FSE

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Geeo handed me the voice line from the dock. Taking it, I immediately heard a familiar "Famir!"

"Dad? What are you doing here? I thought you'd be in Periten!"

"Better than that. So, I have some things to announce for auction, far and wide. Notes on the people, so on."

"But how?"

"Well, we wanted to be first back, so we didn't want to have to go all the way to Periten. So we went up to the wall, to the sandspeck archipelago."

"Never heard of it."

"It's on all the maps, as a navigational hazard only. At high tide, they aren't even islands."

"Then what's the point?"

"It was a landmark. The only special point on the wall. Remember when you got lost and wanted to find Mom in the great park? You both just went to the big statue. We met likeminded traders from Periten there."

"Good thinking, and lucky!"

"Yes! We made a joint venture out of it. I led them back here, and Kiann took their first mate with her on to Periten."

"So, mom isn't here?"

"No. We'll meet in the middle every thirty days or so."

"Until you have a good feel for the markets?"

He hesitated. "Well, it's a bit more complicated than that. Look. We have some orders to send out. Why don't you come down after work?"

So I took his orders, which would be ready for when Mom got back. Once I'd sent them out, I realized I had forgotten to tell him about Renna.

---

Renna and I went straight from work down to the dock. One ship stood out - large, with painters on the side refreshing its flat white coat. It was not particularly long, but it was very wide, barely fitting between the two piers. There was a lot of cargo laid out, and more was being unloaded. A large crowd had come out to see the ship, the goods, and the people.

The crew were dressed much like the two we'd seen in the woods, with the women wrapped tightly in bands of stretchy white cloth a handspan wide, and the men in white clothing all in one piece. Unlike the two we'd seen in the woods, they wore masks. Some were simple, some were elaborate with mechanical bits to convey expressions, but they all completely covered the face so that outside of body shape there was no clue what animal each crew-member was. Of course, the body shape generally gave more than enough information - there were the pear-shaped ones with long feet, and there were wide-eared bear-like things, and there were some rats. And some other things. Ducks?

As we approached the cordoned entrance, we were halted by a beefy naga guard; a shrill old fox lady stood nearby on a box, telling to everyone about to enter: "All right, got it! No asking them what animal they are! Not even a little! Not even hinting at it! Don't even suggest that they have anything to do with animals! Don't ask to see their face! If they want you gone, we kick you out." She stamped the crate so hard one of the nails loosened visibly. "Got it?"

The crowd assented, and we were let in. We went to the auction stage, and I saw that the man was not my father at all.

We wandered among the huge boxes, looked at the goods for sale. There were some dry foods, including chocolate - we immediately bought some - and tea. There were engraved maps of Periten, and stamped dishes of all sorts. No magical items.

"Famir, what do you think of this?" That wasn't Renna. I didn't even recognize the voice. I turned, and found that fellow I'd met in the foreign office on the night of the emergency.

I looked to his hands, where he was holding some metal trinkets - toy ships. "Oh, hello. What about them?"

Renna had noticed him and came around me. I turned to her, saying, "Renna, this is, ah... Farsel. He works in the foreign office."

They nodded briefly to each other, and then I got down to looking at the toy ships. They weren't particularly high-quality, but they were identical. I could literally not find a single distinguishing feature except for our fingerprints. "They're awfully similar." I looked to the other ten, still in the box. "They're all awfully similar."

Farsel nodded. "Yes. And if they can make so many things just the same at such a low price, they must have some very clever way of doing it. This could be big."

"Or they're trying to impress us with a loss leader, and they worked their asses off on it."

"Maybe. So, anyway, a bit of news. Prot joined us."

Renna glanced to me, confused. Of course, with the promise of discretion, I hadn't mentioned to her that they knew. It wasn't clear how to obey this promise in this case. "I'm sorry, but..."

Farsel smirked slightly, but shook his head. "Prot! Stop trolling the visitors!"

I turned and found a completely naked and hardly anthro instance of whatever it was that the long-footed folk were. He hopped up. "But they're such chumps! Just being a kangaroo makes their heads spin. Oh, Hi Famir! And... Renna? An Axolotl. Now that's taste." He cocked his head, and shifted into an axolotl, far less anthro than she - to the point I couldn't tell whether it was male or female - with a broad babyish face and three little claws. "Ooh yeah. I like this millenium. I can turn into just about anything and not even get stares." - which wasn't quite true.

Since he was being completely open about us, I figured the promise was up - I tried and trivially succeeded in asking, "Why are you out of your little palace?"

"Because you were wrong, my boy. You and Renna both. Getta is not such a boring softie as you had me thinking." His claws suddenly became talon-sharp and his fronds turned to razor blades with razor blades sprouting from them, appearing to recurse down as far as the fronds did - just for a moment. "You remember that bastard who couldn't take down a message to save his life?"

"Prot, not here. There'll be plenty of time later. Let's go." Farsel set down what he'd been examining, then set off towards the ship.

Prot looked after Farsel, amused, then sighed. "Fair enough." He, too, set off.

We set off again, vaguely inward. Renna asked, "You know this is the ship you're going to have to take, right?"

"Yes, I picked up on that. But having to share a ship with Prot is the least of my concerns. Look how inwardly-focused these people are. And they're traders! I can't imagine what the rest of them are like. Will they want to send any messages anywhere at all?"

"Well, everything's ready except our box." She meant the long-range communication box that was the relay for the body-swap she and Aresh were planning on doing every evening.

"Unless they're leaving before tomorrow mid-day, we can finish the keystones. We can put the rest together separately."

"We'd better be very careful."

As we approached the ship, a masked man in white approached and said, "Famir!"

"Dad?"

He hugged me. "I found it was impossible to work with these people unless you follow their rules. Good to see you again!" He looked over Renna, then back to a white-wrapped kangaroo-woman coming down the ramp. "And here's my new business partner, Yisief."

Yisief came up alongside Juinien. "Hello, Famir. I see you resemble your father."

And then, she took his hand and squeezed it.

"Father... really? It's been just fourteen days."

"Don't 'father' me. You only say that to accuse me of philandering, which seems a bit rich considering you wandered up with someone other your wife, way younger than I ever did - and especially since this is totally above-board. But I have gotten ahead of myself. Let's finish the introductions. I do not mean to insult my son's sweetie. I am Juinien, Famir's father. You are?"

"Renna, your daughter-in-law. But yes, I am your son's sweetie."

My father's mask was not one of the elaborate mechanical ones, so we were spared most of his mortification. After a few moments, he stammered out, "Why did you change body?"

"Knife in the gut."

"Ah." He digested that for a few moments. "Well, then, you'll be glad to hear that your mother and I were married to Yisief and Tarse on the 2nd. Kiann and I are still married as well. This... was for business purposes."

Recalling the hand squeeze, I sure that wasn't the only reason. I prompted, "Such as..."

Yisief: "Primarily, one must be a citizen of Periten to operate in Periten."

Renna: "What other ways are there of becoming a citizen? Famir wants to 'operate' in Periten, and he's not remarrying..."

I suggested, "I'm the son of a citizen..."

Yisief: "No, that doesn't help. You can take a test, but that will take weeks to approve."

I asked, "Wait - there's no automatic citizenship for children of citizens? What's the point of such exclusionary rules? Are there other countries on the continent?"

"No, no other countries as such."

Renna looked to me in confusion I shared - what could the point of such a rule be unless... I said, "By citizen, do you mean some elevated status? Are all of the crew here citizens?"

Yisief: "Oh, yes. We don't hold slaves. It merely serves to distinguish civilization from non-civilization. Maybe the rules will change once they find that the wall really lifted and there really are other countries on the outside."

Me: "There was doubt?"

Yisief: "It has been a thousand years, my son." The translation of that last bit was a little jarring. It sounded substantially more natural in the original - a single syllable.

Renna: "But, the ongoing wishes? The gods continually remind us of their presence."

Yisief: "Which of these would you notice, if you aren't looking for them? Understanding all languages is utterly invisible when there's only one. The expansion of the universe takes a telescope to make out. We attributed the improvement in our teeth to improved public health measures."

Renna: "Surely you noticed that we all, uh... over the last hundred years have had certain morphological features not previously present, that are reminiscent of non-humans."

Fortunately, Yisief did not take offense - not directly. "It's taken to be a shameful curse, just like the end of the sex-inversion wish four hundred years ago. This last one has caused us all sorts of trouble, with people taking up belief in your gods."

I nearly laughed. "I hardly see that as a problem."

"They've had to make it up as they go along, since almost all of the old books were destroyed. It has usually not come out well."

Me: "So, backing up a little. The Weldin were all worried you'd be ready to sneak-attack them, but most of you have completely forgotten that they exist?"

Yisief nodded. "That is correct. Those of us who were willing to bet that you do exist, are hardly upset about that fact. Unless they're planning on invading again?"

Me: "I doubt it."

My father said, "On that cheery note, we have to get back to business. I see a wholesaler coming, so... wait. Wait one second. I just realized you said you wanted to do business in Periten? What sort?"

"Setting up a new telegraphy office."

"Oh. Oh, don't do that. This white clothing isn't for fashion, or even to hide animal forms." Yisief squirmed and her mask twitched a frown at the mention. "It's from before that. There's a terrible skin disease about. We're clean, but they made sure by quarantining everyone at the sandspecks for twenty days before the wall came down. Don't go - not to stay on the land, anyway. You haven't got any resistance."

Renna clutched my arm; Yisief sighed. "And again, even if this mythical 'resistance' is real in general, it doesn't apply to the Kites."

It seemed like an odd name. "Kites?"

Yisief grimly said, "A sticky angular splotch with a wavy line coming out one side. It grows, and then multiplies, and when..." She halted as the wholesaler approached, then continued in a light tone, "Let's just say, you don't want to get it."

They went to do their business. I sat on a piling, and Renna sat on my lap. Renna looked to me very seriously. I knew what she was going to say, but I let her say it: "Famir, don't go. It was silly in the beginning, and it's gotten progressively worse and worse."

"Progressively? I see this disease as the only new problem. The rest is solutions."

"It's enough! I don't want you going into a plague zone, and I don't want you bringing Aresh -- in this soft-skinned body, no less! Probably very susceptible -- into one."

"Let's find out a bit more about it first, shall we? Their civilization has survived, and they may have a point about no such thing as resistance."

"Oh come on Famir. All that means is they all already have resistance and we don't. Stop trying to argue yourself into doing something crazy."

A shadow fell on us - Farsel again. "I hate to break it to you, ma'am, but Famir did sign up with the foreign service already, and has been assigned to Periten. His options are to go, or to desert." He let that settle for a moment. "The good news is, we're going to bring the best doctors, freshly equipped from the great hospital, and a large stock of isolation spells. He'll be protected. And Aresh, too. Your body will be safe. I'm going myself. Okay?"

Renna fumed at him. "You are very rude, listening in like that."

Farsel was unmoved. "I was standing right over there before you sat down, and you were nearly shouting."

My father appeared out of nowhere, saying, "In Periten, you had better get used to not letting on when you overhear something. What I just did, let alone what you just did, would be a terrible breach of conduct. So, a little bird told me that you're from the government, and you want passage..."

Farsel: "I notice you're not warning me off."

Juinien: "I overheard something about you being prepared. And if you're serious, I'm willing to take your team. Including Famir. Thirty full measures each, plus ten per ton of cargo."

Farsel: "Thirty full measures? That's insane! Are you trying to gouge the government?"

Juinien: "Space is a premium on these first few voyages."

Farsel: "I can offer seven."

Juinien: "Then you can get a later ship. I'm sure you'll be there some time this year for what you're offering. Look, I'll throw in Famir for free."

Farsel: "Screw that. I'm requisitioning a navy ship - it'd just be sitting around anyway. Famir, time to pack." He handed me a call pendant. "To keep you up to date."