Fifteen gold. That's currently all the money that I have to my name. It doesn't sound like all that much, but a modest meal is somewhere between five and twenty-five copper. A thousand copper makes one silver, and a thousand silver makes one gold. I briefly looked up monetary rates while studying with Ellibelle, but since everything I needed there was provided for I never truly learned the value of money or of how much of it I was using. Gold is the largest currency and it seems that once you start passing the value of gold it gets cheaper to just deal in enchanted items - from a logistics point of view anyway. I'm sure there's going to be some noble that sees nothing but gold and spends mountains of it simply to move mountains of it...I wonder how often they're robbed.

I followed Sam's advice and sold my enchanted fur outfit to change into something that blends in a bit better - thus the fifteen gold. Still though, if a copper is synonymous for a dollar then I am effectively a millionaire. That's another point of commerce that I unfortunately wasn't able to learn in the mountain. The value of magic items. Well, better late than never, right?

"Don't kill me! Please don't kill me!" the man dressed in rags screams as he shuffles backward on his ass, nearly into our campfire even. "We's just doin' what shopkeep told us!" He keeps shuffling backward until he bumps into the legs of Sam and releases a shrill scream when he turns to see her relaxed pose with her rapier to his torso.

I turn back towards the campfire before releasing the molecular divider and invisibility enchants from my dagger and sheathe it. Sitting back down at the campfire I pick up a stick and poke the embers a bit while the man behind me emits hideous screams. I glance at his compatriot over my shoulder and grimace at the half of his body I can see. I was traumatized at the thought of having to take a life in the hunter's guild but I do it so casually now. I poke listlessly at the few dark spots amongst the coals and see them spark back up. I'm pretty sure Sam's excuse of using the bathroom just now was to use me as bait for these guys.

The screaming trails off into the distance and Sam goes over to her bedroll and starts rolling it back up.

"You let him live?" I ask, not taking my eyes from the fire.

"I'd rather not lose two days in going back to kill the shopkeeper you sold those clothes to," she responds while strapping the bedroll back to her pack, "I just repurposed his skills. You should pack your things, we shouldn't stay here." She motions towards the mugger that I'd cut in half while she had been conspicuously absent. I must say, her new leather cuirass suits her better with her rapier than that maid outfit ever did.

I sigh and stand, kicking what loose dirt I can onto the tiny campfire which quickly fizzles and dies. I quickly store my things and shoulder my own pack as we set out into the rapidly dwindling twilight. We walked for several more hours in a zig-zag pattern heading away from the road, probably to distance ourselves from the carnage of the previous campsite as much as to throw off anyone still tailing us from the town. We probably laid back on our bedrolls somewhere close to midnight. No campfire this time, the waist high grass acting as a curtain against all but the stars.

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"It's the safest place you can go, so just put up with it until we get there," Sam whispers readjusting my dress once more.

"You can't expect me to walk in there like this?" I whisper back with incredulity. "There's no way I could keep up this act for years."

"There's a town at the bottom of Granite Peeks, we can both change back there," Sam says, brushing invisible dust off my shoulder seemingly have fixed my disguise.

Sam noticed someone following us a couple days back and we'd been furiously working on losing them ever since. I never saw anyone, but Sam was adamant they were there. Unfortunately, the trip north to Granite Peeks is prohibitively long and spending the entire time on guard, bypassing towns, and ducking through every bit of trees we could find would wear us down long before we could arrive.

Fortunately, or perhaps unfortunately, I'm still a bit babyfaced - no stray whiskers adorning my face. An opportunity that Sam jumped on - with probably more enthusiasm than she should have - to dress me as a girl. I'm now masquerading as a noble girl named 'Rebecca Vermillion' from 'Scarlet Dawn City' and am travelling to attend the welcoming party of the Sorcerer's Consociation. I had fully neglected my hair when living with Thavim and Sam quickly rectified it with a tiny knife she pulled out of her cleavage. She had made a few quick swipes and nodded at her handiwork. She also had a rather nice dress commissioned two towns back, in red of course, so that I could play the part.

I wonder how long she had wanted to dress me up while living in the mountain. I'm oddly less disturbed by this than I thought. Annoyed, certainly. I still feel a bit empty after Thavim's death, running for our lives, and killing to survive. Maybe the emptiness is shellshock? PTSD? Depression? I don't know. I'm not all that excited about this Consociation anymore...or anything for that matter. Just tired. But it will probably beat running all the time. And so I halfheartedly play the part. At least it won't be terribly difficult to feign disinterest.

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Sam's plans start to make more sense once she informs me that she's bought us passage in a caravan to Granite Peeks. The trip is supposed to take a month but would have easily been double that, if not more, were we walking the entire way. She ushers me to a carriage posing as my lady-in-waiting. That's what a noble girls helper is called, right? A lady-in-waiting?

I climb into the carriage and am startled to find there are already two passengers: another noble girl and her own lady-in-waiting.

"Oh! Is this- Have I entered the wrong carriage?" I ask the pair.

The noble girl speaks up, "The caravaneer asked if we would permit company. The trip has been so dull that I welcome any sort of distraction."

Sam stiffens upon climbing in behind me, a flash of recognition crossing her face for only a moment before she schools her features. Crap. Caravaneer asked her if we could ride with AND Sam recognizes her. That's also not to mention the monster of an enchantment dangling from her necklace. Guess all I can do is be polite and stick to my cover story.

"Well we do appreciate not having to walk the entire way. My feet are positively killing me!" I say sitting down, "I'm Rebecca." I wonder how much of my cover story I can get away with omitting. Impersonating an officer was illegal in my old world, and I'd bet my entire coin purse that impersonating a noble is the same here.

"Pleased to meet you Rebecca, I'm..." she pauses and makes eye contact with her lady-in-waiting, "...Liz."

Definitely a fake name. But Sam also definitely recognized her so....does she know that I don't know who she is? I hate politics. Why did I want to come to this dumb school anyway? Wait a second, I can use this to my advantage!

"Nice to meet you Liz." I say with my best fake smile. "Say, would you happen to know how far this caravan is traveling? Sam here is being oddly tight-lipped about it," I say jerking my head towards Sam who dutifully portrays a face of mock horror. Well, at least she's playing along. I can see the other lady-in-waiting wearing a half smirk out of the corner of my eye. Maybe this pretend prank isn't out of the ordinary.

"The caravan is going all the way to Granite Peeks. I'll be attending this fall if all goes well at this open house," Liz replies, playing with a curly brown lock of her hair.

"Oh, the Consociation? Are you being forced to join as well?" I ask with a straight face. My best bet is to pretend to be the opposite of myself so if I run into her again while I'm there then I won't have to worry about acting some other way.

"Forced?!" Liz looks scandalized by the thought. "To be allowed into the Consociation is among the highest honors in the Kingdom! In several Kingdoms! There have even been Princesses of other regions that have been wed to lowly nobles just so their brothers could have a chance to attend!"

"Eugh, you sound just like my mother," I roll my eyes and look out for the window for a moment and the carriage starts rolling creating a slight pause in the conversation. Why wouldn't I want to attend? Maybe I can feign a love interest...

"If I'm away at this Consociation for years or however long, Lilly is sure to steal Liam away from me," I say under my breath but loud enough for them to hear. I see their expressions soften slightly in the reflection on the window. Made up sister? Check. Made up love interest? Check. If my brain had an arm it might break from how hard I'm mentally patting myself on the back with this cover story.

We ride along in silence for a bit before Liz strikes up more idle chit-chat. I manage to gush appropriately over my made-up boyfriend at all the right places though I'm not sure if my lack of blush gives any of this away. I read lots of books in my past life and there's so so so many passages about how the maiden blushes about whatever when a boy is mentioned, though I had very few interactions of my own with said maidens. I was even working overtime for just a chance at a blind date!

At nights we would stop and arrange the wagons in a circle with a campfire in the middle for the evening and morning meals and then we would start the cycle over again. Sitting in a carriage, pretending through small talk so I'm not found out, evening meal, morning meal, rinse and repeat. Someone produced a deck of cards and we each took turns playing and learning someone else's games, but the novelty of it wore off after a few days. And this carried on for a few weeks, the climate gradually getting cooler the further north we traveled. Liz wasn't kidding, any distraction on this trip could brighten the mood.

A few days after we'd started traveling through a forest, the entire caravan came to a stop, shortly followed by shouting and the sounds of metal on metal - swordfighting I assume. I glance at Sam and her hand tightens on my shoulder but she says nothing. Alright, I'll follow your lead. It would definitely give away my identity if I participate. The caravan does have guards after all.

The fighting seems to die down and the surroundings get eerily quiet. Liz is wide-eyed, silently freaking out with her lady-in-waiting's hand clasped firmly over her mouth. We'd had the curtains drawn and none of us dares peek out lest we give away our presence.

At once, the doors on both side of the carriage are pulled entirely off their hinges. In their place are two human men on each side with crossbows. Crossbow! Why didn't I use that instead of a bow for my experiments! Wait, no. Focus. Sam's hand closes tighter on my shoulder, but she hasn't moved a muscle.

"What have we here," a gravelly voice asks from out of my view. This isn't gravelly like dwarf-speak, but like a chain smoker in their fifties. "Seems we caught a pretty big fish, eh boys?" There's a round of laughter from unseen bandits all around the carriage.

"The Princess herself!" he shouts!