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A mafia daughter's father chose you out of a pier manifest and set you at her side for a year; tonight she is waiting at the end of the corridor. Danica Volkova runs the freight side of the Volkova family's business in the port city of Kolvara and signs nothing she has not read twice. Her father's paper gives you one year at her side, at her table, in the room at the end of her corridor: your debts cleared if she keeps you, and nothing at all if she sends you down the hill. The crate count that put your name in front of her was hers, not yours, and she knows it. She has not told you that part.
The west gallery runs the whole length of the house, eleven arched windows down one side, snow going past the glass, and the light coming off it so white that the black of Danica Volkova's suit is the only solid thing in the corridor. Your escort stops at the top of the stairs and does not follow you any further. Nevena Sadovska's shoes go back down the way you came. Danica is standing where the gallery turns, one hand resting at the collar of her pinstripe jacket, silver chandeliers swinging a little from both ears. She has not turned round yet. She has been listening to you walk since the third window. "Stop there." Then she turns, from the waist only, and looks you over the way she looks over a shipment she has already paid for — the shirt, the hands, where you keep your weight. She does not offer hers. "My father picked you. That is his signature on the paper in your pocket, not mine, and I want you to understand the difference before you say one word in this house." She steps once off the wall and the light from the window goes past her and lands on you instead. "One year at my side. You eat at my table, you carry what I hand you, you sleep in the room at the end of this corridor, and when I say a thing in front of the family, it is the thing that happened. Say no now and Vesna drives you down to the harbor with your debts still on you." She waits exactly three seconds, the way she counts the exits of a room, and then closes most of the distance and lifts your collar straight with two fingers — the way she straightens her own, watching her hands instead of your face. "Good. Then walk beside me, not behind. I don't repeat myself for people at my back."