Sophia Wong was home again. Fade, with Sophia's face, smiled at the girl's elation at her return to familiar grounds, and her own at the sheer beauty of the sight. If she'd never seen it once before in Sophia's memories, Fade might have just... stared all day at the black obelisk. But they weren't here for kicks - they were here to help Sophia.
That meant seeking out the girl's mentor. The name had corroded - it was one of many things that had done so. Things came back to the woman, and Fade happily chased every memory that Sophia yearned after, but this was one encounter she was having second thoughts about. For starters, Sensei knew Sophia like a daughter. If anyone would see Fade inside, it would be that man, and he was something shy of liberal.
But that was her promise.
Fade steeled herself, and climbed the steps. The sight that met her eyes surprised her though. A market wasn't an abisial thing - currency in her culture, was an alien thing, and the culture shock of an active market complete with the hawking of wares, of sale sale sale(!), and things for her young man was almost too much for the outsider looking in to take. She wandered... in a sort of daze, looking about as sick as she felt. Even if Fade was zoning out, some part of Sophia was wide awake, looking around, and mentally considering how much coin she had in her bag.
A deal was a deal, and cheap quills and ink and paper was not to be sneezed at. Fade was all too glad to let Sophia take over the commerce. For her part, Fade was so far at sea that she couldn't see the shore, but the human knew what to do - little copper and silver discs were exchanged for feather pens, for nice ink, for paper, and the abisial could only watch in wonder. How could discs of metal be worth that much? How could anyone tell? She had to let Sophia buy some food before she really understood. The food was hot and gotten for the asking - and it was good, something someone had spent a long time making, if she was any judge.
As she stood aside some distance from the crowd, Fade marveled as the last of the couscous was savored. By no means was the outsider slow on the uptake - currency made sense. Sophia's world was... sophisticated. It would not have worked as well as it clearly has without people specializing in certain things. That meant common course was necessary - an agreement all people had that a certain thing that was not otherwise useful was useful could be worth anything else, in the right ammount, going one way or another. Marvelous.
The bowl made its way back to the merchant, and she politely bowed and thanked the woman for the delicious meal, then set off again with new eyes, with new understanding of the ways of humanity. It was doing Sophia a world of good - familiar sights jogged her memories, fragrances reminded her of old things, and faces she knew smiled at her, but her feet found themselves moving ever towards the Black Lantern.
The sign is what caught their eyes, and the pitch drew Sophia like a fly to jam. Who was Fade to deny the girl? They had a deal, so in they went, into the unknown. The cream blue-silver haired thanati, wearing her modest dress and messenger bag, went in and approached the table and the father-daughter team. She took a spot behind the strange man and his outlandish behavior, and, crossing her hands in her lap, waited for her turn to have a say.
