CROWNS I: Of Desolate Hope | ✔

7. Jaessa's Job

Could I hate this anymore?, thought Jaessa, carrying lots of old books up a long staircase. The staircase was glossy and made of marble and bore a similar resemblance to the exterior of the building. "Excuse me, please," said Jaessa many times as she tried to weave her way in and out of the masses of people. She had only been working for a few days but despite her job title she instead acknowledged that she was being used as a glorified paperboy. I guess I could hate this more, there's still room, she thought, as she bumped into someone and had to juggle the old, roughly-bound and dusty law books. Jaessa regained control of the books and continued to the last door along the corridor.

"Miss Jessica!," came a voice, "Miss Jessica!"

Jaessa sprinted to the door and reached it panting like a dog. "I'm here Lady Jean. I have them. All of Derromir's Laws from Volume One to Six in order."

"Very good, Jennifer."

"Ah, it's Jessica."

"Of course. That's what I said, Jessica!" exclaimed Lady Jean.

"My mistake," replied Jaessa, inwardly frustrated.

"We all know that." said Lady Jean, "Come along then."

Is she serious?, thought Jaessa. She didn't know if the stern, old woman was doing it purposely or whether she really did have that bad a memory. Jaessa ,occasionally, didn't mind carrying the books as long as she got to be in one of the chambers and today was one of those days.

Jaessa followed Lady Jean into the large chamber. Inside were rows of great seats arranged in squares. The innermost square had the largest seats which were furnished and white- there were only four of these. The next square of seats were smaller than their predecessors and were crimson red of which there were eight of these. The outermost squares were formed of much smaller brown seats - too many for Jaessa to count. At the centre of the chamber was a podium with a short,fat and bald man on it. The man obviously had said something quite controversial as the entire chamber was in an uproar.

In the corner of her eye, Jaessa caught sight of a familiar face. No way,she thought, He did not! That pig! Sir Thom Percy winked at her from the corner of the room with two rather attractive and recognizable women in his arms. Jaessa made a very discreet but quite colourful gesture that screamed a thousand cusses and curses. How did he even get in here?,she wondered. Thom Percy replied with a subtle grin and put his thumbs up.

"Jessica! Jessica!" yelled Lady Jean, trying to make herself heard over the noise, "Give those to that man! Over there!" Lady Jean gestured to the man that sat next to Thom.

Jaessa tried her best not to start screaming as she gingerly approached Thom who was now kissing Lauren, the brunette-haired lady, passionately. I'm going to beat the shit out of him later, she promised herself. As she handed the law books to the man, she glared menacingly at Thom who was so scared that he temporarily stopped to gulp before Lauren was all over him again.

Jaessa then grabbed a hold of Nell. "What do you think you're doing?" she asked in a hushed voice, trying to conceal her anger, "We're working!"

Nell rolled her eyes and slapped Jaessa's hand away. "I want him. Simple." she replied, "Just trying to have a little fun. You got a problem with that, bitch?"

"All of us are going to get punished if you start slacking," replied Jaessa, rapidly losing her temper, "You know how the old lady is."

"I don't care," said Nell, flicking her hair, "I never wanted this crap job. All we do is move books around and watch other people shout at each other."

Jaessa knew that Nell had a point but it didn't stop her from wishing that she had her sword by her side. Your head would be nice on a platter, she thought to herself. "If you don't like it, leave it. Get out of here! The rest of us juniors don't need you dragging us down," she said.

"Look," replied Nell, grinning but with grave eyes, "I know you think you can change the world and make a real difference but you can't. You're a lonely bitch, in a lonely world who's shit at her job. I'm not sure what you expected when you applied for this job. Surely, you didn't think that you were gonna have a say in anything. You mean nothing here."

Jaessa felt she was extremely close to punching Nell in the face. "You're not serious," she said storming away, "You're going to end up dead very quickly if that's how you talk to everyone. Not that I'm against it." Although she could bare her job, she couldn't put up with the people she worked with.

Lady Jean grabbed her arm. "Jessica! Jessica!" she yelled, "We need you in the library. There's plenty more books to carry. Stop wasting time!"

Jaessa let Lady Jean drag her away from Nell,out of the room and into the library. The library was underneath the building itself and in it were millions of books in shelves as high as the enormous ceiling. The pillars that held the dome shaped ceiling were great marble statues of learned heroes of old. Dozens of people were rushing around looking for the right books in the dusty shelves and carts. What have I gotten myself into?,she thought, as she watched Lady Jean order around more people to do jobs.

"Jessica!"

"Yes, m'lady," she replied, forcing a smile.

"I can sense you have much bigger dreams and larger aspirations," commented Lady Jean, "Am I correct in saying that?"

 "Well, of course," replied Jaessa, hastily, "I do not want to be delivering books to other people forever."

"Then you must learn that in order to get up there," said Lady Jean, pointing upwards to where the law chambers lay, "you must first succeed down here. Okay?"

"Understood," replied Jaessa, reinstating her almost non-existent hope of success, "I will get there eventually."