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Day 66, Season of Fall, 513 AV
Today Kit did not feel quite like haunting the Spot. Too much energy, too many people, and the last thing she wanted after skirting through the slave market with her head down to find the recipient of her next letter was to stand on a stage in front of curious eyes. Instead, she found her way to the people's market. The bustle had begun to change its tune, people visiting less frequently. Most of the rush came in the morning from people ready to grab their ingredients for the day or the week, leaving the evening crowd lazy sleepers and early workers, who only now had gotten a chance to come.
Kit perused their stock of foods and fruits; fish were the staple of Ravok, Kit had gathered, but still they had gathered things from other places. Exotic fruits and ingredients that were browsed mostly by well-dressed slaves. Slaves, Kit thought, that might have been looking for new foods to fill their master's kitchens. Kit overheard a price and ade a face; she could never afford them, not even one. A day's work earned her less!
But that did not mean she couldn't steal a taste.
In Alvadas as an urchin she might have just snatched something for a bite and ran like all the gods were on her tail, but Kit had learned a better way from her father. She focused on what she'd heard the vendor call app-ree-cots and drew a quick, inverted triangle over her mouth. Even the auras of simple objects were enough to confuse her, sometimes, so she needed something to guide its focus, to guide her senses to the part of the aura that she actually wanted to be. Mouth and tongue; taste.
Though she was standing half a dozen feet from them, Kit could taste it; the aura told her just so. Ionu loved variety; colors and tastes and smells. Kit had wondered why, but now she thought she knew; what more than experience provided the tools to make an enrapturing illusion. Kit licked her lips as she tasted the apricots . . . Not her favorite, too tart. She preferred sweet things.
Kit wandered about the market, cutting off her auristics as soon as she was done with the apricot; she had precious little stamina for this magic, and it was best saved for things she truly would like to taste. Apples, she saw,, and was curious enough to draw the triangle over her mouth and extend her taste; it was more mellow than they were in Alvadas, she thought! At least at this stand. Less kick.
The further she went on, the more Kit found herself rubbing at her eyes. She breathed in, counted, tried to find her mind at peace and view the auras again. The cashew; she tasted it and found the sweetness she'd been looking for, smiled and felt her toes curl in pleasure. She could sneak a piece of bread into her room and give it this taste every once and a while, Kit thought. It would be a good meal. The jerky tasted succulent; she could taste the fat as though it was on her tongue and it made her want. She indulged, marching up to the stand and offering a handful of mizas for a small piece of jerky.
She marched with it, tore it with her teeth and marched about the market some more—the texture, aaaah, how could she have forgotten that? It felt so good in her mouth—searching for something else to set her eyes on. She peered at the signs, rubbed her eyes, found the world startlingly fuzzy. Kit started, realizing then exactly what had happened.
Kit found her way out of the market, away from the people and the noise and fell back against the wall. She tore into her jerky and rubbed furiously at her eyes, cursing her carelessness. It had been maybe ten chimes, and she had been peering at auras for a fraction of that! She had thought it would be safe . . . But apparently not.
She waited there a while, breathing in, focusing, watching the world around her carefully. Details began to fade back in; the difference between the tiles of the roof, the details of a laughing girl's face, the curious texture of the ground beneath her . . . But it was not all back, not completely. "It'll get better," she told herself, hugging her arms close to her body and closing her eyes. "I didn't push that far!"
Kit only hoped that it was true.