I needn\u2019t have worried. This is the first inn I\u2019ve stayed at in months, and when I looked in a proper mirror, I was shocked by my reflection. I\u2019m so gaunt that I barely recognize myself, and I doubt someone who saw me for a couple of days eight months ago would do so, either. While Davio taught me a handful of spells that were useful for a life spent mostly on the road\u2013including one that kept me clean enough to neither look nor smell like the vagrant I\u2019ve become\u2013none of them provided food. This is what weeks of near-starvation look like.<\/span><\/p>\n The point was driven home when I sat down for a late lunch in the common room. The server put a large bowl of stew in front of me and said, \u201cThis one is on the house.\u201d I didn\u2019t ask. I knew why.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cI can perform tonight, if you like,\u201d I said to her. The inn was nothing special, but I couldn\u2019t afford better. Truthfully, I couldn\u2019t afford \u201cnothing special\u201d, either, but I had to stay <\/span>somewhere<\/span><\/i>, and the cheap ones aren\u2019t great for live music. Some aren\u2019t even safe to sleep in. If they\u2019d have me, I could make this one work.<\/span><\/p>\n She gave me a skeptical look\u2013I would have done the same in her position\u2013and she told me I\u2019d need to speak to their manager first. Fair enough. It was just another audition, and I\u2019ve had plenty of those.<\/span><\/p>\n I\u2019d set aside some of the money for a flute, and finding a simple wooden one in the city markets was easy enough. It was a far cry from what I had been playing the past couple of years, but it would do. A couple of hours later, I was performing for the evening crowd.<\/span><\/p>\n As absurd as it sounds, playing taverns and inns along the way is my plan for reaching Breachill without starving. The math barely works. Most nights I\u2019d just break even, but if a few go as well as tonight, I\u2019ll come out ahead. If not\u2026 well, I am trying not to think about \u201cif not\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\n I\u2019m also trying not to think about Isger. We didn\u2019t spend more than a few weeks there, but that was long enough to make me dread going back. To put it bluntly, I don\u2019t feel safe there.<\/span><\/p>\n Traveling the roads in Druma carries little risk. For all that people complain about the Mercenary League being cozy with the Kalistocracy, they do a good job of keeping the trade routes free of trouble. I have walked countless miles both in small groups or completely alone, and I rarely felt threatened. Isger is another matter entirely. I\u2019ll have Iskaryn to watch out for me, sure, but I am better off not traveling by myself.<\/span><\/p>\n But that\u2019s a problem for another day.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Alabastrine late night I needn\u2019t have worried. This is the first inn I\u2019ve stayed at in months, and when I looked in a proper mirror, I was shocked by my reflection. I\u2019m so gaunt that I barely recognize myself, and I doubt someone who saw me for a couple of days eight months ago would […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[87],"tags":[88],"class_list":["post-5373","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-aoa-vignettes","tag-aemi"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dungeonetics.com\/gamediary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5373","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dungeonetics.com\/gamediary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dungeonetics.com\/gamediary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dungeonetics.com\/gamediary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dungeonetics.com\/gamediary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5373"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.dungeonetics.com\/gamediary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5373\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5378,"href":"https:\/\/www.dungeonetics.com\/gamediary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5373\/revisions\/5378"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dungeonetics.com\/gamediary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5373"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dungeonetics.com\/gamediary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5373"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dungeonetics.com\/gamediary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5373"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}