PreCursive

  Azarus and I traveled in panionable silenost of the first day. We didn’t even really stop in order to have lunch, we only stopped the cart when the su down. Once we did, I helped Azarus set up our campsite for the night. Thankfully, Azarus had remembered to buy some camping supplies while ba Rhoscara. I wao help him set up the tent he had bought, but I didn’t really know how to set up an old-fashioent. I was only familiar with modern ones from bae that essentially snapped into pce. I would have ended up just standing around uselessly, but I did know how to make a campfire, so I busied myself doing that instead.

  In no time, our campsite was settled for the night. I found myself staring bnkly off into the trees off the side of the path, while Azarus poked idly at the fire with a stick. The sun was going down, I noticed, as if from far away. As the suhrough the trees, I leisurely hat there was no transition into green light at su like there was at sunrise. How the hell that worked one way, but not the other, I had no idea. I’d already resolved to ask Grey, or rather Grey, about it when I got back to Azarus’s pce. He could probably expin it better than Azarus.

  Speaking of.

  I dragged my eyes over to Azarus to see that he was gazing bnkly into the fire like I had been with the su. “Hey,” I said to him, quietly.

  Slowly, he dragged his gaze up to meet mine and bli me. He made an inquisitive noise from the back of his throat.

  I leaned bato my hands. “So, what’s up with you and Ely, anyway?”

  His eyebrows rose at my question before he sighed. “Eh, it’s not that plicated. Just…family business, y’know?”

  I shrugged my shoulders at his defle. “I’m ied, and I’ll listen. If it’s not too personal, I mean. She seemed all right to me.”

  “Yeah, I bet,” Azarus muttered under his breath. He took a deep breath before expelling it. “S’got to do with how I’m not a reized member of House Florens, all right? My ma was a Florens, but my da was a Savoy. Which makes me a member of House Savoy.” He sighed again. “Retioween ‘em ain’t great, to say the least.”

  “All right. What does that have to do with you and Ely?” I asked him patiently.

  He switched his gaze to over my head. “We may be blood, but she has more to worry about than me. She’s the Prinow, after all. She ’t just bend over backward to help one family member that’s not even fully reized. And that’s the problem.” Azarus was quiet for a moment before tinuing. “When ma died…da didn’t take it well. He fell into a druupor that sted years. S’what killed him in the end.”

  Hmm. I see.

  It didn’t match up pletely, but I guess we had some things in on. Even though I wasn’t a dwarven noble.

  Whatever.

  I let Azarus tinue speaking.

  “After da died, first I came to live in Rhoscara. Nobody within House Savoy wao look after me, not even my glorious uhe Prinot that I would’ve wao.” He spit into the fire. “That didn’t work out, so I left for some more… distaives.” He smirked at that, amused for some reason.

  “Yeah?” I asked quietly, curious.

  “I left for the mountain holds,” Azarus said proudly, thumping his chest. My eyebrows shot up at that. From what I remember of what Gren had told me, that had probably really pissed some people off. On both sides of his family. Azarus gri the look on my face. “Oh yeah, the old Jarls made me the dwarf I am today! Everything I know, I owe to them. They taught me how to fight, how to smith, and how to be a ‘real’ dwarf.” He finished, in a mog toill grinning.

  “I’m surprised they took you in,” I said to him. “From what I uand, there’s some bad blood.”

  “Oh, aye.” Azarus nodded. “Like you wouldn’t believe. But they got a kick out of taking in such a blue-blooded noble brat and trying to indoate him. But we ended up getting along just fier a while. Wasn’t even any bad blood wheually left. Still.” He shrugged. “When I came back, I had to work my way bato the good graces of both families. Because of my da, I’m sidered more of a Savoy, and Ely ’t show too much favoritism sidering that. Which leads me to the current situation.” His faint grin fell off finally. “She knows I’m in a hard pce with the whole Grey thing, and has ft-out told me she ’t do anything to get me out of it. I get it. I do. But that don’t help me. So, I gotta help myself. Like always.”

  I let out a breath through my nose. I see how that would cause some hard feelings on his behalf. I even see why Ely ’t help him out. With him being a sort e member of the House, and not even a full o came down to inter-House politics. She would likely be stepping on a bunch of toes by trying to interfere in another House's internal matters if she helped him. From what I had read about dwarven society, that was almost grounds for war. They were really, absurdly big on House snty when it came to matters like this. I didn’t get it, but I didn’t o. I wasn’t a dwarf in the end.

  “I see,” I said quietly, before nodding at him. “Thanks for telling me. You didn’t have to.”

  Azarus looked embarrassed at that. “Ah, don’t worry about it. It’s not a secret. You could probably get the story from plenty of other people.” He stood up at that. “Well, I think it’s about time you hit the hay.”

  I stood up for a moment before pausing as I registered his words. “I should hit the hay? Not you?”

  Azarus nodded. “Yeah, I’ll take first watch tonight. I’ll wake you up ter, and you take sed. We’ll switch off tomorrow.”

  ht. This wagon wasn’t warded like Gren’s was.

  I Azarus, slightly uneasy. “Well, goodnight then,” I told him before retreating to the tent. Slipping into my bedroll inside, I tried not to think about motacks. Before long, I fell into an uneasy sleep.

  ……………………………………..

  The trip back to Addersfield took a bit lohan it had leaving it. We added on another day to the journey, bringing it up to five days versus four. It was a bit more exg as well, as we actually did get attacked by mohis time. On the sed day of our trip during our lunch, what looked like a feral goat charged out of the bush at us. Bleating and snarling, it looked crazed, with rolling red eyes. Observe told me it was a level five “Wooly Rascal”, but I didn’t get a ce to do much more than that.

  With barely anything more than an annoyed gnce, Azarus had hurled the spoon he’d been using to eat his oatmeal at the mohe utensil had spun through the air with unerring accurad messily sliced the top of the goat’s skull off, horns and all. I had been so shocked by the sudden attack that I could do nothing but gape at the se, a spoonful of my own oatmeal dripping in front of my face. Azarus hadn't care about it at all though, and just retrieved his spoon and finished his lunch. Thankfully, he wiped his spoon down first.

  The sed time apparently happened while I was sleeping, and Azarus was on his watch. I didn’t hear anything during the attad didn’t learn until we were ba track the fourth day of travel. He didn’t even tell me what had attacked us, just off-handedly mentio during idle versation.

  The people of this p were really desensitized to the possibility of motack, I guess.

  The fifth day of travel saw us traveling through familiar woodnd. I could tell that we were getting closer to Addersfield. I could reize some of the ndmarks from when we had left. Before long, maybe about midday, I could see the fields. Exging a gh Azarus, I him and climbed over the back of the seat of the cart, and sat down among the crates. It wouldn’t do for me to be seen sitting with my ‘master’ after all, as if I was an equal or something.

  As we exited the forest road aered the path that wound through the fields to the town, I gnced around, disforted. It had been a while since I’d seen any of my fellow sves, and the sight of so many toiling in the fields troubled me.

  My eye caught something unusual as I panned my eyes around. Strangely, there was a dwarf out in the fields as well. I couldn’t pretend that I knew what it was like out in the fields all the time, but from my experiend from what I had seen and heard, that almost never happened. Maybe he was subbing in as an overseer or something? Even stranger, he wasn’t watg any of the sves around him.

  He was watg us.

  The dwarf, dressed in the armor of one of the town guards, was staring ily at on. It was hard to make out from the distaween us, but he also looked like he had his hand to his mouth. Something about that struck me as strange, but I didn’t know why. Still, I could feel a sense of unease creep down my spine. I tried to shake it off, and tore my gaze away from the dwarf.

  After perhaps a half hour, we had made our way through the fields and reached the gates of Addersfield. Like always, there were two of the town guards out front, oher side of the rge wooden gate.

  Even though they had to have seen us, they weren’t looking at us. Azarus slowed the cart in front of the gates and waited for a moment.

  The guards tio not aowledge us.

  After a minute, Azarus spoke up. “Oi.”

  The guards stared at a distant point on the horizon, silent.

  I heard Azarus hop down from the cart. Curious, I sat up on my knees and looked over the driver's bench. Azarus was striding over to the guard on the left, visibly annoyed. “OI!” He said in the guard's face, raising his voice.

  The guard finally turned his eyes to meet Azarus’s. Even from where I was, I could see the regret in them. “Apologies, Lord Azarus.” He muttered.

  Azarus visibly tensed up. He whipped his head around to look at me.

  Our eyes met.

  His were filled with panic.

  Before Azarus had a ce to do anything, the gates in front of me began to groan open. Azarus’s face took a grim tenance, auro face them. I turo watch as well.

  As the gates opened, I could see that there was a crowd oher side gathered. All of them were part of the town guard. There must have been at the very least thirty of them gathered in front of us, all of them standing at attention. To a oheir hands rested on their sheathed swords, ready to draw in an instance.

  Azarus stood up to his full height, but lowered his head as if he was a bull about to charge. Slowly, ponderously, he began to mar order to stand before the rge group of guards. “What is the meaning of this?” He asked andingly in a menag tone, somehow projeg his voice throughout the gate square.

  None of the guards answered him.

  Someone else did instead.

  “Why, it’s a weling ceremony, dear cousin.” A mog voice called out from behind the group of guards. Wordlessly, without being ao, the mass of guards shifted to reveal the owner of the voice.

  Magnus.