The Empire in Crisis!

You're a merchant, like your mother and grandmother before you. You're the first male in the family to take up the family profession, and your grandmother's always telling you you don't have what it takes because of that, but you guess she deserves to, because she had to deal with random people's "Nyah nyah, go sell vegetables at the village market" every time she traveled across the Empire. But the hill people of the eastern provinces keep to their own ways, and they've been matrilineal for as long as anyone can remember, and anyway it's unproductive to argue with your grandmother.

Recently your grandmother called you to her and entrusted you with a Task. You were to find a jester mask that your mother sold in the Capitol City when you were ten years old.

You didn't dare to disagree, of course, but ...

"What? A jester mask?"

"Of course you remember it. It used to hang on the wall over there."

And then you did remember it, dimly. How you would find a single jester mask in the whole Capitol City, when your mother had no idea who she even sold it to, you didn't know.

"May I ask for what purpose I'm finding this mask?..."

"It's Important. And I can't tell you."

You sighed deeply and agreed to go to the Capitol City and buy the mask back. Grandmother then made you promise to obtain it by any means necessary, including unlawful means that did not involve buying or trading.

Now you think you have a lead ...

***

You are still standing in the amphitheater. What do you do?

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I hope my syntax isn't collapsing under the weight of sleep deprivation, why am I only creative this late?