Saavedra
Junior Member
With the end of her workday approaching, Gian found her patience strained. It had been a tough day of negotiating with one of her least favourite clients as to the drafting of a contract involving bodyguard services, and those could be some of the worst. Now, however, it was something different. Now, Gian had the case she had chosen to deal with last, because she had prepared for it and knew it would be the perfect end to a long day.
The incense burning throughout the last few hours had made the atmosphere somewhat heavy in the large office. With a gesture, Gian ordered one of the servant girls to open the window, and took a deep breath of the cool breeze that came in as the girl stepped aside and remained standing in a corner of the room. The House of Patience had a height befitting its importance and reputation when it came to legal mediation in Kuchinashi, so the air coming through the window was clean, free of odours and as fresh as you could get in the capital of a kingdom. Her senses seemed to awaken. A last spurt of energy for the day? That would be nice.
“I am terribly, terribly sorry to waste your time, Miss Gian!” The old woman apologized for the umpteenth time, kneeling on the floor in front of the large red wood desk at which Gian sat. To the right of the old woman stood a Mr. Gelb. A large, proud man of unmistakably Atlasean features. And to his side, his mediator, an experienced professional from a different, minor house. He was about as young as Gian, but looked far more uncomfortable. Given the way the Atlasean man stood, with a firm posture and his hands crossed behind his back, Gian could guess the reason for the other mediator´s discomfort. He knew he was going to lose the case, given the wold woman was a fragile granny who lived alone, while his client was a wealthy man of ruthless character.
Gian nodded to herself, not bothering to take her eyes off the parchment on the black mat over her red wood desk. “Enough, old mother. Stand up.”
“I am sure...”, the Atlasean man said with the mellow tones of an experienced businessman who thought himself the winner of a trade confrontation, “... you can see the contract is clear and with no loopholes. I provided the old lady´s dwelling with all the comforts as specified in the papers.”
“What about the heating unit?” Gian Do asked, eyeing the old woman warily as she stood up on her seemingly fragile knees.
“The heating unit? Ridiculous! The weather in Kuchinashi is comfortable enough not to require one even in winter!”
“While that may be true from what we´ll call common sense, the law states explicitly that all the comforts in a dwelling include heating.”
“And you expect me to pay back all of this lady´s money even though she´s been living there for seven months?” The Atlasean was becoming agitated. What came next calmed him down a little.
“No, only a fifth of it. And of course, she´ll have to leave the dwelling within a week.”
The Atlasean raised an eyebrow, and his mediator began whispering excitedly into his ear with a sudden smile. The old lady, meanwhile, had opened her eyes wide like saucers. Her lips trembled, and her voice became noticeably sharper in tone, leaving behind the pitiful, grandmotherly facade she had been using until that moment. “B-but... Miss Mediator! Th-this man, he cheated me! And you want me to leave the house right now? With hardly any money?”
It was Gian´s turn to raise her eyebrows, in feigned surprise this time. Without missing a beat, she opened a drawer and extracted two old contracts that she displayed for the three people standing before her desk. Both had double seals from other mediation houses, meaning they had been approved when first drafted, and that when a dispute had happened afterwards, a mediator had intervened and pronounced a verdict on them. There was something else to consider, of course, and it was that Gian had gone to the trouble of asking the other houses for the documents. A good habit of Gian´s, making sure her servants, who also acted as her secretaries, did their job. It made it so much easier and satisfying to surprise people. Smiling with horribly insincere kindness at the old woman, she spoke in a softer tone of voice than before. “I would think those two other times you were fully reimbursed by landowners without heating units would have allowed you to save some money for unexpected trouble such as this?”
The old woman was paralyzed by fear and shame, blushing, her eyes fixed upon the contracts. The Atlasean man turned his upper body toward the old lady, a smile of self-satisfaction showing how pleased he was to be dealt with fairly. Gian guessed this did not happen too often. Given the old lady seemed to have gone suddenly mute, the mediator wrote a few signs that explained quickly the end result of her arbitration, then took the seal of the House of Patience that rested upon her desk and slammed it down with sure finality onto the contract her own house had drafted between the two parties involved in the case today. Now, there were three parchments with double seals, all of which she handed over to her servant, who hurried forward to take them. “Make sure copies are made and distributed to every mediation house. And you can go home now. I will see our guests out."
“Yes, Miss Gian.” The servant girl bowed and left the office through a hidden door at the back of the room.
With a sigh, Gian Do stood up, her dress fluttering around her as she walked around her desk to stand in front of the old woman. She leaned down to stare at her from above with that insincere smile still on her lips. “Out.”
The old woman grumbled and glared at her before turning around and walking through the double doors with quick, angry steps. The Atlasean and his lawyer remained still as Gian approached them to address them. “I know we deal in the illegal here, but we are still punctilious about it. Next time you wish to make a deal, I advise you to stick to the letter. Arguing about it won´t do you any good, Mr. Gelb. We can be rather final about such things.”
“So I´ve heard.” Gelb chuckled before bowing respectfully, though Gian got the distinct impression there was a hint of mockery in the gesture. There was a very real feeling that she would be seeing this man again in the future... though with a different mediator. He turned and left, followed by his companion, who bowed at Gian rather hurriedly. Servants waiting outside closed the doors behind them, and the silence in the office felt soft like a pillow for a moment.
Gian chuckled to herself, imitating the Atlasean. She did not particularly enjoy justifying some people´s arrogance, but she had to be above such ideas if she was to do her job. A job she was done with today, too. One of her favourite songs slipped into her mind at that thought. Taking slow steps, swaying her hips and shoulders as the rhythm took over despite the inappropriateness of her clothes for dancing, Gian moved toward her secret stash of fruit juice and alcoholic beverages hidden behing a wooden panel on the wall. That wall was actually between her office and her bedroom. She was looking forward to watching one of her favourite films and falling asleep on her office couch. The wall opened after pressing a cleverly disguised button, and the large screen and minibar hidden behind slid back from their position looking into her bedroom, turned around, and slid forward into the office. Turning the screen on with one hand, she began choosing her drink for the night with the other... when the screen suddenly went black, the menus hidden behind the sign of an incoming call.
“It never ends...” Gian rolled her eyes, then sighed, somewhat amused at the irony. She set the drink down and picked up the remote as she turned to move toward her couch, a piece of art. Much like the rest of the office, it was red and dark (the velvet and the wood, respectively, in this case). She sat down, and accepted the call, eager to hang up as soon as she caught the slightest hint that this was a marketing thing.
