XIII

A Glossy and Broken Frame

“Not even by accident?” Asked Dez. “Or- or in self defense? What about-”

“No!” Amira shouted, giving up on ignoring the bird's incessant questioning. “I didn't kill a farmer in self defense! Or by accident, or on purpose, or in my sleep ‘r anyting else! I haven't killed anyone in Gro, ah!?”

“And that's not-”

“It's not where the Culross Butcher came from!” Her voice cracked, her accent almost vanished in her exhaustion. “I promise ya the story about the serpent is true! I don't- I- I know like three farmers! Total! Please stop asking me!”

“But what if you-”

“DEZ!” Amira screamed, scaring the rest of the Ambassadors already loaded into the carriage.

“Okay!” Dez stood at attention. “Okay, I believe you.”

“Ugh… finally. Why couldn't ya have believed me last night? I'm gonna have t'catch up on sleep inside a this box.”

“I'm sorry. Click- bitch.”

Amira stared Dez in the eye, towering over him from an inch away- seething with the full fury of the nine hells the moment that word left his beak. Dez's feathers stood on end, the fear of death washing through him.

“What did you just call me?” Amira asked, without a hint of Gro in her dialect.

“It was a tick! It was- whistle- it was a tick I promise! I promise I promise!”

Amira slowly nodded. She forced herself to walk away, and climb into the carriage. As she sat down, she whispered to Alikath.

“What the hell is wrong with that one?”

“I have absolutely no idea.”

Fletch chuckled from the other seat. Dez felt the tension still radiating from Amira's body, and took a step back from the door.

“I- I think I'm gonna perch on top the car today. I'll keep an eye out for any, uh… click- an- anything.”

“Write it down, Dez had his first good idea!” Andrés laughed.

The Ambassadors in tow, the carriage took off, finally on its way to Servus, the capitol centerpiece of the Land District.

There is an almost comically stark contrast between the infrastructure and design patterns of Valor and Servus, its second closest neighbor. While Valor is an intricately sculpted plaza of coordinated yet unique buildings, utilizing hills and multi-storied buildings to add grandiose to the wide streets and squares, Servus looks like a jigsaw puzzle in comparison.

Buildings of all different shapes, sizes, and qualities piled up around each other in loosely defined ‘neighborhoods’ and vague implications of theme. Generally, paupers lived in the southern edge of the city, the more well-off lived in the middle, and the Aquatics lived in the northeast, along the shore of the Matria river. To cope with Servus’ overpopulation and lack of reliable housing, tents were about as common as actual homes in the southern sector.

The north, northwest, and some of the city's center were reserved for the city's commercial and recreational needs. Local businesses popped up and disappeared like lightning, hardly any of them surviving a full year. A few parks, some struggling banks, and a graveyard were about the extent of the city's contributions to the people, if you don't count the Heavenfell charity outpost stationed in the southeast.

Despite this, you'd be hard pressed to find anyone who acts the way you'd expect from a city in poverty, at least in the center sector. For a number of reasons, Servus hosted some of the most vigorous and spirited folks in Solevian history. Adventurers, masons, merchants, snake-oil peddlers, and thieves all congregated and worked themselves to the bone, searching for their golden opportunity to rise above the masses and claim wealth and glory untold.

The Ambassadors disembarked, bid farewell to carriage driver Himani, and meandered their way through the city streets from the south, most of them witnessing the state of their hometown for the very first time.

“This is the capitol?” Amira gawked. “This is where we’re meetin’ with royalty?”

“Don’t be like that, it’s got a certain charm to it-” Andrés watched his shoes as he walked. “As long as you keep from stepping in something.”

“It’s better than Graycove,” said Fletch.

“Everything's better than Graycove,” said Roland.

“You guys can't look at everything through the lens of money and grandeur,” Alikath shrugged. “The city's relatively safe, all things considered, and it's the one place where we're almost universally loved. Servus is home, you'll get used to it soon. Speaking of-!”

Alikath's face lit up as a young Tiefling boy, looking about eight, noticed the group arriving, and scrambled out of his tent to greet them, leaving an older Tiefling man inside.

“Ali!” He shouted, leaping up and almost toppling Alikath over with a tackle. Alikath struggled to keep his footing, and laughed as he awkwardly wrangled the child to keep from falling out of his arms.

“He- hey Ivernum! Jeez, I just got back, don't break me already!”

He said the boy's name with the same dialect he used for his own. Ee-vair-nuum.

“Hi!” The boy chirped. “I practiced a cartwheel, do you wanna see?”

“Totally!” Aliakth dropped Ivernum, and watched eagerly as he held up his hands, and leaned a little to the side, before stopping abruptly.

“Watch this! Wait- watch this! Wait- watch this! Wait-”

“You're putting all your weight in your chest, buddy. If you focus on your hips, you can- hang on, watch this.”

Alikath held his own arms above his head, and made it about halfway down, before he stopped as well.

“Wait, that doesn't feel right. Um, okay wait-”

“Do you not know how to do a cartwheel, Alikath?” Andrés smirked.

“I know how! It's just been a while. It's about… it's about momentum, so-”

“Oh my God- it's just a sideways flip!” Fletch barked, trying to demonstrate himself, failing miserably, and stumbling into the dirt.

“Okay wait, there's no way none of us know how to do a cartwheel.” Andrés guffawed, joining in the other two's efforts. Amira struggled to find a spot for her to attempt it without bulldozing any of her friends.

Andrés looked pleadingly at Rosellia, watching this pathetic display next to Artemis and Roland.

“Are you gonna help us out with this, your holiness?”

“In this dress?” Rosellia laughed. “You boys have fun.”

After a few more thrilling moments of this, the poor child desperately trying to follow the useless instructions of these grown adults, Artemis had had enough. They rolled their eyes, and kicked off the ground, effortlessly flipping all the way to their side without so much as moving their crossed arms. Planting their feet back, they made a sarcastic ‘ta-da’ gesture to themself.

“You didn’t use your hands!” said Fletch.

“Know that.” Artemis flipped their hair. “Don’t need to.”

“Artemis, we’re trying to teach a ten year old,” Alikath said. “That doesn’t help.”

“I-...” Artemis caught their tongue, realizing they somehow forgot what the point of this was. They crossed their arms back and looked away in shame.

“Okay. We’re incompetent.”

“It looks like Ivernum has you beat after all!” The adult inside the tent exclaimed, finally stepping out to meet the group. “All our hard work wasn’t for nothing.”

“Sanctuary- you look well!” Alikath blushed, still clearly not over the embarrassing display he just put up.

“Sha ko-n’aa zuur, Alikath.” The man spoke in the Infernal tongue.

“Sanctuary?” Fletch questioned. “That doesn’t sound like a Tiefling's name."

“Fletch!” Rosellia snapped. “Rude!”

“Oh, it’s okay!” Sanctuary said. “He’s right, Sanctuary is my virtue name. My infernal name is Raeziith Citri. And you are…?”

“What’s a virtue name?” Artemis asked.

“Were you people raised in a wine cellar?” Rosellia scoffed, before introducing herself to Sanctuary. "Rosellia de Lusitania, it's a pleasure."

“It’s a Tiefling thing,” Alikath explained. “Some of us rename ourselves after a particular virtue, when we find our… our calling. It represents what we value most, I guess.”

“It’s what we have to offer to the world,” Sanctuary corrected. “What we want to deliver and identify with. It’s more about embodiment than adoration.”

“Right.”

“That’s- wow,” Amira huffed. “That’s beautiful.”

“And so poetic! I’m surprised,” said Rosellia.

“Excuse you- Tieflings are a very poetic people,” Alikath held his hip. “Were you raised in a wine cellar?”

“Why ‘Sanctuary,’ if you don’t mind me asking?” said Andrés.

“I chose it after I met this one, actually.” He patted Ivernum on the back of the head. “Are you home to stay, Alikath?”

“You know I never have an answer for that,” Alikath scratched his neck. “But we can always hope.”

“Tell me if you are,” Sanctuary pleaded. “I’d love to make you babysit again sometime.”

“Missing the bar fights, Raeziith?”

“And other things bars offer.”

“Well, I might not be able to help you anymore-” Alikath gestured to the other Ambassadors. “These are my new coworkers, and I think I trust about one eighth of them around children.”

“Hey!” Andrés protested. “We’ve had Dez in our care for like a week and he’s fine.”

“Can I take you back to Heavenfell with me?” Dez looked at Andrés. “I’d like to throw you off my mother’s backyard.”

“You’re still gonna visit, right Ali!?” Ivernum whimpered. “I wanna draw with you! Raeziith bought me this chalk and it changes color and I-”

“Raeziith,” Alikath corrected the boy’s pronunciation. “Be polite. And of course I’m gonna visit, punk! I about lost my mind being away so long! I just have to take care of boring work stuff first, okay?”

“Okay…” Ivernum pouted. “Do it fast!”

“When did you get so bossy? As you wish~” Alikath saluted. “I’d better head off, then.”

“Tell me you had these people study what they’re doing before you brought them here, please,” Sanctuary gave a pitiful look to the rest of the Ambassadors.

“Yeah!” Alikath beamed, earning strange looks from his coworkers. “Sorta. I sent them… notes.”

“Must have gotten lost in the mail.” Artemis grumbled.

“Oh you poor fools.” Sanctuary shook his head. “If Alikath hasn’t warned you already, he’s famously terrible at his job.”

“Okay, we’re leaving now- bye Raeziith! Bye Ivernum!” Alikath quickly swept up his friends and marched off.

Alikath led his friends through the lower city, passing by tent after tent, with the occasional dry-rotting wood house here or bench there breaking up the monotony. A few street performers and food clerks goaded the crowd, some of which waved to the Ambassadors and struck up short conversations.

It was only once the group neared the center of the city that real buildings and roads began to pop up. The buildings were discordant and the roads were dirt, but quality is relative.

While the group all mingled and sight saw, Andrés walked on pace with Alikath, and spoke in a half-hushed tone.

“Virtue names? I like it. Honestly, I’m surprised I hadn’t put that together by now. I was so confused by this one stripper I met who insisted her name was Levity. I assumed it was a stage name- y’know, because those girls like to use names that roll of the tongue when guys-”

“I get the picture,” Alikath interrupted. “And yes, that was probably a virtue name.”

“What about you, leader man?” asked Andrés. “You got one?”

“No,” Alikath answered, matter-of-factly. “Haven’t found my virtue yet, I guess.”

“Really?”

“Sure. I don’t know- infernal names are nothing to be ashamed of, I don’t care.”

Andrés felt a bit of heat coming off him, so he elected to change the subject.

“That kid- Ivernum? I noticed he was red.”

“Very observant, Andrés.”

“I know- I also noticed that his dad’s purple. Is his mom red, or-?”

“Raeziith isn’t his father,” Alikath said, confirming Andrés’ hunch. “He’s just stepping in.”

“Ah,” Andrés nodded. “Where are his parents? You seem like you might know.”

Alikath stopped walking. “It’s not... really your business, Andrés.”

“I’m just curious,” Andrés held up his hands. “He seemed like a cute kid, is all. You clearly like him, and you’re, y’know, also red.”

Alikath blinked. “I’m not-... Ivernum’s parents are dead, Elf.”

“That’s less cute than I was hoping,” Andrés deflated. “What happened?”

Alikath shook his head, and kept walking. “They were redbacks.”

“What does that mean?”

Alikath sighed, and cracked his knuckles. “They were killed by people who thought they were dangerous. They weren’t. They were just… they were just unlucky.”

“They were murdered? Gods, how old was the kid?”

“Six… yeah, he'd just turned six.”

Rosellia chimed in, having been listening to the latter part of their talk.

“They were caught, though- the city guard caught whoever did it, at least?”

“Servus doesn’t have a city guard,” said Alikath. “The mercenaries who act like it are the closest thing we have, and they’re the ones who did it.”

Rosellia and Andrés froze. Rosellia broke the silence once she found the words.

“Well- well what, then? They’re still out there? Are those murderers still wandering around? Is- is Servus still employing them? We-”

“I’m glad you have the novelty of thinking this is a big deal Rosellia, but I’d advise you to go home if you want to get worked up about it.” Alikath snapped.

For the first time, Rosellia and Andrés saw something twinge in Alikath’s expression- heard something unsettling in his voice. Anger; bitter malice, even. It caught both of them off guard, and showed them just how far they'd overstepped.

Alikath rubbed the bridge of his nose. “But no, Rosa. They were caught. Despite everyone’s best efforts, those two are behind bars.”

“Who caught them, then?” asked Andrés

Alikath looked at Andrés, slouching his shoulders with a baffled frown on his face.

“We did.”

Andrés and Rosellia looked at each other, then to the rest of the group who hadn’t snooped on their conversation yet.

Alikath shook his head. “If you’re asking these questions to get a better idea of your responsibilities, then you’re on the right track. There’s no justice here, people. No winged angels, and no complex social contract to keep the strongest monster in the woods from eating everybody else’s children. There’s no government in the Land District, we’re it. If you ever have to ask who’s going to do something, you should save your breath and just do it yourself.”

Alikath turned around, and stared ahead at the huge, glassy, cylindrical building ahead of him. Towering over every other structure in the city, this gaudy and expensive blue spiral was decorated with lines of pink, green, and gold- the very sight of it seemed to make the city brighter by association.

Though a wiser man would say the Tower of Unity made Servus look darker, by comparison.

“You get that?” Alikath asked, looking over his shoulder at his companions.

“Don’t ask anyone to save you out here. Save the effort… and do it yourself.”