Meryl woke to the sound of cannon fire.
She covered her ears with her hands and shrunk back under the thin sheets of her bed.
"Ma'am?" called Milly. "I've got breakfast for you."
"Stop knocking!" Meryl hissed. Her voice sounded loudly in her skull and she groaned as she sat up and made her way to the door.
Milly smiled down at Meryl as she entered the room, carrying a tray with a simple breakfast of dry toast and coffee. The younger woman looked disgustingly cheerful; if Meryl hadn't been the one to make sure her partner didn't pass out on the way up three flights of stairs, she would never have guessed that Milly had been drinking herself to a stupor the night before.
She's not even tired. That's not fair.
Meryl must have been glaring, because Milly just patted her on the head and said, "Eat something, Ma'am, you know it'll help." Meryl crunched through a piece of toast (no butter) and had to admit that having even a little food in a queasy stomach did help settle things. Taking long swigs of coffee between bites of toast, Meryl began to feel like herself again.
Just as she opened her mouth to thank Milly (both for the food and for the younger woman's unwavering patience), a deafening horn blast sounded in the morning air, ringing in Meryl's ears. Milly winced, but rather than making Meryl's headache worse, the noise was comforting and familiar to her and it actually made her feel better. She grinned broadly as she turned to the room's small window and Meryl could feel Milly hovering over her shoulder to look out as well.
"That's the biggest sand steamer I've ever seen!" Milly exclaimed, staring out where the flat Inepril skyline was broken by the shape of the massive steamer.
"It's a Humpback class," Meryl said, recognizing the model immediately. "An older aught-three. See the rounded hull?" She pointed, tapping at the glass of the window. "No extenders. Always tended to shake, I thought."
When Meryl looked back to Milly, the younger woman was staring back at her, dumbstruck. Meryl felt embarrassed by Milly's awed expression; she had forgotten that this was an area of her life that Milly knew very little about. Meryl gave a little cough, turning her face back down to her empty plate. She pushed the toast crumbs around with her index finger, drawing a tiny smiley face in bas-relief, trying to think of something to say to change the subject.
The steamer gave another thunderous blast on its horn and Meryl gave a start.
"The plant engineer!" she said, suddenly remembering. "He's supposed to be on the steamer!"
Milly just wore a bemused expression as Meryl overturned her breakfast tray in her haste to sweep around the room, grabbing pieces of her wardrobe as she found them and hurrying to pull on her usual tunic-over-leggings ensemble. As she finally settled the heavy cloak around her shoulders, Meryl gave another glance out the window.
"It looks like they're already unloading the passengers," said Meryl. She left the breakfast tray where it had fallen and ushered Milly out the door, locking it behind them and stowing the key in a safe pocket inside her cloak. Milly followed her down the hall without comment until they reached the ground floor. Then she asked, "I'm sorry, Ma'am, but why are we in such a hurry? What does the plant engineer have to do with us?"
"Nothing, technically," Meryl said. "But I'm looking forward to having all the ends tied up on this one. Shall we go meet him?"
"Do you think we might be able to get a tour of the plant?" Milly asked, suddenly more interested. "I've never even been in one!"
"Me neither," said Meryl, considering this opportunity. "I suppose there's no harm in asking."
They set out for the steamer docks at the edge of town, but the streets were unusually busy. Most of the town was bustling around the docks, awaiting visitors or ordered goods, and Meryl and Milly made slow progress toward the steamer. Meryl was amazed to see that so many of the townsfolk were also setting up shops in the marketplace. It made sense, to open as much trade as possible while the steamer and its passengers and crew were in port, but Meryl was taken aback by the amount of stuff the town had left to sell after the wanton destruction of the last few days. She glanced around interestedly at some of the market stalls they passed on their way to the docks.
Fewer than two yarz from where Meryl stood, two small sand-shuttles crashed headlong into each other. She jumped at the sounds of shattered glass and twisting metal and turned automatically to see what had happened. A sharp hissing noise like nails on a chalkboard slammed into Meryl like a physical blow and sent her staggering backwards, her vision gone suddenly dark. She gasped in shock—and inhaled a mouthful of fur.
"Thpech!"
Meryl swatted repeatedly at the warm, soft bulk covering her face and Kuroneko hissed again, finally releasing her and jumping into Milly's waiting arms. Meryl coughed and began desperately trying to pick cat hair off her tongue with both hands.
"They nearly hit him, Ma'am!" Milly said, angrily. Then she cradled the cat gently in her arms and cooed at it, saying, "You poor little thing... Lucky Ma'am was there to catch you!"
"Catch him?" Meryl squawked. "He nearly suffocated me!"
"Nyao..."
Meryl glared at the cat, but he had started purring loudly and was rubbing his head under Milly's chin, making her giggle. Meryl knew that Milly would always side with the cat, when it came to these kinds of things, and gave up.
But what the hell had happened?
Meryl jogged over to where the two drivers were stepping out of their damaged vehicles. They appeared unhurt, if a little dazed, but neither seemed at all concerned with the accident. Both were staring up at the steamer, pointing, and Meryl realized they weren't the only people doing so.
Every man there was looking up the long gangplank leading from the ground to the second lower-deck of the steamer, and most mouths had dropped open slightly as men stared in astonishment.
"Oh my," said Milly. "Look, Ma'am." Meryl followed Milly's pointing finger and finally saw what the others were gawping at.
It was a woman, and it was easy to see why she was causing such a reaction. Her figure was willowy, with curves in all the right places and a bust so generous that Meryl would have thought it nearly impossible for the woman to stand upright. She carried a frilly lavender parasol to shade herself, but hardly needed it; she wore a large-brimmed hat that cast most of her face in shadow, revealing only a petite chin and voluptuous red lips.
As she reached the end of the gangplank and stepped down onto the ground, the woman seemed to glide across the sand, her long dress trailing regally behind her as she walked purposefully toward the townsfolk waiting en masse for the steamer to unload both its passengers and its goods.
Meryl's eyes followed the woman's path to her likely destination and recognized Henry and the Chairman waiting near the front of the crowd. Henry was holding up a large sign, welcoming the plant engineering crew. He and the Chairman looked shocked when the woman walked straight toward them.
Both men started forward quickly, each clearly trying to beat the other to greet the woman. Henry reached her first, but only because the Chairman had tripped all over himself in his hurry. Meryl watched each man kiss the woman's hand in turn.
What the hell is going on?
She picked up her pace slightly.
When Meryl and Milly reached the scene a few minutes later, the Chairman was still gawping openly at the woman. Henry managed to wrench his gaze away from her face and spotted Meryl and Milly, smiling dazedly.
"Ah, right," he said vaguely, his eyes not quite properly focused on her. Henry gestured at the woman from the steamer, saying, "This is the plant engineer we called for."
Meryl was almost immediately put off by the woman as she met her gaze.
"My name is Elizabeth," said the woman, disguising a sycophantic smile as an affable one; Meryl could tell the difference. Her voice was pitched lower than most women's, but it rolled smoothly off her tongue like smoke, and Meryl knew it would hypnotize almost any listener. No wonder Henry was acting oddly. Elizabeth continued, in that same silky voice, "I am the chief engineer of the Marius Bresken Kantacle Technical Industrial Union work dispatch team."
She gave a little curtsy and held her hand out to Meryl as though she expected her to kiss it, too.
Unimpressed, and a little bit wary, Meryl gave the woman a curt nod instead, acknowledging her with a clipped, "Ma'am." Elizabeth's smile never wavered, but Meryl thought she could see the other woman's eyes narrow slightly.
Ha.
"I should like to inspect the state of your plant right away," Elizabeth stated, turning her attention back to Henry and the slack-jawed Chairman. "If you would escort me?" Henry graciously offered her his arm and she took it, resting her hand on his elbow. "Thank you," said Elizabeth, nodding her head demurely. She didn't spare Meryl or Milly (or the Chairman) another glance as she accompanied Henry up a side street leading to the plant. Meryl thought he might be trying to take a path that would reveal the least possible amount of damage the town had sustained over the last few days.
A part of Meryl still wanted to follow, to satisfy her own curiosity about the plant, but Elizabeth's standoffish, haughty nature made the prospect less appealing and she reluctantly decided against it.
Milly spoke up suddenly, once Henry and Elizabeth were well out of hearing distance.
"Did she seem a little... wrong, to you?" she asked Meryl, frowning at the woman's retreating back.
"Yes!" Meryl jumped at the chance to share her own strange impressions of the other woman.
"She looked wrong," Milly went on. "Almost too beautiful. Like the dress was too well tailored, and her makeup is too well done, and the perfection becomes a flaw in itself." Meryl began to explain that the woman's image wasn't really what she was talking about but Milly kept talking, cutting Meryl short. "And it's more disturbing than just that, the wrongness," Milly said. "When she speaks, everything about her just seems false. It puts me on edge. Does that make any sense?"
"Yes," Meryl assured her, quickly. "Exactly." Milly had described precisely what Meryl was feeling, and had probably done it more eloquently than she herself would have managed.
"What do we do?" Milly asked.
"Nothing," said Meryl. "It's not any of our business. She's just here to fix the plant, and once that's done we'll probably never see her again. Hopefully," she added, darkly. Meryl turned to look up at the steamer, squinting against the suns' glare on its metal hull, and sighed. She wondered if she could talk someone into letting her on board to have a look around. For old-times' sake.
Maybe ask a steward for a tour? And slip away while he's not looking...
Behind her, the open-air market was making a roaring trade by now. All the passengers had been unloaded from the steamer and the visiting merchants had set up their own shops in vacant market stalls, laying out their wares. The barkers were trying to tempt customers to their stalls and the air was full of shouted prices and promises of quality.
Milly was looking around in wonder, wearing a delighted smile.
"I suppose we should look for Vash," said Meryl, absently. It was their job, after all. Now that they'd finally found Vash, they were supposed to keep track of him for the company. She wasn't terribly concerned with knowing his whereabouts at all hours of the day, but she thought she should probably make sure he was at least staying out of trouble. Because she'd have to do something about it, if he wasn't.
Meryl looked around, dismayed by the huge number of people packed into the marketplace. It would be nearly impossible to find him if he was in this mess...
"At least keep an eye out for him," Meryl told Milly, scanning the crowd half-heartedly for Vash's brilliantly red jacket.
"Yes, Ma'am," Milly agreed, vaguely, wandering toward a stall that smelled deliciously of freshly baked bread and pastries. Meryl smiled to herself and decided that finding Vash wasn't that important right now. She followed Milly, and the pair bought and shared a sticky bun the size of Meryl's head.
For the rest of the afternoon, they wandered the market, looking for nothing in particular. Meryl bought herself a new pair of Thomas-hide riding gloves and later, after a great deal of indecisiveness, another bottle of expensive scented shampoo (she was nearly out). The woman selling the soaps and perfumes commented on how much she liked Meryl's hair cut short like it was. Unaccustomed to compliments on her appearance, Meryl was too embarrassed to reply but Milly just patted her on the head and thanked the woman for her.
Once while Meryl stopped to look at a beautiful pair of earrings and matching necklace, which must cost twice her yearly salary, she realized she'd lost track of Milly. Within a few minutes of searching, Meryl was knocked off her feet as she bumped into Milly coming hurriedly around a corner.
"Oh, sorry Ma'am!" said Milly, offering Meryl a hand up. She carried two paper-wrapped parcels under her other arm and Meryl regarded them curiously, but Milly just smiled mischievously and refused to tell her what they were.
Night came early in this part of the desert, and it wasn't too long before shopkeepers were hanging lanterns from the awnings of their stalls. As if this was some unspoken invitation, all the buskers appeared on the corners, each jockeying for a good position and trying to draw in a crowd. Milly got thoroughly over-excited at the prospect of a whole market full of street performers, and Meryl let the younger woman lead her through the throng, searching out singers, poets, acrobats, and even finding a pair of remarkably talented jugglers.
They stopped longest to watch a comedy duo that did a mix of old vaudeville and slapstick, which had Milly laughing herself to tears.
"Oh, my brothers would have loved this," she said, between small fits of giggles. Milly wiped watering eyes on her long sleeve and applauded with the rest of the audience as the two men took their bows. Milly moved on to the next corner, where a man with white facepaint appeared to be acting out silent scenes in mid-air, without the aid of any props or even other cast-members.
But Meryl didn't follow Milly; she had just caught the sound of a saxophone, playing a haunting melody that seemed to cut through the overwhelming noise of the market and reach her from a great distance. She turned on the spot, trying to figure out where it was coming from.
The tune was almost achingly familiar, but Meryl couldn't quite remember why. The lyrics were just on the tip of her tongue, somewhere at the back of her mind, but she couldn't recall them despite her best efforts.
She finally spotted the musician through a momentary thinning of the crowd before her, standing in a darkened corner at the unused end of the market stalls. He was half-hidden in shadow, but a sliver of light from the nearest lantern reflected on the gleaming metal surface of his saxophone's bell. His dark suit and sleek black hair helped him blend into the night as his fingers moved effortlessly over the keys, coaxing the melody from his instrument like water from a fountain. Meryl broke into a run, trying to navigate her way across the busy main thoroughfare of the market. She wanted to ask the man about the piece he played—it was so frustrating, to just barely remember...
By the time she had maneuvered herself through the crowd, the man was gone. The lilting strains of the song still echoed faintly in her ears, but Meryl could find no trace of the musician.
"Ma'am?"
Meryl turned to see Milly, head and shoulders above the people around her, searching for her partner. Turning reluctantly from the place where she had last seen the saxophone player, Meryl jogged back to the heart of the market, hailing Milly as she came. Milly spotted Meryl and gestured her over, looking excited.
"What is it?" Meryl asked. When Milly pointed, Meryl saw Elizabeth cutting a wide swath as she walked through the market; the crowd seemed to part in front of each footstep, allowing the woman to move freely through otherwise cramped areas. Meryl scowled. "She's not our problem," she muttered to Milly. "Remember? Let's just avoid—"
Then Meryl finally saw what was following along in Elizabeth's wake, practically bouncing in excitement. Vash was wearing a sillier grin than Meryl had ever seen, and the rapturous expression every man seemed to wear around Elizabeth was taken to a horrifying extreme on the Idiot's face, doe eyes open wider than Meryl would have thought physically possible.
"Oh," Meryl moaned. "No..."
Elizabeth had very abruptly become Meryl's problem.