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Lily smiled at Lin. "Mother will wait for us, don't worry," she assured her. "There will be time. That way we won't have to backtrack with luggage."

She paused, eying the bags (or chest) that each of them was carrying. "Though ... it looks like you haven't got much to worry about ..."

Her brow furrowed with confusion. "Are you sure you have enough things for an extended stay?"

By his point, Lily was beyond questioning anything the group told her. After all, she'd seen a fiery horse come out of a ball that - at first - had been the size of a peach pit. She simply shook her head in amazement and motioned for them all to follow her again.

They enjoyed a nice simple meal with Lily and Lara, as the Senator was not home for lunch, and afterwards they brought Andarien to Corazin's shop. Corazin was impressed with Andarien's gear-locked chest, and when Earendil, Lin, Miyuki and Lily left again, Andarien was quite cheerful to have them leave.

"So what are your plans while you're here?" Lily asked as the four of them left the shop. "In the city, I mean. You had mentioned that you intend to be here a while."

"I'd like to get to know as much as I can about the land," Earendil told Lily. "I'm a cartographer by trade, on royal commission to map all the lands that we come across."

Lily looked thoughtful as she listened to all of their goals. She wanted to help them as much as she could, but to be honest, there wasn't much she could personally do for any of them, unless it would be to direct them to other that could help.

"There are various restaurants you might ask if you could help out with," she told Miyuki, "though that might be a bit too much pressure ... if you're looking for techniques in general, my mother is an excellent cook. You might ask her, if you'd like."

She turned to Lin. "There are some scholars who might be able to tell you more of the history of our land, and the people here. It's an old country. My family has been here almost a thousand years, but for all that time it's been much the same as it is now ... it used to be smaller, but more people have arrived since then so it's grown. We also have a public library on the east side of the city, if that's your interest."

She didn't have much to offer Earendil, though.

"As for seeing the country ... or visiting others ..." She hesitated. "I'm afraid that's going to be more difficult. Far more difficult. No one travels if they can help it, except for one person I know. And there's been no word from her in centuries. If you don't know the culture you're walking into, or the country you're traveling in ... it's unwise, really."

Lily chewed thoughtfully on her lower lip, and she pondered how to respond. "Outside the city, while still in this country, there are animals to worry about. Nothing huge, and depending on how many people you are, you will probably be fine. Animals avoid groups. But outside of the country ..."

She shook her head. "I have never been to any other country. I was born in this very city, and have left, only briefly, a few times, and gone only a few miles away. My parents were originally from other countries, half a year's journey to the east, and of course they had to travel that distance to make it here. It is very dangerous to be in a country that does not belong to the race that you are. Some countries will ask you to leave as quickly as possible. Some will detain you, others arrest you. Some will attack you. And some will execute as soon as look at you."

She hesitated again, then shrugged. "At least, that is what I am told."

"There is only one person I would really feel safe recommending to you," Lily said apologetically, "but ... as I said, no one has heard from her in a long time. Perhaps we could send a message to her, somehow."

She appeared very anxious to do so, even if Lin and Earendil did not want to

"Who is this person?" Earendil asked curiously. "You obviously care very much about her."

Lily blushed faintly. "Sorry. My aunt. She has been traveling for as long as I've been alive, and the longest we would ever go without hearing from her was a decade or so. But now it's been two centuries since we've had word, so really we don't know what's going on. She might have settled down somewhere. We have family elsewhere in Arkandia."

Earendil nodded. "We've only just arrived, and there is much here that we have never seen before," he agreed. "I'm sure that by the time we actually see all that we want to see here, we will have found someone to help us - or, at least, have found enough information to venture out on our own, even if just in this country."

Lily nodded. "As you wish. I'll see what I can do about getting a message out, in the meantime. Just in case."

The jeweler's shop was in the business district of the city, nestled neatly between two other shops. The sign itself glittered to catch attention, and inside the shop was just as shiny: shelves and display cases filled with jewelry of every type and every subject, handcrafted with extreme care and skill.

There were a few other customers in the shop as well, and the man who ran the shop, a tall fellow with reddish-brown hair and sandy brown skin, was standing behind the counter and helping out one of the customers.


Earendil was more than happy to go with Lin to see the library: he had seen only one public library before, and his only other experience was in royal libraries; and he was eager to compare this one and see if it would be like any of the others he had seen.

It was further to the library than to other areas of the city, as it was on the outskirts of the city. The outer wall was even built right into the city wall, so that the building was actually part of the wall itself. As a result, there were no windows at ground level, but the building, almost tower-like with its height, had many large windows higher up, and so there was plenty of light.

Three of the walls were covered with bookshelves well over ten feet in height, and several ladders were placed around the room to help people to reach the higher shelves. The fourth wall had several study booths, each with a chair for sitting and a large table for reading and writing. Surprise, surprise, Shiro was hard at work in one of these booths, one finger keeping his place on a page in a book, his other hand tapping quickly at his tablet.

Near the door was a long desk where a woman sat tall, busily writing on a sheet of parchment, surrounded by open books. She was clearly of mixed blood, like most of the population, though it showed differently from anyone else: rather than the colours of her parentage mixing together, her hair was exactly half golden and half black, split perfectly down the center of her head. She also had one blue and one brown eye, though her skin was a single colour: the slightest bit darker than the average Light Elf.

Aside from Shiro and this woman, there was no one in the library at all, and it was very quiet.

The shop owner finished up with the customer with whom he was speaking and bid the boy farewell. Then he looked around the shop and spotted Miyuki, who looked a bit lost. He smiled to himself. He had seen her those few days before when the group had disembarked from the large ship that was anchored in the harbour, and it pleased him to see a new visitor in his shop.

"Welcome," he called out amiably, coming out from behind the counter to greet Miyuki personally. "May I help you with anything?"


Earendil chuckled back at Lin. "You expected something else?" he quipped with a grin. He looked around a bit. "You know ... this place is so big, I think it's got to be about four times the size of Ninako's library."

He looked down at Lin again. "Shall we look at the books first? Or speak with the bookkeeper?"