Gerren did not speak again until the noise of the main room had faded behind the shut door.
The chamber was small, close, and warm from the lamp. A single bed stood against the wall beneath the shuttered window. The washbasin still sat untouched where the barwench had left it. Gerren remained by the table for a moment, watching Demis in the lamplight.
"I know you are sharp, Demis," Gerren said at last.
Demis sniffed and kept his eyes lowered. His gaze stayed fixed somewhere near the floorboards between them.
"I know you have already worked out what my true intention is," Gerren continued. "And the reason I want you inside the castle."
That made Demis look up.
His eyes met Gerren's for a moment. He did not answer, but there was no confusion in them.
Gerren gave a small nod, as if that silence were answer enough.
"I trust my instruction has proved useful."
Demis only stared. He shifted his weight once, then went still again.
"If you begin working in the inner ring, you will be watched," Gerren said. "That is unavoidable. But Cerulle will not be able to beat you so easily once you are under other eyes."
Demis's nose twitched once. His mouth tightened, but he still did not speak.
Gerren folded his hands behind his back and took a slow step nearer the table, leaving the boy room to stay where he was.
"Remember what I told you," he said. "I will still need to be able to communicate with you."
This time Demis spoke.
"Yes," he said. "You said it's called a dead drop."
Gerren's mouth shifted faintly.
"Yes."
The room went quiet again for a moment. The lamp flame gave a low crackle from the wall peg. Somewhere beyond the shutter, a cart rattled over stone.
"Remember what we have agreed upon," Gerren said.
Demis nodded once.
"And you still remember what to do?"
Demis sniffed again and nodded.
Ezra arrived in the satellite office of the Press Office ahead of the new boy.
Dynham came with him and took up his place near the door without needing to be told. Galwell had gone to fetch Demis from the outer ring.
The place had once been a storage building. That much was still plain. The walls were bare plank. The ceiling beams sat low and dark with age. A wide front room had been cleared to serve as a receiving area, with a heavy table set near the middle and a few mismatched chairs drawn around it. Along one wall stood shelves that had once held goods and now carried bundled papers, ink jars, and stacks of folded sheets instead. The air still held a trace of old dust beneath the newer smells of ink, wax, and paper.
Ezra stood near the table at first, then took one of the chairs and waited. Dynham remained by the entrance, quiet and watchful. From outside came the dull noise of wagon wheels and the occasional shout from the street. Somewhere further back in the building, someone moved a stack of paper from one room to another.
After a short while, the door opened.
Galwell came in first, broad as ever, ducking his head a little under the lintel out of habit more than need. He had one hand lifted in an easy guiding motion behind him.
Demis stepped in after him.
The boy's eyes moved at once, quickly. Door. Table. Chairs. Shelves. Window. Ezra. Dynham. Then back again. He looked like he was measuring the room before he decided how to stand inside it.
"And there we 'ave it," Galwell said in his usual easy tone. "Don' worry. Lord Ezra won't bite."
He sounded cheerful, as if he were bringing in a guest.
Demis did not seem eased by it. He looked worn thin, as though he had not properly rested in days. Ezra had expected rags, something half-rotten and hanging off the boy in strips. Instead, Demis wore a clean tunic and plain new clothes that sat a little stiffly on him, as if he was not used to them yet. They made the rest of him stand out more.
There were bruises on his face, yellowing at the edges and still dark around the cheekbone. A split at the lip had crusted over. One side of his jaw looked faintly swollen. Ezra's eyes dropped once to the boy's hands. The right one bore old scarring across the back and around two of the knuckles, pale and drawn tight against the skin, as though it had healed badly some time ago.
"Ere' ya go," Galwell said. "You'll sit 'ere, like I said, Lord Ezra's only got some questions. Only one in the lot with a perfect score, ain't that right?"
Demis nodded once at Galwell and sniffed.
His eyes did not settle on Ezra. They stayed on Dynham, who was standing by Ezra.
That pulled at Ezra at once.
Not fear exactly. Not danger. Just enough to catch his attention.
He reached out with his field.
Outwardly, there was nothing remarkable about the boy. No visible reaction beyond the same stillness he had held since entering. But when Ezra's field touched him, Demis gave a small shiver. His eyes remained fixed on Dynham.
Coincidence?
Ezra kept the probe steady.
He had done this enough times now to know the difference between absence and resistance. Void-silk felt empty when his field met it. Empty. Catalyna had felt stranger still. When he reached toward her, it had not felt like emptiness. It had felt as though she simply was not there, as if his field had passed through a gap.
A person with no mana did not feel like either of those things. There was still something there. A presence. A shape his field could settle against. Ezra had asked other people who had tried to probe Catalyna before, but they told him that they didn't feel a difference.
When Ezra pressed a little further, it was as if his field were filling a vessel. For a moment, there was the faintest resistance. Then it gave way and smoothed out.
Ezra frowned.
Mana?
The trace had been small. So small he could have imagined it.
And then it was gone.
Demis had already stopped looking at Dynham. His eyes kept moving around the room again.
Ezra cleared his throat.
Demis glanced at him.
"You are Demis?" Ezra asked. He already knew the answer, but he wanted an easy place to begin.
Demis did not answer aloud. He only nodded.
"Your clothes, they seem new," Ezra said.
"Uh-huh. I bought them. I got to spend my coin now; the innkeeper says that I should buy some if I'm gonna meet the Lord," Demis said, his eyes still wandering around.
"What do you mean by innkeeper?"
"Oh, I rent a room in an inn, with the new coin I earn," Demis said.
Ezra filed that away, but he moved on to another question.
"You got a perfect score on the tests. How did you do it?"
"I studied," Demis said.
But his eyes had already drifted toward the fixtures to Ezra's right. He looked like he was trying not to stare.
"This is the first time I've seen the inner circle," Demis said.
Ezra blinked, then tried to bring the conversation back.
He watched the boy's face and let his field settle again, feeling for any change. He had used the first question only to establish a baseline. But so far, Demis did not feel like someone trying to hide a lie.
"How did you study?" Ezra asked.
"Oh, I asked Raydall what he did," Demis said. "He told me he did the questions on the back of the Fundamentals of Arithmetic book. Words and letters are easy. It's like looking at a picture and having a sound for it."
Demis made a shape with his mouth, then sniffed and scratched the back of his head.
"How long did you study for?"
"Two weeks?"
Ezra stopped himself from staring.
"You learned everything in two weeks?"
Demis shook his head.
"Nope."
Ezra frowned.
"Then how?"
"Raydall, Vendis, and Noren come to the docks sometimes," Demis said. "They bring those books with them and under a gemlamp they go study."
He sniffed.
"I wanted to talk to them, but they said they were busy, so I looked at what they were reading. So I started reading with them. But it wasn't so fun. They got into a competition of who answered the most and who got a better score."
"So you have been doing this with them for a while?"
"Uh-huh."
Demis's gaze had already gone to a shelf beyond Ezra's shoulder.
"You wanted to go to the inner ring, right?"
"Yeah," Demis said. "I want a job. And I want to run away from Cerulle."
His eyes had hardened by the time he looked back.
"Why?"
"He beats me."
Ezra paused.
Dynham and Galwell both went still.
"And you want the castle to help you with this?"
"Uh-huh," Demis nodded. "I don't like being beaten."
Ezra studied him for a moment.
"So you have no connection to Cerulle."
Demis tilted his head.
"Huh? He's my guardian."
"No," Ezra said. "I meant that if he sent you here."
Demis shook his head at once.
"No. I want to run away from him," he said. "In the outer ring, he can find me anywhere I go. I try to hide my stash, but he finds a lot of it."
"Stash?"
"When I work or get coin from others. Cerulle gets all of my share."
This time Demis looked straight at Ezra.
"I got enough coin in the stash that Cerulle doesn't know about. I spent it to get into an inn, and I stayed there for some time. They can't beat me when I'm in there. The innkeeper doesn't like him."
"So you have been using your savings to stay out of his reach."
"Uh-huh," Demis said. "Raydall said that you looked out for children in the outer ring, so I decided to try the exams, 'cause Raydall said he got work in the castle because of it."
He sniffed again and scratched the side of his cheek.
Ezra let that sit for a moment.
"Well," he said at last, "we can't sever your guardianship from Cerulle."
Demis only stared at him.
Demis just stared at him, blankly with dead eyes. It didn't seem to have any disappointment or hope in it; it just was.
"Alright," Demis said and nodded. "But you'll post my name in the administrative buildings, right? If you won't hire me. My name being in the announcements will be enough. I might get someone to buy me off Cerulle if I'm useful enough to them."
Ezra's expression shifted.
Demis scratched the back of his head.
"I don't know why you would call for me, though," he said. "I just thought maybe if my score went up, someone would want me."
Ezra studied him for a beat.
"Your score is impressive," he said. "And yes, it would attract merchants. The Press Office is interested too. But since you never attended the Helio classes, it is harder to vouch for you."
He held the boy's gaze.
"Why didn't you attend? There was free food."
"Cerulle says food doesn't make coin," Demis said. He rubbed his nose. "He'd rather have me find somewhere to make some than go to a gathering that only has commoner children."
Ezra felt something twist in his chest.
There were still too many children in Bren who lived like this.
Demis's attention drifted again, and the room went quiet.
Then, without looking at Ezra, he asked:
"Is this all? Will I be sent to the outer ring again?"
"No," Ezra said. "I told you we can't sever your guardianship. But what we can do is give you a contract that states you will be under the castle's care. That means the castle will provide for your lodging."
Demis's eyes widened.
"You will?"
For the first time, a grin printed cleanly on his face.
He laughed.
A small, disbelieving sound at first, and then a little wider.
"Heheh."
"Alright," Demis said, still grinning.
Ezra almost smiled despite himself.
"Galwell will have the contract drawn up," he said. "Since Cerulle is your guardian, he will need to be there as well."
"I'll make sure he won't bring trouble," Galwell said.