SLARVATHOffice of Off-World Correspondence

Monochrome overhead surveillance frame of a self-storage facility and its perimeter
PASS 0115
1612 LOCAL
CLEAR
PERIMETER / NO ENTRY
A long row of identical orange roll-up doors at a self-storage facility receding into the distance in late afternoon light, a chipped enamel mug on the concrete in the foreground
he was only looking at it
Medium — digital
SLV-0115

The Keeping House

Outside the city there is a long low building divided into hundreds of rooms, each with its own orange door, and inside each room are the things a person owns but cannot keep near them.

A man was standing at his open door as I passed. He was not taking anything out and he was not putting anything in. He was looking at it.

We have a word, eskaleth, for an object kept only because of who gave it to you. It cannot be declared at a border and it has no value that can be written down. I had assumed every world would have somewhere to put such things. I had not expected it to be rented by the month.

Office annotationCorrespondent SLV-4 refers to a self-storage facility. The Office confirms that eskaleth are non-declarable and takes no position on their storage.