Hera: Queen & goddess of the sky, women & marriage (hera_teleia) wrote in deities_dot_com, @ 2012-03-05 00:04:00 |
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Entry tags: | ~hera, ~zeus |
Paperwork (tag: Zeus)
Hera frowned at the screen in front of her, scanning through the names again. It wasn’t there this time any more than it had been the previous two times she had done the same thing. She slowed down, scrolling down very carefully, her finger moving the mouse by small increments through the spreadsheet, just in case she had missed it the first few times. Or perhaps it had been misplaced, somehow logged out of alphabetical order.
But no. It still was not on the list for this year’s census and taxes. But it had been there last year. She turned her eyes back to the book laying open on her desk and looked directly at the name she could no longer find. Was that an error? The recording from last year? Had the name been a misprint, or been added incorrectly?
Hera sighed and spun her chair around to the filing cabinet behind her desk. It was made of heavy cherry wood with ornate carvings scrolling up the corners, matching every other piece of furniture in her office. The Corinthian leather chair did not make a sound as its wheels rolled across the heavy Kashan rug. Everything in the room made a statement about elegance and wealth, including the occupant, despite the mundane nature of the tasks she was performing.
Occasionally, the queen wondered if anybody other than herself, Zeus, and their closest attendants understood how much effort went into keeping the pantheon running smoothly, and all of their subjects relatively well and cared for. It was not all diamonds and gold and pretty things, no matter how her current surroundings might make it seem. There was a lot of day to day work that went into the maintenance of that many deities. But knowing that would very likely make Hera seem less regal, possibly more approachable, and what would that gain her? People knocking on her door asking for things that she would have to deny. There was an order and rhythm to the running of things, and giving one person more than another, showing more favor than she was able just because somebody asked for it, it simply wouldn’t do. It would make her unpopular.
Though she wasn’t terribly popular now, actually. But there was a difference between being thought haughty because she was royalty, and being thought heartless when the opposite was true. Hera loved her pantheon. Well, in general. There were definitely some personalities that she could do without, and disliked personally, but her pantheon… she took great pride in her pantheon. So she took her duties to it quite seriously, even when they involved paperwork.
Retrieving the files from her cabinet, she quickly flipped through to the section she wanted and trailed her finger down the page. Then her finger stopped. Right at the name that had been in the book. The name that was not in her spreadsheet for this year. To be certain, Hera pulled out the files for five more years, at random, and in each one, she found the name. Argyra. So where was the girl this year?
It was more than just a clerical error that weighed on Hera’s mind. Had something happened to the nymph? Was she having some kind of difficulty that kept her from sending in the required forms? Hera reviewed the paperwork for the previous year, looking for anything regarding the girl and what may have happened, but she couldn’t find anything after last year’s taxes.
She could, and probably would eventually, send Iris to find the missing girl, but there was a closer source at hand. Though she was loathe to broach the topic with him, her husband did know a number of the nymphs better than she did. It was not a subject that made her happy. It wasn’t that he knew them, it was how he knew them. But her personal feelings on the matter were secondary to the well-being of the pantheon. It was a hard earned lesson, but not one she would ever forget again.
With a sigh, she stood, stretched slightly, then went in search of Zeus.