The caravan was still crossing to Wraquo when Denziu got back to them. It was a three day walk from Trauma to South Wraquo and it had only taken Denziu two days in Evonthe to sell zir last pot, so that Denziu in rejoining them flew back and forth for over an hour looking along the roads until zie finally spotted them walking at a brisk pace along the road. Zie called out "Helloooo!" on a low overflight, and then landed ahead of them. They stopped on reaching zir.

"Did you sell it?" asked Mosdrao as the caravan slowed to a stop near Denziu. For Mosdrao and the other vrash were still in the lead, lest the caravanners encounter bad conditions on the road in the wintry weather that dominated this close to the infamous Nyberinz (which was a snowy glacier where the spring never broke through at all).

"I sold it!" said Denziu.

"You shouldn't interrupt us, we've got a schedule to keep," said Choave, who unhooked from his wagon to step to the front and speak to Denziu. "Haven't you still got a wagon load of magic lanterns? You could be making your way south to sell those."

"Wouldn't you rather I rejoined you?" asked Denziu.

Choave shook his great head, a dour expression on him. "With you giving your income back to the caravan now, I'll make my profit on your lanterns when you sell them, and they won't sell here."

"I'm not actually keen to visit Wraquo," said Denziu, "So I agree in principle that the right next thing to do is to go south to sell these lanterns, but how far afield should I really go?"

"Allll the way to Atney," said Choave. "You may well use the top market at Akima again, but if selling a few lanterns a day sounds too boring, ask around in the low market at Akima to see if anyone can point you at a major lantern seller. Magic lanterns are liquid commodities and nearly fungible!"

Liquid lanterns? That sounded strange. And what was fungible? Denziu winced to ask something that revealed a novice’s weaknesses, but zie had to: "What does fungible mean and what's a liquid commodity?"

Choave nodded and set about explaining: "Fungible means interchangeable, one lantern works like the next. Liquid means you can convert money to lanterns and lanterns to money if you know where to do it."

A puddle of merchantgon dragons accumulated near Denziu as they spoke, unhooked from their wagons and grateful for a rest. Lorvaza interrupted the talk of lantern-selling to ask, "How did Evonthe go?"

For she hadn't heard what Mosdrao did when the caravan first walked up to where Denziu landed.

"I've sold out all the pots I set out with! For high prices, every one of them," Denziu said proudly to the gathered merchantgons.

"That took the whole route here!" said Omrezen.

"We should cheer for Denziu's success!" said Kishka.

So the whole caravan went through a round of "hip hip hurray!"

"What are you all cheering about?" came a bellow from the caravan. Sharisen the Sociable, all the way from the back of the caravan, who hadn't bothered to unhook for Denziu.

That inspired a moment of laughter among the gathered merchantgons.

Denziu looked south. "I guess I should be going. Should we really meet up all the way south at Atney? How far away is that?"

"More than a day's flight from here," said Mosdrao.

"No, just one day's flight for a vashael, but too many hours to safely fly more," said Kishka.

"I may be able to complete my business there in three days," said Denziu. "A day to fly there, a day to find a distributor, and a day to fly back. I could meet you guys with an empty wagon back in Trauma's caravanserai."

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

"Then do so. You'll have a free day in Trauma, but then we'll arrive back with another cargo of tools from Wraquo. Will you let me decide what cargos you carry after that?" asked Choave.

"I will," said Denziu.

"Then I'll look forward to adding you as another haulergon to my ambitions. I'll see you then!"

Denziu leapt back into the air.

The route that Denziu took south was not quite the same as the route that the caravan had taken north. Zie went south over Vormigaunt, which was a cold and frigid theome of little note, and then bypassed the strangeness of Axorus by travelling around it to the east. This took zir over Iskitala, a theome about which Denziu knew nothing save that it was a safe overflight.

Rather than overflying the dangerous Mount Siastyllodil, zie flew west over Hydalath, and from there followed the road south over Sanadir, Izaeyaranth, and Sybanisk. Zie passed over Tirrtian Pass, travelling south. All of this could be crossed in a day of strong flying with an amicus breeze powering zir with perfect wind conditions. It took too many hours, but Denziu could still do it.

As zie came round the Serhin Range and saw the spires of Atney in the distance, Denziu suspected once again that flying wagons would someday predominate. Choave's magic hastened his speed and still crawled compared to the distances Denziu could cross. The final approach to Akima from the border of Atney took much of the day even at the accelerated walking pace Choave empowered. It took less than an hour by air.

Having been in the air all day, Denziu took zir wagon to the caravanserai under Akima rather than alighting upon the top market. Zir wings were greatly sore from the exercise and zie prayed that the unusual exercise would not cripple zir back on the morrow, for zie had never in zir life flown such a distance in one day.

Having liked it before, zie bought another bowl of garlic pepper stew from the caravanserai.

The next morning, Denziu prayed for healing and had no such magic, but despite zir soreness zie still got up. Leaving behind zir wagon in the caravanserai, zie asked the attendant about the markets in Akima, and learned about the low market that unflying merchantgons usually visited with their cargo. That seemed like the right place to go if zie was hoping to sell zir lanterns in one go. To "liquify" them, zie supposed, as zie was trying to make the lanterns "liquid" as Choave had described them.

A few hours of searching and asking questions later, Denziu had successfully delivered a wagonload of necromantic lanterns to a distributor warehouse. It was the kind of anticlimax zie had wished for with zir pottery, but with meagre profits to show for the lantern run, zie knew zie'd gotten a much better price for the pottery by selling it piece by piece. Doubtless zie could have gotten a better price for the lanterns as well, but zie would have had to spend a long time at it, and this way zie could travel north again.

Which zie did. At once, in fact. Determined not to take the entire Atney-to-Jiasote flight in one day again, zie set off with sore wings to travel a mere few theomes instead. Better to travel half the distance each day with sore wings than to spend a day in recovery planning to do the entire distance thereafter, zie reasoned.

A little more than two hours later, zie was returning "Evermines of the Arrakra Vicinity" and "The Mysterious Cities of Axorus" to the library in North Sybanisk for the deposit. It was a relief to hand off the expensive books in satisfactory condition. The library's deposits were no joke.

Zie stayed that evening in Izaeyaranth. The inn on the third "ground level" of the minor megastructure of Izaeyaranth was still a good, cheap place to eat; zie explored more of its menu that evening, arriving somewhat ravenous from a busy day.

The next day, zie flew all the way back to Trauma. Arriving around noon, zie canvassed the markets of Trauma and managed to sell the rest of zir silencing cloth bolts to a perfect buyer: a specialist in enchanted cloth.

That evening, Denziu visited the Library of Querent-Querent in Jiasote, finding it a gratifyingly magnificent structure with floor after floor of books and great crowds of dragons. It had no exterior facing whatsoever, for it proved to be built into the main spire of Trauma, and to be part of the 'swaivshon' side of the mixed-architecture city. Zie read for hours there, then afterwards returned to the caravanserai that evening via the peculiar lifting platforms of the spire.

Zie stayed in the caravanserai the next day and occupied zirself with zir lev-i-quill recording the things zie had seen along the way. Much of the day zie spent holed up in zir wagon berth and just writing until zir mind fogged over from tiredness. When that happened zie went for a walk, enjoying the pure white luminous fog that rolled through the streets of Trauma's city-ring. What a strange decor! It matched to the white and silver that were popular for the houses, so that the city had a clean look marred only occasionally by pockets of dissident architecture.

And it was busy! For here the whole ring was packed and dragons dwelled in shining houses row after row, and Denziu wondered why Trauma was so much more populated than Mania. Did Mania have a questionable reputation? Did Fate protect dragons better from the injuries of mania than it did from the injuries of trauma? Was the greater population the result of Trauma's renown as a sort of hospital city where any injury could be healed over time? There were many possibilities, and Denziu couldn’t imagine who would know the answer. Gruent himself perhaps, but that was not someone who Denziu could ask.

When the sun was going down, zie returned to the caravanserai, finding happily that Choave and the others had checked into the caravanserai at Trauma. Zie was finally reunited with the caravan.