Staying close to Gaori was difficult when he seemed so much more interested in getting close to the busty dancer who had captured his attention earlier. She was chilly in her costume now the performance was other, so Gaori gave her his cloak and she responded with a bright grin. It was then Rae knew this girl would be hanging off his arm for the rest of the night. Gaori was an oaf, but he was tall and sincere, and his face suited a smile. He had won many hearts back at Camp Kaolin as well.

“I’ll be at the bar,” Rae said, and Gaori didn’t protest.

He wouldn’t be drinking that night, but with his back leaning against the wall, he could keep an eye on what the other revellers were up to.

Immediately, his eyes fell on Ven Ashem, who was charming a few dancers of his own. A woman in red who didn’t seem to know how to greet someone without looking down her nose was his main target. He had a different style to Gaori, who used his puppy-like sincerity to his advantage. Rae recognised the wolfish intensity Ven had shown him earlier in his interactions with the ladies. They had no idea they were playing with fire.

Watching him fool around with the girls should have reassured Rae, but instead, an unpleasant feeling settled in his stomach, like a stone sinking and settling on the riverbed.

Ven planted a kiss on the lady in red’s cheek before he led her upstairs. The sight had Rae grinding his teeth.

He was no assassin. It seemed that just like Camp Kaolin, camp Ashem had its own foppish young master.

His curiosity piqued, and Rae found a quiet moment to ask a barmaid about him.

“Young master Ashem? He passes through this way a lot, he has business in the Shak’s camp,”

“With the Ashem Shana?” Rae asked calcified dread in his gut at the reminder he would be meeting her again soon.

“I suppose?” the barmaid said with a shrug. She was an ordinary girl, in a no-name camp. Unless she was particularly close with the local chief, she had no reason to know anything of the relations between great clans.

“What do you make of him?”

“Oh, he’s very charming. And quite handsome too,”

“Hmm,” Rae said. He could see what the girl saw in him. Even if his body was hidden under layers of fine silk, Rae had felt the strength of his grip. A young master like Ven might well have spent his whole life spared from hard work, but a body can grow just as strong and hard from hunting beasts and exploring the wilds for pleasure, rather than necessity.

Yet, his appearance wasn’t brutal, his intense eyes, the elegant curve of his nose, the pristine sheen of his hair. If there was anyone more perfectly built to bewitch unfortunate maidens, Rae had never met them.

“Of course, he’s not the only handsome young master to pass through recently, you and your friend attract plenty of attention yourselves,”

Rae couldn’t suppress a laugh at the compliment. It wasn’t that he was embarrassed. It was just the reminder that these poor girls saw something in Gaori of all people, and himself as well, that had him reeling.

Rae supposed that their youths of roaming the forests, hunting pheasants, swimming in the river, and performing scouting duties, had blessed the both of them with decent physiques. Gaori ate and drank like a bear, but he only ever seemed to put on muscle.

Rae had once been a pitiful little thing. Often so unwell that he didn’t even have the strength to sit up. He so rarely saw the sun that his skin had a sickly green tint. But whenever he was well he would follow his big cousin around the forest and partake in all his favourite games. Rae never matched Gaori in height or build, but a girl had once told him that his fair skin and jet-black hair made quite the alluring contrast.

Unlike his cousin, Rae had never pursued any of the girls at Camp Kaolin. Ever since he had arrived as a scared and heartbroken little boy, they had all doted on him like a baby brother.
The barmaid, though quite pretty, also had something big-sisterly about her. And besides Rae would be moving on in a few days, unlikely to ever see her again. So while he appreciated the compliment, he ordered a drink and went to find another corner to lurk in.

Not long after, Gaori approached Rae with a conundrum. His dancing girl, who was called Vili, was willing to be taken to bed tonight. The problem was that she was sharing a room with five other dancers so the fabled encounter would have to be conducted in Goari and Rae’s shared room.

“I know you were spooked earlier…”

“It’s fine, I misjudged the danger, just be quick,” Rae said, earning a scowl from Gaori.
“Nah, we’ll be at it for hours,” Gaori said, pumping his hips for emphasis, “take my coin-pouch, buy yourself something good to eat,”

Once Gaori and Vili had gone upstairs, Rae went and bought himself a bottle of wine, scanned the crowd one more time for any suspicious characters, and went to find a quiet corner to relax in.

He could hear laughter and splashing from the bathing pools, so that was out of the question. To wander the streets alone, even as drunk as he was, he knew to be dangerous.

On the first floor of the guest house, there was a walkway, overlooking the ground floor bar on one side, and open to the outside on the other. There was an elegant view of the path up from the valley Gaori and Rae had climbed earlier that day. Taken with the sight, and with a fresh burst of energy - thanks to the wine - Rae decided to climb up to the roof.

Among these mountain people, risks such as falling from a great height, are often overlooked by such vigorous young men. The men of Kaolin were no exception. Rae had, for many years now, slept each night in a tree house at least twenty feet off the ground. If he wanted to visit his cousin in the little house next to his, two rope bridges connected them to the main house. But being young boys, they sometimes took to scaling the walls and climbing into the other’s window.

This was how Rae gained the confidence to clamber his way up the side of the guest house, past windows and balconies, and onto the red-tiled roof.

Ahead of Rae was that lovely view, which was quickly being bathed in an orange evening glow. Behind him, Saoshak’s slope loomed.

Rae rolled his cloak into a makeshift pillow, the drink doing much more to warm him than it ever could. The cool breeze was more comforting than bracing anyway.

Laying on the roof, watching the evening star peak into view, Rae lingered on the edge of sleep for some time.