"How are books made where you're from?"

"Monks write them, of course."

"Well, here, you put blocks with letters on them into a frame, then ink the letters, then press them onto a page. I think there's a new invention, too, making that all faster. You can do lots of copies of books very quickly that way, so books tend to be very cheap."

"...How many things like that and engines are there? I might need lots of books when I go home."

"Oh, lots. At least hundreds. I think I have a book on inventions, if you'd be interested."

"Well how much does it cost? And how big is it? I'm not great at reading."

"The one I'm thinking of has pictures most pages, but, yes, that is a consideration. Hmm, let's see if we have something geared more towards your age group..." And he vanishes off into the stacks. After a bit, he comes back with a book floating behind him. "It's not as thorough as it could be, but this is part of a Madezan encyclopedia set for children. Don't have the rest of the set, I'm afraid, so it'll be just eighteen Bajildan pieces. It has lots of drawings, so the price is a bit higher." The book is bound in faded but still intact cloth, and was once a bright green. It's titled 'Encyclopedia of the World: Technology and Science.' "You might be able to find the rest somewhere bigger, there's also a book on history, geography, and biology in the set."

"I'll buy it!"

With some of what seems to be the fairly large amount of money Sarati is paying her. It's a bit of a novelty.

He gladly trades her one silver crescent for the book and two smaller silver coins that he identifies as the Bajildan pieces. "Thank you for shopping with us!"

"Thanks for the translating magic! It's warm."

He chuckles. "You're quite welcome, young lady!"

"Do we go to other shops now, Sarati?"

"Sure. What would you like to get next?"

"I need a broom. And maybe new clothes I guess."

"Well, if I remember right, there should be somewhere to get brooms this way..." And indeed there is, along with other wooden goods. (Most people make their own brooms, but the carpenter sells slightly nicer ones, for people who can't be bothered.) The brooms are fairly affordable - the carpenter will sell them for ten silver Bajildan pieces each.

She floats idly on a few and picks the one that works best. It's wider at the end than most of the rest.

Clothes after that? And she kind of wants to buy a knife if bringing it up doesn't alarm Sarati. "Even a little knife is useful for lots of things."

Clothes! There's a tailor, who doesn't really sell ready-made clothes, but has a pattern for quickly adjusting skirts and loose blouses, which'll be ready to pick up before they leave. (Sarati's fine with her buying a knife; they can head to the blacksmith's after clothing for a proper little utility knife.)

Gren's opinions on clothes are 'they should be cheap and durable'. The knife should have a nice sheath she can put on her belt.

Cheap and durable is practically a specialty!

There's a variety of nice sheaths available for knives, some of them decorated with faintly glowing swirls like stylized waves, some of them plain, all of them fairly good to high quality. 

After Grenadine picks out a sheath, Sarati says, "Anything else? There's bound to be somewhere to buy toys or something."

"I don't need toys. I got a book."

"Okay. How about we go get a room at the inn, then?"

Gren is ready to rent a room of her own if Sarati doesn't want to share.

You can get a two-bed room for decently cheap, but Sarati's willing to leave that decision up to Grenadine. 

The inn has a sign out front of a glowing jellyfish holding a tankard of foaming beer. The inside is already decently crowded, mostly with humans and the other, green-haired species common to the island, but also a few clear foreigners - a reptilian individual of mysterious and indistinct gender, a group of short winged humanoids in a variety of colors, and a person with mottled, wet grey skin and no hair. 

It's basically a tavern. Gren is not sure if anyone would want to talk to her.

Do they have apple cider? She kind of misses apple cider.

They have a different kind of juice, but not cider, no. No apples around here.