Courtesy of the snow falling in Jiasote, they walked in a broad silence. They were so far north that the northern horizon had developed a kind of looming blackness. The Deathwall stood in the distance, still most of four theomes away and already looming vastly.
That blackness was the northern edge of everything. There was nothing beyond. With no land gods to hold reality together, everything faded unless held together by the will and wisdom of a lesser divinity. Only a few legendary dragons could survive within it. As there was nothing to find save ghosts and illusions, stepping off the map was more of a philosophical journey than a practical one.
Denziu had been taught this much in childhood geography lessons. It hadn’t occurred to zir in planning to walk the Tachanigh-Kelkaith that zie would see the northern edge of Theoma. Seeing that blackness ahead on the horizon from the archway at the northern edge of Axorus was a shock that filled Denziu with awe.
Slush on the road was unbearably mundane by comparison. There was definitely no slush upon the road by the time Denziu walked upon it. The vrash in the caravan did more than leave footprints in the snow. Their every step obliterated the bad walking surface, leaving a reformed and perfect roadway after three rows of vrash caravanners had walked upon it.
This was the same power that Denziu was accustomed to seeing keep vrash farm soil conditions perfect. The vrash farmergons had to learn what perfect soil was, and then enforced it. It had been Denziu’s business to supply them every year with test soils that might improve upon their understanding of perfection.
Denziu wondered anew if the roads had been built by vrash themselves. This couldn't explain elevated roads as seen in a few theomes, but could it explain the smooth stone surface that they were used to? Likewise to the farmergons, Denziu supposed that vrash road-builders had to be taught what a good road surface was like, but after that could they not spread 'road' the way they spread other conditions underfoot?
Zie had seen good farmland spread in wasteland underneath the footsteps of a vrash trying to establish a homestead in poor soil. Zie wondered if wasteland had ever been spread in good farmland under the footsteps of a bitter vrash.
On second thought, slush on the road was awesome, because it gave Denziu the opportunity to watch in real time as the vrash ahead in the caravan reformed the road.
The novelty wore off with time and fatigue. They had gotten out of Axorus past noon, and it looked like they would be camping in the wilderness, for they saw at first not a scrap of civilization. Yet Oghai was dispatched across the caravan to hurry them onwards when they flagged in tiredness, and so they kept marching well into the evening until they could spy a vast spire upon the horizon. A city glowed against the northern blackness.
There were three cities in Jiasote, known as Grief, Trauma, and Mania, of which 'Trauma' was the capital. Denziu had never seen any of them, not even in pictures, but had read that they were grand structures of swaivshon architecture with some vashael aspects, in that each one involved a hoisted ring of city-platform (such a ‘sky city’ being a vashael style) raised up off of the ground around a core of swaivshon unified structure.
The southernmost city was Mania, and that was the spire they could see on the horizon. Yet they had certainly not reached it, and night was falling, so Choave directed them off of the main road and onto a minor road. After a modest amount of further walking they turned into a campground with paths and cute little pathlights. This was clearly a recreational site rather than a caravanserai, but Choave considered it suitable, and after a brief conversation between Oghai and an attendant, the group set up their wagons two to a campsite in a cluster of the campground.
"Are our wagons safe here?" Denziu asked Ekis, self-conscious of the two flying wagons set up exposed in a campground in a theome renowned for its somewhat maddened residents. Mania was not the city in whose shadow Denziu wanted to take risks, and would a recreational site really protect them?
Ekis said, "Jiasote is a theome of mind control, Denziu. There is no crime here."
"Mind control?" Denziu asked, wide-eyed.
"That's why Gruent's church is so keen on teaching dragons to trust Fate. Here, Fate is everything."
Denziu was still shocked. "But to be so abrupt. To just call it mind control! Are we not in possession of our own wills, even now?"
"A visit to Jiasote does no harm, Denziu. That is the promise of this place."
In the one sense, Denziu was duly reassured by this feedback. The campsite was an unconventional albeit comfortable enough place for the group to rest overnight. Was this how the dragons who came for healing in Jiasote spent their time..? Camping? It was harmless enough and if Denziu's wagon was safe it was wonderful.
In another sense, Denziu was alarmed by the ease with which Ekis spoke of mind control. Zie'd heard the stories of dragons praising Jiasote as a place of healing, and zie was surrounded by a pleasant campground. Were dragons mind-controlled to come here? Mind-controlled to place pretty little pathlights along the way? Mind-controlled to... to leave the path-lights alone, Denziu supposed. It was the lesson of Northwest Polser again. Hydalath had a heavy Fate, as urban theomes tended to, and that protected the enchanted lanterns outside the doors of buildings in the dim understories of Northwest Polser. Jiasote had one of the heaviest Fates possible, and that was here protecting the little path-lights which might otherwise be lost in such an unobserved and distant place as a campground on the edge of wilderness. They were the pettiest and weakest of magic lights, naught more than little bits of colour along the path, but dragons might still steal such a thing and try to sell it on.
It was a terrible thought. Denziu wasn't sure zie believed it. Zie went to seek another opinion, and sought Choave. Now, right at that moment Denziu overheard Choave saying to Kishka in a grumbly fashion, “Do we even need to take a day at the market in Trauma?” Denziu was tempted to interject in defence of zir plan to sell the bolts of silencing cloth zie'd acquired in Mosdenechrak, but zie could tell by the tone of Choave's voice that there was no great risk of the market day being cancelled.
So zie merely waited patiently, and seeing zir, Choave said, “Yes, what is it?”
Denziu asked, "Are our wagons really safe here?"
Choave looked around for a moment. "I don't see us torching them ourselves," he said. "Everyone is safe in Jiasote; so much so that some dragons find it awful beyond trusting."
"How can safety be awful?" Denziu asked.
"Dragons are different while they're here. More regular. More predictable. More well-behaved, even if they weren't the kind of dragon to be well-behaved at all," said Choave.
"I don't feel any different.” Denziu spread his wings and looked at them.
Kishka said, "You do not need this place much."
"Right.” Choave tilted his head. “You seem nervous."
"Ekis called this a theome of mind control.”
There was a shared 'ah' moment between Choave and Kishka, and then Choave said, "There are more than a dozen theomes known that way. Places where Fate is very powerful and influential in day-to-day life."
"You should trust it," said Kishka. "We are Tekagoli merchantgons. We believe in Fate even when it's being used by disreputable benevolences like Baggil, and Gruent is no disreputable benevolence."
That did seem calming. It was strange to think of Fate as 'mind control' - wasn't it probability? "Serafustin took away my Tekagoli charm," Denziu said.
"Well, maybe you shouldn't be a Tekagoli merchantgon," said Choave. "Although we like having you. You seem to have a good Fate, haha!" He laughed while Kishka grinned.
Denziu was still ill at ease, but zie had no more excuse to talk about safety, and went back to zir own campsite where zie found Ekis puffing at a campfire to get it going. They had many campfires instead of shared provisions that night, and Lorma went around the campfires distributing supplies for everyone to make their own bread-on-a-stick. It was flour, pearlash, and water, with a little bit of salt.
After mixing the dough and flattening it with their hands, they cooked it wrapped around sticks over the campfires. The result... was marginally edible despite a horrible alkaline aftertaste. It was nowhere near as good as the other breads that Denziu had eaten along the way. Zie felt bad about disliking it, as to show up with the ingredients for cooking it, Lorma must have bought them at Hydalath for the purpose of cooking them tonight. Even the pearlash must have been purchased, for the caravanners did not cook over campfires often enough for Lorma to have made lye and boiled it to a salt.
Perhaps in protest of the bad bread, Omrezen went around the campsite recruiting for a hunting trip to stock the caravan with fresh game to eat. The proposed excursion would delay the caravan by a day while the hunters departed from the campsite into the wilderness around Mania. That got Lorma arguing stridently for the caravan to remain on schedule, as they would otherwise reach Trauma the next evening, where they could just as easily and with a much more vegetable-friendly selection restock.
The argument drew the caravanners out of their campsites and into the middle of the cluster. Denziu got the impression that if Choave put it to a vote, Omrezen would win. The assembled dragons were carnivorous!
Chatulerin raised the point that free food would be a blessing. Food was not cheap here in the industriously overpopulated northlands of Kelkaith. The caravan bled money feeding thirteen dragons on final approach to Wraquo.
All this went around the campsite in discussion, but Choave stood against it. He said, "You lot should realise that if everyone hunts on that justification, there won't be hunting grounds anywhere for very long. Let's leave the hunting here to vacationers taking a kill with Gruent's blessing, and not go trying to seriously feed ourselves that way."
Denziu was astonished. A place where dragons weren't to feed themselves by hunting? Tekagol was like that, but there was no wilderness in Tekagol; all the land there had been plated over with farms. It was unthinkable in Denxalue or Nidrio that dragons weren't to hunt. There was wilderness here, and... Denziu glanced over at the spire of Mania on the horizon. There was wilderness here, and swaivshon architecture looming over it.
Swaivshon architecture probably meant that there were enough dragons here to eradicate the wilderness, and that they were being careful not to do so.
Mind control, Denziu thought. To keep everyone from hunting out the taiga. To keep everyone who needed construction materials waiting on shipments of expensive imported supplies rather than cutting down the forests for ready timber, too.
There were forests in Tekagol, Denziu reflected. For forestry projects. That took no mind control, but merely patience to match the growing rate of trees.
Zie wanted to talk about this with someone, but the evening was wearing on, and so Denziu laid down still thinking about forestry. As zie lay near the fire, zir thoughts were busy wondering if keeping the environment when so many dragons lived near it took mind control. Zie had just about decided to pester Honom and Choave when zie fell asleep.
Denziu had mostly talked to Ekis along the way, with the 2 by 6 arrangement of the caravan putting most of the caravanners out of range of convenient conversation while they were walking. There were wagons stacked high with wood in the way, after all. With a great bellow, one could speak so that the whole caravan could hear, but there was nobody who could do that for very long and no conversation proceeded that way.
With a more moderate shout, and only a tolerable amount of wear to the vocal cords, one could speak to the dragons in the rows ahead of or behind oneself. That was what Denziu did that day, as they walked first towards and then past Mania.
"Honom," called Denziu, speaking to Honom, who was the dragon directly ahead of zirself in the rows of the caravan. "Do you think forestry requires mind control?" This question, Denziu supposed, could also be overheard by Kishka and Chatulerin, who were presently behind Denziu and Ekis.
"What!? What a strange question," said Honom, "Why did you ask that?" This answer, Denziu supposed, could also be overheard by Lorma and Omrezen, who were presently ahead of Honom and Choave.
"I was thinking about how many dragons travel to Jiasote!" Denziu said, and indeed they weren't alone on this road, but there were a surprising number of other dragons going in both directions upon it. The road traffic was pressed aside by the caravan, whose pace was slowed by forging its way through the river of scales. "I was thinking about how healthy the taiga here looks, and how we just spent a night in a... in a place for enjoying the wilderness! We've passed a few other minor attractions! And there are SO MANY DRAGONS!"
A brief silence. Honom was pulling a full-weight wagon, so Denziu waited patiently for the other dragon to gather his breath. Then Honom said, "But why does that mean forestry might need mind control?"
"Somehow all of these dragons do no harm to the environment despite their numbers," said Denziu, "And I was wondering if the environment here is good despite the population because of mind control!"
Choave took a turn in the conversation. "You're focusing too much on Jiasote being a mind control theome!" he said, and of course there was so much exclaiming between them because of the need to speak up to be heard over the wagons.
The rest of the caravan was quietly straining their ears in curiosity of the conversation between different rows, which helped.
Ekis said, "No zie's not! This is one of the strangest, no this is THE strangest place we visit every year!"
There was some grumbling at that. Nobody shouted a retort loud enough to hear, but Denziu imagined they were complaining that Inaildoro, Lorilaine, Axorus, or any of a number of places might be stranger.
Kishka, behind Denziu, spoke up and said, "Did you know that the geomancers rate Jadarkontalyia as a level 5 Fate controller?"
"I have no idea what that means," said Denziu, turning zir head to angle the reply back towards Kishka.
"It means we've been to one of the theomes that is almost considered a mind control theome, and nobody considers Hydalath very strange," said Kishka.
Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
But Chatulerin burst into laughter next to him and said, "HYDALATH has been building castles in the sky! They are VERY strange!"
Ekis said, "Imraziu is a level 2 Fate controller, which isn't mind control levels at all, and there are forestry projects around Tonturaseer. And the lumber we’re carrying is from Rhianasril, which is a MISSING theome! Forestry doesn't require mind control."
"How do you know that Imraziu is a level 2 Fate controller?" asked Denziu. "Where do you learn that?"
Ekis said, "Imraziu is very proud of using Fate less! If you read enough about Tonturaseer specifically in the Querent-Querent libraries, you'll find it, and then you can ask the librarians where to find more about what it means."
More silence.
"I think forestry only requires self-control of the mind," Honom said, calling back to Denziu.
Denziu started to reply, but Choave cut across just then by shouting, "THAT is what Jiasote is really about, Denziu! Gruent controls the mind to teach control of the mind to dragons! He leaves dragons controlling themselves more afterwards!"
Whatever zie'd been about to say, zie forgot it thinking about what Choave said, and indeed Denziu was quiet for a while thinking about self-control of the mind. During this pause in the conversation, Oghai ran the length of the caravan delivering water to the conversants while they recovered from shouting around the wagons.
Eventually, Ekis said, "There's actually a saying in Jiasote. 'You can't live forever in X', where X is the name of one of their cities. So 'You can't live forever in Grief', to name the most popular version of it."
"Because dragons move on," said Denziu.
"Right," said Ekis. "Then there's 'You can't live forever in Mania', which is a kind of warning for the dragons who need Mania's services that they need to learn to control their minds."
Denziu said, "But it's literally false, isn't it? You can live forever in Mania. It's easy. Nobody dies in Jiasote." Zie wasn't sure about that claim, but somehow it felt very right.
Ekis said, "It's about the state of mind. The dragons who need Mania-the-City can live forever here, but they have to overcome their need of the city to live forever elsewhere."
Choave called back adding, "Helping dragons overcome their need of Jiasote is what Gruent specialises in! If someone needs him forever, he's failing them."
Mania was on their left shoulders as they spoke. The great city was no longer a lit spire against the black northern horizon, but after a morning of walking towards it was now a great glowing presence to their left as they walked along a road that skirted it. Luminous coloured fog trailed from the great hoisted city platform. Looking at it, the city seemed to be mostly on the platform rather than in the great central spire. There were dragons in the air here flying between different points in an exposed city thrust proudly up into the air.
That is vashael architecture, Denziu thought, thinking also of the two nameless little cloud villages in Denxalue where only vashael lived. It was a vashael thing to live far from the ground.
The waterfalls of colourful fog that trailed from Mania's city platform were a strange choice. They looked so bright. Mania looked like a very colourful place. Denziu wanted to fly up there and see the city, to at least spend a day at the market in Mania. Not for the first time, zie regretted the strictures of travelling in a caravan, though zie suspected that it was preserving zir ability to do this and turn a profit.
Actually... Would Mania's market be a better place for zir silencing cloth and pottery than Trauma's market? These were such big cities that it was unthinkable that they would not each have a prosperous market. Mania looked colourful! They might appreciate colourful pottery!
"Hey, Choave!" called Denziu. "Do you think I should pull away and fly to sell in Mania?"
"You might sell a pot here, aye, but I don't think you should," said Choave.
"Why not?"
"These dragons don't need your pots, they need to perfect their own arts!" said Choave.
A city of artists! That only hardened Denziu's resolve. "If they're artists here, there has to be a true art vendorgon somewhere in Mania. I may be able to come back with an empty wagon, Choave! That kalla Serafustin showed me might LIVE here!"
"Alright, alright, ALL STOP!" said Choave, bellowing that last phrase. The caravanners slowed and stopped. When they'd stopped, Choave said to Denziu, "Go ahead and fly to Mania looking for buyers. You know what we look like and can spot us from the air farther on. If you break away before the close of market in Mania, you may be able to rejoin us tonight before we reach Trauma."
So Denziu pulled away from the caravan, and with a great leap of zir powerful hindquarters zie took to the air. Buoyed up by the amicus breeze that swirls around vashael, zie flew swift and true towards the colourful city on the platform ring. The thought of selling out zir pottery to a true art vendorgon excited zir greatly. Mania!
Mania... was not as well-inhabited as it had seemed from afar. Seeing it from above was very different.
There were a lot of empty houses with some evidence of decay. There were a lot of empty lots, too. The impression of a heavily populated city as seen from below had been created by high demand for the lots on the outermost edge. The buildings on the edge of the ring were the buildings with a brilliant, frightening view. Those were inhabited for the most part, and quite densely at some points.
Denziu flew slowly over the city ring, gliding on spread wings by the power of vashael wind control. Zir eyes scanned for a likely market.
Zie saw a city of gleaming clouds. The brightly colourful fog that had been trailing off the edge of the city like waterfalls that evaporated before they hit the ground seemed to hang in the air over many of the streets of Mania. It interfered with visibility from above so that zie couldn't see entirely as clearly as zie liked. Zie wondered what it was like to see from the ground.
Where were dragons congregating? Denziu passed over a building of unknown intention with a strange architecture that seemed to draw the crowds. It looked almost to have been grown like a tree of silver metal, with bulbous extensions in its “branches” where wide windows looked out upon the city. Denziu had no idea what the purpose of the building was or why there were dragons flocking to it. There was no market space in front of it, but a few other buildings tended the crowd's desires.
Another candidate drawing crowds... It was a great wide box with colourful tubes inset along its front. The tubes weren’t merely coloured, but they pulsated with some magic powering them to create an ever-rising flow of colour along them. It was very showy, but it was also another building of unknown intention, Denziu thought with a rising sense of stress. There was nothing like that in any of the saner cities zie’d encountered so far.
Zie couldn't identify many of the buildings from the air. Mania was such an alien city to Denziu. The abundance of empty lots meant that Denziu could put down anywhere, but where would be a good choice?
There, a building whose purpose Denziu thought zie could recognise. It looked like a cathedral. The bright colours of the cathedral were strange to Denziu, for it was all green glass and sharp-angled white trusses, hoisting aloft a symbol of faith that Denziu didn't recognise. It was like a four-petaled flower. What did that mean? Did they worship Gruent here under that symbol?
Denziu thought of the last major structure of faith zie had visited, the ziggurat with the internal meditation labyrinth in Mosdenechrak. That had been a church of the faith of darkness and silence, from which part of Mosdenechrak Denziu had acquired the four bolts of silencing cloth that zie had hoped to eventually sell in Jiasote. This partially decayed, overbright city called Mania didn’t look like it had a church of Uttermost Dark anywhere in it.
There were a few market stalls out front of the cathedral-like building in an open town square. It wasn't a church of Uttermost Dark, but would this still be a good place to move silencing cloth?
It might be. If these dragons all lived crowded into the outermost ring, they had neighbours. If they were dragons who had ruined their lives with impulsive enthusiasm, they might have bad neighbours. Dragons with bad neighbours could use silencing cloth even if they weren't using it to create something more valuable. Denziu resolved to try the market here.
Zie opened zir wagon in the market square before the cathedral, and then... walked away from it. No crime in Jiasote, right? Zie took a few minutes to look at the other stalls in the market. They weren't far from the outer ring of the city here, likely to better tend the crowds. Denziu wondered for a moment what kind of merchantgon might prefer the inner ring of the city. Were there any?
Denziu had mixed feelings upon encountering a pottery seller with artful goods that looked like they were fit for display as well. Zie enquired about prices, praying for something astronomical; zir mixed feelings turned negative when the prices returned as merely what struck Denziu as reasonable. Were the stonewares on display meant to be used carefully, then? At this, the seller laughed and said, "These are not museum pieces! Look, I have here ten plates with identical patterning, and more of this pattern crated in my warehouse."
Which was heartening in its way. Denziu was trying to sell museum pieces. "Do you know anyone who trades in truly unique ceramics?" zie asked.
"I know a few studio pottergons who try to sell their latest creations at too high a price," said the pottery vendorgon, demoralising Denziu once more. Competition! "Do you want to know where their workshops are?"
Zie shook zir head and walked away. Studio pottergons might know where to sell at such prices, but would they assist a dragon from far away in selling goods..? Not three metres from the vendorgon with the pottery, Denziu froze mid-step, thinking of the healing hand of Gruent on all of Jiasote. This place would be more cooperative than most, zie decided, and went back to the vendorgon. "I think I would like to know where those workshops are. Which one do you think is friendliest?"
So Denziu got directions to a cluster of three pottery studios, reassuringly near each other, as though the pottergons of Mania had gathered together to share in their interest. Zie closed up zir wagon and brought it along.
Zie soon found zirself surrounded by a trio of dragons, two vrash and a vashael. They were purple, blue, and red respectively. The first workshop zie had approached had soon disgorged a red-scaled vashael into the street, eager to see Denziu's pottery, for which reason Denziu had opened up the wagon and started unwrapping pieces. After that an excited dragon had rushed to the other two pottery studios, and the three pottergons had mobbed Denziu as zie unwrapped the rest of the pieces.
"The best is this one that depicts two dragons meeting in a forest," said the blue vrash.
"I prefer this one with the delicately depicted flowers," said the red vashael.
"Oh, but why are they all great big storage vessels!" bemoaned the purple vrash.
Denziu smiled as zie said, "The artists who made these were making great big storage vessels for the great big storage vessel market in Denxalue. They didn't know I'd be picking through their products for the best paintwork."
"But these look like they were intended to store grain in," said the purple vrash. "Who has a display plinth big enough for one?"
"I've sold six so far. I've cleared three fourths of the count I started with!" said Denziu proudly. Not that zie'd gotten ideal prices for all of them, but nonetheless zie was turning a profit. Zie just had to ignore how many years it'd taken to put the collection together.
"In fairness, I think you could set one of these on the floor and get a decent atmosphere out of it," said the red vashael.
"Do you want one?" asked Denziu hopefully.
"Yes," said the blue vrash. "It'd be inspirational. Such detailed work!"
"But no," said the red vashael, so close as to have nearly interrupted. "I need to work on my own style more. If a vase be a decorative pot, this vase would be ungainly."
Denziu looked to the blue vrash.
"Would you take a swap?" the blue vrash asked. "I could give you something that might sell more easily. Something more... conventionally shaped for display."
To this Denziu shook zir head and said, "No, certainly not. I am trying to sell these pots and bring back the story to the pottergons, so they will know that they can produce things that sell as art and not just as storage vessels."
"You do not want something you can bring back to show them as art pottery?" asked the blue vrash hopefully, but Denziu held firm.
"I have been seeking a rather high price for these as well," zie said, and zie named a price that made the three artistic dragons turn shy with ashen faces.
After a moment of whispered conference just out of Denziu’s earshot, the blue vrash returned and said, "I think I do have something I can share with you that may meet your price." And zie turned and went into zir own studio.
"That sounds like I'm going to get another barter offer," said Denziu.
"Yes," said the purple vrash.
"What do you think I'm going to be offered?"
Shrugs all around.
The blue vrash came back out walking on all fours, carrying nothing obvious but wearing an armring that Denziu hadn't noticed before. "This is a ring of magic sight," he said on getting to Denziu, and he stood to take the armring off. "For an hour a day, it will let you see in darkness. I... used to use the advantage rather poorly, and I think Gruent has been giving me opportunity after opportunity to get rid of it."
"I'm honoured you'll take this one," said Denziu, accepting the ring as an immediate source of resaleable wealth. A unique piece of art and a minor magic item were similar in value, but the magic item was much easier to sell. There were far more vendorgons who would accept a ring of magic sight than who would accept an oversized piece of stoneware with fine painting on it.
The red vashael held out a hand, and the blue vrash nodded. This exchange having occurred, the red vashael hoisted the big pot and carried it into the studio of the blue vrash, this being a task more easily performed with two hands than with one. The blue vrash followed along.
This left Denziu standing in the street with zir wagon open and only one of the three pottergons standing nearby. As Denziu's lev-i-quill flicked over a piece of paper to record the event of the sale, the purple vrash looked at Denziu with a curious expression. "You've just sold a pot to a pottergon," zie said. "Did you come here intending to do that?"
"No," said Denziu. "I came here intending to ask you where you sell your pots, so that I can clear the rest of my stock at a price that artists consider good."
The last of the three pottergons dipped zir head, looking once more ashen. "Barring the occasional windfall, I think you'll be disappointed. We aren't prosperous. We sell to vendorgons who sell our work on, but we sell them at... mediocre prices, for the quality. Our luck pays for food and clay."
"And lodging?"
"Free, in Mania. Grief, too. There's no shortage and generous subsidies. Rent is only paid in Trauma."
Denziu blinked. "This would be a good theome to save money," zie said.
The purple vrash nodded, then stepped back and stretched zir wings for a moment. "You'd be amazed how many of life's errors can be abated if dragons are no longer struggling for money. It's good for dragons... less dedicated to art, I think. We still struggle for money."
Denziu hmm'd and was somewhat set aback. Zie dithered. The pottergons had no better luck (indeed worse) than Denziu. "Have you considered setting out on journeys across the Tachanigh-Kelkaith to find buyers farther afield?" said Denziu.
"And leave each other behind?"
"If you're willing to haul a wagon for Choave, you could join the Tekagoli caravan that I joined. All three of you."
The purple vrash winced. "I'm not willing to wear a Tekagoli charm," zie said, and then stood to wave a hand in the air. "I know, I know," zie said. "Short-term pain for long-term gain. But there are so many dragons who've been alive from the dawn of time while shying away from Tekagoli charms, you know? I don't think the gain has been worth it for the dragons who've spent all that time in Tekagol itself, and that makes me suspect that sometimes Baggil is just injuring prosperity for long-term predictions that miss."
"Serafustin did comment on missing predictions," Denziu said.
"Oh! But you've been to Lorilaine!" said the purple vrash. "Serafustin is kind of cute."
The other two pottergons came back out then. "That pewter placard is a nice touch," said the blue vrash. "I've put it on the pot's stopper and now I know the name of someone I'd like to meet if I ever go to Denxalue."
"That's the kind of thing I'm happy to hear," said Denziu. "And what are your names?"
The blue vrash was named Chahur. The red vashael was named Sharen. The purple vrash was named Lanith. Denziu suggested they might take a trip someday to Denxalue, for Zyrine was not far away if they went to Denxalue, and if they visited the market at Zyrine they might find dragons willing to buy their pottery at more worthy prices.
Yet a kind of glance passed between the pottergons, and they laughed, not uproariously but in a moderate and awkward sort of way. There was some unspoken objection that they all shared.
"It would be a long journey," said Sharen. Denziu suspected that wasn't the true objection, but zie didn't want to press them.
"Well, I suspect this won't be the last time I come to Mania," said Denziu. "Perhaps next time I'll bring some of the good clay which my pottergon friends use."
"We would like that," said Chahur.
They departed on good terms, with Denziu richer by a worthy trade, bearing away a new armring of magic sight. That was zir seventh pot sold. There was only one pot left to sell! Only one of the great and over-refined painted storage pots that Denziu left Denxalue with remained to be sold. Denziu wondered if zie would sell the last one at Evonthe, after all.
Denziu walked back to the market through a cloud of blue fog that had rolled in over the road.