Halfling Moon (Adventures in the Liaden Universe®) by Lee Sharon & Miller Steve

Author:Lee, Sharon & Miller, Steve [Lee, Sharon]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Science Fiction
ISBN: 9781935224242
Publisher: Pinbeam Books
Published: 2011-04-15T04:00:00+00:00

Mr. pel'Tolian's note, franked as it was with a pristine Korval seal, looked out of place amid the piles of local paper, envelopes, and mismatched inks. He'd moved it aside several times, knowing that it could wait, knowing that the business of Boss Conrad of Surebleak was far more pressing than the business of a Pat Rin yos'Phelium, man about town on the distant and increasingly inhospitable world of Liad. The note had arrived on the overnight, likely brought in by a scout ship or a Juntavas courier; possibly it had arrived via Korval's own packet vessels. Surely it was not more than a day or two out of Solcintra Port, unlike many of the items in these piles which had taken days to travel up from the port or down Blair Road, hand to tollbooth to hand to end up here, with him, in a pile. A pile which had waited patiently while he was away to Liad, but which demanded attention now that he was returned and despite that he'd rather be walking arm in arm with his lady to his casino, or even just having lunch with his planning committee.

Piles -- piles were his bane. Back home -- on Liad -- his mail came in neat bundles, a few paper newsletters and such, invitations more frequently, business items -- rarely more than a piece or two -- and already sorted by likely priority by the early and steadfast action of Mr. pel'Tolian himself. The mail and news came self-sorted into the proper channels and databases of his day screen, where it could be added to his carry book or not.

Here, there were piles. And in the piles . . .

Some were letters on paper to begin with, others were letter size now because anything of on-world interest that needed to be shared beyond his own staff likely would need to be in paper format to facilitate that sharing. And paper format needed to be logged, signed, notated, carried, stored, lifted -- and piled.

Once that happened, of course, and items were acted on, there was a multiplication rather than reduction of piles --

Pat Rin sighed. Across the room, Silk, the resident cat, stirred, and opened one eye enough to check on the Boss and his work. Ensconced on a pile of paper land records from the old days of the mining company, his work was going fine, thank you.

For himself, Pat Rin stretched, pleased that there was neither pain nor ache when he did. He was aware, too, that his family included Healers…and that a recent three-breath, closed-eye hug from Cousin Anthora, followed by a smile and a simply-said "You've been taking chances, Cousin. I knew you could." meant that she'd gathered to him healing that a month of Surebleak clinic could not.

Well, then.

Now in hand, Mr. pel'Tolian's note had more weight to it than he'd expected. Unsealing it, he saw it contained not only a letter but several visiting cards. He laughed -- ah yes, Shan would

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