He moved on, Janice seeing him off with a coquettish wave.

“What has gotten into that girl?”

Moving through the main hall, he was stopped by some people he didn’t know. It was a pair of young women with iron rank auras.

“Excuse me,” one of them said. “Are you the guy with the evil powers?”

Jason winced. Hannah Adeah was the archer from Rick Geller’s team, who Jason had fought in the mirage arena. She had apparently taken upon herself to distribute the recording of their fight, and Jason had been getting variations on the question for a week. Almost every time he visited the jobs hall or the trade hall, someone would approach him about it.

“No,” he said, wearily. “I don’t have evil powers.”

“You’re not the guy from the recording?” the other asked.

“I am the person in the recording, but my powers aren’t evil.”

“Controlling monsters seems pretty evil.”

“I don’t control monsters!”

Shaking his head, Jason walked away as the pair talked behind him.

“I heard those leeches live inside his blood.”

“I bet that’s true. Kevin Wasserman has a lizard that lives inside in his skin.”

“That makes so much sense. His skin is always clammy.”

Jason sighed, grateful as their voices were lost in the noise of the trade hall crowd. He found his way into the right arcade and entered Filbert’s Fine Leather Emporium.

“Hello, sir, and welcome to Filbert’s Fine Leather Emporium. Which is to say, we are an emporium of leather goods, not an emporium made of leather. Just a little joke we like to say around here. I am the proprietor, Filbert, but you may call me Bert.”

“G'day, Bert.”

Filbert, like the other Berts, was thick in the middle and thin on top. He wore a waistcoat and jacket, more snug than most local fashion and definitely too hot for the climate. Jason handed over the envelope. Filbert opened it up and read the contents with a frown.

“I won’t hold it against you, sir, that you chose to offer my brother your custom. Fortunately for you, Gilbert has acknowledged the superiority of my wares. You are looking for some specialised desert boots?”

“That’s right,” Jason said. “I have a contract starting tomorrow involving desert travel. I want something that will work well in sand.”

“Well, if Gilbert sent you to me, rather than selling you his usual tat, then you must be a gentleman of capability and means. He has suggested something he knows one of my fine craftspeople developed.”

Filbert sent off a staff member hovering quietly to fetch something from the storage room in the back.

“While sweet Julio fetches the boots,” Filbert said, “is there anything else I can interest you in?”