Act 2 – The Lonely Merchant

Prontera City despite its much larger size and volume of people reminded Zaya quite a bit of Izlude, her hometown. Nephilim walked her around the major city sites and to the shops busily chatting about stuff. The castle impressed Zaya in it's size and grandeur, prominently situated in the far north in the middle of the city boundaries. More green eagle banners were hung lining the road leading to the castle and at the gates leading in were two guards standing alert yet not threatening either.

"Wow, it's much larger than what I expected the castle for the ruler of the kingdom to have," Zaya gasped as they stood in there presence of it.

Nephilim couldn't help but laugh a little at her reaction. He remembered thinking the same though when he first moved to Prontera and saw the castle.

"Maybe next time we're up here we'll go inside," Nephilim told her.

"Go inside!" she replied wide-eyed. "They let you go inside the castle?"

He nodded, "Yep. Only in the main walkway part though. Since at the other end of the castle leads back into the fields of Prontera."

Zaya clasped her hands together in front of her, as she took one last look at the castle before moving on. Prontera was so large that naturally it would take quite a bit of time to tour the whole city, so Nephilim decided to only show her the western half of Prontera. He showed her the markets, the small buildings people rent rooms from and such, and there was even a local pub they walked by at one point. The Prontera Chivalry Hall where swordsmen became knights in the Northwest corner was the other major stop before they arrived at the castle.

After touring the whole west side of Prontera, they slowly walked back to Prontera Square in the center of the city. The crowds slightly thinned out but still there were a swarm of people in the city center, including the merchants selling items from potions to custom forged weapons to rare items collected from monsters.

"This is Prontera Square," Nephilim announced to her, "You should see this place on the 6th and 7th days of the week, when all o f the warriors decide to hold contests in the streets during the morning and evenings."

"They're allowed to do that?" Zaya gasped turning to him.

"Well, technically no, but no one stops them," he replied.

She giggled a little before saying, "Maybe one day we'll be able to as well."

Nephilim looked her over to assure himself that was indeed serious in making that claim. Not that he ever knew Zaya to joke about something like that, but after all, it has been 10 years and it was always possible she changed some from then. He did not believe he himself changed much, but it is hard to judge on your own.

Now at the southern tip of the city center they paused in front of the few less experienced merchants who managed to get in the prime spot in from the large bronze statue of the god Odin. There to the slight left of the center a lone merchant caught Zaya's eyes. She was kneeling upon the ground next to her sign listing the prices of her goods upon it. Her typical merchant dress was clearly worn for many days straight without being washed and the pale purple trim was wearing out. She felt a little sorry for all of the merchants who spend long hours sitting around cities trying to sell their goods just to make a living. This merchant girl had long wind swept brown hair and light hazel eyes staring off blankly.

"Hey, Zaya," Nephilim said, interrupting her while tapping on her shoulder. "We should head back to the church soon. I'm sure Lucius is done with the list by now."

She glanced back nodding. "First we should get a drink, since we've been walking around for the last hour, and before you try to refuse it's my treat so no backing out," she grinned pulling out a few 100 zeny coins.

He sighed slightly, wondering how she would know he'd try to get out of it. Figuring he had no other choice, he just agreed with her decision. She already knew who to buy the potions from, the merchant just sitting there by herself staring off. Zaya walked over to the girl and stood across from where she was sitting before getting her attention.

"Excuse me," Zaya said to the girl.

It took a moment before the girl realized she was actually being addressed. "Oh. Y, yes? How may I help you?" she replied.

"How much are you selling your yellow potions for?"

The girl hesitated for a moment, calculating how much she spent to obtain them. "They're 350 zeny each," the girl responded.

"Okay then, I'll buy two of them."

The merchant nodded reaching into her cart and pulling out two bottles with the bright yellow liquid in them. She then handed them to the swordswoman with the white hair and the strangest eyes she ever seen.

"That'll be 700 zeny then."

Zaya nodded and dropped the coins into the girl's hand. The merchant girl bowed her head and as she was ready to deposit the coins into her coin pouch, she panicked when she noticed it was not there. She quickly spun around to the side her pouch was on to catch a glimpse of a purple and beige clad thief running off with her money.

"HEY! Come back here, thief!" she screamed at the figure retreating away while jumping to her feet.

Only a few of the people in the dying down crowd looked to see what this girl was yelling about, the rest either ignored or didn't hear her calling out. Zaya and Nephilim looked to see what was wrong with the merchant girl. She did notice the girl was accusing the fleeing purple thief of stealing her coin pouch, which Zaya did briefly remember noticing it tied around the girl's side earlier.

"Just stay here," Zaya instructed to the brown-haired girl before bolting after the thief.

"O, oy! Zaya!" Nephilim shouted as his friend pushed through the crowd.

He sighed heavily before opting to chase after her. Some things never change he thought to himself trying his best to keep sight of her sky blue skirt as he navigated the crowd. He remembered all the time trying to keep up with Zaya when they were younger, since she would just run ahead without any warning. At the destination, she'd be standing there waiting for him, giggling at how he would be all flushed from running.

Zaya kept her sight locked on the fleeing thief, as she pushed her way through the crowd. At one point, the thief girl looked back worried yet surprised she was being followed. She had long purple hair done back in a twist braid with a white flu mask over her face. Eventually the girl realized running wasn't going to work and turned the corner into a side street to hide. Zaya followed but stopped at the opening to the street confused the thief girl wasn't anywhere in sight.

It didn't make sense since there were no obvious hiding spots and no way, she could have escaped that far ahead. As she stood there looking around, while catching her breath Nephilim finally caught up to her. He was even more winded and had to wait until he could manage to utter anything.

"W, where's the thief?" he panted, barely able to hear himself over his racing heart.

Zaya shook her head. "I don't know," she sighed, "She vanished somewhere in this walkway."

He paused and though for a moment. He knew thieves were experts at stealing and avoiding attacks but the one skill they use is the ability to hide. Back in basic acolyte training, he remembered the priest instructors telling the class about the hide skill since there was a skill that acolytes possess that can reveal them.

"Well, if she's hiding down here then I might be able to unhide her," he explained. "Ruwach!"

A pale blue glowing orb that looked almost like fire materialized from thin air. It did a full circle around Nephilim before rushing off down the street and vanishing a few feet away. As the orb passed by a spot near the wall not to far from them, the thief girl suddenly reappeared. She blinked a few times confused before realizing she's been discovered.

"Shit," she muttered.

As she tried to take off again she was intercepted by Zaya before she could get far and pinned against the wall. The thief struggled for a bit before realizing she wasn't going to be able to escape the grip of the swordswoman and just gave up. She sighed dismayed knowing she failed in successfully stealing how thieves should be able to.

"Hey now, I know you're a thief but you're supposed to steal from monsters not other people!" Zaya harshly said. "Now where's the money you stole from that merchant?"

The girl sighed again, turning her eyes down to the ground. She knew she wasn't technically supposed to steal from others with her thief skills, but she wasn't having much luck lately with acquiring rare items from monsters to sell. After letting it sink in for a bit, Zaya let go of the girl's hands and she reached into her hip sack and retrieved the coin pouch she stolen. She handed it over to her before running off, not looking back at them until she vanished into the crowds.

Zaya and Nephilim walked back to where they left the merchant girl. She looked distraught despite being consoled by a female alchemist and a male blacksmith who were around her. The girl looked up when she noticed the boots of the swordswoman who ran off was standing in front of her.

"Did you get it back?" she said hopefully.

Zaya nodded, "Here, you go."

She then deposited the coin back in the merchant's hand. She grasped it tightly against her chest and sighed a little relieved. Then she bowed deeply, still holding her bag close to her.

"Thank you so much," she replied.