Food thievery was, obviously, not an entirely new occupation for Nua. A fragrant roll or a fruit from the stand was a sought-after treat, especially in the times when Hala’s gruel was getting thinner. It came with a risk of losing your hand, though.

A much safer strategy was to beg when the stalls were already closing. The merchant could part with stale baked goods or bruised produce. The drawback was that most of the stands were already taken by the gangs. Nua tried to enter a street urchin gang once. Soon, she found herself at the bottom of the hierarchy, getting harassed much more often than she would like. It took her time to wriggle out of this arrangement. What finally did the job was confessing to Hala, which launched Auntie into a full-on mother lioness rage. Afterward, Nua got spanked, but that was way better than being constantly beaten up by colleagues.

Now, fish thievery was on an entirely different level.

The Grand Market spanned the whole Numitor Druzus Plaza and the adjoining streets. The closer to the center, the more expensive and luxurious items were sold. Only the wealthiest merchants could afford a stall in one of the two trade halls – large, oblong buildings with Tiberian-style arched roofs and decorated columns. While Primus Hall was full of various goods, from spices and soaps to carpets, Secundus only housed merchants that traded in fresh produce.

And of those, meat and fish stalls opened just before the break of dawn.

Located on the sacred river En, the greatest navigable route in Azuria, Overlord’s Mercy was brimming with fish trade. A portion of them was caught daily and sold fresh, brought in by the local boats. Otherwise, fish came from all over the civilized world, the bay or ocean, or the coastal farms. Those were salted, fermented, or pickled, dried or smoked, and sold in barrels for affluent households and restaurants or by the piece for the regular folks.

Nua breathed in. The smell was intense and intriguing. It was chilly inside the hall; thanks to the arched roofs, it would stay so until mid-morning. Despite the early hour, a crowd had already formed; here and there, clients waited in lines for the opening. Porters hurried around with boxes. Traders and their apprentices rolled out waxed linens at their stands, laying out crates full of fish, other assorted water creatures, and seaweed in different forms – fresh, dried, pickled. In the central area of the hall, there was already an auction for river dragons going on, loud and frantic.

“Let’s head to the auction. I bet you’ve never seen something like that.”

“It is probably fascinating,” Anki remarked, “But Nua, didn’t we have another goal in mind?”

“Well, yes. Still, I need to look around first. I don’t usually get up that early. I never had my own king to wake me in the morning before.”

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

“My own king? You’re being preposterous”, puffed the spirit.

Nua launched into laughter.

“And what exactly set you off?”

“You crack me up. Your curses are so funny.”

They walked along. Nua navigated the lanes so she wouldn’t bump into people. They tended not to notice her, or they set a collision course on purpose.

“Here are pickled fish. They’re wet and smelly”, Nua explained. “They sell them by the libras.”

“How much that is, approximately? Could you show it with your hands?”

“How should I know? I never buy stuff. We can look and figure it out, but I don’t want to steal those anyway. I’ll never get the smell off.”

“Can you, at least, read the prices?”

“I can do with numbers,” Nua admitted. “Here’s the dried fish stand. See, the small ones are six coppers apiece. Ten coppers is a silver denarius. That’s why we don’t eat fishes. You can get a lot of barley with that.”

“You cannot afford a measly fish on your own?”

“What, is that so weird? We’re poor.”

“I gathered that you were poor. I am appalled at the sovereign of this city. The Overlord is an incompetent ruler if his subjects cannot even secure a balanced diet.”

Nua frowned.

“You think so? I’m Unsagga. Not sure if I count as a subject. Now, to the stealing part. See that guy? The scruffy, bearded one standing in the corner?”

“The one that just looked at you like you were prey?”

“That’s a soldier. A hired one. He hunts thieves. So I’m prey, all right.”

“I see.”

“Now, look at the boys over there. The pimply ones with bad teeth, that play dice.”

“They’re sitting next to the stand, and two mercenaries are watching them.”

“That’s a gang. They’re waiting for the merchant to finish and tell them to clean up the stand. They get scraps for that. That is why I won’t do it. The job’s taken.”

“Interesting. I admit the possibility did not even occur to me.”

Nua shrugged.

“You’re a king. That’s a thing you know nothing about. Here, I teach, and you learn.”

Anki looked amused.

“Then please, continue.”

“The soldiers out there, walking in pairs. See how they have the same armor and stuff and city symbols on their tunics. They are the vigiles. These bastards we must absolutely, completely, avoid.”

“Their equipment and attire are quite well-kept compared to the mercenaries,” Anki wondered. “Is this the official city guard?”

“Yep.” Nua looked around and then chose a spot near the empty crates. She curled up on one of them, pretending to be asleep. “Now, I wait here. I’m doing this because if people think I am begging, they will call the vigiles. You go up, fly and spy around the hall. See where the soldiers are, where the gangs wait and where the guards walk around. See a stand that has good fish but is built badly or something, and there is a blind spot I can use when the merchant is distracted. Usually, everybody is distracted near the auction.”

She sighed, not used to giving advice at such length.

“Any questions?”

“I think I got the gist of it. Dry or smoked?”

“Either. Smoked are really tasty, though. Oh, and I don’t want to be noticed, but if there is a good escape route from the stand, that’s even better.”

“Given the complexity of the task, I do not think that fish thievery is sustainable for you in the long term.”

“Who cares,” Nua said. “Let’s get the fish. I’m hungry.”