Theanore came back from her outing in the forest of plenty section with a full bag of sweets and a wide grin. But, then, she stopped and stared. Merchants were painting their stands and were tying silk ribbons on them.

The day was over and so all stalls had to be closed. Yet, her own were still working. One old lady pushed a ribbon towards her and pointed at an unadorned corner of her candied apples stall.

“Thea, you make a pretty bow at this column now. The prettiest you can manage,” the kind lady, then turned to her apples which she was arraying in the shape of animals.

“Granny, what is all this?” Theanore was confused as to why this was all necessary. Sure, the stands in the forest of plenty were much more colorful, but she doubted that mattered all that much. After all, the quality of the wares should be enough of a marketing trick.

“Your merman shined some light on us. We will never win if we treat this fair like a Friday market, little lady. Now, the bow!” Commanded the woman as she finished making a cat with candied apples.

Theanore went and tied a bow as good as she could, but it was a little crocked. She tried to right the silk, but the granny stopped her.

“I’ll tell the customers tomorrow that you tied it. That would get me many sales. You are much loved, little Thea. Now, off with you,” the granny saw Theanore eyeing the apples and with a bright smile, handed her a plate with four.

Theanore took the apples and then went searching for Marinus, Mary, and Archibald. She found them soon after drawing pictures on a stand selling books. There were classics like Zippy the elf, but there were also enchanting books and self-help books.

“I bring snacks,” Theanore placed the plate on the ground and then took up a brush. She then proceeded to paint a grape vine on one of the columns. “Mari, what is this all about?”

“We won’t win with plain stands, Thea. Furthermore, we need a discount campaign. But the merchants prefer not to listen to me.”

Well, they stood to lose a lot if they were made to do discounts. But maybe Theanore could forego her share of each sale? Then they could place that percentage towards the discount.

“What percent of a discount do you have in mind?” Theanore expected something reasonable, like ten percent, but then Marinus surprised her.

“Fifty percent, the same as the campaign on Alerion. You were in the side of the forest of plenty. What type of discount did they have?” Marinus hoped that Theanore hadn’t just gone on a buying frenzy when she was over there doing reconnaissance.

“They don’t have discounts, but they have this thing called buy two, get a third free. I got a lot of candy this way!” Proclaimed Theanore happily.

Archibald looked at her bulky bag and reached inside and took two bonbons out. He gave one to Mary and quickly unwrapped his own.

“Archie, you shouldn’t take other people’s belongings,” chastised Marinus. Archibald didn’t respond. He was too busy chewing the taffy bonbon. Mary turned around the candy and marveled at the wrapper. It was beige and had small hand drawled teddy bears on it.

“They have thought even of the smallest details,” said the peach nymph. Compared to that, their one-color wrappers were shabby. Even if the candy inside was good.

“There is nothing we can do about candy wrappers now,” said Marinus. He snatched Archibald’s hand when he was reaching into Theanore’s bag again and gave his behind a light swat.

“Stop that, Archie. That is stealing!” Archibald pouted and turned his head away.

“I bought everything to share with all of you. Here, Archie, have one more bonbon,” Theanore handed the pouting boy a brightly wrapped jelly bonbon, and he immediately brightened up.

Then she handed Mary a caramel candy that was in a see-through wrapper, but was expertly done with streaks of white and yellow in the shape of a flower. Marinus frowned at the lack of discipline Theanore was nurturing.

“We need a sterner hand with them,” he spoke, but Theanore just smiled at him.

“I remember someone who just swam into another person’s home and ate their friends. Now, who was that? The name started with an M…” Theanore, Mary and Archibald turned to stare at Marinus, and he smiled sheepishly.

“Maybe I don’t want him to behave like I have?” Suggested Marinus. He looked at the stand. The drawings were pretty, but there was no rhyme nor reason about them.

Archibald was drawing beach balls and bicycles. Mary various mobs. Marinus drew fish and Theanore was drawing her vine. It was obviously the work of children.

Wait, that was it! He knew how to tug at the buyer’s heartstrings! The Apple Grotto was an orphanage as well as a dungeon. He could use the cuteness of children to promote their wares!

“Thea, go gather the children. They need to paint every stall. Even the cobbled road, you hear. Have them use colored chalk.”

Theanore nodded, and she left her vine half-done, reaching to the middle of the column, and stood up and rushed to collect the children of the grotto. Marinus turned to Mary next.

“Since your mother and I don’t have any more mana today with all the moving through the teleport we needed to do, it is up to you to plant flowers on the side of the road. The more brightly colored ones, the better. Go to the merchant treasurer and tell him to go to the bank and get you a million gold coins from my account.”

Mary jumped up, overjoyed to have this much mana to her regen so young, and rushed to do as told with only a nod to her father. Then, Marinus turned to Archibald.

“Archie, you are to stay and paint. I have to go help Thea gather the children. Granny Kate will look after you,” the merman nodded to the merchant lady who was reading a book. Archibald turned to her and tugged her skirt. Soon, she was reading out loud something the boy found perplexing. Of a dungeon core that had traps and lured adventurers in their caves.