Notice of Reprimand
(A crude caricature of a Brass Blade wagging his finger at the reader is beneath, along with a series of symbols directing the bearer to conduct the letter to a public reader in the event of an unlettered recipient.)
Be it known that Malin Greaves of the Order of the Orchid is hereby found to have committed the following offenses in the course of her duties (List all below):
- Jurysdyctionale Overreach
- Chonduckt unbec Ymproper beehayv Acting lyke a ryght pricke
- Assaultyng Swohrne Members Of The Rose
- Off-duty use and damage of Offyciale Eqypment
Following an investigation by Officers                               of the                       , we have determined the following disciplinary action to be appropriate:
(An exhaustive list of punishments follow. Some of the more obscene ones have been circled once, then rapidly crossed out. "Chocobo Stable Duty" was obviously selected several times, but the only clearly selected action appears to be "Central Administrative Duty for Observation")
For a duration of untyl wee feel lyke lettynge you go.
Signed,
(The signatures of several senior officials in the Brass Blade administration are included, as well as that of Captain Longhaft of the Order of the Orchid. All of these signatures were obviously stamped onto the paper).
* * *Â
The chirurgeon Malin had hired to tend her injuries was far from the finest money could buy, but “finest†was relative here. To a rich consortium head, he’d been nothing, but to Malin, who’d had to pay out her leve earnings and dip into Donnell’s savings, he’d been more than worth it. He’d cleaned and sutured the ragged cuts along her thighs and hips with the assurance that scarring would be minimal (about which he was probably wrong, but she supposed assurances came with the fee), and had, in addition to a few poultices to be used in avoiding infection, prescribed half a cheap bottle of wine nightly for the pain, to last the week. For that alone he’d been worth the housecall.
When the notice arrived from the Blades’ central administration, neatly crumpled in her flat’s mail slot, she’d chosen to double her evening dosage; that, in addition to pasting the paper on the wall opposite her couch and flinging darts at the image of the scowling Blade that served as “official†notice imagery, served as a good bit of evening’s entertainment. Most of her shots missed, but one managed to hit the fellow in the hand that was wagging its finger at the reader. She took some comfort from that.
She knew this was nobody’s fault but her own. If she had been clearer-headed, she likely wouldn’t have confronted the Horizon Blades as they went through their usual roughing-up-the-merchants rigmarole. And she had no particular reason to believe the merchant was an innocent victim. Merchants paid her coin; she knew exactly how rotten they could be.
But no, a few gashes from the thickshells around the Footfalls, cutting through her haubergeon and getting saltwater in open wounds, and suddenly she was tackling members from the Orchid, pulling rank and shouting threats. And for what? The man’s cargo was still in Horizon and he was as likely to be swindled by the Blades - or to be fair, swindle them in kind - as if she hadn’t said a thing.
And then, she realized with a shudder in the midst of prying the darts out of the notice, hiring the adventurers on top of all of that. Sending them out to get information on a Monetarist of all things. All well and good for the adventurers considering most of their ilk hated the Monetarists and Syndicate on principle and were generally immune from consequence, but as a class they were rarely subtle, and their knack for gathering information could be likened to a stampede of Aurochs with irritable bowels - able to get where it was going but leaving the worst possible mess in its wake. Whoever Fufutilo Keketilo was, he surely had enough power to make Malin’s life a hell if he found her nosing around in his business.
She took a drink, slumped back in her couch, and lined up a dart for another throw. If her aim was true, maybe she’d hit the crotch.
The front door opened a hair too quickly, slamming into the wall since the stopper had long since been removed. The dart landed in the wall a point some half-fulm from the notice, and Malin blamed the shot going wide on the noise rather than the drink. “Gosdammit,†she snarled, the words slurring together as she looked over her shoulder. “Couldya at least - “ She squinted, narrowing bright blue eyes. “Donnell? You’re on . . . shift though, righ’?â€
“Mm.†Her husband had entered the front room at a brisk pace, still wearing his garish blue retainer’s coatee. “There’s a sixth-bell left on this venture, and I’ve come up empty.†He passed into their small kitchen area, and started sifting through the cupboard near the stove. “Do we still have that dried fish from last week?â€
“Wha? Yeah, I think, third shelf - “ Realization dawned, and she groaned, pressing her hand against her cheek. “No, Don, just - no, okay? Not our stuff tonight. Just go grab some’un’s lawn ornament and hand it over.â€
“Would that I could, love,†he replied, making an “ah-ha†of triumph as he found a skewer of dried fish where she’d indicated. “Would that I could. No time tonight.†He passed into the living room again, bending to the side to peck Malin on the cheek. “Another three bells, I think. No more wine, all right?†As he rose up, he noticed the paper on the wall, the image of the Blade glaring back. “What’s this?†Â
“Reprimand.†Malin scowled and gave a small, wobbly wave of her hand. “Filin’ paperwork in the city now.â€
“Oh.†He scanned over the notice, mouthing out the words. “Until they feel like . . .this is indefinite?â€
Her scowl deepened. “Try not to sound too happy about it.â€
“Yes, more time with you in the city when you’re not recuperating instead of at Highbridge. What was I thinking.†He shook his head. “Later. We can talk then. All right?â€
He was through their door, dried fish in hand, before she could raise any protest. Malin sighed while rubbing her temples. He was right, of course, or at least she knew she ought to think he was right. The two of them hadn’t had a lengthy stay together since all the incidents with those Ishgardian rosaries and the No-Eyed Man nearly two years ago. By all rights she should have taken this as a blessing. And yet.
And yet . . . what? And yet nothing, there was nothing she could attach to that. Just “and yet.†That was all she needed to be dissatisfied. Wounded and out of action, stuck in a bureaucratic mess of a punishment until further notice? Filing papers when she should have been out on the Highbridge frontline, out where the Blades shined the brightest. Instead she would be nothing but a shipping agent, filing arrests, sorting out jurisdictional disputes, reading customs notices . . .
Hm.
She reached out for her bottle, silently apologizing to Donnell for not listening to him. But it appeared there was a blessing to this after all.
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Current Fate-14 Storyline:Â Merchant, Marine
Current Fate-14 Storyline:Â Merchant, Marine
