Vy chuckled and reassured Lycster that she had a way to do it. She told him not to worry. As they moved onto the baskets of small rocks, the crowd had turned their attention to the other customers.
As the workers were about to cut some of the rocks, she stopped them and picked out some of the rocks for the basket.
"Miss, do you not want these to be cut or polished," the worker asked.
"No need. Just cut the rest."
The workers followed her orders and cut up the remaining ones. Some of them were regular rocks and were discarded, but at least five of them were geodes. Vy was pleased with their finds.
But as they came to the final few pieces, they encountered an issue. The cutting tool the workers were using could not cut through the rocks. Uncertain of how to proceed, the workers went ahead to call for Mark who was attending to other customers.
-Dotty, those are the ones we were uncertain about, right?-
Dotty nodded.
Dotty flew over to the rock that the workers held in their hands and then flew back to Vy with a sad look on her face. Her cat ears were also droopy.
On the other hand, Mark called Vy over and informed her that they could not cut through the rock.
"Would you like us to keep trying?"
"No, it's alright. I'll keep the rock, who knows, it might actually be something unique. Please proceed with the rest."
Mark carried out Vy's requests, as the workers went ahead to cut the rest of the rocks. Out of the rest, another 3 rocks could not be cut.
The rest revealed to be smaller geodes and semi-precious rocks. One of them, which flowed red to Vy was polished instead. It was revealed to be ruby, in its raw form.
Once everything had been accounted for, Vy used a spell and kept everything within a secondary space. She left the market with Lycster tailing behind her. The purchasing and cutting had taken almost half a day and they were getting a little hungry.
"Vy,"
"Yes?"
"What are you going to do with these rocks and geodes?"
"We're going to sell them, of course. But I might keep some for our own use."
"To use?"
Lycster was confused. These were large pieces of rock and geodes, did they have any use at all? He had seen rich folks wearing pieces of jewellery made from smaller, shinier rocks but he had never seen large ones like these. Seeing his confused expression, Vy reassured him.
"Don't worry, you'll understand eventually. For now, let's get something to eat."
The restaurant district was crowded and almost every restaurant was full. But there was one amongst them that seemed to remain somewhat empty. Its decor easily drew the attention of potential customers, but it was still quite empty.
As Lycster and Vy continued making their way along the dining district, they could not quite decide was to eat. The Memory Lane was fully booked for the day so they could not get a table there.
All the other restaurants did not look appetizing, seemingly serving the same few dishes. Vy was craving something flavourful, was it really that difficult to ask for?
It was then, that they stumbled upon this establishment, tucked in an alleyway. It's neon-lit signboard and vibrant colours stood out from its surrounding dull infrastructure,
Vy read the name of the restaurant, "Home?"
The name intrigued her, so she decided to find out more. As soon as they entered the restaurant, an intoxicating fragrance permeated their senses. There was something familiar about it, but Vy could not quite figure it out.
"This smells amazing," Lycster exclaimed as his stomach began to growl.
Lycster blushed bright red while Vy laughed.
"Lycster? Vyrena? Is that you," a familiar voice called out from the side of the restaurant.
It was Nestor! He stood up from his seat and invited them to join him.
"Fancy meeting you here!" He exclaimed as Vy and Lycster took a seat at the table.
"The same to you, what are you doing here?" Nestor called out.
Vyrena and Lycster both took a seat at the table and a cheerful waiter came up to them with menus. After a quick look through and some recommendations from Nestor, they placed their orders.
"Is this your first trip here?" Vy asked.
"No, although I can't remember how many times it has been. Sixth? Maybe seventh," Nestor replied as he scratched the back of his head.
Vy looked around the room and noticed that while there were not many patrons, everyone was human. There was not a single elf. One look at the staff who served the tables, all of them were humans too.