The evening featured a lot of fun activities. Victorious uproars of triumph had filled the night, wistful tears of defeat here and there along with the adventurous discoveries of various dishes, candies and drinks.

The group of children could be spotted every once in a while, going through the various stalls like a whirlwind of action. Once Alaric discovered how valuable a gold coin was, the children didn’t hold back on anything they wanted to do… which placed Finn in his current predicament.

Stationed a distance away from the main action was a makeshift toilet powered by numerous spells Alaric didn’t have the brainpower to understand. Magic kept water flowing and spatial magic made everyone’s festival wastes vanish to gods-knew-where.

In the silent tranquillity of this secluded station where party animals that didn’t know restraint went to die, heaving noises followed by the sloshing of vomit and water punctuated the tense air.

Alaric and Darla waited patiently outside the restroom for their friend to get the evening’s contents out of his system. With each painful hurl, the pair winced at the pain he must have been going through.

“I told him that pie looked suspicious,” Darla murmured through gritted teeth.

“It had a few spells that made it alluring though. Finn was only fooled because his guardian’s not around to protect him from those spells,” Alaric replied.

“You could have warned him though,” Darla tried.

“He was having too much fun. Besides, I think that pie did more good than harm,” Alaric replied with a chuckle.

“How so?” this time Gunther intervened.

The stormy guard had been watching over the children in stern silence along with his comrade Lionheart. Not obligated to follow Alaric around, Garin had excused himself a long time ago to hit the village tavern, a habit Alaric had no idea about until then.

“Now he’ll have space for more food,” Alaric replied earnestly, “What’s Finn at a festival without food?”

Darla sighed, “I want to argue with you but sadly, you’re right about this one.”

The silence that followed was soon punctuated by laughter.

“You guys better not be talking about… oh no, here come the sausages…” The heaving hurl that echoed from the inside of the restroom only doubled their laughter.

…………………………

After Aiden’s departure, the trio had decided to enjoy the festival a little more as they still had time before the Coming of Age Ceremony. Only after visiting a few stalls had they found a rather peculiar display of foods.

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The title of the stall had been aptly named The Tricky Tower of Twinkling Treats and seated on rotating tiers was a vast collection of foods ranging from sour candies to impossibly delicious cakes, scones and pies.

The scent coming from the confectioneries had been intensely sweet and the colours that decorated the stall didn’t leave any room for distractions. Finn just had to try one of the pies…

For as much as a silver coin, a die would be cast, selecting the tier from the tower. Casting the die three more times would allow the stall owner to choose three foods and from those, the customer would choose whatever they wanted.

The catch was the fact that the foods on the tower could either be immensely sweet or utterly disgusting. What’s more, was that the appearance and smell of the treats had nothing to do with the taste or… effects the food would have on its consumer. There was no way of knowing until a bite was taken.

After asking what the worst effect could be, Finn had taken a shot at the die… Who could have thought that his luck would be rotten enough to get him to hurl all the contents of the evening down the toilet seat of the enchanted restroom?

Moments later, Finn emerged from the restroom, wiping a thin film of sweat from his brow. Alaric, who had been holding a bottle of water he bought from a stall on their way to the restroom, handed it over to the boy.

“Thanks,” Finn burped, corking the bottle and draining it of its contents.

“Feeling better?” Alaric asked.

He nodded, “Hell yeah… I can eat again,” he wiped his mouth on his sleeve with a look of determination. The night wasn’t nearly over.

Darla facepalmed while Gunther and Lionheart snickered.

“Alright then. Let’s go. We should have a few more minutes to make it to the Coming of Age Ceremony,” Alaric mentioned.

“It’s going to be boring. I doubt they’ll be anything like the performers we saw earlier,” Finn grumbled, “Do you have more of that water, Alaric?”

“We can get some on our way there,” Alaric responded, reaching into his pockets to pick out some change with a sparkle of curiosity in his eyes.

Since the start of the festival, he’d learned more about currency and found that each gold coin in his possession was actually worth a lot.

A gold coin was worth a hundred silvers while each silver was worth a hundred coppers. The price of most of the events they’d been through ranged within a few coppers. Every once in a while, he even had to utilize what was known as a nickel.

A copper was worth ten nickels.

Fishing a silver coin from his pocket, Alaric handed it over to Finn. The boy looked at it for a bit, then turned to Gunther, “Do you have some change on you, good man? My rich comrade happens to have forgotten the language of the common people.”

“I’ll charge you ten coppers for this transaction,” Gunther replied.

“That’s robbery,” Finn backed away, “Alaric, ten coppers, please. Keep the silver.”

The boy partially groaned, then started counting the money. It was a hassle to have to count ten coppers instead of simply handing over a silver but he understood why it was necessary. At certain times, having money that required a lot of change would become a curse when trying to buy something as cheap as a bottle of water.

A few minutes found them in a fast-moving line to the entrance of the large cathedral that would hold the Coming of Age Ceremony. People of all sorts had come to attend the Ceremony, making Alaric wonder quite a bit, “Don’t you think there are a lot of people here… for a small village on the outskirts of Valeria?”

Darla turned to Alaric with an odd expression, “A lot of people?”

“Yes, a lot of people. Everywhere we’ve gone, there have been people everywhere. If I didn’t know any better, I’d say we were in a large town or the capital?” he chuckled.

“You haven’t noticed then…”

“Noticed what?”

“That most of the people here… are actually spirits,” Darla replied.

'Heh...'