Chapter Text
Lina set down her bundle of parchment and books and pulled her hair free again. She pulled the red locks back, and transferred the entire load to her left hand before tying it together, a simple pony tail draped over her shoulder. She added a second tie near the bottom, then picked up her stack again. She stepped back just a bit on her foot and looked to the nearby window, just enough to catch a bit of reflection. The sea green eyes in the glass looked her over... yes. Just the right balance she needed, rustic but still professional. Just the sort of thing the man she was going to see would be disarmed by.
Well, assuming he was ever disarmed and not just being polite. It was infuriatingly hard to tell with him. With one more breath, she crossed the room and gave a quick two-tap knock at the office door.
"Ah, Evangelina I presume? Please, I've been waiting!" His voice was chipper, with just a bit of warmth.
Lina suppressed the urge to mutter to herself. So much for catching him off guard.
She straightened up, wishing she was a bit taller so she could actually look down at her seated boss. "Expenditures that require your approval, sir."
Somehow he brightened even more than usual. "Ah, for the printing press I hope?"
Lina strained a little to stay all business. It was hard when she was so close to getting things rolling. "You guess correctly Duke Aegir." She put her stack in front of him where he could read. "First, final payment for mechanics who repaired the unit we found in Gareg Mach, followed by a smaller amount for a continuing salary for maintenance through the next year."
Ferdinand was a few papers deep, scanning them with rather more fervor than he usually showed. "Oh dear, are you sure this is all they asked for? I can't help wondering if they know just how rare and necessary their skills are." He was lost in thought at this point. "They'll surely be in much more demand in years to come, I'd hate for them to feel taken advantage of in hindsight."
"If you like I can arrange meetings with the ones we aren't keeping on." She paused to make sure he had heard her, and added. "A few pages down we have some orders for lead and steel for added print sheets, we could perhaps expand that to assembling more presses entirely once those orders are filled."
"A splendid idea." Ferdinand nodded agreeably. "I had been worried about over-investing before, but with these numbers it'd be foolish not to ensure we have contracts before some other endeavor steals them away."
Lina straightened a few strands of hair. It helped present her as a consummate professional, she thought. "Next we have ones for the school text project. Librarians to locate appropriate texts at Gareg Mach, the School of Sorcery, and the imperial palace in Enbarr. Scribes and technicians to transfer the texts to presses." Ferdinand had been busily approving most of the documents and paused briefly on one. Lina was able to recall the exactly one just from how many down in the stack he was. "Ah, that's the order for the paper mills, I took the liberty of placing one now for the most promising blend."
"Ah, that makes sense. The presses have been far more tolerant of inexpensive paper than hand-inscribed books, I was a bit taken aback by how much we were getting for the price." He smiled gently. "I'm glad you took the initiative, things are coming together rather quickly and I'd hate to be caught unaware by simply not having anything to print on."
She inclined her head slightly. "Of course sir. And after that are several individual contracts for the small handful of teacher's we've hired, so they have time to familiarize themselves with the texts as they're printed." Lina paused, to simulate a bit of hesitation. "Are you sure you wish to hold classes within the manor? Surely that can't be suitable for more than a few months."
"Unfortunately until we see some of the classrooms in action we won't be sure what all facilities are required." He paused, clearly lost in thought again. "Perhaps we should be able to clear land and set foundations for the eventual site now?" He nodded to himself, having clearly decided. "In fact, I believe I have a few plots of Aegir land already marked. I'll trust your judgment for which contractors are best suited to developing them, if you would."
Lina tried to keep her expression neutral. A drain on her time she'd been hoping to avoid after today, but not a big enough one to completely derail her. "Of course sir. That should account for everything, and you seem to be almost done, so I'll collect those and send them to the appropriate accounts."
"Oh, before you go, what's this last one here?"
Dammit. Dammit dammit dammit. "That..." she paused, peering over the desk to try and pretend she wasn't sure what he was talking about. "Oh, yes, of course. That's a stipend and funding order for alternative uses of the printing press, and employees to explore more robust uses of the technology."
Ferdinand crossed his arms, frowning in resignation. "This again, Evangelina?" He shook his head. "I'm rather surprised you thought you could simply slip this in here undiscovered."
Lina straightened up again. With an effort, she slipped a little subservience into her voice and pulled out a bit of parchment she could pretend to read from as though she hadn't composed and rehearsed the precise inflection she planned for this new pitch. She had to speak precisely, quickly, give him no space to interrupt and throw her off her rhythm until she got to the questions she'd anticipated.
"Oh, I had thought we'd already agreed on the plan, sir. But to refresh your memory." She coughed subtly before continuing. "While the schools are of course the top priority, in order to achieve Her Majesty's vision for Fodlan within our lifetimes we need to educate not merely the young but everyone. 'Universal literacy is an absolute necessity' I believe were your exact words. But of course lifelong workers would hardly be willing to take classes with children, they'd find it beneath them. And I suggested..." She made a point to look away and work her mouth just a little, to feign shyness at highlighting her own role. "That we instead tempt them to come learn by making widely available reading materials."
Ferdinand made to interrupt, because to that point she'd been mostly saying things she'd said before. She pressed on as though she hadn't noticed. "But not novels or books of history of poetry, the sort of thing that have traditionally filled out the great libraries of Fodlan. No, we need things that are... immediate, attention grabbing, in the moment." She dramatically posed, a finger in the air, to highlight her next words, finally letting some of her excitement show. "You see, now that creating texts is so much faster, our limit is the cost of paper itself, not thousands of hours to pay scribes. We can produces dozens or hundreds of copies of parchment that can simply be thrown away without worry. Summaries of daily life, formal proclamations, experts summarizing recent events, and it needn't even be local. As you so wisely suggested, a way to spread knowledge of far off lands would help cement our alliances with King Khalid in the people's hearts. Indeed, we could even find whole new things to print, stories of wonder both real and imagined." She took a deep breath, as though the speech had exhausted her. "It was quite something, particularly with your suggestions, sir."
He was struck speechless for a moment. While he was exceedingly intelligent, Ferdinand always broadcast his emotions, and her tactic had worked; by mixing her new arguments, tailored to his original objections, in with his own words and insights, she had him questioning if it had happened. And even if he correctly guessed what she'd made up, his confused state made him much more likely to accept the new arguments on their merits.
Finally, he smiled a little, and leaned back. "Well, I don't know that we can do all that at once of course, but it is certainly worthy of exploration." Lina felt her shoulders untense a little, until he leaned forward again. "Although I'm not sure what precisely your role in this would be. Presumably the actual lettering and pressing would be handled by others, and simple statements of fact hardly require someone as skilled in letters as you to lay them out."
Lina let out a small breath, trying not to let it turn into a sigh of relief. She'd prepared for this question. "We decided we couldn't simply let the news come to us. Not all the facts of the world would be shared willingly after all. It would take someone of learning and discretion to talk to the important people of the world and suss out the truth from between their self-serving lies and omissions. And in that, few in your employ are as qualified as myself."
She could see it immediately; Ferdinand definitely knew she'd never told him that before. But he still smiled and said "well, that is a fair point. Still... it would be reckless to immediately start accusing people with power and influence of lying to the public without even testing if these papers would interest the people at all, don't you think?"
"That's... a fair assessment, sir" Lina was forced to admit.
There was a dangerous gleam in his eyes. "So I've been thinking of a good place to start. You're aware of the Emperor's proclamation yesterday?"
She had made several, actually, but only one was important enough to comment on. "The plan to create distance between the Throne and the Church, you mean. 'The land of Fodlan and the Throne of Adrestria must belong not to the Goddess, but to the people, in order for the faithful to stay true to her teachings' I believe it went."
"As precise as ever. To that end, Edelgard plans to formally dissolve the office of Minister of Religious Affairs. The interim Minister however should issue a proper statement acknowledging this and offering directives for the people to join their own congregations rather than the Southern Church." Ferdinand smiled a little, but didn't give much away.
Lina puzzled over the comment for a second before it fell into place. "Ah, and you would like me to collect that statement, so we could publish it."
"If you're willing of course."
"I'm happy to have the opportunity, sir." Lina took a moment to collect her memories, setting her feet to avoid getting swept up in them. "Countess Varley is still staying in Enbarr, yes?"
"Nobody has seen her leave, at least." Ferdinand shook his head. "She can be rather difficult to wrangle I'm afraid, even for my wife."
Lina caught herself flinching just a little. She struggle to imagine someone stymieing Mrs. Aegir so easily. "Still, I'll see to it, sir."
"Then I shall wish you good luck, Evangelina." He handed her back the stamped parchments, but held onto the last one. The meaning was clear. 'I'll sign this for you when you get back.'
"Thank you sir!" She let her mask slip just a little, and bounded out the door, openly excited.