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Out of an abundance of caution, you decide against going any further. You simply stand out too much, and if someone attempted to detain you while you were tied up in the tangle of stalls and crowds, even in the best-case scenario, you cannot see how you would be able to get out of there with your cart. It is simply not a risk worth taking for fresh produce … and anyway, the odds that you would have the time to play around on the Life-Loom with anything you bought fresh before it started to rot is not particularly good. Once you have left the Mount, your best bet for making a clean break is to get as far away as fast as possible – making a point to take as few stops as you can. Preferably, you would be on the road day and night, but that would not be possible with just one set of horses.
Feeling frustrated with yourself that you came all of this way only to turn around at the last minute, you find yourself wondering if you are just jumping at shadows. Perhaps you are. But after being recognized by that Tartessian merchant, Eupator, you should not be taking risks like this for turnips. You turn your cart around and head back to Spinster’s Street, all the way over in Cleanport, keeping your head down and sticking to side streets whenever possible. There are some alleys on this route as well that you could save you a half a minute here and there, but unfortunately you cannot fit the cart through all of them, not to mention that muggers and cutpurses lurk in these alleys. Not many, mind you, as the Port Authority, for all of its faults, does keep footpads and muggers in check. Partly because they can pull talents directly from the Imperial Treasuries to pay for men, and partly because as an Organ of the Empire, they are exempt from paying the Arming Tax, which every Citizen, from Princes to merchants must pay to have armed men in their employ – in addition to licensing them, which typically involves additional costs. It is a good system for suppressing the growth of privately held armies, but as an armed watchman draws the same tax as a soldier, it does lead to some Vassal holdings not having enough Guards to properly keep the peace.
You recall your father once telling you about how there have been several attempts at addressing this over the last hundred years, by either creating some exemption for Guards, or tiering the tax. Conspicuously, none of these reforms ever left the Senate, even though it would have plainly been in their interest, as nearly all Senators are Vassals. Your father took as proof that the Senate was just as derelict in its duty as a balance as it was during the First Civil Interregnum. Whenever it would come up, he would roundly denounce their weakness and hypocrisy. You never really understood why father was so indignant about politics, and the failure of Arming Tax reform in particular, considering that fewer Guards were good for the two of you, but as he never appreciated those kind of questions you never asked.
