Big Bard in Little Akadai

After the war, the buildings of Akadai were rebuilt just as they had been. Even the stones seemed to be the same ones returned to the exact foundations they were in before.
The people were still broken though.

"Tell another! A spooky one!" the crowd of young faces chirped like hatchlings in a small half moon around Seth. "One with scary ogres!" said the smallest.

"They're not all that scary, if you can make them laugh." Seth walked the streets as he played bard, casting passersby as bit-actors and windblown trash as props.

Seth introduced the characters in his next story, adventurers of far away and long ago, when they passed a merchant arguing with the bone guard at the gate.
"This is the food you get, bub," the merchant said motioning to a cart of beige vegetables. They reeked of rot.
"You think this place is any farmer's first stop?! Full price for the lot and I might, maybe, consider returning next harvest."

The guard's head drop was almost imperceptible. He'd spotted the group of children staring at the scene. The moment held on their sunken, hungry faces.
That's weird, the guard thought, why are those kids just standing around in a group in the middle of the road alone?

The merchant shooed the dirty urchins and snapped fingers in the guard's face. The guard dropped a heavy pouch of silver from a height above the merchant's head with a growl. Almost fumbling the catch, the merchant grinned toothily and said,
"And some coin for the cart as well..."

Whistling through his teeth, the merchant rode away from the necromancer city on a gray, little donkey. Night was climbing into the sky and the dead would soon rise for their own grim work and wages.

Suddenly, a spark of reddish light split the twilight and the merchant's mount bristled. The glow of an Enrage spell slid passed the donkey's mental will. The donkey spun its head back, foaming and eyes rolling wild. In two quick motions, the merchant was bucked from the saddle and caught a hoof in the ribs. After a quarter turn mid air, he crumbled to the ground. Looking up, he expected to see the furious animal charging but did not.

There was a shadowy figure on one knee, cradling the donkey's head as he lowered it to the ground.
"...into a trance," the man spoke, finishing the sleep spell.
He then stood and turned to the merchant. His hand lifted to channel power.

"Who are y... (a flash of light) Where? Where am I?"
Pockets empty and alone in his small clothes, the merchant is now among the corn. Husky green columns planted in rows upon rows with no end.