"Wake up."

Ulsper gave a small jolt as the voice interrupted his half-conscious meanderings. Blinking, he did his best to focus on the person standing beside him.

"Ah, you've changed shifts now?" he said. His voice was rough from disuse, so he cleared his throat before continuing. "That's exciting. I must have gotten at least a minute of sleep just then, because I hadn't noticed. You're one of the lieutenants, right? Nothedge?"

The man glowered at Ulsper but said nothing. Just to annoy the man a little more, Ulsper twisted up the side of his mouth in a wry smile. Granted, it had been easier to keep up the charade at the beginning of the day, and the effects of Kalasha's torture had left him exhausted. But Kalasha had retired for the night, and now was the time to act.

Ulsper's eyes drifted to the other two guards stationed by the door, and then to the water bucket on the table. Earlier, it had been the bane of his existence, as Kalasha had ultimately opted for methods that wouldn't leave any marks and risk her reputation as a good captain, and had repeatedly held his head underwater in attempt to get him to speak. Now, however, he was just thirsty.

"Could I have some water?" he asked. When Ethran at first didn't move, he continued. "If your plan is to wear me down and keep me from sleeping all night, giving me a drink of water would actually help your strategy, wouldn't you think?"

Seeing reason, albeit begrudgingly, Ethran pushed off from his slouch against the wall and grabbed a wooden cup from the barn table to dip into the bucket.

With Ethran's back turned, Ulsper took another look around. Earlier, he had noticed his weapons near a bale of hay, and was relieved to find that they hadn't been moved.

"Here," Ethran had come back with the water. Rather than hold the cup up for Ulsper, however, the lieutenant tossed the contents at his face.

Ulsper let out a slow breath, blinking away the drops. Ethran stared back impassively, an eyebrow raised in a silent challenge for the spy to dispute him. If Ulsper did, it would only give Ethran an excuse to enact the violence he so clearly wanted.

Ulsper didn't take the bait. Instead, he countered with an attack of his own.

"So, you and the captain, huh?"

Ethran froze. "What are you talking about?"

Ulsper gave the man a wink. "Oh, I think you know." Lowering his voice to a conspiratorial whisper, he continued. "Is it awkward around the others, or do they not know yet?"

Ethran turned to the other two soldiers. "Leave us alone for a minute."

One of the guards dared to speak up, her brow furrowing as she did so. "I don't think—"

"That's a direct order! Outside, now! Or would you prefer I write you up for insubordination?"

Ethran's threat was enough to quiet them. The two lower-ranking members of the Imperial Guard turned and hurried outside, though not without suspicious glances back at Ulsper and Ethran.

Finally alone, Ethran turned back to Ulsper.

"I'll take that as a no, then," Ulsper ventured with a slight twitch of a smile at his lips.

"Whatever nonsense you're trying to stir up, I'll have none of it," Ethran growled.

"Nonsense? Nonsense!" Ulsper said. "It's quite clear to anyone with a bit of observation."

Ethran's reaction was subtle, but Ulsper didn't miss the worry that flashed in his eyes. "What do you mean?"

"I suppose she only calls you Ethran when you're alone, Lieutenant Nothedge?" Ulsper continued. "Does she let you call her by name too, or will it always and forever be just 'captain'?"

Ethran tossed the cup aside and grabbed Ulsper by the front of his shirt.

"Don't you dare," he warned.

Ulsper shrugged his shoulders, as best he could while seated on a chair with his arms tied behind his back. "I'm just trying to warn you. It'll never work out. She ranks higher than you, and you're in the same squad, too. You have nothing she wants and she has everything."

"That's not true."

"Isn't it? You know she only sees you as someone who's trying to sleep their way to the top, but she'll entertain the idea for the moment, at least until you're back in Sylterra. After all, there's only twelve of you in your squadron. She doesn't have much to choose from."

"Enough!"

The man pushed Ulsper away, his anger making the shove more forceful than intended, and the chair teetered, gravity finally winning over as it tilted irreparably towards the ground.

Ulsper braced himself for impact. He'd had worse, but he knew it was going to hurt more after the kind of day he'd had.

He let out a pained grunt as the chair crashed on its side, the right back post digging into his skin as his arm was caught beneath it. He'd nearly hit his head on the ground too, and as it was would probably have a bruise and some strained neck muscles. But the important part was the crack of wood – one of the cross rails on the back of the chair had splintered, right by his wrists.

"Useless," Ethran spat, pausing a moment before reaching over and yanking on the left side of the chair to right it. "And they call you the most talented of Sylterra's spies?"

The chair now upright, Ethran leaned in closer to leer in Ulsper's face as he continued. "You're weak, and try to hide it behind shallow cares and forced humor. You want to analyze my life but can't even realize how pathetic your own is."

A click beneath his chin silenced the man's tirade, a sharp inhale the final sound to escape his lips.

Ulsper's smile was close-lipped, his eyes narrowed in a way that was more irritated than entertained as he held the stunning pistol he'd swiped from Ethran's belt beneath the lieutenant's chin.

"First impressions can be deceiving," Ulsper said, bringing his other hand out from behind his back and shaking off the rest of the frayed leather straps that had bound him for so long. With a small sigh, he rolled his red-lined wrist to ease the soreness and return the bloodflow. "If I were you, I'd pay a bit more heed to spies with reputations. We don't just get those on a whim."

Ethran bared his teeth, and perhaps would have opened his mouth to speak, but Ulsper pulled the trigger. A pea-sized dart shot out beneath the man's chin, and the toxic sap within took hold in seconds. The lieutenant toppled forward, and Ulsper grimaced as the man hit the ground. The fall would cause a bruise, and the dart was built for piercing fabric – the spot beneath Ethran's chin would most likely be sore for days, and the sap might even affect his speech for a while, given how close the dart was to his tongue.

Reaching down, Ulsper undid the straps binding his legs to the chair and stood up for the first time since the afternoon's torture. All his muscles protested at the exertion, and pins and needles pricked at his feet, making it difficult to take the few first steps.

He gritted his teeth and made his way to the hay bale, where his knives and pistol were lying in a heap on the floor.

"Lieutenant?" one of the soldiers called from outside. "Is everything all right?"

Ulsper bit back a curse and ducked behind the hay bale, just as the two soldiers opened the door. They gasped as they saw the lieutenant's crumpled form, and rushed over immediately to check on him. A rookie mistake – one that made Ulsper feel a bit bad about what he was about to do next.

"Go get the captain," the female soldier was telling her companion after they had rolled Ethran over. As they checked the man's vitals, Ulsper rose from behind his hiding spot and approached them from behind. "He's still breathing, but we need to go after the prisoner."

The other soldier nodded. "What will we tell her, though? We'll get in so much trouble if she finds out we had left our posts when Speroware escaped."

"Oh, don't worry," Ulsper said, "I'll make it look like you were here all along."

The female guard tensed in her crouch over the lieutenant, while the male soldier spun around, his shout to alert the others only lasting for a gasp before Ulsper had shot a dart in his neck.

The man went down almost immediately, landing nearly beside Ethran with a small puff of dirt rising up from the ground at his impact.

"See?" Ulsper said, gesturing towards the prone figures. "She'll never know the difference. And really, it's not your fault I escaped."

Slowly, the other soldier turned around, still crouched on the ground, with a hand at the butt of the pistol in her belt.

"What do you mean?" she grit out. "How is it not my fault?"

Ulsper gave a sympathetic smile. "How long have you been in the Imperial Guard?"

The young woman hesitated, her knuckles whitening as she tightened her grip. "Since last summer. I joined to help my family pay off their debts."

Ulsper sighed. "Since last summer. And your captain expects you to be able to overcome someone with two decades of training? I don't mean to sound arrogant, but it's simply not a fair match."

The woman's face darkened to a glower. "I could get lucky."

Ulsper inclined his head. "That is true."

No sooner had he spoken than the woman drew her pistol, fingers fumbling to unlatch the safety and pull the trigger. Ulsper was quicker – but a hollow click foretold that the borrowed stunning pistol in his hands was either out of darts or jammed. Without time to think, he cast it aside and surged forward, tackling the other soldier before the gunpowder in her pistol could set off and alert the others.

The pistol spun across the floor, out of reach. While that was good, what was not good was the dagger that the soldier pulled out instead and stuck into Ulsper's leg.

He grunted, rolling over and pinning her to the ground, but she struck out with her legs at his injury and managed to kick him off. She scrambled towards the pistol, but Ulsper caught her ankle and pulled her back, and she slammed back into the ground with a small cry.

"I'm terribly sorry about this," Ulsper said as he wrapped his right arm around her neck and put her in a chokehold. To her credit, she tried to twist and elbow him in the ribs, but it wasn't enough to make him break his hold.

Ulsper waited until she had fallen unconscious before finally letting go, sitting back up with a sigh and rubbing a hand over his face. He was exhausted, but he couldn't rest now.

He did his best to bandage the wound in his leg before standing up and limping over to grab his weapons and slip out the barn door. Then, he was able to fully assess his surroundings.

The fields outside the barn were typical of those found on the western slopes of Andilir, with hilly pastures and wooden fences barely discernible in the starlight from above. Somewhere in the darkness, a smattering of bronze cowbells clanked in time with the bleating of a flock of sheep.

Ulsper tightened his jacket around him as a light breeze picked up, whispering across the long grass as he set off down a dirt road. The Archer's Constellation was just rising on the horizon, the Arrowhead Star at the front of the bow guiding the way. Ulsper figured he would get a better sense of his bearings tomorrow, but for the moment, he needed to get away from the barn, and the rest of Kalasha's company, as quickly as possible.

~*~*~*~*~

Hello everyone!  Sorry for the delay - I was on a roll the last month with regular posting but then last week I took a break and wrote a short story for a Wattpad contest instead of working on one of my ongoing projects instead, because, y'know, I'm not already struggling haha.  But anyway, we're back up to speed with what's going on with Ulsper, and while I tried to skip out on most of the gory details here, there was still a litttttttle bit of violence in this chapter.  Hopefully that was okay though?  At any rate, thank you for reading!!