The Foolhardies 19 Market Stree

The guards returned our weapons to us before they kicked us out of their panic-inducing room and out the front door of their station.

The sky above was still dark despite the brilliant glow of the golden moon that shown across the Fayne like a much lesser version of Mudgard's sun. Although it wasn't as strong as daylight the golden moon's glow at least kept some of the shadows at bay.

I mentioned shadows because I noticed how Luca and Varda still worried over our encounter with the salamander from Lover's Embrace. You could see this in the wary darting of their eyes against every shadowy surface.

"They won't jump us right after they set us free, you know?" I reasoned.

"That's exactly what they would like you to think, Dean," Varda countered with a shove at my back. "And when we least expect it," she slid a finger across her throat. "Boom. The end."

"Yeah," Luca nodded in agreement.

"You know what, Varda, you need to lighten up..." I grabbed her and Luca by the shoulders and steered them into the cobbled street heading deeper into the city, "Let's go shopping!"

Luca sighed. "You gave our unit funds to Aura to hold, remember?"

I smirked at him. "Don't worry about that. She and Edo will find us."

As I said this, two hooded forms—that of a slim female elf and a hulking half-ogre—walked out of a side street that was teeming with travelers.

We walked over to them feeling a little more relaxed.

"They let you out?" Edo asked. His eyes warily scanning the building we just left.

"Yup... They'll probably start tailing us from now on," I answered in feigned unconcernedness.

"You said," Luca started, but I cut him off with, "It doesn't matter if they follow us. So long as they don't stop us from doing what we came to do."

Aura frowned. "Doesn't that seem a little too reckless?"

"We're the Foolhardies... it's what we do." I winked at her. "But you should put on your mask just in case. It's better they assumed you were some rich elf maiden rather than know for sure that you're the princess of the Pavilion."

Edo grunted approvingly. "Yeah, especially if there are drow close by..."

The thought of drow being so close made Aura's brow creased. So she did as I asked and put on her golden half-mask. She pulled up her hood over her head as a further precaution.

It did very little to hide her ethereal-like beauty. Nothing seemed to be able to do that.

Luca smacked me lightly on the shoulder.

I glanced at him in annoyance. "What?"

"You were drooling," he whispered in my ear before grinning like an idiot and then walking away.

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"I was not!" I called to his back, but Luca ignored me. He and Varda had gone ahead.

At the corner of my eye, I saw several shadows move stealthily across the street opposite us.

"Edo," I nodded my head toward the opposite street. "Watch our backs."

Edo's eyes narrowed. "Want me to kill them now?"

"Um, no... that would give them just cause to attack," I reasoned. "There's more of them here than us... let's just wait and see what happens."

Edo grunted an acknowledgment.

Realizing that I was using us as bait, I turned to Aura and asked, "You okay with that?"

She shrugged. "We're partners. I trust you."

As she walked away, I gazed at her back with a weird, fluttering feeling in my chest.

"Let's go, Dean," Edo pushed me forward. "You can gawk at her later."

"I wasn't gawking," I grumbled as my eye glanced back at the shadows. Then I jogged after Edo and said, "I really wasn't!"

Together, the five of us made our way through the main cobbled street in search of the first item on our list, and that was gaining new equipment for the officers. This wasn't as easy as I thought it would go as there were just so many shops to explore once we'd hit the marketplace.

Much like a town square, the marketplace was a wide-open space just off to the right of the main cobbled street. From its stone-arched entrance in the east, it expanded out to the sides in a circular pattern of stone-cut mansions of varying sizes and colors. Vibrant shades of yellow and green and blues and oranges gave it a rather festive vibe. This fact was underscored by the dozens and dozens of stalls found all over the central grounds which sold items from everyday things like food and clothing and furniture to items a unit like ours would need such as weapons and armor and all manner of potions. Not to mention the variety of merchants visible in their stalls and shoppers roaming about the marketplace.

It had been a little over a month since I arrived in the Fayne, but as I was mostly in the company of the Trickster Pavilion's clan members, tonight was the first night I really saw just how diverse fairy society really was. From the pixies and griffins soaring above ground to the goblins and gnomes who shuffled their tiny feet across the sandy floor, it really was a whole new world.

It was Aura who dragged me out of my daze when she took my hand in hers, and with our fingers intertwined, she pulled me into the row of stalls in front of us while my cheeks blazed red.

The others followed us as we explored the marketplace, turning our heads at every shiny bauble that caught our attention and every seemingly worthwhile deal shouted out to us.

We'd only made past a few stalls and already Varda's hands grasped tightly onto two shopping bags full of magical components like slime cores, manticore venom, and C-grade fairy dust.

When Luca asked her if she really needed all that, Varda's response was, "There are two types of magicians, Luca... magicians like Aura who use magical relics to harness the arcane power inside them and magicians like me who use components like these," she showed him several strands of long lustrous white hair which she claimed came from a unicorn's tail, "to harness the arcane power of Mother Nature."

She gave him a long lecture on the benefits and cons of both styles while we walked among a row of food stalls but I wasn't much-paying attention as my eyes were more focused on the three stout city guardsmen trailing us. The orange tabards they wore didn't really help with their attempts to be stealthy.

"Edo," I called his name to make sure he noticed.

He nodded. "I see them. They know we can see them right?"

I shrugged. "Who knows? They don't look that smart."

At one point, I found myself standing in front of an arms merchant stall being manned by a curly, black-haired gnome with an eye-patch covering his right eye.

The gnome was showing off a gold-gilded longsword to a small crowd gathered outside his stall. The four-foot blade was so well made it looked like it was once a movie prop for Lord of the Rings, and the gnome held this blade aloft with hands attached to beefy brown arms that looked like they didn't belong to someone who stood shorter than the blade he carried.

"This here sword was forged by my old master, Silent Mildew, himself!" the gnome squeaked in a child-like tone that didn't betray his chubby, cherubic face.

"Silent Mildew?" I wondered aloud.

The gnome's one good eye turned to me. A frown showed on his face. "Silent Mildew was the greatest fairy smith of the previous age... how do you not know that, human?"

"I'm new here," I responded just as Aura dragged me away.

She seemed to want to go somewhere as she confidently zigged and zagged around narrow paths while dragging me along. Eventually, we found our way out of the central stall area and to the open space before the stone-cut mansions located furthest from the marketplace's entrance.

Luca, Edo, and Varda were waiting for us in front of a red building with colorful banners hanging from its stone-cut walls. Above its uncommonly large entrance was a sign that read THE RINGS OF FORTUNE AUCTION HOUSE.

"The Rings of Fortune... that's another fairy clan, right?" I asked Aura.

She nodded. "They're a merchant clan that's been neutral since the beginning of the empty throne... so they can trade almost anywhere in the Fayne."

"Doesn't mean they're friendly," I noted. "But I'm guessing our tail won't be able to follow us inside?"

"As I said, you're a smart guy, Dean," she smiled that brilliant smile of hers. "Still, they're the best place for us to get what we need."

"Alright then, lead the way," I bowed to Aura, "my lady."

Aura rolled her eyes before she linked her arm with mine and we followed the others into the auction house.

The interior of the auction house's entry hall was all red velvet curtains, satin upholstery, and gold fixtures—like the inside of some posh five-star hotel.

There were very few guests around and none of them looked as raggedly dressed like my friends and I. This is probably why they gave us disdainful looks complete with upturned noses.

"Don't mind them," a sultry voice whispered in my ear. "They don't know quality when they see it right in front of them."

Aura and I turned around to find a voluptuous figure standing behind us.

She wasn't wearing a breastplate anymore. In its place was a long red dress that hugged her curves, but the flaming red hair and the purple reptilian eyes were still the same.

"You're not very subtle..." I dragged Aura back with me. "are you?"

"Subtlety is for those boring people who don't have the guts to strut and show off who they really are." As she said this, the salamander's eyes turned to Aura as if hinting at knowing Aura's secret. "But, I'm not following you either."

She raised a sharp-nailed hand in a gesture of welcome.

"I am Kallista, Head Auctioneer of this wonderful establishment," she bowed slightly. "How might we serve the rising star of the Trickster's Pavilion?"

Chapter end