Free The Child Prince (The Artifactor) by Honor Raconteur

few moments, but Morgan eventually won free of the throng and made his way over to them. He looked outright relieved to see Bellomi. “Phew! There you are.”
    “Morgan, you really need to be more careful,” Hana scolded as the other man stopped in front of them. “What would Sevana say if you lost her apprentice the first time he came to the village? Not to mention this is a terrible time of the day to drag a small boy into market when he’s already bad with crowds!”
    “Bad with crowds?” Morgan repeated, turning to study Bellomi with narrowed eyes.
    The prince couldn’t quite meet his eyes, looking everywhere else to avoid them, as the embarrassment of the situation started to set in.
    “I found him having a panic attack not five minutes ago,” Hana explained, still peeved. “Not that I blame the poor child, considering he was almost crushed in there. Really, Morgan, what were you thinking?”
    “I didn’t know he was bad with crowds,” Morgan hastily defended himself. “But I doubt even he knew that, right, Bel?”
    Bellomi shrugged, not looking at either one of them. This truly was becoming more and more embarrassing, especially as they discussed him right in front of him like this. And Hana had let go of his hand, too, which just made the situation more miserable. He’d rather enjoyed holding hands with her.
    “Although I should have expected it, I suppose,” Morgan continued without waiting for a response. “All things considered.”
    Hana gave him a confused look and demanded, “What things?”
    “Well, Bel’s been isolated most of his life from people,” Morgan explained vaguely. “He’s never been in a crowd like this, I don’t think. Sorry, Bel. We should have taken precautions.”
    Bellomi waved this away. “I’m at fault just as much as you are. I didn’t think of it either. But now that we know, we’ll need to work on this. I can’t afford to let this handicap me.”
    “You’re quite right,” Morgan agreed. “Well, in the meantime, thank you, Hana. Your help’s appreciated.”
    She gave them both an odd look, as if they had said something strange, but all she said was, “Not at all. Bellomi, feel free to swing by the library at any point, alright? I doubt that Sevana has anything in her mountain that is appropriate for a boy your age to read. I’ll help you when you come.”
    Oh? Hana was a librarian? He perked up with real interest. “I shall. My thanks, Miss Hana. And sorry for—” can’t say imposition, too high in diction, “the trouble.”
    “Not at all.” She ruffled his hair again, smile revealing dimples, then with a last nod to Morgan, went on her way.
    Morgan waited for her to pass out of earshot before leaning down and murmuring, “We’ve definitely got to work on your conversational skills. You sounded like a teenager, not a child.”
    Bellomi blew out a breath in aggravation. “And here I was trying to not use any elevated language.”
    “Which helped, but not enough.” Morgan shot the blond a look as she melted back into the crowd. “I could see that Hana found it odd.”
    Sweet mercy, why was this so difficult? “Just how long will it take before I can speak naturally with people?”
    “Depends on how much you practice,” Morgan answered with a shrug. “The more you do so, the quicker you learn.”
    Bellomi looked at the crowd of people with renewed determination. “Then let’s get back to it, shall we?”

Sevana knew for a fact that the nearby village of Milby had only one clothing store. They didn’t carry much of a selection, either, just the bare basics. Even the most choosey of customers couldn’t spend more than an hour inside the store. So she didn’t expect them to take long.
    With Kip and Bel safely out of her hair, she used the time to have Big make a few changes to her workroom. With it half-destroyed like this, she had the freedom to make it larger and rearrange the layout a little. She’d set up a temporary table inside so