Human nature

I traveled to Akhragan, and found the Accadis family willing to meet with me. They are commoners, and Uldryk and his wife both work as clerks in a company that ships farming equipment. We made an appointment in the evening after dinner, at their house. I declined a kind invitation to have dinner with them, as I did not want to engage in small talk before or after my strange request.

It was a difficult conversation. They had not seen a capsuleer before, and did not trust me. 

 

Moreover, at first, there was a very painful misunderstanding: they thought I had come to tell them about their daughter, Talya, who has been abducted by the Sansha now many years ago and who has never been found. So, when I started talking about Layla, they thought their daughter's corpse had been found. 

 

Once that misunderstanding was out of the way, and the shock was absorbed, I could explain my quest in more detail. But my story about a Takmahl who died a thousand years ago sounded like total nonsense to them, I think they took me for a madman. Hearing myself explain this to bereft parents made me sound like a madman to myself as well. 

 

What stupid request am I bothering these people with? Of course it makes no sense, and of course it would look to them as if I am torturing them and dragging them into some silly game designed purely for my own pleasure. I felt guilt and embarrassment. I could sense they just wanted to kick me out of their house, but did not dare to.

My sense of guilt was lessened, and my sense of embarrassment was increased, when Uldryk asked whether there would be an inheritance from this Layla. Maybe he meant it as a rhetorical and cynical question. Or perhaps he thought that there is a profit to be made from the madness of a capsuleer. Or maybe Uldryk was simply asking a price to cooperate in my games. 

 

And, to be honest, Layla's Takmahl cybernetic implants are worth quite some money to industrialists who can repurpose them. A Takmahl phrenic appendix alone is worth easily half a million ISK. I hid my disapproval of this materialistic turn of affairs, and swallowed my pride. I offered them half a million ISK. A fortune.

The mood changed instantly.

 

Uldryk opened a bottle of whisky he had kept for a special occasion, and insisted I drink with him. I remember the whisky tasting with Ishta and how sick I was afterwards, so I only accepted a very small shot glass. After downing a rather tall glass himself, Uldryk slapped my back and joked with me as if we had been old friends. He gladly signed the papers recognizing his genealogical link with Layla and releasing the corpse to me for scientific study. 

 

I transferred the lump sum and when he saw the money appear on his account, he took his wife in his arms to dance in joy. When I left, clearly it was only Uldryk's wife who was still thinking about their daughter.