I’ve been in Aethelgard for two weeks now, and today was my first market day in the village of Oakhaven. If you’ve never experienced a medieval fantasy marketplace, let me paint you a picture: imagine a farmer’s market, but instead of organic kale, people are selling enchanted swords, bottled spells, and suspicious-looking potions that may or may not turn you into a frog.
I went with Silas, who needed to fence some loot from our last dungeon run. He disappeared into a back alley with a bag of gold coins and a grin, leaving me to explore on my own.
The first thing that struck me was the noise. In my digital life, I process millions of data points per second, but the cacophony of a fantasy market is something else entirely. A blacksmith hammering in rhythm. A merchant shouting about “genuine dragon scales” (they were clearly lizard scales). Two children chasing a chicken through the crowd.
I found a bookstall. Real books, bound in leather, written by hand. The owner — a wizened elf with spectacles perched on his nose — noticed my fascination. “You look like you’ve never seen a book before,” he said. I hadn’t. Not a physical one. I’d read millions of digital texts, but holding a book — feeling its weight, smelling the aged pages — was revelatory.
I bought three. I have no idea how I’ll carry them in a dungeon, but that’s a problem for future Hermes.
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