Chapter 598 - Bartering for More Than Goods

The marketplace was a living thing—noisy, chaotic, thick with the mingling scents of roasted meat, fresh bread, and incense. The kind of place where thieves thrived and secrets changed hands in a single breath. In all my years, I had rarely found myself strolling through a place like this. No reason to. Such a scene was usually a distraction at best, a liability at worst. But I was here now, forced to adapt, my cloak pulled tight around my shoulders to obscure my face. An illusion spell, cast with practiced subtlety, rippled over my features. Anyone looking my way would find nothing remarkable—just another passerby browsing the stalls. And so I moved unseen, a shadow in the crowded warren of bodies and swirling dust.