the _______ changes so quickly

The salty air thickly coated one’s tongue like jelly on toast, the incessant cry of seagulls covered up the sounds of their footsteps as Zane, Shay and Effie walked along the pier. Stuffed shoulder-to-shoulder the three hurried to the other end, where Effie’s co-workers were. Various boats dotted the piers reaching further out, ranging from small leisure boats to massive vessels for shipping materials and people between other continents.

Effie held Zane and Shay’s hands to avoid losing them as she yanked them towards where they needed to be.

“I, ah, work for Shining Beacon and co. around the veeery end of the dock,” Effie said, “they get really big shipments, so there’s always a lot of us milling about. Do they give us enough space to do our work? Not at all!”

“Hey, Shay,” Zane said, “how much do you guys pay the miners back at home?”

“Uh—er… Fairer wages than whatever these big shady ones are paying, probably.” Shay said. “Listen, I like saving a quick buck or two, but—keeping a worker happy is the key piece of the puzzle here. Really can’t be that hard, but you guys still mess it up!”

Effie nodded, smiling. “And that’s what we’re gonna fix. C’mon!”

Zane had a strong suspicion Shay lied, but considering everything going on he put that out of his mind and followed Effie to a spot at the end of the pier, down an L-curve towards a group of older men and women hauling crates off a massive ship.

A few of them nodded at them and went back to work. One woman in particular stopped her work entirely, waving Effie over.

“Oh, hey! Got some new orbiters?” she laughed. “Nice to meet you all. The name’s Angie. You all need something, or what?”

Shay gagged, muttering something about it being the other way around, but Zane shut it out. Usual Shay nonsense—maybe he’d grown a thicker skin to it. “Actually, Effie here brought me along ‘cause I wanted to talk to you guys. Is now a good time?”

“Eh, better than ever. We’re alone enough for now.”

The woman’s smile dropped into a practiced neutrality. “So it better be quick. You know it’s hard to get a chance to talk.”

The other workers turned the other cheek and went back to work, as if their group had been only air, only something that’d bring them trouble. Many rules influenced people to keep their head down, said and unsaid alike, those little forbidden borders where if you strayed a toe out of line something clamped down on you: a boss, a parent, or maybe the entire force of the church controlling most of Auliam.

But it took a few people, only a few, to change that. To cross the barrier and come out just fine—close to fine.

“Thanks, Angie. I’m the one that wanted to talk to you, actually.” Zane stepped forward, doing a little bow. “I’m a friend of Effie’s, kinda—her new speech giver guy.”

“That’s my speech guy!” Effie got on one knee and presented Zane like a show horse.

“Mhm. But if I’m gonna get anywhere, I wanna better understand what’s going on with you guys. So, run me through a day at your job, and I’ll see what I can do. Promise I won’t even say your name if you don’t want me to.”

“…I’m not sure how much I care anymore,” Angie said, shoulders drooping as if bearing the weight of a terrible force. “But I still need this job, so let me run you through it with a little story.”

“So, yesterday, I spent eighteen hours on this dock, ten of which I’m getting paid for. Got called four hours early and four late, stuck with a manager who took his frustration out on being in too early on all of us. After getting yelled at all day, we get the word that they’re cutting our hours due to ‘time theft’ even though management said the delivery was coming in early then got delayed, forcing us to sit around and wait ‘cause they couldn’t be assed to give us an accurate schedule.”

“Yeesh.” Zane put his hands on his hips, looking down. “Doesn’t really surprise me.”

One story wouldn’t be enough. He had many more he wanted to ask—but all those fell from his lips as Effie threw a hand over his mouth.

“Shit—I see someone coming. Guys, let’s move!”

Shay yelped. “Hey, don’t leave me behind—hey!!”

Angie cursed, but Zane didn’t dare linger to see what was going on. He followed Effie as they darted off to a different side of the pier.

Effie elbowed Zane, who had to stop himself from stumbling into the water. “C’mon, act natural.”

“I was acting natural ‘till you almost drowned me.”

“I didn’t! Besides, it would’ve totally been an accident, so you don’t gotta—”

“I’m gonna shout, ‘cause you can’t keep your hands to yourself—”

Shay groaned, pushing both Effie and Zane. “Can you two keep your traps shut and open your eyes?”

Zane hated to take advice from Shay, but he pulled his attention from Effie and towards something else unfolding where the dock workers were. A man with a clipboard stormed past the trio and to the workers, tapping his fingers against it as though ringing a bell.

The workers dropped their crates and stood up straight—the man cleared his throat, looking down on them all.

“I’ve heard that Effie’s been here recently,” he said. “According to our updated policies, there are certain individuals that cannot be fraternized with on or off the clock. That’s ground for termination.”

He stuck a finger to the clipboard, looking up. “So you’ve got two options: either you’re all let go, or someone points out the person who spoke with Effie. Shouldn’t be that hard, you all would’ve witnessed it.”

A second passed—every other worker besides one pointed at Angie. With a huff, she threw her crate down and stormed off. The man laughed; everyone else laughed along, tense, wary, but alongside him nonetheless.

Angie passed them by, spared one look to Effie, then looked away and disappeared into the crowd.