With the tour of Vericil officially starting, Roman raised up the small single-eye visor device and snugly fastened the plastic clip around the back of his ear. He then pushed in the audio bud that dangled from a tiny wire connected to the visor's main stem. For decades, major tech companies had tried to create slick-looking communication devices that consumers could wear on their person and effectively phase out cell phones, but no one could compete with Apex's own ergonomic and fashionable design for the market.

A single transparent display, no bigger than a standard glasses lens, was suspended over the wearer's non-dominant eye to relay a flurry of desired information. A wrist watch, that used haptic adaptive projections, handled commands that the user would input. This base technology supported the Linguistic Retro-Analysis software that the OEF relied upon for communication with Astrians. LRAs were ultimately simple in the long-run, and most certainly shouldn't be used for advanced conversations without a reliable interpreter, but they did an otherwise fine job of real-time language recognition and translation.

"I wish I had one of these on my first trip to Egypt," said the young brunette woman standing beside the professor as she fastened on her own LRA.

Clara Sandiego, an archaeologist that was as ambitious as she was impatient, was Professor Sullivan's star pupil. Even though their talents greatly differed, the two of them made quite the duo on several previous adventures.

"It wouldn't have helped you, you know," Roman said.

"Of course it would have. These things are freakin' awesome!"

Chuckling, the professor said, "We were in a traditional Islamic area for that excursion, remember? You refused to wear a hijab. No one wanted to talk to you to begin with."

"Well, at least women are treated as equally as men in Arcanaan," she commented after a brief sigh.

After moving further into the village, Roman noticed a local stall vendor waiving over to them. He appeared to be selling woven baskets. Even though neither of them had been given any tradable currency, Roman decided to be polite and investigate anyway. The encounter would also mark his first interaction with an indigenous Astrian. He would be foolish to pass up the opportunity.

The gutteral greeting that immediately came from the man's lips as soon as Roman and Clara approached was recognized by the LRA. A rectangular text cursor briefly flashed on the display before darting across, revealing a simple "Hello!" as the English translation. It was immediately followed by a recommended response in Abian.

"Well met," Roman replied in the man's tongue with a somewhat practiced dialect. If he were to compare Arcanaanite Abian to a language from Earth, it would be Italian or one of the other Romance languages. There were striking similarities beyond just sound, one of them being that it was an inflected language--where meanings could change by altering the ends of words and phrases.

"Terrans I haven't seen before," the man said with his eyes darting to other OEF members that were enjoying their walk about the town. "Have you just recently arrived from your own world?"

Nodding, the professor simply returned, "Yes. We are new." Gesturing toward one of the baskets that the man was selling, he asked, "May I look?"

The stall owner excitedly grinned and nodded. "Yes! Please! For you, new Terran, it is only thirty crowns!"

Upon closer inspection, the wicker weave seemed to have been made from a fibrous plant similar to bamboo, but there was a noticeable difference in both the color tone and the physical rigidity. The plant material felt even tougher than its terran counterpart, which was truly difficult to believe at first. Then again, everything about Astria was still a genuine puzzle.

"I'm afraid we don't have any money," Clara had replied while Roman admired the man's handiwork.

The merchant seemed disappointed, but he put on a charming smile and insisted, "Then come back when you have some and I shall still be happy to sell it to you!"

With a cocky grin, she said in slightly broken Abian, "I'll hold you to that, old man."

After reading his protégé's translated words on the LRA lens, Sullivan replaced the basket and spat out with wide eyes, "Clara!"

"What?" she innocently asked in English with some concern written on her face. "Did I say that wrong?"