Edgedancer: Chapter 14

Three hours later, Lift sits at the fat scribe's desk eating pancakes. Lesser scribes search through reports while the fat scribe reads from the spanreed that writes Gawx's end of their conversation. He's worried about reports from the west on the new storm. The fat scribe confirms Gawx's report as the scribes have independent confirmation from Shinovar and Iri. Ghenna says everything is in chaos. Gawx wants to know how the Alethi know so much about the storm. Lift wants to know when it's going to hit but tells Ghenna to write to Gawx about the pancakes. Gawx isn't amused. Lift tells him that it's his job to provide the people with food after their world falls apart. He says the Alethi are warning about parshmen, and that he's doing what he can on short notice. Still, he asks about the Voidbringers. Lift says she's working on it, but the scribes don't really know what they're looking for. She calls upon her awesomeness to give them a visual picture. The scribes stare at her in awe, then she sets them back to working with a clap. Gawx asks Lift if she's coming back, tells her she's missed, that she can do anything she wants. For Lift, that's just the problem, so she says she doesn't know what she's going to do. The guard captain peeks in the room and says the woman who runs Tashi's Light Orphanage is being investigated for running some kind of money laundering scheme, though the details are confusing. Lift suggests the Stump should be arrested and her money spent on soup. Hauka ignores Lift's suggestions but assures her that her colleagues will be moving against the woman soon.
Lift asks the scribes what they've found out. Ghenna complains that it's too large a project and they haven't had enough time. Over the next few hours Lift tries to prod them in several ways and, while they do find some unusual reports, none had more than one witness. If all the reports were true, every person in the city would've been a Surgebinder. Wyndle suggests they pick one report and hope they get lucky. Lift hates luck, these days. Pick the right one and she could save a life. Pick the wrong one and Darkness would execute an innocent. She hates Darkness, suddenly. Lift can't choose. She doesn't make choices. She goes where the wind blows.
A guard flings open the door with a pronouncement of emergency from the Prince with regard to the storm. Ghenna tells Lift she's been overruled. The scribes efficiently pack up over Lift's protest and split up to perform various duties. Lift ditches her escort to a bunker, strips off her Azish clothing, thus leaving her in her own clothes. She sets off into a less-populated part of the building. It was dark, everyone still starving for Stormlight. She continues walking and notices that the place isn't like a library. The more she walked, the quieter it became. Wyndle says he's sorry the plan didn't work, but that it's probably still worth trying. Lift remembers that Darkness' apprentice had said she'd had an investigation going. Wyndle suggests it could involve a bunch of scribes searching records. Lift grins and runs back in the direction from which she'd come.