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A pidgin missing its leg and a few patches of feathers fluttered up onto the roof of one of the energy factories guzzling smoke from its chimney. Maja stared up at its watchful gaze over the city's brick buildings and the tall chimneys funneling smoke into the clear sky. She walked along the street below out of one of the many factories on the street. Her face donned coal smudges and her brilliant blonde hair dulled to a shade darker from the usual soot. Fierboxers like herself powered Hadzat day in and day out, shoveling coal to heat the boilers of the city of steam. Calling them energy factories sounded better instead of boiler rooms and coal factories. It made the city sound clean.
Maja tried to keep her head down to avoid the stares as she walked. Even with her hair slightly darkened she was unmistakably an Agostogian refugee and her kind wasn’t exactly welcomed around most parts. She pulled her cap down further defensively as if it would help disguise her.
An image in a newspaper caught her attention enough for her to lower her guard. She walked across the street to the stand and ignored the disgusted look of the cashier. The artistic depiction of a ship sinking at sea tugged at her heart. She picked it up and stared at the image longingly. She grabbed a few gielde from her pocket and dropped it on the stand.
“That all,” the cashier responded snidely but she was already walking away engrossed in the newspaper.
Another ship sank in the Makei Zune. That made a dozen this year that she knew of. Sailors avoided the area like the blood cough, yet no one spoke of it like an unwritten rule. That area of the sea whispered danger. She would never find someone to take her there.
Maja wandered into a colorful cafe. When it first opened the building had been painted a soft sky blue but the pollutant had dyed the colors to almost a cloudy grey, so they had attempted to offset the dull appearance with bright yellow decorations and fake flowers. It was called Rise or something clever like that. Maja automatically sat herself at Alela’s table as she read further into the article. The crew and ship had been lost without a trace just like the others.
“Another one sunk,” Maja said more of thinking out loud than having a conversation. “Ya know they’re sayin’ it’s pirates. Crazy.” Pirates didn’t dare enter the Makei Zune either.
She flipped through the newspaper looking for any other information as she drank the black coffee Alela had gotten her in advance.
“That’s a real shame,” Alela said. Maja heard her sipping at her own coffee: Hazelnut, three sugars, and a little bit of nut milk. Alela sighed. “You know we’ve been living together for over three years now.”
Maja put her cup down. They theorized pirates had claimed that part of the lishmeer ocean as their territory. “Has it been that long?”
“Three whole years.” Alela reached over the table and placed her hand over Maja’s. “It’s unbelievable right?” Her comforting warmth stirred an instant guilt in Maja’s gut. She knew where Alela was going with this; she put the paper down and looked her in the eyes.
“I’ve been waiting three years, Maj,” she continued. Alela gripped her hand tighter over the newspaper. Maja looked down at it and back to Alela.
She loved determination in her gaze. She loved how Alela appeared so fashionable with her flowing dresses and fake leather despite everything she owned being second hand. She loved the way she’d slip in foreign words absent mindedly when she was excited about something. She loved how her body looked like a perfectly sculpted clay statue in the moonlight and how Maja’s fingers would get stuck in Alela’s curly brown hair.
“I know,” Maja said. She held so much love for Alela yet Maja couldn’t move forward. Not yet. Maja squeezed her delicate hand. It was so much larger than her own large but so much more fragile. “I know. You’ve been so patient with me.”
Maja looked down at the paper again. She rubbed Alela’s hand with her thumb in an attempt to comfort herself. The image twisted her mind to the past. To the face of her baby brother reaching out to her helplessly. Fear. She saw it in his eyes as he fell into the turbulent waves below. She could still hear his screams, “Maj!”
She looked into Alela’s eyes full of longing. “But, I’m close. I can feel it.” Maja lifted her hand covering it with both of her own. “I’m close,” she promised.
Alela shook her head. “You’ve been trying so hard Maja, but we can’t keep putting this off. You can’t keep putting us off.”
Maja wished she had more time for Alela, but Maja had spent the last ten years of her life dedicated to finding her brother. If she gave up there would be no left looking for him.
She engulfed Maja’s hand in her own and leaned forward to kiss the soft tips of her fingers. “Soon. I promise,” she said. She’d find Stein soon.
She held Alela’s hand tighter, desperate to hold on. She recognized that pitiful look in her lover's eyes. Alela pulled her hand away and Maja instantly missed her warmth. Alela shook her head. “I’ve heard that promise a hundred times,” she said.
Maja looked down in guilt. It had likely been more than a hundred times. She fiddled with the coffee cup in her hand watching the dark water swoosh in the grinds.
Alela sighed. She sounded exhausted. “Don’t you think your brother would have wanted you to be happy?”
Maja couldn’t respond. The way she said that made her heart sting. It was like how her mother used to talk about him, like he was already gone. She refused to believe such a bright kid could be gone.
“You don’t have to decide this second, but I want you to at least consider moving on,” Alela continued. Maja gazed at her warm coffee eyes filled with compassion and love. “Just picture a life for the two of us beyond this mission of yours. That’s all I’m asking. Find a place for me in your future too.”
Maja smiled brightly. She was continuously saved by her generosity. “Oh course, Alela. You’re in every future I imagine, but my brother is too. You know I can’t give up on him. I’ll find him.” She’d find him soon, so they could all be happy together.
Alela looked down at her cup and sighed, but she then looked up with a soft smile. “Are you done with work today?” She asked, changing the subject.
“Yep, I’m going to the docks after this,” Maja said, leaving out how she was going to find someone to finally take her to the Makei Zune. Her brother had vanished along its edge. She had a hunch the ships’ disappearances would lead her to a clue to where he might have gone.
Alela rolled her eyes. “Be careful down there. I worry about you being around such rough men.”
Maja pounded her fist on the table dramatically. “Ha! As if any of them are close to as rough as I am,” she proclaimed
“But, that’s a part of your charm Maj, my rough and tough da’ula,” she teased.
“Da’ula?” Maja asked as if I didn't know. It was her love’s favorite nickname for her. A little of her native tongue spilling out since she was so at ease. “Means… sunshine, right?”
Alela nodded with a giddy smile. If Maja remembered any Lan it brought her so much joy. “Rough and tough sunshine, I like that,” Maja teased. She loved being her sunshine.
*******
Some days life would just be easier if she stayed and enjoyed her peace with Alela. Maja could tell this was going to be one of those days when the cranky old bartender refused to acknowledge her presence. Alela’s love was safe, the rest of the world not so much. The bartender had the demeanor and cleanliness of a molded piece of bread no one really wanted any more.
“Can I get a shot of rolsh?” Maja asked. It was the cheapest and strongest drink around and popular amongst sailors. She always ordered it so the bartenders couldn’t claim it wasn't in stock just so she’d leave.
“We don’t serve kirze here,” he spat out, his breath smelling as stale as she expected.
Maja rolled her eyes. He said that but she knew he wouldn’t refuse the extra gielde she dropped down with her drink payment. “I said rolsh.”
He throws the drink down in front of her without another word and pockets the extra money.
She downs the liquid courage ignoring its taste of hot rubber. The empty cup clattered on the table. Maja pushed her way through the crowd of burly sailors at port. She pulled herself up on the slimy table in the center of the bar and gathered every ounce of audacity she had as an Agostogian refugee, who was begging people who hated her very existence for help. “Who would dare take me across the center of lishmeer?” She shouted in the most powerful voice she could muster. A wave of angry eyes shifted to her, then the room erupted in laughter.
Faceless voices heckled her in the crowd.
“Get off the table, lass!”
“Get outta here!”
“No one wants ya’ere!”
“Off if, kirze!”
“Please,” Maja begged. “I’m looking for my brother.”
“Ain’t no one dumb enough to go to the makei zune and not for a kirze,” another voice from the crowd said and the entire room laughed at her again.
The bartender trotted over to Maja and grabbed her arm roughly. Maja pulled back, “Hey, I’m not done.”
“Are now,” the bartender said, as he tugged her down. He dragged her by the wrist towards the door.
Maja managed to struggle her way free from his grip. “Fine,” she said. “Nothing but a bunch of cowards here anyhow.” She gave them one final glare before walking out in a huff. She’d have to find a ride out east elsewhere. Maja wouldn’t let something like this stop her from finally finding her brother.
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