It's not too long afterward that Pilar hears a clopping sound approaching from behind herself.

This cart is moving at a fair pace (as one might expect, on priors, would be overrepresented in carts overtaking Pilar); it's drawn by two horses, instead of a single ox.  The cart they draw is draped with hides, washed but neither cured nor tanned, and bears also a barrel overfull with fish.  The man who steers the cart is large, muscular, bears a short sword at his hip; hides like these are more valuable by the pound than produce.

"Hail the road," Pilar calls to the carter, as he draws nearer her.  "Have you place for a traveler to Ostenso?"

"No.  You'd tire the horses and my cargo is perishable."

"That means the price is higher, not that you don't have a place available," Pilar says back, before she quite remembers that not everyone thinks as ilani do.

"Ha.  Sure.  If you're willing to spend two silver on it, I'd let you ride up here until I judge the horses are slowing or breathing heavier.  Then you're back on the road, but you'd have a rest of it, anyways."

Money in that amount means nothing to her, anymore.  "Accepted."

It's only then that Pilar realizes, just like a silly princess in a story, that most of her money is in platinum - Project Lawful in the old days didn't want Keltham seeing that Chelish paper currency was backed in souls on the markets of Dis.  Even the paper currency she does have isn't in denominations smaller than five gold.

She reaches into her robes and finds a gold piece, as is, literally, the least valuable exchangeable thing she's carrying.

Pilar waits until she's already on the cart to hand it over and ask him if he's got change.

He's already wary and blank, and if this question produces any increase in wariness, it's not noticeable.

Suppose he doesn't have change.  What then, hm?

"Maybe I've been hanging out too much with the wrong crowd, these last four months.  But I can't help but think that the obvious thing to do would be for both of us to generate numbers between one and five, and if they're the same, you keep the gold piece, and otherwise, you give it back.  One chance in five of a gold piece is equivalent to two silver."

That gets a short bark of laughter from him.  "I ain't matching wits with no wizard."

"And here I thought that you were matching wits with me when you asked what happened if you couldn't make change.  Well, you could also promise me very seriously that you didn't have the ability to make change, and gamble that I couldn't run Detect Thoughts to verify that."

"You look a bit young to be second-circle."

"Thank you very much."

"Suppose I don't want to make change."

"I suppose I could take the gold piece back, and just use a pair of Lesser Restorations on your horses when they got tired.  You'd get to your destination even faster that way, I think."

"That's a cleric spell."

"Yep."

"You're dressed as a wizard apprentice."

"Yep.  You want me to demonstrate Prestidigitation, wizard-only, or Guidance, cleric-only?  You only get to pick one, and I'll show you whichever one you pick, but not both."

"Why not both?"

"Don't feel like it."

"And if I told you to get off my cart?"

"Don't feel like that either."

"All right, how about you show me a Guidance, then."

Sure thing.  Pilar boops him with Guidance.

"Huh.  I can feel it, sort of."

"Shame to just waste it.  How do we play the game where we pick numbers from one to five?  I'm not exactly going to let you have second move."