Fransic opened his eyes to a sunny morning.

Too sunny.

He longed for the autumn in Bruma, colorful and cloudy, but he couldn’t go back to the town that had seen him grow. It would have been irresponsible to abandon the city of Laku, when he had prepared himself to use his abilities and be helpful there.

He had come looking for adventure—and there was still a part of him that craved to just travel the world to enjoy and learn everything—but he had found purpose. As a member of the pragmatic culture, he believed that everything and everyone are defined by their purpose.

He was a law enforcer, and Laku was home. As much as he missed Bruma, as much as he liked the idea of taking the train and getting down in every station, he loved his job even more.

Nothing new there. Every law enforcer in Ogha was deeply in love with their job. Otherwise, they would have never joined the corps. There were no perks in it other than the job itself. People in Ogha didn’t even know—nor did they care—about all their efforts. After all, any job well done, especially when you work for peace, is never noticed. A quiet day was a good day, and people in Ogha were quite used to them.

Fransic smiled at the too sunny view of Laku from his balcony, and proceeded to make himself ready to keep another day as quiet as possible. Peaceful, to be precise. The heart of production in the most diverse world in the universe, was never silent or calm.

The noise of merchants and the warm waves of freezing magic welcomed him on the street thirty minutes later. His feet took him to the bakery in the corner. Instead of enjoying breakfast on the terrace as usual, he took his favorite dark bread and a basket with several pies and left immediately. He didn’t even wait for Luana, the baker, to come back from the kitchen.

He ate the bread while he walked to the Old Market’s diner. There was already an argument in progress when he arrived.

“But I have three children waiting for breakfast,” a man was saying.

The woman went quiet for a second, probably trying to put herself in the other’s position. Maybe just trying to come up with a solution that worked for both of them.

“I’m sorry, but do you need to feed them before the seventeenth grade? I need to be at work by then, and maybe you can wait for the next lot, or—” The woman interrupted herself when she noticed Fransic. 

She welcomed him with a smile, but he could see that she was unsure of what to say. Fransic suddenly knew that she had never needed the help of a law enforcer before.

“Good morning. Anything the matter?” he asked, even though he had the details of the situation already. His mother had taught him that it was impolite to use their percipient sense to steal people’s chance to explain themselves. According to her, the only times when he was meant to use his special knowledge to interact with others, was when he had answers that they needed—and to correct history mentors when his knowledge contradicted what the winners had written.

“Oh, well. I’m sorry if this is too little of a reason to bother you, but… There is a delay in the Old Kitchen and breakfast hasn’t been served yet” she explained while the man nodded in agreement. “The night supplies aren't enough and we are both in a hurry, it would be inconvenient to wait or to go to a store on another pier.”

Fransic nodded. “I think I may offer a solution,” He gave them the basket with pie, which he had picked precisely for a situation like this, because he knew about the delay with breakfast at the store. Now there should be enough food for both, and maybe for the next customer. 

He said goodbye to the man and woman who had thanked him without question why he had that food,  and went to the kitchens to ask if the food would be ready soon or if they needed to get some from another area.  He knew of another two stores where they may have enough to share.

Knowing the right things was very helpful for his job. When he had a clear idea of what had changed to make people upset, it wasn’t as difficult to help to make things better.

His gift didn’t usually give him all the story, and sometimes it had terrible timing, but he didn’t need to depend on that. He was trained to recognize the signs during his patrols and Laemsi had implied a few times that he used that training better than the average law enforcer. Sure, he wasn’t the best in the team, and he was naive sometimes, but he was a good observer and a better listener.

Either way, he always preferred to talk with people, like he did in the kitchen. The head cook was busy giving instructions, so he approached a girl who was stirring a huge pot and seemed more bored than anything else.

She explained that they were catching up now. “The boss is only making sure that the delay doesn’t affect the rest of the day. I’m more worried about the people who have breakfast here, they may get late to work. We had food from the night shift, but I’m afraid that it’s gone by now.”

Seeing her worried expression, he hurried to explain that there was now an extra basket from Luana’s stand.

“Awesome!” The head cook briefly jumped in the conversation. “That will do for those who are in a hurry. Thanks!”

With a quick farewell, Fransic left them to work and continued his way towards the Park of the Inner Ghosts, the ancient garden where the first philosopher of their world had invented oghense therapy. He entered one of the buildings that had been set up around the Park, the only one with four stores and a walled yard.

It served as headquarters for the law enforcers, and had a few rooms to mediate in cases of conflict and offices destined to take complaints, but those were usually deserted. The people that came in and out all day were more likely to be there to ask for advice or to investigate something in the library that took up most of the space on the first floor.

He stopped to convince a young man to walk the stairs with him instead of trying to fit in the lift that was over its limit. Then he had to explain to a group of kids how to take turns so they could all read the same book―they could get another copy in the historical pier, which’s library had more texts, but sharing was usually the better option.He had just left them when an old lady approached him to report a suspicious woman in the Green Pier and, not long after that, Nicilvi came to him asking for advice.

It was already the thirtieth grade when he finally arrived at the terrace of the second floor. Laemsi was looking at the garden with her swimmer’s back to the door where Fransic was coming from,  but any law enforcer could recognize her just by the short blonde curls and relaxed posture. Next to their mentor and leader, was Fransic’s best friend, supporting herself on the railing as she recounted her last shift. In that position, she didn’t look as ridiculously tall as usual.

“You’re late again,” Alizia teased, looking at him through her auburn bangs.

“I was caught at work, sorry”.

“That happens sometimes,” Laemsi turned to look at him.

“It never happens to me,” Alizia insisted. “When I say I’ll be in a place at a certain time, I make it my priority.”

“You are joking, right?” he asked. “To help people is our priority.”

It wasn’t about the law, as foreigners could assume, or to keep a tradition as the local people thought.

Laemsi nodded again. “I’m glad to hear that you reached that conclusion already.”

Self conscious, Fransic smiled at the floor. “Zovjo told me, soon after I came to the city.”

Neither of them was surprised. The right hand of Laemsi, her favorite student and most likely successor, always gave good advice.

“Everything under control?” Laemsi asked Fransic, just in case.

“There is something I still need to check at the Green Pier, but yes, all good,” he said. And he really believed that.

It seemed to be just another bright day in Laku, where people fixed things with dialogue and the basic rule of helping others. Fransic was an optimist even for his kind; he couldn't have guessed that he would soon be dead in a distant world.