Excerpt: Shifted

Aneel opened the letter cautiously, it certainly looked official and she had no idea why the Professorship in Oletto would be writing to her. She had not noticed that the insignia on the back of the envelope had not been for the Professorship at all, but rather for the Parliament, a fatal mistake as she was soon to learn.

“Dear Professor Saneize,” the letter read,
“It has come to our attention that you are currently writing a paper that focuses on the similarities between the runes that our ancestors used during the Time of Enlightenment and the runes that have been found in other lands, namely Asender, with the implication that our people came from the same region. You may or may not be aware of the new commity that has been set up to review all papers regarding the history of our people and where they came from as such research is regarded by the Parliament as sensitive and strictly government business.

Please send a copy of your research thus far in the envelope provided so that the commity can review the paper and make a decision regarding its sensitivity to the Parliament. If it has been shown that the research you are doing is incompatible with the new standards of publication, we shall write to you to let you know.
Regards,

Rheison Benkintor

Head of the Review Commity

Parliament of Esial”

Aneel frowned as she read the letter a second time. So word had managed to get out about her paper after all; that was annoying. She sighed as se looked over to the stack of paper she had written on the subject and wondered how in Esial she was going to fit it all into the tiny envelope the review commity had given her,

~ No doubt they want an excuse to pull me up in front of Parliament for failure to provide the information they want. ~ she thought to herself, ~I suppose I could get away with sending my paper in my own envelope with a cover letter explaining that the envelope provided was too small, but I get the feeling that I’ll get pulled up for not using it. Either way it looks like the whole thing has been designed so that I can’t win. ~
Aneel frowned in displeasure, what was Parliament up to with that kind of attitude towards the professors researching their people’s history? She sighed as she thought about her options,

“Either I send what research I can in the envelope given to me and get pulled up for failure to provide all my research or I use my own and get pulled up for not using Approved stationery or something equally as silly.” She muttered, this was why the Academy had its own Professorship, to cut down on all this beurocracy to ensure that most research was published to the Academy populace. So why then was Parliament sticking its nose in on Academy business? Aneel sighed, she would have to think about that later, the sooner she got her research sent off the better. Aneel put what research she could into the little envelope, making sure that it contained most of the relevant research that she was sure Parliament wanted to take a look at, searched high and low for a bigger envelope and stuffed the rest of her research into it. Finally finding her quil she wrote a cover letter for the larger envelope,

“Regarding my research on the similarities of the runes used by differing peoples during the Time of Enlightenment.” She wrote,

“I can only hope that this compromise pleases the Review Commity as I sent what research I could into the provided envelope, however, as it was not nearly big enough to send my extensive notes on the subject I have provided the rest in this one.
I look forward to further correspondence on the matter regarding my research,

Yours faithfully

Professor Aneel Saneize

Professor of Historical Studies

The Academy,

Krisna”

Aneel put her quil down carefully and re-read the cover letter. Yes, it looked as though it would make a decent enough compromise. She put the letter in the larger envelope, to the front of the research contained within it, sealed it with the Academy insignia and looked at the address on the envelope that had been provided. Carefully coping it down, word for word , she put both envelopes on her desk in the most conspicuous place she could find so that she would not forget to send them later. Knowing her luck, Aneel mused, she would forget tha they were to be sent as soon as possible and she would get pulled up for failure to provide any information at all. Aneel sighed as she went back to trying to put her office back into some sort of order.

As the exams drew ever closer, the older students at the Academy began to spend far more time tucked away in various nooks and crannies of the Library, much to Brogan’s displeasure {namely because the students new to the exams often forgot to put the papers they had been reading back in their proper places}. The Professors that taught classes now leant heavily towards review sessions and wrapping up the year’s learning as soon as possible and placing as much emphasis as they could on studying hard. Many of the students groaned at the rhetoric, but they knew that their Professors were feeling the pressure as much as the students themselves since their annual performance reviews were often hinged on how many students passed the final exams in their chosen fields.