Lin Hai's Journal - 7

 

It seems we have stumbled into fresh politics. We had a simple goal today, to get registered in advance of our visit to the Imperial City. Unfortunately yesterday’s swimming caught up with me and I was sore from head to toe, and so far from the world I managed to space out looking at some glassware and lose track of my charge.

Uta’s status as the Herald of Spring continues to complicate our lives. The glassware vendor had seen the company I keep and hoped I might be able to do something about the tariffs his trade labours under. I hope I convinced him I have no such power.

I was able to catch with Kamiko and Uta at the Pagoda, where we got to enjoy a long wait in line for a bureaucrat who clearly had no conception of how to handle us. I suppose if someone from this world came to Japan ey would similarly find no form waiting to register em?

Fortunately(?) we were noticed by the captain of the royal guard, one Tamashi Akkaido, who seems to know Uta personally and spared us the endless circle of dismay. Instead we have been given fresh, socially acceptable identities to wear, and a fierce talking-to about not appearing disruptively foreign. Instead we’re to claim to be from Alphonbra, that cute town we stumbled into when we first arrived.

It seems we may be tangled up in something dangerous and dramatic, or at least precarious. I find myself nervous about what lies ahead.