The next day Ezra talked to Hugo.
"How did the interview go, Lord Ezra?"
"It went well."
"But I don't want him to have jobs in the castle yet. We need to observe him for now."
Hugo nodded.
"We don't know if Cerulle or anyone else is behind him yet."
"So where will he be stationed?"
"Anywhere outside that makes sense," Ezra said.
"He won't be coming to the classes after?"
Ezra contemplated. "Yeah, he will. I mean, at least in the afternoons. We can just see him sit still inside the classes."
---
Raydall saw a hulking mass of shadow enter the dining hall. Beside it, there was a much smaller shadow that stretched long across the floor. The door creaked open.
He saw Demis smiling and laughing at Galwell's jokes as he entered the castle's dining hall.
"Hey, Raydall," Demis blurted out as soon as he saw his friends. "Vendis, Noren. You're here too?"
"Of course. Didn't you know that already?"
"I mean... I thought I wouldn't get to see you."
"What?"
"Master Hugo didn't really tell me much. He just told me that I would start bringing messages from the inner ring to the administrative offices. Then he told me that I would get to go inside the castle. Hehe."
Demis chuckled. "I thought I was going to have a meeting with Lord Ezra, just me and him."
"Nu-uh, didn't I tell you that we had these meetings every day after we had done our work for the day?" Vendis said.
"You didn't tell me that was during the afternoons. Besides, I thought you meant that you did these during the night or something. Also I didn't think that I would be included here." Demis sniffed again.
"Lord Ezra told me that you had a perfect score for the exam," Raydall said, "and you said you didn't wanna see who had a higher score when we were at the docks."
Raydall frowned.
"Cause it was boring. Hehe." Demis laughed. "I told you I would beat all of you."
"It's no fair," Raydall said.
"Hey, I studied too, you know," Demis said.
"Well, at least you get to be here."
Demis nodded. "Sir Galwell showed me where I would be sleeping yesterday. It's in the northern market."
"Really?"
"Uh-huh, near the maecellum. It's a bookstore that the Ironbales own," Demis said, and then he sniffed.
Demis then stopped and stared slightly.
"What is it?"
"It's just..." Demis blurted out.
"Just what? Spit it out," Vendis said.
"They were just so nice to me," Demis said. "They even gave me some soft bread. Hehe."
"Yeah, we eat a lot of those every morning," Raydall boasted.
"You are so noisy. Can you quiet down?" Justus said.
"Huh," Demis said. "Who is that?"
"That's Justus. He's one of our uh... what did Lord Ezra call it?" Raydall tilted his eyes in thought. "Yeah, he is one of our classmates. He's also the son of the Chief Steward of the Master of Rolls."
"I don't like him. He looks... like he could get beaten up badly in the tenements," Demis said, eyeing Justus.
"I heard that," Justus shouted.
"Can I smack him?" Demis asked.
"Don't! Are you crazy?"
"I was just asking." Demis snickered.
"Oi, you boys now b'have, aight?" Galwell's booming voice echoed.
Everyone shuddered.
Demis gave Justus a menacing grin.
Justus didn't back down and glared at him.
Galwell's heavy step crossed the floor. He stopped at the end of the table and planted one broad hand on the back of an empty chair.
"Sit," he said.
The boys obeyed at once.
Demis dropped onto the bench beside Raydall, though he kept his shoulder turned a little toward the room. Justus sat across from them with his back straight and his mouth pressed into a thin line. He still looked irritated, but he had not looked away from Demis once.
Servants came through the hall carrying bowls and bread trays. The smell of broth and roast onions spread ahead of them. A woman with her sleeves rolled to the elbow set down a pot near the boys, then another servant followed with a basket of soft bread and a dish of butter.
Demis stared at the bread for half a beat.
Raydall noticed.
"Go on," he said. "Take one. Nobody's gonna stab your hand for it."
Demis looked at him, then at the servants, then back at the bread. He took one slowly, as if he still expected someone to object.
Vendis had already reached for two.
Justus clicked his tongue. "You should wait until everyone is served."
Demis paused with one loaf halfway to his lap.
"Don't tell me what to do. I'm gonna beat you."
"You can't beat me here. This is the castle. Also, you should wait because that is how meals are done," Justus said.
"You should mind your manners here," Justus continued.
"What is here?" Demis said in a challenging tone.
Raydall spoke in an explanatory tone. "'Here' is everywhere that the nobles eat. Anywhere the nobles can see you. Besides, it's like grammar or math."
"What? What do you mean?" Demis asked.
Raydall shook his head. "Lord Ezra says that rules are there for a reason. It's so that everything can be set in order and that everything should line up in place."
"Huh?"
"Uhh, it's hard to explain."
Noren cut in. "What Raydall means is that rules are there so that everything is fair."
Raydall tilted his head.
"Fair for what?"
"For everyone," Noren said.
"Then who makes up these rules? Isn't it just people who get to beat other people?"
"Nu-uh," Raydall said. "Not all the time. Sometimes it's just how it is."
Surprisingly, Justus added to the conversation, "Yes, for example. How things fall. That's a rule."
Demis stopped for a beat and actually thought that through. "But... that's just the way things are."
"Yes, but that doesn't mean it isn't a rule."
Demis then stopped and contemplated seriously. "Well, uhh... that's true for how things do certain things. It isn't true for people!" Demis complained. "People just tell other people what to do."
"Uhh, think of it this way. There are certain things that stuff just tends towards," Justus said. "Rules don't really mean it's impossible to go against. Some stuff just does what it does because of rules. But there are rules that can be broken. And if those rules are broken, it just makes everything a mess."
Demis tilted his head for a beat in silence. "Still... I think some rules are just given by other people to make their life hard."
Justus snorted. "If there weren't rules, everyone's life would be hard."
"Well, rules just make some people's lives hard and others easy," Demis retorted.
The table fell quiet after that. Demis went back to his bread with a faint frown still on his face, while Justus sat stiff-backed across from him, looking like he had more to say but thought better of it. Raydall looked between the two of them and kept eating. Around them, the noise of the hall carried on as servants moved between the benches with more bowls and bread.
By the time the last of the meal was cleared, Galwell rounded them up.
"Aight, boys, let's go to the Press Office now," Galwell's voice boomed.
They entered Ezra's office chambers in file. Hugo motioned to everyone to get in.
Demis looked bewildered for a few seconds. He stood by the door as everyone took their seat.
"Come on," Raydall beckoned to Demis.
But Demis didn't follow. He looked around the room again and looked at the other children going to their seats.
The room was smaller than the dining hall and quieter. Shelves lined one wall, stacked with bound folios, loose paper, and jars of ink. A wide table stood at the front beneath the window, while several desks and benches had been set out in rows facing it. The afternoon light came in pale through the shutters and fell across the floorboards in narrow bars.
"Alright, everyone," Ezra said. "We won't be doing much today. Consider it a rest day."
Everyone screamed with delight. Ezra snickered. "But now, instead of the odd numbers assignment for the math assignment, you get to do all of them."
Everyone then groaned.
Demis, however, just tilted his head and stared at Ezra.
"I see you have met Demis," Ezra said.
The class nodded.
Demis looked startled to hear his own name.
"Come, stand here." Ezra gestured for him to come.
Demis looked at Galwell, but Galwell just coaxed him to come and stand in the room.
"I'm going to formally introduce him to the class," Ezra said. "Some of you already know him. This is Demis. He got a perfect score in the aptitude exam."
There was a hush. Some mouths hung open. Justus's face scrunched, like it was asking how in the world Demis did that.
"Introduce yourself," Ezra said. "Go on."
Demis looked at Ezra and tilted his head. "You are short for a noble."
Everyone's expression changed.
Raydall palmed his face.
But Ezra met Demis's gaze and replied, "Well, I'm just four and a few months old."
Demis just tilted his head again and nodded, then he faced the class and sniffed.
"Hello, I'm Demis." He stopped, looked at Galwell, who met him with a smile, but he gestured him toward Ezra.
Demis then turned and looked at Ezra.
"You should tell us what you like and don't like."
Demis nodded.
"I like... uhh making coin."
Everyone smiled.
"And uhh, I don't like getting beaten."
Everyone then laughed at that.
Noren, out of character, blurted out, "No one likes getting beaten."
Raydall noticed that Ezra's expression grew solemn, so Raydall stopped laughing.
Ezra then motioned for everyone to stop laughing. "Alright, you can read anything you want for the rest of the afternoon. Let's just try to make friends with Demis."
Everyone nodded.
Everyone else crowded around Demis and asked him questions. Demis looked uneasy in the spotlight.
Justus stared at Demis. He was next to Raydall when he opened his mouth.
"He doesn't look like he would ever top any exam, doesn't he?" Raydall blurted out, slightly chuckling.
Justus didn't answer. "You're friends with him, and you say that?"
"Didn't Lord Ezra tell us to be honest?"
Justus nodded. "You know, when I first met you in the Helio classes, that's what I thought about you too."
Raydall scratched his cheek.
"My father always tells me that I was born blessed because the Kanzlei gets to serve the nobles," Justus said.
"He says that nobles are high and mighty. They look better, are stronger, faster, smarter, better in every single way. That is why we must learn from them." Justus smacked his lips. "The Aufstiegfrieden is the proof that there is a place where everyone is with respect to others."
Raydall tilted his head.
"I've met plenty of nobles. The Knights, for example," Justus said. "They are just high above what we can do."
Raydall shook his head. "I haven't met too many."
"Most of them just look at us like we don't matter," Justus said.
Raydall didn't know how to react to that.
"There are exceptions," Justus said. "The Lord and Lady don't seem to think that way."
Raydall stared at Justus. He didn't know what to say.
"Although the Lord and Lady think more of us as something to take care of, though." Justus tilted his head, trying to contemplate it.
"Most of the nobles outside Fulmen, I think, think this way. I've seen some when they go and meet with father."
"But Lord Ezra is really different."
"Huh, what do you mean?"
"Maybe it's because he's just young. I don't know, but I feel he treats us somehow differently."
"What are you saying? He doesn't treat us any differently from how he treats others!" Raydall said, tone defensive.
"That's what I mean," Justus said. "Unlike other nobles, who either look toward commoners as something to defend or something like dirt, Lord Ezra treats us like we are... uhh... the same?"
"Ahh," Raydall said.
Justus and Raydall stayed silent for a while.
"I've been getting into fights with him lately," Justus then opened his mouth.
"Huh?"
"My father. He doesn't want me to come here anymore. Even though I make a lot more coin than the other clerks in my kin."
"What? Why?" Raydall said.
"He says that I shouldn't be mingling with you." Justus now looked Raydall directly in the eye.
"Me?"
"No, I meant all of the children from the outer ring."
"Why?" Raydall asked.
Justus shrugged. "I don't exactly know. He keeps making reasons about birthright, and it's against customs that have been set."
"You know, Demis wasn't entirely wrong. People set rules for other people," Justus said. "But you know, through our classes, I figured out that some rules are there so that they can be tested. If they are tested and something breaks because of it, then it works."
Raydall nodded.
"But you know, the rules say that people from the outer ring can't come into the castle."
Justus paused. "Whoever tested that."
Raydall scratched his head.
"I wanted to be here. Not for the coin. I've never been hungry in my life," Justus said, then he looked at Raydall. "But you have, and I thought just because someone gets hungry sometimes shouldn't mean that they shouldn't be allowed to get inside the castle, right?"
Raydall scrunched his brows.
"You know how I got to persuade my father that I should come?"
Raydall shook his head.
Justus looked at the floorboards for a moment, then back at Raydall.
"I asked him whether something being written in the rolls made it right, or only lawful."
Raydall frowned. "What did he say?"
"He said that if things weren't written and kept properly, then nothing would hold together. He said law is what keeps men from tearing each other apart."
Raydall scratched his cheek. "That sounds right."
"It does," Justus said. "So then I asked him something else."
"What?"
"If birth shows what a person is likely fit for, what do you do with the ones that don't fit where they were born?"
Raydall blinked.
Justus went on before he could answer.
"He asked me what I meant. I said if a commoner boy learns faster than a clerk's son, or if someone from the outer ring can do sums better than someone raised in the inner ring, does the custom still matter more than the use?"
Raydall stared at him.
"What did your father say?"
Justus gave a small shrug. "He said exceptions don't change the rule."
Raydall nodded slowly. That sounded like the sort of thing older men said when they wanted something to stay where it was.
"So I asked him one more thing," Justus said.
Raydall tilted his head.
"I asked whether fairness meant giving everyone the same place, or giving each person the place they were actually fit for."
Raydall's brows scrunched.
Justus looked toward the other children gathered around Demis, then lowered his voice.
"And then I asked him if a rule keeps out someone useful, does that make the order stronger, or does it just make it smaller?"
Raydall was quiet.
"He didn't answer that?" he asked.
"Oh, he did," Justus said. "Just not quickly."
Raydall let out a small breath through his nose.
Justus rubbed his thumb against the edge of the bench.
"He told me customs exist because if people start pulling at them, everything starts shifting at once. He said most boys don't understand that when they ask to be the exception."
"And what did you say?" Raydall asked.
Justus met his eyes.
"I said Lord Ezra's classes taught me that some things should be tested. Because if a thing breaks when tested, then it was only being held up by people agreeing not to touch it."
Raydall stared at him for a second.
Then he looked away toward Demis, who was still answering questions with the same guarded look he wore when too many people stood close.
"And then?"
Justus pressed his lips together, almost like he regretted saying it.
"And then I told father that if the castle had let me sit in a room with boys from the outer ring, and the walls had not fallen, then perhaps the custom was weaker than he thought."
Raydall barked out a laugh before he could stop himself.
Justus looked offended for half a beat, then gave a small snort.
"He was angry," Justus said. "But he let me come back."
Raydall stared at Justus. While they had their differences, he felt like he understood him a little better now.