At noon the luxurious district had got rather lively. There were street vendors at the corders of the walls surrounding the homes of the nobles and rich merchants, protecting them.
A young divine noble left one of the most visited shops for gold and jade goods. In their hair was a gold accessory in the pattern of wines and tulips, and around their neck was a necklace that matched while their belt was infused with gemstones and their wrists adorned with gold, jade and beads in a way that made one’s head hurt. It didn’t help that their robes screamed just as much, the sun making the colours so bright one’s eyes would hurt.
Following them was a child not yet of marriageable age, in much simpler accessories and clothes. From their ears hung drops of silver, matching the hair stick with its drop-shaped jade beads. These suited well with the green silk robe tied together with a yellow and blue silk sash around the waist and the silver beads hanging down from the shoulder and collar of the inner purple robe.
Between this child and the the young noble who had left before, passerbys found the humbler one to look better, as they eyed them out of curiosity.
Laž’ar stepped out of the shop, pulling at his green outer robe’s sleeves, thinking about how to go about the next step. Should he go home and get some sleep before the work he had in the evening, or should he stay and gather some information about the residents until the heat struck? He had only got so much sleep, having got up when the sun rose instead of around now, but he couldn’t skip out on his duties at the Pavillion, regardless of what his mother thought about it.
He had since long determined he wasn’t in any danger when there. Why would his esteemed mother, whose poetry could move the very mountains and make the sky weep from emotion, be at the Pavillion if it posed any danger?
This was how he thought about it, disregarding that she may have reasons to believe a place like it a danger for a child like Laž’ar . Disregarding that perhaps there was a reasons only women and divine worked sung and danced at the Pavillion, while the children at most helped their mothers or divine siblings to dress.
Disregarding, once again, the greedy looks he had seen and the way the adults would step between him and passerbys while he, as the oldest of the children, lit the lanterns at night.
He listened to the sound of the street as he walked along it, trying to make a decision. This was a business street, much like the one he lived at with his mother, yet it was, to him, strangely quiet. Street vendors with their small stalls next to carts and a few stools didn’t shout at the top of their lungs. Shop attendants didn’t stand at the entrance trying to lure anyone in. The people dressed in clothes of higher quality didn’t raise their voices to speak. But there were a few neighs of horses and palanquins carried both noble and merchants as they moved to and fro, while the smell of cooked food was no different and the heavy scent of perfume was still everywhere.
So similar to home, yet the people were different and the businesses worlds apart. Even a store selling jewellery in each area dealt with things so differently. Put on some airs and dress right in this area, and one could be the child of a noble. Do the same in the Emerald Silk district and they’d wonder if these children were there to steal, even if dressed in silk.
Or rather, perhaps because they wore silk, unless they wore robes that didn’t cause the merchant’s to suspect they were from the different establishments along the main street. Laž’ar’s mother knew what to buy, to keep Laž’ar out of trouble. This he knew.
But this was why he had been surprised by the fact he had been able to afford the hair stick, but he suspected he had garnered some sort of favour with the attendant. He figured he’d return to this shop if he needed something in the future. After all, despite being in the noble district, he was still one of the children born in the Rose Pavilion and they dressed considerably more luxurious than the actual prostitutes’ children.
And, he thought, if he seemed more luxurious, just perhaps…
He sighed internally, feeling just a little tired, before he got the scroll of names out.
Never had he thought that his mother and the others would have been of noble birth, but when he thought about it, perhaps it made sense. Why else would his mother had known how to read and write? Not to mention, her poetry was fairly well-known within the Emerald Silk district because she could compose them so well. Even Laž’ar knew very well that his mother’s name had been what made the Rose Pavillion to what it was today.
She had taught him all he knew, from mathematics to painting.
Thinking this, he decided not to return home. Instead he headed towards the first tavern he could find.