Life of the Silver Tear:

Mail Room

“We should stop in Ekoni,” Koukatsu remarks off-handedly as he looks unblinkingly through the wind.

Giniro has little hesitation in pointing out, “That city’s out of our way.” The group’s collective destination is towards the Maginah Plains to the south, not the city on the Babbling River to the west.

Koukatsu doesn’t raise his hand or make any significant movement, but he somehow exudes an air like a dismissive wave. “It also has the nearest bank and mailing node.”

Reiko looks at him questioningly, as if sensing that there’s quite a bit more he is planning but not saying. “What do you need the post office for?”

“Surely you would not begrudge a scholar connection to the more literary of the world?”

There is a simultaneous gesture of grating teeth and scowls at the haughty elder. Surprisingly, Shugojin still seems open and after raising his hand to rub his temple, he inquires of Reiko, “C’mon, maybe your dad sent something for you.”

The elfling jams her fists into her sleeves until her arms are crossed. “All the better reason not to go.”

It figures she'd still be holding a grudge after that argument yesterday . Shugojin throws his hands in the air and lets out a tense breath, then looks to Kokeyera. “Well, what about you?”

She blinks, doing a good job of forcing herself to look completely nonchalant as she shrugs. “I’m not waiting for anything important.” The only one who might send something is Nil, and I don’t want whatever he sent.

His posture and manner more impatient than the dwarfling can remember – if still subdued – Koukatsu lifts his eyes and broadens his voice to the whole troop, “Are we going or not?”

“If you want to go so bad,” the musician snaps, not bothering to hide her hostility from the scholar, “go. I'm sure you can catch up.”

Shugojin nervously clasps his hands behind his back, unwilling to contradict his favored friend, but looks finally to the hunter-tracker. Giniro looks back as if perplexed at the idea that anybody would send him anything. Shugojin holds the inquisitive gaze, beginning to wonder if the very idea is really so foreign to him when the tracker partially crosses his arms and taps an index finger against his elbow. “Well, Major Aldin said he'd send word for me if he needed my help again.”

The others scratch their heads for a moment before Koukatsu states in a fairly mild tone of reply, “The chief of the Fourteenth Engineers? What does he want with you?”

Giniro seems completely oblivious to the significance of what a Major waiting on him might mean. “He thinks that Faneer may be attacking surveyors and road workers again and wants me to track them down or chase them off.”

“Found any?” the musician inquires, her tone mixed curiosity and impressed wonderment that makes Shugojin jealous.

The tracker manages an awkward, modest, only partially forced smile. “Well, every once in a while I'll run across fauns, kitsune, a minotaur, maybe some warg tracks probably left over from the Warring Kingdoms era.”

Shugojin sidles a little closer to the musician, if she notices she doesn't seem to reject his closer stance. Kokeyera makes a face as she thinks how glad she is that she's never seen one of the great beasts first-hand. “Wargs still sound nasty.”

Shugojin, son of a lore-keeper, smiles. “They're not so different from wolves. Not too difficult. There's plenty nastier things out there.”

Giniro sighs. “We’re getting off track. Are we going, or not?”

The troop notices that his words are identical to Koukatsu’s, and Reiko interprets this as agreement subtly voiced. “Well, fine, I guess.” If her two best friends are going, she decides not to be left behind and preempts the shift to move.

The other girl looks shocked at the elfling’s change. “What? We can’t actually go!”

Giniro presses the heel of his palm against his temple and rubs it in a circular pattern as he tiredly replies, “It’s not going to kill you to check the mail, Kokeyera. This is beyond Nil's reach, I’m sure he doesn’t have people watching this far out.”

Koukatsu starts, as if waiting for someone else to move first. Shugojin shrugs, Kokeyera crosses her arms and Reiko turns to Giniro who finally walks down the split in the road. Miles pass and the orchards begin to rise up from the gently rolling hills, soon enveloping the busy road. Bees buzz through the canopy and the troop continues marching down the busy road until the sky begins to take on an orange hue.

The city of Ekoni rises out of the orchards, a bustling city on the northern reaches of the Maginah Plains. The proof that it lies on the King's Road is obvious by the bustling trade. One man with pronounced sideburns hawks exotic spices at the market stalls beginning close to the city outskirts. The marketplace on the edge of the city is filled with vendors offering silks, wool, ilenma, as well as spices, salts, and regional fruits and vegetables.

Giniro's eye is momentarily drawn by the spices, but on noting the others moving on he lengthens his stride and returns his attention to the road. Reiko slows at the silks, and her dwarfling friend predictably pauses at a display of metalwork featuring a poleaxe.

Kokeyera takes in the wide array of agricultural goods. Having grown up in a developed kingdom of Naskwiz, most crafted goods are nothing new, but the foods! From fleshy-seeded fruit to bright tubers . . . she had never thought that there could be such variety.

Shugojin, miffed at being pulled from his marveling over the axe, quips at the impassive man, “What, nothing worth your attention?”

The middle-aged scholar doesn't even turn back as he firmly answers, “I have been here before and the markets have changed little. I am here for the mail office.”

Reiko, skipping along in the gap between the human and dwarfling, throws out with a casual tone not obviously offensive, “I’ll bet you use them a lot since alchemists linked them with teleportation magic.”

“Hold a little more respect for alchemists and those who study magic, girl,” the adult returns in his strange manner that is smoothly subdued, and yet somehow carrying a scathing energy that makes the elfling flinch. He hides a smile at skirting the girl's subtle accusation. Reaching the mail office, the scholar paces smoothly through the doorway and disappears inside.

Reiko stalls at the entrance to the imperial office, and Giniro pauses next to her, seeing her trepidation. The tracker puts an arm across her shoulders in a reassuring, comradely manner, and the two whisper in Elvish for a few moments before entering together. A masked look of jealousy creeps across Kokeyera's face, but Shugojin doesn't decypher it.

“Are you okay?”

The musician keeps her narrowed eyes on the young elfling as she replies to Shugojin just controlled enough to keep her tone from being an obvious snap, “What's with her?”

“She's probably nervous about having to deal with her father and grandparents after all this time,” the dwarfling answers in a sagely manner that makes the girl beside him unclench her hands and turn more of her attention to him, if still keeping an eye on Reiko. The Paladin trainee swallows and chooses his words carefully. “Her father wanted her to join the Imperial Guard like most of the rest of her family, and her mom's a nutcase, so she's not as good at handling nice, normal relationships. She doesn't know what they are, so it scares her. Unfortunately, she knows how her mom tried to bring her up isn't right either, so that scares her too, and she ends up stuck between a rock and a hard place.”

Kokeyera takes a moment to consider his words and the dwarfling feels a strange sensation of weight on him, as if her attention to his wisdom carries more moral weight than with others. She finally looks from the dark doorway to the dwarfling. “What's . . . with him?”

Shugojin relaxes, as if expecting a more difficult inquiry. “Well, they know each other from before I met 'em, back in Giniro's dojo if I remember correctly. They both know some of the weaknesses, some of the dark shadows in the other and they help take care of the other. Sometimes it's just a thing of similar history, maybe it's something they've gone through together. Me and Reiko have a little of that.”

Kokeyera's tense expression loosens, but takes a more depressed shade. “But . . . how?”

“Well,” Shugojin begins, feeling a deep-seated need to help her. “Remember that people don't like moving out of their comfort zones, we stick with the people we know. For example, you knew Gin before you met us, and you're faster to turn to him for help.” The dwarfling swallows, hesitantly reaching a hand towards her only to withdraw it before it's noticed. “But you don't have to worry. Even though you may not know someone as long, you can still find them waiting for you.”

The pretty musician's eyes glisten, her expression brightening. “Shu . . . Thank you.”

Inside the mail room and away from the prying eyes of the troop, Koukatsu takes in a calm, steadying breath as he finishes reading his letter. Glancing up at the attendant, he mildly states, “Thank you. I will need to be doing some traveling.” With the briefest of shallow bows, he departs.