The city’s market was, to put it plainly, a large mess. There were buildings for rent along the sides of the wide road which many of the more successful shops rent, but aside from those stalls had popped up organically, which is to say, haphazardly and without consideration of each other. Most were packed edge-to-edge, the only free-standing ones being kept that way by muscled guards whose employers were above the rest of the mob in the hierarchy of the massive shopping space but below the store renters.

Alder was staring wide-eyed at the space, much like he did when he’d first arrived in the city, which gave Louie an unwelcome sense of deja vu as he watched the boy. Alys wasn’t much better, he noticed, though she was definitely less ‘gawking’ and more ‘gazing’, though the distinction mattered little to him as he was forced to guide the two practically by the arm to where Larnie had told him he could get a decent deal on lumber.

“Is it always this busy?” asked Alder, seemingly past the ‘gawking’ phase of excitement and into the ‘incessant questions’ phase. Louie noticed Alys had started to pay more attention after Alder asked the question.

“Yes.” Louie said simply. If they were going to treat him as a font of knowledge, he’d make sure it went by as quickly and painlessly as possible for himself.

“What kind of items are for purchase?” chimed in Alys.

“Anything.” Louie shoved a slow-walking man out of his way, which elicited a shout of indignation from the market-goer but was common enough to be quickly dropped.

“Anything? Like, a sword or armour?” Alder asked as he glanced back to make sure the man Louie pushed was alright.

“Or perhaps a magical crystal or spell components?” Alys added.

“Are those part of ‘anything’?” Louie stopped suddenly, timing it just so that he didn’t walk into one of the larger hired muscle that crossed his path, and turned to give them a condescending look, his unlikely companions avoiding eye contact, abashed. He scoffed and kept moving through the crowd.

Alder’s and Alys’s decorum finally outweighed their curiosity and they stopped asking Louie questions, instead quietly looking at all the stalls. There were colourful fabrics blowing in the breeze next to equally vibrant spices piled into neat peaks. They watched as goods were bartered and begged over, money and objects changing more hands than either had even seen before. Incidentally, they’d both absentmindedly tried to wander off to take a closer look at things that caught their eyes, but Louie put a quick stop to that with a tug on their arm or shoulder and a glare. Chastised, the both contented to follow him without further interruption, lest he get even angrier.

It was in such a state that they arrived at their destination, a stall that looked like all the others, a plain counter and a sheet roof held up by a few planks. Though upon further inspection, Louie noticed the wood looked quite a bit nicer than what made most of the others. Above the counter was a sign that read “Gregory’s Lumber”, and the namesake man; short, dark skinned, and with a large black moustache, was animatedly bartering with a big construction worker type, arms waving as he gestured to his product and dismissed what the larger man said. The worker left in a huff, seemingly giving up on trying to get whatever discount or reimbursement he could, and Gregory glared at his back until he noticed the trio approaching the stall.

“Welcome, honoured customers,” he smiled cheerily and bowed, a complete departure from how he’d treated the last man. “What can this humble merchant help you with today?”

Alder and Alys were a bit shocked by the change in character, but Louie had seen it enough times to take it in stride and got straight to the point.

“Larnie at the Rat’s Tail said we could get a decent price here. Lookin’ for some stuff to fix a fence.

“Ah yes, my good friend Larnie! I supplied him the countertop for his bar, you know?” he chuckled, “You’ll not find a better price for wood this good, that’s Gregory’s guarantee!”

As Louie began to haggle with the loud and cheery merchant, Alder and Alys were given a moment to themselves in the crowd, which Alder thought was a great opportunity to question the young mage.

“So, why do you wear those pointy hats and robes and all that?” he asked with a tilt of his head, and Alys turned to him and cleared her throat, all too happy to share her knowledge of wizardry.

“The attire of a wizard is important in all facets.” she began rather officially, as if quoting a textbook, which she was. “First is the practical components, the staff and amulet.” she raised her staff and gestured to the octagonal iron wire she wore on a leather strip around her neck. “To understand their use fully, I’d need to get into the theory of mana, but since I don’t have a chalkboard that would be difficult.” she paused, a silent askance to see if Alder wanted to continue. The boy nodded slightly, prompting her to go on.

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“To put it in simple terms there are two types of mana: ambient and personal. As the names suggest, ambient mana is all around us, suffusing the very fabric of reality.” she gestured vaguely around her, and Alder squinted hard at the air in front of him. “It takes a fair amount of training to feel,” she rebuked him with a raised eyebrow.

“Sorry,” he muttered, and she waved it away.

“The amulet is a way to store extra mana and increase a caster’s reserves, and does so by passively drawing ambient mana into itself. The staff acts as a channelling tool and safety net, I push my desire through it using personal mana, which exits the tip of the staff and acts as a spark.” she tipped her staff forward, miming what she would do if she were casting. “Say I wanted to create a small flame, I would picture the image in my mind, send it through the staff, and my personal mana holding that intent would interact with the ambient mana, spreading the idea of fire into it and creating the desired effect.”

Alder’s eyes glittered as she explained the complexities of magic to him, and she pridefully tilted her chin up and smiled.

“I may have gotten a little off topic, however, as you asked what my hat and robe were for.” she said, getting back to the original question. It seemed Alder had completely forgotten about that though, as he looked a little surprised and then disappointed when she brought it up.

“If you desire, I can continue my lecture on casting at a later time,” Alys reassured him. Turns out she rather enjoyed teaching, it was almost a type of bragging. Alder’s excitement quickly came back to him.

“A wizard’s hat and robe may not have a direct effect, but they are a core part of magical culture.” she began. “Think of it like a priest’s vestments, or a craftsman’s apron; not entirely necessary, but official clothing that denotes one’s status. There have been some studies done on whether it makes it easier to focus due to wearing a comfortable robe as opposed to stiff armour, but no definitive conclusions have been made.” she finished.

“That’s so cool!” said Alder, eyes wide.

“Finally done?” came Louie’s voice from Alys’s left. She startled slightly, having been too caught up in talking about magic to notice his arrival a few minutes ago. It didn’t help that he’d intentionally approached in her blind spot, but he figured she didn’t need to know that. “I got the stuff.” he gestured over his shoulder with a thumb at a pallet piled up with wooden planks and a small bag with two hammers strapped to the side.

“I thought this was a lumber place?” said Alder as he approached the pallet and peeked inside the bag, noting that it was full of nails.

“Luckily he gets repair orders often enough to stock some basics for ‘em.” Louie shrugged as he continued. “Saves a bit of coin and another trip.”

“That’s handy,” mumbled Alder, picking up the bag. “He doesn’t have a cart or something though?” Alder rubbed the back of his head in thought, wondering if they were going to be able to drag the pallet to their destination.

“That’s what she’s for, dimwit.” Louie jerked his head at Alys, who looked surprised.

“What am I supposed to do?” she asked, annoyed.

“You said you could help with your magic,” Louie approached and glared down at her. “Do your thing, wizzy.”

Alys didn’t back down from his glare, matching it pound-for-pound with her own. “You want me to alter the fabric of reality,” she said slowly through gritted teeth, “in order to act as a glorified oxen!?” she ended with a shout.

“Well, you look like you’re halfway there, but I wouldn’t trust an ox as skinny as you with anything more than a paperweight.” Louie growled, and Alys jerked back in shock, offended.

“How dare you!” she yelled back. Alder could practically see the sparks flying between them, and quickly stepped between the two, his small stature making it easy to slip in.

“Alright, alright, let's all calm down.” he said placatingly, hands raised.

“I’m fine!”

“I’m perfectly calm.”

Both of them shouted at him, their voices overlapping, before realizing what they’d done and going back to the stare-off. Alder took a deep breath and tried again, this time more sternly.

“Louie, you’re being mean,” he wagged a finger at him reproachfully, and Alys tilted her chin up in pompous victory before Alder turned his finger to her. “And Alys, you did say you’d help us.”

Alys opened and closed her mouth a few times, seemingly unsure whether to defend herself or get angry at him, before realizing he was right and huffing defeatedly.

“Very well, I suppose a wizard is good on their word,” she began to walk towards the pallet, and said as she passed Louie: “Unlike some others here.”

“Why you-” he started, turning to her as she continued walking, ignoring him. He was about to step after her and grab her shoulder, but Alder stopped him with a hand on his chest.

“Let it go,” he said quietly. Louie grumbled and crossed his arms, but made no move for Alys. Alder sighed, this was going worse than he thought it would.

Alys stopped in front of the supplies and brandished her staff, lifting it slightly before muttering an incantation and tapping the sides of the pallet with the tip of her casting focus, a concentrated expression on her face. After a moment like that, the heavy wood sitting there unmoving and Alys glaring at it almost as hard as she did at Louie, the thing began to rise. It was slow, and only made it a few inches above the ground, but it was flying. Alder clapped his hands, and even Louie looked begrudgingly impressed. Alys looked over her shoulder at them with a haughty smile, as if this reaction was to be expected.

“Lead the way,” she said primly, and they set off, again guided by Louie, towards their worksite.