1WxqWizyoEayjZeG_B5z8frzS=w661-h992-s-no-gm?authuser=0]
Apparently, I’ve greatly failed at measuring distance because this ferry ride is much longer than I expected, and that tower keeps growing with every passing hour. I was thinking it might be like the Empire State Building or Eiffel Tower, but it’s more like if they slammed all of Seattle into a monolith reaching for the heavens.
It’s intimidating… I wish the others were here with me. Saiya would be helping calm me and probably saying some terrible pun about this being just the next step in my journey of seeing the wider world.
I’m sure Rayna would be excited to drag me around such a massive metropolis and get a ton of shopping done.
Dazien would probably be going over his notes about what we could expect to encounter. I really wish I had studied more beforehand, but I think I’ve found myself relying on his cliff notes a little too much lately.
Camilla would help explain the magic I’m seeing, even from this distance. I think we’re floating over enchantments literally underwater at various intervals. Like invisible walls that the ferry is slowly passing through.
Then Uriel… well, he’d probably be
“Who Phoenix writing to?” a curious voice asked.
Phoenix lifted her head from the journal she had been writing in for the past hour, finally taking the time to write down everything that had happened over the last week since causing their shipwreck. She tilted her head in confusion at the question and clarified, “I’m not writing to anyone. This is just a journal for my thoughts.”
“Why?” Ren inquired while rubbing at their ears in annoyance once more. They had been doing that a lot since first getting closer to the crowds of people also boarding the ferry. There were probably at least a hundred people on the large boat of every feasible race, including ones she had only heard of, like the furry felions and scaly draconids. She tried her best not to stare at anyone, knowing how much she disliked that herself.
“Um… it’s something my mentor did, and I’ve found it helps me process things a bit better. Makes me give words to my feelings and such…” she hesitantly tried explaining.
The daekin nodded as they said, “Ren understand. Ren talk to Ren to do same thing.”
“Is that why you talk in third person?” Phoenix asked without fully thinking, then quickly followed up, “Not that it’s a problem, it’s just… not something I’ve run into before.”
Ren tilted their head in confusion, “Ren talk in Ren person,” they said, then distractedly rubbed their ears again while wincing in annoyance and Phoenix saw the odd layer of magic as they passed across another barrier.
“Are you sure you’re going to be okay in the city?” she asked the shifter in concern.
The daekin gave her a weak smile and admitted, “Ren thinks being mouse better now. Phoenix carry?”
Phoenix grinned as the idea reminded her of a certain murder-kitten who liked to hitch a ride on her shoulder. She nodded and held out her hand palm up towards the smaller daekin. Ren rested their own hand in hers for only a moment before transforming into a tiny green mouse that fit right in her palm.
“That’s awesome every time I see it,” Phoenix admitted to the little rodent before absently rubbing a finger on top of the fuzzy head, which Ren seemed to like as they squeaked happily in response. “I saw Bliss shift a few times, mostly when training, but she never shifted into a human and never that close to me.”
As the ferry dipped unexpectedly and the little mouse went flying from her grip, Ren effortlessly shifted into a bird instead and nestled on top of Tala’s floofy back, creating a little bird tower. Phoenix found herself giggling as she felt them snuggle together, “That’s probably for the best, I guess. I can even put my cloak’s hood up to draw less attention, hopefully.”
She glanced back up at the massive metropolis ahead of them and tried to push her fears down and figure out a plan. The only thing she had come up with so far was to try and find an inn or something, then see about contacting the Pyrin Postal Service to try and get word to others.
The transferring of information across the world was rather abysmal here compared to her original world which had the magic of the internet. She hadn’t used her phone much, but the internet had always been her window into participating with the wider world, and not being able to simply search for the answer to all her questions had been a struggle to get used to. Now, it made her worry for other reasons.
“I do have a letter to write, though, now that I think about it,” Phoenix added after a moment of looking back down at her journal. “A couple, actually. I need to write to both Patricia and Everin about what happened. That I made it to the city, but that we were all separated, and that Daze—”
She cut herself off before adjusting the thought, “That Dazien’s bead broke, and I’m not sure if the bracelet will still work at all to find them once they arrive. I never really looked into what happens when that occurs.”
Phoenix stood from her spot on an open bench to try and find an empty table instead where she might have an easier time writing. Using her lap while writing in a book wasn’t too terrible, but trying the same with a loose letter didn’t sound like fun when there were better options.
Most of the booths with tables were filled already, but there was one in a back corner that only had a single person sitting at it, looking like they were asleep, bundled in a heavy cloak with their feet propped up along the bench and their back resting against the wall instead of the back of the seat.
Swallowing her anxiety, she nervously asked, “Do you mind if I sit across from you? I just want to write some letters and won’t be a bother.”
When the person gave no response, she carefully extended her aura to touch theirs and was able to feel it was Sapphire Caste and was surprised that it felt like a gemite’s.
A green eye peeked up at her from under the cloak, and she felt her momentary hope dip again when she realized it was a malachite gemite and not an amethyst one. Of course, other gemites existed, but what surprised her more about this one was that they were not of the Shiny variety.
Their eyes looked more like rough gems carved into the shape of eyes, with no actual pupil or sclera discernible. Their dark complexion was also rougher, with patches of metallic green scales on their cheeks. They didn’t lower their hood, but she could see shorter green hair peeking out from it. Instead of the silky texture that sparkled like jewels in the light, theirs looked like a dense cluster of growing green crystals that would refuse a brush and require specific manipulation to bend into place.
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They almost reminded Phoenix of a doll crafted by a child with only some beads to work with.
She wouldn’t have said they were ugly, per se, just very different from what she had been taught to think of as conventional beauty. The contrast between them and Dazien helped her better understand that his Shiny Talent was taking a lot more outside input than she had initially thought to adapt him closer to the more populous species in the world.
She had learned that humans, elves, cinderen, and voxen were the dominating Vauva species on the planet, with their numbers far exceeding any others. The draconids, felions, and faeforged were closer after that compared to some others, but they were more localized to their specific nations, not spreading out much and mingling less with others.
“Are you going to sit or just stare at me?” the gemite asked, startling Phoenix out of her thoughts with the rough-sounding voice that had a more Spanish-like accent to it. It was much closer to Veldrix’s way of speaking she noticed, and it made her realize that Dazien was likely the outlier in this regard from growing up in the orphanage of Tulimeir.
The stranger smirked then, showing a glint of teeth that looked like polished malachite, and she had the very distinct impression that the rest of their skeleton matched, “What? Never seen a gemite before?”
That helped Phoenix find her voice again as she sat down and said, “My brother’s a gemite, but I admit he looks different than you do. I didn’t mean to stare, it just caught me by surprise when your aura read as one, too.”
They gave a huff and readjusted their cloak around them slightly before asking in that gravelly alto, “Safe to bet he’s a Shiny one? Most gemites look like I do.”
She nodded and conjured a few sheets of paper and her pen onto the table in front of her, “He’s also adopted like me and the only one of two gemites I’ve met before, so I don’t really have a huge sample to pull from.”
They looked at her again for a moment as if assessing the truth of her words before saying, “I’m Zevan. She/Her, if you were wondering. This must be your first time visiting Serenydi.”
Phoenix nodded again but didn’t offer her own name right away, “Yeah. I was meant to come with my friends, but we got separated during a monster attack at sea.”
“That’s rough,” Zevan said, seeming to relax slightly, “Not unheard of enough to be considered rare, but at least you made it out alive.”
“I’m hoping they did, too,” she replied, picking up the pen to start her letter to Patricia first. “Do you know if there’s somewhere in the city, I could go to potentially find out what might have happened to them? Maybe hire a tracker or something?”
Zevan nodded slowly, “Perhaps. If you have the right connections, you can find pretty much anything in Serenydi. It’s not called the city of luxury for nothing, after all. If you got the Bits, you can find someone selling anything you could want.”
“Anything?”
“Just about. A professional tracker would just depend on availability. There might be a wait time involved, especially this soon after a blood moon. Plenty of people are wanting to find loved ones that may have been lost while traveling to or from the city.”
Phoenix glanced out the far window towards the sparkling sea beyond, contemplating what else she might be able to do. Perhaps she could pay more to skip the wait time? Maybe there was a ritual she could do? She had planned to look into what Knowledge Tomes might be for sale in the bigger city, and finding some tracking rituals might be an option.
“I think you are forgetting your most important asset,” Tala mentally whispered to her, “You are the Chosen of Scholar and Traveler. You could try asking their clergy for help.”
“Is there a Temple to the Scholar or Traveler there?” Phoenix asked Zevan once she got over the internal facepalm she did at her own blindness to that obvious answer.
The gemite gave her a curious look before asking, “Do you not know about the Luxury Pantheon?”
When she shook her head in the negative, Zevan actually let out a barking laugh, “What exactly do you know about the nation you’ll be entering in a couple of hours?”
“Um…” Phoenix flushed in embarrassment as she said, “Just that it’s mostly elves and in an Emerald Caste zone. My brother said he’d be giving us a crash course on it, but we never got around to the lessons before getting separated.”
Zevan simply stared at her, unblinking, and she idly wondered if the woman even needed to blink with rocks for eyes. “Oh, sweet spring flower, you’re just a child, aren’t you?”
She wasn’t sure how to respond to that at first before deciding to go the more humble route and nod as she admitted, “I think I turned nineteen this week, but I’ve kinda lost track of time a bit. Has the Day of Resolution occurred yet?”
The gemite shook her head. “Soon. It’s Winter’s Break tomorrow, so you have another four days.”
Phoenix’s heart sank at that information. The way Dazien had described that particular holiday made it sound like the equivalent of Christmas in her old world, and she knew he had been looking forward to spending it with all of them.
“Well, according to Serenydi customs, you’re old enough to don a torc. I’m guessing you don’t know anything about those either, though.”
She shook her head and asked, “Why would I want to wear a torc? Whatever that is.”
Zevan snorted a laugh, tapping on a solid-looking silver necklace made of some kind of stiff thread that had a thick strand of orange woven in it sitting around her neck. “To find a lover in the city of the Lover, obviously.”
Phoenix’s eyes went wide. “I thought it was the city of luxury.”
“Yes, but it’s ruled by a queen that is dedicated to the Luxury Pantheon. It’s a Theocratic Monarchy, so the only officially recognized Temples you’ll find within its borders are dedicated to the Lover, Artist, Merchant, Gambler, Gamer, Cultivator, Socialite, or Fainéant.”
She frowned at that information, unsure if the Cultivator would be able to help her with this task as that was the only god she shared a connection with… for now. Her eyes roamed back to the small necklace that was almost tight enough to be considered a choker and asked, “What do they have to do with the torc thing, though?”
“Nothing directly,” Zevan answered, dismissively waving a hand through the air, “The torcs are merely a cornerstone of Serenydi’s unique culture. It helps convey both status and intent without needing to exchange awkward first questions.”
“What do you mean?”
“Well, the colors all mean something very specific. For instance, this thread of orange means I’m primarily interested in men, and the silver means I’m seeking a long-term relationship with one. It helps keep other women or kospers from awkwardly asking to buy me a drink when they’re ultimately not what I’m looking for in a partner.”
Phoenix took almost a whole minute to process that and piece together that the entire purpose of the torc was for… romance.
“Um… what if I don’t wear one?” she finally managed to ask.
Another snort of laughter came from Zevan as she said, “Then you’ll get the awkward questions of those potentially interested. They’ll see you as a naive outsider, and many will be more than willing to ask a pretty thing like you if you match their own colors.”
The blood drained from Phoenix’s face as she asked, “What color means ‘nobody, thank you’?”
Instead of laughing like she had expected, Zevan got a more serious expression on her face as she clarified, “You’re almost nineteen and not interested in anyone?”
She nodded, then said, “Um, one of my friends said I might be what the dryads called heartbound or veilborne? I just… I don’t feel the same as most people. I don’t think I could handle strangers coming up to me asking for… well, drinks, or dates, or whatever it is people ask for.”
To Phoenix’s relief, Zevan nodded and dug into a bag that was apparently sitting between her legs on the bench under her cloak, pulling out a long white ribbon after a moment and handing it out to her. “You’ll want to keep white around your neck, then. It’ll keep people from pushing you at all.”
As she gratefully took the proffered ribbon, Zevan added, “Don’t think that’s a proper torc, though. People will think you’re practically homeless if you just wear that. I suggest getting a proper replacement as soon as you can. While the torc might be a product of Lover’s influence, the quality of said torc is definitely influenced by the Merchant. Wealth is power here in Serenydi almost as much as Caste is. Your torc should show off that power.”
Phoenix gave a lopsided grin as she tied the ribbon around her neck, “I think you forgot the whole shipwreck part of my story. I am homeless here.”
Zevan did laugh that time, and Phoenix found herself hoping the gemite wouldn’t mind if she broke her initial promise and bothered her a bit more once they reached the city.