It was about noon when we finally continued on our way. Cutting apart the hog had taken more time than I had thought, even if we had reduced the time needed to make the meat last by quite a bit using the simple expedient of me, freezing the meat using magic. Who needed electric refrigeration, if you could simply wave your hand and cool something far beneath freezing? It made me wonder how the relatively ready availability of refrigeration would have changed history. I had once heard that a large part of early european trade was for spice, to mask the taste of improperly refrigerated meat but with Ice-Magic, there wouldn’t be such a thing, reducing the impetus, which would logically reduce the spread of ideas and knowledge even further. It was an interesting thought-experiment and, once we were on the road, I spent a bit of time thinking about it.

“There’s a group coming down the road.” Lenore told me over our connection. She was, once again, out scouting, making sure that we didn’t run into a group of centaurs.

“Centaurs?” I asked back, while warning the others about the possible danger.

“No, I think they are merchants.” she answered, adding what she was seeing. I agreed with her, it wasn’t a centaur-patrol and judging by the fact that they had multiple carts, all drawn by oxen, I had to agree with her. I also noted that there were armed guards around the wagons, some of them mounted on horses, others simply moving by foot.

After a moment of discussion, we decided that meeting them shouldn’t be a problem. In addition, I wasn’t certain that they hadn’t spotted us, if I had ways to scout ahead unseen, who knew if they had similar tricks up their sleeves. If they had, suddenly vanishing into the woods would make us look like a group of bandits and might cause them to attack us preemptively.

Once again, Adra moved to the front, turning herself into her normal form instead of her goat-like form. Or rather, I might call it her form a Pronghorn, at least that was the closest animal I had found when I had done some research. It made me wonder just how a dryad from her grove had seen such an animal, normally only native to North America, or Aletoma as it was called on Mundus. Sadly, Adra herself had no idea how it came to be.

We continued at a sedate pace and it only took us a few minutes until the caravan got into view and it was obvious that they had spotted us. Lenore also alerted me that there were two people, most likely scouts, in the woods to our right, armed but not looking as if they were ready to strike. One of the escort-riders sped up, quickly closing the remaining gap before slowly down early enough to not seem threatening. It was a curious dance, a projection of strength and vigilance without trying to look threatening. I also noticed that Adra had her spear in hand, the strange, crystalline wood giving off a dangerous vibe while Sigmir had her shield in hand but not her axe.

“Hail, Travellers!” shouted the rider, waiting for Adra to return the greeting before approaching further.

I kept part of my attention on the images shown to me by Lenore, who was using her special sight to track the humanoids through the forest, making sure that the rider wasn’t some sort of distraction. Meanwhile, the rider and Adra had exchanged introductions, I had acknowledged mine with a simple nod, not caring that I might seem impolite. I had almost lost Lenore to a bandit-ambush once, I wasn’t about to let my guard down when there might be enemies in the trees.

Adra and the rider, an orc named Korlem, started chatting about the conditions of the road ahead, for either party and the problems one might face while travelling. I noticed that the beings hidden in the forest seemed to relax, no longer keeping hidden but continuing on their way to scout further ahead. When Adra asked about the next towns ahead, we were told that there were a few villages but that the next real town was still a long way off.

In turn, Adra told the orc about the Ankeghs that had attacked us during our travels on the windswept plains. She even mentioned the trouble we had left behind in Kolyug when he asked about the town, obviously knowing about it. When he heard about it, he merely grumbled, saying that Kolyug had withstood everything thrown at its walls for generations, that the trolls living there would still be there when the world came to an end. It seemed that the town was more than just a little famous, a singular, civilised outpost in the hostile north, the target for most caravans. If we had got there in the spring or summer, not at the end of winter, we would have seen a bountiful trading hub, at least if we had spent more time there.

Finally, Adra asked about potential trouble on the road ahead for us, complaining about the centaurs heavy-handed attitude with us. When he heard that, Korlem laughed, waving it off as a military officer throwing their weight around. From what he said, there were always some groups that tried to intimidate individual adventurers and merchants but once we got to civilisation, we should talk to the Guild there, report on what had happened. Few groups wanted to actually tangle with the Guilds, something we had heard before.

Without really thinking, I spoke up and asked why the Guilds had that much power, if there was no king or emperor who curbed them. He looked at me for a moment, before raising an eyebrow, asking, “Oh, you are a Traveller, not just travelling, right?”

“Yes, why?” confirmed it, still a little confused.

“Most people would know that, unless they were raised outside of civilisation.” he stopped and looked the four of us over, not just me, before shrugging and explaining, “There was an emperor once, long ago. But his empire has crumbled and merely relics of a bygone age remain. This road, for one, was built by them.”

“And for the power of the Guilds, well, it is simple. The merchants are the ones who trade over long distances, if you want something that can’t be made in your clan, tribe or village, whatever you call your community, you will deal with a member of the Merchant’s Guild. If you try to control what they do, they simply don’t come into that territory. Through them, we, the Adventurer’s Guild have our place secured as well, the Guild organises trustworthy escorts for the merchants, without that, they’d have to organise their own, standing force. Can you imagine how much that would cost?” he explained, before continuing with a sly grin.

“Another service, other than trading, that the Merchant's Guild provides is money. Not only do the merchants mint it, they also loan it to trustworthy groups and people. Piss either of us off and you can’t even try to bribe people to trade with you.” he finished, sounding quite happy.

It only took me a moment to see the interwoven power-structure and how hard it would be to trade across distances where nobody actually reigned. In past times, on Earth, Empires had sprung up to facilitate trade, using their formidable power to secure the trade-routes. Here, that wasn’t necessary, the Guild filled that niche, reducing the impetus. I also vaguely remembered that, during the middle ages on Earth, some nations had essentially used a similar system of trading and lending money to build a power-base but I couldn’t quite remember the details.

I thanked Korlem for the answer, before stepping back, behind Sigmir, letting Adra take the conversation over again. Instead, I focused on Lenore, looking at the Caravan from above, making sure that nothing untoward would happen.

“You are Morgana, right?” a voice startled me a little, one that I had never heard before. Looking up, there was one of the guards looking at me, grinning like a fool.

It was a beastman but I wasn’t quite able to tell what sort, only that it was some kind of feline.

“I’m a huge fan, so cool to see you.” he gushed and I quickly realized that it was another Traveller. For a moment, I had no idea how to react, so, instead of dealing with him, I pulled at my magic, causing Sigmir’s shadow to coalesce around me as I stepped into the shadowrealm, hiding outside of their sight. It was a little strange, my own senses were muted as if I was deeply underwater, while the connection to Lenore remained steady, allowing me to get a good look at what was happening.

It looked like Sigmir was about to gut the guy who had addressed me, while Korlem was standing between them, trying to calm her, while not quite sure what was going on. Not wanting to be the cause of trouble, I took a deep breath and left the shadows, wrapping an arm around Sigmir’s waist as I emerged, using my magic to cause a burst of mist to emanate around me, just for the show-effect.

“I am Morgana.” I announced, activating Overflow, so that my eyes were glowing icy-blue, trying to get as much ‘Kneel before me’ into my voice as I could. The wide-eyed reaction from both Korlem and the unknown Traveller was quite satisfying.