Arcanum 188 Thralkeld Marke

"Oh, you don't have to." Miss Carvel instinctively said, seeing us helping to clear up.

"It's nothing." We both smiled to her before taking the plates to the sink.

"Um, just leave them in the sink, I'll wash them later." Miss Carvell asked us.

"Thanks," Helen whispered to me.

"No problems I've got you're back always." I smiled.

"So What are you guys going to do next?" Mr Carvell asked.

"Hmm probably book some rooms at the local inn." We answered.

"Jay make sure you go with them! Five girls at an Inn by themselves." Miss Carvel instructed him.

"You know these aren't ordinary Girls.. they are Atlantis Students." Mr Carvell laughed.

"Dad's not wrong mum, these girls are capable. Especially Daisy every day she wears that plate armour and carrying her heavy maul." Jay smiled.

"Still.. I don't feel safe having 5 girls staying at an inn especially with the Vancliffs being here." She replied.

"Sure mum I'll rent a room with them." He answered.

"Sperate room." She corrected him.

"Yes yes mum, separate room of course." He replied like this wasn't the first time this happened. "Come on, guys I'll take you to the local Inn where we'll be spending the night," Jay instructed.

"Thank you for your hospitality." We all bowed in respect. The others went to retrieve their weapons.

"No, thank you all for coming." Jay's mum hugged Helen making her smile and embrace her back and waved us all goodbye. "Remember to stop by tonight for dinner!" She reminded us before we left.

"So these Vancliffs really that bad?" I questioned.

"Don't jump the gun when it comes to the Vancliffs.. they are rich and powerful here," Jay replied.

"I'm just curious besides we're Atlantis student we have to make sure we can't bring a bad name to Atlantis," I replied.

"The Vancliff family owns most of the guards and probably have most families and men on their paycheck, it's a family we really don't want to mess with," Jay warned us looking very serious.

"That explains why that Vancliff girl came and knew you arrived," Helen replied.

"Well, if I see any injustice, I'm not going to sit back and do nothing," Daisy informed Jay.

"Don't... like I said they have the guards on a paycheck you're going to end up getting yourself arrested it's a fight you can't win," Jay warned her.

"Then I'll beat up the corrupt guards!" Daisy replied, flexing her muscles, ignoring Jay's warnings.

"You know.. Paul would probably dislike it if he heard you breaking the law." I informed Daisy making her expression flip 180.

"Oh, Daisy." Grace laughed.

"So what did the Vancliff girl really want?" I asked Jay.

"Nothing honestly just wanted to see how I was doing." He replied.

"So who is she and what's our history?" I questioned.

"She was the other student of my first Mentor. We were just friends until her family found out and forbid her to interact with us and was forced to stop learning magic." He answered.

"Interesting.." I answered.

"Yeah, she wanted some spellbooks so she could train in secret." He answered.

"And you told her no, right?" I asked him, assuming it would be dangerous to learn on your own without a mentor or teacher.

"I said I'll try but no promises." He answered.

"So how many big is this Vancliff family?" Helen asked.

"Their name controls a good portion of the lands around here, but this family has a mum, dad, daughter and two sons," Jay answered.

"How old?" Grace questioned.

"Forget them.. the more important issue is finding out who this 'Guardian angel Mr Wayne' is and what he has planned for my family." Jay changed the subject.

"I'm sure there's nothing nefarious going on," I answered hiding the truth so Jay doesn't feel indebted to Paul since he finds it so hard to accept goodwill from other.

"I know deals like that never play out well," Jay replied, looking determined to find the truth.

"I'm sure you're right Jay.. but remember what your parents said at first he wanted to do it all for free." Grace reminded him.

"No one does things out of the goodness of their hearts, there's always an agenda." He answered.

"That's not true.. you even saw it yourself Paul, Scarlet and Ashley do things expecting nothing in return." I defended Paul.

"That's not true.. Paul runs on a favour for favour basis, Scarlet does it because she loves the thrill of a fight and Ashley might do it for fame or money." He answered.

"No no.. you got it the wrong way," I answered him but found it hard to refute his argument.

"Anyway forget this topic, we're at the inn." He said opening the doors to a mediocre Inn.

"What can I do you for kids?" The man at the bar answered us as we entered.

"We're looking for, wait what size rooms do you have?" He questioned the barman.

"We have singles and doubles. 10 silver pieces for a double and 5 silver pieces for a single per night." The Barman answered.

"We'll take three doubles for one night," Jay answered.

"Sure that will be 30 silver pieces." The Barman requested.

"Here you go." Jay paid the barman as he wrote something down and passed him three keys. "Oh Emilia, here's your bag, thanks for the help." He smiled, passing back my bag.

"Anytime." I smiled back.

"So I assume Helen and Grace will bunk up. Now the question is Morgana, where would you like to go?" Jay questioned.

"I'll join Emilia and Daisy, I'll take the couch." She answered.

"Sure, here are your keys," Jay said passing us our keys.

"We'll be back tonight," Jay answered.

"Sure." the barman replied and went back to reading.

"anything else we can do?" I questioned Jay as we exited the Inn.

"Good question.. there's not much to do here sadly." Jay said, looking around.

"Ah, our esteemed guests." A very cultured voice spoke out towards us. "Hello hello, Edward Vancliff." An older plump, very cultured man wearing a finely woven dark black checkered suit with a long black cane with a big jewel-encrusted on the top, introduced himself to us with an outstretched hand. One by one we introduced ourselves to Edward Vancliff shaking his hand. "So the talk of the town is that you all are Atlantis students," Edward asked.

"Yes, we are," we answered him with a smile.

"That's amazing.. what do you all do?" He questioned cautiously.

"I'm a Sorcerer," Jay answered him, making Edward look at him with a raised eyebrow like he was trying to remember where he's seen his face or name.

"Have we met before? You look mighty familiar." He said slowly, shaking his hand.

"I do? Maybe I just have a common look." Jay replied, hiding his identity.

"Say son what's your name again? I didn't quite catch it." He asked again.

"Caleb Willowghast." Jay answered.

"Sorry, son my error maybe just my old age playing tricks on me." He chuckled, letting go of jay's hand.

"If you all got some spare time, maybe you'd like to visit my estate." He invited us with a smile.

"We were planning to see the rest of the town first." I casually declined his offer.

"Really?" He asked looking at me closely, at me closely.

"Well, we have a town gathering tomorrow at lunch, everyone's going to be there, come on by if you're free." He said tipping his hat towards us and walked off.

"he doesn't seem all that bad," Morgana said after he disappeared into the city.

"That's what they always seem on the outside, Friendly and harmless on the outside but scheming and nefarious on the inside," Jay replied to her.

"Come this way guys got some stuff I need to buy," Jay said leading the way.

"Oh, shopping?!" Daisy asked in excitement.

"Sure," Jay answered.

After a small walk, we arrived at a marketplace filled with stalls, merchants and small vendors.

"Oh!" Daisy instantly ran to a jewellery stall.

"What ya looking at?" I said, leaving the others to join her.

"Earrings!" she smiled, lifted them up to her ears to check them in a mirror.

"Oh!" Bracelet's she looked at them equally excited.

"What do you think about the brow leather one?" Daisy said pointed out.

"The one plane one that looks like a bunch of leather wrapped around repeatedly?" I questioned.

"Yah!" She smiled.

"A little boyish no?" I questioned.

"I'll take that one, please!" She smiled at the old lady manning the stall.

"Sure thing, anything else young girl?" the old woman asked.

"And these please!" Daisy picked out a simple small amber stud.

"Sure thing." The old lady answered bagging them for her, "15 silver please." She requested.

"Thank you!" Daisy smiled counting out 20 silver pieces and handing it to her, "And may Serra's Blessings be upon you." She smiled and pulled me to the next stall.

"Thank you!" The only lady tried to thank Daisy before she rushed to the next open stall.

"Do you want to buy anything?" Daisy asked me.

"I'm not sure, I'm not feeling it with this jewellery," I said, looking around at the merchandise.

"Next one?" Daisy asked with a giant smile, pulling me to the next stall.

"Hmm not here either." I looked at a stall of the most random stuff. "Oh, follow me!" I said to Daisy, pulling her towards a stall that had a pleasant mixture of smells coming.

"What's this?" She asked, looking at the filled bottles with liquid inside.

"This young girl.. are perfumes! Helps enhance the smell of you." A very extravagant tall man answered her, with a very foreign accent, that looked like the same race as Daisy but had a dull red skin and different type of horns.

"Can we smell?" I asked him politely.

"Of course," he replied with very extravagant gestures.

"What are these made from?" I questioned smelling each bottle finding quite a few very pleasant smelling.

"These are all made from a complex blend of scents from all over the land ranging from essences of flowers or tree sap and some even the pheromones of creatures in heat." He smiled, proud of his craft.

"And you make all this yourself?" I questioned.

"Yup the bottles you find here you won't find anywhere." He smiled.

"I'll take this one please!!!" Daisy said holding up a bottle.

"Fine choice, that would be 35 silver pieces." The man smiled.

"Thank you!" Daisy smiled, handing him the gold.

"If you don't mind me asking where are you from?" He asked, looking at her.

"I can't remember," Daisy answered him.

"Because your skin is quite unique.. I've never seen our kind with blue skin." He looked at her closely, very intrigued.

"Have you seen a lot of our kind?" Daisy asked curiously.

"Why yes I have... I've travelled all throughout Amias and other continents as well and not once have I come across someone as unique as you." He answered.

"I'll take this one." I requested taking a bottle that smelt really pleasant, similar to the perfume I'd use myself back at home.

"Splendid choice! That one will be 30 silver pieces." He smiled, bagging our bottles for us.

"Pardon my nosiness, but do you happen to be from Zakshara?" He asked me politely handing me the bag, making me look at him utterly confused. "It's a continent very far away from here the humans there are normally browned skinned such as yourself." He smiled.

"I actually have no idea, I was abandoned as a child." I lied to him.

"Ohh darling, I'm so sorry to hear that..." He replied, placing a hand on his heart.

"I haven't see you both around town, did you both arrive today?" he questioned curiously.

"Yes, we came today to visit a family." I smiled back.

"Oh, nice nice." He smiled, handing us our bottles.

"thank you for the perfume." I thanked him.

"Thank you! May the blessings of Serra be upon you!" Daisy thanked him and we left his stall together.

"Am I really that unique?" Daisy questioned curiously.

"Apparently so.. everyone seems to always ask about our skin colour." I chuckled.

"Hey, guys!" Grace yelled out to us in the middle of the marketplace.

"Oh, one second I need to find something," I said grabbing Daisy's arm giving Helen and grace a sign to give us one minute.

"What do we need?" Daisy asked.

"Hmm did you see any stall that sells baking ware?" I questioned Daisy.

"Oh, yeah, Follow me." Daisy led me to a stall with loads of pots and pans.

"Hello young misses can I interest you in anything?" A man with burly arms wearing an apron looking like a blacksmith asked with a giant smile.

"Yes I need bakeware, can I have one of those Wood peels, four loaf tins, two metal pots with the handles, oh and... two brushes please." I requested.

"Woah so much.. planning to open your own bakery?" he chuckled, packing my thing.

"It's a gift." I smiled at him.

"Well, they are very lucky to know you." He smiled.

"Are they good quality?" I questioned.

"You won't find better anywhere in the land." He chuckled.

"Great, I'll take your word for it. How much?" I smiled.

"That would be 1 gold and 14 silver." He requested.

"Sure keep the change." I smiled, giving him two gold.

"Why thank you kindly, miss." He smiled, handing over my goods.

"Daisy help hold this for me, please," I asked her to hold the bag which I slipped all the items one by one into my bag of holding making the blacksmith go completely silent in shock.

"Thank you! They better be the best in the land!" I joked walking away thanking him.

"Why did you buy so much?" Daisy questioned.

"Because where I come from.. it's nice to get gifts for people." I smiled.

"Oh, I see... You're so kind-hearted!" She nodded smiling as we retraced our steps to meet Grace and Helen.

Chapter end