11 Kids, We Get the Job Done

"Day three," I said, gesturing dramatically at the huge pile of paper we had left to sort through, it was still higher than my head.

Eden looked at the stack disapprovingly. "Briar, I said it wasn't safe to pile them up like that, you should separate it into multiple stacks."

"This looks more dramatic though," I pointed out.

He'd been at it for days, trying to find evidence of corruption in the fief account sheets in father's study. Our dad was still out on a business trip to the capital city, and Eden wanted to pull together as much information as possible to present to him when he got back.

It was tedious work.

"I don't get it," I complained. "Can't we just tell him what happened and that be enough?"

Eden stared at me in horror, "He can't know we go out every weekend!"

"They can't be too mad if we save the day though right?" I said unconvincingly. To be honest, I just didn't want to do this anymore and was looking for an easy out.

"Even if he's not mad he'll probably not let us go again," Eden replied.

"Darnnit you're right," I sighed and slumped in defeat, accidentally knocking into the paper stack. The papers toppled over, scattering and sliding across the hardwood. "And about the tower of paper too- that was not a great idea. You are shooting two for two today," I said to cut the deafening silence that ensued as Eden stared, slack-jawed.

I drummed my thighs for a moment and nodded. "Okay, well, I'll pick them up now."

I paused at a paper laying at the toe of my shoe. Two names and a few words stood out to me. I picked it up.

I didn't really know what it meant. When I say that it makes me sound stupid but I promise I'm not. I had a masters in kinesiology in my other life but I'd like you to try figuring out some archaic accounting sheet from a time before excel spreadsheets in a single glance.

Eden, however, had been studying this stuff since his last birthday. He knew what to look for so when we had started this venture, he had given me a list of buzzwords to search for so all I had to do was passively skim over pages and weed out the ones that wouldn't be worth him looking at... Effectively creating this world's first (two-person) assembly line. Sometimes you'd think he was the reborn person here.

Anyway, the paper I was holding was covered in alarm bells as far as I was concerned. I handed it to him.

He read it for a moment and grinned. "This is it! The missing piece!"

"So that's all we need?" I asked.

"Yes!" He said. Words couldn't describe my relief. "You see, on this line here-" he started to explain but I cut him off.

"Nope, don't need to explain, I believe you, we're done here," I was practically out the door when I called, "Alright, you heard the man! It's over, that's a wrap!"

The manor servants who had been pacing up and down the hall nervously for the last few days poured into the room to clean up. They had never been given explicit instructions to keep the boss's two young children out of the important files office but also had the common sense to know that it was a concerning thing none the less. Like locking a pair of rabid raccoons in a room with expensive furniture or watching a sociopathic reality tv star run a country. All they could do was watch in horror and see what happened next.

"I feel like we should have probably cleaned up," Eden said following me out guiltily, "It's a mess in there."

"It's fine, we're rich, not our job, I'm done with that room," I announced.

"I suppose we did good," he admitted.

"I'd say I'd treat you to ice cream as an award, but you're the only one who can make it," I said.

"You helped me a lot," Eden said, "I'm sorry I dragged you through all of this for the last few days, I'll make you ice cream."

I pumped my fist.

Down the hall, we ran into our mother. She was looking a lot better recently. The change had been gradual but her complexion was less sickly, and she finally decided to start allowing her maids to dress her during the day, it had been a while since we'd seen her in her old signature nightgown.

Her clothing wasn't Casselian though, it was clearly imported from Sihbar; covered in exotic textures with ornate gold accents. It suited her better than the dress she was stuffed into for the last tea party. It was cool to see her reclaiming her culture. She looked like an Arabian princess- and not the 1992 Disney version.

"What are you two up to?" She asked.

"Eden's making me ice cream, because I'm a good girl!" I said brightly.

"You?" Mother asked, raising an eyebrow with an almost affectionate smirk.

I gave her a look. "Come on now, you are just as implicated in most of our 'misbehaviour' too."

"Most?" She asked, now crossing her arms.

"Whoops," I said. "Eden is making US ice cream! Me because I'm a good girl and you because you're such a cool mom who lets the more minor things slide to give us the room to grow on our own and take accountability for our own actions~" I said, hand to my chest.

Mother paused for a moment, milling what I said over and finally nodded. "I do like Eden's ice cream."

As we walked to the kitchen, Eden whispered to me, quiet enough that mother wouldn't hear. "I remember you once saying when you wanted to sneak out to town that it wasn't our job as kids to police our own actions and our parents shouldn't be giving us so much room."

I sighed exasperatedly. "Well I'll argue whichever side suits my purpose at the time okay? It's called being a skilled debater. In another world that would be a star quality in a student my age."

Eden gave me a look that said he didn't agree.

"Hey, you're actually implicated in a hundred percent of my shenanigans, you can hardly take the moral high ground." Then I paused. "Well.... Ninety eight percent."

He punched my shoulder in alarm, "What have you done?"

I exhaled. "I don't know... I mean nothing big."

"You're the one who defaced the Goddess statue aren't you?" He asked dryly.

"Ye-p," I said unapologetically, popping the p.

"Goddess have mercy," he mumbled to the ceiling.

Poor Eden, she won't hear you. She was probably off in some corner of her heavenly nothingscape playing some other nerdy Earth game. I imagine if she was giving any proper attention to this world it wouldn't be half the mess it was.

-

It was a few days later when father arrived.

Eden had gone into his study with him in the early afternoon and didn't emerge for a very long time.

When he did, he turned to me and grinned.

Our father stalked out of the room purposelessly, rounding up a few of his more trusted male servants down the hall.

"What's happening?" I asked.

"He's going to finally going to fix things," Eden said excitedly. "We did it!"

"Huh," I said thoughtfully, watching our dad's retreating back. I hadn't wanted to mention to Eden before but... to be honest, I had no idea whether anything was going to come of our actions.

What the taxmen were doing was very immoral but not technically illegal. It would all come down to whether or not or dad was a decent person on whether he'd care about their blatant abuse of power.

He really exceeded my expectations.