Satin Rose and the Witch Hunters

34. Cogs in the Machine

Velterrion

I think I'm going insane.

The queen being unavailable for some time made my promise to the hunter cheap and in a vain attempt to distract myself from the growing fear that Satin still wasn't by my side, I decided to create a formal request. It would be stamped by whoever was the royal adviser and would appear on the queens desk. How hard could that be?

With the help of the palace library and librarian I had tracked down an ancient document that was tangentially related to my debacle. Signed by one Sir. Del of the Frozenland it detailed the disbandment of a farmers guild over squabbles in their group. Pen in hand and a bottle of ink, it took the better part of a night to copy its format and rewrite its contents to talk about the Hunters Guild.

Burning candle light was the easy enough though. After having a few copies be made there was little more to do than put my own seal on it. The stamp had been brought to the palace along with most of the other things in my dresser by Hetherington's men. The seal itself was a rose with thorns sprouting from its petals. Now all that was left was to give to Hetherington himself and-

"I can't do that."

We were at the bottom of the stairwell that led to the princesses, and thereby the queens, quarters. "Why not? It's a perfect replica of a previous document."

He looked over the scroll with one hand as his other balanced a tray carrying a pot of steaming tea. "This is ancient."

"This is legal," I pointed out to him taking it back.

He still shook his head. "A seal of legislation is required before even the queens seal. New standard," He shrugged and disappeared up the stairs.

For moment I looked up at the stone steps and thought about following. Would it be considered rude to barge in with this demand? Most definitely and a lack of subtly was one quality that Zestra did not marry me for.

The chancellors hall was located in the left wing of the palace. Though where in the left wing took a bit of detective work. Even having strolled through the building for a few days now I was sure that my feet hadn't even walked over half of the space. After a few questions to the servants and guards though I came upon an out of the way room where a woman with tiny spectacles was shuffling through papers.

She looked up from her work to glare at me from behind a tiny and overstocked desk, "What business do you have here?"

Putting on my most jolly face, I came up and said, "Good day. I'm afraid I haven't met everyone in the palace yet. I have a document that needs a seal from your superiors."

The woman didn't even reach for the scroll. "Who sent you? The chancellors are my only superiors and all documents are first written by me."

"I am the queens Zestra's escort and am here on behalf of Commander Sting from the Southern Hunter's Guild." Name dropping wasn't something my lips were accustomed to but anything to speed this up. Sleep was something that I hadn't entertained for a moment and the effects were beginning to show as I disguised a yawn with a sigh.

"Hunter's Guild, Hunter's Guild, Southern Hunter's Guild," The secretary pulled out a massive tome from behind her and opened it on top of the table crushing a few scrolls. "I recall a request being sent from them. You'll have to be rescheduled though. The council of advisors will have time to spare for you tomorrow."

As she was about to close the book I put in my hand to get it caught and keep the subject open as I quickly pleaded, "It'll only be for a moment. Surely they can humor me for a single stamp."

She snapped the book shut. Barely pulled my hand away the woman added, "They don't. They can't. Very sorry. Goodbye."

"This is something that needs to be given to the queen right away, time is of the essence."

"Well if it was essential I'd have known about it already," Annoyance was starting to building up behind her eyes as she saw that I still wasn't gone. "The exits that way."

My smile was something to die for. "To trusted by the Chancellors themselves, must mean you yourself are held in high regard. Even by the palaces standards. If you could only peek at the contents..."

The secretary was less than amused. As I held the scroll up to her however she sighed and unraveled it. Then rolled it back up, not having even fully opened it, and handed it back. "This document is incomplete."

I breathed out my own sigh, "Thank you, what's missing?"