“While nominally intangible, favors always have a way to make themselves useful, as long as the one who owed them was willing to own up to them.” - Saying attributed to the Silver Maiden.

“Congratulations, Madam,” said Aideen sincerely to the young woman she had just given a medical check with her magic. Like in Wasir, their local contact had seized the opportunity presented by having one of the most skilled magical healers in the world around to get into the good graces of the locals, so after a quick discussion Aideen had gone to the Sultan’s palace to check on the princess-to-be. “You are blessed with healthy twin children, a boy and a girl.”

“We are fortunate to be blessed by the Holy Ones…” muttered the woman with tears of joy at Aideen’s proclamation. The woman was naturally the source of the gossip that went around Caracan, the courtesan who had caught the prince’s eye from the rumors. She was a young woman, probably just a little over twenty, and had a graceful beauty to her features that made Aideen understand why the young prince was so captivated with her.

While courtesans like her were not considered to be a lowly profession in Caracan – unlike some other places – it was still a life-changing thing to find herself a prince as a paramour. Even becoming the concubine of a prince would have been a great thing, much less being their main wife like she was slated to become.

After all, while it would have been an implausible scenario in places like Oajib, Caracan had many precedents of courtesans joining the Sultan’s harem or even becoming the Sultanah. It still wasn’t a too common occurrence, but was far from scandalous for the nation’s sensibilities. As she had heard before, the scandal was that the prince got too intimate with his paramour before they were officially wed.

The blame for that was laid fully on the prince’s side, though, as given his status there was no possible way for his courtesan lover to reject him.

Aideen naturally had no qualms about helping the Lichdom’s local agent to gain a favor from the Sultan by merely helping check someone’s health. As the young courtesan was barely two months pregnant she wasn’t really showing the typical signs of pregnancy that much yet, and most healers would be unable to get more than a vague guess of the condition of the fetus.

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It was no obstacle to Aideen, though, given her skill and centuries of experience.

Moreover, there was no reason for her to refuse if such a simple and effortless good deed would end up benefiting people she’d consider her own so much. A favor from the Sultan might be a vague concept, but it remains a precious thing nonetheless, especially since their agent lived and did business in Caracan all their lives.

That favor might just smoothen the path for them to expand their influence in the future, which would allow a greater reach into whatever was going on in the Sultanate. Simply put, it was an easy task for her with great rewards in comparison to the ease with which she did it.

Technically such tasks were supposed to be Kino’s or Eilonwy’s job to do, but in the case of new agents being accompanied by an experienced one, it was far from uncommon for the experienced agent to help out where suitable as well. In this particular case neither Kino nor Eilonwy would have been all that useful for the task at hand anyway, given how their magical gifts were far more on the destructive end of the scale.

SInce they had time – they were ahead of schedule on their journey – Aideen accepted the young courtesan’s invitation to attend her wedding, which was slated to be held within a couple of weeks. In the meantime, the three instead enjoyed the hospitality that Caracan had to offer, as their local agent was all too happy to accommodate them and show the best places to enjoy while they were in town.

The girls quickly found out that some things were not for everyone, like the local habit of smoking certain leaves and dried herbs which were heated then had the smoke passed through water. Eilonwy enjoyed the experience just fine, whereas Kino found the scent too intense for her more sensitive nose and had her eyes watering after a single puff.

It was clearly something not tailored towards those of therian descent, given how many of them had a sensitive sense of smell.

On the other hand, they also quickly found out that Kino had a stronger tolerance to spiciness and sourness compared to most. While food in Ptolodecca proper tended to be on the spicy side, especially near the southern regions, it still paled compared to how some other cultures preferred theirs, and some such cultures did open eateries catering to their people in Caracan as well.

Eilonwy gasped for water after a mere spoonful of their cooking, but Kino seemed to find it quite pleasant. The same went for another place where the proprietor was a feline breed of therian from western Elmaiya whose food offerings were typical of the breed’s favored preferences, typically heavy on the meat with a strong sourness to it.

Since Aideen used to be married to one, she was aware that such preferences was partly because for that breed of therian, those flavors are what they taste the most, which was part of the reason their cuisine revolves around them. She had to admit that the lack of sensitivity to other flavors – and the outright inability to taste some like sweetness – at times led to creations that were questionable at best for people from other races.

In contrast, the breed of therian that Kino descended from was less sensitive towards sourness. Tastes that would have made most mouths pucker would just be a pleasant sourness to them. She also seemed to quite like the sometimes odd mixture of flavors that resulted from the cooking tailored for feline therians, unlike Eilonwy who just found it weird to the taste.

Of course, Aideen was far more used to it and even knew how to make some of them, given the decades she spent with Artair.