§
When I returned to my office, I began reading Inda’s ‘cheat sheet’ notebook, quickly reviewing the government structure because I realized I barely knew anything about the ‘six ministries’ that Gyges mentioned earlier.
Tiana had certainly memorized as a child that the ducal government divides into Constabulary and Judicial Affairs, Academies and Examinations, Public Works and Commerce, Military and Naval Affairs, Lands and Revenues, and the Inspectorate. But I wasn’t clear about the difference between the Inspectorate and the Constabulary, nor did I have any idea whether the staff of the castle worked for ‘Lands’ or ‘Public Works’.
On that last question, I had just been surprised to discover that they were employed through ‘Academies and Examinations’, of all things, but they were all my personal employees, not civil servants at all! This castle, it seems, was my personal property, and every ministry housing personnel here, except for the military and the house knights, were paying me rent. The last two were housed and fed at my expense, but only present in quantities that I approved.
It seemed the staff and castle upkeep were absorbing all the rents from the ministries, plus about twenty percent of the ducal salary. A very expensive house indeed. The remaining ducal salary covered the house knights, who were also not civil servants, and the staff and upkeep in other locations such as the Mona residence and the Pendor Estate. But it was okay, the notes assured me, because Mother received ample funds from her private business interests. She had even purchased the Pendor Estate entirely with her private funds.
Just as I was learning this, about an hour before dinnertime, Gyges came in order to inform me that Benedetta had gone to Mother’s business headquarters in Upper Town to sort out the situation there, and she would be following shortly.
I had already sent both Hedrit the footman and Laela the maid outside– I had a magic device on my desk to summon them if needed– so it was fine to discuss more confidential matters.
“I’ll be covering both jobs until my sister arrives, My Lady,” she explained, while slipping into one of the ‘conference table’ chairs. “Her closest available body still has two remaining days of travel.”
“So Kottos already agreed?” I wondered while closing the notebook and putting it away.
Gyges hesitated, then nodded. “She was already on her way, so she will need a job. She agreed to the offer. Oh, Brother is sending a body as well.”
“What work are you planning for him?”
“No plan,” she said with a smile. “He can find employment nearby. The body that is coming has plenty of options.”
Gyges had already come here, Kottos was already on her way, and apparently Briareos had also already made plans.
It begged a very big question, so I decided to ask it. “You guys were actually coming here to observe me, weren’t you? You have no reason to join in and help me, after all.”
She gave me a proud smile, like approving of her junior’s quick thinking. “Although I was not lying that we’ve been considering lending a hand to your side in this conflict, you are correct. Our main aim is observing a very significant irregularity in the world. This is just a very convenient opportunity to get the issue of employment out of the way.”
After a couple moments to consider it, I frowned. “You know, I could interpret ‘significant irregularity’ as an insult.”
She laughed. “Please don’t take it that way, My Lady. You should consider instead why I described you that way.”
“Illuminate me, Miss Gyges,” I ordered. Senior Immortal or not, she was on my payroll and pretending to be a mortal.
I assume that she found her junior a bit cute, ordering her around, but she had lived as a pretend mortal for millennia and was used to having mortal bosses, so she showed no reaction to my tone.
“It’s the only word that can properly describe you, My Lady. You are a former Immortal who worked with the Tutelary Council in the past and passed away in the process, yet you have somehow returned. My siblings and I know that you came here as the result of manipulation from our level of existence, but it wasn’t just Oranos, I think. He has insufficient power to directly manipulate Samsara, so there were others involved. Am I right?”
“Even as an Immortal, I was just a tiny little Celestial Maiden, Miss Gyges,” I told her, hedging in order to avoid incriminating anyone. “I never ascended beyond the Fundamental Realm.”
She chuckled. “I see. So they used the model of a technological age corporate structure in the paradigm they presented themselves through. The ‘Hero Relocation Department’, was it? I suppose that works well enough.”
Oh yeah. She could just read it from my head. orz.
“We are not law enforcers anyway, My Lady. Our role is to observe, and to raise the alarm when things go especially wrong. We were the ones that initially raised the call for your bosses to come to this world and remove the Old Gods, but that is a very rare act on our part. Even when we take direct action, it is only a matter of giving assistance. This world’s myths attest to that.”
The Hekatoncheires of Ostish mythology weren’t on the side of the former gods like in Greek Mythos. There aren’t any former gods in the Ostish stories, per se. Instead, the previous Council to which Astaroth belonged is represented by the Gods of Chaos in the War of the Gods that destroyed the previous world. That world was populated only by gods, magical beings and monsters, and Gyges and her siblings appear in those stories as magical demigods who only marginally participated, who usually sided with the Gods of Order.
Naturally, as a misremembered version of the near-destruction of the world under the Old Gods, it isn’t entirely fictional, but it does tell a very different story.
In Ostish myth, the creation of the current world actually comes after the War of Gods ended, and the Hekatoncheires rarely show up after that. The stories from there on out are about humans and other mortals emerging from the underworld and spreading out to populate the new world. It’s a sort of Ostish parallel to the Old Testament and New Testament. Two scriptural narratives with a definitive separation between them. The Hekatoncheires are a relic of the Old Testament, you could say.
Gyges continued, “Anyway, it isn’t about breaking Heaven’s Law. Your old employers are smart enough not to bend the law to the point of breaking. And naturally, the disciples of the Samsaric order that names itself the ‘Afterlife Organization’ in your paradigm and styles themselves corporate employees were not breaking the law, either, even when they extended contact with you. They were just playing their allotted roles. Quite naturally, they were intrigued by the same irregularities that provoked our interest. I should contact this ‘HR Manager’ and compare notes.”
“But if you know everything already, what are you here to observe?”
Her smile spread into a grin. “What do we know already? Only the past, and echoes from the possible futures. This world is in flux, to a significant level, and you are at the center of that flux. Let’s just say we are prepositioning ourselves at the epicenter of events, to have the best seats for the show.”
I frowned. I didn’t feel like I was hearing the whole story.
“And in the meantime, you will help me out with governing?” I wondered.
“No, really, we just need jobs,” she answered, her mouth wrinkling a bit in bitter humor. “Each of our bodies is really no stronger than a mortal. I have enough spiritual strength in each body to be a somewhat more powerful mortal mage than average, but not to the point I can get out of needing food and shelter. I need to eat just like the next commoner, and this is a job that keeps me nice and close to you, Lady Epicenter.”
“I feel like I’m missing something,” I complained
“Well, you definitely are missing the answer to a question you should be asking,” she pointed out, her eyebrow going up. Suddenly, she turned into a Senior again, slipping into the role of teacher.
I had no idea what question she meant, so I expanded my vessel and put my alter-egos to work on the problem.
Her smile grew and she gently chided, “That won’t be necessary, My Lady. I fully intend to tell you. I supposedly have fifty heads and a hundred hands, which in reality represent fifty mortal bodies. Actually, it’s quite a few more than fifty, and each of those bodies is somewhere else, making a living. So how do you know that at least one of those bodies isn’t in the enemy camp, feeding them the information that I can obtain from getting close to you?”
If I hadn’t been in my expanded state at the moment, my blood would have run cold, but instead, Fan Li jumped right on the answer to the question… or rather, the reason I didn’t need to worry about it.
“If even a mere handicapped Celestial Maiden like me can spot you, your ability to hide must be quite limited. You spread yourself out amongst so many bodies in order to limit your powers as an Immortal enough to stay here in the Mortal Realm. Perhaps you could hide one body from me by concentrating your power on it, but I’m able to ask Eurybia and Gaia to check for any such body in the enemy camp. And if you can hide from them, they can ask Oranos, who is orders of magnitude stronger than them. Are you sure you want to take the risk?”
Her grin returned a second time. “Well done. Your spiritual techniques are coming along quite well, My Lady. I would not be able to hide from either Eurybia or Gaia, although you should ask them to confirm that fact. They can also confirm that I have no body in the camp of your enemies. I can only hide from the one you call Astaroth for short periods of time, and not long enough to infiltrate his headquarters. Since he knows I can’t hide my actions from your bosses, he would never try to recruit me. My only bodies in his territories are ordinary persons who have to lay low to avoid his notice and his minions in order to continue observing.”
Finally, I nodded. “Since you acknowledge that I have ways to find out if you do betray me, I will trust you, Miss Gyges.”
She hadn’t mentioned it yet, but I also had Immortal Mother on my contacts list, who seemed to be at least on a par with Oranos. Of course, she had probably just learned that fact, as soon as I thought about it.
“So you said you had to head to the business offices,” I noted.
“Yes,” she nodded. “Of course, I need to give you a quick briefing of the most important highlights first.”
While she began, I pulled out a writing case from where Mother or Inda had left it in a desk drawer and withdrew a pencil and paper from within. Thank goodness Mother preferred the modern utensils over the inkstone, brush and loose paper of traditional Dorian scribes.
It was indeed a quick briefing, since I had actually been involved in the most important events of the day, the riots in Lower Town. She was able to skip most of the details and move on to the military situation, which was relatively stable that day.
“We need to get an Army aide into this office though, to replace the one who was badly wounded during the attack. He won’t be able to return to duty.”
“They told me there were only two aides that stayed at Mother’s side?”
“Normally. Due to the war, she had the Six Ministries representative bring in a military attache to assist specifically on war news and planning. He was on the job for only three days, My Lady.”
My eyes narrowed slightly. “Are you planning to slip Briareos in?”
“Hardly, My Lady,” she answered with a snort. “That’s a role that would require long-standing membership within your military.”
“So, is that it?”
“Well, two remaining items. First of all, I showed up here with almost no funds, My Lady. It seems I will have to pay rent for my room?”
I accidentally let a ‘pfft’ escape my lips, then touched the summoning bell. Immediately, Hedrit opened the door.
“I need access to some personal funds. What would be the quickest way to handle it?”
“There should be a cash box in your lower left drawer, My Lady,” he noted. “But I can contact the Steward if it is insufficient, or you don’t wish to use the cash on hand.”
I tried to will myself not to blush. It wasn’t like I was supposed to know about the cash box already, alright?
A quick check confirmed the cash box, which to my surprise had no lock. Well, the person with the guts to steal from Mother probably had long since perished. I retrieved a two-crown coin and tossed it to Gyges, adding a little Will to keep it on target.
She caught it and blinked when she saw the amount. After all, it was roughly a month’s wages for a skilled laborer.
“Remind me to give one to Kottos as well, when she arrives. If it’s not enough for your room, just come back.”
“No, I just needed a half-crown for the first month,” she answered. “You’re quite generous.”
“Consider it my gratitude for coming to work for me. We’ll set your salary at whatever your predecessor was making.”
“Thank you, My Lady.”
“And the last item?” I prompted.
“The Minister of Constabulary and Judicial Affairs had a report concerning the goods confiscated earlier today. He believes we have the answer to why the criminals were so desperate to retrieve them.”
