Merchant Crab

Balthazar looked back and up at who had given him the warning. Standing under the glow of the brass chandelier above the atrium was a woman in a blue dress. Not just any regular blue dress, however. This one was beyond expensive. Not that the crab knew much about tailoring, but he certainly knew about gold, and the glint of the embroidery on her attire was unmistakably that. The golden filigree was finely woven into the fabric in meticulous and complex patterns from top to bottom, making her radiate an aura of royalty.

Once he was done marveling at the beauty of his favorite metal, the merchant finally managed to look past the blinding glow of the dress and focus on the lady wearing it.

And he found even more gold.

Atop her head, framing a perfectly groomed hairdo, was a delicate circlet ending on a tip at the center of her forehead, with a flawless sapphire at its core.

She wore at least one ring on each finger, most of them sporting opulent gems, and carried a golden chain around her neck, which held a thick golden key hanging from it at the center of her chest.

Next to this woman, Madame Margo’s jewelry might have even seemed modest.

Yet, despite the exquisite dressing, the lavish jewelry, and the perfect makeup on her face, there was something that made it all still work without feeling overdone. A simplicity to her complexity that was declared merely by the glare of her piercing blue eyes.

Perhaps it was just the way she carried herself, a certain air to her presence, but Balthazar could instinctively tell this was no meager pretender, like the Antoine’s of this world. She was the real deal. What her deal was, however, he did not yet know.

Or maybe it was just that the crab liked shiny things. Who could say?