Blending in is hard

There are some times when you do something instinctively without thinking and do it perfectly, but the one time you have to think about doing it, it's an impossible ordeal. Breathing for example, DEBUG_HERO breathed in and out every single moment of her life, but as soon as she thought about doing that, she almost suffocated because it stopped being automatic.

The same was with blending in, she wasn't sure she walked properly, tried to show confidence and not appear weird, even though she was the only one with her faced and head covered. If anyone looked down they would've seen she was barefoot as well. Her disguise was stupid, just putting on some clothes wasn't doing anything. All the other women in the marketplace were refined, regal and sophisticated, DEBUG_HERO looked like a beggar who stole clothes, which wasn't that far from the truth.

The Western gate was still a walk away, it will take her at least an hour on foot to get to it. There was no way around it, the massive walls were completely unscalable, and she couldn't recreate the free fall from atop the walls trick, there was simply too much blockage, limiting her ability to channel arcane energy. So she had **** to somehow get through the gate and not draw too much attention.

That might be difficult since there were riders passing her on the street, the guards headed straight towards the gate, probably to let them know to inspect people going out of the gate, a problem she will have to face. Weirdly there were no bells or horns sounding an emergency, that made DEBUG_HERO wonder. They held her in a simple prison cell, only being watched by her old guard. The guard atop the wall that wanted to help her had no idea who she was or that she was a prisoner. And all this reaction, a highly important prisoner has broken out and there were no alarms? 'What was going on here?' she thought.

She went through alleyways, the Royal Harbour District did have some wealthy houses, housing wealthy merchants and municipal or state bureaucrats, a lot of them oblivious to anything that was happening. Their High King was deposed, his heir unaccounted for for a long time, and these people continued living their simple lives. She stole some clothes that were hanging to dry in one of the small gardens behind a building, also took some shortbread that was left on the table outside, dumping her older disguise down a cesspit, it would wash away to never be seen again. The new clothes were less flamboyant but still colourful and lavish, made her stand out less.

Surprisingly, the journey to the gate was completely uneventful, she had a child smile at her in a playground, but apart from that it seemed that life in the largest city of the world was completely unchanged from before her incarceration, it was almost eerie.

The gate was insight, as she suspected the guards were now inspecting anyone who was going out. The gate guards were replaced by the Royal guards in the inspection, DEBUG_HERO guessed they didn't even tell the wall guards what was going on, odd indeed. Either she was the enemy of the state from what Roland had said, hated by every single man, woman or child in the kingdom, or people had no idea what was going on, no one even knew the story.

DEBUG_HERO had to get a better view to see what was going on, so she climbed up the side of a building, her left side was in pain, shoulder straining almost unable to bear her weight, and she was sure that her rib still had a fracture and not completely healed. When she got on top of the roof, she had a better view on what was happening by the gate. Anyone approaching the gate was first put in a line by the wall guards and then the royal guards inspected the people more carefully, even inspecting caravans.

"What is the next step?" DEBUG_HERO said to herself, the guards are on alert now, because only about two hours had passed since she jumped from the cliff, but they were in no hurry, because why do a chase when you can just block escape routes and do thorough search in a closed off area. But DEBUG_HERO was aware that the more time had passed without anything happening, alertness waned down and complacency moved in.

Time might be on her side, if she prolonged her stay, the guards might be complacent and not notice her disguise, her lacerated left side made her look completely different than usual. Also she might recover and be able to use her magic again, maybe brute **** her way out. The risk was the search parties and scouts she was sure were about to be deployed on the city, district by district, that might find her.

On the other hand, two interesting things were happening down by the gate, as more people were stopped and held by the inspections the rowdier the crowd was getting, if it continued DEBUG_HERO could guarantee a riot might break, or at least some disorder, especially if someone gave them a nudge. The other interesting thing to note were the amounts of caravans down there, a lot of them filled with foreign people, a perfect place for herself to blend in if needed, since most caravan guides didn't actually know who was in their caravan.

She knew that because one time she and her best friend, the cook's daughter, sneaked into one of those caravans. DEBUG_HERO missed Sara, wondered where she was right now, she haven't seen her for over two years, Sara would've helped her.

A decision had to be made, wait or act? DEBUG_HERO saw the benefits and risks in both approaches, or was there something she didn't think about yet?