[Content Warning:: physical abuse, indentured servitude]

  The rest of the trip was quiet. The two young men did not talk to each other after revealing their emotions and frustrations.At least they kept it from coming to blows to release those feelings.

  Peter spent most of the remaining time on the trip apologizing to Trigga, and Broseff’s mount, whom he found out was a jhe’nii (with males being a bouck) named Blossom — something, it seemed, that Broseff was expecting to be made fun of for but Peter did not. “It’s a nice name. Really.” Peter had said as genuinely as he could, hands up in surrender/supplication.

  They had trot into the smaller city, Ashton, just two minutes ago (with Peter reminding himself that minutes are one hundred seconds instead of sixty. Odd to him, considering Aetyros was base-12) and Peter was currently tying up the bouva to a post at a water trough while Broseff undid the parcels tied down over their mount’s fnks.The building they were hitched up in front of seemed to be an Inn by the looks of things. A rge, two-story, building with the rooms on the second floor by the way the windows looked to be arranged. The first floor was a rge seating area with the kitchen at the back.It seemed to have stables along both sides for the customer’s animals, pack, draught, or otherwise.

  “Here.” Peter said, grabbing the boxes, “I can carry them.”Broseff looked at his friend, “Are you… Are you sure?” “Yeah.” He smiled, “I can manage it, no problem.” He chuckled, “I can lift a pretty heavy anvil, after all. At least, from how you reacted it was pretty heavy.” “Two-hundred kellogrons, yeah.” He nodded, watching Peter pick up the four not-light boxes with minimal difficulty; just a little futzing about to find a good grip, “Peter are… I mean… we…” “I wasn’t getting mad at you.” Peter whispered, “Though I hate losing my temper. I’m still embarrassed about the whole ‘trial’ thing.” He admitted, “If anything I feel I should be apologizing to you.”As they walked into the Inn, Broseff shook his head, “If it’s about the Godchild thing… I can understand why you’d want to keep that a secret.” “Honestly it was for Enna’s safety, not mine.” He admitted. “You still don’t want to tell me?”Peter shook his head, “For your safety.” “You say it that way I can kinda guess…” Broseff snickered quietly. “It’d be a guess because I’m not saying one way or another.” Peter said, peeking around the boxes to make sure he didn’t trip as he walked up the two steps to the entrance of the Inn, “So back to business. Where do w—…” He stopped as, still peeking around the boxes, he spotted something that he wasn’t sure if he was seeing things or not. Halfway across the seating area, standing facing the wall, arms held over their head, hands pressed against it, was a figure:they were about Enna’s height, and to be honest, thinness too. The more concerning part to Peter was that they were red-faced, eyes scrunched closed and streaming tears, looking like they were trying not to make noise. Worse than that they were bare from the waist down and Peter could see angry and painful-looking dark red stripes all along from their waist down to their mid-thighs that were starting to go purple. “Where do… what?” Broseff asked, having been looking the other way, towards the bar for the owner but not finding them, he swept his eyes across the seating area as Peter had asked his question, “Oh.”The tone told Peter that his traveling companion had finally seen what he had. “Oh.” Peter snorted, fingers flexing and Broseff could hear the wood starting to creak under the godchild’s fingers.Sneaking a peak at Peter’s eyes Broseff saw they were narrowed and, possibly, glowing… but that could be the sun’s reflection or something. “Here, let me take the packages.” Broseff said, moving to block the young person from Peter’s view, going to one of the top boxes, “Why don’t you check on Trigga and Blossom? I won’t take long.” “Broseff.” “Go, Peytr.” Broseff sharply gave a ‘suggestion’, the tone startling Peter and seeming to defte the taller young man.

  “Hey, you two wanna get out of my doorway!” came a gruff voice as a wide, squat man near-waddled over to the two of them, Peter noticed he was carrying a rod about as thick as his thumb, swinging it as he spoke to the two of them, “I have customers you’re blockin’ an’ I don’t mind wallopin’ a couple of no-good box-jockeys.” He stopped, seeing Peter, “Especially dirty half-breeds.” Peter inhaled and Broseff quickly turned before something was said, box in hand, smiling, “Sorry about that, sir. We’re just from the Jhoneston branch of the Adventurer’s Guild.” “Finally. Godsdamn, you idiots are slow. But yer cheaper than the Merchant’s Guild…” He snatched the box from Broseff, who raised an eyebrow at the comment, nearly dropping it due to the weight, “Oof! Fekkin’ watch what yer doin’, nearly made me drop this.” “Right. Sorry.” “Godsdamn right you’re sorry.” The squat man muttered under his breath.Broseff was entirely too aware of the creaking of wood in his left ear, coming from the boxes Peter still carried. “Let me help with the rest, sir.” Broseff said, taking the other boxes from Peter, shooting him a disbelieving look at how seemingly easy he was holding the heavy boxes — Broseff wasn’t having an issue, but the ease at which Peter appeared to hold them tricked him into thinking they were lighter than they were. “You got a problem, half-y?” The squat man snarled at Peter, pointing at him with the thumb-thick stick, he looked over his shoulder and ughed, “You gettin’ your tighties in a twist over that colred trash?” He asked loudly, making the young person wince and Peter’s grip on the boxes shift. Broseff heard the cracking, but the squat man did not.He ughed, brashly, “She’s rightly mine, so unless you wanna buy her offa me, you can’t say or do shit, half-y.” “Is that so?” Peter’s voice was low. “Yea.” The squat man tried to square up to Peter, “It is. So unless you got the coin to buy off her contract, eight years by the way… and a half-y like you don’t look like you can do much but shove around heavy boxes… so you can keep your stupid mouth shut.” “Speaking of cash.” Peter said, smiling as politely as he could, “You have to square away the bill for the Adventurer’s Guild.” He looked over the tops of his sunshades, “You wouldn’t want to get in trouble with the Adventurer’s Guild, or the Merchant’s Guild… would you?”The squat man snarled, pointing his thick stick at the taller, younger man, “Now listen here you dirty half-blooded—” “I’m just thinking of your business.” Peter said innocently, his gentle grin was still polite but did not match the sharpness in his eyes. “It be yer word against mine if you try anything…” “True. But then your veracity will be questioned just enough…” Peter added. “…”Broseff coughed, “I’ll go with him to settle things.” He said, “You go and take care of the bouva, yeah?” “Sure.” Peter said, “Oops!” He said, loudly and clearly, “Watch out!” he called as the boxes slipped from his hands and went straight down onto the squat man’s toes.

  The scream that was let loose as Peter walked out of the Inn was fairly loud and high pitched, Broseff trying his best to quickly move the boxes off the owner’s feet, who was busy screaming obscenities at the retreating Peter calling him every derogatory name he could think of.Several customers got up and left, some even without paying — notably elves and half-elves. “Get back here!” He was yelling, “Godsdamn the lot of ye! I’ll have the town guard on your asses!”

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  Broseff found Peter standing next to Trigga, hugging the beast’s neck and stroking it.Walking up to the young man, the Church guard heard him sigh. “Well. That was something.” Broseff pat Peter’s shoulder, “Come on. Let’s backtrack to the Goblin job. Probably take care of the slimes too.” “How much trouble are we in?” Peter sighed, “Or, rather, am I in?” “Well, I wouldn’t come to this Inn any time soon, if I were you.” Broseff shook his head as he mounted Blossom after unhitching her, “But he’s not going to start trouble, he’d be stupid too.” He shook the Task paper, “I got his signature, we can hit up the Guild here for pay.” “If you’d like.” Peter mounted Trigga, tugging at the reigns.Broseff looked over to Peter, “Something you wanna talk about?” “…” Peter frowned, “Just… me having no f-in’ clue about anything.”Broseff winced, “I’m sorry I said that…” “But it’s the truth.” Peter said, “I purposely came to Aetyros without knowledge, again for what I thought was a safety concern, to hide the fact I was a Godchild.” He expined, “I ended up hamstringing myself.” “There’s more to it, I’m guessing.”Peter gave Broseff a Look, “Broseff. Friend.” He inhaled, “If I am not mistaken… he made that girl… stand in public, bare-ass, after taking that rod he was swinging around at us to her. Humiliating her on top of ‘disciplining’ her.” He paused, “For all I know, he took it to her in front of all those people.” Peter inhaled, “Then to say he owns her? That I can buy her contract off of him?”

  Broseff was quiet.And though it was not a long quiet, it was long enough that Peter got a sinking feeling in his already twisting gut. “Gods Above… Svery is a thing?” Peter asked, hissing angrily.The Church Guard shook his head, “No, no… it’s not… it’s not svery. It’s more… debtor servitude…” “So it’s ‘svery in all but name’. Got it.” Peter gave a thumbs-up, not caring if it was potentially a rude gesture here or not.

  “That… isn’t how it’s supposed to work.” His friend protested.Gripping tighter at Trigga’s reins, Peter heard the leather quietly squeak with his fingerless gloves, “And how, friend, is it supposed to work?!”Broseff sighed, rubbing at his neck as he collected his thoughts. Peter, watching him, frowned a little. He hadn’t noticed it before but Broseff seemed to be wearing … not a neckce, or a torque but a choker of some kind.It was a simple band of metal with a blue stripe painted on it that looked to have a light cloth backing for comfort as well as a shallow loop on the front from which a coin, or something, hung. “It’s supposed to help people get out of debt. You contract for a set amount of time, and during that time your wages are garnished and put towards your debt. In return, the contractor provides … security… to help offset the garnished wages and the contractee’s…” “Signing away their freedom to the contractor?” Peter offered ‘helpfully’, though rather snarkily. “To… put it a certain way…” Broseff muttered, “It’s supposed to help, but like with all things there are people who abuse the system for gain at the expense of others and, yes, it might as well be svery but some find it preferable to starving because you’ll eventually be free, and there’s a contract, and ws, even if with ws come loopholes.” “You load 16 tons, what do you get? Another day older and deeper in debt… St. Peter, don't you call me 'cause I can't go… I owe my soul to the company store…”, Peter sang softly to himself before motioning behind them, half-turning in his saddle, “And the young girl?” He paused, “Again, I’m assuming she was a young human girl. Considering Aetyros has different species…” “No. She… was a human, at the very least half-human.” Broseff nodded, “That is… not how the system should work.” He sighed, “A young one, like her… she’s likely an orphan. Sometimes… when a parent has no other choice… they’ll ‘sell’ their child to the church.” He held up his hands, “Before you say anything it’s not something that just the Church Luminous does. Orphanages are run by all the faiths as children are something… someone that everyone should take care of.” “It takes a vilge to raise a child.” Peter nodded, speaking softly, “Alright, so… how did little miss get into debt bondage then?” “Sometimes … children… slip through the cracks.” Broseff expined, “They… end up… in situations like that. Legal but… distasteful.” “Loopholes, despite ws.” Peter growled.Broseff nodded, “What is supposed to happen with orphans is that once they reach majority age they’re set up into a contract for a small set of years where they are housed by the contractor and taught a craft or trade, while most of what would be a normal wage is split up: some is given back to the orphanage, some to the contractor, paying for the housing and food of the now-aged-out orphan, some is put into a trust, saved up over the orphan’s contract. They are given a small amount of it to start saving up. This is a sliding scale, some get a full half of what would be a normal wage. And once that contract is up they’re given access to that Trust as a lump sum to help start them out as a free adult.” “That sounds more like a paid apprenticeship than anything else.” Peter said. “That’s how it should go.” Broseff nodded, “However, like I said, sometimes children… slip through the cracks. Put into indenturetude ‘early’ just so some worker gets some coins.” “Loopholes.”Broseff nodded, “Legally they’re still people, mind. With svery, they’d be property. So he can’t…” The guard sighed. “Yeah. With property, they’d have no rights. They’re more… a protected second-css citizen by the sounds of things.” Peter mused, “So he can get away with doing that because he’s her contract holder.” “And legal guardian, besides.” Broseff sighed, “It’s as distasteful as any blood retive doing what he did to her. Don’t get me wrong. But unless he’s reported, and there’s evidence of egregious abuse…”Peter’s grip tightened, his jaw too, “So there’s little we can do to help her.” “We could report him… but we don’t know what led to … well… what you saw.” Broseff said, “She could have done something to—” “A child does not deserve that sort of punishment.” Peter snarled, “Even if they were an unholy terror, cursing and breaking things, punching and kicking — taking a rod to a child like that is never deserved.” “I’m not disagreeing, Peytr…” Broseff said, “I’m just saying… we don’t know what happened before we saw what we saw. We’d need evidence of abuse, of illegal actions. Things like that. And we’d need hard evidence, indisputable.” “You have a Goddess of Truth… and a God of Justice and Order…” “And priests, as investigators, of them would be brought in once the governing body saw there was a case. Otherwise, it’s our word against his.” “Godsdamnit.” Peter frowned, “It’s like the only thing I can do is what he said. Buy her contract off him.” “Which is damned expensive. And not something you can do for every child you find in that sort of position.”

  Peter gripped his reins tighter, snapping them lightly and ‘spurring’ Trigga with his heels, shooting forward with a sharp “HAH!” “Peytr! Wait!!” Broseff ‘spurred’ Blossom forward to try and catch the angry Godchild.

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