Marked by the Four Beast Lords After Transmigration

Nia remembered the way back to the pierced clay vessels without asking Shen. She turned at the wetland grain path, crossed the broad seller route only after a pair of loaded men passed, and took the narrower path where the clay stalls began. Kael stayed on her left and watched the crowd and the spaces ahead, while Shen walked beside her on the other side with the water and medicine bag resting against his hip.

When the stall came into view, Nia smiled. “I told you I remembered.”

Shen looked toward the pierced vessels stacked beneath the seller’s roof. “You did.”

The stall was busier than it had been that morning. A woman sat on a low stool near the front while two men from her household inspected a large cooking pot on the ground beside her. One husband turned the pot enough for her to see the bottom. The other was speaking with the clay seller about a dark line near the rim.

The woman leaned forward. “Not that one. The crack runs too far.”

The seller rubbed his thumb over the mark. “It does not reach through.”

“It will after enough fires.”

Her husband set the pot aside without arguing, and the seller reached behind him for another. Nia stopped outside the stall space as he brought the next pot forward.

She glanced at Kael. He noticed and looked at her.

“What?”

“Nothing.”

Kael narrowed his eyes slightly, but Nia smiled and turned back toward the clay vessels.

The woman on the stool saw her looking and shifted one foot enough to make space near the edge of the stall. “If you want the pierced bowls, have him set one inside a pot. I did not understand why anyone wanted holes in a cooking bowl until he showed me.”

The clay seller reached for one of the smaller pierced vessels. “I was going to show her.”

The woman’s husband continued examining the second cooking pot while she waved Nia closer. Nia stepped into the stall space.

“I wanted to see how they are used.”

The seller set the shallow pierced vessel into a deeper pot. Holes covered the bottom and rose partway up the sides, while the reinforced rim rested on the inner lip of the lower pot without letting the vessel touch the bottom.

“Water goes here.” He tapped the lower pot. “Add enough water that it rises through the holes. Put the food in this bowl and boil it. When it is done, lift the bowl and the water drains back into the pot.”

“What do you cook in it?”

“People use it for roots, pieces of meat, and fish. It lets you lift the food out without pouring the whole pot.”

Nia leaned closer. The holes were wider than the fine sieve gaps she used at home, but small enough to keep larger pieces inside while the boiling water moved through them.

“Do you always fill the water that high?”

The seller looked at her. “The food has to sit in the boiling water.”

Nia looked at the space between the bottom of the pierced bowl and the lower pot. If she kept the water beneath the holes and covered both vessels, steam would rise into the upper bowl instead.

Shen had crouched beside her. He looked from the lower pot to the pierced bowl.

“You are thinking of the steam.”

“Yes.”

The clay seller looked between them. “What about it?”

“I want to try something.”

He shrugged. “It is your bowl if you buy it.”

Nia looked at the seller’s different sizes. “Our pots are not here.”

“Then do not buy the largest one. The small size fits more lower pots. You lose space, but you have a better chance of using it when you get home.”

The woman on the stool nodded toward the larger vessels. “We carried one of those back last spring and discovered our cooking pot was too narrow.”

The seller ignored the comment and lifted the smaller pierced vessel toward Kael. “This one travels better if you wrap the rim.”

Kael crouched long enough to test its weight. “It can travel.”

Nia touched the rim with two fingers after the seller nodded permission. The clay was smooth enough to clean, and the holes had clean, even edges.

Shen checked the underside. “No rough edges inside the holes.”

The woman turned toward the pierced bowl her husband had set beside her stool. “Check ours before you wrap it.”

Her husband lifted it again and ran a finger along the underside while the seller waited.

Nia looked at the smaller vessel in front of her. She could imagine riverfold leaves folded around grain and meat, or a small test batch sitting above boiling water instead of inside it. She left the larger pieces where they were.

“What would you take for this one?”

The seller asked for one full cord length.

Nia looked toward the trade pieces Kael carried. They had brought one smaller worked-stone piece, two good cord lengths, and a section of hide.

“One cord length is too much for one small vessel,” Nia said.

“It is good cord.”

“That is why it is too much.”

The seller looked at the pierced bowl, then at the cord again. “Half the cord and a small hide strip.”

“I’ll give you half the cord, but no hide.”

The seller shook his head. “The clay is thin work.”

“And I am taking the smallest size.”

He looked past her toward another customer entering the path, then back at the cord. “Half the cord.”

Nia nodded, and Kael untied one cord length. The seller measured the portion, cut the agreed half, and passed the remainder back.

Shen wrapped the pierced vessel in one of the dry return cloths and tied it lightly enough that the clay would not grind against itself. The woman on the stool watched him.

“You came prepared.”

“We have a long road back,” Shen said.

The woman looked at Nia. “First time here?”

“Yes.”

“I thought so this morning. You were looking at everything.”

Nia smiled. “Was it that obvious?”

“It is obvious when someone looks at roof posts as carefully as food.”

Nia glanced toward the clustered roofs beyond the stall. “I did not know which ones mattered yet.”

“They all matter when it rains.”

One of the woman’s husbands lifted the second cooking pot for her approval. She ran her fingers around the rim, looked inside, then nodded.

“That one.”

The seller began wrapping it while the woman stood. One husband gathered the finished pot, and the other collected a smaller parcel near her stool.

“If you are staying through tomorrow, use the women’s shade before the late sellers come in. It gets crowded after second sun.”

Nia glanced down the path. “Where is it?”

“Past the water jars. Reed roof with the split post. Your husbands can go in with you. Other men stay outside unless a woman calls them in.”

Nia thanked her, and the woman left with her husbands while the clay seller turned to the next buyer.

Shen finished securing the small clay vessel as Nia watched the household disappear into the crowd.

“Do you want to see the shade?”

“I want to see the fine grinding stones first.”

Kael rose. “Then we go there first.”

Nia turned toward the western seller path before either man needed to guide her. She took the wrong opening and knew it when the hide racks appeared where she expected stacked stone. Instead of stopping, she crossed at the next open path and corrected her direction until the tall slabs came into view.

“I took the wrong turn,” Nia said, and kept walking.

The large pounding bowl they had seen earlier was still beside the stone seller’s mat. A different man was testing it now, bringing the thick hand stone down into dry root pieces while the seller watched the strikes. Nia stopped long enough to listen to the impact.

The bowl was useful. It was also heavy enough that carrying it back over the lower crossing made little sense, so she moved past it.

A smaller set sat farther along the mat. The stone bowl was deep enough to keep crushed material from jumping out but narrow enough that Nia could cup both hands around it. A rounded hand stone rested beside it, shaped to work against the bowl rather than strike flat against a surface.

Nia crouched. “What do people use this one for?”

The stone seller looked away from the man using the large bowl. “People use this size for medicine roots and dried medicine bark or leaves. Some keep another bowl for crushing coloring material.”

Shen crouched beside her as Nia pointed toward a second small grinding bowl whose interior looked smoother.

“And that one?”

“That one uses finer stone. It takes longer to finish, and the stone comes from farther west, so it costs more.”

Nia rubbed one fingertip over the rim after receiving permission. The inner surface had enough tooth to grind but fewer deep pits than the coarse stones she had used at home. She could get a much finer, more even texture from the dried ingredients she used in her own cooking.

Shen examined the rounded hand stone. “The end is even.”

The seller handed it to him. “It stays that way if you grind against the bowl instead of striking the rim.”

Shen rotated it once in his hand and passed it to Nia. Kael picked up the finer grinding bowl, weighed it, and set it down.

“It can travel.”

Nia looked toward the large pounding bowl. Kael looked there too.

“That one cannot travel.”

“I know. I only wanted to see it used.”

She looked back at the two smaller sets. “What would you take for the finer one?”

The seller asked for the worked-stone piece from Hearthfang. Nia picked up the ordinary bowl again and compared its rougher interior with the finer one before asking what he wanted for the cheaper set.

He named a smaller exchange in hide.

Shen kept his thumb just above the working surface. “The ordinary one will grind. The finer surface will give you more control.”

Nia looked at the Hearthfang stone in Kael’s bundle, then touched the smoother working surface again.

“I’ll give you the worked stone for the finer bowl and its hand stone.”

The seller examined the Hearthfang piece. He ran his thumb along the worked edge, turned it over, then looked toward Kael.

Kael said, “She made the offer.”

The seller looked at Nia again. “Add a finger-width of hide.”

“No.”

He considered the stone again. “The stone is enough.”

Nia nodded. Shen wrapped the grinding bowl separately from the pierced clay vessel, placing the rounded hand stone inside a folded cloth before nesting it against the bowl so the two pieces would not strike each other while they walked.

Nia looked once more at the large pounding bowl before turning away.

By the time they reached the water jars, the sun had shifted lower but the market felt hotter. More travelers had arrived, and some of the open seller paths carried enough dust that Nia could feel it against her ankles. She spotted the split post before the women’s shade itself.

The reed roof was wider than she expected, raised over a low platform and several woven mats. Three women were already inside. One lay on her side with her head resting against a folded cloth while a husband rubbed one of her feet. Another sat near the edge eating sliced fruit while two household males sorted purchases behind her. The third woman was speaking to a seller who remained outside the shade until she motioned him closer.

The seller stepped onto the edge of the mat, showed her two bracelets, accepted a refusal, and left without attempting to speak to the other women. Men passing along the market path continued past the entrance unless they belonged to one of the women beneath the roof or a woman called them inside.

Nia slowed when one of the women looked up.

“There is room near the back.”

Nia stepped onto the mat, with Kael entering behind her without hesitation. Shen followed and lowered the wrapped purchases carefully beside the rear post.

The woman eating fruit looked toward the bundles. “Clay and stone on the same day?”

“I bought a small clay vessel and a small grinding set.”

“I bought more jars than I planned yesterday. It is easy to keep adding things once someone else is carrying them.”

One of her husbands looked up from the tied packets behind her. “We planned for one jar.”

The woman glanced back at the three wrapped jars beside him and smiled before returning to her fruit.

Nia sat beside Kael, and Shen immediately passed her water. Across the shade, the woman having her foot rubbed did not even look up when her husband shifted her ankle onto his thigh and worked his thumbs along the sole.

Nia thought of Ayari, who accepted the same kind of care from whichever husband happened to be nearest. The woman across from her shifted her foot when her husband reached the arch and continued resting without interrupting him.

Kael sat with one knee raised, his body between Nia and the busiest opening without closing her view. Shen checked the cloth around the clay vessel before sitting on her other side.

The fruit-eating woman pointed toward Nia’s water. “Fill again before evening. The line gets bad when sellers start closing.”

“Thank you.”

“You are from Hearthfang?”

Nia glanced at Kael.

The woman noticed. “I heard someone call your husband Hearthfang on the path.”

Nia smiled. “Yes.”

“I have not been that far north.”

“This is my first time this far east.”

“Then you picked a good market for it. This one is noisy, but the sleeping roofs are decent and the water is close.”

The woman reached behind her without looking, and her husband placed another fruit slice in her hand.

“What did you come for?”

“I came for tools, grain, and food I have not seen before.”

“Then leave some of the strange things for tomorrow. Sellers will still have strange things when you wake up.”

Nia smiled. “I have already left the largest pounding bowl where it was.”

“That is probably for the best.”

The woman chewed another piece of fruit before nodding toward the market. “My first outside market, I bought a stone wash basin because I had never seen one that wide.”

Her husband looked up from the packets. “I slipped carrying it home. The edge cracked before winter.”

“We still used it,” she said. “Now I make sure I know where something will go before we carry it away.”

Nia thought of Mari checking the available work space before anything new was set down. She glanced at the two wrapped purchases beside Shen.

Shen offered her another drink before closing the water flask. Near the edge of the shade, another woman called a seller inside to look at a loose clasp. The seller crouched, repaired it while she continued talking to one of the other women, accepted a small exchange from her husband after she approved the repair, then left the shade again.

By late afternoon, the women’s roof had filled. Some women came only long enough to drink and leave. Others sent husbands back into the market while they stayed beneath the shade. One woman arrived alone with a basket, sat for less than ten minutes, then left when two men from her household returned carrying dried reeds. Nia stopped noticing each entrance once the pattern became familiar.

When she stood again, her legs felt better than she had expected. “We should fill the water before the line grows.”

Shen rose with her. “Yes.”

Kael took the wrapped grinding bowl while Nia reached for the clay vessel. He looked at her.

“It is light.”

Kael let her take it, and they left the women’s shade together.

At the water point, Nia recognized which side of the line belonged to people filling travel containers and which side belonged to sellers washing cups. She stepped into the correct one before Shen said anything.

When the water was filled, she led them toward the sleeping roofs and took the right turn on the first try. The market had begun changing again. Sellers pulled valuable goods farther beneath their roofs. A man carried an empty board over one shoulder while his wife counted tied packets beside their stall. Smoke rose from the cooking circles near the sleeping platforms. Someone farther away was arguing about a missing lid.

Nia reached their claimed platform and set the wrapped pierced vessel between the two larger travel baskets. Kael placed the wrapped grinding bowl beside it, then lowered the remaining trade bundle. Nia sat on the edge of the platform and looked across the market paths.

“Tomorrow I want the age-marked watergrain seller first.”

Shen began checking the remaining dry wrappings. “We should go before the best lots thin out.”

“Yes.”

Kael looked toward the wetland side of the market, then back at her. “You know the path.”

Nia looked toward the roofs beyond the central road. “I do.”

A seller shouted that someone had taken the wrong basket, and three people shouted back. Nia laughed and reached for the food Shen was already unwrapping beside her.

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