"Is there a number I should call, or do I just give you my hotel phone number, or...?"

Contact information is available on his card (which he hands to her), including email and phone, she can also get in touch with the Illinois IAS via their phone number or website, and if she gives the hotel phone number he can also call that. Probably two days to two weeks depending on a mix of bureaucracies and crises.

"I'm not sure our stay there lasts two weeks but I guess I can call if my contact info changes."

"I'll see what I can do," he says. "And - good luck."

"Thanks."

And she flies back to the hotel.

The hotel remains in existence!

Other shows that Xander has had the opportunity to see:

- Legal drama! The defense is claiming a supervillain made a duplicate of the accused and the duplicate was responsible, the prosecutor thinks this is obvious nonsense but is still trying to get the supervillain (in prison) to make a public statement that he didn't, which provides a great opportunity for intense stares between charismatic actors.

- History talking about WW1! No mention of superheroes whatsoever.

- More local news! The murder and arson rates have been high for the past couple months; one of their experts thinks that Mirror's ultimately responsible because she dramatically arrested a major crime boss and so there's a vacuum; one of their other experts thinks that's nonsense and the real problem is Novapest, everyone thinks the woman in the demon mask is bad news. (They don't bother to explain what Novapest is.)

- Weather report! It's expected to remain cool but clear for the next couple days, but there's a high risk of snow over the weekend.

Wow, WWI is different without magical girls.

He greets his sister when she returns, she tests spidersilk-ing (doable, not too miserable, when Xander checks her against an improvised inventory of magical girl point-accumulation signs the spinnerets are not too expensive provided they are small).

How long are they allowed to stay here again?

Three days minimum, more if it takes them longer than that to get them their green cards. Which it may well.

And they've done all the steps on their end for green card getting?

... Hopefully? Or, uh, if not, insofar as there are more paperwork to fill out or interviews or something someone will hopefully get in touch with them?

Honestly that's good enough for him.

Isabella, meanwhile, is going to go ask the front desk if they can point her to a pawn shop or maybe one of those WE BUY GOLD places.

Yeah, sure, no problem? WE BUY GOLD over thataways, here's a Google Maps printout.

Helpful. She flies to WE BUY GOLD to see if they will also BUY PEARLS.

They do, yes.

... She has wings. A quick calculation is made by the person at the counter. Does she appear to have an implausibly large number of implausibly high-quality pearls, all of them loose instead of already strung into necklaces?

"I haven't made them yet, I want to know if this is even worth it. I don't know what the pearl market is like around here."

He will name a price! It is much, much higher than the price she is used to! She can also tell pretty clearly that he doesn't think of it as high.

"So, on my planet, that would be very generous, because lots of people there can make pearls. On your planet, I suspect it is not generous at all."

"Maybe, but if you keep on making pearls, the market's gonna crash."

"I don't want to make pearls. It's uncomfortable. Making spidersilk will make me more money more pleasantly, but it requires a more specialized buyer and I want to be able to get on the internet sooner than that. This is quite plausibly the only time anybody on the planet will convince me to make customized genuine-nacre pearls in any color and size that strikes their fancy."

... He'll offer a somewhat higher price, and make some specifications on the upper end of what would've been plausible if he hadn't had someone magically wish them into existence.

And now on Isabella's arm is an oyster and she pries it open and pulls out his pearls for him.

Isabella now has more money than she did! And once she's been doing that for a bit, she has significantly more money than she did!

"Bleah," she says, shaking the oyster out of existence when she feels she's got enough of a slush fund. "Thanks, have fun with those."

He absolutely intends to.

... Well, with the money gotten from the resale, at least.

What's Isabella's next step?