Things were lively in the diner, as opposed to yesterday when the place had been cleared out; though in saying that, there were only a few rowdy Abyssians eating inside.  The chef sat on a stool behind the bar table of his kitchen and every so often he took a puff of Beat while chipping a stick of wood with his knife.  I imagine it must be pretty boring for him with so few to serve.

“Hey, Mackie!  Over here!”  Uncle Mauz was already sitting at a table reading some papers, and sipping from a cup that had in it a bubbly black liquid.  I took my seat across from him in the booth he had chosen.  “So boy, whaddya know?”

“I finished those deliveries–”

“Hah! I already figured that much out.”  He took another sip from his cup before closing his papers and laying them off to the side.

“And Fareal wanted me to tell you the line is holding.”

“You saw Fareal?”

“Uh-huh, there was a fight at the Divide he put a stop to.”

“Hmm…”  He laid his head against the booth seat and took another sip, “You’ve been eyeing my cup for a while now, want a taste?”

“What is it?”

“Haha~ I’ve heard it called ‘black gold’ by a few.”  Uncle Mauz handed me his cup.  I took a whiff and despite its strange appearance, the smell was mouthwatering.  The cup was warm to the touch as I raised it to my mouth– 

“Ack.”  A bitter flavour entered my mouth, and I had to force myself to swallow, “Agh, this is awful!”

“Pfft, was it a little too much for you?!”

“Ee-yuck!”  I’m still trying to get the taste out of my mouth as he snickers, “What is that stuff?”

“Oh this?  Mmm… beans.”

“Beans?!”

“Haha~”  Uncle Mauz lifted his hand, and the chef chipping at wood swiftly rose from his stool and came to our booth, “Water for my nephew, and some simple meat ‘n bread for the both of us.”

“Right away, sir!”  The chef ran to the kitchen and came back with a plastic pitcher of water, before retreating again to prepare our meals.  With the light shining into it, I can clearly see a few of the specks floating in the water; this water must be fresh from the rain last night.

“I say it’s black gold, but don’t go around looking for more.  If someone offers you some ‘black gold’, they might make you drink something else.”

“I wouldn’t go around looking for that shit anyways.”

“Haha~”  Uncle Mauz grabbed his papers again and unfolded them to read as we waited for our meal.

“What are you reading?”

“None of your business what I’m~ reading.”  He gave a grave expression, but soon twisted it into a smile.  He couldn’t keep himself from laughing at his own teasing.  “Hehe… these papers are just about our business affairs.”

“Mmm…”  I took a sip of water and rested my head on my hand.

“You don’t seem that interested anymore.”

“W-well–”

“Now hold on a sec, you might learn something.”  He pointed the papers towards me and pointed to the outlined parts with his index finger, “This here’s our current earnings this year and below that is the predicted FY at the end of the year in a few months.”

“That’s… quite a gap.”  I tried my hardest to care, but the anticipation I had for the Storks was unbearable.  I hope our meal gets done quickly.

“Yeah, well… it’s always like that.  All the trades we do makes it hard to decide how much we’ll earn off of ‘em.”

“Where do you sell those at, anyways?”

“Sip– mmm… usually, we go through an appraiser then a broker, and that broker sells to peddlers all over the Wharf.  It’s… a mutual transaction, for the most part.”  What does that mean “for the most part”?  He set his papers aside once again, and as he did the chef arrived with a platter of our meals.

 

“Ah, I was beginning to think you got lost back there.”

“Haha…”  The chef scratched the back of his head and patiently waited as we both grabbed our meals, then he grabbed the platter and stood with it at our table.

“That’ll be all.”

“Thank you, sir.”  I watched as the chef returned to his stool, and let out a deep sigh of relief.

“You not gonna eat?”

“Oh, right.”  I dug in first with the bread; unlike what’s usually peddled on the streets, this bread was brown.  It had a nice stiffness to it, and felt warm in my mouth.  The meat the chef brought was salted beyond recognition, but made for a nice contrast to the fresh bread.

“Mmn… sho– gulp, I suppose you want your reward sometime today.”

“Yes!  Absolutely!”

“Haha~ I could tell since your leg hasn’t stopped shaking ever since you sat down.”  Uncle Mauz broke off a piece of bread then ate it before continuing, “By the way, you still have that music box I told you to hold onto?”

“Uh… I– uhm, I gave it… back to the owner.  I– I know you told me to keep it but–”  Uncle Mauz took another bite from his meal, looking rather indifferent about the box I gave away.

“Guess that’s where she wanted it.”  Before I could ask what he meant, he took a sip of his black drink then abruptly arose from his seat, “We won’t delay a moment longer, then.  Let’s head up to my office.”

“Y-yes!”  We stepped into the back where the kitchen was, and walked up the steps; my footsteps being far more brisk than his.  His office was exactly the same as before, not even the envelope on his desk had moved.

“Yesterday, I asked you what you knew about the Storks.”  Uncle Mauz went behind his desk and opened one of the drawers, “Today, I want to know what you know about your dad.”

“My… dad?  You mean how he went to Starlight?”

“Went there?  Boy, he not only went there, he lived there for quite a while.”  He got down on his knees to rummage through his desk drawers, “Sorry, I think I misplaced what I’m trying to find– eh, wait.  Found it!”  Uncle Mauz laid on his desk an old, dulled cinq, “That scabbard on your hip, that was your dad’s before it was your brother’s scabbard.  And the both of ‘em had this in it.”  He brought the cinq over to me before walking back to his desk.  

The blade of the cinq is several plancs wide, so wide it looks more like a paddle than a cinq.  It has two parallel fuller’s on either side, and the grip is wrapped in yellowish cloth.  And at the pommel–

“Is this?!”

“Yep, haha~ that’s the gear of prosperity.  You’re holding somethin’ very rare around these parts, Mackie.”  The pommel is a shiny brass gear, polished so finely as to accent the reddish colour of the blade.  One of its pegs connects the gear to the handle of the cinq.

“This was actually my dad’s cinq?”  I gripped it by the handle and wobbled it.  The blade was weighty, and it tugged on my wrists when I shook the cinq up and down.

“Then it was your brother’s, until he left it here for you along with that scabbard.”

“Candor did?  Candor… really left this for me?”

“Go ahead, slink it inside.”  I held the point of the cinq to the opening of my scabbard, and it slid in almost perfectly.  The tip had gotten a bit snagged, but after fiddling with the handle I got the entire blade inside.  It being there, hanging from my hip, felt natural in a way.

“What do you mean he lived there?  A-and, what does any of this have to do with the Stork’s city and–”

“I’m getting to that!  Just… take a seat and calm down.”  My heart was beating in my ear; I guess I must’ve looked frantic to Uncle Mauz, “Besra’s cadre worked all over the outskirts of the Wharf; all of the west if you’d believe it.  They traveled from the 1088 to Muskreg, and even went beyond that to Bassoon where they coordinated with Regulators on occasion.”

“Cadre… the same one Pyoni was in?”

“Mmm… yeah, him, Marcel, your dad; it was a pretty big group all around, and it was filled with all kinds of heavies, heavies like Besra… haha…”  He looked down at his hands and rubbed them together while thinking to himself as he leaned against his desk, “I was here, so I don’t know how it happened exactly, but somewhere along the way your dad met with the Storks.  Back then, they weren’t doing too well; that city of light as we like to call it, it was having blackouts.”

“B-blackouts?!  How is that possible?”

“Tsk, who knows… their light’s been a closely guarded secret since their city was founded.  What I do know is that when they contacted your father, he was sent to look at some kind of door they had, and ever since then, there’s been no blackouts.”

“A door… a door…”  All manner of ideas popped into my head at once, but only one stuck as being the clear answer, “Do you mean, the Door to Venus?”

“Pfft, I forgot that’s what your father called it, haha~”  Uncle Mauz wiped the glee-filled tears from his eyes, “I didn’t believe it myself when I first heard it.  A strange door at the center of their city, and it leads to who knows where.  Why that’s– that’s a story you tell to children, but… your dad was convinced.  Anyways, his cadre came back, but he didn’t.  They said he was enveloped with the city, and for some years I never heard from him.  The day he came back…”  He turned his gaze towards the ceiling, “Besra was a different person; more gentle, is what I mean.  That’s why your mom chose him over me, I reckon.”  Uncle Mauz stepped away from his desk and reached for the picture of him and his brother, caressing it while I mulled over what he revealed.  I knew my father had been there, but to go there for that strange door, the very same door Candor and I would trade tales about?

“He never explained what had happened while he was there?”

“Oh~ no, haha!  Besra didn’t speak much about his experiences there, only that every time he returned Besra would tell us that he’s going back one day; and of course, he’d go back each time, even taking your brother with him for a short while.”  Uncle Mauz placed the picture back and took a seat on the couch adjacent to mine.  His eyes darted around the room before landing on me, and a subtle grin snailed across his face.

“...Did he ever say why they chose him?”

“Seems silly, doesn’t it?  Some no-name Abyssian needs to help the Storks with their strange door.  He never told me why, but I think I figured it out.”  He parted his hand and leaned in closer, “Your father was like you.  He was quick to the uptake and a real thinker, and… around him was an air of… hmm, call it orenda.”  He leaned back again, “It was the same for Candor, and now it’s the same for you.”

“Wh-what do you mean it’s the same for me?  What about the Stork’s–”

“Yeah, I don’t really know much, truth be told.  I’ve met some on occasion, but they’re not that different from most people I meet in the Wharf.  They’re good at doing business, that's what I know.”  Uncle Mauz stood up from the couch and grabbed from his desk the envelope with Starlight’s wax seal, “Your father saw something different with them, but… I could never see what my brother saw.”  He looked down on me from where I was sitting, and placed in my hands the envelope I had been caught with from before.

“Why are you giving this to me?”

“Because it’s yours, little man.  ‘Not technically stealing’, right?”

“Mine? But– I-I’ve never met any Stork.”

“Well, they brought it for you.  That means they’ve sent for you.”

“Sent for me?”

“Yep.  It was the same for Candor when they sent for him.”

“The same for… Candor…”  The letter in my hands still bore the gear insignia of Starlight; not even Uncle Mauz had opened it.  A letter sent to me from Starlight; surely, there must be some kind of mistake.  Not in my wildest dreams had I imagined– had anyone imagined that someone like me would be called on by the city of Storks.  It’s unthinkable.  Them coming to the Wharf was impressive enough, but now the story for why they came is what?  For me?  For this letter?  They sent a procession so far from home just for– just for me?  For this “orenda”, as uncle calls it…

“They came all this way just to deliver this?”

“Well there was some business talk here and there, but yeah.  Aren’t you going to open it?”

 

I struggled to take the cinq out from my scabbard; my hands were trembling.  The blade was dull, but it still functioned as a letter opener, if nothing else.  With a slip under seal, the four corners released and popped open with the contents falling on the couch in between my legs; a letter, and a purple key with a thread running through it.  Lifting it up, I felt it was made of plastic and had a melded line all around the edges.  I can’t explain why, but it feels so familiar to me…

“Whaddya got there?”

“Just some toy key.”  I tossed the purple key to him and he held it to his eye, inspecting it.

“Huh, looks like one of the cheap toys you’d buy at a stall.”

“A stall… game stall…”  Maybe that toy key has more meaning to me than I thought.  I remember when I was a kid playing at those game stalls, we’d win cheap prizes like that one every year; in fact, I did win a key just like that one…

“...The key to Venus.”

“Hmm?”

“N-nothing.  Can I have it back now?”  Uncle Mauz threw it back to me and I immediately stuffed it in my pocket.

“What about that letter?  Want me to read it to you?”

“No need.”

“But–”

“Really, there’s no need.”  I’m trying to look pleased, but his face tells me he’s sensed something wrong.  He’s not far off, something is wrong, very wrong.  If the key to Venus is any indication, then this was sent by Candor.  Candor is the one beckoning me to Starlight.

“...This was really for me?”  He nodded his head, “They want me in Starlight… why?”

“Not for me to say.  You’ll just have to go there and find out–”

“Go there?!  All– all the way to Starlight?!”

“Haven’t you been meaning to leave the Wharf?”

“Well yeah–”

“Then don’t worry about it, I can send you with a cadre that I’ve been meaning to send that way.  Just take some time to settle your scores and get back to me.”  He got up from his couch expecting me to do the same, but I was left dumbfounded.  This whole ordeal, this cinq, this letter, this stupid key; why now?  Why didn’t he tell me this before, when mom was dying and Candor had already abandoned us?  Why wait till now to tell me, and to give me this blade?  “Mackie… I know this is a lot to take in, but this is what kids like you dream of.  You get to leave the city and see the world… you can distinguish yourself, boy.  How many like you can say they’ve been to the city of the Storks?  How many can say they’ve been sent a letter with the seal of prosperity?  This is… what your parents would’ve wanted for you, little man.”  He stepped in front of me and placed his hand on my head.  His fingers gently rubbed between my ears and deep into my hair; unknotting strands that’ve been knotted for years.  “If it’s a no then say no, I won’t get mad.  But chances like this, they don’t come along that often.”

“...Okay.”

“Okay?  You’ll go then?”  

“Yeah… I’ll go.  Just give me some time.”

He became giddish as I stood from my couch.  The two of us hugged in the middle of his office; puffing his cheek up, I gave him a kiss.

“Right then, little man.  You need to start today.  That cadre I’m sending you with can’t wait forever so be ready to leave as soon as you can!”  Walking down the stairs and into the diner below, my legs felt rickety.  As I left the diner, they swayed like the buildings that swayed in the wind.  In all my life, I have never dreaded tomorrow more than I do today.

 

***

 

Trash was a comforting scene in that not much had changed in the time I was gone, both today and in the past couple of years.  A lot was on my mind, so much that I’d all but forgotten my chance meeting with Joran earlier today.  And Acou… what am I going to tell Acou?  

“Hey is that… Mackie?!”  Screams of my name berated me, yet I felt lost going along the same path I usually take to our tent; not even their yelling could serve as a guide, not that I needed one.  “Mackie!  Kibra… he–”

“Shh!”  Hushes came from the other kids beneath the tent that stayed with Kibra, and hadn’t left to attend to their daily activities.  They had moved him to one of the tent poles where Kibra was propped up to lean against it.  Mei and Acou were on either side of him, speaking and laughing amongst themselves; although, Acou did most of the speaking.  When Acou spotted my return, he lost his smile and swiftly rose to his feet to greet me before I could even step under the canopy.

“Mackie!  Did you hear?  Did you see?  Kibra–”

“Yeah, he woke up.”  With one hand in my pocket, I wrapped my hand around the key to Venus, caressing my fingers along the plastic and through the threaded hole on the end.  Blowing past Acou, I took a seat at one end of the tent and tried to lean back onto my arms; though instead of propping myself up, my arms crumpled and my head hit the dirt.  It didn’t bother me, though.

“Uhm… th-that reminds me!  Kibra!  Mackie is the one that got you help!”

“O-oh, really?!  Thanks, man!”

“Uh-huh…”

“...”  A long silence followed.  Acou looked uneasy, like something needed to be said but wasn’t.  I, on the other hand, am content with this silence.

“Mackie, how did you get that lady to help again?  You gave her something, didn’t you?”  I didn’t answer.  I know what he’s hinting at, and I guess Kibra does as well as he scampered to check the pockets of his jacket that he was still using for a blanket.  He furrowed his brow, and gave an awkward smile towards Acou and I.

“Uhm, this is a bit embarrassing, haha… ha~”  Kibra tried to stand up, but his body wouldn’t let him.  Mei had to step in and rest him back against the tent pole.  “I’m really sorry for taking your thing.  It just had a really nice shine to it an-and–”

“Don’t worry about it.”  

“Huh?!”  An audible confusion was shared between everyone under the tent; the loudest coming from Acou.

“You’re not… angry are you, Mackie?”  I raised my head out of the dirt to shake it “no”, then let it plop back onto the ground.  

“Mackie, is something wrong?”  Acou had gotten to his knees to whisper to me.

“What’s Kibra’s condition like?”

“Uh… he’s in-and-out.  I don’t know, I guess he’s better than this morning.  He was only awake for a few seconds the first time.”

“Mmm… that’s good.”

“Are you… doing okay?”

“I’m only taking a little nap.  I had a long day of deliveries, remember?”

“D-did your uncle tell you about the Storks?  And what’s that in your scabbard–”

“Sure did.  I’ll tell you about it later.”

“That– that pommel on the end, Mackie.  It looks like a gear…”

“Like I said, I’ll tell you about it later.”  I tried to give him a reassuring smile.

“Alright…”  He got up from his knees and returned to Kibra and Mei.  The three seemed to be enjoying themselves once again, as did everyone under the tent.  Joran and her sister Fria, like my brother and I… like Acou, Mei, and Kibra; we’re all just kids, and we’re free to be kids.  She had a home– has a home, not unlike mine that I used to have.  Somewhere she belongs, where she’s free to be a kid too.  

She asked me to do what I know is right, but how do I know what’s right?  What’s just is for her to be free?  By what metric?  What standard?  It’s nothing I can put to words; I can only feel it and know it’s true.  Like the butchered Cuni from that cart, the sisters are trapped.  My brother’s calling on me to leave, my uncle is telling me to go, and she’s asking me to take her and her sister out of this city.  Out of the Wharf like I planned, to be on my own… and all these things are happening now.  As if they’re supposed to.  As if what’s right isn’t for me to decide, but is simply the way the world works and as such, is correcting itself.  Maybe this too is natural.

Even if I went with a cadre, what would happen when we came to Starlight?  What if we got stopped along the road, or if they simply sold me and told uncle I’d been lost to the wilds?  Would– would they let me take the sisters?  

There’s a lot to consider, and a lot to ask though my body would in no way allow it.  My eyelids drooped, and soon closed as the weariness from today took over as I pondered on one final question.

“...Why now?”

“...”