138 Chapter 7.25 - Winter Woes

'This is Hell' Kat thought to herself. In front of her the woman droned on.

"You don't understand, the merchant had two pairs of the crystalline earrings for sale, but refused to sell me both at the same price. He said if I wanted to purchase the last set, there was an additional fee for restocking of the materials to his display."

'This woman does not know hardship. She drones on and on about the battle for good prices..' Kat longed for the glory of a valiant death at the sword.

"In my day a merchant had to make a price and stick to it. But he refused to even cater to the price."

"So what is your complaint Ma'am?" Kat responded. She might have had a forced smile, but truly this work was torture.

"Haven't you been listening? My complaint is that he needs to change his prices!"

"On what grounds does this violate haven's laws or decrees ma'am so I can have an appropriate agent dispatched?"

"Well, it doesn't but it isn't good business and you shouldn't allow them to do business in this city."

"Well Ma'am, as you have indicated that the party at fault in your complaint has not violated one of Haven's Laws or decrees, the complaint is not actionable. At this time I recommend that you take up the issue with your duly elected representative, which based on your location is the Human Darius."

"That is not good enough!"

"I am sorry Ma'am, but this desk is reserved for complaints, requests, and petitions for the governance of Haven, and is used for matters where new laws can be recommended, or action taken to against those who have violated the current laws."

"Then there should be a law against this! How should I do that?"

With a sigh, Kat replied, "Please take a copy of these forms, and fill them out for submission. You will need to collect the signatures of 50 members of every race. This requirement is waived for Races that do not have 50 members or are not participatory in government, which at this moment includes the Forged, the Constructs, and the Spirit Folk. I must also remind you that there are no minor offenses in this country, and if a court is brought in session, the punishment is usually volunteer indentured servitude, exile, or reprocessing. Take time to think out your decision and I await your return. Have a nice day. Next Please!"

Kat has done this, day in and day out. It was always the same. Kat and Ky, the enthralled daemons of Serin, had been assigned torture. The two of them manned the 24 hour desk of the Haven Government Inquiries Desk.

Before they had the desk, representatives were personally bombarded with requests, complaints, and demands.

Now a large portion of those were funneled to this desk. Kat sighed. This drudgery was only compounded with the fact that she was left away from her Mate, Ky, As he manned the desk during the night shift.

The desk was open Mondays through Fridays, 24 hours a day. On weekends, it was a simple drop box that took most of the next night shift to get through.

When Kat was not at the desk, she was on call as Lord Serin Aegis' personal retainer. Mostly doing secretarial work and handling his weekly calendar. Ky took minutes for their representative meetings. As they were enthralled to Serin, they could not speak out about what they learned or act against his interests, so effectively they became simple extensions of his will.

However Kat longed for the battlefield. She wished for the glory of a death among her kind, a crashing wave against the enemy forces. She longed for the great khan to ride again. Gone was her battle raiment, replaced with a formal shirt and skirt.

Now however, her battle was monotony, her enemy, mostly human. Actually, almost always human.

***

After a few months on duty, Kat had come to appreciate her new battle There was an odd report every now and then regarding an unexpected changeling birth or a severely brokenhearted Demis who's flower was stolen with words. Those were immediately referred to the senior representatives in their race.

The majority of the complaints came not from those who were once refugees, but those who came to Haven from other countries. They did not like how things did not match with their home, so they wanted it to be fixed. They wanted Haven to assimilate to them. This irked Kat. they chose their new master, and bucked his rules.

So every chance she got, she would go into battle against whining human sized piles of excrement.

Merchant did not want to deal? Civil case. You got your dungeon appointment time wrong and they sold your slot when you were late to arrive? Read the Terms and Conditions for Entry in the dungeoneering pamphlet which you signed stating you have read. Changeling flirting with your husband? Discuss that with your husband.

Disregard, Downsize, Defer. These were Kat's weapons against the never ending onslaught of complaints.

There was one part of her job that she enjoyed. Kat had requested, and had approved, that the Government subsistence desk be put next to their desk. This desk handed out government rations to a few of the individuals and families whose finances were tight. Usually a Demis that had too many children, but there were still some holdovers from the last civil service replacement that were out of work.

Whenever there was someone out of work at the Subsistence office, and there was someone complaining about some work they want done, Kat was glad to grab the out of work citizen and offer to let the complaining citizen hire them to do whatever task they needed done. Some took them up on it, some wanted the government to pay.

Some just wanted to complain.

'The world takes all types' is what Master Serin would say, Kat mused.

After dealing with these people for less than 3 months, Kat disagreed.