The filing is complete beneath the Aqua Claudia. The plebeian clerk closes his records chest, while the thinning crowd leaves behind damp stone, cart-ruts, and the thunder of water.
Nestor
Receipt copied: date, fee, witnesses, seals, and the archive’s custody. Our original remains at home, beyond any clerk’s convenient replacement.
Nestor presses his stylus into a private wax tablet and checks each line against the sealed receipt. Aurelia watches the roadway, where petitioners and porters still pass beneath the arches.
Aurelia
Sanctuary can shield us from violence, but invoking it may announce that someone wishes us harm. Protection is never invisible in Rome.
The Clerk
The archive does not summon patrons. It preserves what was agreed. If challenged, bring the receipt before the temple officials and demand the copy be read aloud.
Nestor
A public record restrains honest men. It also tells clever men exactly where to press.
The clerk locks the chest and bows to Aurelia, Nestor, and Valeria. The family remains together beneath the aqueduct, with Castor and Pollux safely behind at home, and the next boundary theirs to set.
“"Out money is now as secure as the law can make it. We need only await the result of the first bout. As much as I like to spend time with my family, I think it would wiser to engage Marcus Flavius in some practice bouts at the gladiator school."”
SUCCESS (Great Melee Combat, rolled -2)
By afternoon, Valeria reaches the gladiator school with her contract secured at home. The yard smells of dust, sweat, and oiled leather as Marcus Flavius waits beside the practice rail.
Marcus Flavius
Good. Paper protects a purse. It does not protect your ribs. Take up the sword.
Marcus circles first, testing her guard with measured strikes. Valeria answers each attack and drives him backward across the packed yard, forcing him to abandon his usual leisurely instruction.
Marcus Flavius
There is the weakness. You reach when you think you have won. The crowd will notice, and a serious opponent will punish it.
They reset and fight again. Valeria adapts, keeps her distance, and finishes the bout with her wooden blade at Marcus’s shoulder. The victory costs her a split knuckle beneath the glove.
Marcus Flavius
Two bouts, and you have earned tomorrow’s bruises. Wash that hand. No coin spent, no contract broken, and one dangerous habit exposed.
Marcus wraps the injured knuckle with a strip of linen from the school stores. The first practice is complete, and Valeria leaves with her fighting rhythm sharpened before the exhibition begins.
✓ Quest Accepted
Tell my family about the practice injury
+ New Item Acquired
Linen bandage
“Returning home, there is no way to hide the bandaged hand. "No worries," she says, "I took a scratch on my shield hand. No one will even notice."”
SUCCESS (Legendary Oratory, rolled +0)
By dusk, Valeria returns to the Asiaticus house. The bandage around her shield hand is plain beneath her sleeve, and Aurelia notices it before the door is fully closed.
Valeria Asiaticus
No worries. I took a scratch on my shield hand. No one will even notice.
Aurelia
Everyone in this house notices everything, especially when you tell us not to worry.
Aurelia takes Valeria’s wrist gently and examines the linen. The dressing is clean, the fingers move freely, and no blood has seeped through.
Nestor
A scratch, then, if Marcus Flavius wrapped it properly. Keep it dry tonight, and it will cost the household nothing.
Castor and Pollux
Did you win? Did Marcus say you were ready? Can you still hold a sword tomorrow?
Aurelia
Sit and eat before answering them. The hand is minor, and the contract remains untouched. That is enough victory for this evening.
Quest Complete
Tell my family about the practice injury