There was much to be said about cities and the people that live in them. Somewhere cold, harsh weather led to hard people, or perhaps the chill brought them to huddle close together. How did their residents move and how did their varied paths change them? How did all the little things from the bricks in their house to the mortar in their roads and simple taste of the air affect them?

Cities were strange things, mashes of people and architecture bleeding into each other across generations until each seeped into the other. What hold did that have on someone? How much did the texture of a place root into a person?

Two had no answer to the question she posed herself, but the thought and the careful observation it stirred helped keep her focused.

A crowd flowed around her, a colourful current made vibrant by the various clothes on display. Two was a brown drop in the flow. Tall alabaster columns held up a canopy of transparent cloths, each serving to draw attention to their owners stall as much as to provide shelter from the sun. It was a place of burning incense and bustling voice.

A place with houses but defined by stores, and blessed with a constant flow of life. A place that could be a city all on its own. Life and colour filled the streets, whether night or day.

Whether that colour came from a merchants mat or a drunk’s gastric puddle, depended on the time.

The currents dragged her along, and she left those thoughts behind. She spiraled aimlessly though the mazes of alleys and the loss grid of thoroughfares that divided them. She breathed deep.

Incense, sweat, food and all the perfumes one could imagine rushed to flood her. Sharp and smooth, soothing and repugnant, it blended into a scent that was without definition but laded with identity. The market like all living things had a certain smell, but she noticed more than most.

A layer beyond the physical that came to her somewhere between taste and scent. She drank the market overpowering flavour and tasted its people. Their joys, their woes, all blended, all the feelings that spilled from the innumerable paserbys into a unique mix.

The people where happy, the hollering merchants enthusiasm was not shown false, but rather spiced with rivalry. Wandering eyes carried notes of curiosity, even those simply passing through added purpose to the soup.

There were bitter notes too, a lost sale, scalding spots where rivalry poisoned into hate, and the bland tasteless taste of those that looked but did no see.

Yet despite the acuity of her senses she did not find what she was looking for.

She released her breath and returned her attention to the bustling people and colourful clothes.

Who’d have known that searching an entire district of the city would prove difficult? All for a person who may or note even be here on any given day!

Two sighed and found an corner to loiter in. Walking and walking with nothing to show for it save aching feet. Daisy certainly didn’t set easy tasks.

The nearby hawkers eyed her, suspension wafting from them in waves. She sighed and lurched into the crowd, she didn’t bother being upset at they didn’t treat several other loiter’s similarly, being angry rarely helped her. She wished she could pin their judgment on her race or perchance.

However none would find issue with her chocolate skin, and her general bedraggle wouldn’t be a concern unless she tried to beg. It wasn’t even her scales, those were hidden under her heavy cloak and the ones that dotted her cheeks where hidden by her deep hood. Even had they noticed dislike for the line of serpents was typically more subtle. Higher prices, an extra once over by the guard.

If you stumble upon this tale on Amazon, it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.

No their issue, or rather her problem was far more spiritual in nature.

She flowed with the crowd once more, never staying one place or keeping the same company for long. She eyed the people between searching breaths.

Feathers and fur and scales and the peculiar smooth skin of the city’s amphibians passed her by. All examples of the posteri, which, if the churches were to be believed differed from their human ancestors by way of varying animal bits. Yet none of the present examples had the specific tang she was looking for, but experience told her they would be an avian of some sort.

That trend persisted for hours until like a sudden flash of light, it ceased to be true.

It was a sweet gentle smell, a perfume so light as to be unnoticed. If a smile could have a taste this would be it, a warm hug was distilled into the scent that came to her.

Just like the scrap of cloth Daisy had given her.

Two pitched her ambling stride towards the target, the change a slow casual thing. There was no need to peek the guard’s interest as they ambled through the streets.

She followed the scent down increasingly cramped alleys, that sold ever stranger wares. Little trinkets scribed with runes that shimmered and mechanical contraptions that ticked and tocked as she passed. Two didn’t know much about either kind of object, and today she had more important tasks than sating her curiosity.

The offered items did hint at her target’s interests. Two turned a corner brushing past a drape that hung low from the many from the white pillars that dotted the market. A young woman stood, haggling with a merchant over a softly ticking clock.

Her presence filled the alley, it was a smell to two, but she imagined all others like the smiling seller, felt as if a kind spirit had stumbled from the heavens.

It was an domain, a zone in which the emotion or essence of a cultivator took prominence from the muddled background. Most of Two’s knowledge of cultivators and the magic they performed came from Daisy. She had made clear to drill her with the basics, most skilled cultivators wouldn’t waste their energies in a palpable aura but those that could. They could also easily do what a life one the streets had not and see her dead in a ditch.

Sweet as honey the woman drowned out Two’s senses with cloying sugar. Two didn’t show anything on her face, she didn’t break her stride, continuing forward like any distantly interested buyer with somewhere to be.

Two had not expected to find a cultivator but she quickly suppressed the sting of worry. It was unexpected but not wholly surprising Daisy asked for a lot at the best of times. Two wanted out, a simple job wouldn’t have been enough to buy her freedom.

She had found and confirmed the mark. There was no reason to interact, she just needed to find butch and her part would be done. Cultivator or not it didn’t change that.

Unfortunately, fate seemed to have different plans.

“Excuse me miss, could you help me with something?” The woman said giving Two an unwanted smile. A round face stared at her from beneath the black cloak’s hood. Pale brown skin, dark hair fell from her head in a tight braid to meet at her cheat and join a crest of equally dark feathers lining her colour.

Two blinked slowly and gave the woman all the time in the world to appreciate her cold stare and unfriendly posture. Two had what many would describe as a particularly strong resting bitch face. It served her quite well in dissuading socialization.

The avian however carried forward undaunted. “I’m buying a clock for my little sister I’ve narrowed it down to these two.” She raised the clocks. The former was a heavy ornate thing better suited to pretty a shelf than tell time, the latter was a sedate chuck of metal yet no less a work of art. What it lacked in filigree it made up for in the beauty of practicality.

Neither was something two could remotely afford.

She considered ignoring her mark, it would save her the effort of a response. Yet the same part of her that offered the suggestion baulked as she considered what would happen if the cheery girl pushed. Even ignoring the fact she was a cultivator, Two couldn’t spend too much time around people. They’d notice something was wrong with her.

“Buy both, one to keep at home, one to take out.” Two’s evoked disinterest and mild annoyance.

“Thank you!” the girl offered, her scent swelled with appreciation. She resumed her haggling with doubled vigour.

Two continued on her way.

Now to find Butch, Two’s frosty exterior became sincere. She wasn’t looking forward to this.