Title: civil servants in the white tower (a silly story)
Posted By: DredaSedai
Posted On: 6/30/99 8:37:09 PM


Dreda walked through the halls of the tower toward the dovecoats where her favorite birdseed was stored. Something seemed strange, but she couldn't put her finger on it. Then she realized that she could. The halls of the tower just didn't seem clean. The floors had not been waxed in a while, the Sea Folk porcelain was getting dusty and there were bags of garbage outside the public restrooms.

She made her way to the dovecotes and noticed that the cages hadn't been cleaned in a couple days. She went down to the gardens and noticed that although there were weeds in the flower beds; the gardeners were taking a kaf break even though they had just started working 1/2 an hour ago.

Dreda was slightly disturbed. She knew that the tower paid the servants good money, but they weren't working very hard for their pay. By the way things looked inside the tower, the maids weren't working all that hard either.

She walked over to the stables and, sure enough, there were the maids, all gathered around gossiping when they should have been attending to thier duties.

"Good morning ladies," Dreda greeted them, walking up to them. Strange, half of them didn't even curtsy.

"'Morning Aes Sedai," a few mumbled, and turned back to their conversations.

"Um...may I ask why you are out here chattering and not inside tending to your duties?"

Normally Dreda wouldn't have been so forward but she blamed it on the pregnancy; her hormones were wacked out again.

"It's in our contract. We get a 15 minute break every half hour," one of the girls answered.

"What contract?" Dreda asked, trying not to look confused.

"The 'Civil Servants of the White Tower' contract that the union negotiated for us last month" she explained and turned back to her group of friends.

Dreda quickly made her way to the Amyrlin's study. Obviously someone had negotiated something without the Mother's approval and now the White Tower looked like crap. Dreda had a special interest in this since she was head of the welcoming committee. It's very hard to get people to be excited about being in the tower when it looks crappy.

"Chissa, may I please speak with the Amrylin? I have some disturbing news for her" she asked, stopping at Chissa's desk.

"Good morning to you too, Dreda" she said sarcastically.

"I'm sorry, Good morning. I don't mean to be short, it's just that I'm in a bad mood." Dreda explained.

"Hormones?" she asked. Dreda nodded despondently.

Apparently, she hadn't hid her mood swings as well as she had thought.

"Let me see if the Amrylin is available." Chissa popped her head in the door, the popped it out again.

"Go on in!"

"Good morning, Mother" Dreda curtsied and kissed her ring. "I'm afraid I have disturbing news."

The Amrylin settled in her chair. "What is it child?"

She was obviously ready to experience one of Dreda's hypersensitive mood swings. Dreda related the events of the morning to the Amyrlin.

"Oh dear," the amrylin sighed. "I guess I have no other choice. What I'm about to tell you is Sealed to the Flame -- got that?"

"Yes, Mother," Dreda nodded. She was excited, but scared. She hadn't been sealed to the flame before.

"During the Aiel War, servants were very scarce in these parts. Due to the shortage, we had to make certain concessions to the servants that we had. We had to grant them a labor union, give them contracts, and...the Amrylin had to take a fourth Oath to never fire a White Tower civil service employee."

"A fourth Oath?" Dreda asked increduously. "So every Amrylin since the Aiel War has had to take this oath?"

"Yes. And now apparently the servants are really taking advantage of it. We've tried to hire non-union workers, but they sign onto the union when they see how easy the others have it."

"So we pay them lots of money -- tax money from the citizens of Randland -- to do next to nothing?" Dreda exclaimed.

"Unfortunately, you're right. There is nothing we can do right now. I'm having Chissa look for any way around the fourth Oath in her spare time," the Amyrlin said hopefully.

Soon after that their meeting came to an end. Dreda walked back to her rooms. She couldn't believe it. The servants got paid whether they worked or not! She thought about it for a second and decided that when she retired, she would become a civil servant and waste her days away making money.

Dreda Sedai
Blue Ajah
Bonded to Asha'man Hawkwing

Yet again, this may not be funny to you. I'm just blowing off a little steam about some of the idiots that I work with.