(no subject)

[iniquiticity]

latin prompts #20:

Mens sana in corpore sano. A sound mind in a sound body.

In the morning there were exercises. From the moment he could stand up Rhodin has found the workings of his own body marvelous and worth continuous improvement, and these days that involved a spectacular and wonderful variety of stretches, first, then all the different ways one could lift one's own weight - crunches and lifts and he had backpack of metal he threw on, when his own weight was not enough. Then there were the stairs, his lover and his nemesis, his passion and his pain, his struggle and his success. He went up and down and up and down until he could drag barely drag himself back to his own room to lay on the floor, exalting in his singing muscles, his puddle of sweat, his jackrabbiting heart, his tingling skin, the ultimate and spectacular and radiant commingled pain-pleasure demanding more from his body and getting it.

Only much later had he learned it was not enough.

Much later he had learned the work was not over, then, staring at the ceiling, panting. Once he could breath again, once he could stand, once he had drank enough water, once he had washed and put on new clothes - he sat down at his desk.

He had to know Cliopher's protocols that would be assigned to him. He had to know the enormous legal framework of the emperor's decisions. He had to know who played games in court, and what games they played, and how they though they were doing. He had to know name and face and family histories and how each family had become what they were now and what they intended to do next. He had to know who owned what (less frequently now: whom), and how they had come to do so. He had to know names and faces and the forever unravelling and re-knitting fabric that was the court of the Palace of Stars.

(He had to know what to say and how to act if he ever worked hard enough to earn their attention.)

He slumped in his chair, his brain feeling exhaustively full.

These rituals all complete, he went to find breakfast.