Inversius of Chaldea

The Courtier's Curse

Inversius' eyes were peeled open like a cold pear on a hot summers day, despite the moist midnight air and the calm breeze gently caressing his face he couldn't manage to find tranquility as thoughts of grandeur seized his head ever since he read that letter. In his mind, Inversius was undressing that letter line by line, word for word trying to find some hidden subtext that would satisfy his curiosity as to the context of his meeting. The longer he thought about it the harder it became to focus. Eventually he decided he needed to calm down for the night but, knowing his own hyperactive soul, he knew he'd need to burn the energy keeping him awake so he took to the streets of Rome.

He exited his home and took the same route he has for sixteen years to wear himself out enough to fall asleep. Left, right, left, right he turned trying to be lost again so he would once again be filled with a sense of childlike wonder, only to slap himself in the face realizing his goal was sleep not more curiosity to keep him awake. However, he soon couldn't resist, and his sense of awe captured his rationality.

Warm nights were always a pleasure to Inversius, always sufficient and never more, perfect lighting, perfect temperature. Soon on his non-stop rampage of irresponsibility he found a certain woman's house. Upon the door he gave several loud knocks. Finally, after his third round of battering the poor door a voice harkened, "If you're here to take my belongings you might as well start with the door, at this point it's probably loose enough to steal!" She opened the squeaky door only to be greeted by Inversius.

She wore an unamused look and said, "What are you doing here?" Inversius cleaned away his embarrassment with a smile "I was just in the neighborhood." She cocked an eyebrow, "Inversius, you live 2 leagues away from this house and the moon isn't even up anymore. Why are you wondering the streets of Rome like a suicidal idiot?" He laughed nervously, "I couldn't sleep..." She threw her hands up "well when normal people can't sleep they don't walk around the city waiting for someone to put them to sleep permanently, are you even armed?" She spied Inversius' empty hilt and gave him an irritated leer, "you wore a hilt but forgot your gladius?! How do you even make that mistake, I'm seriously concerned for your health right now, do you seriously have a death wish?" Inversius opened his mouth to protest only to be cut off by Valeria's follow up to what she intended to be a rhetorical question, "You know what, I'm not letting you go unsupervised your coming inside." She grabbed Inversius by the toga and pulled him into her abode.

Inversius sat on a comfortable leather seat with his legs crossed, thanking the gods that Valeria was so generous a friend. Valeria entered the room with a cup of wine and some fresh bread. She passed it over to Inversius who graciously accepted the gift. As he dipped it, the bread twisted into a smaller ball in order to condense the whole of its volume into the cup. Soon he brought it to his saliva ridden mouth and inserted it, in its entirety. Valeria watched with shock as he chewed a few times and swallowed the bread whole, "I thought you only did that when you were in a hurry, is that how you eat?" Inversius swallowed and said, "it is, I'm just always in a hurry." Valeria laughed and sarcastically asked, "who taught you your table manners?" Inversius gave a passive smile to compliment her light laughter. He soon stood up, "thank you for the food Valeria, it was very kind of you." He began walking towards the door. "Wait" Valeria said, "You shouldn't hike all the way back home tonight, give it a rest. Why don't you stay here I've got an extra room for guests?" Inversius reluctantly agreed supposing he could use some shuteye before his big day of travels tomorrow.

As he nodded off to sleep Inversius felt no wind brush his face this time, instead the air was stationary and cold. He retreated deeper into the covers like a Gaul to the countryside. All was dark for a few minutes but then he saw something... He couldn't make out its shape, but it was resonating some whiteness in the dark pool that initially had consumed his vision. Soon he realized the white object had always been there, but he just couldn't see it, from so far away it looked like a spec of salt in a sea of pepper. Soon the brightness was too much for him. He opened his eyes only to be greeted with the morning sun which burned his dreary sleep deprived eyes causing him to yelp in agony. Valeria peeked her head into his room, "Oh, good morning Inversius sleep well?" Before he could say she cut him off again, "-I made you some breakfast, you can't possibly eat it in one bight. Come on let's get you ready for your big day."