Heartbeats Amid Fire

5 - Routine

"Good morning, Mr. Albert. Shall I get you the usual?"

"Yes, please. Oh, but a little more sugar in my coffee today, if you don't mind," he answered, the wrinkles in his face getting deeper as his smile widened. He took a seat at one of the tables and spread open the thin newspaper he had with him – it was supplied by a postal service that came from the province's main office but was usually a day late.

"Of course," I answered and began to prepare the vegetable and chicken sandwich along with a hot pot of fresh coffee.

After serving him his breakfast, I got back to my book and read until Mr. Albert left. The café was usually empty until the afternoon at least so I had free time until then. Post some reading, I cleaned the dishes I had used to cook this morning and chopped some vegetables that I would use to prepare the dishes for the afternoon.

The usual crowd that came in during the afternoon tumbled in soon and were served their meals as cheerfully as usual. Mr. Albert was one of them, and so was Mr. Waldo. The latter came in with Kian and though he only wished to make his Zero starve like every other day he thought the lowly creature didn't deserve a meal because he hadn't worked hard enough on the field, I insisted on giving him food in the name that he would be even more unproductive on an empty stomach. Mr. Waldo agreed to that, though insisted that I served him only leftovers. I had agreed but gave him a good meal every day after seating him in the store room where he wouldn't be visible to scrutinizing eyes.

Kian spoke very little, or perhaps it was apt to say that he didn't speak at all except for a word of gratitude whenever he was given his meal. He seemed hesitant even to meet my eyes, though there was undeniable curiosity in his gaze when he did look to me...that soon seemed to be accompanied by gratitude as the days passed.

As I had guessed when I first saw him, he was only a year older than me – twenty years – and had been a slave all his life. He was covered in scars from abuse, most of which were visible on his arms and legs, and I could only imagine how many more he had under his clothes. Lyle had told me that Kian had served a noble in a neighboring town, a man who governed the province that included Amzell, and he had been even more abusive than Mr. Waldo – more so because the latter was old and had not much strength to abuse too violently. As such, Kian was rather happy serving Mr. Waldo and never thought much of the insults and abuse he had to put up with every day.

No matter how his past had been, I still felt bad that he was being treated so poorly even now.

I suppose Kian had been much luckier than Lyle though. Lyle had served at a pleasure house before he was thrown away here to Amzell because he fell ill and became weak and useless to the pleasure house. What's worse was that he had to serve both men and women alike, and it had been nothing short of horrendous for him. Just imagining such a life had me shuddering in disgust, it was no surprise that Lyle had nearly had a panic attack as he recalled his past when he spoke of it to me.

It was rather surprising to me that he had spoken of his life to me but he had confessed that he found me as pleasant company, a person he had come to trust, and one of the very few he was blessed to have known since he came to Amzell. The others were Arran and Mr. Luther – it seemed that I wasn't the only one who thought that the way Zeros were treated was unfair. The two of them had always treated Lyle like family, or as close to it as they possibly could when not under the scrutiny of the others of the town. Lyle was so grateful that he served them and not anyone else in the town, and was glad that he was friends with me.

His gratitude and honesty with me had left me a little awkward but happy. It had made me see Arran and Mr. Luther in a new light too, and I was glad that I had become good friends with him.