Chapter 249: A Maze of Stalls

’Holy…’ Aether said, looking around. He hadn’t seen something like this before; it was new to him. The Marketplace in the Withred was closed, but this one was different.

Beyond the harbor, you found an outer market. The thing was, this place was massive, with hundreds of stalls.

Each one had four metal poles at each corner, and a square frame to hold them together. They weren’t big, but the sheer amount… if you wanted to walk, you had to walk between them; there was no other path.

A stretched canvas canopy set on top, and if he was asked to name all of the colors he was seeing at the moment, he wouldn’t be able to, the sun’s gaze went through, making all the colors fall down on them.

Every color was here, not a single one was left out.

These little market stalls had a table or wooden counter mostly, with crates and boxes stacked on it, under it, and around it, the merrier the better. That was probably the mindset in this place. The more they had, the more people would come.

He wouldn’t be surprised if some people got nauseous from this place, after all, with so many things going on, it wasn’t impossible.

It made him want to cover his ears; all he was screaming was vendors trying to sell their stuff, from maps and fish to even toys and wooden blades, which is unexpected. He wouldn’t have expected the guards to let them sell swords, no matter if they were real or not.

But I guess he was wrong.

Aether signalled to Kade to keep close to him; that way, they wouldn’t get separated. There were a lot of people in this place, and with everything going on, it was quite easy to lose each other, and he didn’t want to play hide and seek any time soon, especially in this place.

They didn’t know where they were going, and while he considered buying a map, he was against it because of the fact that they needed to keep as much money, so Aether decided to just try to find out the way out by himself.

But it wasn’t so easy; they had to cross street after street, go through narrow alleyways created by the markets, and even natural ones. It made him wonder just what the chances were of getting a sale with so many competitors.

He had also had to deactivate Eden, because it was too much to handle. Having most of his senses worked up wasn’t a good idea.

The color were messing up his eyes, the screaming and talking damaged his ears, the many smells overstimulated his nose, and so he didn’t want to have another being worked up, plus Eden would be really though to endure when so many people are here, sensing all of them would make him really tired, so it was defently a good idea to take it off for now.

As they were making their way, someone suddenly stopped them.

“Hello there, may I interest you in a map? You seem lost.” Aether gritted his teeth. The man had probably followed them, seeing that they had no idea where they were going and thought they were easy money, well, sadly for him. He wasn’t going to give him any money.

Aether hadn’t even said a word; he just shook his head and walked past the man, not giving him any attention.

It had been a compelling idea, to buy a map… but he didn’t want to. And he had reasons, just like before, the money, but now also because the man had angered him. Plus, it was stupid to buy a map for a trading location.

This thing was probably strategically placed here so that many people have to spend money when they have most of it, when it just arrived.

There was also the fact that he didn’t need a map… though it was true his method hadn’t been working that well until now.

After walking for a while, Aether reached a crossroad with two different roads that he could take; he had no idea where any of them led, and there was a chance that they might make him circle around, so it was important to pick the right one. But how would he know?

By asking a Lost of course.

In a dark corner where the light of the colors didn’t reach, a shadow was hiding, it was a lot harder to comunicate with it, since Kade was here with him and he didn’t want him knowing of his ability, since he didn’t think it was something that existed in this world, so he had to had to do so without talking.

The shadow also noticed him, so Aether smiled and pointed to the crossroad with his head… and it was embarrassing to say just how long it took the shadow to figure out what he was talking about. Really, he was an echo; he had thought that he had a stronger connection to them, and here he was.

Maybe it was just that this one specifically wasn’t that smart.

Now, an important part of this plan in this place was going exactly opposite to where the shadows said to go. You had to keep in mind that Lost are shadows that stayed after their masters died, and took after them, and since most of them probably belonged to dead merchants, they probably wanted to keep him here, so that he would buy stuff, which was why he had been going completely opposite of where they said to go.

And in the end, after a while, they were out of that maze.

Being met by the city of the Great Harbor.

From a distance, the city appears like a dense wall of rooftops, rising unevenly.

Most buildings were tall and narrow, usually of three floors, but some even had five or more; truly, a gigantic city, but now that he had crossed through the market zone, he knew they made a lot of money.

Land near the harbor is valuable, so the city grew upward.

The ground floors are made of stone blocks, thick and heavy. This protects them from moisture, storms, and flooding coming from the sea. But this is a necessity when you live so close to the sea and have a famous harbor, if not the most popular.

Above that, the upper floors are often timber-framed, with wooden beams visible across dark plaster walls. In richer streets, the entire building may be stone, as far as he could see, but timber construction dominated this place.

Many upper floors extend slightly over the street, supported by wooden beams. When several buildings do this across a narrow road, the street below feels shaded and enclosed.

Roofs are usually steep and tiled, made to resist the strong coastal winds that roll in from the sea. Chimneys rise from almost every roof, and ropes sometimes stretch between windows to dry cloth or fishing nets.

He was impressed… but he has seen better.

And it wasn’t his ego, really. Most readers see a lot of books in their lifetime, each with their own cities and rules, so you have to stop getting impressed by a bigger city.

Making their way to and through the city, Aether noticed that the streets were narrow and winding, not straight like he had expected. The city must have expanded over generations without a plan… it made him curious about the history of this place, how it was originally, and what its purpose was.

Stone paving covered the main roads, through smaller alleys, and it looked to still be rough cobble, though

There were also many watchtowers, which must mean that these guys took their security and safety seriously, really seriously. So he had to be careful not to do something stupid, since if he did, it wasn’t impossible for him to be thrown behind bars.

And just like Veyr, this place also had a library, a smith, and many others stuff, but of course the most important had to be the academy, to be specific, from what he saw, its name was the Tideward Academy, which was probably the place the guards graduated from, and where they learned to fight underwater… maybe he should join, and learn how to swim.

Since not knowing to… was definitely one of his biggest weaknesses.

But, he was searching for something more important than the academy or the other things he had noted, after all, he didn’t need a new blade or armor… maybe Kade needed some, but it wasn’t like he had the money either way.

The place he was searching for was an inn. After all, he didn’t know about Kade, but that little nap in the boat did not give him enough energy, and having to navigate through that maze did not help at all.

So that was why he had been so happy when he had found it.

Though… seeing the Inn did remind him of another place… one he had spent some time in when he was inside the Tides.

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