Approximately twenty minutes later, just long enough to be straying into "insubordinate" levels of delay, Keris arrived, scowl evident on her face. She clearly hadn't expected to be summoned and likely had expected that she wouldn't have to deal with Len at all now that the basic order of overthrowing the previous ruler had been taken care of. Not that she'd had any useful role to play in it outside of being used as ammo in the Head's arsenal to blackmail her husband into fighting. Honestly, Len hadn't paid much attention to the woman since the events of the fight. Balar hadn't talked about it and she hadn't asked.

  "What is the meaning of this?" Keris yelled. "You can't just snap your fingers and expect me to come running."

  "Nice to see you, Lenore, how's life? Have I mentioned how grateful I am for you choosing not to put me to death for my numerous treacheries?" Len knew she should use a gentler hand with all of this, ease the woman into things and not go out of her way to antagonize her. Somehow, that never quite managed to be something she could do when dealing with Keris.

  "What nonsense are you spouting?"

  "Oh, just standard greetings that I'd think that someone in your position would be more inclined to offer, all things considered."

  "How dare you-"

  "I'm gonna have to cut you off, Kerry. I get the whole dynamic we've got going on is very cats and dogs and all that, but I don't have that kind of time. Things are kind of a mess around here, in case you hadn't noticed."

  "And whose fault is that?"

  "That would be any number of people. The deranged leader that sat atop the throne of your civilization, the numerous toadies that ran behind him gobbling up his scraps, the countless manipulators behind them struggling to get their own bits of comfort at the expense of anyone else," Keris flinched at that last one. "Or maybe it's the noble Dark Elf who chose to swoop in at the last possible moment and snatch victory from the jaws of defeat to gain just enough of a handle on things that there's the slightest possibility that we can all get through this with our hides intact."

  Keris frowned but had the decency to keep her mouth shut.

  "Needless to say, we don't like each other. That's fine. I've worked with plenty of people I can't stand over the years. That's not really the issue here."

  "And what exactly is?"

  "The issue," Len patted the massive stack of paperwork "is that I can't handle all of this on my own. There's just too much."

  "How is that my problem? I thought Balar was helping you with all of this."

  "Oh, your husband," Len twisted the word a bit sharply "is working his ass off for me. Only fitting given what he owes me. You, on the other hand, owe me even more and yet you're just lounging about wasting resources. I'm afraid that as the new ruler of this city, I can't have it. Those who don't work don't eat and all that."

  "What's that supposed to mean?!"

  "It means, Keris dear, that you're going to be my assistant from this point on. There are lots of ways I could threaten you, could make your life miserable, could outright destroy you. I'd probably even get some short-lived satisfaction out of it. Unfortunately for me but quite fortunately for you: I'm just not that kind of person. Don't really have the energy for the elaborate cruelties of a good revenge plot, if you know what I mean. Besides, for all that you're a thoroughly unlikable person, I have every reason to assume that you're at least somewhat smart. Balar doesn't seem the sort to marry a person just because of a pretty face. You identified a course of action that you thought would save your skin and took it. Granted, it failed spectacularly, but that happens sometimes. Now what matters most is whether you choose to recognize the opportunity in front of you or decide to charge blindly down a self-destructive path now that your pride's taken a bruising."

  Len paused to take in Keris' expression and give her a chance to respond. There was some fuming, sure, but there was also calculation in those eyes. She'd lost a great deal of standing as some of the details had come out about her actions prior to the challenge. Len had made sure that only some of it had come out and that the worst had been kept under wraps, but she could only control so much of the narrative and pretty much anyone who mattered had a clue that Keris was out of favor. Len was, in effect, offering the woman an olive branch that could quiet some of the rumors. Having her in a position close to the new ruler would help bolster her reputation at a time when it was desperately needed. Fortunately, it seemed that was the conclusion Keris came to as well.

  "What exactly are you asking of me, Lenore?"

  "Well, for starters, I'm going to need you to work as my assistant. Pretty much all the mundane work that I can't send one of the guards to take care of, that's gonna be on you from here on out."

  "You're asking me to be your maid?!?" The look on Keris' face was worth the headache of the meeting.

  "Yeah... no. Much fun as it is to think about you having to scrub bedding and all that, I think your time would be better spent helping me with this paperwork. I don't know nearly enough about the city to have a good idea of what's the most critical issues out of this massive stack. Please tell me that you have some administrative experience."

  "Of course," said Keris huffily. "Who do you think ran this household for all the years Balar was gallivanting about on his trade missions?"

  "That's a relief. Does that experience extend to understanding of the rest of the city?"

  "Naturally, I couldn't very well maintain the house without doing at least that much."

  "Fan fucking tastic. Congrats, you're hired. Pull up a chair and let's get to work."

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  "That's... it?"

  "What, you were expecting more? I told you, we're on a schedule here and I was a week behind when I woke up this morning, I've probably fallen another week behind since this meeting started, and I really can't afford to be dawdling any more. That means you, my lovely assistant, need to get your butt in gear so that we can try and only be three weeks behind by the end of the day. Let's go already."

  "You're just going to trust me after everything that's happened?"

  "Oh gods no, lady. I ain't that dumb. Trust is earned and you're starting from well below zero. Still, that's leagues ahead of most all the other jackasses who worked for the Head, so you've got that going for you. You've got a chance here, use it well and who knows? We might even come to tolerate each others existence as we save this wretched city from itself. That being said, this is your last shot right now, the ice you're standing on is VERY thin. I wouldn't advice doing anything that might crack it."

  She didn't bother to elaborate further and Keris didn't need any more hints. She sat down and got to work sorting the papers in front of her. It wasn't exactly meek subservience, but it was definitely something close to deference, which was good enough.

* * * * *

  They spent the next eight hours doing nothing but paperwork. As Len had hoped, Keris had a solid understanding of the various troubles plaguing the city and was quite efficient at filtering out the nonsense requests from the more serious ones. Surprisingly, she didn't even seem to have the standard prejudices that Len would've expected of her, even going so far as to draw particular attention to several more urgent requests from downtrodden sectors of the city that held little financial value, but generally just needed assistance for the sake of the people residing there. Somehow, Len had assumed that Keris would've been the sort to leave them to rot. She filed that information about Keris' priorities away for future consideration and assigned what support she could to the region.

  The two largest problems facing the city at the moment were manpower and mobility. Supposedly the city was meant to move at a moment's notice, vanishing into the tundra to flee any threat that could come their way. What had happened under the Head had undermined that mobility just by staying in place for too long but the constant paranoia that the man had held had driven away so many of the skilled laborers that the city had lost not only the strength of arms to perform that feat, but much of the experience necessary to even accomplish the feat. The old and infirm did what they could, not like life was wont to let a person stop struggling just because they wanted to, but there was just no way they could manage.

  "I can't believe that he let things get this bad," Keris muttered.

  "I mean, the dude was a narcissistic asshole who only cared about himself. Not exactly the sort of personality that lends itself well to managing the finer details. It doesn't excuse the fact that everyone else missed it, but I've seen the type before, they're very good at sweeping people up in the moment and convincing them that they're the only ones that know the secret code to solve all the problems. The reality is that they don't have the slightest clue and are desperately relying on someone to fix it for them or, failing that, someone to pin the blame on. Anyone works, but I'm guessing you know who he used."

  "The Banished," Keris replied.

  "Yup. An easy target, not terribly imaginative but effective. Doesn't take much to scapegoat as long as you're consistent. Remove enough threats and folks start to fall in line without even thinking about it. Makes it real easy for folks to justify pretty much anything if they think it'll keep them safe."

  "Don't patronize me."

  "I'm not. Look, I get why you did the things you did. In another world I might have even made some of the mistakes you did. Not all of them, but some."

  "You expect me to feel guilty about trying to save myself?"

  "Honestly? It'd be nice. But no, I don't suppose I do."

  They resumed their mostly silent work after that. both in a foul mood but neither letting it interfere with the work. Frustrating though the woman was, Len had to admit that they were a good pair for this stuff. Neither were particularly interested in talking more than was necessary to get the work done and Keris was particularly good at summarizing things efficiently. She was also a much faster reader.

  Len wasn't entirely sure how she was able to read the Kelvachian language to begin with. Everyone Len had come across spoke a common tongue that covered most of the basics of communication quite handily, but each still had unique written languages. Balar had voiced stunned approval when Len had demonstrated a basic understanding of the language, but it was definitely not a thing she could do quickly. Having a native reader handy took a great deal of the burden off of her. She still double checked what Keris sent her way, but that took much less time than reading each document painstaking line at a time.

  After another couple of hours, Len leaned back in her chair, stretched loudly, and let loose an explosive sigh.

  "You know, I think that's enough for the day. Wouldn't you agree?"

  Keris looked more exhausted than Len had ever seen her, her neatly arranged bun had come undone at some point in the process and the woman had truly impressive bags under her eyes. For all that it was a pitiful sight, though, she didn't look particularly defeated, just ready to be done with the day. It was a rather nostalgic sight for Len, who'd done more than her share of exhausting days of office work.

  "Yeah, that sounds great."