Page 122 of Arranged For the Dark Elf

The second stall occupies a cramped space beside a shuttered cobbler. I do not recognize the K’sheng man behind it. Blue-flowered herb bundles lie across his counter, each tied with clean white thread.

His stall bears no gatherer’s mark.

“Where was this harvested?” I ask.

“Above Simimuese Bluff,” he says.

“Which slope?”

“Eastern.”

Rirzed grows there, though most gatherers avoid the area near waira territory.

I lift one bundle.

The flowers have five blue petals with the faint silver veining expected in winter rirzed. The narrow leaves curl slightly at their tips. Whoever prepared the bundles selected stems of equal length and removed damaged growth.

I separate one blossom and inspect its center.

The pale stamens appear correct.

Numiscu resembles rirzed closely enough to deceive an untrained buyer, but its petals usually carry a faint gray cast near the base. These show blue throughout.

I turn the flower beneath the winter light. The petal edges show no bruising. Fine silver veins spread from the center in the pattern I expect, and the calyx beneath the bloom is narrow rather than swollen. I split the end of the stem with my thumbnail. Clear moisture beads along the cut.

“How was it dried?” I ask.

“It was not,” the vendor says. “The bundles were kept cool and wrapped for travel.”

“Who gathered them?”

“A family above the bluff.”

“Which family?”

“They sell through me because the temple buyers force prices down.”

That avoids the question without proving deceit. Unmarked gatherers often protect their routes and names, particularly when a temple claims first choice of a harvest.