Servant by Matt Stuckey (the ebook reader .txt) 📖

then gave you nothing.

 

Reaching home took over an hour as it always did. As Fulmino entered the door, he braced himself for the expectant faces on the other side of the door.

They looked encouraged that he did not burst in the door with his head dragging the ground or weeping as so many others were doing across the street. They should know better by now not to judge him on what others did or said, because he was nothing like them.

He slowly shook his head in the negative as a sad smile graced his mouth. His father scowled fiercely while his mother left the room and locked herself in her bedroom, crying.

Sol muttered something uncomplimentary and left the room, leaving just Fulmino and his father. His father took the opportunity to start in on him.

“What are you smiling for boy? You think this is funny or something?”

“No Father, I just pride myself in being different from everyone else”.

While Fulmino loved his father, the drink brought out a nasty streak in him. “Oh, think you’re real big don’t you? Well, if you try that high and mighty attitude in the trades they might just decide to kill you instead of rough you up some. First thing I’m gonna do is shave your head. There is no way that a son of mine is going to continue looking like a girl any longer!”

From experience, Fulmino knew that to provoke his father when he was in such a mood was unwise. “Whatever you say father."

“That’s right whatever I say! Who do you think pays for everything around here, your good for nothing self? Working myself into the grave just so my son can be useless!"

He spat on the ground and stormed out.

Though hardened over the years, it still hurt Fulmino whenever his father considered him useless. It was difficult for Fulmino not to point out to his father that it was not like he had ever done anything amazing with his own life.

 

Fulmino never understood people. If they weren’t ignoring you, they sought ways to wound others to feel better about their own lot in life.

The most annoying thing to Fulmino was that his family acted like it was his own fault that he had tested negative; that it was his fault he was different from everyone.

That was the bottom line, fault.

The finger had to be pointed at him, not at those responsible.

Whose fault were his torments at school? The ones who had decided to torment him. Whose fault was it he tested negative? The parents who had combined themselves to make him.

Fulmino sighed as he stretched out on the bed and closed his eyes for sleep.

The only good thing about a sleepless night was that he always slept deep the next. He certainly hoped that was the case, because the longer he lay in the dark, the longer his doubts had to creep up on him.

Was it his fault he never fit in? Was it his fault he tested negatively? Was it his fault that…

The list continued on in his mind until the blackness took him.

 

 

Fulmino awoke the next morning and embraced his washing and dressing routine as usual.

Going down to breakfast, his mother did not look him in the face as she and Sol continued with breakfast. Fulmino ignored them both and ate his oatmeal with little real hunger, then began his long walk to school.

Once again, a long procession of peers walked slowly towards the school in the center of town. The differences to the previous day were very obvious though.

Instead of smiling, excited faces, Fulmino saw a mirror of what his own face had been for years as he approached school.

No talk, little hope for the day, just wanting to get things over with.

It was the best walk to school Fulmino had ever experienced.

 

Also absent were the carriages from the previous day, as were their occupants.

Those selected for the magic school would be celebrating for days to come, then would begin their own testing process at their leisure.

The newly chosen nobles would be celebrating the most, and Fulmino surprised himself by not begrudging them their newly found happiness. Maybe he was just still giddy over the day that everyone else got to feel what he had been feeling every morning for over ten years now.

Fulmino chuckled quietly to himself as he entered the courtyard where most of the testing would take place.

First, the genders were separated.

He did not know what went on with the other group, nor did they have any knowledge of what went on in the boys group. All everyone knew was that within a week a few would be sent to skilled trades, while the majority of boys would be sent to labor trades.

Many of the girls would be married and raise a family instead of become an artisan, because so few were chosen out of either group for skilled work and women were not chosen for labor trades.

 

Masters walked among the boys with representatives from the guilds, making comments and suggestions. Fulmino was eyed with interest by some of the representatives, but they were quickly steered away by the masters.

Obviously, the masters would be fine with him being part of the servant guild. For those not chosen by any of the guilds or if a guilds member was ejected for some reason, they were always snatched up by the servant’s guild.

Slavery had been outlawed long ago for a variety of reasons, but there was little difference between that and the servants guild. Servants were given pitiful wages and were thus also not allowed to marry or raise a family while part of the guild unless they became part of the hierarchy within the guild.

It was rightly considered the lowest rung of society, and no one in their right mind would join up willingly. Even though the other guilds had bad life expectancy, they allowed for a man to marry, raise a family, and live in relative comfort compared to working in the servant guild.

Fulmino shuddered. No, the servant guild would be worse than death, and did not bear thinking about.

As the number of boys around him steadily dwindled Fulmino became increasingly nervous.

Finally, Fulmino spotted Marcus, one of the mine representatives, and let out a sigh of relief. Marcus was a friend of the family, and would not let Fulmino go to the Servant guild.

As if hearing his thoughts, Marcus began to head his way with sure, solid steps. Fulmino sighed. At least the mine would be better than working for next to noth-

 

“You, boy! Come with me” barked a large man with bulging muscles and a hefty scowl.

 

Judging by the man’s appearance, Fulmino assumed him to be from military school. If it was true, then it was certainly surprising.

The military academy was below the magic academy in terms of prestige, but was a much higher position than what could be expected from the mines. While in separate cities, the two academies often held war games to practice for battles where they would be fighting together.

Being a soldier certainly did not make you a noble, but it made you a cut above the rest of the skilled trades and labor guilds, especially if you became an officer. Marcus raised his eyebrows and continued looking at the boys, giving Fulmino a proud nod.

Fulmino joined two other tall boys that were standing beside the scowling man, and gave them nods. They returned them without prejudice, showing themselves to obviously be from somewhere far away. Interesting. As the masters finished up and the last of the boys were rounded up, it appeared there would be none for the servants guild today. Everyone below the age of twenty in the courtyard breathed a sigh of relief, Fulmino included. The large man turned to Fulmino and gruffly said, “Listen to me grub. You have ten minutes to grab gear and say your goodbyes once we reach your house, and no longer. If you keep me waiting one second, I will leave you to take your chances with the servant guild. Am I clear?”

Fulmino managed a nod.

Muscles, as Fulmino decided to call him, narrowed his eyes and said quietly “If we were back in camp, you would have just earned a hefty cuff and extra duty for that nod. When in the academy, you will say yes sir or no sir to every question a superior asks you. Am I clear?”

“Yes sir”, Fulmino replied with little enthusiasm.

Muscles actually smiled “I can see you’re going to have a lot of fun in your first month, grub. Let’s get moving.”

 

As Fulmino approached his home, he entered the door and saw his family sitting at dinner. His father was the first to talk. “I spoke to Marcus just now and he said some nonsense about you being selected by the mili-“

For the first time, Fulmino’s father noticed Muscles looming outside the doorway.

His eyes widened as he looked between Fulmino and muscles. Fulmino’s mother had adopted a disinterested expression, and Sol was the only one who looked pleased about it.

He could hear it now, “That’s right, my brother was taken for military school” would echo through the school corridors for months as Sol attempted to repair his badly damaged prestige.Well, at least someone would get something out of the whole deal.

Looking at his mother’s blank expression, he knew that her lack of interest was because Fulmino’s elevated status did not affect the family like entrance to the magic academy would. Certainly it was something to be proud of, but you couldn’t eat pride off of a golden platter in a gilded mansion.

As it turned out, it only took Fulmino a few minutes to grab what he wanted. As Fulmino left his room, his gaze wandered to his most valuable and prized possession tucked safely away in his knapsack.

It was a dagger that he had received less than a year before for his seventeenth birthday. It had been a strange thing, since his parents usually gave him a nice yet modest present every year during his special day. Sol of course gave him nothing, as Fulmino likewise reciprocated on Sol’s birthday.

Since the Seventeenth birthday signaled the end of childhood, it was typical for parents to get something special for their child as the last gift from parent to child.

Beginning with the 18th year, birthdays were no longer celebrated with gifts but rather were occasions to meet and spend time together.To offer a gift after the 18th birthday was considered a high insult, as it suggested the person in question to be child like in their competency.

Magic families often gave their children a thoroughbred mount, or perhaps land for them to start their own house on for the 17th. Most everyone else settled for a practical gift and did their best to make the day memorable.

A dagger would certainly not be an unusual gift for such an occasion, as it could be used as a tool in a variety of trades and for self protection in a pinch. What startled Fulmino was the beauty of the dagger, and the obvious cost. When Fulmino asked his parents how much it had cost, his mother had said it was a family heirloom and refused to say anything else about it.

Fulmino wondered about that, for he knew both his father and mother to be descended from a long line of tradesmen. Briefly taking the dagger out, Fulmino admired it again in the light coming through a window. The hilt was made of a smooth, white bone that was gentle to the hand yet unyielding as stone and contained beautifully carved animals so lifelike it was astounding. The blade was roughly a foot long, and made of a metal that Fulmino had never seen or heard of before. White as the wood that made up the hilt, the blade was etched with dark sigils and runes that seemed to drink in the light hungrily, making the blade shine bright even in full sunlight.

Fulmino had once tested the blade on everything he could get his