Descriptions of Disquiet [Carina]

[Valentin]

Searing 12, 123

The OIR Building - Hearing Room One

Valentin Valentin was not accustomed to narcissism, but he woke early to spend some extra time on his appearance today. To an outside eye it might seem that his outfit was identical to yesterday's, but in truth he was wearing his second-best suit, his most suave shoes, his reddest details. It was not for his own benefit; oh no, no, for himself he was content to blend into the mass of administration, unseen. Alas, it was absolutely necessary to dress well to uphold the Emperor's reputation. It would not do for the thronging masses to see His Majesty's humble servants looking like slobs.

His outfit ready, Valentin mustered a modest breakfast before simply translocating to his office at the OIR building, bypassing the wards by dint of his official badge. He ignored his desk and his filing cabinet for the nonce; there were no forms to fill today.

No, he was here for a rather more refreshing sort of proceeding.

The auditor exited his office and strolled through the halls, turning down the stairs and entering through the doorway on the left to a small cloakroom. There were a handful of reference manuals here, and books of law- he wouldn't need them. With a self-satisfied little smile, he opened up the other doorway in the room and stepped out.

Hearing Room One was the OIR's best audience chamber, featuring a raised bench at one end of the room, counsel tables for any official proceedings, and then a little wooden bar and waist-high gate through which the public might be admitted. Beyond that were rows of benches for the audience; or rather, in this case, the petitioners. The doorway to the cloakroom was concealed as part of a raised relief covering the wall behind the bench, and Valentin felt a guilty swelling as people in the room stood as he entered.

“Remain seated.” Valentin instructed, his voice carrying across the hearing room, “Do not approach the well until I call your name. If you disobey this instruction, you will be shot.”

Valentin closed the cloakroom door and pulled the large hearing chair from behind the bench. “I am Valentin, Auditor for the Office of Imperial Revenue. This is a public hearing to challenge any change in valuation of property or income noted on your taxes this year. When I call your name, approach and make your case, and I will ask for any relevant evidence required. Anything you say here will be considered sworn testimony, and recorded on an official record by-”

Valentin turned to gesture towards the reporter's cubicle situated just to the left and below the bench, when his practiced speech suddenly stopped. His eyes grew wide.

[Carina]

.

Carina had made quite the smart decision the month prior, just as she was settling into her new rented office space — get officially licensed as a transcriptionist by the Imperial government. Now one could work as a transcriptionist without this, but it was only a hop to also becoming a notary, and this was the first step. She'd never much been interested in this line of work before, but it afforded her secrets shared with little effort to build trust on her side, and much better results.

And, now that she was certified, it put her on the roster of official transcriptionists for governmental hearings. And this meant that fairly frequently - at least every two weeks, if not more often — she was called upon to sit and write. And while it took much of her attention, therefore disallowing much use of semblance on the building, it made her a familiar face. People loved familiar faces. People did not question familiar faces. Especially if they were familiar faces but not ones they were so acquainted with as to approach.

So she had taken the official examinations and been certified for Imperial court transcriptions. In fact, her notary certification was due in the mail to her office any day now as well. Miss Anna C. Caron hated being registered with the government, but in a place like Gel'Grandal it was easier to have a small paper trail than none. While she had been unable to steal her arrest records, they were thankfully under a different name, and that was a very difficult thing to cross-check with these paper systems.

This was her first time in Hearing Room One, and she was seated in the cubicle for some time before Valentin's speech. He seemed familiar, in the sort of every-man way, like perhaps she had seen him on the street at some point. But that didn't matter much, and she began transcribing his words when he stopped mid-sentence.

Carina looked up only to see him staring at her, eyes wide. She couldn't help but flash a moment of semblance, and his aura seemed ten feet larger with pure emotion. She immediately halted channeling that aether and looked down at her papers. He seemed to recognize her, but she could not fathom as to why or what she had done to earn such recognition. She was pretty good with faces, and he was definitely not around when she had been arrested before.

.

[Valentin]

Time seemed to slow for Valentin. He could hear the rush of blood through his veins as his heartbeat seemed to grow louder and louder. He was distantly aware that he was earning concerned looks from the crowd, but the only thing which seemed of concern was the face of the small woman looking back at him. Smugly.

It's her. Valentin thought, his internal monologue seeming to come slowly, deliberately, The thief from my office! The bitch from the club!

He wanted to accuse her then and there, to summon the guard, to scream for the two orderlies to restrain her. The Kathar could be here in ten minutes, the Inquisition could confirm her crimes.

Oh, he'd suffered indignities enough on this horrible woman's behalf. He'd been caught by the police as she escaped the club, forced to sit for hours recounting events. They hadn't really believed him--he could tell--but eventually they'd let him go with nothing more than a warning to watch his fire on the club grounds. Worse yet was the interview with the Inquisition after she'd invaded his office. You would have thought they'd show him some sympathy, as proximate victim of her crime and responsible citizen both, but they'd called him back twice in the week afterwards, each time with strange and pointed queries which made him sweat bullets.

And now, here she was again.

Yes, he had reason enough and more to have her detained. Except... that's what she wanted, wasn't it? It made no sense to appear here, to taunt him like this except to lure him into some spectacular public blunder. Doubtless she would pull her expert disappearing act again, or perhaps she had already turned members of the local constabulary. Valentin could see it, all too clearly; his act as a responsible citizen would somehow be misrepresented and mutated, and he would end up on the receiving end of inquiry yet again. There were only so many "inexplicable incidents" one's career could take.

Clever. Ooh, she was clever. But it took more than a moment's shock to break Valentin Valentin. No, he would simply play along for now.

Valentin cleared his throat and smiled blandly, hoping that, from a distance, the sweat on his face wasn't too evident. "My apologies, everyone, let's not make anyone wait any longer than they must. I call the first case- Mr. Alfander?"

A portly gentleman hustled up past the bench, clearly eager to waste no time. "Yes, sir, thank you, your honor, sir. I merely wish to raise a point regarding the assessment on my shop--well, it's more my sons' shop now, bless 'em--regarding the installation of a steam heater, which I believe-"

Uncharacteristically, Valentin's mind began to wander as the man argued that his heater didn't add that much value to his property. His eyes kept returning surreptitiously to her, just sitting there, taking notes. He would need a strategy, something to show her for a fraud. But what?