Wherein alliances are tested (Ch. 26)
Every night, there was a checklist. It wasn’t extraordinarily long, which helped the diligence with which it was upkept. The first item was the room – should any mess remain; it must be tidied. The second item was the grand order, a rather pompous name for what amounted to an ever-growing leviathan of contractual obligations, though of course he only had a copy. Completed items were to be checked off, new items entered into work plans, duties shuffled around between archivists and servants almost at random. At the very least, the instant synchronization with the document of the grand order itself was gratifying. He wondered whether there was some vetting process between his copy and the central document, for as far as he knew his entries were ever respected. As the old priorities were no longer upheld, he could’ve just asked the central archivist. But the official freedoms seemed a pale thing when compared to centuries of organization. The third item was his health; cleaning of...