I had finally made it to Eto.

The ride across Lake Eto was uncomfortable and took longer than I had expected, but it had been surprisingly easy to not only get myself but my carriage onto a barge that crossed the large lake. All it had taken was a few silvers to the right people, and no one asked any questions, not even the soldiers that patrolled the docks.

If I had known how cramped the barge was going to be, I would have considered going around the lake and because rowers powered it and not sails, so it did not move fast.

It was only the first night on the barge when someone tried to rob me. Kitten, who refused to leave the carriage, had woken me up with a growl.

I soon heard sounds of someone climbing on the outside of the carriage. I had left nothing in any of the outside compartments but the fact that someone was touching my things without permission irritated me so I exited the carriage silently and knocked the man out. I then pulled him off by his clothes, careful not to make skin contact, and dragged him to the rear of the boat where I dumped him overboard.

No one bothered me for the rest of the trip.

When I finally disembarked two days later in Eto where I once again bribed my way past the dockworkers and soldiers.

Eto city itself was worse than I imagined. The smells alone made me want to gag. It smelled badly of urine, feces, body odor, and decaying bodies. There were also other smells I could not quite make out, but I guessed one of them was the smoke that came from the pipes many of the people smoked.

The city was also very dirty. Even Porra-Kel was clean in comparison. Most of the buildings looked like they needed to be torn down and rebuilt. Some of them looked like they had been patched so many times that I could not tell what the original part had been.

I also noticed beggars everywhere. Flaern's capital Flae had beggars too but nowhere near as many as I saw here and most of these were naked or nearly so. Some groups of them even had what I could only guess was leprosy.

The worst thing I saw was the slaves. Most were naked and the bruises and occasional cut were visible. I even saw a few being beaten for one petty reason or another. Several even looked like they had eaten little and their ribs and hips stuck out.

I soon had to force myself to ignore the surrounding sights. The farther I got into the city the worse the smell and unwanted sights seemed to get.

Now that I was in Eto I had no idea where I was going or where I should look first so I thought about what I needed to do. The first was to get rid of this conspicuous carriage and anything I didn't need. The second was to get the magic draining collar off of me. The third was to get out of Toa Mirr.

I decided that I would try to do all three at the same time. All I needed to do was find a black market dealer. Not only could I sell my stuff to them, but I could also hopefully buy information too.

I imagined it would not be hard to find one in a city like this. The only problem was getting someone to point me in the right direction and to not attract too much attention when I tried to find out.

I pulled my carriage over and called down to a drunken man hoping he would be more loose with his information.

"Oi," I said, trying to sound older and masculine. "Oi."

The man looked around a bit but didn't seem to notice me.

I reached into my coin purse and pulled out a copper coin. I threw it at him.

"Oi."

The man picked up the copper coin and then looked up to see who had thrown it.

"What'ch wnt." He said, barely able to form words.

"Do you know anyone I can go to, to sell some things. Someone… that doesn't ask too many questions." I said.

The man could barely keep his focus on me. I hoped I hadn't wasted that copper on him.

"No qustns?" He said.

He rolled his head around as his alcohol-filled brain tried to work.

"Ifv yu 'ad no qustns wy didj ya talk to…" The man's talking was annoying me so I just stopped listening.

I was about to pull away when someone called out to me. "You should know better than ta talk to tha drunks."

I turned back to the side of the road and saw a boy staring up at me.

"If ya need to find somebody I might be able ta help." He said.

The way the boy was looking at me told me he expected some payment before he would tell me anything.

I tossed him down a copper coin. He caught it easily.

"Who would hire someone your age as their carriage driver?" The boy said. "Could ya introduce them to me?"

I tossed him down another copper.

"Does he live in Eto or somewhere outside? I hope it is outside."

I turned forward and started to drive away.

"Wait!" The boy yelled.

I stopped and turned back to him.

"Do you mind if I get up? I will take you to someone." He said.

"Just don't touch me," I said. I didn't want to find out about this boy's life tonight.

The boy didn't seem to think my comment strange and climbed onto the driver's bench.

"So, do ya hide your face because of some horrible injury?" The boy said as I didn't answer and started driving.

"Stop here." The boy said not much later.

I had not been driving long and now found myself on one of the smaller back roads in Eto. There were a lot fewer people here, and the smell was not as bad but the people here looked to be a little more dangerous.

"I will fetch 'im." The boy said and jumped off. He ran into a nearby building.

In the meantime, I noticed that some men had taken an interest in me. None came close to my carriage, but I watched them nonetheless.

A few minutes later the boy came back out of the building accompanied by a tall skinny man wearing some of the cleanest clothes I had seen anyone wear in Eto.

"I hear you have some things to sell." The man said.

I nodded.

"Will you be selling them yourself or is your master inside?"

I glanced back at the carriage. The only living thing in there was Kitten. I was looking forward to their reactions when they saw her.

"I will be selling," I said.

"And what might you be selling?"

"The carriage itself and most of the things inside."

The man nodded and looked the carriage over.

"A fine carriage." He walked to the back door. I jumped down and met him there.

"Kitten," I said. "I'm opening the door."

"Kitten?" The man said.

"My pet cat," I wanted to laugh but held myself back, "She is not for sale though." Even though I had no problem with the idea of selling her, Kitten would have other ideas.

I heard a growl inside. It was most likely from my comment.

"That was a cat?"

"She's a big kitty."

I opened the door. Kitten immediately jumped out and headed straight for the nearest alley.

"That is your pet?" The man said, his jaw agape. "Where did you get it?"

"She just started following me one day," I said.

The man scratched his head but said nothing further about Kitten. "Let us see what you have," He said eventually.

The man jumped inside the carriage and began laying everything out.

"How does five hundred gold for everything sound?" He said a few minutes later after having looked over everything several times.

"Seven hundred," I said.

I had had plenty of time calculating the prices of what I thought everything was worth in Flaern and hoped I had a general idea of what price range I should go for.

"Five hundred and fifty." He countered.

"Seven hundred," I repeated.

"You seem pretty set on that price." He said. "But six hundred is as high as I will go."

I had never expected to get the price of seven hundred gold.

"How about six hundred and some information," I said.

"What kind of information?" The man replied with some interest.

"I need the services of a magic user and then a way out of Toa Mirr," I said.

"Finding you a way out of Toa Mirr is simple. It will take me a few weeks to set things up though. As for the magic user, that will be much more difficult. Most are fighting in Koa Flaer and they do not allow the ones still here in Eto outside of the palace unless on "business.” I might get the help of a noble, but even two thousand gold would not be enough for their help."

I nodded. I had expected it to not be easy to find a magic user in Toa Mirr.

"Come back in a week and I will tell you if your way out of the country is ready." He said.

The man then called out to someone. A man immediately came out from the same building the boy had gone into. He was holding a large leather sack.

"Six hundred gold." He said. He handed it to me and left.

I set the bag on the ground and began counting it.

"Meticulous are you not?" The man said.

It took me a few minutes to count it all, but it was all there and none of the coins appeared to be fake. I was impressed that they had prepared it as quickly as they had.

I nodded at him.

The man called out again and several of the men that had been lining the street came to the wagon. They then drove it into one of the wider alleys near the building the man had come out.

"Be careful with that money. Would not want you to get gutted." The man said.

After I had left the street with the black market dealer I looked for a place to stay. I was still carrying a bunch of supplies and the large sack of gold I had just received and I didn't want to be targeted by thieves.

The strange thing was that nobody seemed to pay much attention to me even though I had covered all of my body except for my eyes. The only thing anyone ever looked at was my bags. I wondered how many of them I would see later that night.

A few hours after I set off I had found no place that was abandoned. I had not wanted to rent out a room at an inn, but it looked like I was going to have to. The more I had seen of the city, the more I knew the money I would spend on a room would be worth it. The only thing I was worried about was that I would be more likely to be found by any unsavory characters.

I eventually found myself outside of one of the less run-down inns I had seen. I had seen what the insides of the cheapest inns were like and didn't want to sleep in the conditions I had seen. The more expensive inns were better, but they were just as likely to be infested with bedbugs, roaches, rats and the like.

I soon found out that getting a room was going to be more expensive than I had thought. The innkeeper had insisted that I uncover my face. This would not have been a problem at a cheaper inn, but I guessed this inn wanted to keep out potentially troublesome customers. It took one gold piece to make him think otherwise.

Not long after I had settled into my room did Kitten come. Kitten harrumphed at me but then jumped on my bed and began grooming herself.

"How much do you think I could sell you for, Kitten?" I asked the cat.

Kitten ignored me.