Empress Adirn 8: Education
Filtering through the small, high window of Katherine’s library, the light of day slowly began to yellow. As the Sun started to dip below Horizon’s Bane it brought an early dusk to the Imperial Palace, but that didn’t mean the working day was over.
Hunched over the Mistress of Records’ desk, elbow on the desk and hand supporting her forehead, Empress Adirn Deepgrave stared down at yet another page of misaligned and inconsistent entries in the Imperial Palace’s secondary ledger. Every page was a mishmash of items that bore no relevance to one another, and it seemed that they were recorded by several different hands. That wasn’t to say that a different person had written each line, however; it in fact seemed that several individuals had simultaneously written each entry, picking a letter each and letting rip with their own quills and ink pots. Despite this illusion of co-operation, it appeared that none of them wished to compromise on a single style, size or even language.
“F… fees paid in… fees paid in lieu of statutory sacrifices?” Adirn deciphered aloud, eyes squinted and burning into the page. The fading light conspired to blur the words into one another and attempted to hide them within the page on which they were written. Whilst noble as an attempt to foster a sense of community and oneness within the ledger’s writing, it wasn’t helping the empress to parse the information. “Statutory sacrifices are murders of the serfs by their lieges for…” she struggled to remember. “… what exactly?”
“For the right to continue oppressing those within their demesne.” Katherine reminded her. “Fees may be paid in lieu of the sacrifice if the liege should find themselves in serf-poverty, from finding their peasants to be too susceptible to over-hanging or the like.”
“Yes, that was right.” Adirn said, too tired and worn down by horror to be disgusted. “And the serfs in such an eventuality are to be punished for letting too many of their own be slaughtered. And that needs to happen because they’re depriving the liege of their workforce.”
“Precisely.”
Numbly, Adirn nodded and scanned her eyes down to the next entry. With a back aching from hours spent hunched over books, and eyes dry from straining to read barely legible record of atrocities, she yawned deeply while staring down at the page.
“Fine for un… under… utilisation of state provided thumb knife.”
Katherine chuckled softly from her seat among the records.
“Ah yes, what an implement. When any liege runs low on money for essential torture equipment they are issued with a thumb knife, such that idle thumbs may be removed without additional expenditure. After all, it can only be the laziness and inaction of the peasants that leads to a dearth of gallows.” The Mistress of Records recounted happily.
“Of course. Thank you.” Muttered Adirn. From below the level of the desk came a deep and feral growl; the rumble of something which cannot and will not be reasoned with. Its demands must, quite simply, be met. The empress looked down at the imperial stomach. “Ah. I suppose that I need to eat.”
“That is the conventional wisdom, your eminence.” Captain Toxis replied, making the empress jump. He’d been standing so silent and still among the bookshelves that she’d almost forgotten he was there.
“Yes. Yes it is. I would loathe having my dinner in the dining room though; there’s still so much work to do here.”
Captain Toxis couldn’t disagree with the empress. Although the whole library was a dense thicket of parchment, books, scrolls, and any other vessel for the written word, the space around Adirn at the desk was yet more crowded. If she intended to get through it all in any kind of reasonable time then she’d have to live in the library for quite a while.
“Would one of you please send for Gwen and Henry to bring me… er, bring us something to eat? They can have Barry the Preserver prepare whatever he thinks is appropriate.”
The Mistress of Records’ eyes narrowed. At least, they seemed to; it was hard to tell in the dusky gloom of the library.
“I hope you’re not thinking of eating over these precious historical documents.”
“They can bring me a tablecloth as well. Then there’ll be nothing spilled on any of your records.” Adirn amended.
Below hearing there was a shuffling behind the walls. Katherine glared at the empress.
“I’ve a lot of reading to do!” she defended. “I can’t afford to stop for the sake of eating.”
“Hmph. You can’t stop eating more like.” She said with reflexive spite. “But I suppose you’d only have me get the records back out tomorrow if I don’t allow you to finish. But if any of these papers come to harm from your gluttony…”
“Yes, yes. That’s fine. I’ll be carved into pieces by the Scissors of Harrowing or something. Please give them my instructions.” The empress dismissed, returning to the struggle against light and ledger entries.
“They’ll receive them.” Replied a distinctly static Katherine.
The empress looked up with a sigh.
“Yet you haven’t left to deliver the message.”
“Don’t you take that tone with me! We already explained how the servants get their instructions from Chamberlain Greysoul’s ghost, and if you ever listened to what I tell you about the empire then you’d know it!”
Adirn looked to Captain Toxis for support, but he nodded earnestly. She shook her head gently.
“Thirty minutes. I will wait for thirty minutes to give your ghost chamberlain theory a chance, and if no dinner appears then one of you is taking the message yourselves.”
“As you wish, your eminence.”
“You’ll see.” Katherine said simply. “And then maybe you’ll start taking us a bit more seriously.”
Try as she might to concentrate on the many and various types of credits and debits in the imperial ledgers, the lack of obvious attempts to secure her some sustenance made the growling in Adirn’s stomach all the more persistent. Even when she saw the frankly exorbitant amount paid out to White Alliance for war reparations, which should have redoubled her efforts to win their repeated conqueror over, it couldn’t shake her stomach’s incessant pleas for attention. Without any means of tracking time, save for the almost completely failed light of the day from outside, there was no way to hold Katherine or Captain Toxis to account. Maybe they’d make her wait for a whole hour, two even, claiming that it was still there mere half they’d requested. Such was the treachery of all others in the Onyx Empire, it seemed, and hunger was food for suspicion.
Just as she was preparing to consider formulating a sentence which might, under extreme circumstances, be employed to accuse her companions of dinner betrayal, a quiet thumping sound vibrated through the floor. It beat through the library with an all-too-familiar rhythm of footfalls, but it felt as if they were being made by a pair of boulders instead of human feet.
“What on earth…” Adirn started, looking up at Katherine and Keto for reassurance.
“Somebody has entered the Sin Archive, your eminence.”
“Shh, shh, shh!” Interjected Katherine with an urgent wave of her hand. She craned her head to one side and was listening out for something with wide, excited eyes. They only had to wait for a second before a palpable wall of sound, like the rushing of air through the eye of a needle, erupted from the Sin Archive. Even from the other side of a door it made Adirn flinch; such was the furious power of the shushing being delivered to the unseen stepper.
Katherine rolled back in her seat and cackled, eyes scrunched shut and arms wrapped across her stomach. Ignorant or apathetic of Adirn’s disapproving glare, the Mistress of Records shook with spiteful mirth as an additional booming footstep ushered in another shush chorus.
“Just… just wait…” Katherine wheezed between laughs. “They’ll take their shoes off next.”
True enough, there was a brief pause before the booming and shushing resumed just as before. Slowly, with mouth pursed tightly and eyebrows set into a deep frown, the empress turned towards Captain Toxis, who failed to meet her gaze. By small mercy of the poor lighting in the library, she couldn’t see that his cheeks had turned red.
For as long as she could manage, the empress sat and listened to the cycle of thunder and shushing, with a constant accompaniment of Katherine’s cackles. Although the joke didn’t seem to be getting old for the Mistress of Records, Adirn eventually had enough.
“I’m going out there and helping.” She announced standing up abruptly. As her chair slid backwards there was a solid clunking noise, and the empress remembered with rising fear the perilously positioned oil lamps. Impressing herself with the display of reflexes, the empress twisted and lunged to grasp at the precarious light stand, as it plummeted towards the dry papers.
“Agh!” she yelped as her hand pressed against roasting hot glass. Katherine laughed even harder.
“I’m sure whoever that is will be thrilled that you burned your hand in solidarity.” She cackled. “Such is the reward of those who browse the records carelessly.”
“Thank you for your concern.” Hissed the empress as she stood the lamp back up. “Not like you need to worry about your library burning down or anything.”
“Are you alright, your eminence?” Asked Keto with alarmingly sincere concern.
“I’ll live.” Adirn said, more interested in picking her way through the labyrinth of books to reach the door.
“I didn’t anticipate the threat of the lamps. I will maintain a better vigil, your eminence. I apologise.”
That got a pause from the empress. She scowled at the captain of the guard in an attempt to determine whether he was being sarcastic, but another boom and shush combination from the main archive pulled her back on course. This time the silence-hungry hissing sound was sustained, as if it might beat the recipient into submission, and it gave Adirn further determination to help.
As she flung the door open, the shush was cut short. Like tendrils of seaweed collapsing as the tide retreats, the assembled archivists flopped back into their places of silent study. Or silent writing. Or silent whatever the appropriate verb was for the desks of unknown purpose. The only person who faced her instead of looking down was Gwen the house servant at the far end of the bookshelf alleyway, carrying a series of silver food trays in one hand and her small, soft shoes in the other. Both were held close to her body as she tried to shrink down away from the admonition, and her tip-toeing legs quivered. She would have looked pathetic enough as it was, but the tablecloth draped over her head and shoulders really hammered it home.
“I was trying to be quiet, I promise.” She mouthed desperately at the empress from the beneath the folds of tableware. One of the assistants flinched with the effort of restraining a shush, but the fear of Katherine’s open door could overwhelm any vindictive instinct.
With a series of rapid, encouraging waves, Adirn beckoned the girl over. As much as she wanted to rescue her from the barrage of judgement, and as much as she herself was starving, her main motivation was a grim curiosity. How anyone of Gwen’s stature could make such a racket while creeping along like that seemed to defy reality.
Nodding nervously, Gwen started to walk again. The empress watched intently as a dainty foot was lifted barely a hand’s width off the floor and then, with a care that rivalled her own when walking through the Sin Archive, it was glacially lowered back down. When sock met floorboard there echoed a thunderous drumbeat through the room, shaking the bookcases and rattling quills in their inkpots. It was enough to make the empress’ head tilt to one side as she considered the possibility of Gwen having two prosthetic lead feet. Or hammers in her socks, maybe. No human foot could make floorboards do that.
Expecting the bombardment of requests for quiet to rain back down upon her, Gwen froze in place and cowered. The archivists stirred a little more as their frustration built. Katherine’s open door was merely a dam, and a reservoir of righteous chastisement had quickly formed.
“Keep coming.” Adirn mouthed at the servant, eager to see a repeat of the experiment, and despite her mind’s terror, Gwen’s body had been trained to obey at any cost. Another peal of foot thunder cracked through the room. The empress could believe her eyes yet less, despite having twice the evidence. Immediately ahead of her, however, the dam started to bulge. Small hisses for quiet started to leak out of fractures and weaknesses, and they were enough to make Gwen visibly shake.
The sight of a trembling servant girl brought back the familiar memory of their first meeting, and it broke the empress’ heart. No amount of grim fascination with the acoustics of an archive could make Adirn prolong the suffering.
“Just run Gwen.” She said, loudly and defiantly. Every archivist turned to face her with a furious look of betrayal; they’d been cowering in honest fear of the Mistress of Records, when really they had been presided over by a mere empress. In every direction chests started to bulge as breaths were drawn and lungs were filled.
“Hurry!” She shouted back to the maid, before a hurricane of shushing was unleashed in the direction of the library door. With a petrified nod Gwen started to run, her footsteps adding percussive thunderclaps to the squall of forcefully expelled air.
Bracing against the doorway, Adirn leaned into the rage of the archivists. It was a battle to keep the door open against the wind, and every moment of the gale threatened to tear away layers of her clothing, skin and self-confidence. Rattling towards her, however, was hunger’s salvation in Gwen’s arms; a silver tray carrying the means to silence her rampaging gut. That made it a battle worth fighting.
As the booming servant grew closer, some of the archivists began to turn their admonition in her direction. Adirn wasn’t about to let that happen.
“Faster Gwen!” She called out, shouting this time and dragging all aggression back in her direction. With a mixture of trepidation and pride she wondered if this was how it felt to be Keto; stepping in front of blades and menacingly wielded candlesticks to protect another. With any luck she wouldn’t need to throw someone from a window in secret, but knew deep down that ruling such a course of action out entirely would serve no useful purpose.
Fingernails cut their way into the doorframe. Knees bent as the empress leaned forwards against the biting wind of shushes. Captain Toxis stepped behind her and looked out with curious confusion at what on earth the empress was doing, while Katherine continued to laugh maniacally from the corner. But critically, vitally, and determinedly, Gwen kept moving. Within seconds she was at the door and Adirn swept her inside. Calmly, and still not particularly sure of what was really going on, Captain Toxis pulled the door softly closed behind them.
“Are you alright?” the empress asked urgently, holding Gwen gently by both shoulders.
“Y… yes your eminence. Unless it would please you for me not to be.” Gwen stammered.
“Oh… I thought we’d moved past this, Gwen. It’s a good thing for you to be alright and I don’t want anyone to suffer.” She reassured. From the corner, the dry sound of Katherine’s rolling eyes was audible again. At the very least she’d stopped laughing.
“Yes, your eminence. And in that case let me be the first to say that Countess Lascera surely did not suffer at your hands.” The servant replied, looking down at the floor and exercising her talent for identifying the worst possible interpretation of Adirn’s words.
The empress sighed and relaxed her grip. Gwen clearly needed a few moments to compose herself and stop letting the fear reflexes take over.
“Would you please hand out the food trays?” The empress asked instead.
“Of course, your eminence.” Replied the servant with more confidence, back in a heartbreakingly familiar place of doing as she was told.
Taking her own tray back to Katherine’s desk, Adirn placed it down on the flattest stack of papers she could see. There was an immediate and angry sucking of air through Katherine’s teeth from the other side of the library.
“What now- oh. Gwen, would you please lay the tablecloth over this desk?” The empress requested, refusing to look the Mistress of Records in the eye.
With a quick bow of acknowledgement, Gwen hurried through the stacks and unfurled the tablecloth over hundreds of years of recorded knowledge. Adirn wanted to make a comment about wishing that the Onyx Empire’s history could be erased that easily, but thought that doing so might push Katherine over the edge. Instead she thanked Gwen for laying the table, set her tray down once again, and then removed the lid.
There was a blank spot in the empress’ memory.
Glancing around herself frantically as she regained her faculties, Adirn saw that the library still surrounded her. Gwen was sat quietly in another unseen seat, Captain Toxis was leaning casually against a back wall, and Katherine was muttering and tutting to herself about something. The light from outside had now failed completely, leaving the room lit entirely by the two perilous lamps. In front of her, the silver dinner tray was empty, save for smears of sauce and crumbs. There was no trace of anything on the tablecloth, nor did she feel like she’d been knocked out or poisoned.
Her companions for their own part looked completely at ease. Or at least, Keto and Katherine looked at ease while Gwen looked to be at her least tense.
“Erm, Gwen?” She said softly.
The maid started.
“Yes, your eminence?”
“Are you feeling a bit better now? You can speak to me honestly and I have no ulterior motives in asking.”
“Yes, your eminence. I think I am calmer now, thank you.” She replied with a small bow. Her shoes remained in her hands.
“Good. In that case I have a question, and I would like you to answer it at face value. It may sound strange.”
The servant girl’s face betrayed her discomfort at the notion, but she nodded all the same.
“Did I just eat my dinner?”
“Er…” Gwen croaked, uncertainly.
“As I said, face value.”
“Yes, your eminence. Voraciously. You ate it more expertly and thoroughly than any ruler before you has eaten a meal.”
A disappointed look of one being flattered started to form on Adirn’s face, when Captain Toxis spoke up.
“It was impressive, your eminence.” He confirmed.
“Even Empress Gloriana the Glutton would have been proud.” Katherine added. “And not a crumb spilled on my records.”
Nodding slowly and pensively, Adirn looked down at the tray again. She had to admit that her hunger had disappeared, and the lingering remnants of flavour played about her mouth, but not a scrap of memory remained.
“Interesting. But reassuring. Thank you. I asked because I think I may have entered some kind of hunger fugue.” She explained. It didn’t seem to help Gwen in any way, but at least she could tell herself she’d been transparent and honest.
“That much was obvious, girl. You were like a crow on a fresh body.” The Mistress of Records told her. “It would have been terrifying if we’d been able to see properly.
For a few moments Adirn sat in silent contemplation of how worrying that comparison was, and how impractical it would be for any diplomatic feast with the White Alliance to pass in a fugue. Explaining away her total ignorance of the dinner’s conversation would be awkward at best and a declaration of war at worst.
“But since you’re back with us, I feel this is a moment to prove myself right.” Katherine continued. “Gwen, tell the empress how you knew to fetch dinner.”
The servant looked fearfully up at the Mistress of Records and then nodded obediently.
“Now!” Snapped Katherine, before Gwen had even had a chance to speak. It made her smile with that unique smugness of a bully, and Adirn considered whether to tip over the oil lamp on her way out.
“I was given my instructions by Chamberlain Greysoul’s ghost, eminence. Just like normal.”
Adirn fixed Gwen with an unblinking stare.
“And how, exactly, does this ghost normally give you instructions?”
“Chamberlain Greysoul leaves us notes sometimes, your eminence. Other times we hear his whispered will in our ear.”
“And do you ever see the chamberlain?” The empress asked, with a great effort at remaining calm and open-minded.
“No!” Gwen cried, distraught at the very idea. “Chamberlain Greysoul took an oath never to be seen or heard, and it shall not be broken.”
“Quite the mystery.” Adirn said, scowling at Katherine’s smirk. “Thank you for your honesty, Gwen.”
The servant gave a shallow bow, and then stood with hands clasped in front of herself. The empress felt like the girl deserved to be offered something, but kindness never seemed to have quite the right effect.
“Would you care to sit with us and read the records?” She tried. Having heard herself, she immediately started questioning why that would be even remotely desirable.
“Um… records of what, your eminence?”
“Well… I’m currently looking over the ledgers from the treasury, and then I’ll be moving on to the edicts passed by previous rulers.”
For once, Gwen didn’t look either scared or relieved. She just stared blankly at the empress, with her mouth hanging slightly open.
“Oh… I appreciate the offer, your eminence, it shows a kindness rivalled by none before you. But in this instance I should like to pass. Unless it would please you to read the edicts to me for… some reason?” Replied the servant girl, more earnestly than anyone could reasonably have expected. The empress wanted to curl up, and for the parchments to swallow her.
“No, that’s quite fine. It was a… silly thing to ask. Regardless you are welcome to relax here among…” she stared about herself, desperately trying to find something to make the offer sound generous instead of creepy “… the records, and the books.” Sweat beaded on Adirn’s face. “Or you are welcome to take your leave and spend the evening as you wish.”
“Thank you, eminence. I shall make my way.” Gwen said quickly, with another shallow bow. After taking a moment to pick up the emptied tray, the servant made to leave.
“Wait, Gwen.” The empress called out, determined to do something kind. The servant obeyed. “Katherine, would you please escort Gwen to the door, so that your archivists will stay their shushing tongues?”
Finally a soft, relieved and grateful smile cracked on Gwen’s face, as Katherine grimaced.
“Why are you like this?” She hissed at the empress.
“Because I am going to be kind to those who deserve it if it kills me.”
“It most likely will contribute to your death.” Captain Toxis acknowledged, matter-of-factly.
The Mistress of Records huffed, stood up, and joined Gwen by the door. She had a face like a heavy tome dangled above an unsuspecting bug.
“Even your spite is weird.” She snapped at the empress.
“That’s because it’s not spite; it’s courtesy.” Adirn replied, but the Mistress of Records dismissed it with an eyeroll that might well have given her a view of her own brain. “Good night, Gwen.” The servant mouthed a quick thanks to the empress, and then dashed out before Katherine could hit her.
Booming footfalls shook the room once the door was closed, and frustrated confusion washed over the empress once more. She stood there, enraptured by its incalculable impossibility, and looked towards Captain Toxis as he flinched almost imperceptibly with every boom.
“How?” Adirn breathed. Her face was contorted into a mask of raw incredulity.
Captain Toxis shrugged.
“She walked so softly and quietly in here... I don’t get it...”
Captain Toxis shrugged again.
They waited in confusion until the sudden cessation of the footsteps, which presumably coincided with Gwen’s exit from the Sin Archive. After the storm of feet had passed over, the library fell into silence; the perfect unbroken silence that lets a person hear their own heart and somehow feel the blood flowing up their neck. There should have been at least some indication of the Mistress of Records’ return; even Katherine’s shuffling feet couldn’t hope to be as soft as Gwen had been stepping, and so the lack of a sound could only indicate a coincidental lack of motion. Perhaps Katherine had also left for some reason. Maybe she’d stopped to pick up some new records from the bookshelves, or had taken a break from the empress’ relentless ambition to not be awful. Whatever the reason, it could afford to wait for her attention; there was still an enormous pile of documentation on the desk and only so much of the day left.
Adirn had made it nearly the whole way back through the labyrinth of stacks when the door slammed open, startling her and very nearly causing a second catastrophic lamp incident.
“Ha! Two near misses with the lamps in a single day. You have much to learn about due care around the records, girl.” Katherine laughed triumphantly.
“How did you get here so silently?” Adirn cried, clutching one hand over her rampaging heart. She could it stripping the years away from her. “There’s no way that Gwen makes all that noise and you move silently.”
“Just like there’s no way that Chamberlain Greysoul could be communicating with the house staff? Despite the fact that none of us left this room between your demands being made and the arrival of your food, you little pig?”
“Careful with your words, Katherine.” Keto warned. Adirn saw Katherine’s familiar defiant scowl directed at someone else for once, and still didn’t care for it.
“Apologies, your eminence.” She said, sounding anything but sorry “But my point stands that you not understanding something doesn’t mean that it’s impossible. Quite the opposite in the experiences we’ve shared over the last few days.”
“Fine.” Adirn said, brushing away the insults. “Explain then. Explain to me how that girl in her un-shoed feet could possibly hammer the floorboards so hard when you’re able to move like a ghost. Unless you claim to also be a ghost, like the chamberlain?”
“Not yet, but you just wait until I perish, empress. I’ll be haunting these halls in an instant.”
“That much I can believe quite easily. But until then, the footsteps?”
“Some of us just know the way to move silently. We know the secrets. I certainly only heard a single elephantine beast approaching when you and Toxis arrived, and they didn’t sound like the captain’s feet.” The Mistress of Records said.
Adirn looked to Keto who, anticipating the impending question, pre-emptively shrugged.
“Why don’t you enlighten me as to these secrets then? I had surmised for myself that some people ’just knew how’ but it was really the nature of that knowledge that I was seeking, as well you know.”
“How do you think it’s done?” Katherine fired back, determined not to be helpful.
“I... I don’t know. That’s why I was asking you. But if I had to speculate then I suppose that... you just know where to step. There are joists or beams or some such.”
“Well done, eminence. Would you like to ask me anything else you already know? How to suck eggs, perhaps?”
“No-one sucks eggs, and accurate guesswork does not knowledge make. And that still doesn’t explain how Gwen or I made that much noise. We don’t boom like that on normal floors; this one sounds like a blasted drum.”
“And so...”
“And so... “ the empress said, before sighing with the weight of revelation “that's what the floor here is.”
“Finally! When this Sin Archive was built it was known that silence should reign, and only those worthy of the records should be permitted to step here. So to weed out the pathetic and the boisterous certain measures were put in place. The floorboards were placed on a membrane, above a hollow.”
“They’re literally a drum…” the empress hissed. “That’s so…”
“Expected of something called the Sin Archive within the Onyx Empire, your eminence?” Offered Captain Toxis.
Adirn flopped back down in her chair.
“…yes.” She stared down at the papers in front of her. “Well that was a terrible distraction. There’s still a lot for me to get through.”
“My thoughts exactly, your eminence.”
“This light is too poor though.”
“You could always turn up the lamps, if you dare.” Smirked the Mistress of Records. “But such are the actions of only the most accomplished record keepers. You yourself have already proven that the lamps do not rest stable in your presence.”
The empress didn’t break eye contact with Katherine while she stood. Her gaze remained focused on the Mistress of Records as she felt for the valve and allowed more oil to flow into the cavity of the lamp. As the increased heat and light licked at the back of the Imperial head, she sat down with a look of smug triumph.
With a face like even more of a soured pickle than usual, Katherine said nothing and looked down at her own book.
A sense of victory hung itself around Adirn’s shoulders as she looked, with the confidence of the recently fed, over the work still to be done. It was a gargantuan amount of literature, containing innumerable things she didn’t really want to read, but many a night in her childhood had been lost to the charms of the library. This, she told herself, would be nothing.
“Empress? Eminence?” Captain Toxis said softly. The empress was aware of something jostling her shoulder.
With a gentle groan she opened her eyes, which sparked in her mind the realisation that they must, immediately prior to that, have been closed. Quickly she lifted herself up from the musty tome into which her cheek had been pressed. Pale dawn light was filtering through the insufficient window above, unable to complete with the glowing oil lamps but still revealing that the night was over. Looking across the room, Adirn could see Katherine slumbering on her seat, occasionally twitching and sneering at some slight within her dreams.
“Thank you, Captain. How long was I asleep?”
“An hour, perhaps. It took me a little while to notice that you’d stopped turning the pages, your eminence.”
The empress rubbed at her face.
“I was nearly finished anyway. I think.”
Across the desk in front of her, the chaos of books and parchment had been transformed into at least a semblance of order, with the disused or otherwise completed documents piled to one side and a clearing of sorts forming in the middle. True to her title, the Mistress of Records had demonstrated an impressive command of the archive despite her insistence on being as difficult to deal with as possible. She’d been able to identify which scroll contained the edicts of which ruler from clear across the room, and when it came time to swap records in or out, she moved immediately to the right place as if there were a map inside her head.
“It was impressive to watch you work, your eminence. As much was watching someone else read ever is, I mean. I’m no scholar, but I think that most would need more than a night to get through this.”
Adirn shrugged. Keto squinted at her.
“I suppose that’s justice, your eminence.” He accepted.
“I just had a few more edicts to read, and then I really think that I need to get out of here. The air’s starting to get a bit... lived in.” She euphemised.
“As you wish, your eminence.” Keto said, making his way back to the favoured leaning wall.
“Apparently all this nonsense around the Skullery maid being forced to polish all the skulls in the palace every day only came around because Emperor Wrathfus scuffed one when assaulting one of the kitchen staff.” Adirn said, conversationally.
“I remember that well. The boy had served the meal at the correct time, if I recall.”
The empress was taken aback.
“What do you mean? Were you there?”
“Yes, your eminence. It was early in my career as the captain of the guard. And I mean that the boy did his job exactly as instructed, which is what the emperor apparently took offence to.” Keto clarified. There was an edge to his voice that Adirn hadn’t heard before, and she didn’t speak for a moment , just in case he wanted to continue. He didn’t.
“You know…” She said, finally. “The records also state that he fell to an assassin’s blade a mere few days later.”
Captain Toxis shrugged.
“They must have slipped me by.” He said emotionlessly.
The empress gave a few pensive nods.
“Good.” She said, finally. “Good.”
Neither of them spoke for another hour while the empress finished up her reading. Once the final page had been turned she closed the ledger and motion to Keto that they should leave. Snoring softly in the corner, Katherine was none-the-wiser as Adirn stood from the desk, turned down the oil lamps, and started winding her way back towards the door.
“Should we wake the Mistress of Records, eminence?” Asked Keto.
The empress cast a glance in her direction and tried to work out whether walking away or waking her up would earn more disapproval. Wisely, she had disregarded the foolish notion that any action or inaction on her part might earn no disapproval at all.
“She’ll only wake up when I step on the drumskin outside the door. Better not to let it come as a shock.” Adirn concluded out loud. Reluctant steps through page and parchment drew her close to the sleeping Mistress of Records, a dragon on her hoard of literature. Even in slumber she wore an irritated grimace that softened and deepened with each breath; clearly, the Adirn in her dreams was still an incorrigible failure.
“Katherine?” Asked the empress, in a voice lower than that with which she’d been conversing mere moments before. Recognising that the sleeping woman couldn’t distinguish between words meant for her and those meant for another, Adirn tried again a little louder. There was no stirring.
With a view to making it clear that she’d tried her best and they should leave, Adirn looked back at Captain Toxis. Unfortunately for her willpower, he made an impressive mime to suggest that she should gently shake the mistress awake, whilst being careful not to shock her, disturb the stacks, or accidentally slap her. How he managed to convey such a depth of information in a single motion was as much of a mystery as how he’d crept silently through the Sin Archive, and Adirn didn’t have the time to think about it.
Before Adirn’s hand could come within an inch of Katherine’s shoulder, her eyes flashed open, already gazing directly into the empress’ own.
“I am perfectly awake and aware of my surroundings.” Katherine snapped, as Adirn flinched back upright with a gasp. “I need no wakeup call, thank you. And don’t look so shocked; if you’re trying to wake someone then don’t be surprised when they stop sleeping.”
Adirn threw her hands into the air, narrowly clipping a precariously balanced scroll, and started to back away.
“I have finished the reading you fetched for me, Katherine. Thank you for your assistance in this matter. It has been most enlightening and given me an awful lot to consider.”
“And to show your gratitude you were going to leave me sleeping in a room of tinder-dry paper and two lit, unattended lanterns were you?”
“Um…” Adirn started, feeling her stomach sinking as she considered the truth of Katherine’s words. “I will concede that I didn’t think that one through particularly well.”
“I should think you didn’t. But I shouldn’t be surprised; that’s no different to the normal situation for you, is it?” Sneered the Mistress of Records, baiting another hook that the empress refused to bite.
“Since you’re up, would you like us to extinguish the lanterns, or do you intend to leave with us?”
“I was rather intending to change my clothes and break my fast, yes. You might think me a filthy peasant with nothing more to do than her work but, shockingly, I am at least a little civilised.” Snapped the Mistress of Records, who had apparently woken up freshly primed for another day of spiteful commentary.
“Very well.” Adirn said wearily. “Keto, would you mind?”
Wordlessly the captain of the guard picked his way back to the desk and blew out both lanterns, condemning the library to the meagre grey light of the small, high window. Somehow the colourless, hopeless pallor seemed fitting as Adirn looked to Katherine in futility for any measure of approval.
Stepping out into the Sin Archive proper, there was no sign that any time had passed. Hooded figures continued to study at their desks or shuffle around in an eerily soundless vacuum, albeit marginally more nervously once the Mistress of Records was in view. Led by the unabashed thundering of the empress’ boots and protected by the shield of Katherine’s fearsome presence, the three of them walked freely along the avenue between towering bookshelves.
Try as she might to maintain a dignified posture and keep her eyes ahead, the empress couldn’t help looking from side to side, daring anyone to shush at her this time around. All she saw was averted gazes and archivists going about their business. They kept their heads down while searching the texts, they looked away while pushing their trollies of scrolls, and they looked directly upwards while climbing the bookshelves.
Adirn stopped in place and snapped her head back to the side. Just as she thought she’d seen, there was an archivist dressed in the typically oversized robes and climbing up the shelving unit in a daring feat of furniture misuse. Sleeves interfering with their grip and parchment clenched within their teeth, they were hanging by their fingertips from what little space had been left by the enormous tomes. With a mighty swing of both legs, their feet managed to hook themselves into another meagre foothold.
“Katherine, there’s someone climbing up your shelves!” The empress hissed, acutely aware that startling the assistant might send them plummeting back to the hard wooden drum floor.
“They are reaching the higher shelves, where the most frequently used records are stored.” The Mistress of Records replied, matter-of-factly. No matter what she was saying, Katherine never expressed it as a matter of opinion.
“And they don’t use a ladder?”
“Pah! Of course not. They must earn the texts.”
“But what if they fall?”
“Then they weren’t trying hard enough. It is a great honour to work in the Sin Archives, and we will only have the best.” Katherine hissed.
Struggling to see the crossover of skills between adept climbers and effective archivists, Adirn made a mental note to find a mutual blackmail that might result in the acquisition of ladders. Preferably, in the next few days.
“I see. Well, moving on.” She said, with one final glance up at the archivist. Unfortunately, this additional, casual speech had proven to be too much of a temptation for the climber, and they looked down towards the empress for an almighty, high-altitude shush. Upon seeing Katherine standing nearby, however, the startling effect she radiated took full hold.
The fingers flinched, and then slipped.
A whispered scream and a dull impact were punctuated by a muted crunch, as the climbing archivist hit the floor of the library. Lying on the boards in an untidy and biologically unfeasible heap, they immediately began cramming the sleeves of their robes into their mouth, until any indication of a howl was muffled into silence.
Without even looking round, Katherine grabbed the empress’ arm to prevent her from rushing to help.
“They will be attended to without breaking the silence.” She hissed.
“Will they though? Or will they be maimed if they can’t climb up a tree to get to the healer?”
“We aren’t barbarians, girl. Proving worth takes time, and no-one learns to climb without falling.”
The empress was wholly disarmed. Katherine seemed to have a knack for doing that to her.
“They will be tended to by our healers and allowed to recover. I need them alive after all.”
“Well...” the empress started, not sure what to say. “I apologise for doubting you then.”
The Mistress of Records deigned not to snipe in response. As much as that scared Adirn, it also gave her hope that maybe Katherine could care about something after all.
Hunched over the Mistress of Records’ desk, elbow on the desk and hand supporting her forehead, Empress Adirn Deepgrave stared down at yet another page of misaligned and inconsistent entries in the Imperial Palace’s secondary ledger. Every page was a mishmash of items that bore no relevance to one another, and it seemed that they were recorded by several different hands. That wasn’t to say that a different person had written each line, however; it in fact seemed that several individuals had simultaneously written each entry, picking a letter each and letting rip with their own quills and ink pots. Despite this illusion of co-operation, it appeared that none of them wished to compromise on a single style, size or even language.
“F… fees paid in… fees paid in lieu of statutory sacrifices?” Adirn deciphered aloud, eyes squinted and burning into the page. The fading light conspired to blur the words into one another and attempted to hide them within the page on which they were written. Whilst noble as an attempt to foster a sense of community and oneness within the ledger’s writing, it wasn’t helping the empress to parse the information. “Statutory sacrifices are murders of the serfs by their lieges for…” she struggled to remember. “… what exactly?”
“For the right to continue oppressing those within their demesne.” Katherine reminded her. “Fees may be paid in lieu of the sacrifice if the liege should find themselves in serf-poverty, from finding their peasants to be too susceptible to over-hanging or the like.”
“Yes, that was right.” Adirn said, too tired and worn down by horror to be disgusted. “And the serfs in such an eventuality are to be punished for letting too many of their own be slaughtered. And that needs to happen because they’re depriving the liege of their workforce.”
“Precisely.”
Numbly, Adirn nodded and scanned her eyes down to the next entry. With a back aching from hours spent hunched over books, and eyes dry from straining to read barely legible record of atrocities, she yawned deeply while staring down at the page.
“Fine for un… under… utilisation of state provided thumb knife.”
Katherine chuckled softly from her seat among the records.
“Ah yes, what an implement. When any liege runs low on money for essential torture equipment they are issued with a thumb knife, such that idle thumbs may be removed without additional expenditure. After all, it can only be the laziness and inaction of the peasants that leads to a dearth of gallows.” The Mistress of Records recounted happily.
“Of course. Thank you.” Muttered Adirn. From below the level of the desk came a deep and feral growl; the rumble of something which cannot and will not be reasoned with. Its demands must, quite simply, be met. The empress looked down at the imperial stomach. “Ah. I suppose that I need to eat.”
“That is the conventional wisdom, your eminence.” Captain Toxis replied, making the empress jump. He’d been standing so silent and still among the bookshelves that she’d almost forgotten he was there.
“Yes. Yes it is. I would loathe having my dinner in the dining room though; there’s still so much work to do here.”
Captain Toxis couldn’t disagree with the empress. Although the whole library was a dense thicket of parchment, books, scrolls, and any other vessel for the written word, the space around Adirn at the desk was yet more crowded. If she intended to get through it all in any kind of reasonable time then she’d have to live in the library for quite a while.
“Would one of you please send for Gwen and Henry to bring me… er, bring us something to eat? They can have Barry the Preserver prepare whatever he thinks is appropriate.”
The Mistress of Records’ eyes narrowed. At least, they seemed to; it was hard to tell in the dusky gloom of the library.
“I hope you’re not thinking of eating over these precious historical documents.”
“They can bring me a tablecloth as well. Then there’ll be nothing spilled on any of your records.” Adirn amended.
Below hearing there was a shuffling behind the walls. Katherine glared at the empress.
“I’ve a lot of reading to do!” she defended. “I can’t afford to stop for the sake of eating.”
“Hmph. You can’t stop eating more like.” She said with reflexive spite. “But I suppose you’d only have me get the records back out tomorrow if I don’t allow you to finish. But if any of these papers come to harm from your gluttony…”
“Yes, yes. That’s fine. I’ll be carved into pieces by the Scissors of Harrowing or something. Please give them my instructions.” The empress dismissed, returning to the struggle against light and ledger entries.
“They’ll receive them.” Replied a distinctly static Katherine.
The empress looked up with a sigh.
“Yet you haven’t left to deliver the message.”
“Don’t you take that tone with me! We already explained how the servants get their instructions from Chamberlain Greysoul’s ghost, and if you ever listened to what I tell you about the empire then you’d know it!”
Adirn looked to Captain Toxis for support, but he nodded earnestly. She shook her head gently.
“Thirty minutes. I will wait for thirty minutes to give your ghost chamberlain theory a chance, and if no dinner appears then one of you is taking the message yourselves.”
“As you wish, your eminence.”
“You’ll see.” Katherine said simply. “And then maybe you’ll start taking us a bit more seriously.”
Try as she might to concentrate on the many and various types of credits and debits in the imperial ledgers, the lack of obvious attempts to secure her some sustenance made the growling in Adirn’s stomach all the more persistent. Even when she saw the frankly exorbitant amount paid out to White Alliance for war reparations, which should have redoubled her efforts to win their repeated conqueror over, it couldn’t shake her stomach’s incessant pleas for attention. Without any means of tracking time, save for the almost completely failed light of the day from outside, there was no way to hold Katherine or Captain Toxis to account. Maybe they’d make her wait for a whole hour, two even, claiming that it was still there mere half they’d requested. Such was the treachery of all others in the Onyx Empire, it seemed, and hunger was food for suspicion.
Just as she was preparing to consider formulating a sentence which might, under extreme circumstances, be employed to accuse her companions of dinner betrayal, a quiet thumping sound vibrated through the floor. It beat through the library with an all-too-familiar rhythm of footfalls, but it felt as if they were being made by a pair of boulders instead of human feet.
“What on earth…” Adirn started, looking up at Katherine and Keto for reassurance.
“Somebody has entered the Sin Archive, your eminence.”
“Shh, shh, shh!” Interjected Katherine with an urgent wave of her hand. She craned her head to one side and was listening out for something with wide, excited eyes. They only had to wait for a second before a palpable wall of sound, like the rushing of air through the eye of a needle, erupted from the Sin Archive. Even from the other side of a door it made Adirn flinch; such was the furious power of the shushing being delivered to the unseen stepper.
Katherine rolled back in her seat and cackled, eyes scrunched shut and arms wrapped across her stomach. Ignorant or apathetic of Adirn’s disapproving glare, the Mistress of Records shook with spiteful mirth as an additional booming footstep ushered in another shush chorus.
“Just… just wait…” Katherine wheezed between laughs. “They’ll take their shoes off next.”
True enough, there was a brief pause before the booming and shushing resumed just as before. Slowly, with mouth pursed tightly and eyebrows set into a deep frown, the empress turned towards Captain Toxis, who failed to meet her gaze. By small mercy of the poor lighting in the library, she couldn’t see that his cheeks had turned red.
For as long as she could manage, the empress sat and listened to the cycle of thunder and shushing, with a constant accompaniment of Katherine’s cackles. Although the joke didn’t seem to be getting old for the Mistress of Records, Adirn eventually had enough.
“I’m going out there and helping.” She announced standing up abruptly. As her chair slid backwards there was a solid clunking noise, and the empress remembered with rising fear the perilously positioned oil lamps. Impressing herself with the display of reflexes, the empress twisted and lunged to grasp at the precarious light stand, as it plummeted towards the dry papers.
“Agh!” she yelped as her hand pressed against roasting hot glass. Katherine laughed even harder.
“I’m sure whoever that is will be thrilled that you burned your hand in solidarity.” She cackled. “Such is the reward of those who browse the records carelessly.”
“Thank you for your concern.” Hissed the empress as she stood the lamp back up. “Not like you need to worry about your library burning down or anything.”
“Are you alright, your eminence?” Asked Keto with alarmingly sincere concern.
“I’ll live.” Adirn said, more interested in picking her way through the labyrinth of books to reach the door.
“I didn’t anticipate the threat of the lamps. I will maintain a better vigil, your eminence. I apologise.”
That got a pause from the empress. She scowled at the captain of the guard in an attempt to determine whether he was being sarcastic, but another boom and shush combination from the main archive pulled her back on course. This time the silence-hungry hissing sound was sustained, as if it might beat the recipient into submission, and it gave Adirn further determination to help.
As she flung the door open, the shush was cut short. Like tendrils of seaweed collapsing as the tide retreats, the assembled archivists flopped back into their places of silent study. Or silent writing. Or silent whatever the appropriate verb was for the desks of unknown purpose. The only person who faced her instead of looking down was Gwen the house servant at the far end of the bookshelf alleyway, carrying a series of silver food trays in one hand and her small, soft shoes in the other. Both were held close to her body as she tried to shrink down away from the admonition, and her tip-toeing legs quivered. She would have looked pathetic enough as it was, but the tablecloth draped over her head and shoulders really hammered it home.
“I was trying to be quiet, I promise.” She mouthed desperately at the empress from the beneath the folds of tableware. One of the assistants flinched with the effort of restraining a shush, but the fear of Katherine’s open door could overwhelm any vindictive instinct.
With a series of rapid, encouraging waves, Adirn beckoned the girl over. As much as she wanted to rescue her from the barrage of judgement, and as much as she herself was starving, her main motivation was a grim curiosity. How anyone of Gwen’s stature could make such a racket while creeping along like that seemed to defy reality.
Nodding nervously, Gwen started to walk again. The empress watched intently as a dainty foot was lifted barely a hand’s width off the floor and then, with a care that rivalled her own when walking through the Sin Archive, it was glacially lowered back down. When sock met floorboard there echoed a thunderous drumbeat through the room, shaking the bookcases and rattling quills in their inkpots. It was enough to make the empress’ head tilt to one side as she considered the possibility of Gwen having two prosthetic lead feet. Or hammers in her socks, maybe. No human foot could make floorboards do that.
Expecting the bombardment of requests for quiet to rain back down upon her, Gwen froze in place and cowered. The archivists stirred a little more as their frustration built. Katherine’s open door was merely a dam, and a reservoir of righteous chastisement had quickly formed.
“Keep coming.” Adirn mouthed at the servant, eager to see a repeat of the experiment, and despite her mind’s terror, Gwen’s body had been trained to obey at any cost. Another peal of foot thunder cracked through the room. The empress could believe her eyes yet less, despite having twice the evidence. Immediately ahead of her, however, the dam started to bulge. Small hisses for quiet started to leak out of fractures and weaknesses, and they were enough to make Gwen visibly shake.
The sight of a trembling servant girl brought back the familiar memory of their first meeting, and it broke the empress’ heart. No amount of grim fascination with the acoustics of an archive could make Adirn prolong the suffering.
“Just run Gwen.” She said, loudly and defiantly. Every archivist turned to face her with a furious look of betrayal; they’d been cowering in honest fear of the Mistress of Records, when really they had been presided over by a mere empress. In every direction chests started to bulge as breaths were drawn and lungs were filled.
“Hurry!” She shouted back to the maid, before a hurricane of shushing was unleashed in the direction of the library door. With a petrified nod Gwen started to run, her footsteps adding percussive thunderclaps to the squall of forcefully expelled air.
Bracing against the doorway, Adirn leaned into the rage of the archivists. It was a battle to keep the door open against the wind, and every moment of the gale threatened to tear away layers of her clothing, skin and self-confidence. Rattling towards her, however, was hunger’s salvation in Gwen’s arms; a silver tray carrying the means to silence her rampaging gut. That made it a battle worth fighting.
As the booming servant grew closer, some of the archivists began to turn their admonition in her direction. Adirn wasn’t about to let that happen.
“Faster Gwen!” She called out, shouting this time and dragging all aggression back in her direction. With a mixture of trepidation and pride she wondered if this was how it felt to be Keto; stepping in front of blades and menacingly wielded candlesticks to protect another. With any luck she wouldn’t need to throw someone from a window in secret, but knew deep down that ruling such a course of action out entirely would serve no useful purpose.
Fingernails cut their way into the doorframe. Knees bent as the empress leaned forwards against the biting wind of shushes. Captain Toxis stepped behind her and looked out with curious confusion at what on earth the empress was doing, while Katherine continued to laugh maniacally from the corner. But critically, vitally, and determinedly, Gwen kept moving. Within seconds she was at the door and Adirn swept her inside. Calmly, and still not particularly sure of what was really going on, Captain Toxis pulled the door softly closed behind them.
“Are you alright?” the empress asked urgently, holding Gwen gently by both shoulders.
“Y… yes your eminence. Unless it would please you for me not to be.” Gwen stammered.
“Oh… I thought we’d moved past this, Gwen. It’s a good thing for you to be alright and I don’t want anyone to suffer.” She reassured. From the corner, the dry sound of Katherine’s rolling eyes was audible again. At the very least she’d stopped laughing.
“Yes, your eminence. And in that case let me be the first to say that Countess Lascera surely did not suffer at your hands.” The servant replied, looking down at the floor and exercising her talent for identifying the worst possible interpretation of Adirn’s words.
The empress sighed and relaxed her grip. Gwen clearly needed a few moments to compose herself and stop letting the fear reflexes take over.
“Would you please hand out the food trays?” The empress asked instead.
“Of course, your eminence.” Replied the servant with more confidence, back in a heartbreakingly familiar place of doing as she was told.
Taking her own tray back to Katherine’s desk, Adirn placed it down on the flattest stack of papers she could see. There was an immediate and angry sucking of air through Katherine’s teeth from the other side of the library.
“What now- oh. Gwen, would you please lay the tablecloth over this desk?” The empress requested, refusing to look the Mistress of Records in the eye.
With a quick bow of acknowledgement, Gwen hurried through the stacks and unfurled the tablecloth over hundreds of years of recorded knowledge. Adirn wanted to make a comment about wishing that the Onyx Empire’s history could be erased that easily, but thought that doing so might push Katherine over the edge. Instead she thanked Gwen for laying the table, set her tray down once again, and then removed the lid.
There was a blank spot in the empress’ memory.
Glancing around herself frantically as she regained her faculties, Adirn saw that the library still surrounded her. Gwen was sat quietly in another unseen seat, Captain Toxis was leaning casually against a back wall, and Katherine was muttering and tutting to herself about something. The light from outside had now failed completely, leaving the room lit entirely by the two perilous lamps. In front of her, the silver dinner tray was empty, save for smears of sauce and crumbs. There was no trace of anything on the tablecloth, nor did she feel like she’d been knocked out or poisoned.
Her companions for their own part looked completely at ease. Or at least, Keto and Katherine looked at ease while Gwen looked to be at her least tense.
“Erm, Gwen?” She said softly.
The maid started.
“Yes, your eminence?”
“Are you feeling a bit better now? You can speak to me honestly and I have no ulterior motives in asking.”
“Yes, your eminence. I think I am calmer now, thank you.” She replied with a small bow. Her shoes remained in her hands.
“Good. In that case I have a question, and I would like you to answer it at face value. It may sound strange.”
The servant girl’s face betrayed her discomfort at the notion, but she nodded all the same.
“Did I just eat my dinner?”
“Er…” Gwen croaked, uncertainly.
“As I said, face value.”
“Yes, your eminence. Voraciously. You ate it more expertly and thoroughly than any ruler before you has eaten a meal.”
A disappointed look of one being flattered started to form on Adirn’s face, when Captain Toxis spoke up.
“It was impressive, your eminence.” He confirmed.
“Even Empress Gloriana the Glutton would have been proud.” Katherine added. “And not a crumb spilled on my records.”
Nodding slowly and pensively, Adirn looked down at the tray again. She had to admit that her hunger had disappeared, and the lingering remnants of flavour played about her mouth, but not a scrap of memory remained.
“Interesting. But reassuring. Thank you. I asked because I think I may have entered some kind of hunger fugue.” She explained. It didn’t seem to help Gwen in any way, but at least she could tell herself she’d been transparent and honest.
“That much was obvious, girl. You were like a crow on a fresh body.” The Mistress of Records told her. “It would have been terrifying if we’d been able to see properly.
For a few moments Adirn sat in silent contemplation of how worrying that comparison was, and how impractical it would be for any diplomatic feast with the White Alliance to pass in a fugue. Explaining away her total ignorance of the dinner’s conversation would be awkward at best and a declaration of war at worst.
“But since you’re back with us, I feel this is a moment to prove myself right.” Katherine continued. “Gwen, tell the empress how you knew to fetch dinner.”
The servant looked fearfully up at the Mistress of Records and then nodded obediently.
“Now!” Snapped Katherine, before Gwen had even had a chance to speak. It made her smile with that unique smugness of a bully, and Adirn considered whether to tip over the oil lamp on her way out.
“I was given my instructions by Chamberlain Greysoul’s ghost, eminence. Just like normal.”
Adirn fixed Gwen with an unblinking stare.
“And how, exactly, does this ghost normally give you instructions?”
“Chamberlain Greysoul leaves us notes sometimes, your eminence. Other times we hear his whispered will in our ear.”
“And do you ever see the chamberlain?” The empress asked, with a great effort at remaining calm and open-minded.
“No!” Gwen cried, distraught at the very idea. “Chamberlain Greysoul took an oath never to be seen or heard, and it shall not be broken.”
“Quite the mystery.” Adirn said, scowling at Katherine’s smirk. “Thank you for your honesty, Gwen.”
The servant gave a shallow bow, and then stood with hands clasped in front of herself. The empress felt like the girl deserved to be offered something, but kindness never seemed to have quite the right effect.
“Would you care to sit with us and read the records?” She tried. Having heard herself, she immediately started questioning why that would be even remotely desirable.
“Um… records of what, your eminence?”
“Well… I’m currently looking over the ledgers from the treasury, and then I’ll be moving on to the edicts passed by previous rulers.”
For once, Gwen didn’t look either scared or relieved. She just stared blankly at the empress, with her mouth hanging slightly open.
“Oh… I appreciate the offer, your eminence, it shows a kindness rivalled by none before you. But in this instance I should like to pass. Unless it would please you to read the edicts to me for… some reason?” Replied the servant girl, more earnestly than anyone could reasonably have expected. The empress wanted to curl up, and for the parchments to swallow her.
“No, that’s quite fine. It was a… silly thing to ask. Regardless you are welcome to relax here among…” she stared about herself, desperately trying to find something to make the offer sound generous instead of creepy “… the records, and the books.” Sweat beaded on Adirn’s face. “Or you are welcome to take your leave and spend the evening as you wish.”
“Thank you, eminence. I shall make my way.” Gwen said quickly, with another shallow bow. After taking a moment to pick up the emptied tray, the servant made to leave.
“Wait, Gwen.” The empress called out, determined to do something kind. The servant obeyed. “Katherine, would you please escort Gwen to the door, so that your archivists will stay their shushing tongues?”
Finally a soft, relieved and grateful smile cracked on Gwen’s face, as Katherine grimaced.
“Why are you like this?” She hissed at the empress.
“Because I am going to be kind to those who deserve it if it kills me.”
“It most likely will contribute to your death.” Captain Toxis acknowledged, matter-of-factly.
The Mistress of Records huffed, stood up, and joined Gwen by the door. She had a face like a heavy tome dangled above an unsuspecting bug.
“Even your spite is weird.” She snapped at the empress.
“That’s because it’s not spite; it’s courtesy.” Adirn replied, but the Mistress of Records dismissed it with an eyeroll that might well have given her a view of her own brain. “Good night, Gwen.” The servant mouthed a quick thanks to the empress, and then dashed out before Katherine could hit her.
Booming footfalls shook the room once the door was closed, and frustrated confusion washed over the empress once more. She stood there, enraptured by its incalculable impossibility, and looked towards Captain Toxis as he flinched almost imperceptibly with every boom.
“How?” Adirn breathed. Her face was contorted into a mask of raw incredulity.
Captain Toxis shrugged.
“She walked so softly and quietly in here... I don’t get it...”
Captain Toxis shrugged again.
They waited in confusion until the sudden cessation of the footsteps, which presumably coincided with Gwen’s exit from the Sin Archive. After the storm of feet had passed over, the library fell into silence; the perfect unbroken silence that lets a person hear their own heart and somehow feel the blood flowing up their neck. There should have been at least some indication of the Mistress of Records’ return; even Katherine’s shuffling feet couldn’t hope to be as soft as Gwen had been stepping, and so the lack of a sound could only indicate a coincidental lack of motion. Perhaps Katherine had also left for some reason. Maybe she’d stopped to pick up some new records from the bookshelves, or had taken a break from the empress’ relentless ambition to not be awful. Whatever the reason, it could afford to wait for her attention; there was still an enormous pile of documentation on the desk and only so much of the day left.
Adirn had made it nearly the whole way back through the labyrinth of stacks when the door slammed open, startling her and very nearly causing a second catastrophic lamp incident.
“Ha! Two near misses with the lamps in a single day. You have much to learn about due care around the records, girl.” Katherine laughed triumphantly.
“How did you get here so silently?” Adirn cried, clutching one hand over her rampaging heart. She could it stripping the years away from her. “There’s no way that Gwen makes all that noise and you move silently.”
“Just like there’s no way that Chamberlain Greysoul could be communicating with the house staff? Despite the fact that none of us left this room between your demands being made and the arrival of your food, you little pig?”
“Careful with your words, Katherine.” Keto warned. Adirn saw Katherine’s familiar defiant scowl directed at someone else for once, and still didn’t care for it.
“Apologies, your eminence.” She said, sounding anything but sorry “But my point stands that you not understanding something doesn’t mean that it’s impossible. Quite the opposite in the experiences we’ve shared over the last few days.”
“Fine.” Adirn said, brushing away the insults. “Explain then. Explain to me how that girl in her un-shoed feet could possibly hammer the floorboards so hard when you’re able to move like a ghost. Unless you claim to also be a ghost, like the chamberlain?”
“Not yet, but you just wait until I perish, empress. I’ll be haunting these halls in an instant.”
“That much I can believe quite easily. But until then, the footsteps?”
“Some of us just know the way to move silently. We know the secrets. I certainly only heard a single elephantine beast approaching when you and Toxis arrived, and they didn’t sound like the captain’s feet.” The Mistress of Records said.
Adirn looked to Keto who, anticipating the impending question, pre-emptively shrugged.
“Why don’t you enlighten me as to these secrets then? I had surmised for myself that some people ’just knew how’ but it was really the nature of that knowledge that I was seeking, as well you know.”
“How do you think it’s done?” Katherine fired back, determined not to be helpful.
“I... I don’t know. That’s why I was asking you. But if I had to speculate then I suppose that... you just know where to step. There are joists or beams or some such.”
“Well done, eminence. Would you like to ask me anything else you already know? How to suck eggs, perhaps?”
“No-one sucks eggs, and accurate guesswork does not knowledge make. And that still doesn’t explain how Gwen or I made that much noise. We don’t boom like that on normal floors; this one sounds like a blasted drum.”
“And so...”
“And so... “ the empress said, before sighing with the weight of revelation “that's what the floor here is.”
“Finally! When this Sin Archive was built it was known that silence should reign, and only those worthy of the records should be permitted to step here. So to weed out the pathetic and the boisterous certain measures were put in place. The floorboards were placed on a membrane, above a hollow.”
“They’re literally a drum…” the empress hissed. “That’s so…”
“Expected of something called the Sin Archive within the Onyx Empire, your eminence?” Offered Captain Toxis.
Adirn flopped back down in her chair.
“…yes.” She stared down at the papers in front of her. “Well that was a terrible distraction. There’s still a lot for me to get through.”
“My thoughts exactly, your eminence.”
“This light is too poor though.”
“You could always turn up the lamps, if you dare.” Smirked the Mistress of Records. “But such are the actions of only the most accomplished record keepers. You yourself have already proven that the lamps do not rest stable in your presence.”
The empress didn’t break eye contact with Katherine while she stood. Her gaze remained focused on the Mistress of Records as she felt for the valve and allowed more oil to flow into the cavity of the lamp. As the increased heat and light licked at the back of the Imperial head, she sat down with a look of smug triumph.
With a face like even more of a soured pickle than usual, Katherine said nothing and looked down at her own book.
A sense of victory hung itself around Adirn’s shoulders as she looked, with the confidence of the recently fed, over the work still to be done. It was a gargantuan amount of literature, containing innumerable things she didn’t really want to read, but many a night in her childhood had been lost to the charms of the library. This, she told herself, would be nothing.
“Empress? Eminence?” Captain Toxis said softly. The empress was aware of something jostling her shoulder.
With a gentle groan she opened her eyes, which sparked in her mind the realisation that they must, immediately prior to that, have been closed. Quickly she lifted herself up from the musty tome into which her cheek had been pressed. Pale dawn light was filtering through the insufficient window above, unable to complete with the glowing oil lamps but still revealing that the night was over. Looking across the room, Adirn could see Katherine slumbering on her seat, occasionally twitching and sneering at some slight within her dreams.
“Thank you, Captain. How long was I asleep?”
“An hour, perhaps. It took me a little while to notice that you’d stopped turning the pages, your eminence.”
The empress rubbed at her face.
“I was nearly finished anyway. I think.”
Across the desk in front of her, the chaos of books and parchment had been transformed into at least a semblance of order, with the disused or otherwise completed documents piled to one side and a clearing of sorts forming in the middle. True to her title, the Mistress of Records had demonstrated an impressive command of the archive despite her insistence on being as difficult to deal with as possible. She’d been able to identify which scroll contained the edicts of which ruler from clear across the room, and when it came time to swap records in or out, she moved immediately to the right place as if there were a map inside her head.
“It was impressive to watch you work, your eminence. As much was watching someone else read ever is, I mean. I’m no scholar, but I think that most would need more than a night to get through this.”
Adirn shrugged. Keto squinted at her.
“I suppose that’s justice, your eminence.” He accepted.
“I just had a few more edicts to read, and then I really think that I need to get out of here. The air’s starting to get a bit... lived in.” She euphemised.
“As you wish, your eminence.” Keto said, making his way back to the favoured leaning wall.
“Apparently all this nonsense around the Skullery maid being forced to polish all the skulls in the palace every day only came around because Emperor Wrathfus scuffed one when assaulting one of the kitchen staff.” Adirn said, conversationally.
“I remember that well. The boy had served the meal at the correct time, if I recall.”
The empress was taken aback.
“What do you mean? Were you there?”
“Yes, your eminence. It was early in my career as the captain of the guard. And I mean that the boy did his job exactly as instructed, which is what the emperor apparently took offence to.” Keto clarified. There was an edge to his voice that Adirn hadn’t heard before, and she didn’t speak for a moment , just in case he wanted to continue. He didn’t.
“You know…” She said, finally. “The records also state that he fell to an assassin’s blade a mere few days later.”
Captain Toxis shrugged.
“They must have slipped me by.” He said emotionlessly.
The empress gave a few pensive nods.
“Good.” She said, finally. “Good.”
Neither of them spoke for another hour while the empress finished up her reading. Once the final page had been turned she closed the ledger and motion to Keto that they should leave. Snoring softly in the corner, Katherine was none-the-wiser as Adirn stood from the desk, turned down the oil lamps, and started winding her way back towards the door.
“Should we wake the Mistress of Records, eminence?” Asked Keto.
The empress cast a glance in her direction and tried to work out whether walking away or waking her up would earn more disapproval. Wisely, she had disregarded the foolish notion that any action or inaction on her part might earn no disapproval at all.
“She’ll only wake up when I step on the drumskin outside the door. Better not to let it come as a shock.” Adirn concluded out loud. Reluctant steps through page and parchment drew her close to the sleeping Mistress of Records, a dragon on her hoard of literature. Even in slumber she wore an irritated grimace that softened and deepened with each breath; clearly, the Adirn in her dreams was still an incorrigible failure.
“Katherine?” Asked the empress, in a voice lower than that with which she’d been conversing mere moments before. Recognising that the sleeping woman couldn’t distinguish between words meant for her and those meant for another, Adirn tried again a little louder. There was no stirring.
With a view to making it clear that she’d tried her best and they should leave, Adirn looked back at Captain Toxis. Unfortunately for her willpower, he made an impressive mime to suggest that she should gently shake the mistress awake, whilst being careful not to shock her, disturb the stacks, or accidentally slap her. How he managed to convey such a depth of information in a single motion was as much of a mystery as how he’d crept silently through the Sin Archive, and Adirn didn’t have the time to think about it.
Before Adirn’s hand could come within an inch of Katherine’s shoulder, her eyes flashed open, already gazing directly into the empress’ own.
“I am perfectly awake and aware of my surroundings.” Katherine snapped, as Adirn flinched back upright with a gasp. “I need no wakeup call, thank you. And don’t look so shocked; if you’re trying to wake someone then don’t be surprised when they stop sleeping.”
Adirn threw her hands into the air, narrowly clipping a precariously balanced scroll, and started to back away.
“I have finished the reading you fetched for me, Katherine. Thank you for your assistance in this matter. It has been most enlightening and given me an awful lot to consider.”
“And to show your gratitude you were going to leave me sleeping in a room of tinder-dry paper and two lit, unattended lanterns were you?”
“Um…” Adirn started, feeling her stomach sinking as she considered the truth of Katherine’s words. “I will concede that I didn’t think that one through particularly well.”
“I should think you didn’t. But I shouldn’t be surprised; that’s no different to the normal situation for you, is it?” Sneered the Mistress of Records, baiting another hook that the empress refused to bite.
“Since you’re up, would you like us to extinguish the lanterns, or do you intend to leave with us?”
“I was rather intending to change my clothes and break my fast, yes. You might think me a filthy peasant with nothing more to do than her work but, shockingly, I am at least a little civilised.” Snapped the Mistress of Records, who had apparently woken up freshly primed for another day of spiteful commentary.
“Very well.” Adirn said wearily. “Keto, would you mind?”
Wordlessly the captain of the guard picked his way back to the desk and blew out both lanterns, condemning the library to the meagre grey light of the small, high window. Somehow the colourless, hopeless pallor seemed fitting as Adirn looked to Katherine in futility for any measure of approval.
Stepping out into the Sin Archive proper, there was no sign that any time had passed. Hooded figures continued to study at their desks or shuffle around in an eerily soundless vacuum, albeit marginally more nervously once the Mistress of Records was in view. Led by the unabashed thundering of the empress’ boots and protected by the shield of Katherine’s fearsome presence, the three of them walked freely along the avenue between towering bookshelves.
Try as she might to maintain a dignified posture and keep her eyes ahead, the empress couldn’t help looking from side to side, daring anyone to shush at her this time around. All she saw was averted gazes and archivists going about their business. They kept their heads down while searching the texts, they looked away while pushing their trollies of scrolls, and they looked directly upwards while climbing the bookshelves.
Adirn stopped in place and snapped her head back to the side. Just as she thought she’d seen, there was an archivist dressed in the typically oversized robes and climbing up the shelving unit in a daring feat of furniture misuse. Sleeves interfering with their grip and parchment clenched within their teeth, they were hanging by their fingertips from what little space had been left by the enormous tomes. With a mighty swing of both legs, their feet managed to hook themselves into another meagre foothold.
“Katherine, there’s someone climbing up your shelves!” The empress hissed, acutely aware that startling the assistant might send them plummeting back to the hard wooden drum floor.
“They are reaching the higher shelves, where the most frequently used records are stored.” The Mistress of Records replied, matter-of-factly. No matter what she was saying, Katherine never expressed it as a matter of opinion.
“And they don’t use a ladder?”
“Pah! Of course not. They must earn the texts.”
“But what if they fall?”
“Then they weren’t trying hard enough. It is a great honour to work in the Sin Archives, and we will only have the best.” Katherine hissed.
Struggling to see the crossover of skills between adept climbers and effective archivists, Adirn made a mental note to find a mutual blackmail that might result in the acquisition of ladders. Preferably, in the next few days.
“I see. Well, moving on.” She said, with one final glance up at the archivist. Unfortunately, this additional, casual speech had proven to be too much of a temptation for the climber, and they looked down towards the empress for an almighty, high-altitude shush. Upon seeing Katherine standing nearby, however, the startling effect she radiated took full hold.
The fingers flinched, and then slipped.
A whispered scream and a dull impact were punctuated by a muted crunch, as the climbing archivist hit the floor of the library. Lying on the boards in an untidy and biologically unfeasible heap, they immediately began cramming the sleeves of their robes into their mouth, until any indication of a howl was muffled into silence.
Without even looking round, Katherine grabbed the empress’ arm to prevent her from rushing to help.
“They will be attended to without breaking the silence.” She hissed.
“Will they though? Or will they be maimed if they can’t climb up a tree to get to the healer?”
“We aren’t barbarians, girl. Proving worth takes time, and no-one learns to climb without falling.”
The empress was wholly disarmed. Katherine seemed to have a knack for doing that to her.
“They will be tended to by our healers and allowed to recover. I need them alive after all.”
“Well...” the empress started, not sure what to say. “I apologise for doubting you then.”
The Mistress of Records deigned not to snipe in response. As much as that scared Adirn, it also gave her hope that maybe Katherine could care about something after all.