I spend a little time helping our friends through customs, and a little more getting ordered equipment over and stored in our personal chests in our rooms. Potions, rations (including some large jars of gifted marmalade), cooking gear, fishing line, rope, things I'd never have considered but that Sekhmet already has well in hand.

It's tiring work, and for a moment I need to take a break, sitting on the bed; then Sekhmet hands me two small dark glass bottles.

I look at them, uncomprehending.

"Brain pills," they say. "From Frankie Bacon and the Flammites."

"OH." I open them up; one is a set of small, pale blue pills while the others are pastel pink lozenges. "Did they say which are which? How to take them?"

"And mentioned that there might be side effects," they say - frowning, flat eared, and grimacing. "Which I'll tell you about. Don't take these on an empty stomach; they said to drink them with milk if you miss eating one in the morning with a meal."

I sigh, and put them on my bedside table. "I guess I... I never thought about this as something I could fix. My life just sucked before I got here."

"And not for any reason you could control?" Sekh asks.

I laugh, but it's hollow. "No, the opposite. Dead end job, overweight, no prospects, no love life. And always wondering if there was something I could do."

Sekhmet sits next to you on the bed. "I'm not gonna say there was no room for self-improvement, Deeds, but we did also kind of get fucked over IRL. Maybe me more than you."

"Don't think for a second that your being around while you couldn't pay was fucking me over," I warn, real anger in my voice - but not at them. "Apart from being cleaner and better AT cleaning than me, I needed a friend around."

"Also my genderfucky butch look was hot," they say, smirking. "That had to be a plus for you too."

Given that I had a crush on them it's all I can do to roll my eyes at this, but I'm also pretty sure my ears perked up too and I really hope they didn't notice.

"Fuck you, Sekh," I say without any real venom. "That's why you got all the hot chicks instead of me at our house parties."

Sekhmet caws laughter. "This is why Flamma sent you to me, I figure. She knows you need to get laid, and that I - with my lumpia that brings all the boys to the yard - was just the wingcatte for the job. But seriously..."

I breathe a sigh of relief, and hope they take it as exasperation. "But seriously?"

"There was a lot of fucking you over to go around on top of your personal problems," they say. "And like, I could stand you, and your needing these makes sense to me - your needing these, and getting fucked by a system that didn't notice you needed them and wouldn't pay for them."

I... hadn't thought of it like that.

"All this from one year of economics and hanging out with Leesh's co-workers, huh?" I say.

"And a lot of lived experience," they add, nudging me in the shoulder with a closed fist. "You got that you're not as good as you hope. I bet you think that every goddamn day. So let me remind you that you're not as bad as you're afraid of, okay? And that not all of your life is a mess you made."

I take a deep breath.

I exhale.

"Thanks for the reminder," I say, looking them in the eye.

They bow their head and purr, and I feel my heart unhelpfully twinge and ignore it - I thought I was over this terrible idea - offering a fist to bump.

Which they do.

"So now all I have to worry about how to pay for dinner," they say, rising.

- that's right!

I grab a card from a small pocket in my robes and present it to them. They take it, and blink, uncomprehending.

"How about a jar of marmalade, and any other nice food we feel like sparing?" I say.

They look at me, again, trying to figure out where I'm going with this. "Sounds like a good deal. Where the hell can you get dinner for that, though? Who gave this to you?"

"A girl I met," I say.

They blink. "Introduce me sometime?"

"At the pirate fortress," I say.

It takes them a moment to figure out how these are connected, but the look on Sekh's face when they do is a treasure.

---

Shadi's father is a merchant named Tayeb, a broad and somewhat short middle-aged man with a dark complexion and a well-cared for mustache, wearing cream and crimson robes and a turban with a gilt Solar Cross - effective marketing, you think, for the same colors and styles of textiles and jewelry draped across his stall.

Or rather, draped over a large window of the first floor of his house.

I start off by apologizing for not making my intentions known sooner, and imposing on his home, which he immediately waves off as nonsense.

"I have been expecting you ever since you brought back my darling home safe," he says. "It is no trouble at all to meet you - to thank you - in this way, hero. On the contrary, it is an honor and a blessing."

I'm not used to effusive praise, and maybe grimace a little, which I try to hide with a bow and by thrusting the jar of marmalade at him. "Thank you for inviting us to your home, then, and uh - here's a little something our Company picked up on the way."

"I've also got something you might find useful," Sekhmet says - far more politely than they usually speak, you notice, as they take a pouch off their belt and present it. "I managed to find some plants and things on the Shores of Awakening that are useful as dyes, perfumes, or incense. I can't brew those up myself - yet - but I'm sure you can make better use of them."

He puts a hand to his head, as if dazed by this news. "A princely gift, you realize?" he says, as Shadi comes up, one hand over her mouth, to take the marmalade jar.

"I wouldn't say so," Sekhmet says. "Just some yellows and greens, I think - they were fresh out of purple snails. Just thought you could make more use of it than me."

Ace and Alesha - the one in her skirt and blouse, the other in a long blue dress - exchange glances. They weren't expecting Sekhmet's contribution any more than you were. Hikaru, on the other hand, hides his surprise rather better under the rim of his hat and the curl of his hand.

"A shame, but it is still generous - quite generous, hero," he says - ruffling Shadi's hair as she gets out of his. "If you were afraid of eating me out of house and home, you need worry no longer."

"Honestly I was worried," Ace admits. "I've been really hungry since I got here. Uh, to Yberia."

Tayeb shakes his head, gesturing with his cane. "You are new to this life, then?" he asks.

"Very," she and Alesha say at the same time, and look at each other.

He chuckles. "I have entertained mercenaries and heroes before - it's a part of doing business, when the roads are in disrepair and caravans are more in need of escort now than ever. I am used to adventurous appetites. Don't think I didn't know what I agreed to when I invited you to dine with me."

Hikaru exhales. "In which case, we will break bread with you with thanks and with pleasure," he says, bowing low with a sweep of his hand.

"And tell you how happy we were that we saved an innocent from suffering," Alesha adds, a fist over her heart, "and in so doing met you, Tayeb."

"As I am gladdened by your answering her prayers, and mine." Tayeb says, bowing his head - before throwing open his door. "Now come! My wife set a stew bubbling yesterday, and steaming our grain will be a matter of moments."

My stomach chooses that moment to agree with him, and I try to laugh it off as he, delighted, laughs at me.

...No, at the noise.  It was impeccably timed, after all.

---

He cooks for a crowd anyway - his grandfather and grandmother, an aunt, his two sons, and his wife - all human, but that makes sense. There's a lot of handshaking and introductions and frankly embarrassing praise and blessings.

And the food is good. Really good. Very fresh green salad dressed with salt, herbs, lemon and olive oil; cracked olives; toasted almonds; hummus and baba ghanoush; long-simmered lamb and vegetable stew served with bowls of fluffy couscous; flatbreads that remind me of naan, used as both utensils and plates in the absence of either.

Hikaru takes a moment to whisper instructions to use right hands only, sotto voce, and everyone is given the chance to wash hands before courses.

Me and mine make small talk over this and free flowing mint tea; I can't help it, and I'm pretty sure we're letting details about the world we left for this one slip.

Oh, everyone is careful to couch it in the right terms - Alesha talking about charity work and almsgiving, Hikaru speaking of his nanofactory work as if it were just engineering, and Ace talking about not being able to hack pro ball and becoming a performer and busker before Adventuring - but I can tell from the way he speaks, and talks, and strokes his chin...

Hell, he outright told us that he thought of this dinner as a business investment. It would be a mistake to underestimate how much Tayeb understood, or the questions he asks and the sympathies he expresses for the people your party left behind.

It's not manipulative, I think, not really - but this is his job, and he's good at it, and the way he's good at it is by the art of rapport.

Which is why when he breaks out tiny cups of coffee and a large cake, and proposes a toast "to faraway shores and distant friends," I'm listening as closely as I can, both ears locked onto the jovial merchant, with his bright smiles and expansive gestures.

"God, can I ever drink to that," Alesha sighs, raising her cup. "To distant friends."

I still can't really think of any that aren't here - except, after a moment, Jasmine.

"To distant friends," I agree, as the others echo with different degrees of pain.

Tayeb strokes his mustache before he drains his cup, and then pours for others from a silver samovar-like pot.

"So, my friends and honored guests," he says. "I assume you are either looking for the next job, or have found it and are about to set out. Yes?"

I take a deep breath.

We can trust him, I think.

"We've been asked to look into a problem in the village of Vinyedo," I say, and you see his grandmother's eyes go wide at the exact moment his narrows. "We have quite the journey ahead of us, and this was our last night before we set out on it."

"I see, I see," he says. "Do you know the way, how you'll get there?"

"I've been looking into it," Sekhmet growls. "It's mostly road, so it'll be two or three weeks. The problem is all the stuff we need to take with us - I'm sure you'd understand the logistical problems."

He laughs. "Well then, it seems my answered prayer will in turn answer yours."

"How do you figure?" Ace asks, looking up from examining the marmalade - which you brought Tayeb- on her cake.

He spreads his arms wide, palms up. "My darling daughter and I will go with you, of course - by swift cart to Vinyedo."

Alesha shakes her head, and both me and Sekhmet frown at the same time. "That's out of the question," she says, with a smile. "We could not possibly inconvenience you further."

"Without compensating you," I blurt out.

Alesha shoots me a look, more confused than angry.

"Which, uh, I'm pretty sure we can't afford," I say, gesturing to Sekhmet - who immediately gets it, thank one or another of the gods.

Sekhmet nods. "Yeah, we don't have the budget for that until after we get paid - which is way too long for you to go without something jingling in your purse, we think."

And then, he laughs. Loud, bright, happy. "Ah, ser Herezhade... rather than an inconvenience, you have arrived at a most fortunate time," he says. "Amina, ser, is from Vinyedo, and it is my wife's and her sister's weaving that fed you tonight."

Alesha blinks.

But she's quick on the uptake. "Then we will very happily see you and your daughter safe to your family," she says, bowing, "and your family's fine linens and woolens back home from there."

"And the wines," he says, beaming. "I drink little, myself, but you have not tasted wine until you have tasted my cousin Bruno's vintage."

"We'll have to see," Alesha says.

And with that - easy as that - we've got the party's transport covered.