Primoday, Bertzia 18th 067 M42

I wondered if I should tell Mum and Dad about my visit down to see Arlean and how oddly she seemed to be acting. I hadn't told them that she'd invited me, I wasn't sure if she had wanted to talk to me about something to do with Daisy's disappearance, and I didn't want to get their hopes up.

In the end, I decided against it. She was acting odd, but then she works so hard and the clinic is constantly busy, I'm not surprised that she ended up having a bit of a breakdown. I called her again a couple of days later, and she apologised, telling me that she'd not been sleeping properly, but with a good night's sleep she was feeling much better. But she still couldn't remember what she'd wanted so badly to tell me in the first place, but it might have just been something to do with her episode.

Malik is stiill missing too. Nobody has heard from him, and when I asked Tarila if she'd looked into his disappearance, she told me that she didn't have the time, and that if he wanted to abandon his duty then that failing was on him, and she wasn't going to waste her time and energy chasing down a deserter. That made me sad. Thankfully I'm still close with my parents, and i would like to think that Maddy would be concerned if I suddenly didn't show up to work for over a week. Is it my place to get involved though? Malik was... is a friend, but we weren't exactly close. And not that I really have the time either, between work, making time for my family, seeing Maddy, and when I finally get those files from the Magisters, looking into Daisy's disappearance too. It's not like I'm an Arbites, I'm not an investigator. I'm just an adept.

I'm trying not to let these things all distract me from work either. It's hard some days. The big trade agreements seem to have stalled, negotiations are stopped for now while all parties go back to their respective camps go consider the offers and formulate their counter-offers. Which means that my day to day work for now is just going back to general data transcription, small scale deals and orders - people shipping personal scale acquisitions and importing minor luxury goods. There's been an inrush on ordering ice wine from Kugel - I'm not sure why that's suddenly become popular, but everyone who's everyone wants some. The prices seem reasonable, for now, for an imported wine. Maybe I should try to get a bottle so Maddy and I can give it a go. That might be a nice surprise for her.

Maybe I should get a bottle for Mum too, her birthday is coming up in a couple of months. A nice bottle of imported wine, maybe a gift certificate to a spa... I'll have to get on that.

But apart from the sudden trend in ice wine there's not really anything else of interest happening at the moment, though I'm sure that'll change before long. The trade agreements will start up again, and there will be a push to get them completed before mid-year, so they can be accounted for in this year's tax period. And things are likely to get a bit intense around there.

Until that point, I'll have to try and keep my focus, not let my worry about Malik and Daisy impact my performance. I'll do what I can about Daisy when I get those files, but apart from that, I just have to keep working, keep my performance up and try not to let myself get too wound up in other people's problems.

Thought for the Day:A broad mind lacks focus.