Boissons Après Les Repas

“Sir?” the young serving girl, dressed in a blue uniform that was clearly related to that of the Currielle military, held a tray of mixed drinks.

Noah wasn’t tipsy, yet, but the fizzy drinks were dangerously easy to gulp down and he told himself to go easy, especially on the clear ones that had a strange hint of a minty apple taste. They didn’t have carbonation here, as far as Noah knew, so it was a minor mystery to him how this drink was crafted. Was champagne carbonated, or were those bubbles different? That did not seem possible, it was available for a long time before carbonation, surely. As he smiled and took another glass he made a mental note - instantly forgotten - to check out how carbonated drinks came about on his earth and whether champagne counted.

Captain Amaruq was standing several paces away, she had been snatched up by a pair of her fellow captains as well as one of the merchants and they were deep in conversation. From the what Noah had heard before he wandered away, it was nominally about the lizardkin attack but primarily about the notion of the Duchy expanding northward down the river.

He was not alone with his drink for long, as a pair of men theatrically sidled up. The shorter one, darker of complexion than most, his hair a swirl of elaborate shapes held in place with decorative combs, gave a toothy smile. His broad chest was bare beneath a brightly coloured jacket and unbuttoned silk undershirt, to demonstrate his muscled torso.

“Ahoy, steward!” He gave Noah a sly wink, which struck Noah as odd at best. “I am called Naoro, first paramour at the Gentle Man’s House. This clapped out wreck is Sebastian, he once did honest work with us but has since taken up with a merchant as her kept boy. The horror!”

Sebastian was pale and well dressed, his pinched features softened with what seemed to Noah to be a heavy hand with concealing makeup. He gave a wry chuckle at the introduction, but his eyes had the tightness of a man who either did not find the joke funny or had heard it too many times.

“Well, hello,” Noah gave then a shallow nod and a genuine smile. It never hurt to be polite, and Noah was certainly happy to talk to some men somewhat close to his age.

“How are you finding our little town?” Naoro’s grin never faded, even as he nodded a hello to a soldier who walked past him and gave his elbow a touch of greeting.

“It’s very interesting,” Noah replied, “I noticed the ruined bridges and the fallen towers on the other shore, I may want to go take a closer look. And the town itself is quite fascinating, not much larger than Anglet but it somehow feels like a proper city.”

The ambivalent look on Sebastian’s face soured as he muttered, “Hmph, Anglet is normally where the drifters and cheap whores end up. Downward mobility, for most in the North, flows downriver as well.”

Naoro gave an hearty chuckle, “Oh behave. Noah, you seem to have caught an eye or two here, not bad for a newcomer! Granted, some of the soldiers prefer their boys to have a veneer of innocence about them, and they can be quite rough and tumble. In my humble, unsolicited, opinion, it is a fraught market for any fresh boy - are you intending to stay? - and if you don’t have a proper House to back you it can be a short stay I’m afraid. Too many young men dreamt of finding riches or an easy life here only to slink back home.”

As he spoke, his features clouded over, clearly pained at the thought of all those poor boys stumbling through their short careers without guidance.

Noah nodded as if deep in thought, and he was in truth, but almost entirely pondering what beverage carbonation really was. He was certain that it involved carbon dioxide, but was that something that could be added to beverages in this land? Did you need to pressurize it or was there some mineral that put those delicious bubbles in there? Did ancient societies figure it out?

“Huh.” Noah’s brow furrowed as he took another sip of his drink. Well, ‘hearty gulp’ would be more accurate. Wait, was seltzer the same thing as club soda?

“It is a scandal,” Naoro agreed, mournfully.

“Oh, what is a House?” Noah decided he should respond in some way to the conversation. “Well, I guess that is pretty clear just from context, but if a man was looking for work in Currielle, how would that happen? Is it, I don’t know, regulated?”

The man beamed, “Well it certainly should be regulated, yes indeed! But a House - and I must say with no false modesty that the Gentle Man’s House is the finest by far in this half of the continent - arranges all the tedious scheduling of clients and acts as a safe harbour for the workers. No need to fret about jealous patrons who won’t accept the professional nature of your relationship and knife you in an alley in a fit of anger they can’t own you, the House is an island of security and comfort.”

The taller man, Sebastian, seemed torn between scarcely concealed boredom and sly amusement. “Is the Gentle House looking for a new stallion, then? Maybe shake up the ranks? Fresh meat for the women newly up from the Duchy with heavy coin purses and no one to mind what they get up to away from ‘proper civilization’?”

The tone was enough to briefly shake Naoro’s confident grin, and he said, “Well, naturally, the upper ranks of the House are solid and sturdy. Any new boy would have to earn his place, of course, get some lessons in refinement. Get cleaned up essentially, aesthetically brought up to the extremely high standards we have with his wardrobe and so on..." An unmistakable glance at Noah's trousers and shoes, before he continued, "And in the matter of comportment and sheer well-bred manners, which is tremendously important to any man who hopes to be more than a disposable dockside fuck for drunken sailors. Only then would he get introduced to the high-end clientele! The security and stability are vital, but if Noah were to get an official reference from a current paramour that would greatly accelerate his upward mobility. Now it’s typical for the newcomers to tithe a small amount to the men who tamed this wild hinterland, who ploughed the field beforehand so to speak, of course…”

“Of course,” Noah placed his empty drink onto the tray of a passing server. “Well, I do not intend to stay in Currielle more than a few days. Or ‘work’ here, actually.”

Both men seemed conflicted by this sudden declaration, probably relieved at the sudden removal of a potential social/professional rival but also disappointed to not receive whatever reward they would get for ‘referring’ a new young man to a legal service contract with a pleasure house.

“Well, best of luck to you wherever you wash up after this,” Naoro’s smile was nowhere to be seen now, and he was already scanning the crowd avidly winking and waving at someone over Noah's shoulder. Sebastian had wandered away without so much as a good-bye and his fellow soon followed.

Happily, the next smile he saw felt much more genuine as the steward saw his captain walking back to him saying, “Making new friends?”

“Oh, I didn’t feel exactly befriended to be honest.”

“I’m not surprised,” Captain Amaruq said, “They must have been terrified you were here to take their jobs as head rooster of the town. Or marry one of the rich young ladies of the noble families here to make their fortunes. You would definitely be exceptionally popular.” She had a slight blush as she said it, which pleased Noah more than her flattering words.

Amaruq gave a short sigh. “Speaking of, let me introduce you to a few of the Kuniq Collective. These women are on the trade board, and they wanted to talk to a riverboat steward as well. I tried to fend them off for you but, well, you know…” She looked a touch embarrassed as she gestured to a pair of well-dressed middle-aged women who had been shuffling about on the periphery.

Noah did not mind talking to the women at all, both were quite pleasant and seemed content to simply be seen talking to him and laughing along with him as the Captain smiled fondly. For a moment, Noah wondered if this was what being a minor local celebrity was like before realizing that he was, in fact, a minor local celebrity for a few days at least.

The Kuniq women, at a gentle hint from Captain Amaruq, thanked him for his time and left, but not before giving him a polite embrace and kiss on the cheek, which Noah had not expected but also did not mind. Amaruq gave the man one last smile of thanks before shepherding her suddenly giggling charges towards a small group of merchants and boat captains.

Noah was alone for only a heartbeat before he saw a figure in blue approaching him from his periphery.

“Steward,” she said, loudly. Noah turned to face Marie-Jeanne Berthier, the blonde Agassian Army Capitaines.

The woman swayed slightly as she came to a halt half a step too close to Noah before scanning him up and down.

“Yes, you will do. My aide-de-camp will fetch you.”

She finished the drink in her hand while maintaining a superior stare on the man a few inches taller than her. Up close, she was quite handsome, her sharp features giving her a distinctive but striking look to match her pale blue eyes. Her uniform was immaculate and expensive, her hair clearly styled by a professional, along with her subtle makeup.

“Er, excuse me?” Noah felt like he had missed something. Maybe more than one something.

The soldier gave him a smug shake of her head, “Not so bright, perhaps. But God only gives with one hand, does She not? I am saying, boy, that I will have you. Ce soir. Tonight. My girl will pick you up from wherever you are staying, obviously my quarters are finer than any hotel room and I won’t have you service me on some cheap rented bed like I am some common marchande.”

Perhaps he had overindulged in the drinks after all, but Noah was that thing he almost never was - at a loss for words.