Chefs Fast Bravely, Eight Days Early

Zygmunt Kalnins, head chef of the Third Galley, has fasted for seven days and wants it known that he chose to. The ship's ration schedule put every deck on the same fast ahead of the Feast of Plenty, as it has each year since the tanks were rebalanced.

Kalnins learned this on the eighth morning, from a clerk, while holding a spoon.

Q: When did you decide to fast?

"Before the schedule did. In spirit. The schedule merely agreed with me, which is what a good schedule does."

Q: Did anyone check the ration table first?

"It is printed on the wall of the guild hall. We walk past it daily. One does not read what one walks past. That is how you know it is holy."

Q: Passengers on the lower decks say they were never told it was a fast.

"They were told it was a shortfall. Different word, same stomach. We have simply given the hunger a purpose."

Q: Will the guild fast again next year?

"Yes, and we will begin nine days earlier, so it is ours. Pavlina Demirci in Stores has agreed to move the schedule back. She says it needs only a signature and a lot of rice."

The Feast of Plenty begins Sunday. Stores holds enough rice for four days, and the fast, by Demirci's reckoning, will now start before the feast ends.