Chapter 67: 066 The Rounds

"Dinner is it?"

The Arboreal Maiden put down the slip of paper delivered to her by one of the Skwiven. How she had read it with a blindfold on was beyond the dull little creature's ability to understand, but she had demonstrated this ability many times in the past.

"Inform Montaug I will be in attendance through the usual route. You," the specific Skwiven she was calling to turned to attention, "let the Grand Elders know I am coming for an inspection."

As the Skwiven scrambled to deliver their messages, the Arboreal Maiden once again found herself alone. She was used to it, or so she told herself as she aimlessly pondered which dress to wear. The concept of a 'pet' was becoming much more appealing as time passed.

- - - - -

"My Lady!"

Grand Elder Firche was in the middle of organizing some papers when the Arboreal Maiden entered the room, his abacus clattering as it fell to the floor. If it weren't for the fact that the Merchant was a notoriously busy position, she might have chastised him for his lack of preparedness. At the moment, she was nothing more than a hindrance to his work.

"Be at ease, Merchant, I am not here to critique you, only observe. Treat me as if I weren't here, carry on as you were."

"Are you certain, My Lady? Would you like me to send for tea?" Succinctly, he started to organize his messy workspace.

"I've no need." She took a seat on the sofa in the back of the room. Sitting down, she took note of the imprint in it, evidence of its use. "Do you not have the time to return to your quarters for sleep?"

"Time for sleep? Oh, the sofa! Perceptive as usual. I certainly have the time to return to my room, but I can save much more time if I just sleep here. There's always more work when I wake up after all." He was nervously back to work, one pile of reports shrinking while another two slowly grew.

'Always working is he?' The Arboreal Maiden felt a little bad for him. She did not work nearly as much as he did, and yet she felt she led a much wealthier life. 'Isn't there something I can do to help?' She certainly had some important duties, but for the most part they were ceremonial. Perhaps there was some overlap somewhere, some form of duty to be done that required a degree of intellect not normally found elsewhere.

"Merchant, would there be something I could do to lessen your workload, if only lightly?"

"Hwa?" His mannerisms were more attributable to fear than bewilderment. "N-no. I need to go through everything so that I can get an idea of what is needed! Your assistance would only cause more issues in the long run!"

Stiff. Far too stiff.

The fact that he was afraid of her was entirely understandable, if a little demoralizing. He was young, practically a novice when regarding his familiarity with his duties, so he was probably under the impression that his work was under scrutiny, that he was being viewed as not fit for the job. He wasn't, but she couldn't just say that to his face. Someone like him would try to dig into that normally reaffirming statement and find a way to paint themselves inadequate. 

This sort of personality was desirable for this position given the workload, though it tended to make them a little paranoid and hard to deal with. A few hours in and she had found that no progress was being made in terms of their relationship.

"Is there anything you want? Time off? A new set of clothing? Incense?" 

"I am fine as I am, my Lady. Should I need something, my allowance is enough to cover it."

"Is that so..." Yet another attempt at a conversation was shot down. "In that case, I suppose it is time I move on. Your work has proven satisfactory, though I worry that you are maybe too stressed."

- - - - -

"Are you finding everything alright, my Lady?"

The Arboreal Maiden was sitting in the single elevated gallery looking over a wide colosseum. She was situated away from the edge so that those training below would not be distracted when they saw her.

"I'm fine. Though I worry that I am only wasting your time."

"How could that be the case? Even if I am confident that I am doing everything my job requires, if there is something more I could do to improve I would not hesitate. Should you feel the need to impart some knowledge that my predecessors failed to properly pass down, I would be grateful." Out of courtesy for her desire to stay incognito, he did not bow.

"I apologize if this offends you, but I have never much paid attention to military matters aside from when force should be used. Even if there is something that you are doing wrong, I would not be much help in identifying it or finding a fix for it."

"Disappointing, though I do understand. Even if you are long lived, having to manage both the military and the Great Csillacra would take up too much of your time. If you could do both, there would not be a need for a Marshall."

The Arboreal Maiden only nodded in silence, unsure of how she should respond. She was fortunate that the Marshall had a great degree of respect for her and her duties, but she certainly felt that she should have paid at some degree of attention to some of the past Marshalls' tactics and training methods.

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"In that case, is there anything in my power I could do to assist you?"

"Assist me? Personally I have no need for anything I would have the right to ask you for." 

"Not even anything for the Sanctum's Guard?"

"For the Guard?" Grand Elder Larson looked out to the troops sparring below. "Something that the Guard might need... Maybe? No. Hmmm."

"Is it really that hard to think of something?"

"It isn't that there's nothing that could make them more competent as warriors, only that anything that you might be able to authorize could be seen as violating our vows to neutrality. The only factions we can take proactive hostile action against would be those considered heretical, corrupt, or an active threat to the Sanctum, and those actions tend to be too small to warrant the mobilization of the entire Guard."

"Hmmm." Should she authorize a goodwill expedition? Previous Marshalls had requested permission for that sort of thing in the past, especially during the rare times of extreme stability. The only issue is that she had no idea what such an expedition entailed, 'goodwill' could mean any number of things. Was it a means to temporarily diversify sparring partners? Did they share tactics? Could it be something like a vacation? She didn't know. She had spent far too much of her time maintaining the Great Csillacra and monitoring the worlds it created.

- - - - -

"Might I ask what brings you here to the Great Library, my Lady?"

Grand Elder Szirpty greeted the Arboreal Maiden at the arches of the Library, her demeanor notably less tense than the other two Grand Elders.

"No reason in particular, though I apologize if my description of my visit as an inspection has brought you the same level of stress as it has the others. I take it you were not waiting too long on my arrival?"

"Even if I had to wait a week my duties would not be affected, I have long since committed the location of specific information to memory."

"Truly? In that case, how do you occupy your free time? I imagine you don't busy yourself with constantly dusting off old records as some your predecessors did."

Grandmother Ashes laughed at this small jest. Even if it was only a courteous gesture meant to flatter, it pleased the Arboreal Maiden that she could interact with Szirpty in a somewhat 'normal' way.

"I would never waste my time with such trifling matters. The maintenance of records new and old is performed by those who decided to devote their lives to the pursuit and protection of history. Of course I will still handle urgent requests and those made by highly influential figures, but I have decided to spend my free time guiding the younger generation and building them to be astute intellectuals."

"Intellectuals similar to the Scholar?"

The Librarian gave her a wry smile. "Not quite. That child is something special, and not necessarily in a manner beneficial to the Sanctum's stability. I had at one point considered him to be my primary candidate for succession, given I could find a way to smooth out the wrinkles in his mannerisms."

"You no longer consider him worthy of the title?"

"No. In many ways he is more suited to the role than I am, but that only makes it that much harder to tether him to this place." She gestured to the rows upon rows of silent paper. "He's too brilliant to only be left in charge of maintaining some dusty old records, but I believe I have made a mistake that further disqualifies him from taking up the mantle of the Librarian."

"You admit to having made a mistake?" It was exceedingly rare for a Grand Elder to admit fault for their direct actions. Part of their job was to be seen as the epitome of their respective field, performing their jobs to such a ridiculous degree of perfection so as to be unassailable as authorities.

"Only a fool such as myself could have made a mistake as grave as allowing him to interact with individuals containing a greater quality of knowledge within them. By that I am of course referring to those newcomers, 'Terrans' was it?" The Arboreal Maiden nodded to confirm. "Well, it would appear that those Terrans individually are leagues above him in terms of their possessed knowledge and on how it should be applied, despite only being half his age. He mentioned the concept of 'hyper-specialization' during our conversation, something I fear I do not have the grip I should have on the subject."

The Librarian's eyes seemed to beg the Arboreal Maiden for a more detailed explanation.

"It refers to the process of making someone or something extremely efficient at a single task at the expense of being practically worthless in all other arenas." The Arboreal Maiden thought of the mega factories the Terrans had built in the past with a tinge of fear. "I know this should go without saying, but you are not to spread this knowledge to anyone under any circumstances. Even I shiver at the thought of the military and economic might that concept brought to fruition, enough so that you may consider it a weapon on the level of a hostile star. In fact, you are to treat every single sentence that comes out of his mouth in reference to the Terrans' past as a weapon powerful enough to destroy planets."

The Librarian's eyebrows began to rise, not entirely sure of the feeling she was experiencing when faced with the Arboreal Maiden's rare bout of extreme urgency. "My apologies, my Lady, but could you please explain how that concept could possibly be considered dangerous? I simply fail to see the connection."

"What do you think would happen if an individual specialized in killing equipped with weapons engineered to excel in killing was being led by a commander specialized in the art of granting their warriors the best opportunity to kill?" She was of course referring to the type of warfare realized from the Terran year of 1990 to the current day, physical conflict backed by an increasingly more intelligent and precise network of weapons and intelligence systems, the only setback being Skinnik.

"I can only imagine." The Librarian had her answer.

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