The midway settlement was a breath of fresh air. I was not exactly road-weary, as the travel was rather straightforward, quick, and comfortable, but I was a bit Damir-weary.
“Let’s spend a handful of days here before heading on,” I declared after getting the wagon situated and the beasts stabled. “I’ll meet you back here on the fifth morning.” With that, I spun away, heading for the main road through the village where I could slip away.
“Wha–wait! Pilus!” Damir called out, chasing after me, but I had already shifted the light around me to disappear into the crowd.
I doubled back, just to make sure Damir would not do something stupid to my wagon, and heard him muttering his concerns about the captain killing him.
Oh, relax, I thought. I’m not bailing on you. I was almost certainly going to run into him again before we left as I would need to return to make sure my beasts were fed, cared for, and happy, so all he had to do was wait by them until I came back the next day. I could maintain an illusion, but I probably would not bother. Once he saw that I was coming and going, he should relax a bit, and enjoy the short stay in Checkpoint.
Checkpoint was a settlement almost as old as Gurt itself. When Gurt was going through its initial gold rush and became a walled city, there had been a ton of traffic along the east-west road, and not a single person was happy about making such an enormous journey without a place to rest and recover along the way.
At first, Checkpoint was basically just a small lodge with a dug well, but over time, people had built onto it. At first it was mostly enterprising merchants who only traveled as far east as Checkpoint before doubling back to Roko to resupply, providing goods at a markup that would help other travelers make the full journey to Gurt without needing to bog themselves down with the supplies right from the start, as long as they had a bit of extra coin to spend at the halfway mark.
With trade came other establishments and businesses, and people started hunting and farming more on-site, reducing the cost to ship goods in and thus becoming a more enticing option to profit off the through traffic.
The people of Checkpoint were opportunists, and successful at it. The settlement was larger than Freehold had grown to be in my time living there, and was likely one of the largest non-walled towns in the Kingdom. Had Gurt’s gold not dried up, Checkpoint probably would have eventually become a walled city itself, but once the crown lost interest in the east, support for Checkpoint from the capital had also dried up.
With Freehold growing and drawing some additional traffic to the east, Checkpoint had benefited quite a bit. The previous time I had passed through and introduced myself as the leader of the Tamers Guild out east, I had been given a good reception, and was looking forward to having a nice stopover again.
Of course, a town of opportunity also bred a bit of a dark side. With no army presence and less legal recourse, there were some elements in town that would prey on those passing through, rather than prosper with above-board business. The town was too large for bandits to raid, but as such, was large enough for criminals to survive in the shadows and fringes of the settlement. It contained, at the very least, the three people who were, at the moment, trying to rob me.
“I’m not sure I follow,” I said to the exasperated would-be thief.
“It’s not complicated!” he snapped. “Hand over your coin and valuables!”
I glanced down at myself, where I was wearing an incredibly valuable longsword and wearing reasonably nice clothes. I was a little road-worn and dirty, suggesting I was a traveler passing through, which is probably what made me a mark to these three.
“No, I understand that,” I drawled, tapping my chin. “What I’m having difficulty with is the fact that I’m being robbed by you buffoons in the first place.”
“Wh–don’t call us buffoons!”
“Yeah! You’re a buffoon,” one of the bandits added, pleased with himself with his clever insult.
“Maybe so,” I conceded, frowning. “But honestly, look at me. Do I look weak to you? Weak enough to just let three thugs take my belongings?” I may not have had my beasts with me—I never would have been targeted if so—but even still, I felt like I had somewhat of an intimidating presence. I doubled down on my decision to advance my strength skill again to increase my portrayal of an imposing figure.
“You’re just some wealthy merchant,” the head thief spat.
“Ah,” I said, understanding. In a flash, I drew my sword and took a martial form with it. “You thought this was just for show.”
One of the thugs clearly knew something about swordsmanship and paled slightly, but the other two took me arming myself as a signal to attack, and soon I had them incapacitated. I would have killed them, outside of town, but inside of Checkpoint it was not my place. I turned to the last one, who raised his hands.
“Hey, man, no harm done. I’ll just leave,” he said, taking a step back.
“Sorry, can’t let you do that. I’m kind of friendly with the folks that run this place, and cleaning up this mess is the least I can do.”
The third man was swiftly rendered unconscious as well, and I pulled some rope from my inventory, binding them with my knotting skill such that there was no chance of them escaping. Some random pedestrian took a turn down the small sideroad I was on as I was tying up the last man, and paused mid-step at the sight. His eyes grew wide at the sight of me surrounded by bound men.
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“Could you go grab a guard for me?” I asked politely, scratching the back of my head.
* * *
I got to my feet at the sound of keys clinking in the door of my holding cell. The door swung open, and in walked a well-kept middle-aged man in nice clothing, clearly from a good tailor in Roko. His hair was prematurely grayed, but was nicely cut and styled. He had the figure of a man who knew well enough not to let himself go, but clearly enjoyed the finer things in life.
He made a slight frown when he saw me. “Thieves?” he asked, and I nodded. He turned to the guards who followed him in. “This one’s clear. He was the victim.” He paused, then cleared his throat. “Well, the would-be victim.”
The shackles on my wrists were removed, which I could have done at any time and in any number of ways, but I did not want to cause my friend any additional headache. “Thanks, Bal.”
“Let’s get you a place where you can clean up,” Balathor said, shaking his head. “You look like you need a bath.”
“Hey, I only just got into town today,” I grumbled.
“In my town for all of half a day and already getting yourself accosted and then arrested. Never a dull moment with you. Please tell me you at least brought something to make bailing you out worth my while.”
“Always,” I said with a grin. Sweets and cheese were the best way to make friends and influence people.
Balathor and I left the settlement guards’ keep and headed back towards the center of the town, towards his home. I got about halfway before I realized that I would need to at least pretend to swing back to the wagon to get his gifts, but he waved me off. “Have a bath and get some decent food into you, for tonight. You can bring the gifts tomorrow, assuming they’ll keep.”
I nodded, and we continued on to his house, which was as close to a manor as a house in a settlement could be. Balathor was a wealthy Checkpoint merchant, and also the present leader of the town. Most settlements were led by the founder or their descendents, but most settlements rose and fell within a couple of generations. Checkpoint was long-standing and thus had seen ownership turn over several times, and the position of leadership generally belonged to the wealthiest in town, for the assumption was that their wealth would bring further prosperity to the settlement. It seemed to be working for them.
That was also a reason why Balathor had taken to me so well when we met. I was not Freehold’s leader, but even without Balathor knowing about my territory north of the village, it was clear that my Guild and I were the prime economic movers and shakers east of Gurt and the cause of the village’s growth. When he learned that much of the other business coming out of Freehold was either mine directly or something I had a part in building, he and his family saw a potential ally, and we became friends after my return visit, particularly because I ended up helping with some difficult business for him on my trip to Roko.
In the few years that followed, Marshan and other trustworthy people had passed a few letters back and forth between us, allowing me to give him a heads up about potential business opportunities, like when I empowered Marshan to transport cheese and other cold-storage goods further west. He had been able to buy a stake in the convoy early and profit off the cargo.
* * *
After a nice bath, I changed into some clean, borrowed clothes, and joined Bal and his family for dinner.
“Pilus, it’s so good to see you again,” his wife, Poressa said, clasping my hands in hers. She was a comely, capable woman who was just as active in the family’s businesses as her husband. “Thank you again for the information about the coldbox convoy. You really must introduce us to your engraver and enchanter. Everyone with enough magical power to use one will want one of these in their home, the potential is just enormous! Bal and I are both eager to invest!”
I chuckled. “Of course, once I return from the capital we can sit down and start working on the details,” I said, delaying. The main issue was that I was, for the moment, the only person capable of enchanting the ice-making enchantment, and I was not keen on sharing that knowledge with just anyone, but was also not planning to become a mass production machine in the near future. I would need to take trustworthy mage apprentices who I could share some fairly huge revelations about 4-point magic with, while not outing myself as the revolutionary mage in the north. Something to figure out in a year or two.
Extricating myself from Poressa’s eager grip, I turned to their eldest daughter, who was even more stunning than the last time I saw her.
“Lamora, it is nice to see you again,” I said, trying to keep my cool. When I had first passed through, I had been sixteen—though acting older, due to my illusion when I first settled in Freehold—and the gorgeous eighteen year old had caused me to stumble over my words. She had her mother’s curly hair, but instead of brown, hers was a dark blond that must have been her father’s color, before he went gray.
She had been engaged to marry the son of another merchant family in Checkpoint, so I was a bit surprised to see her at her family’s manor. In the three years since, she had matured into an even more beautiful woman.
“And to you,” she said, smiling politely, and I thought I saw her eyes dart over me, noticing my own changes since we last met.
“Um,” I said after an extended pause, ever the conversationalist. “Ah, how was the wedding?”
Balathor winced, and Lamora’s eyes darkened. “There was no wedding. That scum got a brothel girl pregnant, and when he found out, he ran away. Headed to Roko and no one has heard from him since.” She sighed, shaking off the anger that came with the memory. She looked me over again quickly, then slightly off to the side. “Good riddance, I say.”
Poressa’s eyes glittered for a moment, and she ushered us to the table. “Come, come. Pilus, sit here next to Lamora. I’ll call the boys in and we can eat.”
We got ourselves situated and a moment later, two boys, nine and thirteen, ran in. The youngest ran over, looked down, then frowned up at me.
“Where’s Treepo?” he asked innocently.
“Ah,” I started to say, but my voice caught in my throat. Despite him having a full life, the loss of my longtime companion still ached all these months later. I was not sure I wanted to explain death and the loss of a pet to a child, so I cleared my throat, and smiled at the boy. “He couldn’t make it. But I’ll introduce you to a special new friend tomorrow,” I said, deciding to bring Rika by to play with Bal’s sons.
“Yay!” he declared, and then went to take his seat.
It took me another moment to put my memories back to rest so I could focus on the dinner. I was glad people out in the world still remembered him, and that he had an impact, but it would be some time still before the memories stopped causing me emotional pain. I had lost pets before, and knew that over time, the fondness of the memories outweighed the hurt of the loss, but I was not there just yet. I reached for the jewel I wore on a chain around my neck under my shirt, and I gave it a reassuring squeeze before I focused on the delicious food.
“So,” Balathor said after dinner had been served and we had all eaten enough to slow down and resume chatting. “What’s taking you all the way to the capital?”
I put my fork down, leaning back into my seat. “What have you heard about the Tournament of Talents?”