Page 34 of Monster Married
We walked through the city in search of millet bean porridge. It was like an adventure. Most of the bigger streets were the ruler-straight kind, and those were the ones with a lot of foot traffic and stalls lined up for the honk roar week, doing slow morning business.
Inkiri clicked at me near constantly, always stealing glances at me as if he thought I’d curl up in a ball out of fear if it got too noisy. His concern made him lead me down one of the narrower side streets.
At first, the streets continued in straight lines, but after a while, straight lines turned to curves, and the houses huddled even closer.
“Whoa, it’s really quiet here.” I kept my voice low.
Inkiri looked around. “This must be a residential area. I’m sorry, Sadir. We should head back. I don’t know Esaka as well as I thought I did.”
I spotted tiny birds, three of them, sitting on a roof that almost reached to the road. They were little green things and making noises like small pebbles dropping into a lake.
“No, this is nice. This is how people live, right?”
A bagu with a large bag on his back passed us and bobbed his head in greeting. He was walking so fast that I was pretty sure he was either a delivery person or a postal worker.
“Yes. This looks like an older part of the city, I think. The houses here will be small. Very narrow too.” He pointed at one of them, and he was right. It was about as wide as a car, and that was it.
“Do you know how old Esaka is?”
“Hmm. No. I read it somewhere probably, but I don’t remember. Old, of course, especially with the koto-sa-ko, the magic school.”
Magic. The big M-word I didn’t want in my life. But talking about magic schools… Well, it got me curious. I was trying to play it off as casual while continuing to work toward my newfound goal of being the bestest trophy mate.
“Magic school, huh? What was that like?”
We briefly had to walk in single file when a group of bagua passed us, chatting as they went. They looked at me, but didn’t act like they didn’t want me here. Good to know. If we did move here, my neighbors probably wouldn’t want to kill me, at least.
“I don’t know. Perhaps… I don’t know if Vergis would know more. I think his hangu father might. Koto-sa-ko could do things for Houses, like jobs you could hire them for. You heard how Hove hired Vergis?”
We’d arrived at a set of low stairs that went up. It seemed we’d been wandering downhill.
“Yup. Something about the magic wall.”
Inkiri hummed. “Yes. Back then, you could go to the koto-sa-ko, and you could hire them too. There were many things they could do for a House, but if you were a very rich House, you’d try to get a mage to come and stay for as long as possible. The idea was always that the mage would like it so much that he’d settle down, maybe join the senfesmen of the head of the House. That would’ve been considered ideal. In that way, many mages joined my hangu father’s House, but that was a long time ago, of course.”
We’d arrived at the top of the stairs, and the area was getting busier again. The houses were larger and more uniform, and the streets no longer wound around them like rivers.
“That’s so cool. Magic schools were really powerful.” I hadn’t meant to say “cool” and the M-word at the same time. What I needed was to change the topic.
“Yes, once. Or, no, I think it was always the mages who were powerful, and the smart thing for them was to band together. You’ve had this on Earth. You had guilds.”
I nodded. “Yeah, weavers and that sort of thing. Not as cool as mages though.” Oh, fudge me. I’d not meant to say that. “So, uhm. Millet beans?”
Inkiri clicked. “Billet beans, sweet thing. I think we’re almost back where we started. We’ll find some here.”
Inkiri, with his hand around my wrist, found his way through the narrow streets until we were back at a wider thoroughfare that I recognized on account of the honk roar stalls. It was more crowded now, especially around the stalls that sold food, but we didn’t go for those. I kept stealing glances at all the street food though. One place was dipping leaves in batter and then frying them, though to be fair, it could’ve been something like spinach rather than leaves from trees.
When we reached a rectangular square, Inkiri eventually zeroed in on a place.
“Do you want to sit outside?” He glanced inside the restaurant, which wasn’t huge. It looked like one of those tiny places you only knew as a local. “Or if the sun is too bright?—”
“How about there?” I pointed at one of the small tables set up close to the restaurant’s door. Well, small for Inkiri. For me, it was pretty spacious.
He nodded. “Yes, but you have to let me know if the sun is too much for you, Sadir.”
I almost protested, but then I thought, No, that’s not what a trophy mate would do. As a trophy mate, I really should lean into being frail and delicate.
I looked up at Inkiri, doing my best to act as if a strong breeze could knock me over. “I promise I will.”
