Heart of Dorkness

I stare at the grown man on the floor and wince as he bobs his head up and down, forehead thumping lightly on the ground with every bow. “You can rise?” I say.

He pauses mid-bow, and then shakes his head. “No, Lady Malvada. I, of all people, don’t deserve to have you even lay eyes upon me.”

“Yeah, I think there’s been a mistake,” I said. “I’m Valeria Malvada, not Luciana.”

I see him blink, then he raises his head up slightly to take me in.

I’m clearly not my mom. I’m about a head and a bit too short, and I don’t fill the air around me with suffocatingly thick Dark magic whenever I’m mildly inconvenienced. I’m also not nearly as pretty or scary. “You’re thinking of my mom,” I say.

And down his head goes again, with a heavy crack. “The lady sent her child to punish me,” he gasps.

“No? I don’t even know who you are. Please get up.” I move up and bend down to grab him by the shoulder. He’s got a bruise on his forehead, which really can’t be good. “Maybe you should sit down.”

Less chances of head injuries that way.

“Thank you, thank you,” he says. “I’m... forgive me, I haven’t been myself. Everything just happened all at once, and it’s been eating at me. Please forgive me.”

“Of course, of course,” I say as I push him towards his desk. He leans back against it, a hand rubs at his forehead. “So, I’ve introduced myself, and the girl there is my friend, Felix. Who are you?”

“I’m Iago Juárez, currently the one in charge of the Juárez and Sons Transportation Company.”

“You’re Mister Juárez’s son?” I ask. I can’t help the smile. Good news at last.

He nods. “I am. His failure of a firstborn. My father said it would be my turn to take over the company one day.” Iago looks up to the ceiling, then balls up his fists and shakes them. “I didn’t expect it to be so soon.”

He looks like he’s ten or so years older than me. I don’t see why he’s making such a fuss. “That’s alright? I’m sure you’ll manage, probably. Do you mind if I sit?”

“Oh, my father would have my hide,” he says as he jumps to his feet. “Take a seat, take two. Please, make yourselves comfortable. Carlota! Carlota, drinks for our guests! Please!”

He ushers me to a chair, and I sit down while Felix finds her own. I can hear the maid downstairs running about, the tinking of glass on glass a sure sign that she’s preparing something for us to drink.

“I didn’t know you, well, existed,” I admit. “I came here on a bit of a hunch. I imagine you know about the last delivery?”

“The last— oh, yes, of course I do,” he says. “Those bastards at the Church of the Hero.” He thumps his fist down on his desk. He winces, then wiggles his hand free of the pain.

“I heard that they passed some sort of law making some books illegal?” I ask.

“They did. It started with that incident, in Penamor. They used that as an excuse, really, to confiscate the books of a few academies and sects, then they started to ban certain texts. My father thinks that it was all a plot to insult the Dark Goddess.”

I hear Felix shift next to me, and a glance from the corner of my eye reveals that... well, she’s still smiling, but she looks a bit weird.

“Okay, I have a lot of questions, but that incident in Penamor is at the top. What happened?”

Iago snorts indelicately. “A group of fools in some Maya-worshipping cult found an ancient tome with forbidden magic. Their sort of magic, of course. So they used it to move an island out of the path of one of Penamor’s shipping lanes.”

“They moved an island?” I ask. “I think I can imagine how that would go wrong.”

The maid walks in then, carrying a tray with a pitcher of juice, a few blocks of ice floating within, and some fruit wedges jammed on the edges of three glasses.

“Thank you,” Iago says as she places it on his desk. He pours three cups, handing one to me and one to Felix while the maid beats a hasty retreat. “The spell actually worked. And it caused some grand waves that wiped out nearby fishing towns. The king in Montele was quite put out about it.”

“Huh,” I say. I wasn’t exactly expecting that. “So they used that as a reason to start banning books?”

“Yes, the bastards,” Iago curses while sipping from his lemonade.

“And they came for your dad’s book shipment?” I ask.

He nods. “The very first books they tried to confiscate in all of Santafaria. Did they bother the people in the Yellow Castle? No. The other merchants? Not them. The book store just three roads down? Given a light warning! But my father? They jailed him right away.”

“Is he going to be okay?” I ask.

“Oh, we’ll get him out. The Church of the Hero only has so much power, and while the guild might be slow right now, they will act soon. We can’t let the church interfere too much with business. If we let every church muck with our affairs, we would never accomplish anything.”

I nod along. “So, where is your father now? And where are the books?”

“Father is in the Yellow Castle. He’s unreachable. The books were sent to the capital yesterday.”

I take a long pull from the lemonade, barely tasting it as I think. “The capital? Oh, right, they need to inspect the books.”

“Exactly. I... am tempted to follow them there, and recoup them as soon as I can. We can’t fail in our contract with you, with your lady mother.” he swallows. I think he’s realized that he’s been talking to me really plainly for a while. Iago doesn’t seem like the sort of person who is fully in control of their emotions. “Forgive me!” he says.

“It’s alright? So, when did the shipment leave?”

“Yesterday afternoon. It left with a few priests, and a mercenary they hired to guard the shipment and to fight off any monsters.”

“Monsters would be great,” I say. “If they kill the convoy and the priests, it would be easy to get them to bring the books back home.”

“Yes, yes, of course,” Iago says, his skin turning a bit pale.

I lean back in the chair and think for a moment. I need those books, and now they’re a day away. A bit less; it’s not quite noon yet.

We could catch up, I’m sure.

“Okay,” I say. “We’re heading out of the city. I’m sorry about your dad, Iago. I hope you can free him.”

“You aren’t angry?”

“With you? Of course not. It’s not your fault the Church of the Hero are being bullies.”

“Thank you! My father will be overjoyed to hear it.”

I nod as I stand up. “Is there anything else I should know?”

Iago considers it for a moment. “If you are going to the capital, you will want to be quick about hiring transport. A Screaming Angel is due to pass along the route between here and the capital. Most caravans won’t risk travelling across its path.”

“Huh, good to know.” I gesture to Felix, and she gulps down the last of her juice, then takes my half-finished cup and downs that too. I can’t even fault her. “You ready to go, Felix?”

“Wait!” Iago says. He scurries behind the large desk dominating the centre of the room and throws a drawer open. He places a thick book onto the desk, then flips through the pages. A ledger.

I watch as he studies it for a bit, then jogs over to a wall where a painting of a rather plain landscape is hanging. He removes it, revealing a safe that he cracks open with a few twirls of its wheel. Iago counts out coins from a stack and slips them into a bag.

“Here,” he says as he places the bag on the desk before me. It’s a pouch made of thick cloth, dyed a deep blue.

“What’s that?”

“The sum your mother paid the Juárez and Sons Transport Company to carry her precious books to her domicile. We cannot in good faith keep that coin if the goods were not delivered.” He bows over the desk.

“Oh, well... okay.” I take it.

A bit more gold might help. Also, I think there’s some silver there, which might make me stand out less.

“Thank you,” I say.

Iago insists on escorting us out of his home, and when I ask about a carriage leading out of town, he suggests a company near the docks that I can trust.

Felix and I step out, a whole lot richer, and with a new goal in mind.

At least, if she wants to come.

“Hey, Felix,” I say as I start walking towards the lake. I imagine the docks are around there.

“Yeah?”

“Did you want to come with me? I could pay you, of course. And there will be food and such, I imagine. And, well, I’ll be there. I can teach you a bit of magic!”

Felix laughs. “Sure. I’ve never left Santafaria before. I thought of it. Some people live in the forests, even with the monsters. Strong people. But I think that’s because only the strong ones survive. But yeah, I’d love to come.”

“Great!”

“So, is your mom really a god?”

“Ah...”

***