The Weekly Offices • Anaxas/Vienda
On the 1st of Bethas, 2719 • Night
He pinched the bridge of his nose, shaking his head. They'd have to be accounted for when he published his own paper. He didn't relish the idea of having to convince people who already read over and over how tense the situation was between human and galdor that, yes, it was tense, but not for the reasons the gods-damned Post was claiming.
He'd read a dozen issues of that insipid "Lusts Ensnared" trash before he'd believe a single thing the yellow paper said to be true. Sinking back in the chair, Adam glanced up at the clock on the far wall. 28 o'clock -- two hours to midnight. He still didn't have anything written for the morning paper. Maybe he should go work at the Post, and spend his days making up stories out of whole cloth, instead of adjusting facts so they didn't quite suit the galdori narrative.
There had been a spat in the Kingsway Market. Some galdor had gotten upset that a human merchant didn't have the goods that had been promised. He'd heard of it through the usual street gossip. It had taken two or three Seventen to prevent violence from breaking out. If he were being entirely dispassionate, it was probably the merchant's fault. Silk bolts were expensive, but not particularly hard to produce -- it wasn't as if the galdor had asked for some unrealistic amount of tailoring. But he couldn't afford to be neutral in this case and blame the human for a genuine wrong.
He set a fresh sheet of paper in the carriage, securing it.
That was fine. It was the truth; both galdor and human had been asked questions and spent the night cooling their heels and their heads, although he suspected only one of them had actually wound up being in jail during that time. More importantly, it didn't blame his fellow human outright. He'd bury that portion of it.
And none of it was a lie. He kept going, concluding a few paragraphs later:
At least, when drastic measures needed to be taken, they ought not to be taken over bots of silk or slapdash articles telling lies. There were far more worthwhile reasons to take action. He'd do his best to make sure those important reasons were the only cause.