“Are you alright?” Theodric raised a concerned eyebrow back at Valendor, who was dragging his feet slightly behind him, with a borrowed overcoat wrapped around him and wearing a murderous look on his face. Theodric was especially concerned as that look seemed to be directed at him.

Valendor’s mood somehow worsened, which Theodric could tell very clearly since his glower darkened and wisps of inner conflict flitted through the gaps in the mental wall Valendor had put up, he probably haven’t learned to block emotions completely yet, so the wisps were growing in intensity by the minute.

Valendor only gave an angry huff in response. Theodric wondered what he had done to anger Valendor to this degree, and he knew that staying silent would only let the negative emotions to fester and eventually explode violently, but speaking to the entity only made it angrier and now that they are halfway to the city near the school, there was no headmaster-meat-shield standing between him and getting his face shredded.

So Theodric was understandably weary about how he approached this. “I noticed you used up a lot of mana last night,” He said slowly and casually. “Are you tired? If so, we could either go tomorrow, or I’ll buy you some food at the marketplace instead,”

“Ever tried human food?” Theodric smiled at Valendor, holding in his breath.

Valendor glanced at him, menacingly tilted his head, proud antlers glinting wickedly in the midday sun, as he fully faced Theodric.

“I’ll appreciate some food, thank you,” Valendor finally replied tersely.

It was like the entire world exhaled its bated breath and returned to its normal cheerful self. Although the “thank you” had practically dripped with venom, Theodric mentally fist-pumped the air in delight, happily counting it as a major win that his face was still intact.

“Great! I know a good donut stall around the main road…”

…

Valendor was in a very bad mood. It happens when one is reminded of the fact that one was enslaved by one’s inferior and that one’s supposed master was just standing there, unarmed and off guard: freedom had never been so close yet so far.

Valendor had not felt such an intense itch to rip out someone’s throat in ages. And that itch was matched in intensity by the damnable bond bridging Theodric’s soul and his, taunting him as he felt it brush against his raw soul every time it pulsed in energy.

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Valendor could feel himself going insane soon if this kept going on. He debated whether to just rip the bandage off at once, kill Theodric now and suffer the backlash. But he still had to deal with the civil war and the Ebon Concord and he would have to heal up first and knows how long it’ll take…and Theodric’s presence is rather nice no?

Valendor almost physically flailed in horror when he realised the bond had wrapped around his soul, suppressing his mutinous musings and giving him suggestive thoughts instead. But mentally he was in a massive panic attack at the brain-washing attempt, full-blown paranoia fueling his flurry of attempts at sawing the bond away from his soul. Uncaring when every blow bounced back and rang his soul space like a hammer to a gong, making him see stars.

Valendor followed behind Theodric blindly as they headed towards the market, unaware of his surroundings due to his inner space in utter turmoil.

Valendor kept going in vicious cycles of feeling murderous, having second thoughts of said murder, horror at the source of said second thoughts, and feeling even more murderous at said source with a dash of paranoia on the side. If it were a buffet, his plate would’ve been piled sky high with paranoid-murder-feels. And his new body being desperately hungry didn’t help improve his mood much.

Valendor…

Valendor was oh so tired. His body may have been less than a day old, but it already felt like it had borne three thousand years of overwork already.

“Are you alright?” Valendor almost missed the question, too busy drowning in stress and disgusting self-pity. No, I’m not. He answered in his mind, well aware of the toll he had taken to build his sky for the past three thousand years without pause.

He was so tired at that point, he couldn’t even muster the energy to be mad at the pesky human anymore and grunted at him in mild irritation. With a slight hope that he will just go away and leave him alone.

Deciding to ignore all his problems in favour of leaving his mind blank for the rest of the trip, he let his body run on autopilot, plodding behind Theodric. Who probably sensed the change in his mental space via the bond, for he asked Valendor something that went completely over his head.

Until Valendor heard the word “food”. Hmm yes, food is good, his exhausted brain managed to sputter out despite thumping painfully against his skull. His stomach seemed to agree with the assessment, so he made his verbal agreement known, head drooping as he was still too burnt out to put any energy into softening his tone.

Theodric seemed to take it well enough, for he kept babbling on about some nonsense donuts. The bond jumped at the chance to market its propaganda, being useful for once and cooled Valendor’s overheated brain, blocking out Theodric’s annoying noise, and Valendor couldn’t be bothered to disagree.

They continued their way down the sun-exposed path through the woods to Eldermere city.

This midday sun is killing him. Complaining internally, his head now a little clearer thanks to the bond’s cooling effect, Valendor squinted unhappily at the uncomfortably bright sunlight stabbing at his eyes and scorching his exposed face which wasn’t covered by his cloak.

Hmm, maybe saying that the sun was killing him isn’t too far off. Wait…

Valendor barreled straight into panic mode once again.