The dining room downstairs was already busy.
Sunlight streamed in through the tall windows, attendants moved between the tables with trays, and the smell of fresh bread and cooked meat filled the air. Owen spotted Clara and Elise sitting together near one of the windows with their maid.
Clara saw him first and waved. "Good morning, my lord! Are you ready to see the city?"
"Good morning," Elise said, more composed, though she smiled at her sister’s enthusiasm.
Owen sat down with them, and Hugh took a seat nearby. An attendant came over almost at once, greeted Owen respectfully and handed him the breakfast menu. It was long, full of fresh dishes, pastries, fruit and drinks fit for the inn’s wealthy guests.
Owen looked it over with interest.
"You should try the honey-glazed pastries," Clara said. "I had them yesterday evening. They’re wonderful."
"She recommends anything she likes," Elise said. "Whether or not anyone else will."
"Everyone likes honey."
"You said the same thing about the pickled fish at our cousin’s wedding."
Clara opened her mouth, then closed it again. Owen ordered the pastries anyway, along with a few other things.
"Did you sleep well?" he asked.
"Very well," Clara said. "The beds here are ridiculous. I nearly sank through mine."
"Have you heard from your father?"
"Not yet," Elise said. "We’re still waiting on the reply to Hugh’s message. But the ball is tomorrow, so we can’t wait for him to start getting ready."
"Tell me about this market," Owen said to Clara. "The one by the old bridge."
Clara didn’t need to be asked twice. She told him about the crowded stalls, the food, and the merchants selling goods brought in from all over the Empire. By the time she had finished, Owen had already decided.
"Then that’s where we start."
"Fine," Elise said. "But we still have to go to the clothing shops later. Nearly everything we brought was lost or ruined, and we can’t go to the Princess’s ball in travelling clothes."
"Where is the market, exactly?" Hugh asked. "So I can place the escort."
Clara gave him the directions she remembered, which were more enthusiastic than precise.
"I’ll confirm it with the staff," Hugh said.
When the food arrived, Hugh ate quietly, as he usually did. Owen didn’t let him stay silent for long.
"Have you ever had these?" he asked, nudging the plate of pastries toward him.
"No, Young Master."
"Try one."
Hugh did, after a moment’s hesitation. He chewed, considered it, and nodded. "They’re good."
"See?" Clara said triumphantly. "Everyone likes honey."
Elise didn’t dignify that with a reply.
When they had finished, Owen stood up, ready to go.
Before they left, Owen checked his purse.
It was his own money, brought from home and separate from the travelling funds Hugh managed for the party. Inside were twenty-four Gold Crowns, several Silver Marks and a handful of Copper Bits.
He had no intention of spending all of it. But he liked knowing he could buy whatever caught his eye.
He met the others at the entrance. Hugh had already sent out the soldiers in their ordinary clothes, and Owen couldn’t pick them out among the people on the street, which he supposed was the point. The sisters’ maid came with them. Agnes, as instructed, stayed in her room.
They set out into the city.
The morning streets were lively. Carriages rolled along the wider roads, merchants were opening their doors and setting out their goods, and people moved between the shops on foot. It felt completely different from watching it all through a carriage window the night before.
Owen could hear vendors calling to passersby, wheels rattling over the stones and a dozen conversations overlapping in the crowd. The closer they came to the market, the more ordinary merchants and shoppers there were around them.
He was enjoying himself already. Almost every time he had left home before, it had been for training, family duties or a military operation. Wandering through a new city with nothing he had to do was something else entirely.
Clara walked beside him, pointing things out every so often. Elise followed the conversation and corrected her sister whenever she exaggerated or got her memories of the last visit muddled.
"That’s where we bought the ribbons," Clara said, pointing at a shop.
"That’s a bakery," Elise said.
"It must have moved."
"Shops don’t move, Clara."
Hugh stayed close, and now and then Owen saw his eyes flick toward somewhere in the crowd where one of the soldiers must have been.
After a good walk, they reached the market by the old bridge.
It was packed. Stalls crowded both sides of the street, selling food, clothes, trinkets, household goods and wares from other territories. Merchants shouted their prices over each other, and customers turned things over in their hands and haggled.
Then the smell of roasting meat reached Owen.
He followed it to a stall where a vendor was grilling seasoned meat on skewers over a bed of hot coals. Fat hissed and spat as it dripped into the fire.
Tsss...
"What is it?" Owen asked.
"Spiced lamb, sir," the vendor said, turning the skewers. "Pepper, garlic, and my wife’s own mix of spices. Three Copper Bits a skewer."
"Five, please."
Owen counted fifteen Copper Bits into the man’s hand and passed the skewers around.
The meat was hot, smoky and sharp with spice. It was nothing like the food at home, and it was very good.
"There’s a stall over there that does fried dough with sugar," Clara said almost at once, pointing.
"We’ve only just had breakfast," Elise said.
"That was ages ago."
"It was an hour ago."
Owen laughed. "I want to try as much of this as I can."
He held a skewer out to Hugh.
"I’m supervising the escort, Young Master."
"You can supervise and eat at the same time. Take it."
Hugh hesitated, then took it. "Thank you, Young Master."
They worked their way through the market after that. Owen bought fried dough rolled in sugar, a cup of something hot and sweet that tasted of cinnamon, and a slice of a dense, dark fruit cake. Clara had opinions on everything. Elise questioned most of them. Owen enjoyed every minute of it.
Beyond the busiest stretch of the market, Owen noticed a large building with a sign above its doors that read Hunters’ Guild.
Armed men and women were going in and out. Some carried packs and travelling gear, and others looked as though they had just come back from somewhere muddy. A few stood outside by the entrance, arguing over a notice pinned beside the door.
Owen slowed.
He knew that awakened people could choose to become hunters instead of joining the military or going to the Imperial Military Academy. He had never set foot in a guild, though, and he was curious how it all worked.
"Do you mind if we stop?" he asked.
"Not at all," Clara said, already looking at the door with interest.
"As long as we still have time for the shops," Elise added.
"I only want to look around."
Hugh went in with him and stayed at his shoulder.
The guild hall was busy but orderly. A huge notice board covered one wall, crowded with contracts. Along the other side ran a line of counters, where clerks were writing in ledgers and taking reports from hunters. Small groups stood in front of the board studying the notices, others argued quietly over assignments, and a few people waited in line for the clerks.
The room smelled faintly of leather, oil and damp travelling clothes. Boots scraped across the floor, and the overlapping voices made a constant low noise.
Owen was heading toward the board when he heard someone at the nearest counter.
"I want to register as a hunter," a young man was saying. "What do I need to do?"
Owen stopped where he was.
"Have you awakened?" the clerk asked.
"Last year."
"Identification?"
The young man handed something over, and the clerk looked it over.
"Right. You’ll need to go through an assessment," the clerk said. "We need to see that you can control your armament properly and that you’ve got the basics of field work. If you pass, you’ll be entered in the guild register, and you’ll be allowed to take contracts suited to what you can do."
"Do I need to have been to the Academy first? Or served in the military?"
"No. Hunting is an independent profession. You don’t need either." The clerk set down his pen. "But we do need to know you can handle a job without getting yourself or anyone else killed."
"And after I’m registered?"
"You start with contracts that match what you showed us in the assessment. If you want the more dangerous work, you prove yourself. Complete your assignments, go through more evaluations, and the guild lets you take on more."
Owen listened with growing interest. He had always known hunters existed, but hearing how someone actually became one made it far more real to him. It was a whole life outside the Great Families and the military.
He thought about the hunters near that village in Mowbray territory, the ones who had gone into the forest and never come back. It made sense that a guild worth anything would want to know who it was sending out.
Once the young man had been sent off to arrange his assessment, Owen stepped up to the counter.
"May I ask you something?"
The clerk looked up, took in his clothes and straightened slightly. "Of course, sir."
"How do hunters get their assignments? And how do you decide what a contract is worth?"
"The requests come in from all sorts," the clerk said. "Merchants, villages, travellers. Anyone who needs protection, or a monster dealt with, or some other kind of field work. We record each request, look at whatever information we’ve been given, and set a reward that fits the danger."
"And when a contract is finished?"
"The hunter reports back with whatever proof the contract asks for. We check it, and once we’re satisfied the job’s been done, we pay out."
"Thank you," Owen said.
He went over to the board.
Some of the contracts looked straightforward enough. Others carried warnings in heavy ink. One notice described Prowler-rank monsters harassing a trade route to the south, with a reward of four Gold Crowns on verified completion. Another, farther along, warned of a Stalker-rank threat and stated plainly that only experienced teams should apply.
Owen found the rewards interesting. Four Gold Crowns was a respectable payment for an ordinary hunter. It was also only a small part of what he had brought with him for a day of sightseeing.
He thought about the difference between a hunter taking dangerous contracts to make a living and a Great Family sending a well-equipped force on a subjugation. Neither was easy. He had already seen what happened when a hunt went wrong.
He thanked the clerk again and went back out to the others.
"Well?" Clara asked. "Are you thinking of becoming a hunter?"
"I’m just curious," Owen said. "I’ve got my family and my own future to think about. But I like knowing how other awakened people make their living."
"It makes sense," Elise said. "Considering how much you like swords and fighting."
"Is it that obvious?"
"Yes," both sisters said at once.