60. Assistant

Aloe had no way of knowing how much time she spent on the bath floor, the cold stone caressing her calves, but when she left, the sun was already coming down.

“You look radiant, Aloe!” Lulu greeted her as the scribe entered her office. The maid made no mention whatsoever of the time she had spent in the bath. “I knew that dress would suit you like a fiddle!”

“Thanks for the praise, Lulu, but I have work to do.” All the energies she had managed to recover from her nap were lost with the stress from serving the emir. “Would you be so helpful to make me some coffee?”

“As you order, Aloe.” The maid bowed and left the office.

Aloe couldn’t even bring herself to think how much time Lulu had waited for her in the office and how rude it was to immediately push her out, her head was a mess. She clutched her heart, no matter how much she meditated and tried to calm herself, her heartbeat was tangled. What... what should I do? She didn’t even know what that question meant.

The desk wasn’t in the best of conditions, but it didn’t take her long to organize the highest priority papers and ready her lectern and writing equipment. Whilst doing so, Aloe shifted her vitality in a trance, going from default internal infusion to ‘toughness’ as she felt unwell. She didn’t know the extent of the abilities and effects of ‘toughness’, but it couldn’t be denied that she felt better under the effects of the slow yet inexorable stream of vitality.

The scribe didn’t have time to soak her feather in the ink flask as the office’s door swung wide open, letting multiple people inside.

“I am sorry, venerable Scribe,” Lulu said with a tray in hand, eyes locked on the newcomers, “but they insisted on seeing you.”

“I see.” Aloe gazed at the people who had entered her office. They were well-dressed and didn’t have the most amicable of faces, but at least they were neither of the sultanzade. “You can leave the coffee here, Lulu.”

Wordlessly, the maid left the tray on the desk and filled a cup before departing with a bow, closing the door behind her. Aloe took the cup of coffee and its saucer, taking a sip from the steaming hot coffee. She instantly thanked her foresight for infusing herself beforehand, otherwise she would have burnt her tongue badly.

“So,” she took another sip, “who are you?” The question was accompanied by a slight sigh, the scribe couldn’t support her own weight. She was not in a condition for conversations.

“You are a bit cocky, aren’t you?” A mature woman with her crossed arms said.

“That is not the way to talk to the scribe of commoners.” Aloe settled her cup down on the desk, a frown drawn on her face.

If she had had two more hours of sleep, she wouldn’t have acted as she did, but in her current state, Aloe couldn’t care less about these people. She only knew that they were not other personal scribes or sultanzade, so the only people left that could talk to her that way were diplomats, which she highly doubted they were.

“And that’s no way to serve guests.” The woman continued, a smug on her face, unable to read the room. And most importantly, Aloe’s mood.

“Guests? The people that barged into my office uninvited? Not even bothering to knock?” Aloe narrowed her eyes. Power was corrupting, but the main source of her lack of decorum was her lack of sleep. And stress. There was a lot of stress in her petite body.

Upon hearing her words, the two other people behind the woman shyly backpedaled. She was right, it was an intrusion. If not of property, of courtesy.

“Your office?” But the mature woman had none of it. Oblivious to Aloe’s indifferent and lackluster gaze. “This is the scribe of commoners office, a prestigious place that few can reach, and even fewer are qualified for. You? You are barely a woman; I don’t care you were Shahrazad’s daughter. Actually, I am mad you were Shahrazad’s daughter, this is not an oligarchy, you should have not inherited that title!”

The woman ended her outburst with a heavy inhalation, she had clearly been holding onto that for a while. Even with the clear aggression, Aloe couldn’t just care. Neither her mind was on the state of dealing with it, nor she could be scared into submission. Not after she had experienced what true submission was barely a few hours ago.

And what if she had an irate woman in front of her? With her current internal infusion, she could kick her, punch her, or whatever else and Aloe would probably feel mild pain. Nothing that she hadn’t done to herself before, for sure.

Aloe pushed her armchair backward and stood up. The three people before her were taller than her, if not by a head, at least a finger. Yet she didn’t feel small. That was the thing about authority, physical prowess or build didn’t factor in intimidation.

She hated being afraid, but now she felt exactly the opposite.

“State your name and occupation,” Aloe commanded in the most dry and stale tone possible, resemblant to that of Scribe Nuha.

“You don’t even know who I am?” The woman put her hand on her chest, shaken aback by the offense.

“State your name and occupation.” Aloe reiterated; unmoving, unfazed.

Truthfully, she just wanted to get done with the workday and return to the bedchamber. That room-sized bed was the only thing she strove for right now. Two hours of sleep didn’t cut it.

The woman frowned, Aloe couldn’t know if it was because her intimidation had worked or because she noticed Aloe would just repeat the sentence over and over again, so she ceded.

“Shula Sadina, assistant to the scribe of commoners.”

In a single statement, Aloe had obtained every piece of knowledge she needed. Not only that the woman was a commoner, meaning she had no power over her, but she was also her underling.

“Alright, you are fired,” Aloe said calmly.

“Eh?” A muted whimper escaped the woman’s mouth, her body physically shaken by the words. It took her a few more blinks and random babbling to process the words. “You can’t do that! I am the one who kept this place afloat when there was no scribe!”

“You’ll find that yes, I can do this.” Tyrannical? Absolutely. Practical? Also true. “Also, the one who kept this place afloat? Woman, Sadina has only been two weeks without a scribe of commoners.”

During her days at the public desk when she was still working as an unpaid banker’s apprentice – she was still sour about that detail – Aloe had seen her fair share of unhappy customers. Though it was a great misnomer to call loan seekers “customers”.

People tended to be aggressive to clerks – probably due to poor education or a high presence of sibling-cousins on their family trees – especially when the clerk in question was a small defenseless girl. At the sweet age of fifteen, Aloe had been cursed, insulted, denigrated, and anything a desperate man could do without getting physical. She was even spat on once. Since those three years ago, things only got worse as she sometimes was mistaken by a grown woman, and people were a lot more savage when they weren’t shouting at a child for their mistakes, but a fellow adult.

Even if their intellect showed otherwise.

Just thinking about it filled Aloe’s tongue with venom.

So she didn’t purely base her decisions on emotion, but also experience. The few yet valuable experience she had. These types of people, customers, or however you wanted to call them, didn’t surrender because they always believed they were in the right. They would just continue shouting until their throats gave out.

The decision was crystal clear to Aloe. If she didn’t make that woman out now, she would stab her in the back. There was no loyalty to these people. They only thought of themselves and would never be satisfied, there was only greed, envy, and pride in their hearts. And Aloe had enough with her greed and pride.

“What are you waiting for?” Aloe raised her voice. “Out.” Her eyes ignited with authority and hate.

“You cannot fire me!” The woman stomped on the ground like a child throwing a tantrum. “I have worked here when your mother was still changing your diapers!”

“I see how it is...” The scribe of commoners sighed in disappointment. “Lulu, are you still here?”

The door promptly opened, and the maid stepped in. “Yes, venerable Scribe. What are your wishes?”

“Please call the guards, there’s an unwanted guest trespassing in my office.”

The mature woman gasped at the use of words, but she got the gist of the situation. Has some sense finally beaten inside your thick skull? The assistant scribe walked toward the door, almost pushing wonderful Lulu to the side, but she turned to face Aloe.

“This will not be the end of it.” She was frothing like a rabid dog; more than intimidating, it made her pathetic in her eyes. “You will regret your decision.”

“Do not fret, I will not,” Aloe added calmly, indifference her defining trait.

The scribe closed the door behind her with an unpolite slam that probably left a mark on the frame.

Aloe sighed; she couldn’t even gather enough strength to groan – she was more worried about the weight of her eyelids than anything and sat down in her armchair, more collapsing than anything else.

“So, what business did you all have with me?” Aloe asked after taking a sip of her still-hot coffee, unbothered by the curses of the woman whose name she didn’t even remember.

Honestly, that was one of the weakest curses she had heard, and also very common. At least she didn’t make a childish comment like mentioning genitalia or Aloe’s constitution. If that were the case, well, the coffee would be on that woman rather than inside of Aloe’s mouth.