It turned out finding the shopkeeper she wanted wasn’t as straightforward as she had been led to believe.

She had strolled back down to the Bazaar and no one had paid her any attention. That was to her liking as it gave her time to observe without any pressure. A cart that wasn’t being pulled by any animal or creature had almost run her over. At first, she thought it had somehow gotten loose and was flying down the street, but it kept going even as it reached the bottom and rounded a corner.

A car?

It had been totally silent, but somehow steering was obviously built-in, and she wondered if it was powered by magic. It hadn’t looked anything like a car though, more like an oversized wagon that would have been better served being pulled by animals.

The encounter left her with the realization she needed to keep her mind open about what was possible and what wasn’t when there was magic involved.

The market was still bustling, but as she finally reached it she realized she had made a mistake. She’d forgotten to ask about the stupid stone... thing that told time and could call the guards.

‘Oh god, I’m so stupid, how could I forget about something so important?’

She didn’t even remember the name that Marcus had called it, so asking someone random was going to be a challenge... if she even dared to bother someone.

The thought of asking a random stranger was worrying and she looked up and scanned the crowd of moving faces. Everyone seemed to have a place to be or a purpose, and it just exacerbated the feeling of disconnection she had from all of them as well as the feeling of someone watching and examining her every move. She identified that last as anxiety, something she had always struggled with, and did her best to squash it the way she normally did. She made a plan.

Elania took a deep breath and looked at several of the bazaar stalls from afar before taking a determined step forward into the chaotic chatter of the market. She didn’t make it more than a few stalls into the mass of temporary merchant stalls before hawkers were trying to drag her attention to their wares.

Jewelry, fabrics, pottery, furniture, and even polished knives were just a few of the initial offers presented to her by eager sellers, undeterred by her disinterest and quickly moving to target the next shopper passing by.

It was fabric that finally caught Elania’s attention. Not the lengths of untailored fabric offered to her earlier, but clean looking cloth in the form of new clothes. She could even detect the fresh scent of linen, or something very close to it as she stepped closer.

The stall was manned by a young man who looked almost Arabic in origin to her with a browned complexion and black hair to go with it, although from the huge mix in the market that didn’t seem to mean anything.

He looked bored and unlike many of the others he wasn’t bothering to actively try to pull in customers and didn’t even notice her approach the stall so Elania decided to examine things herself.

She immediately spotted a few things that she really needed, several pairs of small clothes, a non-descript and probably cheap tunic and pair of trousers. She squeezed her toes that were basically glued to the simple cloth wraps she’d used as footwear. Maybe she should have looked for someone selling the sandals that she had noticed the city people seemed to favor.

A sudden shout from inside the stall had her look up in surprise. An old man was glaring at the younger and pointed to her before disappearing behind a divider. Elania wondered if it was a family business as the young man hurried over to assist her. She felt slightly nervous and avoided looking him directly in the eye, instead focusing on the merchandise.

“I need a set of small clothes for sure, and a pair of trousers and shirt. Do you have any sandals, the ones most people are wearing?”

He didn’t answer immediately, instead he gaped at her in shock and Elania felt a worried twist in her gut. If this was how the very first person she talked to reacted to her being demon then how possibly was she going to...

“Of course, Mahlessi. Grandfather has many pair to choose from on the other side of the stall. If you’d like to select what you like, I’ll grab a pair of Sassani for you.”

“Ok,” Elania responded quickly, but as he turned away she realized he hadn’t been surprised by her race. She wasn’t sure how she could tell, but she was sure they had been speaking in an entirely different language. What was a little shocking was she spoke to him in the different language before he even spoke... unless it was whatever the older man – his grandfather --- had yelled that prompted the change?

Sassani were obviously the sandals, and she guessed that Mahlessi was a polite title of some kind. Elania hoped he wouldn’t start calling her something else when he learned she had no money to pay for anything with.

Now she felt bad, he was getting up and getting her something, and she hadn’t actually intended to buy anything just yet. She wasn’t even sure exactly how much she should be paying. She had just wanted to point the things she wanted out, and then ask where she could find an artificer so she could come back and buy them. That plan seemed to make sense in her head as a good way to get a fair answer.

The young man returned and she asked right away, “I don’t actually have the money to buy the things on me right now, I need to find an artificer, can you point me to one so I can come back and buy the clothes?”

The half cheer on his face turned into a frozen polite stare she knew was the normal look of an annoyed service person dealing with some entitled customer. She hated to be that person, but after a moment of silence he started clipping off some directions for her in a hurry. She had to ask him to slow down and for some clarifications because she wasn’t familiar with the area at all, but eventually thought she had a good idea of where to go.

“Once you find one, you’ll find a whole row of them.”

“Thank you, and if you keep those things set aside, I’ll be back to get them!”

He nodded, but she could tell that he did not exactly seem to believe her. Well, she would once she had the money, she really needed a new outfit. Or two. They hadn’t agreed to a price, maybe she’d be able to get a few changes which would be great. That made her wonder about how they did laundry, and she suddenly had a trepidation that she’d have to wash everything by hand.

What were those tubs that wild west women were always shown using to clean things? She didn’t even know the name, much less how to use anything other than a washing machine and dryer.

‘Let’s not get ahead of myself, I don’t have any money or new clothes yet.’

She took off and hurried through the market, the bustle was still there and a few times she found herself slowing down just to look at the stranger looking assortments. There was one booth that was full of pottery that was all shaped like snakes. That was pretty neat. She wasn’t sure how practical it was, but it looked cool, and so did other people apparently, because the seller had all kinds of customers.

Then there were the sellers who had little more than small blankets on the ground with an assortment of things laid out. They reminded her of Paris, and the sellers who had all kinds of little Eiffel towers who’d try to trick you into buying an overpriced souvenir.

A few even started to try and stop her to look at their wares, but somehow she managed to stop them without having to say anything with just a look. That was the biggest confirmation to her that she was definitely still a scary ‘bad’ demon.

Elania was feeling as if the monks and Marcus had quite exaggerated some of the stories of her status and prospects in the city. She wouldn’t exactly say they had lied, but she wasn’t exactly being hunted down by soldiers or captured and locked up after Tanyan had dissolved the contract.

She was almost out of the market, having walked the entire length almost, although barely scratching the real depth of the place. Someone wanting to browse randomly could have wasted an entire day or two there exploring everything. Elania just wanted to get through and sell the ‘Monster Core’ and then get a room and maybe an outfit of clothes or two. Thankfully, she didn’t even need to worry about finding food, too. That simplification of logistics would help.

A woman with a child in tow came around the corner at the same time Elania did. The other woman was looking down and yelling at the kid while hurrying and almost ran into her. A curse erupted when the mother did notice her, which turned into a high-pitched scream as she jumped backwards and away, tripping over her own child and falling onto the ground.

Elania’s mouth widened in surprise as the woman pointed at her and shrieked even louder. The small boy added his own hysterical cries to the mix. Elania realized everyone nearby had stopped what they were doing and was staring at them, two soldiers in uniform had clubs out and were hurrying over as well.