Now it is, then.

Her ritual's different from other methods of travel, somewhat. Rather than a portal or an instant shift it creates a dark distortion in the air in front of them (in addition to taking several minutes to cast).

"Onward to adventure?"

"Or whatever else, certainly." Into the distortion.

She follows after.

The world they land in is lush. No alleyways, here. Just a beach, and an ocean, and a jungle behind them, and a gleaming, beautiful city across a shallow bay. Flying craft - and flying people - come and go, and colorful sails dot the port, but no one seems to have noticed the two visitors.

"Very appropriate for a vacation. Are you sure your spell was untargeted?"

"Haven't tested it enough to make sure it doesn't have anything running in the background. Still, we seem to have lucked out."

She stretches, grinning.

"Shall we investigate the city, or stay and enjoy the beach a while?"

"Hm... I'm curious about the people, but this is a very nice beach... I suppose we could simply walk slowly over, enjoy the path."

"That sounds like an agreeable compromise."

She laughs, nodding.

The walk over is pleasant, the surf cool and the air just warm and humid enough to be relaxing. The city seems on a scale that dwarfs even the greater cities of Mora's homeworld, as they get closer - it sprawls back into the forest, climbing up a nearby low mountain, woven in with the trees. Much of this hadn't been visible from a distance, as many of the buildings seem to be designed as massive vertical gardens, trees on their roofs and hanging and climbing plants winding up their sides, most with balconies hosting further plants woven in.

Also, barely visible from here, on the other side of the city - far up the mountain - appears to be a rather large district made of stone rather than metal and glass. Likely centered around a palace or temple, given the monumental size of some of the buildings within.

"Impressive," Mora says, looking around.

"Quite large, at least. An interesting design, with the vegetation."

"Shows interesting priorities - beauty, or nature, rather than cost efficiency, I think."

"Must be wealthy, then."

"Enough for their whole society to profit, or else their leaders are less prone to hoarding wealth than most, or for aesthetic concerns to override public health..."

"Further exploration is called for, it seems."

"Into the city, then?"

"The concrete jungle, such as it is."

She laughs and keeps going.

The city has significant outlying areas - it's not a walled city at all, and suburbs sprawl into the surrounding jungle. The roads here are paved, and there's a network of swift, silent trains spreading out into the suburbs like blood vessels. The suburban buildings are mostly only two to four stories, increasing in height closer to the city, turning from quasi-rural detached properties to row houses fairly quickly. There's certainly poorer areas, but nothing looks ill maintained, and people go about their days - biking, chattering, walking dogs, running - with no apparent fear.

They'll be walking a while, to get into the city proper, unless they feel like finding their way onto a train or into one of the craft that come and go on the streets or in the air.

Are these craft public transportation or private?

Trains seem to be public, and there's a mixture of public and private among the other craft - though most are probably public, even some of the smaller ones. People don't seem to interact with anything on the trains or larger busses, though there's a pad they interact with via a handheld phone on the smaller ones.

"Let's try a train. See if we get into any trouble."

"Alright. They seem interesting enough."

There's a platform with a waiting area. Not very crowded - one of the two there is tapping at a phone, the other apparently listening to something on headphones. Both ignore the two women, as do the three teenagers in school uniforms deposited by the next arriving train.

There's no trouble getting on the train, nor in finding seats this far out from the city. There's some people a few rows behind them gossiping about some museum opening, and a map on the wall of the train network and its stops. The train's quiet and smooth when it moves, green landscape, colorful neighborhoods, and distant glinting ocean zooming by.

They'll see if the idyll holds up on closer inspection.

"Want to explore that museum?" Mora asks. "It sounds as good a stop as any to get off at."

"Fine by me."