Licence to leave
Posted: Sun Sep 24, 2017 10:54 am
Vhalar 62 Arc 717
Sometimes, one had to do things they did not particularly enjoyed. Sometimes, one had to grit their teeth and endure, despite the bitter taste it left in their mouth.
For some, it was speaking to someone they couldn’t stand. Or perhaps completing a task they despised. Eating food they didn’t like. Going someplace they’d rather not venture to. Listening to a ten arc old butchering a “funny” joke you’d heard (and told) almost a decade before. Listening to a friend, coworker, or family member bawling their eyes out as they told you about their shitty life choices, violent husbands, cheating wives, and what have you.
Yana had certainly experienced all of those before.
This trial was a bit different.
“So you’re telling me you want to leave the Iron Hand?” Captain Jacobs sounded incredulous. Of course he did, this was very unlike her. She didn’t take too many breaks or vacation trials. She didn’t complain about the pressure the job put on her, not to him, not to her peers, not even to those close to her. Jacobs knew all this.
“Not quite,” Yana squirmed, ivory eyes drifting away from her superior’s face undetected. “I do not want to leave--”
The Captain waved his hand dismissively. “Semantics, Steward LaChasse, semantics.”
She sighed. Right. It would be best to cut straight to the point.
“I want to request a leave,” she repeated, only to be cut off by her superior once again.
“Yes, yes. A leave of undetermined duration. You said so not a bit ago.” He cupped his chin as he stared at her, thoughtful. “You won’t get it,” he said, shaking his head. “This is not me denying you, Steward LaChasse,” the man quickly added, “but this is me stating facts. You will not be getting a leave spanning such a vast amount of time.” He spread his hands in a defeated gesture. “By definition, you do not have enough accrued trials. Even if you did, the Hand does not like to pay for personnel that is not there.”
She nodded. This was to be expected. It was non-negotiable as well, she knew. Annoying, but not surprising.
“A pass then,” she corrected.
“That might work, given the right motivation. However, the ‘of undetermined duration’ part is the stumbling block. If it were up to me, I would allow it--”
Pretty words or genuine feelings?
“—but it’s not. I merely pass your request to those further up the military ladder. To them you’re just a name on a piece of paper. They will read your motive for the request, check your records, assess the current state of the Hand as a whole, double check your records, and either deny or approve your request based on that.”
Yana wasn’t too worried about that. She’d shown herself to be a capable and a hard worker. She was known to be punctual. Her reports always were handed in on time. Apart from a false start when she’d been promoted, there were no more internal problems in her squad of Knights.
“Your rank might play a factor as well,” Jacobs continued. “A Knight is easily replaced. Officers though? Not so much. Even the lower ranks like you and I are important to the working of the Military. Reports, management of troops, dealing with minor issues, et cetera. If one officer leaves for an extended period of time, their workload gets transferred to someone else. The workload gets increased. It’s fine for a couple trials, but for what can potentially be seasons or arcs? It’s problematic.” He sighed.
Again the Yludih nodded. That was logical. She could understand this reasoning. If she were in the shoes of her superiors, she would probably think along the same lines.
“Naturally, it all depends on your reason for requesting a pass. Emergencies are treated differently than a desire for some long vacation.” He locked his fingers together on the desk before him, his bushy brows slightly frowned. “Knowing you…” His voice trailed off, and he didn’t bother to finish after he went quiet.
Like a good soldier should be, Yana had come prepared. “Indeed, sir. It is a family matter.” She fished a neatly folded piece of parchment out of a pocket. With a few quick motions she reverted it to its original state and handed it over to her direct superior. “I received this letter last night.”
He read it quickly, skimming over the pleasantries until he reached the important part. His brow furrowed a little more, his eyes attentively scanning the remainder of the message. When he was done, he placed the letter on his desk with the slow movements of a man lost in thought. Yana didn’t speak to interrupt him.
“I do believe this qualifies as an emergency,” the Captain finally spoke. “Family matters, after all.” He sighed. “Your origin makes this needlessly complicated, unfortunately. Most of our members are from Rynmere, only a handful are immigrants, as you well know. For the former, a leave can be approved. Even if their family lives as far away from their station as possible, travel does not take much longer than few trials. For other Eídisi, travel to Viden is swift thanks to the Portal –though the situation now has changed rather drastically.” He tapped the wood of his desk a couple times, shifting in his seat. “However, you hail from Etzos. The travel back and forth alone would take around seventy trials. Never in a thousand arcs will our financial department agree to continue your pay for that long, emergency or not.”
“So it will be a pass.” It was a statement rather than a question.
“Most likely. As for the length of your absence… Well, I’m not sure. Given your father’s condition –and I’m sorry to ask such a morbid question—how long do you think it would take?”
Yana took a deep breath in. This was a tricky question to answer. “I honestly do not know, sir,” she said, eye fixated on the letter, on her mother’s slanted handwriting. “My father is stubborn. He will fight it to the bitter end, even if it means drawing out his suffering. It is hard to pinpoint a date for his death, or alternatively, his recovery. We have experienced such episodes before, all different in terms of length. Mother fears he will not make it this time. However, if he does recover, I would like to be there until his condition has improved enough as to not be life threatening anymore.”
Jacobs nodded slightly. “Understandable. And in case of death, I assume you would stay for the ceremony, burial, and mourning?” He spoke softer now, not in volume, but in tone. There was something fatherly in it, something empathic.
The Yludih let her shoulders sag for a moment, recovering her posture not even a moment later. “Indeed, sir.”
“Very well. I will file this request for you. I’ll include clarification that due to the uncertainty of your father’s future, the length of your absence cannot be determined.” He spoke while jotting down some notes on a piece of scrap paper, looking up after his hand stopped moving. “The letter will be attached to the request form. I can have it copied if you’d like?”
“Thank you, sir,” she answered, and the Captain added some words onto his paper.
“Anything else you want me to include?”
“No, sir.”
“Then I suppose that’s all I can do. You can expect word from above to come within the next dozen trials.” He smiled cheekily at her. The time these things were supposed to take was listed as less than half of what he’d said. She nodded.
“Take care, Steward LaChasse, and my the Seven give your father strength.”
“Thank you, sir,” she said with a dip of her head, before stepping outside.
She was glad that was over.
Leaving the Hand for a while… she didn’t like the idea of that. Putting her career on hold felt wrong. It felt the same kind of wrong as leaving for Viden had just after her promotion. No matter her reasons for leaving, she felt as if this –what she suspected was going to be—extended absence would get in the way of her progression once she got back. It’d be a smear on her track record, a dirty stain that wouldn’t go away. Or perhaps she was just paranoid.
Perhaps this would have no consequences whatsoever. Not for her career at least. For herself? Yana already knew that in the thirty-something trials aboard the ship to Etzos, she’d be beating herself up for shirking her duties, for leaving her Knights in the hands of someone else. Not because they wouldn’t do a good job, but because they wouldn’t do a good enough job. Because it would be different from her style of doing things, and it would cause friction when she got back. As for the reports, well, they weren’t signed with her name or her handwriting, so she didn’t care about those. She wouldn’t leave some incomplete ones someone else would have to finish lying around either.
Re-integrating herself in the Hand would be the problem.
Then again, she might just be overthinking it.
