The airship journey from Rephidim has been largely uneventful, until the landing approach to the sky island of Caroban. The docks sit at the southeast portion of the island, which houses the spheres of Air and Chaos. The port lies on the outskirts of Air, at the section nearest the heart of the island, for reasons that are obvious to any approaching them. The Spheres of Air and Chaos control what amounts to a rift in Caroban, a vast oval of empty air pocked with miniature sky islands floating in it, some drifting free, others tethered to the main island or each other by floating bridges.

Once the ship has been moored, Aaron arranges for his and Anisa's personal luggage to be sent on ahead to their hotel rooms, while the rest of the cargo he brought along goes to a storage area. "Well, welcome to Caroban, Anisa!" he tells his traveling companion, once they're able to actually get away from the docks.

Anisa, with her own small personal bag over her shoulder, follows close to the other Lapi, looking around at the mages' island in amazement. "So this is where the college is now. Do they take up the whole place?"

"Most of it," Aaron says, leading the way toward the business district. "There are support services and some agriculture too. And where we're going as well… "

At the main desk, Aaron picks up the keys to the rooms and checks to see if their luggage has arrived yet, to be told that, no, it hasn't. "We'll need to wait, I guess," he says as he hands over a room key to Anisa. "They may be waiting for more people to arrive, since there are usually a lot of visitors for the graduation ceremonies. Is there anything you'd like to do in the meantime?"

"Well, I don't know really." Anisa looks at the room key, making note of its number. "Aside from the college, I really haven't heard of what's here. Is there much to do?" She leans on the desk. "I suppose we could grab a bite to eat, and maybe visit your cousin while we're waiting."

"Oh that's right, we're supposed to meet him for dinner!" the other Lapi says, and checks the time on the clock over the main desk. "We've got time to freshen up then before he's supposed to come by. Let's head to our rooms and drop off our carry-on stuff. Can you meet me back here in half an hour or so?"

Anisa nods, smiling. "Most of my stuff was in my trunks, but I think I can manage. See you in a bit!" The white rabbit heads off down one of the halls, only to stop and walk back to the lobby. "Um, by the way … which way is my room?"

Aaron looks at his key, then at Anisa's. "We're both on the second floor of the Court of Air, just up those stairs," he says, pointing and leading the way. "204 and 210."

"Okay then, see you in a bit!" The female Lapi does an about face, and heads up the stairs to her room, taking in the decor along the way.

Despite a few large open spaces and interior gardens, the hallways are fairly familiar to anyone who has been to a decent inn or hotel on Rephidim. Polished woodwork and carpeting thick enough to muffle the steps of a Cervani or Rhian, lit by gas-lamps. Room 210 is near the end of the hall, and sports a lock and handle made of ivory.

Anisa arches an eye at the handle. Having grown up in an inn her entire life, the Lapi is able to appreciate the small details of decoration, and she gets the feeling that even something this small wasn't cheap. Lifting up her key, she inserts it in the lock, and opens the door. "Hope the bed is comfortable."

Inside, the room is fairly … roomy. There is a curtained window, and the walls are painted a light cream color. The bed is fairly large and soft looking, big enough for an adult Vartan (not that many would be visiting Caroban) or two smaller races. There is a desk, a small table near the window, a small stove for heating a ceramic bed warmer and a standing wardrobe with a glass mirror. A second door leads to the bathroom, which apparently has its own bathtub as well. Fresh candles rest on the nightstand, but the room is mainly lit by more of the familiar gas-lights.

The rabbit's ears rise up slightly, and a small grin comes to her lips. Compared to her room back home, this place is huge! She steps inside, closes the door behind her, and jumps onto the huge bed. "And best of all, no brothers to bug me!"

From just beyond the curtained window, Anisa's acute ears can pick up the sounds of … children? The curtains are closed, and reach all the way down to the floor.

Anisa lifts herself up off the bed, and tunes her ears towards the direction of the noises. "Sounds like some of the families must be showing up." Rising from the bed, she tosses her handbag aside, and opens the curtains for a look outside.

The window is actually a glass door, it seems! And beyond it, a small balcony opening out into a huge spherical chamber. At the very bottom, just a floor below the balcony, is a playground filled with various children (well, at least four children, which is usually enough to fill any given space). The upper half of the dome seems to be made entirely of glass, while a giant mobile hangs from the apex, supporting various fluffy gauze clouds that appear to drift about on unseen currents.

The white rabbit smiles, and opens the door. Walking out on the balcony, she marvels at the scenery. "If this is just an inn," she muses to herself, "then the other buildings must be amazing!" She paces out to the edge, and looks down at the playing children, tuning her long ears in to eavesdrop on the conversation.

There are more balconies ringing the chamber, with the largest ones up near the equator. Enough planters are spread throughout to give the impression of hanging gardens, perhaps in an attempt to imitate the famous Jade Palace of Rephidim. The children chase around the playground, not so much talking as making noises. Three Gallee cubs and a Khatta kitten, all under the watchful eye of middle-aged Jupani nanny – probably the children of visiting nobles.

Anisa leans on the balcony, and grins as she watches the little kids. Their antics remind her of her brothers' when they were little, and also remind her of her nieces at home. "I hope they're okay," she murmurs to herself.

From the door to her room comes a sharp knocking, followed almost immediately by the sound of the latch being tried. "Luggage!" a somewhat muffled voice calls through the door.

The Lapi's fur stands on end in sudden surprise, and she regains her composure as she whirls around to face the door. "Hold on a second!" She runs over to the door, and pulls it open before the individual outside can. "Haven't you ever heard of knocking? I could have been changing or something!"

The Rhian porter just blinks at the bunny. "But I did knock. Just now," he says. One of Anisa's trunks is held casually on the equine's shoulder, while the second rests at his feet, where he apparently put it down before knocking.

Anisa shakes her head with a sigh. "Sorry, you just surprised me." She moves out of the way of the door, and motions the Rhian to the closet. "If you could drop them off over there, I'd appreciate it. I suppose I need to start getting ready."

Apparently happy now that he's being told what to do, the porter sets the trunks down next to the wardrobe closet. "Will there be anything else, ma'am?" he asks.

"No, that'll be all, thank you." The Lapi forces a small smile. "Oh wait, you don't happen to know what time it is, do you?"

The Rhian lifts his muzzle up a bit and takes a deep sniff and looks thoughtful for a moment. "Bread is in the oven, so pro'lly about half an hour to supper time service."

Anisa nods, kneeling down to undo the latches on her trunks. "That gives me plenty of time then. Thank you!" Opening the lid, she starts to pull out her carefully folded clothing and lay it out on the bed. "Oh, one more thing," she adds as she turns to the Rhian, "how formal is the dinner service?"

Pausing midway through the door, the porter's train of thought is apparently derailed by the question. "You mean for guests I bet. Umm. I never eat with the guests, actually."

The rabbit grimaces, and thinks for a bit. Picking up two outfits from the bunch, she holds one in either hand up for the Rhian to see. "Okay, do the ladies wear stuff like this," she queries as she holds up a pair of trousers and a plain shirt in her right hand, "or things like … this," holding up a light formal dress in her left.

After looking from one outfit to the other, the Rhian finally says, "Yes, they wear clothes like those, usually." He smiles, hoping he gave the right answer.

Anisa's right ear flops forward in annoyance. "No no, I mean which do the women wear more often, the dress or the pants?" She eyes the horse. "I mean, you work here, you should see them."

The Rhian blinks at this. The idea of the guests being actual people seems to give him trouble. "Younger ones usually wear pants. Unless they wear dresses. But wingy ones wear both sometimes, or pants that look like dresses," he rambles. After scratching his head a bit, he offers, "You married? I think married women wear dresses most often."

Anisa tries to sort this out, frowning at the Rhian's vagueness. "No, I'm not married." She shakes her head, putting the outfits back on the bed. "Thanks anyways. I think I'll figure it out."

The Rhian bobs his head, glad to finally be released. "G'night then, Ma'am. I like the pants better, myself." He closes the door as he backs out into the hallway.

"So do I," the Lapi says to herself with a small grin. Selecting the pressed pants and red blouse, she heads towards the bathroom. "Besides, Aaron didn't say anything about tonight being formal."

As Anisa reaches the lobby, she is greeted by the sight of Aaron and two other Lapis. The Apothecary is dressed semi-casually, wearing a vest and trousers with a bright green zolk shirt. The other two are dressed in the robes of Journeyman mages, the brown-furred male wearing the bright colors of Fire and the shorter gray-colored woman the more subdued colors of Earth. Both mages turn to smile at Anisa as Aaron waves to her.

Smiling, Anisa walks over to the other rabbits, nodding in greeting as she gets near. "I hope this is okay; I wasn't sure what we were supposed to wear tonight." She self-consciously smoothes out her blouse.

"You look fine!" Aaron says with a grin, and introduces the others. "Anisa Snowshoe, this is my cousin, Xander Lightfoot, and his long-time friend Spring Meadow. They've just gotten their official Journeyman ratings."

The brown Lapi, Xander, gives a deep bow to Anisa and says, "Charmed to meet you, m'lady."

With a roll of her eyes, Spring Meadow just grins and holds out a hand, offering, "Welcome to Caroban, Anisa. It's nice to see a fresh face around here!"

Anisa takes the hand and shakes it. "Nice to meet you two as well! I hear you're going to be in the graduation?" The Lapi clasps her hands in front of her. "It must be exciting, learning to do all that magic and stuff. All I ever get to learn are new celery recipes."

"Hah, but at least you get to get out once in a while!" Spring Meadow laughs. "It's taken forever to finally graduate! I can't wait to get to Rephidim, myself."

With a grin of his own, Xander says, "Yeah, magic can be spectacular and interesting, but it kinda gets to you when you have to practice a simple spell a zillion times to get it right."

"Well, that's debatable," Anisa counters. The white rabbit shrugs with a grin. "Usually I'm working. This is my first time off of Rephidim in a few years, so I'm in no hurry to get back."

Aaron claps his hands together. "Well, it's a big accomplishment, especially for you, Hotfoot," the spotted Lapi jibes. "We were all sure you'd end up with all your fur burned off! So, cousin, where'd you like to have dinner?"

Anisa looks around at the others in the lobby, then back to the other Lapis. "Dinner sounds good about now. We didn't have much on the ship."

Xander (a.k.a. "Hotfoot") turns to Anisa. "Well, seeing as this is your first time on Caroban, I suppose we should go somewhere entertaining!" To Aaron, he says, "Enchanted Cuisine of course! If I'm not paying, I'd love to benefit from the labors of all the apprentices there."

Anisa looks apprehensively to Aaron, remembering his earlier words about "Enchanted Cuisine".

Leaning over to whisper to Anisa – largely a symbolic act among Lapi – Spring Meadow says, "Hotfoot had to work there for a few years. Fire Mages are good in kitchens."

"Ah, I don't mind helping you indulge in a little revenge, cousin," Aaron tells Hotfoot. "I don't suppose you've already made the reservations?"

The white rabbit smirks. "so you've done time in a kitchen too. What's so entertaining about the place?"

Looking smug, "Hotfoot" crosses his arms over against his chest and says, "Of course I did! And what's entertaining about it, dear Anisa, is that you never see any of the people that do the work."

"Um, is that a good thing, or a bad thing?" Anisa arches her brow, not entirely understanding. "I guess I'll find out. Should we be on our way?"

"Lead on, oh wise Fire Mage!" Aaron says, sketching an exaggerated bow to Hotfoot, which gets a giggle out of Spring Meadow. And so the group follows the red-robed brown bunny to the restaurant.

The group is shown to their table by some sort of spirit creature that resembles a giant eyeball with Creen-wings. Once seated, it's apparent that some other magic is at work, for the conversations at even the adjoining tables die down to incomprehensible background noise.

This, of course, is completely out of the ordinary for a Lapi, and despite her best efforts, Anisa is somewhat nervous. The giant floating eyeball didn't help matters, either. "Is it always this quiet?" The rabbit strains to hear, as she takes her seat.

"Oh yes," Spring Meadow answers. "It's one of the reasons people like the place, really."

Looking around, Aaron asks, "It's been awhile since I was here last. Do they still use menus?"

Anisa merely grimaces, and nods to the other Lapi. "I guess it takes some getting used to." The rabbit looks the place over, taking in the atmosphere. "So there are no waiters or anything? It's all done with magic?"

"Nah, they tried having Illusion-based menus, but the waiters couldn't see them clearly enough," Hotfoot explains. "Now you just order whatever you want, or ask about the specials." No sooner does he finish explaining this than a rippling begins in a watery channel that runs near the table. The function of the channel becomes clear though, as more water mounds up and flows into the shape of a transparent Naga. It even carries a simulated towel draped over one arm.

"May I take your ordersss?" it hisses wetly.

Blinking, Anisa's fur stands on end, but soon settles back down. "Like I said, I guess this takes getting used to." She looks to the others to order first, not wanting to accidentally make a faux pas.

"It's a golem," Spring Meadow says to Anisa. "So … technically I guess there is a real person controlling it. At least, I think it's a golem."

While the Earth Mage looks to Hotfoot for confirmation, he is already talking to the thing. "What's fresh on the vegetarian menu tonight?" the Fire Mage asks the water-creature.

The white rabbit nods to Spring Meadow, and tunes her ears to listen to the vegetarian menu.

"Tonight we have fressh kyootcumber sssoup ssserved chilled, Nut sssalad, baked rootsss in lemon sssauce, Xssenean fruit canapesss, and a ssselection of fresssh baked ssseed and oat breadsss, along with the ssself-ssserving-sssalad tray," the serpent responds.

"Do you still have that spicy vegetable stew served in a bread bowl?" Aaron leans across his cousin to ask. "And the stuffed celery stalks with the fondue dips?"

"The baked roots sound nice," says Anisa. "Although the Xenean fruit sounds good too." She turns to Spring Meadow. "What are you getting?"

"Yesss," the waiter replies, its head moving slightly to focus on Aaron. "The xocholatl dip is exssstra, however."

The gray Lapi grins to Anisa and says, "I always get the self-serving-salad. It's a terribly complicated Earth spell that I've never been able to get just right, but I love the results."

Anisa strokes her chin in thought, and nods. "I think I'll have that too. Kind of like an 'all you can eat' platter?"

"Sort of," Spring Meadow says, grinning. "It's like a salad bar, in concept, but totally different in execution. I think you'll like it." To the serpent she says, "Two self-serving-salads please."

The serpent waggles an ill-defined arm in a manner that gives the impression that it's writing something down. "Very good," it hisses.

Hotfoot orders the baked roots plate, and Aaron goes with an order of the spicy stew. Having taken the orders, the Naga-thing asks, "Would anyone care to order drinksss or the sssoup of the day, which is sssplit pea?"

"As long as it doesn't turn my fur blue or explode on me or anything, I think I'll like it," Anisa says with a slight laugh. "I'll just have some water, thank you."

"I'd like a chilled glass of strawberry fizzy-juice," Spring Meadow orders.

Hotfoot puts in a request for something called a "backflip" and Aaron orders ice water. Nodding and repeating the full orders to make sure it has everything correctly, the waiter melts back into the stream of water.

"That was surreal," states the white Lapi. "I can't see why you're so eager to get back to Rephidim when you have things like this around. I'd kill to be able to have phantoms do my work back at the tavern."

With a chuckle, Hotfoot explains, "It's a lot more work to do this stuff with magic than with real people. The novelty wears off."

Anisa scoots her chair closer to the table, and rests her hands on the tabletop. "Makes for a good effect though. What did you do when you worked here?"

The Fire Mage smirks, and says, "I baked roots, actually. Maintaining an even flame for prolonged periods of time is something all Fire Mages have to learn, so I figured I'd get paid to practice."

"So you were the magical equivalent of a short order cook," the white Lapine infers with a grin. "Looks like it paid off, though. What do you plan to do now that you're graduating?"

A small troupe of mages in robes primarily of purple heads over to the booth right next to the group of Lapis. The group varies considerably in age – one is a Khatta kitten, another some strangely marked species of Rhian or perhaps a Cervani of perhaps twelve years of age, though the rest of the group is composed of young adults, and one Nagai elder that seems to be in charge of the outing. The large corner booth is taken, filled to capacity, and even with the buffering effect of the restaurant's booths, the group seems especially quiet.

Anisa turns to take a quick look at the strange group, unsure if the silence is due to the magic or not.

"Looks like someone is having a field trip," Spring Meadow says as the group passes by. "Practical application of magic, probably. Or else the instructor just wants to charge dinner to his expense account."

The white Lapi looks puzzled at the group. "Were you two that young when you started?" She turns back to her companions. "Seems like an awfully early age to leave home."

It would seem that the group is genuinely quiet, and fairly solemn, really – which looks especially strange on the two children in the group. The little Cervani – his face largely concealed by a cowl that is strangely decorated with a fairly realistic spiral horn sprouting from the top of it – wiggles his hands in what looks like Silent Sign to the kitten beside him. She nods, as if understanding it all quite well. A Skreek in the group just sketches away on a tablet he drags around with him, marking down arcane sigils.

Anisa watches the goings on out of the corner of her eye, confused at the strange behavior of the children.

"You have to start early," Spring Meadow says. "I was about … twelve, I think. It takes a lot of time to develop the skill. Really young ones like those are pretty rare now though, for lots of reasons. Being away from home is a big one, but it also takes a lot more maturity and caution to train on Caroban, since there are so many layered magicks around."

"What school are the purple robes of?" the white Lapi asks, cocking her head in curiosity, "and what do you mean by layered magic?"

"Those kids probably have really high innate talent," Hotfoot adds. "The College doesn't want that sort to develop on their own into more hedge wizards."

"Shadow mages wear purple," Aaron says, turning to look at the young mages as well. "Layered magic is where you have lots of enchantments and active spells interlocking like … like a machine, I guess. Imagine this restaurant as a giant clock full of gears and springs and stuff, and you can see how a misplaced nudge in the wrong place could cause a lot of chaos."

Meanwhile, the mages at the next table – now identified as Shadow Mages – go through the same ritual of ordering food from the water-Naga. Some of them seem to be speaking just as normal people would, though some seem intent on maintaining their silence: delivering an order in hand-signs, simply pointing at an item on the menu, or apparently not ordering at all.

"I think I get it," says Anisa. "How come you didn't go into magic, Aaron? You seem to know a lot about it."

As one water-waiter is taking the orders of the nearby table, a duplicate one appears, bearing the Lapis' orders.

"Oh, I don't have the talent," Aaron says, as the orders are set out. "I know a bit more than the average person only because I have to supply Mages with what they need, so I need to know what they'll need."

A large, apparently empty wooden bowl is placed before Anisa, along with several small glass cups of seeds and her glass of water.

Spring Meadow demonstrates how to use the self-serving-salad, by dropping some seeds into her own bowl – which then sprout into leaves and vegetables suitable for a salad.

Anisa follows Spring Meadow's example, and looks delighted when the food appears in her bowl. "Another thing we could use at home!" She smiles to the others, picks up her fork, and takes a bit from the bowl. "Enough of the talk – let's eat!"