157th of Nemulum, 313 EA
Peyr Myarsa
The conservator was an unassuming man, and not one that Leça recognized from the understreets. He was square-jawed, with hair that would have been described as shaggy if it had been allowed to grow without cropping. His robes were kept well, free of mud, though there was a fraying near the boots. Leça was of a height against this man, and yet could not help but feel the elevation of his station against theirs.
“I’m sorry, I don’t understand. Can you please explain what is going on?” Leça spoke from a disconcerted position at the doorway of their home, their sister fuming behind.
“The whole affair is really quite clear.” The conservator spoke in flat, dripping tones. “It has been determined that your faith would benefit from time spent in penance. I am here to escort you to the the…”
“You won’t!” Alisja burst out, pushing past Leça and stumbling the conservator back onto the shaded street, “You can’t take them, I won’t let you!”
Eyes from all around shifted to the scene as Leça hurried out to join them.
The conservator, still yet to have given his name, placed two fingers in his mouth to give a short whistle. At his call, a sudden number of figures made themselves known from around corners.
“You’d do best to come quickly and quietly.” The conservator motioned back to the doorway, where Leo and Kasha had snuck up and now stood paralyzed. “There is no need for your whole family to be dragged out all for your consortion with open blasphemers.”
“Alisja,” Leça spoke calmly against their sister’s roiling fury. “Back off. Go to the kids, to father. I’ll handle this. It will be okay.”
Alisja tore back and forth, between the home they had shared as a family and them now stepping away.
The growing crowd of conservators enveloped Leça, hands reaching out to grasp their arm roughly. They were legion, indeterminable from one another, and Leça was swept up by the force of their misbelonging in the district as it pushed them all out wordlessly.
The Etra Anthology 