Inch by Inch

“You know you don’t have to be here, right?” Jay asked, looking at his companion.

Kane inclined his head, not slowing or altering the pace that kept him a quarter step behind Jay in the slightest. It was a crisp response to Jay’s question, but answered none of his unspoken questions.

Like why Kane was following him at all. Or why he’d barely let Jay leave his sight for the last two weeks.

“The Pono embassy is just across the street from the bureau. We’ve come this way many times. I’ve gone to the bureau by myself many more,” Jay stated, trying to prod a little deeper.

Kane hummed, not so much a response, but more the agreeable noise you make in a conversation you’re happy to continue but don’t want to contribute to.

“Right.” Jay decided to let it rest. He had to draw a line between Jay, head of the team, and Jay, the friend and person. What he was entitled to in both roles was separate, and he didn’t want to blur the line. Kane would tell him what it was when he was ready. Or he wouldn’t. It wasn’t Jay’s choice until it affected the team.

Looking away, Jay spent a moment adjusting his clothes. This was his one remaining presentable outfit. The rest had fallen to training scruffs or outright oddity damage. He wore the same trousers he’d worn when invited to the bureau in the past. Hopefully, that wouldn’t be an issue.

The embassy appeared to have not changed at all, despite the much larger continent of Pono army that it now hosted and served. There was no change in the number of guards patrolling around the building. The fossils that swam within the cream walls were no larger, the swooping arches no higher, the grand doors no more or less imposing. A green banner with gold edges hung gently at the center of the building. That was the only sign of the increased soldier’s presence.

Watery sun reflected off the polished cream stone – Jay had come early. He didn’t have an appointment or invitation today, and it was best to arrive at the start of the day to check for availability. That, and the fact that there were fewer adventurers out protesting before the sun was firm in the sky. Fewer, but still enough that Jay and Kane quickened their pace as they reached the steps to the embassy. They didn’t need any rumors going around.

The guards made no move to stop them, recognising Jay from his last visit where he had been stopped or having new orders given how turbulent the city and bureau was at the moment. Without an invitation, his treatment inside the building was slightly different. They were brought to a small reception off the central hall.

“How can the Empire of Pono help you today?”

Both receptionists had high cheekbones and broad shoulders. They were both attractive enough for it to be noticeable, and as stereotypically Pono as you could get.

“I was hoping to get an appointment with Envoy Detar.”

The receptionist who’d asked blinked, eyelashes thick and dark in the shadow around her eyes. She wore a striped poncho, decorated with patterns Jay didn’t recognise, but figured were related to her home in some way. Her male counterpart scanned them before looking down at his desk and focusing on some paperwork.

“I see,” she said, jotting something down. “May I ask your name?”

“Jiro Tsukain. I’m a... a family friend, I guess?”

The receptionist hummed. “I will enquire with his staff. If you don’t mind waiting, Gasowe-” An aide stepped away from the wall to the side. “-will bring you to a room where you may relax.”

“Thank you.”

Gasowe escorted them to an ante-room before leaving them.

Jay sank into one of the thick arm chairs and prepared for a wait, while Kane drifted towards the paintings along the wall. This room was similar in theme to the previous one Jay’d been in, stone towards the exterior transitioning to wood, Lauchia mixed with Pono, but it had a darker color scheme, with rich reds and nightly grays. As the wait stretched towards the hour mark, he found himself tracing the hues, trying to figure out how the room was decorated and why they put the table there, and why it was closer to one set of chairs and not the other.

“Jiro Tsukain.”

He spun to face the door, which had opened without a sound, and the woman standing there. Jay recognised her from his first visit, her long, flowing brown hair and distinctive eyebrows that stretched along her hairline. She worked closely with Manuwai, but he couldn’t quite remember her name.

Jaan? Jax? It was definitely something close to his own, he remembered that much. Jazaire? Jada?

“Yes,” Jay said in place of a greeting, pushing himself to his feet. “Am I able to get an appointment?”

“Envoy Detar is able to see you for a few minutes this morning,” The woman with the tantalizingly close name said, her lips pursed and voice brusque.

Jay suddenly got the feeling he’d interrupted a lot of planning and created work for a lot of people. “Oh, that’s... I mean, if he’s busy-”

“Envoy Detar can see you now,” she interrupted, eyes glaring a hole through his head.

It was a sensation Jay was familiar with, spending as much time with Ana as he did.

“Okay.” He looked at Kane, who seemed almost as startled as Jay, which was a surprise given he was sitting at the back of the room, facing both Jay and the door.

Kane rose.

“Same office as before?” Jay asked, walking towards the door.

The Pono staff member did not turn to lead the way. “The Envoy will see only Jiro this morning. Any other concerns may be addressed to our reception.”

Kane sat back down without a word. Any argument Jay might have had died on his lips as his teammate assented without a fight.

Well. There goes the idea that Kane wanted to meet the Envoy.

As Jay left the room, escorted by the woman who was not hiding her dislike of him and the situation, he caught a glimpse of Kane’s unfocused eyes. His teammate was using his Word. That at least, was a reason that was more in line with his usual behavior.

They walked at a near-jog pace through the embassy, reinforcing Jay’s theory that he was a dirty blot on a clean schedule. It wasn’t long before they passed through an arch and his escort knocked on a familiar door.

“Envoy Detar, Jiro Tsukain to see you.”

“Thank you, Jara. Send him in.”

Jara! Jay resolved to remember it this time.

The Envoy wasn’t buried in paperwork this morning. Instead, he was sitting against the front of his beautiful stone desk, hiding the left wing of the fish that was carved on its surface. The paperwork was stacked behind him, out of sight for now.

“Jiro. How have you been? It is good to see you.” Manuwai’s face was at ease and his smile a sly curl like he’d won a round of cards. It made him seem younger. Not a hair was out of place or different from when Jay had seen him last, and he meant that. The dark strands of his fringe were an exact twenty-five millimeters long. Pono apparently had an obsessive hairdresser.

“I’m well. How about you? I’m not disturbing anything, am I?” Jay’s eyes flicked to the stack of paper on the desk behind the Envoy.

“Not at all, not at all, not at all,” Manuwai said, waving his hand dismissively and shifting to block Jay’s view of the paperwork. “I am grateful for the reprieve. I’ve a busy day ahead of me. What about your team? How are Ana and Kane? Are you all settling well?”

It was an odd question to ask, given that Kane was waiting out in one of the reception rooms at the front of the embassy, barred from accompanying Jay. Even stranger, Jay did not remember bringing his teammate up in conversation before.

How does he...

“They’re both well too, enjoying all the training,” Jay replied, eyebrows furrowing. “Did I mention them last time?”

Manuwai smiled ruefully, his cheeks dimpling. “No, no, no. You’ll have to forgive me for that. I took the liberty of checking up on you, protectiveness for an old friend you understand. Have you all settled into the bureau sponsored dorms? I always find it such a curious system.”

“We have,” Jay answered. His brain was telling him to accept the explanation, but something felt off. It wasn’t Manuwai’s body language, that was almost disarmingly open, but a niggle in Jay’s mind kept him watching his father’s friend. “We even started decorating this week. The room is basic, but it suits us and the price is reasonable.”

“I’m glad.”

Manuwai’s smile became more natural even as the conversation stalled. Maybe Jay was overthinking it. It was a normal thing to check up on a family friend, to make sure that they were well. He dismissed that worry in his mind, counting it as an exaggerated fear over Pono rumors.

“Can I ask why you decided to come today?”

“Yes! Sorry.” Jay winced. He’d been thinking of this earlier, but forgot it at the first hint of suspicion. “I know you’re busy and that’s actually what I came to ask you about. All the- er, announcements from the council. A lot of people, adventurers, are worried - which I’m sure you’ve noticed and...” Jay waved his hand at the window behind Manuwai lamely. He knew he’d made a mess of this, stumbling over his own tongue.

Manuwai clicked his tongue three times before snorting. “And the easiest way for people to find out was through someone who knew the Pono Envoy rather than anyone from the bureau of the council.” He exhaled and shook his head. It was not a gesture of fondness. “I’m afraid, Jiro that as much as I want to go into the details, that is a longer conversation than I believe I have time for this morning.”

“Oh.” Jay raised his hands. It was disappointing, but understandable. This was a bit of a long shot. “I understand. Sorry again for dropping in like this.”

It happened so briefly that Jay nearly thought he missed it. It was a tightening around Manuwai’s eyes, a victorious curl on an amused smile. Between one blink and the next, there was no change, but the numbers, the distances, did not lie. They were a certainty in Jay’s mind.

“I do have something that may help, or an invitation, really. The council has planned a meeting for several guild representatives and the head of the Pono bureau attaché. It’s an information session where people can share concerns. Why don’t you attend that?”

Jay blanched before he could help himself. The meeting sounded more official and far above his head than anything he should be attending.

“Oh, I don-”

“Think nothing of it,” Manuwai said, waving away Jay’s complaints like they were a polite refusal of a gift and nothing else. “The city is trying to help spread the information, and it sounds like they could use some help. To tell you the truth, Pono would love to help but as you can imagine, we are quite busy these days. Lots of newcomers, and we can hardly have them clogging the streets.”

Jay hadn’t seen any of the army on the street since they arrived. It was weird, in fact, that they’d all disappeared. Surely, no accommodation was large enough to host them on short notice.

“In fact,” Manuwai eyed Jay speculatively. “The work has us quite far behind on some duties. We could use some help, some talent.”

“What do you mean?”

“Just think on it.” The Envoy smiled that smile again. “Some temporary work, paying well until this time of crisis is beyond us.”

Jay had trouble finding an answer to that.

Knuckles rapped firmly on the door to the office three times.

Jara’s voice came quite clearly through the door. “Envoy Detar, your morning appointments is in five minutes.”

Manuwai sighed. “It seems my break is at an end. It was lovely to see you, Jiro. Please continue to pop by.”

Jay said his goodbyes, and Jara near-dragged him from the room. As she escorted him back to Kane, Jay was left with his whirling thoughts. He wasn’t leaving with what he wanted, but he was leaving with an invitation to find out. And another invitation. A job offer.

What the wild just happened?

| i i i ¦ i i i | i i i ¦ i i i |

The beer was cold and simple. It provoked no questions; it had no depth to it beyond the bottom of the mug.

“What’s got you in a snit?” Miles asked, taking a sip of his own.

“Everything,” Jay replied glumly. “My team. The bureau. Pono. My Word.”

Miles snorted. “The bureau’s at everyone. Pono too. You’d find it difficult to find anyone here that doesn’t have a problem with the two and their ideals.”

As if to emphasize his words, a roar came from several tables over, echoed by clinking mugs of stone.

Miles raised his eyebrows smugly. “Your team, I’m not poking with a spear. You can keep that mess of relationships away from me. I know far more than I want working the door at Peak. Your friend isn’t exactly subtle, you know?”

“Wait what?” Jay set down his beer. “What did they do? Which one?”

The thin adventurer ran pinched fingers over his lips, sealing them.

Jay groaned.

“And all that leaves is your Word. That you’ll find plenty of sympathy for here. What have the Three done to you today in their infinite wisdom?”

“It’s not the Three, it’s my team.” He rubbed his eyes. “They think we should be training my Word.”

Miles eyed him suspiciously, hand near the over tanned section of his lower face, ready to seal in a second. “So?”

“Well, it’s not an adventuring Word is it? What’s the point of spending time training it, when we could be getting better at fighting, or earning money, or hunting Oddities?”

“Words are powerful. Mine’s not an adventuring Word, but I use it for adventuring.” Miles waved his hand down at his tunic, which fit him like a glove, but without any style to it. “Some Words just have roundabout uses.”

“And some Words are just useless,” Jay said, leaning back. He took another sip of the beer and crossed his hands. “Mine’s one of them. I get it. I’m just going to work around that.”

Miles scowled. “Not what I meant. Look, a few years back there was this girl here. Solstice comes along, she lines up with everyone else, steps into the triskelion, and gets her word. Prevent.”

“I’m not sure where you’re going with this, Miles.”

Miles shushed him. “It’s a big deal. Prevent. Everyone knows that she can stop other’s Words right? No one knows how, maybe some zone or it might be when she looks at you, but everyone knows. In two days, the whole city knew. The council makes a big deal over it, of course. You have representatives from other city states, and she gets the call up with a very generous offer. Big money, important job, fame – everything you could want.” Miles paused to take a sip of his beer. “And we all heard nothing for a while. It was a success story, but it faded into the backs of people’s minds, like all of them. Everyone just knew she was off doing something important with someone important.”

Jay raised an eyebrow. Miles liked his stories. He tended to get very engaged in the telling, and it was pointless to try to interrupt.

“Then she came back. Out of nowhere, she was back in the city. Not for a job, not for a holiday. She was back for good. Just as before, the whole city knew everything about it in two days. Her Word didn’t work. She couldn’t stop anyone from doing anything, and it was a big embarrassment for all those representatives and everyone who built that shiny pedestal then placed her on it. The job disappeared. So did the big money. All that remained was the fame – the bad kind, and that ran out eventually. She got a job in a bakery, got into catering.”

“That’s very nice?” Jay said with a shrug. “I mean, a horrible thing to happen to someone, but I’m glad she’s doing well.”

Miles grinned, triumph in his eyes. “She got good at catering and then started to run the events instead of just doing the food. Soon she specialized in weddings. Got real good. Well known. Famed, you might say. Soon someone came to her with an offer, another job. A big one, with more money than you can imagine and all the respect she could want.”

“Miles, what’s your point? I’ve already said that I’m okay with everything. I don’t need some parable.”

“The offer,” Miles said, speaking slowly. “Was from Pono. They wanted her to run cities or their entire trade network or something. You see, she was really good at weddings because nothing ever went wrong. Nothing. This girl could see it before it happened, you see. She’d know in advance or something and would fix the problem before it started. Pono noticed first. The council, when they heard of the recruitment, went to her with a counteroffer and cries of patriotism. She chose the side which didn’t shove her off a cliff.”

Jay rubbed his face. “Pono’s leaders are entirely too competent. Army too likely. That’s why we’re in this mess.” He paused and inhaled. ”I hear what you’re saying, but it’s not me. I’m not a story. I know what my word does.” He pointed at the bar. “5.3201 m.” The doorway. “8.264 m. This is what my word does.”

Miles snorted and went back to sipping his drink. “No word from the Gods is simple.”

Thankfully, Miles let it rest there for the night. They switched the conversation to stories about more of the Three’s triumphs and mistakes, and gossip about the latest jobs.

Jay didn’t believe the stories, but he couldn’t convince Miles to stop telling him. That was a lesson in itself, though. If he couldn’t convince a half-drunk-half-stranger, he wasn’t going to be able to convince Ana and Kane either.

He was going to have to put some effort into training his Word.