"The smoke of the fatherland is sweet and pleasant to us," especially in the early morning when someone is about to travel far from home.
However, it's not obvious to this complaining lady.
Noble Lady: Newspaper? Their cart hasn't been here for a long time. They said the price was too low and they were short-handed. Those vendors are as greedy as a bottomless pit, like those farmers.
Noble Lady: The smoke, the dust, and the opportunists are the last things needed in this poor town.
Noble Lady: sighs
Noble Lady: Last time, she was away for a whole year and didn't write a single letter back. Now, she's leaving again, to the places where she can only make friends with mosquitos, lice, and exiles!
Noble Lady: Sweet Mary forbid she should get sick or come back blind, like that woman.
Noble Lady: Oh, you mean the medal awarded by His Majesty. It's made of bronze. Who knows how many rubles it's worth? Not to mention the balls she had missed. Young cavaliers had come and gone, but she hadn't had the chance to meet any of them ...
The grumbles easily sneak into the room through the window with the floating dust.
The one being complained about closes the door. She needs to pack carefully in a room free of noise and interruptions. For a long journey, everything is too essential to forget.
???: ... Route confirmed ...
???: Clothes, maps, carriage ticket, reference letter, glass bottles, rock hammer ...
???: And the knife, in my pocket. Oh, I need to waterproof the papers.
???: Linen, it's emm ... Oh, here it is.
The fabric, left from the last trip, has a broader width than remembered. Perhaps because it is holding paper for only one user this time, it seems much more empty than it had been.
Using such a large fabric is a luxury for her.
???: I can bring more new parchment this time.
???: ...
???: Hmm? Wait, why is it ...
???: ... already used?
A written document is hidden between blank sheets of paper. The handwriting is inconsistent but neatly penned. It seems to have been deliberately forgotten and is now being rediscovered at this very moment.
—Fortunately, there are signatures in the margins, left as a discreet footnote on each page.
"Recorded by"
"Yenisei"
Yenisei: It's a record I wrote from dictation.
Yenisei: Judging from the handwriting, I must have done it in the wilds. The edge is ragged, so probably it's been stored for over a year since it was dried.
Yenisei: Over a year ... Oh, it's the travel diary Madam Bessmert asked me to write down for her.
Yenisei: Maybe I should call it travel "notes"? Haha ...
Yenisei: Either way, I think I had completed the arrangement and sent the original to her.
Yenisei: There's no way I forgot such an important thing. So what is it doing here?
Yenisei: And it's ... it's missing a few days of records.
Yenisei: October 10, October 16, October 17 ...
Yenisei: "... October 17, cloudy. We sold the carriage and rented boats from the local farmers to sail along the Om River before it froze ..."
Yenisei: "In this way, we might be able to enter the city of Omsk without passing the north gate."
Yenisei: "After all, the travelers from the Far East had said ... the city was heavily guarded like a fortress, and the guards would not overlook the slightest inconsistency between people's stories and their documents."
Yenisei: "We had to go through this trouble because we were in such a rush when we set off that we had little time ..."
???: "... to prepare the documents. They were far from authentic enough to convince the guards."
???: "Before we left, I gave several speeches to raise funds for the travel. The last speech was in a new park in the downstream area of the Om River."
???: "My assistant described to me that the park was crowned by a large pile of cumulate rock, which was burdened with the European Russian vegetation, all in its best time of year."
???: "This is the note on the 17th. The day after ..."
???: "Emm, October 18th ..." I have almost no recollection of that day. Child, do you recall anything?
The girl is busy checking her records, but after a while, she opens her mouth to respond.
Yenisei: October 18 ... I do. After we took a break and collected the supplies we needed, you talked to the governor.
Yenisei: He introduced you to a historian and sent a land surveyor ...
???: Oh. Yes, I remember it now. Bits of trivia. Let's skip that day for now.
Yenisei: Yes, Madam.
???: "October 19, partly sunny. I elaborated on my plan in my speech in the park. One of my arguments mentioned the Dùshuò Festival in the Eastern Land."
Yenisei: Legend ... of the Dùshuò Festival ...
???: "... I was gratified to see that the audience was drawn to the relations between land worship and the historical geological features in Asia and the investigation materials about a long-lost arcane skill."
???: "While the forms of land worship vary from one religion to another, the stories about an Eastern arcane skill known to the merchants as Ask and Acquire are almost identical."
???: "In those stories, men and women with determined minds overcame the highest mountain and the deepest canyon to seek an answer ..."
???: "... They patiently endured the suffering like the ascetics, pleading for the Gods of Shètí's motherly mercy and hoping to be given what they asked."
The girl quickly makes a note of these important words. From unknown to familiar, she has known these names for a long time.
???: "Even till this day, after the seekers are long gone, the god has never shown Itself to any one of us ... But we know It was there, for there is no better proof of the Ask and Acquire than this revived land."
???: "There is a sureness in people's remarks on Ask and Acquire. They are certain about its authenticity, like any geologist would not doubt the difference of soils in flood plains and mountains."
???: "That's right. Do we really have to see it to believe it? None of us have ever touched one sedimentary rock, but we can infer that such a thing exists ..."
The girl's speedy transcription follows in close synchronization with the speaker's words. But even so, she hesitates at this moment.
Yenisei: Madam, your analogy ...
Bessmert: Is there a problem?
Yenisei: The existence of sedimentary rock can be verified, but that of the "lost arcane skill" cannot.
Bessmert: Which is what I'm going to do now—to find the last piece of the jigsaw puzzle.
???: Pardon me, ladies.
A third voice rings out. A young man in glasses tidies up his clothes and walks towards them.
???: She's right. We do need to find something; otherwise, how are we supposed to make up for this time we've spent running and waiting?
Yenisei: What?
???: Take a good look around you.
The girl realizes that there will be nothing more for her to record today, and puts away her pen and paper. Then she stands to take in a complete view of the steppes now that the roaring wind and rain had ceased.
Vultures, the same color as the dark earth, hover above their heads, gazing with a scavenger's intent at all the creatures below them that seem to have stopped moving.
Yenisei: The rain has stopped.
???: Don't act like you just noticed it, Miss.
???: How much longer are we going to wait? Long enough for the vultures to eat our flesh and bones?
Yenisei: You ...
Bessmert: Mr. Krolik. You're troubled by unnecessary concerns.
Bessmert: The vultures are scavengers. They are here only for the animal corpses brought by the thunderstorm. They will leave us alone.
Krolik: So they don't pose a threat. Then what's with the waiting?
His hurried speech reveals his nervousness. Though Yenisei doesn't understand why.
Yenisei: If you are trying to get us back on the road, you have the right to propose it directly.
Yenisei: The team discusses to decide the next step. That's how things have worked all the way. We are not trying to waste your time.
Krolik: That's what I mean. We should get going now.
Yenisei: I see. We will suggest the directions as usual, and everyone will vote to decide ...
Krolik: Oh, no, you don't get it. There's no need to discuss or vote.
Yenisei: Hmm?
Krolik: Because we are not going forward, but going back! That's the only direction available.
Yenisei stares silently at Krolik. She disagrees, but politely waits for him to finish speaking.
Krolik: I'm not the only one with this idea, Ms. Bessmert.
Krolik: Those legends from the East, that ... Dùshuò Festival, is it? And the arcane trick you call "Ask and Acquire" ...
Krolik: None of them matter more than our lives!
He is right. The girl can only turn her head in silence further away, to that desolate, boundless, snowless winter landscape, all that remained of the temperate land after its withered grass scattered with the wind.
The storm they had encountered had blown through here as well, sweeping away almost every living thing.
And the young man's purpose is as clear as the open land that lies in front of them.
Krolik: Can anyone promise there won't be another emergency like this? What if we can't find a shelter next time?
Krolik: Yeah, we'll be lying dead out there, just like those corpses.
Bessmert: I hear you.
It has been 37 days since they left Omsk heading south. The fifth day on these steppes they have gone without fresh water.
If everything had gone according to plan, they would've already been sitting in the supply station drinking tea.
If they hadn't encountered this sudden storm ...
Yet, the two people, who put this very team together, did not anticipate such an eventuality.
Bessmert: Given what happened earlier, it is only reasonable that you would wish to return.
Yenisei: ...
This marks a moment of disagreement, when all the half-met measures sow the seeds of discord.
