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Immediately, your eyes are drawn right to the loaves of Sweetsalt. The first thought to cross your mind upon seeing them is to wonder just how expensive those fist-sized lumps are … but the second thought to cross your mind is to wonder just how expensive those fist-sized lumps would be, further inland. You would need to find someone with enough money to buy a loaf or two, which might be easier said than done, but … on the other hand, Sweetsalt keeps. So long as it is dry, and safe from vermin, it should last more than a few years, which would be plenty of time to find a buyer. And worst case, if you can’t sell it, then you can enjoy it yourself. To that end, you grab a pair of nippers. Seems like a pretty safe investment –
Oh, what the Hell are you thinking? Investment? You have never sold a damned thing in your entire life. Maker’s Mercy, you barely even haggle, and now you have gotten it in your head to become a fraying merchant. You are going to want – <span class="mu-i">to need</span> – to keep a low profile once you are outside of the Mount. For the rest of your life. So how does that square with going around, looking for rich Subjects or even Citizens to sell luxuries too? Those are the kind of people that you should be trying to stay away from, right?
Well … actually, now that you think about it … you are not so sure. In cities, you can rely on hiding in a crowd. But in the smaller towns and villages of the Interior, and especially in the settlements of the Frontier, you are not going to be able to do that, simply because there are no crowds. In fact, if you try too hard to keep yourself apart from everyone else, you will probably end up attracting <span class="mu-i">more</span> attention. Unless you are willing to live by yourself on the fringes of the Frontier or in the Great Gloom, you are going to have to master the art of hiding in plain sight. Some of these places are small enough that everyone will know you by name – it is going to be a whole other level than just disappearing underneath a Spotted Cloak.
Trying to put off wrestling with this for now, you start grabbing other stuff; a pound of salt, five pounds of dried beans, ten pounds of Emmer flour … which might be cheaper at a grocer, but it might also not be in stock, so why risk it? There is a single xylospongium back here as well, and after realizing that someone with as much money as you do would presumably be expected to have a personal xylospongium, you decide to grab it. Now the only things left back here are pouches of pipe tobacco and the Sweetsalt. Both of which are luxuries, both of which are presumably worth more the further inland you go. Which brings you right back to where you started.
Okay, okay. Unless you are willing – and more importantly, able – to become a complete hermit, you are not going to be able to hide away from the rest of the world. And having something desirable to sell – or to give as gifts, like Eupator with his filled saffron – seems sensible.
