The second thing Everett paid attention to that morning, other then the pain in her leg, ribs and her abysmal appearance, was the chiming of the marketstall bells.
Each in the row had a small bell, tied with a thin ribbon and dangling infront of where the seller would stand. Upon getting a sale, the bell would be rung.
It was a strange tradition that Elendhor had, in all honesty. But it caused a chorus of jingling that on any other day would be pleasant to shop to.
Today was not that day.
With how enclosed the market building was, many of the windows were three men wide and seven tall, with small lamps hanging along the upper rims that would be lit up after dark. It gave the market a golden, almost royal feel, as the lights remained soft against the stall fronts, the fabrics and the saleable items.
Everett topsied her way into the main area of the market- a place just inside a building as old as the lands itself- and looked up to the ceiling for a moment in amazement at how high it stretched. The cracked tiles lined in dimed teals and oranges along the edges of the roofing, broken up by a black and white checkered staircase leading up to the marktes first and second floors.
The stall that drew her attention was behind a small cluster of stained clothing stalls. Random moths flickered across her vision as she walked, batting them away with a scoff while attempting not to think about all the holes they must be eating into the fabrics.
What she was headed towards was a stall shrouded in musty lilac and gold lace trimmings along the outer rim, inbuilt into the side of the building. A small desk of gemstones, small animal bones and necklaces sat beside the counter, being counted through by an olive, ringed hand.
Once the woman behind the counter noted Everett stepping over, she paused.
Her voice was melodic in all the right places- the kind that made sales easy to make even when spewing absolute dogshit. She rang hand through her hair, some pitch black strands getting stuck in the bangles on her wrists.
"Ev! So good to see you again, it's been so long!" She singsonged. The look on her face, however, contradicted the sentiment of her words.
Everett paused her stride, resting her palms on the counter to overlook the goods.
"Don't jump to flattery, Kritana," she said, "I have a stone for you, I just want the money then I'll be on my way."
"Always were such a straightforward bitch, Everett," Kritana responded. Her hand reached over the counter expectantly.
Everett took her rapier out its sheath to unscrew the end, opening her palm for the stone to fall into before handing it over.
Kritana polished it off on her Kathna before taking a small appraisal glass from a decorated drawer to her side. There was a short clink as gem met glass, and Kritana turned it over in her hand a few times as she looked through it.
"...Everett, how did you get this?" She inquired, her eyes finding Everetts over the gem before she placed it down on her side of the counter, "Don't tell me you're-"
"I'm not prostituting myself," Everett gave the woman a deadpan look, raising an eyebrow.
"I never said you were, now I just think you are."
"You were going to," Everett grimaced, a hiss of air between her teeth. Her eyes fell to the stone, and she folded her arms.
Kritana let out a sigh, taking the gem into a small pouch on her hip and walking to the back of her stall for the money.
"It's worth around 150 Ptoralin. Bigger then your last few, too. Where have you been this last few months anyways?"
"You care because...?"
Kritana breathed harshly through her nose, stepping back and slamming the coins on the counter under her palm.
"You left the temple and went fuck-knows-where, only to show up here with a bone rune. Am I supposed to remain speculating?"
"You're supposed-" Everett began, "- to have done what everyone else in that damn place does. Pretend you don't know me, or I'm dead, or whatever it is those scriptures of yours tell you to do when we leave."
Kritana's nose wrinkled in distaste, and she scraped the coins across the counter with a shudderingly horrific scraping sound, "Lying about knowing exactly what the scriptures say was never your strong suit, Ev."
The redhead took the coins before Kritana could hold them hostage in her attempts to garner more information.
The bustle of sales in the market, and the foot traffic and chatter surrounding them was starting to grate on Everett's concussion. Kritana watched the woman rub her temples, and tilted her head to the side. Her jewellery clinked against the reptile spines braided into her hair, and she thoughtlessly fiddled with the end of it.
Everett found herself looking back at her, wincing as the lights became too bright.
Her head throbbed, the base of her neck aching.
"Look, I just wanted the money, and you're the only person I trust to give me the right price without scamming me."
Her eyes focused, and her ears stopped ringing, and she heard...silence.
The hustle and bustle of the marketplace had drifted into the background, and Everett blinked. The silence, while comforting, was unexpected.
And only meant one thing.
Everett's gaze flickered at the dulled stall, the way the lamps attached had stopped burning, and she turned her head away from Kritana to see that either side of her, the stalls repeated indefinitely.
It was a labyrinth of trinkets and empty stall shells, dampening into blackness the further away they became. The ceiling no longer had water damage or cracks along its seams, but instead pulsed fluidly up and down, up and down, up and down, as if breathing itself to life in time with her heartbeat.
And that heartbeat spiked.
"Kritana get out of my head," she attempted to speak calmly, though her hands were shaking at her sides. She automatically reached for her sword- only she didn't find it.
Kritana's image shifted, stepping through the stalls fabrics, which flowed seamlessly into her saree, dropping soft embroidered lines onto it like water onto paper, sewn golden and red patterns that moved unnaturally along the textured fabric.
She needn't move around the counter- it wasn't really there anyway.
Everett took a step back, confirming that this was indeed all in her head, because the broken leg didn't ache nor snap beneath the rush of her weight.
Still swirling her braid in her fingers, Kritana mused with an uneasy expression, "Not until you tell me what the hell you've been doing."
Everett scoffed- but the sound was lost to the echos of the walls- and stumbled forward to shove Kritana away.
She simply glided through the woman instead.
Kritana polished her rings unconsciously, and crouched down beside the redhead once she hit the floor.
"Ev, come on, don't be unreasonable."
Scrambling, Everett let out the most pathetic yell she'd ever heard herself make and kicked a leg out towards the jewellery dealer.
"Oh fuck you, Krit," she said, "You always do this! You always get in my head to force me to talk."
Her thoughts were racing, and she could hear them singing themselves out down the hallways and labyrinth lines of wood and dim lights and stone. Kritana couldn't hear them, she shouldn't, she can't. Anyone but Krit.
But the woman waved her hand, frowning.
"Values have shifted, you know. Since you left." Kritana croaked, finally giving Everett the well-accustomed look of disgust that Everett remembered Father Drin giving her.
Her teeth grinded, "Kritana, I don't give two shits-"
"You should, Distal. The shift involves you," accused Kritana. Her hand lay flat against Everett's back so the woman couldn't sit upright.
Everett hissed, "Like hell it does, Mor," as she shoved her shoulder back and rolled out from Kritana's touch.
Everett could still hear her thoughts externally. Mumbling like That Who Remains used to when she was a child. The rattling of bone marrow upon bone marrow pulled at threads of her psyche, and she prayed to God that her body wasn't still in the public yards of the marketplace.
When it came to Kritana, Everett was unsure how much of their interaction had happened in real life.
"Your relic. You really think it'll cure you? Save us, our temple?" Kritana breathed, her hands finding her earrings as she twisted a bone shard from the casing it was in there.
I keep telling you, fuck your temple! Everett's voice caterwauled, ricocheting loudly despite her mouth not moving to say it.
A scowl etched onto Kritana's face.
"You always were a fool, Everett Distal."
"Yeah, well it's the fools who get shit done these days." Everett managed to choke out. She could feel her mind collapsing in on her, the warping of the stone tiles beneath her fingertips. Kritana never held herself back before- why would she have started now.
I never should have come to her again.
Everett pushed herself onto her forearm, trying to remember when she'd gotten here in the first place.
"I should have left you to get killed by those knights all those years ago." She stuttered.
"You'd be dead by now without me," responded the priestess, "Besides, you need someone to keep things interesting."
That made the redhead choke on her own laugh.
"Interesting isn't what I'm looking for."
"And yet, Ev, here you are."