In a large luxurious carriage pulled by four zebras, each adorned with the insignia of a winged whale, Zara sat across from Maria.
Her eyes were bright, brimming with the kind of energy only a city visit could bring. Maria sat with her usual composure beside her.
"Say, Maria." Zara turned to her. "When we get to the city, why don't you go see your family too?"
Maria looked at zara abit surprised but shook her head, smiling. "It's alright, Lady Zara. Besides, I cannot leave your side."
Zara leaned against the window. "I could accompany you there, if you'd like."
"But then you'd be cutting into your time exploring the city," Maria said.
Zara waved a hand. "I'll get another chance some other day. You haven't seen them in seven months. You must be missing them." Her bright face dimmed a little, as she added. "I know how it feels to miss your family ,if only a little."
Her smile brightened once again "It's not a problem for my best maid."
"You know I won't let you reduce your study hours because of this," Maria said.
"Ohhh, geez." Zara rolled her eyes. "I'm not trying to. Besides ,i love studying so much ." She blinked, slow and deliberate, her lashes fluttering as she tried her best to look as innocent as possible.
"Uh-huh." Maria's eyes narrowed at her, thoroughly unconvinced.
--------
Percy got down from the carriage and held out a silver crown.
The driver looked at it his brow raised , then at him , a slow once-over, taking in the disheveled feature of percy. His hands already moving for copper change anyway.
Percy accepted it with an awkward smile.
The driver's gaze lingered a beat longer than necessary before he flicked the reins and rode off.
Percy turned toward the bathhouse. A modest stone building, steam curling faintly from a vent along the side wall, the entrance flanked by a posted list of prices. He stepped up to the attendant at the door , where an older man with a notepad sat smiling at the customers entering or exiting.
The attendant's eyes moved over him. Coat. Boots. The general state of him.
"Three copper for the public hall. No private rooms unless you've got coin for it."
"Three copper's fine," Percy said.
The attendant didn't move.
"Show me first."
Percy understood immediately and reached into his pocket. He'd half expected this. He produced the coins and held them out, and only once they were actually in the man's palm did the attendant step aside and wave him through with somewhat more grace than before.
Percy was about to step through when he stopped.
He remembered the baskets near the entrance, where people left their belongings before heading in. It was usually at open, sitting in plain view, nothing locked or guarded about them. He'd seen it before, back when he'd come here after winning at the lottery, right after buying his house, when he'd had money left over and decided to try the place out after spotting an advertisement tucked in the corner of a newspaper.
He turned back toward the counter.
"Is there somewhere else I can keep my belongings?"
The attendant looked him over again, slower this time, the kind of look that made his judgment plain without a word needing to be said.
"He probably thinks I don't have anything worth stealing," Percy thought.
"People who come here are well off enough that they wouldn't bother glancing twice at whatever I'm carrying. I look like someone who scraped together coin just to try the place out, not someone who actually come as a regular here."
He couldn't really argue with the assessment. He really didn't look the part.
Percy sighed and reached toward his holster , then remembered the pouch and the Lemon both sitting inside it. He changed direction, his hand going to his coat pocket instead, letting the revolver's handle peek out just far enough to be recognisable. He made sure only the attendant could see it.
The old man's eyes went wide. He stepped back, the notepad trembling slightly in his grip.
Before he could say anything Percy pulled out the badge and held it up.
Recognition crossed the attendant's face almost instantly, and whatever alarm had been there dissolved into something closer to delight. His lips spread into a wide, eager smile.
"My greatest apologies, good sir. A thousand pardons for my rude behaviour." He rubbed his hands together. "It would be my honour to keep your keepsakes safe. I'll make sure no one so much as looks at your belongings , they'll be kept in the safest place we have."
"Wow ! he changed completely" Percy was taken a back by the adaptive nature of the old man , which reminded him of a certain owner at Georges eat's.
But what surprised him the most is the power of the badge .
"Still overpowered," Percy thought, glancing at the badge in his hand before tucking it away.
---
Once his belongings had been taken to whatever the attendant considered the safest place, Percy made his way into the bathhouse proper. Steam filled the room thick enough to blur the far wall. He caught a few looks from the other patrons and, taking the hint. He scrubbed at himself with more force than was probably necessary, working through two days of dirt, sweat, and the lingering smell of garden soil that had somehow gotten into everything.
A few other men shared the row of basins, none of them paying him much mind. One nodded once in greeting. Percy nodded back.
By the time he moved to the main pool the water had gone from punishing to genuinely pleasant. He sank down to his shoulders and let out a breath he hadn't realised he was holding.
It didn't last as long as he wanted it to.
A boy, maybe twelve, came around with a stack of towels for hire, calling out the price in a practiced sing-song. Percy waved him off — he'd brought nothing dry to change into and would need to think about that eventually, but not yet.
He stayed in the water until his fingers wrinkled.
When he finally got out and dressed back into his clothes, which the attendant had fetched and returned to him personally , he felt considerably more human than he had stepping in. He checked his pocket watch again on the way out.
The old man waved him goodbye at the entrance with a practical smile , which earned him looks from other exiting and coming customers.
"Not a bad feeling."