By mid afternoon, everyone had grown tired of shopping and had decided to take a break and get some fresh air. The busy stores of the malls had been stifling after so many hours, even more so than their previous mall trip.

Sryine reviewed another of the boxes she had purchased before giving it back to Jwyexzn for him to continue carrying. This proved to be advantageous after all, as Jwyexzn had been willing to bear the burden of their purchases for himself. It might have been helpful if he had taken the financial burden as well, but Sryine knew such would not have been fair. As is, him carrying their physical load was making her feel especially guilty. However, taking a few of the boxes from the top wasn’t appearing to have any visible effect on the burden. The best she could hope for was to keep an eye on him and his condition, and in his moment of weakness be there to relieve him of much of the burden. However, Jwyexzn was determined to at any cost not show even a moment of weakness, keenly aware of Sryine’s eyes watching for just such a moment.

Having left the mall, the four of them travelled along a quiet and empty underground pedway between buildings, the rush of the mall having been left behind them. In fact, everything was silent once again, a feeling they had been missing for several days now. The plan was to continue along to a nearby park, but their destination was certain to be loud once again. Sryine was already starting to get tired too, so the four of them stopped for a break. They could enjoy the park a bit later as their last stop before returning to Irongate Bridge. The four of them found a nice bench nearby, leaving the comfortable seats for the two elves. The two actual elves, Riyxia didn’t count herself in that assessment, although no one spoke of such around Jwyexzn. With Riyxia’s enhanced stamina and accurately reproduced senses, she had the best of both in that regard. When you include her spectral senses and the technicality that she actually had more stamina than even Vwyx, it was basically cheating. Sryine at least was quick to think so, realizing that only her and Jwyexzn were anything close to tired at this point. She remembered tales of the Terran Mythos, there was word of a half-elf back then who seemed capable of changing the entire world at a whim. Certainly such tales were nothing more than fanciful fiction, but Riyxia here somehow seemed equally capable in those rare occasions in a much more mundane way, something much more realistic.

“So, can I take any of those boxes yet?” “Oh, I’ve got this, don’t worry. Totally on the ball here, nothing to fear. We can keep going at any time, no problem.” Sryine had no idea why Jwyexzn was working so hard or what he hoped to accomplish from it, but it was far too obvious that he was suffering even worse than she was. Such was actually why she had asked for a break, mostly out of guilt. The stupid reporter was being almost impossible, making her regret trying to include him earlier. After getting to sit for a while, she started to grow tired of sitting to rest, and got up. Jwyexzn stood along with her, still himself not fully recovered. Sryine sighed, having him sit back down.

“Riyxia, since you’re an elf and everything, it might be a really smart idea if you took an opportunity to take a break too. Wouldn’t want you to get tired or anything. You can have my spot, I want to stretch my legs while we wait. Jwyexzn is going to keep sitting there though, it would be horrible if he dropped all that stuff while standing around.” Sryine played the one card she had left to her to enable her to get her way. Riyxia really didn’t need to take a break, but understood that she had an appearance to keep. Jwyexzn meanwhile became keenly aware of the potential threat implied by the statement, that dropping a single box might mean his end. Jwyexzn decided that sitting while he remained allowed to do so might be the best idea, especially considering how tired he really was. Riyxia however wasn’t going to take the whole sitting down process.. sitting down. Letting her physical self relax, she started to wander around as her spectral self instead. Without much of an opportunity to wander, she started off with simply standing near Sryine and Vwyx. Vwyx rolled her eyes as Sryine stifled laughter, the three girls were in a way standing together without Jwyexzn present.

Riyxia then motioned spectrally to indicate she would be going ahead a bit, like a form of taking a walk. She physically peeked over at Jwyexzn beside her, realizing that if the guy was less stubborn, they might have actually been able to keep going already. She spectrally drifted down the path, looking at the contours of it’s design as she had nothing better to do. Further forwards, she noticed the pipes of the walls passed into some small openings. Far more interesting was that such openings did not only contain pipes, but a few individuals also growing impatient, brandishing weapons. They had been waiting for the four of them to finally go passed, get jumped in the ambush, and then to plunder the pile of expensive-looking boxes. Riyxia was capable of figuring out this intent at a glance, the only reason why they continued to wait was because it would be difficult to stage an ambush with such a distance in a long corridor, they needed the girls to bring the boxes closer.

Riyxia headed back and tried to silently convey the situation to Sryine and Vwyx. Letting their ambushers know about their discovery would simply make things more difficult. She motioned to have them brandish a weapon and to follow her. “Oh, Jwyexzn, you keep relaxing there beside Ryixia, we have to figure out a turn up ahead.” Sryine emptied her hands for a moment, giving her plenty of opportunity to fill it with an illusion. Vwyx borrowed a fragment of the stone wall discreetly herself, pondering what form would be suitable for such a fragment. Riyxia went right up to where the two thieves were hiding and pointed them out. As Vwyx and Sryine got within range, the two thieves jumped from hiding with weapons drawn. The one confronted Sryine with dual daggers while the other fell upon Vwyx with a spear. Vwyx’s stone hammer came down hard on the spear, causing the thief to tumble aside as Sryine created an illusionary longsword, far outreaching the distance of the slender daggers. The dagger thief however, even though he didn’t know where such a sword suddenly appeared from, knew he was much quicker, ducking under the sweep of the blade to approach her under her guard. Sryine however wasn’t nearly as slow as expected, the blade weightlessly spinning around and slashing at the thief passing below, forcing him to drop one of his daggers in agony, his arm appearing sliced open in a deep wound matching how it felt. In a follow up, Vwyx brought the hammer upwards again, slamming against her own thief and sending him down the corridor.

Riyxia’s concentration broke suddenly as she felt a sharp wound in her own back. She hadn’t been aware of a third thief sneaking up behind them, now grown ambitious since half of the guard was missing. The thief girl dove force into her blow, forcing Riyxia to stumble from her seat and land flat on the ground, the knife still left in her back. Riyxia’s scream also alerted her friends, with Sryine pulling out a hand crossbow illusion to fire upon the third thief. The girl dodged away, realizing she wasn’t safe yet, but the thief already engaging Sryine took advantage of the distraction to try and disarm her sword with a blow to the wrist. Her sword vanished as it fell through the floor, but she called up another in turn, forcing the thief to back off again. Vwyx’s thief had risen again and was trying to figure out a good approach. The most obvious way would be to provide support for their female thief to lend more of a distraction, giving them another opportunity to strike.

Riyxia knew she was the liability here, once again, and refused to be caught as such. She tried to use her specter to glance for the approach of her opponent, waiting for her own chance. Once the girl was close enough to make another distracting attempt at a life-threatening blow, she diminished the girls strength enough that even the second knife she carried was too heavy. This forced her to drop her weapon, and even made the act of standing all too challenging. Finding her speed taken from her as well, the thief realized she had no way to escape either. Riyxia struggled to her feet, despite the pain in her back, and approached her adversary with a clenched fist. Before striking, she made certain to diminish any endurance to pain her opponent had left to offer, the connecting blow resulting in an instant knockout, the girl flying hard against the wall and collapsing in a heap. A portion of the wall collapsed around her, the blow being powerful enough to actually damage the wall itself, making the girl’s survival rather dubious.

“Are you okay? Really, you should just heal yourself, that injury looks serious.” “I’ll.. I’ll be fine.” Jwyexzn didn’t understand why Riyxia didn’t just heal herself and go support her friends. Sure, he was being rather useless himself, but his gift didn’t work very well in this environment, and he was still terrified about what might happen to him if he were to drop a single box. Riyxia fell to the ground again, her struggles to remain conscious breaking any concentration she might have mustered for making use of her spectre either. She was a healer, but there was nothing she could do about herself. She needed Vwyx to come help her. Even so, she had successfully handled her own problem, Vwyx was free to face her own foe in turn.

Sryine turned to face her opponent with both weapons, the long sword being impossibly dual wielded alongside the crossbow that was also free to support. Sryine however knew she couldn’t do anything practical with two weapons at once, she would have to discard one choice and simply use the other. Vwyx picked up on this dilemma and took the illusionary blade from her, now herself being the one to dual wield. The strange blade was weird in her hands, its weightlessness making it difficult to account for, and it’s state fairly in question the longer it remained out of Sryine’s hand. It didn’t matter, she didn’t need it for long. Tossing the illusionary blade into a reverse grip, she struck aside the oncoming spear, sending her opponent backwards to recover again. However, in this moment, she javelin tossed the illusionary blade right through the chest of her own opponent, the illusion of a fatal blow resolving soundly in her enemy’s mind as the sword vanished. The remaining thief, carrying nothing but a spare dagger, tried a desperate lunge from his distance, only to find an illusionary bolt passing through his head. The illusions of all injuries vanished soon after Sryine dismissed them, but the minds affected by them were gone.

Vwyx dropped her own weapon and ran to help Riyxia, leaving Sryine to pick up Vwyx’s discarded weapon in turn. She understood it might be best to at least attempt to repair the damaged corridor after they left, but agreed with Vwyx’s sense of priorities. It was only in that moment that she noticed Jwyexzn watching the proceedings of such an injury. Sryine pondered what sort of illusion might possibly cover up this sort of mess, what she could do to keep her friend’s secret. Vwyx was in no position to hide anything, breaking down the knife as she repaired Riyxia’s back in turn. The wound was serious, but Vwyx had the capability to ensure all the damage was repaired very quickly. Riyxia herself was in no position to do anything, not more than to fight off the pain and fight to hold on.

“So, it’s not just her arm, but a lot of her body that’s made of much of the strange same stuff. That’s why she didn’t heal herself, she needed someone to.. fix her instead, didn’t she? By the hells, what kind of monster is she.” Jwyexzn was being a bit more expressive with his paranoia at this point, bringing more of his thoughts to light. Sryine realized that there was no way she could have hiden this, and also why Jwyexzn might have been a bit scared of them ever since that beast attack. Not just her arm, that would only mean he had seen her arm after the beast had injured it, leaving inorganics a bit exposed in the process. This was a really bad situation, she needed to make sure this was taken care of.

“Riyxia isn’t some monster, she’s a person in her own unique way. Just like other people, it isn’t nice to call her a monster either, it’s a blind way to disregard her awesomeness. But obviously no one is going to understand the sort of things she’s gone through, that’s why we’ve gone to such struggles to make sure she was treated like the real person she is. Listen, I know you’re very money-minded, what would it cost to make sure you don’t share a peep of this to anyone?” Sryine turned to Jwyexzn with her professional demenor, determined to make sure Riyxia didn’t suffer from this exposure. Jwyexzn, as usual, got the absolutely wrong message by this expression. Obviously, if he spoke of this to anyone, he would be permanently silenced. He had a feeling he was pretty close to the reason why everything was being a big deal, and considering he came here to at least settle some groundwork of his circumstances, that was a decided win. Now he knew exactly what of the many things he knew, he should pretend to not know at all.

“Please don’t kill me! I swear, no one will hear anything about this from me, honest! She’s just an elf, just an elf, always an elf, nothing else. I’ll make sure to help protect her secret, if you keep me alive. I’ll make sure to stage things to hide anything else that might expose her secret. I’m valuable to keep alive like that, I’m good at being discreet like that.” “Like, your super discrete, impossible to detect, black creepy shroud outfit that stood out like a sore thumb?” “Please, I beg you, please let me live.” Jwyexzn was begging as he drowned himself in tears before Sryine. She sighed, wondering if their recent disposal of a set of thieves inspired this recent assasination madness. “Relax, no one is considering killing you. We’re just worried about our friend who… Oh by the divine.. don’t even say it, I can see it in your eyes. Yes, you say nothing about this, we have no problems with you. Whatever, deal.” Sryine sighed again. It might be cheaper than paying for his silence, but it did nothing for her ongoing guilt involved with the guy.

It was around this point that Vwyx managed to complete her repairs, and Riyxia managed to get herself back onto the seat, sitting once again beside the quivering Jwyexzn. She had been fully aware of the conversation, explaining why even her passing glance at the guy made him go stark pale and silent. Great, he might not actually say anything about her, but he will certainly cause everyone to become suspicious. She would have to be on guard more than normal as a result. Vwyx was silent herself as she went to complete some repairs of the nearby walls. Once Riyxia had recovered, they continued as planned towards the park. The fresh air did a lot to clear their heads, the simplistic presence of people did a lot to calm them down. It was like the immersion of a normal situation.

“So, what’s the plan now?” “The plan is for you to sit there and relax until it’s time to go. And just give me my stuff already, you’ve carried everything for long enough.” “But I…” “Talking back wasn’t part of the plan, remember? Sit, and relax.” Jwyexzn surrendered the boxes for Sryine to finally recover. The least normal element of the situation, Jwyexzn made an obvious and strained effort to attempt to look relaxed as he sat, still fearing for his life. This put a damper on the situation, but the girls otherwise tried to make the most of it. Riyxia took the set of boxes as she found her own seat, then wandered around spectrally to take in the nearby sights of the park. Sryine returned to her cell to read a book she had left waiting for her, while Vwyx just fiddled with her own cell. After continuing such for a while in such an environment, the three girls finally decided to pack up and return to Irongate. Vwyx already had the route planned, though it would involve starting with bus 130 going towards the same train station at the academy from before. The girls set off on their trip uneventfully, but Sryine found all the boxes returned to her once they started approaching the academy. Even Riyxia had seemed guarded until they finally got safely on their train.

Once they arrived safely at Riverside District’s station, Vwyx found herself the one carrying all of the boxes for the remainder of the journey. They got back to their room, dropped off all the boxes, and left to find another dinner option. Jwyexzn was compelled to remain behind for this short trip, which he accepted willingly. They found a small dinner not far from the Riverside station, aptly called Riverside Dinner. It wasn’t the best place for food, but anything else was better than the regular food from the Hunters. This also provided an opportunity for the girls to chat a bit more in peace.

“So, something had you being all nervous back there, something more than just having Jwyexzn around. What was going on that the rest of us missed, why did you have us pretend to board that train, and why were you nervous around the academy?” “Jwyexzn wasn’t the only one following us around, there was another guy, someone I ran into at the academy. He was carrying around some strange instruments, and even while I was walking in.. the other way.. he followed all of my movements. We didn’t even lose him in the mall, like his instrument could detect the shimmer just the same as you could see it. That was not something I wanted to deal with, so I figured out a better way for us to lose him. We didn’t find him on the way back, so everything should be okay.” Sryine could understand Riyxia’s concerns, involving a random person like that could have caused no end to complications. With such worries out of the way, the conversation moved into a more casual direction, with Riyxia reminiscing about missing spending a night with a view of the starry sky.

By the time the three girls had finally returned, evening had passed over the day, bringing darkness to the sky that was yet devoid of stars hidden by the city’s bright lights. It was the best they could do, as the three girls returned to their room and settled in for the night.