The exercise:
Write about: a pattern.
I see I managed to make it a whole four days into the year before getting the date wrong. Might be a new record.
My request to take Wednesday through Friday off next week was approved today, so I now have four days of work left in Osoyoos.
Although looking at the forecast for tonight and tomorrow morning, there's a decent chance it's only three. The snow is coming down already...
3 comments:
I think a few days off before starting the new job is a good idea :) And hopefully you'll have wound the current job down enough, and handed over enough, that you'd be sitting around the office drinking coffee and reminding people you're leaving for the last three days anyway!
Good luck with the snow though, whichever way you'd prefer that to turn out!
I don't know that Fabian is investigating exactly, I'm pretty sure he thinks he's a victim of circumstance and is just trying to avoid anyone on his staff getting him sacked :-D
A pattern
"So the Staff is some kind of key?"
"The staff," said Dread setting his menu aside and picking up the wine list, "is a powerful magical item that probably belongs in the Halls itself, and has been turned into a key for that repository. Which smacks of irony to me and makes me think i can guess who's idea it was but... shall we have beer instead of wine? They have quite a good list here and I was thinking of having the Beef Wellington. The porter would go quite nicely with that."
"Who's idea?" said Fabian. He craned his neck to look at the list that Dread was holding and the Admiral turned the menu slightly to make it easier for him.
"None of your business," he said. "That's for mages, same as if I were to ask you about HR policies in the Museum. Which, by the way, you're going to get asked about because Cass has definitely poked a few sensitive noses with that email."
"That's a little unfair," said Fabian. "Beer is good, I like the look the Golden Ale myself. You know a lot about the Museum and could make an educated guess."
"If you learned more about the College of Mages you could too."
Fabian picked his food menu up, then set it down again. "Touché," he said. His tablet pinged in his jacket and he ignored it. Dread set his menu down too and, as though summoned, a waiter appeared at their table to take their order.
As the waiter cleared the dishes from the table and discretely set the dessert menu down Dread excused himself for a moment to go and speak to a higher-ranking officer a couple of tables away and Fabian, feeling comfortably full, checked his tablet to see what had happened at the Museum while he was at lunch. The first thing he checked was the time, and he was relieved to see that the full twenty-four hours with drama had passed while he was eating. Then he opened the first email, from Cass, and was still staring at it when Dread returned to the table.
"That must be interesting," said Dread, a note of humour in his voice. "You haven't moved since I left."
"It's Cass," said Fabian. "She found something out about why her tour got refused."
"I hope she's still got her job," said Dread in a tone of such sincerity that Fabian tore his gaze away from the email and looked at him. Dread looked back, his face a picture of calm.
"Yes," said Fabian. "She said the reason they can't have the tour is that there's only one way in and out of the Halls."
"I told you that," said Dread after Fabian's pause extended rather longer than he expected. "What's that got to do with anything."
"Apparently," said Fabian, still trying to get his head around the thought, "they've lost the key."
Dread leaned back his seat and his face was still a picture of calm, but there was a shadow to it now; this was the calm before a storm rather than the morning after. He steepled his fingers together in front of him, stared at the ceiling, then down at his hands. Then he pulled them apart and picked up the dessert menu.
"I'm not actually hungry," he said, "but they're quite firm about making you leave if you're not eating. So what about a sorbet? They're practically nothing but a half-glass of water and some anaemic fruit."
"Pineapple if they have it," said Fabian. "Or mango. Peach."
"So yellow, basically," said Dread. The waiter appeared before he managed to let go of the menu and two sorbets were swiftly ordered.
"There's been a pattern here," said Dread, "and I think this makes it clearer. I will... do some very discrete asking around. And only because I know what I expect the answer to be. If I'm right, that will explain a lot of what is going on."
"Clear as mud," said Fabian. "Try again."
Dread glared at him. "Many things are better left unsaid," he said. "But if the Emperor wants to visit the Halls, or get something from there, then the Assessors will need to open them. And they can't do that without a key, which it seems they have lost. They've stolen the Heart of the Umber Hulk from you, so it seems likely they're trying to make a new key. So I shall see if I can get confirmation that the Emperor has been showing interest in the Halls of Sunset and let us hope that it is nothing more than wanting to see what's in there."
The sorbets arrived.
Greg - yeah, the Monday of training was a little stressful and overwhelming for both myself and Lauren, who has now taken over my job. But Tuesday was much more relaxed, as we covered the bulk of it the first day and could kind of cruise toward the end by late afternoon.
A lost key, that's unexpected! But seems to clear up what seems to be going on.
Impressed, as always, at how you manage to keep all the moving parts of this tale moving in the same direction.
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