> Dear Caelus Osterianus, Censor of the 7th Hill.
>
> Health and warmest salutations to my esteemed colleague in the smooth and bountiful running of the youth facilities on our humble hill. Congratulations on your pending promotion, or welcome to your replacement if that is to whom this letter falls.
>
> To respond to your concern for the welfare of the boy, the focus on which I wholeheartedly commend, I can only report that he unfortunately remains at large. His lodgings remain ready should he return.
>
> He has been sighted around the capital but neither Aedile Decius L. nor Magister Fridisian have acquiesced to assign the manpower to bring him back to the Children’s Dormitories despite my innumerable requests. He still attends his lessons at the gymnasium as normal, and continues to remain eligible for matriculation as you have insisted, though Grammaticus Pupullis condemns his scholarly effort.
>
> Keeping track of him would be made easier if you would kindly intervene with our colleagues to provide men to capture him, it would be a simple affair.
>
> Warmest Regards to you and the Concilium Censorium,
>
> Amnus Muco, son of Pelagius Muco - 2nd Nutrator VII
>
> Head of Children’s Development VII, 7th Elector Comitia Tributa VII, 3rd Hnrs Academia Erulea.
Chapter 1 - Dirty Boy
Palinus kneeled to adjust his sandals. The sole was slightly too large, a man’s sizing on his still growing teenage feet. As he tightened the strapping, pulling the leather around his feet tight he casually checked his surroundings, looking up the hill then back down towards the northwestern gate. The street had a quiet lethargy as the early work of the day started.
This area on the northern side of the 7th Hill was mostly manufacturing and storage areas but even at this time of the morning you could hear the noise of industry. The road he kneeled on ran around the inside of the city walls on one side and had an open sewer channel on the other. It was an unpopularly grimy side of the hill, perfect for his needs.
His moment to move came as a cart hauling massive amphora rattled past. He used its cover to slip off the road into the sewerage ditch and surreptitiously clambered up the channel leading away from the road and up into the backways.
The route was a narrow alley between buildings and walled compounds with an open sewerage channel running down the middle. It served as a connection for multiple refuse alleys and sewerage drains running up the hill between the tightly packed storage yards, workshops and warehouses, with sewage trickling down from apartments and shops further up the hill. It was used for dumping rubbish and night soil, while some of the richer areas of the city had indoor plumbing, here on the 7th Hill most peoples waste was managed with chamber pots at home or the public latrines if one was convenient.
Usually the alleys were cleared out twice a week by the local magister with copious use of red fire, but with the essentia restrictions of the recent months that had become less frequent. This hot season had been sweltering with little rain and the infrequent cleansing burns had made the area absolutely reek and Palinus gagged as he moved quickly away from the outer ring road up the slight incline.
“HuuRRhrrphh...” He gagged again, nearly losing his breakfast on the slippery surface.
“Nearly out of sight.” The teenager spurred himself on, “Nearly safe.”
In a scurry of heart pounding moments he was out of sight of the road. Taking a moment to breathe he stretched his lanky limbs and brushed his dark brown hair out of hazel eyes as he relaxed a bit. Anxiety was normal for Palinus, not having many places he called safe, but he was extra nervous today’s foray. His deepest fear when out scavenging was the thought of being seen doing it by someone he knew, he would be the laughing stock of his cohort. So, after the first couple of times scavenging he and his old partner had established a few simple rules to avoid being spotted: start early, act like he was doing something important, and most importantly - don’t scavenge on the 7th hill.
“The grandmothers on the hill have eyes everywhere! If you go anywhere near the backways of the 7th Hill… They’ll know. Then the aunties, then the mothers and then EVERYONE!” He heard her ranting in his mind.
He couldn't help thinking about Seline.
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“Palpal, it’s getting late…” Seline said as she followed him along the narrow wall overlooking the 7th Hill Temple gardens. Even in the fading light she showed her effortless agility, following Palinus at a skip with her dark red hair bouncing in a loose braid.
“You can go back to the Dormitories if you want. I am just going to… to… buy a new stylus for lessons.” Palinus replied.
Seline blew a raspberry, it was a dumb excuse to avoid going back.
“You don’t have any money!”
“I’ll make some.”
“No-one is going to hire a kid.”
“Then, I’ll find something to sell!”
“Why don’t you want to go back to the dormitories?” She asked with a soft voice.
They had always been close friends. They had both been raised from before they could remember in the Children’s Dormitories. He wanted to tell her.
“Nutrator Amnus…” He tried to say, but the words wouldn’t come out. His body felt cold and he wrapped his arms around himself despite the warm evening air.
“He beats you?” She guessed, “But he beats everyone?”
“...It’s not that.”
“...oh.”
The look of pity made him feel small and opened a wound that he had repressed.
“Ok,” she said, with a smile that felt forced. “I will help you. But we’re not buying a stylus, we’re buying tickets out of the capital!”
This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.
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Today he was breaking their cardinal rule.
“I have to make a big score…” and today he had a lead on one, a find that would pay for a ride to a new life somewhere far from the capital. Not that Seline cared anymore, they hadn't spoken in months.
Now that he was safely within the backways he felt no hurry to rush to his target. Turning over the piles of rubbish and poking at mounds of mud he did his standard search for anything of value as he made his way to his target zone further up the hill. The most common saleable find was discarded clothes that he could sell to the rag pickers, but he had been lucky in the past finding things like jewellery or salvageable pottery. The wealth of the capital made people wasteful and their laziness was Palinus’s opportunity.
As his morning progressed Palinus was searching up a dead end alley formed from the back of several albumstone warehouses. Their tall walls created a pocket of deep shadow in the early morning. As he scoured the area a flickering light drew his attention deep into the shadow.
He held his breath as he carefully approached. Excitement built as he moved in, but he remained vigilant. He suspected from the flickering that it was some sort of live essentia discharge, and could be either a massive windfall or a life threatening hazard.
Holding his breath as with the longest piece of wood he could find he gently poked at a pile of sawdust and offcuts that the light emerged from. As if he popped a bubble the rubbish sloughed off and a vibrant light filled the alleyway.
Palinus’s mind filled with wonder as straight away he recognised it as a rift seed, his eyes drawn to the pulsing effusion of essentia. In their lessons on essentia and rifts they had mostly been warned about the grave danger of rifts or the risks of unregulated and untrained use of essentia. He had barely paid attention as he instead dreamed of using the power. The barely remembered classroom image of an egg with wavey lines poking out of it was laughable as he looked at the real thing.
The seed was complex, a writhing mass of tendrils of white light that defied logic. The tendrils didn’t seem solid as they moved through each other, stretching out and folding back into themselves. The seed was constantly shifting, as if it was trying to stretch itself out with its tendrils and reaching to grasp with a twitching hunger.
Palinus watched the rift seed for a while letting his mind wander as he dreamed of rift diving and finding a calculii that would let him fly away. He spent a while staring at the egg and in that time it had visibly grown. If the lessons and snippets of information he could recall were accurate then it would take most of the day to mature. An observation struck Palinus as odd: the rift tendrils reached out particularly towards the albumstone walls of the warehouses but otherwise moved randomly.
As he shook himself from his thoughts he considered what to do with this information more practically. He certainly wasn’t going to go into the rift himself, it would be suicide. He could inform the guard for a small reward, it was his ‘civic duty.’ He briefly fantasised about telling Aedile Decius Littera personally, who would heroically vanquish the rift and thank Palinus personally.
Palinus laughed at his childish fantasy and started back on his mission of the day. He would just sell the location of the rift when he made his delivery later. Picking up a piece of albumstone he scratched a map to the rift, putting it in the pocket of his tunic as he went to collect his more regular finds for the morning: a mostly functional basket with some broken reeding, and a pile of small amphorae stamped with a local vintners mark he could return for a small amount. He stashed his finds near where he entered the backways and made his way back up the arterial alleys towards the next block where his information suggested he might make his big find.
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Palinus lurked in the shadows looking up at the Via Faber, the busiest road on the 7th hill. He could see people strolling along looking at the shops besides the alleyway and holding their noses as they walked past.
The sewerage channel crossed under the road while the alley stepped up to the street. Palinus didn’t want to risk going up into the street. Today was 7th Day so while many of his peers in training or apprenticeships would have a day off, this was still one of the busiest roads on the 7th Hill with workshops and store fronts drawing local shoppers.
Fortunately the arched roof of the sewer underpass was high enough for him to pass under the road. While the sewerage was unpleasant he could get through, bent over in a crouch. If he stepped on the side out of the main channel of muck it wasn’t too bad and had enough clearance for him to avoid putting his hands and knees down.
Palinus crept out of the shadow of the alleyway and took a moment to check he wasn’t spotted from the road as he stepped down into the channel. He was getting excited despite the uninviting prospect of walking directly in the sewerage channel. After he made it through to the other side he would be at his first target zone.The fabric merchant who sold the bolts of wool he was looking to find would likely have dumped them around this area if the bolts were rejected before they got to the militia stores.
As he started under the road he could hear voices coming from the other side. He slowed and focused on the voices. There were at least two people in the channel ahead of him. Backing off awkwardly in the confined space he realised that he recognised the voice doing most of the talking, it was a sort of banter. When the other voice responded with a deep voice and a chuckling laugh he was absolutely certain.
It was Rufian and Bruchts. They were both in Palinus’s cohort and he knew them well. They were amongst the worst possible people to have found down here. Always teasing and joking, generally at the expense of anyone who stood out or did something stupid.
Palinus had known them for years and knew their patter so he generally laughed off the barbs and got on ok with the boys. But he could definitely not have them know what he was doing down here as everyone else on the hill would know within the week.
He was safe for the moment as they wouldn’t be able to see him unless they crouched down and came in this direction. So crouched over in the muck he considered his options as he listened to the boys.
A solid option would be making his escape rather than risk the potential criticism and public ridicule he would face if the boys found him. But he had to get the product ready for the pick up, otherwise he would be in deeper shit than he already stood in. He had made an agreement with Domitia Commodus, one of the less scrupulous merchants in Erulea and she would take a pound of flesh if he did not meet their agreement, regardless of the circumstances.
They were both sounding a bit frustrated as Palinus could hear bits of bickering creeping into their usual casual banter.
“... keep looking, he may be a drunk but he definitely said… ”
“...you sure he definitely said here?”
As he heard Bruchts question he realised that they were looking for something.
Thinking quickly, Palinus made a plan. He could turn the tables and give the boys a taste of their own medicine. Once he had bullied them off the area, he could search it alone.
He carefully made his way back out the channel. Waiting for a lull in the traffic to minimise the risk of being spotted he casually walked across the road and ducked into the alley on the other side.
From the alcove of a doorway he peeked out at the other boys. Rufian had a typical Erulean complexion like Palinus with brown hair and tanned skin but with a stockier frame compared to the lanky Palinus. Bruchts was the biggest in their cohort, his size, blonde hair and blue eyes marked him as a stoneman even though he was apparently born in Erulea.
Palinus waited for the perfect moment to catch the boys.
This was his last opportunity to back out, once he crossed down into the alley he was committed. A heady combination of greed and fear drove him to action, and the potential satisfaction of getting one up on Rufian led him to committing to his shaky plan.
Sauntering down the steps he called out.
“Fancy seeing you two down here. Are you trying to find girlfriends?”
Palinus cringed, it sounded better in his head, but it had the effect he was looking for. Both Ruffian and Bruchts whirled around looking sheepish.
“Oh, hi Palinus… we were just dumping some wood scraps for my father.” Rufian said feigning casualness and gesturing to some wood piled nearby.
“Haha, yeah I suppose you did that. Then you just liked it down here and decided to stay.” Palinus didn't let him off with his canned excuse, “I know wha…”
Bruchts cleared his throat and pointed at Palinus’s sandals. Then with a waving finger called him out with a mocking tone.
“Dirty boy.”