After our stop at the bank, we left the upper district and made our way to the largest market of the city, my pouches now much lighter and containing only a few dozen silver coins and a couple gold coins.

The market itself was held every day in one of the largest squares. Countless merchants sold their wares from stalls or from simple carpets where they displayed their goods. Being mid morning, it was bustling with activity and people of all races were present.

We decided to have a bit of a tour, starting on one side of the market and looking at the stalls as we walked through it. The stalls seemed to have no real order to them, merchants who sold clothes were next to pot sellers, wood carvers sat next to food vendors, and variety was the keyword of the market.

We hadn't even managed to go through the first line of stalls that I had already bought a few sheep meat skewers for both me and Arvia, which she made me order myself, helping where it was needed, so that I could exercise with the language.

The next stall that had me stop to look was one that sold furs and leathers. I was in some real need for more clothing, Denzel had provided me with some cotton clothes, but they were really just rags to wear at home while I made my furs air out a bit. When I told Arvia I wanted to stop to take a look, she asked me why I didn't just buy normal clothing. The question made me freeze for a second, as I hadn't even entertained the idea. I looked around me, seeing the clothes that the people mingling about were wearing. Despite the fact that they weren't too different from clothes I used to wear in my previous life, somehow, imagining myself wearing them now just felt wrong.

I told her that I preferred the way I dressed and got to examining the wares on display. There was all kind of stuff, from leather strips to whole animal furs. The merchant selling them was also kind enough to tell me that he could cut larger pieces to size on the spot. I took him up on his offer and bought three sets of top and short skirt, two made of leather, one dark brown and one grey, and one made with the fur of a sandy brown wolf. In all, it all cost me just shy of a gold coin, and he added in a hemp sack to store them while I went on with my shopping as a freebie.

The next stall I stopped at was that of a woman who sold tiny wooden shapes and essential oils to wet those small bits to use as ambient perfume. I decided to buy two wooden pyramids, so that I could set them on the table without them risking to roll somewhere like the apparently much more popular spheres, plus a small flask of pine oil to pour on them.

Every time we stopped, Arvia made a point of making me talk by myself, helping when I got stuck, and always waited a bit before translating what the other person had said, so that I could try to wrap my head around the foreign words by myself first.

We had walked only a few yards from the perfume seller when a kid, who had to be nine years old and was wearing much better clothing than most people around, ran up to me and stopped a few feet away, mouth wide and eyes shining with excitement. He was soon reached by what looked like a servant, who bowed at us apologetically and tried to bring the kid away. As kids sometimes do, he didn't want to listen to what the man said, and decided to throw a tantrum.

I couldn't decipher the fumbling words of the kid, so I asked Arvia and she told me how the kid was resisting his strict servant because he wanted a memento from me.

"Wait!" I said, making the servant stop in his tracks. "Wait," I repeated.

I turned around and went back to the perfume seller and bought a small, flat piece of wood off her and asked to borrow her carving knife for a bit in my broken Emestrian. She conceded without a problem, wearing a soft smile on her face. I quickly carved my name in the piece of wood, in the letters I was familiar with, along with a stylized snowflake underneath it.

When I got back to the kid and his servant, who were now waiting for me, I crouched down to be more on level with the kid, although I was still over one full head taller than him and showed him the piece of wood.

I then placed a hand on my chest and said, "I am Anya." I then pointed at the name written on the piece of wood. "This is my name."

He was beaming when I gave the piece to him and his servant bowed again to thank me, then he said something I didn't quite manage to check, so I turned to Arvia, who now was much more nervous than a moment before.

She looked at me and said, "he is thanking you for the gift you have given to his young master, the count, and that he is sorry for the trouble caused, but he is a huge fan of yours," using the Emestrian word for the noble title that my language was lacking.

I smiled at the kid and bowed my head a bit saying, "you're welcome."

The servant then excused himself again and dragged him away from us, having probably reached his limit after allowing his master to be so close to a towering giant for so long.

"Who was that?" I asked Arvia after waving the kid off.

"He was probably the first son of Duke Victor, the King's cousin, although I'm not sure."

"Do the King and the Duke get along?"

"As far as I know, yes, why?"

"Nothing," I took my eyes off the crowd the two had disappeared into and looked at her, "shall we go on? I wanted to buy some kind of lamp too."