CHAPTER 95: FESTIVAL

The main market was both bigger and livelier than Calen expected, not to mention that the festival stretched into the surrounding alleys and streets.

It looked like most of the people living in mountainfall were here, as no one wanted to miss the only day in the year when they were allowed to do whatever they wanted.

Sylara disappeared somewhere right after the light show, whereas Geodor and Tina excused themselves citing different reasons for not attending - being too tired and having to oversee the festival respectively.

Their group was led by Alison and Maya, who definitely looked like they wanted to get some alone time.

"Here." Alison handed Calen a pouch full of coins. "I know you don’t have money so I asked Lady Sylara for some, so that you can enjoy the festival properly."

"And we’re going to leave you here to explore on your own." Maya added. *I suggest you pair up, as you’ll probably get split either way."

The blond guard waved and disappeared into the crowd, dragging Alison with her.

Alfred who was still with the four of them looked at the two very clearly defined pairs and scratched his neck.

"I’m going to get a drink, have fun." He turned away and marched towards the nearest source of alcohol.

"I’m kinda hungry, how about we look for something to eat?" Isara suggested.

"Sure." Calen agreed. "What about you guys?"

"I’m fine." Cassian shook his head.

"Maybe later." Elira said. "I think we’ll go look at the shops, Sylara said a lot of merchants save up their best wares for today."

"Alright, how about we meet back here in... two hours?" Calen proposed.

"Do you have any way of measuring that?" Cassian questioned.

"I do not."

"There will be a magic display at some point, we can meet right before it starts." Elira said.

"Cool." Calen nodded. "See you then."

Seconds later both pairs lost the sight of each other, blending with the crowd.

***

"I’m not going to lie the food choices are a bit... underwhelming." Calen chuckled. "It’s the same stuff they sell in tavern’s, just presenter differently."

Isara shrugged as she bit into her meat skewer.

"It still tastes good, and we can’t expect people in the middle of an apocalypse to have special dishes for a single annual celebration."

Calen eyes his already empty skewer and nodded - it was good, even if he was slightly concerned by the fact the vendor didn’t specify what kind of meat the dish was made of.

"Look!" Isara tugged him - making him remember that they were still holding hands.

It’s not that he minded, but it was a bit distracting, especially considering the circumstances.

He forced himself to ignore it and look at the thing she was pointing to:

A small stand with a really long queue - the reason for it? They were selling sweets.

"Well, I guess they do have some things reserved for the festival." He looked at her. "Do you want to get in line?"

Isara looked at the crowd of waiting people, and then nodded.

"We already eaten, worst case scenario we won’t reach the stand before the display or they sell out early."

While sweets were rather common before the invasion, they were rather expensive and only rich people could enjoy them on regular basis - or people like their master, who could just conjure anything out of thin air.

From what Calen observed, in the current times it was fairly difficult to get traditional sweets - there was plenty of stuff made with fruits, as those were rather abundant when you had a pseudo-god of nature as your leader, but things containing processed sugar were practically non existent.

Or so he thought, apparently they were just saved for the festival.

"This lack of sweets must be pretty painful for you." He commented.

"It’s not that bad, but going from eating cake every day to practically zero sugar was a bit of a shock to the system."

"I still don’t know how you managed to remain slim with your food intake."

"Are you sure you’re not talking about yourself?" Isara snorted. "I’m not the one who eats three times as much as a regular person."

"I exercise."

"So do I."

"I never even seen you run." He raised an eyebrow.

"It’s not my fault you don’t pay enough attention to me."

They continued bickering as they went down the line, slowly coming closer to the stand.

***

"Anything caught your eye?" Cassian asked as they strolled between the stalls of merchants offering various products.

"Not yet, I was hoping to find some more specialised alchemy equipment, but no luck so far." Elira looked at him. "Tell me if you see something that interests you though, Sylara gave us a lot of money so we might as well use it."

Cassian threw a cursory look at the stalls - there was nothing particularly interesting about any of them, just weird trinkets with a few basic magic items here and there.

Then he frowned - he saw something he wasn’t expecting.

"Found something you want to buy?"

"Not exactly." He shook his head. "But I would like to see one of the stalls."

The one he led them to was one of the largest in the market, and was filled with toys, charms and strange devices - but that wasn’t what interested Cassian.

He was interested in the merchant.

In the middle of it all, on a pile of soft cushions sat a man dressed in expensive clothes with bushy hair and beard, his fingers and ears adorned with countless rings.

"What are you doing here Piff?" Cassian crossed his arms.

The merchant whipped his head to see who called him by his name, and smiled upon seeing Cassian.

"Mr Alison’s friend! How nice to see you again!"

"Cassian." He supplied. "You didn’t answer my question."

"Why, I’m selling stuff of course, isn’t that what merchants do?" Piff laughed. "And who’s the fair lady with you?"

"I’m Elira." She smiled at the merchant. "How do you know him Cass?"

"He’s the-"

"I’d appreciate if you didn’t announce my second business to everyone in the vicinity." Piff interrupted him.

"He’s the guy we went to when I was on a mission with Alison." Cassian begrudgingly adjusted the description. "Which brings me back to my question, why are you here?"

"Believe it or not, the business you know me for is not my main source of income. I have a fully functional shop here in the city where I sell toys and trinkets."

"Is that how you gather intel from the city?"

"Not so loud." He hissed. "The shop makes it easier to come in contact with my... employees, but it actually came first, long before so even considered my ’side job’."

Cassian frowned.

"If you had a stable job here, why do what you do?"

"There was a niche someone had to fill - I decided that it would be better if I did rather than some random psycho from the Pit."

Cassian carefully studied the merchant for a y sign of lies, but either he was honest or far to skilled in bluffing.

"Now that you’ve thoroughly questioned me - do you want to buy something?"

"Both Alison and Maya called your wares junk, I think I’ll pass."

"Now hold on for just a moment." Puff held up his hands. "My merchandise back there might be slightly... experimental, but in terms of goods sold here I’m a reputable seller, ask anyone."

"What would we even buy from you? It’s not like we need toys or trinkets."

"But you could probably use a charm or two." He pointed at a large wooden board where dozens of small stones covered in intricate carvings laid. "We have quite a lot of them, and each has a handy description - please don’t hesitate to peruse our collection!"

Cassian approached the board and started reading the small names and descriptions, squinting to decipher some of them.

It was an interesting mix of fairly popular effects like the Featherlight charm, with very strange stuff like making a surface perpetualy damp.

To tell the truth, Cassian meant to get a charm or two for his armour even before, but he couldn’t choose a suitable one and eventually forgot all about it.

In the end he narrowed his choices to three specific charms: a cleaning charm that could instantly clean and polish an entire suit of armour, a night vision one which did what it said on the tin, and one that could regulate the air temperature around it.

His armour could accommodate only two charms so he had to discard one more - ultimately he decided against the cleaning one, as he could still do that himself unlike the other two.

"Anything you want?" He asked Elira.

"Since you have a lot of trinkets, do you have any alchemist equipment?"

"I’m afraid not, but I think you might find something further in the alley." Piff suggested. "Although you probably should wait with that if you want to see the magic display - it’s about to start."

Which meant it was time to reconvene with the rest of the group.