In the end the human merchants had to leave half a cart's worth of goods behind. The Al Jirtea group handed out some of the food they decided to give up on and burned the rest. Sixteen bodies also got left behind, though all had died before Delilah had reached them. The half elf had to rest for a full day afterwards, but she managed to stave off the worst poisons and heal up the injured enough that they would survive the rest of the trip.

  A trip that turned out to be fairly boring after the initial excitement. Shiina had made sure to stay watchful, but nothing had bothered them except the sand, wind, and a snake that decided it wanted to nest in one of the carts. It hadn't even been venomous.

  So she'd spent the rest of the time with Zanya, refining her Technique. It wasn't just a good move for rescuing people, it was also something she could use to help out in a fight without getting underfoot.

  At last the stone walls of Al Jirtea appeared in the desert before them. The tall walls of sandstone hid the smaller buildings, but towers of marble capped with alabaster or bronze reached up higher into the sky. Flanking the gates were statues big enough to be visible even at this distance. And the place seemed to ooze magic.

  The caravan, glad to be at the end of the journey, cajoled the desert plodders to hurry just a little more. Soon Shiina got a better view of the gates. The massive steel doors were at least twenty feet tall, and covered with prayers in the local tongue. To either side fifteen foot tall statues of a halfling riding a lion drew attention from the actual guards, who looked far more boring. A portcullis blocked most of the open gate, but an internal door had been installed, big enough to allow two carts through at a time.

  The guards checked the IDs with a magic device, seeming to handle each caravan all in one inspection. They searched over the dwarves' info along with Shiina and her friends quickly, before the leader turned to Terasil. "Just passing through to Bone Mountain?"

  "Aye. Got supplies for our kin." Terasil shrugged. "Though we'll need to wait a day for the next caravan heading that way. No way we'll be able to take the route solo."

  The guard nodded, accepting the story. "Entry fee is two gold a head. Remember taxes apply even for small sales."

  Shiina grimaced at the ridiculous fee. But there wasn't much they could do to complain. Terasil handed over cash for everyone. They'd have to pay the dwarf back for that.

  Entering the city proper, Shiina saw that here near the edge of town, the buildings were more normal. The stores and houses were covered in intricate tiles and the storefronts were flashier than Shiina'd ever seen before. But the ridiculous palatial residences weren't the norm. Just far more common than she'd have ever thought.

  The citizens were also more diverse than she expected. The halfling merchants in the stores looked wealthy, but not the ultra rich that had to own those mansions. And the rest of the people traveling the streets were either foreigners or slaves. People of all races in all sorts of clothes walked to and from trading houses. Meanwhile all the manual labor was handled by downtrodden collared slaves. Most of those were catfolk, though a number of halflings and other races were visible as well.

  "If you're looking for the rich bastards that own the place, don't bother," Terasil said quietly. "They're all in their mansions lazing about, or running caravans to throw money around outside the city. The shops here mostly cater to the merchants who are trying to pry some of the gold out of the noble's hands."

  "Kinda weird having a city that's mostly run by people who aren't citizens," Shiina remarked.

  Delilah nodded in agreement. "I'm starting to see why the nobles back home were so smug about how nice they were to us. They were comparing themselves to these people."

  Shiina looked to Zanya. "Can we destroy the city? Pleeeease~" She tried puppy dog eyes.

  "Not until after we're done with work. And not while we're here under guild protection," Zanya replied offhand. "Also those eyes are creepy. Never do that again." Shiina pouted. She'd thought she'd emulated dog eyes perfectly.

  "Now that we're done with the jokes, we should start with some planning," Ife said. "Specifically you might want to keep a low profile Shiina. Those guards didn't separate our paperwork from the dwarven caravan's. They probably think you're with the merchants, since that's the usual traveling mimic job. It'll give us an edge."

  Shiina chewed her lip. She didn't like the idea of being hidden away all the time. On the other hand it sounded like it could lead up to a totally awesome surprise. After a moment she nodded. "Okay. But that means you'll all have to carry me around. Moving furniture gets looks."

  "Fair," Zanya said.

  Terasil was cleaning his ear. "Not that I heard any of that, but if you'd like to get some rooms for the crew that'd save us some trouble. We're gonna need to stable the wagons."

  "We could do that," Ife said. "However, it might take us a while to find a place to stay. Did you have somewhere in mind?"

  The dwarf pointed down the road. "Wanderer's Rest. Only decent inn that doesn't use slaves. Charges too much, but that's just how it is here." He counted out some trade gold. "Should cover our portion, minus the entry fee."

  Ife took the money. "Thank you again."

  The four hopped off at the next street. While the dwarven caravan moved down towards some stable barns, Shiina got carted along down the street past the various jewelry stores. She guessed this was the 'visitor' area. But the prices were more than the whole stash of gold in her bag. Delilah seemed similarly intimidated by the numbers posted.

  This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

  "Is this because gold just isn't worth anything here?" the half elf asked. "Or are they just showing off?"

  "My guess is both," Ife said. "The prices aren't too inflated. A rich merchant could buy that easily, and if you constantly worked for a month or two you could afford a more average piece." She sniffed. "Honestly I'm kinda disappointed. I expected better quality from a city right next to gold producing dungeons. The goldwork is comparable to the stuff back at my home, and it's less expensive there."

  Shiina looked over at Delilah. They both shook their heads. The idea of tossing around that much money was just foreign to them.

  A little later they reached an open square and the inn they were looking for. The Wanderer's Rest was a simple plaster faced four story building with several windows open. The Inn's sign was lacquered wood and paint, as opposed to the metal and gold signs everyone else seemed to use.

  The square out front had a fountain to one side that was almost normal looking. Until Shiina realized what kind of flex spraying water into the air was here in the middle of the desert. On the other side was a stage that had a small crowd watching a trio of jugglers. Shiina had perked up until she saw all the performers had collars. That made the performance more sad than fun.

  She turned her attention to the hotel. That seemed actually fun. The air tasted of fragrant spices and perfume. The tables were low to the ground, with cushions instead of chairs. The setup looked like it would be easy to change the layout of the room. Troublesome for a mimic long term. She'd be better off copying the fancy braziers that kept the place well lit.

  The desk was currently occupied by a well dressed half elf, who offered a slight bow at their approach. "Welcome to our establishment," the man said. "We only have one class of rooms, but I think you'll find them comparable to the best in the city. And since our staff are all freemen, they will be eager to assist you with any troubles you might have here or outside." That was super clever, using the lack of slaves as a selling point Shiina thought.

  "We're looking to get 7 rooms for ourselves and the rest of our caravan." Ife handed over the money. "Is this enough?"

  The man counted and after a moment nodded. "Indeed. If you'd describe your companions I'll mark your rooms."

  After a bit more paperwork nonsense they headed up to the third floor where their rooms were. The furniture was again mostly cushions and a spare dresser. There was at least a travel chest. Shiina shifted it to the side so it'd be symmetrical with her if she copied it.

  As Delilah put down her pack she asked, "Why the chest and not the dresser? You wouldn't have to shift the furniture around." The half elf sounded legitimately curious.

  "I don't care how rich this place is, they aren't paying for two mirrors in a room," Shiina replied. "Besides, copying something with a mirror is a rookie trap. It's too easy to get caught shifting before your attack." People liked looking at mirrors, and the change in lighting would be obvious even if they weren't facing her.

  "I see." Delilah nodded slowly. Ife and Zanya seemed similarly pleased with the information.

  After the humanoids finished setting up their nest, Ife pulled out a small vial of glue and stuck a tarnished copper coin on the window shutters. "The local contact probably will be tracking us through our pins, but that will work as a backup."

  "What's the plan?" Shiina asked. "Actually what's the problem? I imagine having a dungeon busted open would have been noticed. But no one's talking about it."

  "That's a good question," Zanya said. "We'll check the adventurer's guild tomorrow. It's possible there's a threat our spies picked up, or maybe some divination work showed there was some danger here. Hopefully the local contact gets us something to work with."

  Delilah frowned. "And then what? Do we just kill people until we get the right one?"

  "We do whatever's needed to keep people from reopening the dungeon," Ife said with a smirk. "Murder, bribery, threats, or if it comes to it, asking nicely. If we succeed we get a bag of coins, if we fail we try something else."

  "That seems somewhat vague," Delilah commented. Shiina agreed. That level of detail was anathema to proper performance in her mind.

  "We'll figure out more when the contact's info gets here. If it wasn't something solvable they wouldn't have bothered summoning us," Zanya said. "Until then we should just rest and fill out the expenditure forms."

  Ife's tail swished violently. "I'll help if you need it. I'm not spending a coin more than I have to here."

  As the others went about their tasks Shiina settled in to wait. She'd pre-filled most of her paperwork last night. The benefits of not needing to sleep.

  Cheers and wolf whistles from outside drew her attention. Shiina poked up enough to see down into the square. The jugglers had been replaced by a catfolk sword dancer. The woman's flashy moves and brief costume had caused the crowd to swell. From below she heard the barker yell "The sultana offers a gift to her citizens! Enjoy the performance of her finest sword dancer, Hafsa!"

  As Shiina watched, a set of assistants tossed silk kerchiefs and balls onto the stage, where the dancer cut them down. Shiina was impressed. It'd be hard to get such precise cuts on floating scarves. The things she stabbed tended to be solidly placed on the floor, which made it easier to get a good strike in.

  Her mood soured as a few people in the crowd decided they'd 'help' the performance by tossing coins at the woman, trying to get them stuck in the catfolk's cleavage. The woman managed to block most, but a few bounced off her. The crowd seemed to find this hilarious.

  Shiina turned back to the others. "Are you sure we can't burn down the city?" she asked Zanya.

  "Unless you have a very big fire spell you've been hiding, yeah I'm sure," the ophidian replied. "The opportunity to fix shitty cities just doesn't drop out of the sky because we want it to."

  With a sigh Shiina settled down across from the chest and pulled out a book. She had a feeling she'd prefer that to people watching here.

  I asked Mali once why Bags of Holding didn't revolutionize transportation. She said they did! But only for stuff that fits in a bag. There's a few limitations to items of holding, which has influenced what's considered 'expensive' in a lot of places.

  First you can only put stuff in that could fit in the bag normally without the extra space. The bigger the container the harder it is to make the enchantment, and the easier it is to damage. And of course if your super expensive cart of holding gets broken because you hit a rock, it'll take someone very skilled to fix. So big stuff can't be carried around easily.

  Second, perishable goods can't be easily transported that way. The bag isolates the objects inside. That's good because you don't want your books mixing with your monster parts. But it means you can't shove in a bunch of ice and keep your stuff cool. If you've got a bagful of fish, you need to use a bag of preservation to keep them fresh.

  So while iron ingots and stuff can be shipped in bulk a lot easier, good lumber has to be shipped the old fashioned way. Same for fruits, fish, and other high end goods. Which is why the wealth of Al Jirtea is flaunted in goods that can't be easily transported. Wood, rare food, statues, and unfortunately people.