Located on the estuary of a broad, slow moving river, Black Crow City is a regional centre of commerce. A built-up inner city oriented mostly towards trade and hospitality services. The surrounding hundreds of miles are littered with small farms making use of the fabulously fertile land. Further out, in the pleasant wilderness plains, numerous wild horse herds live free and unrestrained lives.

The port is vast, and services ordinary ships as well as spaceships. From afar, the difference between these is less than obvious; spaceships might have charred hulls or vaguely different rigging, but that's about it.

Moored to one of the docks is an old, large, five-masted cargo ship. This is our heroines' ride, the Bright Orange Jewel, transporting valuable goods to a distant star in the second mansion of the Black Tortoise Realm. Currently, both they and most of the ship's crew are on two days of shore leave while the ship is loading provisions and fuel. The ship's master pulled strings to have three sword maidens from a cultivation sect guard his treasures. This in itself made nine out of ten pirates discard any plans of robbery. The maidens themselves were largely left to themselves on the ship. The only intervention needed was breaking up a brawl between sailors, and even this consisted of the three only showing up.

In short, the first month of the warrior pilgrimage has been mind-numbingly boring.

Buildings surrounding the docks were built up a dozen stories, With the lower levels being warehouses and workshops, and the upper few holding hotels and restaurants. Overlooking the berth where the Bright Orange Jewel is being serviced, a small pavilion hosts our three heroines at a round table. Soft zither sounds and incense add just the right amount of comfort while they wait for their meals. There are about a dozen other guests at three other tables, all unimportant local minor officials. They are discussing the recent skirmish with Khaganate agents that happened on the docks. Constables from the yamen were slow to respond, so a few dozen dock workers were killed and the perpetrators still at large, possibly on one of the thousand ships in the harbor. The officials go on to discuss how little presence the Army has in the Black Tortoise Realm, and how much the security has deteriorated in the last decade.

The waitress is a pretty young girl with a pale complexion and raven hair collected into an orderly bun. You notice she's of mixed blood - Turuk and Han. She places some snacks on your table - small bowls with watermelon seeds and peanuts - then smiles and asks for your order.

Jia stifled a yawn, brought on by spending too much of the night before practicing her sword-work. Sadly there had been no call for her to draw it in anger on this mission, and though she'd been dropping hints to Mei Hua, there had been no romance either. It wasn't ideal for a girl who loved adventure and excitement. A hopeful glance out of the window showed her no group of bandits that had bizarrely chosen to travel to the middle of a major city to attack their boat or the restaurant they were in. Not even the Khanagates seemed to feel like performing a repeat of their attack on the docks, which wasn't surprising given it was broad daylight, but disappointing all the same.

Her reverie was broken by the appearance of the waitress. Smiling up at her pretty face, Jia ordered a black tea and roast duck. She was feeling hungry, but for the sake of politeness, decided to wait a little before starting on the snacks. While she waited for the others to order, she wondered what to do now that they had two days to spend as they liked. Getting away from the river for a while would be nice, with its smells and labourers. It could be an opportunity to spend some time alone with Mei Hua, but she didn't want to leave Xiao Hu on her own for too long in a strange city. Not that Xiao would be in danger, but it sounded like a lonely way to pass the time.

Tucking a stray hair behind her ear, she turned to Mei and asked her, "What do you plan to do with your shore leave?"