Venka returned to her friends.

"Took you long enough." Nya began, sticking her tongue out teasingly.

"Yeah yeah." Venka chuckled. "So guys, we'll have a relaxing night right?"

"I was thinking we should go to that new restaurant over by the Western Walls, the fish themed place." Bartholomew smiled excitedly, even with his improved physique his love for food didn't change.

"Oh you mean The Fat Dragon?" Morgan shrugged, "That sounds great, we should dress up for it too!"

Katya's eyes flashed. "That sounds like a wonderful idea, alright, you boys go find something, I'll take the girls and we'll get something nice!" Seya began to walk off. Katya pouted, "Come on Seya! You got to dress up with us!"

"I'm going to change, I just don't have time to play dressup. Back here in an hour right?" Seya rolled her eyes as she turned and left. Her friends looked at each other then back at her, and went their separate ways.
...

Lord Jaya was lightly pruning his prized Hibiscus when his daughter returned home.

"Father…"

"Hello my daughter." Lord Jaya smiled as he worked on his plants. "Have fun."

"Where you spying on me?"

"I'm your father, I have a sense for these things." Lord Jaya's tone shifted to a more serious one. "How… how are you?"

"Better… it's, it's more quiet, the drive to…" Seya looked down.

Lord Jaya nodded, "I'm glad it did, now that I am in this position, I can't protect you from the eyes of the public."

"I know father, it's been over a year since my last incident, you don't have to worry."

"I see…" Lord Jaya pauses. "Hmph, so, where are you all heading?"

Seya entered her room, but called out while changing, "Bartholomew, he has found about about some new restaurant."

"Ah… of course." Lord Jaya chuckled, "He's much like his uncle."

…

"I wonder what I should wear…" Bartholomew sighed as he looked at his wardrobe, his loss of weight over the last year made it that he could fit clothes he couldn't before, but many of them also showed signs of wear. And the few that were alright were not to his taste.

"Nephew?" Bartholomew turned to the voice at the door to his room.

"Enter Uncle."

Mortimer was a large man, and over the year he had increased in weight ever so slightly. As he made his way into the room he smiled at his nephew and placed a hand on his shoulder. "How's my prodigious business partner doing?"

"Quite well Uncle, the Dustan Trading Group is well stocked and prepared for it's trip to Ceunon before the end of the week. Elves are quite fond of the Rice imported from Surda."

"And the people here love the taste of their fruit." He laughed heartily. "You told my assistant you are attending a restaurant with your compatriots?"

"Yes, it is the new one, The Fat Dragon I believe it's called."

"Ah! That's a restaurant I recently invested in, it's co-owned by a pair of fierce women who hail from the Western Slums of all places. The food they demonstrated was marvelous, and they are in a growing section of the city, soon people will move in to those areas, and commerce will follow after. And the best thing?" He smiles, "Magic can preserve food indefinitely, with its flavor intact, someone could order delicious meals and have it delivered to their doorstep, the first sample of magic. Soon lords and ladies will pile on the waitlist." He takes out 9 copperish cards. "Here, I'll give you tickets for the Steel Carriage, spare your friends an overly long walk."

"Thank you uncle." Bartholomew grinned excitedly. He turned to look at his clothes. "Now I just need something to wear."

Mortimer smiled, "I believe I have something ready..."

Morgan hummed lightly to himself as he inspected himself in the mirror, he believed he looked presentable enough, and was impressed with his physique. Faris's hell-like drills truly transformed him. He frowned. "I miss him."

...

Venka, Katya, and Nya had found their "perfect" outfits with time to spare. They spent the rest of the time talking and laughing amongst themselves.

"And then he used to try and seduce every girl he met, but every time he'd seem to be practicing courtship with one the second the girl displayed any level of intimate courtship he'd just run!" Katya giggled as she spoke of Morgan's less than stellar romantic escapades. "When he tried to do it to Nya she simply beat him up."

"She did?!" Venka looked surprised. Nya's nonchalant nod caused her to widen her eyes even more. "What happened then?"

"He's been somewhat smitten with her ever since." Katya grinned as Nya turned red.

"So!?"

"Well…" Venka giggled, "He is tall, and handsome, and a skillful mage, I'm sure most girls would be happy with him."

"I'm only marrying someone who's a better duelist than me, he's a skilled mage but I don't imagine him competing with me in a physical bout." Nya chuckled dismissively. "He's completely terrible when it comes to formal use of weapons, his martial art is somewhat counter intuitive to spear and staff usage. And don't even get me started on swordplay, it's sad. He doesn't have the skills to compete with me, so he's not even on my radar."

"Is that why you've been secretly teaching him lessons?" Katya smiled.

"Oh hush up"

The three ladies made their way towards the courtyard outside their school. Venka was in a light green sleeveless dress, her hair down and parted to the side, draped over her shoulder. She wore a necklace with a blue gemstone in its center. Nya wore a dark red dress, almost black, it covered most of her and was accented with a single ornamental belt, which had a gemstone in the center of it. Katya wore the most flamboyant dress, an eggshell dress, with fabric sewn in the shapes of flowers and leaves, she had a large sun hat, with flowers embroidered on it, the entire outfit made her seem more like a performer about to sing in the opera, but she seemed to not mind the stares put her way, she flaunted her dresses' flamboyant style as she skipped gaily along. Joining up with them was Bartholomew, he wore a clean buttoned up white tunic with a flowery ribbony collar. He wore a second, sleeveless vest over his shirt, and dark pants matching his vest. He had a monocle, but it remained in his pocket, the chain show outside looping in between them. His hair was slicked to the side, giving him a smart appearance, though slight helmet hair as well.

"Well don't you all look lovely."

"You don't look to bad yourself Bart."

"Wait! Was I late?!" Morgan ran towards them. He stood awkwardly. "...What?"

"Morgan… did you cut your hair?"

"Yes, my mother told me it was getting too long." Morgan stood tall and slim, a dark blue long sleeved tunic with gold leaf like patterns sparsely across the fabric. He had pressed pants of equal shade and color. "I hope I don't look ridiculous."

"You look good friend. Don't worry." Bartholomew smirked, "I think the ladies think so too."

Katya and Venka giggled. "Yeah! You look great!" Ketya smiled warmly. "Don't you think Nya?"

Nya was silent...

Trainee squad 13 was a rambunctious and precocious group. Each and every member of their 5 man team was part of the top of their class. As part of the top class they were eligible for taking small-ish missions.

Their mission of the day, or in this case night was to guard a pub, as glorified bouncers. They stuck out quite easily with their shiny armor and wooden weapons, suited for subdual instead of true harm. Faris was most heavily packed, carrying what were basically police batons and with a large pack slung over his back. The barkeep was receiving their services for free, as were the other taverns in the area due to a recent string of burglaries. The Academy believed having men around would discourage thievery. And thus Faris's squad was loaned out to the brewery known as the Salty Sword.

"We are the elites, are we not? Why do we have such an easy job?!" John sighed annoyed, he held a simple wooden bo staff, while not his normal, more lethal implement, he was plenty skilled in it's usage and the thick well balanced tool was as versatile as any weapon in his hands. He gripped it hard, waiving it forward and back forth.

Vern chuckled, he was holding a buckler and a yard long wooden baton, patrons walking into the store snickered at the kids. Whilst John scowled at any who began to harass or tease him, the others for the most part kept cool. "Come on John, they trusted us with this job, you yourself told the Corporal you wanted us to have a real job."

"Emphasis on real Vern, I don't consider guarding a pub as a 'real job' there isn't a lick of action here. It's beneath us!"

"Our job as knights is to ultimately keep the peace and protect the nation John." Cynthia started, she also wielded a quarterstaff, "Sometimes keeping the peace isn't glamorous."

"At least give us a bar fight or something to take care of then… everyone's too peaceful, yet they keep making fun of us." John scowls, turning to Faris. "Well kid? What say you? Don't tell me you agree this is worth our time?"

Faris frowned, but answered, "Sure."

"Oh I bet, you must like a cushy position like this, nothing interesting going on, man I'd kill for some ac-" His prayer was suddenly answered as a man burst out of the bar, a bag of gold slung on his back, he sprinted away, joined by 5 more men also weilding daggers, the bar keep sprinted out, bleeding from numerous shallow cuts.

"Get those thieves!"

John was the first to act, sprinting forward and tripping up the straggler amongst the group of five. Vern was next whacking another vagabond on the head. Cycilia and Manny took out their respective would-be thieves quickly. Faris was busy applying emergency aid to the bar keep.

"Don't mind me! Go after him you idiot!" The bartender gripped his bandaged arm. Vern ran up.

"Faris you're the best at this kind of thing, go help John and Cynthia, me and Manny have these guys!" Faris nodded, sprinting after them. He caught up by the time they reached a large town square. John and Cynthia stood stock still, Faris walked close by cautiously, stopping when he saw why they were still. The man, still holding the bag had a fire in his hand. A flashy tell to his magical abilities. John and Cynthia weren't stupid, but they weren't cowardly either, they would have attempted to attack if not for the little girl whose neck was held by the thief. Faris blended in with the crowd, dropping his pack to the side and taking out his essential items, shedding his armor as well, it would do little against a magic user.

John grit his teeth, if he had been just a bit faster, the armor they put on slowed them down just that much. Now this little girl was a hostage and the mage could easily just kill them where they stood. "Unhand the girl and surrender villain!" Perhaps he could appeal to the vagabond's shallow sense of justice and good morals?

"Stupid kid."

"Sir, I think it'd be a bad idea to try and use magic in the city like this, especially on citizens, you wouldn't like the punishment." John frowned, Cycilia wasn't very talkative normally, he noticed though in the corner of his eye, Faris angling to behind the mage. He found himself smirking.

"Why the fuck are you smiling kid?" The thief frowned, turning just in time to receive a punch to the face. Faris was wielding odd small metal bands that looped over his fingers and covered his knuckles. The thief dropped as blood spilled from his jaw. Faris without dropping a beat popped a bundle into his mouth, forcing the man to swallow before hitting him hard in the temple with an unarmed fist, knocking him out. Faris bandaged his face, keeping him from bleeding.

"Good job Faris!" John exclaimed. Faris just nodded as they tied the man up thoroughly.

"I slipped him the mind numbing drug, even when he comes too he shouldn't be able to use magic for a while." Faris picked himself up to turn to the little girl, only to see she had run off, with the bag of gold. She was frighteningly far away for a little girl, Faris sprinted after her. "Take that guy back to the rest and hail some guards!" His feet pounded as he chased after her. She disappeared down a side alley, and he parkoured up a wall, pulling himself to the roof of a building. As he sprinted forward he kept an eye on her trek, the buildings were gathered closely enough that he cut a quick and easy path as she did her best to move naturally through the crowd. Faris had to double take as the little girl grew in size in the side alley between buildings. As she did he stumbled slightly, his movements causing him to kick a loose shingle off the roof. As it fell and shattered to the ground the girl froze then looked up. Faris's face twisted into a rage as he leapt down, avoiding the blast of fire hurling towards him, he uncorked a wine skin full of an extremely nauseating foul smelling liquid, Before he hit the ground he splashed it on the girl, causing her to scream in disgust and back pedal, her second spell going array, he winced as she butchered her words, breaking his left arm instead of his neck magically. Faris didn't let up, he reached into his pocket, pulling out another pill, which he popped into her mouth, she wizened and bit him, causing him to backpedal as she spit it out.

She turned to run, and he gave chase. As they cleared another square he watched grimly as she climbed up a train, laughing as she landed on it. Faris looked on, noting the train's colors and number, before reaching into his other pocket….

Nya was still not speaking when they had met up to sit in the train, she finally broke her silence when they had their meal. It was too good not to enjoy.

The restaurant was appealing from the outside, solid looking stones cut in perfect arrangements for the 2 story building. Inside the large double doors was a spacious lobby. A man wrote down how many people were dining in, then another person would take those people to an appropriately sized table. Each table was solid wood, with leather bound chairs for comfort. When they had walked in an elegant looking woman walked them to a table, handed them beautiful wood goblets, and began pouring drinks for them. She then asked if they were ready to see the menu.

"Menu?" Nya had asked.

"Yes! We will show you the selections we have, along with descriptions, and the price."

They looked to each other before excitedly before taking up the menu. The food was to them fantastic, while all mostly fish selections the odd fishy aftertaste most people disliked had been all but removed, leaving a fragrant lemony. For them the best part was seeing that the owner was the same woman they rescued long ago. She had come out to visit her young patrons.

"Oh! Martha!" Katya began, standing up to give the older woman a hug, that was joined by Venka and Nya.

"It's lovely to see you children as well!" Martha beamed, her blond hair showing streaks of grey, and a few more wrinkles appeared in her eyes, but she looked quite happy. "How are you all?!"

"We're doing quite well." Morgan said, bowing slightly. "Congratulations! This place is amazing! And wow, I've never had an experience like it, I normally eat at a family friend's home or my own home, a building dedicated to fine dining!"

"Thank you! I always loved to cook, and I and many of the other women in the slums decided perhaps we should try and make a living. So after pooling together our resources we bought this land, asked the crown for some funds for our business venture, and began pooling together various recipes." She smiled, "Fish is surprisingly cheap, a lot of people hate its aftertaste, and fewer know how to get rid of that aftertaste. That's why we advertised as a place selling sea based meals that got rid of the fish aftertaste."

"Well that was a genius plan, and everything about the place is beautiful! How'd you design it?"

Martha gave a slight smile, "I have a friend with many talents, he surprised me when apparently carpentry and architecture were one of them." Martha shakes her head, "Come come! I'll take you to my office, we should catch up…"

Faris's feet pounded on the pavement, moving faster than normal, but still at human speeds, his legs slowly began to throb again, so he popped another pill, doubling his efforts as he ran under the large over head bridge the train headed down. His efforts were paid off when he saw the slight steam signifying the train had stopped for it's scheduled nightly maintenance. It was one of the newer trains, a popular one known for luxury seating and a smooth ride compared to the one he and Venka had first gotten in. The girl had made a mistake in getting on that train, it travelled further and higher up than any other, making it suicide to attempt to leap off the building. If the girl was smart she wouldn't try and use big magic either, that would alert the mages and she'd be dealt with in seconds, as it was he was at a major disadvantage with his broken arm, but he had tied a quick emergency splint using 4 snapped off arrow shafts. Faris took out his rope with a grappling hook attached at the end, and twirled it rapidly, he launched it into a notch of the structure of the raised tracks, climbing up the side with his one good arm in a hopping pull sort of way, resting near the top, he twirled his rope and hook once again, launching to the top and shimmying up the rope and reaching the top. He unhooked it, gathered it, and rested inside the train caboose…

"Have a good night!" Venka was the last to leave, running to catch up to her friends who were already on their way to the train. "Come on guys, wait up!"

"You should just keep up!" Seya laughed, first to the train, the Steel Carriage was the latest in a line of trains moving through the city, unlike most other trains however, the steel carriage's tracks were raised even beyond the tracks of the other common trains, the steel carriage could loop through major sections of the city in any order, lowering through an intricate magical gear and lever system, lowering like a slide slowly into the common tracks when it needed to go to a more conventional stop. Due to heavy enchantments, it was impossible to fall jump off the train, making it both the fastest and safest transport, as once you got on, until it reached a designated stop, you weren't falling off. Several men and women toured the vessel, their tasks a mix of servant and guard work, they would escort passengers to different train cars, help them procure meals and snacks, find them rooms to rest in, and a whole host of other things, most of them were normal people enchanted with minor amounts of magical abilities, such as the ability to ward themselves and others, hold someone down, put someone to sleep, and raise the temperature of an object someone was holding to an unbearable heat. A tiny badge with a pebble sized crystal adorned each of their chests, they nodded to her, and she nodded back. She took her seat and thought she smelled something extremely foul, she frowned as that smell almost immediately disappeared. Turning her head she saw someone close the door to the restroom. A tall slim pretty girl with black hair, slightly frizzled. She had bright brown eyes and a cherubic face. She also looked quite stressed. Seya narrowed her eyes, then smiled in recognition.

"Yana!" She said, smiling genuinely, "It's been so long! How's Yacob?"

The girl froze, then smiled when she recognized Seya, "Wow, it's been a while Seya, my brother's doing fine…"