Nox¹Literally nox (night). Nox is the name of the Clan (family name), also the name of a Province. ZaiWin uses it because he is the Governor of Nox ZaiWin²Literally zai (blade) + win (chaos). stretched his aching arms and back, and softly knocked on the door. He immediately heard Rain’s voice, telling him to come in, and only then did he step into the warm room.

“What are you knocking for? Go upstairs and wash up. I placed clean clothes on your bed. And then we can get some food into you,” she warmly told him, peering at him from the kitchen, but ZaiWin's gaze was fixed on Grisly, already sitting at the table, clearly doing his best to ignore him.

Well, as long as he didn’t come at him brandishing his sword again, he couldn’t care less, ZaiWin decided, making his way to the stairway.

“How long do you intend to linger around here?” the large man asked the moment he was about to pull the curtain back, and ZaiWin stopped where he stood, peering at him over his shoulder.

“Don’t know yet. At least until ZenTar³Literally zen (silent) + tar (wind). meets up with us.”

Grisly grunted, crossing his arms over his broad chest, turning his head towards the window, a deep frown marking his forehead.

“Why not wait at home? Why stick around here?” he grumbled, as if the words were stuck to the back of his throat, and ZaiWin released the curtain, turning to face him.

“No one knows I’m back, and I intend to keep it that way,” he openly declared and Grisly finally turned to look at him.

“Are you going against those Palace bastards’ orders? I heard you sent our men back ahead of schedule.”

“If I had sent them to the Palace they probably wouldn’t have been able to return.”

“That bad, hey?”

“And it will only get worse.”

“Well, we have withstood years and years of famine, war and disease. Some richly-dressed, pompous bastards are nothing to be scared of,” Grisly declared, raising his head with a stubborn superior expression on his weathered face, and ZaiWin smiled coldly at his empty bravado.

“The problem aren’t the richly-dressed bastards, but the thousands of well-trained, well-armed men they command. You and your band of cutthroats wouldn’t stand a chance.”

“You fucking brat! You dare say that to my face?” the older man growled, his dark eyes gleaming dangerously, but ZaiWin had stopped fearing that gaze a long time ago.

“I simply state things as they are. So just keep your head down and let me worry about those Palace bastards.”

“And what can an unknown bastard like you do? Unless you intend to sneak into their bed-chambers in the middle of the night and slit their throats. Now that would be a show I wouldn’t miss for anything in the world,” he declared, an evil smile on his lips, and ZaiWin replied with a smile of his own.

“Well, I will be sure to invite you, when the time comes.”

Grisly’s smile immediately faded away. He may hate the damned bastard with every fiber in his body, but one thing he had learned a long time ago. Nox ZaiWin, as detestable as he might be, never made an empty threat, the ten stabbing scars he carried on his chest a living reminder of that.

“Are you serious?” he still thought it better to confirm and ZaiWin simply shrugged.

“If that’s what needs to be done …” Grisly scratched his short beard with a pensive look.

“And the brat you dragged along? Is he supposed to stay here on a permanent basis?”

“Snow goes where I go!” ZaiWin immediately declared before he could even think twice about it.

Well, of course the older man had thought that was the case, he realized a moment later. After all, even though they had their differences, this was hardly the first time he brought other people to stay at the village, at least until it was safe to return them to their initial homes.

“Is he really a street kid? He looks more like some lordling you kidnapped on your way here,” he accused and ZaiWin couldn’t help smile at that. If only he knew … But things like Celestials were concepts as far away from people like Grisly as the moon.

“I found him on the brink of death, being tortured in that Fortress I went to clean up. And he’s name is really Snow.”

“Only Snow.”

“Only Snow,” he confirmed.

The same way he was only Grisly, and Rain was only Rain. All of them abandoned and cast away by normal society, made to live out their lives in hiding, doing whatever needed to be done to make sure that they, and their loved ones, had a chance to survive. The outcasts that no one wanted to look upon, whose existence no one wanted to recognize. He read all that in Grisly’s dark eyes, and that’s why he knew that none of them would ever raise a hand to hurt Snow.

“He is strong, that one …” Grisly muttered and ZaiWin nodded.

“He is. But he is still learning.”

“How fortunate and how unfortunate of him,” the older man declared and ZaiWin smiled bitterly at those words, since he too had heard them a long time ago.

And then, as an afterthought, he looked around and ended up peering into the kitchen, where he knew Rain had been silently listening to their talk.

“Rain, have you seen him? Has he come back at all?”

Stopping stirring a fuming pot, the woman turned to face him.

“He left the house this morning. I haven’t seen him since.”

ZaiWin nodded in appreciation and immediately gave up on going upstairs, crossing the room towards the front door instead.

“Where the fuck are you going? It’s not as if the brat can get lost in such a small village. He’ll come back once he gets hungry.”

Ignoring Grisly’s words, ZaiWin stepped outside again, looking from one side to the other, as if he expected to see him standing right there.

“Hey, you fucking bastard! I’m talking to you!” the older man demanded, exiting the house behind him, and ZaiWin frowned in annoyance.

“Shut it!”

“What?!” sounded the immediate angry reply and ZaiWin glared coldly at the large man.

“Shut the fuck up or I’ll cut out your tongue!”

Immediately closing his mouth, Grisly obeyed, even though his fuming expression told him that later he’d probably have to pay for the audacity of using that tone with him.

Whatever, ZaiWin immediately decided, taking a deep breath and forcing himself to relax. Relaxing was actually the hardest part, he concluded, since his heart kept beating too fast, too anxiously. He should never have allowed him to wander around as he pleased!

Once he was finally able to calm down, however, he could easily feel Snow’s presence through that annoying link. The caverns at the end of the village, he immediately knew, grunting angrily under his breath as he quickly made his way towards them.

Hadn’t he told him specifically not to go into the caverns?! That damn brat was definitely gonna get it.

The people he crossed paths with greeted him respectfully, but ZaiWin could hardly see them, much less take notice of what they were doing. The only reason why he didn’t jump directly inside the caverns was because he wasn’t sure he wouldn’t end up smashing his head against a rocky wall he hadn’t accounted for. He had already risked that outcome once, when he’d jumped to the cavern where Snow had been kept in. He was not about to take that risk a second time.

Crossing the village in a wide pace, he reached the place in no time at all, the bleating sound of the goats kept in a nearby pen reaching his ears. Looking at all the possible entrances, ZaiWin tried to figure out which one the brat had used. He could easily tell that he wasn’t in any of them, but somewhere deeper inside the mountain, where the wind could not reach.

Following his instincts more than anything else, ZaiWin stepped into one of the caverns and looked around at the piles of crates and sacks kept in there. As to be expected, Snow was nowhere to be seen. But he was close, he knew, looking around, searching for his presence again. There, behind that wall, he concluded, making his way towards it and touching it with his bare hands. Behind that thick wall. But how had he gotten there? Another entrance?, he wondered, ready to step out of that cavern and search the next one.

“Here, you fuck,” a harsh voice told him, and only then did he realize that Grisly had followed him all the way there, and was now violently kicking a bunch of empty crates out of his way, uncovering a small crack on the wall.

It was small and narrow, but ZaiWin didn’t hesitate, bending forward and squeezing himself through the small opening. By the time he reached the other side his back was hurting again and he was immersed in pure, complete darkness.

“Get out of the way, you asshole!” Grisly demanded from behind him and ZaiWin took a step to one side, to see the huge man miraculously emerge from the tiny opening. How he had fit through there without getting stuck midway was a complete mystery. And yes, he could see, he realized, noticing that the big man had taken the time to bring one of the lamps with him.

“Really, you bastard! Did you suddenly developed some unknown amazing power that allows you spit light?” he immediately criticized, stretching his back, but ZaiWin promptly ignored him, urgently looking around … until he recognized the damned place.

That’s how Grisly had known how to get there, he immediately concluded. He had brought him there himself, more than fourteen years ago. But, at the time, ZaiWin had been blindfolded. And, when they had dragged him out of there he had been unconscious. So he had never known how to get there, in the first place. Up until now he had always thought that that cavern was somewhere out there, in some faraway, lost mountain; an isolated cavern destined to hold the worst of the worst. To think it was actually just a few feet away from the village was just ironically ridiculous.

Silvareiel

Good boy, ZaiWin! Now don't be to mean to our dear Snow! ?