When the day came to attend the brunch for the new-forming caravan, Denziu almost left behind zir new Tekagoli luck charm for fear that the entire event would be a misfortune if zie took it. Yet zie reasoned, with so many dragons gathering, wouldn't it be inevitable that someone else would bring such a charm of their own? Perhaps it was better to share in the bad luck than to plead for exemption. Still, the uncertainty and ambivalence returned to the tan dragon's thoughts, spurred by the unfamiliar touch of the pewter charm against zir chest.

Doubt and unease swirled in Denziu's thoughts. Was it really wise to join a Tekagoli caravan? What kind of merchantgon prays for moderately bad luck? Wearing the charm was surely a prayerful act; it was a fate-charm and wearing it was a kind of submission to Fate. Such a prayer was alien to Denziu and yet its alienness was not enough to dissuade Denziu, who thought zie understood the prayer of Tekagol perfectly well: "Twist my Fate yet ruin me not, for I wish to live forever."

As zie flew unladen across Nidrio and Denxalue into Tekagol, Denziu ruminated about the decision to become a Tekagoli merchantgon.

It was an unusual category and this brunch would be the first time that Denziu would count as one. The promise of a better long-term was one that zie didn’t understand. How could bad luck feed into good luck? Would zie ever truly understand, or would it remain a decision on faith forever? Was it too religious a thing? Denziu didn’t think of zirself as religious.

Even the path that Denziu flew reflected zir doubts about the Tekagoli charm that rested against zir chest, for the path was marginally straighter across Relny. Zie was avoiding Relny. Denziu thought zie had the favour of Lauvera, land god of Denxalue, and wanted to avoid Relny, whose land god Ornel was famously "not participating" in Theoma. Ornel’s non-participation left Relny a high crime area and Denziu didn’t want to tempt Fate by travelling there.

At least the flight was relaxing. Flight was easy for the vashael, whose wind aura gives them the power of perfect winds to their wings. That power was called the amicus breeze and thanks to it, getting tired while flying took hours.

It was a fine, dry day in Tekagol with the sun shining brightly, so of course Denziu was planning to spend it attending an indoors event; doubtless had the event been outdoors, Denziu would've found the weather just rainy enough to be unpleasant and just dry enough to prevent a cancellation. The inappropriate weather struck Denziu as a manifestation of Tekagoli Luck. Zie wondered if zir sibling Taltios dealt with such uncooperative weather on the regular.

Landing in an open section of the marketplace, zie made zir way to the village square cafe where the bulletins had been posted. Denziu met one of the cafe’s staff at the door and paid the (rather steep) door fee to get in. There wasn't usually a door fee, but today the price tag was being taken by the caravanners who had rented the cafe for the meeting.

The crowd was a little reduced from the typical bustle of the cafe; the door fee and the planned event were keeping out the regular customers. A buffet was lading out two tables along the wall of the cafe in place of the usual menu, which also helped explain the door fee. The offerings looked more than slightly 'heavy' to Denziu as it looked like the buffet was laden with dessert-like breakfast items.

Denziu didn't usually eat here, and so tried to decide what to eat by guessing what others were. By that standard the local biscuits and gravy must be an excellence, for it was nearly gone. Zie took the last of it in curiosity. Trying a forkful before even sitting down proved it a good gravy, but zie wondered if seeing it eaten more than everything else had become self-fulfilling. It was visibly the must-try item.

It was perhaps a faux pas to grab something to eat ahead of talking to dragons, but days of hard work had been days of light eating. Besides, Denziu's purse was still stinging from the entry fee. Zie suspected the event was run for the profit of the caravan master.

Still, zie couldn't help but to meet dragons: for one thing, the first empty place at the table that zie found was next to a green vashael wearing a coat of charms. Not only were adornments hanging from her horns, but she was wearing a brown robe scaled in little symbols dangling from short strands of twine. They were heaviest about her shoulders.

"Ho there," said Denziu while approaching this dragon. "What interesting attire you have!" Denziu wore nothing more than beige scales and red-orange paint in sweeping curves, but zie was not blind to the sartorial choices of others.

"All of these beacon Fate," said the charm-covered vashael. "The land gods will do much for us if we will trust in Fate."

"Are you a geomancer, then?" asked Denziu.

"No, but I have been on seven of these journeys, and Baggil guards my profits well now. I haven't seen you before among us, I don't suppose you've been hiding?" she said. She seemed at once intrigued, and Denziu felt grateful.

The question itself was of course facetious. If Denziu had been intending to hide zir novice's lack of travelling experience, that was not to be possible now. "Not at all," zie said. "I've never been farther from home than Daubysid. Not even to Taithorkey!" The arboreal cities of Taithorkey were the nearest new marvel that Denziu was looking forward to seeing with zir own eyes.

"What's your name?" she asked, and when they'd traded names, it happened that her own name was Lorvaza the Predictable, a reference to what dragons thought she must be to the land gods, swathed in fate-charms as she was. Denziu thought that was fascinating, and so was treated to descriptions of a few of the fate-charms that Lorvasa believed still enchanted and influenced her future. There was a four-swirl symbol with radial symmetry that Lorvaza claimed was from Ediveyrm, a circlet-charm with a stone upon her forehead that she called a prayer for learning from Tonturaseer, a pair of little bells from Nybisalla that she said were a pledge of humility, and so forth without losing Denziu's attention for a moment, until at last Lorvasa pled hunger (for only Denziu had been able to eat while Lorvasa was telling so many stories). She did one last favour for Denziu before going back to the buffet tables: she pointed to a vrash with ornamental chainmail on his shoulders, who was the caravan leader himself.

For this Denziu was quite grateful, as there were a dozen dragons in the room, and zie had been rather shy of the idea of going around asking who was who. "Go talk to Choave," she encouraged Denziu. "We share the good and the bad here, don't be shy to speak to the best of us."

Choave was a green-scaled vrash with a very heavy build, both physically strong and overweight. He had blue and pink metal implants in his horns, and silver piercings on the fins of his head, which were an unusual trait for a vrash. His armour was comprised of golden scales about his shoulders and great steel vambraces. This was less armour than many vrash wore daily, but Choave was also wearing ingots of blue metal around his neck. They looked heavy. Denziu thought he must take pride in his strength.

This heavy dragon had a messy plate of horrible breakfast sweets and sticky talons from eating them, and a table about him that seemed inclined to roar with laughter. Yet all of that chilled when Denziu approached, and suddenly the merchantgons at Choave's table were all business, so that Denziu was glad of having finished a portion of biscuits and gravy while Lorvasa was talking for zie certainly could not eat with a table of merchantgons paying attention. Zie was only 74 in a world of immortals and felt uncomfortable of zir relative youth before them.

When they had quizzed Denziu enough to extract the plan of selling pottery in Hydalath, a cask of Shaleara cider at Mosdenechrak, plus pigments and charms 'wherever', a (lack of) detail that mortified Denziu to admit to, Choave said, "We're running a collection."

Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

"A collection? A collection of what?" Denziu asked.

"Not of what, for what. And for, in this case, filling our wagons with a valuable good. Tekagol’s priciest export is late Shaleara cider, sold by the cask and greatly valued at Xeladash. Our first collection is for filling our wagons with casks of cider. And don’t sell yours until we get to Xeladash! Mosdenechrak’s price isn’t that good."

Shaleara cider. Denziu was familiar with it. The ‘late’ ciders were intensely alcoholic and carried a high pricetag. Denziu didn’t touch them; strong liquors were a waste of money. Nor did most of the people in Tekagol. Local lore claimed that getting drunk inflicted an injury to Fate, disarraying the land gods’ protections as it disarrayed the mind, and the locals valued their Fates too piously for that.

Carrying such a cargo would be profiting off of the ill wisdom of other dragons, but such exports were why the cider was made in a theome where it wasn’t drank. Local merchantgons often took it to Taithorkey for furs and lumber, or else they took it to Griolor, whose merchantgons didn’t pay well, but at least they paid in bullion. Carrying it to Xeladash enough of a journey that it was worth quite a bit more.

Knowing all this, zie asked about the price to buy in to the caravan’s collection... and hearing it, zie recoiled, zir tail striking the floor. The table burst into laughter at seeing Denziu’s response, and Choave said, “What, can’t afford our company?”

Denziu shook zir head and said, "No, no! I can! In theory… If that’s what it takes…" Zir voice was going weak.

"Really? Because that was way more than the price of one stake in the caravan fund," said Choave, grinning. "We were just having some fun with you."

They'd asked for nearly all of Denziu's savings. "I can pay it," zie said. "Will I get the money back?"

Choave nodded and struck the table, grinning as he did. "We gather funds at the start of each trip and refund caravan shares when their owner leaves the caravan! Along the way, they gain value from our profits on the journey."

One of the other merchantgons, a gold-scaled vashael, asked, "Can you really pay that much? That was a tenth of the caravan Choave quoted." Now, this was a beautiful dragon who wore wealth embedded in her very scales, for a symmetrical line of eight large, identical rubies was somehow implanted in her neck, four to a side. Her headfins were also pierced such that their three leading spars were ringed with four bands of cyan stone. These things stood out against the backdrop of her shining colouration.

"I can," zie said, but zie felt queasy saying it. Was this safe? Wasn't this opening a catastrophic loss? Clayselling was getting tapped out as the farmergons in the region mastered their art too much to need new soil samples every season. Zie needed those zir savings. "Wait, am I guaranteed to get at least the same amount when I leave the caravan?" zie asked, having thought of an issue.

Choave shook his head and said, "No, you aren't." He gestured back to the gold dragon who'd spoken a moment before.

That beautiful golden vashael spoke once more, and she said, "I'm Chatulerin the Calculator. I adjust the caravan shares at every stop. You'll lower everyone else's percentages when you buy in, but you're bringing in more working capital, so that's fine. When you leave, you'll be cashing out your percentage, not your original purchase value. If all goes well, it'll be more than you bought in at."

"So it really will be a tenth of the caravan," Denziu said. The fins on zir cheeks spread fully in zir wonder.

"Aye," said Choave, though a moment later Denziu thought zie's misheard, as Choave took a breathe and said, "We... don't usually offer that much to newcomers, but since I've already said it and we've had a laugh at you over it, I'll honour what we thought you couldn't pay."

So Denziu wrote a promissory note that gave zir a tenth of a caravan of thirteen dragons - two had failed to show to the pre-launch breakfast buffet, but were still expected to muster - and zie felt unlucky about it. Direly unlucky. If Baggil rewarded persistence... but Denziu wasn't planning to run this route regularly. Was zie? Zie did potentially need a new job, but this caravan only ran once a year before everyone broke up to do other things.

Zie settled zir unrest with a frosted atrocity from the buffet, and was surprised by the deliciousness of it. Was eating like this its own misfortune somehow, that Tekagoli merchantgons should have dessert dishes at breakfast?

There were many other dragons to meet at the breakfast, and Denziu became briefly the star of the room as Choave (after wiping his claws) introduced Denziu in brief to most of the caravan.

There was Ekis of Tonturaseer, who shared the table with Choave. She was a red-brown izerah who seemed remarkably small and slight compared to all the vrash and vashael who made up the rest of the caravan. "Can you really pull a wagon?" asked Denziu, and Ekis nodded and said, "Yes, because mine hovers weightlessly! I'm even faster travelling solo!"

There was Kishka the Runepainted, a beige vashael like Denziu, who had blue paints on as contrasted with Denziu's red paints. He was also at the table with Choave. Kishka's paints were more complex, and didn't look like a simple habit of self-application as Denziu used. The two immediately recognised the likeness of their fashion sense. "How do you keep such a complicated design colourfast?" Denziu asked, and was shocked when Kishka replied, "I hired a necromantic alterationist to change my colours. This pattern is true!"

There was Orachu the Unambitious, who was a very red vrash. "Are you really named 'the Unambitious'?" Denziu asked, and Orachu replied, "Oh yes. I'm a primordial, and I've been hauling goods since Theoma was young."

There was Honom of Mosdenechrak, a dingy orange and brown vrash with a rather interesting exchange for the customary armour: in place of the customary vrash armour he had a suit of black cloth 'armour' with gold letters embroidered into it. Honom said not a word on being introduced, but merely dipped his head in acknowledgment.

There was Lorma the Vegetarian, a grey and bronze vrash whose name lofted Denziu's brows in curiosity. "I'm a food procurer," she said in response to the unstated question. "Crops are cheaper than meat, so I save on costs."

There was Omrezen the Hunter, a green vrash. Denziu immediately inquired after her surname, and Omrezen said, "After a lifetime of selling furs to merchantgons, I decided to start gathering up wagonloads of them to sell for myself in theomes that pay more for them."

There was Mosdrao of Jiasote, a purple-scaled vrash with symmetrical green 'scratch' patterns on his body. "You're far from home, if home is in Jiasote," Denziu said. "No, not hardly! I am practically still at home here," replied Mosdrao. "We're only a few days flight from Jiasote, but it's hard to carry a wagon on the wing."

The two who were absent were Oghai the Absent, who Choave assured Denziu zie would see plenty of throughout the journey, and Sharisen the Sociable, mention of whom drew a laugh from the crowd. "She's not sociable at all," said Mosdrao. "She'll pull with us, but you won't hear from her," said Lorma.

There was one last surprise that morning. Toward the end of the meeting, Choave spoke to Denziu yet in a voice loud enough for others to hear, drawing a spotlight onto the newcomer: Choave said, "I know a single spot of true necromancy, vital for covering distance on the ground: a spell of unnatural vigour. It defies the normal limitations of the body and invites some risk of injury in exchange for letting its bearer perform better for hours on end. The caravan uses it to maintain a fast walking pace all day long, shortening the time it takes to get from place to place. Are you willing to receive such a spell almost every day for nearly three months?"

"Do you all go through this annually?" Denziu asked.

Choave said, "We do. May I cast it on you?"

"When you say some risk of injury..." Denziu drew out the words in hesitation.

Choave said, "We bear it with gratitude every day, all through the route. If the spell hurts you, we have a passenger carriage and we'll pull you while it heals. May I cast the spell on you?"

"Right now?" asked Denziu.

"Best way for you to be fully informed." Choave raised a hand with a strange shadow clinging to his arm. "This way you'll know how it feels. May I?"

Denziu looked down at the floor, hesitating a little longer, then lifted zir head. "Yes."

So Choave stood before Denziu and raised his hands, each one trailing an eye-twisting black fume that writhed and curled through the air as it settled into Denziu's body. Zie felt... untouchable. Perfectly mobile. Every muscle in perfect harmony with every other, every joint unhindered and free. If zie would feel this way every day on the route, zie imagined that zie might get addicted to the mere sensation of walking with the caravan.

"You look like you're enjoying that." Choave nearly bubbled over in laughter. "I take it I'll see you again tomorrow?"

"You will!" said Denziu.

That flight home may have been the easiest flight Denziu had ever made. Zie pushed zirself, arrived in record time, and seemed unharmed by the experience when the spell wore off that evening.