Saul asked for directions to a guest wing from someone who walked by, then tried to follow them unsuccessfully. An enormous building with only one floor turned out to be nearly impossible to navigate with minimal understanding of its many gently curving hallways. Eventually Caliste, Guillaume’s assistant, found him and showed him where to go. He was given a key to one of the rooms, and upon entering made a beeline for the nearest chair, slumping into it.

He unpinned his death amulet from his mail and held it up. It was a black disc three inches in diameter designed to look like a miniature death icon, the icon itself like a bottomless keyhole embossed in silver on the surface. A human could, with some difficulty, use death cantrips while holding or wearing it, even without having the icon itself. Saul rubbed his left fore and middle fingers together and gestured at himself.

“Chill”

Nothing happened. When had he last used a death cantrip? No more than a week ago at most. What had changed? Did it mean he wasn’t human? Or just that he didn’t have a death affinity now? But a death affinity was one of the human ancestral traits. If he didn’t have it, he wasn’t fully human. And why had both Nadine and Guillaume asked if Saul had been blessed—

Someone knocked on the door.

Saul heaved himself out of the chair and opened the door to reveal Uncle Nathan with a beaming smile.

“Top of the night to you—” Nathan began.

“I’m tired, uncle, can I please talk to you tomorrow?” Saul cut him off.

“Nonsense, I’ll be out of here early tomorrow,” his uncle slid past him into the room. “How do you like the guest ‘suites’ they have here?”

Saul closed the door and actually looked around. There were only two rooms, but the larger was laid out in three different sections. One end had a bed, the middle a desk and shelves, and this end was a sitting area. The smaller room had bathroom facilities and a small tub, barely long enough to lay down in.

“I don’t like the glass window over the bed.” Saul criticized.

“All of the windows here are nearly a foot thick,” Nathan said flippantly. “So, what do you think of Chelou? It’s pretty great, right?”

“What I saw of it was fine.”

“I took you through some of the best parts! You only really missed out on the market streets. You should definitely go to one or two! After all those appointments you made, I guess.”

“Appointments let people work you into their plans without turning up unexpectedly.” Saul replied sourly, “and make sure that I actually know who I’m talking to and why.”

“It was a surprise! I knew you’d like getting to talk to people with new abilities you haven’t seen before.”

“I would have liked it more if I’d known beforehand. And if we hadn’t just been turning up at their houses with no warning.”

“The only one I didn’t know well was Warlick,” Nathan said defensively, “and I told you about him before we got there.”

“That’s one. Out of four. And, you didn’t say anything until we were almost there!”

“You seemed happy enough about it then.”

“I’m not like you, uncle, I don’t just jump from one thing to the next with no idea what’s going to happen all day.” Saul snapped, “I can keep an open mind when you do it, but I’ve got a limit, and it’s been a stressful day. Which you topped off by letting me be late to dinner with the city’s ruler and TELLING HIM IT WAS MY FAULT! I literally cannot think of a worse possible first impression I could have made with a more important person!”

“He’s gruff, and often leans into it for political reasons, but he’s a very kind man,” Nathan snapped back with a scowl. “Also, he liked you. Wearing armor to dinner was a great way to make an impression, and you showed him more respect than a lot of the human nobles who come here.”

“HOW THE FUCK WAS I SUPPOSED TO KNOW THAT?!” Saul yelled, seizing his death amulet from the arm of a chair and clenching it in his fist. “I walked into a political dinner with one of the two most powerful people I’ve ever met, who vastly outranks me, and seems to disdain my every word and gesture, with no warning other than a general sense that you hadn’t told me something!” Saul waved the amulet in Nathan’s direction angrily. “And if I did make a good impression, I’m pretty sure I spoiled it after you left because I was so on edge I ended up biting his head off!”

“What exactly did he talk to you about?” Nathan asked, then frowned. “Was it related to the guards pulling you away to talk privately this afternoon? Is that why you were ‘so stressed’ today?”

Saul let out a hissing breath between his clenched teeth. “I don’t want to talk about it.”

Unauthorized usage: this tale is on Amazon without the author's consent. Report any sightings.

“You told me that it felt good for the family to be trusting you with more private information. That goes both ways, nephew.”

“That’s fucking rich, coming from you, uncle,” Saul shot back.

Nathaniel flinched, then silently looked at Saul for a long moment. Finally, he stood and walked past Saul to the door.

“Have a good trip. I’ll see you in a couple months.” He pulled the door closed behind him.

Saul was left standing by the desk, hot under the collar, with a cold trickle of sweat running down his back. He paced for a long time before finally trying to go to sleep.

An insistent banging on the door woke Saul somewhat later than he had meant to get up. He tried to turn on the light, but his tattoo was out of charge. He dug a quarter out of his pile of yesterday's clothes, turned on the light, wrapped himself in a night robe, and opened the door a crack. The man on the other side was unfamiliar, identifying himself as Matthieu, a member of the militia assigned to guard Saul while he was in the city.

Saul got dressed quickly, then asked Matthieu where Ziba or Dinah was. He didn’t have time to train, eat breakfast, and get to his first appointment with the glass maker, so he needed Ziba to take care of the glass order. He was led to the stables, where he found something unexpected.

“Why is the name on the door ‘Gerry?’” he asked.

Matthieu shrugged, “is that not its name?”

“I’m afraid that was my fault, my lord,” Dinah called over the door, emerging a moment later and bowing. “When one of the stablehands asked what I called the horse, I gave him the nickname I use with Geronimo Tanny. I didn’t want to bother them again after they had already put the name on the door.”

“Ah, that’s fine then. Where is your husband?” Saul asked.

“He’ll be cleaning your room and doing the laundering now that you’re up for the day, my lord.”

Returning to his rooms, they found Ziba. Saul explained the purchase, gave him directions, and handed over the money. Matthieu showed Saul where a small indoor training room was, and helped with some light sparring. The man was faster and more coordinated than Toby, his power near the top of mist. Saul cleaned up and changed afterward, and was led to a cafeteria for lunch.

“If you don’t mind, what combination do you have exactly?” Saul asked. “You remind me of my uncle.”

“It’s fine.” Matthieu replied, “Archery and skirmish Fighter, death, light, and arrow. My wife’s the same, but with dark.”

“Really? I’d have almost thought you had speed or wind.”

“Like arrows in flight, we can pierce anything, flesh, air, or each other’s hearts!”

“I see?” Saul decided to ask what the man clearly wanted him to. “Is your wife in the militia as well?”

“She is! We’ve known each other since we were four. Joined up with the militia together the minute I turned twenty. She’s a few months older. I wanted a strength combination for me and speed for her, but sadly, we didn’t qualify for rare icons. So instead, I’m the light to her shadow!”

Saul learned plenty more about Matthieu's life, wife, and three year old son. He and his wife worked two days then had two days off, lined up so that they shared one day working together and one day off together. When they both had work, their son stayed with his grandparents.

“So that Ziba fellow works for you, doing the laundry and all that?” Matthieu segwayed.

“He is a servant employed by my family, yes.”

“It’s so convenient, not having to deal with dirty clothes.”

“I suppose?” Saul replied.

“My parents had me helping with the laundry when I was a teen, but once I joined the militia, I could just bring it to be done here! It’s great. They even let us bring our kids’ clothes.”

“Ziba is one of our more skilled staff. He doesn’t just take care of the laundering, he cleans, he cooks, and he does…whatever needs to be done. He even has a second icon that allows him to operate household artifacts.”

“Wow, that sounds nice. Human nobles really do have it good,” Matthieu whistled appreciatively, “why does he only have two though?”

“If he was given a third icon, he would become a peon of my house. With just the death icon from the church and a simple icon, he could theoretically go work for someone else once he pays off the simple icon.”

“Oh. I guess that’s kind of like how the militia handles the icons it gives new members. Would he have to fight monsters if he was a ‘peon?’ I know that’s what turns away a lot of people who think they want to join the militia.”

“No, of course not,” Saul said, slightly taken aback, “no noble would ever ask a servant to fight monsters. We train from birth to do our noble duty.”

“Huh. I guess that kind of makes sense. Like a sort of family tradition of joining the militia.”

When they finished lunch, they left the magistrate through a door on the northwest side of the building near the Wizard’s house. When they arrived, Matthieu was led to the parlor, while Saul was immediately shown to a room on the second floor. It contained wall to wall bookshelves, several leather chairs, the gnome himself, and a young woman with brown hair and green eyes. These traits were slightly incongruous with the pattern Saul had noticed in part-elves, but he guessed she was half-elf based on the slightly tapered ears.

“Ah, Saul, do you have the text?” the Wizard asked, hopping down from his chair and approaching.

“Yes,” Saul rummaged around in his satchel for a moment, “here it is.”

“Thank you. You aren’t leaving until tomorrow, correct?”

“At the earliest.”

“Excellent. I don’t have much more information to give you, so I’m going to go read this.” Warlick stepped past Saul into the hallway, then turned and indicated the woman still in the room. “This young lady wanted to be a Wizard like you, but also took a different combination for family reasons. I helped her get her hands on several power replicating abilities, which I’m sure the two of you would like to discuss. Feel free to use this library as long as you like!”

The gnome then left.