Page 44 of The Scent of the Ideal

“You don’t buy the wine on your nameday.” Katoh sniffed haughtily, then refocused. “Can I get paid to beat up first-years?”

Rafi didn’t beat them up. Well, he did, but gentler than he could have. “Ask Instructor Guen.”

“Tomorrow,” Katoh decided aloud, as though she had ever felt enthusiastic about anything the morning after a night of merriment. “Oh. Did you want to see a play?”

She didn’t smirk or wink or in any way imply Rafi was longing to see Viau.

Rafi looked away despite that. “No.” Viau would want him to have fun, certainly, but Rafi shouldn’t want to see him so badly. It was good to wait. “The drinks will be treat enough.” He rarely went to the capital, usually saving what money he had for other things. If he continued his work with the first-and-second years, he might save enough to get a quality shirt made before he began to seek a placement.

That was reaching, he told himself and the disapproving court favorite in his mind who would want him to reach for more. Rafi was knowingly trying and dreaming of what might be, even if that was only some wine and new, or at least repaired, boots. That was more than he would have dared a few months ago, and he was lighter for it. He would make his own nameday, and possibly make something of himself, and his friends were far better than a note from home about near strangers.

He pulled Katoh to him and wrapped an arm around her shoulders. “Thank you.”

The stutter in her breathing as much as the fizzle of her aer told him how surprised she was. But she allowed the hug to continue, calling over to her sweetheart in a very pleased tone. “It’s Rafi’s nameday! We’re going to get him drunk!”

Rafi was too warm to protest. Happy, some might have said.

Chapter Fourteen

The feeling stayed with him through the day, and then through the walk into the center of the capital from the outskirts and the academy walls. To save money, they ate an evening meal before they left, but got toasted almonds from a street vendor to share among Rafi, Laure, Katoh, Cambray, and several of Cambray’s friends and younger students who took any chance they could get to visit a wine shop.

Some of the group drifted away once they moved from the shop that served mid-tier merchants and business owners to a louder and cheaper pub. The wine tasted the same to Rafi’s tongue despite the lower price, but Laure assured him that was normal, that his father had told him that after the first glass, most people couldn’t tell the difference.

The pub was the kind frequented by students and even some lower-ranking nobles. Probably more unwanted, unnecessary children, but with money and a great deal of free time.

Rafi had assumed the place would be noisy and full of hotheaded idiots looking to fuck or duel, and he wasn’t wrong, although Laure was so steady in nature, and Katoh so uninterested in fighting that if anyone had attempted to start an argument with them, it had failed.

Rafi was quiet even with drink in him, and a nex, and he had long suspected that no one bothered to duel with nex because no one thought they were of enough importance to make it worth the risk to life or honor.

Nonetheless, they all wore swords, spada, as was expected in the capital, for status and supposedly to warn away thieves. Rafi thought having swords so readily available encouraged more dueling, but maybe… maybe nobles wanted that; a passive way to reduce their numbers and all the hot-tempered youths without any current wars to spend them on.

Rafi didn’t recall being this cynical the last time he’d gotten drunk in the capital. Which might have been his last nameday, or when Katoh’s mother had visited and taken them to an inn where they’d eaten in a private room.

“I’m being too serious,” he informed Katoh, which was easy to do since he was leaning on her shoulder.

She patted his head. “That just means you need more.”

Laure evidently took that as an order, because he got up and returned shortly afterward with a new bottle. Katoh gave him a peck on the lips for it. Rafi politely turned away to allow them their moment.

He must have also sighed, although he was nearly certain he hadn’t, because Laure said, “You know, there are pubs closer to the river where the theaters are. People visit the pubs before and after the plays. Sometimes during if the plays aren’t good.”

“Ooh, all the actors go there too. My mother says actors are a step above courtesans but get paid less. They really are always so pretty, though.” Katoh pulled away from Rafi to study him and then awkwardly smooth down his curls. “You’re pretty too. Don’t be sad. We can walk.”

“What?” Rafi looked from her to Laure, but Laure was already standing up. “Are we leaving? The river? That’s a long walk for….” Even with the room spinning, he didn’t want to say what for. Who for. “We don’t have to. It’s probably a fool’s errand.”

“The cooler air will be nice,” Katoh returned, taking Rafi’s arm so he’d rise with her. “And it will be an adventure of the mildest kind. A quest, like something from an old poem.”

“They’re always questing in the name of love in those poems,” Laure affirmed, grabbing the bottle to take with them.

“Two souls so alike they should not have been parted,” Rafi quoted through lips that were slightly numb, “afraid and alone, left to die broken-hearted.” The line was originally from a play, or so Viau had said. It was spoken by the chorus. But then a poet had used it in a poem to make a statement. Viau had also said that poem wasn’t particularly good, but at least Rafi had understood the words.

“Exactly!” Katoh waved across the room and then walked Rafi outside. Cambray tumbled out the entrance after them, along with several other people, some Rafi recognized, some he didn’t. They might have been Trianon students but he wasn’t sure.

Cambray didn’t even ask where they were going. Rafi wanted to pet him for it, despite his burnt-toast scent. Not how Viau petted Rafi, but similar enough. Cambray would go where they went without hesitation. That was loyalty. Rafi didn’t know what they’d done to earn it, but Cambray should get petted anyway. Fortunately, Cambray would probably find that in someone’s bed before the evening was over so Rafi didn’t actually do it.

The streets were full of people, for it was a lovely night to be outside when houses were still warm from a day of summer sun. They emptied the bottle slowly as they walked, and stopped to pet a dog, and to allow Laure to buy a flower for Katoh, who put it behind her ear, and listened to Cambray’s new friends ask where they were going, and Cambray answer that they were going to find Rafi’s sweetheart.

Katoh’s laugh was as silvery as the moon. Laure laughed too, but at Rafi’s little growl and then shocked gasp as Rafi realized he’d growled.