Chapter 13 - A Dangerous Meeting
Wordlessly Palinus drew the attention of his friends to the man casually leaning against the corner of the alley. He wore strange clothes, dark tanned leather that looked thick enough to stop a blade and a thick black cloak rather than the loose fitting tunics popular in the warm climate. Something about him gave Palinus a sense of power. A dangerous edge as though some sort of predatory animal and he took care not to make any sudden moves.
“What are you looking at!?” Rufian yelled at the man, his breaking voice betraying his brave front.
Standing up from his spot leaning against the wall the man walked casually towards them. He was tall and quicker than his languide ease indicated. As he brought his arm forward, Palinus flinched.
He held his arm out for Rufian to grasp.
“I am Provocator Servius,” he stated with a soft deep voice.
“You didn’t answer my question.” Rufian refused to grasp the outstretched arm, crossing his arms and trying to look tough.
The refusal seemed to amuse Servius and he smiled as he let his hand fall.
“I suppose I didn’t.” He said slowly as if picking his words carefully. ”I have been called back to the capital to investigate a string of deaths in the backways. Which we believe to be associated with the rifts.”
The man’s words made Palinus’s stomach churn.
“I’m not sure who is luckier you are alive, you boys or myself.” Servius laughed macabrely, “When I reported your delve the Censor took more interest than I expected. Though I think I see why.” He cast a look at Palinus.
“Are you going to arrest us, or can we go?”
Servius laughed again at Rufian’s aggression, putting his hands up to placate.
“That’s really not my job, and you aren’t in trouble.” He said, “Though your lives will be quite different now you are formed.”
The boys shared a look, and while his friends looked relieved, Palinus sensed trouble in the subtext of what the man was saying.
“What do you mean, sir?” Palinus asked, trying to be respectful.
Bruchts nudged him and whispered. “He still serves.”
“Provocator.. I meant, not sir.” Palinus corrected, commissioned Erulean soldiers were always addressed by their rank, only citizens took the unspecific honorific sir.
“I don’t really care about all that.” Servius said disarmingly, “The Censor will want to speak to you. But before you do that, I have to ask you some questions about the rift. It looked to me like it was a Harcore 5v5 Defence of the Nexus, is that correct?”
The boys nodded in response and the man asked curiously.
“Then why did you go in?” he asked.
“We didn’t know what sort of rift it was,” Palinus admitted.
“I guess that makes sense, but you are doubly lucky to get out without loss.” Servius said, scratching his head and giving them a look to say that he thought they were idiots.
“Can you tell me about it?”
The man gradually coaxed the whole story from the boys, asking pertinent questions as they shared their experience. When they mentioned Marcus and Minucia he commented how lucky they were to have experienced allies. By the time they got to the end he seemed troubled by something.
“...Formed rift… damn meddling beast,” he muttered to himself as he pulled out a piece of vellum and a pot of ink out of nowhere and started writing against the alley’s wall.
With the man occupied Rufian took the chance to run and sprinted off through the backways and Bruchts followed quickly on his heels.
Noting the direction the boys ran, Palinus slowly moved out of the alley trying to avoid catching the scary man’s attention but something about his mutterings begged Palinus to ask him a question. Before he could sidle past Servius gestured for him to wait.
“What’s a formed rift and how can a beast meddle?” Palinus asked his curiosity outweighing his nervousness.
“What do you know about the purpose of rifts?” Servius answered obliquely.
“I know they are something to do with the conflict between nexuses in the underworld?”
Servius didn’t respond as he kept writing, which Palinus took to mean he was on the right track.
“So what does a beast have to do with it and how is a rift formed? I thought people were formed.” Palinus was starting to get confused.
“Think of formed as… shaped by essentia.”
“So the beast meddles by shaping the rift?” Palinus asked, getting frustrated with the lack of direct answer.
“They’re going the wrong way,” Servius said, calmly avoiding the question again, “but you know that. Can I make a few suggestions?”
The man had finished with his notes and while Palinus was frustrated with his obtuse wisdom now that Servius was giving him his full attention Palinus again felt intensely intimidated. He merely nodded in response.
The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.
“Your attunement shard is quite the treasure, keep it safe and when you have a plan for your build get some advice on how to use it most effectively. Some might kill you for it, so take care with who you tell.” He turned and met Palinus’s eyes with a serious expression, “I’m sure I will see you in the not too distant future. If you do not cooperate with the Censor, that may be sooner than later… and in a less pleasant capacity.”
With the veiled threat lingering, Palinus sensed he was dismissed and jogged after his friends to rescue them from the maze of the backways.
It was not far along the alley that Palinus found his two friends, who were still in a panic.
“Thank Vestra you’re here.” Rufian said as Palinus approached. “Is he following?”
“No, he really didn’t seem that interested in stopping us.” Palinus replied, “but he very firmly suggested that we ‘cooperate’ with the Censor.”
“Bah, Caelus is just a stupid old fart,” Rufian dismissed the idea. “That guy was flaming scary! Provocators are supposed to be secretive, smoke and mirrors spies, what is he doing hanging out around rifts and reporting to Censor Caelus?”
The boys shrugged and started walking out of the backways, when they walked past the alley they noticed that there was no sign of the rift or Servius.
“We all need to wash before we go home, and this is not something we can clean off at the fountain.” Bruchts pragmatically stated.
“We need to stash the weapons, and we can’t forget the wool,” Palinus added with a sigh, “We only had 3 bolts ready. It’s better than nothing but the Commoduses will still be annoyed.”
“Ugh, the Commoduses?! Why are you dealing with them!”
The frustration Rufian expressed was totally justified, dealing with a prominent family of the tribes was a genuinely awful idea and with hindsight he cursed his own foolishness for making the arrangement. He had been desperate and greedy, but now that he had experienced the rift the struggles that pushed him into this seemed shallow.
“I’m sorry. I’ve got to face them… you don’t have to.” Palinus said.
“Rubbish.” Rufian gestured at the refuse around them to bring home his joke. “We’ve got your back!”
The warmth of Rufian’s word and the nod of agreement from Bruchts felt like a warm hug and Palinus had to turn and pretend to be rubbing something out of his eye to hide the tear that came unbidden.
The boys made a plan to drop the weapons at Rufian’s uncle's shop. Palinus knew the shop and the way through the backways and Rufian could sweet talk his Uncle Ares into locking up the weapons for them. Then they would exit the backways as near to the city gate as possible and make a break for the river to wash off before they met the pickup for the wool at nightfall.
They were cutting it fine for time, but with Palinus’s knowledge of the backways they could make it if they ran.
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Over an hour later and completely exhausted, the boys found themselves standing on the Via Faber looking down on the spot they had met earlier that day. Palinus found himself smiling fondly despite the misadventure that followed and the pungent smell that wasn’t improved by the cooling air. Unfortunately they didn’t have time to reminisce and they needed to get down there again. The remaining afternoon light had faded and the street was dark.
The boys carefully walked down the steps to the alley and located the bolts of wool they had left carelessly in the filthy alleyway. They tried to be careful as they manoeuvred the bolts up the steps but it was difficult without light on the slippery surfaces.
As they hauled the last bolt up they didn’t have to wait long for a horse drawn cart to clatter to a halt in front of them. The driver cursed as he struggled to get the oxen to halt and cursed again at the smell as he got off the cart and approached the boys.
“This had better be worth it you shit bunnies,” the rough looking man spat at the boys, Rufian laughed at the label. It was a derogatory term for people who worked as public toilet attendants.
He walked over to the bolts of wool and cursed as he inspected the bolts.
“Where’s the rest?” He said, whirling around to put his face close to Palinus’s, “and why did you cover them in shit?”
The second person on the cart chose this moment to slip off to join their conversation with their face covered by a cowled cloak.
“Mistress, leave it to me. I’ll handle-” The driver was cut off with a gesture from the woman as she approached.
Lifting the hood, Palinus and Rufian both gulped. They recognised the woman in what little light the night offered with her dark curled hair, big hazel eyes and generous figure famous for its dangerous appeal.
“Well, well, it seems the little ‘shit bunny’ has been quite busy today.” Domina Commodus purred with predatory eyes.
The boys gulped again.
“We could only recover the three...” Palinus began to explain, trailing off as she started running her finger across his chest.
“Boys,” she said, “running rifts. Instead of telling the family?”
Palinus spluttered and struggled to come up with an excuse. “We didn’t know…”
“Eumenides told us there were 12 bolts.” she changed the topic back to the bolts, throwing Palinus even further off.
“Tell me… what did we agree for the delivery?” She asked sharply.
“T..Ten Denarius,” Palinus stammered.
“So ten denarius it is!” She held out a shining ten bit coin, it had a golden lustre in the moonlight.
“Oh…” She paused and looked thoughtful for a moment. “But that was for 12 bolts!?”
As Palinus reached for the coin she snatched it back, and faster than he could follow slapped his hand. His hand instantly stung from the vicious slap.
“The bolts are worth 10 each.” she said calmly and the man behind her cackled as he stood menacingly behind her. She gestured for him to start loading the bolts.
“By my count, it seems like you owe us,” she simpered with a menacing smile, “You and your little friends.”
Palinus looked back at his friends and he saw a flash of fear echoed in their eyes.
“Maybe you found something fun in the rift?” She asked, “A shiny stone might make me happy… No?”
“We don’t owe you anything.” Bruchts said suddenly.
“Oh? I don’t think that’s true.”
“We delivered you three bolts, that’s three more than you would have gotten.” He argued.
“Well pretty stoneboy, I’m not sure how it’s done in the mountains but here in Erulea agreements are bound by the laws of contract,” her words were losing their saccharine quality as they started to sound venomous. “And when a contract is broken, there must be restitution.”
As she spoke she moved closer to the blonde teenager.
“... otherwise… we are nothing but savages.”
She punctuated the comment by pulling his arm down quickly and pushing him to the floor, rubbing his face on the ground with her foot.
“I will be seeing you around.” Domitia’s voice was sweet again as she stroked Palinus’s shoulder on her way back to the cart.
A moment later they had clattered off into the night and the boys stood rooted to the spot.
“Did you find that hot too?” Rufian asked, to a reply of two solid punches on the shoulder.