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🕑 Added 2024-01-18 09:40:03 +0000 UTCA blurry deadline was the only thing that really mattered in Aloe’s future. Work had gone from tricky to menial in a matter of days. Tamara had been right when she said she wasn’t qualified for the job.
She was overqualified.
The role of the scribe of commoners, especially common scribes, was so simple that Aloe doubted anyone had real problems with it. She was not gifted, nor excellently taught. Yes, her mother had been a scribe and a very competent one by what she heard from the other scribes, but she didn’t teach her much. Aloe honestly believed that people were being slow and having a hard time at being a scribe either out of pure incompetence or they were faking it.
Other possibilities didn’t compute in her brain.
And it made sense they faked it, that meant less work. Because in the glorious world of the workplace, being optimal and competent wasn’t compensated with increased wages, but more work.
So now, a week deep into her job, she found herself faking incompetence to not be overworked. Her job had quite literally become fighting boredom.
Working, as it would seem, was odious.
A scribe of commoners had a lot of documents and treatises to go through, but unlike a scribe of commerce who needed to do advanced mathematics for every part of the local economy, Aloe was a glorified diplomat. And local at that.
Diplomacy wasn’t her strongest, but she was not unbeknownst to it. Her education had partially focused exactly on that. Diplomats would get to go to cool places and travel a lot, and the scribe of commoners would sit her ass on a chair and read documents, and sometimes, sign them. Wooooah!
Aloe was going insane.
A whole month deprived of human contact affected her way less than having to repeat the same tasks ad nauseam whilst having to conceal her capabilities and do them worse than she actually could.
SHE WAS BEING PAID FOR MAKING THINGS WORSE.
“I’m going to kill someone...” She muttered, almost snapping her feather for the umpteenth time.
Her attacks of insanity had become some common that she had permanently shifted her internal infusion to ‘toughness’ so she was weak enough to not, in fact, snap her feather.
“Did you say something, Aloe?” Lulu asked from the other side of the room as she dusted a scroll holder. Her mother had a knack for using scrolls instead of books. That also meant the office got rather dusty, rather fast.
“Nothing.” Aloe sighed. “I guess I’m becoming tired of the job, the routine kicked too early and hard for my liking.”
“Well...” The maid left the duster aside and approached her. “You have been in the palace for ten days now without leaving, only working. I haven’t stayed myself that long inside, as maids are normally sent to do errands around the city. Even the sultanzade have left the palace once or twice during this period, and the palace is quite literally their home.”
“Ten days? Huh.” The scribe rested her head on her palm. “I guess I could go out or something. It’s not like there a pile of jobs to be done any longer, and the pending tasks are more of a day-to-day basis.”
“If you want to go anywhere, I could accompany you.” Lulu offered with a bow.
“There’s no need for that. You could take this as a day off or something.”
“With all due respect, Aloe,” She continued bowing whilst speaking, “I am a maid. Even if I have acted as your personal maid, my duties to the palace still remain. I am afraid there is no ‘day off’ for me.”
“Oh.” Why do all maids in the palace have the secret skill of making me feel guilty for every word I utter? “I guess that in that case, you could accompany me. It could be a... extracurricular business trip.”
“I would love that.” Lulu finally undid her bow, a smile was plastered on her fair visage. It was only then that Aloe realized that she had been played.
{*}
There were many things Aloe could do. She was unrestrained and had more resources than she ever had at her disposal, but the world was far from being her sandbox.
“It’s a bit weird that you are following me with your maid outfit,” Aloe said as they walked out of the palace.
“I’m still on duty, Aloe,” Lulu explained courtly. “And the outfit blends quite nicely like a normal dress, I don’t see the problem.
“I guess...” The scribe wasn’t as enthusiastic about the idea as the maid.
With the maddening amount of clothing in her closet, Lulu had selected the best gowns possible. Even though she didn’t do any makeup, Aloe felt like nobility. The clothes were just so beautiful and expensive that they made her feel beautiful. A feeling she didn’t experience normally.
“We are we going then, Aloe?” Lulu followed dutifully behind her.
If her dress wasn’t going to catch gazes, the maid surely would. For more than one reason.
“To the archives,” Aloe responded.
“The university?” Lulu exposed her confusion.
“Yes.” She couldn’t see the maid’s expression, but the scribe certainly delighted on what that may be right now.
“Can I ask why?”
“You already asked, so I guess yes.” Aloe chuckled. “It’s a joke.” She added, already imagining Lulu’s reaction. “Anyhow, it’s not “scribe business” if that’s what you are thinking.”
“It is scribe business if you are doing it.” Lulu joked alongside her.
“True.” Aloe smiled more. “What I meant it’s more about a personal affair.”
“Some errands?”
“Not quite. I just want to search for some books.”
“There’s a library in the palace if you want to read.” The maid explained, mostly out of reflex judging by the dry voice.
“Wasn’t this whole ordeal about stepping out of the palace for once?” Aloe turned to face her with a turn of her heel.
“You are right,” Lulu said comely with her eyes closed. “May then I inquire what books are you looking for? If it’s for personal affairs, may I guess romance? Mayhap erotica?”
Aloe blushed and turned away from the maid, putting a spring in her step as she continued her way to the university.
“Don’t be silly,” She knew Lulu was toying with her, but that couldn’t be said out in public. Aloe felt as if she was going to die from the embarrassment. “I have no need of such things.”
She didn’t.
“But of course.” The maid followed suit.
Her tone implied she didn’t believe her.
“Ehem,” Aloe cleared her throat. “No, the reason why I want to go to the archives is to search for botany books, anything farming, or herbalism related.”
“Oh right, I heard you talking about a greenhouse with the scribe of commerce. Are you a botany aficionado?”
“I... we could say so.” Aloe chose her next words carefully. “I inherited a greenhouse a day away from Sadina from my grandfather, and I didn’t want the place to go to waste. So I started cultivating plants there. Mostly medicinal plants and flowers.”
“I see.” Lulu didn’t press on the issue as always, though in this case there wasn’t much else to see.
Soon enough, the two women had arrived at the university grounds. Under the government of Aaliyah-al-Ydaz, every academic institution was expanded, this mostly affected universities. Whilst before there was a single unified institution for all fields and subjects – or so Aloe had heard, all of these reforms had taken place way before she was even born – now every field commendable of investigation enjoyed a building of their own or at least a wing.
However, what came on top of this reform, wasn’t the center of investigation. But public installations like the archives of Sadina.
“Woah...” Lulu expressed upon seeing the monumentality of the archives building.
“Speechless?” Aloe asked smugly.
“Quite so, yes.” Unfortunately, the maid didn’t leave her any playing field to toy her with. “I’ve lived all my life in Sadina, but I had never seen the archives in person.”
Aloe frowned at Lulu’s words. It wasn’t strange that she hadn’t seen or entered the scribes; even if it was a public building, it made no sense to do so when most commoners had the most basic of reading capabilities. Aaliyah-al-Ydaz mandated a minimal literacy to the citizens, but that minimum was not enough for commoners educated in mass to understand whole books.
No, what surprised Aloe was the statement about Lulu’s nativity. Foreign parents or inherited skin fairness? People in Sadina didn’t tend to be this fair, but at the same time, Lulu wasn’t white. Just extremely diluted coffee.
The scribe was polite enough to not ask such questions, especially because the maid was not in a position to refuse them, and she didn’t to impose herself. Aloe knew how bad it felt to pressure others into answering questions they would like to keep to themselves.
“Well then,” Aloe smiled at Lulu, her visage free of all the pondering and worry of her mind. “Shall we take a look?”
Comments
BrGustl
I somehow doubt that Aloe is overqualified for this job. As she said there is always something to do and if you choose to work more you get more work. And secondly I somehow have the feeling that Aloe just jumps as high as the horse must jump. She does read treaties, signs things and tries to allocate a bit, but she doesn't micromanage anything. From her mothers character I have the feeling she ran arround a lot and tried to plesse any side or come up with the vest solution, while Aloe treats her job like that of a banker. Sitting in a dark room looking at numbers and then make a decision based on formular which can be seeded with many things, but the truth. Nit necessarily wrong, I bet she does her job well enough. Though I don't think that she has nastered it yet. One of the reason to be a "Head Scribe" is that besides having the final say that dhe also can use her position to gain information or contacts which may be helpful in a time of crisis or to further the commoners scribes interests. That she already thinks she's overqualified after ten days.... I don't belief it... Also shows some deficiency in her character. I doubt there is any job so versatile like bein "Head" of something and working on many different problems from society.
