The crossing of the Xang Sea between Xeladash and Xanasal was a mere two days, courtesy of wind mages aboard the ships to make the wind consistent. Those two days would take the group six times farther than they could travel on foot in the same time, and they'd be able to travel that distance sitting on their tails rather than being up on their feet.

Vashael wearing white hip-coverings with wind runes on them crawled over the deck of the great two-masted ship that Choave had secured them passage on. The ship's seagons were loading the wagons and locking them in position in the cargo hold. A great crane aboard the dock was picking up first one wagon then another, and setting each one down gently through a great open hole in the centre of the ship, where presumably the seagons would lock it into position in the ship's hold underneath. The cargo they were carrying (a shipment of tools from Inrakaveach) was being loaded separately upon the ship.

Zie reviewed the transit planning in zir head. Destinations and day-tallies rolled through the red-painted dragon’s head as Denziu watched the dockwork. It was unfathomable to zir that zie was sixteen days from home and in eleven days would be crossing over into the parts of Kelkaith that were drawn on maps as perpetually covered in snow.

Icefields. Would they really be icefields, like northern Kelkaith was rumoured to be covered in? They were doing this in summer, when the roads would be open to wheeled traffic.

Even travelling on foot, steady travel day after day for so many hours could cross huge differences. Choave’s travel blessing was making a huge difference, too. They couldn’t run (as Ekis had complained), but they were pulling their wagons twice as fast as they’d go without it.

Long-awaited Hydalath was seven days after the passage into northern Kelkaith. Denziu had already moved two pots at Mosdenechrak. That left six cloth-wrapped pots that would hopefully sell at Hydalath. Contrary to Taltios’ warning, there’d been no sign of lost pots so far.

Hydalath would be eighteen days from the present moment, a total of thirty four days from home. "Grand adventure!" Denziu had thought. "Take these pots to another continent to sell them!" Denziu had thought. Thirty four days. The distance felt so approachable, now that zie was almost halfway through it. Zie understood how it was that Choave could run this route every year.

The great bulk of Denziu's fortune was tied up in zir performance at Hydalath. Ideally, zie wouldn't just be selling at the market at Hydalath, but would make some kind of art dealer contact... It made zir antsy to be eighteen days from Hydalath without a keen and clear idea of how zie was going to offload zir pottery somewhere that had started out sounding terribly far off and exotic.

The whole order of the caravan route was much clearer now that Denziu could see it wasn't such a long distance from Tekagol to Xeladash even going by foot. Denziu felt ridiculous and provincial for having been a soil-seller with zir flying wagon. Zie could be flying such great distances if zie were intent upon it. No wonder the other caravanners had seen the wagon as some great investment!

Past Hydalath, the caravan was eight days from Choave’s ultimate destination: a south Wraquo depot awaiting a delivery of lumber that Choave would pick up from Rhianasril, a theome on the way about which Denziu knew nothing. Wraquo, Denziu knew a little more about. It was an improbable theome on the northern edge of Theoma, where advanced factories worked in one of the farthest, coldest places in the world. They had no trees to fuel their industry and they were very far from the coast. Consequently, they paid exorbitantly for wood.

That would be forty three days from home. It would be just as long coming back. Choave held eleven dragons for eighty five days every year… Now, for at least a few years, he would hold Denziu as well. Denziu touched the hawk charm at zir chest. Zie’d seen no reason not to carry on this course. Ten circuits should satisfy Baggil that Denziu meant to be a merchantgon for the long-term.

Denziu was eager to continue. The red city Xeladash was behind zir physically, and it was behind zir mentally as well. Zir spirit was already aboard the Tenth Charm, which was the ship that Choave had hired to bring them across the Xang Sea.

It was a pretty thought.

Reality hit pretty hard a few hours later. Denziu had never been aboard a boat in zir life. Denziu suffered sea sickness after boarding. Briefly. The nausea never had a chance to go anywhere, for Denziu decided to go up. Up on the wing, up far from the boat.

After a brief and refreshing flight, Denziu landed back upon the deck of the Tenth Charm and called for Choave.

"I should like to get off this boat!" said Denziu vociferously, splayed on all fours to counter the unnatural heaving of the deck, and this was the stance Choave found zir in when he came up to the deck himself.

"Hah! You and half the caravan," said Choave. "I think this is a perfectly easy little retreat, but if you'd like, go fly ahead to the League Tonturaseer! You may even want to break your wagon from the hold and see if a few days at the market will shift any of your pots!"

This eventuality being discussed, the aforementioned 'half the caravan' (six of them) took wing and flew across the Xang Sea even faster than the boat could have made it. They were led by Kishka the Runepainted, who knew the business of Choave's caravan so well that he could fly them ahead and have no risk of missing the reconnection.

Neglected in their ground travels, Denziu's wind sprang to life when Denziu thought of it, and zie spent the flight to Xanasal meditating on the flow of the wind under zir wings. Several times, the vashael in the group had to sweep back to avoid outpacing the vrash of the flight, whose wings carried them well and swiftly, though not quite as effortlessly swiftly as the magic-assisted flight of the vashael.

Seeing Xanasal from above like this was still a marvel, for alongside the Great Canal which linked the Great Lake Smaril to the Xang Sea, there was the titanic psuedo-vrash form of the land god Agylkyravor, who resided in an open area at one side of the Xanasal city limits. Standing like a draconic mountain, Agylkyravor opened and closed a "canal" formed of solid earth by sweeping gestures at the ground and sea that somehow swept open and shut the earth itself, so that ships could sail into Lake Smaril by a path of even water that existed only while they were traversing it.

From Xanasal to the League Tonturaseer on the other side of Great “Lake” Smaril was another hour of flight across Theoma’s largest freshwater sea. Of the three towns in the League Tonturaseer, Kishka had directed the fliers towards the northernmost of the three, which was called Raldrani. It was a very prosperous looking urban area with stout buildings, many workshops, and a splay of vibrant farms across the whole span of the grasslands that connected it to the next League city to the south.

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

Denziu had read about the local grasslands here. This was one of the northernmost of all the farming theomes in all of Theoma. The growing season was much shorter here than in most farming theomes and the land god Imraziu didn’t bless the crops. Instead, she blessed the farmergons, giving them supernal skill at being farmergons, so that they attained large yields despite the climate’s difficulty.

None of this mattered greatly to the market at Raldrani, but it was fun to think about. And to see from far above! Having flown ahead of the Tenth Charm, zie'd gotten to see the League Tonturaseer as vashael ought.

Getting such a distance so swiftly was exhilarating to Denziu. Choave had scoffed at the flying wagon when they’d mustered in Tekagol, but if they’d really been running this route for countless years and really intended to keep running it, they could go so much faster if they flew. Was that really just a luxury? Denziu reflected that zie had no idea how expensive and rare a flying wagon really was. Praoziu had simply gifted one to Denziu.

Of course, they’d be waiting for Ekis at every stop if they just flew. Worse, it might segment the whole caravan. A running izerah was not as fast as a flying vrash, and a flying vashael was even faster. Would they want to carry Ekis through the air?

As zie lay next to zir wagon in the caravanserai recovering from the long flight, a momentary fantasy of the whole caravan pulling a collective airship occurred to Denziu. The thought was too much. It broke up in snickering and Denziu put it out of zir mind.

After a few minutes of recovery, Denziu got up and folded zir wings upon zir back, deciding that zie should work the market while the day’s light held. It was a late hour to start upon the market, but the day was long in the Kelkaith summer.

Not before this trip had Denziu ever realised the full magnitude of the gift that Praoziu gave to zir in the form of zir flying wagon. For as a provincial soil seller, zie had at least been travelling from place to place through the air. Someday, when more flying vehicles have been made, caravans like Choave’s will be airborne, zie thought as zie pulled zir flying wagon across Raldrani's market, looking for a good place to set up shop.

There was far less of a riot of scents and animal products here than there had been in Taithorkey, a continent away. There were instead a lot of tools and crafted goods. There were also some very excellent and creative glassworks outside of a workshop built right next to the market area, being shelves full of dishwares and even two thirds of a metre of shelving dedicated to what might be glass blown sculptures in a variety of colours.

When zie'd found an open place in the market, zie pulled open the wagon's compartments and piked up its tent, then with a brief prayer that Tonturaseer’s land god Imraziu would tolerate zir warming spelltiles, zie opened up the necromantic box and was gratified by a wave of heat from the open necromantic box. Enchanted goods could lose their potency when carried from one theome to another, but these warming spelltiles had been blessed so far, and were still good as they gained value with Denziu's advance northwards. Lorvaza had been right to tell Denziu to buy a necromantic box.

Zie unwrapped several of zir pots so that they could catch the eye of passers-by. The market at Tonturaseer might be prosperous enough to buy the pots at something like their deserved price. If zie were very well-connected, or at least very well informed of the area, Denziu wondered if zie might be able to sell them all to a vendorgon, but zie would settle for being an exotic foreign vashael in a vest with colourful ceramic inserts to catch the eye.

Finally, zie opened zir bin of Tekagoli luck charms, hung zir paint phials from the front of it as before, and took a position in front of all this. "Luck charms for long life," Denziu called, and "Warming spelltiles! Be ready for winter way in advance with good annual warming charms!"

To these calls zie added this time a few hopeful iterations of, "Painted pottery from distant Denxalue! Finest pots of Tachamund, right here!"

The warming charms sold! They proved a worthy investment for the markets of Kelkaith, even this far south. Even more sold on the second day, and at one point a vashael smelling of baked goods said, "Oh, these warming tiles! A customer showed me one yesterday! Never mind winter. I need these to keep goods warm in my display case. I'll buy six!"

It was the kind of windfall that isn't supposed to happen when one is carrying a Tekagoli Luck Charm, Denziu thought, but that didn't stop zir from taking a hefty purse of coins.

The pots did not sell. Denziu thought it a commentary on the pragmatic dragons zie saw shopping in the marketplace, though there were a few who wore gold as well. The dragons wearing the most jewellery were all drawn to the glasswares workshops rather than to Denziu's pottery, tch. Hopefully Atney's market would bite better in a tenday.

The bone fishing tackle from Taithorkey was an unusual thing on Denziu's wagon. It was too singular for Denziu to be hawking it, yet nevertheless it had a price card attached to it. It attracted a curious fishergon who bought it for use in Great Lake Smaril.

The paints sold out. A few sold the first day, and then they all sold the next day to a small number of buyers who seemed anxious to get enough. The artisans of Raldrani were an unexpected perfect audience for phials of paint. Zie recorded in zir journal the intent of someday coming back to this place with a more substantial amount of paint to sell. In more colours as well, if possible!

With that luck, Denziu was no longer a paint seller for the rest of the journey. It was a relief to see zir labour well-rewarded.

The charms were a strange thing. There was no very great market for them, but zie sold three nonetheless, to dragons who seemed to regard them as a strange, promising magic after Denziu explained carefully that the Tekagoli luck charms were very protective in their way. They were very humbly protective, Denziu phrased it. Very good at protecting humble dragons who did things in regular ways. “If you want to try something new after buying one of my charms, try joining someone else who has already been doing it,” zie said, thinking of Choave’s steady leadership of the caravan Denziu had joined.

This protective spin was quite far from the lore of Tekagoli Luck that Denziu had learned before ever joining a Tekagoli caravan, but it was the impression that zie'd gotten from being well-protected as a Tekagoli merchantgon. Zie didn’t feel zir luck was simply bad, particularly not in those two fortunate days at Raldrani’s market. Hopefully, Baggil would make an honest seller of Denziu.

Thinking that humility in the face of such luck might be a good piety to Baggil, who still held reign over Denziu's luck in this journey, Denziu skipped on all celebration, but stashed away the coin in zir wagon. Zie ate modestly, ordered no alcohol, and purchased no entertainment, but in the hours between the close of market and the sealing of the caravanserai zie visited first the Temple-Library of Querent-Querent to read for a time, and then near the close of the night went to the local Temple of Uttermost Dark for meditation. Returning to the caravanserai revealed that the Tenth Charm had arrived. Zie found Oghai checking in the rest of their wagons.

Zie had gotten the impression that the local market would be poor for fate-charms, and so sought out Lorvaza, but she said, “We’re not planning to stay a day for the markets of Raldrani. We’ll be leaving northwest along the river Lorniven at first light.”

"Indeed," said Choave, "We may even set out before first light! We'll want to avoid camping in Lorhinatom, lest we find the sun that won't rise tomorrow, and if we push we can arrive in Rhianasril instead."

The sun that won’t rise tomorrow! Denziu was alarmed. Would they be running through a dangerous theome with an extra-strength travelling charm? Would Choave do such a thing every year?