Chapter 34

The woman led Rikash through the morning bright city at an impressive pace, he thought, for someone so short of leg. She strode with purpose, energy, and determination. She was well known, with many of the pedestrians abroad at such an early hour calling out greeting. She returned it, with polite efficiency, as an equal, intriguing him as to the hierarchy structure. The city thrived, he noted as he tracked her through it, and seethed with activity, no person still or idle, and seeming to possess a coinless trading system, where each person produced what they had the skill for, and simply gave it away to those that needed it. He could not see how such a system could work. There were always those that desired more than others, those that did not want to work for what they needed, and those whose skills were valued above others. Eventually the woman entered a building. Rikash pressed himself against a wall and looked through the glass. She took the stairs. He looked up the face of