Lux [h.s]

thirty-seven

The next day Cora stepped foot in the market square of Idais in the early afternoon.

She wandered around for a little while, forcing herself to think of anything but the night before. The idea of crossing paths with that man again left her uneasy and wary of her surroundings, but she tried to tone it down as much as she could as not to look suspicious. She still had to master the talent of being perfectly aware of her surroundings while seeming completely relaxed.

What made her even uneasier, though, was the thought of seeing Harry again. The night before he'd walked her back to the Fair and vanished before she could say thank you, and while she should've been glad he'd spared them both the awkwardness of saying their goodbyes, she wasn't. She was the one that had pushed him away—in truth, she'd only done it because he'd told her he wanted to but couldn't bring himself to—and yet she was also the one that seemed to be most affected by it. While Harry seemed to want to talk to her from time to time, he wasn't the one that thought about the other constantly—like she did. Because no matter where she was or what she was doing, he always found a way to slide into her thoughts. She'd got too used to his presence, and now that he wasn't there anymore, her mind missed him just as much as her heart did.

"We're ready to go."

She nodded at Arnold and the two other men that were with her. They'd kept her company on the long walk from the wagons to the city, and while they made it hard for her to walk around unnoticed, she felt protected as well. Arnold's tall frame was enough to intimidate everyone she didn't want to interact with, and he was more than eager to scare away whoever became too curious with a glare. His reddish beard and hair shone under the silvery glare of the sun, and his dark eyes scanned the square repeatedly for threats. The other two men she wasn't familiar with; she only remembered seeing them briefly every time the Pavilion was being set up or undone.

She took them to the stall and greeted the old man sitting behind it with a smile. This time around, he was accompanied by a boy that couldn't have been much older than eighteen.

"Here for the apples?" the man asked, ruffling the corner of his moustache as he stared at Cora's company suspiciously, and she nodded.

While Arnold and the others moved the crates to the cart they'd left in the nearing street she paid and made some small conversation with the vendor, that still couldn't believe she was buying so many apples.

"Are you sure they won't go bad? It'd be a shame if they did."

"Don't worry, I promise you none will be wasted."

The boy that was with him frowned. "Are you from the Adhara Hall?" he asked, immediately being scolded by his father.

"I'm not, no," Cora replied. She wondered what had made him think she was. Her grey dress was simple and unremarkable. It was the same one she'd been wearing when she'd fled her town. Harry had wanted to throw it away, but she'd convinced him to keep it—out of strategical thinking or nostalgia, she couldn't tell.

Arnold came back. "We're all set."

"You can go ahead, I'll stay here for a while longer and see if we missed anything," Cora told him. She wanted to roam around Idais for a while longer, bask in the sense of wonder and familiarity it elicited in her. They didn't need her at the Fair anyway.

He gave her a nod and walked away.

"You own a hostel, then? Or a bakery?" the boy insisted, and she gave him a tight smile.

"Something like that," she replied, taking advantage of the little break in the conversation to say her goodbyes and go away. If there was one thing she didn't need Harry to tell her to know, it was that it was never a good thing when people became too curious.