House Palantus - Massilia
Quiquises held an unusual role in the Palantus household.
There were, Quiquises had heard, men who could call on... things, from somewhere other than this world to find out facts they needed to know. Facts on their friends, facts of their enemies, where people were, what they were saying- where certain things were. Things that were of shadow, not out in the light.
Quiquises wondered if, should he meet those things, they would think of him as brother. He'd been in the House but never of it. Nobody spoke to him much. (Few were supposed to- he knew secrets, after all. And he mainly spoke when spoken to, by his betters.)
Servants left food out, like you heard tell house-spirits of old got, but he neither ate with the household servants nor got served to dine.
And now, he was skulking about the now even-quieter House, staying out of the way and awaiting orders that might never come. He thought about his manumission ceremony. Bless them, they did it the Old Way- or as close as you could get in this city, with nothing the Palantus family considered a proper Magistrate.
Quiquises was- a rarity for him- called in front of what family were still in the House, as their evening meal drew to a close. And they addressed him, not as a shadow that brought secrets, but as a person.
They'd declared why they were letting him go. (Cold reasons though they were, they were real enough.) The master rose, held him for a moment, declared "I declare you a free man". Then he turned Quiquises round, let him go with a slight push, saying "...by my hand".... and that was it. He was freed. They'd even given him a small piece of paper he couldn't read, saying so. (Or so he trusted.)
So... now what? he wondered.
The masters were still in the House, but no orders came for now. Quiquises had leisure time, and- a new thing- choice about what to do next... but both were strange experiences for him, and he surprised himself by how little he cared for either.
On it's own, his mind wandered back to see what he could remember before this time, this place, this role. Three feet of dirt in front of me, a million miles away, and nothing but weeds to pull. was the answer.
He dearly wished for the answers, and stared at the freedom in his hands.
This message was last edited by the player at 01:28, Wed 01 Aug 2018.