After two-something hours, Rudrean, Aelira, and Isalyn freshened up and went out to meet the others.

Isalyn used Astral Veil partially to mask her aura and wore a physical veil and robe to cleverly hide her appearance lest anyone recognize her here.

As someone on the most wanted list of the Riglight Galactic Alliance, taking precautions was of utmost importance, especially now that she was with Rudrean and Aelira.

Ryzen, Rivera, and Lyra were already at one of the relaxing and peaceful restaurants in this resort, and they sent the location to Rudrean and Aelira.

Soon, the group gathered, but not before paying for Isalyn’s entry to the resort.

Ryzen and the other two were surprised to see an additional person with them when they gathered at the beautiful pond-pavilion restaurant.

Aelira introduced Isalyn as her sister.

Everyone had the tastiest food of their lives except for Isalyn, who had tasted even better things before.

After filling their stomachs, they started looking at the resort card given to them, which basically showed the whole map of the resort with the location of everything.

"So, what should we do next to have fun?"

"Hmmm, there are some suspicious things here, and that Weed & Mushroom Kingdom is what I think it is?" Rudrean blinked.

"That place will be expensive," Isalyn said. "There are specially cultivated plants and mushrooms that hijack your mind in mysterious ways. It is generally used to acquire epiphanies and train in meditation for something, and of course, people also use it to enhance the fun of certain activities."

"Oh? Then we’ll buy some and use them later." Aelira grinned as an idea popped into her mind. "For now, we should have some fun, and I suppose that will be at the casinos and entertainment venues."

"By the way, in the recommended activity list, they are telling us to go to Oceanic Melody Plays. It seems to be their specialty," Rivera said.

Everyone checked it on the card.

"The reviews are all good." Ryzen raised his eyebrows.

"Yeah, it looks good. Let’s check it out."

...

The path to the Oceanic Melody Plays curved along the outer rim of the lower resort tier, lit by floating lanterns that drifted at shoulder height and changed color slowly as the group walked past them. The air grew steadily wetter as they approached, carrying the cool, clean smell of the open sea, even though they were still hundreds of meters above sea level. By the time they arrived at the venue, the smell was no longer a suggestion. It was real ocean air.

The venue itself was an open amphitheater built into the cliffside, its tiered seating curving around a vast empty stage that was not a stage at all. It was the cliff’s edge. The performance space simply ended in open air, and beyond it stretched a real, full ocean, dark and glittering and seemingly endless. The sky above had been thinned in this region of the dome to allow the dual suns’ descent to actually reach the water, and the result was a long horizon of gold and silver bleeding into dark blue.

A staff member directed them to a row near the center, the seats already cushioned and warm. Each seat had a small carved holder mounted on the armrest, and resting in each holder was a thin, pale wooden stick about the length of a finger, faintly translucent, with a single small ember-glow at one end.

"The incense," Lyra said, picking hers up and examining it. "It opens the senses to whatever the performers project. The experience layers onto each viewer differently. No two people see the same show."

Ryzen looked at his stick with deep suspicion. "Are we sure about this?"

"It’s licensed and regulated by the resort," Isalyn said quietly through her veil. "Perfectly safe. Just relax with it."

The lights dimmed.

A low note sounded from somewhere below the cliff, deep and pure, the kind of sound that traveled through the chest before it reached the ears. The ocean responded.

A long rolling swell rose from the water, growing higher than it should have, and from its crest stepped the first performer. A woman in flowing white and silver walked across the surface of the wave as if it were marble, her hair trailing behind her in slow upward currents. She began to sing.

The group breathed in the incense at the same time.

The world changed.

For Rudrean, the singer split into a hundred soft versions of herself, each one tracing the same path through the air, but each leaving a different colored ribbon behind. The ocean below her was no longer water. It was a long sheet of slowly turning glass that held the entire night sky inside it, stars moving lazily across its surface in patterns he almost recognized.

For Aelira, the entire venue was filled with fireflies. Thousands of them drifted in slow spirals between the seats and the cliff edge, each one carrying a fragment of the singer’s voice in its glow. When she reached up to touch one, it dissolved into a small warm note that played somewhere inside her ribs.

For Lyra, the performance became a working diagram. She could see the singer’s mana, the precise threading of the magic into the song, the way each note shaped a small construct in the air that the next note built upon. It was the most elegant craft she had ever witnessed, and her tail had gone very still.

For Ryzen, every wave that rose became a galloping silver horse, and the singer was riding the lead one.

For Rivera, the ocean became a long, quiet road, and somewhere far down its length, her younger self was walking home.

For Isalyn, behind her veil, the singer’s voice carried the exact tone her mother used to hum on cold mornings, and her eyes closed for a long moment and stayed closed.

The performance continued.

More dancers stepped from the waves, weaving between each other in patterns the audience could each only see in fragments. Magic poured outward in colors that did not exist anywhere outside this venue. The song built and built, layered upon itself, until it seemed to fill not just the air but the time the air occupied.

When the final note faded into the water, the silence that followed was the deepest the cliff had ever held.

Nobody clapped for almost a full minute.

When they finally did, it was soft. Reverent. The kind of applause people give to something they had not realized they were going to remember for the rest of their lives.

The group walked back along the lantern path together, discussing what they had seen.

"That was crazy."

"Uhh, we spent four hours there. The time felt weird."

"True. I didn’t realize we spent four hours there. It kind of felt longer, but shorter."

"Yeah, some things are still fresh in my mind."

As they exited, they directly headed toward the next fun activity.

Arena Storm Casino.

This place was also the main reason for the "Prix" in this resort’s name, which meant Prize.

...

Romen landed and entered the Grand Dream Prix resort. After freshening up, he went straight to the Arena Storm Casino, where his friends and rivals were waiting.

Friends and rivals, meaning the other heirs of big and small, powerful families of the Riglight Galactic Alliance.