Hallsecond

Writers: Jane
Date Posted: 31st December 2014

Characters: Azyn, Ryell
Description: Ryell comes to visit her Hallsecond husband in his office.
Location: Harper Hall
Date: month 10, day 27 of Turn 7

"So this is where the Harper Hallsecond spends his time," Ryell said as she
wandered into her husband's office.

"You saw it when we arrived," Azyn pointed out, putting down his pen and leaning
back in his chair to smile at his young wife.

"I saw _you_ around a lot more back then, but things change." Her expression was
bland but she really couldn't keep the teasing out of her tone. She walked
around the large room, noting the changes Azyn had made. Wherever they were
posted his office had the same feel about it.

"I'm clearing my work so we can spend the whole restday together," he offered as
he watched her circle around the room, touching a few things here and there as
if in recognition.

"Now that's what I like to hear, though I suppose your next comment is that I'm
interrupting your work."

"Well, that's undeniably true -" he said, catching her hand as her wandering
brought her within reach, "but I don't find I mind very much. Are the children
asleep?"

"Long since. Most of the Hall is asleep." She leaned down and kissed him and
then pulled herself free. "I thought I'd come and visit you here while there's
hardly anybody around to comment."

"Very wise." The comments directed at him were few and polite enough. Sometimes
those that went Ryell's way weren't and, although she seemed to shrug them off,
he thought she was sensible not to flaunt their relationship.

"And I'd finished my study," she told him with all the virtue any apprentice
felt in making such a statement.

"Have a seat, then, and tell me what the children got up to this evening."

"While you work?"

"I _can_ listen and read at the same time," he assured her, nodding at the most
comfortable of the chairs in the office and settling down to listen to what he'd
missed in his family's evening.

Eventually he started gathering the papers together and attaching notes to the
folders into which he slipped each pile before filing the folder in one of his
desk drawers.

"Is the harper stuff annoying?"

"Hmm? No, quite the opposite." He opened the next drawer and placed two folders
in there. "I'm enjoying learning everything about the craft and their structure.
The huge number of journeying harpers is one things that's a novelty, but there
are quite a few things that are completely new to me."

"Itinerant printers have probably never been a very practical concept," she
agreed, smiling to think of somebody in a wagon with even the smallest of
hand-presses. "It's easier to send the work to the machinery."

"How are _you_ enjoying sharing a Hall with the harpers?"

He was sure he had quite a different interaction with the harpercraft than the
apprentices did. Most of his work was administrative and despite the issues he
had just mentioned many of the day-to-day tasks were alike in both crafts. But
it was the first time Ryell had been at a Hall that wasn't purely a Printer Hall
and she experienced things from an apprentice's perspective.

"I don't think they know what to make of me - the apprentices. The only time one
of them spoke to me somebody told him I was the Hallsecond's wife and he
vanished without another word."

"What was he speaking to you about?" He filed the last set of folders with their
neatly inscribed notes in a drawer on the other side of this desk then leaned
back in his chair to admire the empty expanse before him. There was plenty of
satisfaction in the uninterrupted sheen of dark, polished wood which underscored
the end of his working sevenday.

He looked up to find Ryell's eyes alight with amusement.

"Are you laughing about my desk?"

"I might have been if I hadn't been waiting to tell you about the harper
apprentice. Didn't want to disturb that moment of glory you were wallowing in."

"Ahh. It's a well-deserved wallow, this sevenday. What was this harper talking
to you about?" He was interested in what areas the apprentices of each craft
interacted. They had different meal times and, for the most part, that separated
their chore sections so it seemed like a conscious effort was needed to get the
two groups together. Perhaps that was all right in the senior apprentices but he
had the feeling the junior apprentices could benefit from being a little more
integrated.

"I think he was ... flirting."

"He was _what_?"

Ryell's smile widened. "It _has_ been a while since anybody flirted with me -
other than your good self, of course - but I'm fairly sure that's what it was."

"No wonder he _vanished_ when he was told who you were. And he'd better stay
vanished," Azyn growled in exaggerated annoyance.

"I don't suppose there are very many married apprentices around," Ryell
suggested mildly.

"Not female ones," Azyn admitted. There were a couple of male senior apprentices
who had married during their time at the Hall, but in both cases their
apprenticeships looked like being of indefinite length and the men would more
than likely become permanent assistants in some classroom or workshop rather
than ever gain a promotion to journey-rank. "Tell me more about this harper
apprentice."

Ryell shook her head as she got to her feet. "I've told you all I know. He was
chatting away one moment and then at the very mention of your name or, rather,
your appointment, he disappeared as if he never existed. I hope you appreciate
he power you have in that title."

"Hallsecond?" He got up and met her at the door of his office, turning out the
lights before closing and locking the door behind them. "Who would have thought it?"

Ryell slipped her arm into his as they made their way down the empty and dimly
lit corridors toward their rooms. "Not me, but now I _am_ reconsidering just how
awed I should be in your company, Hallsecond."

"No need to reconsider, apprentice Ryell," he murmured, patting the hand that
rested in the crook of his elbow. "Your current level of awe suits me perfectly."

Last updated on the January 4th 2015

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Hallsecond