A strong breeze blew through the gated courtyard. Anelle smiled as the chill danced over her skin, the sun warmed her up in its wake. She perched on the edge of the well, studying the house opposite. Its intricate white stone pillars and swirling motif always drew her eye.
Anelle felt free in these stolen moments. If she squinted her eyes she could trick herself into ignoring the bars and feel like she was simply out on an errand for Emera. Ignoring her debt and life of servitude.
Footsteps crunched on the gravel.
Anelle sprung to her feet and reached for the bucket of water at her feet.
"Sorry to disturb you." The newcomer said.
Anelle looked up at Jonnen, one of the house guards. He was broad shouldered with short dark hair and a well kept beard. He wore the guards uniform - dark grey shirt and pants. The low collar exposed black symbols that peaked at his neck and disappeared over his shoulders. His yellow eyes seemed to smile as he watched her.
"Don't go on my account. My shift starts in," he pulled out a pocket watch, "twelve minutes. I didn't see anything till then."
Anelle relaxed her shoulders and leaned back against the well.
Jonnan sat on the edge of Moreal's herb garden that surrounds the courtyard. He placed a cigarette between his lips and struck a match against the brick. The match ignited and he cradled it to the cigarette and let out a plume of smoke through the side of his mouth. The scent of smoke mixed with the fresh flowers and delmon grass.
"Free men work when they want." Anelle mumbled bitterly.
Jonnen looked up.
A yip sounded. Anelle turned towards the bars. A small orange scrifin with two tails - one black, one orange - wove through the bars and jumped down into the courtyard. It ran over to Anelle and rubbed its head against her legs.
"Tut-too!" Anelle reached down and scratched behind the scrifin's large set of second ears. Scrifins usually have large ears but Tut-too's covered most of her head. Anelle pulled out a cloth from her pocket. The scrifin spun in a circle. Tut-too reached up on her hind legs sniffing the air. Anelle unfurrowed the cloth and threw the bone onto the ground. Tut-too leapt for it. She quickly pulled off any leftover meat and started sucking out the bone marrow.
"You know they're pests, right? And you'll be flogged if anyone finds out you're feeding them." Jonnen said.
"I know." Anelle smiled as she watched the scrifin wrestling with the bone. "But I find her so adorable with her mismatched limbs."
"What did you call it? Too Too?"He asked.
"I named her Tut-too." Anelle looked away from him as her cheeks began to flush. "It's something my older sisters used to call me. It's the sound a toddler's feet make when they learn to walk. The first step is a 'tut' followed by a louder 'too' as they have to remember to move their second foot after the first." Anelle laughed at herself. Tut-too was finished with the bone and jumped up onto the well. The scrifin nuzzled against her thigh until Anelle scratched behind her ears. Tut-too folded her legs under her, folded both sets of ears over her eyes and purred as Anelle stroked her. "When she first showed up she was still getting used to having a second tail and had a wobbly walk." Anelle smiled at the memory.
"'She?' How do you know it's a female?" He asked between puffs.
"She had two pups with her when she first showed up. Males don't usually help raise pups."
"I still find it weird to see female scrifin's with extra limbs." Jonnen commented.
"Don't they normally?"
Jonnen shook his head. "No, usually it's the males fighting for dominance that take extra limbs from each other. It's only in cities, with over population, that the females take parts from freshly dead bodies. Out in the country the females always look prim and proper with their single coloured coats."
"You're not from the city then?" Anelle asked.
He looked wistfully up at the sky. "I thank the fathers before and after that I don't call this or any other city home. There is something beautiful about rolling fields and a crisp uninterrupted blue sky. Something that will always call me home."
Jonnen paused a moment before he took another drag from his cigarette and exhaled smoke from between his lips. She watched him closely. He felt her watching him and matched her gaze.
"Curious about something?" He smiled as he took another drag.
"What street gang are you with?"
He looked puzzled as he tried to decipher her question. Anelle subconsciously touched her neck as she looked at his tattoos.
"You can…? My markings are for religious purposes. I have dedicated my life to the gods. Well some of them."
"And working at a high end brothel is part of that?" She asked with raised eyebrows.
He let out a sharp laugh as he flicked the ash off the end of his cigarette.
"At the moment, yes. The gods don't pay priests in silver. The king does but I am not one of his priests. I have to eat somehow."
"Then what are you, if not a priest of the king's church?"
"There are other ways of serving the lords before and after. I go where I am led by the heavens and right now that is here."
Anelle looked away. His words made it sound as if he was talking about being here in the courtyard with her. His yellow eyes bored into her. He could see through her, like everything she kept hidden was being forcefully dragged to the surface. Anelle shuddered.
"Do the marks have meaning? The way the lines overlap remind me of the Phy symbols Moreal has been teaching." Anelle said, changing the subject.
He looked down at his shoulders, remembering the marks underneath his shirt.
"Phy is an ancient language. The symbols can be broken or joined to create new meanings." Jonnen flicked the stub of his cigarette through the bars and stood. He pulled out his timepiece and stood up. "Enjoy your next seven minutes." He said over his shoulder as he walked back towards the house.