When Su Li left the house the next day, Saina and Elena's bickering still rang out behind him.
He did not know whether that black silk dress had survived, but Yin, that damned cat, would most likely be getting another beating.
There were not many people on Silver Crown City's streets in the morning.
The effects of the war were becoming increasingly apparent. Thirty percent of the shops along the streets had closed, and the intersections once crammed with peddlers were desolate, leaving only a few old women selling black bread as they guarded their stalls and yawned.
Su Li crossed two streets, bought a hot meat pie at a corner, and headed toward the Elven Merchant Association while chewing on it.
Dragon Blood Grass.
And in all of Silver Crown City, the place most likely to be hiding such rare goods was the Elven Merchant Association.
The two century-old ginkgo trees at the entrance of the Elven Merchant Association looked as they always did. More than half their leaves had turned yellow, carpeting the ground beneath them.
Su Li took the familiar route around the main entrance and entered through the workshop passage at the side.
An elven apprentice approached him in the corridor. Once the apprentice recognized Su Li, he respectfully stepped aside against the wall and bent at the waist fifteen degrees.
The workshop door was open.
Talia sat behind the workbench, using an extremely fine guiding needle to carve circuits into a silver-gray metal plate.
She wore a dark green work apron, her deep green hair braided and draped over one shoulder, her entire focus fixed on the metal plate beneath her hands.
A craftsman with three hundred years of experience looked almost as if she had entered meditation when she worked.
Su Li leaned against