Somewhere Else Entirely

5 - Nothing but the Truth

Garia faces her first session with the Royal Questor. She tries to explain her world to Morlan but it seems he finds it difficult to believe anything she says. A furious argument erupts...

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Garia dutifully followed as Morlan stalked off, black robe flapping. To her surprise, however, her guide did not head for the doors but instead angled across the room and out into the cloister surrounding the enclosed garden. He stepped through one of the numerous arches which made up the covered walkway and strode out on a pathway between the flower beds. With a little hesitation Garia followed.

He went back into the cloister on the opposite side and through a doorway into a large room. This room had windows each side, another courtyard could dimly be seen beyond. The room was filled with tables and benches, the walls were lined with shelves. All were covered with scrolls, books, apparatus. There were unidentifiable objects piled in odd corners, half-built or half-demolished constructions on the benches, glass, bronze, steel, wood, leather. This was obviously Morlan's laboratory. It looked like it hadn't been tidied for years. Morlan didn't stop in the room, however, but led Garia towards a door at the end. As he reached it he turned and frowned.

"You!"

Garia turned as she realized he had not been addressing her but someone behind, and discovered that Jenet had followed them.

"Master?"

"Have you other duties to perform? I shall not be requiring..." Morland paused, considering. "I have changed my mind," he eventually said, with a look that implied that he resented having to do so. "It would be unseemly for me to interview a young woman in my chambers without a chaperone, so you may accompany your mistress. But," his face twisted, "if I discover that anything of what we may discuss in my study is broadcast to the palace staff I'll have you flayed, do you understand?"

Jenet looked suitably penitent and curtseyed. "I understand, Master."

"Then enter, both of you." Morlan opened the door and gestured with his arm. He followed them in, closing the door, and then went to sit behind a huge desk with his back towards the window. Garia noticed that her Earth belongings were all spread on the desk, on top of the jumble of documents already there.

"Sit, Mistress," he instructed, pointing to a chair facing the desk. Jenet was a servant, so he ignored her completely.

"Now, Mistress," he continued, "you have had all night to put together a story to entertain me." He favored Garia with a sour look. "Once you've got that out of the way, you will tell me what really brings you here. I will have the truth of this matter."

"Master Morlan," Garia began, "I have no story to tell you but the truth, what I know of it. Whether you choose to believe it is your affair, but I will promise to tell you the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth." She almost automatically added so help me God, but until she discovered what religions there were in this world it was best to keep one's options open.

Morlan gave her another sour look. "As if that pretty little speech means anything. What does a slip of a thing like you know about the truth? Very well, let us begin. These clothes and other things, you maintain that they belong to you, is that so?"

"Yes, Master Morlan."

"They belong to you, and not a male traveling companion."

"Yes, Master Morlan, they belong to me personally. I recognize them, they are mine, I have worn them before."

"This is that silly claim you made yesterday that you were a boy."

"Yes, Master Morlan. Although in this world I am undeniably a woman, before I came here, in the world in which I lived and grew up, I was a man of just over seventeen years of age."