I had a strange dream last night about my MC and his Arcadian teammates in the Kyuhan Port of Yotai, so I decided to write this short fanfic about it. I would like to mention that English is my fourth language, so please pardon me if there are any grammatical errors. I also want to point out that for some reason, my MC and the local Yotai people in my dream were speaking a strange language that is like a mix of Middle Chinese and Japanese, so the grammar of some sentences may come across as awkward, even though I tried to translate them into English as best as I could. Anyway, feel free to point out any grammatical mistakes I’ve made so I can correct them.
This is something a little lighthearted, and probably a comedy (as well as my first fanfic). So, enjoy.
Note: My MC’s name is Alexis aka “Alex”. Yu in this story is a male (Yusuha), F is a female (Flyss), and Eli a male.
Summary
Alex stifles a yawn as he waits at the counter while the shopkeep goes and fetches the herbs he requested from the storehouse behind the counter.
This is the only apothecary shop still open this evening. All other shops and stores, which are ran by the locals, have closed early for the evening because it is the fifteenth day of the seventh moon. For the Yotai, it is the Day of Gratitude, to put it nicely. Or Ghost Festival, to put it crudely. And because the shopkeep is an outlander and she doesn’t observe the custom, her business hours will be operating as usual. It wasn’t particularly easy for Alex to find this shop, but with the help and directions given from helpful locals, he managed to find it.
“Those’d be 15 silvers,” says the shopkeep as she places the herbs on the counter, wrapped in a couple of paper bags
Alex fishes for his purse. When he can’t find it, he begins to panic as he thinks he might have dropped it somewhere along his way here. But then he remembers; he left it in his room back at the inn.
He slaps his forehead in chagrin. This is what he gets for having barely two hours’ worth of sleep.
“I forgot to bring my money with me, ma’am” Alex says sheepishly. “Could you please put those herbs on hold for me? I’ll go get it and come back for them as quickly as I can.”
The shopkeeper smiles kindly. “Not a problem. This shop will be closing in two hours, so you still have time.”
“Thanks, ma’am.” Alex smiles gratefully. He heads out the door. “I’ll be back in a bit.”
Alex stops at the mouth of the alley that opens into the Juilong Square, and he hesitates about continuing his way back to the inn. What if he forgets which alley that shop is located in? He doesn’t really trust his memory today, and he can blame himself for staying up all night reading books for that.
He couldn’t help it. He has found several volumes of good books on the history of the Yotai Free Cities from a local bookshop, compositions of past events recorded by the Yotai scribes of the past. They are copies the most original and authentic Yotai historical records he has ever come across. He has been drinking pages after pages of words from those books from the last evening to early dawn today, completely losing track of time. It wasn’t until Eli woke up and found him still reading by a candle light that the older mage made him take at least a nap before starting his day.
Two hours of sleep, it seems, isn’t enough to keep him from feeling like a zombie for the rest of the day. This will teach him not to neglect his sleep like that again.
He takes a crystalline tablet out of the fold of his robe, an enchanted device that allows him to communicate with the members of the Nightsaber at any time.
The device is one of the most recent inventions of the Black Grail, and Alex has played an important role in its invention. The Nightsaber members and Alex are among the first testers for this invention, their tablets enchanted in an enchantment ritual to connect them together. And as a brilliant mind of the Black Grail department, it is Alex’s job to observe the tablets’ functionality as well as their shortcomings while working out on how they can be improved and be made more efficient, so that they may be sold on the market in the near future. Most importantly, it allows the Nightsaber members to communicate with each other silently when the need arises.
Anyway, there are only two persons Alex can contact for help; Eli and Flyss. Yusuha is visiting his aunt, the Huan, at the Nephrite Quarter to participate in the Gratitude Ceremony that is being carried out over there this evening to give thanks and to commemorate the deceased members of their clan. Everyone knows he participates in the ceremony for his late mother. The ceremony will be going on for several hours into the late night, Yusuha has told them, so he will be staying the night at the Nephrite Quarter.
Activating the tablet with a bit of his mana, the mage hesitates a little before scrawling on its glowing surface.
Alex: Eli, Flyss. You guys at the inn right now?
It doesn’t take long for his tablet to vibrate with notifications of replies.
Eli: Yep. Just got back here. What’s up?
Flyss: No. Something’s up?
Alex immediately replies.
Alex: Nothing to worry about, Flyss.
Alex: Eli, can you please bring me my purse? It’s in the drawer of my left nightstand. The one without the candle holder. I forgot to bring it with me when I went out to buy something.
He half expects Eli to tease him about neglecting his sleep last night. But thankfully the older mage doesn’t.
Eli: Sure. Where you at?
Alex looks at the position of the rising full moon and deduces his position in the square.
Alex: The southern part of Juilong Square. Near the mouth of an alley.
Eli: Alright. See you in a bit.
Alex smiles. He knows he can always count on Eli.
Alex: Thanks a bunch, Eli. 
Eli: No problem. 
Alex deactivates the tablet and is about to put it away when it vibrates again with another notification.
Yu: Guys, remember it’s the 15th of the 7th moon. The Gate to the Netherworld is wide open tonight, and spirits 
from the other side will be roaming our mortal realm freely seeking food and money from us living folks till the end of this moon. So don’t stay out late. Especially you, Flyss.
Alex is a little perplexed by the message from Yusuha, but then he quickly realises the humour in it. He has no doubt it is mostly targeted at the white-haired mage.
Yu: Yoo-hoo. You heard me, Flyss?
Yusuha writes after a while.
It isn’t long before Flyss finally replies.
Flyss: 
Flyss has drawn a simple sketch of an abstract human face rolling their eyes in annoyance. He can almost hear the white-haired mage muttering “Ugh!” from her side of the tablet.
Yusuha doesn’t relent.
Yu: Flyss, that you? That doesn’t look like your face. Did someone steal your tablet?
Yu: Gasp! Guys, her tablet must have been stolen! Our group chat is no longer secure!
Alex can’t help but chuckle at the redhead’s mischief. He can almost picture the redhead grinning on his side of the tablet as he writes those messages. It does his heart good to know that Yusuha is feeling well enough to be the scoundrel that he is, especially after seeing how the red-haired mage has cried as he grieved under the golden house tree where his mother’s ashes have been scattered, when they first arrived here at Kyuhan Port nearly two weeks ago.
It isn’t long before Flyss replies again.
Flyss: My tablet is perfectly safe. By the way, I’m at the gate. Tell the guards to let me in.
Yu: What?
Alex quirks an eyebrow at Flyss’s response, then realises that the white-haired mage has gone to the Nephrite Quarter to give Yusuha a surprise visit. She is probably concerned about Yusuha and wants to check on him. Of course, she will never admit to caring about anyone. When Alex first met her, she was openly hostile toward him. But after getting to know her for a while, and after joining and helping her team on a few of their missions, she begins to show that she cares for him in her own gruff ways, like she does all of her team members.
Anyway, the forum, as Flyss calls it, or “group chat” as Yusuha likes to call it, has been quiet after that, so Alex puts the tablet away.
He scans the square while waiting for Eli’s arrival. There are many people gathered here around the ancient, magnificent golden house tree that stands in the middle of the square. All of them seem to be local Yotai people, since all of them are burning joss paper in either brass basins or steel barrels that they use as incinerators, with a pair of candles, three sticks of aromatic incense, and a bowl of fruits placed before each of those fiery containers, all of them facing the majestic tree. It is likely that these people have the ashes of their deceased loved ones scattered around that tree.
Nearest to him on his right is a lone, middle aged man burning joss paper with a sad smile.
Curious, Alex approaches the man, taking note of the joss paper as he does.
So, that’s what the netherworld money looks like, he thinks to himself. It is one thing to read about things in a book or hear about them from the mouths of other people, and another thing entirely to actually see them with one’s own eyes.
The man notices his approach and turns his head to regard him.
“Can I help you?” asks the man.
“Good evening,” Alex says. “Ah, please pardon me. I didn’t mean to interrupt what you’re doing.”
“Not at all,” the man says kindly as he drops more joss paper into the flames.
“Sending money to your family on the other side?” Alex asks.
“And friends,” the man replies.
“Friends?”
The man nods. “Friends who had no relatives when they lived, and no relatives who’d give them offerings after they passed.”
Alex nods. “That’s very kind of you, what you do for them. They are lucky to have a friend like you.”
The man shrugs. “Just doing what a friend does.” He turns to regard Alex again. “And you, boy? Are you here to send money to your loved ones on the other side as well?” he asks.
Alex shakes his head. “On the contrary, I’m actually waiting for someone to send me money.”
The man blanches and his eyes widen in shock and fear. He drops what he is doing and flees with surprising speed.
The display confuses Alex for a couple of seconds before he realises the implication of what he just said. The poor man must think him a ghost!
Alex wants to tell the man that he is not a ghost, but then, is he really not? He was burned at a stake, and was very dead for a little over a year before Tahlia brought him back to life.
“Wait!” he cries out to the retreating figure of the man. “I’m just waiting for a friend to come over and give me money.”
All people in the square drop what they are doing and look at Alex wide-eyed. The next thing Alex knows, they do what the man did and scatter out of the square in all directions, living him alone in the now empty, quiet square, with unburnt sheets of netherworld paper money fluttering in the late evening breeze.
! Thank you very much for sharing, and yeah, the idea with the tablets is really cute. 
