219 The North (2/2)

Li made his way upstairs to the office floor of the Farmer's Guild. There were neatly ordered cubicles of wood tapered with vine designed with the kind of corporate efficiency he was familiar with, and in fact, he had been involved with the designing process of the building with Alexei. He hated corporations and all that they had stood for in his past life, but at the least, he could parse what parts of it were usefully efficient in a kind of neutral calculus.

In a larger cubicle at the back lit up by two lantern lights, there was Sindra, her posture still remarkably straight as she sat at her desk, feline pupils narrowed as she pored over a thick sheathe of documents. He was here to simply ask whether she was fine and get a situation of how the guild had been doing with their temporary housing and all.

”Seer,” nodded Sindra in recognition before going back to work. Her tone of voice was soft and quiet as she had noticed with a quick glance that Tia was snugly sound asleep in Li's arms.

”Sindra,” said Li. ”It is not too uncommon to see you working so late, but even now? In the midst of all the chaos surrounding the city? You should take a break. Write back home to the north.”

Li noted that Sindra paused for a split second from reading her document. ”If you do have family or connections up there.”

”I never did elaborate on my family,” said Sindra.

”And you do not have to now. If you wish to keep it close to your heart, then keep it there.”

”Ven'thur has already made assumptions that are largely true. It is pointless to keep my background hidden. I am from the north, and I do hail from one of the few noble beastman families there, the few that were inducted into citizenship by the Republic.”

”And the rest of the beastmen?”

The edge of Sindra's lip tugged slightly into a frown. ”Relegated to 'citizens' in the shallowest sense. Isolated into reservations as manual labor.”

”If this is a touchy subject, we can avoid it,” said Li.

”No, it is not. As much as Ven'thur would think it so, I am not motivated to learn and work here to escape some form of guilt that I was born with a family name that grants me more status than the rist of my kin. That is out of my control, and so, I do not lose sleep over it. If I did fret over such matters, I would not have enough of my brain to partition to truly important matters. Like this.” She tapped the papers in front of her with a slender, claw tipped finger.

”But I will still say now, just as I did when you asked me the first time I expressed a desire to join this guild, that I am still here because I wish to make a difference, and a difference I could not make pushing mundane papers for a city hall of no true substance.”

”And because you would never be allowed to move up in the bureaucracy here,” said Li as his eyes settled on her feline features.

”Yes, there is only so much a foreign noble name can do,” said Sindra. ”Though I suppose the Republican conception of 'noble' is far different than that thought of in Soleil.”

She took a document and handed it to Li. ”But interestingly, perhaps my name does mean more than I thought.”

Li took the paper and read it. It was in Elven script, the letters curlier and wavier and more tightly packed than the scratch-like markings that denoted Soleilan human script.

”Need I recite the letter?” said Sindra.

”No”, said Li with a wave of his hand. He scanned the letter.

It was short, but it was important.

An Elven message reaching out for an audience with Li and Sindra.