199: Flourish

While the man was closely inspecting the fire statue in awe, Crisplet was proudly showing off the statue he received in return, first to Jen, before bringing it over and offering it to me to inspect.

The crowd behind us had only grown as people craned their necks to see the statue made of fire, but I took the small statue, and sure enough it was a small intricate fireplace with a cat curled up sleeping in front of the carved stone flames. Inside those flames now sat an unmistakable depiction of Crisplet.

I was going to offer to store it; however, Crisplet had already taken it back and was now showing Liane.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t catch your name the last time I visited,” I said.

“Oh, I’m sorry. Clifford,” he said, holding his hand out.

I took it, giving it a shake. “My name is Trevor, and this is Crisplet,” I gestured down.

“Yes, I remember his name. How could I forget? It’s not every day you have a fire elemental shopping at your stall,” Clifford laughed.

“You should come visit the house sometime and see Crisplet’s large statues. I think you will really appreciate it,” I offered.

“The house?”

“Ah, yes, sorry. The Ashmoon residence, in the upper noble area. Just tell the guards Trevor sent you. They’ll be expecting you,” I said.

Clifford bowed his head. “Thank you, sir. I would very much like that.”

Looking behind me, we had somehow gathered a larger crowd than even the confrontation, so I felt it was best we moved on.

“Ready to go, Crisplet? I have invited Clifford to the house to see your other statues,” I said, getting a burst of sparks.

I noticed then he handed the small statue to Jen to hold again.

Soon we were making our way into the parting crowd, with Crisplet giving Clifford an extra burst of sparks. We were only a short distance away when Liane let out a chuckle.

“What’s funny?” I asked curiously.

“People were already offering to buy that statue.” Liane commented,

Crisplet turned around immediately.

“Relax, Crisplet. He won’t sell it,” I reassured, being fairly confident I was telling the truth, what I wasn’t confident about though was that someone wouldn’t steal it, perhaps I should have Lily check on it occasionally to make sure it’s still in the right hands.

“You know, it’s going to become a status symbol of stores the Ashmoon house recommends if Crisplet makes a couple more,” Jen said with a laugh.

“I think we should go back to using that cat head we had on the cave in the mountains,” Liane mused.

I had completely forgotten about that. I just shook my head. “Absolutely not.” I quickly walked on ahead, trying to ignore the laughter.

I was soon distracted by another store. From what I could see, it was a variety of cooking equipment, from regular utensils to pots and pans, but what caught my attention were the larger utensils at the back of the shop.

Looking through it all, I saw a variety of things that looked interesting but not what I was looking for. I was really hoping to find the tool the chefs described to me to help turn chunks of meat into mince.

“Hello there! Are you looking for anything in particular, sir? Perhaps a new stovetop for your friend there?” a friendly voice called.

“No, sorry. I was looking for a mincer to make sausages,” I said.

“Ah, unfortunately, they are usually too large to bring to a stall like this. We have sausage fillers, though,” she smiled.

The lady pulled out what looked like a smooth metal pipe with a plunger at the top, and at the bottom of the pipe there was a nozzle.

“You just fill this part with your mince, hold your casings onto the nozzle, which has a rib there to make it easier, and push down to force it into the casing. It also all comes apart to make cleaning easy,” she explained.

“How much?” I asked. I was absolutely interested in this.

“Two silvers,” the lady said, holding up her fingers.

I had the money. That wasn’t a problem. But looking at it, it didn’t look that difficult to make, so I had to assume two silver was far too expensive, and looking past her, I saw Jen shaking her head.

“Sorry, that’s far too expensive,” I replied, shaking my head.

I began to walk out of the shop. “Wait, you’re a noble, right? It’s just two silvers.”

I let out a sigh. I suppose this was to be expected when I’m wearing the scarf and the armour, but still, getting the filler would have been nice. Perhaps it would be best I send Archie down to buy it instead.

“How about one silver, then?” She called as we were leaving the shop.

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“Just so you know, Trev, usually about fifty to seventy coppers for something like that,” Jen whispered.

As we continued to walk through the muddy streets, we made our way to a familiar side of the markets, and I was happy to see these stalls had not changed. Standing at a snow-free salt stall stood Salito, surrounded by his piles of salt. I still had plenty of normal salt, but I remembered when we were here last, there were a variety of other salts in the back of his store that I never had enough time to really browse.

“Hello again, sir! Pleasure to have you back again,” Salito called as soon as he spotted me.

“Thank you for the delivery, as you said,” I smiled.

“No, no, the pleasure is all mine. Do you need more already? I can have it delivered later this afternoon if so.”

I waved it off. “Not today. I don’t need bulk. I came to look at your speciality salts.”

“Absolutely! I pride myself on my variety. Please, come have a look!” he said, gesturing for me to come inside.