Three quick heartbeats went by, and Taiko slumped, drawing in and blowing out a long, relieved breath.

“She’s left,” he said.

“Took her long enough,” Justin snapped. “The gall of some people!”

“One more near-death experience before noon today will be a new personal best,” Taiko mumbled, pressing the heels of his open palms against the sides of his head.

“Does the Bank really count for that?” Justin asked.

“Jusutin,” Taiko said, his slip into using the first name a sign of how rattled he truly was, “I don’t think you yet understand how dangerous you can be, and I don’t mean your Xenopote nature. You are a Prominence of the Dawn. If we found another like you alive in the world today, it would astound me. We have confirmed knowledge of less than five like you over the past two millenia. ”

“No, I think I do understand it,” Justin disagreed. “The scope of the things I could do with his Blessing disturbs me plenty. But the Dawn’s been in my head and he trusts me to not abuse his gift, just as I trust him to not foodle my noodle. Like, you know, some people around here are fond of doing. What I don’t understand is why she didn’t act like it.”

“Hokyukko Taisa has long been. . .specially. . .favored. . .by the Stars,” Taiko said hesitantly, displaying his uncertainty about how to describe the situation. “As a result, there have been. . .how should I say it. . . .”

“Jurisdictional incidents?” Justin guessed.

“Yes,” Taiko said. “That. Apt.”

“People have tried talking to her superior, right? Only checking for completeness’ sake.”

“That position has remained vacant since the previous appointee died.”

“Is this the politics again?” Justin asked, doing a credible job of imitating Taiko’s earlier phrasing.

“No, Brother; that’s the Stars finding none of the candidates for the position satisfactory.”

Justin made an eeurrghh sound of experienced sympathy. “Unexpected replacement hiring,” he commiserated. “Always awful. Oh well; not my circus, not my monkeys. Let’s pick up the pace again; I want to stay as far out ahead of the gossip curve as possible.”

“The Ling Fei office would be honored beyond measure to represent you,” Tzo said, looking up from the slip, his presence of mind clearly having just been returned at Justin’s statement. He made a mental note that Tzo’s fugue state might have been caused, triggered, whatever by Taisa, but apparently like Sol with Tomu back at the Bank, the Stars was still watching them and had turned Tzo’s router back on again.

Oh, and Taiko had said They, possibly indicating that the Stars had been with Taisa in some more intrinsically present way than usual.

“If you have some ready cash – any amount – I will take it as a retainer immediately and personally write you the receipt,” Tzo continued.

“Will five hundred ri do?” Justin asked.

“Expediently so, most honorable Cariss,” Tzo said, pulling open a drawer.

 

# # #

 

“You want to see the discards,” the robed senior clerk in the filing transfer room said, looking back and forth between Justin and Tzo. The untucked wimple above her lined face fluttered with the motion.

“Yes, please, Mistress Hiyuko,” Justin said politely. “Kokyu Taiko was directly Inlightened earlier today and -” this time the memory triggered, and Justin snapped his fingers.

“I said lunch; he said meeting!” Justin exclaimed, rounding on Taiko. “Right time, right place!”

“- we believe that the Dawn wished us to examine Advocate Tzo’s ‘stack’ of available ship portfolios,” Taiko smoothly recovered, “as distinct from the curated selection that would have been brought to lunch.”

“My most sincere and heartfelt congratulations, Kokyu!” Hiyuko said, bowing repeatedly.

“It’s the pinnacle of my life,” Taiko sighed in happiness.

Justin swallowed his so far, preferring to not step on the monk’s gift to the woman of sharing a moment of reverent congruency with her.

“Hiyuko?” Tzu, aka Mr. Big Shot Partner And Don’t You Forget It, reminded her, wasting Justin’s consideration. He sighed internally. Something else that was the way of both worlds.

Professionally, though, he could understand the Advocate’s reminder. When the guarantee of clients’ privacy was part of your business, you had to be triply careful about preventing your staff from developing excessive attachments to outsiders.

“Oh, yes, Advocate,” she said, recovering her composure. “In fact, we did put them in a stack. This way, please.”

She led them though the immaculate cabinets to a set of four long desks under a sun-facing window where eight junior clerks were whispering together, their paperwork and filing forgotten before them They jumped up and shook their hands at their seniors and the clients, then retreated into the stacks, some of them blushing.

“Here,” Hiyuko said, lifting a dustcover from an open-topped box on a smaller desk set against the wall. “These five. We. . .ah. . .considered them -”

“It’s fine, Hiyuko,” Tzo said. “Trust me, this is an excellent day for the Ling Fei, and you have done your part in that by fulfilling your responsibilities with both dispatch and recitude.”

All right, the man knows his carrots, too, Justin acknowledged.

Hiyuko nodded, her posture straightening with pride. She picked up the stack and carried it over to the table nearest the window, then opened each portfolio one at a time, laying the pictures and documents out in the sunlight.

“Oh. My. Goodness.” Justin said when the third one was revealed. “That’s got to be it.”

“Riku-go’s Folly!?” Tzo choked out in astonishment.

“I’ll look at the others as well,” Justin said, “but I am completely, absolutely, and utterly certain this is the one.” His lips were drawn back in an expression that had the same relation to friendliness that a shark’s had to mercy; it knew other beings approved of the idea, but personally, it just couldn’t see the point.

Taiko’s eyes narrowed. “Is this – that monstrosity – that was supposedly made almost completely out of Sunwood?” He leaned forward for a closer look. “Why does it still exist? And what are – are those detachable!? Does that even work!?”

“It was completed sixty-three years ago, Inlightened,” Hiyuko said, pleased to be able to show off for him. “It has not been sea-proven, but the mechanisms were tested several times three years ago as per the maintenance schedule - every twenty years - and functioned to specifications.”

“You cannot be serious,” Taiko said, with the first real disapproval Justin had seen from him yet. “This. . .thing. . .is practically an, an, apostasy. It’s an – an -”

“Abomination?” Justin asked, looking over the fourth and fifth portfolios and giving them, like Moon all those weeks ago, fair consideration just to be sure. And like Moon, they weren’t anywhere near as appealing.

“Yes! I mean,” he gave Justin a look that stopped somewhere short of New Guilt City, but was definitely within its outlying suburb of Regretsville, “no!” He paused to draw a calming breath.

It didn’t work.

“I mean - Sunwood is for – for – things that, that, aren’t that!” Taiko – babbled, really. Justin had seen the man deliriously happy, smug, confident, and grimly ready for go-time, but always on top of the situation. Even when he'd gotten giggly with it right in front of him. Watching that control slip as he threw a minor fit like this was delicious.

“It’s going to make the Contract lose Its mind,” Justin said contentedly. “I know it. How soon can we see this beautiful beast?”

“I can dine any time of the day,” Tzo said, “but I can’t participate in – events - like this at a whim. We can go right now, if you wish.”

“Forth!” Justin said, pointing towards the upper half of the window. “To iniquity – and beyond!”

It got him weird looks instead of laughs, but he was expecting that, so it was fine.

“Excuse us please,” Taiko said, grabbing Justin by the upper arm and hauling him off into the double-story filing shelves.

“I take it ‘Sunwood’ has some religious significance?” Justin said, when he felt they were far enough.

“It’s one of the Dawn’s greatest gifts to us!” Taiko ranted, throwing his hands in the air. “It’s sacred! The Dawn receives our prayers to Him through it! He lights and warms our houses with it; He cooks our food with it; He fuels our baths, and our forges – that’s part of why Ribe is so clean -”

Justin snapped his fingers. Again. He was doing that a lot today. “That’s what was itching at me! There’s no smoke here – and the canals are so tidy; there’s hardly any trash in them. Tell me more.”

“Yes, it burns without smoke. It burns with faith – well, the Dawn’s power, may He Illuminate us, but the degree reflects the belief and sincerity of the oblation given – until it’s fully purified. Then we, yes, make use of it, but honorably! Not – not – maniacal monuments to vanity like that, that – thing! People would – must have already – put their feet on it – we don’t use Sunwood for, for, flooring! It’s – obscene!”

“Understood,” Justin said, and he did. Treading the Dawn beneath your feet – that was some hard-core 'Unrivaled Above The Heavens' whackadoodlery, in a class all its own.

“But - " Justin asked, "- what if a Prominence, at the explicit direction of the Dawn, were to invest that ship with Void Power, for the express purpose of best exerting their Blessing?”

Taiko blinked at him, tried to process that, and blue-screened. His eyes defocused and his jaw went slack, and now it was Justin’s turn to feel regret. That might have been a bit cruel, he thought.

“All right, tough guy, everything’s fine,” Justin said, lowering his voice. “I’m going to lightly touch your left wrist now, okay?” He reached down and gently clasped the old monk’s left arm with his first two right fingers and thumb. Taiko looked down at the contact, still blurry, but he didn’t object or pull away.

“And now we’re going to turn around in place and look at a different view, yes?” Justin said, keeping his voice low and soothing. He shuffled clockwise around Taiko, tugging the man’s arm with him, until the monk had turned to look directly down a corridor between the shelves, rather than aslant at one of them. It wasn’t much of a change, but it was the best Justin had under these conditions.

“Now you’re seeing something different, right?” Justin said. “And now we touch your right elbow,” he continued, lifting and pressing Taiko’s limp right against it to begin the cross-contact drills. “And now we let go, and now we pick up your right hand and raise it -”

Taiko suddenly pulled his wrist out of Justin’s grip. “What are you doing?” he said indignantly.

“Dissociative state recovery exercises,” Justin said. “Feeling better?”

“I – yes, I do. Is this some magic from your - before?” Taiko said.

“No magic, “ not that I know of, anyway, “just a centering and refocusing method,” Justin shrugged. “Sometimes you get unstable clients,” and attorneys, he mentally added “who need a little, ah, centering and refocusing. How are you feeling?”

“Strangely calm,” Taiko said. “That’s why I asked. I can’t sense anything causing it, but – no, never mind. Where was I? Oh, yes, Sunwood – after purification, it’s impervious to fire, and extraordinarily hard, so the remainder of the majority of pieces that aren’t used for religious construction and iconography are originally cut as roof tiles, and are eventually placed there. It almost can’t be worked in that state, you see, so it’s cut into its final shape when green. Next often as boards, for the walls and roofs of the homes of the more faithful – and yes,” he added, irritatedly, “the wealthier, I admit.”

“Pause a minute, please, Taiko?” Justin said, holding up a hand and looking aside.

Coal-free, faith-primed steam power, he thought. He counted off the sequential Uplift mnemonic in his head for a quick refresher: mine pumps, drills, conveyors; mills, tractors, boats, trucks and; factor-ies, ships, trains - airships! Wait – sunwood-rayon lifting cells!? Would that work? Would the processing – no, getting ahead of yourself again. Later. Just getting a proof-of-concept Stirling engine made is going to be plenty tough as it is.

He looked back again to see Taiko doing some musing of his own. The monk’s glance flitted back to him, and Taiko sighed.

“I. . .may have overreacted,” he said.

Justin shrugged. “Eh, no worries. I can think of some comparable examples from before without trying,” he said. Washing dishes in – no; filling a public pool with Holy Water, he thought but did not say, anticipating Taiko’s disgusted reaction.

Honestly, that kind of disgusted him, now that he’d thought of it.

“But you are feeling better now, yes?” Justin checked.

Taiko smiled ruefully. “I did ask for this, in a sense. I should see it through. Though you did nearly give me an apoplexy -” he paused as Justin held up three fingers with his lips inquisitively pursed, and an eager mockingly waiting on the sidelines in its jersey to sub in for it. Because Justin.

“No, Brother, that doesn’t count, and please stop trying!”