Glancing back to the bag I pointed at, the old woman let out a breath that might have been a
short laugh
or a
cut off sigh
.
"This old thing? Been here... forever."
She lifted it down and placed it on the counter before her wrinkled hand pat across it. Along with her tone of voice a bit ago, it would seem as if the item had some personal meaning to her.
"The leather was good quality, it just needs some conditioning again soon. Ten dollars and it’s yours."
When she pushed it softly towards me to examine, I touched the worn surface carefully to
respect
whatever she was feeling. All of it had been put together with reinforced stitching that
doesn’t look as old
as the rest of the cared for piece.
Clearly used, but solid brass buckles with a
dark patina
held the straps and overall it looked like it would be perfect for carrying smaller things to and fro. Especially items that did not need to be transported in a
freight container
that I have to... ’summon’ in private.
> Plus at that price, it sounds like she is trying to get rid of it for some- wait, am I being tricked? Stolen, broken, cursed? If so, old merchants in this world are just as scary as in mine... I’ll stay strong, I swear. I won’t buy anything else! She won’t find me such an easy mark. A Princess should have jewels, after all. Even if they’re just plastic ones. Real things are of course better, but my grandmother’s diary wrote that a true royal could make even mud look like the next big fashion. <
Vrika’s tail wagged in my mindscape and I realized that the wolf had approved of my
frivolous purchase
in this single instance. It took me a few moments to realize
why that would be the case
, of all items.
"Just because she said she liked my hair like this, so now anything that makes her notice it more is fine with you, is it?"
My phone buzzed in my pocket - followed by a delayed
notification sound
that made my heart jump, because I hadn’t heard it before. Wondering what sort of way
Kyrie had responded to my photo
to make this noise, I pulled the device out.
Yet, when I looked at the screen I found it
wasn’t
from that Alpha at all. Instead, it was a notification I hadn’t seen before... an alert from the hunter’s app, with its
little crosshair symbol
in the top bar..
[New Private Message from: BoundaryKeeper]
I ignored the
passing roil of disappointment
as I pulled the panel down and read only that. After checking the
memorized password
in my head against the photo I took of the journal, I moved to open the app instead of thinking about it.
After all, this was far more important to my actual plans than
any response
from Kyrie Voss could be.
Definitely
.