Despite the sweltering heat in the port town of Halia, Herodotus Hane walked alongside the road in his heavy cotton clothes, cars whizzing past. His father, Deioces, was in his Justifier uniform and popped along the highway like there was no heat at all. He had more than likely secured a job for his son, one that he might actually like, so it was cause for celebration! Thomas, his friend, had an opening at the headquarters of his business, and Deioces was hoping he would be able to gain some much needed world experience, even if the job itself was a bit boring. 

“Say, Hero, you looking forward to starting the job?”

“Now that I’m learning how long the walk is it’s starting to look a bit worse…”

Deicoes smiled and kept marching along, his coattails swishing in the wind. As a Justifier it was his job to determine the justness of any given act, if it was questioned and brought to court. It wasn’t as high a position as a Justicar, but he was well respected for keeping the peace. Herodotus, on the other hand, was still a nobody, just out of school. His mother, Deicoes wife, had died a few years prior. He knew that the job was his father’s way of trying to get him out of a somewhat depressive slump, but he was uncertain. He’d never worked anywhere, and Thomas was such a busy and immaculate man that he wasn’t sure he could meet the man’s standards. Regardless, he did what his father asked and kept walking. 

When they arrived at the place, Herodotus and Deioces looked up at the sign, which read G Exchange and walked through the wooden door. At the cash register was a tall man with a straight nose, who they instantly knew was Thomas Gil. 

“Oh, Deioces, how good to see you! And Hero, I’m glad to take you into my employment, Deio told me about how much a job like this might help you!”

Hero shot a look at his father but smiled at Thomas.

“Yeah, I really needed some more world knowledge, I’m glad you could take me on like this.”

“Yes yes, I was extremely happy to get the rights to the Chronicler of Disarea, it may only be a mid sized county, but there’s a lot going on around here, and with my help we’ll make even Emperor Pelops take a look at this place!

Both Herodotus and Deioces cocked their heads.

“Chronicler?”

They both asked. Thomas blinked a few times in confusion.

“Yes, that was the job opening I was talking about, were you unaware?”

Herodotus looked like he was about to have a heart attack, and began sweating, even in the air conditioned building. Sparing a glance at his father, he saw him beaming, stars in his eyes and his fists clenched.

“You’re really going to make my son the Chronicler of Disarea?!”

Thomas laughed.

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

“Of course, I thought I’d mentioned this many times!”

Deioces got a hold of himself and started on his usual routine.

“I’m very happy to hear that, but what is your justification for choosing my son?”

Thomas brought his heels together and stood up straight, a sign of respect towards a Justifier, but as a general rule people were supposed to be respectful of questions of justification. 

“You’ve often spoken highly of your son’s writing skills, and after he won the historical analysis contest as a senior at his high school I knew that he had the writing chops to become a Chronicler. I also have the good fortune of being able to fund a Chronicler, which is why the city council chose my location to put him in. After lobbying for years to have the Chronicler under my watch, and the retiring of the previous one, I was more than happy to choose Herodotus.”

After thinking for a moment, Deioces asked a second question.

“What is your justification for wanting to support our Chronicler?”

At this, Thomas smiled.

“I hope to bring both funds and attention to our little city Mr. Hane. If we get an amazing Chronicler, people from all over will want to come here, money and prestige will flow into our city and business will boom. I hope that for everyone.”

Satisfied, Deioces relented. He put out his hand and Thomas shook it. 

“He’s definitely got the writing chops, I must agree!”

“He really is a fine young man!”

While his father and Thomas congratulated themselves, Herodotus was having a panic attack. How the hell could they choose to make him the Chronicler, he was basically just out of high school and didn’t even have any worldly experience! He knew nothing about the job, besides general knowledge. Chroniclers recorded things that happened in their designated areas. It never really seemed to matter what they were recording as long as they were recording something. The more interesting something was, the more other Chroniclers would hear about it and the more other cities would find out about what was happening in other towns. It was kind of straight forward but still, he couldn’t see himself being some sort of glorified reporter.

“Um, Mr. Gil?”

Thomas looked over at Herodotus and smiled.

“What is it my boy?”

“Do you think maybe I’m no-”

Suddenly, there was a crash and the door to the stairwell opened, with small boxes falling out everywhere. A boy with dark hair lay under the boxes, laughing weakly. Thomas, outraged, went up to the pile and put his hands on his hips.

“Care to explain what these are, Croesus?”

“Mr. Gil! Um… they’re… watches?”

Thomas instantly paled and opened one of the boxes, to see that they were carefully padded. He let out a sigh of relief and helped Croesus out of the pile of boxes. 

“If those boxes hadn’t been padded you’d probably be dead meat, but for now just pick them up. I was just welcoming our new Chronicler.”

“Oh wow really?”

Croesus’ eyes fell on Herodotus, and then shifted to Deioces and looked him up and down. 

“Wow, you’re a Justifier?! That’s so cool! You’re going to give that up to be the Chronicler I can’t believe it!”

Deioces coughed once and smiled weakly, pointing to Herodotus.

“Sorry kid but that’s my son's job.”

Croesus immediately looked very shy and turned back towards Herodotus. 

“O-oh um, sorry about that. It looks like we’ll be working together from now on.”

He put out his hand with a weak smile, and Herodotus took it. Things had been moving so fast that he hadn’t really been able to register it, or even deny Thomas for the position. Oh well, he would at least give it a try, for his dad. What’s the worst that could happen?