1545 ToW
Pakīonia Alliance
Olana
Olana Administrative and Government Services Building
Pakīonia Linguistics and Research Office
It was morning. Sylph sat in his chair, leaning into the sunbeam that stretched across the room. His eyes were closed, but his face looked anything but relaxed. Sometimes his face would change to contort into a different strained expression, the only thing that moved in the stillness of the office. His gray horns cast a strange dark silhouette on the wall behind him, leading to the image of the small man being seeming to be tormented by a shadow creature leaning over him.
Sylph's office was devoid of personal decoration, in favor of a haphazard organizational approach. Books were stacked on almost every available surface, bursting with inserted paper and bookmarks, leading to irregular piles. The shelves that were normally afforded the task of holding these books were filled with other random objects: rocks of various sizes, different colored glass bottles, a couple of sets of glasses, clay dolls, a pile of buttons, and some dictionaries... with the pages torn out. The couch across from Sylph's desk looked more like a makeshift bed, but it was also currently filled with tied stacks of newspapers. Motes of dust floated around the room, visible through the orange light beaming across the space which seemed to be the most activity that this office was having at the moment.
While not outright dirty, this room seemed more of a monument to a researcher of the mundane, dust and all.
Knock Knock.
Sylph was unmoved, save for the movement of his eyes under their eyelids. His face changed again and seemingly unawares of the knock on the door.
Knock Knock Knock.
For some reason it was the third knock in the sequence that made him open his eyes. His bright orange pupils darted to look at the door, but he didn't move his head to look. He was waiting.
Knock Knock BANG!
Someone was impatient. Sylph sat upright and fully concerned himself with the door.
"Enter," he said in a low monotone.
The door wasted no time swinging open, revealing a stern Sun-Folk woman with glasses that sat low on her nose. The rest of her thin face was decorated in wrinkles, only adding to the tightness of the expression she wore. Her graying hair was wrapped into a bun, clothing neat and spotless, all adding to the oppressive effect of her in the threshold of the office.
Sylph on the other hand, looked like someone that had just woken up from a nap. His brown hair was lucky to be straight and free of tangles, but it laid over his face in a disorganized fashion. He already had gray skin, but the color of deep bags under his eyes was still pronounced. His robes were much too large for his frame and were currently wrapped around him like a blanket.
"You of anyone should know that my door is never locked," Sylph said as he subconsciously straightened his robes in response to the woman's presence. "You could just come in if you were so insistent."
"If I did that, I would just interrupt whatever very important business you were conducting in here," the woman said with a mean, but understanding, smile. "What is that 'important' intellectual pursuit that you are attempting today?"
Sylph narrowed his eyes but took the newspaper on his desk and held it up to show the woman.
"I was trying to solve the daily crossword."
The woman finally stepped into the room and leaned closer to take a look at the thin paper. "You haven't filled out anything yet."
Sylph tapped his temple. "I was trying to see how much of it I could solve in my head after only giving myself three minutes to read all of the clues. I was going to write it down to check my work once it was done, Mirist."
Mirist let out a small snort as she straightened out her back. "Of course, Mr. Genius Linguist."
Sylph frowned. "You don't pay me a visit unless it's to give me a case or give me a complaint from another department. What's happening? Why are you here." Barely a question.
"Come now, Sylph. You've actually been light in the complaints as of late, well outside of me of course. Because of your good behavior, I've gotten a new assignment for you." Mirist smiled, but in the way that one is trying to hold back the punchline to a bad joke.
"So more work," Sylph sighed and swiveled to face his desk.
"Well, not entirely. Think of it as a new... adventure."
"Why did you use that word?"
Mirist ignored the question and turned toward the still open door. "Seraph, would you please come in?"
Sylph craned his neck to look behind Mirist to see the figure as they entered. Their style of dress was one that Sylph saw often in this area of the city: a less formal simple blue tunic, with a coif and veil. Religious wear, but more for the devoted few that had tasks and hobbies outside of worship and All-One church activities. What was a little less typical was what the body these clothes covered.
This... Seraph was an Angel-Kin. Her body was a humanoid-stone statue that had been cracked in places in order to allow the creature to move and exist. Sylph had worked with Angel-Kin before in the past, but their population was far smaller than Sylph's people, the Demon-Folk. Where Sylph's relatives were a people known for having malleable forms and bodies, Angel-Kin were not. Many wore the same stone face, there were few artisans in all of Muami that were authorized to produce these bodies for Angel-Kin. If Sylph were not expected to engage in the current situation, he could probably figure out Seraph's artisan quickly.
Seraph held her taupe colored stone hands folded in front of her, a very polite but unsure gesture. Even without any facial expressions or eyes to work off and read, Sylph could see that Seraph felt trepidation entering an unknown space.
"Sylph, I'd like to introduce you to Seraph. She is your new employee, an assistant." Mirist guided Sylph to stand next to her.
There was a beat. It would logically be Sylph's turn to speak in this instance, but he didn't, leaving an uncomfortable silence in the air.
"Um, Honorable Sylph, it's a pleasure to meet you and work with you in the future," said the meek voice of Seraph. It wasn't a voice in the way any other creature would speak, having no mouth or typical arrangement of vocal chords, Angel-Kin had their own way of producing noise that could be heard as communication by other creatures. It was often compared to a hollow body resonant instrument.
"Mirist, what is going on?" Sylph's eyes did not leave Seraph but he seemingly didn't regard her with importance in the conversation.
"Some of the higher ups decided that you needed someone to help you with the work that you do," Mirist shrugged.
"The work I do?" Sylph asked incredulously. "The higher ups think I sit here all day translating dusty tomes and helping students from the university. They have no idea what the nature of my 'work' is, why would they think I need an employee?"
"Well clearly they do think you need one, seeing as how we keep getting letters to your department asking for your help on matters," Mirist punctuated this fact by taking some envelopes from her back pocket and tossing them onto Sylph's desk.
Sylph glanced at them for a moment and looked back at Mirist. "I don't need an assistant."
Mirist made a tight lipped smile. "I figured you'd say that. How about this instead: if the complaints from other departments or entities keeps outweighing the amount of cases you take on, Seraph will replace you as the government's official linguist by the end of the year."
Sylph scowled. "You can't fire me."
Mirist's mean smile got broader. "Maybe I can't. But sooner or later, someone's going to take real notice of what you're up to every day and cut you off from all the resources you get by being employed by the city."
The threat was clear. Sylph slumped back in his chair, not attempting to hide attitude he was giving. He was defeated by the office politics he'd been managing to avoid thus far, thanks to Mirist of all people. This did give her more than enough power to shut down the small demon man.
"So, what do I do then?" Sylph asked.
"First things first," Mirist said as she ushered Seraph to stand where she once was. "Introduce yourself properly to your new employee."
Sylph sighed and stood up. On his feet, he was shorter than Seraph and a head shorter than Mirist. "My name is Sylph de Foras. I am the Olana city government's Linguist," he said with a light bow.
Seraph's body language indicated she was surprised. "Oh, I was not informed you were a Demon-Folk."
Sylph looked at her quizzically. "Mirist, how much did you even tell her?"
"Enough to get started," Mirist said as she noisily closed the office door behind her.
The two were alone now. Neither of their bodies seemed to display the minute movements known to organic beings, Sylph utterly focused on the person in front of him, Seraph still as the statue that she resembled.
It was eventually Sylph that gave up and sat down at his desk. He ran a hand down his face and noticed that Seraph was still standing, awaiting directions.
"Sorry in advance, I'm probably the worst person in this entire government to be assigned to as an assistant." Sylph's hard demeanor seemed to have disappeared, his tone no longer was short and sharp. His monotone inflected very little, but Seraph could hear the change to know he was genuinely apologetic.
Seraph nodded, impossible to discern any further emotion from that act alone.
"Um..." Sylph stood up and grabbed a stool he kept in the corner of the room and placed it in front of his desk. "It's all a bit too late for that now, but if you will humor me, I'd like to conduct an interview. Just so I know what— who I'm working with."
Seraph nodded and sat on the offered stool as Sylph repositioned himself on the other side of the desk. He pushed some of the papers littered around his desk to find an unblemished sheet of paper and a pencil from a drawer. The letters from earlier were unceremoniously moved with the rest of the detritus.
"You said your name is Seraph. Is that your full name, or do you have a longer designation?"
"Seraph is... a nickname. My longer name is hard to pronounce without training in the Angelic language."
Sylph tried to make eye contact with Seraph, but her unpainted and eyes made it difficult for that. He was usually good at reading how people felt, but he couldn't rely on old tricks to get by this time.
He looked elsewhere and wrote something on his sheet of paper. "I see. Would you be able to say it just so I could hear it?"
"Yes, of course."
Warning: This audio can be loud, it is advised to turn it down before playing.
Sylph listened intently, keeping his eyes averted from Seraph's face, then wrote something else down. "What is your education? Did you receive any other training in being a linguist?"
"I graduated from Olana University with studies in the spoken languages of Muami," Seraph said confidently. "I have not had any formal training in what it means to be a linguist."
"Okay," Sylph wrote another line and then stopped mid-sentence. "So you would like to become a linguist then?"
"My education would prepare me for such a occupation, I think," Seraph's confidence wavered slightly. Sylph continued writing and Seraph continued. "I have some unique skills that I've learned outside of my education that I think would also assist me in the field. But overall, I enjoy work that involves investigation and problem solving. I think it can be quite fulfilling."
"Right," Sylph's eyes narrowed and gave a small nod. He still wasn't looking at Seraph, continuing to write on the paper in front of him. "I'm sure you might be a little confused with the way that Mirist and I were talking earlier."
"Yes... Forgive me for asking but she said that you get into trouble quite often."
Seraph finished the sentence he was writing and put down his pencil, finally looking back up at his new assistant's stone face. "Trouble is not the word that I would use. People simply don't... appreciate my methods the way that they should. The guard for example would say that I'm a nuisance, even if I make their jobs much easier."
"You engage with the city guard? What for?"
Sylph chewed on his lip. "I do the work of a linguist, yes. However, I also am assigned several... problems that arise around the city or people come to me to help them with their issues. I do important work in this city that only I with my specific skills can do."
"I don't understand."
Sylph shrugged. "Many don't, but I think that you of all people would know what I mean."
"Honorable Sylph I—"
"Don't use that honorific with me, Sylph is just fine."
"Sylph, I don't understand why you would think that."
Sylph looked deeply at Seraph's face. Seraph didn't have eyes that Sylph could see, and in fact, he bet she didn't have any at all. Yes, her outside body was made of stone, but she wasn't a wall. The emotion and cadence of her voice indicated she had as much of a range of expression as any other person.
Sylph lowered his eyes again to where his gaze rested before. He had been watching her hands on her lap during the interview.
"Tell me what I wrote on the sheet of paper in front of me," Sylph said very suddenly.
"W—what?" Seraph's hands balled into tight fists.
"I was writing something during our interview, tell me what I wrote down."
"Honora— Sylph, I can't read what you wrote down. I don't have ey—" Her fingers flexed out, grasping her knees.
"That isn't what I asked," Slyph's voice grew icy. "I didn't ask you to read it, I asked you what I wrote down on the paper in front of me."
Seraph stiffened. Sylph waited.
Seraph's blank face turned to look aside, the physical expression of shame. It was likely she had to learn how to act out her emotions like this in order to fully communicate with other beings. This time, it was being exploited by a strange little man that she just met. She tapped an index finger on her knee in a rhythm.
"... You wrote 'This is a Test. I'm writing this in a clean script so it's hopefully easy to understand. You have no visible visual... receptors so I'm guessing you use sound and touch to ambulate. I'm a linguist but I am also the..." Seraph stopped for a moment. "I am also the greatest detective that Olana has ever known.'"
"Forgive that last part, I needed to make my point clear," Sylph let out a small chuckle. "And I think it achieved it's goal, no? Your ability to recognize the minute sounds of how different letters sound when written is quite amazing. Not even I could do something like that. I think you'll do quite well as my assistant actually."
Seraph balled her hands on her knees. The compliment flew over her head due to the sharp emotion welling up in her chest. "Sylph. What exactly are my responsibilities going to be in this position?"
"Hmm..." Sylph remained impassive. "Help me be a translator, proof-read missives, oversee archeological studies, assist some diplomats and lawyers... but mostly find some missing people, locate stolen property, resolve inheritance disputes, solve a murder or two or twelve..."
"What? Murder?" Seraph's concentration was broken again.
"Yeah, would you like to try to solve one today?"
SHx3:C-0: Two Stones