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These were rather long sentences for the boy to comprehend--he was rather young still, and as Elmaryia noted, he was not in schola when he should have been. But he took the women's indulgent tones as a 'yes' and scurried over to the tent, beckoning them to follow.
The woman so far hadn't had any luck attracting visitors to the stall, so she was positively overjoyed when Val and Elmaryia approached. "Welcome!" she cried, clapping her hands together. "Please, let me show you some of our finest cloaks." With the air of a true and experienced saleswoman, she brought down countless cloaks and furs from where they hung around her. There were furs from leopards, bears, wolves, foxes... none of which were native to Arakmat. They must have been imported from all over the empire. There were even colored fur cloaks--purple, green, red... Yet if the women felt them, they would feel just... not right. There was something strange about these furs than either of the women would have ever felt before.
"Yes, he is my son," the woman replied to Elmaryia, looking fondly at the boy. He was sitting in a corner of the stall, hunched over a wooden crate. He appeared to be drawing something on a scrap of parchment. The woman looked back at the pair.
"Just 250 crowns a cloak, to help me and my son get by." 250 crowns?!! That was an absolutely outrageous price for a cloak, even of the finest quality. But the woman's kind smile didn't falter. She really wasn't kidding.
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