Nillian tucks in, and ravishes the meal. He quickly drinks a cup of tea and is out of the door, eager to get to the city hall. Outside Old Joe is already waiting, predictable as always. Nillian walks over, and gets on the cart.
"Good morning Joe! And what a beautiful day it is."
"Good morning sir. You sound mighty happy today?"
"I think I might finally have the lead I am looking for. So take me to the city hall, hopefully I will have all the information I need before the end of this afternoon."
"Good to hear that. Off we go then."
Old Joe spurs on his horse, and they arrive at the city hall in good time. Nillian jumps down the cart, which was not too smart, but he manages to catch himself before falling on the ground. He does grimace as he has twisted his ankle. He still has the cane from the hospital, so he uses that to support his weight.
"Are you alright sir?"
Old Joe hastens himself to Nillian’s side, with a worrying expression.
"Yes, yes, I was a bit too enthusiastically it seems. I will be alright, just have to be a bit more careful."
With those words Nillian limps off towards the city hall.
Inside the sullen clerk is again sitting behind the desk, head resting on the surface. Nillian approaches her, and coughs politely.
"Yes?"
"I would like to have access to the reading room please. I have to do a little more research."
The clerk sighs, then opens the desk drawer without lifting her head. Nillian hears her feel her way through the drawer, until she has the keys she wants. She takes them out of the drawer, and shoves them toward Nillian.
"Here. Lock up after yourself when you are done."
Nillian looks uncomprehending at the keys for a moment, then shakes his head and takes the keys. He still remembers the way from the last time, and makes his way over to the reading room, with still a small limp. There he unlocks the door and lights the lamps in the room.
He first examines the case with the records that the young clerk showed him. Sadly there are no import/export records in that case, so he widens his search and looks through the adjoining cases. Eventually he finds the records he was looking for in the corner, shuffled through the ledgers that were lying there. He takes the records with him to the table and begins to read through them. Finding the records that he was looking for, from August 816, he looks through the various numbers. He cannot make anything of them, as they are just numbers.
So he takes a piece of paper, and in the middle writes down the different cities, together with the amount of coal that they imported. Then he writes the numbers from June and July 816 above that, and the numbers from September and October 816 below, and examines the result.
For Kataras there is a straight increase in import, and the amounts transported to Räan fluctuate too much to say anything. But the figures of Capes are very significant. They import close to nothing, until August 816 when this number jump up by ten tons. And in September it is again close to zero. It seems that he has found his destination: the delivery of Gerardina Nott was transported to Capes!
After that revelation Nillian sits back, and stretches. It seems that he has his answer. Somehow it does not excite him as much as he hoped it would. He is a bit sick of it all, all the running around and such. He is going back to Kataras first, and there he will see what he is going to do. Perhaps he just needs to get some rest, and after his swelling has settled he will feel better again.
Nillian cleans up the mess he made, and locks the reading room behind him. He returns the key to the clerk who does not respond, and walks outside. He still has a slight limp, but his ankle is feeling better. Outside Nillian looks around, but Old Joe is nowhere in sight. He hesitates, then decides to wait a bit. He walks to a nearby bench and sits down. And sure enough, ten minutes later Old Joe returns. As Nillian walks over Old Joe looks apologetic.
"Ah, sorry sir, I hope you weren't waiting long? I just had to skip off and deliver a few things nearby."
"No, no, I was only just finished. I have my information and am ready to go back to Kataras. Do you perhaps know the train schedule?"
"No, sorry, haven't got a clue."
"Alright, then first lets go to the station to check the schedule and buy a ticket."
"Whatever you say, sir."
On the station Nillian sees that there is a late afternoon train to Kataras, so he quickly buys a ticket and returns to the inn. There he packs his bags and cleans up his room. Downstairs he settles his bill with the innkeeper and says his goodbyes. Even though he has been here only for a few days it feels a bit like he is leaving home. Outside he gets on the cart, and asks Old Joe for one last ride.
When they arrive it is still very early, but Nillian disembarks anyway, and walks over to Old Joe.
"So, Joe, that's it. Thank you very much for all your help and for taking me all over town."
"Oh, sir, it was no bother. I was happy to help someone out."
Nillian counts out three golden pounds and gives them to Old Joe, who looks at them in shock. That much money is almost a year's pay for a simple miner.
"Th... This is too much!"
"Keep it! I can spare it, and you did a very good job."
They say their goodbyes and Nillian begins to walk off towards the train station. While he takes his first step he notices that he is still holding the cane from the hospital. Quickly turning back he hails Old Joe, and asks him if he can take it back to the hospital.
"Of course, no problem. Say, you have a bit of time left, right? If you are bored you could visit the Stokes Mining Museum. It is just around the corner there. One of my friends runs it, and it is a great way to spend some time."
"Oh, that sounds interesting! Thank you, I will take a look."
"Have a good trip! And good luck with writing your book."
And with these words Old Joe is off, quickly riding back into the city.
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