We had a visitor. Maybe even a guest, the right kind this time. I inclined my head, more of a very shallow bow than a nod.
The two doors behind me opened on their own. The figure approached slowly. The visitor was tall, almost a foot taller than me, which put him around six two, maybe six three. He walked into the inn. I followed him in and the doors closed behind me.
The figure pulled the cord securing his hood and shrugged off his rain poncho. A tall man stood in front of me. He was muscular, but lean, his shoulders straining his white shirt with flaring sleeves. An embroidered vest hugged his frame, black accented with blue. His long legs were clad into dark grey trousers. He wore supple black boots that came midway up his calf. A leather sword belt graced his narrow hips, supporting a long slender scabbard with an elaborate basket hilt protruding from it. He looked like he probably owned a wide-brimmed hat with some fluffy white feathers and possibly a cloak or two.
The man looked at me. His shoulder-length blond hair was pulled back haphazardly into a horse tail at the nape of his neck. His face was shocking. Masculine, well-cut, but not at all brutish, with strong elegant lines people usually called aristocratic: broad high forehead, straight nose, high cheekbones, square jaw and a full mouth. His eyes, wide and tinted with a hint of quiet humor, were pale blue. He wasn’t at all feminine, yet most people would describe him as beautiful rather than handsome. His was a face that spoke of intelligence, confidence, and calculation. He didn’t look – he watched, he noticed, he evaluated, and I had a feeling that even when his mouth and his eyes smiled, his mind remained alert and razor sharp.
I had seen him before. I remembered that face. But where?
“I’m looking for Dina Demille,” he said. His voice suited him well: warm and confident. He had a light accent, not really British, not really Southern US, but an odd, melodious meld of both.
“You found her,” I said. “Welcome to Gertrude Hunt Inn. Your poncho?”
“Thank you.” He handed me the poncho and I hung it on the hook by the door.
“Will you be staying with us?”
“I’m afraid not.” He offered me an apologetic smile.
Figured. “What can I do for you?”
He raised his hand and traced a pattern between us. The air in the wake of his finger glowed with pale blue. A stylized symbol of scales: two weights in the balance, flared between us, held for a second and vanished. He was an Arbiter. Oh crap. My heart sped up. Who could possibly be suing us? Gertrude Hunt didn’t have the finances to fight an arbitration.
I leaned on my broom. “I’ve received no notice of arbitration.”
He smiled. His face lit up. Wow.
“My apologies. I’m afraid I’ve given you the wrong impression. You’re not a party to an arbitration. I came to you to discuss a business proposition.”
Business was so much better than arbitration. I pointed at the couches in the front room. “Please sit down. May I get you something to drink, Arbiter?”
“Hot tea would be fantastic,” he said. “And please, call me George.”
We sat in my comfortable chairs and sipped out tea. George frowned, obviously collecting his thoughts. He seemed so… pleasant. Cultured and genteel. But in my line of work, you quickly learned that appearances were deceiving. Beast jumped on my lap and positioned herself so she could lunge off my knees in an instant. Being cautious never hurt.
“Have you heard of Nexus?” George asked.
“Yes.” I had visited Nexus. It was one of those bizarre places in the Galaxy where reality bent into a pretzel. “But please continue. I would rather have all of the information I need than assume I know something I don’t.”
“Very well. Nexus is a colloquial name for Onetrikvasth IV, a star system with a single habitable planet.”
He didn’t stumble over the name. It must’ve taken some practice.
“I understand that Nexus is what’s called a temporal anomaly. Time flows faster there. A month on Earth is roughly equivalent to over three months on Nexus. However, biological aging proceeds at the same pace.”
My brother, Klaus, once explained the Nexus paradox to me, complete with formulas. We were trying to find our parents at the time, and the complex explanation had flown right over my head. I chucked it up to magic. The Universe was full of wonders. Some of them would drive you insane if you thought about it too long.
“Nexus also contains large subterranean reserves of Kuyo, a naturally occurring viscous liquid, which, when refined, is used in production of what my background file calls “pharmaceutical assets of significant strategic value.’”
“It’s used to manufacture military stimulants,” I said. “They affect a wide variety of species in slightly different ways, but typically they boost strength and speed, while suppressing fatigue and fear. They turn humans into berserkers, for example.”
George smiled. “I should probably speak plainly.”