Mimi turned and set down her bag. “What was so funny about what I said?”
The man kept his expression very serious, and asked, “Do you know the work of any of the sages they quoted?”
Mimi shook her head. “I’ve never been to school.” Then she added, “Well, I know the name of Kon Fiji, the One True Sage, because they have him in the folk operas sometimes.”
The man nodded. “Your question makes perfect sense; I just never paid attention to the pattern you noticed. Sometimes we stop questioning things we take for granted. In fact, ‘ji’ is not a part of the family names of the sages. It is a Classical Ano suffix to indicate respect, roughly meaning ‘teacher.’ ”
Mimi heard no condescension in his tone, which made her feel better. “You know Classical Ano?”
“Yes. I’ve been studying it since I was a little boy.”
“You’re still studying?”
“You never stop studying,” the man said, smiling. “Not just Classical Ano, but also many other subjects, math, mechanics, divination.”
“You understand the gods?” Mimi’s heart quickened.
“I wouldn’t go that far.” The man hesitated, as though trying to figure out how to explain a complicated idea. “I’ve conversed with the gods, but I’m not sure they even understand themselves. It is possible that the more we know, the less we need to rely on the gods. And the gods are also learning, the same as us.”
This was such a strange idea that Mimi was at a loss for words. She decided to change the subject. “Was it difficult to learn Classical Ano?”
“At first. But since all the important books and poems are written in it, my tutor made me work at it. Eventually it became as easy to read the logograms of Classical Ano as it was to read the zyndari letters.”
“I don’t know how to read at all.”
The man nodded, a trace of sorrow in his eyes. “I come from old Haan, where every child had the chance to learn to read. Now that the world is at peace, perhaps that will be true not only in Haan, but all of Dara.”
The vision seemed absurd to Mimi, but the voice of the man was so fervent and hopeful that she didn’t want to make him sad. “What did you think of the debate?”
“I think they were both very learned,” said the man, smiling again. “But that is not the same as wise. What did you think?”
“I think they need to weigh the fish.”
The man was taken aback. “Oh? What… does that mean?”
“It’s something my mother taught me. She used to ask me whether I knew why whitefish became heavier over time after you’ve hauled them out of the sea.”
The man closed his eyes, pondering this. “That is indeed puzzling. I would have thought that as the water left the flesh, the fish would become lighter over time, not heavier. Is it something unusual about the structure of the whitefish? Maybe the flesh absorbs moisture from the air? Or perhaps the whitefish, when alive, contains some kind of gas that lightens it, like the Mingén falcon? Or—”
Now it was Mimi’s turn to laugh. “You’re acting just like I did, assuming what someone is telling you is true. Instead, you should be weighing the fish.”
“And what would you find out if you did?”
“Whitefish doesn’t get any heavier over time. It was a story made up by unscrupulous merchants who blew air into the bellies of their fish to make them seem bigger. And when their fish turned out to weigh less than other fish of the same size, they argued that their catch was fresher, which was why they weighed less.”
“How would you apply this story to the debate?”
Mimi looked at the setting sun. “I have to go home before it gets dark, but if you come and meet me by the wharf north of the city tomorrow morning, I’ll show you.”
“I’ll certainly do that. By the way, what is your name?”
“Mimi, of the Kidosu clan. And yours?”
The man hesitated for just a second, and then said, “I’m Toru Noki, a wanderer.”
The next morning, Toru showed up at the wharf at the crack of dawn.
“You’re prompt,” said Mimi, pleased. “I wasn’t sure if you would take me seriously, seeing as how you have the air of a learned man.”
“I’ve had some experience with early morning appointments by fishing wharves,” said Toru. “They usually end up teaching me much about the world.” But he didn’t elaborate.
Mimi stood without leaning against her walking stick, which was planted into the sand of the beach. Attached to the top of the bamboo pole was a horizontal crossbeam, at one end of which was mounted an old, small bronze mirror whose center was brightly polished. At the other end was a circular frame made from a thin stalk of bamboo with a banana leaf stretched taut across it.
She adjusted the mirror until an image of the rising sun was reflected onto the banana leaf. She carefully traced its outline with a piece of charcoal.
“You designed this yourself?” Toru asked.
“Yes,” Mimi said. “I’ve always liked to look at things in nature: the sea, the sky, the stars, and the clouds. The sun is too bright to look at directly, so I figured out this way of looking at a reflection.”
“It is very well conceived,” said Toru admiringly.
“We’ll have to do this again at noon. You can come back later or wait nearby. I have to go into the city to sell the grain. It’s our only livelihood, and that can’t wait.”
“Your family doesn’t fish?”
“My father used to,” Mimi said, her voice dipping lower. “But my mother doesn’t want me to learn. He… disappeared in the sea.”
“I’ll come with you,” said Toru.
They went into the city, and though Toru offered to help carry the bag of sample grain, Mimi wouldn’t let him (“I’m probably stronger than you”). The man did not insist, which Mimi appreciated. She never liked people to assume that because of her leg, she was less capable than others, and sometimes people had trouble understanding that.
Mimi wanted to try the open market, but Toru suggested that they try the royal palace first.
“The royal palace? But the government usually offers the worst prices.”
“I have a feeling you’ll be surprised.”
Emperor Ragin had given his older brother, Kado, the island of Dasu as a fief and named him King of Dasu. But everyone knew that it was just a symbolic gesture, and King Kado stayed in reconstructed Pan, the Harmonious City, most of the time, leaving his kingdom to be run by the emperor’s bureaucrats like the other provinces administered directly by the emperor. The royal palace used to be King Kuni’s palace, and before that it was the governor’s mansion under the Xana Empire. It wasn’t much bigger than the other houses in Daye, as the city was never a great metropolis like the big cities on the Big Island or even Kriphi, the old Xana capital on nearby Rui Island. Ostentation had never been the emperor’s style, even back when he was just King Kuni.
An acquisitions clerk sat in the yard of the palace, bored out of his mind. Emperor Ragin had a reputation for being frugal, and King Kado’s regent—really the acting governor of Dasu—had given orders to keep the prices offered for grains low. Only peasants with the lowest quality grains, ones that they couldn’t sell to the private merchants, came to try their luck with the government. The acquisitions clerk had had only one vendor approach him all day yesterday, and he expected today to be the same.
Oh, potential vendors! The clerk widened his eyes and took notice. I wonder how bad their harvest has been that they’re willing to come here.
As the clerk examined the two people—the man with his long limbs and open stride, and the limping girl with a walking stick and the heavy bag of sample grain over her shoulder—approaching his desk, he sat up straight and rubbed his eyes.