Fereren put down the book and pinched his nose.

"Army, my arse." He whispered, so as to not disturb his son's slumber. "This isn't an army. Its not even a militia." As it turned out the former general's grand army he would need to use in escaping the slaver empire was the slaves themselves.

Fereren stepped into the next room and looked at his son. His son, his heir, was pale as snow and just as cold to the touch. Yet, he knew better. What he had endured should have, would have, killed him. What's more, despite recovery being months coming, he still made small efforts if Valspear's testimony isn't an exaggeration. His little soldier's fire was still burning.

Fereren felt a noose around his neck. The former king of Kes had given him a noose to hang himself with, and now he knew it.

He was in a position where he couldn't abandon his friend, his people, his son. So long as their will burned, he would happily hang himself on any and every noose Caius could come up with. He just needed to figure out how to make it work.

Yes, Caius may have worked with Valspear to get his son out of that death prison, but a thought went through Fereren's mind now that the shock was past.

"How did Caius know where you were?" Fereren wondered outloud. He brushed his son's sickly oiled hair away from his face. "Of the hundreds of thousands of slaves here, how did you find you? Something doesn't add up. We can't be that lucky."

The touch disturbed Aelius slightly, so the boy turned into it and continued snoring. Fereren smiled warmly. After a moment he left and returned to the table.

His feet crunched on paper, and he bent down to pick it up. However, before he put it back with the other documents, it caught his eye. This paper wasn't numbers and buyers and sellers, it was entirely different. This was law. An ugly, unorganized scribble of notes and thoughts pertaining to different laws, to be more specific, and all of it was in his native language. Even more than that, it was handwriting notation of Kes nobility, a specific kind meant to make them more elegant, fancy, and, in his opinion, a touch vain.

---

Night came suddenly. Fereren found a candle set and lit it for himself and Aelius. He placed one on the floor and sat next to his sun, continuing to read.

It was at this time that Valspear and Slavian returned. The former trudged his way in, his back bowed and sluggish. The latter bounded off the walls laughing and making a racket, bursting into the room with them, and coming to an abrupt halt under Fereren's disapproving glare.

"Where is the Cynn-Blood?" Fereren asked, noting his absence.

"Off to rest." Valspear answered. He collapsed into a chair and leaned back against the wall. "Slavian ran us out."

"Literally." Slavian smirked. He pranced over to Aelius and immediately poked him in the face with a finger. Fereren's smack to the face was swift and heavy, sending the older boy back, clutching his face in mostly shock.

Aelius stirred enough to make coherent words. Fereren sighed, pointed a finger at the older boy, and held his gaze, ensuring he had the young man's attention. "You can tell him how your day went. But you will not poke and prod him as if he is an animal, especially in his sleep. Got it, child?"

"You smacked me." He whispered.

"Yes. Have you noticed your Soran-Blood bodyguard did not stop me? He disapproves of you as well, but is too polite to say so. I get you are from Ref, but among the civilized world everyone disciplines children into proper behavior, otherwise you will grow into an adult finding enemies everywhere you go and likely dead. Do it again, and my response will be no less swift and painful. Now, do you understand, child?"

The white-haired boy nodded.

"Alright. I'll be just in the other room." Fereren kissed the top of his son's head and left the two of them.

Slavian eyed him, but kept his peace, if only to not get slapped again. As soon as the man was gone, his cheer returned and he jumped into the bed by Aelius. "You slept long!"

"I was tired." Aelius yawned. "Where did you all go?"

"Oh, so many places! Some kind of party place with ost-obesetel-abtze-osticalle-" Slavian struggled to pronounce. "Something courses and walls of bushes as a maze and a giant wheel of metal and a massive ocean of grass where hundreds of sweaty half-naked men wrestled in teams and-oh yeah! Hold out your hand." He pulled something out of his pocket and slapped into his hands something. "Chow down!"

"What's this?" Aelius inquired. He rubbed it in his fingers. It was hard but a bit sticky around. He rubbed his fingers on his dirty clothes in disgust.

"Don't gag! Its sweet. You are supposed to eat it!"

"It feels disgusting. What is it?"

"I don't know, I just grabbed a handful and shoved it in my pocket."

"That doesn't help." Aelius frowned, but putting on a brave face went along with the boy's insistence and shoved it in his mouth. Immediately his face brightened. It was very sweet and fruity.

Slavian went on to tell him all about his day.

Shortly after they left the tower he ran away, climbing over benches, tents, and onto buildings. He didn't want to give Valspear a heart attack, but had the overwhelming urge for space and to move. The Mirrad-Blood kept up with him, just as capable in traversing unusual paths. Slavian would have won the race, but his friend betrayed him. Nel'Andra grabbed hold of the gap between two buildings just as they dropped down, effectively hanging him in the air until the others caught up with him. Soon after this the Mirrad-Blood left to attend to more serious matters.

Then they went to a large place with many exhibits where he may have acquired the candy in a crowd. There were many small games, but the thing that caught his eye was the metal wheel. There were people gathering to it. It was ran by a Soran machine and water, and there were carts for babies all around it that people sat in because they didnt want to have fun. He, on the other hand, clung to the metal and climbed through it while it spun until he reached the top and walked on the moving wheel. Again, Valspear nearly had a heart attack. It did not help he slipped and fell. However, Nel'Andra caught a metal bar and swung them both, and from there Slavian jumped from metal bar to metal bar along with Nel'Andra's aid of swinging with his long metal arms.

Valspear asked for the next place be boring and with less vertical options. They went to a field of grass going as far as the eye could see on the eastern side of the city. There was a square area where teams of men were forming. Anyone could from the crowd could enter either side as wished. Then the two sides went into games starting with blind racing, scaring and urging on a goat into running over the opposite side of the field by any means except touching it, and then concluding in both forming towers out of men supporting those above on their shoulders and sending more men to wrestle down the opposing tower in a collapsing array of limbs. The first game started with nearly one hundred in a blind race and grew steadily until the final game concluded with one thousand.

---

I awoke with a start. Fereren kicked my feet and smiled at my reaction. "Oh, were you sleeping?" I gave him a rude gesture even as my eyes glanced around. "The kids are in the bedroom talking. Its just us out here."

I leaned back, breathing in the peace. Things were quiet and still. My head hurt too much to plan and research. My body ached.

"How long has it been since you rested properly?" Fereren asked.

"Not since I picked up my Sun-Child." I whispered. "I had some help, but couldn't afford to leave him long. Besides one night, I was always here nursing from the top of the candle."

"You're not much of a nurse, as I recall."

"Good thing I had some help, eh?" I smiled weakily.

"Hm. The problem is, neither am I. And we have too much work to do to be here all day." He motioned with his head out my door.

"The work we have to do is right here." I motioned to the other door.

"Not if we are going to have any hope of getting him out of here."

I sighed. He was right. "Koj'Ineh works for us now, so we can have him help balance time nursing."

"The Cynn-Blood?"

"Mirrad-Blood, but yes," I explained. "Their leadership capacity is more medical than military, as I understand."

"Even so, it isn't enough. His talents may be many, but he can't do everything. We need more. And, if I may be so bold, we need better accomidations. This is sparse, to say the least, and I am uncomfortable having him in the same home as the bastard who started this."

I did not have his misgivings, but I could understand why he did. I thought back to the list of people I knew in town. It was, unfortunately, a small list. Fortunately, it wasn't lacking in qualities. "I know some people that'd help."

In the morning.

---

We departed my abode and headed out.

The Torrus Solaris acted as the center of the capital. A river flowed down from the north towards it and diverted west as it came near and went in a complete circle around, while splitting off towards the south-west. The river was mostly natural, but the part that split around the tower had been manufactured by the Aeterna's power. At the point where the southward river splits west and south, is also where the circle joins from the east, creating a point of water diverging in four directions that only flows in two. Here, at the point, was where Barjol'Ne built his mansion with tall walls and water gates. This gave him unallocated control and access to the water. Whether out of respect or self-preservation, he did not tamper with the water flow around the Emperor's tower; but the occasional day would see ships entering his private port and the outflow westerly watergate closed. This interruption of the city's lifeblood created a series of communities. Those to the north were the wealthiest with unmitigated access to fresh water supply and imports before the waters reached Barjol. Those to the west past Barjol were the poorer, seeing their water supply regularly cut and traversing further to access the market. Those around the tower or within its shadow were the most renowned, governmental, or blessed. Those to the south or east away from the water were surprisingly unaffected and made up the middle class, having unmitigated, access to limited water near the tower but mostly acting as its own sub-city with its own market and imports from places further south and east and rarely engaging with the other half.

Our destination lied in the northern half near the water.

Immediately Aelius scrunched up his nose at it as we neared the river. For his comfort we rented a local wagon to ferry us across town. He sat in the back of the ride with his father and I sat near the front with the wagon owner and his horse. Slavian stood, unbothered by the rocking, with his bodyguard and friend at his customary place astride the prince's back.

"What is the matter?" Fereren asked.

"Smells like the ocean." Aelius complained. "Even sounds like it."

"It's a river that flows down from the ocean. Unfortunately, its not fresh water. Those are further north at the base of the mountains where the water runs off."

"I'm not going to drink it!" Aelius gagged. "Ancestors know what's in it."

"Fish crap, for starters." Slavian guessed playfully.

"And where there is... that, there is fish. We can fish when you get stronger, my little soldier." Fereren suggested, pulling his son close as the ride rocked. Aelius frowned. "All in due time." His father added.

Slavian eyed them uncomfortably and stepped forward onto the seat where we were. The rider protested having more in the front with him, and the boy opted to jump onto the horses back instead. The driver protested further, but a tower coin shut him down.

"Are we there yet?" Slavian asked.

"No."

"How long then?"

"Don't know."

"You don't- Haven't you been there before?"

"No, I have not. This is my first time in this area."

I looked around trying to judge which of the buildings was it as we passed by them. Many of the buildings had signs hanging above the door with the business name, but I had not seen the one I desired yet. The horse's trot was on the slower end to avoid rocking too much, and we couldn't go much faster if we wanted to with the people walking around us on the street.

"We should ask around then." Fereren suggested, taking the proactive approach.

"It should just be a little bit further down, probably. Let's not bother these people." I replied, taking the reactive approach.

"Which am I doing? Do I stop here or keep going?" The driver asked.

"Stop for a moment." "Keep going." Both of us said at once. We shot each other an annoyed glance at the same time, only to burst out in giggles. I missed him.

Fereren leaned back and closed his eyes. "Whatever you say. I'm just along for the ride."

"Thank you. Now if my 'servant' can keep his opinion to himself-"

"Servant? You couldn't fight me much less a blade of grass."

I rolled my eyes. As My eyes moved across the street, I spied what I was looking for. "Hold up. I think this is it."

The driver gently pulled the horse to a halt and we stopped. The building next to us was a large mess of three buildings put together that were clearly not originally that way. The one on the right was the largest with a part of it jutting down into the river and a layer of stone walls built around it like a bread oven. The middle building was a relatively normal one, if you ignored the third building built into its roof like something fell from the sky and crashed into it.

"The Washing Basin?" Fereren asked, reading aloud the sign.

"Are they from Ref?" Slavian asked, eyeing it from end to end.

"I don't think so. Let me make sure its them." I offered. I asked the driver to stand by a moment while I approached.

The building on the right had a great deal of noise coming from it, like a waterfall and twister at once. The middle building was no less noisy, but with a more roudy and social atmosphere, mostly very high pitched and incomprehensible. There was a door on both buildings, while the sign hung over the one on the right. There was a door knocker on the right-most door. I beat it three times, but after several seconds there was no reaction. I waited a moment more and moved to the leftdoor. I barely tapped on its surface with my knuckles and immediately everything within went deadly quiet.

I had a bad feeling about this.

Just as abrubtly I found myself thrown to the ground as nothing short of a stampede of children and dogs plowed into me. Dozens upon dozens of hands took hold of my arms and legs, picked me up, and half-dragged me into the house. Before I knew what was happening, I was tied to a chair with a two year old still in diapers standing on a stool pointing a ladle very threateningly at my nose. My eyes drifted around the house briefly. More kids than I knew imaginable filled or ran through every visible space. Cats and dogs ran amidst the legs and jumped on furniture to escape the children's hands. One unfortunate critter was caught and was given the receiving end of an eye-popping hug. In the midst of the insanity navigated a young woman I recognized as a slave belonging to Barjol'Ne. She tried to shepherd the children, but it was to no avail. A team of brats went for my waist and ran away with my coin purse and my knife, thankfully locked in its hilt.

The slave pulled the two-year old away from my and sent him running off. "I am so sorry, master Val'Spear! I couldn't stop them."

"I'm not!" A cheerful laugh came from the door. Fereren stood just in the door watching me with unrestrained mockery and joy only a brother could have. "I am so glad you gave me the privilege of witnessing that!"

I rolled my eyes. I flexed my hands but the kids were efficent. The knot around my wrists and the chair would make my brother proud. "It is quite alright, but that one got to my coin purse and knife."

"Oh no!" She tried to go in after them, but she couldn't push through the tide. At this time, Slavian and Nel'Andra entered and seeing the child waving my belongings as a trophy, went in. They nimbly climbed onto higher surfaces, grabbed the roof, and swung across until he was over his prey and then stilled as a four-armed spider-monkey. With the Soran hanging on, Slavian reached down and snatched my belongings out of the child's unsuspecting fingers. This earned him both the sudden attention, and excited awe, of no less than two dozen eyes.

Around the center of the room was a spiral stair-case leading up to the make-shift second-building we saw ontop. A stampede of scampering feet went after him, and Slavian gave them something to chase above. Grabbing the stairs from under, he swung himself up and disappeared.

"Are you their mother?" Fereren asked the slave.

"By the Ancestors, no!" She laughed in good nature. "Their parents are in the other room working. Their grandmother is-" She motioned behind me but a reverberating snore told me what I needed to know.

Fereren took his son off his shoulders. Aelius took a moment to steady himself, quickly found the wall, and sat down. He had no idea of the layout and didn't wish to venture and explore yet. Fereren leaned down behind me and undid the cords. I rubbed my wrists and stood.

"Fereren, may I introduce Kusatta'Chizu'Kes. Kusatta, this is Fereren'Kyltu'Kes."

"House of Chizu." Fereren nodded. "A fine northern house, hard workers. Many of the soldiers I have trained are from there."

"A Kyltu." She breathed. She looked at me, frantic. Immediately she bowed.

"None of that." Fereren grabbed her shoulders and raised her up. "The noble houses are gone."

I followed this up, adding, "She was a slave in the service of Barjol, who guided me towards finding Aelius."

"Oh that is-" She looked at the boy briefly, but clammed up at Fereren's sudden embrace.

"Thank you." He said. Then, as quickly as he took her, he let her go.

She stood frozen a moment flushed, but after a breath she said, "How about I go get the masters of the house?"

She left through a side door. For the brief moment the side door was open, there was the intense gushing of water. Kusatta returned and covered the door with a curtain, and moment later a couple entered the cavity. They both took towels off of a rack on the wall and dabbed at themselves and Large gusts of steam poured out of the back room until they closed the door. They put on proper robes and entered the main house. The couple were soaked to the skin and gasping for breath. Their skin was red, steaming, and smelled, even from here, of citrus. The couple in question was an Ire-Blood woman and Krakow.

"Val the secret, Successor of Adam." Krakow breathed, a smile widening on his face. "My apologies, we were not expecting visitors."

"No apologies necessary, this was unprompted, I know. It is just, things are moving quickly and so we-" I motioned to Fereren. "Wished to ask a favor."

"We can discuss it shortly, but for now, let us get settled. This is my wife, Abigail'Revue'Ire." Abigail bowed.

She added, "You must stay for mid day meal!"

"Honored, I am Valspear'Ronlin'Kes, and this is my friend Fereren'Kyltu'Kes. Of course, you recognize Aelius'Kyltu'Kes, and the Ref-Blood and Soran-Blood upstairs upstairs giving your children something to chase is Slavian and Nel'Andra, respectivly."

We took some time to freshen up in a mirror bowl with water fresh from the river. Their son, Senec, returned in the meantime with a little sister. They had been to a school and immediately set to work helping their parents prepare a vast amount of food. I tried to count them, but kept losing track at fifteen because the kids were in constant motion and most of them looked the same, literally. I expected it to be some hours for food preperation with so many mouths, including the guests, but between Senec, his sister, Abigail, Krakow, and Kusatta, not to mention the grandmother who, upon waking, immediately burned the energy she had built up by outpacing all five them at once. By the time we had freshened up and washed Aelius' and Slavian's faces, the latter of whom protested he could do it his own damn self thank you very much, it was already done and two tables were set. There was a long table closer to the ground with two long benches on either side, for the kids, and a shorter table higher from the ground with chairs on all sides, for the adults. Wooden planks was added to the adult table to extend it allowing Aelius to sit by his father and I insisted on Slavian having the honor of sitting with us. Senec also sat with us. Kusatta and the grandmother took up the kids table to keep the children from being too far out of control. Nel'Andra was content to sit in a hammock makeshifted from the riding straps already around Slavian's torso in a place where he could watch the prince.

One seat at the head of the kid's table was left open.

As we began, Krakow said, "So, Valspear the secret. What business can a simple rug cleaner provide?"

"The secret?" Fereren echo'd, amused.

"Let me start with clearing up the mystery. I am Valspear'Ronlin'Kes, the son of the king."

"Worry not, we know." Krakow answered. "Valspear, prince of Kes, and hostage to Ire. Anyone trying to integrate themselves into other societies would be remise not to at least know who the royal family is."

"Then why the nickname?"

"Its funny."

"I like these guys." Aelius chuckled. Fereren hid his amusement behind a cup he brought to his lips.

"Well, that will prove to be the easiest part." I went into a tale of my journey from how it began with witnessing the Aeterna's power, and ended recently with meeting up with my old friend here. I kept Slavian out of it. I felt it necessary to say as both them and Fereren were my allies, and both only had bits and pieces of my journey.

I finished, "So, having come this far, I ask that you watch over Aelius and take him into your care so we may focus on securing him and our people. I am close, so close to saving my people."

"Whoa." Senec gasped.

"Anything else?" Krakow asked.

"Well," I thought a moment, "if you could also point us to someone who could legally remove the slave tattoo on his thumb. That would be a nice bonus."

"So now I understand you and your journey and your friends, but who is he." Krakow nodded his head towards Slavian. Slavian's eyes widened, and he coughed with his mouthful, nearly choking himself, as he was suddenly under everyone's attention.

"Well, not everything has to be revealed. Something has to have some mystery to it."

"Slavian the secret!" Senec cheered.

"Val the Secret is no more, and we have Slavian the secret instead." Krakow smiled, but his amusement fell. "I appreciate your honesty. I understand why you did not tell me before, as our interactions had no bearing, but now what you request is to support your rebellion if only in the tiniest way."

"Its not-"

"If I may be just as honest, friend." Krakow looked at me seriously. "I sympathize. Slavery is a thing in Ire, but what you face is a whole different beast entirely. For us, it is a social welfare where the poor's debts are taken on by the rich in return for servitude. You have to ask to become a slave. For you, it is abuse of power upon the weak who never wanted it. Seeing Aelius and having taken on Kusatta at your request, I can see why that rebellious spirit burns. But you are asking me to endanger my family by taking hands with you in this, if only to ease your burden to free your time to properly focus on it. I owe you a debt, friend, but we already fled from two homes, I don't want us to find ourselves without a third." As he said this, his wife turned pale from memory and put a hand down towards him, and he took it in his palm.

"I understand, but it won't be rebellion if I can compromise with the Emperor."

"If," both Krakow and Fereren said at the same time, in two different tones.

"I am trying to do this internally, so there will be no conflict or war." I explained.

"And you?" Krakow directed his attention to my friend.

Fereren turned in his seat towards me and squeezed his cup in his hand. "You failed not once, not twice, but every time with him, both when on good and bad terms with him. The Aeterna does what he wants and has yet to be swayed from his course. I think the world of you, but even you must recognize you are a speck against a God-Emperor's ego."

"The alternative is worse. We cannot fight him." I said. "He cannot die. But he can be reasoned with."

Fereren and I shared a strained glance. For a moment he looked at me with pity, and it burned. I blinked first. "We will discuss this later." Fereren looked to Krakow and said, "I will not tell you what I plan to do, if only to let you save face."

"I can guess, general." Krakow shook his head. "I'm sorry, but-"

"We'll take him. We'd be happy to." His wife inserted herself. Fereren did a double take and Aelius's blank eyes widened.

"Abigal!" Krakow protested.

"Krakow, he's a child."

He glanced at us briefly, "You know the reason we left."

"Precisely, we left because life is more valuable than reason."

Her tone was firm. Krakow sighed and rubbed his eyes a moment. His tone softened to a whisper, "Are you sure? Can you handle it?"

"I'll be fine." She whispered. "Please."

Krakow looked at her hard a moment, then sighed, his mind made up, and declared, "We'll keep Aelius and take care of him. He needs all the love and care he can get right now anyway. Just promise what you do will not blow back onto us."

Fereren said, "I promise, and you can be sure of my word, if only because that trouble would come upon him as well."

I added, "I promise. I am trying to protect you as well."

Krakow nodded and that was the end of that.

We returned to eating.

Changing the topic, Abigal came a bit out of her shell and asked, "So, tell me, are you gentlemen married?"

"Yes," Fereren replied. For some Aelius' put his spoon down and his eyes were downcast. Fereren turned his attention to his son.

"No, but I am betrothed." I answered.

"Betrothed. Not married." Krakow stated. "Understand completely."

Abigal elbowed him, but something, I am presuming to be instinct for gossip, blossomed in her eyes and she leaned across the table towards me. "Any plans to change that?"

"Oh, by the Ancestors." Krakow coughed, but was ignored.

I opened my mouth to answer, but just as quickly shut it. I had no answer.

Amelia was my fiance. We met at a party and she was fun and a constant ray of positivity, everything was right and there was no wrong. A much loved change from father. We were betrothed as soon as the king realized there was anything between us, as Amelia is legally a princess by way of her father being the king's cousin. It was proper. It was legal. It was to ensure continued peace between our kingdoms without the necessity for hostage exchanges. It was duty. She was fun and attended many parties and had vast social connections that would prove invaluable in the event of being a queen.

So why hadn't I thought about her a single time since I left Ire?