"Eh, I still have to do it for myself, it's fine." Once again, he reduces the effect of gravity with a quick incantation and sweeps Kaede off his feet. He hops onto the fire escape and descends the stairs, his footsteps still surprisingly quiet. When they reach the bottom, about ten feet off the ground, he steps off into thin air and falls, slowly, to ground level. He then puts Kaede back onto his feet.

"Alright, let's go find a place where something technological is working."

"Onward!"

This is a city, but it's not New York; apparently, Canadian cities do in fact sleep. The streets are more or less empty. While they look for a 24-hour establishment with functioning technology, Ari occupies himself peering intently at the chunk of asphalt in his hands and muttering in German under his breath.

"Do you know how much carbon there is in this?" he asks Kaede idly. "I'm kind of shit at scrying."

"Uh, not offhand, I could look it up once we've fixed my phone, why?"

"Trying to figure out if I can make diamonds with a ton of it." He mutters very pointedly in further German and hums thoughtfully. "...weird," he diagnoses. "And hardly any carbon at all. Are large amounts of coal available for purchase anywhere?"

"How large? I can get you bags without it being too suspicious."

"Um, depends on the quality of coal and how many diamonds we want? Somewhere between a few pounds and about a hundred. Assuming 'bituminous' and 'a few large stones', about-" He gestures to indicate a bag the size of a human child or unusually large dog. "Yea much."

"Yeah I can get you that no problem."

"Excellent!"

Meanwhile, they've arrived at what looks like a Target or similar shopping center. "Do you think this place would have working electronics?"

"Yeah definitely. ...they might have rules about partial nudity but if there are no signs about it..."

Any signs about it?

Ari lacks both shirt and shoes, which a small sign pointedly informs them means no service.

"I can wait outside. ...probably should anyway, considering, you know, technology."

"Yeah, fair enough. I'll be right back."

Into it he goes.

It's not hard to find working electronics. Here's a flip phone!

Oh good, that's even easier. He grabs the flip phone, then his phone, looks at both of them—

—then turns his phone back on. Good as new! And out he goes.

Where Ari is engaged in conversation with a moderately shady-looking gentleman! When he sees Kaede he says his goodbyes and trots over to him. 

"That man thought I was a prostitute," he says thoughtfully. "I can't believe I didn't think of that."

"—didn't think of what? Doing sex work as a way to get money? I suppose that would be a possibility. Most people wouldn't want to, though."

"Why on earth not? Do they not like sex?"

"Oh they like it but they have lots of taboos around it, like, you're only supposed to do it with someone you love or are married to, or if you pay for sex it must be because you're incapable of getting it without paying and that's shameful, or if you do sex work it's because you have low self esteem or you're abused or." He shrugs. "People are very silly about sex."

"That does sound very silly. Faeries are much more sensible. ...sort of. For a value of sense that includes slavery. But they're not silly about it."

"I mean, humans used to have slavery too so it's not like we're much ahead."

Ari shrugs.

"So... What now?"

"Now I need to actually use my phone and figure out why I don't have signal. I wonder if this place has WiFi."

"Those are words!" Ari agrees.

He laughs, shakes his head, and checks for WiFi signal—they're still right next to the store.

There's a signal! Seems compatible enough with his phone.