“You kind of traumatized Flint. Me too, I guess, but I’m stuck with you for the foreseeable future.” Cael hobbled up the steps behind Trista. The traumatizer in question was lounging lazily over his shoulders. Fortunately, as a being of shadow, it didn’t actually weigh all that much. He was a bit surprised it had any weight at all, but he’d take what he could get at this point. “If I’m taking you to the orphanage, you’re going to have to hide so Flint won’t see you.”

Cael reached the top of the stairs and took a break.

“How well can you hide?”

Despite not having a face, the elemental managed to look at him condescendingly.

It slipped off his shoulder and landed smoothly on the ground where it melded into his own shadow. Overall, it was pretty seamless, though the shadow may have darkened slightly. He doubted anyone would be able to notice it unless they were specifically looking for it. At least, it was hard to tell until a pair of cat ears popped into existence above the head of his shadow.

“If that’s what gives us away, I’m going to unsummon you.”

“You know, you could always just order it to stop,” Trista said helpfully.

“I mean, yeah, but then I’d be no better than…it.” Cael ran his fingers through his hair just to make sure there were no actual cat ears there. “Are you a ‘he’ kind of elemental or a ‘she’.”

‘I am a refined gentleman.’

“You’re a right bastard, but I guess that answers my question well enough.” Cael thought about that for a moment. “Actually, that’s your name now. I’m calling you Bastard.”

‘I will do my best to live up to that name.’

"I’m sure you will.”

“Please do not call the cat ‘bastard’ in front of the kids.” Mercy seemed to disagree with this name on principle.

“Fine, he can be… Tar for short.” Bast was the female deity of cats, and ‘Ass’ was probably worse than the alternative.

“If that’s meant to be a shortened form of ‘bastard’ it doesn’t work in this language.” Enken had finished his food and gotten up. He looked at the cat ears in Cael’s shadow with intrigue.

“That’s fine. Tar knows, and that’s all that matters.” Cael also looked at the cat ears. Speaking of things Tar knew, “He isn’t going to tell everyone my secrets, is he?”

Trista waved him off from her place back at the table. He noticed Macera had seemingly left at some point while he was summoning Tar. “Think of him as a really good friend. He could, but it’s really unlikely he’d do it on purpose.”

‘Yes, I have a newfound affection for you. It is very interesting.’ Cael’s shadow crossed its arms, which was a bit disconcerting to see because Cael hadn’t actually done that.

“And that doesn’t feel weird to you?” Cael didn’t like the idea of the elemental being forced to like him.

“Shadow elementals are curious by nature. Tar probably doesn’t care all that much about the situation aside from a bit of additional interest in you. Besides, his ‘familiar’ feelings for you are more of a suggestion than a mandate.” Trista seemed to know quite a bit about this. Apparently, she hadn’t been exaggerating when she’d said she wanted a familiar. Unless this was all common knowledge?

Tar gave a thumbs-up.

‘And with your [Luck], any amount of time spent with you is sure to be fascinating’

“As long as you’re really okay with it.” Cael shrugged and turned to Enken. “I’m ready to go.” Enken nodded and led him down the hall. Cael noted it was the hall opposite the balcony.

‘Tar, do you know what exactly Enken is?’

‘He’s a drake.’

The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.

‘It’s so unfair that you know that, but that’s pretty useful.’

‘Useful enough to get a different name?’ Tar asked hopefully.

‘Don’t push it.’ Cael hesitated before continuing, ‘But if you really don’t like it, we can always pick something else.’

‘I already knew that. Actually, I always know what you’re thinking, but it would be rude to comment on the parts not meant for me.’

Cael glanced down at Tar questioningly. ‘I thought Trista said you could only hear the things I want you to.’

‘I think it’s supposed to be that way. You just have no sound filter.’

‘Are you calling me loud?’ Cael feigned indignation.

‘Yes.’

‘Bastard.’

Tar chuckled, which was weird. It wasn’t an actual chuckle, so much as it was him conveying his mirth at a level that caused Cael to chuckle sympathetically.

‘You can feel free to respond to any of my thoughts, or tell me what you think if our opinions differ.’

‘I will. You couldn’t shut me up if you tried.’

‘Don’t tempt me.’

Tar sent him a feeling that was definitely a challenge to shut him up. Cael just rolled his eyes and walked through the door Enken had opened for him.

Enken seemed to like doing that; holding doors for people. What a gentleman. Or maybe it was just a habit from his hours as a jailer? Cael didn’t have enough information to form a solid conclusion.

“Thank you.” Regardless of the reason, it was something nice that Enken didn't have to do. “How far is the orphanage from here?”

“Far enough that your leg is going to feel like falling off by the time we get back. Let me know if you need me to carry you. I know how Mercy’s healing can be.”

Yeah, what was up with that? Cael’s left leg hurt almost as much as his right arm did, and that had been fully severed by Tar the day before.

‘I cut off your leg too. You didn’t feel that?’ Of course, Tar had cut off his leg too.

‘I was feeling a lot at the time.’

‘Sorry.’ And to be fair, Cael could feel just how sorry Tar was.

‘Just don’t do it again and it's all good.’

‘You’re alarmingly forgiving.’

Cael brushed that off and responded to Enken. “I think I’m alright, but I’ll let you know if I don’t think I can keep up.”

Cael said that, but as Enken started to walk, he remembered that Enken’s legs weren’t just for show. The drake was too fast even at his normal pace. Unfortunately, Cael had just said he was fine. It would be really embarrassing to change his mind so quickly after that.

Instead of the rapidly growing pain in his leg, Cael focused his attention on the city around him. It was so much nicer without the looming threat of being hunted for sport.

‘Sorry again.’ Cael snorted.

The constabulary lived in a pretty nice part of town, from what Cael had seen. Their communal house was one of the nicer ones even then. Along the street, for as far as he could make out, not a single house was shorter than two stories. Some. like the communal house was earth-modern in style, while others were wood and stone mega-mansions.

Altogether, Cael found it quite entertaining as far as walks went. Of course, it couldn’t last forever. Enken turned at an arbitrary intersection. Not that any of the intersections weren't arbitrary. There wasn’t a street sign in sight.

As Cael eyed the new road he found himself on, it grew obvious the disjointed mansion district wasn’t that wide, just overbearingly long.

After a painful stroll of three more mansion lengths, the scene changed drastically.

Though he could still see an ostentatious castle towering over the roofs of these buildings, it still felt like a whole new place. Depending on how you defined districts, it technically was a whole new place.

Regardless, this was much more like what he had come to expect while wandering the city aimlessly during the elemental attack. That meant the orphanage had to have been nearby, which was good because Cael was starting to get what Enken had meant about leg-falling-off pain.

‘You could just ask him to carry you.’

‘Absolutely not. We’re almost there.’

‘You don’t know that.’

He didn’t know that, but he sure did hope.

Shouting nearby saved him from responding with a weak counterpoint. A moment later, Enken was in front of him.

“Sit there.” The drake pointed at a chair on the patio of the restaurant beside them. “I’ll be right back.” Cael idly noted he could smell the eggs from breakfast on Enken’s breath.

Then the drake started chasing someone. Hmm. A member of the Constabulary, off to do constable things. Cael hadn’t been paying enough attention to notice the crime, but it made sense that Enken would have. That was kind of his job.

Actually, what even was Enken’s job? Was he really a receptionist? A jailer? A patrolling officer?

He’d have to figure that out later.

At present, he was a bit busy being dragged into an alleyway