4 #3
The relics of the original design were still there.
In the martial precinct, immense bronze horsemen loomed above roads broad enough to hold an army.
The guilds of the six sciences commanded the civil district.
His gaze paused for a moment on those marble-columned temples to mechanistry and alchemy, celestial and corporeal dynamics, and the arcanic and therical arts.
These days, though, the grand plan was wedge it in wherever it’ll fit.
Heavy industry crept in from the outskirts like dry rot.
Phaetons battled for space on the temple roads.
Markets flourished in the oratoriums, and the arcani of the Incantrix Academy invaded the public parks when the athletes took over their arenas.
It gave the place a pleasing air of chaos.
The skies were clearer than the roads, though, and the sphere soon drew in to the station.
Felix fought his way across the busy platform and took an ascension column to the ground.
Another few minutes saw him back inside Patrium Hall, where he shut himself in his glass-walled office.
There, he looked at the papers spread across his desk and sighed.
For the past four months, he’d been a junior officer of the West Carintheum prefecture. They took care of the ceremonial precinct, where the worst that ever happened was the drunk revelers from Christium University racing ducks in the temple fountains.
Get about it, you morose old thing, he told himself, taking up his pen. It was a comfortable job for decent pay. Most wounded soldiers weren’t so lucky.
Two minutes later, though, a knock disturbed him. Deputy Commissioner Regis flitted in like a sparrow, tapping a scroll on his palm. Felix rose to greet his superior.
“Afternoon, Aurelias,” he said with a brisk smile. “Sit down, sit down. How’s work?”
“Onward, ever onward,” said Felix, preferring it to a real answer.
“Sterling. Here. Something for you.” Regis tossed the scroll onto the desk. “That application you put in for active service.”
A jolt of surprise drew Felix upright in his chair, and he reached for the paper.
“I hadn’t expected the commissioner to consider it until I’d learned to use the gauntlets,” he said, untying the ribbon.
“Won’t need ’em for this one. Think of it as testing the waters. Seeing how you’ll fare in the wild.”
Felix unfurled the scroll and squinted at the close-set script. From what he could make out of the scribe’s hand, it was a temporary commission. His curiosity pricked up.
“They’re releasing a girl from jail tomorrow,” Regis went on, perching on the edge of his chair. “Halcyon Hall.”
“That’s a fairly trifling place, isn’t it?”
“It’s certainly no Haideum Castle. She’s in there on a dominius penitence.”
Ah. His interest died a quick death. The prefecture sometimes sent their youngsters to supervise dominius prisoners after their release.
To the public, it was a thoughtful measure to help the wretched convicts return to society.
To the state, it was a tool to ensure that the blighters hadn’t been lying.
To the prefects who actually had to do the job, it was a week of getting bored to death and trying to stop the addle-minded creatures from wandering straight across busy highways. Governess duty, they called it in the back rooms.
“By all accounts, this one’s been a model prisoner,” Regis continued. “No real risk. She’s shown no arcanic prowess, and the curse left her memory a pig’s breakfast.”
Definitely governess duty.
“I see. What was her crime?”
“Accomplice in a jewelry theft, apparently,” said Regis, drumming his palms on the edge of the desk. “Nothing grand. They say she doesn’t remember it.”
“Of course,” he said mechanically, slipping the commission into his coat. “Thank you, sir.”
“None of that, old boy. I know it’s dull.” The older man sighed, then rocked his chair level and sprang upright. “Still, stepping stones to greater things, eh? And I’ve no doubt they’ll come, in time. Prima Gloriana gave you a sterling reference.”
In spite of everything, that name still had the power to brighten him. Felix smiled and seized upon the change of topic.
“Have you seen her lately? I gather she’s not long back from Hjelvak.”
“Mmm. Praetorium dinner,” Regis said dryly. “Only from a distance, mind. Just as well, or I’d have walked away with frostbite. They’d put her next to Praetor Evander.”
“Evander, sir?”
“You know, the newish fellow. Looks like they nicked him off a plinth in the Pantheos Aristos.”
“Oh, yes. The one she hates.” Felix chuckled.
That was it; the man had come to fame a few years back, propelled to office after his predecessor’s diet had caught up with him.
Felix couldn’t recall why Gloriana had taken against him, but he remembered her irritated mutterings beside the campfire whenever she’d read about him in the news scrolls.
“Mmm. Well, must be off,” said Regis, bobbing on the balls of his feet. “Eighth hour tomorrow, Halcyon watchhouse.”
“Yes, sir,” Felix said, then saw his master out.
Could be worse, he thought as he returned to his desk. It’s a start. Besides, you never know. Perhaps she’ll turn out to be the slyest thief in all Carintheum.
That’d be the day.