Finding Secretary Lyn

"It is now official, the Dominion of Arcania is now in recession. The Central Arcanic Bank has raised interest rates for the third time this year as stock markets are crashing, finance institutions are raising alarms and economists are warning that if this continues, capital flight will be least of our problems..."

A voluptuous girl sat at the foot of my messy bed and shook her head as she watched the television in disbelief, "You've gotta be kidding me."

"I think we are all past the point of kidding ourselves, right?" a bespectacled lady sighed as she removed her glasses that fogged because of her repeated sighing.

"Is there anything we can do?" a slender girl looking outside my dusty window asked out loud.

"Short of offering our friend here to the mob, nothing," a sultry voice from the bathroom answered sardonically, "Unless we wanted to have our heads on spikes too!"

I sank even more onto my bed and covered myself with my comforter as I tried to forget everything that happened, leading to this moment that threatened to unravel the fabric of my life, no, my existence as I know it.

"Oh girls, this bad. Like really, really bad..."

We all looked at the petite woman sitting in front of my study table and typing away on my laptop earlier.

"What, is it?" a meek voice asked from the kitchen curiously, "Spit it out!"

From the veranda came an imposing and very tall lady who looked over her shoulder and read from the screen, "The nationwide search for the missing royal employee has been taken to a high gear as several public and private schools across the dominion has announced class supensions on all levels to aid the hunt for the elusive woman who have evaded the authorites for a solid week now."

"I have told you all from the beginning. The cards have spoken, and it will all end in flames. There's no other way around it," an ominous voice said, coming from the dining area as we saw the back of a woman in a black veil and heard her shuffling her tarot cards.

"This is not the time for your grim readings, my dear! We have a literal mess on our dainty little hands," the last member of my circle of girl friends arrived, headed straight towards my bed, and sat beside me, "Tell us, how can a single girl destroy an entire nation's economy simply by quitting her job?!"

"That's what? Third one this month?"

I sighed in exasperation as I slumped on the seat of my favorite cafe downtown before sipping the piping hot black coffee miserably, "Fourth, Kerstin, and please, don't rub it in my face anymore."

"While the dominion's economy is thriving, your financial status is slowly but surely deteriorating," she said ominously while looking down at me pitifully, "At this rate, you will run out of jobs to apply for sooner than Astrid will run out of things to say about how awful your apartment is."

"Please, don't tell her..."

My bespectacled and nerdy friend took a deep breath before sighing frustratedly at me, "Fine, but you have to promise me that if this latest job venture of yours doesn't last for a month, you will ask for Frida's help, okay?"

"Fine," I agreed begrudgingly as she finished her coffee and prepared to leave quick