After finishialk with John, Dawn headed back out of the tower, stopping at the door to remake her light orbs, keeping in mind what the guardians had said about needing an active spell. As she left, she noticed that the guardian golems had moved while she was inside, and once again caught some of them watg her, though none moved while she watched them.

  Without looking in her dire, the guards at the entrance smoothly stepped aside as she approached, and wished her lu her path. Unsure what to think of that phrase, she shrugged and thahem before leaving, spotting Lara sitting at a table across the street and talking with anuard. As she neared, Lara said her farewells to her versation partner before returning to esc Dawn.

  After ferring for a moment, they decided to visit the clothing store first, and began traveling towards the merts’ se of town again. Surprisingly, Lara led them through several small alleyways after reag the main street before they re-emerged on aner road. When Dawioned why they went that way, Lara simply shrugged before responding that it was a on shortcut.

  A few moments ter, they reached a mid-sized building with a sign beled simply with “Kate’s” on it. While it was odd that it didn’t clearly mentioype of store like most around it, Dawn just shrugged and headed ier Lara indicated that it was their destination.

  Stepping ihe door swung into a bell hanging from the ceiling, creating a light tinkling hroughout the room. They passed through the entryway into the storefront, walking around a small partition blog the majority of the outside light from entering, the interior instead lit by a handful of hanging crystals. In the faint light, Dawn spotted numerous sets of clothing on dispy, small pques beh each listing the name of the design. Likewise, off to the side, there was a rge dispy of different fabrics, each with their own sign.

  While she looked around at all the various fabrid designs before heading towards a group of robes, Lara moved towards the back, greeting an a-looking man who emerged from another room. Turning and taking a closer look, Dawn saw that both his eyes and ears were shogly huge, at least twice as rge as normal, immediately expining the dim light and quiet bell.

  Finishing their greetings, both Lara and the old man headed back towards where Dawn stood, and she politely greeted the elder. Curious about the name, Dawn asked about it, learning that Kate was the man’s wife. Unlike what she feared upon hearing this, he mentioned she was still quite fine, and, in fact, was out hunting in the wilderness.

  Before she could ask, he gestured to oion of fabric, mentioning it roduced from the silk of mutated spiders, then another beside it was posed of fibers of a rare pnt only found near Floatspire Vilge. Nodding, she thanked him for the information, whiswered her question before she could speak it.

  Asking about the robes, she learhat uhe ones she was wearing, the ones he made included not only pockets, but also several straps to assist in carrying things. Almost immediately, she decided she would be getting one, and the man guided her towards the fabric dispy to have her pick out what type she wanted.

  While Lara reended a fairly soft and pretty fabric, Dawn instead inquired about ohat were more durable, remembering how often she had been gd for the resilience of her clothes tely. After humming under his breath and thinking for a moment, the man pointed out several sets of fabrid Dawed how they felt, listening as he expined eabsp; She went bad forth between a few of the samples before deg ohird one she had been shown, surprisingly soft fabric woven out of strands made from tree bark, one of the things his wife was currently looking for.

  Haviled on both a design and the fabric, Dawn asked how much it would cost, as well as how long it would take to be finished. After a moment of thought, and inquiring if she was a mage, he replied, “I have it fiwo days from now. Unfortunately, even if you are a mage, the rarity of the materials means I o charge you. If you accept wearing it around town for a month with an emblem of our shop, I drop the price to eighty silver, otherwise, it would be one gold and thirty silver.”

  With a nod, Dawn stated, “That is fine, I am still unfortable with the idea of getting things for free just because I do magiyways. I won’t be staying in town that long, I am just passing through on the way to the capital, so I will have to dee the offer.”

  As she finished speaking, Dawn pulled out the bag of money she had been given at the inn, finding it only had y silver within. Looking up, she saw Lara already beginning to speak in anticipation of her question, “Don’t worry, you earned signifitly more than enough. Robert just doesn’t keep that much around unless he knows ahead of time that he needs it.”

  Hearing their versation, the man o the guard’s words before remarking, “Given that you are a mage, and escorted by a guard, I am fident enough to let you pay when you pick it up.”

  Thanking the man, Dawn said her farewells ao head towards the jewelry store with Lara. Just a momehey arrived, the store quite close to the ohey had left, this ohout a sign, but “Jewel’s Jewels” was engraved directly oal door that was set deeply into the windowless stone. Dawn was a bit anxious about the vault-like nature of the entry, but Lara just pulled the door aside as if it was normal.

  As they entered, a beautiful and cheerful-looking young woman was clearly visible against the far wall, sitting beside a strange-looking crossbow style on tipped with a rge gleaming yellow stone. While they approached Lara called out to the woman, greeting her. Uedly, her urned out to be dy, not Jewel, yet again making her questioore’s name just like the st.

  Seeing her obvious fusion, dy chuckled before simply remarking that others iown gave her the niame due to her appearanbsp; After nodding to her, Dawn folded her arms behind her back before roaming around the dispys, looking closely at each item. A bit over three-fourths of the way through, she reized that all the jewelry within that se tained mana stones, and immediately thought back to how useful being able to store ailize the saved power had been during the Bck Tide, deg she had to pick up something to help with that.

  Looking much more closely at the objects, she found several bracelets that seemed to be the cheapest for the amount of crystals they held, acc to the prices listed beside them. As she looked back up, she was shocked to see that dy was standing right across from her, having made no sound as she approached.

  “Mage, eh? I guess yoal, I reend this one!” she excimed as she poio the third most expensive, beled at 92 silver. “This one is the best value, though it isn’t terribly pretty. I drop the price to eighty silver for you, as long as you wear it openly and reend my shop if anyone asks you about it,” she tinued.

  Dawn remarked that she wasn’t going to stay in town for terribly long, to which dy just shrugged, saying it didn’t matter too much about how long, just that she showed it off. Hearing this, Dawn quickly agreed, handing over almost all of the money she had, receiving the bracelet in turn after dy unlocked the dispy with a key attached to the butt of the crossbow-like on.

  Dawn immediately put the bracelet on and ran her mana through it, finding the finger-sized mana stones were still naturally charged, having never been used before, which meant they would st quite a few cycles before degrading. Whehanked dy for the quality, the woman remarked that it would be bad for her reputation to provide subpar goods.

  Nodding in uanding, Dawn said goodbye to dy, the along with Lara. As they left, Lara mentiohey should be able to meet with Lord Jerald soon, and began leading through the city again.

  Shard