The portal dropped me off a short distance from the edge of the port city, and the first thing I noticed was how loud it was. I could hear street vendors hawking their wares with hoarse voices while others barked orders to load or unload ships. It was the first time since the Spring Festival that I had heard so many people out on the streets.

  I prepared to fly into the city invisibly so that I could set to finding a ship, but then realized that I had no idea how I would go about figuring out which ship would have what I needed. I could just go around asking the captains, but in such an important port city, surely there would be a place where I could just buy passage to Eos, and the city guards would no doubt know where I could find such a place.

  I double checked my disguise, took my Adventurer’s license out of my inventory and put it in my pocket, and surreptitiously joined the line outside main gates. The line was hundreds of people long, but it moved very quickly, and before long, I was face to face with the feline city guards. I handed one the rank 3 adventurer’s badge, wincing internally as I realized that I had forgotten to get it upgraded to rank 1. It didn’t really matter, but I’d still rather have had it at 1.

  “Name?” he asked, inspecting the badge.

  “Ilsa,” I said.

  “Last name?”

  “Weber.”

  The guard snorted with laughter. “Right, and I’m Angelo Paganini. Tell me your real name girl, there are people waiting.”

  Shit, there’s a famous person named Ilsa Weber? I thought.

  “Not the famous one,” I said. “But Ilsa Weber is my real name, unfortunately.”

  The guard narrowed his eyes. “I don’t care if you’re using a fake name. People do it all the time. But if you’re gonna do it, choose a less dangerous one. Last chance, girl, what’s your name?”

  “Ilsa. Weber.”

  I had already made my choice. If it became a problem later, I’d deal with it.

  The guard glared at me, then shrugged. “If you insist. Don’t say I didn’t warn you though. Entry fee is 2 silver.”

  I returned the glare as I handed over 4 silver. “Where can I find a ship that will take me to Eos?”

  The guard looked down at the additional money I had handed him, then thought carefully for a few moments before answering.

  “The Golden Merchants have passenger ships that leaves every 3 days. If you want a less, eh, conspicuous option though, go to the Salty Serpent and ask for Freddy. You’re gonna want to use a different name though.”

  “...Thanks,” I said.

  “Now, go in. Don’t hold up the line.”

  Once inside the city, I made a beeline straight for the coast. I wasn’t familiar with the Golden Merchants, but the way the guard had mentioned that they were ‘conspicuous’ so they wouldn’t be too difficult to find.

  As expected, I didn’t even need to ask for directions. It was painfully obvious where the traders’ headquarters were. The building was as opulent as could be. It was enormous, and made entirely out of pure white stone, much like Claude’s cathedral, and it was more than twice as tall as any of the nearby buildings. The roof tiles shone in the sun, and a quick check using earth magic told me that they were plated with gold. There was a huge, stone sign out at the front of the building with pure gold letters spelling out ‘Golden Merchant Association’ on it.

  The building itself was situated near the shore, and from its backside, a large pier with dozens of docked ships extended into the sea. A steady stream of wagons drove around the side of the building, and emerged on the other side, likely with a new load of goods to be traded.

  I walked up to the massive entrance doors, flanked on either side by guards wearing ornate sets of armor, complete with gold filigree and embedded gems. They did not react to me, nor any of the other dozen people who entered at nearly the same time.

  The interior was just as excessively decorated as the exterior. The company seemed to want to use pure gold for everything, whenever possible. The floors were marble, but the grout was gold. The chandeliers were pure gold, their anchors enchanted so that they would be able to support the immense weight. There were large paintings all around, all of them using gold paint at least in part, and all of the picture frames were, again, pure gold.

  The reception desk at the backside of the building was manned by over a dozen young, bright-eyed men and women of varying races, and there were long lines for each one. I got in the line that looked the shortest, only to be annoyed a few minutes later when all the others began moving more quickly. Living with Natalya, I hadn’t needed to wait in a line in over five years, but since coming to this city, I had already had to do it twice. By the time I reached the front, I was beginning to regret my decision to get to Eos by boat instead of taking Anatoly’s offer for a portal.

  My receptionist was a large ursine woman with a nametag on her left shoulder that read ‘Isabella’. She had a pair of spectacles too small for her face, and wore a wide grin, showing off her immaculate fangs.

  “Welcome to the Golden Merchant Association!” she said when I approached. “How can we help you today?”

  “I need passage to Eos,” I said.

  “Of course!” she said, reaching for a book to her right. “When were you thinking of departing?”

  “As soon as possible.”

  The bear woman opened the book and started scanning through it. “Hmmmm. It looks like the earliest availability we have is two weeks from tomorrow. Will that be satisfactory?”

  “Is there nothing earlier?” I asked, annoyed.

  “Weeeell, we do have one room available on the ship leaving in two days…”

  “But?” I asked.

  “But it’s the emperor suite. Usually it’s only used by royalty and the like.”

  “And how do you know I am not royalty?”

  “Uhhhh…” She glanced around nervously.

  “Just tell me how much it costs.”

  “1500 gold,” she said quietly.

  Dammit, I thought. I had amassed a small fortune clearing Dungeons with Natalya, but this boat ride would eat through most of it.

  “As I mentioned, it’s usually only used by royalty,” she continued. “It’s not affordable for most-”

  “No, I can afford it,” I said. “It’d damn near bankrupt me, but I could do it.”

  Her eyes widened. “If you’d like, the Golden Merchant Association would be more than willing to negotiate with you! I expect you could get the price down to 12- no, even 1100 gold!”

  “Perhaps…” I mused. “I will consider it. But not before I’ve checked my other options.”

  “I can assure you that there is no better option than the Golden Merchant Association,” said Isabella quickly. “Only the Golden Merchant Association knows the routes well enough to guarantee your safety! We have gone nearly a decade without any serious incidents, and I know for a fact that no other merchant group can say the same.”

  “I’ll keep that in mind, but I’d rather not make such a large purchase so rashly, even if I am in a hurry.”

This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

  “Of course!” she replied. “That’s no problem at all. We’re open at all times, so when you come to a decision, you can come back anytime!”

  “Thank you,” I said. “I’ll be going now.”

  “Thank you for coming by! If you come back, get in my line again, and I can speed up the process of purchasing a ticket!”

  “I will,” I lied, walking away.

  There was no way I would pay even half my gold for passage on a ship. I didn’t really even need a room, since I didn’t need to sleep. And I didn’t expect to spend too much time on the ship anyway. All the powerful sea monsters live further out, and if I wanted any exp, I would be out fighting them, not lounging around on the ship. If I couldn’t find anything better with this ‘Freddy’ character, I’d just stowaway on the Golden Merchant ship. They would likely have ways to check for that, but I doubted any of their stowaway countermeasures were strong enough for an archmage.

  After leaving the Golden Merchant Association, I checked in with a few of the other merchant companies, but it turned out that the Golden Merchants had most of a monopoly on passenger ships. They all offered me positions on the cargo ships as long as I was willing to work, but I declined them all, obviously. It was nearing sundown when I finally decided to head over to the Salty Serpent.

  I had spotted the building earlier while checking in on the merchant companies, but decided to save it for later, as it was a tavern, and there was a chance that the man I was looking for wouldn’t be there, until later at night when it was actually busy.

  Outwardly, the Salty Serpent was a shady tavern covered in filth and inhabited by equally filthy patrons serving questionable food and terrible alcohol. It was like that inwardly too, but behind the bar, I could sense a trapdoor and staircase leading down underneath to a place warded against my senses.

  The second I walked in, every head turned to look at me, and a few among the rowdy crowd drew silent. Seeing the people around me, I realized that I looked very out of place. All those within were swarthy seafarers, and mostly men. The few women present who weren’t barmaids were almost uniformly large and muscular. I, on the other hand, was disguised as my Earth roommate Ilsa, who was shorter than me by a couple inches, and my clothes were completely clean, making me stand out like a sore thumb.

  I walked up to the bar, my confidence only drawing more attention to myself as the room grew quieter and quieter.

  “This is no place for you, lass,” said the bartender when I got to the back. “Go home, before you get yourself in trouble.”

  I looked around the room, seeing the unsettling eyes of my watchers, and came to a decision.

  I made a show of summoning a few gold coins from my inventory and setting them on the bar.

  “Next round’s on me,” I announced.

  The tavern erupted into cheering, and the bartender broke into a grin as he snatched up the coins.

  “None for me, though,” I said quietly to the bartender as he started filling tankards.

  “Aye,” he said. “What can I help you with, miss?”

  “I’m looking for Freddy,” I said.

  The bartender paused, then smirked. “You hear that?” he said.

  “Loud and clear,” said a scratchy female voice to my right.

  The speaker was a miniscule mouse-woman, no taller than four and a half feet. There was a long scar that passed from the tip of her nose up her snout through her right eye, though it seemed that she had gotten her eye healed, as it was still intact and full of life.

  “The name’s Frederica, but me business partners call me Freddy,” she said, winking as she held out her hand.

  “Ilsa,” I said, shaking her hand as I tried to mask my surprise. “A pleasure.”

  “Quite an entrance ya made,” she said, grinning. “Yer obviously no ordinary customer What can I do fer ya?”

  “I need passage to Eos as soon as possible,” I said.

  “Ye’ve come to the right place, then!” she said. “I can have ya on yer way tonight. It’ll cost ya, but if ya can casually toss around gold like ya did earlier, I don’t think that’ll be a problem. Now, why don’t we head to the back to work out the details.”

  “Sounds good to me,” I said.

  I followed the tiny woman through a rotting wood door behind the bar, and down the staircase into the warded area I had sensed earlier. The area that was hidden was anticlimactic. It was just a few dingy rooms, and one long tunnel that led up to the north somewhere. Freddy led me into the largest of the rooms. Inside, there was one desk, a few chairs, and a few dust, half-empty bookshelves that looked like they hadn’t been touched in years. Freddy sat down behind the desk and gestured to a chair in front of it, so I sat down while she pulled out some papers from a drawer.

  “So, ya be needing passage to Eos, and yer either too much in a hurry, or too much of a criminal to go one of the normal ways. Do I have that right?”

  “Something like that,” I said. “You said you could get me on a ship tonight?”

  “Correct!” she said. “Not only that, it will be much faster than any of those fat Golden galleons. 100 gold for the trip, or free, if yer willin’ to work.”

  “I’d rather pay,” I said. “But what’s the catch? This sounds too good to be true.”

  “Heheh,” said Freddy. “The catch is that ya keep yer eyes and ears shut, or me boys will track ya down to shut ‘em for good.”

  I chuckled. “As long as you don’t ask too many questions about myself, that works for me.”

  “Heheh, I like you,” said Freddy. “‘Ask me no questions and I’ll tell you no lies’ is what me mom always used to say, and that’s how I run me business. Don’t worry, none’a me boys will ask ya anything. They won’t talk to ya at all, if you like that better.”

  “I do like that better,” I said. “And I can handle my own food.” I produced some dried beef from my Inventory that I kept for when I had non-undead companions.

  “Perfect! I can knock five gold for that!”

  “Lovely,” I said, summoning the coins in neat stacks of 10 on the desk. “This should do it then.”

  The mouse woman grabbed one and put it in between her teeth, biting down. Before pulling it back out to inspect it.

  “Aye, tastes like gold to me,” she said with a grin. “Pleasure doin’ business with ya.” She pulled out a notebook and started writing on it. “Ya said yer name was Ilsa, right?”

  “Yes.”

  “Hmmm,” she said while she continued writing. “I knew an Ilsa once, back when I was just a cap’n. A right bitch she was. Gave me this.” She traced a finger along her facial scar. “Cost a fortune to get me eye back, and I still couldn’t afford to get the scar removed. Been meanin’ to pay ‘er back one of these days, but I can never find ‘er.”

  “That’s Ilsa Weber, I presume?” I said.

  Freddy growled. I didn’t know mice could growl. At the same time, an astonishing amount of aura flared up around her. It wasn’t so much that I didn’t think I could handle her in a fight, but it wouldn’t be very easy.

  “Aye,” she said darkly. “Nasty cunt. If yer ever so unfortunate as to meet her, I’d give ya me best ship if ya killed her. And I’d give me entire business if ya brought ‘er back alive.”

  “...I’ll keep that in mind,” I said.

  “Aaaand, done,” she said, putting her pencil down. “Go out this door to the right, then follow the tunnel down to the end. That’s where I keep me ships. The big black one should be loadin’ a few things up. Give this to the cap’n, and he’ll show ya yer room.”

  “No contract?” I asked.

  “Contracts can backfire,” she said. “And ya seem trustworthy enough. If ya betray me… Well, let’s just say, it’d take a Demon King to stop me boys from getting ya back.”

  I snorted with laughter. “If you say so.”

  “I do,” she said seriously. “So ya’d best not do anythin’ foolish.”

  “I won’t,” I promised.

  “Well, then, off ya go,” she said, standing up. “The ship won’t wait for ya, and the sooner the cap’n knows about ya, the better.”

  “Alright,” I said, standing up. “Thanks for being so accommodating.”

  “I always enjoy doin’ business with people who know what they want,” she replied. “If you ever want to come back, find the Jade Squid and ask for Nelly.”

  “Will do,” I said.

  I exited the room with Freddy just behind me, and went down the tunnel as she instructed. It was long, and I estimated that by the time I reached the end, I was well outside of Rossini. It opened up into a small protected cove with rock walls rising up on either side. There were 3 ships in the cove, but only one of them had people on it.

  It was black, and illuminated by light orbs spaced evenly around the banisters, and the crew was rushing to load up the last of the cargo while the man who she assumed to be the captain barked orders from the deck. A few of them looked my way as I approached, but most paid me no mind, probably used to people in my situation.

  “To Eos?” asked the captain as I walked up the ramp.

  “Yes,” I said, holding out the paper. “Freddy told me to give this to you.”

  He took it, and gave it a quick glance before looking back. “Aye. Follow me, I’ll show you your room.” He turned to the other sailors. “Ya’d better not slack off while I’m showin’ the guest her room. We’re on a schedule!”

  “Aye, Cap’n!” said the sailors.

  The captain led me down below the deck and through a narrow hallway until we reached the end, and he opened one of the doors. The room was small and cramped, with nothing but a bed and the smallest desk I’d ever seen, both fixed to the ground.

  “This is where you’ll sleep,” he said. “As long as yer in here, me men won’t bother ya unless ya ask ‘em to. I can’t promise the same in the rest of the ship though. Freddy says ya’ve got yer own food. If ya change yer mind, come find me. It’ll cost ya, but I can get the cook ta fix ya somethin’. Any questions?”

  “Not right now,” I said. “I may come find you once we set off though.”

  “Aye, that’s fine,” he said. “As long as I’m not busy and yer not askin’ ‘bout the cargo.”

  “Thank you,” I said.

  “Well then, I’ll get back above deck,” he said. “Feel free to explore until we’re done loadin’, but if ya steal anything, you’ll lose yer hand.”

  He left without waiting for an answer, while I went into my room and closed the door. I had no need to explore the ship, since I could sense its entirety from my room, and until I could get some information about the sea monsters from the captain, searching would be wasted effort.

  I laid down on the thin mattress, set up a [Wall of Silence] and played with my phantom instruments until the ship suddenly lurched and the journey finally began.