"What!?" The startled look on his face tells me my reaction was definitely not what he was expecting from me. "Elias, while I appreciate the thought, I'm not interested in you like that."

The startled look on his face morphed into a puzzled one and then very quickly into embarrassment. "That's not what I meant! I was just saying I love you like the brother you are to me. I would never look at you in that way, and I especially wouldn't admit it while you were bedridden!"

"Then why in the world are you saying you love me? How am I supposed to take that while you hover over me and spoon feed me?"

"That I'm your blood-brother and I would die before I let anyone hurt you just like you would do the same for me! Really Vahid what are you thinking? You must still be affected by the fever."

What was he talking about? I know the way he was looking at me, the way his eyes were so gentle and kind, the way his smile settled across his face, and the hurt in his eyes over the way I had reacted. That was not simple brotherly love, I had brothers, and brothers in arms before I ended up in this world, and none of them ever looked at me the way he had.

No, I was done with this place, and I was getting out of here before any more of its insanity pushed the limits of my mental stability any more, I was done with the Jakoban estate.

Pushing myself out of bed despite Elias's complaints I called for Selena, and to no surprise she was at my side immediately, I wouldn't be surprised if she had never left the other side of the door. "Selena, prepare my things and any others that I might have come here with. I am leaving by afternoon today."

"But Master, you're still injured! You can't make the journey across the Empire in your condition."

"Please Vahid listen to her, you are in no condition to make any large scale journeys."

"Both of you shut your mouths, I am tired of this place, Selena, If you will not prepare my things for me I'll do it myself." I had gathered enough from Vahid's memories last night to know what I would need for the journey to the Gallick estate, I did not need her to do it for me.

"No master it's quite ok I'll go prepare everything now!" She literally rushed out of the room as I continued my preparations to depart. Vahid's sword, his clothes, some of the valuables he had arrived with, and the signet ring that indicated my true claim to the Von Gallick name. "Vahid, Vahid why are you doing this? Do you truly hate and mistrust me so much that you believe you need to leave?"

"Don't try and excuse yourself Elias, I saw the way you looked at me, I saw the look in your eyes while you said it, you may have been able to convince others but you are a fool to think you can trick me." Silence descended as I continued to make my preparations while Elias simply stood looking at me, even as weak as I was from the blood loss and stabbing I was not about to show such weakness in front of this manipulative man.

"Its true."

"What's true?"

"I love you Vahid, I want to grab you and kiss you so hard and for so long that we both pass out from a lack of breath, and I thought that's what you wanted too!" Nope this cannot be happening right now.

"Why would I ever want that, Elias? What have I ever done to ever-?!" Ahh now I remember, the memories are coming to me now. During a trip to the mountains Vahid and Elias had been stuck in a blizzard alone and had been intimate, it didn't last long, and neither would speak of it after that day but they would on occasion sneak out together and replicate that day. Fuck.

"Elias I don't feel that way about you anymore I'm sorry. Please don't take this as me hating you, but I simply can't be around you like that anymore." The single tear rolling down the man's eye was enough to tell me just what kind of effect my words had.

"So all of our love, all of our time together is just over like that? The moments of passion and love are nothing to you?"

"Yes."

The sound he let out was indescribable as I could literally see his heart breaking in real time. Now the tears were flowing freely, and what could I do? Comfort him? It would only send mixed signals, signals that I in no way wanted misconstrued. I was done with this place, done with Elias, and done with the prebuilt destiny of this world.

I refused to participate in some years long convoluted love affair that would do nothing but in my, Vahid's, death. "You can keep Selena." I looked over at him once more and the tears were gone, replaced with a look of utter defeat.

"Why would you give her up?"

"Think of it as my last gift to you, you'll receive no more, please leave my Estate as soon as possible." I didn't bother to respond to him and he left my, no the room not long after saying his piece. I had just broken a man's heart into a million pieces, and I honestly shouldn't have felt bad about it, but all I could feel was relief.

Relief that I would soon be gone from this place and as far away from the main plot as possible, while I would make a stop at the gallick estate to gather funds and support I have no intention of staying there, or anywhere really in the Empire. If I truly wanted to be free from the machinations of the court and plot there was only one true way to do that. I had to go beyond its borders and into the unknown.

Hopefully in the vast lands beyond the Empire I could figure out what I really wanted to do in this life, and hell maybe I would find someone out there that wasn't some kind of generic Romance side character that I could actually get along with.

"Master, I've prepared your things and the carriage is ready whenever you're prepared to go. The guards you brought with you have also finished their preparations and are on standby."

"Good job Selena, I knew I could count on you, please escort me to the carriage. I do not wish to waste another moment in this place."

Stolen novel; please report.

'Of course master." As Selena and I exited the estate I took one final chance to look around and soak in the place, all the gold, gems, and finery. The multitudes of servants around every corner that did the vast majority of the work maintaining it all, and of course the house guard armed with some of the best steel in the Empire to better protect their masters of house Jakoban.

None of it compared to the sight of the estate slowly sinking into the distance as I looked out of the carriage window, and as I watched Elias stand upon his terrace watching me leave I could only feel a deep giddiness. I was free, free from the shackles of the terrible plot of this terrible world. Sure I was still woozy as all hell from my wound last night, and we would likely need to make many stops along the way, but with my own guards alert and watching for any one that might attempt to hurt me I had never felt so safe since entering this world.

"Master, you look woozy again, please let me help you drink some water."

"I'm fine Selena, I can do it myself."

"You could barely get into the carriage without help, master. I insist you simply let me take care of you." Based on the look in her eyes and the way her hands were literally crushing mine I decided discretion was the better part of valor and let her help me eat and drink, it was humiliating letting someone else slowly pour water down my throat and spoon feed me soup, but it was what I had been reduced to by this world.

"Selena why did you agree to come along with me? I offered you the chance to leave, and more than enough funds to simply make yourself a new life elsewhere, why would you want to serve me?"

"Why would I not want to serve you master?"

"Maybe the fact I've been less than kind to you from the moment we met and you owe me no allegiance due to your origin in Ellacuria, you owe my family nothing." The spoon she had been feeding me with stopped a few inches from my face and I could see the gears turning in her head as she thought over how to answer me. At least she wasn't stupid enough to spit out some dribble about how she was in love with me or some shit like that.

"Well I guess you're just interesting Master, you didn't have to offer me anything, or even give me the chance to leave your service. I'm a servant first and foremost after all, Master. But mostly I just want to see what you'll do, I don't know what it is but I feel like if I stick with you my life will be far more interesting than it used to be."

"Mmm." My acknowledgment of her reasons for sticking by me seemed to be more than enough for her and she went back to spoon feeding me. We could not reach Eroren fast enough, or at the very least my strength couldn't fucking return fast enough, I refused to spend the next month being coddled like a baby without even a fucking phone to take my mind off the mind numbing boredom of the journey.

---

I woke up to darkness all around us, the carriage hadn't stopped once since we had left Jakoban lands and I had passed out not long after Selena had fed me my evening meal, which begged the question of why I had woken up in the middle of the night.

"Ahh you're awake."

"Holy shit!!" I quite literally almost jumped out of my seat drawing my sword and pointing it in the direction of the voice. I was met by a middle aged man with glowing red eyes, purple hair flecked with gray, and a smile that was a little too wide for my liking. Except something wasn't right, the world it felt… less than real.

"I'm dreaming aren't I?"

"Ahh you're a smart one, usually people can't tell when they're dreaming, especially when I show up."

"Let's just say I've had a lot of experience distinguishing dreams from reality."

"Yes I imagine you have!" His laugh was almost infectious in a way with how deep and liberating it was, it just made you want to join along with him in a way that's indescribable.

"Who the hell are you and why are you in my dreams?"

"Ahh that is a complicated question, or no its a simple question with a complicated answer. Lets just say I'm a thing from beyond and I'm in your dreams because I'm interested in you. To think one of our kin could possess the body of a man and not only pretend to be him, but think he is a man at that! It's fascinating."

"What are you talking about, you're speaking in riddles."

"Oh but that's the best part! You don't even realize who or what you are any more! Tell me do you even feel the voids call anymore? Or have you completely forgotten what it even is?"

I was stumped, I honestly had no idea what he was talking about, what the fuck was the void and why was he trying to imply I had some kind of connection to it?

"You don't have to answer me, I can already tell that the answer is no just from looking at you.I think it's time you woke up now, don't want that pretty little thing at your side to get too worried now do we?"

"Wait, you can't just end our conversation like that-!"

---

I jolted awake as the memories of the dream literally followed me into the waking world. That hadn't just been a dream, that wasn't my subconscious fucking with me. What had just happened was real, whatever that thing was it knew something about me, and it might even know just how I had ended up in this body.

But I still didn't understand half of what it had been talking about. What was the void? How was I connected to it, and how had I apparently possessed Vahids' body? Why did it talk to me as if it knew me? So many questions and no answers.

"Good morning master, do you need something to eat or drink?" Actually there's a good place to start.

"Selena what is the void." The wide eyes at my question told me all I needed to know, this couldn't be good.