Diving Deep (requests closed)

The Scribe Part 2 - Izana's Story

I'd just finished another meeting on trade negotiations with our neighboring countries. How can someone make everything they say sound so dull? It seemed almost like they were hoping to bore you until you were no longer listening and would agree to just about anything they wanted just to shut them up.

Sighing yet again, I turned down another hallway and began walking past a young (h/c) lady as she carried a basket filled with carefully rolled scrolls. Suddenly, I was stopped by her soft voice calling out to me for help.

It seems she had gotten lost trying to find the office of the Assistant Pharmacist, a room on the complete opposite side of the palace. How could someone become so lost as to get that far from their destination?

Trying not to laugh at her hopeless sense of direction, I smirked and her and told her just how lost she was. She seemed rather used to such answers and politely gave me her name. (y/n), it rang through my mind over and over as she pushed her lovely (h/c) hair out of her (e/c) eyes. I had to stop myself from shaking my head at such odd thoughts.

"Follow me, (y/n). I'll show you the way while you tell me about why you have so many scrolls." I smiled and turned from her to head towards our destination, telling myself that I was only curious about why she had so many in her basket. It never hurt to learn about the people staying within the palace grounds after all.

It was most certainly not because I thought she had a lovely voice.

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I found myself running into her often over the next week, learning things about her that surprised me. None shocked me so much as when she mentioned her opinions of both my brother Zen and myself. She admired Zen for how he spent time among our citizens, something that was not too surprising of an opinion. I guess the real shock was how much she knew about me and that she admired me for all of it.

She admired me. She told me to my face, not even realizing who I was, that she thought 'we couldn't ask for a better person to become King.' She said we, not they. Did she even realize she had started counting herself as one of my subjects? Or was I putting more into her words than what she really meant to say? She was confusing me so much, without even trying.

What worried me though, was how she got all this information. It was not normal for a simple Herbalist's scribe to gather so much information. Why would she need to do so? Please, don't be a spy. I knew I would have to have my men investigate her and check into anything she claimed.

Trying to hide my concerns, I smiled and asked her about her wealth of knowledge. Her response made sense for one who traveled across boarders for a living, but that made me wonder about why someone who worked for a Herbalist would need to travel so often and to so many places.

Suddenly it hit me. She wasn't an Herbalist's scribe. She was a Scribe. It may not seem like much, but the difference was huge. A mere scribe was often considered lucky to find a regular job that would pay for their living expenses, let alone anything else.

If she was a Scribe, then that meant she could find herself working for Nobles on a regular basis, often traveling to where they lived to complete her work. Crossing boarders would be a common thing for someone of her position.

Upon carefully wording a question about her job, she confirmed my thoughts without hesitation. She even admitted that she usually worked for nobles, even documenting meetings with political groups, which explained how she new so much of the goings on in the world around her. And she seemed to keep a sense of morality when choosing jobs, something I found added to how much I found myself liking her.

I almost flinched when I realized what I had just thought. Liking her. She is just a Scribe, even if that is a respected job. She was not even a noble, there was no way this could go anywhere. There was nothing to go anywhere!