Saturday ended as swiftly as it had begun, slipping away like sand through Judio's fingers. The break from the academy's rigid structure was brief, but he intended to make the most of it. When the morning sun had barely risen past the rooftops, he found himself drawn to Alunsina's talipapa—a modest marketplace nestled between two intersecting streets.
The air thrummed with life. Vendors called out their wares, their voices overlapping in a cacophony of salesmanship. The scent of fresh produce mingled with the faint, briny breeze that wafted from the coast beyond the city walls.
The ground was uneven, a patchwork of dirt and stone, with scattered puddles from the previous night's rain reflecting the sky's pale blue hue.