I staggered down the third-floor stairs of the manor, my left arm clutched over my right. I may not have been bleeding anymore, but the burn from the cauterization Magnus gave me was still painful. I was delirious from the blood loss, and could barely see in front of me. I don’t think I was able to keep up my slave act very well as I shakily made my way down the staircase to the first floor, but I didn’t care. The only thing on my mind was getting out of the manor and back to Azarus’s house.

When I managed to reach the first floor, I literally bumped into someone as they were turning a corner to climb upwards. Dazed, I fell backward onto the step behind me, staring blankly at the person I’d run into. It was the servant dwarf from earlier who had led me to Magnus’s room.

“Watch where you’re…going…” He started irritably, before trailing off. He must have recognized me, even as covered in blood as I was. He reached up and covered his face with his right hand and sighed. “I see.” He said tiredly. “I suppose I’ll fetch the cart later, then.” Surprisingly, he reached down and hauled me up by my shoulders. I stood on wobbly legs, nearly listing over before slinging my left arm over his shoulder. “The other slaves have already left for the night, so you need to go too.” He said, not unsympathetically. “You don’t want to be seen by old Piggy lingering around the manor after dark.”

Blearily, I turned my head slightly to look at him. I retained enough piece of mind to be amused, despite myself. I guess I wasn’t the only one that called him that.

Surprisingly, the servant didn’t lead me to the servant’s entrance attached to the kitchen. In fact, he led me to the main door of the manor. With his free hand, he opened it up for me. Outside, it was fully dark, with the moon bright in the sky above us. The dwarf holding me up spoke again. “I don’t have time to take you back to the barracks, so you’re going to have to make your way back there yourself.” He told me. When he let go of my arm, I nearly fell over before I got my feet back under myself. Staggering out of the door and into the night air, I was hit by a wall of summer heat that sapped even more of my strength. As I stood there gormlessly, I heard the door close behind me.

Fuck, what now. This wasn’t how I was intending to leave the manor. Originally, I was going to leave the same way I got in, by the servant’s entrance. From there, I was going to retrace my steps and go over the wall again until I could get back to Azarus’s house. I couldn’t do that, now. On the other hand, I don’t even know if I had the strength in me to scale the walls and hold Thorn Cloak active at the same time. The original plan hadn’t counted on me being weakened via exsanguination.

While thankfully, there weren’t any guards currently stationed outside the manor to see me, I knew that there were patrols on the streets just outside. There always were, at night. I was going to have to improvise. Shakily reaching up to my face, I undid the FAT attached to it with a whispered command word and stuffed it down my pants.

I’d had an idea. Hopefully, I wouldn’t need it in case a guard found me. I think the dark of the night would be enough to hide my darkened hair in case I was found, though.

I passed through the thankfully still-open manor gate and turned to my right. That way led to Azarus’s house and the small side path it lay on. I’d only managed to make it a few steps down the dirt road when I was interrupted, though. “You there, stop!” I heard from behind me.

Of course, a guard would find me nearly immediately.

I did as ordered though, and turned around to face the sound of the rapidly approaching guard.

He slowed as he reached me, furrowing his brow. “I recognize you.” He said. “You’re Lord Azarus’s slave. What are you doing out here?” I recognized him, as well. I’d seen this guard several times, during my visit’s Van’s shop. Thank fuck, I think this would work. He hadn’t even commented on my hair.

I cleared my throat weakly. “I’m returning from Master Vandimar’s shop, master,” I said, bowing my head.

“This late?” I heard him ask skeptically.

“Yes, master,” I answered, struggling to keep my voice even. “It was a large order.”

I heard the guard hum. “Be on your way, then.” He said dismissively. “Oh, and do something about the blood before you leave the butchers again. We don’t need you dripping it everywhere around town.”

“As you say, master,” I murmured. Get fucked, bastard. This was my blood.

I heard the guard turn around and begin walking away from me. I did the same, turning around and trying to hurry back to Azarus’s. I wasn’t very fast though, not in my weakened state. I could feel myself growing even weaker, as well. By the time I had reached the entrance to the clearing where the house was, the world was spinning around me. I could barely walk straight.

I only managed to make it a few steps inside when I felt the last of my strength leave me. Slumping onto my knees, I could feel the world growing dark.

I fell face forward, losing consciousness as I did so.

Strangely, I thought I could hear voices.

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………………………………………

I woke up in a familiar bed. Not mine though.

Grey’s.

I’d woken up in this bed often enough after overexerting myself that I didn’t even need to open my eyes to recognize it. As I clawed my way back to consciousness, I felt a wave of relief pass over me. Grey or Azarus must have found me after I’d passed out. Thank God.

I took a deep breath before letting it out slowly. I opened my eyes when I was done, wincing at the sunlight from the open window above me. Sitting up, I looked around.

Yup, this was Grey’s room and Grey’s bed. And I wasn’t alone in here. Surprisingly, it wasn’t Grey though. Azarus was in the room, nominally watching over me. I say nominally, because he was snoozing himself in a chair not far from the bed. Grey was nowhere to be found.

My movement must have been enough to alert him though, because Azarus jerked awake with a snort a few seconds later. When he opened his eyes, he jolted in his chair when he noticed me.

“Nate!” He said, jerking forward to look at me. He was visibly concerned. “Are ya all right? We were worried when ya didn’t get home on time. I was just heading out to look for ya when we ya passed out in the yard. What happened? Only thing we found on ya was a nasty-looking burn.”

Reminded of the burn, I realized that I hadn’t felt anything from it since I woke up. Looking down at the crook of my right arm, I pushed up my sleeve. It looked healed, to me. Instead of being a nasty swollen and blackened burn, it was just a scar now. I could visibly make out the shape of the hooked fire poker from the raised pink flesh. From past experience, I could guess that Grey had used one of our potions on it.

Idly, I wondered if he’d used one of the ones I’d made. But I shook it off.

I looked back up at Azarus and shook my head. “Magnus,” I spat his name. “Happened to me.”

Azarus’s eyes widened. “Did he figure ya out? How did ya escape? Are they comin’?” He said alarmed, half-rising out of his chair.

I held up a hand to stop him. “No, it’s…fine. He didn’t figure out who I was. He just saw a convenient target and decided to take advantage of that.” I said bitterly.

“Oh,” Azarus said lamely. He sat back down with a thump. “Oh. I see.” He finished glumly. I guess he knew how Magnus was.

We sat in silence for a moment before I broke. “Azarus,” I said, catching his attention. “I’m going to kill him.” The declaration hung heavy in the air for a moment before I continued. “Before we escape, I’m sorry, but I’m going to kill him. That monster…I don’t know if I’d be able to live with myself if I left before I could settle matters.”

Azarus was silent for a time before he met my eyes. “I get it.” He murmured. “I really do. There ain’t no love lost between us, and if you’re worried about that don’t be. I know what he’s like. How wrong he is. He’s like a rabid animal that should’ve been taken out back and put down ages ago, but he ain’t been. Too politically important.” He shook his head before sighing. “Do what ya gotta. I won’t stop ya.”

I nodded at him, and he returned it. All right then.

I swung my legs off the bed and stood up with only a slight wobble. Looking around, I found a change of clothes already laid out for me on the bedside table. Luckily, I was at least still wearing underwear. I reached for it to put it on.

I spoke again with my shirt halfway on. “Where’s Grey?” I said, my voice muffled by the cloth.

With my vision still obstructed, I heard Azarus stand up from his chair with a scraping noise. “He’s in the kitchen, whipping something up for breakfast.” He said, voice still subdued.

I finished clothing myself and nodded at Azarus. “All right. Let’s go then. I need to tell you guys what I found.”

………………………………………

Azarus was right, and we found Grey frying up some local tuber reminiscent of potatoes. I’d had some before, and the smell reminded me of how little I’d been given to eat yesterday. My stomach audibly rumbled, which must have alerted Grey. He looked over his shoulder from his position at the stove and started.

“Nathan!” He said, shocked. Hurriedly, he moved his pan over to the tabletop next to him and turned his chair around. Wheeling over to where I was standing in the doorway, he looked up at me in concern. “Are you all right? What happened?”

Unconsciously, my left hand reached up to grasp my new ‘gift’ from Magnus on my right arm. Grey’s eyes followed my movement before meeting my eyes. I looked away.

“Magnus happened,” I said shortly. “Beyond that, I don’t really want to talk about it yet.” Looking over the top of him, I smiled wryly. “More importantly, you might want to watch that.”

Following my gaze, Grey saw the pan he’d set to the side scorching the wood of the table, wisps of smoke rising from the contact. “Ah, dammit.” He muttered, before hurriedly wheeling back over and resuming his cooking.

Before he could speak again, I did. “I’ll talk about what I found in the manor after we eat,” I said. “I only got one small meal yesterday.”

As Azarus and I sat down at the table, Grey made an acknowledging noise.

………………………………………

I sat back in my chair with a content sigh. As always, Grey was a surprisingly excellent cook. Looking up, I saw that both Grey and Azarus were looking at me in expectation. I leaned back forward. “First things first,” I started. “I found both the slate and the stone.”

Grey smiled while Azarus nodded solemnly. “Excellent job, Nathan! Where are they kept?”

“Sylvia was pretty much right on the money about where they would be,” I said, causing Grey to smile wider. “The slate was in Orinbar’s office, which is on the second floor, third room on the left. Big fancy door, not so fancy office.”

Azarus nodded. “That sounds like Orin. He’s not big on what he sees as ‘extravagance’.”

I nodded back at him and continued. “I saw a safe in there that I think he keeps it in. As for the stone…” I took a deep breath. “It’s on the third floor in its own room across from Magnus’s.” I wasn’t able to keep my hatred for him from seeping into my tone, causing Grey to look at me in concern and Azarus to look away.

“Are you all right, Nathan? What happened to you?” Grey asked me.

I was quiet for a moment, fighting with myself about whether or not to tell them. Eventually, I decided to answer. “I don’t want to talk about it much, but I’ll say this. Magnus wanted a more realistic red color for a painting of his, so he took it from me. Just…please don’t ask for details.”

My words caused Grey’s eyes to grow wide in horrified surprise and Azarus to look away from me, almost in shame.

I shook my head slowly. “It’s done. I survived.” I stood up from the chair. “Now I just need to finish the Ward Breaker, and we’re out of here.”

But not before I had my revenge.