I wasn't going to leave Jamel without a parting gift.

I’d thought of the idea just before falling asleep. A harmless prank Denise had pulled on Sharan for sleeping with one of her regulars. Salt and pepper sprinkled on top of the bed sheets. As bodies moved around and flopped around on the bed, it caused the salt and pepper to disperse into the air—and without fail, get into the eyes. It was one thing for Denise to put salt and pepper in the bed she knew Sharan would be in; it would be a whole different story putting it in every bed in the brothel and having patron after patron complain about burning eyes. It wouldn’t put Jamel out of business, but it would slow their roll for at least a day, a week if dissatisfaction spread quickly throughout the city.

The scheme was almost too easy to carry out. With such a constant flow of patrons entering and leaving the building, I slipped in unnoticed and blended in with the rest of the girls walking around. In less than five minutes, all the beds had salt and pepper laying on top the sheets. As I was leaving the brothel, I got the pleasure of hearing the first patron yelling.

A smile etched itself onto my lips as I strolled through the streets back to Will’s house. I felt so giddy I imagined hearing more patrons yelling, and the disgruntled complaints to Jamel. Chasey hadn’t directly asked me to mess with their business, but she knew me, and surely expected such behavior. This would put a smile on her face, at least until I annoyed her again.

When I arrived back at the house, neither Will nor Elody were in the main room.

“Alright kiddies, I’m leaving.” my voice echoed in the empty room. I looked around, waiting for Elody or Will to come out of one of the other rooms, but neither did. Them seeing me off didn’t matter, so I picked up by knapsack off the floor, slung it over my shoulders, and trotted out the doors.

For a few seconds I considered going back to at least wait for Will to come home. He’d been nice enough—or naive enough—to lend me a bedroom for the night. The least I could do was thank him again and inform him of my leave. That feeling quickly passed and I set my focus on getting back to Indeedra. I made it about a block up the street when I heard someone calling my name. Turning around, I saw Will and Elody jogging to catch up to me.

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“What?” I asked when they reached me.

Elody bent over slightly to catch her breath, the adorned a wide smile. “Will and I would like to come with you back to Indeedra.”

I looked at the two of them, both standing there with goofy grins and leather knapsacks strung over their shoulders. “No.” I turned and proceeded in my stride.

“What, why not?” Elody asked.

I sighed exasperatedly under my breath. She needed an explanation? How about I just didn’t want two extra persons slowing me down? I turned back to face them. “Why do you want to come with me?”

“Well,” Elody glanced at Will before answering, “to see Indeedra. Neither Will nor I have ever been there.”

“It's not much,” I tried to discourage.

“We’d like to go with you, Milena,” Elody said, the resistance in her voice strengthening. “We won’t stay very long. We don’t even have to stay with you, we’ll find our own place to stay.”

I didn’t want their company, I really didn’t. But I could tell even if I said no, these two were just going to tail me all the way back to Indeedra. “What are you going to do when you’re finished ‘seeing’ Indeedra?”

Elody looked at Will. “I guess we’ll come back here.”

“Yeah,” Will interjected, “if we don’t decide to just trek from city to city sightseeing.”

Elody looked at me. “We’ll come back here.”

“It sounds like a riveting excursion,” I said, my voice raw with sarcasm. “Completely worth it.”

“Alright then, we won’t come back here,” Elody said. “We’ll continue on from Indeedra and go somewhere else. Like… Like Amerenth. I’ve never been there, and Will hasn’t either. Look, it’s not about you or Indeedra. We could go without you. But you’re going that way and we’ve never been so we might as well just travel with you.”

“I didn’t say you couldn’t come,” I said, already walking again. “I was just making sure it was worth it for you two. Wouldn’t want you to get to Indeedra and be disappointed it’s not, I don’t know, heaven.”

“Indeedra is a quiet place,” Will said. “I’ve never really heard much about it. But then again, I wouldn’t say a lot of the Istrondonstrus cities are very gaudy, besides Scultera.”

I drowned out their featherbrained conversation as best I could. Two flighty people talking about cities they’d never been to, yet had such high hopes about. It might have been worse than the conversations with drunk patrons back at Farris and Chasey’s. After maybe an hour of tuning them out, I barely remembered they were there until the sky darkened and we had to make camp.

I had to make camp. These two simpletons had no idea what all had to be done to stay outside for the night. At least they’d quieted, sitting around the makeshift fire nibbling on crackers. They fell asleep before me too, and I finally had some time alone.

In a hundred years, I would never have imagined myself being a guide for two dolts like them—for anyone. I traveled alone. I lived alone. I thrived alone.