"Sorry, I was distracted." Drawing his gaze back from the commotion across the river, Raphael apologized slightly to Leonardo in front of him.
Leonardo waved his hand: "It's human nature."
On either side of a round table with a hollowed center, Raphael and Leonardo sat in front of a smokeless coal stove.
On the stove was an iron kettle, from which bubbling fatty bubbles were emerging, waiting for Raphael to throw in cold milk and sugar cubes to calm it down.
They were currently located on the north bank of the Parra River in winter, just opposite the Vegetable Market Street.
Unlike the noisy marketplace on the south bank, here lay a row of simple bookstores, potion shops, and shops selling paper and ink, bread and pastries, as well as cafés.
The walls, bonded by bricks and mortar, were painted in pale yellow or off-white plaster.
