Broken Lands

Chapter 322 – Welcome to the Night Market

The fish lifted up into the air and swam away, while the platform they stood on sank lower and lower until they were all on the ground. Sophia glanced around nervously. “This doesn’t look like a good place for a fight.”

“If this is what I think it is, we won’t have to,” Meadow answered. “Come on, let’s head over to one of the stalls and find out.”

Meadow led the group over to a pair of wooden stalls to the left. They faced each other and were completely filled with trinkets of all sorts. The top shelf seemed to be potions, with lanterns something that looked an awful lot like a wind chime hanging above them. A series of golden baubles on chains hung from the underside of the shelf, along with some enameled sticks that might have been the ugliest wands Sophia had ever seen. 

Below that was the main display space above what looked like a storage area, filled with more potions or alchemicals and, oddly, enough, food. Even the food sparkled with magic to Sophia’s magesight. More of the same sort of thing lay in baskets on the ground, as if the vendor had run out of space but still wanted to display things, but there was no one there. 

Meadow walked forward confidently, but Sophia noticed that Rockfist was right behind her. He seemed more nervous than Meadow was, almost like he was less confident than she was about where they were. Meadow stepped just past the edge of the nearer stall, then stopped. “Hello?”

“Welcome to the Night Market.” A dark figure stepped out from behind the stall, as if she had been there the whole time. 

Sophia blinked in disbelief. That wasn’t a person; that was a drawing of a person, in white on black. Sophia’s guess was that she was an older teen, but it was hard to tell; all of the features that would have made it clear were missing, since she was simply a detailed sketch.

The true black that formed her base color was studded with dots; some were small and some were large and colorful, like splotches meant to represent stars in a drawing. Her eyes were entirely too large and her features seemed to shift slightly as she moved, like she was a real person translated into art yet still three dimensional.

“We are held to rules they aren’t,” Meadow whispered to Sophia. “Tell your team to stay quiet; we always let me talk here because I know how to handle the locals. It’s not easy.”

“You have been here before, I see; have all of your companions?” The drawing of a vendor smiled slightly. “The Night Market is not a place to walk without knowing what you seek. I have seen more than a few run afoul of the Night Guard.”

“They have not, but they are not looking for a guide,” Meadow said firmly. “Or at least not one without a price arranged before the task begins.”

The drawing smiled and leaned forward slightly in acknowledgement. “Indeed, a wise choice. Very well, then; I will give a price for each answer before I give it. Will that be sufficient?”

“I will pay no price for learning what the cost is,” Meadow said firmly. “And neither will they.”

Sophia’s eyebrows rose. She’d have phrased that as a question rather than a statement, but the way Meadow said it made it clear that the sellers at the Night Market were both tricky and prone to setting their cost after the fact instead of before.

“Of course, of course,” the vendor said with a smile that seemed to promise that asking a price for knowing the cost of a service had never crossed her mind. “Ask what you wish and I will tell you the price.”

“Which Night Market is this?” Meadow asked. Once again, Sophia could see her experience; it was pretty clear that knowing who they were dealing with could help them, but Sophia didn’t know enough to know what to ask.

“Two leaves for the name,” the vendor said with an easy smile. “Four for the theme.”

When Meadow unhesitatingly reached into a pouch and pulled out six aurichalc coins, it became clear that the fact that aurichalc held mana wasn’t the only reason it was the currency of Mazehold; it might not even be the main reason. It had to be the currency of the Maze itself.

The vendor nodded as she accepted the coins. “This is the Eidolon’s Court. Pray you never meet her, for you shall only do so if you stand out in the Court, and that is rarely good. She casts her shadow over us all and allows a Night Market in her Court, but only those who pass her standards may enter. You will find many things here, but they are all things whose magic pleases one who stands next to perfection of the spirit.”

Sophia had no clue what that meant, other than one thing: everything here would be enchanted or infused with magic in some way, even the fruit she could see in its basket.

Meadow seemed startled. She muttered a few words in a language that definitely wasn’t English; it sounded familiar, sort of like one of the Romance languages, but it definitely wasn’t Spanish. French, maybe? It didn’t quite sound right, but Sophia didn’t speak the language. Whatever it was, her translation Ability kicked in almost immediately. “A magical Night Market. Hells, we don’t have enough aurichalc. Why did it have to be so early?”

“Pardon?” The vendor tilted her head to the side. “I did not understand your question.”

Meadow shook her head. “It was nothing. I want to ask what you sell."

“For that, there is no cost; one cannot buy what one does not know exists.” The vendor gave a tight smile with her words. “I sell a glimpse of the future, and the ability to reach for what you could be and bring it back to who you are. Fruits are of the body, so that is what they bring back to you; wands are for spells, while lanterns illuminate your surroundings…”

She went on to describe her wares in more detail, but Sophia quickly found that they were totally uninteresting. The lanterns were the closest to being something that Sophia recognized. Paradoxically, that made them less interesting than they otherwise would have been; she knew exactly how many ways trying to find secrets using foresight could fail. Even something as simple as enemies waiting in ambush could be missed if having a lantern out would scare them off. Self-fulfilling prophecies were also problematic.

The other items might use time-related magic, but their effects were all too similar to things available outside that they’d turned down already as not worth the cost. The cost, in this case, was weakness after the item’s power boost finished. These pushed it farther away than the ones sold back in Mazehold and probably had stronger effects as well, but Sophia still wasn’t interested. Something like that might be useful in the Arena, but in the Maze where there was always danger, being weakened was simply not acceptable.

The one case where Sophia might accept it was to kill something far too powerful for them, like if they had to deal with a fight that was “intended” for the entire expedition. In that case, they were dead if they didn’t use whatever they could put their hands on; lingering effects could be dealt with later. None of the stuff in this stall met Sophia’s requirements for something to use in those circumstances, though; this all seemed aimed at being something you’d use regularly.

The others were less picky. The Rockfist trio ended up picking up several items each, while both Jax and Ci’an bought a lantern and a couple of potions. Taika chose a golden orb on a golden chain; it was supposed to help with illusions by giving a feel for how they “should” move a little before it happened. Dav asked about the wind chimes, but ended up not buying them once he found out that they would only make a soft noise if someone would soon enter the enclosed space they were hung in, sort of like a quiet doorbell. The fact that it would work for people who didn’t want to be announced was nice, but it really wasn’t obvious enough and could still be worked around if you knew what you were doing.

Well, Sophia knew how to get around something like that. She wasn’t certain anyone else in the Broken Lands did, though it seemed likely that some people would have Abilities that would do. The level of training wasn’t very good, but the Guide gave out enough strange, powerful Abilities with little training required that there was probably still a way to get there.

Xin’ri and Sophia didn’t see anything that interested them enough to even ask for more details. Sophia knew why she wasn’t interested; she was far too aware of the pitfalls of “precognitive” or “prophetic” magic. Xin’ri’s objection seemed to be that everything was complete; to truly make something part of her kit, she had to make it. The vendor offered the fruit as an ingredient, but Xin’ri still wasn’t interested. Timefruit juice sounded good, but Xin’ri didn’t have the right Abilities to make much out of it.

When they were done shopping, Meadow paid the vendor to tell them the rules of the Night Market. It cost her a full flower, which she seemed to think was cheap even though she probably already knew the rules.

The three-dimensional sketch of a woman smiled slightly and gave a slight bow after she tucked the coin into her sleeve. “The rules of all Night Markets are simple. We welcome all who can find their way, yet each Market shall test those who approach. You will never face the same test again, for you will never again find the same Market unless you impress its ruler. Do not act for harm lest you incur the ruler’s wrath. What you see may be bought or earned, and the way to earn a reward is the choice of its ruler. This is the Eidolon’s Court; she will grant you favor for magic she does not know or in trade for items she would permit to be sold here. And always, always be careful what you ask for.”

It suddenly made sense why Meadow wanted to know the rules from the vendor; she might know the rules of a Night Market, but she didn’t know how to “earn favor” in this Night Market. She’d never been here before.

“Should have known it wouldn’t be simple,” Meadow muttered in the other language she knew, before she returned to English. “Thank you. We will have more questions in a moment, but I need to talk to the others, first.”

Meadow walked a few steps from the shop, as if she was giving the space to other customers that weren’t there. As she followed Meadow, Sophia voiced the question that Meadow had just reminded her of. “What language is that?”

“Hm?” Meadow sounded surprised. She flushed slightly as she answered. “Oh, right, you wouldn’t know. I’m from the shores of Frozen Lake; we speak French. I learned English, as well, of course; my parents spent time in the Maze during their Called days, so they made sure we were all prepared. It was still a shock when I traveled closer and the Guide switched languages. I only had a minor translation Ability that helped me learn and kept my speech clear; it didn’t synergize well with my Sphere, unfortunately, so I lost it when I advanced to the third upgrade.”