“Alright, Honey Bunny,” Agalon said when Xaxac was able to register speech in any meaningful way again, “You stay right here and don’t move this arm.”

“Thesis’s glowin eyes, dad,” Lorsan said, “we need a real healer. We need a vet.”

“I’ll get a vet out tomorrow,” Agalon said, stood, and squeezed Lorsan’s shoulders, “I’ll scry him right now. But I want to spend the day with you. You’re leaving.”

“Uh huh,” Lorsan shrugged him off, walked past him, and pulled out Xaxac’s injured arm.

Xac stared down at it and saw that it had been bandaged in a strange way that he thought may be part of his punishment. It had been attached to two long pieces of wood that held it stretched out; he wasn’t able to bend at the elbow, which was fine because he still couldn’t get that arm to work at all. He also couldn’t feel it. It wasn’t just that he felt no pain, or that he felt a numbness, he felt nothing, as if someone had cut the arm from his body at the shoulder and neglected to tell him.

“I’m sorry, Aggie,” he said.

“Can you feel anything?” Lorsan asked as he pulled the arm up.

“It ain’t there…” Xac said.

“Daddy paralyzed ya,” Lorsan said, “So don’t be tryin to move. That’s the worst thing you can do.”

“Ok,” Xac said, and again, because he had never gotten a response, “I’m sorry, Aggie!”

“Hush,” Lorsan said, and when he continued, it was obviously meant for his father, “Go back to your fighters. I got this.”

“I thought maybe you’d want to do somethin together,” Agalon said, “I didn’t reckon you’d get up before noon or I’d’a-”

“Daddy, I got this,” Lorsan said, “You got the preliminaries comin up in Basilglen. I got this. Just go.”

Xaxac felt a little bit as if he was floating on a cloud, rather than sitting on the bed, and he may have been lost in a fog. Words weren’t settling too well in his brain, and he didn’t understand the look on Agalon’s face, the look that broke his heart. Agalon didn’t look mad, he looked disappointed, disconsolate.

“Fine, Lorry,” he said, “But I’ll be back for lunch. I want us to spend some time together.”

“Yeah, I bet,” Lorsan rolled his eyes, but his back was to Agalon, so he couldn’t see him and Xac was glad for it.

“Honey Bunny, you sit right here and don’t move that arm,” Agalon said, “that potion oughta heal it up, and you got that shifter healin anyway, but don’t move while it’s healin. If you move a broke bone it can heal wrong and you’ll end up like Jimmy.”

Jimmy.

He should find Jimmy and give him the baby blanket. He had finished it.

Wait- he was doing something. He was in a conversation. He could not remember what he had been asked, but Agalon looked as if he wanted some sort of response, so Xaxac said, “Yes, master.”

“That’s my good boy,” Agalon leaned over Lorsan to lift Xac’s face for a goodbye kiss. “I’ll be back for lunch.”

“Take your time,” Lorsan said as Agalon left the room.

“Thesis’s glowin’ eyes, Xac,” He said once Agalon was gone, “What happened out there?”

“I think it’s cause… I didn’t connect… to think…” Xac said, narrowed his eyes and felt the frustration building, “I’m stupid. I can’t be this stupid. Why am I this stupid? I’m not drunk!”

“Oh, that’s the paralysis spell,” Lorry explained, “It does that. I mean it can. That kind. It ought not, it’s on your arm, but I think dad’s not… great. He’s like… It works like a plant. It’s hard to localize. But the potion will actually fight it- it’s like… magic flows through the blood, right? So it’s hard to just hit one limb like that. And he ain’t exactly a top shelf mage anyway, he’s got one foot in the grave.”

“What?” Xac asked.

“You ain’t stupid, Xac, you’re under a spell.” Lorsan said, and this was much more simple to understand, “How’d you break your humerus? And rip your arm outta socket hard enough to tear the muscle? You know that joint’s real fucked up in humans right? There’s not even that many primates what have a whole rotating shoulder joint like that. It’s hard to fix. Sometimes that just stays messed up, forever. It’s an injury that it’s hard to unfuck on y’all, and sasquaches, couple other great apes, but not monkeys. It’s weird.”

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“What?” Xac asked again.

“How’d you get hurt?” Lorsan asked, sounding a little frustrated but speaking slowly and enunciating clearly.

“I reckon when Billy smashed me in the dirt,” Xac said, and thought that Lorsan should have been able to put that together himself, “Aggie made me fight him, on account of I tried to run away.”

“Daddy made you fight Billy the Bull?” Lorsan asked skeptically, “The guy who knocked your tooth out?”

“Only bad people run away,” Xac said with great sincerity, “And… I didn’t mean to but… I woulda been out there all alone and… the Emerald Knight comes after folk who run away… I wouldn’t… there woulda been nothin I could… he wants to keep me safe.”

“Is that somethin daddy told ya?” Lorsan huffed as he stood.

“The Emerald Knight was there at the bad place,” Xaxac said, “The place he went in the military.”

“No, Xac, he wouldn’t,” Lorsan said, “The Emerald Knight ain’t real. They say that shit to scare you. Xandra says that shit to scare everybody. That ain’t a real thing. It’s just… a boogieman. There’s too many stories for all of um to make sense. Ten different people’ll tell ya ten different things.”

Xaxac didn’t feel like arguing over nonsense as Lorsan seemed to constantly want to do, so he changed the subject back to one that was worth arguing about.

“I think Aggie thought I could beat him,” he said, “But I dunno why.”

“He probably did,” Lorsan shrugged, “He’s stupid. He probably thought more about you bein a shifter than your intense trainin regime of sittin on your ass and drinkin.”

“I need to exercise,” Xaxac said, “I’m tired of being so weak all the time. I don’t like gettin hit and thrown around.”

“Ok but like… you got abs,” Lorsan said in confusion, “I can see um through that ridiculous outfit.”

“Yeah I use my core a lot,” Xac explained, without really registering, in his foggy brain, who he was talking to, “that’s how you ride. It’s a lotta core strength. And like, for blowjobs too, on your knees, you gotta really use your whole body or your neck hurts, so it’s like-”

“Stop.” Lorsan held up a hand. “Like I get it, you’re under a spell. But stop. That’s so… infuriatingly disgusting.”

“Why?” Xac asked.

“Just hush,” Lorry said, “I gotta go pack. I’m gettin out of this hellhole tomorrow. Daddy’s right, amazingly, don’t move your arm. Stopped clock, I guess.”

“What?” Xac asked.

“Even a stopped clock is right twice a day,” Lorsan said as he walked through the doorway.

Xaxac watched him leave, then stood and remembered that he was supposed to be doing something, so he walked into the sitting room and picked up the baby blanket from where he had it folded on the table. He walked to the door and opened it, careful to do everything one handed, then stepped across the hall to Lorsan’s rooms, where he thought Jimmy probably was now that he worked for him. He knocked softly on the door, and sure enough, Jimmy opened it.

He looked terrible, and Xaxac thought the trip must have been difficult for him. His face was sallow, sunken, and his bloodshot eyes were set much deeper in his thin face than they should have been, ringed so darkly he might have been a racoon who was attempting to disguise himself as a human using some sort of magic he didn’t understand well enough to work correctly.

“Xac?” He asked, “I can’t… imagine you’re supposed to be out here.”

“I ain’t,” Xac said. He motioned to his arm and said, “But in for a silver in for a gold, right?”

“Oh shit,” Jimmy said, “I… I didn’t do that, did I? Shit Xac, I’m sorry about last night I… I…” He began to tear up and he said, “I been thinkin too much.”

“Jimmy!” Lorsan called from the bedroom, “Whatcha doin?”

“Coming, master!” Jimmy said, but Lorsan came out of the bedroom, saw what was happening, and the blood seemed to drain from his face.

“Xac, go back to your rooms,” he demanded, “Jimmy, close the door.”

“Just a second!” Xac begged as Jimmy moved to slam the door in his face, “I just wanna give you this! Aggie said I could give it to Alley, but I’m… loopy. I don’t think I can make it downstairs. Just… tell her congratulations, and that I love her, ok? Y’all gonna be great parents!”

He held the blanket out, and Jimmy slowly, cautiously, reached for it. He stared at it as if he didn’t comprehend what he was looking at, so Xaxac felt the need to clarify.

“For the baby,” he explained, “to wrap it up. So it’ll feel safe.”

Tears fell, slowly, down Jimmy’s face, but he didn’t seem to notice, didn’t seem to understand that he was crying or that he wasn’t supposed to. He just stared at the blanket, as if he still didn’t understand what he was looking at.

“It’s a blanket,” Xac tried, and wondered if Jimmy wasn’t perhaps also under sort of spell.

“Jimmy!” Lorsan demanded, and Jimmy took a breath, which made Xaxac realize he had been holding it.

“Sorry,” Jimmy said, “Sorry master. Sorry… Xac, I’m so sorry. I’m so sorry. I’m sorry about everything, I…”

Lorsan walked to the door, leaned over Jimmy, and slammed it in Xac’s face.