Part III New Babel — Chapter Six

At midday, Adam arrives to the Port Master’s office burdened by a secret, but Senlin is absorbed by a discovery: a heavy steel aerorod hidden under his desk. Cleaned and oiled, it proves a segmented, engraved map of the Tower, with multiple hands adding destinations over time.

Among its markings, Senlin finds “The Ringdom of Pelphia, Seat of the Pells,” linking Marya’s abductor, Count Pell, to a precise location. Buoyed by certainty, Senlin muses on literacy and declares he will teach Iren to read, believing knowledge could reform her dependence on force.

Adam explains the immediate issue: the Steam Pipe’s organ is broken again, and Rodion has called him to repair it and to meet the new Port Master. Adam’s discomfort reveals his dread that Senlin will see his sister, Voleta, performing there. Sensing this, Senlin listens as Adam asks to tell his story.

Adam recounts growing up with Voleta in Sumer, a city on stilts above a rail depot in Khayyam. Voleta, agile and fearless, danced footbridges and guywires while Adam feared the deadly yards. Their father died in a rail accident; their practical mother, often felled by fever, urged Adam to strike out alone to survive.

With only enough inheritance for one ticket, their mother moved in with relatives, and Adam chose the Tower. Voleta insisted on going, secretly driven by boredom and a need to rediscover fear; she sold her hair to buy her own passage. She suspected their father’s end sprang from despairing monotony.

Arriving at the Tower, Adam felt himself step into manhood as they braved the Market. Within days he found work as a Parlor clerk. The present returns with the plan to meet Rodion, while the aerorod’s Pelphia inscription gives Senlin a tangible aim toward Marya and Count Pell.