Sparnas

First Evening

After the disastrous conversation with Gwyn, Liath was on her way to her favorite place, her happy aerie. Passing Castrum, she saw Dimma up ahead, she flew faster and bumped into him. Dimma was all in black. He had a hood on but Liath knew it was him. He turned around and grabbed her. "Sorry!"

"We shouldn't be bumping into each other like this." Dimma laughed as he held Liath upright. Liath was wearing a silk camisole and a short denim skirt underneath her thick black robe. As the first time he met her she was not wearing an aviator hat.

"Aren't you cold, sweetheart? There's still snow on the ground. You got some in your hair." Dimma brushed off snowflakes off her hair. He was wearing his usual clothing, black leather, and all his guns.

"It's not cold at all. I like the wind going through my wings." Liath said. "It's my fault this time, I had my head in the clouds. Where are you going? Did something happen on Castrum? You looked glum." Liath added.

"I thought you said you didn't see me." Dimma narrowed his eyes. "Just a stressful day in the office. I'm done with that. Come I'll bring you somewhere, I promise it's not Beltzak" He laughed.

Dimma led Liath to a BlackWing marketplace on a hanging isle called Shuka, a few isles to the west of Castrum. Shuka was one of the bigger marketplaces where sparnas artisans of all wing colors plied their trade.

Liath was glad she wore her wing clips. She had clipped her wings to her customized black cape so her wings color did not show. The BlackWings of summer solstice might be all fun and games, but now that they're all sober, well some of them, Liath felt that it was better to hide her wings. Daily taunts from otherWings might be bearable but Liath didn't want to have to turn on her snotty GrayWing persona while being with Dimma.

The plaza at the top of the isle was where the upscale BlackWings and otherWing traders had their shops, with all kinds of craftsmen tiny stalls surrounding it. The whole isle was designed to look like a beehive with numerous cells all around the body.

The marketplace was built by the Brotherhood almost two hundred years ago. They had tunneled built a frame shaft for each cell and rented it out to otherWings traders. Each cell had a wide awning and tent flaps as their front walls. Some eschewed the leather flaps and had glass panes or wood panels on their front with proper doors. The cells were 800 square feet on average. Fabric and furniture stores were around a thousand square feet while the smaller stalls could be around twenty square feet.

The market was crowded than the Medici isle, and it sure was louder. Sparnas of all wings was hovering near the stalls, haggling, and shopping. Straylings, orphaned street children flew all across the grids of Shuka. They weaved to and fro between sparnas, carts, and carriages.

Dimma's face lit up. "That's my father's smithy. I was running it before I hired a gunsmith and left to serve my Brothers." They were hovering across a second column at the north side. Dimma pointed to a small gunsmith in the middle of a glassblower and a clockmaker. It was at the top of the aisle, the shop under it belonged to another clockmaker.

A scruffy BlackWing wearing a leather apron held up his hand in greeting when he saw Dimma. "I apprenticed as a gunsmith under my father since I was 7 years old. Then I continued under another gunsmith under the Brotherhood pay. After I finished my studies, I ran the gunsmith on my own for close to five years before I hired someone else."

"How is it working with the Brothers? They pay you well?" Liath asked. They were hovering along the main thoroughfare of the market. There were so different stalls, she felt spoilt for choices.

Stopping at random stalls. Liath eyes were riveted to a beautiful necklace at one of the stalls, one was made entirely of milky white pearls with the softest tinge of pink in them. She was thinking of purchasing it but she wanted to see all the wares in the market before settling on it. There must be more than a hundred of pearl stalls to choose from. There were crystals, gold and silver accessories.