I had thought that I would be the first one to get distracted by a stall; however, it was Crisplet who insisted we stopped by hitting us all with a piece of coal, as he left the brazier when we passed a small, unassuming stand selling small statues of various creatures and people.
I personally couldn’t help but laugh, as the shop owner had no idea what to do with an ash elemental inspecting their goods.
“Any that you like?” I asked, as I knelt down to inspect them as well.
Crisplet let off a small burst of sparks as he pointed to a small metal statue that appeared to be a barn cat sleeping next to a fireplace.
“How much for this one?” I asked the man, who still hadn’t said anything, just staring at Crisplet.
“Uh… oh, uh, ten coppers, sir,” he said, stuttering.
Looking behind me at Jen and Liane, just to make sure I wasn’t being scammed, and seeing their grins before they nodded, I paid the man his ten coppers and took the little statue. I wasn’t really sure what Crisplet’s plan was for the statue, and I was sure he could have made his own. This was, however, the first time he had asked for anything, so who was I to say no?
Jen came over and offered to store it for Crisplet, getting a burst of sparks as Crisplet went back into the brazier.
“Smart companion you have there,” the store owner said.
“Very smart. Crisplet loves making statues himself, has a real talent,” I said proudly.
The store owner’s eyes went wide, clearly seeing Crisplet in a new light.
“So the cat and the fireplace?” the owner said, looking at Crisplet.
“One of his best friends is a cat, of sorts. Thanks a lot; we’d better get going. Lots to do,” I said, waving goodbye to the man.
Maybe one day we could show him one of Crisplet’s statues. I think he’d appreciate it.
But as we walked through the stalls at the market, my curiosity got the better of me.
“Where are we going? We’re passing lots of food stalls,” I asked curiously over the noise.
“Heading to the bulk sellers. That’s the only place you’ll get your salt and sugar. If we wait too long, they won’t have enough,” Jen said.
Nodding, we moved quickly through the crowd when finally a store caught my eye. He had two tables piled high, one with a fine grain, the other looked to be small white rocks.
Getting closer, I saw it was salt, only salt. Behind the two main tables appeared to be a selection of other salts that seemed to range through a variety of colours. I recognised the red and orange hue of the fire salt.
“Greetings! Welcome, looking to add some seasoning to that campfire meal?” an elderly man said as we approached.
I stepped forward. “Hello, I’m looking to buy a large amount of regular salt, if you have it.”
The man looked at me strangely, raising an eyebrow, and pointed to the table in front of him that had the sand-like salt on it.
“I mean, a lot more than that…” I chuckled.
“Son, that’s an entire barrel of salt,” he said, agitation showing on his face.
“Oh, in that case, five barrels of salt should do. Erm, actually, make it seven,” I said with a smile.
He stared at me for a moment, and it felt incredibly awkward. “Wait, you’re not kidding, are you?” he said.
“Uh, no? I might actually need more than that, but I don’t exactly know yet,” I responded.
“Right, three gold and fifty silver, then,” he said bluntly.
Looking at the table, I saw he was selling a bag for two coppers. I was not very good at maths, but I could buy thousands of bags of salt for that much money, so it felt like I was being ripped off.
“That’s too much,” I simply said.
“Well, you don’t have a wagon or your own barrels, so I need to pay for them too,” he said.
Jen spoke up. “We don’t need the barrels. You can deliver it to Lord Ashmoon’s residence and take the barrels with you.”
He looked stunned for a moment before he composed himself. “If you’re not requiring the barrels themselves, then seven barrels’ worth of salt will be fifty silver,” he said with a smile.
I just shook my head. “Still far too much.” With a market this size, I decided to take a gamble that Milo would be proud of, and looking back at Jen, said, “Are there other salt sellers around here?”
Jen didn’t even respond before the man spoke again. “Wa… wait, that includes the delivery fee, of course, but what’s say we make it twenty-five silver?”
After seeing a nod from Liane, who was smirking right now, I put my hand out to shake and make the deal.
Shaking my hand, the man asked, “My name is Salito, and you?”
“Trevor,” I responded, then, thinking about it, “Trevor Ashmoon.” What good was having a surname if I didn’t use it?
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I felt the grip on my hand tighten and the man’s eyes went wider. “Right you are. I shall have it delivered to your residence?” he asked, looking at the others.
I pulled out a small sack of coins, getting the twenty-five silver. “Yes, please. It’s in the upper noble district,” I said as I handed it over.
“Thank you, sir. I will have the guards show me the way. Thank you for your patronage,” he said, bowing now.
As I walked away from the shop, I was mostly confused. His whole demeanour had changed.
“You’re wondering why he went so cheap, aren’t you?” Liane said with a grin.
“Yeah, that, and why his whole demeanour changed,” I said curiously.
“He worked out you were either the lord of the house or the son of the lord. You’ll find he leaves the barrels regardless,” Liane laughed.
I felt bad about that, but I supposed if he did, I could come back and return them. I didn’t need the barrels once they were in my storage. Just one would be enough, but even Milo could make me something.
The woman selling sugar and grain flours was far easier to work with. She had several kinds of sugar: some that were brown, some that were white grains like sand, others that were incredibly fine powders, but she also had a variety of liquids.
In the end, I purchased two large sacks of regular sugar, then a small bag of powdered sugar and brown sugar, which both cost the equivalent of the giant sack each.
Then, for the liquids, I purchased a thick sugar-reed syrup. It looked a lot like my candy mixture when it was hot, and finally something that Liane was especially excited about: an item called sugar-sap. Apparently, it was a golden sugary liquid that came from trees.
“It’s especially good on pancakes!” Liane said excitedly.
After that, we didn’t have any real direction on where to go. A few things I wanted to try now, especially after the discovery of the red wine, were all the other products that failed back when I was testing with Geo, so I wanted to get different wines and different cheeses.
After discovering the wine could be used, I had decided I would retest everything. Either my skill had changed in what was allowed, or I stopped testing far too early. Only time would tell.
In addition to that, I wanted to get a variety of herbs for cooking, along with some fruit and vegetables. Luckily, there were dozens of shops to choose from.
In the end, I restocked on most of the most-used items, well, except the fruit. The winter was affecting stocks even here in the capital. I did, however, get plenty of citrus, as well as some other berries I’d not used before.
I also got some dried cooking herbs, which apparently were a blend of different ones, so I wasn’t entirely sure what was in it other than being told it was a herb blend.
Also, managing to haggle at every shop and to get good prices.
Finally, I was looking for a unique meat. I knew I had plenty in storage, but I wanted something different, and inspired by the fried tacos I had earlier that day, I found what I was looking for. Unfortunately, it was already butchered, but I found a store selling Draqish. The meat looked incredibly strange. It was a deep brown, almost black, and covering most of it was a thick cap of yellow fat, which seemed to be marbled throughout the meat itself.
It also appeared to be the skinned tail that was being sold and not the rest of the creature, but I purchased all five that the vendor had.
Finally, I was happy with everything I had, and the only thing left to do was lunch.
We’d barely taken ten steps from the stall when I noticed there was a bit of commotion not far away, as the crowd was seemingly parting for something. As it got closer, I saw it was an old man, flanked by four incredibly large and intimidating bodyguards who were clearing a path in the crowd.
Jen and Liane, spotting the same thing, tried to move us out of the path, but the man still came towards us.
Soon the crowd parted, and the group stepped forward. The old man was wearing an incredibly well-made turquoise robe that appeared to have leaves sewn onto it, made out of small emeralds. His long white beard came to his chest, and he was mostly bald.
“Ah, Lord Ashmoon, just the person I was looking to find,” he said, stepping forward.
At this stage, the crowd had backed off considerably, somehow clearing a large area around us.
I was about to respond when Jen stepped forward. “If you’d like to speak with him, you can request an appointment like everyone else.”
The man’s face turned ugly, and his words came out harsh and cold. “Quiet, girl. I am not speaking to you,” he spat.
“And I’m not speaking with you. Have a good day,” I said, turning away.
“Not so fast, boy. I am Lord Corin, the head of Valrith House, and I think you and I are going to be having a little chat,” he said, and I noticed his guards stepping forward.
I really felt this was a terrible idea for him to try something in the middle of a crowded market, but clearly sensing the threat, Crisplet left the brazier and rapidly grew in size. A powerful heat radiated from him, causing the guards to falter.
I also noticed that Liane, although she had not said anything, had withdrawn her own daggers.
He laughed. “I’m an alchemist, boy. I am not afraid of a little fire. Control your pet. Just come with me and we’ll have a little chat about your business dealings in this city. There are some rumours I need to verify, and then you can be on your way and play cook.”
The old man might not have been affected much by the fire, but his guards certainly were, as they didn’t get any closer. I also noticed that Liane had slipped something into her mouth.
I had also noticed by this stage that we had attracted the attention of guards in the market, who were pushing their way through the crowd to reach us.
Not wanting this to escalate much further, as I knew who would arrive next if she sensed I was in danger at all, and in a crowded place like this, it would not be good for everyone to have a pissed-off Lily arrive.
“No, Lord Corin. I will not be going with you anywhere, and it would be best you leave now before any innocent people get hurt,” I said.
He just scoffed. “I don’t care about them, and what are a couple of adventurers going to do, boy?”
Liane spoke up for the first time, daggers in hand. “You said you’ve heard rumours, yet you’re so foolish to ignore them all. You’ll follow the likes of House Falcone, House Havenel, and House Boltron.” She laughed coldly.
At this stage, the guards had made their way forward and seemed to be torn on whether or not they should approach, so they were creating more space by distancing the crowd.
Rather than argue any further, I just turned my back to him and started to walk away.
“Let’s go. If he’s foolish enough to try anything, Lily will deal with it,” I said loudly enough that everyone would hear.
As I was about five steps away, I heard, “This isn’t over, boy. I will see you at the dinner.”
I knew what I was about to say would be antagonistic, but I was feeling a bit upset and didn’t really care.
“No, you won’t. I will inform Marcus of this event, and either you won’t be there, or I won’t, and I suspect I know which house he’ll pick.”
I then walked away, hearing him yell something about using the king’s name and not even giving proper respect to the crown, but I didn’t care.
Crisplet never shrank in size and was clearing a path, shocking and frightening people as they hurriedly got out of the way. The guards made no attempt to stop us, with Jen behind me and Liane up front, guiding Crisplet.
Eventually, making it to the edge of the market and not seeing anyone following us, I asked Crisplet to shrink back down, while Jen went on the hunt to find us a carriage.
Liane came up next to me. “Nice job not backing down. It’s concerning they wanted to talk about business dealings and mentioned your cooking. They clearly know more than we gave them credit for,” she said.
Soon, a carriage pulled up, and as Jen opened the door to let us inside, we made our way back up to the inner noble district, where our own would be waiting.
It was an unexpected end to our trip to the marketplace.
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+ Market Purchases (click to expand)
- Crisplet - Statue of a cat and fireplace.
- 7x 130kg salt barrel
- 20kg sugar regular
- 2kg sugar powder
- 2kg brown sugar
- 10kg thick sugar-reed syrup
- 2kg Sugar-sap
- 5ltr Mulled red wine.
- 5ltr Sweet red wine.
- 5ltr Dry red wine.
- 2ltr Sweet white wine.
- 5ltr Dry white wine.
- 1 wheel Buvul Sharp cheese.
- 1kg cubed brined Grovul cheese.
- 1kg Buvul Stringy cheese.
- 10kg Onions
- 40kg Tubers.
- 10kg Sweet tubers.
- 16ea Marbled Tubers.
- 2kg Garlic Grass (20 bundles)
- 2kg Frost Cherry
- 1kg Ril Berry (sweet, purple, similar to blackberry)
- 5kg Apples
- 10kg Citus (similar in flavour to orange, more dense in flesh, and the size of a large grapefruit)
- 1kg Roe Nuts (Not actually nuts, they have a wooden shell that is spiky, but on the inside it has a soft white flesh, similar to lychee, not too sweet.)
- 5kg Bud Mushrooms. (small and firm, with a woody and earthy flavour.)
- 1kg of fresh Lemon-tea grass.
- 5kg Lemons.
- 2x 500gram Herb blend bag.