"Little brother, stop looking so unhappy."
Liora said it with a smile as the three of them walked through the evening crowds of Silverrest City. "The auction house is a place you’ll visit a lot in the future. Almost anything you’ll ever need can be found inside. The only real question is whether you have the coins for it. If you make it onto a Demon Hunt Squad, you’ll be dealing with auction houses all the time. Think of today as a tour, so you won’t get lost later."
Mira nodded. "She’s right. The market district has plenty of good things. And the biggest auction houses in the Temple Alliance are backed by the Six Great Temples. Only ten major cities have one, and this city built theirs first. Whatever you want to buy or sell later, the Halcyon Union auction houses are the safest place to do it."
Leo was walking with his hands in his pockets, trying to look like he wasn’t enjoying himself. "Then why didn’t we bring Darius and Caden?"
"They have nothing to sell and nothing to buy," Liora said. "No reason for them to come. Now hurry up. I heard there’s an auction tonight."
Leo didn’t argue.
The biggest city he had ever seen before this trip was Moonhaven. And honestly, ever since he’d met his father, most of his days had been spent training. He had barely touched the outside world. Now he was fourteen, and everything felt new and interesting. Besides, both Corvin and Kessel had told him the same thing: a person’s strength grows when they know how to use outside help. Weapons. Equipment. Medicine.
Knowledge was the cheapest kind of power.
So he kept his eyes open.
---
The Crownhammer Auction House stood in the busiest part of the city, right at its center.
He saw it from far away. A huge white egg rising above the rooftops.
"That’s six and a half kilometers from here," Mira said, noticing his stare.
"What?" Leo blinked. "It looks like it’s right in front of us."
"That’s how big it is."
The dome was made of some kind of pale material that caught the dusk light and threw it back in soft waves. As they got closer, the walls around it grew taller and wider, until they felt like city walls that had no end.
"It’s enormous," Leo said.
"And it’s not even the biggest one," Liora said with a small smile. "The auction house in the Halcyon Capital is at least twice this size. It holds twenty thousand people in a single session. This one holds around ten thousand."
Leo stopped walking. "Twenty thousand? With that many people, won’t prices fly into the sky?"
"No." Liora shook her head. "Auction prices are already high. Unless someone urgently needs an item, they don’t throw away their money. And the Halcyon Union houses don’t make their profit from commissions. They’re so big that entry fees alone are enough. An ordinary ticket costs one coin. Seats near the front cost more. The seats closest to the center of the hall cost a thousand gold each."
"A thousand gold," Leo repeated, "just to sit."
"Just to sit," Mira said. "Wait here."
She disappeared into the line at the ticket window. A few minutes later she returned with three cards. She handed one to Leo and one to Liora.
"Let’s go in. Leo, we need to get the dark green carapace appraised. If we’re lucky, we can sell it tonight."
---
The first thing Leo saw inside was a grand hall with a classic layout, wide enough to hold a small village. On both sides stood tall sales counters, and each counter was watched by at least ten guards. Some wore armor. Some wore mage robes. All of them looked quietly bored.
Liora had explained the system on the walk. The counters on the left handled appraisals. The counters on the right paid out gold after the auctions. There were eight counters in total, built to keep thousands of people moving without bumping into each other. The auction house held sessions every single day, so the place was always loud and alive. Wealthy people even came just for fun. After all, you could find anything here.
And information, Liora had added, was worth more than most of what was sold.
Mira steered Leo to the left side, where the line was short.
"Hello," Leo said to the middle-aged man behind the counter. "I’d like to auction the body of a magical beast from the demon clans."
The man glanced up. He pressed something beneath the counter. The wall beside him began to shift. Panels folded and slid, and a platform rose three meters wide.
"Come forward," the man said, with no interest at all.
"Thank you." Leo pushed a thread of spiritual energy into the Forget-Me-Not ring. A soft blue light flickered around it. The ring seemed to wake up, flashed a deep green, and something heavy appeared on the platform with a thump.
The middle-aged man jerked back. "Yi! A Dark Green Dual-Bladed Demon." He stared. "What a rare sight."
He stood, walked around the body in slow, careful circles, and crouched beside the cracked carapace. He ran his fingers along a seam and frowned.
"Too bad. No magic crystal. If it had one, the price would be double. As it is, we’ll start at eight hundred gold coins. A dark green one is rare, so we won’t sell it off cheap."
Leo felt his stomach tighten, but only a little. Eight hundred gold. In his eyes, that was a huge amount. At the very least, it could keep Veyra in dried fish for a while. She’d been eating more and more lately, and her appetite was beginning to swallow Leo’s money faster than he could earn it.
The man handed him a black tile with a magic crystal set in its center. On the back was a number: 26.
"Show this when the auction ends to collect your gold. Don’t lose it. We only recognize the tile, not the person."
"Understood."
"Bids start at eight hundred. After that, every raise is one hundred gold."
The man turned to wave over a guard to move the body.
"Wait a moment!"
The voice came from behind Leo, quick and urgent. Footsteps hurried closer.
"Please don’t take that away yet. I want to buy it directly."
---
Leo turned and froze.
The person standing there was a young man, no more than twenty, about half a head taller than Leo. His hair was dark green and fell all the way down to his waist. His skin was fair and almost translucent, like milk. He was as beautiful as Leo was handsome, and the difference was that he clearly knew it. If it weren’t for the long hair, Leo would have thought he looked more like a girl than himself. Luckily, his throat still showed a clear Adam’s apple.
He wore a mage’s long white robe over a slim frame, but there was no staff in his hand.
What stood out most were his eyes. They were pale green, bright and playful, with a mischievous glint that somehow made people feel he liked them.
The young man didn’t spare Leo a glance at first. He bent down and stared at the dark green demon, and his whole face changed. He looked entranced. His fingers began to stroke the carapace gently, almost lovingly.
"A fine thing. What a fine thing! I want it. Little brother, tell me your price."
He straightened, turned, and looked Leo directly in the face.
And stopped.
His eyes widened. His mouth opened a little. He stared at Leo as if someone had just reached into his chest and rearranged it.
"How is it possible," he murmured, "that there’s someone in this world more beautiful than me? Impossible."
"Pfft."
Mira had turned away, shoulders shaking. She lost the fight and burst out laughing.
Liora pressed a hand to her mouth, but her eyes were curved with amusement.
Leo’s face went stiff. "I’ve already submitted it to the Halcyon Union auction house," he said, as politely as he could. "I’m sorry. I can’t sell it to you directly."
The young man didn’t hear a word of it.
His eyes kept moving over Leo: the face, the hair, the way he stood. His expression twisted between admiration and something a lot like envy.
"Impossible," he said again. "It’s impossible!"
His hands lifted to smooth his long green hair back over his shoulder, as if he needed to make sure it was still perfect.
Mira wiped her eyes. "Leo," she whispered, "this one is going to be trouble."
Leo didn’t answer. He was still standing very straight, trying not to look at the young man, who was still looking at him.
---
The sales counter had gone quiet. Even the guards had stopped pretending to be bored.
And the young mage still hadn’t moved.
***** C O N T I N U E D *****