A Knock Postponed

The lights in the Train Conductor Café stayed on very late the night before departure.

Luggage lay spread out on the long table. Sigelica opened and closed her document holder, confirming that her pay slip was still in the innermost compartment. Chisa's knife leaned against the chair, and the room drawer was ajar; the bell was left inside, not taken with her. Bozai squatted on its supervisor's cushion, its tail pressing against Chisaki's tablet, watching whoever packed their luggage.

Zhou Yu opened the schedule and wrote down the departure date on the page for Rinascita. Before she could put down her pen, Chisaki reached out and pressed down on the previous page.

There's a line of text on the previous page. After you finish listening to it, go knock on the door. We'll reimburse your transportation fare.

Chisaki took the pen and crossed out the line of text. The line was drawn very straight, in one stroke.

"Reschedule," she said. "My parents rarely come back. They can't leave the shop, and they can't leave home either."

"Hmm," Zhou Yu said.

"Next time, I'll go myself."

"I'll keep this line." Zhou Yu pulled the schedule back and wrote a new line below the crossed-out one, "Reschedule, don't cancel the book." "Once the book is canceled, you won't be in such a hurry."

Chisaki stared at those four words for two seconds, said nothing, and turned to go into the back room.

When she came out again, she had a cardboard box and a letter in her hand. The box was neatly filled with dou daifuku (a type of steamed bun).

"Knocking on the door to reschedule, but not the debt." She handed the box to Dania, "Take this to Chengxia for me."

The envelope had no recipient's name on it. Dania turned it over and over again.

"Where's the address?"

"She knows my handwriting," Chisaki said.

The curtain at the back door was lifted, Chisaki's mother peeked out, holding a sheet in her hand.

"Sigelica, bring me back two pounds of coffee beans. Buy from the one that says 'sold out today'."

"How can we buy it if it's sold out?" Sigelica asked.

"Beans that sell out are the best beans." Chisaki's mother shoved the order slip into her hand. "If you keep coming back, the price will go up by another five hundred next month."

Sigelica put the form into her document holder, tucking it into the layer next to her pay slips.

The next day at noon, at the Black Shores pier.

The ship was an automated cargo ship arranged by Chengxia. It wasn't big, and the hold was piled with supplies. She stood on the pier and slapped a palm-sized beacon into Zhou Yu's hand.

"The storm belt is south of this line." She pointed to the nautical chart. "I've entered the route into the beacon; follow it, don't take shortcuts. I've caught three ships that have tried to take shortcuts."

"Did they get them out?" Sigelica asked.

"It's in the water, and the goods are in the water too," Chengxia said. "The person was terribly frightened."

"There's one more thing," she said, putting away the nautical chart. "Once we reach Ragunna, if anything glows on the water, don't draw your sword yet."

"Tacet Discord?" Sigelica's hand rested on the gun.

"Echo," Chengxia said, "They call Echo ' (Blessing). Drawing your sword at it is the same crime as smashing someone's altar."

Dania handed over the box and the letter together. Chengxia opened the letter first. The letter was only one page long. After reading it, she folded it neatly, put it close to her body, and then opened the box.

"A dou dafu." She picked one up, took a bite, and her eyes crinkled into a smile. "The debt hasn't been repaid yet, but you've already collected interest. Later, you'll make her pay back the principal and interest in person."

Just before boarding the ship, she pulled Dania aside and lowered her voice.

"Keep an eye on that guy's pockets for your sister Chisaki." She gestured towards Zhou Yu, "Don't let him smuggle a bunch of junk cores onto the ship again. Last time, I spent an entire afternoon filling out the customs declaration for those three."

Dania nodded rapidly, turned and left, opening Zhou Yu's coat pocket.

Two Tacet Discord Core lay in the pocket.

"A souvenir," Zhou Yu said. "Is it appropriate to go to a dinner party in Ragunna empty-handed?"

The boat sounded its horn twice and left the shore. Chengxia stood on the pier and waved until the boat turned past the breakwater.

The storm caught up with us in the middle of the night.

The rain lashed horizontally, and the waves rose higher than the ship's gunwale. Chisa sat ramrod straight, a knife across her lap. Sigelica had tied herself to the middle of the cargo box, her face pale.

Dania leaned over the ship's railing and vomited.

"First time on a boat." She looked up, her face the same color as the cabin light. "How do the fish eat when they're stuck in this water all day?"

"The fish don't travel by boat," Zhou Yu said.

"The fish is amazing." Dania was impressed.

"Speak less." Zhou Yu unscrewed the thermos and handed it to him, "Have a sip of something hot."

Before he could finish speaking, the digital watch in the canvas bag went off.

[Warning: High energy reaction. Large unit approaching you head-on.]

The four of them looked up at the same time. The sea was empty, except for the rain.

Half a minute later, a bolt of lightning struck the sea.

"It calls this a large unit," Sigelica said.

"Stormy weather, frequency disruptions." Zhou Yu turned off the watch. "Normal."

The digital watch ignored him and beeped again after ten minutes. This time it reported an unknown swarm of Echo, numbering one hundred and forty. Chisa went out to take a look around, then came back and sat down.

"Seabirds," she said, "More than a hundred, taking shelter from the rain."

When the third ring sounded, Dania was pressing her face against the canvas bag to catch her breath. A new line of text popped up on the screen. "Carrier contact."

"This isn't a false alarm," Zhou Yu said. "She came closer on her own."

Dania looked up from the bag. "I get seasick, not a carrier."

Before the alarm had even died down, there was movement in the waves. A group of Cloud Sea Fairy, all white, drifted over, skimming the crests of the waves, circling the navigation lights on the mast. They didn't bite, they just kept bumping into the lights. Again and again, they bumped into the mast, making it shake violently.

"They're chasing the lights, not the ship," Dania, clutching her stomach and reporting with her eyes closed. "Twenty of them. They're all over there on the mast."

"Chasing the lantern is easy." Zhou Yu turned off all the lights in the cabin, picked up a lantern, hung it on the stern, and then used a rope to hoist the lantern out of the ship's side, half a foot above the water.

The Cloud Sea Fairy paused for a moment, then turned around and lined up to chase after the lantern.

Chisa walked to the stern of the boat and stood still to collect them. With the back of her knife, she slapped them into the sea one by one. The movements were small, like picking fruit from a tree.

Despite her dizziness, Dania didn't stop counting.

"Eighteen, nineteen, twenty." She clung to the gunwale and waved towards the sea. "They're all gone."

"You're so dizzy and you're still giving directions?" Sigelica said. "What kind of constitution do you have?"

"She's got the constitution of a rice cooker," Dania said, then steadied herself against the gunwale.

"We have more souvenirs now," Sigelica said.

"The white ones are hard to pack," Zhou Yu said. "Throw them away."

The last fairy fell into the water, and the storm's most intense phase passed. The digital watch fell silent, no longer beating. Zhou Yu flipped it over and tapped the dial.

"Once we arrive in the Land of Echo, we'll first cure your paranoia."

The fog lifted before dawn.

Dania was no longer seasick. She clung to the ship's railing and looked up at the horizon.

First, there was a patch of black. Then that patch of black turned into the shadow of an island, with a sliver of gray sky pressing down behind it.

"I see it!" she shouted.

Sigelica and Chisa squeezed to the side of the ship. Where the fog had cleared, a string of lights floated on the sea. One after another, they lined up along the waterway, stretching from the foot of the island's shadow all the way to the horizon.

"Gondola." Zhou Yu consulted the route map, "The lights entering the city."

The lights moved slowly across the water, lining up perfectly. Dania watched for a while.

Are they in a line?

"It's good to queue." Zhou Yu put the lantern back on the boat. "It's easier to get things done where there's a queue."

The bow of the boat lifted slightly, and it sailed into the line of lights.