In Dishonorable Circumstances, Promptness Is Often The Lone Commendable Trait

  Nalfenk saw his expression and adopted a coaxing tone. “Come, Mr. Dirant. That doubtful hesitation is flagrantly unsuitable. You must meet the lady somewhat before your earliest convenience.”

  Dirant spun around to ensure there was not a second Nalfenk behind him in addition to the one on his left and afterwards scrutinized the surroundings for a system of mirrors capable of transmitting the contents of the letter through a series of reflections. Satisfied no such array existed, he asked what made him certain of the letter's purpose.

  “It is the custom. There is no alternative meaning to a perfumed envelope, package, sleeve, or similar placed delicately in a natural receptacle. I must beg that you not feel shame at your ignorance in this matter but rather rejoice at granting me the opportunity to repay my own mentor, for to perpetuate education is the debt we owe our forebears and our inheritors. What you must do is write out your reply, place it in the same envelope, and leave it in the same spot.”

  The conviction in Nalfenk's demeanor and tone persuaded Dirant some people acted in that way sometimes, somewhere. If he entertained the idea to the extent of reconsidering the message with the presumption that a woman had indeed sent it rather than supposing Mr. Nalfenk to be engaged in fancy, he was able to pick choicer fruits from a smaller field. That is, he did know a woman whose name started with G (as to the E, he could not quite remember) interested in the affairs of a DY, who was a person rather than a category of taxation. Why exactly that person would desire to speak with him on that topic through methods liable to the interpretation Nalfenk put on them did not admit of a ready explanation, but perhaps she aimed at secrecy with no more discredit than Mr. Hwohyesu's recent escort.

  “Your kind instruction is my surest guide.” Dirant considered what reply he ought to make and then how he was to make it. “The procedure then is that I return to camp, write a response, return here, and replace the envelope. That presents obstacles. I must mark the stump somehow.”

  He began searching for a stone of a remarkable color before Nalfenk stopped him. “Not so, Mr. Dirant. Make satisfaction your occupation and you will never be far from what you require.” With those inspiring words, the reporter brought out a pen and paper unlike what Dirant had seen him use for note-taking. Mr. Nalfenk explained the thick, heavy paper's exceptional virtues. “Most important is that it can take a little water without being wholly ruined, and so you may, and usually should, pass water stains off as your tears occasioned by the distance between sender and recipient. At this stage in my career I reserve this variety of stationery for my wife, but the unmarried gentleman bears a different set of burdens and freedoms.”

  Dirant decided to agree to GE's request, and if he did not wish to insult her (presumed) by thinking he did so only because nothing more important demanded his time, he also wanted to be honest. Normally a response waited on nothing but the decision, but this one, he learned, depended on Mr. Nalfenk's assistance with the most minute points. The process taught Dirant niceties the existence of which he never suspected. For instance, writing that his sister's family might drop by signaled his intention to loiter within view of the meeting place with his hat in his left hand if he suspected he had come under observation.

  “Is this practice followed also by those of us without sisters?”

  His brother's family might drop by, in which circumstance his right hand would hold the hat. Similar code phrases abounded, and Dirant doubted whether he should try to forget them or accept that at times in the future his eyebrows might rise upon reading something he otherwise would have believed innocent. Some referred to matters which he did not fully understand, and he did not consider himself diminished by that.

  The meeting place, of course, would be a boarding house which met the requirements. Those were that it advertised on an external sign that it rented rooms by the night, that the rooms came furnished, and that private entrances existed for the convenience of the lodgers. “By that is meant staircases and backdoors which open on an alley unless they are obstructed by some other means. Clever gardening may be employed.” By those indications proprietors indicated their willingness to accept a particular sort of business. Mr. Nalfenk further supplied the locations of several such establishments he had noticed in Ividottlof.

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  Altogether Nalfenk took him through a course of study both helpful in the moment and promising glimpses of intrigue afterward without mention of tuition, for which reason Dirant easily resisted the impulses he naturally felt. For example, he refrained from commenting on what a conscientious husband Mr. Nalfenk was to be always looking out for places which might accommodate him and his wife should she join him later provided his assignment was extended by his superiors. Aside from the impertinence of the observation, Nalfenk may well have been doing exactly that. If not, anyone capable of introspection to the smallest degree understands the hold habit has upon every human, and seemingly every fairy as well. How often when performing rituals, or so much as passing by a flat area suitable for one, did the Ritualist imagine himself in a dialogue with an old professor, justifying his decisions to orient the design in that direction or to substitute this material?

  Dirant also wondered, as he wrote the reply in obedience to the clandestine principles Nalfenk unveiled, what the older man's reaction would be to learning that he fully intended to bring another young lady to the encounter. Probably highly approving. With that done and the envelope replaced, the two gentlemen parted on terms of accord and wishes for mutual felicity.

  The assignation, as it amused Dirant to think of it, was arranged without hindrance for the very next evening. He had anticipated serious hindrances. The negotiations in his imagination required an exchange of notes which would necessitate he travel repeatedly to and from that stump. Further, for the practical portion of his education he had to travel to Ividottlof and scout a location himself, much as the apprentice must fail to make a presentable pot before he produces masterpieces. Instead of all that, he found a place during a long lunch break (gaining a point of Discernment because of it) and back in camp encountered Wiuyo, who conveyed his suggestion and GE's acceptance all in one afternoon. Made ambitious by good fortune, Dirant improved upon the scheme by retaining a Battler to warn if he had been observed by an inimical party, an improbable circumstance given his lack of sisters, and also by imposing upon fraternal hospitality.

  The particular location is best kept secret for all that the owner merited thanks for the services provided so discretely to so many. Details of its decor and how the obstruction so vital to privacy were accomplished must go without mention, and as for stating the value of the property, impossible. In fact Dirant deemed it would be better to skip over the incident entirely if anyone asked later.

  On the way there, the hired Battler expressed her feelings about the matter to her employer. “I really see you in a different light now, Ressi. Carrying on like this . . . I don't know how you're going to escape opprobrium.”

  “Is the reason for the laughter you fail to disguise that you intend for me to think you are shocked I arranged such a meeting while in truth you plan to needle me over how much help I need for it?”

  “That's precisely correct, Ressi. Nobody's trailing you yet, by the way. Wait.”

  Dirant halted on the spot. As lightly as he had been speaking, the situation had its serious aspect. A trap set by a fairy was one thing, but if Doltandon Yurvitas, Miss Gelfid, other humans recruited by Ydridd since, or another party entirely devised a plot, the outcome might be injurious to his welfare. Perhaps Gelfid did not deserve inclusion in that company, though caution was indicated on the grounds that extensive time on the road gave freelance couriers opportunity to revolve the most sinister designs.

  Nothing in his survey of the street impressed him as suspicious. Everyone behaved just as he expected of a town of that size at that hour. Traffic was light, for the townsfolk not already arrived at their various destinations did not belong to the society of hurriers except for the occasional man of business who dreamed of spreading his ledgers over not just the town but the state as well, if not northwest Greater Enloffenkir as a whole. Even that type greeted fellow pedestrians without any of the rancor deserved for interposing a second's worth of courtesy between someone with elevated hopes and his destination. Young men indulged their primitive need to dominate by lounging against walls or on fences; at times they accepted homage in the form of inquiries about how their parents, aunts, and uncles fared and dispensed answers with an open hand. Younger men, often referred to as boys, as well as girls, those being younger women, cleaned houses and store fronts as preparation for more arduous duties later in their lives. There were dogs.

  Dirant was on the verge of conceding his poor capacity for detecting threats, again, when Takki blushed at his confusion. “Oh, I'm sorry, Ressi. I was the one who was supposed to wait. I realized something. What if Mr. Nalfenk didn't tell you those things at all? If you invented the encounter to conceal your sordid past?”

  “Mere cowardice stops us there. Suppose my conscience, aware of my failings, created Mr. Nalfenk from Ertith Energy in order to provide the accuser I have earned by my poor character.”

  Takki nodded and gave the proposal some thought. “So far the only problems I've found are that you definitely can't accomplish that feat and that Mr. Nalfenk does all sorts of things aside from accusing you. Other than that . . . Oh, there's Mr. Nalfenk now.”

  The person in question passed by on the other side of the street whereupon he and Dirant nodded toward each other, which convinced Takki that a rapprochement had indeed occurred. She resumed the conversation, her tone even as though unaffected by the destruction of her theory for the simple reason that she had never believed it.