It's a very confusing and surreal first few days of December for X. There are a lot of people he means to touch base with in the aftermath of his waking up, and some of those keep getting put off despite his best intentions. Mentally, it doesn't feel like he's been asleep for a month, so missing all that time still stuns him on occasion. Physically, it absolutely feels like he's been asleep for a month, so he walks around Aifaran a lot more than normal to try and coax his muscles out of their lethargic and permanently exhausted state.

The sound of arguing catches his attention, but it's Rutile, a familiar and welcome figure, who draws X over to that corner of the marketplace. He's learned very quickly not to get involved in every argument he overhears here, but there's an inbuilt instinctive exception when it comes to his friends.

"Is everything alright?" he asks as he walks up. It looks like the merchant sells -- oh, dear. Precious stones. That might explain what started the argument.