Bapak Maiyam -

Not as payment. As thanks. Debt is not always gold—sometimes it is truth. And the heaviest scales weigh memory, not metal.

Maiyam paused. For the first time, his mask cracked. A single tear of black ink rolled down. bapak maiyam

Maiyam nodded once. Then he folded himself into the brass lamp, which extinguished. Not as payment