After a mostly sleepless night, Kestra felt shockingly refreshed and invigorated. She had a bath in the inn room and was dressed and ready to start her shopping with a trip to the Jade Pearl Auction House to see what she won at the auction the night prior --and also to see where she would need to go to pick up those ores.

Odelia emerged from her room with her hair neatly brushed and in a new suit of clothes. Kestra passed her over an open-faced box of coins. "Put this in the pendant for your out and about expenses. There are one thousand each of copper and silver coins, and four hundred gold. If I need you to purchase something more expensive for me, I'll provide you additional funds. Keep receipts for any gold spent."

The girl's jaw dropped open. Kestra had a hard time holding back her chortling at the look.

"Hurry up, now," Kestra said. "We'll eat downstairs, then while I head to the auction house you can meet with your friends and let them know your changed circumstances. I may call upon you for directions for some of my own shopping."

She paused, then asked, "Do you know where I could find livestock for sale? And farm laborers to hire?"

Odelia put the coins away and pulled out her map. "This section of the city is where most of the farmer's come to market. I've heard there's a stockyard near it, but never saw it. Over here, though, is a beast trader. My friend Ben Adal just started working there."

"Same family as Lis-Ben Julia?" Kestra asked.

Odelia grinned and nodded. "Yes! Adal is her husband's cousin's son. They're a branch family, but doing very well. Oh, Expert Julia is a very talented artist of the glass, isn't she, to be known to a Transcendental such as Great Lady!"

Kestra refrained from spoiling the girl's illusions.

They breakfasted, and Kestra handed over a list of light shopping for Odelia to complete while she was out. Mostly, it was food stuffs, with a preference to buy both the seed stock for herbal spices and the prepared spices where available. However, Kestra also wanted to see what the tailors around here used for dyeing their silks such bright colors, so Odelia was allowed to get started buying up a shop's worth of tailoring supplies.

Kestra cautioned the girl to see the receipt before she removed coins from her pendant, to make sure that the numbers on the receipt matched what she was to pay out. "And be circumspect when making your payments. We'll need to get you some training before I take you in for some levels, but there is no need to make yourself a target for the less righteous."

Through their communications devices, Kestra told Graemire, "I miss having guards to boss around. Maybe I should try to set up a full little fiefdom. Nothing the size of a city, but a household staff sounds nice."

"Then I suggest looking for the city's slave market," he responded.

Kestra grumbled, "What's with slavery around here? Why is it so prevalent?"

"We went over this in Sortalheim. Better a fed slave than a starving beggar," he answered, sounding sad. "More to the point, indentures don't always work out, so it is common enough to sell off the remaining term of the indenture contract. The laws will vary from city to city, but the contracts are usually Heavens-oathed, so with trade, there are Realms-wide expectations. Most indenture contracts include the requirement to train, shelter, feed, and protect the servant in return for the servant's loyalty. It's seen as a way for the young to gain valuable experience when they lack the funds to educate themselves while making the risk smaller for those who take on the burden of training them. Not uncommonly, a servant who has performed well during their indenture is offered a hireling's job at the end. Bound enslavement is different, and rather rare. No one trusts a bound slave."

"Servant, indentured servant, slave, bound slave." She made an exasperated sound as her tongue tripped over the minor differences in the sounds of the native words. One of the first oddities she had discovered on arriving in the Myriad Realms was that there was a world-wide Divine Directive forcing all speech to conform to a single Sapient Speech language. All the words she said had the same base word, but with different inflections. "These words are getting tangled up in some very different contexts than I'm used to, even if the idea of 'subordinate who labors for one in direct authority over them' applies to them all."

Viney back rubs commenced, making Kestra feel a little better.

Odelia was studiously eating her food.

"Was I speaking out loud just now?" Kestra asked. "I forget sometimes to use the private mode on the communicators."

That made Odelia relax. "You were moving your chin, and not focused, but not speaking."

"Jaw-talking," Kestra confirmed. "If you don't want people to read your words from the way you shape your mouth as you speak, you form them in your throat and keep your lips still. Some words are just hard to say without moving your jaw, or the popping noises you need your lips to make."

They were most of the way through eating now, so with a few late admonitions from Kestra to Odelia to be safe, they parted.

Kestra hadn't made it two steps toward the door when an incoming call from Pierce chimed for her attention. She pivoted and headed back upstairs while she took the call, carefully engaging the privacy mode. "Good morning, Venerable Elder."

"Good morning, Honorable Lady Kestra. As you requested, I am calling now that I am presentable."

"Have you eaten yet?"

"No, Honorable Lady, but my stamina recovery is high enough that I won't be hungry for a while yet."

"In that case, would you rather select your apothecary from one of the empty outbuildings or come with me to the slave market to pick up indentured servants for the household staff? You will likely have more direct contact with them than me."

"The apothecary, I think, will be more to my strengths. Even with the very different concepts of servitude in the Myriad Realms, the slave market has never been a comfortable place for me."

Kestra nodded, even if it was to herself. "Very well. Would you like me to look for an aide for you?"

Pierce gave a heavy sigh. "If I am to have an aide, I would be far more comfortable with one of the more physically inclined youths of my own order."

"Well, if that youth swears the same secrecy oath you have given, I see no reason not to accommodate that request. Honestly, I would prefer you have someone to help you in the lab. I'm not sure how dangerous an apothecary gets, but even with storage devices, some items are just awkward to move by oneself. I have the relay running, so if you want to call Elder Ming and make those arrangements, just let me know when to meet them at Tang's."

Pierce chuckled. "You are quite accommodating."

"Happy retainers tend to make a more harmonious home. Just so you know, though, an aide from your order is your retainer, not mine. Food and a room are fine as an extension of the household, but pocket monies, equipment, and livery will be for you to provide. My condition is the secrecy oath."

"Quite so, quite so! I shall make the arrangements."

Since she was back to her room by then, Kestra just confirmed she had left nothing behind, and went back on her way.

----------------------------------------

At the Jade Pearl Auction House, Kestra barely walked through the doors when Branch Manager Scarlet greeted her and invited her to share some tea. The ritual of pouring and first sips seen to, Scarlet started with the happy news. Graemire had decided to hide under Kestra's cloak today, not willing to let Kestra go out alone and not wanting to be social either.

"Honored Transcendental won the bids for the manuals that interested you, and for the mana stone melter, while remaining under half of maximum bids for both. I regret to inform you that another won the traveling garden."

"Would it be in line with the Zonzhi Association's businesses to broker a commission of such a garden?" Kestra asked.

"Most definitely, Honored Transcendental."Scarlet smiled at Kestra's response, then quickly took down the details of Kestra's commission offer. That included the fees for the house to deliver the offer and, if accepted, deliver the commissioned traveling garden in turn. Kestra provided Scarlet with her comm coordinates.

"Regarding the ores Honored Transcendental is seeking, all but the cinnabar can be fulfilled within the day with a bit of travel, a week if Honored Transcendental prefers to remain in Hadenshire. The Zonzhi Association's closest mine for cinnabar recently broke into a monster den. The kind of monster is unknown, but it has made the mine hot enough to turn the mercury in the cinnabar into fumes too noxious for the miners to survive.

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"Our competitors are aware of the difficulty and have conspired to raise the price to exorbitant levels, six times the cost of gold now, and our buyers expect them to keep raising the price. There aren't as many cinnabar mines due to the poison that often leeches out of the metals and the niche market for the ores. Like many of the less infused metals, it is mainly found in the Low Mortal Realms." Scarlet looked personally aggrieved to admit to the supply issue.

Ralouf had told Kestra that they wanted the weight of the mercury and its liquid nature for forging particularly deadly "filled" weapons. The metal was of use in some highly dangerous refinement processes alchemists on Moh had used, which Kestra had no desire to attempt, but it also served as a preservative for alchemical formulations meant either to poison (and ruin for consumption) monsters or to cause really big booms.

Graemire and Kestra talked a moment through their communications devices, and then Kestra said, "Well, if you would arrange a gate guide, I'll pick up the ores that aren't a problem to gather up, and confer with an individual who might be able to aid in sorting out the matter at the mine. He will likely want as many details as you're willing to share. You said the ores should be ready for pick tomorrow?"

"Yes, and I would be honored to ... make those arrangements. My apologies," Scarlet said, tapping the communications device she wore after faltering. Kestra nodded and sipped at more of the tea. Ben Qadal's blend really was very tasty.

After a moment, a conflicted expression took over Scarlet's face. Her mana remained serene, however, so Kestra wasn't sure she could believe the facial expression.

"It would seem," Scarlet began, "that Lis-Ben Julia has just come to inquire if she might prevail upon us to arrange a meeting with you, for her to tender her apologies."

Kestra asked, "This is one of those things that needs to be seen to sooner before everyone assumes things will go sour like in the bad romances Nado Liste writes, isn't it?"

Scarlet opened her mouth, then closed, then asked, with an intently interested gleam in her gaze, "You've read some of the legendary romances of Nado Liste?"

Kestra scoffed. "Legendarily bad. The drama is just so overblown! If it's a satire, it's amazing, because it is so lacking in the feel of a satire. Here, have a copy of The City Destroying Beauty of the White Glove Sect. I suggest wine to read this with, or a distilled honey liqueur mixed into fruit juice."

"Oh, I couldn't! Do you know how much these go for on auction?" Scarlet asked.

Kestra shrugged. "It's a copy. When you go through the Reward Store with your Challenge Points, you can look for the Random Crate of Literature. I got three of those books when I did that, plus half a dozen more."

Scarlet looked even more intrigued, and set the book on the table, then opened it and looked through a few pages. She cast a few appraisal oriented spells, and her face lit up with glee. "Oh! Oh! OH-ho-ho-HO!" She slapped both of her hands over her mouth, trying to hold in a cackle.

After a moment she got hold of herself and sighed, wiping at her eyes. "This will either kill the market or send it into a frenzy!" She chuckled some more, then explained.

"Nado Liste was a philosopher of some renown who died a few decades back. He is survived by three sons. One of them received their father's manuscripts shortly before his death, and had them published, according to the publisher. All three of the sons deny this charge, and publicly denounce the romances as scourges upon their father's good name. They are known for going to great lengths to remove whatever copies they find from circulation.

"Their problem is that Nado Liste, while a great philosopher, was a horribly rude, insufferable ass, and there are a lot of people who adore having his name tied to these books."

Kestra looked at the book and felt a headache oncoming. "Is that going to cause you problems?"

Scarlet grinned viciously. "Oh, no! I know about this because Nado Liste insulted two of the Zonzhi Association Founders. He started to insult the third, or so the story goes, but the Sage's daughter interrupted him and invited him to duel over his words, which he promptly retracted. Then, when he was safely distant, he threw in several allusions to his insults in his next -- and final -- philosophical tract."

Kestra tipped her head to the side, listened to Inspri, and then looked back to Scarlet. "'Hair of the void's depths, eyes like molten gold, a goddess of the battlefield'?"

She reached over and flipped to the passage introducing the "City Destroying Beauty".

Scarlet read it, and clapped her hands, her mouth gaping in silent hysterics as mirthful, mocking tears rolled down her cheeks.

Kestra wrote a quick note and dried the ink, set it in the book just before the cover page, then closed the book. "For that bit of history alone, please, send this to the lady in question with my compliments. As for Expert Lis-Ben, let us meet sooner and not let her stew like one of the melodramatists of those stories."

Scarlet tucked the book into her storage, took a few more breaths to calm herself, and then spoke into her communications device.

While she did that, Kestra considered her mental inventory. Giving mana stones as appreciation gifts was a bit crass, according to both Graemire and Ralouf. The books, apparently, needed to be vetted before they could be safely given, and technique scrolls or skill manuals were the kind of thing that one needed to know the recipient well enough to know if it would be insulting or uplifting.

There was always the pill she had finally successfully condensed. Confident she could reproduce that success, Kestra set down the jade box holding her Pill of Delayed Regeneration. "I do appreciate the aid you have given me so far, and the trouble you're going to with arranging my ore purchase. If you do run into any troubles from Nado's heirs, it would ease my mind if you had this."

Scarlet smiled as she accepted the box, graciously not checking its contents. Her assistant arrived soon after, dropping off a folder that Scarlet handed to Kestra. "The details of the guide and the situation at the cinnabar mine."

Kestra stored the information.

And then Lis-Ben Julia was ushered into the room.

Oh, yeah. The woman's mana was chaotic, and despite some kind of cosmetic, Kestra could see dark circles that hadn't been present at their last meeting hung under Julia's worry-aged face.

The woman walked precisely half way from the door to the table, sank to her knees, and folded herself prone so that her head touched the floor. "Honored Transcendental, this worried matriarch begs forgiveness for her errant young descendants."

Graemire's vines stealthily held Kestra back from covering her face with her hand at the sight, but she still felt exasperated at the display.

"Oh, do rise and come join us for some tea while we sort this out," she said, instead.

Lis-Ben Julia peeked up from her prone position, saw a kind of exasperated parental patience gazing down on her that she herself had experienced with her young children, and instantly felt both relieved and foolish at the same time. Blushing, she rose and took the proffered seat.

Tea cups issued and refilled, Kestra said, "Let's start with formal introductions. We both know and are known to Branch Manager Defhar Scarlet. I am known as Kestra the Harmonious, an alchemist, and of a Transcendental level. I'm happy to be referred to as Miss, though more formal people seem more comfortable with Honored Transcendental."

Julia squared her shoulders, but her mana was still agitated. "I am Lis-Ben Julia, Expert Glassmaker and Forth Elder of the Hadenshire Pottery Guild."

Kestra nodded. "You're here because of your nephew's actions a few days ago, yes?" At Julia's nod, Kestra said, "I'm an informal person, and my view of the situation was that of a brassy youth, between an age to start taking on accountability for his own actions and yet not into his full maturity, learning that bluster and confrontation are not the wisest course of action. He paid in pain. Personally, I am satisfied.

"Yet, there is the matter of reputation and honor outstanding. Not truly my own; as I said, I am satisfied with the pain he suffered already. But I have the honor to have befriended Divine Creatures, and if I am seen as too lenient, it reflects poorly on them. Furthermore, this occurred inside Branch Manager Defhar's House.

"So, what do you propose to be a suitable punishment for the boy and recompense to the Jade Pearl's honor?"

As Kestra spoke, Julia's mana calmed, but at the word punishment, she paled and carefully set down her tea cup. "I have already sent Ben Hadiaram and Ben Stefram to my uncle, to be instructed as raw recruits in the meaning of power and its appropriate uses, for I have failed to do this. Uncle Lis Naheg is an ascetic, and a man of some small fame among the philosophers for his austere ways. I have given them over to his training until he declares them competent in both the martial arts and measured thoughts."

Kestra glanced to Scarlet. The Branch Manager looked impressed, even her mana depressing with sympathy. "That is a wise punishment, harsh, yet necessary for both you and they. For compensation, I suggest two commissions, one for the Jade Pearl Auction House and one for Honored Transcendental Kestra."

Julia asked, "You're not going to ask for Radiant Dawn?"

Scarlet paused with a thoughtful look just long enough that Kestra could see Julia start sweating and kicking herself for asking. "No. You acted swiftly and without false face; with this settled to everyone's satisfaction, the Jade Pearl will be happy to continue to do business with the Lis-Ben family."

She turned to Kestra. "Will this be satisfactory?"

Kestra thought of Vostler's fascination with light, and the way some of the clear stones of Moh had been shaped to bring color to their shadows when Solaris's rays shone upon them. "Yes. A window, I think, with as many colors as may be. There doesn't need to be any specific image, but the play of light should be the focus. Neither size nor shape are of much consequence. If the piece is inspiring enough, Honored Divine Ralouf will build a suitable sculpture to display it."

Both women reacted with the shocked, instinctive in-draw of their mana.

Graemire murmured over her communication device, "Don't say more about Ralouf here, please."

She dipped her chin to indicate she had heard him, but figured jaw talking right now would be impolite, possibly even insultingly rude. She didn't want to deal with yet more drama.

Julia bowed, nearly bonking her head on the table. "You are far more gracious than I have any fate to bless."

Kestra wasn't sure what that was about, but she decided to play the wise man and not the fool, so she kept her lips shut. Instead she waited for Julia to unfold, and changed the subject. "Now that that's negotiated, when you have finished, let Manager Defhar know, and I'll come pick it up. This tea, your husband's blend, yes? Is his skill Cooking or Alchemy?"

"Both, Honored Transcendental," Julia answered.

"If he should care to share his recipe and method, I'll happily trade him my Earthen Temper technique and a recipe for an alchemical leaven that makes breads sweeter and lighter, license terms equal, up to distribution of produced goods." Kestra inhaled the fragrance of the tea again to hide her smile. Julia might be a matron, but she was also an excitable woman and her reactions were charming.

Graemire dryly remarked, "I think this might be one of those situations where Su'ami complains about you breaking common sense."

"Not at all," she jaw-talked back at him. "This is jerking her back-strap. Very different."

"I will relay Honored Transcendental's offer," Julia said after a moment of obvious mental blankness.

With a bit of guidance from Graemire on how to politely extricate herself, Kestra went off to finish her shopping.