Dance of the Gods

In the kitchen Suze was already preparing the breakfast. There was a sound of a door opening behind her, thinking it was Sofie returning she said without looking back.

"Is our sleeping beauty still in bed? She will have to wake up sooner, it will make her life a lot easier. There is a paper on the chair, those are the food and ingredients you need to buy. But do not! I repeat do not tell Veronica..."

Her words stuck in her throat when she turned around and instead of Sofie, it was Veronica's confused expression that greeted her. She went a bit pale, but quickly realized nothing was revealed to her. She breathed a sigh of relief, then forced out a smile.

"Ah, Veronica you are already awake?... Go take a bath, the water is still warm. Breakfast is at 7, just like yesterday."

With a weird and suspicious look on her face she left the kitchen and entered the corridor leading towards the bathroom. On the way she thought about what she wasn't supposed to know.

'What are we going to buy that is need to be kept a secret before me? I thought we will just by food, spices, etc... Seems like today is going to be more interesting than I initially prepared for.'

She entered the bathroom, the water was still kind of hot which was just perfect for her. After taking of her robe, she quickly climbed into it and began taking a relaxing bath. Sadly she couldn't let her mind go, every time she tried to the monster's face appeared in front of her, and the way it devoured her still beating heart.

Eventually she stopped trying to relax and began cleaning herself with the household's communal soap. It was a bit disgusting to think about how many people use it every day, but still beats not using it at all. 

Back on Earth she always took showers at night, but it seemed different in this place. She didn't quite understand the logic in taking a bath in the morning, but again if she needed to decide between taking a bath or not, she would go with the first option every time.

After the bath she put on her clothes and went back into the kitchen. The children were already awake and they were helping make the table. Some food was already there ready for the taking, but Veronica just approached Suze and offered her help.

When the nearby bell hit seven, the family were already at the table, eating whatever they wanted. After breakfast, Veronica washed her own plate and cutlery, then went into the restroom.

Soon she came out, the others one by one used it after her, then the kids left for school and she left with Sofie to the market.

They walked towards the nearby public carriage stop. The public carriages were similar to trains, they had a fixed schedule and they had stops all over the city. In the stops there was even a map marking every stop. The further you traveled the more expensive it became.

For one stop it was 3 coppen, for two stop it was 6 and so on. Because they were heading to the Market Square, they would have to travel about 9 or 10 stops. It was quite expensive, but much better than walking those kilometers in these long dresses.

It would take them about 30 minutes to travel there, walking the same distance would have taken hours.

There was another kind of public carriage they could use, the unfixed public carriages. They roamed around the city accepting anyone who wanted to go somewhere and they dropped them off close to their said destination. Of course those were much more expensive, they worked on the amount of kilometer travelled because they had no fixed stops. They were also faster too, but with the price difference it wasn't worth it for them.

The higher middle class could even rent private carriages and the nobility simply bought them.

They walked to the stop and waited, there weren't many people at this hour and it wasn't sunday, so not many headed for the market.

While waiting she turned to Sofia and asked, "Hey, can I see the list of what we have to buy?"

She gave it to her with no questions asked, and Veronica quickly read through it.

'Most is pretty normal, we have to buy meat, sugar, eggs, pepper, and a bunch of other cooking ingredients. They all seem normal, except... What is this 'celestial dust'? 'Frowning pine needle'? 'Heavenly vanilla extract'? 'Tears of fire'? What are these?'

After reading through it a couple of times she gave it back to Sofie, and was about to ask what those weird names were, but the public carriage has finally arrived.

It was big, pulled by four horses. There were seats for about thirty or so people and even a couple of places to stand. The outside of the carriage was pretty clean, it was painted dark red, with white window frames. 

They quickly approached the door and got on it. Sofie payed for both of them and they sat down in the back. There was about 20 other passengers at the moment, but that will increase or decrease by the time they arrive. Most of them will get off near the Court Square probably.

The carriage began moving again and on the outside the cityscape moved past them. It was truly beautiful, the buildings, the atmosphere, the colorful dresses, the fresh air because of the sea. It brought a smile to Veronica's face.

They were moving for about ten minutes when they arrived to the Court Square, this was the heart of Hammon. The square was named after the Courthouse which could be found here.

The Courthouse was the main government office building of every city in the Free Cities. If you needed to do something related to the government, you only need to go to the Courthouse.

The building itself was gigantic, it housed everything from courtrooms, to the city council, to every other government offices. The mayor was currently working in there as well. There was a constant stream of people entering and exiting the building.

This square also housed many of the rich folk's homes and the best hotels in the whole of Hammon. Here there was always a bit of traffic, even for horse carriages.

Soon they left the Court District and entered the Market District. Hammon was made up of 4 districts, the smallest was the Court District which encompassed the Court Square and the nearby area including the Church of Law's cathedral.

The second smallest was the Market District, it held the Market Square and some housing around it.

The last two were of similar size, the Harbor District was made up of mostly the ports and a couple of nearby streets, the Miles Inn is located there. Then there was the last one... the Dirt District.

This was possibly the largest, and just as its name suggests it was not a good place. They keep the industry and the poor people in that district, it is basically a ghetto in everything except name.

'It is quite sad really, keeping all those people in the dirt. I wonder why they haven't revolted yet?'

While thinking they approached their destination. Soon they were climbing off of the carriage and walking towards the market. It was a large square full of activity, there were lots of buildings that served both as shops and housing for the shopkeepers.

The narrow street also had displays placed on both sides. On them were all kinds of goods from fruits and vegetables, to meat, baked goods, alcohol, some people even sold fake jewelry, others sold perfumes or soaps, there were ones with different kinds of tools for either cooking or crafting, some people didn't even sell products and instead sold the raw materials.

It was an incredible sight to behold. Even Sofie stopped for a second to admire it, she turned towards Veronica with a small smile and said, "Even after all these years, it still amazes me how beautiful this part of Hammon is."

They stayed there for a couple of minutes, just watching people as they shopped, hearing the shouts of others and enjoying the charm of a busy market.

"Come, we will never get back if we just watch the market. Lets gather all the ingredients."

Veronica nodded and they both went into the narrow street. It wasn't as nice or magical walking through the street as it was watching it from afar. The more time they spent here the sooner she wanted to leave.

Sofie showed and introduced her to the people where they bought their ingredients from. Sometimes she even haggled the price down. They were nearly done with the common items, but Veronica noticed that they didn't gather any of the weird sounding ones. With her suspicion continuously increasing, she decided to ask about it.

"Sofie, what are all those strange ingredients on the list and where do we buy them?"

Her face went white as a sheet and her hands began to tremble.

'Dammit, I forgot to hide it from her!... Mother will kill me!... Okay quickly think of a convincing lie, what can we use these things for?...'

She began taking deep breaths as subtly as she could, after a couple of seconds she came up with a pretty bad lie, but that is also she got.

"Uh... We... We use them for praying... Yes, we use them for praying, it is a weird thing with the Church of Time you wouldn't know about it..."

'I am definitely dead!... Look at her face, she didn't believe a word I said!'

"But don't worry about those!... You just take all these back and I will gather the rest on this list!... Okay, see you at home!..."

With that she began to take hurried steps, nearly running away, but soon the sound of running feet came from behind her. She turned around and to her utter dismay Veronica was coming after her. Her hands were sweating, but Sofie waited for her to speak first.

"I don't have money.", was all she said.

'What is she talking about?... Why is she asking that instead of question why I lied?...'

Through her confusion she only managed to say one word...

"What?"

"I don't have money for the carriage ride home. Could you give me some?"

'Oh! So that's why she needs money! I still don't understand why did she not ask about my very blatant lie, but I hope she never will!'

"Sure, here you go. 5 eura will be enough. You know where to get off right?"

Veronica nodded, then they both went in different directions.