The parade of boats was just as, if not more, impressive as the one Lady Gi had used the last time they saw her in Choukishi. It had grown since then and was now accompanied by a few dozen river wardens, five of which led the parade. They were followed by the large raft that held the giant rainbow-shelled snail. The water striders the river wardens rode, silently gliding on the water, seemed even more graceful next to the fully loaded raft that was being oared by twelve men, struggling to keep the wood afloat.

Alongside it, six river wardens carried torches, which cast shadows on the rainbow shell, playing beautifully with its natural coloring.

After them came the two brown snails, flanked by a dozen more river wardens. These however went without torches. They carried the personal banners of the Lady Gi’s retinue, forming a colorful row rectangular flags aside the drab brown shells.

Next, the Lady's private river boat followed. A massive vessel that barely fit between the river banks, closer to a floating palace than a ship. On its deck, two pagodas rested on the aft and stern, flanking the three storied tower between them. From the tower, the Lady Gi’s banner flew in the setting sun. A purple field with a black spiral on it.

Following the ship, a smaller, but equally impressive boat followed, though without the splendor of the Lady’s. It was loaded with servants and the unfortunate peasants that had been conscripted into carrying her luggage.

Finally, a full platoon of fifty river wardens closed the ranks…

Rei and Nana stared at the parade for a moment, then Rei started to wave to the vanguard of the river fleet. The river wardens stoically stared ahead, not noticing the oddity along the bank, but they were noticed by one of the oarsmen on the leading raft. To his comrades chagrin, he stopped stroking and singing, sending the raft off course and letting it grind to a halt on the far bank from Nana and Rei. The consternation followed and with a lot of shouting, swearing and tugging on oars, all the boats stopped moving.

The leading oarsmen were about to punch their comrade, and possibly throw him overboard, when he finally made it clear what had distracted him from the task at hand.

Nine men stared at them and Rei sheepishly raised her hand in greeting.

Nana put her hands to her mouth before shouting, “Good evening! Room for a few more?”

Back in Choukishi, Pannkuch was by himself on the beach, staring at the mouth of Choukishi Bay. Kaba’s ship had long disappeared… As had has elation at seeing her leave. With the woman gone, the only companions that remained to him were prostitutes, which was fine even if they not the most engaging conversationalists, and sycophants, which he rather detested. Besides those two, he had the interpreters, who he could rarely make sense of, and their listeners, who he hated breathing down his neck during every engagement with the officials.

He was currently pacing back and forth on the beach, calling it exercise, and considered how he’d spend the coming months until his relief would, hopefully, arrive.

… A decision that was about to be made for him.

He stopped in the middle of his pacing when he saw the gate to the trading post opened and three arguing Giya entered. One of them was his personal interpreter, Morotoki, whose grasp of the language was still shaky at best. With him was his listener, a hard faced woman who he’d never seen him without. He wasn’t sure what her name was, but thought it was Kiki. The third arrival was a newcomer they were both arguing with. He clearly outranked them both as neither lifted a finger to challenge him. He was dressed in flowing black silks, practically see through, that were only marred by a two bee-shaped silhouettes on best of his pecs. When the man was close enough that Pannkuch could see the stranger’s manhood through his clothes, Pannkuch fixed his eyes firmly on his face. The man wore bright red winged eyeliner and painted his lips a stark yellow. Pannkuch tried to remember what the yellow lips meant and blanked, but remembered the red wings around his eyes meant he was a messenger. The bees on his clothes marked him as a Giya in direct service to the Gunari.

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The messenger approached Pannkuch, placed his hand under the man’s considerable gut, lifted the flesh, jerked his head up and finally spoke.

“Pannukuku-robu?” he demanded.

Pannkuch sighed. He was familiar enough with the way the natives butchered his name, but it still annoyed him. Especially because generally after they had treated him to that slight courtesy, they’d go back to their own tongue and he’d have to listen to a volley of words he couldn’t make sense of without his interpreter. To make matters worse, it was generally difficult enough with his interpreter there.

“That’s me,” he agreed and nodded his head.

As he had expected, the messenger produced a roll of parchment from his clothes and started a long story.

Morotoki rushed to translate and Pannkuch sighed when it began with a list of titles.

It had taken him fifteen more minutes to piece together what the message was. The messenger was there to inform him that he was to meet the Gunari in the capital at his ‘earliest possible convenience’, which was the ruler’s way of saying that he was to leave as soon as he had gotten the message. Pannkuch decided his departure could wait till morning.

The interpreters were bothered by Pannkuch’s flippant response, each more nervous than the last at the message’s wording. They had carved a life of luxury from their jobs, eating both their salaries and with the foreigners when they saw the chance. The restlessness had spread to the city and a few hours later Pannkuch heard a rumor that somebody in the governor’s palace had taken their own life in terror.

Pannkuch remained calm, packed his clothes, instructed his servants and subordinates what to occupy themselves with in his absence and went to bed early so he could start traveling at dawn.

A few hundred miles away from the port city, Rei and Nana had been taken aboard by the Lady Gi. The lady had accepted them on her ship as graciously as she would have any other Giya in need, but Rei still did not trust the woman.

Nana had been left to the Lady’s personal healer. Rei hadn’t been in the room for the treatment, but from just outside it she, and most everyone in the ship had heard the process. It started with a scream at the biting antiseptic the doctor used to roughly clean the wound, then a long litany of curses and finally silence when she was knocked out with painkillers.

With Nana unconscious and Rangu seeming to have disappeared, Rei found herself alone in the long hallway of cabins, patrolling in case the Lady Gi had any lingering vengeance for Nana.

The hallway looked pretty much the same as that of most palaces. Long, covered in tatami mats and flanked with paper walls. The only exception was that these walls had been meticulously decorated with snails. One in each square of latticework, each with a different pattern on its shell. While she kept her eyes and ears open for any trouble, Rei studied the thousands of painted mollusks.

Until she found one that had been entirely blacked out. She didn’t have to think long which one it was. It was the one that symbolized her parents’ branch of the family.

For a moment she felt the anger flare up and her face turn red and calmed herself down with one of the many mantras she had learned for that specific purpose.

“Remove the sting,” she whispered to herself, then frowned when she heard a voice beyond the paper wall.

It was Susume’s…

“Is that any way to greet your queen?” she said. Rei didn’t know who she was talking to, but claiming to be king or queen felt like an act of treason. Hoping she’d have her chance to get her revenge on the woman, she made a finger wet with her mouth, then poked it through the black snail’s shell.

She knelt down and peeked through the hole she had made…