The rest of the morning passed quickly as more people began to visit the market, leading the surrounding area to grow louder and louder over time.
Fade led the way, guiding them from stall to stall with practiced ease, introducing artisans whose names carried quiet weight among Elven student circles, each greeting accompanied by polite bows, soft laughter, and the subtle pride of creators showing their work to friends rather than customers.
Elara was completely swept up in it, asking endless questions, marveling at runic lattices embedded beneath crystal skins, gasping when a sculpture reacted to her mana with a shy shimmer of green light.
Lilian pretended to be unimpressed, arms crossed, but she lingered longer than she admitted at pieces that radiated raw presence, massive crimson prisms, blood-red mana cores suspended in slow rotation, crystal beasts frozen mid-roar as if daring the world to challenge them.
