Heart of Dorkness

Terror Thirty-Eight - Souvenir

“Alright,” I say as I stretch my arms way up above my head until my back crick-cracks. “That’s the plan then.”

Esme leans back onto her bed, hands under her legs. “Yup,” she agrees.

Felix doesn’t say anything, because she has her face pressed against the table across from me and is making little “shh-shh” snores.

“So, we can’t really move ahead with all of this until... well, not quite tonight, but later.”

“Yeah,” Esme says. She glances back and out of the window behind her. The sun’s shining bright outside, and the city feels lively, even though we’re sequestered away in this little corner of it. “So what do you want to do until then?”

“We could read stuff,” I say with a glance to Esme’s library. She has one or two books I haven’t seen before. She’s real lucky, living in a big city where she can grab books so easily. Well, maybe not that easily now. “Though, I guess I could do some reading at home too.”

I made sure to finish all the books I was reading before I left on my chore. That way I wouldn’t be all fidgety with unfinished-book-syndrome while away from home. That doesn’t mean there aren’t a few hundred books I still want to read. My list is expansive and never ending.

“Well, we could always move on to the next part early, though I don’t think that would make things much faster,” Esme says.

“Hmm,” I say. “Well, this is my first time in Montele. Is there anything special we should look at?”

Esme hums. “I guess. There are a bunch of temples that are neat to look at. There’s a great bazaar every morning too, right past the temple of Mortimer. There’s neat stuff from around the world to look at there. When I have some time and nothing to read, I like looking around.”

“Oh! I could get a gift for my mom!” I say.

Esme nods. “That would be the place to find something. I bet she’d be happy.”

“Yeah,” I say as I jump up. “That sounds like a great idea.”

“There’s also a lot of great food stalls around there.”

Felix’s head snaps up. “Food?” she asks.

I giggle, then Esme does the same.

Felix reaches up and tugs her blindfold up to blink dumbly at us. “What?” she asks.

“Nothing,” I say. “Did you want to come? Esme’s going to show me the bazaar, and we’re going to buy something for my mom. Then we can grab a bite to eat before we start the next phase of our plan.”

“Alright,” Felix says. She rubs at her eyes, then stares at the eye-crud she’s rubbed off, looking a bit confused before she wipes it off. “We should probably bring all the stuff we need with us.”

“Oh, that’s clever. We’ll need to find robes that fit from the pile. Esme, do you have a spare bag we can put stuff in?”

“Sure,” Esme says.

What follows next is a couple of minutes where I try on a few of the robes. It’s awkward to fit myself into them without taking off my cloak. I notice Esme giving me some strange looks at that, but I can’t exactly remove it. At least she’s not asking any questions.

“These stink,” Esme complains. “And some of these aren’t appropriate.”

“How so?” I ask.

“See the trim on the edges? Depending on the cut and colour, they tell people what sort of rank the wearer is. I hear that the god himself wears a similar robe, without any colours at all, under his heroic mantle.”

“Aren’t clothes worn by gods just normal clothes?” I ask. Mom has a few nice dresses, but I’d hardly consider them that special.

Esme looks at me, then shakes her head. “Of course they’re special! They’re god’s clothes. Sheesh.”

I shrug. “Alright, if you say so. Did you find one that fits?”

“Yeah, I think most of the smaller ones are for younger acolytes, so that’s good. One of us might have to be a full initiate, but maybe that’ll help?”

“We can boss people around into doing what we tell them to,” I say as I tug the robe’s hood over my cloaks. It’s bigger, so that’s great.

“I guess,” Esme says. She disrobes and tosses hers onto the edge of her bed before folding it. “Let’s pack all of this away.”

I remove mine and fold it up to help, then I do the same with Felix’s while she re-ties her blindfold. “Headache again?” I ask.

Felix nods. “Looking makes me feel dizzy too. I’ll get used to it.”

I pulled her into a side-long hug. “You’ll be okay. But if it gets worse, you tell me, alright? We can figure something out.”

“Thank you,” Felix says. She returns the hug, but it’s very reluctant. “Thanks.”

I giggle, then point to the door. “Off we go?”

“Yup,” Esme says as she hefts up her backpack.

I let her lead us out of the room. She knows where she’s going far better than I do. We say good day to Miss Gertrude, who is tucked away in a big sofa, a small dolly on her lap and a large book in hand. She barely acknowledges us, and yet I have the impression she did more observing in the seconds it takes to pass her than some people could manage in ten minutes of uninterrupted staring.

Esme walks the streets of Montele the way I move around the corridors at home. She just knows where she’s going, and all of the shortcuts to get there. Felix and I stay a step behind her. She points to a few interesting places along the way, of course. Such and such bakery that makes good pies, and that store over there where there was a fire a few months ago.

Montele is so big it’s hard to wrap my head around the size of it. I think I could spend a day on each and every street, and by the time a year passes I still won’t have seen every house and building.

Our trip brings us to the temple of Mortimer.

It’s not a very fancy temple. Mortimer is a strange god. He’s one of those Mom told me not to anger, which makes him very scary. And he doesn’t even have a magical domain, which is even stranger.

The temple is a simple, squarish building. All brick and very clean, with a well-trimmed lawn next to it. Other than a small, understated symbol over the front, there’s really nothing to say it’s a temple at all.

Behind it, on a long stretch of road, is the bazaar.

Little tents are set up equidistant from each other, with the exact same tables behind them where merchants are selling all sorts of things. There’s a guard or two by the entrance, but I’m hardly going to stare at them when there’s so much to see in the bazaar.

“Where do we start?” I ask.

“I like just walking around,” Esme says. “The merchants don’t like gawkers, but you’re allowed as long as you don’t bother people. I asked.”

“Neat,” I say.

“What do you want to get?” Felix asks. From the way she’s sniffing at the air, I think she’s looking for the nearest food stand.

“I was thinking a gift for my mom,” I say. “I... don’t know what to get her, though.”

Esme shrugs. “Is there something she wants? I’ve never bought a gift for my mom, but I have for some of the librarians I work with.”

“I don’t know if Mom needs anything... well, yes, she needs more hugs and a lot more love, but that’s something I can give her already.” I rub at my chin and think as hard as I can, but give up a bit after. “Let’s walk around and see. Maybe something will jump out at me.”

We start on the left, following a sign planted on the ground that’s probably there to help direct the bit of traffic swinging around the bazaar. There are stalls with vases, and some with fresh flowers. One has a bunch of small toys, but I’m too old for those, so I eye them before moving on.

One stall has a merchant haggling with a client over some pouches filled with spices, and another has a mechant sleeping behind little paintings of the city from above. I consider getting one of those, but if Mom wanted to see Montele from above, she’d fly over the city.

“Are those statues?” Felix asks.

I look out ahead and see a table covered in statues. Most are about a foot high, but the biggest reach up to my knees. They’re made of marble, I think. White stone with grey and black streaks through it. “Pretty,” I say.

“Those are all the gods and goddesses, I think,” Esme says as she comes closer and leans over a statue of the Three while holding onto the edge of her glasses.

“Hey, mister?” I ask the man behind the table. I have a great idea for a gift!

***