Closed [marketplace] Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da (Krysanthe)

[Hess]

10 Fall, 512 The season had not yet progressed to the point where the weather forced the ten-day market into the Stained Glass Gallery. The temperatures were still balmy enough in the day for the vendors to want to be outdoors, in the Courtyard. On this particular day, Syna was doing her best to fry the last bits of green out of the grass and leaves of the woods and meadows around and on the slopes of Mount Skyinarta, and it was hot! As Hess walked along, the vegetation crackled beneath his boots. He wasn’t bothered, though, for he wasn’t hunting – at the moment. Having already checked his snares, he had a brace of two fat marmots and three rabbits slung over his shoulder, and several squirrels stuffed into his leather pack. Coming through the Sanikas Gates, he nodded cordially to the gate keeper and passed right on into the mountain city and straight to the Courtyard of the Sky. It was late afternoon, and the marketplace was still going strong, with buyers and simple ‘window shoppers’ vying for elbow room amongst the tightly packed stalls. Hess was running a bit later than he had planned, and he was glad the many booths were still open. But he didn’t bother to take his catch down to the kitchens first. That could wait. Knowing pretty much where to find what he was after, he jostled through the crowds, steering towards the far side of the Courtyard and the second ring of vendors. He had seen this girl a month or so back and saw that she was selling . . . yes, there she was. Pressing forward, Hess met with a temporary blockade formed by the hand cart of a man selling melons. The hunter waited patiently for the guy to move on, and he was distracted from his target destination for a moment, listening to the heavyset man arguing with an old woman with a basket of apples on her hips. Hess wasn’t interested in their dispute of course, he just wanted . . . Ah, finally. The man and his cart lurched onwards and Hess was just stepping closer to the booth he was seeking when he heard and saw it happen. The girl that he had seen before – a glass maker probably, maybe an apprentice – had been standing, showing a customer a flat dish full of colorful glass beads. Just the thing that Hess himself was considering purchasing. But a passing Inarta had carelessly shoved into the browsing customer, who in turn stepped forward, jostling the dish. Hess watched, as if time had slowed, as the dish wiggled and wobbled, and the girl tried to keep her grasp on it. But, no, down it went, hitting the stone of the Courtyard with a loud clatter, before breaking in two. The beads – dozens of them – went everywhere. They bounced and rolled and flew, and Hess saw that look on the girl’s face, and felt so sorry for her. As one of the beads rolled to a stop when it hit his boot, he bent to pluck it up, Crouching down, he scanned the ground and plucked up another of the tiny bright things. And then another, and another, and . . . another.