The Courier - Rainy Season

It rained for the last five days.


It was still raining.


Summer was starting as so was the monsoon season, the Prefect for this quarter watched the drenched courtyard through rain streaked glass. Where he once saw servants and servicemen traipsing about there was only the thick, battering rain. This entire quarter shut down when the rains came in this heavily. He glared through the glass at the rain falling in his courtyard, the Prefect ran this building, and through it, the quarter. For all that power though, he had none as long as the storm lasted. No one would venture out into weather like this and risk the roads or swelling wetlands. He was even dreading the late hour when he would need to sort out transportation home.


Perhaps, he thought, it might be possible to order a carriage for the trip, but he would have to bribe an underling to make it happen. Just as he'd had to the last three evenings. He gritted his teeth with the thought of his own pockets being picked by the dogs under him.


It was still raining, and there was someone walking through the courtyard. The Prefect's attention was drawn to his appearance, draped in a long cloak that looked dreadfully familiar. As the figure drew closer a small knot formed in his stomach. The cloak belonged to the neighboring Prefect's office, and he was traveling in the foulest of summer weather. There was no good reason for anyone to do this, and the more he thought about that, the more his stomach churned.


The figure walked with an even, effortless stride through the flooded courtyard and up the wide steps to the Prefect's building. As he knocked on the door the Prefect began wringing his hands unconsciously, and as the doors opened to accept the new arrival he was attempting to recall the favors owed to the office that was calling. Any good prefect would never owe more than he was due, but that doesn't mean he liked having favors called in. Furthermore, he wasn't about to fool himself into thinking a trip in this weather wouldn't be explicitly to call on a favor.