Dear Diary, there's so much to tell after the night market! There was so much going on, merchant stalls, food stalls, games, music, dancing, plays, everything ever happening all at once it seemed. It was so lively that just being in that atmosphere immediately gave a sense of thrilling fun. My senses were abuzz and on high alert to party.
During the tea party we'd discussed our plans, so my friends had made sure I knew to dress in a simple smock, since nobles tried to blend in among the commoners so that all could enjoy the festivities the same. That was the idea, at least. Realistically I think it was easy to recognize us as nobility since our parents wouldn't dream of letting us wander without a knight each. Although we weren't as bad as some, who were putting up a pretense of dressing as commoners in an obvious way that displayed they still wanted to be recognized and treated as nobles. I asked my knight to stay as far away from me as he safely could, because I did not desire to attract attention.
The other three ladies were already there when I reached the market. I found them amidst the clothing stalls. There were several stalls, each with different specialties, and they had spread out between them. Emma was perusing through dresses, Martina was looking at cloth, and Arianna was surveying satin gloves. Having had my fill of dresses recently, I went to view the gloves with Arianna. Since they weren't something I was used to wearing, I didn't know enough to appreciate them and I only pretended to look through them until Arianna had finished. I'll have to wear a pair for the upcoming ball, but having already had to wear gloves once for the tea party, I'd decided that I didn't want to wear them more than was necessary. I suppose I’ll get used to them if I wear them enough, but I’m hoping that doesn’t have to happen. It’s hard enough to wear heavy dresses all the time, so why add more material to my hands and arms as well?
Once everyone was finished at the clothing stalls, we gathered and moved to the stalls with magic items. It felt like the hair on my head was standing on end. My skin tingled with anxiety. This world is different than mine, and I know that, but I was about to see it in action. Magic wasn't real. But now it was.
When Arianna put on a ring and it changed her green hair to pink, I jumped. My friends noticed and laughed, exclaiming how fun and weird it must be to experience magic for the first time again. As we continued testing the magic products, my eyes were wide with astonishment. The ones we looked at were mostly simple, such as things that changed hair and eye color and jewelry that sparkled or glowed. Some of the items were similar to what I was used to, but powered by magic instead of batteries, like flashlights or lamps, music boxes or pictures that sang, and voice sending and receiving devices.
There were other magic items as well, armor and swords among them, that we passed but didn’t inspect. Arianna glanced at them longingly as we passed, but we all knew that they weren’t relevant to our lives, so even she didn’t stop. One item though, a bracelet, seemed to make my anxiety spike. It was on a table with a random assortment of trinkets. Arianna had stopped to look at a dagger (it was small enough that she might could hide it from her parents) and Martina was looking at a mirror on the same table. As soon as my eyes landed on the bracelet, the tingling of my nerves increased and I could feel my heart beat faster. It was like my body knew that object was trouble and was trying to tell me to run away.
Someone spoke to me and I jumped. It took everything in me to stifle a scream, I was so surprised. I’d just become so focused on the bracelet that I hadn’t realized there was a man next to me. I don’t remember what he’d said; I hadn’t really heard him, but he spoke again and asked me if I was alright. I told him that I was fine, but I think I gave the bracelet a wary glance while I was answering.
He asked me (it was such a bizarre question, Diary), “You can feel that?”
I shook my head, not wanting to admit that I could feel anything to this stranger or to myself, and asked, “Feel what?”
And, Diary, he asked me if I have magic! Me! That’s a ridiculous question to ask Millana, but to ask me that is even more ridiculous. I know that I am Millana, but I think there’d be even less chance of Millana me having magic since I’ve lived most of my life without magic even existing.
I told him that I most definitely do not have any magic. One of the man’s white eyebrows (he looked young, but his hair was completely white) raised as if he didn’t believe my answer, but he didn’t ask any more questions. My friends rescued me after that, thankfully, because they were ready to move onto the next thing.
We found the circus performers and Arianna got to watch the knife swallower. Her eyes were open wide in awe the whole time, but somehow got even wider when he set the knife on fire before swallowing it. There were other acts too, but none we watched for very long. Instead we meandered toward the food stalls, where we enjoyed some delicious meat on a stick.
As we wandered and ate, we passed some game stalls. There was a commotion at one of them, and I noticed the black haired man who had been in the dress shop. He was with a pink haired lady, and appeared to be trying to gift her a giant teddy bear that he’d won, but she wasn’t taking it. Instead, she put some money down on the counter and received three darts. The crowd around them was rowdy and appeared to be cheering for her. From the sound of the crowd, I guessed that she missed the first shot, but seemed to do better with her second, and then on her third try they gave such a raucous cheer that she must have made it. That assumption was confirmed when the stall attendant handed her one of the giant teddy bears. The lady flicked her pink hair triumphantly, and for a second, as her hair appeared to sparkle and shimmer as it settled back on her shoulders, I thought that she was gorgeous and wished that my hair could be similar, but once I realized what I was thinking I turned my head away. Clearly both she and the man were captivating people, and they probably had a lot of drama surrounding them. I was here to have fun with my friends, not get caught up in someone else’s story.
We’d seen most of what we’d set out to see by that point, but there was still some time before the end of the night fireworks. To pass the time we wandered among the different stalls and shows. There was a play that we passed at one point. The story seemed to be about the festival, and how it had gotten its start. None of us were interested in watching it (my friends had all seen it before and I wasn’t interested enough to have us stop), so we wandered past it. It didn’t seem like it had any music with it. They’d probably get more of an audience if they turned it into a musical. Eventually we found a group of musicians playing with people dancing in front of them. We joined in the dancing there until it was time to find spots for the fireworks.
Apparently, in a world with magic, fireworks can be even better. They started with fairly normal ones, but soon they were forming dragons and the dragons were breathing fire, and there were knights and a king. The fireworks told a story, and I didn’t follow all of it, but I think the dragons died in the end. Which seems like it should be a good thing, but I felt sad as it was ending. The fireworks show was breathtaking, but feelings that I didn’t understand lingered.
My friends didn’t seem to feel the same. Maybe it was that they saw this every year and this was my first time watching. As the fireworks show ended and we headed back to our carriages, their conversation was cheerful, quickly turning to the upcoming ball. We talked about the preparation that we still had to do, and how much fun we would have dancing and enjoying the food in each other’s company. It’s the king’s birthday ball, and apparently they go all out with the food, so I’m really looking forward to that, as well as to gathering with my friends once more. I’ll let you know how it goes, Diary. I do have my important line coming up then.
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