Arilanna didn't realise by sight that the young woman who approached her wasn't native to the region. The clothes blended in, and Ari was so used to being in a community with people of varying ethnicities that it didn't occur to her that this might not be normal for others. No, she didn't realise until the other woman spoke.
Hey was an upstation word. She'd picked up that much. Hey and hi and hello – none of them intuitive to Ari, but easy enough to understand in context.
She glanced down at the energy bar in the shiny silver wrapper that she was still holding, dropped it back into her bag, and then held up a hand to the stall owner, pointed one finger at the woman who had spoken, and then showed her raised palm again. Wait. He was content to let her step away from the display without her intended purchase – relieved, if anything.
'Peace and prosperity,' Ari said warmly to the other woman, clearly pleased to have found someone who understood her. 'Yes, I think – is there a commodity exchange office anywhere around here?' She sounded doubtful, as if she suspected the answer. It was a small village. 'I came over from upstation, via the castle, and it should have occurred to me that the downtimers wouldn't recognise Tradelines tokens from my own sector as currency. I should be able to trade some of them in, at least the higher-value ones with gold and silver content.' Arilanna might not have been responsible for the trade part of a Tradeline ship's business, but of course she understood the essentials.