Ming glanced up from her bowl the moment Malissa said the word ‘auction’.

“I second that,” Ming said. “I like wasting money, and the guild still owes us money from Greenridge. There’s no point letting it burn a hole in our pockets.”

“That could be a good idea,” Arek conceded. “I’ll admit that I have no desire to remain cooped up any longer. I would very much like to check out what rare ingredients the auction has.”

Belmont crossed his arms and let out an exasperated sigh.

“Fine. We’ll have to keep a very close eye on both Ming and Arek, though. Until we know what happened to them, we must be wary of everything. For that matter, Malissa, both of us need to be aware as well. We could be compromised and not even know it. There’s no reason for the energy to only have affected Arek and Ming.”

“We’ll be careful,” Malissa promised.

With their course decided, the Happy Sunflowers left the adventurer’s guild. The gaze of more than one adventurer followed them.

It had been several years since the Happy Sunflowers had visited the auction house. Luckily, the city had a vested interest in leading travelers to it. Riverfall taxed every item sold in the auction, so there was no shortage of signs pointing the group in the right direction.

They traveled towards the north side of the city, passing through the endless rows of identical buildings for several minutes. The road was quite well traveled and lined with a multitude of shops hoping to draw the attention of adventurers headed to or from the auction house.

The road expanded as it merged with several other paths. Beautiful green shrubbery and multicolored flowers of all sorts lined the path. The farther they got, the more extravagant the greenery grew.

At the end of the path was the auction house. However, it was anything but a simple house. Huge would have been inadequate to describe it. The massive grey building easily stood six stories high. It strongly resembled a colosseum. There were large, open windows on the bottom three levels, while the top three were closed off.

There was a single massive doorway with the doors swung wide open. Huge marble carvings flanked it. A large crowd had gathered before two heavily armored guards who were blocking the entrance.

“Is something going on?” Malissa wondered as they joined the crowd of waiting people. “I don’t remember them regulating if people could enter.”

A bald man with a curly beard glanced in their direction.

“They announced that a rare weapon was going to be sold today,” the man said. “When big stuff like that goes for sale, it draws a lot of people to the auction. That brings out more sellers, so it’s a self-feeding loop. If you guys haven’t been to a big auction before, you’re in for quite the treat. Us small fry have no chance at getting the rarest stuff, but who knows. We might be able to get our hands on a cool little knickknack.”

Malissa thanked him. The crowd seemed to be growing rowdier by the second. People and shoved against eachother, each vying for a better view of the auction house entrance. One person bumped into Arek and his illusion flickered for an instant before snapping back into place. Luckily, everyone was so busy trying to see into the colosseum that nobody noticed it.

“I hope the crowd starts moving soon,” Arek said to Malissa, leaning close so he wouldn’t have to yell over the din. “My illusion isn’t going to hold up to dozens of people constantly bumping into me.”

“We’ll leave if it doesn’t,” Malissa promised. “Unless you think we should leave immidiately?”

The crowd surged forward abruptly. The unstoppable tide of flesh picked the Happy Sunflowers up and forced them towards the auction house.

“It’ll be fine!” Arek yelled. There was no way to communicate quietly at this point. The only person who had any space around him was Belmont, and that was only because anyone foolish enough to press against him got impaled on his spiny armor.

“What’ll be okay?” Belmont called.

Someone bumped into Arek and the illusion flickered again. Belmont’s brow lowered and his lips thinned.

“Ah,” Belmont said. “That.”

The armored man stepped in front of Arek, forcing the crowds back with a pink shield. Several people shot nasty looks in their direction, but they quickly diverted their gazes when they met Malissa or Belmont’s eyes.

“Is it really wise to irritate people like this?” Arek asked, breathing slightly easier now that there weren’t people squishing against him from every direction.

“It doesn’t matter,” Ming piped up. She’d stuck behind Belmont the entire time, completely avoiding the mulling crowd. That was probably for the best, as the first person to run into her would have probably squished the small mage.

“Ming is right,” Malissa said. “The heavy hitters are already in the auction house. Only the small fry like us have to wade through the crowd to get inside. Besides, it’s not like we’re intentionally antagonizing people. They’re the ones trying to push into us.”

“Fair enough,” Arek agreed.

They huddled around Belmont and his protective shields, slowly making their way through the crowd towards the entrance. It took nearly ten minutes just to reach the doors. The guards were allowing a thin stream of people in at a constant rate.

A thin man watching from the sidelines dashed forward, muscling past the crowd. He darted behind the guard and tried to leap through the doors. An invisible force knocked him out of the air. He shot backwards several feet, crumpling to the ground with a cry of pain.Nobody seemed particularly sympathetic towards him. A few people even jeered.

“I see they take their security quite seriously,” Arek observed.

“They wouldn’t be able to sell anything of value if they didn’t,” Belmont said.

“I bet they’ve got a bunch of really tasty food,” Ming said dreamily.

“Don’t get any ideas. You’re welcome to bid with your share of money, but if you don’t win, we’re not getting into another fight, you hear me?” Malissa said, glaring at the small mage.

Ming waved her hand dismissively. Malissa frowned, but they’d reach the front of the crowd. Even with Belmont’s shields keeping people back, holding the horde of people back would be a death sentence.

The four of them approached the doors. Arek could feel the eyes of the guards boring into him. Somehow, he knew for a fact that the two men had completely seen past the disguise. For an uncomfortably long second, the guards turned to watch the Happy Sunflowers enter the auction house.

Then the crowd surged forward once again. The guards turned back and the Happy Sunflowers slipped away into the much more peaceful innards of the colosseum.