Maji Nobuna
Maji gulped down a helping of hot chocolate, letting the liquid swish around in her mouth before swallowing it. It formed a sphere in her gullet that slowly turned pink. “This has gotta be the best post-job reward I’ve ever had,” she said. “How do you make this stuff?”
“Take the beans of a cacao tree and crush them up. Two parts boiling water, one part separately boiled milk. Serve it in a smokewood mug for flavor.” Babbock rattled off the recipe and glanced over, slightly abashed. “I was the cocoa boy for a while when I started.”
Tetia smirked. “Oh, so that’s not just our branch. Good to know that every Library officer makes the drinks at some point.”
Babbock laughed. “I’ll have to try some of yours, then.”
Berkel held her mug in both hands, the steam rising and breaking lightly against her face. She hadn’t taken a sip since she’d been handed it. Maji sidled up on the break room bench.
“Looking for a fortune?” she asked, nudging Berkel’s shoulder.
Berkel looked up, confused. “For what?”
“A fortune.” Maji pointed to the curls of the lighter cocoa beans in the darker mixture. “It’s this old tradition on Terramina that drinks can tell the future. See, the patches here represent the night sky. Or a forest. Or a raven.”
Berkel swished her mug around slightly, disturbing the patterns. “And what’s my future now?” she asked, a slight smile on her face.
Maji thought for a second and smiled. “It says here that your future is drinking cold cocoa.”
“My cocoa’s fortune telling isn’t very good,” Berkel said simply, tipping the mug back and drinking.
“Well, it’s no divination magic,” Maji admitted.
“That’s right, you’re a diviner, aren’t you?” Babbock turned to Maji. “I’ve always been fascinated with the School of Seeing.”
“Oh, the School of Seeing! School of Seeing. It’s great there. Lots of, um, eyes. For seeing. But also metaphorically.” Maji engaged her finest salesperson tactics to steer the conversation. “Spent some time there, got my certification. In and out, you understand.”
Tetia raised an eyebrow. “But didn’t you say you’d never been-”
“In any case,” Maji replied, “enough about my valid education. We’ve got our hands full with the Ancient of the Claw, right? We probably won’t have time to stop by the School of Seeing.”
“We’re going to the School of Seeing,” Holt announced, bursting in with a mug of coffee clutched in one hand. “We’ll need the Grand Monk’s help if we want to track where the Claw’s gone.”
He pointed at Babbock. “I’m requesting that you arrange transport to the School’s dwelling. I’ve received a special permit to grant access.”
Babbock nodded and stood up. “Right away.”
Tetia hobbled to her feet. “Good plan, mate. What’s with the mug, though?”
Holt stopped and looked at the mug as though he’d just realized he was holding it. “Belcanter made me coffee. I finished it on the way down here. He said I could leave the mug anywhere.”
“Oh, I can get that,” Babbock said. He grabbed Holt’s mug and dashed out of the room. As soon as he did, Holt’s expression grew darker.
“Now, some of you might have already guessed,” he said in a lower tone, “but there’s something off about all of this. There’s too many loose ends to be careless with our investigation. Trust each other first and foremost. Understood?”
Maji nodded in surprise. She’d barely considered the possibility that the Claw wasn’t just popping up at random. Berkel and Tetia seemed to accept the theory with varying degrees of certainty.
Babbock returned and saluted in the doorway. “I’ve readied the gondola. Is everyone ready?”
Holt spoke without turning around. “We’re ready when you are.”
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As the gondola climbed higher along the tree trunk, Maji’s head began to spin. “Air feels funny here,” she murmured, careening towards the side. “Must be the lack of altitude at high pressures, haha.”
Tetia grabbed Maji’s shoulder before she could slump over the side. “You okay, love? Want us to slow down?” To Maji, Tetia’s horns were splitting into blurry dark clouds.
Maji shook her head blearily. “Just need to adjust. Changeling air compression, go!” She plugged her nose and mouth and blew out hard. Suddenly her head swelled with air, bobbing out like a balloon. Slowly, it deflated, until her head was normal and Holt had stopped having six legs. “There,” she said. “All better.”
“Shouldn’t be too far now,” said Babbock, who was peering up through the canopy. This close to the sky, they could see light blazing yellow between the leaves. There was a thin layer of dew along the branches, and as the light grew warmer, the dew lifted into mist, woven into the treetops. Maji quivered as they passed through the wave of heat -- then she gasped, looking up.
“Yep,” Babbock said, glancing to the sky. “This is a view to die for.”
Above the treetops, the world had dropped away. Maji looked out upon the sky -- so much sky -- the waves of color that stretched towards the horizon. It looked like watercolors, green and turquoise. A single yellow sun spread light like melted butter across the misty treetops. And, not far from them, swaying in the breeze, was a temple, its brown, willowy pillars rocking gently. Carved into the wood were ornate reliefs, figures that Maji could not see from far away. Up so high, the canopy mist seemed to have a tide all its own, and the temple rocked like a ship on that sea. There was a courtyard formed by an interwoven lattice of branches, upon which monks walked in light purple robes. They stopped and turned as the Order of the Claw approached. The gondola ground to a halt in front of the temple gates.
“This is it,” Babbock said. “It’s the School of Seeing.”
Maji just about melted into the floor.
990 words
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