Coffee Stained Pages. Part 1

The secretary chuckled. Apparently she knew the Kantinian anecdote Ami had just referred to.

– I can see that you’re an agile person… And inquisitive. – Lucille noted. – Which is also rare for a Kantine. I know what I’m talking about. I have a Kantine aunt. She rarely goes out of town, and her command of Omill is many times weaker than yours, though she communicates regularly with her Omill sister, my mother, by letter. That’s why I know Cantonese, by the way. How did you learn it from textbooks? Did you live in Omill? Did you visit your family?

– If only. All from books. Then in practice, mostly listening to local speech on my work trips. Once in a while. There’s nothing complicated about Omillian, and especially Prime, in my opinion. It’s insanely difficult to get hold of any textbooks, yes. It’s like some mysterious individuals don’t want us to establish communication at all. With all these… Second-rate characters. Mangling our beautiful original language. Such an annoying tendency to complicate simple things… all my life I find myself with the feeling that many things could be made much simpler. But there’s no way… Speaking of complicated things. You have kin in Kantine, am I right?

– Yes,” she smiled. – I’d love to see them.

– …And I’ll be glad not to see mine for a while. – Ami grinned. – We’d both be at an advantage, if it weren’t for one unfortunate thing…

– A couple of unfortunate things. I don’t gravitate towards operational work either. Let’s… get the details straight. – Lucy pointed to the entrance. – Milo’s coming back. Alive and seemingly whole… I’m always amazed at how he does it… A genius at diplomacy. And cunning.

She waved to the head of the Temple Complex’s Truth Squad returning to her office. As he approached, Ami noticed that the edges of his headdress were still slightly darkened. But, it was unclear if this happened to them now or if such incidents were commonplace for Milo and his hat.

– Milo. The replacement from the Kantine has arrived. Amelia. And she wants to go back already. – Lucy introduced the guest.

– Because of Finnian? – The Omillian sighed tiredly. – He didn’t…

– No,” the secretary shook her head. – No one had explained to Ami what she would be doing here. This servant has never kept archives, and she’s not sure she’s up to it. And me, she says, I’m going to be an operative in Kantine… That’s something I’m not ready for. Physically. I haven’t even been running for a whole Aeon.

– I see,” Milo sighed, scratching his hat thoughtfully. – I’ll go with you to hand over the accompanying papers and a request to engage you in some… quiet activity.

– What about me? – Ami spoke up. – I’m not physically ready for sedentary work either. And psychologically for a tedious occupation of that kind.

– But I’ve definitely held papers before. I remember you well. Let’s go to my office, discuss the situation and make a decision. Coffee?

– Later. – Ami shook her head negatively, remembering the diuretic properties of the insidious green drink.

She was already stressed out, and it looked like she was about to have that kind of trouble on her own. The world was already full of surprises and another one would be definitely unnecessary. Milo made a sign to follow him. Ami strode sluggishly to the workplace of her potential Boss. Though the way things were going, the possibility of working there was still just a possibility for her. Milo pulled back the heavy entrance curtain and they found themselves in the boss’s office.

– So. Suggestions? Outline them.

Milo sank down tiredly at his desk. He looked relaxed now, as if this furniture could protect him from all the trouble on the Mainland… Who knows. Maybe it could. Second most powerful artefact. After the protection hat. And the bequeathed security curtain at the entrance, which was proving to be a bit unreliable.

The Stationmaster gestured for the visitor to take her seat and begin her bleak narrative. She did so, panting and struggling to find and pull the right words out of her head.

– I’m… not fit to be a secretary. I’ve never done anything like that. – Ami’s cheeks flushed again.

She exhaled slowly, trying to calm herself down.

– I… can understand Omillian. Read and even write a little. But I can’t burn anything on the tablets, that’s for sure. I’m not a witch.

Milo nodded.

– Hmm. Yes, we’d expected a non-witch to come from Kantine. A witch wouldn’t have been hired by the Department of Order, they’d have been kicked out of town. You won’t have to write here unless you want to make notes for yourself. But the fact that you can read is good… We were afraid that was what you’d have to learn for half a cycle.

He paused for a moment.

– When we conceived of this programme, we envisaged an exchange of secretaries. – he continued. – To improve mutual understanding, to make it easier to share experiences and documentation…

– To improve mutual understanding with Kantine! – Amelia grumbled. – Utopia. Only if they need something from you themselves. You’d have such a rapport that you wouldn’t even have to improve anything.

Milo nodded, chuckling.

– We were hoping for some progress on that… Not just with Kantine, but with the other cities on the Mainland.

Milo paused and thought for a moment.

“Things are getting better with Jolle faster than they are with Kantine. I’ve never been able to do that in my years, anyway.” – ran through Ami’s mind.

– What’s the point of the programme? – She asked aloud.

– You weren’t warned or informed?

– Noooo. The supervisor forgot about it altogether. I was informed that I had to go to Omill for half a big cycle in one light, and in the second light I was already walking with my bags along the path between the cities towards Omill.

– How awful! They wouldn’t even let me pack.

– Well, that’s where it helped that I have my hiking bag almost always ready. That’s how we’re organised. That’s how I go on all my courier trips. “Oh, look, grab everything, run, run, run, run, run, run, run, run, run, run, run, run, run, run, run, run, run, run, run, run, run, run, run, run, run, run, run, run, run, run, run, run, run, run, run, run, run, run, run.

– Is that why they picked you? Always ready to get out of the Kantine?

Ami hummed.

– Always ready, yes. Gladly. And I also have some knowledge of Omilian, unlike the others. I can’t understand why all Kantinians don’t know it, it’s practically the same, slightly modified language as ours. Like Prime, which is the simplest, not simple for ours, only with a big admixture of Selvian… But Selvian is beautiful! It wouldn’t hurt anyone to learn it. It certainly wouldn’t hurt me, I want to eventually take up Zeth, where there’s even more of a mixture of Selvish. Well, as time permits. Maybe by the time I’m old.

She nodded to herself, staring thoughtfully through the wall into the distance. Ami was so engaged in her favourite subject that she forgot her shyness and her despair.

– I didn’t realise you were such an erudite person when you were running in and out of here muttering something. By the way, how do you even know Omillian? From what I understand, it’s really quite rare amongst Kantinians. Kyle said, and Sandra confirms, that everyone who is going to work in and with Kantine learns Kantinian. Because the local population is rarely interested in the surrounding mainland. They must have enough to worry about.