Two days into the trip, the carriages stopped at a roadside trading post.
It was the kind of place that existed because two roads met and someone had decided, "you know, it feels weird there not being anything here." So now there was a long, low timber building with hitching posts out front and a covered yard where wagons pulled in and out all day. The whole place smelled like grain dust, and Katarina breathed in the smell of infrastructure.
The faculty had arranged this.
Pelegatta lined the students up along one side of the covered yard and told them, flatly, that they were about to observe a real negotiation between a Valdari grain merchant and a human buyer, and that they were to stand very still, watch closely, and on no account interrupt or react.
High-stakes shit. This was a boxing match in the world of business, and while none of the other students looked like they gave a damn, Katarina felt like she was sitting ringside at a championship fight.
