@ Scatman
Thank you! I’ve been investing more time in zypping lately, it might be that 
I always struggle with posing, but I’ve found it helps immensely to have a reference picture. For Amalia, for example, I just googled for “resting head on arms” until I found something that looked good, and then I just copied it.
@ Trekkie
Haha, thanks! The dialogues are really fun to write.
@ Alexander
Thanks, I will!
A: Quartermaster! I would like a word with you.
N: Of course, sir.
A: I have been looking through your papers, and I can’t find any records of your service in the uKhahlamba War. Have you misplaced them?
N: No sir. I didn’t serve in the uKhahlamba war.
A: Is that so? Where did you serve, then?
N: I didn’t, sir. This is my first assignment.
A: Oh. Pardon me, madame, I shouldn’t have assumed.
N: That’s quite allright, captain.
A: …
N: …
A: Out of curiosity, quartermaster, how did you lose your eyes?
N: Through a laboratorial incident, captain, at Ulundi university.
A: What sort of an incident?
N: The lecturer stumbled and spilled aqua regia in my face, captain.
A: I see. And I take it your arm was burned as well?
N: No captain. Seperate incidents, captain.
A: Aha. Would you mind telling me how that happened?
N: A fire in the dormitories at the Al-Azhar University, sir. My arm was caught and crushed under a falling beam.
A: I see. Al-Azhar, that’s in…?
N: Cairo, sir.
A: Oh, right, Cairo.
N: …
A: And, well, what about…
N: The leg, captain?
A: Yes. What about the leg, quartermaster?
N: Frostbite, sir.
A: Frostbite?
N: Yes, sir, frostbite. My horse died from a stroke on the way to a lecture on cartography at the University of Uppsala. Had to walk through the blizzard for six hours before I reached an inn, sir, at which point the leg had turned blue from the cold.
A: And the innkeeper didn’t tend to it?
N: I believe he did the best he could, captain. He just wasn’t entirely sure what colour I was supposed to change back into.
A: Ah. I can imagine.
N: …
A: Well, this conversation took a bit of a dark turn. Let’s change the subject, shall we?
N: Certainly, sir.
A: I understand you have studied all over the Union. Did you receive a scholarship?
N: No, sir. Insurance money, sir.
