The Akaiya perched by side of a busy boulevard, the back of the structure strikingly born aloft thick columns, suspended over a wide canal - rife with skiff traffic. Though sizable in its own merit, the establishment was dwarfed by its grander, more modern neighbors. Yet there was an inarguable quaint charm to the scarlet painted beams, and the relief of ivy decorating the bamboo panels.
Beyond the front door a narrow hall waited. It’s interior scarcely decorated apart for a magnificently inked scroll - colorfully depicting a scene of crimson and turquoise tents draped amongst unrealistically enormous painted shells. An antique desk bellow the scroll was occupied by a likewise ancient looking Canthan, her leathery skin creased and crinkled. “Cha-Ming!” She croaked, and soon a young woman bustled forth out of one of the many adjacent doorways.
“Pahabazhen. Welcome to our Akaiya!” Cha-Ming chimed in a musical voice, smiling warmly as her gaze swiftly appraised the group. A light scrunching of her skirt by a small plump fist betrayed the presence of a toddler lurking behind her. After a flurry of cordial, if shallow introductions, coins were exchanged and ledges marked.
Later that night, Joan shut the wooden panels in her small chamber, weary of the constant intrusive blare of the city’s Jade Tech infrastructure. Her lodging was bare bones humble - a dresser, and enough space to unroll a futon. She hoped Solveig and Penelope will be pleased with their similar arrangements... as she did entertain a somewhat jealous suspicion that the Caballeros might have gotten a nicer deal with their couple’s suite overlooking the canal.
A lonely pang followed that musing, thus she repicked the old, battered journal in an attempt to quell that line of thought, replace it with another, a more cherished one. Her eyes traced faded words on worn paper, a treasure relayed to her over the breadth of several lifetimes... and perhaps somewhere in the grand scheme of the Universe and its many machinations, a small circle closed.
'The Akaiya perched by side of a busy square, overlooking Kaineng’s Docks.’