"Unhand me, you little strumpet!" hissed War Scribe at Zakiyah, "Before I kick your sorry butt and rip your soul apart--piece by piece!""Just try it, here, in the presense of my God, I DARE you...he'll make sure you NEVER die again!" Zak hissed back, already sick of dealing with this freak..
Validor took no notice, other than to grin again. "And you cannot kill yourself, either. YOU shall be far too valuable to Me to spend all YOUR time regenerating. And Death is a busy entity herself, you know- make too much work for her and she'll start ignoring you. So what do you say? Try it for a year or two...? There will be other perks down the road...I've got a few tricks I give to my clerics, including a few I think you'd like..."
Thinking things over a little, War Scribe finally answered, "I'll do it, but only on one condition! If this tramp and I have to work together then I must be the Chief Chronicler and she must be my Assistant Chronicler! No if, ands or buts about it! So Validor, my future employer, what do you think? Do we have a deal or not?"
Zak's eyes widened- didn't she have a clue who she was talking to? She waited for Val's reaction- surely He'd reconsider His offer once He realized what an impudent little freak this girl was...
"Now, my dear War Scribe," Validor replied, gently but firmly, "WHO is the deity around here? This isn't a McDonalds- I don't take special orders from My clerics. Zakiyah has more experience and she will train you," Validor said, and gave Zakiyah a similarly firm look, "AND she will explain why there is no hierarchy in My service. All Lorekeepers are on an equal footing with Me. I expect you both to remember that.
Zakiyah looked like she'd swallowed TWO lemons and wanted to curse out loud. After all her years of faithful service, she was no longer the favorite? She wold be an equal with this psychotic, death-crazed Drow woman who'd just killed her? Where was the justice?! Where was the reward?!
"Zaki, child, don't look so furious. This will be a good experience for you. You need help, I need a lorekeeper who's not turned off by bloodshed, and this will give you a little more personal time, you know. I know you've been struggling with things."
"And I need a little dose of humiliation, is that it, Father?" Zak seemed to remember having a similar talk with her real father, several centuries before.
"Well, I wasn't going to say it like that," Validor replied with a smile. "But you do tend to take yourself- and your library- far too seriously. Lighten up a little, the trappings are not so important. Your role is to preserve history, that's all. It doesn't have to be grand or beautiful, just the truth. It seems to Me that you and your people might have forgotten that..."
Zak did look a little humbled, mostly because she had shouted just that at her father, and at all the Council of Elders, back in her youth- that they had forgotten their purpose and that they were hoarding the truth like a dragon hoards gold, and that one day their grand ivory towers and marble halls would fall. Well, they HAD fallen, and she'd been trying to bring all that back....all right, she could accept that....but....
"I'm not going to play the assistant for this psycho," Zak said defiantly.
"I'm not going to play the assistant for this little slut," War Scribe said simultaneously. They glared daggers at each other, planting hands on hips in an identical fashion.
Validor looked exasperated and threw up his hands. "NEITHER of you is the assistant! Oh, Hell, do what you want. As long as you get your work done, I don't give a damn about HOW you do it...now be OFF with you!" he waved them out of the room dismissively, then called after them, "And if I ever find out one of you has killed the other, I will be VERY angry. As a rule, I don't GET angry, and that will make me angry. Don't do it. Understood?"
