Flux

you?”
    Miner snorted softly. “When I wasn’t falling unsuitably in love and then trying to murder the Chief.”
    “Well, I wouldn’t have been trusted to fetch milk, not even when I was much older than seven or eight.”
    “The Chief’s son doesn’t need to fetch milk.”
    “No, but some responsibilities would have made me a better man, I think.” Ennek shrugged. “Nothing was ever expected of me.”
    “They made you portmaster. That’s an important job.”
    “That was done to keep me busy. They expected the assistant to do most of the work.”
    “But that wasn’t what happened, was it?” Miner said. Although he hadn't known his lover while Ennek worked at the port, Ennek had told him some stories and Miner had seen the high esteem in which Captain Eodore clearly held him. Miner knew that Ennek had made an excellent portmaster.
    But as usual, Ennek couldn’t see that. “I didn’t do much. Just a few well-placed scary words. And I expect it helped that everyone knew the Chief was my father.”
    Miner decided he didn’t have the energy just then to try to convince his lover of his worth. He changed the subject instead. “Did I ever tell you of my sixteenth birthday?”
    “No.”
    “I had known Eudoxia since we were babies and everyone had always assumed we’d marry someday. At least, she assumed it—we’d play at being husband and wife when we were quite small, and pretend that her kitten was our child—and I didn’t put up an argument. I liked her. She was funny. Always laughing at something, pointing out ridiculous little things. And she was very stubborn as well, so if she’d decided we would wed, there didn’t seem to be much point in putting up a struggle. But when I turned sixteen, my older brother decided that I ought to consider my other options before I tied myself down.”
    “Is this the brother who went to sea?” Ennek asked.
    “No, this was Drevan. He was the oldest of us, and already had two children of his own by then. His wife was very pretty but always in a foul mood, and I suspect he might have been having regrets of his own. So on my birthday he took me to a bar. To my eyes it was very posh, but later I learned it was more gaudy than anything. It catered mainly to members of the Guard and they all hooted and clapped as soon as we entered. It was…a bit overwhelming.” That was an understatement. In fact, Miner had gone beet red and wished very heartily that he could melt into a puddle and sink under the floorboards. But Drevan had steered him to a table and shoved him down into a chair.
    “As soon as we were seated, this…this woman sat next to me. I think she was probably only a few years older than me, really, but she seemed very mature, very adult. She was wearing a very tight dress—green as grass and with the neckline so low she was nearly falling out of it. Her hair was pinned in these elaborate curls and she wore paint on her lips.”
    “She was a whore?” Ennek asked.
    Miner laughed. “She was. Although it took me some time to realize it. I thought she was just…very interested in me.”
    “I’ve never seen a whore. I know there used to be many of them in Praesidium but the Chief, and the Chief before him, had no patience for them. It’s one of the sins my father liked to rail about, one of the great affronts to morality.”
    “In my time, the Chief was more open-minded about it. Actually, he taxed the prostitutes and I’ll wager he considered them an excellent source of income for the polis.”
    Just then, Ennek and Miner came to a small stream. As they usually did under such circumstances, they stopped to quench their thirst. Then they continued down the path.
    “So what happened with this woman?” Ennek asked, shifting the bag on his shoulders.
    “She batted her eyelashes at me and pawed at my hands and told me what a handsome boy I was.”
    “You are.”
    Miner spared him a smile. “And I think she was waiting for me to open negotiations, but I was still far too naïve to see what she was, and in any case I would never have had the wits to proceed. Eventually Drevan grew bored and just said to her, ‘Ten sesteria.’ She looked horribly offended and I nearly choked to death on my ale.
    “‘Twenty,’ she said.”
    “‘Twelve. You’ll be his first. He’ll likely only last a minute or two.’ That made her and everyone within earshot laugh. I could have murdered him. But she nodded and she took my hand and tugged me to my feet. As