Without a question the merchant took me along for a ride,finally having the ability to speak with people was very god send in a way since the ring was incredibly useful towards me.

There was a argument to be made when I traded my phone for his ring I actually wanted to hitch a ride with him and get information out of him while looking like a normal person,I could have always just copied his ring,but I most likely wouldn't be able to talk with him like this if I didn't show myself as someone ordinary.

The merchant introduced himself to me as alry he sells mystic items with magical properties ranging from charms to potions he goes from town to town and city to city to sell these items and make a profit picking up other items to sell them later a travelling merchant so to say.

-So what do you do dawn ? Where are you from actually You don't seem to be from this place

Alry asked keeping his attention towards the road while speaking to me,the path was straight I wondered why he needed to hold those reigns in the first place,but answered anyways.

-My home is pretty far away...I don't know where it is anymore I am a wanderer I hoped that you could enlighten me actually..

I asked showing him a wryly smile,alry looked at me for a moment with a appraising look in his eyes he wasn't suspicious of me or anything,but he picked up on the things I wanted to know and started explaining me some things I wanted to know.

The place we were currently in was the Bahan empire and not too far away there was also a city called "Iron Works" it was one of the main cities in this continent and acted as a trading network for supplies to be sent throughout the empire one of the main reason why alry needs to go there is to trade something off with a client he was in touch with to gain some more talons which roughly translated into coin.

-Here this is a talon a silver one see ?

Alry said pulling out a silver round coin roughly the size of a thump it had a symbol on which depicted a dragon stretching its wings both sides had the very same picture which made me slightly curious on what this symbol meant.

Alry saw my confused expression and spoke without me even questioning anything,he was the sort of analyst kind of guy it seemed knowing something just by looking at it most likely he trained that skill through many different items he looked at to see if they are fake or not or worth his while a interesting person who keeps to himself.

-The symbol on the coin is the founder of the empire you see this empire is home to not a single race,but many others combined ruled by a sole emperor which is the dragon bloodline people at first thought this empire would crumble quickly because of its weird way of keeping its citizens from many different races,but over time it flourished very much with its share of conflicts and wars of course,but these things quickly diminished,I grew up in this country and it is my home seeing many different people and experiencing all kinds of cultures in this country isn't a hard thing to do you get to know all parts of the worlds just next to your doorstep a gem if I have to say to myself

Alry smiled telling me his story I listened attentively while holding the coin in my hand,just to be safe I stopped time and broke the coin into half rewinding the time of both of these items and putting one of them back into my pocket for future problems I may encounter.

I started time again returning to the light rattling under my seat and giving the silver coin back to alry with a kind look on my face.

-Thanks for informing me it means a lot to me

Seeing my sincerity alry nodded and took the coin back into his pocket just before he put it back though he looked at it for a few moments with a strange expression on his face,it lasted only for a few seconds until he dismissed it and like that we continued talking I asked alry a few questions myself like for example the transportation circle something that could bring me back home or anything that has to do with magicians that could also potentially help me unfortunately alry didn't seem to know anything about real magic or a transportation circle even though he is a mystic merchant he only specializes in items that have magic properties.

-How about a gate that leads to a different world do you have something like that ?

I asked trying to make my question a bit more different then before,it can just be that he doesn't know what an transportation circle is.

Alry thought for a few moments and shook his head again turning his head to me with a grin on his face.

-No,something like that,I didn't hear anything of it you should better go into the city and ask the magicians association they are located on the left of the city next to the adventurers guild,but let me warn you those guys are kinda unfriendly folk they aren't very warm to strangers nor anyone that isn't in their group so don't try to make any trouble or you get yourself burned if not worse !

Alry said with a laugh,I nodded to him keeping his advise at heart and thinking about my situation,I should most likely go to these people and seek some answers to my problems maybe they do have a transportation circle...

While I was thinking about it suddenly a weird thought started to slip into my head..

What if I never get to go home ? What if I am stuck here ? What if there is no such thing as a transportation circle ?

The thought made me shiver for a bit,but I didn't let it get to me and instead refused to believe it just yet because I had no way of proofing it and even if I didn't find a way today there was always tomorrow or the day after if worse comes to worse I could even try to do something crazy like asking the emperor for help.

The little ride was not all too long 20 minutes tops I believe after a few minutes we soon saw the giant wall of the city we were about to approach the path lead directly to the gate where another few similar caravans and carriages were getting checked in front of the walls by guards slowly getting let through one after another.

Alry stopped talking after he saw the walls and instead concentrated on the road some more,I didn't mind him not talking,I was also very quiet thinking throughly of what I was about to do.

-And you are ?

While thinking absentmindedly the caraven soon reached the gate alry quickly pulled out his papers and showed the guard for what business he came from,the guard and a few others inspected the caraven,I also snapped back to myself and looked at the guard that was checking the papers...he was a different kind of fey with reptilian eyes and dark skin his eyes were pretty rotten to me not because they looked weird,but because he had that weird vibe to him that I get from these kinds of people and as expected the guard soon gave the documents back to alry and smiled at him,alry seemed to have guessed what the smile was about and felt slightly dreaded.

-It seems like these papers are from last year over the time the rules changed and the fee has also been raised so please if you would 20 silver talons ?

The guard raised his hand opening his palm towards alry demanding the money,the other guards who were inspecting the caraven from all sides also started laughing to themselves they were obviously cahoots in this and alry knew that very well getting slightly enraged,but not raising his voice one bit to the fraud.

I looked around for a few moments to see what the other people thought of this,the caravens behind us were a bit panicked,but didn't say anything for some reason and just kept a low head turning back towards alry I could see that he had a very pained expression rummaging through his chest pocket and light pulling out a sack that was most likely full of money.

-Hey guard...I pay for it

Alry and the guard were slightly surprised by my words alry even more so since he assumed that I didn't have a single coin on my body while the guard on the other hand didn't seem to care and moved his palm towards me.

-You..you don't have to

Alry spoke,but I didn't really listen and just made an act of rummaging through my pocket while breaking the coins into two and then rewinding them it took me a few seconds,but when I pulled out my hand out of the pocket both alry and the guard were wide eyed when they saw a mass amount of silver coins gripped in my hand.

-20 silver talons no more no less can we pass now ?

The guard just took the money without counting and quickly got out of the way with a rotten smile on his face as he gestured inside.

-Very well please have a pleasant day thank you for your patronage!

Alry wasn't sure what to do anymore he was still kinda angry at the guard,but I didn't mind and just nudged his shoulder to tell him to go on already...alry sighed and nodded his head giving the guard one last poisonous glare before finally entering the city.

-I will pay you back the coin I swear !

Alry quickly said to me,but I didn't mind it and just shook my head smiling at him.

-Its nothing really and I don't think we are ever going to meet again because of that look at this as a sign of gratitude for telling me a few things

I replied leaving a slightly confused alry next to me as I looked around the area for something that could help me,sure enough I saw a tavern bar not all too far away making it my first stop.

-Goodbye alry it was nice to have met you

I said quickly jumping off the caraven and walking towards the tavern bar while waving back at the wide eyed alry,he quickly got back to himself and waved back at me telling me goodbye and that he would someday repay his dept to me.

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