Yorrned asked her to do the entire two-mile stretch to the New Lands and was put out when Ylawes told him that was completely unreasonable both in scope and to ask Falene to exhaust herself when it wasn’t her job. Another [Merchant], Miss Tivete, was more reasonable. She was in her forties, a magic specialist, and her wagons were enchanted and rolled over the sands.
Three [Merchants] had solutions. One had [Caravan Unslowed (Mild Terrain)]. Another was Merchant Tivete with her wheels, and the third had enough Chests of Holding that his wagons were relatively unslowed.
Yorrned was one of six. The others were Tivete, [Magic Merchant], Lolsed, a [Merchant] who specialized in north-south trades via Liscor during the fall and winter, Anlam, the one with the most wagons, who had held down a lot of the farming enterprise past Remendia by buying and selling crops, and Raeta and Jobbi, a couple who had joined forces and funds to occupy a lot of the glassware importing.
He knew each [Merchant]’s wagon by the look and where they hung out. After Raeta and Jobbi had mysteriously not answered him rapping on their door—and glass windows of their personal wagon-home—and Lolsed had gone for a quick jog around the caravan, then ducked into another one, Ylawes cornered Miss Tivete.
To Salamander’s credit, he seemed like he knew what he was doing, and he didn’t posture as much with the adventurers. He was also under Merchant Tivete’s authority.
Anti-magic zone. Or rather, mana-negative zone. Ylawes didn’t like it. He didn’t like that their fresh food supplies had run from a comfortable month of surplus down to two weeks—if the runes held. He expressed this, politely, to Merchant Tivete.
At this, Miss Tivete laughed. She had bright green hair, dyed, was in her late fifties, and wore, as proof of her trades, a necklace that produced a bubble of tranquility. If it was cold, the air around her warmed. If it was rainy? She was dry. He’d seen the bubble eradicate mosquitoes too.
At this, Salamander nodded, and Ylawes realized the man’s eyes were sliding to Miss Tivete. She chewed on her lip, and he noticed she’d put on a jacket for the first time this entire trip. The [Merchants] all had a lot of coin; her jacket looked like expensive fur and pale blue fabric, something more expensive than cotton.
