Chapter 4

•Talfen, Capital of Coldshore

•Brightwater market

•March, 1720.

The flecks of golden sunshine mingled with the few wispy clouds in the sky. The azure sea overhead showed no signs of rain. It was the perfect weather for going exploring in Talfen, the capital of Coldshore.

A small gust of wind blew past Dante's face in the carriage that was making it way down a worn stretch of road and his skin softly shivered before it returned to its warmed state. The black-haired man stuck his head out of the carriage's open window and felt the rays of the sun beat down on his face, warming it up.

He had long black hair that was held up in a ponytail and his pale skin made him look devilishly handsome while his bone structure was fine and perfectly symmetrical. On either side of his straight nose were two deep and catastrophic black eyes and from them came an intensity, an honesty, a gentleness. His high cheekbones perfectly accentuated his face and his full pink lips were pressed firmly together.

"Brightwater market," Dante stated as he watched the market outside the window which was drowning in a sea of people.

Wooden buildings and a wide variety of market stalls that sold sacks of nuts, dried fruits, powdered spices, meat and other foodstuffs along with imported merchandise lined the road. Rich and unfamiliar scents hung heavy in the air, so heavy that he could almost taste it in his mouth.

Stall owners screamed out what they sold on the top of their voices to attract customers and customers tried to bargain for the best possible prices. Some people held their hand against their foreheads to shield themselves from the sun while others used their hand fans.

The crowd had a life of its own, vibrant clothes shone in the morning sun and people moved like unseeing hands dragged them this way or that, pulling their eyes to one thing and then another. People aren't people in here, they're consumers. They flowed like rivers and only saw one another as obstacles – both to walk around and wait behind for a turn to reach the seller.

The only smiling faces are the ones who sell, their humanity used like a crude fishing line to reel the buyers in.

The carriage turned onto a street, jostling its passenger in the process and making him almost hit his chin on the door sash. The ride had been a bit bumpy and the young man in the carriage had been jostled a few times whenever the carriage took a turn. At one point, he had become worried that the wheels would fall off.

He pulled his head back into the carriage as he let out a sigh and after quite a while, the carriage came to a stop. He had arrived at his destination. He grabbed the heavy box that was on the floor next to him before he opened the door and got down from the carriage.

There were no stalls and wooden buildings in this area. Some of the buildings were made of stone and the rest were made of earth and timber. The streets weren't crowded since it was still quite early and no one was screaming what they sold.

Servants placed footstools in front of private carriages to help their elegantly dressed masters and mistresses who were holding patterned hand fans get down while armed guards surveyed the surroundings on high alert.

They were in the rich part of the capital.

Dante's mentor back home, Malcer, had once lived in the capital of Coldshore. The man had told Dante everything he knew about the capital but he had talked more about the Adler Helton, the place where he sold antiques. According to the things his mentor told him, the Adler Helton was a wooden building and the street in front of it always bustled with people.

'A lot of things have changed,' Dante thought as he walked around the carriage.

"Thank you for the ride," he said to the rider and gave him a small smile.

Earlier in the day, he had been walking on the desolate road that led to the capital with his box, when the rider had stopped the carriage next to him and asked where he was headed to. The rider then offered him a free ride after he told him his destination and the man he was looking for which Dante was grateful for as he didn't have any money.

"You're welcome." The rider returned the smile and pointed at the building behind Dante, making him turn around. "That is the Adler Helton. The man you're looking for, Mival Wilton, would be in the first shop on your left after you enter the building."

"Thank you again."

The rider waved Dante goodbye before he started to walk toward the building behind him. People entered and exited the building but most of the people that exited had servants that carried boxes in tow. The words 'Adler Helton' had been written with black paint on a board that hung above the entrance.

Dante remembered Malcer told him that the words had been carved on the ground in front of the entrance. If he hadn't told the rider that brought him here who he was looking for which resulted in the man telling him where to go, he would have been worried that Mival didn't own a shop in the Adler Helton anymore since quite a number of things had changed. But it seemed Mival was popular because when Dante mentioned his name to the rider, the man's eyes lit up in recognition.

The Adler Helton was the most famous shop in the capital where antiques, figurines, jewelry and expensive clothes were sold. The building was made out of stone and there was a public pavilion next to it where some children sat. They were oblivious to their surroundings as some of them excitedly talked among themselves while the maidservants and guards pleaded with the ones who were running around to stop and sit down.