Delly and Madge both went straight from the Academy to the First Precinct, directly southwest of the Citadel. In past times, when wealth and political power had been entirely synonymous, it had been a district of mansions for the city's wealthiest citizens and their personal servants. But over the centuries, the elite had decided that perhaps pulling the strings of power directly was beneath their station, and migrated elsewhere. The most prestigious estate had been built up into the Presidential Mansion, and a few others had been retained by families that deigned to remain active in government. The rest of the precinct had been converted into administrative buildings and crowded but orderly and well-kept apartment towers for those who worked in them. Madge went to an apartment, while Delly was magnanimously admitted to the servant quarters of a Senator's modest mansion.
"Thank you so much for taking me in," Delly told her new benefactress.
"Do not speak unless spoken to," the matron said without looking up from her book. Madge sat quietly, fidgeting. She got up and went to see if there was something to do in the kitchen. "Did I excuse you?" Madge sat back down.
Eventually, there was a merciful knock at the door, and the matron gave a silent signal for Delly to answer. She returned with a steaming, grease-stained box of sweet-smelling pastries. "The baker delivered jelly buns," she said. "Do you want me to take them to the kitchen?"
"No, leave them here. Would you like one?" Delly gave a curtsy and a squeak of thanks as she accepted a plate with big pastry, though she winced at the sight of a pool of grease coming right out of the pastry like sweat. Still, she wolfed it down by the time the matron finished half of her neatly cut bun. "Here, would you like to have another?"
Delly ventured to offer a meek and polite defiance. "No thank you," she said. "As long as I'm here in the Capitol, I should probably watch my figure..." She looked up as the Senator passed, hand in hand with an adopted little boy who nevertheless had the Senator's eyes.
The matron snatched Delly's plate, and placed another bun on it. Then she all but jabbed the plate at Delly. "Here," she said in her most authoritative voice, "have another."
Madge's assigned workplace was the Treasury Building. It was not a storehouse of money, but a meeting place of a Council of Senators and Assemblymen responsible for managing the currency of Panem. It was one of the newer buildings in the Precinct, and quite strange in shape, essentially an upside-down pyramid with its apex driven into the ground. Workers arrived by underground train and entered through the basement. As soon as Madge left the platform, a crew of Peacekeepers ordered her to strip and turn out the contents of her pouch. She complied, but shrieked when a Peacekeeper blithely pocketed the gold mockingjay pin she had brought with her as a token.
"That's mine!" she shouted. "It's my personal property!"
"What is?" the Peacekeeper said with a snear.
A second Peacekeeper stepped in. "Don't be an ass, Lucian," he said. "I saw you take it."
"She probably stole it," the first Peacekeeper countered. "Mind your own business, Darius
"That's not true!" Madge said. "I got it from my mother, and she got it from her mother. She's from the oldest merchant family in the district, and my father is Mayor!"
Another Peacekeeper, obviously in command, stepped in. "What's the matter?"
"Commander Thread, this Tribute has contraband," Lucian said, holding up the pin. "It could be used as a weapon. Could be poison."
"Well, if it's crontraband, then it goes in evidence," the commander said. He took one look at the pin, and laughed. "I once busted a Trib who made a shank out of a sharpened katniss root. That was a better weapon than this."
He moved to hand the token back. Lucian spoke up: "It's gold. 24 kay, I bet. You know the new laws against hoarding."
"Funny you should wait to mention that," Darius said. "She already told she received it from her family in her home District. Besides, the laws are for old coinage and raw gold. Relics such as jewelry are specifically exempted."
"Well, I think it's obvious the young lady hasn't committed any crime," Thread said. He looked her in the eye and continued,"But you haven't been wise, either. This is a very valuable item for someone of your station to carry in public. If you leave it with us, we can return it to your place of residence at the end of the day. I suggest that you find a safe place to keep it in the future."
"I volunteer to deliver it," Darius said. "I can also give you an address of someone who rents safe deposit boxes. They are reliable and very trustworthy."
"Thank you," Madge said. Only then did she think to put her clothes back on. "Maybe we'll see more of each other."
"Well, I'm here every day," Darius said with a hint of a smile, "and it's going to be like this every day."