“Huh, so making clones through windows does actually work,” Jaid was pleased with herself as she looked around Drim’s real bedroom. Since he stormed out yesterday, the man hadn’t set foot out of his room, refusing meals or to speak with anyone. Apparently Phon had also barged her way in to check on him, but ultimately left him to mope in peace.

“The Utility Room really did do a good job recreating this, but it does seem a bit outdated. A lot of things have moved around, and the books have changed quite a bit. And… the smell’s different. It’s not bad or anything, I guess it just smells like you. Sorry, that was weird.”

『Why are you here?』 Drim uncurled from his bed just enough to hold up his screen.

“Ugh, back to the tablet are we?” the knight sighed with exasperation. “You know why I’m here. You’ve shirked our lesson. So I’m going to drag you to it. With what happened yesterday, we have even more to work through.”

『I’m not going.』 The king was firm, withdrawing under his covers even more.

“And who said you had a choice,” Jaid marched over and began tugging at the covers to much resistance. “If you slide back like this and regress, it’s just going to make it that much harder to get back to where we were.”

『Or I could just never speak again.』 Drim held up the tablet once the covers were successfully yoinked away. 『Nathym could make a device that turns my thoughts into words. Could make it sound like me too.』

“I suppose that’s an option,” The Paladin pretended to entertain the thought. “But it sounds like a lot of work for other people to appease your own unwillingness. I get that you hate the power and are terrified of what it could do, but it’s up to you to learn to restrain it, for the sake of yourself and everyone around you. It’s your duty to them.”

“And are you going to let this be what beats you? After all this effort to destroy your mother’s empire, killing her, rebuilding what she ruined. You’re going to let her power control you after all this time? I guess you’re still afraid of her.” The knight’s words were cruel, but they were clearly hitting the right spot, igniting a fire in Drim’s eyes.

“Tell you what,” Jaid shifted gears to try and persuade him. “We’ll cancel today’s lesson and do something else. I think it would help you to talk to someone who has gone through something similar and made it through to the other side. So let’s go on a trip.”

『I’m not going to talk.』 Drim emphasized one more time.

“Well that’s fine,” Jaid relented. “Then you’ll just have to listen. Now come on.”

◆◆◆

The pair of Fiends exited through the portal made of Phon’s blood. At first, it was pretty dark, a cramped metallic room, but as soon as Jaid opened the door, light flooded their eyes. They stepped out onto the deck of the Fiends For Hire West compound.

But at first glance, it’d be hard to believe they were high up in the sky atop a mobile metal fortress. There were sprawling fields to run through, garden plots growing various fruits and vegetables, a lovely seating area for the onboard cafe, and even a competition-size swimming pool. Heck, if it was water off in the horizon instead of trees, the vessel could be confused for a massive cruise ship.

With how stable its movements were, though, it would be hard to believe the massive metal monster was continuously walking if it wasn’t for the ever-changing skyline. But instead of heading inside towards the barracks or where any of the Fiends might be congregating, the pair headed towards the fortress’ bow.

『I don’t see Dura anywhere.』 Drim mentioned after they’d wandered around for a bit.

“Oh, no we’re not here to see Dura,” Jaid corrected. “Can see why you’d think that though, given that he was silent for much of his life. And while he would love an unwitting victim that he could talk endlessly to, I don’t think that’s what you need right now. That, and, he and Worretta headed out on their journey some time ago.”

『So who are we here to seen then?』 The man was obviously getting a little curious.

“Well, you’ll know in a second if we can find him. Ohp, there he is!” Jaid was leaning over the fortress’ frontmost railing and found her target sitting on some scaffolding just below it. “I’ll wait up here since it’s a bit tight. Take your time.”

Knowing he wouldn’t get out of it at this point, and now genuinely invested in what insight this person could provide, Drim used a vine to rappel down to the scaffolding. While it was only a short drop that he could have made easily, the king didn’t want to disturb the various stacks of paper that were sitting around the man. All of them had paperweights to help against the oncoming wind, but sudden vibration could cause them to scatter.

“Hello, Drim Drazah,” The Mime, Fetter, greeted him but didn’t look up from the paper in his lap as he scrawled away. “How can I help you today?”

That alone shocked Drim. Not only had the stitches and padlock been removed from the man’s mouth, but his voice, it was incredible. Every word was silky smooth, soft and serene, like he could lure someone to a peaceful sleep just with his words alone.

『What are you doing?』 Drim opened with an icebreaker, intrigued by all the pages around them. It took a minute for The Mime to notice what he’d written on the tablet, but answered in turn immediately.

“I’m writing,” Fetter spoke plainly. “Random musings, poems, songs, and even a novel. Whatever comes to me. I spent so long only expressing myself through movement, that it’s rather enjoyable to use my words.”

『Why here then? Seems like a bad place for paper.』 The king looked at the stacks that were flapping with every step.

“Simple. It’s because this is where I feel the most free.” The Mime’s face lit up with one of the most genuine and pure smiles that Drim had ever seen. “Actually, I wish there was a bit more wind, but the barrier keeps it fairly restrained. This view, though. I’ll never get tired of it. But I’m guessing you didn’t come just to enjoy the sights. Can I help you with something, your majesty.”

Drim winced at being called that, The Mime obviously toying with him, but it urged him to get to the point. It took a while to convey everything through his tablet. But Fetter was patient and read every word.

“I see,” the writer finally set down his pen once it was all done. “It’s interesting. You’re almost like the exact opposite of me in this scenario. For me, my words made me feel powerless. If I spoke, then I couldn’t use my Curse. So the obvious solution was to stay silent.”

“For you, though, you’re worried about your words being too powerful, that they’ll hurt people. But the solution you chose is the same: to stay silent. And let me tell you, it’s no real solution at all.”

“Words are not weapons, nor are they shields. They’re us, who we are, given to others. Let me ask you something. During your practice, have you been saying what you want to say? Are they words that you want someone to hear? Because if not, they’re pointless.”

“Fake words are worse than none at all. Perhaps the reason you’re struggling so much with them, having trouble controlling them, is because they’re not you. Think hard on what it is that you want to say, and then speak those words. As long as they have your intent, your passion, are true to you, something you care about and need them to hear, then your words can only empower you.”

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“Don’t think of your statements as demands. Those listening will always have a choice whether they take your words to heart. Something tells me that those you’ve controlled have only done so because they want to help you. Your words hold meaning to them, so they’re listening with all they have, and they want to hear you.”

“And the knight is right. All you can do is keep trying. It may be hard, because it certainly was for me. You’ve been speaking with someone else’s voice, so it’s time to find your own again. Stop hiding behind the words of others, and let yourself be heard.”

“I hope that all made sense,” The Mime returned back to his writing. “Even now, I find what I try to convey can be confusing to others. But I continue to work on it, just like you.”

“Thank you, Fetter,” Drim chose to speak. “T-That helped.”

“I’m glad,” he smiled again. “You don’t need to stick around on my part, so you shouldn’t keep the woman eavesdropping on us waiting. Oh, but one more thing. When my book is done, would you like to read it?”

“Of course,” the man gave him a genuine smile back before returning to the top deck.

◆◆◆

“So I’ve been thinking about what Fetter said, how to incorporate things you’d want to say into our practice,” Jaid mentioned a few days after they’d visited the West compound. Their primary focus had been on training Drim to control his mother’s power, letting him command Jaid to perform small tasks. So far, there’d been incremental progress, but it was time to switch gears.

“You’re a fan of the books by that Grin guy, right?” the knight asked casually.

“They’re only m-my favorite series,” the man’s eyes lit up instantly but with a touch of hesitation, unsure where she was going with this.

“Then I’m guessing you’ve heard he has a new book coming out soon, in a few months,” she assumed as much but still pried for confirmation.

“Of course!” he was even more eager, excited that someone was talking about one of his passions unprompted. However, a moment later, there was a twinge of pain in his face. “B-but, uhm, s-since we were in p-prison. I wasn’t able to-to preorder the er-dition that I wanted.”

“Funny you mention that,” Jaid dug into the bulky bag she’d brought with her. A minute later, she pulled out a hefty tome, thick enough to provide a rather engaging and invested read. The cover was bare, however, with a ribbon wrapped around it marking the novel as confidential. “Because I just happened to get my hands on an advance-copy.”

“How-wha-why-how did you g-get that?” Drim’s voice spasmed more than it had in a while, less to do with his condition and more to do with being erratically perplexed. He reached his hands out for a second, almost trying to grab at it from across the room like an impatient, greedy child, but pulled them back when he regained his sensibilities.

“Well, Victori and I reached out to the publisher,” the knight began to explain. “And we made a proposal: if they’d like for the audiobook to be narrated by the Fiendish King Drim Drazah, and that we’d do it for free. So, they accepted and were so kind enough to send an advance-copy for you to familiarize yourself.”

“We also discussed with them when to start, giving you as much time to prepare yourself as we could. They of course want to have it available on launch day, and need time for editing and recuts, meaning that we would need to start the recording about a month from now. There’s a bit of wiggle room, but if we don’t make the initial start date, then we’d have to revise the schedule.”

“I hope that this is something that would serve as proper motivation. Only if you want to of course. This isn’t something I’m going to force you to do, but if you’re not up for it, we’ll unfortunately have to send this copy back.”

“I’ll uhh,” it was clear what Drim wanted to say, but he was still getting hung up. “I don’t know if… That would be…. No, I’ll do it!”

“Great!” Jaid was glad he accepted the idea, but then she immediately stowed away the advance-copy. “Still not going to let you read that yet, though.” The man’s eyes sank as if she’d just confiscated his favorite toy, but he was too proud to let himself throw any sort of tantrum.

“Instead, I’ll let you tell me when you’re ready,” The Paladin clarified. “I don’t think we should start with it. If you continue to stumble, I don’t want you to get frustrated with it and possibly ruin the experience for yourself. But instead,” Jaid pulled out the first volume.

“We should start at the beginning. I’ve never read the series myself—honestly not that much of a reader—but I did check out the first few chapters to see if it’s something I’d be interested in. And it was pretty engaging. I can see why you like it. But… even with a clone’s help, it’d take me forever to get through it at my pace. So, would you read them to me?”

“That should get you a lot of practice. And when the time comes for the new one, it means I won’t be spoiled. There’s a lot of books, so it’s a lot to get through in the time, but if you’re up for it, I think we can get it done.”

“Y-yes, that sounds great!” the man couldn’t contain his smile, and a second later he had his tablet out, already loading up the first volume—which he of course had bookmarked if he felt the urge to dive in again at any given moment. Even though the knight had brought along the whole series, they decided to have her read along to help with any words that might snag his progress.

“I’ll admit, this wasn’t my first idea,” Jaid mentioned before they started. “I hadn’t mentioned it, but that time when you yelled at your mother, you spoke perfectly. As if you’d forgotten that you even had a problem to begin with. So I was going to have you read some of their war records, but I don’t think it’s the best choice to have you associate your recovery with anger.”

“Hopefully this will accomplish things in a similar way—help you get engrossed and forget that you’re even struggling. Because from what you’ve said, at this point, it sounds like you’re overthinking everything, tripping up on words because they sound wrong and you’re overanalyzing them.”

“Yes,” Drim admitted. “It’s like my head and mouth are w-working and diff-different speeds. So I want to correct m-myself before I say them.”

“Exactly,” the knight nodded. “So we need to get you to stop thinking. Ready whenever you are. I’m all ears.”

◆◆◆

Drim stepped out of the recording booth, sweating and exhausted from hours of reading. It was only the first day, but they’d already covered a lot of ground. Just a few more sessions like that, and the audiobook recording would be finished in no time.

“You did a great job!” Jaid greeted him with a smile. They’d been meeting a lot less over the past few weeks, since Drim’s condition was all but cured. There was the occasional stammer or flub every so often, but no-more than the average person would have in their daily life if they focused and kept count. Still, it was good to keep practicing to make sure that the king didn’t regress, and they had to make sure to get through all the books in time.

And the knight had accompanied him today as moral support, not that her presence was really needed. It was more just so that he had a friendly face to look at amidst the crowd of strangers in case his past symptoms began to flare, but Drim had gotten through without incident.

Since it had been a resounding success, it would also be the last day of their speech therapy sessions. And while Jaid was happy that he’d recovered, glad that she’d been able to assist him, there was also a touch of melancholic sadness. Because this would essentially be the end of their time together.

What real reason would they have to meet up in the future? There were regular check-ins about her request, and maybe they’d do the occasional mission together in the future. But the man was otherwise elusive. Even living in the same mansion, Jaid almost never saw him. He was fairly private, and they didn’t exactly have many overlapping hobbies. They would no longer be teacher or pupil, so what would they be in the future, then? Just coworkers?

But she supposed that was how it had to be. From the start, she pledged herself to be a servant. Nothing more than a tool to be used to reach their endgame. Anything more than that was never part of the agreement.

Especially given their history, everything she’d done, the woman felt no right to try and worm her way into his life. Even though she felt they’d gotten fairly close during their time together, and any disdain or ill-feelings that lingered from the past had vanished entirely, replaced with a warm joy and sense of companionship whenever they were together—something very foreign to her, or perhaps something she hadn’t felt since she was much younger.

Unlike her, however, Drim already had countless friends, admirers, those who would want nothing more than to have the Fiendish King as a confidant or ally. There just wasn’t any room left, and she needed to accept that. But that thought didn’t last long.

As soon as the two were alone, the man lunged forward and wrapped her in a tight hug. “Thank you, Jaid. Today was a dream come true. So I really can’t thank you enough, both for making it happen, and for getting me to this point. For kicking my butt when I was down, forcing me to continue when I wanted to quit. I really couldn’t have done it without you, and I’m glad that it was you who saw me through. It means a lot to me, and I’ll never forget it.”

And it was at that moment, wrapped in that warm embrace, that Jaid found a new resolve. If she didn’t have any reason to see Drim anymore, she’d just have to make one. Going back to just acquaintances, no she didn’t want that. The thought made her sick. So she’d do whatever she had to in order to keep that feeling.