Weiss comes through last, saying, "-Big opportunities, like I said. But the big thing is going to be stabilizing the rift."

"Rifts just are not stable. Though we have never actually tried to stabilize one, historically they're all either too remote, too brief, or go to places that we don't want a connection to..."

"We've arrived, ladies, let's greet our hosts?"

They didn't know exactly when Weiss was going to be back, so the kitsunes are greeted by an elderly woman sitting in a chair in the Bank's lobby and knitting a pair of socks. They're bright purple with orange spots, and very fuzzy.

Perhaps more relevantly, as soon as they appear she taps a button on her phone and stands to greet them.

"Hello!" she says. "Welcome to Central River City; the diplomat is on the way to greet you properly."

Her Notal is accented, but her command of the language is otherwise quite good.

"Hi. I'm here to be paid a lot of money for magic?"

(Megi lightly swats her arm, for being rude. Sinnah just rolls her eyes.)

"Ma'am if anyone - who can get here - knows what to do with the rift, Sinnah does. Best wizard I know."

She's a little confused about why Megi would swat Sinnah. Maybe they just have that kind of relationship.

"That's good news!" Xolkensa cheerfully responds. "And yes, we will pay a lot of money for magic. I know we want to stabilize the rift so we can trade more, and also buy lessons in doing magic. I don't know the exact amount, but the diplomat will. She will probably offer you a — offer you all the money at once, for certain, or an amount that depends on trade through the rift over time."

"Oh, yes, everyone involved in this is going to be so rich even if they don't want to reach for it. We're going to need a lot of diamonds. And paper and ink- The good ink. Oil based."

"It's very exciting. I'm delighted to meet you- Is this a bank? I go by Megi, this is Sinnah, and you already know Weiss..."

She taps out a message to dispatch on her phone.

"It's good to meet you too," she agrees. "I'm Xolkensa."

She says it with an initial sound like the last sound in 'Bach'.

"And yes, this is a bank! Or, it was — I think they've already retrieved the secret keys from the vault, and are considering plans to turn it into a permanent transport facility once the rift is stabilized. They didn't want to mess with it too much before that in case that destabilized things."

"You should see the computers- Notal doesn't really have an equivalent word, I think we're just going to loanword it- I bet they can help with your more experimental things."

(Sinnah 'hm's. She's still holding her scroll and wand in a relaxed but ready kind of way.)

"I'm a priestess, has Weiss explained...?"

"She gave us a book about the light gods. It's — we've had stories about magic beings before, but they were just stories, so we don't really have priestesses," Xolkensa explains apologetically. "I think we understand, but it's foreign to us."

"It must be quite unbelievable. I've known about magic and gods as far back as I can remember. I'm happy to explain what I can about the Light Gods, and demonstrate or offer proof in ways you arrange- So that you can trust them more."