Len hated that she didn't have a response to Cammie. The shadowy gremlin was getting pretty good at finding the screws to twist that irritated her the most. It wasn't like anything the creature had said was wrong, but it still bothered her to accept. Maltus would almost certainly not be the last person she had to eliminate in a clandestine manner while offering him no possibility of salvation. It went against everything that her old world's values claimed to honor and it rankled. Granted, even in that old world, such thoughts were mostly idealistic and easy enough to throw away whenever the people in power felt the need, but the words were nice and tasted pretty on her lips and she really wished she could live up to them rather than face the reality she now occupied. She could handle the disappointment, but she didn't have to like it.
After taking several minutes to collect her thoughts, she called for Kes. She hadn't wanted the girl to have to witness another death so soon after she'd killed the former Head in front of everyone and had made sure that she was elsewhere taking care of an equally important task: fetching food from that wonderful stand they'd seen several days ago. She'd wanted to get the stall owner to join up as well but hadn't managed to make that pitch yet and was more interested in just getting some delicious food in her belly. She supposed that she should feel sick to her stomach after having a man executed, but she got over it the instant the sweet juices from the meat of whatever creature they'd had upon he spit hit her mouth. So many great options were open to her now that she was at a proper trading hub rather than a remote outpost struggling to survive on mushrooms and a single herbimancer, she really needed to get to work on routine trade caravans to the Hovel as soon as she could manage it. Kes, for her part, seemed to know that something was up, but held her tongue on the matter, instead choosing to enjoy another sandwich herself rather than poke at what she recognized would be a touchy topic.
Once their bellies had been sated, Len decided that it was time to raise an entirely separate touchy topic that Kes was almost certain to hate. Still, it was an important one to cover and if there was a fight to be had, now was the time to have it.
"So..." she said hesitantly, "I've decided that it's time for you to go to school."
"Come again?"
"School, classes, education. Public interaction with peers of your own age group."
"What?!?" There was a note of shock and desperation in Kes' voice that grabbed an involuntary chuckle out of Len. The girl had no way of seeing this conversation coming, so it was understandable, but it was so damn cute. Way too often, Len was inclined to treat the girl as if she were much older than she really was. Understandable, given the fact that the child had already been through a lot more suffering than anyone should at any age, let alone the early teens, but moments like this were a great reminder that the kid was still, in fact, a kid.
"I'm sure it's not an idea that you're used to, but I'm going to be needing to focus on a lot of the tedious paperwork crap in the coming weeks, that strikes me as a perfect chance to have you spend time with kids your own age for once. You were an only child, right?"
Len caught herself after the question, realizing just how insensitive it might have been. Harsh frontier environment, no medical treatment outside of household remedies, it was entirely possible that Kes had NOT been an only child and had had to witness the loss of siblings before the unpleasantness of her parents murders. Thankfully, that bullet seemed to be dodged by the smirk the child gave her.
"That's right. Yeah, you can drop the panicked look, you didn't dredge up terrible memories or anything."
"Whew," said Len. "Anyway, I think it's a good idea."
"I... don't know. Sure, you say things are going to be different, but won't they hate me?"
"It's possible, kids are little assholes who are an absolute pain to deal with. Did I ever tell you about the time one tried to murder me?"
"No, can't say you have," Kes drolled. "Must have been a real piece of work, that one."
"Oh, absolutely. Still, not a complete lost cause, I think she just needs a bit of socializing. And a hell of a lot of training on basic interactions with people. Bit of a wild child who could stand to learn to bite her tongue once in a while.
That actually got a blush of embarrassment out of the girl, but it faded quickly as Len flashed her a smile to make it plain that there was no malice in her words.
"The world's a big place and, much though I hate to admit it, it's important to spend time getting to know people, learning how to deal with different sorts, and just generally making friends."
"Like Kila?"
"Exactly," Len smiled warmly at the mention of the first friend she'd made here. "I know you had some fun getting to know the Orcs around the Hovel, but none of them were really your equals. That's an important part of the process of getting to know how to deal with people: learning to deal with them outside of the standard barriers of rank, privilege, and all the other nonsense that you shouldn't have to deal with until you're older than you are."
"How's that supposed to work when everyone's gonna know that I'm directly connected to you?"
"Well, you're not gonna tell them, duh."
"Won't they know already?"
"Nah, I've got a plan. Don't worry about it."
The author's tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.
In point of fact, Len didn't have a plan and hadn't really thought about it until that moment. Still, she didn't figure that it'd take that much to come up with something, so she played it off as nothing to worry about.
"What if I hate it?"
"Well, you'll just have to stick it out until my work here in the city is done. You're always welcome by my side but for now I want you to focus on bettering yourself for a bit. And that means all aspects of yourself, not just what you feel like."
"This is kinda bullshit, you know. Shouldn't I be able to make these decisions on my own?"
"Someday you will, don't doubt it, but not just yet. Kinda the job of us adults is to help you younguns grow into the best versions of yourself while you're still figuring out what you want to be."
"So it IS bullshit," Kes smirked. Not looking completely happy with the turn of events, but not too upset.
"Well, yeah. Obviously. We grownups are making this shit up as we go along just like everyone else. Only difference is that we've had time to see a few of the pitfalls and can try our best to keep you from falling into them."
"But what about my work as your... what did you call it? Secretary?"
"Eh, I'll be fine. You should go and live the adventures of youth. I'll handle the adventures of paperwork on my own."
* * * * *
"God I wish Kes were here," Len muttered to no one in particular.
She'd hadn't given much thought into the amount of paperwork that would go into running a city-sate. To be fair, neither of her lives had spent much time on the concept of city-states to begin with. Some very basic stuff about Greece in her history classes, but most of her thoughts on the matter had been based around various 'historical' movies that let her enjoy abs. No, the amount of work of actually putting a city in order? Monstrous. There were requisition forms for armaments, approving troop dispatches, setting up procedures for repatriating the Banished, negotiating trade agreements and approving old transfers of currency and ten billion other things that she barely had a grip on. In a more functional nation, these tasks would be more thoroughly delegated throughout various branches of authority and offices.
The former Head, in his infinite wisdom, had seen fit to eliminate pretty much all prior bureaucracy in favor of simple dictatorship. Near as Len could tell, he'd been playing a game of spinning plates where as long as he kept everything moving just fast enough, no one had time to realize how thoroughly everything was getting fucked up. It was the sort of thing that demanded ever-more effort and more plates, and simply couldn't be maintained indefinitely, it was just a matter of time 'til it all came crashing down.
The problem was that the bastard had gone and gotten himself killed before those plates did the crashing and now Len was left with shattered dinnerware all around her and absolutely no one she could trust to deal with the specifics. Balar was doing what he could, but he had enough to deal with just keeping the other houses in line. The amount of upheaval that the city was dealing with wasn't the sort of thing that ended well for the person on the top if they didn't wrangle things quickly and Len REALLY didn't want to lose her head in a coup so shortly after her own successful one. Better to leave Balar to his work and to find some other means of getting what she wanted. That left her with an unpleasant decision to make. She needed an ally who knew the lay of things and who she could trust. As things stood, her best option was... not great.
"Hey you," she said to the young guard who stood watch outside her office. Mostly a ceremonial role, near as she could tell, hadn't even introduced himself.
"Yes, Head?" The boy snapped to attention, reminding her a bit of an eager to please puppy.
"I'd like to speak with Keris. Fetch her for me."
The boy flinched slightly at the command. Having dealt with Keris a few times now, Len understood that reaction perfectly well. Balar's wife was an unpleasant woman. Proud well beyond the point of arrogance and more than willing to abuse her position to get what she wanted, she'd tried to have Len killed at their first meeting all at the behest of one of Claymar's minions. It wasn't exactly the sort of experience that endears one to a person. Still, she had connections and was (most of the time) reasonably smart. More importantly, she was terrified of the fierce Dark Elf warrior who had utterly destroyed her schemes, held her life in her hands, and made it very clear that she wouldn't be letting that life go any time soon. Cruelty wasn't typically Len's thing, but she did take a bit more pleasure in keeping that woman under her boot than was strictly speaking necessary.
While she waited, she continued to plod through the paperwork that was in front of her. The comically large stack of paper never seemed to dwindle no matter how many of these she looked at, but she kept working all the same. No sense in wasting time when there was so much to do. So much of it was routine stuff that shouldn't even be hitting her desk but there just wasn't anyone else. It needed to be dealt with, though, or else people might very well die. The idea that a single error on her part by signing her name to the wrong plan could result in dozens, hundreds, or even thousands of deaths was batshit insane to her and every fiber of her being begged her to run away but she instructed that part to shut up so that she could keep getting work done.