Seth tried his door a couple more times, without success. Eventually, he gave up, turning back to the servant.

  "Never mind, I guess I'm ready. One question, though. I've been told that I'm under servant rules, but I don't know what those are. Could you help me out?"

  "Sure. Let's talk while we walk, though. Lots to do, and nowhere near enough hands, you see," she said, and they started walking. "The rules are simple. We must sleep in the servants quarters, are permitted seven hours of sleep per day, and get two meals in the servants mess. When a sect member needs something, we must obey to the best of our ability. We are not to attack others, though may defend ourselves until help arrives, if necessary."

  "Quick question. When you say sect member, do you mean full member, or are initiates included in that?"

  "Only full members, though there are some initiates who would be dangerous to ignore."

  "Why's that?"

  She held his gaze silently for a moment before answering, "Because they will just get a sect member to tell us to do it, and the member will be annoyed. Anyway, not too many of those here, just mind Yiming Li, Johan Thrisbane, and Lilianne of the Ember Vale and you'll have no problems. Anything else?"

  "I'm sorry I didn't ask before, but what's your name? I'm Seth."

  "The name's Amelia. It's a pleasure to meet you. However, it is about time we get to work."

  They had arrived at a small side-street where blood stained the walls. Amelia strolled over to a stone on the corner, and did a small hand gesture over it. The stone glowed, and Amelia reached into it and pulled out a water bucket, soap, brushes, and an assortment of other cleaning materials. The stone had looked ordinary at first glance, but on closer inspection, there was a fine pattern carved into it.

  They spent the next hour cleaning up the mess and talking. Well, Amelia did most of the talking, with Seth asking questions to keep the conversation flowing. As they worked, he expected to feel more and more tired, but he felt relaxed and energized. His back still burned from the whipping, and the exertion threatened to re-open the wounds. In spite of that, for the first time in months, he felt normal.

  Amelia led them from site to site with absolute confidence. He tried to ask how she was getting their next cleaning assignments, but she politely redirected the conversation. She was also careful to never let him directly see the hand signs she made when retrieving the cleaning supplies. He didn't press either issue. Last thing he needed was to make enemies of the people preparing his food and cleaning his clothing.

  Several hours later, the lights in the sky started to dim, and his stomach was fiercely rumbling. He was sure lunch had passed several hours ago, but hadn't raised any complaints. However, he had asked if he would be on cleaning duty with Amelia everyday, and she shook her head. They planned to rotate Seth through areas, to spread the load a bit.

  It was almost completely dark outside when they went to the servant's mess for dinner. The building was a large, plain building with enough tables set up to seat a couple hundred. It was packed, and the buzz of quiet conversation filled the air. Amelia led him to the food, which was a buffet of leftovers from meals earlier that day. There wasn't much left for them to choose from.

  The main item still left was a green, orange, and yellow goop that Amelia told him was called "Cultivation Jelly." He grabbed a large plateful of it, and followed Amelia to a seat that some friends had saved for them. When Seth tried the jelly, he was not expecting a tasteless gloop with a texture between pudding and water. He ate as much as he could, but was full to bursting less than halfway through the plate.

  "Surprised you're not gagging and retching, m'lord," said a deeply tanned man with a deeply bass voice.

  "I ain't a lord, and I've definitely had worse," answered Seth.

  "You say that like you can eat that with a straight face, Tobias," said Amelia, jumping in.

  "Hahaha, true, I prefer my food a bit more...solid. And flavorful," said Tobias with a grin.

  "Eh, this is surprisingly filling," said Seth.

  "Whatever you say, m'lord," said Tobias.

  "Wait, why are you all calling me m'lord?" asked Seth, wondering where people got this impression from.

  "Well, you've been runnin around with some of the little lordlings like Thrisbane and Andirs. Wait, are you..." started Tobias.

  "I'm about as common as they come. Was a homeless beggar, not too long ago," said Seth.

  Amelia jumped in and asked, "You're serious?"

  "Yes."

  "I thought it was strange you didn't complain about tasks..." started Amelia.

  The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

  "Haha, how about talkin to us at all" said Tobias. Turning to Amelia, he asked, "'Member the last one a few years back?"

  "Yes, I do," said Amelia.

  "All of them can't be that bad, can they?" said Seth.

  "Sure, lil lord Andirs isn't bad. Lot smarter than his patriarch, for sure..." started Tobias.

  "Now, now, it's in poor taste to gossip about nobles. Not to mention, potentially bad for our health," said Amelia. "You never know who's listening, after all"

  After an awkward silence fell for a moment, Seth asked, "so, how many shifts of servants rotate through here?"

  "Shifts?" asked Amelia and Tobias at once.

  *Wait, don't tell me...* Seth started having a suspicion about what the answer was going to be, but he had to ask.

  "Wait, you're telling me all the servants here, right now..." Seth started.

  "That's all of us," finished Amelia, with a smile.

  The first week slipped by with a simple rhythm. Wake up two hours earlier than normal to wolf down some breakfast. Work until dinner, dinner, and then work some more. Seth's assigned areas rotated throughout the first week, and included helping in the mess, laundry, and four additional shifts cleaning roads and buildings. Seth was entranced with the magical methods used by the sect. For example, he had expected laundry day to be a miserable day with lots of scrubbing. Instead, they gathered up all the robes in a large room with detailed inscriptions on the ground. While in there, dirt, blood, and other filth floated off of the robes and into another set of detailed inscriptions on the ceiling. As they stood there, filth and grime rose off of Seth's robes and body as well, making him look at the inscriptions in awe.

  "Like it, eh?" asked Tobias, with a grin. He leaned in conspiratorially, and whispered, "It's how we stay clean, round here."

  "I was wondering how I'd get clean. If only I could shave..." said Seth, scratching at his stubble.

  It turned out that Tobias was a senior servant, and in charge of the laundry operation. Not that there was much to do besides carry laundry around and wait. After about thirty minutes, Tobias frowned and muttered, "What's going on..." while making a series of hand symbols to himself. After looking around a minute, he sighed.

  "Bugger all. They ain't maintaining the cleaning formations like they should..."

  "How can you tell?" asked Seth.

  "I know a lil trick that can get me a glimpse of qi. Not nearly as much as someone with qi-forged eyes, but it has its uses."

  "Could you show me the trick?" asked Seth.

  "No. That would put pressure on the karmic seal, and they'd kill me for the inconvenience," said Tobias, the smile gone from his face.

  "Sorry for asking," said Seth.

  "Too bad all us are hard working, and dilli...dilli...careful about keeping secrets. No lazy bastards among us at all..." The playful grin was back, as if it had never left.

  They did ten more loads of laundry that day, and every time Tobias checked to see if there was degradation in the formation. By the fourth time, Seth had copied the hand motions. By the seventh, he had figured out that he needed to actively put qi in his eyes, and then he started to see results. The view was hazy at best, and only lasted a couple seconds, but was better than nothing. He didn't understand why the hand gestures were necessary, though he had some working theories. He hoped he could leave them off eventually.

  Ten days into Seth's punishment, he was out with Yijin, a surly older man with as little patience for small talk as he had hair. That suited Seth just fine, as he was used to the tasks by now, so they worked in a comfortable silence. They were just wrapping up when Yijin turned to him.

  "Put away the cleaning supplies while I finish up here," Yijin said.

  Seth's ears perked up. Most people had been secretive about how to access the cleaning supplies. He had been trying to learn, but had no success so far. Perhaps his luck was turning around.

  "Sorry, but nobody showed me how to do that," said Seth.

  "Wha?" Yijin huffed, then walked over to Seth, "Nobody's shown you yet, new guy? I'm only going to show this once," He then performed a series of hand contortions that were more painful than challenging. To Seth's surprise, this technique didn't rely on qi. It was more of a physical password, with hand positions instead of letters and numbers.

  As Seth was putting stuff away, Amelia was passing through and saw Seth putting the cleaning supplies away. She looked shocked, then hurried over to Yijin.

  "Why is he putting the supplies away?" asked Amelia, neither yelling nor trying to be quiet.

  "There a problem? He's the new guy," asked Yijin, confusion on his face.

  "We're not supposed to help initiates, even if they are on punishment detail."

  "...he's on punishment detail? He doesn't act like the rest of these little lords..." Yijin said.

  "I know. Still, the last thing we need is the formation master breathing down our necks!"

  Seth had finished putting away the rest of the cleaning supplies, and went over to them. Looking them both over, he gave a respectful bow to Yijin before talking.

  "I'm sorry if I caused you trouble, Yijin," Seth said.

  "Hah, you should be sorry," said Yijin with a laugh, "how's anyone supposed to know you're being punished if you don't act punished?"

  "How am I supposed to act then?"

  "How all those things act. Like we should be grateful we can breathe the same air. Right ?" he asked, throwing a glance at Amelia.

  Amelia sighed, and shook her head before responding, "How have you not gotten yourself killed yet? Also, Seth isn't a noble."

  The silence stretched on, letting Seth jump in, "I get the feeling that being on punishment detail is weird if I'm not a noble. Why?"

  "Because commoners tend to be executed," said Yijin. "How are you here?"

  Seth wasn't sure, but the memory of that elder talking about karmic seals floated to mind.

  "Something about too much stress on the karmic seal," said Seth. "whatever a karmic seal is."

  "It means," said Yijin, "That one of those things is playing dangerous games."

  "And those games are causing problems for the karmic seal. No wonder the formations have been in rough shape the last few weeks," said Amelia, a worried look crossing her face.

  "Speaking of things..." said Yijin, in a whisper, pointing behind Seth.

  When he turned around, he saw Therus. He was relieved that his friend looked well, if tense. They stood there in an awkward silence, partly because Seth wasn't allowed to speak unless spoken to first. One of the rules that Amelia had forgotten to mention on day one.

  "Why aren't you saying anything?" asked Therus.

  "Because it's against the rules for servants to talk with initiates and disciples unless spoken to first," said Seth.

  "I wasn't made aware of that rule," said Therus. After Seth didn't reply, he asked, "were you?"

  "Not until last week."

  "Can we meet in the library when your punishment is over?"

  "I look forward to it," said Seth, a genuine smile crossing his face.

  "We have lots of work to do still, Seth," said Yijin, looking at both of them.

  "Thank you. I'll see you in a few days," said Therus, before leaving.

  Seth said to himself, plans racing through his mind.