It was half past nine in the morning when their cart came to a halt before the gates of the fortified city of Ilyndor — the capital of Valon.
Talia had slept all throughout their journey and was slowly trying to break the sleep spell as she rose to sit upright, still rubbing her eyes and suppressing a yawn at the same time. She looked around and found the cart empty. Eleonora was already on her feet next to the cart. The five copper coins for the journey's fare secured in her fist, her mouth agape, and her neck straining to take in the majestic view before her eyes, all at once.
'It's even better on the inside,' said Talia, jumping down from the cart and taking the coins out of her awestruck cousin's hand and giving it to the cart master waiting to be paid.
'It's breathtaking,' Eleonora gasped, unable to pull her eyes away, even as Talia fetched the healing box from the cart and took her hand to pull her through the massive gates.
The huge wall running endlessly in both directions would have been enough to inspire awe in the mind of someone like Eleonora. Living in the village as a kid and then at the edge of the Spirit Forest, away from the people, her whole world consisted of large grasslands for grazing, endless fields of numerous crops, small wooden houses and uneven dusty streets that had hardly more than ten people walking on it at one time.
Now, watching the snowy peaks of the mountain range resting among the clouds at the backdrop with the sun shining overhead the tall buildings that seemed to rise almost to the sky, their glass windows throwing back the rays of the sun to its surroundings — like golden paint splashed over the entire city — Eleonora was finding it hard to comprehend it as reality.
Still in her dreamlike state of awe, she walked on the cobblestones path, her eyes moving from the stalls, to the canals, to the hundreds of people walking about their day, as if the beauty of the city had no impact on their lives. Eleonora watched Talia stroll easily through the broad streets and realised, after a lifetime spent watching such a sight everyday, they must have grown immune to its beauty.
'What are those?' she ran up to Talia, who had walked several steps ahead, and pointed in the direction of a shop selling strange artifacts.
Talia followed her gaze. 'Pay no attention to them. These are plain, regular items altered by some sort of charm to give them a whimsical feel. These sellers con new visitors of the city by telling them they are magical foreign items imported all the way from Aetherlyn.'
Eleonora nodded in understanding, but was unable to suppress her amazement. Magic was forbidden in the kingdom of Valon — the first and the only one of the five kingdoms to pass such a law. After the Great Archanis War that had ended with the High Lord being sealed behind his own castle gates, leaving the Celestial Concord to make autonomous decisions for the first time since its formation centuries before, Valon had been the only kingdom to debar spell-casters from entering its boundaries. Conclusively, it had become a safe haven for the normal folks impervious to magical abilities.
However, using little charms and enchantments in the capital city of Valon was hardly something that would be frowned upon. Not when it was open for visitation from people from all other lands — spell-casters and otherwise.
As she passed through the crowd, Eleonora could easily distinguish between them. From their clothes, from their speech, from their spirit.
While at home, she hadn't understood why Talia was so earnestly pressing her to wear the emerald green cloaks reserved for the healers of the Kingdom. Never one to step out of the cottage often, let alone the village, Eleonora had never bothered to get one made for herself. She was infamous enough there; there was no need for her to announce her identity to make it worse.
But watching the people walk past everyone without giving them a second look, but looking in her direction with an unsaid respect in their eyes, — even as the hood of her mother's old cloak that she had rummaged through the storage covered almost all of her face — Eleonora got a glimpse of what her cousin had wanted to do.
'I cannot say if it is like this everywhere, but healers are revered in Ilyndor,' Talia said, smiling brightly. 'I thought it would be a nice change for you.'
Eleonora smiled gratefully. 'It is. It feels like I could live here forever,' she said. A sudden wish brought on by the ease of her surroundings.
'Why do you not?' she asked as they made their way towards the market district. There were so many turns, so many small bridges over canals to cross, that if it wasn't for Talia knowing her way all around the city, courtesy to her father owning a bakery apparently quite close to where they were headed, Eleonora was sure she would have wasted her whole day in search of her destination and giving up her fruitless search at the end.
'Papa says it's not safe for me,' answered Eleonora. Although he had never given her a reason for that. No matter how many times she had tried to bribe him into confessing.
Talia looked around as people went past, no threat in sight. 'It's better than staying in the village. No one knows who you are here. Is it not why you wish to move to Thera?'
Not particularly. But Eleonora refrained herself from explaining. However, she made a note in her mind to prepare the roast hare curry for her father while she narrated her safe visit to Ilyndor — not yet aware that she would find the answers to her questions long before she would find the chance to meet her family again.
The crowd in the market district was less dense than that on the outskirts of the city. Eleonora found it odd, for the entire district was said to be located just two streets away from the city square. She didn't question it, however. As her attention was soon stolen by the stalls of exotic herbs lining at the start of the district.
For a moment, she forgot about everything else. The plan in the making to avoid the evil schemes of the man that had sent her the letter was pushed to the back of her head, and the caution that she was supposed to take with every waking breath was casted aside with careless indifference. Eleonora realised she was running out of time. It would be noon soon, and there would not be much time for her to assess the area before the man arrived. But for a moment, only for a moment, she forgot everything else and ran to the herb stall, her eyes — watching the precious herbs and spices that she had only read about in books until now — twinkling with adoration and love that no other inanimate object could ever excite from her.
There were more than a hundred of them, categorised in small boxes covered with glass, spread over the wooden stalls like different coloured gems for display — she could name every last one of them.
'How much do they cost?' Eleonora asked the vendor lady. Talia came to stand next to her, disinterested in the ingredients, but curious as to what had managed to rouse such interest in her usually calm cousin.
The vendor lady must have sensed the excitement in her voice — an amateurish mistake on Eleonora's part — as she went on to name the prices that would make anyone's head spin.
Aware of such tactics, Talia came to her rescue. 'We come from the bakery in the next street. Do not take our excitement over your ingredients for naivete. We know its worth and will pay no more than that. You wouldn't want to rip an apothecary of her ingredients now, would you?'
The vendor twisted her mouth in irritation and named a much lower price. Eleonora looked over at Talia, impressed. Talia, in turn, was trying to suppress a grin.
Eleonora pointed at the two herbs and three spices that she knew were the rarest of them, 'I'll take these.' If she were being honest, she would have bought the entire stall, but honestly hardly ever made anyone rich. And the five ingredients were enough to empty her limited treasury.
When the vendor woman turned around to fetch parchment from the small stand behind her, Eleonora turned to Talia, instructing her of their next movements. "Let us inspect the area after this.'
'Alas! I thought you forgot about our purpose for coming here,' Talia taunted.
'I got distracted,' blushed Eleonora,a bit embarrassed. Where else would she find such exotic ingredients for her potions? 'Which way are we to go now?'
Talia pointed to the endless line of stalls on their left. 'The Velvet Pearl is an inn at the end of this street. It is known for being expensive and is often visited by nobles. It's one of the reasons I don't believe the letter is forged, because if anyone were to cause trouble, they would never do that around there lest they might risk enraging a noble.'
Even as Eleonora — with a heavy heart — dug her hand in her pouch and took out five gold coins to pay the vendor, she looked in the direction Talia was pointing. Despite the endless line of stalls on the street, the number of people was scarce, even fewer than the ones around her. She wondered if it was because the inn was visited by nobles that the usual people avoided running into.
She definitely would if she wasn't so grudgingly invited to the place.
'There aren't many people there. And the ones that are there don't look particularly suspicious,' she said to Talia, who nodded her head as if the knowledge was profound.
'I told you, you were troubling yourself for nothing,' announced Talia, slapping a hand on her cousin's shoulder playfully. Eleonora smiled, slightly relieved.
A botched criminal could list almost fifty different ways on how their said-master plan was going to get them killed, but Eleonora had never been fortunate enough to receive a warning. And as if one cue, just as she forwarded her hand to give away the gold coins to the vendor holding her ingredients wrapped in a parchment, the whole stall was flipped over — making the coins fly off her hand and fall on the cobblestones, joining the herbs and spices that flowed out of the shattered glass boxes.