When I first stepped off the yacht and onto the floating platforms of the Business District, I think I forgot how to blink.
I'd seen a lot in my life but this? This was like someone took every fantasy market, every luxury shopping center, every street food festival and arcane bazaar, and jammed them all together until the whole place started vibrating with life.
And I loved it.
The air smelled like spices and oil and rain-kissed glass. Lanterns hovered midair, their lights changing color with the flow of people, as if the city was literally watching its own heartbeat. There were stalls made from obsidian and glowing silk, wooden carts pulled by creatures I couldn't even name, and restaurants that hovered midair like floating islands.
"I feel like I walked into a lucid dream with a spending problem," I said, gawking as a mechanical deer trotted past, its antlers lit with blinking neon tags.
Shannon grinned beside me, arms crossed and with a smug.
"Welcome to the Liqueum Business District. The only place where you can buy enchanted boots, a cursed smoothie, and a moon-fragment handbag all in one street."
We walked down a bridge made of crystal tiles—yes, actual transparent ones—and underneath it, a whole row of gondolas were drifting across a glowing canal. The water shimmered like it was lit from within, casting reflections of inverted skyscrapers and signs that blinked in multiple languages I couldn't even begin to understand.
But what really got me? The vibe.
People were everywhere. Fluxers in sharp suits with floating sigils circling their heads, civilians in robes stitched with starlight, street performers throwing miniature fire dragons through the air while kids laughed and chased them with cones of rainbow frost. Every turn led to a new corner of wonder. One second we passed a jewelry stand manned by a blind woman who somehow knew exactly what your heart desired, the next we were walking through a literal tunnel that warped sound and light as we moved through it.
I stopped in front of a café carved into a tree growing out of a rooftop.
"That is not normal."
"Nope, but it serves the best rain-syrup coffee in the city."
"Rain-syrup?"
"Don't ask. Just drink."
She pulled me through the crowd like a kid and I could barely keep up. It wasn't just the layout that stunned me. It was the way the whole place seemed alive. People waved at her. Some bowed. One guy tried to flirt, but she gave him a look that could've curdled steel, and he backed off like a rat.
But even that felt part of the charm. Everything was polished chaos. Like the city knew it was too much, too loud, too beautiful, and didn't care.
We passed a massive glass elevator shaped like a blooming flower, then stepped onto a platform where the ground subtly shifted beneath my boots, guiding us like a moving walkway without any rails. It carried us through a whole open-air shopping dome filled with glittering items. Spell books floated midair, swords hummed gently with dormant energy, and mannequins with actual expressions stared out from behind glass windows like they were judging my fashion sense.
Which, to be fair, they probably were.
"You good?" Shannon asked, glancing over with one brow raised.
"I think my soul just left my body and went shopping without me. This is insane."
"You haven't even seen the upper levels. Or the Liqueum Square. That's where they hold parties, diplomatic ceremonies, Flux match demonstrations, and also where a very famous Ennéa once proposed to their partner by turning the fountain into a light show shaped like a dragon."
"Please tell me it wasn't someone I know."
She laughed. "No. You only know me and the twins."
"I'm not even mad that you said that."
We made it to a quieter zone where the platforms curved into a gentle ring around a central garden. Only it wasn't a normal garden. The flowers glowed. Some bloomed in reverse. Others whispered in languages I could almost, almost understand. A soft rain fell upward from the soil and disappeared into the dome's ceiling like the world was upside down.
I turned slowly, just… taking it in. All of it.
The fusion of modern and magic, the blend of utility and wonder. The sounds of Flux-powered music, distant laughter, spells fizzing in the distance, the sight of vendors handing out samples of meat that sparkled like meteorites...
The feeling that this was a place where stories were born and told and passed around like candy.
I had no idea where I was going, what I was doing, or why I was even alive half the time, but right now?
Right now, I was standing in the middle of the most beautiful, ridiculous, and unforgettable place I'd ever seen.
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The rain had softened into a velvet mist as we reached the floating café, perched on a sprawling, gnarled tree that jutted out from a platform like it had decided to be part architecture instead of nature.
The canopy arched above us like an umbrella of silver leaves, each one catching droplets of rain and making them glow faintly before they slid off into the floating runes that spun around the place like lazy fireflies.
I don't know how a tree and a café got drunk and made a building together, but I was into it.
"Welcome to Velyline's Leaf," Dryad said with a proud little smile, guiding me up the winding stairs that circled the trunk. "Most relaxing spot in the Business District. If you hate it, I'll throw myself into the nearest inverted canal."
"I already hate how good that name is," I said, trying not to trip as we reached the entrance.
The door was carved with scenes of clouds raining upward into the stars, and the handle was a twisting branch wrapped in ivy that moved like it had opinions. The second we stepped inside, my brain did a full shutdown-and-restart.
Wooden beams stretched overhead like the ribcage of a slumbering beast, carved with tiny stories; knights chasing storms, women weaving thunder into cloaks, a baker giving a literal dragon a cookie. The air smelled like cinnamon bark, roasted beans, and a floral perfume that didn't cling but sort of kissed the senses. Rain tapped gently on the leaves above like nature's ASMR, and pale orange sunlight leaked in through stained-glass windows, casting warm halos on the floor.
Everything inside looked medieval-fantasy but clean and cozy. The chairs were mismatched but charming, the tables were polished stone with vines curling around their legs, and the counter was manned by an animated wooden statue of a deer who blinked at us as we passed.
There were harp strings humming from somewhere, and every corner felt like it had a secret. like if I stared too long at a wall, it might whisper poetry at me.
"I think I want to live here," I muttered, still gawking.
"Unfortunately, you have a home. Also, they charge rent in actual time if you stay too long."
I had no idea if she was kidding. I also didn't care. Because then the waiter walked over and immediately froze.
He was tall, built like an elf that got adopted by gym rats, with freckles and tired eyes that widened the second he saw me. He did this full pause, eyes locked on me like I'd walked in covered in gold and sins. I didn't even do anything. I just stood there, looking like a damp Ennéa with a high-grade craving for coffee.
"Oh no," I whispered to Dryad. "I broke him."
"You do look like the talk of the Eresnae lately," she said, pulling me by the sleeve and flopping gracefully onto one of the seats near the window. "Come on. He'll reboot eventually."
The guy blinked, coughed once, and shuffled awkwardly to our table, holding the menu like it was a peace offering.
"Um… w-welcome to Velyline's Leaf. What can I get for… you… beautiful—uh, both of you."
Dryad waved at him like she was swatting a memory away.
"Hiya, Kalev. I'll take my usual. Rain syrup coffee, hot, with the lavender foams. And add the root-stem pastries this time. P's first time here."
He stared at me again, then jolted to life.
"Y-yes, of course. I'll have that out immediately!"
And poof. Gone. Fled like a startled bunny. I raised an eyebrow at her.
"He always short-circuit like that?"
"Only when famous people walk in with me."
"Stop saying I'm famous."
"You're an Ennéa Fluxer who took out a class-9 spider and absorbed its powers. You basically ate your way to glory. What do you expect?"
I slumped into the seat, fingers fiddling with the edge of the table while I stared out the window at the rain-lit port below. The gondolas moved like lazy jellyfish through the water, lights blinking under the surface, and above us, the upside-down skyscrapers looked like constellations of their own.
"Alright. Give me the lore. What's this place's tragic romantic backstory?"
Dryad leaned forward like she'd been waiting for me to ask.
"Legend says Velyline's Leaf was built by a soft-spoken Fluxer named Velyline who could communicate with trees. She didn't have a high Flux Rating—probably Dio or Tria at best—but she had a way of coaxing old wood into singing. She fell in love with a baker from the other side of the skyscrapers. Real sappy stuff."
"Literally?"
"Pun absolutely intended."
I snorted.
"So, one day, she decides to grow a tree between their districts, halfway between his bakery and her garden. Grew it with her own Flux. Took her five years. Then she hollowed out the trunk, wove protective glyphs into the bark, and shaped the first ever rain-syrup extractor from the reverse-flow canal beneath."
"Wait, that's real rain syrup? I thought you were kidding."
"Nope. They harvest it in batches from the reversed updraft flow every morning. It's like… if coffee and honey had a magical lovechild."
I folded my arms. "This story better end with a kiss."
"Obviously. He left his bakery and joined her here. Now it's run by their kids. And Kalev."
"And the animated deer statue."
"Not related. Just hangs out."
I was about to ask how one even goes about getting enchanted deer friends when Kalev returned with two steaming cups and a silver tray of pastries that looked like they were made of clouds and sugar spells.
He placed them down so gently, like they were royal relics, then practically sprinted away again with his ears pink.
I picked up the cup. It was warm and light, and when I sipped it...
It was soft, floral, electric, fizzy at the end, and somehow made my sinuses feel like they were being hugged. I blinked once. Then twice.
Seriously, why is this world so good?