It was dark, and the raspy voice of the Provisor was in his ear, whispering a command to 'keep quiet or you'll wake the others!'. 'No,' Aleci shook his head, 'no, no, no!'. He broke away from the clammy hands of the man and ran, but no matter how fast he forced his legs to run, or how many turns he thought he took, the man was still there, smiling and showing several broken teeth. The Provisor could do no wrong, Aleci thought hysterically, everyone loved him at the Academy. Then came the drip-drip sound of water, from where he hid, shaking, underneath the covers. 'Where are you, little bird? Where are-'

"Praefect?"

Someone was shaking him awake, and Aleci let out a shuddering gasp, wiping frantically at the weight on his chest.

"Ediann, no," Finne said, lifting Ediann off of Aleci. "Are you alright?"

Ediann ignored Finne, squirming out of Finne's grip, "Praefect…. sad?" he signed. He still wrapped himself in Aleci's cloak, and the hood was half pulled over his head. With one hand he pulled it off, and offered it to Aleci. "Praefect want?"

"Ah, no, Ediann, that's yours," Aleci said, before signing, "no thank you."

Ediann's brows furrowed, he glanced towards the table where he had placed his drawings alongside the charcoal and red chalk, and nodded resolutely, jumping off the bed and running over to it.

It had been years since he dreamed about his academy days, thought Aleci, swallowing bile, and the Provisor.

"Water?" Finne offered, holding out a waterskin to Aleci.

Aleci took it, nodding his thanks. It didn't wash away the terror he felt, and he gave a startled jump when Finne gently rubbed his back.

"Sorry," Finne said quickly, "do you want me to stop?"

"No," Aleci shook his head, "I just… wasn't expecting that… thank you."

He never told or confessed to anyone, but the reason for his single tent occupancy wasn't because he wanted to flaunt his station as Praefect. It was… humiliating, if he had to pinpoint the feeling. Humiliating because he could do nothing about the nightmares, even when the man himself was long dead. Everyone suspected he'd taken a drunken tumble off the baluster but Aleci knew better. Aleci and… Kaeso, who'd kept watch. The old man had died as he lived, full of denial and deceit. But he'd blubbered frightened tears when he'd hung from his fingertips. He had begged for mercy, and for one moment Aleci thought to give it to him. Then as Aleci reached out a hand he'd grinned and said, 'well, wasn't that so difficult?'. That sealed his fate, and Aleci was more than willing to let the man plummet. Long live Julus, Aleci had thought then, how nice it must be to be related to the Caesar. Sometimes one must take justice into their own hands when justice herself decides to skip town.

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"It was a nightmare?" Finne asked. "You don't have to tell me."

"I didn't wake you up did I?"

"I'm a very light sleeper these days," Finne said wryly. "One can never sleep properly with children at these ages. Ah, Ediann, please go back to bed." He gestured for Ediann to go to the bed and lie down, holding his hands to his forehead and miming going to sleep.

Ediann shook his head, holding out the picture to Aleci. "Night bad?" he signed.

It was the scribbled out drawings, the one with the giant black clouds. Ediann had added a figure in red.

"A nightmare," Aleci agreed, signing the word.

"Night bad," Ediann agreed, but not copying the sign. He held out Aleci's cloak with one hand, signing with the other, "Praefect want?"

There was such an earnest look to Ediann's face that Aleci couldn't bring himself to say no.

"It is yours," he signed, even as Ediann clumsily draped it over Aleci's shoulders.

"Go to sleep," Finne signed firmly.

"Mamaí," Ediann signed, then made a series of incomprehensible gestures, ending with hugging himself with both hands.

"Of course," Finne said, nodding his head and reaching out to stroke Ediann's cheek. "Go to bed," he signed firmly.

Ediann cast one final look at Aleci before climbing back to the bed with Edon. Finne sat down next to Aleci with a sigh, looking at the drawing in Aleci's hand.

"I thought he was asleep."

"Don't blame yourself," Aleci said, "it's not-"

"He came to fetch me," Finne said quietly, fumbling with the fabric of his tunic nervously. "I thought they were all asleep. Then I started brewing the tea just in case."

The red figure in the drawing had no face, Aleci observed.

"It happened at night too," Aleci said before he could stop himself. "It was… no one would have believed me anyway." He closed his eyes, running his hands through his hair to distract himself. "My father thinks that's why I like men. But it's not true! He was the Provisor- the teacher- and I was... " he swallowed, "a child!" His vision became blurry, and Aleci wiped his eyes, angrily. "He is dead but why won't he stay dead?"

"Did you kill him?" Finne said quietly, head tilted in curiosity.

"What?"

Finne reached out to take Aleci's hands, gently running his own in soothing circles. "Did you kill him?" he repeated.

"Yes," Aleci confessed shakily. "Yes I did."

"His spirit is angry because he was a cruel and selfish man in life, and is so in death," said Finne. "I don't think he'll stop haunting you. But he would be furious to see that his attempts have failed."

The Imrukians were odd in their ways and beliefs, Aleci knew, from his own conversations with Maera.

"I suppose he would be," Aleci said quietly. "But he had a grand funeral and his tomb rises over all the other filth, as he would say."

"Ah," Finne nodded wisely, "perhaps you should destroy it."

Of course the Imrukians didn't build tombs to their dead. The thought of desecrating the man's grave did hold appeal, but no doubt it would result in a bigger statue being commissioned and a nice long sentence for property destruction. He doubted anyone had been trialed for smashing a tomb, though perhaps he could be trialed for grave robbery. Aleci huffed, darkly amused, truly Julus had been the epitome specimen of honor and valour.

"I'm not fond of jailhouse food, thank you very much," said Aleci, "and what would it do to my complexion?" His smile was forced.

He saw several conflicting emotions flicker across Finne's face before Finne said in the same quiet tones as before, "I wanted to kill him. But it's not worth it..." his hands closed in a fist and he moved them to his lap, "Edon loves him. And what am I to tell him then?" Finne rocked back and forth, "They would have taken them from me."

"Then you made the right choice," said Aleci, placing a hand on Finne's shoulder.

"You don't think you did?"

"Oh no, I stand by my actions," the smile was genuine this time, "I regret nothing."

Well, perhaps he did feel a twinge of sympathy for whoever had to clean the stones afterwards. It was the first time he'd heard Mytea's voice as well, as he stood there, conflicted feelings of numbness and triumphance warring in his chest. 'Congratulations,' whispered Mytea, and Aleci swore he felt a ghostly hand on his shoulder, 'Incendiarius, my steadfast armatus.'