The trading post was positioned snugly along the waterline, making the afternoon slightly more bearable than the inner city’s humid heat.

The inhabitants did not seem to agree. Most of them had retreated to the shadows of the trees and buildings, fanning themselves with stacks of paper or leaves stripped from the branches.

“A weak people,” Nana observed, mostly to herself. Rei did not respond, or even hear her, too intent on catching as many sights on the little island of Choukishi’s coast as their short time there would permit.

Nana leaned down against one of the trees and tried to listen for the sounds of the city. She was surprised to find that, even though there was only the single wall fencing them in, very little noise came through it. An occasional screaming child, the yelling of construction workers or an angry beast were the only things she could hear. As quiet as the place was, they might as well have been out in the countryside.

“We don’t speak their language,” Rei reminded Nana, “So where do we start our investigation?”

“I have some idea,” was Nana’s response. She folded her arms and jerked her left thumb at a group of kechi. There were four of them, three women and a man, who all had the same minimum of clothing covering them. Two of the women and the sole man wore a loincloth, the rope of which had been twirled, tied and tucked neatly between their buttocks. Only the most generously endowed of the women had bothered covering up her chest with a neatly tied cloth to keep her assets under control as she played a game with the other kechi.

The game was a simple enough one, popular among school aged children around the empire. The player would balance a small ball, about the size of a man’s fist, on one foot, lop it to the other and kick it to the next, who’d have to catch it and repeat the same motions. Naturally, only people with too much free time were good at it.

The kechi, whose many bracelets anklets and necklaces jingled merrily with every move of their owners noticed they were being watched, but with Nana and Rei in their listeners uniforms, it didn’t register as anything out of the ordinary.

“One at a time or all at once?” Rei whispered, glancing in a manner she thought inconspicuous, though one of the Kechi, an exceptionally beautiful woman had definitely noticed her.

She gestured to the two woman and spoke up loudly so they would definitely hear her.

“Look,” she said, her tone bright, “They want us!”

She flicked her hair back before continuing, “Though they can’t afford us, so they’re stuck watching.”

Laughing, she smacked the male kechi’s butt and made a pretend shocked face at the two dragonflies.

There was a general chorus of laughter from the others, which led to the shortest of the women losing the ball that rolled over to the two Dragonflies, where it came to a halt against Nana’s foot.

She picked it up and realized that it wasn’t a ball, but a fist-sized Marubu. She tossed it between her hands a few times, then threw it in a neat arch to the woman that had been mocking them.

“You,” she said calmly.

“You can’t afford me, dear.”

“I want to talk to you, woman. Get over here.”

The woman gave the marubu to one of her companions, then walked over to the Giya that demanded her presence.

“Need help?” Rei asked, even though she clearly didn’t want to, already starting to wander off.

Nana shook her head, making a display of impatiently tapping her foot as she waited for the prostitute to join her.

“What?” she wanted to know, mimicking Nana’s body language by folding her arms and getting as close as she dared to the armed stranger.

“Name?”

“My name, miss listener, is Shirosato, first of…”

“I don’t care,” Nana cut her off, “I have a few questions.”

Shirosato let out an extremely exaggerated sigh, “Must you waste my time?”

“I must, but to humor you, I’ll keep it brief…”

Rei quickly found her way to the shoreline to watch the Dreadnought that floated just beyond the bay that gave Choukishi its name. Even at the distance, the ship’s superstructure was enormous and Rei stared at it in amazement, then squinted when she saw something was making its way through the mouth of the bay, heading for the city.

She wondered for a moment if she should warn the guards about a possible invasion, then noted the flag the tiny boat flew was the same as the one that hung listlessly at the center of the trading post.

It took a full ten minutes before she could make any sense of what she was seeing. The boat had been filled to the rim, seemingly just with men that all carried thick whips in their hands.

When the boat halved its distance, she realized the men were guarding four black-robed creatures, one of which was holding their arms clasped above their head, gently leaning them left or right to steer the boat.

As it came even closer, Rei wondered if the word hands was the proper way to describe the green scaled and pocked talons that came from the black wool.

The boat landed neatly against the dock, where the soldiers manhandled their prisoners out, barking what Rei thought were orders at them. They stripped them off the black robes, leaving them naked…or so Rei assumed. Their shape was vaguely humanoid, but they were covered green, red, orange and bright purple scales. Instead of lips, they had curved yellow beaks and fiery orange eyes that regarded the world around them with barely concealed terror.

They scuttled to the beach and dropped down to their stomach. Rei watched, wondering what was happening, then noticed that they were all looking for the warmth of the sun. When they found it, ridges of spikes or strange thick plates rose from their back and they sank into sleep.

The guards checked if the demihumans were as docile as they wanted them to be, then found a spot under a tree to sit, drink and play dice.

“Tantuo weird,” Rei said out loud to herself, proceeding to stare at the creatures until she suddenly felt a hand on her shoulder.

“Tassi?”

Nana squeezed Rei’s shoulder to assure it was her.

“Learned anything interesting?”

“Nope. Their upper lips are locked a lot tighter than the lower ones. …. Or maybe they’re simply not involved. Anyway, we can go now.”

Rei pouted, “Can we stay a little longer?”

Nana rolled her eyes and sighed, “Fine. But if you need me, I’ll be taking a nap over there.”

Rei smiled, glad she was being indulged, then sat down to stare at the strange lizard-people. Even regular lizards were a rare sight in the Empire, let alone the half human ones.

She pulled her legs up, leaned her elbows on her knees and her head on her arms, wondering if the creatures would move. She was joined by a creature that reached her shoulders now that she was sitting. It pushed its beak against her arm, trying to gain her attention. She gave the animal a smile,

wondering what it was. The fat little lizard had three horns on its head, which she made sure not to touch as she made sure to scratch its ears.

“Hi there,” she murmured. The creature made a strange whining sound back at her and nibbled at her hand with its beak-mouth.

She studied the fat little lizard a moment longer, glanced at the demihumans, then laughed at the nonsensical thought that had entered her head.

“Of course you’re not the same species as them,” she giggled, “Who’d eat a sentient creature.”

The fat little lizard cocked its head, listening intently to her voice.

Kaba heard the door open behind her, noted the sound of jingling metal and continued to check the locks on her luggage.

“Always nice to have you,” she said to Shirosato, “Though I’m afraid we can’t use my bed.”She turned around to stand eye to eye with Shirosato, who hadn’t bothered to put on more than her swimwear. The native woman was smiling thinly at her, her eyes searching her face, then finally spoke when she was sure it was Kaba she was looking at.

“I have the thing for you,” she said in Kaba’s own tongue, “The co...the co…”

She thought for a moment, then simply finished lamely, “The co-thing.”

“Coordinates?” Kaba asked, stressing each syllable by itself.

“Yes, but won’t mister Pannkuch be suspi...Suspicus?”

“Suspicious,” Kaba corrected, “And no. I told him I’m going to bed that little Listener. The new one. It’s not like he can check with her.”

“I understand,” Shirosato said mechanically, “You are to bring the…”

Kaba put her hand over Shirosato’s mouth, silencing her mid sentence, “I know what I’m to bring. And you should know your are to shut the seven Fells up.”

Kaba let go off the woman’s mouth, who simply responded with, “Five.”

“Five?”

“There’s five hells, not seven.”

“Must be six at least,” Kaba smirked, “Look where you live.”

The captain was treated to another rendition of the thin smile she had been shown earlier.

“What’s your excuse for being here anyway?” Kaba continued, turning back to the few objects she’d carry in her pockets on the way back to the ship.

“Goodbyes,” was the Kechi’s short answer, “I’ll never see you again after all.”

Kaba looked over her shoulder and offered Shirosato a playful wink. Shirosato looked back blankly, unfamiliar with the conspiratorial gesture.

“Something in your…” she started.

“No, girl. Just get going before Pannkuch cries out in despair for losing his human security blanket.”

Shirosato wasn’t sure what Kaba meant, simply bowed, then leaned out the door of the captain’s quarters to make sure nobody had seen her come there.

She didn’t see anyone, stepped out and hurried towards the headman’s house, never noticing Rei eyeing her.

“Tassi, wake up.”

“Must I?” Nana grumbled in annoyance, not bothering to open her eyes.

“I’ve got a lead.”

“Then I must,” Nana sighed, now opening her eyes, “What did you find, girl?”

“You were right about the Kechi you interviewed.”

“I knew it,” Nana smiled to herself, “What did you see?”

“She’s hiding something with the captain, the black woman.”

“How do you know?” Nana inquired, “It’s not like you can understand them.

“She looked very suspicious leaving the captain’s quarters. Trying not to draw attention to herself, or even being seen.”

“So, she was probably…”

“She was only in there for a moment. Too short for … You know.”

“I do know,” Nana laughed, stood up and dusted herself off, “Then we need to get somebody on their ship that can find out what we need to.”

“Do you know anyone like that? They’d have to speak that weird guttural language.”

“I know just the person,” Nana smiled, “Let’s hope they’re around.”