He awakened even earlier than usual on the morning when he and Isla were supposed to scry each other, to find that Star was already waiting at his bedside. “The Gate talismans are prepared, Lord Duke,” the Doll said. “There will be thirty thousand of them for each Gate. They are marked ‘F’ for the Foot Gate and ‘W’ for the Water Gate, as your metal talismans were. If you need more, we can make them.”

He gulped when he realized just how much space those sixty thousand pieces of paper were going to take up. Granted, the things were only two fingers wide and a finger long, but that was a lot of paper. “Isn’t that going to fill an entire satchel?” he asked.

“Yes, Lord Duke,” Star said. “The messenger will be given a sealed Imperial satchel that contains them. It was one that has already been marked in the records as ‘discarded and destroyed.’ This way there will be no large satchel missing from inventory. The messenger chosen is one who has no curiosity at all, and is a habitual drunk. He will give your spouse both satchels. She is to take the receipt from the mostly empty one, give it back to him, take the full one and keep it, and is advised to offer him a bottle of the strongest spirits in your manor, and invite him to enjoy it before he returns. He certainly will do that. It will not be the first nor the last time he has indulged in drink before returning to the Palace. In fact, such occurrences are habitual with him.”

Kordas blinked in amazement at how clever the Record Keeper had been. “And he hasn’t been replaced?” he asked in amazement.

“Who would report this?” Star asked reasonably. “The Record Keeper would not. His fellows would not, especially since he is wont to share his bounty with them on his return. He delivers what he is told to, accomplishes his task, and returns. So far as anyone who has any interest is concerned, he is exemplary at his job. And to be truthful, which this one always is, his job does not require very much in the way of intelligence.”

Kordas had to wonder now just how much sloppy Imperial business was done, given the lack of anyone caring, and the apparent lack of supervision. Maybe that’s how we got by unobserved so much of the time, he thought with wonder. More of the Dolls doing only exactly what they were told to do, and purposely not doing it particularly well. He could not possibly have gotten away with as much as he had if people were actually good at what they were supposed to do, or cared about what they were supposed to do.