Cold Breath Meeting

Brigid relaxed, slightly. Sasha's words were comforting, offering the Wizened a glimmer of hope in this new place. Perhaps she could simply be the assistant, being joy to others through hard work and personal satisfaction; not through abuse and justification. Unless this was some kind of ploy, in which case, Brigid would simply need to reevaluate later.

"You're too kind, my Queen," the Wizened said, listening to what Sasha added before speaking once again. "I must say that I find that quite frustrating. Surely, those who have been given a task and a title should surely focus on fulfilling it than allowing the Freehold's Sovereignty to fall into the trap of being put in such immediate danger? How did you all cope?" she added before realising what had slipped from her mouth, eyes going wide. "That was extremely rude of me, my Queen. Please, accept my apologies."

It really was too bad that they had this situation, save for a couple who had the Title. Yet, Sasha was the only one with Freehold knowledge from many years past. This factoid really was odd, considering she always had someone else to rely on, or share memories with; until recently.

Waving her hand, Sasha shook her head. "No need to apologize. It was utterly irritating to have someone like that who didn't provide the service that was in their description. I think they were of the mind that it was for 'visiting' Freehold members. Well, in a sense, everyone is essentially visiting at first. Not everyone finds a pot and begins to start some roots."

But the over apology didn't rest easy with the Dancer. "Brigid, you may always speak your mind freely to me. I won't hold anything you say against you." Sasha realized that the Spring may not feel that she could, but the Fairest wanted to offer anyway.

It hadn't been the first time that Brigid had been told that, that they won't hold anything against her and she should endeavour to speak freely. Kind words. The Wizened knew the bitter truth: Some times, the truth stung and then it was Brigid's fault. The teasing followed, the political nastiness, all because she had been given an opportunity to 'speak freely.'

The Wizened simply smiled, politely. It was a trap, and Brigid knew better than to fall into such a ploy, even if the Winter Queen did appear to be the friendly sort. It was still very much early days.

"If it's not too much trouble, would you mind showing me around?" Brigid asked, intending to know her new job so she could be of value ASAP.

To be up and moving was something the Dancer favored. "Of course not, follow me."

The Dancer waited for the Wizened to rise and then slowly walked toward the bar. "Clearly, this is the main bar. There's a portable one in the storage room that we have if we get busy. All the cupboards are labeled. I keep things well organized so I can know if we're out of something at a glance."

Walking the full length behind the bar, the Fairest went to a spot where there were three doors and not really a hallway. "This is the back emergency exit and delivery door." Pointing to the one right in front of them and then she took her key and unlocked the door on the right. "This is the office and one of the safes are in here."

Turning to the left, she opened the other door. "This is the basement. We store liquor down here. You'll see the tracks on either side of the stairs are for the cart that we can slowly lower things down on." Tapping her foot on the sides. "There is another safe in here. Decorations are stored down here and there's also a hidden small door."

Moving back up the stairs slightly, waiting Brigid to follow, Sasha moved the direction of the stage. "Stage, of course. To the side is the sound/light/dj booth." Pointing a finger to a small little area off to the side of the stage, yet next to another door.

Opening the door next to the stairs. "And this is the Green Room. I sometimes relax in here, have meetings, but visiting entertainment use this to have some time or get ready before they perform."

She awaited to see if there were any questions.

Trailing the Winter Queen, Brigid found herself glowing more with every step, and it had nothing to do with Sasha's mantle. The organisation on display was a breath of fresh air and the Wizened's own connection to Spring flourished a little, the excitement and contentment in her heart shining through. When Sasha paused for any questions, Brigid was actually smiling.

"The manner in which you have organised your business is impeccable, my Queen," the chatelaine beamed. "It would be an honour and my pleasure to work here, for you. I can understand now why you are the freehold's chosen Notary; this is simply...amazing!"

The Wizened was actually giddy, for a change.

Which prompted Sasha to wonder where she would be keeping all the new Pledges once they began. She presumed to keep them in a Hollow somewhere, but she'd have to ask since someone would need to access them.

"My skills are something that my mother taught me, if I'm being honest. She'd tell me to always put things away, or do things right away lest you forget about it or time is pressing. Staying organized meant that you didn't need to spend countless hours doing things when it was all at your fingertips. The previous owner was also well organized, so it took no time to pick up where she'd left off." Unless it was Harvey who had done all of it, but it was hard to say.

"Now, let's go back into the office and I'll show you the filing, and ordering." The Dancer crooked her long finger for the Wizened to follow.

Opening the office door again, she went into the safe and pulled out an extra set of keys. "This is the key to the main doors, green room and basement storage." She'd held up a color coded green key, the next one on the set was red. "This key is for the office only. The black key is for the register." Turning and pulling out a small book which was very much a manual. "This is the manual and any sort of override code you may need, if one of the servers or bartenders runs into an issue. It's happened on a rare occasion."

"We had someone who worked here for a while, he got a little rude with customers. So, I had to over ride drinks or other orders."

"The only food we do here is some slightly classier 'bar food.' Gourmet small pizzas that are cooked downstairs in a small pizza oven and a few cheese and anti pasta platters that can be made very quickly. People don't generally come here to eat, they come for entertainment and drinks. From time to time, we've had people ask for food which prompted me to carry a few small popular things that didn't require a full restaurant licence."

"Anyway, a lot of our ledgers are done on the computer. However, because I do not trust computers 100%, I do keep a hard copy ledger." Tapping on the shelf above the computer. "I usually 'save as' a copy once a month to a travel hard drive. Since we don't have this on any other sort of server, I thought it would be a good idea. I don't know much about those cloud servers, but I hear about them."

"What questions do you have, Brigid? I'm sure you have at least a few." She chuckled softly. The Fairest felt like she data dumped on the poor woman.

Taken it all in was fairly simple stuff for the Wizened, the organisation that was already in place simply singing in Brigid's soul. Different colour keys, a manual for overriding procedures, ledgers filed both electronically and manually.

It was simply Heaven.

"I understand about not trusting computers," Brigid added when it was mentioned, turning her nose up slightly. "Although, truth be told, it could be I'm simply worried about what I don't know about. I'm just not that interested in them that much; the basics of turning them on, writing on Word, checking emails, I can do that. Ask me to check if its security has been updated, I couldn't tell you where to start." An honest smile as her eyes gazed around the office, taking in the space. "I still believe that computers are constructs of the Gentry to ensnare us." Brigid looked to Sasha playfully, her awful joke showing that she was relaxing a little around her new manager.

"I do have one question, actually, and it isn't just for the Blue Note but for the Freehold overall; Do we have an ensorcelled in our employment?"

The Onyx thought that Brigid may have been more tech savvy, but it didn't matter. The basics were all that were truly needed. But, Sasha was glad that the Wizened seemed so very pleased to be assisting her.

The Fairest didn't expect simple candor from Brigid so soon, but she returned the Wizened's smile. "You know, in many ways, I agree with that thought. Although I have met some fierce computer Changelings that would say it has helped them immensely. As long as you can update simple Excel spreadsheets everything is pretty easy." Thank god Harvey took the time to do all of that.

"There's also a bunch of links on the browser for the places we order from. The passwords are easy to remember." Pointing to a filing cabinet, and jingling the keys she would soon give Brigid.

"As far as I know, none to my knowledge*. There used to be a few, but they'd left with others, including previous Sovereigns." The Dancer sighed. "I've thought about taking one on for the Note, but, this would explain why I'm in a pickle."

**

We don't even have an actual wiki page for ensorcelled. I thought we did at one point.

Brigid nodded in understanding to what she was being told, Sasha highlighting the basic requirements that she'd expect out of the chatelaine. It was refreshing, a position that didn't require Brigid to start from scratch with arranging systematically every aspect of the business. It was already in place and the Wizened was very, very happy about that. Why, oh why, couldn't every soul be like this? she mused.

"Hmm, a shame. The limited time I've been back, I found that having at least a couple around helped ease businesses that required a close-knit ties to those that have not witnessed Arcadia and its Lords." A momentary pause. "May I ask, before we conclude, would I require permission from yourself and Queen Ankaa if I wanted to ensorcell someone in the future?"

"Oh, I agree. It has helped in the past. I believe the former owner had a few of them. The past Onyx Sovereign had them working here. It would probably take even more weight off my shoulders." The Fairest giggled. "Perhaps one to assist with the Maze when I need to be elsewhere would be good. More so because it would make a lot of sense."

In the old Freehold, the Fairest never heard of the Sovereigns having to approve it. Naturally, with the changes, it was wise to do something first. "I will check with Alexander and Mhairi on that for you. I don't think it's a problem, but, with establishing a new Freehold, I'd rather check with them before I say yes." Of course, if Sasha was to make a decision right now, she'd tell Brigid no problem.