“Cities that established themselves on the northern coast of Ur-Teros tended to be prosperous due to a simple reason, namely trade with the Alcidean continent. While at times merchants would head to other ports further east or west, most would make their trade at the northern ports instead as they were the closest.” - From a lecture by Garth Wainwrought, Socioeconomy professor of the Levain Institute for Higher Learning, circa 620 FP.

After another couple of weeks where they stayed and helped out at the capital of the former Wasir Shahdom – the new government had yet to decide what to rename the place – Aideen’s group left the city to the tearful gratitudes of many. Two weeks might have been a short time, but in that short time the three of them had helped over a thousand injured patients to recover from their injuries, all for no charge.

Of course, they happily gave the credit for “hiring” them to their local contact, as it didn’t hurt to have the people of the place viewing the Lichdom’s agents there with goodwill.

What the three did on behalf of their local contact was actually nothing unusual at all. While the local agents of the Lichdom were prepared to render every assistance they could to wandering agents like them, the process was not a one-way road. The local agents also received more direct benefits to themselves, especially since by then all of them were distant descendants of the original agents sent out long ago.

The Lichdom did not demand the agents who had ingratiated and assimilated themselves into the local populace to help out for free. Instead, the Lichdom would assist them – and their descendants who took on the roles later on – in various ways, be it monetarily or otherwise. They were also allowed to ask the wandering agents to help them out, should the latter have the capability to do so.

As Aideen was a very skilled healer, her assistance was particularly helpful in this case.

In a way, where the original agents had loyalty to the Lichdom, and passed on some of that to their descendants, their descendants would more often than not see the Lichdom as their family’s great benefactor instead. Those who were worshipers of Tohrmut – which was not all of them – tended to be more loyal, but that was more due to the Bone Lord’s status as the deity’s highest priest in the mortal realm.

Because of that, the relationship between the Lichdom and its foreign agents – most of whom were distant descendants many generations removed from the people originally sent out by this point – were more that of mutual benefits. The Lichdom offered many resources and aid that would make life far smoother for their agents, and the agents in turn did as they were required when the time came.

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Since most of what they were required to do amounted to passing on information and helping out their fellows, that never really caused any problem. The Lichdom did not fear betrayal from them either, even if one discounted the fanatically loyal ones. The combination of possessing a secret that could potentially destroy their lives as well as being a constant source of benefit kept the less fanatical ones in line easily.

From the recovering Shahdom, the three traveled further north and east, where they entered the territory of the Caracan Sultanate, the de facto hegemon of the northern region’s northern side. While the Hassid Caliphate was the largest and strongest out of all the northern nations, the Caracan Sultanate was a strong contender for second.

That said, the two powerhouses were staunch allies and trading partners, so together they formed a powerful bloc that even the rest of the states combined – if they could ever stop bickering amongst themselves long enough to do so – would barely be able to match them.

As it held control over most of the northern coast of the region, the Caracan Sultanate was a nation that made its prosperity by trade. They owned and operated the largest port in the central region of Ur-Teros, where many trading vessels from Alcidea would disembark and offload their goods. Due to their closer proximity to the northern continent, their main port at Caracan city itself was by far the most-used port by traders from the northern continent.

Aideen had naturally been there several times in her past, though the last time was when she left for Alcidea through Caracan a century and a half ago. In the time that had passed, the port city had only grown bigger and more grandiose. Other than the pervasive smell of the ocean – and fish – the city was easily the most prosperous that the three had passed in their journey to the northern regions so far.

Their local contact in Caracan happened to base their family in the capital city itself, and owned a large fishery business that distributes fresh fish throughout part of the city. They also operated a chain of restaurants in the city similarly famed for having the freshest catch of the day on their menu, making full use of their connection with the fishery.

Fortunately there was no civil unrest or any sort of upheaval in Caracan. The gossip they heard along the road was mostly revolving around a scandalous romance between the Sultan’s eldest son and a courtesan. To be specific, the scandal was not that the prince fell in love with a courtesan. That was nothing uncommon and more than a few Sultanahs had been former courtesans themselves.

The scandal was that the prince had gotten the courtesans pregnant out of wedlock, which was far less common as the locals generally had an attitude along the lines of having children only after marriage.

As a result, the city was abuzz with some rather rushed wedding preparations for said prince and his lover as it wouldn’t do to have the child be born before they even got married. Such a matter happening would have brought great embarrassment to the Sultan.

All considered, if that was the most serious incident that was worth gossiping about, then the nation was most likely in a good state.