Ferra, Tantras, Trouble!!! <-and if it's not this there's nothing preventing me from trying again (no but fr there are so many things on this list i'm itching to know about!!!)
No hot dogs or any other erotic organs in this fic! Ha HA!! Feel free to keep spinning the wheel!
This is more Valdemar stuff. I needed a scribe character so I created Ferra. She and Tantras (an established character) are going to be good friends. Maybe more.
“You can’t take Ferra, she’s not willing to be taken,” Ferra said without looking up. People never seemed reluctant to interrupt her when she was working. She understood that the problem was that she was currently slumped down in a chair with her feet on the desk in the archives back room, but she often looked like that when she was working. Why hadn’t people, in all the years that she’d been working in this damn place, somehow managed to understand that?
“You’ll note she’s not the warmest of people—”
“Hester,” Ferra warned, still refusing to look up. There was a godsdamned scroll in her hands. Did he think she was holding it because she was testing the weight?
“But she’s very good with languages.”
Ferra scowled and pulled the scroll closer to her face. Like the language on this scroll, Hester? The scroll I’m trying to read? she thought.
“Good, that’s exactly what I was hoping for.”
Oh. She knew that voice. She knew that voice better than she knew the man who owned it. Their social circles overlapped just enough that she’d talked to him a few times at the odd event and given his backside an appreciative glance when they’d politely parted ways. Herald Tantras.
Ferra peeked over the scroll. “You’ve taken a sudden interest in exploring languages?”
He smiled, and she was reminded that really, as partial as she was to his backside, that dark face was a marvel too. “More deciphering them. There’s a guest we need a little help with.”
Oh, this is bait. The Herald couldn’t have known it, he barely knew her, but she snuck a glance at Hester. He was wearing a half-smile as he studied the column beside him, the demon. If this were a simple matter of someone who couldn’t speak the language, then they could bring in someone to interpret for the guest. But if they needed Ferra, then maybe there was no interpreter who could help. Deciphering, Tantras had said. The delicious implications of that word…
She rolled up the scroll and tossed it on the desk. “You might do better seeing Professor Goet. What I do as a hobby, he’s committed his career to.”
“Amongst other things,” said Hester. He turned to Tantras. “I assumed you’d want someone to practiced at sobriety?”
“Sobriety and discretion.” Tantras agreed, putting a special emphasis on the last word. “As I said, we’re dealing with a guest to Haven, and we’re trying to make sure his stay is quiet and comfortable.”
Which could be the case. But it could also be that there was something more interesting here. A high-ranking guest whose presence could cause waves? A prisoner from the border they didn’t want to reveal? “I can’t argue with hospitality. When would you like my help?”
“Right now would be best, if you can manage.”
Ferra stood, delighted to remember that she had an inch or two on the Herald, and raised an eyebrow at Hester.
“I’ll find someone to finish up for you. Don’t want to be getting in the way of Herald business.” He waved a hand at her to dismiss her.
Herald business. There was a slight thrill that ran through Ferra when she heard that. Most of her work was copying documents for the Crown’s records, and most of what she did studying languages never made it beyond the walls of the dusty backroom of the archives. Ten years in Haven and the closest she’d gotten to true Herald business was a quick conversation with one at the odd social event, and now she was going to do interesting and secretive things for them.
She smiled at Hester, then swept an arm out in front of her. “Then lead the way, good Herald, and I’ll follow.”
@fivekoboldsinacoat because I'm just gonna tag you whenever I ppost Valdemar stuff.
