On the way we introduce our team to Kuray and Benen. Benen then proceeds to tease Kurat, who’s acting very meek. It makes me feel a little bad seeing him take all that abuse.

“Do you think you can let a little up on him?” I ask Benen quietly. He merely laughs again.

“You don’t get it. This guy has been one cocky asshole for the entirety of my life and I never had a good chance to get back at all his jabs, but look at him now! I don’t know how long it lasts but I have a lifetime of grievances I need payback for!” And then laughs again. Seems there is history I am not privy to.

We arrive at the eastern gate of the city. There is a metal carriage there, loaded with durable-looking boxes on the top and back. A tall, short-haired, scary-looking man is standing next to it. Most people use carts and carriages are relatively rare. Adding to that this one is of metal, so I am quite surprised.

“Ah, this guy here only goes by Shadow. He’s working independently for our client.” Benen explains. I extend my hand and introduce myself, but Shadow barely even acknowledges it.

“So where’s the client?” I ask. Shadow taps the metal carriage, giving a pretty loud sound off.

“I am already here. We are ready and loaded. You may proceed.” The voice sounds vaguely familiar. I try to place it, but I fail. I ask another question.

“Erhmm… Where are we going?”

Shadow looks at Benen.

“Ah, we’re going to Merridge, a city on the central southern cusp of the Republic!” Benen explains. It doesn’t mean anything to me, since I have no idea of the larger geography and the only maps I have seen are ones depicting a relatively local area.

“Right, so as you can expect, this thing is incredible heavy to lug around, so we will take shifts of two men pulling it at a time.” Benen walks up, but I stop him with a hand on his shoulder.

“Leave it to me.” I walk to the front and place myself inside the pulling bar. I wonder if the cart would be too heavy to effectively break, since the metal that connects this bar and the carriage looks pretty thin, but I don’t mind it and start pulling.

It is pretty heavy, but I have oodles of strength and start picking it up to a decent pace. To my surprise, there are no guards as we leave, but I don’t mind it and just keep pulling.

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Benen laughs. “I heard you were strong, but how long can you keep this up?” Benen asks.

“The whole day if I have to.”

“What?” He seems surprised.

And so we start the journey with the well-guarded cart. Seems we will pass two cities on the way, before ending up at our destination. Benen and Patir start hitting it off, talking about drinks and the best snacks for them.

We don’t go very far before Shadow speaks up for the first time.

“Let’s camp here.” We have only moved for a couple of hours, so I felt it was a little early, but a quick glance around me reveal people look pretty tired.

“If we only go this far, what was the point of leaving this late?” I ask Shadow, but he looks to Benen again.

“Ah, as you know, the luggage is incredibly valuable, so it was to keep it out of sight from as many unsavory individuals that could get ideas.” He explains. Still, feels awkward moving only a bit away from the city, before camping.

A fire is started and food is cooked. I had hoped to see our employer, but Shadow brings the food into the carriage. But that alone also give me an idea, and it clicks inside my head. We have recently met a figure who also remained very hidden, and when I remembered, the voices match. It’s the Tarrun. I wonder if I should say anything, but decide not to, as the last time I saw through his identity, he got pretty mad.

For the dinner, Patir brings forth a clay bottle.

“Guess what I’ve got!” He says as he dangles it. Benen lights up and we coalesce to take a drink. Shadow looks at it disapprovingly, I guess he thinks it isn’t very professional.

After a late night dinner, Benen wants to organize the night watch. I planned to share with someone from my group, so that I can keep my promise to Dixy, but an unexpected condition is set.

“Boss wants at least one of I, Benen or Kurat on night watch at all times” Shadow breaks in as we are going to organize. Guess he doesn’t trust the unknown contractors. I already spent plenty of time with Dixy today, so I guess it will be okay to ignore her for tonight, but what of tomorrow?

Eventually it is decided that first watch is Kassa with Kurat, followed by Patir and Benen and lastly Shadow and I. It sucks a little that I get the one with no conversation ability, but Kurat doesn’t seem to like me and Patir and Benen were hitting it off, so it ended like this.

I spend a boring and long night, first pretending to be asleep, next with the unapproachable Shadow.

I whispered to Dixy to keep quiet and wanted to simply memorize some patterns, but when I open the book, Shadow interferes.

“Don’t be distracted. Keep watch.” I try to defend it.

“I know read magic. I can tell if anything approaches regardless.”

“I know that magic and it doesn’t work on people with gifts. Keep Watch!” And so I was forced to stare into nothing until morning came.

We start moving again slightly before noon, so that people could sleep and the day proceeds calmly ahead. Yasia gets pretty tired and lags behind, but Kassa picks her up.

“Why do you even bring such a burden?” Shadow asks. I didn’t have my eyes on her, but I could practically feel Yasia flinch from the word “burden”.

“We aren’t slowing down, so what does it matter to you?” I ask. He sends me one mean look. This is going to be a long trip.