"Aye, usually we pass through every year. Vazreth is the natural waystation between the Crux Empire in the west and the Three Cities in the east. There's nothing but wilderness for thousands of journeys between them, which makes Vazreth functionally the only option," the lead merchant explained.

Julia's party had waited about an hour's trip from the East Gate for the merchant caravan. When they arrived—surprise of all surprises—the Guild had not informed them that Julia's party would be escorting them.

Julia then panicked and, thinking that Mahven must want to keep the job a secret, offered to join their caravan as protection. The arrangement was that they would ride aboard the carriages for free in exchange for helping out with any dangers they might encounter.

Meals and provisions, of course, were not included.

Julia obviously wasn't worried about food or water for herself, but she thanked her lucky stars she'd stored all their provisions in her dimensional storage. Talnîr had teased her about being a 'worrywart who didn't want to leave anything in the inn,' but who was laughing now?!

"You 'usually' pass through annually? Did something change?" Julia asked the merchant.

She was seated on the lead carriage, driven by the head merchant, Davon. Julia was surprised to learn that he was driving a carriage himself. The title of 'lead merchant' gave Julia an image of grotesque opulence and barking orders from the back—riding in a carriage while everyone else worked. Davon, to his credit, seemed the type to do everything himself.

Granted, he claimed it was less due to a 'can-do' attitude and more that he simply didn't trust anyone to do things the way he wanted, but still.

"Yeah, tensions between the Three Cities were escalating again. Figured we'd give it an extra year, see if things calmed down. We went straight south from Crux last year. Did alright, but our profit certainly wasn't enough to make it our only business. Gotta scope things out this year and, if need be, figure alternate routes out in the future.

"War's bad for business. Even merchants trading in tools of that trade gotta be more careful. Any merchants carrying goods that could aid one side are potential targets for the other, even merchants like us selling grains and staple goods. Armies need fed, after all," Davon explained sourly.

The goings-on in distant territories was interesting, but Julia had to restrain herself. She wasn't here to make small talk.

There had been some pushback from the group already guarding the caravan—mercenaries of some kind, apparently. The Guild's presence wasn't quite as ubiquitous in the west, so various other groups vied to occupy the spaces that the Guild filled here.

It was understandable that the mercenaries wouldn't want an unknown, armed element introduced to their existing operation, and there seemed to be mutual distrust between mercenaries and adventurers. However, Julia's Adamantine identification had largely squashed any objections, and the stipulation that they wouldn't be paid and only help when required further put any dissension to bed.

This way Julia's group was neither muscling in on their pay, nor disrupting their established guard routines. On top of that, having an Adamantine party as backup, even if one had distaste for the Guild itself, would be reassuring.

Julia had insisted on sitting next to Davon, both so that she could extract useful information from him, and so that she could watch the road. Since they'd gotten underway, she'd been using her new Sight to watch the space around them, covering great distances from where she sat, though she discovered it was difficult to view all their surroundings.

After contemplating for a while, she realized that it was a matter of distance—obviously, but there was more to it than the surface level. If she imagined her vision as a cone spreading out from her eyes, the 'base' of the cone grew larger with distance.

Already, when she looked in one direction with just her normal sight, the visible horizon spanned several journeys. Add to that all that she could see with her enhanced Sight, and it was a great deal of information to process.

Regardless, she watched diligently, deciding to narrow her focus while she figured out how to cope with the overwhelming amount of visual information. She decided scanning a circumference of three to four journeys around the caravan should be sufficient. That should give them ample warning to prepare for any incoming threats, and projectiles like arrows certainly couldn't reach that far.

Or, she didn't think they could—one could never be sure what feats a high-Level archer Class could pull off.

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"I see; so you didn't make the trip last year. That makes sense. Have you heard of anything afoot around Vazreth? We've heard tell of a pretty substantial drop in the number of traveling merchants arriving this year. It's been damaging to local shops and stores, apparently," Julia explained, attempting to pass the topic as idle gossip.

"We heard some of that back in the city. Unfortunately, we've heard nothing relevant elsewhere. Though, that's not truly saying much, Miss Julia. Like I say, there really isn't much between Crux and Vazreth, so it wouldn't have been till we got there that we heard any news.

"Could be that other merchants picked up on the strife buildin' in the Three Cities, like us. Or…well, I'm hesitant to suggest such a thing…" Davon said, stammering a little, hesitant.

"It's alright, Davon. I'm an adventurer. I've got no allegiances—no toes you gotta worry about stepping on," Julia reassured.

"Right, well…things are a might tense in Vazreth as of late, I've noticed," he said, glancing at Julia nervously, gauging her reaction.

"Aye, you'd have to be both blind and stupid not to see it," Julia chuckled sourly.

"Yes, I think that tension could dissuade merchants. Not to put too fine a point on it, and forgive me for sayin' so, but merchants won't come if there's no one with enough spare coin to buy their products.

"Hard times start at the bottom, but they work their way up as sure as the sun rises, Miss Julia. That's a fact of life everywhere I've been, and merchants gotta go where the money is, else their families can't eat.

"On top of that, there's all them cheap pieces o' shit floatin' around the market—oh, pardon my language," he apologized, bowing to Julia slightly.

"It's alright, and I get where you're going. Not many with enough disposable income to buy your goods, and cheaper alternatives—however shit their quality—are available anyway. Must be that you're also contemplating whether you'll come around next year?" Julia asked.

"Could be. To be honest, it depends on how the Three Cities look. If business is back to usual over there, the hit we'd take for not sellin' much in Vazreth would still be manageable. We'd more than make up for it in the Cities—Vazreth was always more of a waystation for us anyway.

"If the situation in the Three Cities is the same, or—gods forbid—even worse…well, we can't count on Vazreth making up any of those lost profits," he said sadly.

Julia nodded along. It made sense. Merchants only traveled to sell their goods. If there was no one to buy, there was no reason to travel.

"Do you usually come back this way—back through Vazreth? I imagine you must trade goods in the Three Cities and bring back others to trade in Crux." Julia wondered, still watching the horizon.

"Not really, no. We do a sort of upside down triangle. Crux is the left point, the Three Cities are the right, and Alicose—that's a city just on the edge of that huge desert in the south—is the bottom point. Takes nearly the whole year to do the entire circuit," Davon explained.

"The desert? The one with Durthangrim?" she asked, recalling Ravina's journey to the marsh.

"The very same, though we haven't stopped there in…must be a decade now. Them dwarves aren't fond of traders from outside their 'Society'. Lots'a merchants nearby got no choice but to deal with them, Durthangrim being the only city around.

"Us? We got plenty of options, so no need to deal with all that business," he said with a scowl. "'Sides, it's in the middle of the desert, whereas Alicose is on the edge. Good luck bringing a cart over that dry, cracked ground. Rocks are sharper than my mother's tongue down there."

It sounded like there was a lot wrapped up in that explanation, so Julia let it drop. She'd have liked to hear more about the city, but not if it also involved hours of talk about how his mother scolded him too much or whatever.

The caravan traveled along the well-maintained road for a few hours while Julia surveyed the surroundings. The elves were dispersed among other carts and supposed to be keeping an eye out as well. Julia reminded herself to scold Talnîr—who was snoring loudly a few carts behind her—later.

The road eventually deteriorated into little more than a trail, tramped down by years of foot and cart traffic.

"Do most merchants travel this same route?" Julia asked Davon, who had been relaxing, holding the reins lightly in his hands.

"Aye, used to be that each was on his own out here in the wilderness, but a stable, reliable route developed over the years. After a couple decades of constant foot-traffic, the path was eventually stamped and leveled enough to drive carts on.

"Folk could try and make it on their own, but it's risky out here. Not too much in the way of monsters or danger, but it's a flat plain as far as the eye can see. If you mess around and get lost, you've got basically no landmarks to get your bearings, nor any civilization—not even any farms—to get provisions from or rest at.

"You go it alone out here, you're really alone," he said ominously.

Julia nodded along, but internally, she was processing. A route that most merchants used and a reliable stream of traffic outside the boundaries of the territory Vazreth defended would be ripe with opportunities for bandits. That was reassuring—she didn't plan to stay with this convoy for the two months (or whatever) that they'd spend traveling to the Three Cities.

Those bandits better hurry it up.

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