The pair stopped chatting as they joined the line. They had been talking about Tem and their differing experiences with the being and while Bethany had warmed up to Pete, she wasn't comfortable being that open when surrounded by others. The line showed her another bisection of the general level of the population. Here people were mostly level 2 or 3, which was roughly where she expected. However, while there were some level 0 and 1s Pete seemed to be the only one to have reached level 4, at least that Bethany could see. The line moved slowly, clearly the wagons ahead were being fairly well scrutinised to ensure they weren't smuggling anything in. Unfortunately, there was no separate line for pedestrians, so they were forced to wait.
While they waited Bethany gave some thought to her plans going forward. She only had a miniscule amount of Earth money on her. Barely enough for a couple nights at an inn. However, in terms of Bronze and Silver she was fairly rich. After all she had gained 5% of their dealings on Lexicoth and hadn't had many opportunities to spend said money. This would be especially promising if Newcastle was similar to how Pete had described Leeds. Her first priority would be to find somewhere to stay as near to the prison camps as she could so she could get a good grasp on the situation. Plus, if she was lucky she might be able to catch a glimpse of her mother. Then again maybe they had visitation hours. Bethany had never left Livpul before the Trials and in that sense the city was as new to her as Lexicoth had been. Apparently, Pete was in a similar situation having also never left Leeds prior to the Trials.
Bethany glanced at Pete, wondering what he was thinking. Would he want to try to find an inn together, how long was he staying? Had he only been chatty because that's his personality? Bethany kept glancing at him attempting to build up the courage to suggest they stick together, at least for a little while. Yet every time she almost worked up the courage, she allowed herself to be distracted by the noise of the queue or having to step forwards or some other excuse.
She distracted herself from her lack of confidence by thinking through the steps after finding a place. The skills she had weren't all that useful for making money. The obvious stand out being her Butter Churning skill. Otherwise, unless she became a messenger or something she didn't have anything that seemed that useful. She could also sell some of her clothes, they were high quality and uniquely made of foreign materials but that seemed disingenuous to Harri. After all the clothes were a free gift and to sell them on felt like poor form.
Eventually she was disrupted from her thoughts as she realised they had reached the front of the line. Pete had been beckoned first and had left seemingly without a goodbye. Bethany was disappointed in herself to have not said something but supposed she would be able to find accommodation alone. After all they hadn't know each other very long so it wasn't a big deal just a shame she hadn’t been able to get her confidence up. Shortly after he had left it was Bethany's turn to step up, the guard at the gates seemed completely uninterested in her as she walked towards him, [Lewis Peditant, 1].
"Name, level, highest skill and reason to visit please."
Bethany didn't really see the point in the first two questions as it was literally written above her head but answered anyway.
"Bethany Oakfenny, Level 2 in Butter Churning."
"And reason to visit?" Lewis asked glancing up at her.
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"Oh, I’m here to visit the city and possibly find work."
Lewis lowered the board he was making notes on. "That doesn't ring true, I'll give you one more chance to answer more truthfully otherwise I’ll have to ask you to leave."
Bethany paused, she couldn't exactly be honest about her reason to visit, but also, she needed to get into the city. Breaking her mother out would be a whole lot harder if she couldn't even get into the city.
"Ehm. I'm here to visit my mother." Bethany tried, phrasing it more like a question than a statement. Fortunately, the guard clearly thought this was the truth, which in a way it way, and his eyes glazed back over as he waved Bethany forwards.
Stepping through the gates Bethany felt almost immediately overwhelmed by the pure number of people around her. From all directions people seemed to be jostling past walking quickly to get to wherever they were going. She stopped still as she took in the surroundings, trying to get her bearing and work out which way to go. She clearly stopped for a little too long as the person who was behind her shoved past fairly forcefully muttering about stupid tourists as he stormed past. Bethany found herself picking a direction and fleeing in it. Determined to find an emptier part of the city so she could recentre herself.
Fleeing caused Bethany to find herself in a darkened alley between a seamstress and a grocer. She leaned against the wall there as she tried to get herself together. This was very uncharacteristic of her; she'd been more or less fine on Lexicoth and Nevu but for some reason the city filled with only humans seemed to have gotten to her. Maybe it was simply because it had been a while, she wasn't sure. After a couple of minutes, she felt she had calmed down and was starting to feel a little silly at how she had reacted. Leaving the alley, she tried to get her bearings. She had fled towards the north of the city, away from the southern entrance she had come in. She decided to pop into the shop next door to ask about directions as well as to get some food for the day as she had run out by this point. She was pointed to the south-west back towards the entrance she had come in. Apparently, the prison camp was on the outskirts of the city. Heading that way Bethany was amazed at the scale of the building. It was a huge stone structure, the size of several houses. It was one of the few stone buildings Bethany had seen on Earth as Livpul had only the castle. A constant looming presence that had faded into the background of her life due to it’s constant visability. Further it wasn’t like she ever approached the castle back home whereas here she was close and personal with it.
Towards the back of the building was a large, enclosed yard in which there seemed to be a collection of prisoners working. Unfortunately, Bethany couldn't see her mother in that crowd. She ended up staying nearby until nightfall watching in hope she would spot her mother somewhere. Eventually it got late, and she acknowledged she had to go find somewhere to stay for the night. Luckily enough Bethany found an inn fairly close to the prison that offered long term accommodation. Apparently, lots of people stayed their while saving up to pay off their family’s debt, or at least while they tried to. Bethany spent the last of her money getting a room for the next two nights. This left her broke as it was the last of her Earthen money, she was distressed to find out that in general the city hadn't yet adopted the new currency and that it would be of no use to her in either the inn nor the prison.
Getting settled in for dinner Bethany found herself casually chatting to a mother who was there caring for two babies. It turned out Bethany's impression of the prison had been slightly incorrect. While it was common knowledge the prison was corrupt and would frequently make people permanent prisoners due to debt that wasn't the case every time. In the cases where the person had family who came to try to bail them out or clearly were caring for them in some other way the prison didn't want to antagonise these citizens and would help set up payment plans to get these people out of prison. It was no means easy and often took people years, but it was better than the alternative. This made Bethany feel a lot better. After all she didn't have the know-how or expertise to break somebody out of prison whereas raising money was something that was very doable for her. She went to bed that night dreaming of get rich schemes and getting to see her mother again.
