Beyond the Distance

Chapter 5

In the southern hemisphere of the Ionad, the late-autumn winds carried an icy rain to the westernmost territory of Keske, Brashlierkan. Malick sat in a dimly lit corner of the oldest traditional café in Balinak, the third sector of Brashlierkan, with a young Keskan woman he went to the Academy with named Mishi who favored her native Keskan tongue over her broken Binnestan. She held a burning cigarette between her fingers and spoke in animated, biting syllables, withdrawing a binder of handwritten transactions and highlighting various records in pink.

"This one here," she indicated. "He said he'd pay up by the twenty-third of Nara, and it's already the thirteenth of Szhai. He's not paid one cent of the due. And this one here..."

She paused secretively as the waitress brought Malick a dessert cup filled with a thick cream topped with roasted nuts and cinnamon. "Here you are, young master," she bowed. After serving Malick, the waitress turned toward Mishi: "Would you like me to bring you anything?"

"Dagar ni-ku," Mishi replied in an uncharacteristically sweet tone. "I'm fine."

"Dagar-ku," Malick replied softly, turning his eyes to his cup as she nodded one final time and stepped away.

"You really don't handle the whole young master title well at all, now do you?" Mishi laughed, bringing the cigarette to her lips.

Malick flinched without looking at her. "And I don't know that I ever will."

"Oh, come on now, Bash-tann is perfectly comfortable being master," she continued. "You just have to—"

"What about these records?" Malick interrupted, gesturing to the binder she had closed while the waitress passed.

Mishi pursed her lips as he brought a spoonful of the cinnamon-drizzled cream to his mouth. Taking notice, he dipped the spoon again and extended it toward her: "Would you like a taste?"

She held her hand up to stop the spoon from coming closer. "You are so dishonorable sometimes."

He nodded, tasting the tangy sweetness. "That's what I like to hear. Those records, Mishi..."

"Yes, young master," she taunted, opening the binder to the highlighted pages. "Now where was I?"

"You mentioned the debt for Nara that hasn't been paid, and you were working backwards." Malick listlessly counted the pages as she flipped through them. The month on her records changed from Szhai to Nara to Bret, and the pink highlights reemerged. Malick glanced out the window at the rain that poured onto the streets, saturating the darkness of the evening and leaving puddles that mirrored the light of the street lamps. He lifted the cup to his mouth as he listened to Mishi scribble something in her records.

"Right here," she said. "He paid two-hundred. And we clearly agreed on five-hundred."

The transaction was circled in black ink over the highlight. He leaned his chin against his hand and played with his dessert. "So that brings the total to eight-hundred..."

"And technically more than that," she exclaimed, gesticulating dramatically as the ashes from her cigarette fell onto the table. Malick dispersed them with a puff of air before she could notice and leaned toward her. She flipped to the first page on her records and pushed the book to the center of the table so that Malick could follow along. Her voice quieted. "There is this transaction here. Technically, he did not make it with me, but I was notified by my father earlier today that he came through the Black Market and made this purchase of Lunseran blue amber."

She said that as though there were other types of blue amber.

"He got it for a bargain, too. Just two-hundred-fifty for this piece. I've been told it was a bracelet—the kind of thing that would be bought for a coming-of-age present or an engagement proposal for a girl in the Syndicate. But I highly doubt he has bought it for any girl in the Syndicate..." She winked and pulled the book into her lap. "I think he may be smuggling it out of the Syndicate. He has no use for an item like this."