Eryx was carrying an armful of slim volumes back to her reading room when Harmonia walked up to her, led by a Hand.


    Unlike the linen or cotton her servants wore, Harmonia''s robes were a deep, patterned-weave House-red silk over pale undergarments. Her hair was pinned up in intricate braids (Eryx wondered if she''d asked the Hands to do that for her) and her House pin gleamed on her shoulder.


    I''m surprised she needs a guide, Eryx thought. Is it so that she looks like she has an escort? Maybe it''s a status thing.


    "How are we doing?" she asked Eryx. Eryx saw her eyes flicker to Eryx’s worker-blue robe, but Harmonia didn’t comment.


    "Very well," Eryx replied. "Honestly, I''m overwhelmed with the resources here." She smiled and indicated the books she was carrying. "Want to join me?"


    "I''ll take a look." Before Eryx could do anything, Harmonia walked into the reading cubicle ahead of Eryx, and started sorting through her reading material.


    The moment stretched on. Surely there wasn''t a problem, Eryx thought. The works here were purely academic. It wasn''t like she was—


    "What did I send you here for?" Harmonia asked casually, still flipping through books.


    "To catalog village and pre-factorial manners of worker compensation and benefits," Eryx supplied instantly. "To propose methods of worker management that result in happier worker populations, a better House reputation, and more profitable outcomes for Prytane Mellon."


    Harmonia pulled aside Recent Developments in Tyrenian Legislation and The Token Economy, then set a volume in its own. "And what is this?"


    The cover read Who Walks In Jera?. Eryx didn''t rise to Harmonia''s arch tone. After all; she had a reason. "Jera used to have a citywide crèche, unlike the House crèches today. Theirs was village-style, separate from—"


    "How does a trash book like this give you information on that?"


    "It''s—it helps illustrate what the experience was like from someone who lived there," Eryx explained. "It can help illustrate the positive experience of a system—


    "If there are benefits, then you can read about it in something respectable," Harmonia interrupted.


    "...of course," Eryx said. "But a financial report won''t necessarily cover that sort of experience..."


    "And this?" Minutes of the Jeran City Servant''s Guild joined the poetry book.


    "This helps provide the financial information."


    "Servants'' Guilds? How do you presume to tell me this provides information useful to a proper House?"


    "The worker satisfaction—"


    "I do not care about scheming malcontents!" Harmonia rasped. "What are you doing with the time I am giving you here?"


    "...Bettering my work, and bettering myself," Eryx said. The words came unbidden, quoted directly from her Temple professor''s tomes.The author''s tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.


    Harmonia looked at her for a moment. “You do sound like a priest.”


    “Thank you.”


    “That was not a compliment,” she specified crisply. “How dare you? Who do you think you are, talking to me like that? Bettering yourself? With this?”


    “Well yes, it enlarges my a-”


    “I am speaking!” Harmonia fumed. If Eryx thought her sponsor was angry before, she''d really stepped in it now. “How dare you speak of bettering yourself when you can''t even meet the most basic of responsibilities? How dare you quote religion at me? I am the one responsible for your wellbeing, and for fifty other workers! Do not twist sacred texts to justify your behavior as beneficial!”


    She waited, and Eryx fished blankly for words.


    “Well? You''re displaying a shocking level of irresponsibility. Must I watch you while you work? Will you do your job, or shall I send you back?”


    Eryx blinked. Would she really? "Your father wouldn''t want me to come back without—"


    Harmonia slammed her palm down on the books. "Don''t cite my father''s authority to me."


    She waited, and Eryx decided to take another avenue. "Yes, Lady Harmonia. I was concerned with getting results for my assignment, I didn''t mean to be rude."


    "Well? Are you going to behave?"


    “...yes, ma''am, I''ll behave.”


    "Don''t sulk. If you know what these books are, and you think they''re acceptable? You''re either stupid, and I don''t think you''re stupid, or actively trying to do something underhanded," Harmonia said. She turned back to the stack and gathered up most of the books. "You are here to look up servant policies. There are perfectly good rulebooks and ledgers here. You have no license to justify reading business theory, nor permission to read servant trash. If you think you have a need for the former, you will apply to me."


    "I''m... sorry," Eryx said. She genuinely did not understand Harmonia''s problem with a lot of the books Harmonia was so agitated about. Wasn''t her entire purpose to advise Mellon? To suggest matters of policy that were already at the level of business management?


    Suddenly, she understood Ismene''s caution more. Ismene had been navigating this blade''s-edge for a while.


    "Don''t prevaricate. I don''t want to see you reading any more radical writing, or anything out of the scope of your job." Harmonia grasped the stack of books tightly. "I allowed you to come here because it was the easiest way to get access to other houses'' records, not so you could read these," she jerked her chin down at the stack she held, "or inflammatory... junk that dissatisfied servants wrote. Can I trust you do that?"


    "Yes, Lady Harmonia."


    "Can I expect better from you?"


    "...yes, Lady Harmonia."


    "In a couple of days, I''ll invite you to my quarters for dinner. I can hear your report, and your suggestions for this House, then." Harmonia ordered.


    "Of course," Eryx replied, too disconcerted and humiliated for her anger to break through. "If that''s convenient for you. Thank you." What if that was really what Mellon thought, too? She''d thought he valued her efforts more.


    "That''s better. When we return, I shall have Father say a prayer for your humility. And show some pride in your House," Harmonia said, indicating Eryx''s robe. "You''re not a guild member." She left as abruptly as she had arrived, carrying the stack of confiscated books with her.


    Eryx took a moment to calm her nerves, and to think. What was Harmonia''s problem? The guild minutes had been full of troubles, yes, but those troubles only gave Eryx evidence of policies that could be improved. The daily concerns of a worker, especially those Eryx had been reading about, weren''t inflammatory or inappropriate at all. She''s picked them out for that reason.


    But that wasn''t the problem, was it? It was that workers had written about them at all. Had met, and spoken, and discussed as a union of equals. She hadn''t wanted to believed it, had expected to find grace in the mind of someone whose power affected her own life, but there was none.


    Harmonia would not stand for the idea that a worker could have a say.


    Reaching beyond her position, was she? Eryx''s entire purpose was, however she could, to shift the meaning of what a worker''s place was. Ensure that the House contracts were fair, that workers could share in the prosperity they created. There wasn''t anything wrong with that. Workers'' contracts, workers'' lives had become such small, inescapably poor, things. Eryx knew that had not always been the case in Tyrene. Even if it had been, she thought, she should still work to make their position better.


    Harmonia could hem and scold all she liked. Eryx didn''t care if what she wanted was disrespectful. She''d still work for it.


    And she''d still wear blue.