They headed out together early the next morning, picking an unrushed path down poorly tended streets. Simon paid no attention to any of the people they passed and little more to Danya until they reached the edge of the city. Out here there were no towering, occupied buildings, just long abandoned and crumbling houses. 

Simon let a long breath out, stretched, and looked at Danya for the first time since they’d left the hotel. “There was… a girl.”

“Oh.” Danya said. Those were not words he wanted to hear from the man he was attracted to.

“In the last city we cleared out there were a few survivors, and one of them was a little girl. A mage.”

“Oh. Okay.” Not that kind of girl, then. Probably? Hopefully.

“It was my job to return her to the facility she’d been taken from. So… I did. I had to, really. Legally she was theirs.”

“Of course.”

“But they didn’t want her back. She wasn’t a fancy Companion like you. Just a labourer. After what she’d been through…” He shrugged. “They said she would be more trouble than she was worth. Signed her over to me and gave me some money to cover the euthanasia.”

Danya stepped carefully around a pile of loose, broken bricks. He was afraid any disruption might make Simon stop sharing.

“I didn’t know what to do. I couldn’t keep her. I mean, absolutely couldn’t, unless I wanted to quit the military and become the world’s worst father to this girl. We’re not allowed to keep female slaves in military camps.”

“You didn’t have a choice,” Danya reassured him, but the words felt hollow and his mouth was dry.

Simon turned to look at him, his features pinching up. “I didn’t do it. I didn’t have her killed. That was— I wouldn’t. But I didn’t know what to do.”

Danya felt something in him relax. “Oh. Sorry. What did you do?”

Simon gave him a soft smile. “Same thing I always do when I don’t know what to do. Went to Hamish. And, of course, he did know what to do. He had an aunt who couldn’t have children of her own and needed help running her bakery, so that whole thing got a happy ending. But… it made me realise something.”

Danya stumbled over a crack in the sidewalk, and Simon caught him without even breaking his stride.

“It made me realise that I didn’t want to go through that shit again. I wanted to fight alongside people I could trust under all circumstances. If I save someone, even if they’re a slave, I want to be surrounded by people who I can trust not to hurt them. I want to be able to do everything I can to help them without having to hide it from people I should be able to trust with my life, unconditionally.” He sighed. “Does that make sense? Do you get why I’m so stuck on doing this whole thing with my unit and doing it properly?”

Danya didn’t understand why it mattered if it made sense to him, but— “Yes. I understand.”

Simon’s shoulders relaxed and he nodded, satisfied. “And then there’s Liam.”

“You don’t think he would help you in that situation?”

“Oh, he would. He definitely would. He has a softer heart than me, in that way. But…” Simon made a face. “He likes having a slave.”

Something sunk in Danya’s stomach at hearing Simon say those words in that tone.

“Don’t get me wrong, he treats his slave better than most men treat their wives. He’s not cruel. But he loves it. He likes having someone whose whole world revolves around him.”

Danya kept his mouth shut and his eyes cast downwards. What could he say? He wished Simon felt the same way about owning him.

“He’s no revolutionary,” Simon continued. “He’s an oddity for the military, but when you get down to it he’s just a rich guy with a pet he loves. Where it really matters I trust him, but damn do I hate him sometimes.”

“Cailan doesn’t seem unhappy,” Danya offered, hoping he wasn’t crossing a line.

“Oh, no, I don’t dispute that. If it was only them, I wouldn’t be so bothered about how they choose to conduct themselves. But it isn’t. They’re acting as a model for you, demonstrating the least ambitious possible version of happiness.”

“I don’t know, it seems quite ambitious for us,” Danya said, then immediately grimaced at his boldness. He had forgotten himself for a moment. “Sorry. That was inappropriate.”

Simon laughed. “No, that was perfect. That was honest.”

Danya couldn’t help a little smile in return. “I’m glad you like it. My heart is still beating so hard.”

The smile faded from Simon’s face. “It really is that hard for you to just say what you really think?”

Danya shrugged. Of course it was.

Simon’s expression sombered further. “I haven’t helped. I know that. I get angry too easily and I can’t expect you to just shrug that off like Hamish does. Not when I have so much power over you.”

“You’re not so bad. I’ve led a fairly gently life, but not so much that nobody has ever been cross with me before. In fact, I’d say I’m rather a bit better at making people cross with me than I ought to be.”

“That’s not the point. I—” Simon abruptly fell silent, his brow creasing as he stared intently at something behind Danya.

Danya turned and followed his gaze to three women who stood clustered together in front of one of the houses down the street. They were staring back at them.

“Nobody should be out here,” Simon said as he started towards them. “I’d better go find out what’s going on.”

Maybe it was Simon’s tone or some deep alarm in Danya’s own instincts. Maybe it was the way the women were looking at them. Something… something felt off.

Everything happened at once.

One step closer and the very edge of their energy brushed Danya’s mind, and he knew. He reached out for Simon’s sleeve to tug him back, to urge caution, and then there was fire in one of the women’s hands, fire flying towards them.

Danya stepped in front of Simon, raised his shield, and before he could process what was happening or what he was doing the force of the impact knocked the breath out of him as he slammed back against Simon’s chest.

He stepped forward again, squared his shoulders, and summoned fire to his own hand. “Don’t.”

For a moment, everything stopped. 

Two of the women were tall and broad shouldered, clearly Soldiers now that Danya realised they were mages at all. One of them had pushed the third, far more petite woman, back behind her.

One of the Soldiers stepped forward and raised her hands in pacification. Her short, honey coloured hair looked recently cut, and the fashionable style was an odd look on a Soldier. Combined with their casual clothing, it had been easy to mistake them for humans from a distance. “We don’t want to hurt you. Let us take care of him and you can come with us.”

Danya frowned. What was going on? “No. You don’t touch him.”

Simon’s hand came down on Danya’s shoulder as he stepped up beside him. “We don’t want any trouble. Let’s just go our separate ways and we’ll all forget about whatever happened here.”

The other Soldier, who had lighter hair pulled back in a ponytail and eyebrows with a talent for expressing her scorn, scoffed. “Yeah, I’m sure you won’t tell anyone about this. Why the hell would we trust you?”

Danya’s hands fisted at his sides. “Because you can’t just kill him for no reason!”

She folded her arms over her chest. “I’ve got a whole list of reasons.”

The smaller mage grabbed her arm and murmured something to her. The Soldier shook her head and grumbled something back as she gestured at them angrily. The other Soldier huddled in and joined the hushed conversation.

It was the short haired Soldier who ultimately stepped forward to address them. “Well, looks like we’ve got two options here for you. We can fight, which honestly I’m not too keen on because we’ve got Lynna here and I’d feel pretty bad if she got caught. Or… you two can surrender and come with us and our leader can decide what to do with you.”

“Which might be kill us,” Simon said.

“Well… maybe. But probably only you.”

“Probably isn’t good enough.” Without breaking eye contact with the Soldier, Simon reached down, found Danya’s wrist, and held on. “Whatever happens, I want his safety guaranteed.”

“Well, thing is I can’t guarantee anything when he’s a fighty little bastard,” she said. “No offense. I’m honestly impressed.”

Danya dipped his head. His adrenaline fueled confidence was fading and all that was left in its place was cold dread. What he’d just done… there was no coming back from this.

Simon’s hand was squeezing Danya’s wrist too firmly now. “He won’t give you any more trouble as long as you don’t threaten him.”

Danya turned to him, agast. “I won’t let them hurt you!”

Simon pulled Danya closer and ducked his head to talk to him. “Do you actually stand any chance against them? I’m asking that genuinely, because at this point I honestly don’t know.”

Danya shook his head and cast his voice too low for the other mages to overhear. “I was mostly bluffing.”

“Mm, mostly,” Simon said. He may not have known where the exact line of Danya’s abilities was meant to lay, but he definitely knew that had been well past it. That had been combat magic.

“If neither of you give us any trouble, then you’ll probably both be safe,” the short haired Soldier assured them. “I mean, that’s not gonna be my decision to make, but I can’t really see us executing someone.”

Simon released Danya’s wrist and raised his hands above his head in surrender. “That’s good enough for me.”

Reluctantly, Danya did the same.

The Soldiers came forward and patted the two of them down while the other mage hung back. Danya didn’t have anything hidden on his person, but they took three knives from Simon.

Simon made a face as the long haired Soldier took the knife he kept tucked under his jacket. “Can I keep hold of one of those?”

“You’re asking me, your captor, whether I’ll let you have a knife?” She stared at him flatly. “No.”

“Well, okay, yeah, that’s fair. My name’s Simon, by the way, and this is Danya.”

“Uh huh.”

The other mage had joined them now that they had been disarmed. “I’m Lynna. The grumpy one is Sharn,” she pointed to the long haired Soldier, “and the one who’s slightly less keen on killing you is Gaira.”

“Nice to meet you,” Simon said as he slowly buttoned his jacket back up. “Well, not nice, given the circumstances, but…”

“I think interesting is the word for it,” Lynna offered. “Good, bad… I don’t know yet. But interesting, definitely.”

“I can’t argue with that.”

“Danya,” Lynna said as she turned to Danya and offered him a gentle smile. “What are you? You don’t look like a Soldier, but you used combat magic.”

“Companion,” Danya murmured at the ground. He couldn’t bring himself to look up, to see how Simon was looking at him now. 

“Companions can’t do that sort of magic. What do your papers say?”

“They say he’s a Companion,” Simon said when no response was forthcoming from Danya. “You’re not the only ones who are surprised by what he just did.”

“Wait, really?” Sharn cut in. “He’s registered as a Companion, but he’s not one, right? You’re not, right?”

Danya didn’t answer. Everything felt unreal. They would figure it out in a second and then Simon would know what he really was. That he wasn’t simply a terrible, substandard Companion — he wasn’t really one at all.

“Are you mixed?” Lynna asked.

Danya nodded. Nodding was easier than speaking.

“Companion and Soldier?”

Danya nodded again. His throat ached.

Sharn laughed. “Wow. That’s so illegal.”

Lynna shushed her and smacked her arm. “Simon, you don’t seem very surprised or concerned about this.”

“Oh, I am fairly surprised,” Simon said. “Though, it does explain some things. Like how he was able to kill a vampire on his own.”

“What. No! What?” Gaira looked back and forth between Simon and Danya. “That doesn’t explain that at all. I mean, Danya, are you actually trained as anything but a Companion?”

Danya shook his head and murmured, “I just got lucky.”

“Did you get lucky and something else killed the vampire, or did you fight it and win?”

Danya tried to swallow down the lump in his throat, but it wouldn’t budge. He hated how it made his voice sound when he spoke. “No, I— yes. I did fight her, but I probably wouldn’t win if I had to do it again.”

“Yeah, I getcha. Still, that’s not the kind of thing you win as a pure fluke. How’d you do it?”

Danya shrugged. He took slow breath in and let it out. Speaking was becoming easier again, but he felt no less ungrounded from reality. “Blinded her with magelight and then stabbed her with Simon’s knife. I can feel energy, so…”

“Yeah, okay, I’m back to thinking that luck claim is bullshit. You’re a downright badass.”

Danya rubbed a hand over his face. “I appreciate that you are impressed, but reinforcing how dangerous I am in front of my master is perhaps not very helpful.”

“Oh, he’s not your master anymore,” Gaira said. “Whatever gets decided, that continuing to be a thing won’t be a part of it.”

Danya dropped his hand back to his side and finally looked up to meet her gaze properly. “You can’t take that from me. That’s not your decision to make.”

Simon placed a hand on Danya’s shoulder. “Danya, this is perhaps not a battle worth picking.”

Danya shrunk back in on himself. So Simon agreed. He hadn’t wanted Danya in the first place, and now he’d seen what he really was. Of course he would get rid of him if the opportunity presented itself to do so non-violently.

“Right, if everyone’s done being dramatic, I think we should get moving,” Sharn announced. “If there’s one human skulking around out here, there’re bound to be more.”