After many hours, when it’s nearly dusk, Elias starts to wake up.

Elias blinks a couple of times, wincing as he tries to sit up, his eyes - back to their regular orange and blue - dart around frantically. He takes in a few shaky breaths, eyes fixed on the fresh blood splatters around the clearing, and hugs himself tightly: [with a shuddering whisper] Divines, I did it again… [his eyes shine with unshed tears and he digs his palms into his eyes]

Noras watches him with unhidden worry and confusion. He reaches out a hand, hesitates, and then pulls it back.

Sir Fluffles sits up, and paws at Elias with a rumbly squeak. Elias lifts his head, and wearily offers the bunny a small sad smile: I’m sorry my friend, I shouldn’t have… it wasn’t fair to you.

Sir Fluffles looks at Elias and blinks slowly, nuzzling his side. Elias lets out a small laugh before suddenly lurching forward, covering his mouth with his hands as he coughs blood. He lets out a final cough and groans, straightening and wiping his face as a fine trail of red runs down from his nose.

Noras silently hands him a cloth, flinching slightly as Elias jumps back at the sudden movement - looking him up and down as if he couldn’t believe he was still here. Still, Elias gingerly takes the cloth and Noras hesitates before saying, in a sincere tone for the first time: Your highness… [he trails off, unsure of where to go from here]

Elias wipes his hands of the blood before he presses the cloth to his nose. His face is almost ghostly, his eyes are sunken in, his lips chapped. He looks awful: [with a raspy voice] Are you alright?

Noras scowls, but only for a moment, before confusion and caution overtake his expression again: Why did you do that?

Before Elias can answer, there is yet another rustle by the trees and four guards step out, followed by Orville, followed by four more guards. He’s sitting on a palanquin carried by four of the guards, dressed in fine clothes, but a closer look shows them to be worn. He’s also wearing several large golden rings and various other heavy pieces of jewelry. He smiles widely when he sees Elias.

Noras stands as Orville’s palanquin comes to a stop just in front of the camp.

Orville: [to Noras] You got him! I was beginning to think you had failed. After all, you’ve never been so late before. [He frowns slightly] Unprofessional of you, forcing me to come out like this… but I suppose I can forgive you, just once, seeing as you’ve brought me a prize worth coming out for.

Noras glances between Elias and Orville, saying nothing, face blank.

Orville: [climbing down from his palanquin and looking around the campsite, strewn, as it is, with blood and intestines. He then turns his gaze on Elias, squints at him, and frowns] What have you done to him?

Noras: [blandly] Bandits.

Orville: [dubiously] ...Hm. I’ll be deducting a portion of your pay for this. And the others? [His eyes dart around the campsite again] Where are they?

Noras: [still blandly] Bandits.

Orville: [fingers drumming against his sides] Hmm… very well, very well. I’ll take him now. [He gestures to one of the guards, who hands over a large bag of gold. Orville takes out a fairly large portion of it and tucks it into his pocket, then tosses it on the ground at Noras’ feet.] You’re dismissed, Shahīn.

Noras looks at the bag, but doesn’t move.

Orville: [frowning] You may leave. [He gestures to his guards. Two come forward.] You there, take the boy. We’re leaving.

Elias lets out a sigh, prodding Sir Fluffles insistently, mumbling for him to get away. It’s over, he says to the rabbit in Tiamese. When the bunny doesn’t budge, he lets out a helpless huff of laughter, and struggles to his feet. With lightless eyes, he offers his wrists to the guards. He doesn’t look at Shahīn.

The two guards approach. As they pass Orville and step towards Elias, Noras moves, semi-unconsciously, in front of the prince.

Elias’ eyes shift to look at Shahīn, blinking at his back. The slightest hint of light returns to his eyes, but he then lowers his head again, not letting himself hope. It’s over, he repeats, with the little amount of Xikyun that he knows.

Orville: [frowning] And what’s all this, now? Shahīn, what’s gotten into you?

Noras doesn’t respond — internally, he’s screaming the same question at himself.

Orville sighs heavily, returning to sit cross-legged on his palanquin: Is that how it is? Pity, then. Ah, well. It is what it is. [He waves a dismissive hand] Kill him. Take the boy. [to Noras] I will miss you.

Elias' head snaps up, and he scowls at Orville through the vertigo, struggling to mutter a spell. Before he can, a feeling reminiscent of a falling dream overtakes him, and he collapses onto his knee, retching blood.

Noras moves to grab his axe. As he does so, he kicks the bag of money out of reach from the guards, who are rapidly approaching. Noras moves backwards, away from where Elias, Sir Fluffles, and Jeade are. Six of the guards follow, but two are still with Elias. Noras keeps an eye on them, but the other six are quick to attack.

Noras has been in quite a few fights over the past 24 hours, and this one passes in a bloody haze. It’s hard to focus on the battle when, internally, he’s still trying to figure out why he’s battling in the first place. By the time he comes back out of his head, four of the guards are dead, the other four have dragged Elias to Orville’s palanquin, and Noras is covered in fresh wounds. He straightens, adjusting his grip on the axe, and goes on the offensive.

The last four guards throw their all into protecting Orville. One of them knocks Noras’ axe away, kicking it out of his reach, and the other three grabs at him. Noras twists one of his knives out from within his sleeve, stabbing it into the neck of the man behind him. The man lets go and Noras spins away, ripping the knife out as he goes to hurl it at another guard. The guard drops, but the remaining two grab him again, one wrapping an arm around Noras’ neck. He struggles to breathe, one hand searching his belt for another knife, but, before he can find one, the other guard stabs him in the stomach. Never one to miss an opportunity, Noras pulls the knife out of his stomach and uses it to stab the strangler. Finally, the battle is one-on-one, and it quickly devolves into a fistfight, both of them rolling around the campground. The guard pins Noras down and Noras reaches out blindly, catching hold of something or other and shoving it into the guard’s face. It’s Sir Fluffles. He bites the man’s nose. Noras knees the guard in the stomach, pushes him off, and leaps onto him, snatching up a rock from the ground and slamming it into the guard’s forehead. The guard’s eyes roll up in his head and he passes out. Noras stays sitting on him for a moment, holding the rock over him, before it falls from his hands and he gets up, leaving the man unconscious.

Then there’s just Orville left.

While the final four guards are trying to fend off Shahīn, Elias, who had been shoved onto the floor of the palanquin, uses all his strength to get into a generally upright position and stare death at Orville: [angrily] Was it worth it, all this death? Killing Leandro? So you could kill or torture me?

Orville, pale, stares out at his dead guards and doesn’t respond.

Elias with angry tears: He didn’t deserve what you did to him.

By now, Noras can barely walk, but he staggers over to the palanquin. Before Orville can say anything, he kicks him in the neck, knocking him to his back. Noras presses his foot down over Orville’s throat.

Elias: Wait. [He struggles to get up, leaning heavily on one of the supports of the palanquin] I want to know why.

Orville: [weakly] I wasn’t… going to kill… you…

Elias: Not me! Leandro! You could have killed me for all I care, but he - he was innocent!

Orville: [barely able to breathe] That one… [he gets a malicious glint in his eye] He… he… [his face twists as he glares up at Noras, who is still stepping on his throat, and tries to speak more, but he can barely breathe at this point, on the verge of falling unconscious]

Elias, frowning, and pretty rapidly losing the ability to stand due to exhaustion: … I pitied you once... [he opens his mouth but snaps it shut and turns away. Over his shoulder, he calls out to Shahīn] Do what you want with him, I’m done. [He limps out of the palanquin, before shakily leaning against the closest tree and passing out again]

Noras looks after Elias, then sighs to himself and presses down, crushing Orville’s throat under his boot. Then he gathers up his axe and daggers, as well as the pouch of money - and the cut Orville took out of it - and tosses them into the back of the cart. He walks over to the tree, picks Elias up, and lays him down in the back of the cart. He bundles the weapons, wraps them in the two now-empty sacks, and secures them behind the camp supplies. Elias lies, unconscious, on the other side. He finds Sir Fluffles waiting next to the cart and places him in as well, and then gets into the driver’s seat and drives out of the bloodied grass.