Lys stepped out of Sara's front door behind her, tugging at the collar of the spare tunic she'd tossed him from some emergency stash in her hall closet. The thing was a size too big across the shoulders and a size too short in the sleeves, bunching weirdly at his wrists every time he moved. The trousers weren't much better, too, loose in the hips, riding up when he walked, but they beat the sweat-soaked gear he'd worn out of the guild yard.
Sara had handed them over with a quick laugh and a "better than nothing," and he'd changed in her side room while she waited outside. Now the fabric smelt of a faint trace of her soap, mixing with the thick smell of his own workout sweat as they cut across the lane toward the market edge. Seeing Sara didn't mind the scent that much, Lys eased a little. He really hates smelling like sweat.
She glanced sideways at him, that same easy warmth in her eyes from earlier. "Hmm, you look decent enough now. Let's swing by your place if you want to wear your own clothes."
"No need. Why go all the way to my house? These'll do for now," he muttered, rolling his shoulders to make the tunic sit right. "Let's go. We shouldn't make the merchant wait any longer."
-----
The converted storage building for the merchant's newly arrived products sat right at the far side of the market, half-hidden behind a row of half-built stalls. Servants in plain work smocks hauled crates of things back and forth, hammers cracking as they nailed up fresh shelves. The place still smelled like raw pinewood and dust, but someone had already dragged in weapon racks along one wall and a long display table down the center, blades and axes laid out neat and tagged like the owner knew exactly how to make a temporary shop feel permanent in a short time.
Lys followed Sara through the open front, and the second he cleared the doorway, his stomach did a hard flip seeing the person in front of him.
Madam Vesper stood behind the main counter. She was mid-forties, broad-built, hands scarred from years of actually handling steel before she ever started selling it. She was the same woman who bought his wolf pelts with 30 gold coins, making him rich basically, and also had given him that 10% future discount without blinking.
It felt like forever since Lys had seen her last time. So he was staring at her, at a loss for what to say.
She looked up and waved at Sara first, then her gaze landed on him and widened just a fraction.
"Well, I'll be damned," Vesper said, voice carrying that same dry capital drawl. "If it isn't the wolf-pelt kid himself. Sara definitely said she'll bring someone with her today, but didn't expect to see you playing shopping assistant today, Lys."
Lys blinked, caught off guard. He turned toward Sara. "You knew she was the merchant?"
Sara rubbed the back of her neck. "Well, yeah. She just came today after I sent her a letter saying about the guild news. Thought I would give you a surprise."
Vesper let out a short laugh and waved them deeper into the shop. "Sara here kept that little detail to herself, I see. Come on, the meeting room's in back. Still a mess out here with the girls setting it up."
They wove past two sweating servants wrestling a heavy crate, then slipped through a curtained doorway into a smaller inner room. A sturdy oak table took up most of the space, a couple of chairs were dragged around it, and a narrow window let in enough light to keep the place from feeling like a cave. The air back here was cooler, quieter, with the noise from outside muffled to a dull background sound.
Madam Vesper dropped into the head chair and eyed Lys up and down, one eyebrow raised. "Those clothes don't look fitted to you, right? What happened? Roll out of bed straight into a bar brawl or something?"
Sara leaned against the table edge, arms loosely crossed. "Oh, he just came off morning drills at the guild yard. Miss Vessa put them through it hard, I think. There was no time to swing by his home first to get his clothes."
Vesper's nose twitched. She leaned forward a fraction, nostrils flaring like she was actually sniffing the air. "Ah. That explains the odor, then. I see, Miss Vessa was assigned here then! No wonder, hah.." She muttered the last part to herself mostly.
Lys pulled himself back a little, trying to distance himself so as not to let her smell the odor too much.
A slow grin spread across her face. "Why distancing yourself, boy? You apologizing for it already? If you are, then don't bother. I don't mind. You can even say I like it. Sweat off a man who hasn't been touched by the curse yet? That's rarer than decent steel these days. Plus, you are not touched by the curse at all, I think. Most of the poor bastards around here, or even at the capital, couldn't sweat out a scent like that even if they ran for a week. So, don't feel ashamed of it. It's downright hot. Sexy, even…..Just don't let any noble woman catch a whiff of this, boy. Or even Sara can't hog you all to herself. Hahaha…"
Lys felt his ears burn at her remark. Sara's cheeks went pink, too, but she covered it by clearing her throat and pulling out a small notebook like nothing had happened. "Right. Weapons. Let's focus on it, Madam Vesper. You've got work to do, I think. Let's not keep you here for long."
Vesper chuckled low, clearly enjoying the reaction from them, but she let it drop and gestured at the racks they'd passed on the way in. "Fine, fine. Everything's tagged over there. Take your time. Choose what you want to keep."
Lys wandered the displays while Sara steered the talk, hands behind his back, quietly triggering Appraisal on every piece that caught his eye. The skill fed him clean numbers, steel grade, balance, market value, the works, without a flicker on his face. He moved slowly, casually, letting Sara do the heavy lifting in the conversation.
He suddenly slowed down on the third table. Seeing a matched set of mid-weight hunting blades, solid make, good edge retention, he used his appraisal on it right away. His Appraisal skill pegged blades' real value twenty percent under the price tag Madam Vesper had stuck on them, priced like they were premium short swords instead of everyday hunter steel.
Then his eyes caught something else. On the first rack, though, a trio of short swords sat marked way too low for what they actually were, balanced, durable, the kind of blades that'd hold up in real battle quite well.
Lys drifted back to Sara's side and leaned in close enough that only she could hear. "Hunting blades on the third table. She's got them priced against the wrong category. Worth less than she's charging, but not by much. Those short swords on the first rack are the opposite, underpriced for the quality."
Sara didn't glance at Lys. She just nodded once, eyes still on Vesper, and smoothly steered the conversation toward the short swords. Vesper also didn't mind this talk of theirs. She even felt it was kind of amusing.
Sara asked pointed questions about balance and tempering, the kind of stuff that kept Vesper talking happily about her best stock. Like that, Sara kept her engaged with talks of rare grade weapons while sometimes pointing toward the weapons she was going to buy without making Madam Vesper notice it. At least that's what she thought she was doing. Whatever the reality was.
-----
Ten minutes later, Sara bought all three short swords at the listed price, 'steal of a deal' according to her, and also politely passed on the hunting blades, citing about a tight budget.
Vesper looked pleased as hell when she shook her hand with Sara. She clapped Lys on the shoulder as they stood to leave. "You're handy to have around, Lys. Come back anytime."
Lys grinned as he remembered the old deal. "Uhh, speaking of coming again, that ten-percent discount you promised me on every future purchase, can that be applied here too?"
Vesper's face tightened for the briefest second, a flicker of something sharp crossing her eyes, but she recovered with a smooth laugh and a wave of her hand. "Of course it does, boy. Wouldn't dream of going back on my word. Apply it to today's purchase. Consider it done."
-----
Sara and Lys stepped out of the shop into the bright market lane. Sara had called for Bertha, and as she was a little late to come here, they decided to walk first. Bertha can just pick up the products and pull the cart herself. So, no need for them two to wait here.
Both of them were wearing matching satisfied expressions as they were walking the dusty road. They had scored a solid bargain, especially with that last ten-percent discount knocking the price down even further than before. Lys felt pretty damn good about how this morning had turned out.
Back inside the shop, the curtain still swayed behind them, where Madam Vesper stood alone for a moment. She tilted her head slightly, nostrils flaring again as she drew in the lingering trace of Lys's sweat that still hung in the air. Her eyes half-closed, and a slow, hungry smile pulled at her lips.
She knows that she could have squeezed a lot more profit out of those two if she'd pushed harder on the pricing, but she let them walk away anyway. Long-term gains looked a hell of a lot sweeter right now, especially with a young, uncursed man like Lys walking around smelling like raw power and untouched potential.
She licked her lips once, slow and seductively, already imagining exactly how she planned to collect on that future profit from Lys.
Out on the road, Lys suddenly felt a weird chill crawl down his spine for no reason at all. He shook it off and kept walking beside Sara, but the chilling feeling stuck with him anyway, like someone had just run a cold finger along the back of his neck.