Fic rec: "Dispatches from the Junior Secretariat" by @wingedscribe
An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences Archive Warning: No Archive Warnings Apply Category: Gen Fandoms: The Hands of the Emperor - Victoria Goddard, Nine Worlds - Victoria Goddard Relationships: Gaudy Vawen & Tully nai Vasiaan, Gaudy Vawen & Cliopher "Kip" Mdang, Gaudy Vawen & Tully nai Vasiaan & Zaoul of the Tkinele, Gaudy Vawen & Lord Eldo Vardes Characters: Gaudy Vawen, Tulliantha nai Vasiaan, Zaoul of the Tkinele, Cliopher "Kip" Mdang, Artorin Damara, Lord Eldo Vardes, Kiri Kalikiri, Aioru (The Hands of the Emperor) Additional Tags: Bureaucracy, Leaving Home, Family Feels, Cliopher Mdang's Relentless Competence, POV Outsider, closer to POV Newcomer actually, but that's not a tag, Canon-Typical Court Racism, Fabricated Thunder Lizard Facts Sorry Tully, Familial Rejection, Fitzroy Angursell Poetry Readings, One-Sided Rivalry, Misunderstandings, Gratuitous Use of Metaphor, Canon-Typical Gazing, The Mortifying Ordeal Of Knowing Your Boss Is Human When He's Supposed To Be An Emperor, Canon-Typical Speculation about Cliopher/His Radiancy, sibling dynamics
Summary:
Gaudy Vawen is leaving home to follow his uncle. Eldo Vardes is doing the same to defy his father. Zaoul wants to find the answers to questions only he is asking, and Tully wants to find problems only she can sort out. They collide in Solaara, where they find the Imperial Bureaucratic Service poised to aid the greatest transition in government since the Fall. And also, where they find themselves the somewhat-captive but very intrigued peanut gallery to the lives of both Cliopher Mdang and His Radiancy the Emperor. A retelling of parts of Hands of the Emperor through the the sometimes-comprehending, often-bemused, always-intrigued eyes of Gaudy, Tully, Zaoul, and Eldo as they grow and advance in the Service.