The Kitchen at First Light

Long before daylight, the covered lanes near the castle were already loud. Omicho is a market of narrow aisles under one roof. While the city sleeps, the fishmongers lay out the night's catch on crushed ice. Yellowtail, squid, and flat silver fish sit in neat rows. The floor runs with water and everything smells of cold salt.

The market has done this since seventeen twenty-one. The ruling family brought the city's food sellers together near the castle gates. Three centuries later, little has changed. People here just call it the kitchen. It still feeds the restaurants, the teahouses, and the homes of the whole city.

The loudest mornings come in winter. Snow crab season opens in November. The auction floor fills with wooden trays of crabs lying on their backs. Each crab has a small tag on one claw showing the port it came from. The big males sell for very high prices. The smaller females have a shorter season, and people prize the roe under the shell.

By the middle of the morning it is over. The trays are stacked and the floor is washed. Polly sat on an empty crate and watched the shutters come down.