Hell Hath No Fury - Book One

Weapons

AN: necessary 5k chapter warning 

Theo was laid back during shoe shopping, only buying two pairs and taking the low price the vendor offered. The vendor she bought them from was a woman and Ava had a sneaking suspicion that Theo, notorious man fighter and skeptic, gave men a harder time when bargaining. Ava, as opposed to Theo, indulged in shoe shopping. She walked away having had 11 pairs of shoes delivered to the ship. Shoes proved to be Ava's forte and she needed no help spotting what shoes Morgana wanted. Whether the word was in common or not, Ava knew the name. All in all, she had spent 9 gold for herself and 7 for Morgana.

Clothes shopping was a large chunk of their day. All three of them spent hours perusing the dozens of stores that were around. Shirt stores, pants stores, dress stores, coat stores, stores with all of them in them, stores that only sold one color. Ava had always been stuck wearing traditional Northern Eloxian robes and garments and when she was allowed to buy her own clothes, she was strictly limited to dresses from two stores in town. She now had unlimited options and all the money in the world to spend.

By the time they had finished at the last store, the three of them had established a pattern. They would walk into a store and first, Xyra would let Ava know if Morgana needed anything from that store. If she did, Ava would ask the clerk for the items that were needed, pay, get the receipt, and then begin her own shopping. Ava would get lost in the clothes, grabbing too many to try on. She would pay for the clothes and hand them in to be handled for delivery. Xyra was less restrained with clothes than she was with other goods. Xyra was just as bad as Ava was, turning armfuls of clothes over to be delivered. There was a significant dent in both of their coin purses by the time they had finished all of their clothes shopping. A 139 gold coin dent.

So much for saving.

Ava couldn't help herself when it came to the sheer amount of gorgeous one of kind pieces sold in the shops of Niveal. Neither could Xyra. Theo, during this whole process, had been lost. When they would enter a store, Theo would get quite the royal treatment from the store employees or owners. She was always taken to the back where there was a rack of clothes specially picked for her just waiting there. Ava was already planning on seeing if she could read up on Theo but the reception Theo received from everyone just made her more interesting.

The final step in their established pattern was a fight. After Xyra and Ava had both finished and were waiting around a while, Xyra would march them to wherever Theo had been taken to hurry her up. It never failed. In every store they went to, Xyra had to drag Theo out of it to stop her from wasting the whole sun there. Ava found it funny, the little squabbles between them as they would walk out of stores. Here, people seemed to kiss the ground Theo walked on but Xyra refused to treat her any differently, they acted like the way siblings acted. Not that Ava's ever paid her that much attention.

By the time they finished clothes shopping, the sun was beginning to lower and they were starving. After some traditional street meat, they continued to shop. There wasn't much left on the list and Ava was glad, she did not know how much more her pockets could take. Xyra decided to take a break from shopping when she encountered someone she needed to talk to on the street. Ava and Theo took on the next few shops by themselves. First, a shop that sold hundreds of different materials that could be used to make medicinal remedies. Second, they shopped at a store that sold paper, journals, canvases, and ink pens. Then they visited a paint shop. Lastly, they visited a store that sold spices and rare ingredients.

Her time alone with Theo had proved to be interesting. She was less obnoxious, loud, and proud as she had been for most of the sun. Mostly because she did not need to buy anything and was just accompanying Ava to do what was on Morgana's list. When Ava asked for Theo's help in the first three shops, she proved to be of no use. Theo had said there was no point in showing her the list because she didn't know what was in the shops. Ava doubted that. If what she had was Morgana's usual list and Mor usually went shopping with Theo then Theo would have been to those shops dozens of times. She could have just peeked at the list to help. Instead, Ava had to show the list to the salesperson and ask for their help.