Professor de Lanz was not thrilled for the seamstress to knock on his door that morning; he had gotten into quite the row with his wife the night before over unwashed beans. Yet, he welcomed the retreat to his office, where he took a seat at his bureau and wet his quill with black ink.
“I take it you are not here for a social visit,” he said to the girl.
“I would like some tea without sugar,” she said.
“And to speak a letter, I take it.”
“When do I not speak letters to you?”
“When you are not here.”
The seamstress tilted her head under her bonnet and tapped a gloved finger on her knee. “Would you like me to leave,” she said, “when I have already paid for your services as a penman, in advance, for four letters weekly?” It was what she could afford, selling little stitched bags and patches for cloaks, a service that left her scrambling for coin to pay off her room at the Dagger every week.
“No, just speak,” he said. “I could use the distraction.”
“I wish you would take your job more seriously, professor,” she said.
“I wish you would understand your boundaries more readily, child. A seamstress cannot make change in the world around her. That is not a woman's place, nor is it ever a girl's.”
“I am left with no other choice but to try,” she said.
To the Honorable Glenn Burnie, Master Regent of Myrken Wood, regarding a Request for Literature, and a Concern for One Very Blind Dignitary
If You remember our Earlier Correspondence, Regent Burnie, I hope that You recall the Request you made, that if I obtained a Number of Jernoan Books, You would compensate me for their Acquisition. Well You see, I have just returned from a Foot Journey of Four Days to Foggy Bottom, where I retrieved Various Jernoan Tomes, which include
- Jernoah and its Sands: A History
- A Critcical Analysis of Jernosta Tactics: or, Training Young Boys to Kill Young Boys
- The Rat'vak of Growing Parts and Reclamation of Way of the Nameless – Why Foreigners Should Be Forsaken
- H'zlz and G'leuse [This is a Wonderful Longform Poem, my Personal Favorite, in which H'zlz, a Good Man and General, has fallen in Passion for a Younger Man, G'leuse, and kills G'leuse's Wife and Child to display His Love; It is tragic]
- The Three Day War and Relations with Einsland
- How to Bathe without Water
- Giving Your All to the Nameless!!!: A Poor Lady's Belief in Many Gods Or One!!! [She must have been very excitable when This was written]
These are Titles in Translation – I will inquire of my friend in Myrkentown, Professor de Lanz, to translate the contents.
Acquiring them was of some Difficulty. My Associate Messa Murrukh protected me on the Journey, and while I am not fond of his Whoring Ways or his Desire to pass Offensive Amounts of Bodily Gas when his Bowels so Choose, I was grateful for his willingness to protect me from the Potential Threats of Bandits, Highwaymen, Angry Wolves, Very Disagreeable Ticks and Fleas, and Lascivious Men who thought me Quite a Catch.
Murrukh will require thirty-three shillings for his time; I will require four shillings for the night we lodged in Foggy Bottom; Professor de Lanz will require at least five shillings per translated chapter; I hope you are Willing to Honor our Previous Agreement of Payment, for the sake of bringing My Agreeable History and Poetry to Myrkentown.
Also, there is a Matter of Fright that I wish to Express: that a one Dignitary, Messa Treadwell, chose not to Interfere in a Matter of Potential Violence in the Broken Dagger Tavern the other night, as if He was Exempt from the Task. A Dignitary of Any Status should be willing to speak against such Transgressions; He was more concerned with my Books than with the fear that a Child might be Hurt, or that a Lady was in Danger.
This is not a Good Representation of Myrken Diplomacy.
In Addition, I would like to offer my Services as a Servant of the Court, or as a Junior Student of Diplomacy. You see, I have practiced speaking against that Book Voice, Melody, and Man as You suggested, and think I might be fit for Politics, and would like to hone these Skills of Rhetoric along with my Mathematics and grip on Standard Language. I have heard Many Times that Politics are not a Woman's place, but I have a skill to Incense and Frustrate and think it may be a Calling to follow.
I look forward to your letters.
Sincerely, your Loyal Supporter in Myrkentown, faithful Jerno-turned-Myrkener, Humble Seamstress and Hopeful Student of an Academy of Rhetoric and Letters that may teach Her the way to a Life of Faithful Work,
Signed,
Gloria (Glour'eya) Wynsee