The boys hurried to the market district, Kaius knew Carina was impatient, and if he made her wait any longer she might welcome him with a barrage of daggers.
After a few minutes the boys met up with Carina and her roommates. "Sheesh brother, look at these gray hairs I have waiting on you, you'd better buy me something nice to make up for it" Carina said.
"Sorry, we got caught up with some stuff" Kaius said. "Well lets go" Carina said grabbing him by the arm and rushing into the shopping district.
As soon as the group entered, they were bombarded with all types of good smells. There were all types of different stands and shops set up, as well as people on the streets shouting deals and trying to pull customers into their stores. Carina pulled Kaius along as the group stopped at every stand and checked out what was for sell.
Chaos appeared on Kaius's head "mmm, I smell fruit, buy me fruit" he said. Kaius and the group walked up to a stand with a picture of a mango and a white circle on it. The stand only sold mangos, but there were tons of them. Kaius bought a cup of cut mangos and filled a bag with a few for later.
After paying the woman managing the stand the group continued on. The girls bought a few trinkets here and there, but nothing caught the eye of the boys.
They weren't really looking at the items anyway, they were too busy looking for signs or symbols, anything that would give them a clue about the black market.
The group stopped in front of a weapon store that Carina wanted to go into. There the group decided to split up as Skye and Zane wanted to continue walking the market to look for more clues. Tamara and Lily weren't interested in the weapons shop. Kaius, Carina, and Chaos who was still sitting on Kaius's head munching on the mangos entered the shop.
The shop was huge and sold all types of weapons and armor. Carina headed straight to the knives area and began inspecting them. A shop keeper walked up as Kaius and Carina were browsing.
He was a short older man and was slightly hunched over. "Little Masters is there something I can help you with, we sell all types of items and even do custom jobs" the man said. "I'm interested in a dagger made out of material equal to or better than this" Carina said pulling out a throwing knife identical to the one she gave Kaius for his birthday.
The man took the knife in his hand and examined it, "little master this is a very good blade, something of this caliber would have to be custom ordered" said the shopkeeper while handing the blade back to Carina. "Hmmm," Carina thought for a minute, "ok, then show me your best daggers."
The man took them to another section of the store that housed many daggers. Carina looked around but nothing really stood out to her, she loved knives and daggers. She was a master at using and throwing them, the weight difference between throwing knives and daggers meant nothing to her. She was easily able to adjust according to the weight and would always hit her target, she was a natural.
Carina wasn't happy with what the shopkeeper had so she decided to keep looking through the market. "Thank you for your help sir, I think I will keep looking" she said, as her, Kaius and Chaos left the store.
The group continued walking through the market while checking out the shops and stands. They stopped at a store that sold Elemental Chess and Kaius bought Carina another set, he still owed her after he broke so many of her pieces.
They roamed around the market for a few hours before finally deciding to head back. Kaius and Carina sent the others a message telling them to meet up at the entrance to the market so they could all head back together.
As Kaius and Carina were headed to the entrance they heard a voice shout out to them. "Such a lucky man to have a beautiful woman and an adorable Elemental by their side." Kaius and Carina turned around to see a woman holding a basket of flowers. "You know, she's right" Carina said, "you're lucky me and Chaos allow you to hang out with us" "yup, yup, she's got a point" Chaos said nodding his head.
"You should buy a beautiful flower for such a beautiful woman" the woman with the basket said pointing to the flowers she carried in her basket.
"Fine, "i'll take one rose for my bossy sister, you know, I spoil you" he said while mussing her hair. Carina smiled and stuck her tongue out at him.
The woman pulled out a piece of wax paper with a picture of a blue rose surrounded by five white circles, then she pulled out a blue rose from her basket and wrapped it in the paper handing it to Carina.
Kaius paid the woman and continued towards the entrance to meet the rest of the group.
When Kaius and Carina met up with the rest of the group, Kaius saw that Zane looked upset. "So no luck huh" he said walking up to Zane.
Zane shook his head "we couldn't find a thing." "If it was easy to find than it wouldn't be that special" Skye said in an attempt to cheer Zane up.
"You bought some bananas for Brock huh" Kaius said pointing to a bag Skye was holding that had a picture of a banana with two white circles above it.
"Yea, he can get grumpy when he runs out" Skye said. "Well lets head back, I need to do some more research" Zane said grumpily.
The group said there goodbyes and went their separate ways. As soon as the boys arrived at the dorms Zane went to his room and shut the door. Kaius and Skye felt a little bad but they didn't know how they could help.
"I think i'm going to call it a night i'll see you in the morning" Kaius said bidding Skye a good night.
Elsewhere
In the girls dorms, Carina and the girls decided to call it a night. They bid each other good night and headed to there rooms. A few hours later Tamara got a message on her datapad and quietly put on her clothes and snuck out of the dorms.
As she left the dorms she walked towards the same bench Kaius sat on when they dropped Carina off the day prior, but sitting on the bench now was someone else.
Tamara walked over and sat down next to the man. "So how were things, tell me all about him" said Lt. Taylor.