“Some people give advice to others because it benefits them to do so. Yet others might give out advice with ulterior motives. In reality, few people give advice out of kindness, as even the old teachers that taught you all you know of might have their own agenda to do so.

After all, too much advice easily turns into indoctrination.” - Nikodemos Mirabilis, Elmaiyan philosopher, circa 172 VA.

After the single incident with the bandits, the caravan crossed into the territory of the Locis Shahdom mostly unbothered, other than some grubby border guards who wanted a bit more than the usual toll. Since the merchant just paid them the little bit extra they asked for and rolled with the punch, though, nobody interfered with the matter.

As for the Shahdom itself, the relatively small nation – more a city-state, really, with just one major city and many villages strewn in its territory – was relatively unaffected by the ongoing skirmishes with the Khanate and the Emirate. For them, it was just the usual business, and since all three nations kept the fighting from expanding too much, it didn’t affect most of the populace.

While the stretch of land that included the exit of the valley pass was a profitable one, it wasn’t profitable enough for the three nations to go into all-out war and risk weakening themselves to the point that their other neighbors might take advantage of them instead. After all, the merchants from the pass would still have to pass their territory on their way to head deeper to the north.

Naturally, that meant tolls and taxes to be collected, which made up a significant part of those small nations’ incomes.

The merchants remained for a few days in the Shahdom, offloading some of their trade goods to local merchants they had contact with, in exchange for local specialties to be traded elsewhere. During the process, Aideen’s group of three mostly stayed at a local inn, since they were only asked to help as guards or to entertain the crew during the trip itself, not during pauses when the merchants were doing business.

Kino still practiced her singing and playing in the tavern part of the inn they were staying in, though, to the appreciation of other tenants and the inn’s proprietor. The proprietor was not so foolish as to reject some free entertainment, especially when it was on the good side of the scale.

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As a bonus, the merchant had also waived the travel fees for Aideen and Eilonwy to thank them for their help with the bandits. Out of that mess, only a few of the guards were even injured, injuries that Aideen took care of within moments, though unlike the usual, she only healed the injuries partially and allowed the other two girls to practice what they learned of the more mundane methods of healing.

While neither Kino nor Eilonwy were that interested in the topic, it was mandatory for Death’s Hand members to learn as the knowledge might save lives during an operation.

On the last day of their stay in Locis, however, the merchant whose caravan they were traveling with invited Aideen, Kino, and Eilonwy over for dinner. The three saw no reason to refuse the invitation and accepted, finding a normal – if more luxurious – dinner spread awaiting them along with the merchant in question, and partook of the meal without a second thought.

It was not until they had finished eating and the servants had left that the merchant breached the topic that made him invite them to dinner.

“Madams, you are planning to depart from the caravan at Oajib, as planned, correct?” asked the merchant carefully. The way he acted was one that Aideen was familiar with, the look of a man who had unfortunate news to convey and didn’t enjoy having to do it. Since she already had a good idea what said news was, Aideen only upped her assessment of the merchant a notch instead.

“We are, good sir,” replied Kino with a nod as she refilled her cup with some sweet fruit wine from a brass pitcher. “Might I inquire the reason for your question?”

“I just wish to offer some advice, madams, that Oajib is not a good place for women to go on their own,” said the merchant after a moment of struggle in choosing his words. “Please hear me out first, if you could. Oajib is a place that’s rather… backwards in how they treat women. They held no respect for them, and generally considered them mere property of their men.”

“Although you are clearly foreigners and naturally not beholden to their ridiculous ways, since all of you are women, there will likely be more than a few of the cretins who would seek to… teach you of their idea on how women should behave,” continued the merchant. “Now, I am well aware that your friends are very capable of defending themselves, madam, but that place is their home ground, and if the cretins were to escalate the matter it might cause quite a bit of problem for you three. Why not travel further to Assadun? It will be a more pleasant place to stay, even if only for a short while.”

“Thank you for the advice, sir, but those issues are partly the reason why we have chosen to depart there,” replied Aideen with a grateful smile on her face. “These two… haven’t seen the world much, so I felt that it might be good for them to see that not every place in the world is a beautiful place… if you get what I mean?” she continued. “And you have no need to worry about our well-being either. We have our ways, let’s just leave it at that.”

“Uh… If you say so, madams,” replied the merchant with a somewhat unsure tone. The man seemed genuinely worried about the three of them, which was a rare bit of kindness in strangers, to say the least. Aideen made a mental note to pay the merchant back in some manner should a chance present itself in the future.

After all, the three of them would be spending quite some time in the northern regions anyway.