Spring Market
Someone touched River’s shoulder, from behind. He leapt onto the table before him, his bare feet spread wide as he adopted the Snake stance and spread his forefinger and index finger on his right hand wide. “Ha Taa!” He shouted and stamped one foot while waving his arms vigorously in the serpentine evasion.
Marta did her best to suppress a laugh. “Are you always this excitable while you’re studying?”
Rivers frowned and peered about himself. Of the three folding servants in the room, two of them stood and watched with apparent disinterest, while the third paused for a moment, then dropped into a ridiculous impression of a martial arts stance. The sorcerer coughed and stepped off the table.
“I was startled… I… this is a very tricky spell and if I get it wrong… wait… why are you dressed up? How did you get here?”
Marta was in fact dressed in a red silk kimono with embroidered blue blossoms, a high collar, and long sleeves. Her hair was carefully coifed in a festive red hat with a spray of plum blossoms over her left ear. She pouted and leaned over his chair. “You promised! You promised me three months ago that you would take me to the Spring Market!”
The first Spring Market in God Crossing was, to be certain, a bit larger than expected. With the establishment of the new School happening in just a week, a mild winter, and a surprisingly strong guild presence, the festival ended up taking up three times as much space as expected. It sprawled across the Eye of Hiparkes, filling the roadsides with colorful booths painted in vibrant reds and blues. The valley was filled with the sound of the thundering hooves from dawn till dusk, and at night the light of the campfires made a flickering sea of the valley floor.
Rivers walked between Marta and Storm of Amber, with Sweet Voice of Brass and Glory at his side, flanked by Root of the East, Obsidian Vigil, the folding servant Envious Prudence, the clockwork servitor Passionate Abstention, and Su Jiao of the The Qinglong Alliance as they moved through the stalls and the corrals. They made a curious party, turning heads everywhere they passed as the sorcerer’s sister tried on jewelry, asking the inhuman assistants for their opinion, and Storm of Amber commented on the quality of the horseflesh they passed.
Rivers tried his best appear interested in the trinkets and baubles on display, but the half-learned spell was always flickering just behind his eyelids. Everywhere he turned he had trouble seeing things for what they actually were, instead envisioning them for what they might be. How many of these men and women would be able to stand against a zombie horde is close formation? That spear the merchant was trying to fob off would be greatly improved by simply adding a small counterweight to the base of its shaft, and that boy leading horses from the paddock would make a fine amalgam in three years if his natural strength were coupled with an infusion of essence. Rivers passed a hand over his eyes and stopped where he was, standing in the middle of the street.
Envious Prudence was instantly at his side. “Your lordship, perhaps you’d prefer that I construct for you a palanquin before you continued? Have you grown weary?”
Marta jogged up as she heard this (incidentally knocking the automaton aside in the process). “Are you all right? You’re not sick again, are you?”
“No, no… it’s just… I’ve been inside a little too long, that’s all. It’s nothing.”
“Of course you have!” Storm turned to him from across the street and frowned down at the craftsman. “When Spring comes to Marukan, even the dead must ride. This is a true saying! What you need, my friend, is a horse.”
Rivers smiled weakly. “I can summon steeds of azure essence that run faster than any horse of flesh and bone. I have a steel bird than can fly higher than even your vaunted friend can leap with essence infusion. I hardly need a horse, I should think.”
Marta looked at him seriously. “You don’t get a horse because you need to go somewhere, little brother, any more than you have a sister so she can wash your clothes. Come on!”