Leareth is in Rethwellan, recruiting for mages. 

He's not in a massive rush - he has decades to go, yet, before the planned move on Valdemar - but the situation has recently changed. After the arrival of a Foresight dream that shouldn't have been possible, he sent out agents to seek this 'Herald Vanyel'; none of the plans to capture him succeeded, but he has a little more information, now. Herald Vanyel is sixteen and newly Chosen. He's noble-born, and was formerly the heir to a western landholding, Forst Reach; there's no record that he was Gifted, before this. His aunt is one of the strongest and most experienced Adepts in the Kingdom. The circumstances of Vanyel's Choosing are unusual, and mysterious; he hopes to later understand more. 

Leareth doesn't know what it means, yet, except that it indicates meddling, and so he needs to be prepared for a wider range of possible outcomes. Thus, an extra recruiting trip. 

He uses a false name, one of his Rethwellani personas, but he doesn't bother to disguise his face; it's not as though anyone in this town would recognize it. His room at the inn is booked under the name Eldrak Dryvale; he represents himself as the Adept mage of an elite and secretive school based in Jkatha, which is plenty to get through initial introductions. He's paid for three nights, here, though he intends to move on sooner if he doesn't find anyone worth talking to today.

For now, he walks through the shop district, eating the breakfast roll he purchased at a vendor's stall and looking around. 

That woman over there in the silk hat really is uncommonly pretty, isn't she?

That gentleman over there looks terribly dignified in his cap.

What an adorable little bonnet that girl is wearing!

It takes Leareth a couple of minutes to consciously notice that this is a weird amount of attention to be paying to clothing! What? 

He stops to wave at the little girl and compliment her on the bonnet, which incidentally gives him a chance to play his Othersenses over the whole scene. 

Her bonnet is very well-made. It's got a lovely wildflower pattern. No magic is in evidence. (Has he noticed that she's very cute?)

"Thanks sir," the girl mumbles when prodded by her mother.

.....Huh. 

Leareth doesn't know what to make of this. He's confused, but there's nowhere for the confusion to go, so he nods to the mother and keeps walking. And keeps an eye out for any other instances of oddly salient clothing and accompanying oddly salient traits. 

It keeps happening. Everyone who catches his attention this way is wearing a hat. Not everyone wearing a hat does. The ones who do are wearing very nice hats - if he takes the time to examine their physical characteristics instead of just his general impression, he'll note that the quality really is exceptional, better suited for a minor noble's wardrobe than a small-town commoner's.

One of them (who, despite being visibly in late middle age, looks remarkably young in her new green cap!) is walking out of a shop with windows full of hats of similar quality.

Leareth is now going from intrigued to mildly uneasy, but he's not so concerned that it outweighs his curiosity. 

He does, however, check all of his shields very thoroughly before cautiously nudging his way into the shop and glancing around. 

There's a girl behind the counter, maybe twenty years old. She looks up from some embroidery and smiles. "Hello!"

Then she blinks. A look of surprise crosses her face, and she closes her eyes for another few seconds - and her eyes snap back open as a hint of pink enters her cheeks. "Um, let me know if there's anything I can help you with," she says rapidly, looking back down at her embroidery.

Leareth nods to her, distractedly. "Just having a look, thank you." 

Are the hats not currently being worn by someone also oddly salient? Is there any sign of magic here? 

...Oh, and while he's at it, he'll open his Thoughtsensing further; he normally keeps it open enough to sense where the nearby minds are, but not enough to read surface thoughts. However, this is confusing and odd enough that he would really like to know more, and this is one of the faster ways to accomplish that. 

The girl is remarkably well-shielded! He can glean some vague notions - she's embarrassed and mildly guilty about something she just did, and she's very curious about him, and she's crushingly bored with her life.

When not worn, the hats are merely very fine hats.

Interesting. 

He approaches her. "These are some impressively fine hats. May I try some on?" If, as he's starting to suspect, they are magical artifacts that are efficient enough to be mostly-undetectable to Othersenses, he might be able to confirm that by actually wearing one. 

"Of course! Hmm, what would suit you..."

She stands to walk around the shop, her fingers trailing along the velvet and silk as she goes. "How about this one?" she asks, holding up a feathered cap that seems like it would, indeed, look quite fetching.

Leareth is not normally someone who pays much attention to fashion, but - sure, all right, he can try it on. After triple-checking his shields, again.

(The way she examined the hats did look a bit like someone using their Othersenses...) 

She hands it over and shows him to a mirror.

The hat makes him look... heroic? It's an oddly complex impression to be imparted by a single article of clothing, but there's a definite air of bravery and strength to his silhouette.

The girl shakes her head, covering her mouth as she giggles. "Oh, no, that won't do." She goes back to browsing.

That's very odd! 

Leareth keeps the hat on while she looks around, and tries to notice if it feels like anything from the inside if he turns away from the mirror and closes his eyes. 

There's something, very subtle - he probably wouldn't notice if he weren't so intensely self-aware. But as he is, he may notice that he's moving subtly differently. As he turns, especially, the motion's a bit less reserved than it might be.

"Try this?" she asks, holding out a brimmed hat.

Leareth takes it from her, but pauses a minute after removing the first hat, paying as much attention as he can to any subtle internal differences. 

The moment of removal doesn't feel like anything in particular, but once the hat is off he does resume moving as he normally would.

This is fascinating. 

"The workmanship on these is very fine," he tells the young woman, with a smile. "Do you do everything yourself? Where do you obtain the materials - the quality is excellent." 

He dons the brimmed hat and, again, examines himself in the mirror. (While discreetly watching the girl's reflection, to gauge her reaction.) 

She smiles genuinely. "Oh, I don't do all of it - um, Fana, my stepmother, handles the finances, and I have an assistant that handles some of the less delicate work? We get the materials from, well, various places, you can't exactly get silk and flax from the same farms, but - always the same places for each material, Fana likes to have a relationship with her suppliers and it really does pay off, you know?"

The brimmed hat holds an aura of confidence, a demand for respect. If he didn't have good posture, it'd probably be quietly correcting it. The girl looks at him critically. "Closer, but... mm, not quite." She returns to her perusal.

"You seem to have an eye for matching hats to people. How do you do it?" 

"Oh? It's - well, if you'll forgive me sharing a trade secret, Fana always told me 'half of the trade is convincing someone that this is the hat for them.' I show people how they'd look in a couple of different styles, and most of them won't suit a bit, but we come closer and closer to what will - really," and her voice drops, "that first hat was a dummy, I knew it wouldn't do a thing for you. You always start someone on the worst hat for them so they really feel the best. But - um - right, matching hats to people. I find that if you're really confident in a hat, you can't go wrong - so I try to make people confident in the hats they buy, and then let them maintain that relationship. It's all a bit silly, but it does work."

"I see. Well, I will be discreet with your trade secret." 

That...doesn't sound like how a mage would talk about artifact work? Maybe it's misdirection; she's clearly not selling these as magical, though he's...actually not sure why not, even for purely mundane clothing the hats are rather well-priced given their quality. She could be earning a lot more - 

- and how would you change someone's posture with a talisman, that - isn't the sort of thing that mage-work can usually do, it would be difficult even with compulsions... 

"You see people as having a relationship with the hats they wear?" 

"Oh, yes - anything you really love, that's a relationship, and something like a hat, if you don't love it then why would you get it? Mind, I don't mean love like a child or a pet or a lover, just - it should make you happy, you should want to take care of it so you can wear it 'til it's all worn out. That's how you should love a hat. All those nobles in Petras, I'm sure they've got dozens of hats apiece and they don't care a bit. Probably the only person in Petras who really loves his hat is the king."

She comes up with a lovely but unassuming hat, with a shorter brim than the last and a small brooch set in it. "I think this one will suit."

The way she talks about it, Leareth thinks, is most reminiscent of an ordinary crafter taking pride in their work and having the expected strong opinions on how it ought be done. Which still does nothing to explain what in all hells the hats are doing. 

He tries on the new one.