Beshenna
Kallidi, in her drab oranges, and Binyata, in her darkest blue, stood together in the long, shadowy hallway outside the open entrance to the Queen of Form's most intimate office."We've got nothing, really," Kallidi remarked, her eyes focused straight through the doorway to the where a woman with flaming red hair sat behind a monstrous oak desk.
"A warning," the Second replied, a look of chagrin on her face. "That's all."
Kallidi turned to look at her superior's face.
"You're disappointed."
"Am I?"
"You don't hide it well," Kallidi remarked. "But be honest. Whatever you'd like the truth to be, the evidence just isn't there."
Binyata took a deep breath and let out a sigh. She glanced back down the hallway through which they had entered into the Queen's Offices. Principia Form, with all its straight lines and taut banners, was a place that cried out for rules, demanded protocols and expected fair trials driven by high standards of proof.
"Endowment is right," Binyata said, turning away from those heartless straight lines. "We can't prove it, but she's right."
"You want it to be true," Kallidi dared to say, a note of accusation in her voice.
It was a tasteless gesture, really, accusing her superior of following emotion over evidence. She should have received a dressing down for her attitude.
Instead, Binyata let her eyes slide over the Officer lightly before she returned her gaze to the room ahead of them. There sat the Queen, looking slightly awkward in the odd shades of red she always had to wear to offset her complexion and hair colour, discussing some document or other with a handful of orange-clad Officers.
Kallidi looked up at her again.
"What are you going to tell her?"
"Let me ask you, Kallidi," Binyata spoke very slowly, in the manner of nursery teacher.
Somehow, that particular chiding tone made the question an even worse insult than what Kallidi had just laid on Binyata. The Officer barely managed to keep herself from taking a step back.
"I would tell her only what we can prove."
"So, nothing, then."
"Hardly nothing."
"Nothing we can prosecute," Binyata corrected, waving a hand to make the modification a trivial thing; causing Kallidi feel like a child again.
Indignantly, Kallidi turned to face down the length of the dark hallway once more, facing her Queen.
"It's the truth," she said, chin ticked up.
"Oh, indeed."
Kallidi felt slapped once more
"But I'm not in charge of this investigation," she said, still determined to save some kind of face, or at least keep her superior from doing something dumb. "What will you do?"
"I will -"
But Binyata's intentions were not to be announced in advance, because the warden just outside the door rapped the butt of her spear against the dark, wooden floor.
"Her Highness will see you now."
All further conversation quelled, the two women marched through the arched doorway into the brightly lit room beyond.
"Thank you," Binyata said.
One of the previous Queens of Form, some decades ago, had taken the opportunity to remodel the room along slightly different lines from the rest of Form. Instead of the rough, dark oak floorboard and panels that were the standard throughout this corner of the Temple, Principia Form had been done in a much smoother, lighter grade of wood. It made the place stand out, relatively speaking, but it also made it a breath of fresh air after waiting in the darkened hallway.
Consequently, the Queens of Form had always found that their visitors were quite relieved to step into this particular office.
The Queen chose to reinforce that feeling of comfort today by standing to receive her guests and putting them at ease with a kind smile on her face.
"Binyata, Kallidi," she called out, her voice making the address into a song. "Come around the desk."
The two women bowed, synchronized perfectly as they had been taught, and made their way around the desk as the Officers who had been attending the Queen swept past them.
"Chandra," the Queen spoke quietly, still standing. "Clear the room, please."
It was a simple command, made completely innocuous by the inflection in the Queen's voice. The door warden moved to obey in that quick but graceful way that appeared casual and unrushed.
"Attendants," the warden ordered.
Girls in knee length white skirts were almost like wall hangings. No one ever paid them much attention until a message needed delivering or some item needed fetching. At that point, a woman of high rank simply snapped her fingers and the next in line would jump forward to obey without a moment's hesitation. There were always such girls in any office, usually a pool of them shared by a number of women with real work to do. It was considered a sort of apprenticeship, so that younger ones could watch their experienced elders and see how things were done.
In a Queen's Office, however, there were perpetually six such Virgins, prepared for any manner of duty, and all came to attention at the Warden's call.
"Clear the room," the warden announced, knowing that it was her job to be loud where her Highness preferred to speak softly.
The Virgins, less graceful than their minder, quickly trotted out into the hallway with the warden, who pulled the heavy doors closed behind her.
Once the doors were sealed shut, the Queen's demeanour became considerably colder. She sat in her wooden chair and crossed her legs.
"What have you to report?"
Kallidi turned a nervous eye towards her superior.
