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Pendour had spent one night taking initiative, reaching out to another Knight, and finding some of the answers that she'd been seeking. Now she was back to her wanderings. There was a certain Negaverse agent she was hoping to find, and while she could have maybe written him a letter as well, after what he'd told her, she didn't think it was something she could manage without putting him in danger.

Instead she walked past the spot where they'd met and waited to see what fate would bring her way.

What the night brought her was a new aura. It was strong, and clear, and she couldn't say much else about it. It wasn't bright, but it wasn't dark, either. It was just there. The more she thought about it, the more it seemed to be tugging on her mind, and so she in the end, she found herself following its trail.

She was nearly out of the city before she found anyone, and when he welcomed her, she approached, slow and careful. "Oh, um, hello," she said. "What are you doing all the way out here?"

Her gaze didn't linger too long on any inhuman features, although she did check his fingers for claws. He was magic. That wasn't an odd thing, not here. She didn't look at any object, either. She was more focused on the table itself, piled high with trinkets even though they were far from the festival. Now that was strange, even in Destiny City.

It was the teeth that caught Pendour's attention in the end. She stared, still frozen a few feet from the table. "You're not human, are you?" she asked.

Then she blinked, realizing she'd said that out loud. "Sorry. That was rude, wasn't it?" It was a genuine question. She had looked through books of manners before, even if none of the lessons had stuck all the way, and she'd never seen anything about if it was okay to ask people if they were human. She knew, at least, that staring was not very kind, and so she looked towards the blades instead, not that they made her any more comfortable. This city already had so many weapons in it.

It wasn't until he held out the trowel that she stepped forwards. That was nice. She was always looking for tools to add to the stash up on her wonder, and this one was lovely. It would fit right in. She took it by the handle to feel the weight, and when she ran a thumb over it, she felt the imprint. The turtle.

Pendour's jaw dropped.

"Oh," she said. "This is from Neptune!" There was no uncertainty in her voice this time, and in fact she nearly smiled when she looked back over to the merchant. Her movements were more certain, too, as she set the trowel down and started searching her person for anything valuable. The rings she wouldn't trade if she could help it, especially the one with the matching turtle stamp, but she lifted a hand towards her pearls.

"I have these," she said. She was drenched in treasure. Her belt alone likely would have gone for thousands at auction, although she wasn't sure if that would matter to this man. "Or magic, if you're not into material things. I can play a song that will take away your worries." She didn't offer it directly, but there was something else tied onto her belt that caught the moonlight. It was a odd stone, shaped a little like a star.

Pendour glanced down at the gem, her brows raising for a moment, but then she nodded and went to pull it free from its little mess of strings. She admired it as it sat there in the palm of her hand, but in the end, it was not from Neptune.

"My mentor said this might bring luck," she said as she set the gem on the table and met the merchant's eyes for the briefest second. "He was guessing, I think, but I'd like to think that it's true. Well, I hope it brings you all the luck in the world."

It had brought her to an artifact from her wonder, and that was all the luck she needed from a stone. She reached for the trowed again, running a finger over the odd blue metal. It was cool and sturdy as steel, and yet the way it rippled was not like ordinary damascus.

"Where did you pick this one up?" she asked, glancing again at the not-human. How old could he be? "Did you see Neptune back when the knights lived there?" Her eyes went a little brighter at the thought of it.

Pendour shrugged. "I try not to judge by appearances," she said. She'd relaxed in his presence enough that she was no longer hiding her scars, but of course she wasn't someone who sought out fights with beasts. She wasn't going to assume someone was young just because they weren't some withered thing.

He was slipping around her questions like a fish, but Pendour didn't mind so much. It was interesting just to talk to someone different. "I know where this is from," she replied, turning her hand so that he could see the matching stamp on her ring. "I was wondering if it had traveled at all before it met you. Things wander." It had made it to Earth, after all, and she was happy enough at the chance to buy it back.

She pursed her lips just a little at his questions. It was a different way to think about things. "I was born here," she said. "I inherited the title, but it was from someone generations ago. I think something terrible happened, then." Even with as much time as she'd spend in space, she'd never quite asked, just heard the rumors of some other war at the beginning of the Negaverse.

"Anyway, my wonder's all ruins, now, and all the wonders I've seen are. I don't think they could support life. There's no food." She gave the trowel one last look-over before she sent it off to the subspace pocket. "I'm trying to fix that, and this should help."

She summoned the ocarina, instead. "Did you want the magic? It's free," she said with a tilt of her head. It wouldn't feel right to try to trade for something she could do so easily.

At the mention of plants, she leaned forwards, gently placing a hand on the table once again. "Um, I would. I would travel anywhere in the galaxy to see what's growing here."

She wasn't sure if she would even want to see an animal up on someone's world. What if it something like a polar bear, something that ate people just because it could? Again, despite appearances, she was not someone who went claw to claw with beasts. Plants were just as beautiful, and even the most deadly of them weren't quite aggressive. She couldn't blame the merchant for being lonely, or tired of them, though.

Well, she'd give him what taste she could of Neptune. She raised the ocarina to her lips and began to play. She'd been practicing, and her fingers flew across the notes with all the grace that one could expect from a squire of her planet. The song itself was slow and gentle, and the ocarina gave it a hint of mystery.

Of course, there was true magic in it.

Pendour never felt the effects of her own magic, but it was always lovely to watch the worries of others slip away for a few seconds. It was reassuring to see that it worked on this stranger with his foreign, pointy-toothed smile as well as it worked on her friends.

When she finished, she gave a deep nod that went almost to a bow.

"I don't think it would record well. Not the magic," she said with a small shake of her head, "But if you do end up back in this city, or if you find your way to Neptune, to Pendour," she tapped the turtle on her ring one more time, "I can always play it for you again."

At that point her glance flicked back to his box with the strong, strong aura that felt like it was putting a target on her back. He might have fully relaxed, but she hadn't. "Well, for tonight we've made our deal, haven't we? I'll let you get to your next customer."

"I'll look forward to seeing you, then," said Pendour, and she would. She wondered what other places he'd been, what other exotic items he might bring for her.

That would be later, though.

"Goodbye," she said with her own deep nod, and with that she took her leave, vanishing into the trees.