Private Tales Taking Notes on the New Girl

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Tadgh Fahalla

Tadgh Fahalla

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He double checked his gear again before heading out. He thankfully didn't have much, but still, at this many thousands of years of keeping records, Tadgh didn't have excuses for things like forgetting paper, ink, and quills. His job was one of the utmost sincerity and importance for the queen of the Winter Court, and today was a somewhat important day in the scheme of things: he was to meet the new amanuensis of the court, a cwn annwn from what he'd heard, and a fairly young one at that, at least relatively speaking. How he hadn't heard of this cwn before, he wasn't sure, but people shuffled in and out of the court all the time and there was only so much one historiographer could do, even one as experienced as Tadgh.

So he gathered his things and left his secluded home, heading to the court of winter itself. He was dressed in a gray tunic with gold finishings at the seams and elsewhere, his long pants bearing the same pattern. His hair was tied into a long ponytail that tapered at the end, which looked like the tail of a dragon. It wasn't often he got to go to the court, so he dressed for the occasion, and of course, it was one of the only times he could appear the way he wanted to appear, rather than relying on a change of shape. He quickly checked his neck for any sign he'd forgotten to shift completely out of his dragon form, but didn't find any, and decided he could proceed. He arrived at the court building in question uneventfully, walking into its halls.

He took a look around, noticing many of the familiar faces he'd worked with over the years, slipping his hands into his pockets. He didn't need to ask to know where this new amanuensis would be working, if she was working where she was supposed to be here in the middle of the day--which itself would be a detail worth recording--and so headed towards that familiar office of writers he knew almost too well at this point. He greeted a few others of the court along the way, waving and smiling and nodding and all manner of pleasantries that he'd grown weary of over the years of his life. Yet he walked into the office in question with a candor on his features that belied the underlying cynicism.

"Excuse me," he called out, quickly and without hesitation, scanning the room. "I'm looking for the new amanuensis. I've got a few questions I need to ask."
 
Meika was sitting under her desk surrounded by books, journals, quills, and ink. The stacks were neat and messy at the same time. To anyone who didn't know how Meika worked, the stacks would look like a complete shit show. To those who did know her methods knew that they were all precisely organized and Meika knew what each one contained. She was very grateful that Queen Mab did not watch over her shoulder because she would probably be extremely worried.

She was currently working on rewriting the Queens last speech in a much better script than her quick shorthand. She would write quickly in the moment and then rewrite before she filed it away for prosperity. She had been in this position for a year now and she had gotten her process down to a science now. She had also made it known very early on into her employment that if anyone messed with her stuff, she would not be happy. She was so quiet that when she did get angry or even raised her voice, people got a little scared and worried.

"...Amanuensis. I've got a few questions I need to ask."

Her ears perked when she heard her title and she got to her feet quickly before looking around the room for the speaker. She spotted the only male she didn't recognize and smiled sweetly at the green haired male. "That's me," she said as she came out from around her desk. She was wearing black pants and a dark blue shirt with her signature smoky eye and dark lip. Her white hair was pulled up into a messy bun and she had a quill stuck in it. "What kind of questions?"
 
A quill in the hair is a practical choice, Tadgh thought as the cwn approached him from her seemingly disorganized desk. He scanned her features quickly, making sure to commit her appearance to memory; it was a hallmark of his trade, and something he did quite well. The makeup and the quill in her hair were certainly good distinguishing features, as was her hair, which he assumed would match when she was in her canine form. When she finally got to him and asked her question in return, he answered curtly and directly.

"I'm the court historiographer. Name's Yojin. It slipped my attention that there was a new amanuensis; wasn't something I thought to check considering the speeches weren't changing much. I suppose you might see that as a compliment. That said I'm going to need to know some personal information about you for the record. You can tell me here, or we can step outside. This shouldn't take too long, and then you can get back to whatever you're doing, alright?" He offered her a fake, polite smile, the kind he always did with this kind of work. Even so, he was paying attention to her movements and behaviorisms, anything that would help him distinguish her from her kin. It was of the utmost importance.
 
She looked at him with her head cocked and her eyes narrowed. He seemed like he was nice enough, but there was something about him that she couldn't put her finger on. Yojin, she didn't think the name suited him either but who was she to judge what his parents named him.

"I have been here a year, Yojin. You are certainly behind on your information gathering." She looked around the bustling office and nodded towards the door. "We can go outside. Lead the way." She was not one to talk about her personal life and she certainly didn't want to give personal details to a man she just met in a room full of coworkers.
 
He nodded his response. "Excellent. This won't take long. Follow me." Tadgh then led her to an area they could speak more freely than the office, pulling out some parchment, a quill, and ink, taking a seat at an available table and inviting her to sit across from her. After she had a moment to be seated, he dotted the quill in the ink and prepared to write.

He spoke, his tone calm and professional. "First things first, tell me your name and which court you hail from originally, as well as the family you belong to. Then it's just a few questions after that and you'll be free to go. Just need something for the books--I'm sure you understand. Just some paperwork that needs filing."

He wasn't wrong. But there was that one detail he'd have to ask her soon that was bothering him. What was a cwn annwn doing as the amanuensis for the queen of the winter court? Jobs like hers were usually reserved for duanann..
 
Meika took her seat across from him at the table. She supposed it made sense why he would need this information but she was also not a huge fan of giving it out. "Meika Haoqi. Summer Court. Haoqi Sept."

She watched him write down her answers and she had to admit that his penmanship was quite nice. She like good penmanship, obviously, as the literal Winter Court reporter. All she did was write and she knew future generations would read her writing so perfection was key.

"You have very nice penmanship," she informed him of her thoughts. Normal fae would think it a weird compliment, but she had a feeling he would be one to appreciate her words.
 
"Haoqi Sept, huh? Glad to see a cwn can get a position like this," he said, casually, as he continued penning down her details. His handwriting was more utilitarian than artful, meant to be read but not to impress the reader. Still, if she saw that about his penmanship and still said that, it was a nice compliment indeed. On the other hand, he knew people often said things like that to clear the air, and he knew that him arriving and asking for personal information was a generally uncomfortable experience.

Not to mention, of course, how strange it was that someone from so prominent a house could have escaped his attention. Yes, this was strange indeed. Had he really made so much of a mistake? Was he losing his touch? It shook him in a way he was not comfortable admitting to himself. He thought about what he said for a moment, feeling a sudden need to clarify.

"Not that a cwn can't do this job, I'm sure you're great at it. Just, normally a duanann is here... and through the rest of this building, too. So... times must be changing, maybe for the better, even."
 
She narrowed her eyes at his words. Was he insulting her? She was more than qualified for this job and it shouldn't matter that she was a cwn annwn. It was true that her predecessor had been a duanann and the majority of those in her office were too yet she was not the only lesser fae. She may have used connections to secure the interview, but she had gotten the job on her own.

She hmph'd at his next words. He was extremely condescending and she did not appreciate it. I'm sure you're great at it...asshole. "I am great at my job and I know how to get things done in an appropriate amount of time," she growled at him and sat back in her chair. She crossed her arms over her chest. "Perhaps a duanann could do your job better." Her words were sassy, but she didn't like his attitude. "What other questions do you have?"
 
"Perhaps a duanann could do your job better."
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He showed no expression on his face at this, but one of his fingers had the tiniest, most imperceptible twitch. He'd seen many fae like her come and go. He'd seen many fae come and go like that for far less impudent comments. He tried to calm himself, because perhaps she was only speaking to him that way because he was a puca, quite clearly a lesser fae himself, so her comment couldn't have been borne of anything other than blind ignorance.

He caught himself, in time for his pause to not seem particularly awkward.

"I meant no offense. I was merely remarking that it was an uncommon occurrence. I think it's wise to question any time something is done differently than before. It's no secret that lesser fae such as yourself and myself aren't looked upon with particular fondness by the powers that be. So I merely remarked on the interest of a cwn like yourself attaining such a position. I know all too well that your birthright has little to do with your ability..." He paused. "Now... The next two items might be a bit more complicated. I need to know who from Haoqi Sept approved you to work here, and then I need a note of every speech you've worked on here for the last year. I don't need all the details--I need dates and times mostly. Again, it's important to keep these things on record in case we ever need to reference them."

He'd hoped to have defused the situation but he thought with this one that things might not be so simple. At the very least, he could just get what he needed and leave.
 
She ignored his attempts to placate her and focused on his paper as he spoke. When he asked the next two questions, she looked up and studied him with her amber eyes. He really was not on her list of people she liked right now. "My sister, Fengli Haoqi, the Matriarch and my father, Ialels Gheye." Her voice was steady as she answered the first question. Her father was a famous scribe and a High Lord of the Winter Court. He had taught her everything she knew and she had moved in with him when she had taken this job. She was not above name-dropping when someone was going to question her abilities.

"As for the other question, I have the records in my file room. I will need to grab them from there. I do not know all of the the dates and times off the top of my head." She did know most of them, but she did not feel like making his job easier. No, she would drag it out just to irritate him. "What else do you need?"
 
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His pen worked furiously as she listed off the names. It seemed to him that while she was being belligerent about him asking a few questions, it wasn't any activity he could really define as suspicious. Still, the dates and times would give him the last piece of information he needed, and he could finally be rid of this situation. What did he care of the fate of a cwn?

"The dates and times would be all, miss. I'm sure you've organized them well, then I can be on my way and let you get back to your work. Speech writing is pretty important, and you must be doing well enough if I wasn't able to notice a change in the pattern from the previous writer."

He wouldn't say it, but he did find the situation quite strange. He wondered what else was moving around beyond what he could see in the court.

"I'll wait here for you, then. Thank you for your cooperation."
 
She was not sure what it was about him but everything he said sounded condescending to her. She did not say anything else to him as she stood and left the table. Meika was only gone for about five minutes before she returned with a small stack of parchment. She placed it on the center of the table for him to copy while she took her seat again.

"There you go," she said softly and watched him as he began to work. "Why do you need all this?" If it was as important as he said then he would found her a year ago when she had started working here.
 
"Ah, thank you; I'll be through these and out of your hair before you know it."

He took the parchment and started to copy dates and times from the various speeches. Truthfully, he wanted to read some of these, although he had attended most of these speeches so some of the language would be incredibly familiar.

"I need these because it's my duty to record just about everything, really, at least everything important. Our Lady of Winter herself and everything about her are of particular interest to the history of our court, and..." his writing started getting more furious. "That includes those in her employ. Details matter, as I'm sure you're aware..." quicker, more furious still. "And when something like the appointment of a new amanuensis escapes my attention, I must take notice and correct the record."

He was already halfway through the stack, but if he went any faster, he'd start making mistakes.
 
Meika watched him as he copied her notes. He started writing at a normal pace and started to write faster with each sentence he spoke. She reached up and undid the tie holding her messy bun in place. Her wavy white hair fell down over her shoulders while the quill that she had forgotten about hit the table. Ah, there it is, she thought as she picked up the quill with a smile and tucked it behind her ear. She had a bad habit of losing her quills and most of the time they were in her hair.

Once he finished making the copies, she reorganized her stack. She looked at the first page and her writing there. She liked her handwriting. It brought her happiness just thinking about writing. "Do you have any other questions for me?"
 
He finished copying the dates and quickly retrieved a small cloth to wipe the quill clean, then replaced the cap on his inkwell. He noticed she'd let her hair down, and he had to admit that even among other cwn she had a certain charm to her appearance. She wasn't overly done up or over-dressed, and she seemed to use whatever was handy to get her hair under control. He could appreciate that kind of pragmatism. Still, the current conversation was leaving him a little sour.

"No questions left for my purposes, no," he said. "I just need the ink to dry before you go. Would you mind too terribly staying here while it did? Just in case I need one of those references again." He thought of a more conversational question to pass the time. "So, how'd you get your start? With writing, I mean. It's not a particularly common talent even among the more educated of us. Especially lesser fae like you and I."
 
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Meika had been ready to leave before he asked her stay a bit longer. She didn't say anything else as she settled back into her seat and watched the puca across from her. "My father, Ialels, started writing with me at a young age. He taught me everything I know and made sure that I was not stifled as I grew up." Her father had been mute her entire life so writing and sign language were the two ways he communicated. She was one hundred percent a daddy's girl and she had no shame.

"How about you?" She asked back out of the obligation of keeping the conversation going.
 
"It's good to have family to help teach you things like that," he said. He was reluctant to tell any details about his past, but he figured this cwn might be insignificant in the grand scheme of things, and he didn't need to try to conceal anything. "I was born in a brothel in the Autumn Court. I spent hundreds of years learning how to write; it didn't come naturally to me, and I wasn't treated very well by most around me. Not strong enough to be a soldier, not smart enough to be a scribe. Learning to write as a farmhand wasn't easy, but somehow I managed and eventually I got out. A wild success story, I know, the little puca that could."

His words were only slightly bitter. Not for anything Meika had done, but for the memories he excavated to tell her his story.

"That's a bit dour though," he said, not willing to let the mood hang on his sad backstory. It was too long ago anyway for him to be too upset about sharing it. "Besides, it's not every day I get to meet a great writer such as yourself. A shame that I'm here on business, and can't examine your writing more closely."
 
Hundreds of years...how old is he? She was now curious but not enough to ask. "I am glad you were able to do something with your life." She offered a small smile to him. She wasn't sure what else to say on the matter. She was not one to talk much especially with strangers and he was a stranger.

She chuckled at his last words. She was hardly a great writer nor was she someone that people desired to meet. "My writing is speeches and what the Queen says in meeting. It is hardly something worth examining." She had a feeling he was talking about her personal writing, but that was not something she showed to strangers...or anyone besides her father.
 
As he was about to respond to her, a tall, thin duanann was walking by and stopped mid stride to take a look at the two of them where they were seated. Tadgh looked at him, right as the duanann opened his putrid mouth after staring at both of them.

"What's this?" he said, sneering. "I always knew mutts liked trash, and here I find one sniffing away right here in the court office!" He then laughed cruelly before walking off, still chuckling to himself as he rounded a corner into another room.

He'd always held his temper at moments like this, even if he would inevitably do something about it later. Things still weren't great for puca and cwn in the Winter Court. In his long life, he'd come to really hate duanann and what they represented. Even the ones from other courts that were supposedly better. Given how she'd reacted earlier, he thought Meika might have a fit about what was just said, but then again he didn't know what her experience was. She was clearly a young cwn and may not have had the same experience as him when it came to these things. Trying his best not to sound condescending, he extended some sympathy to her with his expression and that overly-used phrase.

"I'm sorry," he said, as sincerely as he could muster.
 
Meika looked down as the asshole duanann walked away. She was not so experienced with the level of hatred that the lesser fae received from others, but her father was and he had told her many stories. It did not matter that Mab was working on making the Winter Court better or that lesser fae held High Lord positions. No, there would always be racist assholes.

"I..." she focused on her stack of paper and quill. "It is new to me. No one would dare say anything in front of my father, the Queen, or Vaer, but when I am alone..." She trailed off and spun the quill with her right pointer finger, still looking down. She felt a tear forming in her eye and she willed it to not fall. Her will betrayed her.
 
He could tell that what the duanann had said was really getting to her. He even noticed the tear starting to well in her eyes, and the deep shame that was forming on her features. He knew all too well what she was feeling. He felt pangs of it himself.

"He's jealous that a cwn got the position that you did. I don't know that either of us will really see the discrimination like that end in our lifetimes. Duanann live for far too long, and they are wont to change..."

He took a moment, catching a glimpse of one of the speeches she'd written. He was impressed with the language, and it seemed she was a better writer than he was.

"You spoke too humbly about your work, truly," he said. "You should be proud of what you've written. I think the queen should be honored to have such words written for her purposes."
 
Meika tucked some of her behind her ear and rubbed the back of her neck nervously. "Thank you," she looked at him shyly with some heat rising in her cheeks. She got embarrassed whenever she was complimented on her writing. She didn't know why since she was a good writer. Her speeches weren't even what she was most proud of, but they were what people saw.

"How...how do you deal with the discrimination?" She just wanted to cry and run home when it happened to her or yell at them, but she was not really a yeller.
 
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He could see her youth shining through when she seemed to be blushing at some passing compliments about her writing. He couldn't help but admire it about her. Part of him wanted it too, really, for things to come so easily and feel so easily again. His innocence sadly had been lost a very long time ago. But maybe he could help her deal with what she was feeling.

"The only thing we can do is keep trying to make things better. Getting violent about it just makes things worse. In other courts I hear it's not so bad, and I've seen that for myself on many occasions. But like it or not, this is my home. You aren't bound the same way, are you? Unless you are, of course. It's sadly true that they are born better than us--but they don't always end up that way, even with their abilities. Ask anyone in the Winter Court, and they'll probably be the first to tell you... an iron dagger in a duanann's back cuts just the same as you or me." He sighed, softly. "Still, at least things are getting better under Mab's rule, though it's certainly taken a long time..."

He trailed off, wistfully. It was almost impossible not to think about his long history sometimes.
 
Meika sat in silence, mulling over his words. They were tough to hear and she didn't like them. She had been privileged enough to not have to worry about this kind of thing for the majority of her life. She pushed her chair out and slowly stood up while gathering her papers and her quill.

"I need to," she stopped and rubbed the back of her neck again. "I need to get back to work. It was nice to meet you." The cwn turned and walked off quickly before he could say anything else. After depositing her records in her file room, she left work early and went home to cry.
 
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"Wait--" was all he could muster before she'd already gotten up and left. Judging by the speed, Tadgh figured this might be something she did often. Being young, and unsure again... it was something he was going to think about for a while, that much was certain. This interaction had been strangely personal for him, and was uncommon to say the least. There was yet more for him to do that day, into the night as well, so he gathered up his notes and moved on, as it was the only thing he really could do right now.

~~

He woke up the next morning to some surprise mail that had arrived. He naturally checked it, since most letters that arrived to him were of some importance. He began to read it, until his eyes widened ever so slightly at the revelation that he would need to contact the cwn from the day before, Meika, and work with her to delve into the history of speeches in order to write a new speech for Mab that incorporated historical elements. They would need to go to an archive near the office they were at yesterday to find the materials. It was a simple enough task, but Tadgh couldn't help but wonder... why?

He looked over at the notes he'd taken about Meika and the speeches yesterday. He felt like he was just about to notice something, a question that lurked in the corners of his mind, but it didn't matter. He needed to go and do this. Then, he could come home and work.

So, he departed for that office again, looking for Meika, wherever she might be. He would check first the office, then anywhere else she might be, and inform her of their task...
 
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