He smiled slightly. “Knowing your unending curiosity, I thank you for your patience.”

“My curiosity has as much as it needs on a regular basis right now,” Myste replied. “You know, before Elcarth took me on, I was never satisfied. I wanted to know, not so much what was going on, but why. That was the thing that drove me mad, sometimes. Why had this or that law been made, why were your people such persistent enemies, why—Well, there are always more questions than answers. Now I’m able to find out my whys, more often than not, and more to the point, I’m entitled and encouraged to do so.” She smiled, and her lenses glittered. “Maybe that’s why I was Chosen; I can’t think of any other reason.”

He laughed. “Is that why you were always such a thorn in my side, as a Trainee? That you could not be told to do a thing without wanting the reason for it?”

She shrugged. “I don’t take orders well unless I know why the order is being given. And I’ll be the first to admit to you that I’m very lucky and have been unusually favored in that way. Most people can’t afford to indulge that particular luxury; they either follow their orders without question, or—well, there are unpleasant consequences for wanting answers.” She rubbed her thumb absently against the little “clerk’s callus” on the side of the second finger of her right hand, a callus created by hours of pressure from a pen.

He nodded, wondering suspiciously if she was hinting at his past.

“The more I’m in the courts, the more I realize that,” she continued. “As a clerk, well, I knew why I was doing what I was doing. It was obvious. Pointless, perhaps, but obvious.” She glanced up at him, sideways. “You know, you have to be a clerk, I think, before you realize just what a pother people make over nothing. And the sheer amount of ill-will that people seem to think must go down on paper, or die. Dear gods!”

“What, letters?” he asked.

“No. People mostly write their own vitriol in letters. We’re a literate people, Alberich; that’s mandated by the Crown. Just as Karsite children are required to go to the temple for religious instruction, ours are required to get instruction in reading, writing, and figuring. No, I meant legal documents, that’s mostly what a clerk handles. At least, my sort of clerk. There are others who do things about money, but I’ve never had that kind of head for figures. I saw a lot of wills.” She sighed. “A lot of wills. And depositions. And the documents involved in lawsuits. Well, since you’ve been acting as bodyguard to young Selenay, you’ve seen what happens when something gets as far as the courts!”

He nodded again. “But it is important to them.”