Mendax looked down at Aureum. She sat against a brick chimney with her head against her knees. The sky was a scarlet fading up into deep blue. He breathed in the smell of smoke.
The documents of the office had gone up brightly at least. They were nowhere in sight of it, but he must have brought some of the smell with him. He had to stay until he knew the documents were burned.
After minutes of standing there, she still hadn't acknowledged his presence. He kneeled down in front of her.
"Did you fall asleep?" Mendax asked.
Aureum lifted her head up, slowly.
"No. Are you done?"
"I still have to get you back…"
"So glad I'm another task for you."
He waited for her, but that was all she wanted to say.
"We need to check on the others."
Aureum pushed herself up.
"You haven't checked on them yet? Get up! We need to go now!"
Mendax stood up.
"They should be fine."
"'Should be'. Yeah, I'll believe that when I see it."
"I'm going to have to lift you again."
"Get on with it already!"
They landed easily. Aureum quickly pulled ahead of Mendax. Her break on the roof had helped.
"We need to check the inn first," She said. "Hopefully, they're already there. If not, we can check the streets between."
"All right."
Aureum spent the entire walk back worrying, but her worries were pointless. She was greeted by Vitreum's voice as she climbed the stairs towards their room.
"You'll come back with five pearls at least!"
"I'll come back with the pearls, don't worry," Aquila said.
"What pearls?" Aureum said.
Aquila stiffened.
"The girl was demanding the pearls we promised you," he said.
"Why on earth—
Aureum wanted to ask why anybody would even bother after they all nearly died. But maybe that's precisely why Vitreum had bothered. Because Aureum would not die.
Or maybe the girl was just greedy.
"Sure. Tell me how Passer is doing."
She walked into the room to see the older woman sweating as she lay on the bed.
"You must be Aquila," Mendax said.
The gray-haired Aquila turned and paused. He took in Mendax's face without much expression on his, but the pause spoke volumes.
I wonder why kids like Viti seem to have the least problem with it. Maybe Vitreum isn't a normal example.
"And you are?" Aquila asked.
"Mendax, pleased to make the acquaintance."
He gave a wide grin as he clasped Aquila's hand.
Aureum watched the scene drily before turning back to Passer.
"Vitreum, has she been like this the entire time?"
"No. She was getting pretty bad on the way here. She stumbled a lot. Now she's coughing less."
"We should probably head for a doctor."
"No!" Aquila said.
Aureum felt her lip raise in disapproval. Aquila shook his head as he explained himself.
"I know she is sick, but if we go to one and they tell on her, she might be dead either way. Or enslaved again. If she gets the chance to rest in a clean room, she may improve."
Aureum sat down, exhausted. Vitreum sat down on the floor beside her. Snowfluffles was nowhere to be seen.
"Is it so bad to be a slave?" Aureum asked. "Worse than death?"
Aquila chuckled.
"As long as there is life there is hope, you might be thinking. I once thought like you. But imagine a life not just without hope, but only soul-crushing labor."
Aureum crossed her arms. She hadn't been trying to debate the issue.
"A lot of people live a life like that without slavery. Yet I don't see them, or even you, jumping to end their life. If she gets too bad, I'm risking a doctor unless she rejects it herself."
Aureum's tone gave no quarter.
"Did you always hate being a slave?" Mendax said.
Aureum shot a look at him. He shrugged.
He was trying to provoke him. Aquila might reveal something of himself that way.
Mendax was not yet so sure of Aquila. Who could blame him? The man had cleaned up, but there was still a worn look to him. Besides what Aureum had briefly told of him, Mendax knew nothing of this escaped convict.
That he was desperate was reason enough to question him for Mendax.
Aquila looked away from them both, preferring to look at Passer.
"No. I did not. When I was first a slave I thought it better than a prisoner of war."
"You were a soldier?" Aureum asked.
There hadn't been any wars between the major city-states in some time. Yet disputes among the smaller ones were constant. That was part of the problem of being a collective of independent states.
Being a prisoner of war meant he wasn't an illegal slave. There would not be mercy for him in any court in Aeternitus Aureum knew of.
"A poor one," Aquila paused before he continued. "I was always better with numbers and learning. The first man I called…"
Aquila stopped himself and went to sit on the bed next to Passer.
"The first man who owned me saw my talent and used me to keep his books. I saw my life as much better than my previous one back home. But." He leaned forward, holding his hands together. "But I was soon to learn that being a slave is more than just doing a job without fair pay. My master's wife took an interest in me."
Aureum made a bemused expression. That's not what she had been expecting.
"This was a long time ago. I wasn't stupid enough to encourage it, but I was shipped off anyway. Called troublesome when I didn't raise a finger out of line, my loyalty rewarded by breaking me in hard labor. As I was weak, I got sold often over the years, my price dropping every time, until I ended up in a place like this."
He shrugged.
Aureum felt herself wanting to raise objections. His life being at someone else's mercy wasn't subject to being a slave. Everyone found themselves at the mercy of something.
But… that just makes us all slaves in a way, doesn't it? And everybody having to deal with such a travesty doesn't make the travesty right.
Mendax glanced in her direction as she heaved a big sigh.
"That's tough luck," he said.
"So hopefully now you can see why I don't want Passer to be put through such a thing. Or many others for that matter."
"You still want some to go through it?" Aureum said.
"Those who inflicted it deserve it, I think."
Aquila's eyes looked a bit like pits of malice as he said that. She felt a little cold inside.
Is that the expression the guards of Nix saw, when they looked at me?
She understood it, a bit. But after so much time outside and free, she didn't want to lose it all trying to break someone as strong as Caducus. Then again, she never had.
Maybe I just lack the focus for revenge.
She still thought she could be a revenge opportunist. Maybe.
Not that Caducus is going to just give me an opportunity.
"Being alive is so much better," she said.
Aquila smiled. He thought it nice that this girl before him hadn't had such tragedy in her life.
"If living is a joy, it's better to live," he said.
"The first part of that statement makes the second part so specific it's meaningless," Aureum said. "Everybody wants to live when life is enjoyable."
"Ha! Sorry, sorry."
Aureum shook her head.
"If you won't let me take a doctor to her here, then can I go ask one about her symptoms?"
"What will you do when the doctor wants specifics?" Aquila asked.
"Ah? Well, we can't we just make up a fake patient."
"And if we change so much of the patient that the medicine she needs changes?" Mendax said.
"We can keep it close, right?" Aureum replied. "Age and gender are vague enough. It's not like it has to get too specific."
Mendax peered down at Passer around Aquila's head.
"I suppose. It seems to be her breathing more than anything else."
"Have you gotten any training?" Aquila said.
"I'm absolutely nobody, I'm just giving my best guess. It will probably be fine."
That last bit felt like sarcasm to Aureum. She narrowed her eyes.
"Well, if nobody has any better ideas, I'm going."
Mendax's head did a full swivel to her.
"No," he said. "You're not going. I will go with Aquila, because I'm certain he's so concerned about her. You will stay."
Aureum glowered. She knew he was leaving her with the invalid because he considered Passer less dangerous. She still didn't appreciate being ordered around by some murderer.
Mendax met her eyes and waited.
She finally shrugged and looked away.
If he wants to traipse about the city some more, let him.
"This'll let you get those pearls you promised too!" Vitreum said, looking up from Snowfluffles, who had wandered out from under the bed while Aureum wasn't looking.
"Right," Aquila said, his expression becoming strained.
"Vitreum, we don't need to rob the poor," Aureum said.
"But if they promised it to us, it's not robbery. Right, Mendax?"
"If the conditions were coerced, it can still be illegal."
"Cowerced?"
Mendax's eyes narrowed in amusement.
"Coerced. It means that somebody was bullied into agreeing."
"Cowerce him to give up what he agreed!" Vitreum said.
Aureum rubbed her face as Mendax chuckled. Aquila was much less amused.
"I'll see what I can do," Mendax said.
"Let's get going," Aquila said.
Mendax waved his hand towards the door and followed Aquila outside.
Besides the fact that Passer occasionally wheezed in the bed, the next few hours were reminiscent of the past few weeks.
It felt positively leisurely with the contrast of the day. Aureum found herself dozing as she petted Snowfluffle, while Vitreum read a simple book on the floor.
Mendax and Aquila returned. Passer was given medicine, though both Mendax and Aquila's demeanor had darkened.
"Here."
Aquila tossed a few pearls at Aureum.
She caught the first one easily, but the second one bounced in her hand awkwardly.
"You promised five!" Vitreum said.
Aureum looked at them, they were a bit smaller than the wolf's one had been, but she could feel these pearls were mostly mana of the wind.
"I directed Aquila to give us the ones Aureum would get the most use out of," Mendax said.
"He was supposed to give us five!"
"It's fine, Viti," Aureum said.
"You! You need to make money to be able to keep it! Everything costs money! My mother said so."
Aureum gasped theatrically.
"I'm being lectured by an eight-year-old!"
"Mmhmm!"
Vitreum sounded pleased with herself. Aureum pocketed the pearls before she could bring them up again.
Next came the mundanities like sleeping arrangements.
They let Passer and Aquila have the other room to themselves. Mendax tried to get another room, but the little inn was full for the weekend.
A lot of people from nearby villages came to the city for the weekly holiday to get the few things they couldn't elsewhere. That alone wouldn't be enough to overflow all the inns of the city, but the nondescript inn Mendax had originally chosen was right within the price range to be perfect for that clientele. Thus, the predicament.
Nobody was in the mood to look for another inn, so Mendax pulled out his bedding for camping and placed it on the floor.
They all should have been asleep in moments, but Aureum found her thoughts twisting and curling with the events of the morning. Now that she wasn't waiting for anyone, her mind felt free to eviscerate her peace.
Brief seconds where if she had tripped or been a bit slower she could be dead, refused to leave her mind. Each time she closed her eyes there was another moment to inspect. Her eyes snapped open.
But I didn't die, and I'm still here.
The self-encouragement did little.
She slowly sat up, frustrated. Vitreum was asleep.
This girl can sleep through anything.
Mendax's eyes opened, the glimmer reflected from the moonlit window giving him away. Aureum stretched herself a bit, waiting for him to realize she knew he was awake.
He slowly blinked and turned his head towards her.
She got up out of bed. It creaked. She glanced back at Vitreum but she didn't even move.
"Are you alright with going for a walk?" She whispered. "I can't sleep and I wanted to talk to you anyway."
The sound cut through the quiet night.
"What about?"
She sagged.
"I can wait. It's not important."
Mendax cocked his head at her, eyeing her before he shook his head and sat up.
"Well, now I am awake. So we might as well."
"Good!"
"Just around the inn though. I want to get some sleep before tomorrow's storm hits."
Aureum winced. She hoped that whatever happened tomorrow would blow over them. She could only hope.
She stepped outside with Mendax.