Chapter 19: Debates

Quickly getting changed, his fears were confirmed when he saw that not many people were left in the dining hall and that his fellow scribes had already moved on to the office. This did make him wonder why Aura hadn't woken him but, had he been in her position, he probably would have left him too, and so he didn't blame her for this. Resigning himself to a morning that would go past even slower than the previous day's afternoon, he headed to the office.

He was then in for a bit of a surprise because, when he entered, James was standing at the other side of the door and just said "Perfect!" upon seeing Kira.

"Perfect?" asked Kira, as James hadn't appeared like the most animated person when he had met him the day before.

"You'll be the perfect assistant." replied James, "Come on, I'll explain on the way." as he pushed past Kira carrying a bundle of blank paper with several quills and inkwells.

He led the way in a direction that he hadn't been before over towards the areas dominated by grand halls and bedrooms clearly not for slaves. Following some stairs, up and to the side of one such hall, they emerged onto a balcony with two chairs set out and desks in front of them.

From up here, Kira could see down into a large room with an arched ceiling and walls of a brilliant white. All along its length large stained-glass windows allowed in a bewildering array of colour that painted the walls with mirror images of what was shown upon them. Below him, benches had been laid out in tiered circles around a central space, which had a low podium in its centre.

Then, decidedly not explaining what was going on, James placed down a couple of parchments, one of the quills, and an inkwell on the table on Kira's left and bade him sit at it whilst he sat at the table on Kira's right.

The tiered benches that filled the room were then sparsely occupied by occasional well-dressed individuals, with dresses and jackets that themselves shone with colour that Kira guessed were among the lords and ladies of the palace. Not sure exactly what was expected of him, but not wanting to speak to disturb the heavy silence that hung over the room, Kira looked over at James for help. After observing who was sitting below them, James turned over to him and just said, "We'll be taking a transcript of what is said, don't worry if you miss something because we can cross-reference between ourselves. You also need to record exactly who says what."

"I don't know any of them, though!" Kira hissed back at James with a large degree of panic because he was now very worried about getting something wrong.

"They'll be announced," replied James, but he fell silent as the conversation picked up in the hall below them.

Still concerned, Kira gripped the provided quill and tried to pay close attention to what was now beginning to happen. It seemed that a debate was starting to occur as various nobles took an opportunity to stand and speak, often eliciting nods of agreement, or cries of disapproval, from their fellow attendees.

The debates primarily focused on how the nobles in the furthest western, and most recently acquired, part of Krinestadt were to maintain strong control over its territories and stop the rebel groups that had sprung up in what remained of Arkadia from crossing into their own territories. A multitude of different opinions were put on display, and Kira was mostly able to follow along with what was being said and noted down who had said what.

During the debate, there was a time when Lady Meera herself was speaking. Kira thought that she seemed to be very eloquent and able to put across her own view on how the remaining rebellious groups still supported by Krinestadt should be defunded in an articulate manner. However, when she was reaching a climax, a lord sitting opposite to her stood and interrupted her, listing reasons as to why what she was proposing would not work and stating that if they were in fact defunded, "The rebellious groups would cross the border and wreak havoc in Krinestadt's own lands."

Lady Meera did counter him by explaining how they would not have the strength to do so without Krinestadt's support, but this lord still elicited many nods of agreement from the gathered crowd. Whilst she kept her composure, when Lady Meera sat, Kira was certain that he could sense great anger hidden within her cold, blue eyes.

It didn't last much longer after that, and Lady Meera was one of the first to leave. With the participants filing out of the hall, Kira stood and took his work over to James' table where they worked together, filling out the gaps in their transcript of the morning's talks. During this exercise, he learnt that the name of the lord that had protested against Lady Meera was Lord Schaed.

After that, they went back to the Scribe's office, and the rest of the morning and lunch went much like the previous day's. This was until James told him that there wasn't going to be enough work left for them for the rest of the afternoon and he was made to go and report to Eric to see if anything else needed doing as the palace seemed quite understaffed at this time.

Working his way through the many hidden passages within the palace, under the direction of the occasional people he passed, Kira found Eric directing crowds of workers busy arranging tables and plates and bronze braziers in a large hall for a banquet that was being held there that night. This space was in stark contrast to the one allotted for the slaves.

It must have been at least twice as tall with huge windows running along its length interspersed with tapestries that depicted the victories of Krinestadt's past, telling a complete history around the room of how Krinestadt succeeded the Marxan Empire and went on the vanquish its counterpart Arkadia. At the end, opposite Kira, a raised stage held a single table running perpendicular to the others that he assumed would be where the event's hosts would be seated.

Approaching Eric, he asked, "Is there anything that I can be doing?"

In reply, Eric simply pointed to the entrance to the hall where a constant stream of servants were moving in and out carrying chairs with them. Following this river to its source, Kira discovered a large store room stacked high with furniture and picking one up himself, he joined the other slaves in helping to lay them out in the hall. This task was made difficult by the chairs being hard to balance in his hands given their high and intricately carved backs, but it was still better than spending another afternoon writing. It certainly did spare his right hand and wrist the strain of constantly scraping a quill over parchment for hours on end.

Having made several trips, Kira saw that the room had finished being set up and that Eric was nowhere to be seen. Not entirely sure what he was meant to be doing, he headed back to the scribe's office and was met by yet another surprise.

Pushing open the heavily resisting door, he saw Lady Meera standing in the middle of the office, deep in conversation with James. Kira entering from behind her seemed to startle her as she quickly turned around, her white dress flying out behind her, practically knocking Kira back down the stairs up to the door.

"You're Kira then?" she asked, "I've not seen you around before."

"Yes," he replied, not expecting her to know the name of one of her many slaves and particularly not the name of one that she hadn't met before.

"James was just telling me about you." Lady Meera said, by way of explanation, before gesturing past him, telling him to move out of her way, and so Kira did, and she left the office carrying several scrolls with her.

"What was she after?" Kira asked James once she was gone.

"Just some transcripts, and I believe that one of them was written by you," James told him.

"Hmm, is there anything for me to do here?" He inquired.

The rest of the day was spent doing exactly what he had hoped to get out of: more writing. By the time that he was meant to go and eat, he had developed a sore lump on the side of his right middle finger that he rested the quills on, and James laughed at him fiddling with it, telling him that every scribe had one. With this putting him into a bit of a foul mood, he excused himself early from the eating hall and headed back up to his room, wondering if he should plan an escape earlier rather than later.

Aura was not in the room, and he used this as the day's opportunity for practising manipulations and, once he was done, he wondered about what ability he should try and develop. However, this was easier said than done because he doubted that he knew himself well enough to figure out exactly what his own aura would specialize in. He was unsure about everything, from whether or not he should stay to why he hadn't worried too much about the people that were meant to be his family dying, and so finding an ability seemed to be a long way off.

As the sky darkened, and still with no sign of Aura, he changed and got into bed ready for the night. Lying still, he tried his best not to fall asleep as he did want to try and talk with her again, given that their first conversation hadn't gone very well. However, it seemed that either she was working late or she had found somewhere else to sleep because he fell asleep before this desire could come true. Unfortunately, just as it seemed that he was starting to dream, he was awoken again when the door to his room opened. Assuming that this was Aura, he stayed still with his eyes closed to allow her time to change and get into bed before asking, "Why are you so late back tonight?"

"I was working," she replied curtly, before seemingly thinking better of ending the conversation there and adding, "I've been working as a maid for Lady Meera, and she was attending some stupid feast-thing tonight."

"I saw Lady Meera today in the scribe's office," stated Kira, but there was no reply and he stayed quiet, not wanting to irritate Aura any further if she had had such a long day of work.