Planning a trip

Simone bit her tongue. Was she talking too much? The king had casually strolled into the library like he was anybody else off the street! 

Shayn shot her a look, but addressed their monarch. His stepsister's husband. 

"I volunteer to join such an expedition. If my work is to be questioned, I would like to be present to find out what I could have done better." 

The words seemed uncharacteristically humble for him, and Simone wondered if they were idle words to pander to the king's wishes. 

"I will discuss it with the Council in the morning, but I think all three of you should go." The king replied. 

A wave of panic rolled over Simone.

"Me?" The word came out much higher pitched than she intended. She cleared her throat and try again. "I usually do more desk work than hands-on, outdoor activities." 

"Weren't you the one who found the discrepancy? Surely it will save time if you are there to make sure it is properly remedied. And didn't you just come back from a trip for my wife?" Roland tilted his head. 

"Yes, I did go to collect books from some smaller libraries in other towns for the Cetoan book exchange program," She admitted. "But I have almost no experience with surveying tools, only the maps created by them." 

That was a little bit of an exaggeration. She knew enough to be able to tell things like when a surveyor had likely misused one tool or another when taking readings, based on how far off a map was from what it should be. 

"I can handle it," Shayn offered, and for once she was relieved he was a little abrasive. "She doesn't need to come." 

"Nonsense, the more educated eyes we have on this problem, the better." Roland shook his head. "But before you go, I want your updates on the anomalies." 

"Of course," Shayn replied smoothly, bringing one of his maps to the forefront and disrupting Simone's meticulous organization. She chafed at it, but dared not rebuke him in front of the king. 

"In most areas, the anomalies were much the same as previously reported. Tiny and brief. This section had more, larger, and longer-lasting anomalies than the others that we surveyed." Shayn was saying. "We recorded each one on the map, with colors indicating the size and duration, and a separate page of notes for each one." 

"Excellent work," Roland gave him a firm pat on the shoulder as he leaned forward. "Simone, did the other surveyors find similarly concentrated clusters of anomalies in their assigned areas?" 

"Not to this severity, Your Majesty," She startled a bit at being addressed. "The ones nearest to Klain did not find such large ones, nor so many. The outlying areas seem to have larger concentrations." 

"The outlying areas being the surveyors who were the last to arrive?" The King frowned. 

"For the most part, your Majesty. Those areas were not as thoroughly mapped and took more time and effort to thoroughly cover them," Simone confirmed. 

"Is it possible that the anomalies are getting worse?" Some undefinable emotion crept into his voice. 

"Worse?" She didn't really know what that meant. 

"Maybe worse isn't the correct word. More frequent, longer lasting, larger." The King frowned. 

"The largest one we saw was one of the most recent," Shayn leaned over. "Here." He placed his finger on the map. 

"How long did it last?" Roland asked. "Describe it."

"Most of them were mere sparkles in the air, almost difficult to be sure we saw anything. We only recorded them when we both saw. This last one was about this large," He held up his thumb and index finger out a small distance apart, about the size of a large chestnut, "and lasted eighteen seconds." 

"And other observations? Color, anything like that?" The King Commodore was concentrating very hard on this matter. It must be extremely important, though Simone couldn't quite figure out why. 

"Most of them were just as bright, brief points of light. The last one was strange. Bright around the edges, pinkish in the middle. Another seemed rainbow, but it was too short in duration to be positive." 

"Did you try to touch it?" The next question caught everyone off guard. 

"No… should I have?" Shayn blinked in confusion, and Simone almost smirked at the expression on his face. She might have, if the king weren't present and very serious. 

"Not at all. Do not touch the anomalies. Perhaps I should make… but not now. Another day." 

The subjects blinked at their leader, who brushed them off and put on a smile. 

"I must go. You have given me much to think over," He said, although to be honest Simone thought he looked as if he already had far too much to think over. "If there's nothing else that seems pressing or important, I'll take my leave and let the three of you begin making whatever preparations for the journey as you see fit." 

The two men affected bows–Walter's was deeper and more enthusiastic than Shayn's–while Simone ducked a curtsy. The corner of the king's mouth twitched before he nodded at them and left, a man by the door following at a short distance. 

"I'll take my leave as well," Walter's unintentional mimicking of the king's cadence of speech almost made Simone giggle. He was usually much rougher in his verbiage. His manners were still a bit more course, because he departed without waiting for goodbyes, clearly still very irritated with Shayn. 

Simone couldn't fault him for that. 

The two stared at each other, and Simone wondered whether to finish the day's work or try to find the Treasurer to tell him about her apparent imminent departure. That seemed above her station to do; she would wait for the king to inform her master. 

"I will gather what maps will be needed for the journey," She stated after an awkward moment. Whether or not she was actually going to go, the task would need to be completed, and the surveyors would not be permitted to log the items out of the archives themselves. 

"Do you need help?" Shayn asked, though his tone was one of obligation, not of a genuine offer. 

She thought for a moment about asking him to help, just to irritate him by obligating him to do another task, but discarded the idea. 

"I can manage." She offered a small, polite smile. 

Working together each day was already difficult enough. A journey where they would spend practically every moment together was much, much worse. She would have to make every possible effort to keep things civil between them. 

He seemed to understand, and the conversation stalled. His stomach growled, causing Simone to exhale an amused breath to cover her snicker. 

"We missed taking a midday meal break again," She observed. "I think that was meant to be your responsibility." 

"It was," He acknowledged. "It's just hard to remember anything else when I'm working with you. You're so…" He was obviously searching for a neutral word that wouldn't insult her. 

"Diligent? Hardworking?" She offered with a straight face. He leveled his gaze at her and sighed. 

"Those are words that could be used in this context," Shayn allowed, though he did not commit to either. 

"Distracting? Enthralling? Captivating?"

Though she had only a moment ago decided to try to keep things civil, his unwillingness to espouse even the most true and unoffensive terms sparked her ire, and she felt the need to provoke him. 

"Is that how you see yourself?" His eyebrows rose in a blatant challenge. 

"I was trying to be helpful," She shrugged. "You seemed unable to come up with appropriate adjectives, so I supplied some possibilities."

"I was going to go with irritating. Infuriating. Abrasive." 

"Abrasive??" She huffed. "There's the pot calling the kettle black!" 

"I'm not the one who immediately summoned Walter to come argue about the maps." He pointed out. 

"I was looking for clarification!" Simone couldn't figure out what was wrong with the man! 

"You were looking to bolster your case to prove that I'm incompetent." His voice rose, and she hushed him.

"Are you?" She snapped. "I had no opinion on the matter, but you seem awfully defensive about it. Perhaps it's your own insecurities driving you to lash out at me for a simple inquiry." 

"If you want an example of defensive, go look at Walter. Yelling at me the moment I asked if he could have made a mistake." Shayn threw a glance at the door out of which the older man had departed. "And you, unwilling to discuss it with me, calling backup to try and prove me wrong." 

"I've been trying to be polite and professional. Apparently it's not working whatsoever." Simone pressed the tips of her fingers to her temples. She felt a headache coming on. 

"I'd hate to see what it looks like when you're not trying," He rolled his eyes. The audacity! 

"Perhaps you will. It's possible that on this journey I'll get so sick of your presence that I will lose the will for even a modicum of cordiality." She glared at him as he turned on his heel and left.