[The Seaside Market] Looking the part.

by **Edreina** on December 28th, 2013, 11:18 pm

14th of Winter, 513AV
Midday
The Seaside Market

"Only five silvers? You've got to be kidding me. It's worth at least twice that! Look at this color!" Edreina groaned, holding her cloak up once again. As much as she had hated to admit it, the bright blue fabric marked her out and made her an easy target in this overall shyke-colored city.

"I see the color, I may be old but I'm na daft, silly woman," the vendor said without looking up from her knitting. "No one around here would buy it. I'd have to wait until I reached the next port." The annoyance seemed even more prevalent in Fratavan, as did any emotion, and Edreina shrunk back reflexively. Elder women's rulings were not taken lightly by any Svefra, even one as odd as the flame-maned lass who had decided to travel the lands with a Myrian lover.

If she did not just take the offer, she would lose it entirely and have to go back to wading through the sea of tents and carts and vendors. The woman seemed to specialize in cloaks, capes, cowls and all of that sort, exactly what Edreina needed as Winter started to truly kick in. Weather this cold was not something Edreina was used to; the Suvan tended to keep temperatures stable, for the most part.

"How about... I'll trade you my cloak for..." Her eyes roamed the haphazard racks until settling on a warm looking cloak of a dark tan color. Her hand raised to point it out, "That one."

The woman swiveled and shook her head immediately. "That one is llama wool, dear." At the vacant look in the younger woman's eyes, the older sighed and offered a brief explanation, "Llama wool is stronger, lighter, and warmer than a sheep's. It's more valuable. That one there would run you about..." A wizened hand rose and she scratched behind her ear with one of the knitting needles. "I'd sell it to you for six gold Mizas flat. And that is a good deal."

"How do I know? I don't even know what a llama is, if we're being frank. How can I be sure you're not swindling me?"

Grayer eyes narrowed and the woman leaned forward, shaking her needles and the infant scarf in obvious disdain. "I tell you its a good deal and I mean it. Don get smart with me, missy."

Instinct took over and Edreina bowed her head lightly before nodding to herself. She may have been better off than ever before in her life, but she did not plan on that changing due to complacency. A little haggling did a Svefra soul good. "I'll give you my cloak and buy that one for four gold." Even a novice negotiator knew you never started where you want to end up.

"Not gonna happen. Five gold and five silver, and the cloak is yours." There was iron in the woman's eyes, and Edreina immediately knew she was more than outclassed. This woman had probably been selling in the world's markets for longer than her mother had been alive.

"How well do you know this market?" The red-haired woman asked abruptly, shifting her weight to the side as she changed tact.

"Well enough to know that setting up here would bring lasses like you to me first," she replied with a slightly smug smile, needles resuming their earlier clacking.

"I'll pay you the five and five if you'll help me find what else I need. You and I both know that wandering about for too long will only land me in trouble." When the woman looked up to meet her eyes, Djed flared to life in the silvery blue pools. As subtly as she could manage, Edreina wanted the woman to feel a bit of sympathy for her, to remind her of her position as a matron sitting before a young woman in need of help.

Immediately, the woman before her softened slightly and muttered in a sharp, foreign tongue that sounded like a bird to Edreina. "You remind me of my daughter, so sharp... It's a deal."

Grinning, Edreina did not hesitate to feel out the needed coin, placing them in the woman's chair as she rose to fetch the new cloak. With the transaction of goods completed, Edreina moved on to a request for information.

by **Edreina** on December 29th, 2013, 1:07 am

"Mmh... Leather goods and weapons, you say?" The old woman said thoughtfully, lips quirking. "Up three rows is a man and his son, they go by John and Johnson; creative, I know. They sell well made leather bits but for weapons... You're not going to want to shop around here. There is a place in the city called the Knight's Armors, or something of that like. As far as Sunberth goes, it's a good place."

Nodding to herself, Edreina threw the cloak about her shoulders and was immediately comforted by its warmth. Mud was leaking into her boots, and one of her feet had gone numb so, alongside a need to replace two pairs of pants, she needed shoes terribly. So, with haste she left the elder woman and wove her way in the direction of the woman's final point, seeking, and finally finding, John and Johnson.

From the look of them, the Johns were native Sunberthians through and through and this market was their normal place. A ramshackle wooden deck kept their goods out of the mud and the gentle strumming of a lute wafted from the vicinity of the tented shop.

Amidst all of the anger and violence and chaos of the city, a father and son eked out a living. Both were brutally scarred from their lives, but seemed content as Edreina approached. John was well into the age of fatherhood and his son towered despite being only a teenager.

The instant she strode from the muck to the wood, Johnson stopped playing the lute to look up her with a thoughtful, curious smile and John rose from his chair, running all three fingers through his peppered hair. "Welcome, milady. What can we do for you today?"

"She needs boots, pa," Johnson said quietly, already rising and making his way to an asymmetric pyramid of boots and shoes and sandals of all kinds. It was then that Edreina realized just how out of sorts their little shop was. Things had been sorted through, shuffled, and tossed.

"Pardon the mess," John said almost sheepishly. "Robern's men decided to rough us up, a bit." An awkward silence followed in which Edreina shifted, wondering what sort of response was proper. "Sorry. Our problems are not yours. I just talk too much, it's what gets us into these-" The older man cut himself off and shook his head, revealing a broad, hairless scar on the side of his head. In the nick of time, it seemed, Johnson returned to them with a pair of boots.

"They look to be your size," he said simply, offering them without meeting her eyes. There was something about him that caught Edreina's curiosity, and she took the boots with a cocked head. "Try them on and then you can buy them. Anything else?"

"I need two pairs of pants..." A chair was brought over and Edreina nodded thankfully to John as Johnson strode off in search of the right piece of leather within the mess.

Surprisingly, the boots fit perfectly and Edreina had nearly forgotten what it felt like for her feet to be warm and entirely enclosed. "These are perfect," she murmured, and was not surprised to see a light of pride flash in John's eyes.

"I do my best, ma'am..." After a breath he squared himself and crossed his arms over his chest. "You're not from around here, are you?"

Edreina stiffened and her heart thundered in her ears.

"Whoa, lass, don't worry. I'm just... curious." His hands came up defensively, and he smiled ever so slightly. "Though I am pleased I can make a hardened mercenary such as yourself worry for her safety." He rumbled deep in his chest and Edreina was sure that was as close to a laugh as she would ever get from a Sunberthian.

"You're right. I'm from the Suvan." The waves adorning her shoulder shifted with a mixture of pride, longing, and remorse. "And after that Syliras, and most recently Zeltiva."

"Zeltiva? How..." He swallowed hard, as if Edreina had not already heard the surge of hope in his voice. "How did you get here?"

"I traveled with my kin, the Svefra of the Outer Ocean," she said quietly, eyes narrowing slightly. Why would he want to hide his curiosity about that?

Disappointment crossed the elder man's features but dissipated just as quickly, as if he were used to such a thing.

"Why did you ask?" There was hesitance in the old man's eyes and she saw him flick a glance at his still-rifling son. "I'm not from around here... You can trust me..." The Djed dancing in her eyes assured him of that much.

John relaxed and ran a hand over his mouth, straightening his broom-like mustache and short-cropped beard. "My son and I... we've been saving for passage to Zeltiva... But, every time we start to save enough, someone finds out and comes to rob us and teach us a lesson." He sighed and Edreina realized that straightening his facial hair was a sign of discomfort as he did it again. "I have been able to survive and even thrive here but my son... After his mother's death he hasn't been quite the same. He's taken my lessons on being observant and all but retreated into himself. I want to take him away from here before he breaks and I lose him too."

The Svefra's heart twinged oddly, and she leaned closer, voice low. "How much product do you think you have here?" The vendor shrugged and gave off a rough estimate, giving Edreina a bit of hope. "Tomorrow, a ship by the name of the Calypso will be heading back to Zeltiva. I traveled on it, and it is helmed by my kin of the Greenrise pod. If you go there before the tide changes, with as much as you can carry, they will exchange passage for goods to be sold."

There were no words to describe the hope that surged forth in his eyes. But, a lifetime of pain and disappointment dampened his response and a logical restrained colored his words. "How can you be sure?"

"Fetch me a piece of parchment or leather and a charcoal stick." Edreina commanded, boots and pants forgotten.

by **Edreina** on December 29th, 2013, 1:46 am

"This..." she murmured, tracing the final line on a lighter piece of leather, "is a symbol among my people that marks a non-Svefra as a friend of a particular pod, Whitewave in my case. Usually it is given to repay a debt but, in this case, it is given in a time of need..." Her smile was gentle and genuine; the delicate hope growing stronger and stronger in John's eyes affirmed the rightness of what she had done.

"How can I ever-"

"You can't and you won't. This is not for you to repay, only remember. When you make it to Zeltiva, do not forget that it was hardship and kindess that brought you there." As if to punctuate the finality of it, Johnson returned just as John was tucking away the black sigil into his vest.

The pants, of course, fit perfectly and so did the two leather vests he suggested to wear over her linen bindings. As John started to tally up her total, she palmed him the last of her purse, taking an empty one from his table with a wink. "May you have a blessed start in Zeltiva..." she whispered, nodding gently.

"I... Cannot thank you enough." It was not her imagination: John's throat had grown thick with emotion.

As she strode away, in search of a way to escape the tent city and return to her shared lodgings in order to replenish her purse and set out in search of a place to purchase a proper weapon, a satisfied smile claimed her lips. She was a firm believer in getting the best out of the world only if you did your best for others and she felt the black mark on her palm warm ever so slightly.

Receipt-76 GM

by **Vanari** on February 1st, 2014, 10:24 am

Edreina

Bartering	+1 XP
Negotiation	+1 XP
Leadership	+1 XP
Rhetoric	+1 XP
Drawing	+1 XP

Lores :

Loot :

Notes :

Solo [The Seaside Market] Looking the part.