"Yeah, if I'd had a chance to choose, I'd've done the same thing. Is she doing okay now?"

"Yeah, grandma's okay. She says she wish pa and I didn't look like her owner did though."

"Yeah, that sucks. If I were somehow pregnant now I'd kill it."

The kid nods, frowning. "I wanna go fight slavers when I grow up but pa says it's too dangerous."

"Yeah, I want to find some way to stamp out slavery, it's pretty bad. But that's a job for someday when I'm rich."

"I don't think I'm ever gonna be rich. I'm probably just gonna farm forever."

"Is that why people quit farming? Because it doesn't pay well enough?"

"I dunno. Farming is kind of boring."

"Do towns have food shortages because lots of people think it's boring?"

"I don't think so? We get ships buyin' food and sellin' town stuff all the time, and we usually have enough food for 'em?"

"Then I guess there are enough farmers. I wonder why the other person I talked to thought there was a problem with people leaving farms."

"Oh, you mean Verona. Her daughter had a big screamin' fight with her and ran off with a freighter and she didn't get to say goodbye."

"That's terrible, I'm so sorry."

"Verona's mean. I miss Lara, she was nice, but I don't think she was wrong to run off."

"Is this something I should be trying to do something about?"

"You're an outsider. She won't listen to you."

"I guess I won't try, then. Thanks for telling me about her."

The kid wanders off. Nobody else seems particularly interested in talking to him.

After about an hour of trading, Nick is ready to take off again. "Learn anything during the wait?" He asks.

"I heard some gossip. How about you?"

"They do in fact have someone who can do smithing here, and cheap iron is a big hit. So thanks for that. Also, I remembered something I learned in Milliways you might want to know - a technology that, unfortunately, I don't think I'll be able to easily make here, but which you could probably buy if you find Milliways some day. Though, I'm not sure if you would enjoy knowing it exists but not being able to get it yet. So I'm asking if you want me to tell you first."

"What is it?"

"...Okay. There are ways to turn a person with a female body, into a person with a male body. Medicine, surgery. There's basically no way I would be able to do this safely in Cloudbank - but Milliways has every technology for the right price."

"At least it's possible! Is there a way for me to get to Milliways?"

"You have to hope you get a door. Milliways steals doors at some kind of whim. I got one once, but only once so far. Some people only get one ever so I made use of it... Some people get many. All we can do is wait and see. And maybe open a lot of doors, but there's no reason to think this actually helps, it just feels like it might."

"Well, I guess opening doors is my new hobby. I'll let you know if I get one."