Like Smoke, Like Light by Yukimi Ogawa

Author:Yukimi Ogawa
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Mythic Delirium Books
Published: 2023-06-20T00:00:00+00:00

* * *

“So basically you tricked us into supporting a criminal,” said Kiriko, doing everything to not grind her teeth loud enough for others to hear.

Mizuha shrugged like a foreigner. “You think you’d have had a choice?”

“That’s just outright rude and inhumane,” Kiriko’s voice came out louder and shrill, no longer able to restrict herself.

Mizuha lazily looked around, and Kiriko winced; they were both seated on the stiff sofas near the reception lobby inside the National Archives, to which most of the city andos belonged. Entities like Mizuha usually worked at this site, and went out to attend foreign guests when needed, following orders from the city. Here, it was hard to tell humans from andos by looks, but Kiriko thought she could, anyway, by the way some of the people did nothing to hide their disdain towards the craftsperson.

Really—they should have guessed. It was not hard to guess. Of course, the city wouldn’t have involved a colorless craftsperson in a treatment of an ordinary health-related issue. But they’d wrongly assumed that it was more about Doctor, not the thing they had to actually touch.

There was no mistaking the crazy pattern that this “medication” wove under the atelier’s customized microscope, which not only enlarged the object but also helped the craftspersons’ eyes take apart elements to grasp the silent pattern they needed for the particular case. General medicines had a way of spreading out overly regular waves of a pattern, which forced the pattern from an affected area to submerge and smooth out. But this … this thing seemed to send out lines that were so irregular that they felt regular in the end, incessant and persistent, every line holding the potential of striking others into irregularity.

Of course, she knew narcotic when she saw it.

Mizuha snorted. “For whatever reason, we cannot afford to displease Doctor at the moment. We have already paid and will pay grandly again once you turn over the remedy, Craftsperson. You took this job for the money, right?”

“No!” Kiriko forgot herself again. “We took it because you bigheaded city tengu might remember that we are not worthless!”

Mizuha blinked, and Kiriko winced again; Kiriko had had no intention of saying that. She felt heat surging up to her face. “You may not have noticed,” she said, trying to cover embarrassment, “but the Hotel was full of work by craftspersons like us. When I saw the interior of that place, I thought you knew how the city used to value our patterns. But obviously, I was mistaken.”

Kiriko grabbed a bundle out of her bag and slammed it on the table between them. To her surprise, Mizuha flinched.

“Take one ground moontime-primrose seed, with just a few grains of Doctor Planet’s dose, wrapped in one sheet of the patterned starch paper here.” She pressed her hand harder on the bundle when Mizuha reached out for it. “Apothecary-prepared moontime-primrose seed. One sheet at a time. Use water only. Alcohol or caffeine is strictly prohibited. Understand?”

After a few moments of eye-to-eye, silent fight, Mizuha seemed to concede and nodded.

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