"- no, the week continues independently."

"Oh, that makes sense."

Wait, no, it doesn't.

"But then the first day of each month is a different weekday? That seems... more confusing, even? How do you... would you say something like, erm, 'Let's meet on the second Moonday of Erastus'. Or do you just say 'ninth'—sorry, 'eighth of Erastus'? What's the point of having weeks?"

"A lot of things happen once a week, and you can say they happen every Sunday, but yes, we do say things like 'eighth of Erastus'."

"Huh. I'm glad our calendar works like it does."

They're coming up on the food market now. The food is cheap, priced in copper, and meat-heavy. A peek at what other people are having will reveal the meat is done very rare, bloody on the inside. There are other Drake customers, but a Drake and a human walking together draws a few double takes.

Sometimes the teleportation ox winds up rare if they're rationing fuel. He will accept rare meat if that's the done thing but he could really go for a roll or a pie or something.

He can find pies which are in the more central ranges of cookedness for humans.

...As they grab their food, two tall, brown-furred Gnolls are whispering fiercely to each other around the corner, shooting looks at Blai. They're trying, but not very good at being subtle.

"Is that the sort of attention best confronted or ignored?" he asks Dross.

Dross squints at them.

"Don't know, I gotta say," he says. "No one goes around staring at me."

The Gnolls realize that they've been noticed and seem to engage in a brief scuffle that ends with the second shoving the first in the direction of Blai and Dross. The first stumbles, shoots an angry look back at his friend and cautiously approaches Blai, looking stressed.

        "Hello. Are you the human who cured an adventurer's blindness this morning?"

(Dross translates.)

"- that was me, though I'm not an adventurer by profession."

"Right." The Gnoll nods awkwardly, scratching his belt. "I have a—friend—who's blind and isn't very mobile. Would it be possible... do you do house visits? I can pay."

"Yes, I can do that, though my prices are not very settled at the moment. It will only work if their eyes are still present and simply don't see."

"One eye only. The [Healers] tried to fix it but it didn't... sorry. When will you have a price? Is there a—queue, how long are you in the city—"

"I do not have a plan to leave the city. I can cast the spell tomorrow for whatever price seems to make sense tomorrow, it just might not be the same as the one I gave today. No one else has asked me about this or about any spell that trades off against it yet so your friend can be first in the queue."

Relief. "That's great! That's not a problem. Is there somewhere to find you tomorrow?"

"If you want to find me first thing in the morning, I can tell you which inn I'm staying at, but - how far away is your friend?"

"He's on Rye Street, near the third water tower—" He points the direction, though the water tower is not visible from this vantage point. It's in the southeastern part of the city, whereas Blai's inn is east and slightly north. "Half hour straight walk from here?"

A guesstimate might put it at forty-five minutes from Blai's inn?

"Okay, I can do that if you meet me at my inn first thing in the morning, I'll grab breakfast quickly and come with you. Dross, you'll still have my language at that hour, do you mind -?"

Sure. (Technically he's only paid for today but also he's being paid more than six gold, probably, so he'll throw it in. Good to be on the Select's good side.)

The Gnoll will get Blai's inn address, thank him, and let him be.

And with that settled they can go on to the Watch.

"Select Blai Artigas? Yes, head up to the Watch Captain's office. It's up and down the right, you'll see the nameplate."

Up he goes!

The Watch Captain's door is open when he gets there. She waved him in when she sees him.

She's a light blue Drake with a scar down her face and pale purple eyes. Her expression is rather severe, but one gets the impression this is just the resting mode of her face.

"Select," she says, extending a hand to shake. "I'm Watch Captain Zevara of the Liscor City Watch."

Once they're settled, "I'm unfamiliar with your title, so excuse me if there are formalities I am not observing. I'd like to welcome you to our city, first of all, and apologize for the inconvenience with your admission. We don't often receive visitors who don't speak common."

(Blai looks to her perhaps like a very strange sort of human adventurer, but not all too different from the usual crop that drops by with the caravans from the north. She's seen expats from Chandrar with more unusual presentation. She expected a human out of a different world to be more unusual. She'll take it as a good sign.)

"You have the title right, thank you. It's understandable, and I was able to make myself adequately understood until I was able to use my own solution there."

She nods. "I'm glad.

"I had two things to discuss. The first is that the maximum occupancy of one of our training grounds is twenty people. You're not in trouble because your plans were disclosed to the Guardsman on duty and they failed to inform you of this rule, but it was against the rules. I suggest you appeal to the City Council to allow you use of Shivertail's Plaza—that's the plaza in front of City Hall. I expect it to be granted, but it'll take a few days. Any questions about that?"

"Where would I find the council to appeal to them?"