To rent a stall in the market, you needed money, time, and an understanding of the necessary forms. Elias had the last two. Forest supplied the money. In gold bricks. Small ones. At their allotted space, with license in hand, they placed down a simple black sheet pulled from Forest’s basement and embroidered with little puppies.

  “Ugly dogs. Should have been Chihuahuas.” Derek grumbled.

  “Cats. Persians, maybe Bengals. Oh, I would adore if there were Russian Blues. My wife always wanted a Russian Blue,” Elias grabbed a loose stone and weighed one corner down. “What’s with that look? Cats are better.”

  “For psychotic weirdos, maybe. Man’s best friend all the way.”

  “Carpet’s worst enemy.”

  “They chew up everything too. No furniture survived in my house.” The old lady on their right commented.

  “Not as bad as cats. Tearing up my brand-new chair. The two at home keep fighting about where to sit. Then scratched it to death. Poor Isabelle.” The spice seller on their left lamented.

  “You named your chair?” Elias pushed up their sign ‘Magic cubes. Tois for the mind, experiments for the intelligent’—painted by Gareth in loving strokes. Derek shook his head at the sign.

  “Only one mistake. Progress.” Elias declared. In only a few days as well.

  “Of course I named my beautiful Isabelle,” the spice seller interjected. “Old sour puss wanted a sofa. Where would I eat my peanuts on a sofa?”

  “Next to me,” the woman snorted. “We can eat them together while waiting for the kids.”

  “You’re married? You have dogs and cats?” Derek gaped. “Would you like to exchange with us?”

  “So you can be closer together.” Elias explained at their suspicious gazes.

  “No way!” They said together, voices hammering into Elias’ eardrums from either side.

  “Business has to be separate.” The man said.

  “Our wares don’t go together.” The woman affirmed.

  Elias smelled the herbs on her little cart, the spices in his wagon. A delicious scent of a warm evening curry. Only a good wine and cheese platter was missing. “Of course. Our mistake.”

  “I’ve come here every other week. They used to be on opposite sides of the market at the beginning.” Derek whispered, unhooking a sample cube and laying it on a small table he’d built with four short gilded legs in the shape of dragons. Stubby dragons. A piece of wood chipped away. Derek sighed and squatted down, tapping the cube so it glowed with diffuse light. He ran a finger along the table, leveling the damage with mana, and nodded at Elias.

  “Step right up. Step right up. Brand new puzzles to delight the mind and raise your child. You miss, yes you with that young boy. My, how intelligent he looks! Come try out our Mana Cube. I’m sure a bright one would benefit in early-stage development significantly.” Elias called out, remembering hawkers across all his memories. Ward remembered alleyways filled with true craftsmen of the snake-oil variety, while Varen had trained lungs for years.

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  “Laying it on thick much?” Derek muttered.

  “Attention economics.” Elias blushed.

  “Early-stage development?”

  “Alright. I’ll tone down the pedagogy.”

  The woman trotted over with the boy, reaching out to wipe the trickles of snot forming under his nose every few steps.

  “You have sharp eyes, miss. I must have been mistaken earlier—are you bringing your little brother around?”

  She curled a streak of grey hair behind her ear and smiled. “Flatterer, aren’t you, young man? Not that I mind.”

  “Come on kid, why don’t you have a go.” Derek tapped the cube, array lighting up as it began to spin. In a few heartbeats the sections slid into disarray. Elias shuddered. The last week had been filled with failed attempts to solve it himself. Only Gareth had real success. A murmur rose from the crowd gathering around them.

  The kid shuffled behind his mother’s legs, peering at the glowing cube. His mother hesitated.

  “Come,” Elias crouched and handed over the cube. “Just make all the colors match. Blue together on one side, yellow together on another. Twist and turn. Don’t worry, it won’t break.”

  The kid took it hesitantly, but in short order was happily spinning, turning, and banging the cube against the tiles to Elias’ winces.

  “We’ll pay for damages.” The woman whispered, and Elias gave a weak grin.

  “No, no. It’s sturdy enough to face an advanced cultivator’s full strike.” Which it was, if Forest embedding one in the courtyard wall with a roar of frustration counted.

  The kid hurled the cube to the ground, puzzled eyes staring at Elias.

  “As you can see, he’s engaged.” Elias smiled brightly. The tears were from the twin suns, he told himself. “Fully. It takes time. You’re smart. The more you play, the better you’ll get.”

  “What if we’re not able to get it right?” A voice came from the crowd.

  “A very astute question, my friend,” Elias grinned and waved at Derek. “It takes only a little mana to return the cube to its original, elegant, and display-worthy state.”

  Derek tossed the cube into the air, six strands of mana shooting into each face. It lit up, and Elias’ muscles clenched, hands pulling his robes tight around him. The cube popped open, each segment spinning in an almost recognizable pattern around the core like the semi-functional solar system the old science teacher had kept in the boot of her car. The cube pulsed three times. Red, green, blue. Derek had been adamant about the lighting scheme, although he hadn’t been able to prove mana light followed the RGB system yet.

  Hums of appreciation rose around them, the herb seller demanded two pieces, one for each of her ‘idiots’ and the spice seller asked for two for his ‘babies’. Elias convinced them to get one each for now.

  The mother paid for and plucked the demonstration cube from Derek’s fingers.

  Elias’ lips tugged up so hard he wanted to tape them down. Merchants shouldn’t be so smug. None of his prepared child acuity exercise speeches were necessary.

  Derek chuckled as the cubes sold out, counting each coin and gold piece, buffing them until they shone.

  “Why can’t I buy four?” A shifty-eyed man asked. No, it wasn’t shifty. The right eye rotated independently, fixing Elias and Derek alternately with glares. Elias focused on the stable eye.

  “Because there are parents behind you who also want them.” Elias explained again. The parents murmured approval and shoved the man aside. Elias tossed him a cube anyway, and the man paid quietly before wandering off, muttering about limited first runs.

  A small girl running circles around her mother bumped into Elias hard enough that he was knocked back two steps. He gaped at the little one in white. She had to be a cultivator to pack such a wallop.

  “No. I will not cede. You want a fight, you’ll get one!” The roar cut across the market. Everyone turned, and Elias peeked over the crowd.

  “I demanded an apology. An apology I will get.” Another person declared. Softer. Confident.

  “Hell yes, let’s gooo senior brother. Revenge plot’s a go!”

  The young woman’s voice made Derek twitch.

  He rushed into the crowd, and Elias stood blankly. Only for a moment, until his shoelace snapped. Elias packed the last two cubes into his robes and hobbled after Derek.