On the break room door was a piece of printer paper in a bold, large font that reads, 'Do not enter.' She knocked on the door underneath the sign. “Gil, it’s Keylynn.” She failed to keep her concern from her voice. She felt hyphae wrap themselves around her arm tightly. “May I enter? I wish to speak with you.”

  After a moment the door cracked open, revealing Gil’s small green form floating up near her eyeline. “That slime of yours is persistent.”

  “I have heard many stories about them. They developed abilities I failed to anticipate.” She didn’t think slime Eugene reached all the way to Gil. “My deepest apologies for the actions of my mould.” She bowed her head. “Is the disagreement between you and floor seven caused by slime, Eugene?” She asked, dread filling her heart. If she were the cause of everything, the shame and guilt might consume her until she finds a way to pay her reparations to the entire office. Hyphae wrapped around her, trying to wrap her into a comforting hug.

  Gil scoffed. “If your snot was to blame, I’ll eat my broken machine. Ye can come in. I know ye can’t make a cup on your own,” he said, floating back and opening the door slightly.

  She slipped into the break room, closing the door quietly behind herself. Astonished at the sight in front of her, her mouth hung open. The break room was attacked. There were coffee stains all over the walls and roof, while the floor, counters, and tables were littered with puddles of stagnant coffee. She reached out with her magic quickly and felt a plethora of fungi growing and festering in the puddles. His gnomish contraption that once filled him with pride was now dented, cracked, and broken. Shards of glass surrounded it, pointed outwards. There was even glass embedded into the nearest wall. Soot stained the wall above it, blossoming upwards towards the roof.

  “You’ve been attacked. Who would dare do such a thing?” She asked, turning to face him, worry and insult clear on her face. Company policy was clear: employees are not to harass, abuse, or assault the creatures who care for and maintain their break rooms, which includes destroying break room property. RADWAC worked hard to forge and maintain their ties to the smaller helpful fae that ruled over their break rooms.

  Gil glowered at the mess of twisted metal and broken glass dusted in coffee grounds. “Worse than simply attacked. Sabotaged, insulted, and betrayed are the words that come to mind. My family agrees.”

  Her blood chilled. If he has included his family, the Gilgamesh family, in this, there will be more break room shutdowns in the future. If she finds out that slime Eugene was the driving factor for the individual who broke the machine, she will have to resign or, worse, strip herself of her fungi cultivations. The last time she was stripped of her fungi, her vision became a limited view of living and nonliving.

  “Normally I don’t have a problem with after-hours use of the break room. All of your desk jocks work hard. All I ask of ye is that ye get trained to use my machines before you use them after hours.” She didn’t know that. It’s good to know when she works late in the office. Not that she is an avid coffee drinker, it’s still a gesture of trust that floor seven has earned with Gil. “Someone didn’t, and it exploded. They didn’t even have the common decency to clean up their mess.” He explained as the flapping of his wings increased with his anger.

  The insult to his trust was enough to fill her with rage. The complete lack of respect was alarming. She felt several bees manifest around her. One by one they disappeared before she needed to dismiss them. “Are you knowing of who did it?” She asked cautiously. Goblin brownies are known for their pride and their temper. This insult to his pride is not something he will ever forget. They hold actions above words, meaning the longer this dispute carries on, the worse it will be for the perpetrator. An apology will go a long way in correcting this catastrophe.

  “Wish I did. It would make it easier if we knew who it was. Could have been anyone on the seventh floor. I asked the slithering boss to be accountable and bring the guilty ass forward. They haven’t.” He crossed his arms. ”I banned everyone on floor seven from the use of the break room until they do.” He sounded almost regretful that it got to the point of a complete office ban. She didn’t blame him. Regardless of how it ends, Gil will forever have his ban haunt his reputation even if he is transferred to a different floor.

  “And atonement has been done for their actions.” She added. She cannot fathom the type of person who could do this and not want to fix their errors. Atoning for errors and mistakes is the way to learn from them and show others they will not happen again. “At the very minimum I recommend banning them from after-hour activities and restricting access within the break room until they have proven they deserve your trust.” She didn’t think a complete ban from the break room would help Gil’s reputation going forward. She wished she could help more than with suggestions. She heard far too many break room disputes ending with detrimental outcomes for break room brownies. Hold on, she can do more. “I can represent you as your HR consultant in this matter,” she offered with a smile. It pays to be a consultant.

  Gil gestured for her to take a seat in the only clean chair in the break room. “I appreciate that. The scaly boss called for a negotiator. They want a return to office normalcy as soon as possible,” he explained bitterly.

  Keylynn sat down in the chair, understanding their bitterness. Negotiators often choose the easiest solution for management. That usually leaves people like Gil receiving terrible outcomes, including job termination.

  “Use their motivations for normalcy to your advantage. Leverage it for a complete repair or replacement of the broken contraption, replacement of all supplies that were affected, loss of wages during this closure, and enforcing break room hours until such a time that floor seven is worthy of your trust.” She loathes the break room brownie policies that are in place. Their wages are only paid when their break room is open, which is often used to prevent break room closures. She heard that some break room brownies keep their break room open to maximize their paycheck while only appearing after hours to clean up. Break room brownies don’t get paid vacation days. They have to collect overtime hours they can then use for their intended vacation, allowing them the illusion of a paid vacation. And to take their vacation, they need to find someone who can replace them while they're gone.

  “I planned to make the perpetrator pay for a new machine. The only thing some folk listen to is the quality of gold in their bank vault,” he said in an indignant huff. “Would you like anything?” He gestured towards the functional machines.

  “I could never ask you to break your convictions. During negotiations, please forward all notes to me and request to confer with your HR consultant. Document everything. Especially if they try to pressure you to accept any terms without time to confer with me.” She said sternly. It was a common tactic the negotiators used. It was an insidious method they used to end disputes with intimidation and limited-time offers. More often than not they claim these offers are the best they can do, which those without representation may believe.

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  “I’ll get that consultant paperwork filed by the end of the day for you, make it easier for ye,” he said with a nod.

  “You have my thanks.” Having the necessary paperwork filed always makes for a smoother job.

  “Thank you for stopping by,” Gil said, pausing with a pained expression on his face. His small fingers fidgeting as if he were a child about to admit that he lied about stealing a toad. “I hate to do this to ye but I have to empty a pot of coffee on your head on your way out.”

  She felt more bees manifest as she thought about Gil being put into this position where he has to preserve the perception of a wronged brownie for his negotiations. “I understand. You are free to use extra pungent coffee. In fact, I would welcome a sample of one of your coffee puddles. They are growing several fungi I would love to cultivate.” She explained, turning towards the puddles.

  “Oh, I wouldn’t use the pungent coffee on ye.” He sounded almost wounded at the thought of treating her to the foulest coffee he has. “But I can give you a sample.” His voice perked up as he flew down to one of the puddles and came back with a vial filled with the cloudy coffee.

  She accepted the vial with a smile and slipped it into her bag. “My many thanks. If I discover anything interesting from it, I will be sure to inform you.”

  “Ye better.”

  She stood and walked towards the door with Gil flying beside her head with a large pot of coffee floating beside him.

  “Don’t take anything I yell in my mother tongue as how I feel about ye,” he explained as he opened the door. She nodded, schooling her face to look like she was being harshly scolded. He let loose a massive collection of slurs and insults involving her mother and grandmother as the coffee pot dumped on her head, sending rivulets of crisp cold coffee flowing over her. Her looks of displeasure were genuine, as there is nothing pleasing about dripping in cold coffee. The door slammed loudly behind her.

  “You ssshould have left well enough alone,” Akzer hissed while their cold amber eyes assessed her dripping clothes. “Come.”

  She followed their slithering form through the office, leaving droplets of cold coffee behind her. It took all of her focus to prevent the manifestation of large bees. The last thing she needed was to sting her boss in their tail and discover their lethal allergy to bees.

  She stood across from them, opting not to stain their chair, while Akzer took a seat behind their desk. “I find it curiousss that one employee hasss crosssed my desssk ssseveral timesss in their firssst week.” They spoke coldly towards her. “Coworker disssputesss, your pet causssing extreme mental dissstress acrosss the entire office.” Her heart dropped into her stomach. Extreme mental distress repeated in her mind. She has to make it right with the entire office, and she can’t just rapidly end the dispute with Gil. In fact, her involvement has likely increased how long it will take to find a resolution. “And now a ssstorymancer is petitioning your termination.” They concluded with their tongue flicking out. They grimaced at the smell of the cold coffee dripping from her clothes.

  “If I had known slime Eugene would develop such potent telepathy, I would have taken them with me. My deepest apologies for the harm they have caused. I will not be leaving them unattended in the future as I discover the limits of their abilities,” she said, bowing her head and feeling ashamed. “However, that storymancer is spewing nothing but empty air. My work on the case file,” she paused briefly for her brown slime mould to fill in the case file number “HR-600-1I-N2B-C, followed corporate policies exactly.” She will accept the consequences of her failure with Eugene, but she won’t allow slander on her work.

  “I’m well aware.” They replied blandly.

  She focused on maintaining complete control and refused to manifest any bees. Bees will not help her save her job. She promised herself that if she’s fired, she will summon all of the bees.

  “Your asssesssment requessst was approved, and no one appearsss to be willing to asssesss Ody’sss Path.” Akzer sighed with a small roll of their eyes as if the very name of the quest insulted them. “You have been requesssted to complete the asssesssment, under the guissse of an annual asssesssment. That isss if you are ssso inclined.” If Keylynn didn’t know any better, they were reluctant to send her on this assignment.

  She can’t leave her new team because she doesn't know how long this assessment will take her on her own. And she can't take them to tackle such a high-pressure assessment. What she needed was her old team, who won’t let one badgering storymancer bully them, and her trainees to learn how to conduct a complete assessment. That experience is necessary for them to be assigned their own fieldwork in the future.

  “I’ll do it if I can have the support of the Floor Five team and my team of trainees. I cannot let this good experience for them pass by.” She hoped they would be amenable to her solution. Her team needs this, and she needs team Floor Five.

  Their tail reached up and stroked their chin thoughtfully. “I don’t hate it,” they mused out loud. “I’ll allow it. You are resssponsssible for them. Do not disssappoint me.”