Six
Minrathous 9:31 Dragon
"Congrats again to you, Flavius Five-Daughters."
The magisters raised a glass, toasting as they laughed. Magister Arrentius raised his glass and forced a smile, clinking with them as he downed his drink. As he emptied it, Flavius held the cup out behind him for the slave to fill it again. He had drunk five glasses already and showed no signs of stopping.
The business conversation over dinner had ended an hour earlier and had turned toward Magister Arrentius' newest child. Flavia had been born with golden hair like her mother and barely cried after being born. She was welcomed into the Arrentius household with the love of her four older sisters.
The other magisters, however, appeared to be greatly amused by the fact that he had sired five daughters in a row. It was Magister Galitorix who had first tossed out the nickname Five-Daughters and the others had latched onto it with great humor.
After dining with the other pages in the cafeteria, Cassius had come to check on his lord and ask whether he needed anything else for the evening. Magister Arrentius had no immediate needs, but had asked his page to stay. Cassius obeyed, standing back with his arms folded behind him, melting into the wall like the slaves that attended the dinner service.
He watched and listened as the magisters talked briefly about military and trade matters before shifting to more personal chatter. It was not long before Galitorix brought up Magister Arrentius' new daughter and the topic had quickly become fertile ground for the butt of many jokes hurled at Flavius' expense.
His lord took each jibe in good measure, chuckling and offering platitudes and excuses. There was still time. His wife was still only in her mid-thirties and she had proven to be quite fertile. He even hurled an insult back in the direction of the older Magister Ravenna, a Laetan, that at least his staff still worked. That had drawn raucous laughter and a scornful glare from the man who was not likely to forget such a slight.
All the while, Cassius watched as the slaves refilled Magister Arrentius' wine cup over and over and over again.
By the time the men had finally pushed back from the table and said their farewells as they returned to their quarters for the night, Magister Arrentius had finally called out to Cassius to join him, to help steady him as he returned.
They walked slowly, the magister swaying and stumbling on his feet as they made their way through the corridors with Flavius leaning heavily on Cassius' arm.
"Those bastards," Flavius muttered himself as they walked, approaching the staircase up, a daunting proposition in his state. They took the steps one at a time, with Flavius balanced shakily between Cassius on one side and the golden railing on the other.
"Don't let anyone ever tell you Minrathous is a great place," Flavius told his protege as they rounded the landing halfway up the steps and started on the second incline. "This city is nothing but a pit filled with cannibalistic snakes gorging themselves on one another. Bastards, every one of them."
Cassius didn't say anything as Flavius nearly missed a step, taking a second try at one of the stairs. As they reached the top of the staircase, Magister Arrentius clapped him on the shoulder. "At least I have you, my son. I envy you sometimes, free of having to deal with these bastards. You're still pure, untainted by the filth that this city breeds."
"Thank you, my lord," Cassius said as he pointed the way toward Magister Arrentius' door. They walked together again until they reached the door. Flavius leaned forward, bracing himself against the door frame as he closed his eyes and lowered his head, his cheeks puffing as he focused on breathing.
Cassius summoned a bit of mana to his finger as he traced the pattern on the lock on the door until the mechanism clicked and the door popped open. He scooped Magister Arrentius back into his arms and guided him into the room, kicking the door closed with his foot as they entered.
Cassius pointed toward the candles around the room, igniting the wicks with magical flame from afar until there was a soft glow in the room. He would leave the heavy curtains drawn over the window. It was late evening and there was little sun left, although he was certain Magister Arrentius' wine-laden eyes would better appreciate the dim.
He guided his lord to the bed, until Flavius lowered onto the mattress, sitting on the edge of the bed. Cassius stepped back, looking at the magister as he sat slumped, breathing loudly.
"Is there anything I can fetch for you, my lord?" he asked.
"A bucket, please," Flavius said, gesturing non-distinctly toward the waste bin in the corner. Cassius went and retrieved the garbage pail, handing it to his lord. Flavius placed it on the mattress next to him without raising his head.
After a moment of silence, Cassius spoke up again. "Is there anything else you require, my lord?"
"Promise me, young Cassius, that even when your pageship ends, that you'll return to Asariel with me and stay in my house," Flavius asked.
This was his second term serving Magister Arrentius and the lord had asked him to summer at his manor last year and again this year once the session ended. He was about halfway of what was typically a four-year term that pages from the Circle typically served in the Magisterium. Once that ended, he would finish his final two years of study in the Circle and then be assigned wherever they felt he was needed.
Most Praeteri ended up in functionary duties somewhere in the Imperium, which had shaped his expectations that he would eventually end up in the bowels of Minrathous somewhere processing papers until and up to such a time the Circle might have a different need of him. Outside of the prospect of clerking, at best he might be drafted into martial service against the Qunari, if the war effort needed more mages, albeit expendable ones, to enter the battle.
"Of course, my lord," Cassius agreed, "if that is your desire."
"Good, good," Flavius said. "That will be all for tonight."
Cassius bowed his head. "If you need me, my lord, I'll be just in the other room. Don't hesitate to call for me."
Cassius turned and exited Magister Arrentius' chamber, slipping behind the door of the adjoining page's quarters. He shut the door, but did not latch it, leaving it open a crack so he could better hear if Magister Arrentius called to him, or, more likely, if he could hear vomiting from the next room.
Cassius lit the single candle on his desk as he began to undress, carefully folding and hanging his clothes so that they might not wrinkle as he slipped into his evening clothes.
There was a half-finished letter Magister Arrentius had asked him to write back to his family that was on his desk and needing attention before he turned in for the night. The magister had promised his family he would write every day.
Flavius had been able to meet that promise for the first five days they returned to Minrathous, but then the session got busy and he had asked Cassius to draft a letter on days when he could not find the time to finish one himself. Today had already been shaping up to be one of those days even before the long dinner, so Cassius had started the letter earlier in the afternoon.
Cassius sat back down at the desk, pushed his finger to the candle to grow the size of the flame a bit so he could see better and picked up the pen. Even to today, Cassius never felt comfortable writing. It had taken several months and multiple beatings from the instructors in the Circle to finally teach him to read and write over his first two years in training there, but in time he had finally developed the skills.
Still, he never felt confident in the words he put to a page, always fearing some glaring error that he was incapable of recognizing.
He picked up where he had left off earlier in the day:
… Magister Arrentius spent most of the day in committee meetings he described as "bland" before attending an evening dinner with some of the other magisters. After discussing matters of business, their conversation turned more casual and eventually settled on the topic of Magister Arrentius' new daughter.
The other men offered their sincere congratulations on the addition of the newest child to his family. Magister Arrentius also spoke at length about his older daughters, his intelligent Valerie, his polite Andria, his talkative Kordelia and his bouncy Servilia.
After dinner, Magister Arrentius asked whether I would join the family again in Asariel after this term and beyond. I was happy to agree, and I look forward to seeing you all again this summer when the session is completed here in the capital. I pray that I am not a burden or inconvenience to your family and if you would rather not have me stay, I will be obliged to return to the Circle with great appreciation and gratitude for everything the family has provided me to this point.
Cassius lifted the pen as he heard an unusual noise from the other room. He stopped, listening, hearing just the low tone through the wall, too quiet to be distinguishable. Cassius placed the pen aside and rose from the desk, stepping quietly back to the door, where he peeked through the crack to check on his lord.
Magister Arrentius had not moved from his place sitting on the edge of the bed, but Cassius was able to discern the source of the sound he had heard.
Cassius could see his lord, with his face in his hands, and hear the sound of low weeping.
Cassius watched for a moment, as the proud and honorable Magister Arrentius he knew and served melted, transforming before his eyes into Flavius Five-Daughters.
The sight turned Cassius' stomach, to see his lord in such a state, as he turned the knob and quietly edged the door fully closed until the walls and doors shielded him from the sound of sobs.
Cassius returned to the desk and picked up the pen again, returning to the letter.
… I hope that this session goes quickly, for I know deep in my heart that Magister Arrentius desires to be home with his beloved family and away from Minrathous as soon as possible. I will do my best to ease his burdens here and encourage him to return home as soon as humanly possible. I am certain Magister Arrentius cannot wait to return to his home filled with the love of his wife and five beautiful, wonderful daughters.
Ever in service to Magister Arrentius,
Cassius Terro
Minrathous 9:41 Dragon
Cassius stopped after stepping inside the gatehouse at the head of the Great Bridge of Minrathous, looking at the jutting spires of buildings from the island city in the near distance.
The city looked even older and darker than the last time he saw it just months before, if that was possible. Perhaps it was due to dark clouds out to sea in the distance blocking out most of the sun, but Minrathous looked almost ready to crumble at a moment's notice. Cassius knew, as most mages did, that it was magic and little else that held up a good number of the oldest buildings, ancient enchantments that kept the stones in their places, needing to be checked and reinforced every few years to keep the glyphs strong.
Should those spells ever fade and unravel, the city might indeed topple, with one large spire falling into the next and then the next until the entire city was little more than a pile of dusty rubble. Centuries ago, the Imperial capital was the gem of Thedas, the most populous and most powerful city in the world. Nowadays, like the rest of the Imperium, it was a reflection of its previous power.
Still, it had ancient charm that few other places in Thedas could claim. Yes, it was old, collapsing and filthy in spots. But it was original and authentic, unlike the gaudy cosmetics Orlesians painted their cities in like the whores that lived there and unlike the sticks and mud the dog lords in Ferelden called buildings.
"She looks like shit, don't she?"
Fiora spit out of the corner of her mouth, nearly hitting a traveler walking past her right side as she crossed her arms over her chest and looked at the jagged towers of Minrathous' skyline. She shuddered.
"Don't be crude," Cassius said with a grin.
"Can't help it," Fiora said, trying to spit again but getting little more than spray of foam out of the corner of her mouth. She wiped it away with her hand. "Lot of bad memories here."
"You didn't have to come," Cassius reminded her.
"And let you march up here with a big old box of you-know-what by yourself? You must be crazy." She glanced over her shoulder to the cart, making sure the box of gold was still there and there were no urchins crawling over the wagon like ants. There weren't, for now at least. Once they got inside the city proper, well, that might be a different story.
"I'm touched you care so much about my safety," Cassius said.
Fiora snorted. "Got nothing to do with your safety, Terro. If we got jumped on the highway and you ended up dead in a ditch, me and that box would be making for the coast as fast as we could to the first pirate ship willing to take me on."
She ran her thumb along the padded grip of the saber at her right hip, then put it in her mouth, then popped it out of her cheek as it made a nice hollow pop noise. She smiled to herself as she likely envisioned herself on the deck of some pirate ship sailing off into the sunset. Her fantasies always seemed to involve piracy, for reasons that Cassius couldn't exactly explain.
"Five more years," she said wistfully as she looked at the towers of Minrathous again. "Five more years and maybe I'll never see this hellhole again."
That drew a disgusted look from some merchant sitting atop a cart as they rolled past to the left heading out onto the Imperial Highway. Fiora didn't seem to notice. Cassius raised a hand by way of apology to the passing man.
"Will you cry when I'm gone, Terro?" she asked.
"I'll weep myself to sleep," he said. "Come on, we're in the way."
As Cassius started walking, Fiora fell in one step behind him and one step to the right, the place befitting a slave following her master.
Ten years ago, at the end of the legislative session, as they returned for home, Magister Arrentius had made a detour on his way out of the city to check the slave market. The summer had been a good one and the expectation was the fields would need extra hands to bring in the harvest. Buying slaves midsummer always cost a premium and they were worth half as much come winter, but Flavius swore he badly needed the extra help.
Magister Arrentius had browsed the market, muttering displeasure at the stock and arguing with the slavemonger over prices. Cassius had stepped away to walk around the market on his own, looking at the men, women and children wearing manacles around their necks, wrists and ankles. Mostly elves. A few humans. A few hulking Qunari captured in conquest.
As he had walked by, one elf girl had stood up and whistled at him. Was he a mage? What was he looking for? A cook? A cleaner? A courier? A knife? A house girl? Whatever it was, she could do it. Would do it. She could make it worth his while, as long as he promised to get her out of there today.
She didn't explain why, but her eyes darted around wildly as she pressed her palms together as best she could with her wrists divided by the rusted iron bands around her narrow arms.
"See something you like Cassius?" Magister Arrentius had asked with a wink.
Cassius had reddened at the suggestion. "No, my lord."
The elf girls' hands had dropped as she started to sink.
Magister Arrentius ignored his timid politeness and called the slavemonger over. They negotiated over a price. A few minutes later, the owner was turning keys in the locks that kept her chained to the ground and turned the keys and the chains over to Flavius.
Flavius thanked the man, then promptly extended the keys to Cassius. "My gift to you, for all you do."
It was that day, ten years ago, that Cassius had come to own his first and only slave.
Despite the advice of the overseer back at the manor not to take an interest, not to see the slaves as people but to see them as any other inanimate tool he might use to accomplish a job, Cassius had spent part of that summer learning more about her as she followed him around, tending to his needs and doing chores.
Fiora was three years his elder and she hadn't always been a slave. She didn't talk about it directly, but she had sold herself into slavery in exchange for a hefty sum that she had needed to pay off some debt. What debt and to whom, even ten years on she had never told him, only that the sum she had been paid for a fifteen-year indentureship either hadn't been quite enough or simply wasn't satisfying to whomever she owed the debt.
Fiora had been convinced that if she hadn't gotten sold out of the market that day that the slavemonger would have come to work the next morning to find his stock of slaves minus one elf girl but plus a bloody mess that needed to be cleaned up from his platform.
Once taller than Cassius in her youth, he had passed her when he hit his growth during his teen years. She was thin and wiry, as most elves, with coal-black hair. In his youth, Cassius had never really known what color her hair was when full grown, because the slaves around the Arrentius manor were routinely shaved, a requirement of the overseer as a way to ensure they had nowhere to hide anything they might think of pilfering from around the house.
Following his graduation from the Circle and his engagement to the magister's second daughter, Cassius had approached the overseer and informed him that Fiora was now expressly under his purview. The overseer had not argued and from that day on he had spared her the rigid rules and discipline imposed on the rest of the house slaves. The first thing she had wanted to do when informed of it was grow her hair out.
She had let a long plume of hair grow for several months, although she continued to shave her head on both sides, just as a wink to the rigid overseer, even as the length of hair down the middle of head continued growing without a blade ever being put to it.
Cassius didn't believe she had ever cut it since. Tied tightly at the back of her head, the tail of black hair now stretched down nearly to her waist.
In the four years since he took more direct stewardship of her, Fiora had developed enough of a personality that he was sure if the overseer ever got a chance again he would quickly attempt to beat out of her. But she had also become a trusted servant and confidant to Cassius. He often found it difficult to remember what his life was like before she had been brought to Asariel in his service.
Cassius couldn't be sure he wouldn't weep on the day five years from now when her contract expired and she became Liberati.
"Hey Terro," she shouted from behind him.
"Yes?" he said, looking back over his shoulder.
"Do I have to call you 'Magister Terro' now?" Fiora asked with a smirk.
Cassius snorted and chuckled as he turned his head back around. At best, if his child on the way was a boy, he might someday inherit Magister Arrentius' seat in the Magisterium if no better options arose before then. But for him? He would be lucky if the other magisters paid him any mind at all during this special endeavor.
He was forever bound to his low birth.
"Absolutely not."
Cassius traced the familiar pattern on the lock to Magister Arrentius' quarters in the Magisterium.
He looked over the room, much as he remembered it from the last time they were here in the winter just before he had left south with the Venatori. It felt kind of like home. Although it had been eight years since he last served as Flavius' page and had since been accompanying him to Minrathous as a retinue, he still spent an inordinate amount of time in this room compared to the spartan accommodations rented in the capital where he laid his head at night.
Cassius lowered his pack to the floor, noticing that the lamps in the room had already been lit before he arrived. He looked to his right at the door to the adjoining page's quarters and noticed it was ajar.
"Hello?" he announced from the door.
As he thought, a moment later a young man appeared in the doorway. "Oh, Magister Arrentius, I wasn't aware you were arriving so soon. Forgive me!" The young page bowed his head in apology.
Fiora laughed from behind him and Cassius waved her quiet.
"I'm not Magister Arrentius," Cassius made sure to clear up first. "I'm his retainer, Cassius Terro. I'm here as proxy in my lord's stead. This is my servant, Fiora."
"His slave Fiora," she made sure to announce even though no one had asked. Anyone who had eyes in the Imperium could tell the difference between a slave and a freeman, but she liked to impress the point on people to make them uncomfortable.
It seemed to work, as the young man fidgeted. "I'm sorry," he said. "I'm new and… well, anyway, I'm Alex, Magister's Arrentius' new page."
He looked fresh, probably a new thirteen-year-old starting his first term at the Magisterium. He didn't have an accent, which meant he probably came from the Circle right here in the capital.
"What happened to Paige?" Cassius asked as he lifted his pack and swung it over to the bed. Paige was a young woman from Carastes, a second-generation Praeteri. Her older brother had already given birth to a son who had the gift, making him a third generation and putting her another step closer to Laetan status. She was only fifteen at last session and would have another year before aging out. She always introduced herself as Paige the Page with a big smile, finding humor in the homophone.
"They moved her, I think. I'm sorry, I don't know," Alex said.
Cassius began digging into his bag, pulling out some clothes and laying them out on the bed. "Are you a Praeteri, Alex?"
"Laetan, sir," he answered from the door of the page's quarters.
"If you're Laetan, I should be calling you 'sir,' not the other way around," Cassius said.
"Well, you're still my elder, sir," the boy said.
"And how are your studies going in the Circle?" Cassius asked.
The boy paused, then said, "Well enough, sir."
"That's good," Cassius said. Alex sounded polite but too timid. He would go through his Harrowing soon enough. If he didn't find some confidence in himself by then, he would certainly find it when face-to-face with a demon.
It had been years at the time since the times Cassius had wet himself in his sleep as a child in the Circle, but he had awoken from the Harrowing ritual that night in his teens to urine-soaked robes. He spent two sleepless nights following it, forcing himself to stay awake, before his mind finally starting caving to exhaustion and the Enchanters forced him to bed with a draught.
He still dreamed of that night sometimes, and the way the demon had snaked into the core of his mind, how she preyed on his desire and how she had almost succeeded in exploiting it to claim his physical body. The apprentices in the Circle often didn't talk about their Harrowings, but from what he had gathered, he had come perilously close to failing the Circle's most extreme exam.
"Is there anything you need, Master Terro?" the page asked.
"Cassius," he corrected the page before continuing, "and yes, please fetch a folding cot for my servant."
Fiora groaned. "That big bed and you're going to make me sleep on a cot?"
"Yes," he said, then reminded her, "You can't be trusted."
His slave scoffed. "When have I ever tried anything with you, Terro?"
"Never, because I don't let you," he reminded her of that, too. "I hear stories about you."
"About me?" she said feigned offense. More than once she had been found tumbling with the other slaves. "I am a perfect lady."
"Say the woman who pitched herself as a potential 'house girl' to me at fourteen," he reminded her.
"You're going there again? You were a teenage boy at the slave market and I really needed to get out of there. You can't blame me for playing to the odds," she protested.
"I can," Cassius disagreed with a smirk. "And do."
He glanced past Fiora to where Alex was still standing there, watching the back-and-forth, perhaps stunned at the casual banter between slave and owner. No doubt wherever he came from slaves were neither seen nor heard. That was much more the norm in the Imperium than this.
Cassius cleared his throat, "The cot, Alex?"
That seemed to snap the boy out of his stupor. "Oh, yes, of course, sir, right away!"
He bounded to the door and opened it, only to surprise a young woman on the other side of it, with her hand raised just about to knock. She yelped in surprise as Alex nearly fell off his feet too.
"Apologies," the girl said, holding her hand over her heart as she took a breath. "I didn't expect the door to swing open so suddenly."
Alex offered his own apologies and squeezed past her out the door to fetch the cot.
"Can I help you, madam?" Cassius asked the girl, who looked old enough to be a page in her final year. She was tall with blonde hair and curls and carried herself with a confidence that the young Alex didn't. Either she was even more high born or, at least, used to being around the more high born.
"Are you Cassius Terro, the Praeteri who serves Magister Arrentius?" she asked.
That gave Cassius pause. He had only just arrived and even Flavius' own assigned page hadn't known who he was. As a Praeteri, no one in Minrathous needed to or cared to know who he was. That gave him a fair idea why she had come.
"You must be here on behalf of Dorian Pavus' contact, yes?" Cassius asked as he walked over to the door to greet her.
"Yes sir," she confirmed as she pulled her other hand from behind her back and presented him with an envelope. "An invitation, from my mistress."
Cassius opened the envelope, pulling out the decorative card inside adorned in fanciful script that no doubt the page had calligraphed with her own hand:
Dear Cassius Terro,
You are cordially invited to dinner and drinks this evening at dusk in my chambers here in the Magisterium. I hope to discuss your experiences in the south and the future of the Imperium.
I hope you don't think my invitation too forward, as I know you've just arrived in Minrathous, but I hate to waste time. Please come alone.
I look forward to your company this evening. Dorian tells me you're a rather curious type. I am eager to see that for myself.
In hopes of friendship,
Cassius looked at the significantly larger signature written in a different hand at the bottom of the card. He wondered why he hadn't thought of her earlier. There were far fewer women in the Magisterium and fewer still that might be aligned with the astray Pavus heir, so he wondered why he hadn't remembered her name.
"Tell your mistress I accept her invitation and look forward to meeting her tonight," Cassius said as he tapped the card with a finger.
"Very well, sir. Thank you," the page said with a nod and began to head back to report the acceptance to her mistress.
As she left, leaving Cassius in the doorway, he glanced back down at the card and the three large letters signed in blue ink.
Mae