Knock. Knock.

I cleared the nervous lump out of my throat. “It’s me. I’m coming in.”

Wait? Why am I announcing myself coming into my room? Ah… whatever.

I grabbed the doorknob but found it to be locked. I barely managed a single attempt before I heard footsteps rush to the door as Sylvia unlocked the door and swung it open. She stuck her head out and scanned the hallway only to grab me by the collar and drag me into the room, where she promptly slammed the door and locked it.

With a quick hand, she instantly put her mask into her storage ring and looked up at me with puffy red eyes. “I’m so sorry I— I didn’t mean to hurt you and…”

Sylvia continued on her apologetic tirade for some time. The genuine amount of grief and regret she was showing baffled me. She truly believes she hurt me and had done something wrong. Sylvia had clearly agonized over it and had even been crying.

There was a fringe part of my brain that thought Sylvia had done this to me on purpose, that she was messing with me. It’s true that the vampire would occasionally bite me harder than normal if I had angered her, but it was nothing more than getting pinched… by a pair of fangs near my jugular… and then having your blood sucked from you…

I shouldn’t even think about it. How has this become the new norm for me? Guess it could be worse… it could be nonconsensual blood-sucking.

But seeing her like this washed away any of that lingering doubt from my mind. Earlier today, when Sylvia said she wanted to travel with me, I hadn’t believed she would even consider it.

I didn’t even think she would have spent the last three weeks taking care of me. I’m eternally grateful to her, and honestly, it made me very happy. It’s been far too long since I’ve felt this close to somebody, to somebody I believe I can trust.

And right now, she was clearly shaken. And it was somewhat my fault.

I placed a hand on her trembling shoulder and gripped down hard to snap her out of the ranting. “It’s fine. You didn’t hurt me. I didn’t mean to barge out like that,” I said honestly.

I could see she was about to freak out and fall down another one of her self-deprecation spirals where she had to question my motives. So instead of letting her do that, I doubled down. I took off my mask and stared straight into her crimson eyes.

“Don’t even start. I told you once, and I’ll say it again, I’m a lot of things, but I’m not a liar. You didn’t cause me any pain, and if you did, I would tell you. We built this relationship off trust, right?”

Just like Squeaks said. Who would have guessed I’d be taking your advice even now…

Sylvia went wide eyes as she searched my face for any falsehoods. Her mouth opened and closed like a fish as she tried to find the words to say, but she eventually just nodded meekly.

“Then what happened? Why did you just run off like that?” she asked, almost sobbing.

How the hell am I supposed to explain this without getting slapped across my face and coming out as a total creep? I’d prefer not to burn our relationship to the ground. However, I can’t just leave it how it is right now.

“First let me ask you something. How much control do you have over… whatever the… drug? That you secrete when biting into me?”

I could see a lightbulb turn on as Sylvia began to connect the dots. “I normally have full control over it but… I might have gotten too excited and accidentally let out more than I intended…” she said nervously.

I see. Sylvia did mention that everybody reacted to what I assume to be vampire venom in different ways. For me, it was always a pleasant numbing sensation. Maybe in higher doses, it can force another reaction out of me… even more so now that I have other… facilities that have become active…

“Just to set things straight, you accidentally let out way more than you ever have, didn’t you? And you didn’t mean to?”

“Yes, of course! I would never do that on purpose. It’s just…things were different… I’m so sorry…” Her shoulders slumped, and she cast her gaze down in defeat.

“I said it was fine. It seems I had an adverse reaction to that amount. In the future, you won’t let it happen again?”

Sylvia immediately looked up at me with sorrowful eyes. “Yes! I promise I won’t let it happen again!”

“Good, then we have nothing to worry about. If anything, I’m sort of thankful things happened this way, partially, at least. I met up with Nick and Adrian from The Stars, they confirmed that Dem and everyone else survived the dungeon. We were assumed to be dead.”

If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

Sylvia nodded her head slowly, but her face turned to a grimace. “What’s wrong?” I asked.

“It’s good that they are alive and all, and I’m happy to hear that… but I… you need to see this.”

Sylvia took a step back from me, and in her open hand, a piece of paper materialized out of thin air. She gently handed me the paper. “I thought maybe you ran off to the guild so I went to check quickly, but I ended up finding this instead…I’m sorry that I didn’t check sooner. I just was so busy trying to take care of you that I didn’t even think about it!”

…

…

I had been expecting this. It was a given that this was going to happen. However, I was not expecting this.

It was a wanted poster issued from Adria Sandervile for one Kaladin Ambersoul. Wanted alive only. It describes me as being an earth mage and a potential assassin. It gave a general description of what I looked like just a year ago, including my missing hand that I’ve had regrown. In possession of a stolen dimensional storage ring and cobalt sword. It’s assumed that I either fled to The Barrens or headed north towards Luminar.

This was all par for the course. It was always a matter of when, not if, a bounty was put on my head. Even the hand-drawn picture of me was mostly accurate.

Is that what I looked like to everyone? Always scowling?

No, the real problem lay in the amount of my bounty. It far exceeded my expectations. When Mayor Sandervile bought me for a single large gold mark, he was vastly overpaying for me. He even said so right to Alnwar’s face, but bought me regardless of the price just for Adria. No slave… no person was worth that kind of money.

A single large gold Ostella Mark was more money than most people knew what to do with. It took a hundred gold to make a single large gold coin and the Ostella mark was the highest appreciated coin in the world. Alnwar Strongfold, one of the most wanted men in the world and the man who enslaved me, had a bounty of seventeen large gold marks, dead or alive.

The bounty for capturing Kaladin Ambersoul the runaway slave child alive was eight large gold.

This is not good.

Having a bounty this high was the worst-case scenario. My measly Opal ranked adventure status wouldn’t save me from inspections and scrutinizing gazes. Sure it’s been over a year but nobody is going to forget a bounty so large.

My only saving grace is that they are looking for a crippled mixed Dark Elf child that can use earth magic that is missing his right hand. Thankfully, I no longer hit most of those key identifiers. I might be able to skirt around for the time being…

I should just drop my mage status altogether now. Being a swordsman would be best. But the problem is, people know who Voker is… then again, I was assumed to be dead? Maybe I can—

I stopped my internal monologue and met Sylvia’s gaze. She has been silently watching me the entire time. Trepidation was written all over her face.

“Sylvia… don’t worry about it, and I understand if this changes things. I won’t hold it against you if you no longer want to be associated with me.”

Her face contorted into a scowl, and I barely had time to roll with her gut punch. I could have dodged it or even swatted it away, but I allowed it to connect. She hadn’t enhanced herself with Blood Sorcery so it was just a regular half-hearted punch.

“Say something that stupid again and I’ll punch you even harder. Weren’t you just going on about trust and all this crap? This changes nothing. I’m staying with you.”

“This does change things. I just became one of the top ten most wanted men in the world. And if you are with me they won’t spare you…”

Sylvia glared at me, eyes and face red. Her early concern for my well-being had been tossed out the window and the only thing she felt now was unbridled anger and frustration. I didn’t miss the fact that she sucked in a bit of snot from almost crying from being so angry.

“So what? Do you think that actually matters? There is an entire nation out there that would probably send assassins after me until my hair turned gray if they knew I existed. And my hair can’t even turn gray! Honestly, they would probably send entire armies after me. Not to mention most of the world would probably shun me. I’d rather be beside somebody I can trust than hide away in some dark cave counting my days for the rest of my sad life.”

“But you have Luminar and—”

“You literally just yelled at me for making excuses, Voker? Sure Luminar will accept me but if they found out what I am, do you truly believe they wouldn’t turn me over to the Holy Kingdom? I can’t be sure and I’m not willing to bet my life on it. I am willing to bet my life on your protecting me…”

I didn’t yell at you…

I went to argue some more but Sylvia was standing defiantly before me, arms crossed and shoulders wide. Confidence poured out of her and she glared at me. Confidence not only in herself but apparently me as well.

She was willing to bet her life… on me? How many people have ever said that to me? Has anyone ever had such confidence in me before? Maybe Cerila and Nyx… I don’t want to betray that confidence.

I took a deep breath and met her gaze. A small warmth spread through my chest, and I felt myself smiling. “If you understand the risk, then I’m willing to accept. I’ll do my best to live up to your expectations,” I said seriously.

Sylvia just looked up at me and blinked a few times in confusion. Her face turned bright red as she began furiously mumbling incoherent things under her breath. I wasn’t even sure if what she was saying was a language.

But I found her embarrassment to be… endearing in a way. I’ve said it more recently than I have in the last six years. Having somebody I can trust implicitly brings me a tremendous amount of joy and relief, even more so when I feel like Sylvia is being genuine with her emotions, even if I struggle to understand her sometimes.

All my worries of today’s early fiasco had vanished. The insatiable lust that had been forced upon me seemed nothing more than a bad dream now.

This… this was a far better feeling.