The shopping center was lively.
Ether and I walked arm in arm through the doors. Our crystal bands buzzed as we passed under the arch that announced that we were in the Harror shopping district. The entire thing was one giant building, with multiple floors, specific stores and even a section where there were stalls for individual sellers.
The noises were unlike anything I’d ever experienced in Zeb. There were at least a thousand people milling about, having personal conversations or vendors trying to make a sale.
The building itself was huge, three stories, with what looked like an underground level. Large glass panes made up the ceiling, letting natural light in. Balcony walkways lined the streets on the upper floors with the stores being stacked like a pyramid going up.
“Where should we go first?” I looked at Ether to make sure she heard me. I wasn’t sure I could hear myself in this place.
“We need to get you that spell, so probably Spells and Such.” She walked up to a directory and began sifting through the locations. “There’s also Treymire Abilities, Hortle Enhancements, Dinx Magics, Junt Mana Flow, or Sweke Saves.” She turned to me. "The top layer is mostly individuals who go farming in the early levels of the dungeon and spend a week or two selling off their items rather than selling them to the Hub or one of the Brokers.”
“Which means the cheapest stuff is up there.” I pointed at the top layer of the pyramid.
“Usually.” Ether agreed. "But it will also take the longest amount of time to find what we’re looking for.”
I looked at my crystal band. We only had ninety minutes to get back to the RV. Knowing Aelin, she would milk every second she could, but we needed to be back before then because we had the key. We had left Rix in her bunk, but I wasn’t sure if the redhead was sleeping or hiding so she wouldn’t have to go into the shopping center. Either way, I’d rather not have them try to rouse her to let them in.
“Let’s just go to one of the regular stores for now. We can look for bargains another time.” I looked around searching for the sign of one of the businesses that Ether had mentioned.
“Treymire Abilities.” I pointed at the shop near the end of the row on the left side. I took Ether’s hand and we made our way through the crowd. I noticed that we were getting a lot of looks, or more precisely, Ether was getting most of the looks. It didn’t take me long to realize that there wasn’t a single other person with white hair that I could see. In all of the eyes that I saw looking at us, not a single one of them were red. I pulled the Tank closer to me as we cut through the crowd and tried to ignore the bumps and shoulders that we got.
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I learned two things, first was that everyone here was an Adventurer. Second was that they all belonged to either a Noble house or a Dungeon Company by the logos they were all wearing.
We were level two in a sea of people that were much higher level than us. For some reason they didn’t like me and they really didn’t like Ether.
We made it to the shop with only a few bruises. I had thought about turning around, but we were already here and turning back felt like running. There was a green-eyed silver-skinned blonde behind the counter. She smiled at us as we walked in. “Welcome to Treymire Abilities! Can I help you find anything?”
“Where would your level one through three fire spells be?” I smiled, glad to have run into a friendly face.
“They’re right over here.” She came around the counter and started walking down an aisle on the wall to my left. “They’re sorted by tier going that way.” She motioned at the other wall that was four aisles away.
I saw the sign as we got closer at the front of the endcap. The one to the furthest left read ten with an arrow to the left and eleven with an arrow to the right.
The girl pointed at the top or the rack. "Spells at the top.” She pointed at the floor. "Skills are at the bottom.” She motioned in between. "Passives are in between.” She eyed us while she flipped through the crystal cases. “You’re not from around here.”
“We’re students at the Cathedral, here on vacation.” I replied.
“I’m going there next year!” The blonde stopped searching so she could focus all her attention on us. “At least, I hope so.” She stuck out her hand. "Daisy Treymire. I get to do the Mantle Trial next year, but Nobles almost never fail, so I’m not worried about that.” Her smile faded a little. “But they are very selective about who they let in, so I might not make it.”
I grabbed her hand. "I hope to see you there.” I smiled at her. "Atlas Zeb and this is…” I motioned to my companion.
“Ether Klix.” The white-haired woman took the offered hand after I let go.
“Klix…” Daisy looked sad. "I was wondering what someone like you was doing here.”
“I noticed we’re getting a lot of weird looks, does it have something to do with that?” I glanced around the store. The dirty looks were still there on most of the shoppers faces.
“You don’t know?” Her eyes widened. "Our God Harror says that red-eyed people are the children of demons.”