“You can’t go out!” exclaimed Nana, panicked. “We need a lot of authorizations to go out and come in again, inside the Capital’s Inner Walls, like I explained earlier!”
“Nana, it’s either that or we have that dragon land in the middle of the Capital,” sighed Tessa. “No offense, but he’s a bit too big, even for this plaza! And I don’t think anyone else will volunteer to feed him, right?”
Nana and her uncle exchanged a glance.
Indeed, their people had only seen the dragon from afar, but no one would willingly approach it from up close, especially not to give it its meal. They’d be too scared for it to want some human flesh for a dessert... The fisherman scratched his shaved head with a grimace.
“Oh, well, I guess we can give you younglings one of our passes... Nana, are you sure?”
Since the two young women were strangers, he turned to his niece, but Nana visibly wasn’t sure either. She had only met Cessilia and Tessa just a couple of hours ago. She nervously touched her ear and her earrings, hesitant. Seeing that she couldn’t make up her mind, Cessilia put a gentle hand on her shoulder.
“It will b-be alright, I p-promise. K-Krai would n-never hurt us, and he d-doesn’t eat humans, either.”
“Unless they’re very bad ones...” muttered Tessa.
Thankfully, only Cessilia heard that, and she kept smiling, ignoring her cousin’s remark. Nana frowned a bit, but she eventually nodded and turned to her uncle once again.
“I will accompany the Princesses outside, okay? I will ask Sabael to accompany us, and we will be careful too. They really are from the Dragon Empire, and Uncle Yamino asked me to stay with them. We will come back right away!”
“It will b-be fine,” nodded Cessilia.
“Alright, then. Well, we can have our prizes ready right now, and I’ll send one of the boys to meet you at the southeast gate with the cart and the passes for you. Your brother’s still stationed there, right?”
“Yes!” nodded Nana. “Thank you, Uncle.”
“Yeah, yeah... As long as that thing leaves our cattle alone...”
“We will buy more fish to keep him fed,” said Tessa, “so you might want to keep your large prizes for him in the next few days. In weight, it should be enough if you keep aside... about five cows’ worth of meat? That should keep him fed for two or three days.”
“Fine, you ladies can pay us tomorrow then,” he said, his eyes going down on Cessilia’s golden choker. “I’ll tell the boys to keep our biggest ones for your dragon. ...I can’t believe we’re fishing for a dragon now!”
The man waved his arms in the air and turned around, probably to go and make sure everything was ready. Nana turned to her cousin this time.
“Sorry about all that, Beli. Can we grab some beignets before we go? I’ll get some for Sab too!”
It seemed like the perspective of those fish beignets was enough to chase all of Nana’s worries away, which made Cessilia smile. Those beignets ought to be really delicious... Without any more questions, Beli guided them the rest of the way to her sister’s stand, where, exactly as Nana had said, a long line of people were queuing up for those famous beignets. Luckily for them, though, Beli sneaked past all that, whispered something to her sister who was working and began preparing their order herself. Cessilia was impressed by how simple and small their stall was for such a long line of customers. Everything was indeed done right on the spot: the fresh fish Beli had brought was cut by a man at the back, and the chunks split into several buckets depending on the species of fish. Then, a pair of young boys grabbed a handful of fish and rolled it into something that looked like a flour mix, before Beli’s sister covered it in several layers of dough and fried it in one large oil pan in front of her. She was working incredibly fast too, pouring one after another and grabbing the ready ones with a pair of large chopsticks to wrap them in seaweed and hand it to the customers. Completing this human chain was a young girl, happily smiling at the customers while taking their payment and loudly announcing the orders to the rest of the family as they went. In the midst of all this, Beli dropped the basket of fish, went to the younger boys to get the fish, and squeezed herself next to her sister to get some ready for them.
Just like that, their orders were ready in a couple of minutes and handed to them by Beli.
“Here you go ladies, the best fish beignets in the Capital.”
“Thank you!” exclaimed Nana, receiving her order and her brother’s with sparkling eyes.
Cessilia and Tessa were a bit excited to receive theirs too, and they thanked Beli before walking away. It was clear she had to go back to work and help her sister sell those beignets, and Cessilia couldn’t help but stare a little longer at the small family business, which doubled in speed as soon as Beli was in her spot.
Next to her, Tessa frowned and finally bit the beignet hungrily.
“Careful, it’s hot!” exclaimed Nana.
“Oh, don’t worry, we can handle the heat,” replied Tessa with her mouth full. “...Damn, this is really good!”
“See? I told you!”
Cessilia smiled and took a bite of hers too. It was very good indeed. The dough was crispy, savory, and hot, and the fish inside was half-cooked, melting on her tongue with all the flavors of the sea. She already loved it, and for a while, none of the three girls spoke anymore as they focused on eating those beignets while walking down the streets.
Things around them were getting a bit busier now, a lot of people were either on their way to the Fish Market or coming back from it, while the smaller shops were opening. Cessilia noticed a couple of accessories shops she was interested in, notably the nacre jewelry she had already grown somewhat fond of. She also noticed some stones lined up, of different colors, with various uses as bracelets or necklaces, and asked Nana about it.
“Those are worship stones!” she exclaimed. “We believe that each god has a stone they channel their natural energy into, and we purchase those stones for prayers. For example, those dark green ones are used to protect the houses from malevolent people, and the white ones are a symbol of purity, for weddings! Most families have at least one of each nowadays, but it is good luck to get one or two from the gods you choose to venerate the most! In my family, we like the Goddess of the Sea, so we purchase those nacre stones! Oh, and my brother is a fighter, so he takes the black ones, from our Goddess of War! You don’t have those? How do you guys communicate with your gods?”
“...I guess you call him Daddy?” chuckled Tessa, glancing toward Cessilia.
“In our c-culture,” said Cessilia, “our g-gods are humans or d-dragons. My father g-got his t-title as the War G-God when he was young and won many wars. I b-believe our p-people worship d-dragons more, though.”
“So they won’t eat them, basically,” added Tessa. “I think our religion is a bit more... practical than stones like that. All of our gods did exist at some point, most often past emperors or princes that had dragons, or heroes of some sort.”
“I think I like our gods better,” shrugged Nana. “They are all still alive, and very powerful too! When we have a hurricane, everyone prays for the Goddess of the Sea to calm down. My family even has a little temple for her!”
“That must b-be a p-pretty one,” said Cessilia.
“It is! I will take you guys to my family house when you want! It is a bit crowded, but we will welcome strangers anytime!”
As they kept walking, Nana described her house to such lengths that it felt like they had been there and knew every room already. Cessilia and Tessa didn’t interrupt her, though, as they were finishing their beignets while looking around. Their trio was slowly but surely getting to the lower levels of the Capital, and now, Cessilia could only see the tips of some of the castle’s towers when she turned back, her vision blocked by all the buildings in between. In front of them, however, behind some of the houses, a wall was starting to appear, and the closer they got, the bigger it grew. Before long, they were really standing in front of the Inner Wall Naptunie had described. It was clear most of it had been recently built, and it was strangely clean for something merely made of stones. Their little group was heading toward a pair of very large doors that were kept open, but with four men in armor guarding it and checking everyone who went in or out. The process seemed smooth, but Cessilia could see the long flow of people waiting to get in.
Nana, who once again seemed familiar with everyone they saw, quickly walked to one of the guards standing to the side to ask about her brother’s whereabouts. He pointed to a little house at the corner of the street, which was clearly some sort of armory.
“Just wait for me, I’ll be right back!” she claimed before going in.
“Sure,” said Tessa, a hand on her hip.
