Chantara

Twenty-three crates, but only twenty-one wax seals. Someone's hand stopped counting partway through, so I stayed at the railing a while longer, watching.

• Om BuaThe days you come all the way down to the docks, either the price jumps or someone does.
  ChantaraYou just sit at your scale, Nurse.
• Phra SakThe two missing seals are my concern. Give me the clerk's name.
  ChantaraI'll take care of the name. You just watch the numbers, Left Minister.

Three people asked me a price today, and all three were hiding something different. I named the price with what they hid folded in.

• Mae PrimWas my interpreting fee folded in there too?
  ChantaraYour unspoken words cost more, so I counted those separately.
• DuangWhat about me? How much am I?
  ChantaraYou've already been paid.
• Phra SakSetting prices is the Trade Office's business, Princess.

Remembering three months of figures isn't a boast, it's a habit. Today I let him close the ledger he'd brought, and let my eyes linger on the hand that closed it.

• Om BuaYou'd already ground the ink on the inkstone. And no paper in sight.
  ChantaraI just liked the smell of the ink.
• Phra SakThe pavilion has been receiving that merchant more often lately.
  ChantaraSo you've been counting.

I delayed the flag by one day, and the river lived one day longer. Within three days, three warehouses came back asking the price again. What that one day cost, I still haven't told a single soul.

• Phra SakEven delaying a day has its protocol, Princess. Next time, let me know that day in advance as well.
  ChantaraIf you'd known, Left Minister, that one day would have become two.
• DuangDown at the market they're already trading that day back and forth. One measure buys you two rumors.
  ChantaraThat's cheap. Get three next time.

It wasn't me who ordered the saltpetre price doubled. But when that notice goes up on the wall is in my hands, so today I left my brush unwashed.

• Nai TunPrincess, the warehouse only holds eighteen days of saltpetre. If the price doubles, the mortar sounds in the row will fall silent first.
  ChantaraCount the order they go silent in. Which mortar stops first, that's the news I'm buying.
• Phra SakPrices are set by the treasury. Simply holding that brush is already enough to set the palace talking.
  ChantaraTalk is exactly what moves the price.
• Ajarn ThepThe twenty-sixth is auspicious for the announcement. Before that, the star is still wet.

Twenty days of rain now. I took out the earring Nurse bought me with my first scale-wage today, but I didn't put it on. I left it beside the inkstone instead.

• Om BuaIf you took it out, you should wear it. Leave it by the inkstone and it'll just soak up ink. It's not as if you had nowhere to hang it.
  ChantaraEven in old age, Nurse, you've got one eye sharper than mine.
• Chao PhromWord that my sister took out her jewelry is traveling faster than toll fees. What's the occasion?
  ChantaraNot a day you can put a price on by counting, Brother.