Well into the night, the man finally falls asleep. Elias waits another hour before silently standing. It’s a full moon tonight, and he catches himself staring at it for a few minutes. I hope that mother is watching over me - he cuts off that train of thought abruptly, frowning and tearing his gaze away from it. No, he hopes she isn’t watching, he hopes she’s at peace, resting in the Beyond.

With a deep breath, he steps past the drying splatters of blood - it looks black in the moonlight, he thinks as he makes his way around a particularly large puddle.

Eventually, he stops in the middle of the clearing, and settles onto his knees. He breathes in suddenly, not realising that he had been holding his breath, and closes his eyes, shuddering. Focusing on the movement of his chest, he feels the cool winds of spring from his childhood and cold water pooling behind his eyes as he gathers his magic. He opens his eyes briefly when he hears rustling, and a wave of contemplation overcomes him as he watches his kidnapper shift in his sleep. I could end it now, he thinks. But he makes no movement nor sound, and shuts his eyes again.

~*~

Dawn has not yet arrived when Noras wakes to find Prince Elias sitting on his knees in the middle of the clearing, eyes closed and waiting.

Noras stands, looking at the prince for a long few minutes, trying to think of what to say. Finally, he settles on: What are you doing there?

Elias: …

When no response comes, perhaps predictably, Noras turns to the horizon. The sky is starting to lighten. Keeping his gaze on the rising sun, he tries again: They’ll be here soon. You should eat something. Don’t think Orville will be willing to feed you much.

Elias remains resolute in his silence, focusing on the feelings behind his eyes. For a moment, he swears he can feel his hands shake, but he clenches them, and the feeling stops. Underneath his eyelid, his blue eye is slowly turning orange.

Noras sighs quietly to himself. Moving slowly, he reattaches Jeade to the cart and stays there, resting his head against Jeade’s neck. With one hand he grips Jeade’s reins tighter and tighter, reminding himself how many years he has spent doing this job. He tries to squash down the sick feeling rising in his chest, tries to remember how, tries to remember why.

Time drags on until finally, just before dawn breaks, Orville’s three contacts lumber into the clearing. Noras flinches minutely as they enter, glancing briefly at the prince. He recognizes these men — Oscar, Otto, and Axel — and he doesn’t like them any more than he likes Orville.

Elias slowly opens his eyes. Still, the arrival of Orville’s men doesn’t elicit a need to speak up nor move a muscle.

The first of the three, Axel, is a large man, with a nasty scar running along his face, and rotting teeth. He turns to Elias and grins down at him: So, your highness, finally where you belong, eh?

Elias doesn’t acknowledge him, eyes lazily focused on a boulder across the clearing.

Axel snarls: Look at me, you fucking prude! [He kicks Elias in the chest, who falls back onto the floor, coughing]

Noras flinches, and covers it with a scowl: Don’t be a creep, Ax, just do your job.

Axel: [turning to Noras] Who says this isn’t part of my job? Stay out of it, Shahīn, you’ve done your job, now let me do mine. [He turns back to Elias] Not so high and mighty now, eh, bitch!? [He proceeds to kick at him again, in the face, in the shoulder, in the leg. Elias curls up, moving his arms to block his face from any more abuse, but he still doesn’t make a sound, save for a few small grunts that manage to escape]

Noras feels himself tensing and folds his arms tight over his chest: Fuck’s sake.

He turns to Oscar, a sinewy man with sharp, hooded eyes and thin lips.

Noras: [beginning to sound strained] Are we going to stay here all day? I’ve gone long enough, already. I’d like to get paid now.

Oscar: [harshly] You’ll get paid when we say so. So shut up.

Elias finally cries out in pain when a loud crack rings throughout the clearing, a large blue bruise blossoming where his arm is now broken.

Noras flinches again, glancing at Elias and quickly looking away, glaring at Axel: Alright, are you happy now? Is that enough, or do you want to scalp him, too? Orville wants him alive. Let’s go.

Axel: Don’t be such a spoilsport, his highness can handle a lot more than that [he lifts Elias up by the hair, whose face is covered in blood and whimpers, eyes squeezed shut] Can’t you, bitch?

Noras: [flatly] His highness is a petticoat. [He takes a quick breath and continues more calmly] If you break him before Orville gets the chance, none of us will get our money.

Oscar: Stay out of it! [He pulls out a knife and gives a harsh grin] Did the prince manage to get under your skin? He’s turned you, hasn’t he!? Where’s that stony face I’ve heard so much about? [There’s another whimper as Elias is thrown back to the ground, and curls up into himself]

Noras looks at Elias, and then drags his eyes to focus on the knife. He shifts back slightly, defensively, opening his mouth to protest Oscar’s comment, when his back hits something solid — Otto, a mountain of a man, has come up behind him. Otto grabs him before he can twist away, pinning his arms to his sides, his daggers out of reach.

Oscar: [twirling the knife] I think that you’ve gone soft. And the boss has no use for a soft assassin [he nears with his blade, looking at Noras with disgust]... so what do you say we remedy that problem by getting rid of it entirely? [he turns to Axel] Make the prince watch.

Noras struggles, but when a knife presses against his throat, he has to acknowledge that there’s not much he can do. He falls limp in Otto’s grasp, face going blank, like he’s been waiting for this day for years, like he’s always known that he was living on borrowed time.

Axel lifts Elias by his hair again, twisting him around to face “Shahīn”. With battered breath, Elias opens his eyes, revealing them to be glowing an orangish hue.

Elias hesitates for only a moment before his eyes widen: [hoarsely] Lleh ni nrub, selffulf emoc! Dell Tash!

And from the bushes crashes this gargantuan monster. A giant maw filled with razor sharp teeth bisects Oscar, swallowing down his torso as its other twelve eyes snap to look at both Axel and Otto. With a roar, it swipes at Axel, and creates a deep gash in his stomach, his intestines spill onto the grass with a wet splat. Elias is let go then, and he crashes to the grass. He struggles to sit up, attempting to say something before he coughs out a concerning amount of blood instead. And with a final tremble he collapses, unconscious.

Otto drops Noras in shock, and Noras, also in shock, stumbles over and grabs Elias. As he starts to drag the prince away from the monster, he notices what look like words where Elias was kneeling, and a few arrows pointing to them. From somewhere not far behind, Otto screams as he is eaten, bones crunching in the monster’s mouth. Noras frowns at the unfamiliar squiggles and then turns as he hears lumbering footsteps behind him. The monster has spotted him, and its mouth twists into what could only be a bloody grin. It drops all that remains of Otto - a single finger that makes barely a sound as it hits the grass. The monster lets out a rumble, sounding eerily like a laugh as it starts to stalk around him, red-stained claws leaving gashes in the dirt. Noras lets out a quiet shriek and, with no small measure of panic, turns back to the squiggles in the dirt. For a moment, confusion overtakes panic as he finds himself reciting the incantation: Dneirf ym, fles etuc ruoy ot trever.

Noras takes half a second to think how the fuck did I read that, but he forgets all about it when he sees what’s happening around him. As his words ring around the clearing, the monster suddenly stops short, blinks once, and shrinks down into the form of a fluffy white rabbit with sharp eyes disturbingly reminiscent of Sir Fluffles. Noras stares at him. Sir Fluffles stares back. Noras gives him a slow nod of respect. Sir Fluffles’ body shakes, a few droplets of blood landing on the grass nearby. His little bunny nose wrinkles, and he turns to Noras to nod back. They both turn their attention back to Elias.

Sir Fluffles curls up by the prince while Noras cleans his wounds and bandages his broken arm, moving mechanically. He starts a small fire and settles down beside the prince, contemplating his captive. Although, in light of recent events, “captive” just… doesn’t seem the right word for Prince Elias.