Dearest Melissa,
We’ve done a fair bit of shopping in the capital.
Since we have nowhere to store our purchases, we’re sending them your way.
By the time you read this, they should already be nearby. Please take care of the rest.
Your beloved friend,
Rashid
✦ ✦ ✦
The letter’s tone was flippant—typical of Rashid—and its brevity left much to be speculated. It was a testament to how he treated her as he would any of his loyal subordinates, even though their true relationship couldn’t have been more different.
Melissa breathed a quiet sigh upon reaching the end of the letter. But as she moved to put it away—
“Oh, there’s another behind it.”
Of course. Rashid was no longer the owner of the City Forgotten by Time. It was now Noor’s responsibility to instruct her, which must have been why Rashid kept his own correspondence so brief.
Somewhat relieved, Melissa carefully scanned the second letter. She expected more detailed information and instructions, yet...
✦ ✦ ✦
Thanks,
Noor
✦ ✦ ✦
Melissa cocked her head to one side, staring blankly at the paper in her hands. Then she tilted her head the other way. No matter how she looked at it, the letter contained none of the information she’d expected. Did it even qualify as a letter? Compared to this, her correspondence with Rashid seemed positively eloquent. She searched for a stray sheet she might have missed, but there was nothing.
“Huh...? Is this...really all there is?”
Was it some sort of code? No, it couldn’t be. But then, what was she supposed to take from it? As she racked her brain for answers, something on the horizon caught her eye, making her blink in disbelief.
“It couldn’t be...”
There was a traveling caravan—and a long one, at that. Her head told her she was looking at the “purchases” mentioned in Rashid’s letter, but her heart refused to accept it. Describing the sight before her as “a fair bit of shopping” seemed utterly ridiculous. At a glance, the caravan appeared to carry roughly a fifth of the City Forgotten by Time’s population.
“And they want me to do something about it...?”
If she took the contents of the letters at face value, the burden of processing the caravan rested squarely on her shoulders. Again, her intellect warred with her emotions. She could appreciate how little time they must have had to make arrangements in the capital, but springing such a task on her without adequate warning was completely unreasonable.
Then again, this was nothing new for Rashid. He always sprang things on Melissa, simply assuming she would be able to handle them. And despite her consistent reluctance, she always managed to meet his expectations.
She had to, if she wanted to stay close to her target.
It was far from the first time Melissa had found herself in such a predicament, but never had the expectation thrust upon her been so vast. Did Rashid truly expect her to accommodate this deluge of people without warning or information?
Melissa sighed. “He does, doesn’t he? Or rather, they both do.”
If anything, it seemed more likely that the new owner had created this problem for her. Though she could never fully understand what Rashid was thinking, she’d at least spent years by his side. The new employer to whom she was temporarily contracted, however, was far more difficult to deal with.
Upon being reinstated to her position as head manager—under a set of rather favorable conditions—Melissa had come to the conclusion that Noor truly believed in her. He didn’t doubt her nature or her skills for a second, innocently trusting that she was exactly as she went to such great lengths to appear.
It was a far cry from her relationship with Rashid.
And yet, it was likely because of Noor that she found herself in her current dilemma. Rashid had transferred all of his assets to him, meaning the new owner had the final say—though Rashid was clearly still pulling the strings in some capacity. All in all, Melissa had to conclude that they were both to blame.
Having to answer to the demands of two unreasonable employers tempted her to abandon it all, to run away and never look back. Still, the blame—and, therefore, the burden—lay with her as well, for she had agreed to stay on as the City Forgotten by Time’s head manager. Not to mention, abandoning her duties now would mean leaving the approaching caravan adrift without shelter or assistance.
“I suppose I have no choice...”
Melissa stared at the lengthy caravan, its tail end still out of sight, and heaved a long sigh. She was exhausted, without a doubt, but also relieved. Her provisional employer, Rashid, had yet to abandon her. In fact, he had given her a new task to complete. It was a comforting thought, even if it came with the sobering realization that she still wasn’t ready to plunge her blade into his heart.
Still, Melissa thought, it was no time to wallow in trifling melancholy. For the City Forgotten by Time to take in such a great swath of people, a veritable mountain of work would need to be done. The very sight of the unannounced caravan would send the staff into a flurry, and she knew she would need to placate the hotheaded Kron before he did anything rash.
“Enough of that,” she told herself. “We must prepare to take them in at once.”
The roles she had been given might have been fleeting—insignificant in the face of her true assignment—but she had to fulfill them all the same. After one last glance at the approaching caravan, which would swell the City Forgotten by Time’s population by a significant percentage, she turned on her heel and ran inside, ready to begin her work.