The midday sun hung heavy over the marketplace, turning the metallic roofs and dusty stone streets into a patchwork of harsh light and deep shadow. Crowds pressed together in slow, weaving currents—traders shouting over one another, children darting between stalls, droids humming past with crates stacked high above their heads. It was the kind of noise that lived everywhere on this Outer Rim world, the kind that softened into background static after enough years of hearing it.