"Always a pleasure to meet a friend of Balar's," Len said hesitantly, glancing at Keris.
"All right, fine, 'friend' might be a bit generous. Occasional drinking buddy, part-time backup guard on some jobs, more of an associate, really."
"Downgrading yourself pretty fast, buddy."
"Eh, what can I say? I'm pretty loose with my descriptors. Either way, he said you're good people and that would normally be good enough for me. The fact that you saved his whole family, even the ones who didn't deserve it," an entirely unsubtle glance at Keris "certainly helped too."
"Yeah, none of that," Len snapped, quickly losing her cool with the man.
"Pardon?"
"No treating anyone in my employ with anything other than respect. Frankly, you're being entirely more familiar than you deserve and I think you should probably stop talking now."
Narem blinked twice, reassessing his situation. This was usually when folks got offended and started being exponentially ruder to her. The difference here was that she actually had the authority to back her up. No petty complaints about how she was being too confrontational and should just let it slide. After another moment where he seemed tempted to respond, he relaxed and nodded, slipping into a more formal tone.
"As you say, Lady Wraithwhisper. I shall be more careful in the future."
"See that you do," she said with just a bit of steel in her voice. No way of telling if she'd made an enemy here or not but she wasn't terribly concerned if she had. Some guys really got under her skin and this guy? He'd managed it in record time. Familiarity, Len strongly believed, was a thing that one earned, not that one claimed on a whim.
A few slightly awkward minutes passed and they were ushered inside. Keris remained subdued throughout the wait. It was probably to be expected, but it was a little strange to behold all the same. Len thought about making a comment on the matter, but this wasn't really the time or place. Instead she focused on the task at hand: figuring out what to do with the commander of the place.
"Greetings, Head," said the a mountain of a man who had to be Grenth Battlemane, if the reports were anything to go by.
He stood nearly six and a half feet tall with a heavy set to him that an untrained eye might have mistaken for fat. This was a man who spent a lot of time lifting heavy things for the purpose of doing damage, not looking pleasing to the eye. Len realized that he could probably crush her like a grape, it was a bit daunting. Still, there was no hostility in his bearing, just a simple discipline that earned him a few points in her book.
"Greetings... it is Grenth, right?"
"Yes ma'am."
"Good to hear. Greetings, Grenth. I'm glad you had time to see me today."
"Of course, anything the Head needs is theirs to claim."
"How 'bout you just call me Lenore, Grenth. I don't really have the patience to deal with rigid formalities right now. As things stand, I've got questions and I'm hoping you have answers."
"Ask what you wish and I'll do my best to answer... Lenore," that he was more uncomfortable with the name than her presence amused her. It would probably take time to get this man to loosen up but she supposed that was only fair given her own distaste for overfamiliarity.
"First off, why all the paperwork? Why do you keep sending me a massive file for every damn thing that comes my way? I know I told everyone that I wanted to supervise more closely, but this is a tad ridiculous. Approvals for routine patrols? You're requesting permission for daily feeding of prisoners. What is even going on here?"
"Ah, that."
Len just gazed at him coolly, waiting for him to say more.
"No offense was intended with that, Lady. It was merely an attempt to ensure that you understood the entirety of what our work entails. The former Head... he'd taken to ignoring us, passing any work he truly cared about getting done to his Silvers. That left us with a tremendous amount of labor and next to no resources to do it with. When it became clear that you were actually authorizing us to do our job properly... some of the rank and file took it as an opportunity that couldn't be passed up."
"So I'm stuck with all this paperwork essentially because you were all feeling neglected? Not sure that's gonna inspire much confidence in your abilities, pal."
"Forgive me, but it seemed the most efficient approach at the time. We didn't realize that we were inconveniencing you so terribly."
"Look, it's not that I don't appreciate the bind you've been in. Everything I understand about the last guy's approach to things tells me that a lot of rebuilding is called for and that takes time. I'm not gonna bust your balls for trying to get my attention but you've got it now. How 'bout you tell me what you really need to do your jobs and then I decide if I agree with you or not."
What followed was a detailed account of the exact challenges facing the Guard and the city proper. It included specifics about the more crime-riddled corners of the city, the major players in the local underground, and a tremendous amount of information about how the Silver Sentinels were straight up in bed with said players. Not exactly the most encouraging details that Len could have hoped to receive at the moment, but it was good to have the right information. The areas that she had more trouble with were the ones where Grenth was actually asking for something. The biggest ask he had was for the power of conscription, to drag civilians into his ranks to more effectively enforce the laws. For the time being she denied the request, citing that there were other more pressing things to deal with and that he should instead look to organically grow his recruitment numbers. She authorized a modest increase in base pay to help with those recruitment efforts and left it at that.
This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it
All in all, it was a productive affair. Len wasn't all that comfortable with the experience thanks to prior interactions back in her home world, but it wasn't something that made her skin crawl by the end of it, so it was a bit of a win. She also requested that the young Guardsman who'd greeted her be assigned as a liaison to work directly with her and help her cut down on the paperwork by reducing everything to a simple briefing. She'd been given his name but didn't recall it and hoped that wouldn't be too embarrassing for the both of them when next they met. Beyond that, she got assurances that they'd start reducing the number of direct requests they sent her way in favor of more simplified documents that covered larger issues. A promising start at least.
Throughout the whole experience, Keris mostly stayed in the background. She'd occasionally manage a snide observation but seemed particularly uncomfortable with the whole affair. Len suspected it had something to do with the interaction with Narem.
"All right, out with it," she said when the silence on their walk back home started to get to her.
"What do you mean," Keris tried to deflect unconvincingly.
"I mean, you're not your typical bitchy self and it's getting on my nerves."
"EXCUSE ME?!?!"
"See, that's more like it. It's no fun seeing you completely down in the dumps when it wasn't something I did. Talk."
Keris scowled, tried to come up with a retort, failed, and finally heaved an exasperated sigh.
"You know what? Fine, I'll tell you. Why the hell are you being so damned nice about everything?"
"Nice? I thought I made it clear that that's the last thing I was inclined to do with you. I'm working you to the bone, lady, not trying to make friends."
"See, you say that, but on multiple occasions today you've practically leapt to my defense. To my husband for gods sake. You can't expect me to believe that you're doing this out of the goodness of your heart."
"Good lord, woman, exactly how fucked up is your head that you can't accept basic human decency? This isn't some grand scheme I'm using to try and trap you into making somehow greater stupidities with your life than you've already made. The shitty way folks want to treat you isn't acceptable, plain and simple. I won't have people abusing my underlings in that fashion and I won't have my underlings believing that they deserve it, either."
"That's ridiculous," Keris sneered. "I tried to get you killed and wouldn't have batted an eye if everything had gone according to plan."
"Probably not, but you'd have also died if that plan had worked out, so I'm not sure you should be too proud of it."
"But that's exactly my point! Why in the hells are you treating me as anything but something that should be tossed aside and forgotten?"
"I don't know what to tell ya, Kerry. It's just not how I like to do things. Your death, even your misery, it wouldn't do me any good so why should I seek it out? Vengeance hasn't ever gotten me a damn thing and any time I read about it in books it just pissed me off. Seems a whole lot easier on me and my heart to just recruit you onto the side of light for both our sakes."
"The side of light that is the Demon Army."
"Yes, well, if you want to get technical about it. Look, I'm not about to tell you how to live your life."
"That's literally all you've been doing."
"Shut up and listen, would ya?"
"Fine."
"Like I said, I'm not about to tell you how to live your life, but I do think you could spend a little less time hating yourself."
That got a start out of Keris, a slightly stricken look that hurt Len's heart a bit.
"Yeah, I get it. It's a whole spiral thing that one gets trapped in. Bad choices leading to worse choices, causing more disruption and damage to those you care about. All leading up to mistakes that you feel you can't ever be clean of and that your only recourse is to dive deeper down the hole in the hopes that when you come out the other side there's something that made it all worthwhile. Hate to spoil the ending for ya, but there isn't. I don't really get the impression that you had a lot of friends even before all this went down and I'm willing to bet that what's left of them have run from you under the assumption that you're now social kryptonite."
The reference was lost on the Kelvachian woman, but Len didn't care, she was on a roll here.
"That's the sort of thing that can make one go a bit crazy. That's a really dangerous place to be in your position. I've said it before and I'll say it again: I don't want to lose you as a tool for navigating this society. More than that, I don't really begrudge you any of the shit you pulled. Yeah, it was stupid and nearly got me killed, but so has pretty much everything that's come my way these past few months. If you need my forgiveness to consider getting started on whatever 'redemption' looks like to you, have it. I'm not forgetting any of it, mind you, but I'm not holding it over you."