The air here in this particular derelict district was foul, fish and excrement and stinking human sweat. The breeze carried no favours, just new and revolting scents. Most of the buildings were constructed of untreated wood pock marked with burrows and furrows of domestic insects, most of the people of the throng in front of the booth were as weather worn as the shanties all around.

Sai had followed crowd and rumour from his home in the relatively better off ward in which he lived. The Emperor with his Infinite Wisdom and Infallible Heart had heard the cries and woes of his people, so the rumours told, loudly and with gratitude, and He had instituted a program of public works, works which the people would be paid fairly to construct. Quieter, in whispers and with sidelong glances, the rumours were closer to the truth: there was a paltry wage to be made for back breaking work, and no one would be turned away. With the new factories suffocating so many trades and the sky with black smoke besides, there were a great many people willing to accept the offer.

Thus the diminutive and fledgling martial artist found himself in the rear of a queue of similarly desperate bodies.

A man with sunken cheeks and distant eyes looked down at Sai and his mouth began to work, but he stopped himself and shook his head. His expression spoke for him, it told of an upturned world where even children had to crack and carry stone for a living. It said this was a tragedy. Sai met this mans eyes and stared blank, as ever, offering nothing in reply.

It was difficult to see what they were in line for, with his height, or if it was a line at all, but Sai was relatively certain the vague and snake like shape of the crowd terminated where he stood. Or had, at least. In the minutes since he had joined, others more had piled in behind him. There was shouting up ahead, frustrated attempts at order, the crowd only slightly adjusted itself. Man by man it diminished, and finally Sai stood second to first.

Taku was sitting behind the booth.

His Brother looking almost as Sai had remembered, but older beyond the year he had been away, worn down. There were deep bags under his eyes and he was looking almost silly under that bureaucrat cap. He had the dusting of a moustache above his lip, not quite grown in. It appeared he was having some difficulty bringing his arm up to the table and to write gracefully what with the weight of his black imperial robes hanging so low. Twice Sai saw him grimace as these robes brushed against the ink-block, moving it precariously close to the edge of the table. There was a bright silver pin, on his upper breast, a flock of little birds in flight. The same pattern was repeated on either of his shoulders, in white.

Sai cracked. He actually smiled. Since Taku had done so well on the preliminary exams, not a word of his whereabouts had made it back home, only that he was well, and he was in service of the Emperor now.

In short order Taku was done with the man bowing in front of the booth. Not looking up from the bamboo slat on which he had been writing he motioned with his head to one of the guards flanking the booth, this guard reached into a chest and produced a wooden tag with some writing on it, handing this to the man and shooing him away.

“Next,” Taku said, still not looking up.

Sai stepped up to the booth.

“Name,” Taku said in a level tone.

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“Sai.”

Taku nodded, and he ran his brush along the still wet ink-stone, with a furrowed brow and precision he wrote the characters.

So that's my name, Sai tried, in vain, to remember the strokes. During his own exam, and a much easier one than Taku had taken, he had failed utterly. He received no less than three switches from the Proctor, and was told he had a brick-layers hand and a ploughman's mind, that time was wasted on one such as he. He couldn't get a single character right.

“Family?” Taku's brush held poised further down the slat.

“Kimura.”

Taku's head shot up, brow suddenly furrowed. Recognition blossomed on his face like a spring flower. He smiled and Sai noted new wrinkles about his eyes. The smile quickly faded.

“What are you doing here?”

“I am looking for work, elder brother,” Sai said as he bowed.

“But...” Taku glanced from guard to guard on either side of him, at the crowd still forming behind his little brothers back. He leaned as far over the booth as he dared, conscious of the red tassels on his cap and worrying they might brush the ink. “Here of all places?” These tassels swayed sudden with a sharp jerk of his head. “This isn't a place for a boy, this is hardly a place of a beggar.” He was whispering, speaking quickly and noted some concern on the faces of the waiting crowd. Even one of the stoic guardsmen peaked down. Taku made a show of sitting straight, pinching his tassels and aligning them gently with his body. A practised courtly gesture.

“I need the money,” Sai said eyes downcast.

“It's that bad, at home?”

Sai nodded.

Taku groaned. “I... haven't had time to return in some while. I doubt I will soon. It is good to see you Sai.”

Sai bowed. “I have missed you.”

When Taku looked back up it was with a tender expression. “I can finish the rest of the ledger myself. I know where you live after all.” Taku swept his hand to the guard with the chest of tokens, Sai followed the gesture and approached.

“I would write to you, but...”

“I cannot read.”

“Right, dumb as a brick.”

Sai grinned, showing a missing tooth.

Taku returned the grin and touched the arm of the guard, motioning him to bend down, he did so, and Taku whispered something in his ear. The guard shrugged, looked at Sai, and then rummaged in his chest of tokens, examining it before offering it to Sai.

It was carved from wood and in the shape of a triangle. In the centre of the triangle the wood had been whittled away and filled with black pigment, a character Sai could not read, and a pictogram that he could only guess at. A barrel, maybe. It was crude.

“Tomorrow go to the East Palace Gate and show that to the man on duty. He'll tell you where to go from there. Stay safe little Brother, I will come and see you when I can.” Taku looked at the crowd that had only grown since he had started his work and sighed, “if I can.”

Sai clutched the token to his chest and hesitated only a moment before setting off. He glanced over his shoulder at some distance, and then his brother was lost behind the crowd.

Truly, Sai hardly understood what he had signed himself up for – only that it was work, and it would pay, how much was still a guess. However he needed to pay tuition to Miyo, and then to repay Yabona. Whatever it was he was expected now to do at the East Palace Gate, he would do with pride.

His step was a little more self sure on his way back home.