Phoenix Phire

"Looking for something sir?" An average looking man with curly red hair sat behind the counter. He was dressed immaculately in custom made clothes.

Nix nodded. "Red, Green, and Brown fabric. It doesn\'t matter how coarse."

The tailor nodded. "How much do you need sir?"

"Not sure. Do you buy pelts also?"

The man nodded. "A thousand credits for Otter pelts, as long as they are in good shape."

"I\'ve got ten. What do you offer for Clandestine Otter pelts?"

The tailor froze for a moment. "You have those too? Five thousand per pelt."

Nix pursed his lips as if considering. He definitely didn\'t want to target himself by bringing out too much. "I\'ve got five Clandestine pelts."

"That\'s thirty-five thousand credits, Sir. If you are going to buy some cloth, we can start subtracting from that amount."

"I\'ll take 5 yards of each fabric I asked for."

"The spools are 7 yards, want that much? We can keep it on the roll then."

"Yep," Nix readily agreed.

"It\'s a hundred credits per yard, so that will be 2100 credits. Anything else?"

"Got any old tailor supplies? Needles, threads or whatever. If its junk, I\'ll take it off your hands." One thing that Maye had taught him, tailors hate throwing away anything, they would keep boxes of old stuff sitting around.

The man bent behind the counter and took out two boxes. "100 credits and it\'s all yours."

"Done." Nix watched as the man counted out 32,800 credits.

Geno\'s armor was a small shop, but it had two full walls covered with leather armor. The swords were all kept behind a glass case.

"You make these? Or import them from somewhere else?" Nix immediately found some black leather armor that he liked.

"My brother makes them at our Shop in Rentia." Geno was as fat a person as Nix had seen in Colonial. Even his rolls had rolls.

"I\'ll take the armor. Got any more weapons? How about a hilt?" Nix didn\'t like the looks of the weapons, he found himself missing his red scimitar. The tattoo that signified its presence had vanished.

"Did you say a hilt? You actually.." Geno bent lower than any fat-man should and pulled out a broken sword. The quality was good, but the blade had been broken less than an inch from the handguard.

Nix nodded in satisfaction. "Remove the rest of the blade for me. I only want the hilt."

*********

By the time Nix entered the General Store, he had thirty thousand credits left. The store owner was a middle-aged woman with freckles and light brown hair. She watched as he picked things out. A sleeping bag, blanket, pillow, some towels, and 100 feet of rope.

"Do you wish to purchase part of that rope sir? I can sell it by the foot."

Nix shook his head and was about to pay when he noticed the wall behind the counter. An intricate map of Everspire had been drawn. "That map for sale?"

The woman shook her head. "Sorry no."

Nix placed two Clandestine Otter pelts on the counter. "Will that cover it?"

The woman nodded. "I believe it does."

Nix was about to leave when he noticed a glass vase filled with white rocks. "Is that chalk?"

The shopkeeper nodded. "You can have the entire vase, sir."

Nix grinned and thanked her. He had been planning on staying the night, but excitement got the better of him and quickly found his way to the ferryman on the docks.

The ferry basically a large raft. A thick rope was tied to one of the anchor posts of Bachoni, while the other end extended all the way to the shore. Nix shook his head in amazement, it had to be miles of rope. Two horses walked on a conveyor belt that turned a set of wooden gears, essentially pulling the raft through the water. It was infinitely faster than the sailboat had been.

When Nix arrived back onshore, he ran for a few minutes before moving into the water and summoning Soup. He directed the sea turtle to return to the river as fast as she could.

By the time he was on the riverbank, Nix guessed he had two more hours of daylight. Carefully he took out one of the towels he had purchased and was drying Soups shell off.

"You don\'t know it yet Soup, but one day a pretty girl with white hair and a big smile will draw all over your shell." Nix smiled at the memory of Lisa, the daughter that the Black Gate had fabricated.

Over the next hour, he painstakingly copied the map onto Soup\'s shell with the chalk he had purchased. He left out most of the names, but he put a big X in the Northern part of Titania Forest and wrote \'Nix\' there.

"Going to unsummon you Soup. Find Hyai right away. No swimming until I bring you back."

He wrote a quick note to Hyai and unsummoned Soup.

*********

Hyai was sitting on the balcony of Nix\'s ranch, having dinner with Bev and Rico. The movement of the giant sea turtle on land caught her eye immediately. "Why would Soup come here?"

The trio ran out to meet her, their mouths dropped when they saw the large map on her shell.

"I\'ll send this to the search team." Bev made a copy with her hud and immediately started running for the Gemini Gate.

Hyai\'s eyes shone with emotion. Nix\'s absence affected everyone. As someone who had adventured herself, she was used to being separated from the people she cared about. On the outside of the map, close to Soup\'s head, he had left her a personal note.

Rico put an arm on her shoulder, his bright smile was infectious. "See? I told you that boy was okay.

*********

Jun Li was sitting around the campfire with Fajii, Pon and Semmi. They had set up a small tent-city a few miles outside of Ever Flame. After they finished the quests allowing them to leave the city, they met with more bad news. Leaving the province also required a chain of quests.

/Inferno: Jun Li: Seriously. Making us do quests to leave? Whatever happen to an open world?

/Inferno: Semmi: No kidding.

/Inferno: Mina: I\'m about to leave Neva province. As I understand it, guild chat doesn\'t currently extend between provinces. So I will be out of touch for a few days.

/Inferno: Fajii: Mina! Wait for us!

/Inferno: Mina: No. I will continue looking for Nix. My next destination is Free Trader City, you can arrive there if you take the Loutian road directly North.

/Inferno: Jun Li: Be careful Mina.

/Inferno: Mina: You too.

/Inferno: Pon: What\'s going on with her?

/Inferno: Semmi: No idea other than she is very close to Nix.

/Inferno: Bev: Jun Li! We\'ve heard from Nix!

/Inferno: Jun Li: What? Are you in Ever Flame Bev?

/Inferno: Bev: Yes. Sending a message to your hud.

The group crowded around Jun Li while she zoomed in on the message.

Semmi was the first to understand. "It\'s a map. Nix sent us a map!"

Fajii closed her eyes in relief. "Northern Titania."

Pon clapped his hands together, his old face wrinkling up. "Now we got him!"

/Inferno: Jun Li: Thanks for bringing it here Bev, we finally caught a break.

Semmi committed the map to memory, even though Jun Li sent it to the entire team. Her sharp eyes caught the small note to Hyai, immediately she punched Pon in the back.

"Hey!" Pon frowned at her. "Why you hitting me now?"

Semmi pointed to the note. "See that? He\'s on the other side of the continent and he takes the time to say something sweet."

Pon was still scratching his head in confusion when she stomped off a few minutes later. "I was just sitting here. Didn\'t say or do anything..."