Tales of the Fiery Ifrit and the Iceberg (Storm and Silence One-Shots)

Sick and Silent

[Mr Ambrose's POV]

Dong...Dong...Dong...

The hourly striking of the clock tower signaled the turning of the time to nine o'clock am. My personal secretary had six more strikes before I would consider him late and start deducting from his wages.

Dong...Dong...Dong...

Three more strikes.

Dong...Dong...

One more.

Dong...

He was late.

My left fist tightened around the fountain pen I was using to write with. I hated tardiness almost about as much as I loved money. My secretary knew this since I repeatedly told him that knowledge is power is time is money.

Five minutes passed and Mr Linton still hadn't arrived yet. I continued working on the documents I was originally observing, but in my head I counted the amount of time that it took for my secretary to arrive. It wasn't until two minutes later that I heard the door that accessed the floor of my personal office open. There was the usual shuffle of feet against the stone floor and then Mr Stone's voice rung out in the previously silent hallway.

"Good morning, Mr..." His cheerful voice trailed off. There was no response from the other person. He just continued walking and entered into the room that was adjacent to mine. When I heard him sit down in the desk chair, I checked my pocket watch, unfolded one of the tiny slips of paper I used to send messages to my workers through my pneumatic tube system and wrote this:

Mr Linton,

You are seven minutes and forty-six seconds late. Expect to have this waste of time deducted from your wages.

Rikkard Ambrose

Then, I folded the note around a tube and sent it into the office of my secretary. A full minute later, a plink echoed through my room as a pneumatic tube landed on my desk. I opened it and read his response.

Mr Ambrose,

I apologize deeply for my inadequacy in arriving late to work. I'll make sure to arrive on time from now on.

Miss Lilly Linton

That was odd. He didn't put his usual wasteful 'dear' at the beginning and even deigned to apologize to me, insulting himself in the process by acknowledging his inadequacy. The only tell that it was actually from him was the proper address for his true gender and the chicken scratch he called handwriting. I quickly dismissed this unusual behavior from him and sent back this:

Mr Linton,

Apologies are a waste of time, as well as making promises you can't keep.

Bring me file 46XV480.

Rikkard Ambrose

After, I heard him get up from his seat and proceed to follow my demand, all without making a verbal sound. Normally, I would hear him grumbling in anger over the curt way I dealt with him, but today, he didn't utter a word. There was only silence as he retrieved my requested file.

Could there be something wrong with her? She is not acting like her usual self.

I disregarded the building concern for him. I didn't care if he was acting strange. As long as he did his job, I would not have a problem -other than with the fact that my secretary is not as male as I would like, of course.