What was Rae thinking? He was lying on Ven Ashem’s bed, so frazzled and sore he could barely lift a finger to defend himself. Heavens knew if Gaori had even noticed he was missing and here he was, completely at the enemy’s mercy.

What was Ven Ashem thinking? Was the second most pressing question. He had frightened off the assassin somehow and was now tending to Rae’s injuries with the carefulness of a wife caring for a husband fresh from the battlefield. 

He pressed and prodded at Rae’s worst injury, the left arm. Rae wasn’t willing to show such weakness in front of another man, much less an Ashem, so bit his tongue rather than cry out. Ven saw right through him.

“It’s not broken, I’ll have a servant bring some ice,” 

Rae’s arm was not the only thing in need of ice. The adrenaline had long worn off, but the humiliation of being so vulnerable had painted Rae beetroot from his ears to his chest. It grew ever more unbearable when Ven started rubbing his healing ointment over any part of his body that had been marred by the fall. He silently pleaded with the heavens, don’t let him see.

“You look a little feverish, you can spend the night here if you wish. I’ll go find your young master and explain everything,”

Somehow, Rae knew his flush had just gone a shade darker. Thank goodness his confusion had kept him quiet until now, he hadn’t yet revealed his true identity.

“Your name is Ashem, he won’t trust you. But I need to go warn my master of the danger,” 

“There’s no danger. I saw him off. And you’re master and the shakje are safe and sound in their room,”

Shakje. Rae hadn’t been called that in… He didn’t know how long it had been.

“The shakje…”

“I know he’s with you. I mean him no harm, and the beast won’t come back again. He’s too stupid to kill the Shakje anyway, couldn’t even find the right target,” 

Rae let out a harsh laugh, which he disguised as a cough.

“Stay a while, rest,”

Rae refused to fall asleep, no matter how much Ven reassured him that he didn’t mind him staying the night. He may be too shell-shocked to leave, but he needed to be ready to go find Gaori as soon as he could. As his condition improved, Ven’s conversation grew gutsier and gutsier. 

“It’s because your masters are young master Kaolin and the Shakje. It’s dangerous serving someone so significant, why not follow me instead,” He asked, after the ice had been brought up, and was numbing the pain in Rae’s arm.

“Young master Ashem can’t be serious,”

 “Young master Kaolin was so harsh with you. He seems quite the brute, you really want to stay with him?” 

Rae laughed. Gaori, a brute! If only he were listening. 

“He was a brute because you were being rude. And I had my duties to attend to,” Rae said. He was getting stronger, the lies were coming easier. 

“The Shakje to attend to, you mean? Does he treat you well? Is that why you’re so loyal?” Ven asked, his voice had a little tension in it. It was long past midnight, he must have been regretting giving up his bed.

He had offered Rae an excuse to get away. 

“If he’s noticed I’m missing, he’ll be very worried. This is a difficult enough time for him. I should go to him,” 

Rae stood. To his surprise, his legs held him well. His vision stayed still and clear, and while his arm was sore, his head didn’t throb. 

“A very trying time for him. It makes me worried he won’t ensure your injuries are taken care of. I’ll be in the Shak’s camp for the foreseeable future. If you need anything, come to me,”

Thank goodness, Ven wasn’t going to try to convince him to stay. Thank goodness.

“Can I trouble you one more time?” 

“Of course,”

Ven accompanied Rae to the the corridor outside of Rae and Gaori’s room and didn’t comment nor complain when Rae refused to knock on the door until he was gone.

“I almost forgot, one more thing,” Ven said, just as they had said their farewells. 

“This landed on my veranda, just when you were attacked, is it yours?” he asked and presented Rae’s short sword, hand-carved by his mother with the Kaolin crest.

Guilt and relief overtook Rae. He had dropped and forgotten a precious and irreplaceable thing. And it had been returned to his lap before he had even noticed it was gone.

“Thank the heavens!” in his excitement, Rae spoke a little too loudly for the hour. There was a thud, followed by thundering footsteps from Gaori and Rae’s room. Before Rae could tell Ven to make himself scarce, his cousin burst out of the door onto the landing. 

“There you-“ he froze when he saw Ven. Then he got a proper look at Rae, and he went pale.

“What happened?” he asked Rae, “what have you done to him?” he then asked Ven.

Gaori hurried over and would have grabbed at Rae’s injured arm, had he not shoved him away.

“Young master,” Rae said, looking at Gaori as sternly as he could, “apologies for my absence,”

For a few seconds, Gaori was unable to give an intelligent response. He looked Rae over, face growing redder as he took in each injury. Then he turned the full force of his anger on Ven.

“You!-“

If it weren’t for Rae holding him back, Gaori might have thrown Ven off the landing.

“Let’s not make a scene, his Highness must be very tired,” Rae said, and finally, Gaori seemed to understand what he wanted.

“Make a scene? I’m not the one making a scene. Go see to your duties at once!” 

Rae breathed a sigh of relief and hurried into the room. Gaori followed him, not without spitting a few expletives over his shoulder at Ven. 

When the door was shut and they were sure Ven had gone back to his rooms, Gaori began prodding at Rae.

“What is all this?” he whispered and Rae batted his hands away.

“There was an assassin. He nearly killed me but that Ashem young master helped me out,”

Gaori’s crestfallen face made Rae feel a little guilty. Which was stupid, because what did Gaori have to be jealous of? He got all the girls, and Rae got all the murderers. 

“And you were able to keep our cover intact?” Gaori asked and Rae nodded.

“He thinks you and I are accompanying the Shakje to the Shak’s camp. That’s why I was attacked. He doesn’t seem dangerous,”

“Still, we should leave quietly tomorrow. And keep our wits about us. We’ve come so far, it would be a shame to fall now,” 

Normally, seeing Gaori so serious would be off-putting, but Rae was thankful he didn’t have to muscle through his bone-deep exhaustion to make their plans. 

He went to bed immediately, not caring to ask where the girl had gone. Gaori promised to stay awake, packing their things, and standing guard all night.