Exile's Honor

'No. People mostly write their own vitriol in letters. We're a literate people, Alberich; that's mandated by the Crown. Just as Karsite children are required to go to the temple for religious instruction, ours are required to get instruction in reading, writing, and figuring. No, I meant legal documents, that's mostly what a clerk handles. At least, my sort of clerk. There are others who do things about money, but I've never had that kind of head for figures. I saw a lot of wills.' She sighed. 'A lot of wills. And depositions. And the documents involved in lawsuits. Well, since you've been acting as bodyguard to young Selenay, you've seen what happens when something gets as far as the courts!'

He nodded again. 'But it is important to them.'

'Some people have too much leisure, if that's what's important to them,' she said sourly. 'Wrangling over dead granny's best bedcover, as if the fate of the Kingdom depended on it, when all the while down there in the South—'

She couldn't finish; she just sat there, shaking her head.

He thought back about all of the things he had observed while Selenay sat, either in judgment as the principal judge or as an assistant when she was still a Trainee. 'I do not understand it either,' he said, then added, with a touch of humor, 'but then, I never had so many possessions that things took on a great importance to me.'

She burst out laughing at that. 'Whereas I have too many, thieving magpie that I am! So I suppose I should understand them! Then again, most of my possessions are books, so I still don't understand why people would get into such a state over a few pence or a set of silver.' She looked ever-so-slightly superior.

'And if it was dead granny's library that was in dispute?' he asked shrewdly, to puncture that superiority.

She saw it—and bravely took the blow. 'There you have me. Dead in the black.' She laughed. 'Oh, look. The rain's starting to slacken up!'

He glanced out the window. She was right; the downpour had turned into something lighter, and the lightning had moved off into the far distance. 'It could be just a lull,' he warned, as she made as if to get up.

'Could be, but I'll take my chances. I need to get back up the hill; I'm tutoring a couple of Trainees.' She did get up then, and he found himself wishing she would stay.

He stifled an impulse to catch hold of her hand to prevent her leaving, but she seemed to sense something, and turned back toward him.

'I meant that, about nattering at me, Alberich,' she said. 'You know, I don't put personal things in the Chronicles. Not unless they're reasons for something happening, and it would have to be a pretty important something. And Alberich?'

'Yes?' Something had passed—was passing—between them. Something he didn't recognize and didn't understand. She stared at him; he sensed her eyes behind those lenses, oddly intent.

'You might try talking to Geri as well. After all, that's what he's there for, isn't it?' She had an oddly wry smile on her face. 'Well, all things considered, that's part of his job, I'd think—to be talked at.'

And with that remarkable statement, she was gone.

He sat there for some time, in the half-dark, wondering why this conversation seemed to have—well—a feeling of importance about it.

:Perhaps because it's another Herald?: Kantor asked.

He hadn't ever gotten such an odd feeling from anyone else, not even Talamir. :No, it's not just that. She's not an Empath, is she?:

:Not so far as I know,: his Companion replied thoughtfully. :But she does have one rather odd little Gift. She doesn't have to cast the Truth Spell to know if someone is telling the truth, so long as she's in close proximity to them. It's why she's in the city courts, in fact.:

Interesting. Perhaps that was why she seemed to be able to get the people to tell her so much. Perhaps that was why she was so focused on needing to know the why of things. If you always knew that something was true or false, maybe your focus shifted from finding out the truth, to finding out the reasons behind it.

If you knew that something was true, maybe that impelled you to talk to others, as well as listen to them.

:Am I needed up the hill?: he asked. Kantor would know; the Companions always seemed to be more-or-less in contact with one another.

Kantor's reply was immediate. :No. And I've no objection to staying here in this nice, dry stable