Chapter 6 - Maybe I’m Not Cut Out To Be A Thief

A huge fist slammed the desk in front of her. Euryale couldn’t help but yelp in alarm as she flinched.

Her eyes were wide in terror as Xorn loomed over the desk in her finely appointed castle office. An indentation remained in her desk where he had just struck.

“I will ask again seneschal,” her title a sneer on his lips, “why were there not more guards about town? And what happened to the fire brigade? There should have been far more resources available to help during the attack but instead you and I had to try to put out fires ourselves by clawing at dirt like mongrels!”

His nostrils flamed. “You are Lord Malakai’s bureaucrat, little bookworm. Tell me what happened!”

“I…I…I’ve tried to t…tell you.” She gestured to some papers on the left side of her desk. “I’m sure the entire allotted budget was spent. We had as many people as Viscount Malakai’s budget pr…provided.” She stumbled over her words, fear still in her eyes as he continued to loom over her.

He jabbed at her shoulder with his sharp talon as he spoke, the nail grating against the fabric of her white uniform. “And I told you. I saw those numbers before. I am the Captain of the Guard! I know my duties. And I know we should have had at least twice the response!!”

She shook her head frantically. “I…I don’t know. Maybe you didn’t see the equipment costs? Or the food? Feeding and clothing staff gets…um…expensive.” He eyes searched the room for something, anything, that could get her out of this confrontation.

“Equipment? Food? And where would those records be? Don’t you understand we can’t have something like this happen again!?”

She nodded quickly. “I do. I do. But…you see…those records…”

“Go on!” He bellowed in impatience as she paused.

“They were in the house. The uh, counting house. They’re gone.”

He stood, dumbfounded at her revelation.

“So, so much is gone in fact. I have no idea where to even begin!” Her voice began to raise as her own overwork and frustration overpowered her fear of Xorn’s wrath.

“We had just finished the survey on the year’s crops and begun collecting taxes. And now we have no idea who has paid and who hasn’t! And it’s not like we can just ask. Everyone will say they’ve already paid! Or they’ll say that their taxes should go down due to poor crops. But those records probably burned too. I have no idea…NO IDEA…how to even start sorting it out! It’s not like any of us demons trained in domestic affairs. Did any of us know we’d end up managing countries instead of conquering them?!”

Xorn leaned back for the first time, the usually timid Euryale’s exasperation surprising him. He sat and placed his head in his hands. “So…what do we do?” He didn’t have the luxury of time to think about why their grand conquest led to orders from their king to manage instead of pillage. Those questions could come another day.

“About the taxes? I don’t know. We’ll have to see what Lord Malakai wants to do. We probably have the old records in a separate archive, so if we need to we can just copy what happened in a past year. I’m sure some will be unhappy but I suppose a few may benefit too.”

“Bah! Not the taxes. The security! How are we suppose to stop the next attack with such paltry staffing?!”

Before Euryale could respond his head rose and he looked like an idea had just popped into his head. “Wait. Wait!” He got up and started to pace.

“What if someone took the money and then burned the records to hide the theft? Yes. That could be it.”

“Theft!” Her voice cracked at the word. “Who s…said…anything about…um…theft?” She clearly was struggling to deal with his theory.

Ignoring her, he paused his pacing and spoke to himself. “But if that’s true…then that means someone inside this castle is a thief. And that thief works for this Warlock. I cannot let that stand under MY WATCH!” He roared as he finished his thought.

“But…but…we don’t know if there is a thief. Or, or…a person on the inside. I mean, no one comes into the castle who isn’t a member of the Demon King’s forces. Only demons. I…I don’t think we should doubt our own kind. Wi…without proof at least.”

Xorn narrowed her eyes at her. “I…suppose.” He conceded. “But most of the guards on the City streets are human or demihuman. If some of the squad lieutenants have turned they could be diverting resources and we might not have noticed.”

She drew her lips tight as she thought about his suggestion. “Maybe. But either a great number of your lieutenants on the street worked together…and…um…I’m pretty sure they are all too terrified of you…or maybe this really is just a misunderstanding regarding the budget set by Lord Malakai? You…you should maybe discuss it with him.” Euryale applauded herself mentally for thinking of a way to end this conversation by redirecting Xorn elsewhere.

“I will…consider it.” Xorn was unusually slow to respond.

Euryale let out an awkward laugh. “Yeah…the Lord is, uh, challenging to talk to, isn’t he?”

Xorn nodded slightly to concede her point.

“But maybe…if you want…we could do something in the meantime.” She sifted through the papers on her right as she spoke, pulling out one and holding it up before continuing.

“Whatever the actual numbers were in those records, we’ll have to redo them all by next month for our end of season accounting. We can figure out how much you need for proper security and just reset the budget.”

“And until then? We have no idea when this Warlock will attack again. And I do not look forward to reporting yet another failed response to the Lord Viscount.”

“No, no that makes sense. Until then we can just borrow from the winter reserve. Yeah. I can make sure you are allotted what you need in the meantime.”

“Hmm…good enough. Personnel will take time to train but it is better than doing nothing.” Another thought paused him. “But what of the missing money?”

“Well, um. We still don’t know if any money is missing, do we? But if we do have a gap we’ll figure it out next month when we redo the records by then. If we find something is missing you can, uh, investigate then. There’s just…so much we have to do before then be…because of the attack.” She shrugged her shoulders sheepishly.

“It will have to do. I suppose you may be right that nothing is amiss. And I don’t have time to chase shadows. See that your numbers are fixed by then, bookworm.”

He stormed out.

Euryale slunk deeper into her plush chair, exhausted. A sigh of relief at his departure escaped her lips.

“We haven’t had a single incident in two years…two years! How was I supposed to know that stealing from the security budget would matter!”

She rapidly began sifting through the large stack of documents in front of her.

“And just when I thought I caught a break when the collection house burned down. It was fine when no one was paying attention, but even better when I thought all the evidence of what I’ve been doing burned up…Now what am I going to do?! If Xorn finds out I’ve been taking that money he’s going to think I work for Warlock!”

She collapsed onto her pile of ledgers. “Ugh…I’m going to have to find a way to put the money back, aren’t I?…”