fic: if you have further comments, note them below.

[undersecretary]

IF YOU HAVE FURTHER COMMENTS, NOTE THEM BELOW

“A book is a fragile creature, it suffers the wear of time, it fears rodents, the elements and clumsy hands. so the librarian protects the books not only against mankind but also against nature and devotes his life to this was with the forces of oblivion.”

PERSONAL DATA:
Name: Germaine D-----
Birthdate: Irrelevant
Status: Deceased
Address: Paris, Niflheim
Contact info: You will know how to call for me, and I will know when you do.


EMPLOYMENT HISTORY:
Self-employed author of more than twenty titles within various genres. See attached list for incomplete overview.
Literary reviewer for Le Canard Enchainé, 190- until 191-
Senior Executive Secretary at Le Monde, 191- until ----


EDUCATIONAL HISTORY:
Unknown.


(Added in a small, neat handwriting, red ink.)
RELEVANT SKILLS:
There is nothing I cannot write. I know about structures. I understand the importance of women supporting women.


IF YOU HAVE FURTHER COMMENTS, NOTE THEM BELOW:
What I can offer is the Dead perspective.

With all due respect, I do not believe you truly understand what it is like to be deceased. Not in the physical nor in the spiritual sense. You show great sympathy towards our plight and your welcome is warm, caring, and I shan’t presume to know if you have not experienced any number of the other ways one might feel the grip of death on the heart, but I don’t think you have forgotten your life. If you have experienced death in some form, I do not believe you have forgotten that either.

I may speak out of line now. After all, you are Queen here, not I – and I, of all people, understand the tightrope royalty walk not to be overtaken by their subjects. What I do remember is being French. What I do remember is a brother who made himself king in every sense but the literal one and me his liege against my will. Truly, you may not need the insight of a slightly disillusioned feminist to most efficiently serve your purpose and run your queendom.

On the other hand, perhaps that is exactly what you need.

Having been here long enough to know that order is not the Niflheim way, I still suggest some measures of organization be instilled in the fog. The Dead are a chaotic people, and we have too many examples of dethroned Napoleons already to want a similar uprising against the inherent system that I do still believe exists within the chaos. And while I may no longer recall the names of the parents that raised me, I remember to what they raised me. I observe, Helreginn. I structure and I conserve.

The Dead are afraid of being forgotten. More than being dead, I looked into your face the moment I awoke here, and I felt you understood that fear better than anyone. Perhaps that is what has given you not a crown but a throne room.

We are all afraid of being forgotten.

So let us not forget ourselves.