Welcome to Monday - Lover come back - Chapter One © 2009.6.25 Chaoticworks.com

It was a raging party to outshine any other that had been held in anyone's recent memory. The Hollywood Bowl had been turned into a night time Bacchanalia that would rival the orgies and depravity of ancient Rome. Fire pits were sprinkled out on what had once been the orchestra pit and up in the stands. Some of the fires were covered in spits, with turning roasting meat on them. Barrels of crudely brewed ale and liquor were spread out here and there. Huge ladles hung on the side of the barrels for serving straight from barrel to mouth, no one was bothering with mugs.

Upon the stage was built a cage of steel and remnants of chain link fences. Inside were terrified captives of both sexes that would either be auctioned off or given away as prizes or gifts for special guests. The place was packed with the A list of hustlers, pimps, thieves, murderers and dealers. It was an annual party thrown by one of the biggest dealers in the region known only as Von666. He traded and sold everything from drugs and human slaves to medial supplies and weapons. He was the undisputed kingpin of the Southern California crime syndicate.

Both Phaeton and Slykk had worked for him in the past, thus earning their invitation to the event. Mondoni and Boner would have been invited as well, but they were now gone, long gone.

Wicked looking firelight danced on the objects and people partying in the amphitheater under the hot summer moon, and for the most part their was no fights or schisms going on. It was an unwritten rule the no grudges or hits were to take place at the party, it was neutral ground. Among the noise provided from the laughter, conversations and blaring live band in the corner of the bowl, Slykk and Phaeton were prowling around. Slykk was near one of the barrels of hooch, drinking himself into a blind stupor. Phaeton had had a few drinks but never wanted to be less than sharp around this likes of people similar to himself. Truce or not, he had plenty that wanted him dead, and vice versa. He had a nice buzz going, but he was still lethally fast and dangerous.

While his partner drank, then sought female entertainment, Phaeton prowled around and around the cage on the stage, hitting the bars and chain link with a length of pipe he carried. The expression on his face was one of lecherous desire, but not for sex. Torture was his pleasure. That went on much longer than sex did, and the climaxes were better. "Hello my pretties... You will be mine... You will be mine..." he taunted them as he watched them flee from where he was on the other side of the bars to attempt to get as far from the renown psychopath as possible. To say his reputation proceeded him would be putting it mildly. Around and around he walked with the slow ease of a skilled predator, and around and around the prey in the cage moved away from his reach and line of sight. Phaeton circled the cage for several minutes until he had both whipped the captives into a near panic frenzy, and he'd managed to physically arouse himself. He laughed a final time, hit the bars a few more times hard with the pipe, then left the stage and lost himself in the wandering and increasingly drunken crowd. He walked around the party, taking note of who was here, who wasn't, and who was talking to whom. It was important to know who was allied with who since it changed so often and so frequently. He made a point of not talking to anyone for too long, not much more than a greeting or acknowledgment did he give. He didn't want to be seen with anyone, he didn't want anyone to know who he was friends with, or enemies with. He wanted to keep them in the dark, and guessing. He was no one's friend, no one's partner. He was insane, cruel, and ruthless, that is what he wanted them to think and act accordingly.

Eventually, Phaeton found a vantage point after an hour or so to just stand and observe the people. He was near the top of the bowl near the former box seats so nearly everyone one was below him. He thought that they were anyway, but now he had a vision of just how that would look when he was running things. He had great plans to build an empire where everyone would serve him, fear him, or die. No mercy. Caligula and the other infamous rulers would have nothing on Phaeton Slay. He would be more famous than Hitler, Castro, or Pol Pot. Phaeton's eyes were half closed as he fantasized his own circus of torture and degradation, and a smile crossed his face as he did so. They would all bow before him, and chant, "Slay! Slay! Slay!" It would be good, it would be very good indeed.

Slykk had sampled just about every barrel of drink by that point and was now staggering around hunting for human entertainment. Girls, slaves, whores, they were everywhere so he didn't have to stagger too far or look too intensely to find a pair that if they wanted to go on living were very accommodating. There were a few shrouded platform beds arranged on the edge of the bowl where concession stands used to reside. From his perch above and to the right of Slykk's position he squinted to aid in his poor vision and watched as the platinum blonde head shuffled into one of the outdoor fuck spots with two females and disappear from view. He snorted in disgust and returned to looking back out over his imagined kingdom. Some day, some day.

He was lost in the daydream, his own world of his own design and control when something snapped him out of it rudely. A hand clasped down on his shoulder and in a flash he'd drawn both of the knives he carried hidden on him, and spun around with a hiss. He hesitated a blink before he struck, and it was a good thing he did. Standing there was The Man himself. The Master of it all, the Host, Von666.

Von666's eyes opened wide when he saw Phaeton spring into attack mode, and nearly take his head off in the process. "Easy.... Easy there Phaeton.... I apologize for coming up and startling you..." he said with a wicked smile, and took a step back from the crazed killer, one of his best.

Phaeton blinked and it took a couple of seconds for his mind to reset from KILL mode, to some level of control and sociality. "I'm sorry Sir, you took me unawares." he said quietly. Phaeton apologizing? Only when he met one of rank and power above his own. He respected Von666, that is one of the reasons why he worked for him. He put the knives away and stood at ease before the crime lord and waited to see what he wanted of him. Hopefully it was a hit.

"No offense taken, I should have known better than to sneak up on you like that. It is how you endure and survive in this world Phaeton, you are aware, and on guard, and lightening fast." he smiled, then put his hands into the pockets of his slacks, and rocked back and forth slightly on his heels as he regarded Phaeton. "I'm glad I found you before the festivities begin because I have a present for you."

Phaeton remained silent and listened and waited for what he had to say next. A gift from Von666 could be a wonderous or valuable thing indeed. To say he was curious would be putting it mildly.

"In a short while, we will start handing out the door prizes." he said said with a glint in his eyes and a cruel smile. Those I choose to partake in the drawing will draw a numbered ball out of a black bag. That is the order in which they will select one of the slaves from the cage on the stage. I saw you perusing them earlier, surely there is one in there that strikes your fancy?" he asked with a grin.

Phaeton usually didn't worry about such things, contests, prizes, or choosing one slave over another to torture, as long as it was female. He smiled however and nodded in understanding of what Von666 was saying so far. This was a privilege he was giving him, whatever it was, and he knew it. "Perhaps, there's one or two I noticed." he said quietly and cast a glance down to the stage where the cage was and there were more people walking around it now, checking out the merchandise. He watched them for a moment, then turned back to face Von666,

"Excellent! That is why I needed to see you before the drawing." he said and pulled his right hand out of the pocket it was in and kept something hidden in his palm. "This is for you Phaeton. Keep it hidden until the right moment, then palm it and pull it out of the bag when it's your turn." he said and offered the object to Phaeton. Phaeton took a step closer to the man and held out his palm. Von666 dropped a small wooden ball into his hand, and when he looked closely at it, he saw the number 1 embossed on it boldly.

Phaeton grinned at Von666 and tucked the ball into a hidden pocket in one of his waist sashes. "Thank you Sir." he said with a slight bow of his head to the Master Criminal. "I look forward to the game." he grinned and reached his hand out to shake with the other man. "Thank you again for your hospitality, and continued employment." he said and after giving another bow to Von666, Phaeton started down the many rows of stairs toward the main part of the party once again. Von666 watched him go, and was a bit relieved when Phaeton was far away from him. "There goes the sickest bastard I've ever known. Thank God he works for me." he said and then with a soft laugh, went along his way to start the festivities.

An hour later the majority of the invited guests were lounging in chairs just behind the orchestra pit, watching as one by one, those whose names were called went to a table in the pit, stuck their hand into the black cloth bag and pulled out a numbered ball. Phaeton was sitting sideways in one of the luxury seats with his feet draped over the arm and his arms folded behind his head. He watched as seated next to him Slykk ogled the females in the cage. He was practically drooling over some of them. Phaeton chuckled. "Who says they are going to call your name to draw a ball Slykk? Von666 thinks you are a fucking idiot." he said and laughed out loud. Slykk turned to Phaeton and glared at him. "He does not! He thinks you are a fucking psycho!" he challenged back to his partner.

Phaeton laughed and was clearly amused by this. Slykk was looking angrier and angrier. Phaeton wanted to see what he would do, if anything, but just then, Phaeton's name was called out. "HA! Fuck you!" he said to Slykk as he slipped his fingers into his waist band, then swung his feet down and sauntered casually over toward the table. The ball was carefully slipped under the palm of his glove and with a great flourish wave of that hand, he thrust it into the bag and appeared to dig around for a moment before he pulled his hand back out, the ball trapped between his fingers. He looked at the ball, then held it up high and shouted out, "NUMBER ONE FUCKERS!!!" he yelled and then laughed wickedly and cast his eyes toward the cage where a chorus of screams rang out. He stared at them for a moment, then strode back to his seat amongst a mixture of applause and boos. Phaeton dropped back into his seat, then leaned over to show Slykk the ball, and before he could get too close of a look, or try to take it, he brought his hand back and put his hand in his lap with the ball safely tucked in his fist.

Slykk glared at Phaeton and was about to say something else when his name was called. "HA!" he said back to Phaeton and flipped him off before he went to go draw his own ball from the bag. Slykk, because of his better than usual glam looks and blonde hair received cat calls and whistles from the crowd. This caused Phaeton to burst out in very uncharacteristic giddy laughter. Phaeton was creepy enough to most people, but to hear him laugh so loud and enthusiastically was beyond unnerving. He watched Slykk make his way to the table and pull out a number. He could tell from the look on Slykk's face it wasn't a great number. Slykk endured the cat calls on his return walk, and then sat down next to Phaeton and shoved the ball close to his face for him to see. "HA! Yourself!" he shouted. "Number 2! You and I never like the same sort of women, so I will get the one I want." he taunted his partner.

"Hmmm... hadn't made up my mind which one I wanted but I am sure I know which piece of ass you wanted..." he said and laughed again. Slykk glared back at Phaeton, but he didn't dare do anything more. He scowled at him then turned to look straight ahead at the next person being called up to draw a ball. At times like this he really hated Phaeton's antics and wished he had the guts and means to do something about it. However, the more he thought about it though, it wasn't worth getting killed over. He was the sidekick and ever since being that, life had been pretty good for him he had to admit.

It didn't take much longer for all of the balls, 20 in all to be drawn by the chosen few. There was a chorus of grumbling when it was over and Phaeton glanced around to see many people slip out of the Bowl and into the night beyond. Sore losers, those not in high favor, low earners. Good riddance to them he thought and then looked back toward the stage where Von666 had taken a position near the cage. "And now the moment you've been waiting for." he called out in a loud deep voice and this elicited a cheer and applause from the remaining crowd. Even Phaeton and Slykk applauded and cheered. "If you will all look at the balls you've drawn, take note of your number and approach the stage when you turn arrives. I think we all recall who the lucky winner of the first choice was... Phaeton Slay!" he said and pointed to where Phaeton was sitting. There again was a chorus of cheers and boos, and languidly, and with no rush at all, Phaeton rose to his feet and casually made his way toward the stage and ascended the stairs to join Von666 on the stage. They exchanged greetings, shook hands, then Phaeton began to circle the cage slowly.

Back in his seat, Slykk couldn't even watch. He was looking down and rubbing his fingertips into his eyelids. His taste in women was very focused and predictable, it would be no trouble for Phaeton to select the girl he wanted. The minutes wore on, there were cheers, cat calls and other noises made by the anxious audience. Finally, Phaeton had finished whipping the captives into a panic once again, and then returned to Von666.

"Tell us Phaeton, who's the lucky winner you are taking home tonight?" he asked.

Phaeton smiled and planted his hands on his hips as he answered, "I chose to delay my choice. If you would allow, I will select after a few turns, it's my way of giving back to everyone else." he said in a magnanimous tone of voice, and then did a graceful bow.

To say that Von666 and all the others in attendance were shocked was an understatement. The sound from the audience was muttered confused talking and it took a minute for Von666 to realize what was happening, then he tried to figure out just what sort of angle or crap Phaeton was pulling. "I didn't expect to hear that from you Phaeton, but since you have the number one ball, it is your choice." he said with a smile and watched as Phaeton casually strode back to his seat. After he sat down, he glanced over at Slykk who was dumbstruck. Phaeton narrowed his eyes and leaned over closer to Slykk. "Go pick out your bitch." he hissed then leaned back and resumed his sideways reclining position. It took a minute for Slykk to realize what Phaeton had done for him, and he smiled at Phaeton, then got up and went toward the stage. He felt like a jackass for all the ill feelings he'd directed toward Phaeton that night, and vowed to find a way to repay him for his generosity, and for the betraying thoughts he'd had earlier.

Slykk went up to the stage when his number was called. He received mixed cheers and catcalls from the audience, but he cared even less about that then Phaeton, if that was possible. He was singularly focused on the flesh treats in the cage, and he was already making plans for what to do first, second and third with the one he selected. The prisoners, all of the females anyway, moved away from Slykk as he prowled around the cage, and made eye contact with those that dared to look at him directly. Not many did that.  He was thought to be dangerous, but not as nearly as his partner. He was all the more dangerous BECAUSE who he was partners with as well. When he reached the stage, he shook hands with Vonn666 and then started to walk around the perimeter of the large cage. Those inside, mostly all of the girls and the men that didn’t know Slykk’s particular persuasion scooted away from his surveying eyes and tried to hide from view. Those that knew him well, and so few really did, would know that of the choices contained in the cage, only a few fit into his preference for pleasure toys. 

Phaeton made a bet with himself as to which Slykk would choose, and put his imaginary bet on the blonde with the biggest tits, and smallest IQ. Slykk hated being challenged by anyone mentally, unless it was Phaeton of course. He knew Phaeton was leagues above him in the brains and cleverness department. His specialty was quick and cruel action when it came to dispatching enemies, or fulfilling a contract hit. They both had their specialties and strengths. Slykk had his weaknesses, and Phaeton... Well if he had any, he kept them unknown to anyone but himself.

Slykk didn’t take long to make his pick as Phaeton had guessed and pointed into the cage a bare few minutes later.  The door was opened, and he was accompanied in by two of Von666’s assistants in the capturing, and restraining of his choice. Screams erupted from inside of the cage, and that made Phaeton smile. Fear, panic. Those were his aphrodisiacs. Seeing enemies in pain, crushed beneath his foot or blade, life running out in rivers into the gutter, that was his sexual turn on, not some body he could press down beneath him.  Sex was too intimate, to close of a proximity with another human. He liked his space, and most people seemed more than happy to give him plenty of it.

He’d been right about which one Slykk would take and he watched with a feigned interest as she was cuffed, gagged, and chained to Slykk’s slave belt. It was heavy black leather with double buckles to close it, and steel rings spaced out at intervals to allow slaves, and captives to be chained securely to him.  Phaeton’s belt was similar, but he also carried steel sheaths that held the ultra sharp knives he was never without.   As he sat and watched Slykk fondle his new toy for the amusement of most of the male audience, he was aware that someone was standing beside him, behind his head. His first instinct was to lash out and do damage, but he was supposed to be safe here, and most likely it was no threat at all.

Slowly and with a yawn and fake stretch, he leaned back and turned his head to look. He saw the back, and backside of one of Von666’s servant girls attending to the guy sitting off to the side of him. False alarm. He turned back to face forward, and watched as Slykk was slowly approaching his seat but would stop to flaunt the new prize whenever asked. Phaeton snorted and rolled his eyes.

“Would you care for a drink Sir?” a soft voice sounded next to Phaeton, no doubt the serving wench he’s just seen the back of. “No.... thank...” he said in an obviously bored tone, and as he turned his head out of idle curiosity to glance at her, he and she both spoke the same word in the same shocked tone together.

“YOU!”

Her face was pale anyway, but she dropped a shade or two when her eyes met his. She made a move to back up and flee, but he was already in motion. He was like a cat that had spotted the mouse, and was now giving deadly pursuit. Lyria turned to run, but he almost immediately reached out to grab her by the ankles to trip her up. It worked. Lyria fell flat onto her full front on the steps of the outdoor coliseum, and Phaeton was soon atop her, growling in her ear. “Oh... cruel fate,  you are the most merciless of masters... Look what you have brought back to me... One that was taken, stolen, and again.... Mine...” he growled into her ear.

Only a couple of the others in attendance looked at him as he tackled the girl, then turned back to the stage where the next lucky winner was selecting their prize, and a great wave of shouts and catcalls began to fill the arena. Phaeton paid the distraction no mind, he had his own amusement pressed to the cement below him. She was struggling to get away, apparently she felt she had the right, but he decided it was time to school her once again. Two quick hard punches to her side,  just below the ribs stole the fight right out of her. She whimpered, and tried to block the blows, but he had already changed hands and was striking her on the other side.

Gasping for air, she stopped struggling, and laid there crying softly as she felt him take her wrists one by one and pull them back behind her. Cold cuffs went around them, and then the cuffs were attached to a chain. She knew well where the chain was attached. “Come on sweetie, time to go home.” he chuckled in her ear before he pulled her roughly to her feet.

“No!” she said and turned to look back over her shoulder at him. “I don’t belong to you anymore! You can’t take me... You don’t have the right.”

Phaeton moved around in front of her and lifted up his hand as if he was going to strike her, and he laughed when she cowered, anticipating the hit.  He didn’t hit her, not yet. She hadn’t officially changed hands yet, but once she had, and he was certain he could convince Von666 to do so, he would retrain her quickly enough. “Come on you.... Time to tell Von you are going home with me...” he growled and gave her chain a pull and started up the stairs to where he had last seen Von666.

As Slykk neared his seat, he was surprised to see the one next to it empty. He frowned and looked around for Phaeton, and quickly spotted him heading up the stairs, his own captive chained to him and in tow. “Where did you find her...” he muttered to himself, not recognizing who the girl was yet. He watched Phaeton ascend the stairs until he reached the promenade and then disappeared into the darkness. It was no matter, he had  his new toy, and would not have to listen to Phaeton’s cajoling while he started to break her in.

Phaeton found Von666 very near the place he’d left him hours before, on the uppermost promenade, surveying the events taking place on the stage. Phaeton was certain he was keeping himself next to a convenient exit or hiding alcove in case the truce went to shit, and all Hell broke loose. He was talking with someone Phaeton did not recognize, so he approached slowly with Lyria fighting all of the way until she spotted Von666 ahead of them. She saw him as a beacon of hope. “Master! Help me!!” she called out, and this quickly turned Von666’s attention from his conversation to the now approaching pair.

“Shaddup!” Phaeton growled and turned to throw a look into her eyes so terrifying, she was scared silent. She’d flinched at his shout, fully expecting a strike from his leather covered forearm as well. Old memories and defenses die hard.  Phaeton held the stare into her eyes for a beat then stood where he was, still far enough from Von666 as to not overhear, or interfere with his conversation. He had a feeling it wouldn’t continue on much longer, thanks to the interruption by Lyria.

Von666 watched Phaeton react to the girl’s outburst, and was about to move on his own if he struck her. Phaeton didn’t however, and while keeping a peripheral view of Phaeton and the girl, he held his position, and returned to his conversation. Phaeton had been noticed by the other bounty hunter and he like most, did not care to share air with the most notorious and most likely, most insane killer out there.  He excused himself from Von666 and quickly slipped away to lose himself in the crowd.

Phaeton watched him go, immediately suspecting treachery, so he did his best to memorize the face of the other. It would be hard from this distance and the darkness, but he had other information to store. His voice, his manner of movement. He didn’t need to see well to garner those from the brief encounter.

Von666 watched the other leave, and when he was gone he made a motion with his hand for Phaeton to approach him. Phaeton smiled and with a jerk on the chain that ran from his waist to the steel cuffs on Lyria’s waist, he strode over to Von666 and gave him a polite, half bow of respect as he stood next to him.  Von666 glanced from the girl to Phaeton, then back to her. She was terrified, he could easily see that, and in her eyes, her expression, he quickly surmised she was pleading with him.  He recognized her, she’d been with him as a servant for years.  She’d been used in his headquarters, his parties, and even his harem for a while.  He was sure she’d been assigned to this bacchanalia by one of his underlings, but he knew none of his working slaves had been put into the prize cage. None had misbehaved enough to be punished with that.

“I’ve made my selection Sir...” Phaeton purred and draped an arm around Lyria’s shoulders and pulled her quickly close to him, and placed a kiss on her cheek. Lyria reacted with disgust and tried to pull away from him.  “I like this one. Lots of fight left, and not a blonde, so I won’t have to keep an eye on Slykk...” he growled then waited for the other to respond.

Von666 had great eyesight, and an uncanny intuition that had served him well, and kept him in power and alive for a long time. He had no doubt that Phaeton and the girl had met before, the sheer terror, and fight she was putting up to get away from him proved that. Legend, and rumors were only so scary as stories, but if you’d experienced the real thing, it was a whole different game. He wasn’t afraid of Phaeton, not as much as most anyway. He knew when he was more of a threat, and not. Now was not such a moment. “She wasn’t in the cage.” He said simply, and slipped his hands into his pockets as he stood there casually.

“No... but she’s the one I want...” Phaeton countered in a slow, syrupy tone.  “Here, have your ball back.” he said and reached into the hidden pocket in his waistband, and flicked it like a coin toward Von666. He watched as Von666 pulled a hand out of one pocket and caught the ball easily. He slipped it back into his pocket without even looking at it. “There were also no instructions given as to which slaves, or captives could be taken... or not.” he said with a lift of his eyebrows and a cruel smile.  “I know that to a man such as you, your word is your bond, your word is law here, and if I have misunderstood the rules, or your wishes, please tell me where I went wrong in choosing the slave that I desired most.” he said in a low tone so that he couldn’t be overhead by anyone, only Von666 would hear him.

“Master! Please!” the girl called out again, and with a hiss, Phaeton turned to her and while holding her cuffs tight in one hand, he reached to his belt and pulled something from it.  Once he had it in his hand, he gave the cuffs a hard twist that ground them against the bones in her wrists painfully. “OWWW!” she cried out and when her mouth opened, Phaeton struck with his other hand and forced a ball gag into her mouth. He let go of her wrists just long enough to hook the strap behind her  head, and caused tears to well up in her eyes when he took no care in avoiding buckling her hair into the closure.

Von666 watched with interest at how fast Phaeton silenced the girl, and using non-harming, or particularly violent methods no less. He knew it was an act. He knew what she was in for. They all did. When she was silenced, but still shaking and looking to Von666 for pardon, Phaeton looked back to his host. “It’s up to you Sir. I chose, and I was told to chose. It’s not like I went and raided your Harem. I would never presume to be so rude, or bold as to do that. I figured a simple, but trainable serving slave would suit my needs just fine. Would you agree, or not?” he said and gave a look to Von666 that conveyed far more implied threat than his words had. He wanted HER. He would have HER, and no one, not even Von666 was going to get in his way of what he wanted.

Von66 knew this was a test of wills, power and diplomacy. He knew there had been no guidelines on the choosing of the prize slaves, and Phaeton had noticed that loophole because he was thinking with his mind as always, and not his dick. That was why Von666 continued to hire the psychopath for the more delicate, and important jobs. If all he wanted was this particular girl to torture, so be it. It was a small gesture on his part, and like Phaeton had said himself, he wasn’t picking from his personal stock. He gave a look of regret to the girl first, the least he could do, then nodded to Phaeton. “She’s yours. Enjoy her.” he said solemnly, and turned and walked away without another word.

Lyria screamed behind the gag in her mouth, calling for her now former master to come back, to change his mind, to save her from Phaeton.  She watched him walk away until a powerful strike to the back of her head, in just the right spot knocked her unconscious.  Phaeton caught her before she hit the ground, then crouched down to put her over his shoulder before slipping off in to the night with his new, yet familiar prize.

*****

Phaeton laid on his back on his bed, his hands folded behind his head, and stared up at the cracked, and disintegrating ceiling over his head. Lyria was laying next to him, chained from a belly chain that ran around her waist to the frame of the well worn bed. He wasn’t sure if she was sleeping or not, he sure as hell wasn’t. He was  having to listen to Slykk, down the hall alternating between fucking, and beating on his new toy. He wished he could just go deaf and not have to listen to any of it. Pain and fear usually excited him, but not when Slykk did it. It seemed forced, and amateurish.  He had no style, no finesse, and no sense of pacing, or placement of pain. Anyone could make someone hurt, it took a  Master to vary it, and change it up, and make it impossible to block out, or rise above. Phaeton was such a master.

He turned to look at the body next to him, and pondered taking out his boredom, frustration, and hate on her. Again. Just about every night it was the same. Pain, violence, fear. There could never be enough for his liking. She was on her second round with him, with him as her master, her owner and tormentor. He’d helped kill her fair haired mate, how long ago? Ages it seemed. Time was such an intangible thing for Phaeton.  He lived in the NOW, and the TODAY and never worried about tomorrow, or the past. You could do nothing about either.

The sounds of pain and animal grunting sex being performed echoed in the small dwelling and into his overly sensitive ears. Phaeton suddenly sat up, and with his fingers plugged into his ears he let out a banshee scream of frustration and anger.  Lyria had been asleep and the scream awoke her with a start. She sat up and looked around in a panic, and her eyes met with Phaeton’s.  He froze, and stopped mid yell and stared back at her. Her heart was pounding from the harsh awakening as he held her gaze. She could see raw madness in those mostly hidden dark eyes. 

“What’s wrong?” she whispered.

He replied with a backhand to the side of her face and knocked her back down onto the bed. He fell upon her like a predatory cat, and since she was in nothing much more than a thin negligee, and he in his leather pants and vest, there wasn’t much to remove to bare the necessary parts of the body for sex to happen. The cheap shot slap was followed by fists pounded down in anger and frustration and pain that ran in his blood non-stop. She wouldn’t fight, there was no point, the sooner it was over, the better, and the sooner the pain would ebb. Onto her belly she went, hips raised and she cried as the pounding of his fists on her back continued. He swore a nonstop chant of hate speak and degrading poison, halted only briefly when he achieved enough erection to drive into her.

“Oooohhhhahhhhhhh...” he groaned next to her ear, and she closed her eyes and winced away from his graveyard breath. He grunted with each thrust, she whimpered. It hurt to have him inside, it hurt to have him on the outside. Four minutes later, it was over. He disengaged from her with a shove and a final hit to the back of her head, then flopped down onto his side, his back to her and laid there muttering and talking to himself so low, even she couldn’t make out what he was saying.

Trembling she retrieved the blankets, and dutifully covered them both comfortably before she laid back down, her back to his, and try to fall into a blessed pain and Phaeton free sleep. The pain would fade, and the bruises would color and join the previous fading ones. She was like a leopard who’s spots always changed.

Hours later, she was nearly asleep when sudden contact from Phaeton startled her awake. He’d turned over, and was now spooned up behind her, with his arm draped over her side on top of the chain that was already, and always there. She didn’t dare move, or even breathe. He was shivering. It wasn’t a particularly cold night, chilly at best, and the blankets were still over them.

Lyria had no choice but to lay there and share her warmth, or just her form with him as he muttered and shivered in his sleep as if he had a fever. He did not feel feverish to her, so she put it down to Phaeton sleeping, but his anger and rage refusing to. Eventually, in the quiet of the night, she fell asleep. Another day survived, and another day to survive coming soon.

The sound of water dripping, slowly, plunk, plunk, plunk was what awoke Lyria sometime the next day. She blinked, awoken from a strange dream involving being locked in a clear glass box suspended over the ocean.  The room didn’t look familiar, and when she sat up and felt the chain around her waist, then saw the top of the all to familiar and frightening head and hair next to her under the blankets, she let out a gasp, and covered her mouth with her hands. Tears welled up in her eyes, and as silently as she could, she began to sob. It all had come rushing back, the events of the day and night before, and how Fate had thrown her right back into the the grinder of Hell itself, back with Phaeton. She had been a slave at Von666’s compound, but the treatment there was a world away from the way it would be with the Madman sleeping next to her.

After several minutes, she wiped at her eyes, and dried them on the corner of the tattered blanket they were sharing. It was beyond her understanding why her life was playing out this way. What had she done to deserve this, to deserve him?  She sniffled, and felt the sting of the cold air on her nose, and looked around to see a growing puddle of water on the floor next to the bed. Looking up she saw that the roof was leaking, and the rain that was beating against the dirty and paper covered window was coming in, a drop at a time. She sighed and wondered if that small annoyance or another would be enough to set Phaeton off into a rage. It would happen, it wasn’t a matter of if, but when and for how long.

Muffled voices from down the hall of the small house caught her ear. She could make out it was a male voice, and then a softer, female one talking. Slykk and his new toy. She tried to not think about him, her or what they had been doing, or would do. He made her nauseous. He was stupid, and infantile, and overall, he just creeped her out. The way he looked at Phaeton sometimes made her wonder what twisted thoughts were going on in that over-bleached head of his.

A snort behind her broke her out of her morbid musings, and she turned to see Phaeton now laying on his back beside her. Slowly his eyes opened, and they immediately settled on her. His expression was unreadable, he seemed to be thinking something over carefully. Lyria’s heart began to beat faster, fear. What would he do? What was he thinking? What did he want? Before he could strike, or yell at her, she spoke, quietly.

“Can I get you anything?” she asked.  His eyes narrowed and he seemed to be considering her question deeply.

“What can you possibly give me that I can’t get myself...” he said in a low growl. Lyria shivered, and laid back down into the bed beside him, and pulled the covers back over herself, her back to him. This was always risky, but at least her belly, and face were protected.

She knew she wouldn’t be able to go back to sleep, but would lay there quietly until Phaeton changed the situation.  As he laid there, he put his arms under his head and looked up at the ceiling. He frowned when he noticed the leak. It did not come as a surprise that this, like most of the abandoned dwellings in the fallen city were falling apart. Nothing new had been built in the region for decades. There were settlements being built, new cities, new governments being built in the east, but for now, the west coast remained a wasteland of danger, death, and nightmares. To him, the drops represented time. Drop by drop, minute by minute, time was moving and that meant they needed to get moving to get settled before the winter struck with it’s unforgiving arctic weather. If this house was leaking with the rain, it would never survive the storms, and likely snow that would fall.

“SLYKK!” he suddenly bellowed, and at the sound of the other being summoned, Lyria pulled the blanket over her head completely as if to hide from being noticed by either of them. “Get in here.....” he then added in a slower, more threatening tone of voice.

“Why?!” came the reply a moment later from out of sight.

“Because I want to fucking kill you!” He roared back in an increasingly annoyed tone of voice. Lyria shivered. “What’s wrong with you?” he snarled down in her direction.

“I’m cold.” she replied quickly, but her tremors weren’t from the cold, and he knew that as well as she did.  

“Then I’ll put you under Slykk for an hour or two and let him warm you up...” he said in a sly growl.

Lyria emerged from the covers to look out at Phaeton, her eyes pleading with him, “No... please....”

Phaeton snorted a dark laugh and then yelled for Slykk again. “Get in here or I make spare ribs out of your new squeeze.” he shouted, and reached an arm around Lyria’s neck, and jerked her closer to him, close enough so he could whisper in her ear. “Get me some fucking food or I will cut off your arm and grill it....” he snarled, roughly let go of the head lock he had her in, and then pulled off the blankets so he could shove her out of the bed, and onto the floor. Lyria landed with a thud, and let out a yelp as she fell onto the cold bare floor. She quickly found a discarded shirt in a pile of clothing at the foot of the bed, put it on, and then looked around and made for the door of the bedroom. She got about ten feet before the chain ran out, and pulled tight between her and the frame of the bed. She was pulled back off of her feet, and landed on the floor again.  Phaeton’s wicked laughter filled the room. 

Lyria didn’t bother getting up until she heard him reach for his ring of keys, then unlock her leash from the bed. “The door’s trap set. Don’t get any bright ideas.” he warned then dropped his end of the chain onto the floor with a loud rattle and then laid back down onto his back to await both his food, and Slykk.

Lyria quickly found her way to the kitchen of the house, and by kitchen, she found a room where there were discarded chairs, cooking ware, empty packages of rations, cans, and even a rat that rapidly left the room when she entered. Lyria flinched, everything moving suddenly tended to do that. She looked around hopelessly, trying to figure out where there was anything that could pass as edible to be found here. Nothing. With panic building inside of her, she went back to the bedroom, dragging the chain behind her, and paused outside of the door. 

She hesitated before going into the room when she could hear Phaeton and Slykk talking. She listened long enough to hear they were arguing about what they were going to do for their next living arrangements since apparently the money for rent was gone, and they would be on the road again in a day. Lyria knew all of that was out of her control, so she went back to wandering the small run down house looking for food. They had to have brought some with them, where was it?

Eventually, she came to the other bedroom in the house, and a partially open door. Lyria listened before she pushed it open further. There was no sound coming from inside. She opened the door to find what looked like had been a girls room at some time in the distant past judging from the colors of the rotted, and filthy decor. There was a bed with the skeleton frame of a canopy left behind, and on the bed, nude was a blonde girl who appeared to be trying to find a way out of the cuffs attached to a chain that ran from her, to the bed. When she saw Lyria, her expression brightened.

“Help me! Help me get loose! We can escape and find our way back to Von!” she urged.

Lyria stared at her, then gave a mad little laugh. She looked away from the girl and began to look around the room.

“Come help me!” she pleaded. “You are already loose! Come over here!” she implored. Lyria  may not be the sharpest tool in the shed, but she wasn’t suicidal. She ignored the other woman, and scrounged around until she found Slykk’s satchel bag on the floor.

“Hey! You stay out of that!” the other woman said, now interested in something other than her hope for freedom. “That belongs to Sly...”

“Slykk.” Lyria corrected her with a snarl, and she began to undo the buckles and quickly opened the pack. Inside were several packs of rations. There were full meals, snacks, and even a couple pieces of fruit. Her mood lifted at the sight of it, and quickly she pulled out enough for Phaeton and herself, hopefully, he would actually let her eat.

“Get out of that bitch!” the other girl yelled and leaped from the bed and grabbed hold of the leather bag and began to pull. Lyria looked at her with a ferocious expression, and faster than she realized what she was doing she brought up her hand, in a fist and punched the blonde in the jaw.

Blindsided by the unexpected attack, the girl went down like a bag of rocks and hit the floor hard. Lyria didn’t waste time giving her a chance to get up, she clutched the food to her, and stood up. As the other started to rise, swearing around the blood leaking from her lip, Lyria brought her bare foot up, and delivered a kick to the underside of the blonde’s jaw, and sent her flying backwards onto her back on the floor.  Lyria heard her head hit the floor as she scrambled out of the room, and made her way back to where Phaeton was. 

She appeared in the door, and waited. Slykk’s back was to her, and Phaeton leaned to the side to see her better once he’d noticed her. “Get the fuck out of the way Slykk, my breakfast is here.” he growled.  Slykk turned around to look at Lyria and scowled.

Lyria scooted around him, and returned to the bed with her bounty. 

Slykk spotted what she was carrying when Lyria dumped the food into Phaeton’s lap. “Hey! That’s my food! Give that back!” he shouted and lunged for the bed. Quicker than a blink, Phaeton had drawn a knife and was holding it up towards Slykk’s gut as he neared the bed and the food.

“Take.... one... more....step....” he snarled at his partner.

Slykk stopped, he knew when to not press his luck. “We don’t have that much....” he growled in a sulky tone.

“As long as there is enough for me, we have enough,” Phaeton replied smoothly, and gave Slykk the most condescending of looks.

Slykk shot a glare at Lyria, who returned a deadpan expression. She would not taunt Slykk with Phaeton in the room. They both despised each other, and as much as Phaeton loved to torment her, he kept the two of them apart. “Your bitch better stay out of my stuff or she’s going to get stuck!” Slykk threatened.

“You’re my bitch....” Phaeton said in a deadly tone, and watched as Slykk glared back at him, then turned and left the room. Once he was gone, he watched as Lyria crept back under the covers next to him, covered up, and laid with her back to him, her head covered mostly with the blanket.

 Phaeton watched her bury herself in the bed, then once she was hidden away from him, and the world, he turned his attention to the food she had brought from Slykk’s room. C Rations mostly, some fruit. He sneered at that and took the two bruised apples and shoved them under the blanket for her to eat. “There.” he said and tore into the first packet with his teeth.

From the other room, a roar of a yell let out, then quick, stomping footsteps could be heard as Slykk returned to the room, shouting. “What the fuck?! What the fuck did you do to her?” He shouted as he approached the bed and shouted at the lump under the blankets. Upon hearing him approach, Lyria had gone completely under the covers.

“What’s your problem now Princess?” Phaeton grinned as he used his grimy fingers to shove the food into his mouth like a starved dog.

“She beat up my girl! She fucked her all up!” he yelled.

Phaeton paused, and let out a snort of a laugh. “Right.... She beat up the whore you’ve been pounding on all night... I think you just got a look at your own work. Lyria didn’t do shit.”

“She punched her in the fucking mouth and kicked her. She’s in there laid out all loopy.”

Phaeton laughed again, and looked down at the lump in the bed next to him. “Lyria....” he said in the sweetest, most serene voice she had ever heard. It made her shiver. Plus the fact he’d used her name and not some angry slur made her all the more nervous.  “Did you beat the crap out of Slykk’s pathetic cum bucket?” he asked her calmly.

Lyria was afraid to breathe, much less answer him. Heart racing, she fought to find the answer, the right answer, the answer that would result in the least amount of pain to follow. Finally, she spoke quietly to Phaeton.  “I found you food.” she said and let it go at that.

Phaeton gave Slykk a triumphant sneer. “There you go. She only got the food. She’s too fucking stupid to lie. Now get out of here before I lay you out...” he said then returned to eating.  Slykk didn’t leave right away, he stood there glaring, his hands balled into fists at his sides for several long moments before he stormed out of the room and returned to his. The slamming of a door punctuated his exit.

Phaeton gave a chuckle as he continued to eat. Interesting indeed, he thought to himself. Just as long as she didn’t try that with him, he would let the event go by the wayside. Anything that pissed off Slykk, couldn’t be that bad of a thing. Two days later, the rain had not stopped, and was soaking the city and surrounding forests in a damp shroud. Phaeton, Slykk and their captives had left the house they had rented and now were traveling north. Winter would be coming soon, and with each passing year the winters got colder, and longer. Snow fell everywhere on the southland where it used to always shine, even in the depths of January. If you wanted to head for warmer climes, you had to head North, and East. North was where the four of them were headed, in the pouring rain. Slykk was on point, his vision was better, and slogging along behind him at the end of a chain was his slave.

Next came Lyria, grateful to have the rain coat Phaeton had cut out of a piece of rubber sheeting. It wasn’t very fashion forward, but belted around her waist with his chain, and pulled up over her head, it was keeping most of the rain off. He wasn’t doing it out of kindness, it was survival. A sick slave was of no use. Sickness led to death, and he wasn’t about to lose her to that unless he decided it was time. He had cut himself a make shift poncho, and every now and then would shake his head to move the long wet black hair out of his eyes.

They were following a trail that lead to another settlement, another shanty outpost where only the most evil, and dangerous dared travel. Jobs were to be found there, and with jobs came money. It was time to make as much cash as possible, then hole up for the winter. Even Phaeton wasn’t crazy enough to take on Winter and expect to survive. It was nature’s only way to cull the numbers of sinners and killers on the planet now, only the strongest, and most resourceful of the worst would survive.

The sun was dipping below the horizon, casting the strange purplish light on everything beyond it and the rain clouds. Lyria turned around toward Phaeton. He was looking down at the ground, and she thought she heard him muttering to himself, lost in his own world and thoughts.  She was going to ask him something, but since the monster was subdued in his mood, she decided against it, and turned back to following Slykk to where ever they were going that night. Slykk’s slave wasn’t accustomed to this sort of military travel, and stumbled and fell down onto the ground. Slykk didn’t hear her, he only halted when he felt a tug on the chain.

Lyria had seen her fall, and simply stopped to catch her breath. She flinched when she felt two hands grip suddenly and tightly onto her shoulders, and a rough growl in her ear. “Why did you stop?” Phaeton snarled, then gave her a push forward that nearly toppled her down.

“She fell.” Lyria said simply, then moved around the flailing girl and continued walking. She could follow a path easily enough. Phaeton fell into step beside her, taking the lead and leaving Slykk behind to sort out his drama, and catch up. 

“Haven’t got three braincells between the two of them,” Phaeton rasped, then gave a chuckle. Lyria remained silent, and simply nodded as they trudged on and on. Eventually, Slykk got himself and Moira, his slave back up to speed, and they took the lead once again.

Hours later, they encountered a small group of people coming toward them in the opposite direction. Slykk spotted them, and relayed the intel to Phaeton. Phaeton grabbed hold of Lyria and shoved her behind a thick clump of bushes, then stood beside Slykk as they travelers approached. They were coming from the same settlement they were traveling too. After brief introductions were made, they exchanged news, rumors, and other bits of information that may or may not be true, or bankable.  They talked jobs, who was hiring for what, and according to the ones headed out of the area, there was nothing to be found, and again there was talk of a government rising to power in the north, where Canada had once been.

Phaeton scoffed that possibility off, and seemed more concerned with the job situation, and who was in town. Moments later the conversation was over, some trades were done for food, and other supplies, then the parties went their separate ways. Phaeton waited until the others were well out of sight before he pulled Lyria back out of the bushes, and they continued their march in the rain.

“Why’d you hide her?” Slykk asked him as he dropped back to walk beside Phaeton, and let the girls trail behind. 

“Why show off the goods when there’s no reason to?” was his reply, then he went silent, and continued on. Lyria wondered about Phaeton’s motives after hearing that, but didn’t buy his reasoning for a minute. Something else was at work in his brain. She didn’t for a minute think it was for some sentimental reason, he was always three moves ahead of everyone, it was how he survived.

Slykk shrugged, and took the answer at face value. “Oh, right. Well, it’s not like I am looking to rent out mine either...” he said, claiming the same perceived motives as his partner. “Not yet anyway. I still like her too much.” he grinned.  Phaeton turned to look at Slykk from behind his long, wet bangs.

“You are a moron.” he said then looked back ahead at the path winding off into the growing darkness ahead of them. Slykk opened his mouth like he was going to protest that accusation, then decided it would be a battle he would not win, so he let it go. 

They walked all night, having to stop several times to let Slykk’s new toy rest. Phaeton got more and more agitated with each delay in travel. Lyria herself was getting tired sooner than she used to when she was with Slykk and Phaeton the first time. While she was with Von666, she had done no traveling. She wasn’t about to complain or ask for a break however, she was satisfied to take them when Moira collapsed, and let her take the ire and growing anger focus  of Phaeton.  If nothing else, Lyria knew how to survive this world of nightmares, and more importantly, she knew how to survive Phaeton Slay.

When the sky began to lighten, Phaeton paused in the march and looked around, assessing where they were. It was a field with scrub brush, tall grass, and now, lots of mud. It was not a suitable place to set up camp and sleep. Lyria looked around as well, and knowing Phaeton’s penchant for having a safe hide hole for sleeping, and nothing here to provide that, they would be walking more before they rested.  Just as she had that thought, he barked gruffly, “Keep walking.” Slykk and Moira groaned in protest loudly, but Lyria kept her disappointment to herself, and with a sigh and a reshouldering of the pack on her back, started to walk again.

She was reaching the end of her strength and energy, as usual, Phaeton and Slykk kept the majority of the food for themselves, and only fed the slaves enough to keep them going, but far from full and sated. She thought of other things than her growling stomach, such as what would the camp look like that night, what would Slykk do to piss off Phaeton and what torment he would unleash upon her. She could hope he would be too tired to bother, but she had yet to see a time when he was too tired to hate, to attack, to harm.

“How much farther Slay?” Slykk inquired an hour later when they had crossed a large verdant meadow in the base of a valley.

“Until we find shelter...” he snarled back.

Lyria was scanning the area, looking for any place that might provide shelter that was up to Phaeton’s standards. She watched the walls of the canyon as they walked, and when she noticed a dark area among some rocks, the pointed it out to Phaeton by tapping on his shoulder, then pointing in the direction.  “What?” he growled in her ear.

“Cave, or it looks like a place behind some rocks over there. I can’t see through the rain, but there’s a dark place, could be a cave.”

Phaeton looked in that direction, and squinted. His poor eyesight wouldn’t allow him any details, so he would have to depend on Lyria’s skills at observation. He trusted her judgement over Slykk’s on this matter any day. “Good.” he said then turned to the rest of the party.  “Over that way.... Head for the rocks.” he commanded and the group headed that way. When they arrived, they found a gap between the rocks that lead inward, and out of sight. “Slykk, go have a look...” he ordered the other and to prevent Slykk from making the obvious protest as to why he shouldn’t go, Phaeton reached to his belt and unhooked the clasp holding his slaves chain to it. “I will hold onto the girls...” he said with a salacious grin, and Moira actually gave a whimper of distress.

Phaeton turned toward the sound and glared at her. “One more sound out of  you and I’ll shut that mouth of yours for a week.” he threatened, then looked back at Slykk.

“Right...” Slykk said flatly, then went to check out the crevice and what laid beyond where they were standing. He did not want to go inside, but the only other option would be to send in his slave as he knew without a doubt that Phaeton would never go in first, nor would he send his slave in. He wiggled past the rocks and went in a few feet. It was dark, of course, and damp, but it wasn’t raining in there, so that was a plus. He pulled out a luminous stick from his pocket, activated it, and held it up to get a better view of what he was walking into. It was a small area, calling it a cave would be generous, but it looked big enough for four people and their gear to bed down and sleep. The floor was gravel, also damp, and the walls were damp rock. Over all the space was about fifteen feet in each direction.  “It’s small, but we will fit!” he called out and then immediately began to look for what would be the best place to lay down in there, but one side of the cave wasn’t much better than the other. Moira came in next, and immediately pressed close to Slykk. She seemed to be grateful for his presence instead of Phaeton’s.

Lyria came in next and watched while Slykk crammed the stick into a crevice so that there was a bit of light, albeit green in color to show the interior of the cave. Phaeton came last, and paused just inside to look around the area. He brushed his hair out of his eyes and took in a long deep breath, then let it out slowly. “It will work.” he said simply, then reeled in Lyria’s chain, drawing her close to him, so he could push her forward towards the back corner of the cave. Once there, he dropped hold of the chain, and started to remove his gear. The poncho came off first, and he dropped it down onto the ground, for a drop cloth. Lyria did the same with her rain cover, then set down the pack she had been wearing. 

“It’s cold in here.” Moira said as she shivered and wrapped her arms around herself as her teeth began to chatter.

Slykk looked over in Phaeton’s direction. “Fire?” he inquired, hopeful.

“No. Smoke will show in the daylight.” he said and dropped his pack next to Lyria’s, then began to dig through it. He Eventually pulled out a blanket that had been wrapped in a plastic bag before they had set out on their journey. “Put yours on the tarp.” he told Lyria, who was already digging hers out.

“Yes, Phaeton.” she said quietly, and once her blanket was out and spread out, she watched Phaeton for her next cue as to what to do. Phaeton started to strip down, removing belts, chains, holsters for his knives, and other trappings. He hung them on protruding bits of rock, and once they were stored, he stripped out of his wet clothes and threw them over other rocks with wet slapping sounds. He didn’t seem to care about being naked, and once he was bare, he wrapped himself in his blanket, and then laid down on Lyria’s. Soon, she did the same, stripping down to nothing but the chain around her waist that never came off, and laid down next to Phaeton. She shivered and looked at Phaeton with a pleading expression. She knew he could care less if she was cold or not, so she would have to appeal to his practical side. “I might catch cold if .....”

“Who cares?” he sneered back.

Lyria looked over at Slykk and Moira, they seemed to be having trouble deciding on what they were going to do for sleeping arrangements, so they were of no use. Lyria, then inhaled deeply through her nose. The cold air rushing in had the desired effect, and she sneezed, loudly. The sound echoed off of the walls of the small cave. She sneezed again. Phaeton swore and reached out to grab her sharply by the arm and pulled her close to him. He opened the blanket, which was more than big enough for two, and pulled her chilled and damp body against his own. “I treat you far too well...” he whispered into her ear, then spooned up close behind her.

“Yes Phaeton,” she said obediently, and once she finally began to get some body warmth back, closed her eyes, and sighed. She listened to Phaeton’s breathing, and she  could swear she could hear him thinking at times. She laid there relaxed, pliable, but ready for an attack that was usually the routine before sleep. Phaeton yawned next to her ear. and after reaching up to grab hold of a fist full of her hair in his hand, wrapped it around his hand and pulled it tight. It was his way of keeping hold of her while he slept, his hand would remain closed around the hank of hair all night, so any attempts at moving away by her would be detected.

Ten minutes later, Slykk and Moira were finally nearing being ready to sleep. They were not the quietest of campers, and finally Phaeton shouted out, “Stop the fucking dancing over there or I will come over there and make the both of you stop for good!” 

“Hurry up bitch!” Slykk said and gave his slave a slap to the face, just to show he was handling the situation. She cried out beggin him to stop, and Phaeton snorted in laughter. Lyria remained silent, and waited until finally, all were down, covered and presumably, going to sleep. She felt Phaeton’s chest moving against her back as he breathed, and noticed when the rhythm of it changed. Slower, deeper, he was finally asleep. She said a silent prayer of thanks to what ever Deity that had put him to sleep so fast, and with the threat of harm or sex no longer imminent, she could at last relax, and sleep. 

The quartet of weary travelers slept all through the day, and into the next night. Phaeton awoke to nature’s call, and slunk out of the cave and outside to relieve himself by the rising moon. He spun around expecting an attack when he heard a sound behind him and confronted Lyria. “What are you doing?” he hissed.

“I have to pee.” she said and with her belly chain dragging on the ground behind her, she went a dozen or so steps beyond the cave entrance and squatted in the grass. She returned to find Phaeton looking up at the now clear, inky black sky.

“Everything is still wet.” she said, stating a harmless, obvious fact. Phaeton nodded and gave a grunt in reply. “It’s clear tonight, tomorrow, if it’s still clear, I can hang out the gear...” she offered tentatively.  Phaeton gave another grunt, then reached for her and dragged her back into the cave.

Once they were on her blanket and under his, he pushed her onto her back, and moved on top of her. Lyria turned her head to the side and closed her eyes to avoid the angry gaze bearing down on her. She could see it, even feel it in the darkness of the cave. The luminous stick had burned out long ago, so now there was nothing around them but damp, inky blackness. He shoved her legs apart with his thighs and settled between them. She gave a soft, plaintive whimper, for his benefit, not hers. He gave three dry thrusts, then found her opening, and forced himself inside. Animal grunts came from his lips, near her ear as she rocked with him, and laid her hands across his wide, and scarred back. Gently she felt the ridges of the battle and fight scars with the tips of her fingers until he bit down on her shoulder to stop the unwanted exploration.  

“Ow!” she cried out and squirmed beneath him. If Slykk or Moira heard anything, they were smart enough to not say anything. Roughly he pounded in and out of her until at last with a moan and a long shudder, he finished. The instant he was done he rolled off of her, and administered a punch to her jaw. Lyria whimpered again, and reflexively rolled onto her side, her back to him, and pulled the covers over her head.  

“Worthless bitch.” he rasped near her ear, then laid down on his side behind her and closed his eyes. Once again he wrapped her hair around his fist and pulled it tight like the reins on a horse before he relaxed, and slowly drifted into a deep sleep.

The next morning broke sunny, and warm. Slykk was the first one up and out of the cave, surveying the surroundings. Lyria ventured out next, and carrying a pile of wet clothing belonging to her and Phaeton. She walked over to a tree nearby and draped the clothes on the branches after wringing them out first. She said nothing to Slykk while she did this, and avoided making any eye contact with him as well. With the task done, she quickly returned to the cave, and found Phaeton sitting on their makeshift bed, eating from a can of rations. He looked at her silhouette in the darkness, then picked up a can of the food and threw it at her. It struck her on the shoulder with a sharp sound and she gave a short cry before snatching it up. 

Quickly she opened the can and devoured the processed meat inside. Every morsel was licked clean from the tin, and  once it was all gone, she set the can aside, and looked around at the shadows and shapes the dim light made in the cave. Slykk called for Moira, and she left the cave to go see to him outside.

“I’m gunna cut that bitch in two if she looks at me like that one more time...” Phaeton said in a low, dangerous tone of voice. “I don’t like her face, it needs some new lines cut into it.” he said then laughed a laugh that sent chills throughout Lyria.

She didn’t verbally acknowledge him, but nodded in the near darkness. If he had a new person to focus his hate and venom on, that was fine with her.

When Phaeton finished his tin of food, he opened a second, and started in on it. Lyria watched him closely, still hungry, but knew better than to ask him for more. She watched as he emptied the second tin, then tossed it aside. Next he dug a third one out of the pouch and held it up, looked at it thoughtfully, then tossed it over to Lyria. “Here, take one from Slykk’s whore.” he said then gave a laugh as he then began to rummage through his pack until he found a well worn, and patched pair of black BDU pants. He pulled them on, and gave a cold glare at Lyria while he did so. “Stay in here.” he muttered, then turned and made his way out of the cave.

Lyria watched him go, and once he was gone, she went through her own pack until she found a dry shirt, and pulled it on. She was tired of sitting around naked under a blanket. More searching and she found some pants to put on. She only had two changes of clothing, and this was the other. Once she was dressed, she laid back down on the blanket, pulled the other over her up to her nose, and closed her eyes. There was no telling how long they would be staying there, so she would get her rest while she could. She could hear Slykk and Phaeton talking outside, but not what they were saying. Phaeton always spoke quietly in conversations, he saved yelling for her and other foes.

It didn’t matter what they were talking about, or who, she would go where she was told, and do what she was told by Phaeton. All she knew was they were heading for a new place where Phaeton and Slykk would look for work, dirty work. Theft, extortion, murders, and probably worse things she didn’t want to imagine, or think about. She tensed when suddenly the voices outside got louder, and a moment later, Moira came back into the cave. Lyria didn’t see her come in, she could hear her enter, softly crying and then drop down near where Slykk’s belongings were. She listened silently to the other woman mutter to herself, and pretended to be asleep. Survival dictated that she keep to herself, and keep herself separate from Slykk, and any of his women. Both of them angered Phaeton, so casual contact with either of them could have painful repercussions for her. She laid there listening to a sobbing girl, and the heated discussion about an unknown topic between Phaeton and Slykk, until fatigue overcame her, and she fell asleep once again.Thankfully, the rain storm had completely passed by the next evening, and there had been enough sunlight to dry out their clothing. Once they were dressed and packed up, they continued on toward their destination. It was another two days of walking until the path led to an abandoned road, then finally arrived at an area that looked like it had been a cities civic center at one time. The buildings were all damaged, and as they drew nearer they could see parts of the city had been walled off by stacks of debris and cars. There were few people wandering around the outer part of the settlement at that time of night.

Phaeton paused and surveyed the situation. “What they got a wall up around the place for?” Slykk asked him as he came to stand close to his partner in mayhem. Lyria was looking around as well, and seeing a discarded pile of pallets near enough, she moved to it and sat down. Feeling the chain move, Phaeton turned to look at her momentarily, then back to Slykk.  

“Guarded. You need to be allowed inside apparently. We were not told of that little detail apparently.” he said in a low, even tone. He clearly was not happy about this little development. “Do you see any guard posts, wall guards?” he asked Slykk. Lyria looked toward the wall, and couldn’t see anyone near where they were. She then glanced around at the two other people she noticed walking around, and kept her eye on them, just in case. 

“No, nothing.” Slykk said dully, but then, he wasn’t looking too hard. He had pulled his slave over closer to him, and was eyeing her hungrily. Sex for him was a drug, and it often got in the way of him thinking clearly. It was his lack of keeping an  eye on the moment, or the objective. Lyria still couldn’t believe he was still around, and Boner, and Mondoni were gone.  Phaeton had not told her about where they had gone, but she could guess. She felt the worst about Mondoni. He had been so much older than the others, but he had been the most kind to her during that brief period when there were four in the murderous gang, and not just two.

Moments passed as Slykk and Phaeton continued to discuss their next plan of action, when Lyria noticed that they had caught the attention of one of the others outside the wall. He was dressed in a long overcoat with a hood that covered his head. He was walking around the plaza, but had been lurking in the shadows of the trees at the perimeter but now he was moving towards them on a slow, indirect trajectory. He was trading his looks between the trio that was standing, and her. When he was about twenty feet from them and approaching from the side, Phaeton’s blind spot, she let out a loud hiss. 

This small sound quickly drew Phaeton’s attention and he spun on his heels to turn toward what was behind him, and Lyria. Without hesitation, he drew out a long sharp blade from a holster on his thigh, and moved next to Lyria. “That’s close enough...” he snarled at the stranger. Slykk was slow on the draw and was still talking to Phaeton while fondling Moira, so he didn’t notice right away that his partner had left the conversation to attend to a more pressing situation.

“Slykk!” Lyria whispered sharply, and it was enough to draw his attention to her, and the approaching person that Phaeton was now addressing. He reacted by shoving his slave down to a crouch next to her, and went to stand alongside Phaeton.  “What do you want?” he shouted at the stranger, and Phaeton sighed quietly, and rolled his eyes under the long bangs handing down in his face.

“I might ask you the same. What is your business here?” the hooded figure asking in a low, quiet tone that seemed to carry easily across the distance between him and the small group. Phaeton cocked his head slightly to the side, thinking. His body language spoke that he was on guard, tensed, but not springing to attack, not yet anyway.

“Our business is that we are seeking business...” Phaeton replied smoothly. “We can bargain for hire, for entry.” he added while keeping an eye on the stranger in the hood. Seeing that he had the hooded man in his sights, Lyria continued to look around the plaza for anyone else that might be approaching from the side or behind.

“What do you have to bargain with aside from the female slaves you have?” he asked calmly. Lyria kept trying to see his face, but the hood, darkness and shadows kept it well hidden from sight at her vantage point.

“Skills....” Phaeton hissed. 

The stranger nodded and slowly started to walk towards Phaeton. “I’ve heard of your skills Slay, and they are impressive. This is a peacefully run settlement, there is no need for your sort of... talents here.” he said and there was a bit of amusement in the tone of the last of his words.

“I’ve got skills too!” Slykk interjected and this time it was Lyria who rolled her eyes and sighed. “If you don’t need his, you can use mine.” he said and Lyria’s gut tensed as he made the statement that even she perceived and traitorous against Phaeton and their twisted little partnership. Phaeton slowly turned to look at Slykk, and a low growl rumbled in his throat. Slykk was clearly not the brains of this little gang, but he was skilled as a thief and trap setter. At that sound, Slykk realized his misstep, and continued on in a more seductive tone of voice. “But, we come as a set. Both or nothing.” he said confidently.

“Neither.” the stranger replied.

“Who are you anyway, the Keeper of the fucking gate or something?” Phaeton snarled, as he quickly grew tired of this little parlay session.

“I can offer you three days of shelter for yourselves and your slaves, but then you will have to move on.” he answered calmly.

“We came here to work, we were informed that...” Phaeton started to say when the stranger cut across his words.

“You were told wrong.” he said calmly. This settlement has been reborn, and remade as a Haven for the kinder sort of person, not your kind.” He said then slowly reached up to place his hands on the sides of his hood. Phaeton tensed and held his knife up higher, and Lyria moved quickly from the crate to crouch behind him.

They watched as the hood was lowered, and a worn, but familiar face appeared. It was Mondoni. Lyria let out a little sound of relief, and Phaeton lifted up a foot to kick backwards at her. “Shuddup.” he muttered and kept his attention on his former partner in crime, and his weapon at the ready.

“Long time no see..” he said to Mondoni carefully. 

“Holy shit! Look who it is!” Slykk called out and began to laugh, he relaxed immediately and crossed his arms over his chest. “We figured you for long ago dead.” he grinned.

“Not for any lack of trying on your parts.” Mondoni said evenly. “But, those days are in the past, and now I have the advantage of safety and numbers.” he said and grinned in the most unnerving of ways.

“What’s your game now?” Phaeton asked, still remaining tense and on guard.

“This is a closed settlement. A peaceful one. We have a counsel, and are working towards restoring order and civilization to this blighted world.”

“Bullshit.” Phaeton sneered, lowering his knife down to his side.

Mondoni shrugged, “It’s true Phaeton. Civilization will rise again. There will be towns, villages, health and governments to make sure it all stays that way. Your days as a cancer to all life are running down.” he said with no shortness of confidence in his voice. “So once again, I offer you three days of shelter, or you must leave now. I have those with me who will help you make your decision.” he said, and as he did, a rustling of movement could be heard, and from in the shadows around them, more hooded figures appeared. There were a dozen in all, all were armed with cross bows aimed at the four figures in the center of the plaza.

“It’s a trap!” Slykk called out as he looked around, surveying the quickly changing situation. Like the coward he was, he jerked Moira to her feet and held her in front of him as a shield while putting his back towards Phaeton’s. Lyria growled when he nearly trampled her in the process, and remained crouched down behind Phaeton’s legs. She wanted to live of course, but if they were all ended here, so be it. She alone was the calmest of the four.

“You really think so?” Phaeton sneered at Slykk, and wish he wasn’t outnumbered 13 to 1 so he could slap the crap out of the witless blonde.

“Leave the girls, and walk away.” Mondoni spoke. Phaeton laughed heartily at that suggestion.

“No. I say we leave with the girls, and you and your friends can all go to Hell.” Phaeton countered and with his free hand, began to wrap Lyria’s chain around his fist, drawing in the slack.

“Leave the women Phaeton, we will give you food and supplies, then you can be on your way.”

“No one tells me when I can leave any place.” 

“Times are changing Phaeton. You should get on the winning side.” Mondoni tried to convince him. He of course knew it was in vain, but he made the sincere offer anyway.

“I stay on my side.” he said, then gave Lyria’s chain a jerk upwards, and she awkwardly got up to her feet. Phaeton didn’t drawn her close enough to use her as a shield like Slykk did, but she was definitely in the line of fire if the hooded archers decided to fire. “We’ll be going now. Nice to see you again.” Phaeton said insincerely, and with a shoulder shove into Slykk’s back, “Move!” he commanded, and once Slykk started walking toward the far side of the Plaza that looked like it led to a patch back out into the outlands, Phaeton began to follow.

“Last chance Slay!” Mondoni called out toward the slowly departing group.

“I could say the same for you....” Phaeton called back as they continued to walk until they neared the ring of archers surrounding them, blocking their exit. He walked right up to the archer, and stood with the tip of the armed weapon right against his chest. There was a long, tense standoff until Mondoni spoke.

“Let them pass. This is the first and last time we will grant them this luxury.” he called out. Two of the archers stood aside, and let the four of them walk onward.

Mondoni watched them go, and when they were out of sight, he made a silent signal. The archers faded back into the darkness of the shadows, and he himself turned and walked back out of sight of the plaza opening. He knew it wouldn’t end any other way, but he had tried to extend sanctuary and salvation to them, so his conscience was clear. He returned to his rooms at the Monastery, and after picking up a book to return to reading, he put the four unfortunate and doomed out of his mind.

They camped and walked for four more days until at last one morning, they arrived at what had been a truck stop and restaurant at the base of a ribbon of highway that ran off into the distance, and up a long, winding grade of road. It had been called The Grapevine at one time, back when people traveled in cars, trucks, and other gas fed vehicles. Now with those in near extinction, it was cracked, over grown with weeds, and littered with wrecks and abandoned methods of transportation of all kinds.

“We hit that starting tomorrow.” Phaeton said as he stood with his hands on his hips, and confronting the mountainous road with a dead cold stare. There was a collective moan from the rest of the group, and then there was a sound of someone falling to the ground. The remaining three turned around to see Moira down on the ground. Slykk screamed and ran to her side, and roughly tried to rouse her. When he had no luck, Phaeton offered to wake her up, and in response to that offer, Slykk drew his own knife and held it up towards Phaeton from his crouched position next to the fallen blonde. 

“You stay away from her! Stay back!” he screeched, then returned to looking at her.  “She’s burning up. She’s got a fever.” he said as he checked her over. 

Lyria sighed, and watched Phaeton. He was now looking toward the dilapidated buildings that had once been a diner, a gas station, truck wash and a huge open parking lot. They would have had to spend the day there any way since he only traveled at night, this just opened the possibility that for perhaps a day or two more. He was rung out himself, but he would never admit it, or show the weakness. Moira would be the scapegoat if they were forced to waylay their journey north. With a shove to his own slave, he started moving toward the buildings head.

After reaching the first small building, Phaeton drew out a long knife, and then a second. He glanced backwards at Lyria and handed her the second. He had no hesitation in arming her when they were going into unknown circumstances. She would never be stupid enough to attack him. Unless she was able to kill him with the first strike, he would flay her alive slowly, for days, and she knew that. He’d been attacked many times before, assassination attempts on him from multiple attackers, and had always survived. He was hardly afraid of a skinny girl with a fillet knife. “Watch the sides.” he instructed her as they approached one of the side buildings that looked like it had been a storage shed at one time. He preferred the smaller sorts of hide outs, less chance for ambush, or attack if the quarters were small.

Lyria nodded and followed him while Slykk was left to carry his fallen slave, and all of their gear, unaided. “Thanks for the help assholes!” he called out, but was ignored. Phaeton was busy with more important matters. He reached the out building and found it locked with a chain and padlock. He handed his knife to Lyria and then reached to his back where he carried a solid piece of pipe. Using that, he pulled the chain apart, and then opened the door. It was a storage building for sure, and how it had gone this long without being raided was a mystery.

“Jackpot!” Phaeton smiled and after collecting the knives back from Lyria, he crawled inside to have a look at all the supplies they had just come upon. Lyria turned around to watch Slykk as he finally managed to drag Moira and all of their gear to the open shed, and set them down. 

“What’s inside?” he asked Lyria as he peered inside to see what Phaeton was up to.

“Dunno.” she said simply, and sat down on the ground to rest while the men rummaged through the cache of supplies. She was too tired to care what was in there at the moment, and if Phaeton was distracted, she could relax. Using his backpack for a pillow, she laid down on it, pulled her cloak over herself and closed her eyes. Rest was there to be taken when you could, and she never missed an opportunity.

She didn’t realize she had fallen asleep until a rough shove to her shoulder woke her up. “Get up!” Phaeton barked at her, and she blinked and tried to quickly orient herself. Dawn was breaking and as she looked around, she saw that a lot of supplies had been brought out of the storage unit, and laid out. Slykk was repacking his pack and Moira’s with the new cache of food and other treasures.

“Are we staying here?” Lyria asked Phaeton as he continued to stuff supplies in their packs.

“No. We are moving on.” he said tersely, and looked over at her with a dangerous glare. Lyria looked away and began working on filling her pack with the food, and what looked like medicine.

“She can’t travel!” Slykk protested and pointed to the ailing Moira still laying on the ground in the shade of the container. “She’s sick, we have to rest!” 

Phaeton didn’t answer his partner, he kept packing, and Lyria looked between the two, but didn’t stop working.

“We are STAYING!” Slykk shouted at Phaeton, and this made Lyria flinch, trouble was brewing. She kept her head down and her hands busy while they argued it out.

“Leave her.” Phaeton growled. “We are heading North, we can’t winter here.”

“She comes with us! After she recovers!” Slykk countered. He seemed to be fighting to find a reason that would sway his partner’s decision. “She’s worth more to us alive, then dead. We could sell a live girl, not a dead one!” he asserted. When he said that, even Lyria looked up at Phaeton for his reaction. It was clear Slykk favored his prize more than Phaeton did his slaves. Money talked, and now Slykk had put his most valuable possession on the table for bargaining. Slykk seemed to realize the level of his rash statement, too late.

Phaeton grinned, “I’m so glad you are thinking for the benefit of both of us, and not just yourself for a change.” he said smoothly, then looked over at the feverish and weak female. “Two days.” he said, then went back to sorting and packing until his pack was full. He glanced over to see Lyria’s progress, and saw she had managed to pack well enough, there was still space. Next he looked skyward and at the coming, burning sun, and growled. “Inside for now, we’ll get more later.” he said then stood up and began to close the doors to the shed. Once it had been secured, they picked up their belongings, and headed for the abandoned, and partially destroyed truck stop.

They entered though a door that took them into a reception area with a counter and desks that had been tossed and gone through long ago. Windows were missing their glass and wear from the severe weather could be seen on the objects left inside. From the office they explored further and found a large building that housed a repair shop. Silent, dead, giant trucks covered in debris and dust stood unused for decades in here. These seemed of particular interest to Phaeton as he walked around them, looking at their remains closely. Slykk had remained behind in the office and on his own, located a side room that had served as a resting spot for the clerk.

He dragged Moira, half conscious and half walking to the remains of a single bed and laid her out on it. After leaving his pack and hers beside her, he moved her chain to the frame of the bed, locked it into place, then went to follow Phaeton on his explorations of the shop. When he entered, he found them near a large tool chest, Phaeton was going through the tools, examining each one carefully. Many were easy to recognize, or guess their purpose, others were strange, and perhaps specialized for a singular task.

“Whatcha got?” Slykk asked as he approached, and he glared at Lyria who moved to Phaeton’s far side, putting him in between her and the psychotic blonde. For an answer, Phaeton picked up a large hammer, then as he let out a banshee scream, lifted it up ward and made like he was going to strike Slykk with it. Slykk screamed in terror and backed up so quickly he tripped over a discarded hose and fell down to the ground in a heap amidst a cloud of greasy dust. Phaeton laughed a cruel shrill cackle then went back to rummaging through the tool drawers.

“You are such an asshole today, go fuck your slave and get it out of your system on her, not me!” he shouted, then turned to wander off in search of something valuable or useful to trump anything that Phaeton had located so far. Lyria watched him go, and couldn’t help letting a small grin escape at Slykk’s anger. She would some how get him back for suggesting Phaeton take out his aggression on her, it wasn’t hard to trip up the vain and easily angered blonde.

Hours later, with the heat of the day fully upon them, the four were sleeping. Slykk had returned to the office near the front of the building with Moira and was alternating sleep, with trying to administer the found medicine, food and water to her. Phaeton and Lyria had climbed into the sleeper cabin of one of the trucks to bunk down. Once they had made a bed, even  Phaeton was too tired for a sexual assault on Lyria, and after he pulled her tight against him, feel into a sleep, populated with violent dreams and nightmares.

Lyria was awakened several times by the shudders, and mutterings he made while sleeping, but remained by her tormentors side, and slept as well as she could. When night fell much later that day, Phaeton was still asleep. She carefully reached for some of the food they had brought into the truck with them, and quietly ate her fill of it. Once her stomach was full, for the first time in a long time, she was able to lay back down beside Phaeton and fall asleep.

A few hours later, Phaeton awoke and sat up. He looked around and reoriented himself with his surroundings. He saw Lyria asleep next to him, and the empty food containers stacked up on the far side of the sleeper bed. He gave her a sour look, then reached for the bag with the food they had brought with them. He smiled when he saw that there was plenty left for him, and she had left him the water as well. He watched her sleep while he ate and drank, then after locking her chain to a handle on the outside of the truck, he slipped out and went in search of Slykk and what ever he was up to. He was glad to see it was dark out, and that from what he could hear, all was quiet, just the way he liked it. Phaeton found Slykk in the back part of the office sitting on the bed with his back against the wall. He was awake, but looked very drowsy. He was looking at the shape under the blanket next to him, Moira. Only some of her blonde hair showed. “She dead?” Phaeton asked flatly, and leaned on the door frame.

“No!” Slykk shot back. “She’s sick, she’s not dead.”

“It’s the Virus again. That’s why you aren’t sick. That’s why I’m not sick.”

“Shut up! No it’s not! It’s just the flu! She’s going to be fine.” he shouted with all the conviction of a man desperate to believe that was the case.

Phaeton didn’t say anything else, but just grinned down at Slykk. Part of him wanted to see the girl die, just so they could move on and have less baggage. The slaver in him wanted her to live so they could sell her off, or make money off of her up North to get through the winter with. The way he looked at it, after losing Lyria those years ago, he owed them girl to sell. He wouldn’t bring that up now. He would wait for a more opportune moment.

“Here, eat something.” he said and tossed some of the food and water to Slykk. “You need your strength as well. She’s got one more day and night, then we are out of here. Dig?” Slykk took the food and gave Phaeton a hard stare despite how tired and worn out he was. “I get it. She’ll be ready to go when we need to leave. You better go watch after your own, just in case she gets the flu.” he said with a sneer.

“The difference between you and me... I wouldn’t let her hold us up.” he said coldly, then turned and left the office to return back to the shop. When he arrived there, he woke Lyria up, and handed her a bottle of water, then started to dole out medicine from the kits they had found. “Take these... You get sick, you’re over with.” he said in a low hiss, and after making sure she had taken the medication, he took his gear and left to go explore around the truck stop and surrounding areas. He always did his best work when he was alone, and being alone for a while was just what he needed right then. There was so much traveling, and work to be done before winter hit. They needed to get money, they needed to secure a safe place for the winter. At this rate, they would never make up as far North as he wanted to go.

Then there was also the rumors of what what going on farther north. Armies building, City States forming. He didn’t buy, it. There was too much chaos, too much greed, and death and terror for anything to begin to gel into the form of civilization the way he heard it used to be. It would never happen if he and his brethren in mayhem had anything to say about it.They ended up staying three days at the Truck Stop, the accommodations and plentiful food were too much to pass up after such a long and lean time prior to that. By the time Phaeton was ready to leave, they were all in much better shape to make the long uphill walk to cross the mountain range. The night they left was chilly but not too much so.

Cold weather gear had been acquired to replace the makeshift rain gear they had made, and each was loaded down with as much food as they could carry.  On this night, Phaeton took the lead with Lyria behind him, then Slykk and Moira. There was no need for conversation, that took energy, and Phaeton wanted to be well up the side of this obstacle by the time that morning broke.

Fortunately, they went unmolested by any other human or creature on the first leg of their journey, and when the sun started to peek above the horizon, they left the road to find shelter to sleep. There was enough weeds and brush and even a few trees to where they were able to set up a tent that would blend in with the surroundings, and rest comfortably until the next night.

The next sunset brought the band of four packing up, eating, then heading up the ribbon of black, cracked asphalt once again. It was a process that repeated itself for five days before the reached the valley on the other side. They were greeted with a huge wreck of cars that completely blocked the highway on both sides. Cars and trucks of all kinds were crushed together in a giant heap, broken, twisted and rusting away. They looked like they  had been scooped up into piles by a pair of giant hands.

“What the fuck happened here?” Slykk asked as he cautiously approached one wreck and peered inside to see if anything  in there was interesting or worth scavenging.

“Shockwave.” Phaeton said flatly. “I’ve heard of it, the basin was protected from most of it. Power of the shock wave blew all these cars and shit into a pile at the base of the mountain.” he said, being strangely amicable and informative. If Lyria or Moira had any other questions, they didn’t voice them.

“What now?” Slykk asked as he returned back to the group, empty handed. Phaeton looked around, and spotted another pile of rubble that had once been some buildings at one time.

“Shelter down for the day, then maybe pick around this place tomorrow.” he said and with a pull on Lyria’s chain, he led her off onward, and began to thread around the wrecks of the cars, and seemed to be looking for a place to possibly sleep. He found a couple of big rig trucks, but the cabs were crushed, and none had  the big roomy sleepers that they had seen at the truck stop. He tried to wrench open the doors of a couple ruined SUVs, but no luck. Slykk went on his own exploration, and after a while called out to Phaeton.

Phaeton and Lyria joined him, and found he had located a camper van that he had managed to wrench the side door to slide open, and expose the inside. Padded, roomy floor, blacked out windows, and only a bunch of cobwebs that needed to be cleared out before they could inhabit it. Moira was made to clean out the webs and debris, then as soon as the van was clear, Phaeton dragged Lyria inside for a rough and loud christening of the carpet, and mattress before he let Slykk and his slave enter. They ate and drank, then stretched out, and slept the day away once Slykk had conquered his slave sexually as well.

Phaeton was the first to wake the following night, and after he started a small fire next to the van, he went off by himself exploring. This left Slykk to remain behind and watch the women. He tried to coax Lyria to join him and Moira by the fire where they were sitting on seats removed from another car, but she chose to remain inside the van, sitting in the door way, waiting for Phaeton to return with what ever he managed to scrounge.

They were sitting there in silence, enjoying the fire when all of a sudden a sound cut through the night, and made them all freeze and hold their breath. Howls. Close by, and the more they listened, they could hear growls, and the sound of panting and claws on pavement. “Shit! Get inside! Get inside!” Slykk shouted and grabbed Moira by her upper arms an pretty much threw her into the van, taking Lyria down for good measure. Both girls rolled into the back part of the van while Slykk grabbed the door, and slid it shut.

He continued to swear as he looked around to make sure all of the windows were up, then moved into the back part of the van where the girls were huddled together, afraid of the new danger outside.  “Wolves. They’re fucking killers.” he said in a hush, and indicated silently for them all to lay down, cover up, and be quiet. They could hear the wolves circling the van and sniffing at the door, then jumping up to paw at the windows, trying to see what prey might be inside.

“What about Phaeton?” Lyria whispered to Slykk.

“Dunno. He’s armed, he’s not stupid. He’ll be OK. We’ve got to stay in here, gotta guard you two.” he said and even though his interest was pure greed and satisfaction, his statement did sound rather noble. Lyria didn’t know why she was so afraid for Phaeton’s well being, he was someone she wouldn’t wish on her worst enemy, yet, the thought of being left to Slykk’s whims was scarier than enduring what she was familiar with, with Phaeton.  The wolves continued to circle the van, looking for entrance to the meals they could smell inside. The post-blast wolves were one and a half times the size of their ancestors, and far more vicious in their attacks. They would pursue prey for miles, and sometimes had even scaled trees with low branches to catch something unlucky enough to get to higher ground soon enough.

It was terrifying to listen to them paw and scratch at the van, then all three gave a shriek when they heard the sound of one of them jump from the roof of another car and onto the top of the van. They listened to it pace back and forth, until it was joined by another.

“OH God, they are going to eat us...” Moira whimpered. 

“They’re scary but they can’t chew through solid metal.” Lyria whispered back to her. “We’ve got Slykk to fight them if they break in or something.” she said and looked across the dark in Slykk’s direction and could tell from his body language he was in no hurry, or had no intent on taking on these furred killers if it came to that. Lyria had no doubt that if it came down to it, he would throw them to the wolves, literally to make an exit and save his own skin. She hoped that if that happened and he survived the wolves, he would not survive Phaeton. The thought of that made her smile despite the dire possibilities of the situation at hand.

It seems hours they laid there, not moving, not making a sound while they listened to the pack prowl around, sniff, and scratch at the van doors and windows. Occasionally, there would be a squabble among the wolves and they would start to fight among themselves. It was a terrible sound when they snarled and challenged each other, taking bites and charges at each other. Lyria wished they would hear something else to go after, just as long as it wasn’t Phaeton.

This thought and feelings puzzled her and she couldn’t figure out why she wasn’t rooting for the wolves to find him and tear him apart. Or had they already? There was no way to know. Their only chance was to out wait the pack until they lost interest and took off. At least they had plenty of food, and water to sustain themselves on if they had to stay holed up for a period of time.

Time dragged by, then a sudden yelp of pain from one of the wolves set off a chain reaction of frenzy. They could hear the wolves fighting, and attacking each other, then the sounds of rage and pain of one that was apparently under attack. It fought with the others, bumping into the side and door of the van until it wrested itself free from it’s attackers long enough to escape, and take off running into the night with the entire pack on it’s heels. The howls, growls and snarling became slowly more distant, and hard to hear. All three where laying there tense as piano wires, listening for any sound.

When the door to the van was suddenly slid open, then a figure jumped inside and slammed it back shut, they all screamed. Slykk louder than the girls. Phaeton was back. He dropped down a bag full of something he had found on his travels, the flopped onto his back on the mattress panting.

“What did you do? How did you run them off?” Slykk asked before either of the girls had the chance to ask the same question.

Phaeton draped an arm over his eyes and took his time in answering. “I speared one. Once it was hurt, it was prey, and they turned on it. They took off back into the hills.” he said, then laid there, recovering from the bold attack and return to what for now was home base.

Lyria didn’t say so, but she was impressed. No wonder nothing seemed to be able to kill him. Slykk nodded and there was clearly awe in his eyes as he nodded. “So, what do we do now? How long are we going to stay here?” he asked a moment later.

“Not sure.” he said, and laid there not offering any other clues to his plans or conversation. Lyria had the feeling that Phaeton was done talking for the near future, so she kept her ears attuned to listening for the sounds of the wolves, or some other predator returning. Feeling more confident that they were reasonably safe now, she crept up to the front of the van and sat in the passenger’s seat, and looked out at the night, and all of the wreckage around them. It was  hard to imagine all of these cars running, moving along the roads, going from place to place, anywhere people wanted to do. 

That was all over however. Now it was all walking, or some people had tamed horses, but that was a lot of work, and expense to keep them. She was sure she didn’t want one. Large animals frightened her, and even some of the smaller ones were scary as well. Animal sounds behind her drew her attention and she turned around to look and see Slykk initiating sex with his slave.  She rolled her eyes and sighed. 

“Knock it off!!” Phaeton suddenly bellowed, and everyone froze where they were. “There’s not enough room in here, and I don’t want to see, or listen to you fuck her. You wait until we get a bigger place, or you can go find your own car.” he snarled and then rolled onto his side. It seemed he wanted to sleep, which was odd since he was completely nocturnal in nature. Lyria figured it had to be because of how much exertion he must have put out while hunting around, then having to stalk and spear one of the mutant wolves in order to save them.

Lyria felt strange then at that thought. He could have let them all become wolf food, and gotten away on his own. He never seemed like he cared for anyone but himself, or what he could gain from others. Then, she thought about that for a moment. He would lose money. He would lose property, which is what she was to him. He wasn’t saving his fellow humans, he was protecting his investments, and minion, nothing more. She sighed when she thought of that and went back to looking out of the front window. 

There wasn’t much to look at after a long time of staring out over the graveyard of cars and trucks. She flinched when something struck the glass in front of her. She looked again, and saw it was a large drop of water. Another one followed, and even more fell and struck the roof of the van, making  plunking sounds as they hit the metal and glass. Then a hissing sound could be heard and Slykk looked at Lyria, his eyes wide. “What the fuck is that?” he whispered loudly.

“The fire you dumb ass.” Phaeton muttered. “The rain is hitting the fire.”

“Oh. Right. Makes sense. What do we do now?”

Phaeton slowly rolled back over to look at Slykk. Lyria sensed danger in the air, and scrunched down as far as she could in the seat she was sitting in, willing herself to be not seen. “We throw you out of this fucking van and feed you to the wolves!” he hissed and leaned up and got close enough to Slykk’s face that Slykk lurched backwards and banged the back of his head on the side of the van. Phaeton glared at him a moment longer, then looked around and spotted Lyria. “You!” he growled and pointed at her. “Get over here!” he commanded and without hesitation, she left her perch on the seat and made her way to the back part of the van. 

Phaeton grabbed her by the long pony tail of hair hanging down her back and pulled her down onto the padded floor of the van next to him. “Keep me warm.” he muttered into her ear and arranged them so they were lying with him spooned up behind her, one of his arms around her waist, the other under his head for a pillow. They were taking up a great amount of space in the sleeping area of the van, but neither Slykk or Moira was about to complain. They sat there looking uneasy for a while, then did the best they could to get comfortable on the remaining floor space in order to sleep as best they could.

Just before dawn, Phaeton awoke, and sat up. Lyria was still deep asleep, as were the other two in their party. He looked out of the windshield of the van and saw the rain had stopped at some point in the night, and even though the glass was wet, it wasn’t being rained on right then. He looked down at Lyria and gave her shoulder a shake. “Time to roll. Get up.” he said brusquely and then gave Slykk a shove as well. “Everyone up, we are taking off, now!” he said and and reached for his pack. He took out some food for himself, and tossed some to Lyria. She wasted no time at all in opening it, and shoving it down as quickly as possible.

By the time she was done, so was Phaeton, and he was already shoving Slykk and his slave aside to get to the side door of the van. He slid it open, and looked outside. Everything was wet, the fire long ago drowned out, and the sky was pitch black, even the moon was hidden by the thick layer of storm clouds that were still overhead. “Why do we  have to go now?” Slykk whined.

“It’s wet, will help hide our scent, we need to get out of this territory.” he said in a low tone. “Keep your mouths shut, no talking, and walk single file.” he instructed them, then after putting on his pack, and seeing that Lyria had hers on, and was chained to him, he started to pick his way through the field of dead cars with the other three following behind. He didn’t have to tell them to listen for any sounds coming out of the night.

It took an hour of slow, careful walking and climbing before they left the sea of wrecks behind them, and they headed out on the wide, barren road that stretched out in front of them as far as they could see in the dark. Lyria was actually glad to be moving again, being trapped in that metal room with the wolves outside was one of the most frightening things she had been through, and that was saying a lot considering what she had been through so far with Phaeton.  It felt good be walking along and out of the cramped space of the van. The van had felt like a grave in the making with the wolves stalking them. Frequently she would turn to look behind them, to make sure nothing was following, or tracking them. There was nothing behind her by Slykk and Moira.

This gave her a bit of relief because if anything, or anyone came at them from behind, they would get to those two before they got to her. It was nice not to be in the direct line of fire for a change. On and on they walked until the sun began to turn the sky from black to purple. She watched Phaeton for signs of stopping to camp for the day, but he walked on and on. She wasn’t about ask him about when they would stop, she had a feeling that Slykk would be the first to whine about stopping to rest or eat, and he could catch Hell from Phaeton for asking.

Suddenly, from somewhere in the distance came a strange sound. All four froze, and began to look around. It sounded nothing like something alive, but like a machine of some sort. Phaeton moved first and looked around for cover, the only place to go was off of the road and down into a ditch on the sides of the road. “Get down! Into the ditch, lay flat!” he ordered them, and didn’t need to repeat the command for them to respond, and disappear from the road, and lose themselves in the tall grass that filled the drainage ditches on either side of the wide highway. As they laid there, listening, the sound got louder, and closer. Whatever it was, was making the ground rumble with it’s progress. 

Hearts pounding with fear, they waited and then watched as a strange mechanical device rolled down the road slowly, heading in the direction they had come from. It had huge wheels and spinning round wheels that looked like brushes in the front, and a huge wide rolling brush in the back. From their vantage points of laying in the grass, they couldn’t see anyone in the strange vehicle, it seemed to be piloting itself some how.

But how was it running? Gas powered vehicles hadn’t been used as far as Lyria could recall. “What the Hell...?” Phaeton whispered next to Lyria as they watched the mechanical giant growl, brush and roll it’s way past them, and then started up the grade in the distance. They remained hidden until the vehicle, moving slower now that it was going up the hill, was almost a mile away before they slowly emerged from their hiding places.

“What the Hell was that?” Slykk asked Phaeton. Phaeton shook his head, “No idea....” he answered, then after another moment of watching the vehicle travel on it’s way, he waved to them to follow him, and they resumed walking North.Two more days of walking brought them to a village that in it’s built from remnants of a previous civilization made it look rather medieval in appearance. Homes were made of rocks, and boulders of cement and broken asphalt.  There was a central main street, then side streets that held small houses and shops of all sorts.  Torches on long posts light the streets, and people were walking to and from the different shops, and bars that were open at this late hour. Phaeton was leading the group as they gained access through the gate in the tall wall that circled around the city and kept it safe from roaming bands of nasty things. Phaeton was a roaming nasty thing, but he had connections, and he had skills, and at least, he wasn’t a mutant creature, or had rabies. He had gained entrance for himself and his three traveling companions, and now they were walking the streets, taking in the sights of the first decent settlement they had seen in a long time.

“Where are we going to stay?” Slykk asked Phaeton as they walked along the street. There were people who looked as nefarious as Phaeton with cold, prying eyes, and that caused Lyria to cling closer to him than she normally would. Better the devil you knew that one you didn’t. She was tired, and hungry, but didn’t bother to risk the harm that would come with asking for those to be taken care of. When Phaeton stopped suddenly to talk to someone she accidentally walked into the back of him. He turned to snarl at her, then returned to the person he was addressing.

Lyria backed up from him a pace or two to give him space while he talked. Slykk moved closer to Phaeton and the other man and joined in the conversation. She didn’t need to hear the details of the conversation to know that negotiations were going on. She didn’t want to know the details, because if she was somehow involved, bad news could keep. She kept her eyes on the people moving to and fro around them. When that became dull, she looked up into the sky over head. Not a cloud in the sky for a change, but it was chilly. She hoped they would be inside soon, and they could rest then, hopefully.

Ten minutes later, she noticed as Phaeton and the man exchanged something she could not see, and then they were on the move again. They walked to what appeared to be the very farthest end of the street from the gate, then they turned down a narrow street. It got progressively darker and darker as they walked due to the fact there were less and less of the  torch lights as they went along. Finally they came to a building that was half round in shape, with a round door. Lyria had never seen a place like that before and stood behind Phaeton and Slykk as they knocked on the door.

A small door in the center of the door opened, and a pair of eyes could be seen looking out at them.  “What do you want?”  the unseen person asked in a gruff tone of voice. “Sanctuary.” Phaeton said sweetly, and even smiled at the door man. The look of him smiling, showing teeth made shivers run all through Lyria and she looked away. It was a truly disturbing sight.  Her attention was drawn back towards the door when the sound of many heavy bolts and locks being undone and slid open could be heard coming from inside the door. A moment later it slowly swung open and they were bathed in a a yellow, orangish light from inside. The man was behind the open door so he was hidden from sight as Phaeton first stepped over the round thresh hold of the door and into what looked like a small tavern. Lyria came in after Slykk tripped on the door frame and nearly went down on his face. There was a fireplace providing the only light in the room, hence the orangish light seen from outside. Near the fireplace were a couple of tables, only one had a pair of men at it, heads bowed in a quiet conversation. They paid no attention to them, and likewise from Phaeton and Slykk. There was a small counter that appeared to be a bar, with a large fearsome looking man behind it. He was watching them silently as they crossed to the center of the room, and the front door was shut behind them and relocked. “I’ll show you the rooms we have.” the man said after the front door was secured. He then walked past them and headed down a narrow hallway. The hallway seemed to go on longer than the building had looked on the outside and that confused Lyria. If it puzzled anyone else in the group, they didn’t show it, or speak of it.

The hallway had round doors on either side of the hallway, spaced out at uneven intervals. There were no marks or numbers on the doors, just a handle and a lock that could be worked with a key. He paused at one point to turn to Phaeton. “What sort of rooms you want? All four of you in one, or two each?” he asked and waited for an answer before he continued on.

“One room.” Phaeton said, but at the same moment, Slykk blurted out, “Two rooms.”  The man looked between the two men and waited for this to be decided.

“One room, two large beds if you can.” Phaeton said and shot a deadly glare at Slykk. “This isn’t a vacation, we keep close quarters.” he hissed at his partner, and then turned his attention back to their guide. “Right.” the man said then led them farther down the hall to a door on the left. He reached to a ring of keys hanging from a chain on his belt, and unlocked the door. After unlocking it, he handed a key to Phaeton as he pushed the door open.

Phaeton looked inside of the dark room, and seemed to find it to his liking. “This will do nicely.” he said and stepped into the room, and pulled Lyria along behind him. There was a table and two chairs, a set of cupboards, a wash basin, and what looked like two double sized beds on opposite sides of the room. Both had canopies hung on them, so there would be a bit of privacy, but that was an uncommon luxury. It wasn’t like you wouldn’t hear everything that was being done or said anyway, the room was like a small cave with a curved ceiling. Lyria couldn’t see what the walls were made of, and the chilliness in the room made her wonder if it was cut into rock, or even below ground. 

Her thoughts were interrupted when Phaeton gave her a shove towards the bed on the right. “Go lay down!” he barked at her, and followed her to the bed. Lyria pushed the curtain aside and climbed up onto the platform bed that was a good two feet above the ground. While she did that, Phaeton stuffed their gear under the bed, then moved her chain to to a rail on the frame of the bed.

Slykk had retired to his bed with Moira, and appeared to be getting down to business, when Phaeton angrily called to him. “Leave your slut here, and let’s go, we have work to do.” he said angrily.

“What’s the rush?” he whined.

“The rush is I’m going to gut you and your bitch if you don’t get out here right now!” he snarled.

Lyria laid down on the bed and was silent. She wasn’t about to get involved in this latest argument. Moments later, Slykk had detached himself from Moira. she was left tethered to the other bed, and then both of them left the room, the door behind relocked after they had departed. Several minutes passed, and then Moira called out to Lyria.

“Where are we?” she asked nervously.

Lyria shook her head, then realized the other woman wouldn’t be able to see that response. “I don’t know. I’ve never been to this place before. It’s not what I thought our winter place would look like. This might be just a layover, or a place for them to get work. EIther way, it doesn’t matter what it is, or where we are, we don’t have any choice.” she said, then laid back down on the bed, and got comfortable under the covers to get some sleep while she could.

Moira on the other hand seemed to be in an exploring mood, and wandered around the room as far as the chain on her wrist would allow her. There were no windows, but behind another curtain she did locate a toilet and a shower stall. The shower didn’t look like it had been used in a long time, and the toilet was badly in need of a cleaning. She wrinkled her nose and left that area to explore near the door to the room next. She ran her hands over the frame, the heavy studded bolts on the boards, and the handles. “It’s a very nice door.” she remarked. “Shut. Up!” Lyria called out from the bed. “I want to sleep. Creep around all you want, just keep your mouth shut.” 

“You can’t tell me what to do!” she shot back defiantly. “You can’t tell me to do anything!”

Lyria sighed and put a pillow over her head to block out the mindless ramblings of the blonde. “I’m going to sleep. Have fun snooping.” she muttered, and resumed trying to get some rest before the mad men returned.

Moira stuck her tongue out at the bed Lyria was in, then went back to looking around. After several minutes of that, she sat down next to the bed, and pulled out Slykk’s back pack. Soon she was rummaging through it, and came out with a prize. “Ooooh! What’s in this bottle?” she called out in a singsong voice.  Lyria could only guess, but didn’t venture a verbal reply. She heard Moira uncork the bottle, then drink some down.

“Ooooh shit! This is awful!” she exclaimed. Lyria didn’t know what she was expecting, fine cognac? Slykk drank the most foul and cheapest of alcohol, it was what often got him into trouble, and trouble with Phaeton. If she was turned off by the taste of the rot gut gin, she didn’t show it by having three more swigs from the bottle before she put it back into the bag, and then finally to Lyria’s relief, crawled into the bed and went quiet.

Finally, she thought, peace and quiet, and hopefully, a long nap before the men returned.

Phaeton and Slykk were well on their first adventure with encountering their possible new employers in this little town. Through connections he had garnered over the years, he had been able to not only gain access to the hamlet, but to have them extend temporary accommodations to them until they had been able to get work and pay for living on their own. This offer came with a time limit however, and the clock was already running. They were on their way to meet with the head of the Assassins Guild, and from him, they would be assigned jobs to complete. Slykk was a better thief than he was a killer, and was basically riding into this conclave on Phaeton’s good reputation and good graces. He knew he would owe him big time, as always, and he would have to think of a way to someday, be the star of the partnership, and not always be the sidekick and runner up. Phaeton led the way, the directions memorized and now being recalled as he slowly, and cautiously made his way through the unfamiliar streets of the town. Slykk followed along silently, and kept an eye out for trouble since his long distance vision was so much better than Phaeton’s. Phaeton had the keen senses of smell, and hearing like that of a animal. Gradually loosing his sight was sharpening the other two senses to compensate and to give him a fighting chance at survival.

Eventually, he found his was to the door that had been described to him. and he gave the password knock. Slykk memorized the pattern, not that it would do him any good to try to gain access without Phaeton, but it didn’t  hurt to stow away valuable information for later use, or sale. The door was opened a crack, and Phaeton leaned in to quietly state their business, and benefactor that had paved the way for them to get this far. Credentials confirmed, they were allowed to enter and found themselves in an entry hall. The corridor led straight ahead of them, down far and out of sight. 

“Myan.” he said and extended a hand to Phaeton first, then to Slykk. 

“Phaeton Slay.” he said in a low tone, then waited while his partner introduced himself to the doorman as well. Phaeton had a feeling he was more than a gatekeeper, so keeping their cool was important. 

“It’s good to meet you Phaeton, Slykk.” he said directing the conversation toward Phaeton, but with a nod in Slykk’s direction at the mention of his name. “We have heard much about the two of you, and even some of it good.” he said, then let out a good natured chuckle that bounced off of the stone walls of the chamber. “I am confident that we will find tasks that will meet and perhaps even challenge your skills, thus allowing you to reside here as long as you like.”

“Good.” Phaeton nodded, and crossed his arm over his chest. “I like challenges. Anyone can take the easy tasks, I prefer ones that require a bit more effort.”

Slykk wasn’t so sure he wanted to take on hard jobs, but now was not the time to voice any concerns. He would discuss things with Phaeton later back at the room. He kept a friendly expression on his face, and just stood there letting Phaeton play the diplomat, which he had to omit, was a rare occurrence, and always amusing for him to see. 

“We are ready to go forward, if you are.” Phaeton said in a smooth tone of voice and gave a rare smile that showed teeth, something he did so infrequently, Slykk could count on one hand the number of times that he had seen him grin, and he was glad for that. A smile from Phaeton was something that was down right creepy, and disturbing. It also meant that nothing good was going to be forthcoming from what ever happened next.

“I see.” Myan said slowly as he folded his hands behind his back and rocked back on his heels slightly as he considered the pair. It was clear he was considering something carefully, but neither had any idea what it was. “If you will pardon me for just a moment, I will announce your arrival, and we can see what can be arranged.” he said, then gave a polite bow and turned to walk down the hallway. As soon as he passed through the arched doorway, a panel slid down behind him, hiding the hallway, and the rest of his journey from Slykk and Phaeton. 

Phaeton narrowed his eyes at that. He didn’t like being in enclosed rooms, that had previously showed exits. He turned to look at the door they entered from, and it was still visible, so he wouldn’t get concerned, yet.

A few minutes later, the panel raised, and Myan reappeared. He stepped up to the two men, his hands clasped now in front of himself.  “There is one bit of business we must attend to before you have your audience with the Guild Master...” he said, and this put Phaeton on edge even more. Delays and unexpected hoops to jump through when he was already in unfamiliar territory set off his survival instincts.

“What bit of business?” Phaeton said with a slight cant of his head to the side, his eyes never leaving the form of the man standing between him and his goals.

Myan took in a measured breath and exhaled, as if he was preparing to deliver some bad, or disappointing news to them. “As you know, this is a hallowed, and revered Guild. We have high standards for our members and pledges. Skill, Integrity, and cunning are some but there are others such as...” and he paused as he sought for just the right words. “... Personal preservation, maintaining a clean bill of health as well as a clean... form.” he said then paused again and waited for that to hopefully sink into the minds of the two hopefuls.

“What?” Phaeton asked, eyes narrowed once again. “I’ve got all of that, and more.” he assured the other. 

“One might beg to differ one of those attributes you and your partner are lacking in Phaeton. When presenting oneself to the Master of a Guild, especially for the first time, you want to make the best possible impression, and right now, the both of you are in need of some... grooming.”

Phaeton was clearly confused now and looked over at Slykk. “What’s he talking about?”

Slykk was not normally fast on the uptake with what people were trying to convey to him if it was complex, but for some reason, the hints hit his brain head on.  “He says we stink. We need to take a bath.” he said flatly, and when he looked at Myan’s face, along with Phaeton and saw the grin, and slow nod, he knew he had been right.

Phaeton sighed loudly and rolled his eyes. “I had no idea this was going to be a beauty contest. We don’t live in homes normally, we are nomads, so chances for freshening up come in the form of crossing a river or getting caught in the rain.” He said sourly.

“I do believe the accommodations you have came with places and supplies to wash up with. Perhaps we could adjourn for now, and say have you return in a couple of hours time, after you have freshened up from your long journey.” he said diplomatically. 

Phaeton was stunned to put it mildly. If he stunk, no one had ever dared to point it out to him, or make him do something about it. He looked back over at Slykk. Slykk shrugged his shoulders and looked perfectly useless, as usual. “Fine. We’ll be back, SOON.” he said and turned toward the door and made to leave. Slykk followed him and they waited for Myan to undo the locked to let them out. They did not speak again until they were well outside and out of earshot of the Guild.

“I cannot fucking believe that!” Phaeton yelled. “What the Hell does how I smell have to do with anything?!” he railed. “I am a killer a hunter, not some damned beauty queen.” he snarled. “No one’s ever told me that before. No one!” 

“Well, I can see why... You aren’t taking the news very well.” Slykk ventured carefully.

“Well he didn’t tell you that you smelled.”

“Yes he did, he said the both of us needed to clean up. It’s no big deal. We go back to the room, get cleaned up and go back.”

“I think it’s a big deal and I don’t like it.” he said then was silent all the way back to the room.

When they arrived back at the room, they found it dark and quiet. After a quick check of the women, they found Lyria sound asleep, and Moira flat on her back on the floor near Slykk’s bed. He panicked.

“What’s wrong with her?!” he wailed and dropped down to her side to see if she was still breathing. “Is she dead?” he asked frantically. Phaeton sighed and knelt down to help the blonde check on his toy. He felt a pulse, then leaned over to place his nose near her face, and inhaled. He gave a derisive snort and stood back up.

“She’s fucking drunk! I can smell it on her. She got into your hooch and now she’s passed out. Dumbass.” he laughed then went over to roust Lyria.  “Wake up you!” he shouted as he tore the covers off of her and gave her shoulder a rough shake with his hand.

“What?! What?” she muttered as she rolled onto her back and looked up at him.

“I need to get cleaned up before my meeting...” he said sweetly, “And you are going to help me.” he said, then grabbed her by the arm and dragged her out of the bed. She was still mostly asleep so when her feet hit the cold floor, she fell down. Phaeton pulled her back up to her feet and then dragged her toward the curtain where the bathing area was.

Slykk was still administering to Moira and after getting her to make some groans, he hefted her back into the bed, then went about the task of locating the cleanest of his clothing, and then sitting down to wait for Phaeton to finish his bath, and change. Who knew how long that would take, he’d never seen him take a proper bath before.

In the shower, which was a stone stall with a lip about a foot in height, and a bucket under a spigot that came out of the wall. The spigot was too low to shower under and there was a pull rope that disappeared into a hole in the wall. “I don’t get it...” Lyria said as she looked over the amenities while Phaeton peeled off layer upon layer of grime encrusted clothing.  The smell was worse once he had the clothing off, and Lyria put her sleeve covered hand over her nose until Phaeton, now naked turned and saw that. 

“Knock it off!” he snarled and slapped her hand away from her nose. “Pull the rope, see what happens.” he ordered, and she obeyed.

Pulling the rope rang a bell somewhere, and a moment later, hot soapy water poured from the spigot, into the bucket. “Oh.... I see....” she said, and looked over at Phaeton. “Good, start washing.” he ordered her and stood there with his legs slightly spread apart and his arms hanging down at his sides.

Lyria looked around and spotted a small cloth hanging on a hook next to the sink. She grabbed hold of it, and then returned to the shower stall. “I’m just going to pour it over your head to start.” she said cautiously. Phaeton made a grunt sound and did nothing else. She picked up the bucket and slowly poured the warm soapy water over his head. It ran through his long, tangled black hair, down his body and was muddy by the time it hit the drain. Lyria thought she was going to be ill, but steadied herself and rang for more water.

It took five buckets of soapy water and a large amount of scrubbing on her part over his pale and scarred body before the water started to run out clean. “Finally.” she said and paused, drenched and a muddy mess herself now, to look at him. He was definitely clean, but now that his hair was wet, it was hanging down and nearly covering his face. His bangs had grown so long that they reached his chin. In the back his hair fell down to the top of his backside. 

“I think you could use a trim, of your hair.” she said cautiously. “I can trim it if you like, but I would need a knife.” she said quietly.

Phaeton seemed to be thinking this over, and then crouched down and reached for his belt of weapons. He pulled out a skinning knife, and flipped it around in his hand several times, then handed it to her, handle first. “You fuck up, you die. Slowly.” he said and didn’t need to make it sound threatening. Lyria knew he didn’t make idle threats.

“Right. Hold still.” she said and took in a deep breath before she took hold of his bangs in one hand and using her dominant hand, slowly began to saw at his hair and trim a good six inches of hair from the ends. The knife was incredibly sharp, so there wasn’t a lot of pulling from her actions. It took her about five minutes, but when she was done, his bangs once again ended at his eyebrows, and his bright teal colored eyes could be seen, and watched her with an unnerving intensity.

Lyria ventured a shy smile at him, and pointed to the mirror on the wall. “Take a look.” she said and then stepped back so he could look into the mirror and assess her work. He nodded slowly, and turned his head from side to side to look, then stepped back into the stall.

“Now, the back?” she asked. “I can take off some of the length, and braid the rest, if you want.”

“Fine.” he answered in a bored tone, and then slowly turned her back to her. He had no fear of her trying to stab him in the back,  he’d fought off attackers with arrows and poison in his system before. A weak girl with no skill in killing wouldn’t be able to make a fatal first strike, so there was  no concern in his mind.

Lyria looked at his hair, and sighed. “I need to get my comb.” she said, referring to the one luxury he had allowed her. 

“Fine.” he sighed and grabbed a towel to wrap around his waist while he waited for her to get the comb and return to him. 

Slykk sat up on the bed when he saw her emerge and gave her an odd look when he saw the knife in her hand. “What the Hell are you doing with that?” he asked, but she ignored him. She went to get her comb from her bag then went to return to Phaeton.

“OK, I’m back. Slykk thinks I am going to murder you or something.” she said wryly.

Phaeton laughed at that, “He’s an idiot, and you wouldn’t even wound me.” he said confidently. “Now just get finished, we have an appointment to keep and dip shit still has to wash himself.”


“Right,” Lyria said and started to comb through the long tangles of his hair that in places were much like dread locks. It was taking so long, she had him sit down on the sink so he wouldn’t get tired. Finally once it was all combed out, she took the knife again and stated to cut off some of the length, the majority of the ends were fried, so she took the length off so that his hair now fell down to between the bottom of his shoulder blades. Once it was trimmed, she divided it into three plaits, and then put it into a tight braid. She used a bit of ribbon that adorned the bottom of the slip she was wearing to tie off the bottom, then stepped back. “It's done. Have a look” she said proudly. He really did look much better. If that was possible.

Phaeton turned to look at himself in the mirror and nodded. “Not bad, Now give me the knife. He said and held out his hand. For a flash, for just a moment, she saw herself driving it into his chest to the hilt, and him falling to the floor, dying. she could make her break for it, and be free. except there was Slykk and a whole city that would be after her and then... she would die,  horribly. She carefully placed the knife flat in the palm of his hand and sighed. He was now looking at her intently. He did that for a moment, then pointed to the shower. 

“Clean yourself up, and then get back to bed. Stay there until I get back.” he ordered then turned and left the wash area.

“Yes, Phaeton.” she said obediently and then quickly stripped out of her clothing and then rang the bell for more soapy water before he changed his mind or turned it into some cruel form of torture or amusement for himself and Slykk.

When she emerged from she shower ten minutes alter, she was clean, her hair combed out and braided, and since she hadn’t brought anything clean with her into the shower, she skipped across the room naked carrying her dirty clothing in her hand, and then disappeared behind the curtains of the bed. 

Phaeton and Slykk where sitting near the fire talking, and once she was back in his bed. Phaeton turned to Slykk. “Now your turn. Go get cleaned up, shaved, whatever the fuck you need to do and let’s get back there. I don’t want this deal to go south even before it gets started.” he said and then went to amuse himself with Lyria before he had to leave.

As they walked back toward the guild, Phaeton thought how much better he did feel, but didn’t see this becoming a daily or even a weekly habit with him. It was fine once in a while, but he was far from the high cleanliness maintenance sort, and wouldn’t put forth the effort. Slykk on the other hand did bathe once in a while, He did it for the benefit of his women, which was beyond Phaeton’s understanding completely.

When they reached the door to the Guild, Phaeton once again redid the knock and t hey waited for the door to be opened. As before,  Mayan opened the door to greet them. This time, when he saw them in their new cleaner state of existence, he welcomed them in warmly, and without any further delay, escorted them to the chamber of the Guild Master. The Chamber of the Guild Master was opulent, and well appointed. They were seated in old style chairs made of leather and padding, and had been offered aged cognac, but Phaeton had politely refused, citing an allergy to it. Slykk accepted the offer of the drink, and Phaeton could only home he would be able to hold his liquor and not ruin this entire endeavor.

“First let me welcome you to our Guild, and our town. I have heard much about the two of you, you in particular Phaeton, from Von666 and he speaks highly of your skills, and talents. I am pleased you have ventured this far North to seek us out, this is an expanding area with plenty of work for those good enough to do it.”

Slykk made a sour expression when he wasn’t singled out for his skills, but he wasn’t attempting to join this guild, he was as usual, just following Phaeton and his lead. He hadn’t led him wrong so far, so he wasn’t about to rock the boat. He still owed him for that favor done at the party at Von666’s, and the mention of the warlord’s name reminded him of that.

“I am hoping the room you have will be sufficient. Once you are established, and become a resident, if you like, we will be able to find you more palatial rooms, or perhaps you can move into the Guild itself.”

This sounded a bit too cozy for Phaeton’s liking. He was a wanderer, and had been his whole life. He had never found a place he wanted to stay in permanently, always preferring to move from place to place to follow either the good weather, or the best paying jobs. He was also certain Slykk would never be admitted to this inner circle, and as much as he annoyed the crap out of him at times, he didn’t want to lose the most loyal partner he had ever had.

“We will stay well within in reach should we be needed.” Phaeton said after a pause. “For now, the accommodations we have are fine. What I would like most is to get to work. I don’t like being idle.” he said and kept his eyes on the Master assassin, and waited for his reply. 

“Eager I see. That is good to hear.” he said with a smile. “We need to test your skills on many levels before we send you out on a job. You will be paid as well for these test jobs, so you will be earning money right from the start.” he explained.

Phaeton’s eyebrows came together as he frowned. He didn’t feel he needed baby jobs to earn his way into this society, he hated political games like this and this was why he acted alone and took jobs picked up through connections. However, jobs were getting harder to find as more and more talk of this phantom government that was coming was driving people into more and more uneasy alliances. So, Phaeton nodded, and shifted his position slightly in the chair.

“We need reconnaissance right now. Stealth, and care taken. We have of course enemies of this Guild and the town we have built here. We need to know what they are up to, and strike before they have the chance to strike at us. Oh, we can defend ourselves easily enough, but wouldn’t you agree that taking out an enemy before they can attack is the better plan of action?”

Phaeton and Slykk both nodded and gave soft grunts of agreement.

“So. We need you to go to a place just beyond this settlement, and immerse yourselves with the populace, and gather information to confirm what we have already heard, that they are raising a force to come here.”

This sounded so much beneath his skills, Phaeton thought, and looked over at Slykk for his take on all of this. Slykk didn’t notice he was being observed by Phaeton, he was paying rapt attention to the man behind the desk. Phaeton sighed and returned to listening to his new boss, for now.

Later, after they had been given all of the information they would need to start on their first task, the pair was walking back toward where they had left their slaves. Phaeton was not happy at all. “I don’t like this. I feel like a fucking pawn. I’m not a spy. What is he up to sending us on a spy mission? What’s he trying to do, or prove?” he asked his partner as they walked along.

“I don’t know man. It sounds like an easy enough job to take. Wouldn’t it be easier to go spy on someone in a bar or something, than trying to take them out?”

“How good are you at listening in on conversations and getting close to people without them noticing? It’s not my specialty. I think we are being set up. Sending us in to get killed and get us out of here. I think he wants his little town to remain nice and calm. We are the threat. Not any one else.”

Slykk looked sternly at Phaeton and tried to process what his partner was saying and after a couple of moments, it started to sound reasonable. “Why would they want to kill us?” he asked after a pause. 

Phaeton grinned at him, and again it was that unnerving sort of smile. “Not us. Me.” he said quietly. “I’ve got more enemies than I have bosses. I’m a threat to them now. They used me for their nasty little errands, and now they are putting the word out that I am to be taken out.”

Slykk looked at Phaeton and shook his head, “I don’t think so man. If you are so useful why get rid of you?” he asked and reached a hand up to scratch at the blonde, teased up hair on his head.

Phaeton shrugged. “Who needs any reason to have someone killed except that they want it done? These are powerful, wealthy crime bosses and now they are afraid of me...” he said and returned to being silent as he thought this over again. Then a moment later he looked back over at Slykk. “They think I want to run things. Take over.” he said flatly.

Slykk burst out laughing before he realized it. It sounded so ludicrous to him. “Right. You run things!” he laughed over and over until he caught the expression on Phaeton’s face. He quickly reined in his laughter, cleared his throat and became solemn and serious again. “So. What now?” he asked the other when he had regained control of himself.

“I’m not sure.” he said thoughtfully. “I need to think this through, and try to decide how we handle this.” he said then lost himself in thought for the remainder of the walk back to their room. Right before they reached the inn, he stopped, and turned to Slykk.  “Maybe, we play this game. We go on that job. We play nice, and strike back when they don’t expect it.”

Slykk raised his eyebrows at Phaeton. “You serious? Isn’t that walking right into the trap, or something?” he asked, now confused by Phaeton’s change of heart.

“It’s not a trap as long as we are expecting one, and go there prepared.”

“Then what?”

“Then we fuck up their plans... We play nice, for now, get closer to the target, then take them all out.” he said and the gave a wicked laugh. “They won’t end me. We will end them.” he said and with his mind working on revenge once again, his favorite task, he started walking the rest of the way to the room.

When they arrived, the room was dark and quiet. They were cautious at first, drawing out weapons in the case of an attack. After approaching the shrouded beds and quickly pulling open the curtains, the found the women as they had left them, chained to the beds, and now sound asleep. Slykk went to his bed, drew the curtains shut before he rudely woke up his slave girl and began to ravish her.

Phaeton watched that mess start to occur, and shook his head. He swore once again that women and his drive for sex would be the death of Slykk, and he vowed to never go down that road. After discarding his boots, and heavy belt of weapons, he crawled into his bed and found Lyria sound asleep. He gave her a rude elbow to the side to wake her up. Startled and sore now, she rolled over and looked around, her sight finally finding him in the dark. “You’re back...” she said sleepily.

“What was your first clue?” he snarled at her.

“Someone left a letter...” she said and they yawned before continuing. “It was slipped under the door, it’s over on the shelf by the door.”

Phaeton was confused by this news. “Did you open it?” he growled at her.

“No.” she said sleepily. “It’s addressed to you.” she said, then rolled back onto her side and hoped he would let her go back to sleep unmolested.

Phaeton laid there thinking, unsure what to think of the letter, and what to do about it. Should he read it now, or later? He thought about it for a moment, then got out of the bed to go have a look at it and see what this new development was about. Either good or bad news, he wanted to know what it was about right then. With a grunt, he got out of the bed, made his way to the small stone shelf near the door to the room, and found the crude, handmade envelope. He looked at the name scrawled on the front, “Phaeton Slay” and then broke the wax seal on it and unfolded the letter. He wasn’t the best reader, but he was able to make out the short and to the point note.

IT’S A TRAP. LEAVE. MOVE NORTH.

He read the note several times over before he refolded it and tucked it into the waistband of his pants before he turned and went to wake up the others. It was time to get going, and now. The note wasn’t signed but he recognized the hand writing, and would take it as truth. He would never have expected a warning from this source, so he would make the most of it.

“Get up! We’re leaving, now!” he said in a rough whisper as he gave Lyria a shake with his hand on her shoulder. She woke up startled, and looked around in the dark, before turning to look at him.

“What? What’s going on?”

“We’re going, now. Get dressed, get your gear.” he ordered, then went to wake up Slykk and his slave. “Get up. Now! This place is a trap, we have to get out. Now!” he said as he shook Slykk awake. Slykk was slow to wake and required a punch to the side of the head to get him fully roused.

“What? What?!” he shouted and rolled over to confront Phaeton. “What the fuck man?” 

“We have to go. NOW!” he repeated, then with a quick motion, stripped the covers from on top of Slykk and his female, then turned to gather his clothing and supplies. “Check the bathroom, grab any supplies you can find. Take everything.” he ordered Lyria who rushed to obey once she had gotten dressed, and all of her belongings packed up.

In fifteen minutes, they were packed and ready to go. Blankets that were worn and rotten had been dropped and swapped out for the ones in the room, and the grooming products had been grabbed by the women before they slipped out of the room in pairs, Slykk and Moira first, then Phaeton and Lyria next.  They met up outside and Phaeton looked at the dark sky over head, and checked the position of the moon. “We’ve got a couple hours before dawn, we need to move.” he urged the others in a commanding whisper. “Follow me, we are going fast. You lag, you get left.” he said evenly, then started walking back toward the gate of the small village. Lyria kept close to Phaeton, right on his flank. She could feel the nervous, anxious energy flowing off of him like waves. She could tell he was concerned, worried, and would not stop to ask him questions right then, if he said to move, they would move. When they reached the gate of the town. It was being guarded by a single watchman, and not the one they had encountered on their way in. Phaeton waved a signal for them to hang back a bit while he went to converse with the guard. Lyria couldn’t hear the conversation, partially because of the chatter going back and forth between Slykk and Moira.  Phaeton returned a moment later and waved for them to follow. “Let’s go.” he said gruffly, and they fell into line behind him as the gate was opened silently, and they stepped out side of the village’s border and headed for the path that led back into the meadows beyond. 

They walked in silence for a long time before Slykk walked up to Phaeton to finally breach the subject of their quick departure. “What’s going on man?” he asked him as he fell into stride beside him. “Why the sudden cut and run?”

“It was a trap, the whole damned thing. We were being set up, just like we thought.”

“How did you find that out?”

“I got a note, from a friend shall we say, and it contained a warning.” he said and shot a look over at Slykk that telegraphed he was done talking for now. Slykk of course couldn’t read words much less facial expressions.

“Who? Who sent the note?” he asked, very interested in who was helping them out.

“Shut up, and walk....” Phaeton  hissed back at him. Slykk looked hurt, and looked away from Phaeton and continued walking on in silence.

No one else spoke as they walked along. Phaeton was taking them in a Northerly direction once again, and at one point, he left the well worn trail and headed inland. The other three in the party noticed the change in direction, but no one was about to ask their leader about it.  As it neared dawn, and the sky began to lighten, Phaeton stopped them in a section of forest that didn’t look like it got a lot of travelers coming through it. That was just fine by him. He expected for them to be followed or tracked, so he had left the main road and taken them cross country to hopefully throw off any followers. 

“We will camp here today. No tents, just lay down, cover up and sleep. We continue on tomorrow.” he said and then looked around for a place under some large bushes and plants to conceal himself and Lyria. Slykk did likewise, and within about twenty minutes, they were all bedded down, and waiting for sleep.

When Phaeton was settled down beside her, she looked over at him and wondered what had caused them to bug out of the town so fast. His eyes were closed, but after a moment of her watching him, he slowly opened his eyes and looked over at her. “What?” he asked her in a quiet, but stern tone of voice.

“What happened? Why did we have to leave?” she whispered to him.

Phaeton narrowed his eyes at her and thought about answering her with words, or a punch to the face. He was feeling generous at that moment, so he opted to give her an answer. “We walked into a trap. We left to get out of it. That’s it.” he said and watched her face for her reaction.

Lyria nodded, and then closed her eyes and rolled onto her side with her back to him. “Good call.” she whispered, then sighed and prepared to go to sleep. Phaeton continued to watch her closely until he at last closed his eyes, and fell into a restless sleep.

The following night, they were on the move again. They returned to near the main road leading north, but kept to the sides of it, keeping it in sight for navigation purposes, and walking on it out from under the cover of the brush only when they couldn’t walk near it’s sides. They made a lot of distance on their second night of travel after leaving the town, and when they came to the edge of another small settlement on the morning of the third day, they paused while Phaeton and Slykk talked over whether to go venture in to it or not.

“What place is this?” Slykk asked Phaeton as they watched the few people there walk around without care. Lyria was tired, as they had kept up a relentless, fast pace since leaving the walled town, so she sat down next to a bush that partially obscured her from casual view to rest while Phaeton and Slykk discussed what they would be doing next.

“I don’t know the name of this place.” Phaeton said after a pause. He set down his pack and pulled out a well worn map that looked to be home made and home drawn. He spread it out and both he and Slykk looked it over and tried to compare this place with those marked on the map over years of travel, and trading of information from other wanderers like them. He muttered as he looked at the map, and then at the small town for clues to it’s identification.

“Could be Bane Hill or Lost side. Both are in this area according to the map. I don’t know. We could just pass it by, we have enough supplies to keep going for days. We don’t need to stop here.” he said to Slykk.

Slykk pouted at him. “Let’s stop, it’s been three days since our last decent crash spot.”

“It’s only been three days since that last spot where people were out to assassinate us.” he growled back. “If you want to walk in there, hire a room for you and your whore, be my guest. I don’t think it very wise to stop at any of these places until we get farther north.”

“How far do you want to go man? All the way to Frisco?” Slykk asked in frustration. “We are always going to be hunted, wanted. Why do you care about it now?” he asked the other.

“Because I was feeling it even before I got the note, that’s why?” he said and Lyria sighed, she sensed an argument brewing.

“Who sent that note anyway. You haven’t told me that yet.”

“It’s not important. We keep moving.” he said and that brought a collective groan from Slykk and the women. “Now get up, and get walking.” he ordered them, and without further argument, onward they went.

Hours later, they were still walking. Phaeton in the lead, then Lyria, then Moira and Slykk was in the rear. It had started raining an hour before, and except for their packed gear and food, they were soaked. Everyone was miserable, and the temperature was slowly and surely dropping by the hour. They trudged on in silence until Phaeton tripped over something, and swore angrily. “Fucking rocks! Right in the middle of the damned path!” he shouted into the rain, and gave a yank on Lyria’s chain for no reason. She nearly stumbled from the unexpected pull and then nearly tripped over the small pile of stones that Phaeton had encountered. She caught a glimpse of them in the pale moonlight that was making it through the clouds and rain.

Suddenly, Phaeton felt a tug on the chain coming from Lyria’s end, and he stopped. He turned and looked back to see her stopped and crouched down on the path looking at the pile of stones, and replacing the one that he had kicked away with his boot.

“What are you doing?” he yelled at her. “Do you like being in this damned rain?”

“No!” she shouted back and then looked up at him. “I know what these mean. They aren’t just a pile of stones.” she said and wiped the rain soaked hair back out of her face. “They are marks from my people, my tribe.” she explained and looked down at them.

“What do they say?” Phaeton said sweetly and planted his hands on his hips. Slykk stood by Moira looking like a drowned, blonde rat, and she didn’t look much better. Lyria looked at them for a moment longer, then stood up and faced Phaeton. “There’s shelter, not far from here. The stones are recent, so the shelter should be there still and stocked.”

“Stocked?” he asked with a cant of his head to the side. He was clearly interested in this new information and possible improvement in their living quarters.

Lyria nodded. “Food, supplies, Medicine, clothes. Everything.” she said with a hopeful expression up at him. After a minute Phaeton nodded. 

“Can you find this place?”

She nodded again, and pointed off into the darkness of the woods they had been walking in. “That way, about two miles.” she said and waited to see what he would do next. Phaeton made a grand sweep with his arm, as if he was gracefully allowing her to pass. 

“After you miss, you lead the way.” he said quietly, and then fell into step close behind her as Lyria took the lead and they all fell in line behind her. It would only take about an hour to go two miles by road, but they were breaking through back country, brush, trees and other forest debris. Lyria kept moving, seeming to be guided by trail signs only she could see, and decipher. Three hours later, they came through threes and bushes to find a small shack hidden by the overgrowth of the forest. 

Phaeton held Lyria back and made Slykk go in first and check the place out. A moment later he gave a whistle as a signal, and waved for them to follow him inside. Once they were inside, out of the rain, Phaeton barred the door, while Slykk lit a torch so they could take stock of the cabin and it’s contents. Once there was light, they looked around and saw a cabin that had been tossed, and ransacked long ago. A broken bed, broken cupboards, an empty fireplace, and other debris strewn all over the place. 

Phaeton turned angrily to Lyria. “Well, it’s shelter, but it sure isn’t what you led us to believe it would be.”

“We walked all the way out here for this?” Slykk whined. Moira chimed in about being hungry, and Lyria hissed at her to shut up.

“This is what we would want you to see!” she shouted, then went towards the bed, she got down on her hands and knees, and reached under the bed. Phaeton did likewise to see what she was doing, just incase she was pulling out weapons to do him and the rest of them in. 

“Give me the torch.” he said to Slykk, then snatched it out of his hand and held it down near where Lyria was. She was doing something under the bed, he couldn’t see what, then she pushed up on the bed, and it slowly raised up, taking the floor under it with it, and below the bed was now an opening leading down and out of sight.

Phaeton got next to Lyria and thrust the torch down into the darkness, and saw what lay beyond. There was a narrow set of stairs, and down beyond that, a basement of some sort, and supplies, a wooden floor, and what looked like a complete house set up, hidden down in a cellar. After an initial look, he turned to Lyria and smiled at her. “You done good.” he said as his way of a compliment, and gratitude, then nodded for her to head down the steps.

After Lyria went down, he sent Slykk, then Moira, and he came down last. Phaeton paused to pull the bed trap down back down, and once it was in place, he saw the elaborate system of sliding boards that was the locking system, and slid them back into place before he joined the others down below.

It was like a fully stocked, and appointed two room cabin, just that it was below ground. The walls were covered in cement, then insulated to keep out the moisture and water. There were two sets of bunk beds, a cooking kitchen, a door that lead to a fully stocked pantry with enough preserved food and canned supplies to last months, if not years depending on how many people were living there. Another door led to a toilet, and shower stall. It wasn’t very spacious, but it was clearly a place to hide out in a time of need, and when not being found was key. 

Phaeton walked around and nodded appreciatively. “Nice. Not nearly as nice as the cabin we found you and that blonde loser in.” he said, then turned to look at her for her reaction.

Lyria was glaring at him. “You only saw the surface cabin. Not the cellar home.” she said evenly, then turned back away from him, and went to go into the bathroom to change out of her wet clothing. Phaeton laughed, and unhooked the chain from his belt, giving her free reign of the cabin. He headed for the cupboards and began to browse the foot stores. He found a couple of canned goods that interested him, so he took them to the small table with two chairs, and began to open them. He was content. He was indoors, had a safe place to sleep, and as much food as he could want.

By the time he had scarfed down the tins of food. Lyria emerged from the bathroom, and was wearing clean and dry clothing. She didn’t look in Phaeton’s direction as she went to the bunk beds, and laid down in the bottom one and got under the covers to sleep. Phaeton went into the bathroom next and found where Lyria had hung up her wet clothes to dry, and he smiled when he saw that. He decided to do the same, and after stripping out of his wet clothes, he hung them up as well to drip dry into the shower drain, and then took a towel to dry himself off with. He hadn’t brought a change of clothes in with him like Lyria had, so he wrapped the towel around his waist and left the room. Slykk and Moira were at the table eating now. 

“I’m going to sleep, so keep your mouths shut.” he ordered them, then went he got to the bunk beds, he stood there a moment, considering. Both were large, meant for two people, and Lyria was in the back of the lower one. He thought about taking the top one, but then who knew what Slykk would do then. Whatever it was, it wouldn’t be quiet, or sensible, so he got under the covers beside Lyria, then pulled her warm body close to his chilly bare one.

“Dammit! You’re freezing!” she complained as he wrapped himself around her, stealing the warmth she had built up.

Phaeton laughed. “I know, that’s what I have you for.” he said then pushed his face into her hair, sniffed a couple of time, then nibbled on the back of her neck, causing her to squirm to try to get away from his annoying bites.

“Stop....” she whined. Phaeton laughed, and bit her again. “Stoppit!” she whimpered, and twisted her head to try and dislodge him.

“Stoppit!” he mocked her in a high pitched voice.

“You guys are the ones making all the damn noise.” Slykk muttered loud enough to carry to the other side of the room.

“You better shut up or I will have you making noise.” Phaeton growled as he rolled over to glare at Slykk. The blonde looked over at Phaeton with a bored expression. He didn’t seem to be impressed, or feel threatened.

“Right, right....” Slykk said and then went back to eating. “We will be quiet as mice.” he said as he continued to eat. “You won’t even know we are here.” he said, and stopped talking.

Hours later, Phaeton was sound asleep, curled up with Lyria in the warm comfortable bed. He wasn’t dreaming, just sound asleep when sounds began to creep into his subconscious. Finally, there was enough noise to draw him from sleep and awake. He blinked in the darkness, trying to orient himself to where he was when he heard the sounds that woke him up.

It was Slykk and his slave going at it. Phaeton groaned and slapped his palm over his face. “Why....? Why...?” he moaned and pulled the pillow out from under his head and put it over his head as he rolled onto his side, and tried to not hear what was going on above him. It was a small consolation that Slykk’s sexual prowess could be measured in minutes, and not hours. It would be over soon, but unfortunately, not soon enough for  his liking. He glanced over at Lyria curled up under the blankets next to him. She was blissfully unaware, and deep asleep. He hated her for that ability she had to sleep through just about anything but him hitting her.

He thought about waking her up, and making her suffer alongside of him, but he was too tired even for that. He sighed and had no choice but to wait it out, then hopefully, be able to fall back to sleep. While he laid there, and waited, he thought of all of the ways he would get Slykk back for this. He had to admit, this was a sweet little hidey hole to spend the winter in. He wished he had known that the place they took Lyria from all those years ago was a gold mine of supplies and  shelter, but that was so long ago, and so far from here, it would do no good to go back there now. He would tuck away this knowledge that her tribe made such safe houses. It would make traveling long distances all the easier.

He didn’t realize how long he had been thinking about their good fortune, until he realized it was quiet again. Lyria sighed in her sleep and rolled over onto her side, and draped her arm across his chest, and nuzzled her head against his shoulder. Phaeton turned his head to look over at her, confused. Why the Hell would she be doing that? His first thought was to shove her away, but he welcomed the warmth of her body beside his. He was always cold, and for that reason he was always pulling her close when they slept. 

He laid there listening in the dark, silence. Dead silent, and darker than anything he could recall seeing in recent memory. He turned to look out into the cabin, and thought that keeping a supply of candles or some other sort of illumination would be absolutely necessary if they didn’t want to bump around in the dark all of the time. He would ask her just how many they had here in case they needed to find more, or make something on their own. While he laid there thinking about candles, he eventually fell back to sleep again, and dreamed of other strange things for the remainder of the night.A week later, and the four had settled into the cabin very comfortably. Phaeton had laid down rules of conduct for everyone, the main one pertaining to sex. He forbade sex to happen when all four people were in the house. This was mostly so he didn’t have to listen to Slykk hump his slave. He personally didn’t care if they heard him slamming Lyria around, but that was because he was a master of double standards. Slykk would comply, because he always did, and all would be peaceful and calm in the twisted little household of Masters and Slaves.

With the need for money to buy food and lodging eliminated for the time being, there was a lot of spare time for the foursome. Lyria slept and ate, and washed as much as she liked. Phaeton seemed to take great pleasure in dragging her into bed and under him when she was freshly washed and groomed. He would laugh afterwards, and she would pout, and  sulk until he saw fit to torment her again.

Slykk pawed at his slave until they would get so into it, Phaeton would leave and go up to the upper cabin for some peace and quiet. Lyria was left behind to listen to them rut, and even putting pillows over her head and humming couldn’t drown it out. As the days went along, she found herself feeling restless, wanting to move, to go somewhere. She wondered if Phaeton was feeling the same thing. They rarely stayed in on place this long, unless it was winter. Winter was coming soon, and soon they would be stuck there, or somewhere for months. 

When she awoke from a nap, she pulled the curtain back from her and Phaeton’s bed, and looked around. There was no sign of anyone sitting in the chairs, or walking around. A sudden loud snore startled her, and she looked toward the other bed. Slykk was passed out on his back, naked, and Moira was sitting up on the bed behind him looking rough, and unhappy. She always looked that way. Lyria looked around again, and listened, but there was no other sound except for Slykk’s snoring.

“Where’s Phaeton?” she whispered over to the other girl. Moira scowled and pointed up at the ceiling of the underground cabin. Lyria took that to mean Phaeton was in the upper cabin. “Thanks.” she said curtly, and got up out of the bed, put on  a cloak and headed up the staircase to the floor above. Slowly she opened the trap door and looked around. She was surprised to see that the cabin had been cleaned up, straightened up. Phaeton was standing in the door way of the cabin, arms crossed across his chest, looking out into the rising glow of the sunrise.

She didn’t want to startle him, so she cleared her throat to let him know he was no longer alone. Phaeton made no motion at her sound, he knew she was there before she had finished lifting up the trap door. He had the hearing of a blood hound, and nearly the nose of one. It made up for his crap eyesight. “May I come up here?” she asked quietly. “Not going to stop you.” he said flatly.

She took that as much of an invitation as she was going to get, and climbed up the rest of the way into the cabin, and then closed the trap door. She looked around again at the neatened up cabin, then sat down on the bed. It was the only thing that hadn’t been made up. “It looks nice up here.” she said after a long silence between them.  Slowly he turned around to look at her.

“Good, we are going to be living up here.” he said and then turned from the door, and closed it. He put slid the bolts back into place, and closed the shutters on the windows, cutting out most of the growing light from outside.

“All of us?” she asked, not sure what was going on now.

“No. You and me. The freaks can have the basement, or, we will take the basement, and kick them up here. I will kill the both of them if I have to spend every day and night with them.” he muttered, and started to pace around the cabin. Lyria nodded, and thought if anyone should have the basement, it should be her and Phaeton, but she wasn’t going to voice her opinion. She agreed with him, and having half of the house, an entire floor with just the two of them would be better than enduring the other two.

She wondered why he just didn’t get rid of Moira, but guessed there was some reason he hadn’t just snapped and taken her out already by this point.  They both had been prizes, won at Von666’s, maybe that was the reason. Perhaps he thought that if he killed Slykk’s toy, he would run back to Von666 and complain and that would cause all sorts of Hell. Although, Phaeton was likely to take Slykk out too if he thought he was going to betray him somehow. The more she thought of it, she couldn’t see Slykk doing that, he was too dependent on Phaeton, and he on him.  They were in some sick, dysfunctional sort of relationship that was frightening to watch, and even more so to be a part of. Lyria didn’t realize she was just staring into space, playing out all she had seen of them, and the other two so many years now, and so long ago, then now again. 

She let out a scream as she was startled by someone dropping down to sit on the bed next to her. Phaeton’s face was inches from hers, and he gave a short, breathy laugh. “You flinched.” he grinned, then laughed again.  Lyria looked away from him and sighed. “You always.... flinch.... and cry....” he said in a whisper, then reached up and caught a handful of her hair in his fist and yanked it downwards, causing her head to drop back and stretch out her neck, baring her throat.

Lyria gave a little whimper, and closed her eyes when she felt the cold kiss of a knife’s edge against her throat. How many  hundreds of times had she felt this? She’d lost count. Eventually she knew, one time would be the last, she just never knew when, and that was the game he played. “Do you want to cry now?” he hissed in her ear. “Will that save you from me?”

“No.” she answered quietly, to both questions.

“Ha.....” he breathed, now interested, amused, back to his old self. “So, what do we do next? What game do we play now? All alone again, no interruptions, just like old times.” he said and chuckled again.

“Whatever game.... you want...” 

“Hmmmm....” he hummed, then moved his mouth closed to her throat and gave a playful bite. 

Just then, in the distance, a rumble could be heard. Lyria heard it, but Phaeton heard it first. He pulled back from her, and looked up at the ceiling, waiting. The closer it drew, the louder it became, and now a vibration could be felt in the ground as well.

“What is it?” Lyria asked, as she started to panic.

“Shut it!” he shouted at her, and they both listened as the monstrous noise drew closer and closer.

“Hide!” She screamed and stood up, and tried to lift up the bed trap door but he was still sitting on the bed, frozen in place, listening to the approaching thunderous sound. Phaeton wasn’t sure what to do. Suddenly the sound was right upon them, right over head. The cabin was shaking around them and the ground was rumbling beneath their feet. Lyria screamed and dropped to the floor, covering her ears in panic.

Phaeton held a knife in his hand and went to the door. Lyria sensed movement and looked up. “Don’t!” she shouted at him as he put his hand on the door after slamming the bolts open, and jerked the door open.  She closed her eyes, unable to watch and surely see him and her destroyed. The sound was now deafening, and whatever it was, was right over them. She thought she was going to die, right then. Then, the sound and rumbling began to fade. Slowly it withdrew, got farther and farther away by the second. 

Finally, it faded, both sound and vibration into nothingness, and it was silent again. The silence seemed so loud now, and slowly, she opened her eyes and looked toward the door. Phaeton was still standing there, looking up at the sky, knife held tightly in his hand.

“What... what was that?” she asked him in a shaky voice.

“Nothing to worry about.” he said calmly, far too calmly for her liking. Then he stepped back into the cabin, closed the door and relocked it, bringing darkness back to the room. He put his knife back into it’s holster, and returned to where she was cowering on the floor. “Now, get up and get into bed.” he growled as he grabbed hold of her wrist and pulled her first up to her feet, then threw her down onto the bed.

This bed wasn’t nearly as plush and comfortable as the ones down in the basement house, so it hurt to be thrown onto it. Her cry of impact brought laughter from Phaeton, and after setting his weapons aside, he dropped down onto the bed, and wrestled her down under him, and began a familiar assault. It was one way to pass the morning until something else caught his attention, or came thundering across the land or sky towards them. Three weeks later, on a rainy day, the four had ventured out from the house under the leadership of Phaeton to go to a nearby village for supplies. Lyria had a feeling it was an excuse to get out and moving for a few days, and she was grateful for that.  Even though they were trudging through a rainy, thick forest, then a marsh, it was a welcome change from being indoors, either upstairs or downstairs with stale air and people who were getting on your nerves. Once they reached the village, Phaeton sought out a tavern, and slipped inside. He wore a cloak with a hood disguising his face and identity. Slykk was sent to another tavern with the slaves, and had been given explicit instructions as to what to do, and what not to do while Phaeton checked out the town, and got the latest news and gossip running around.

Slykk found a table in the back of the tavern, and ordered drinks for himself, and the women. Lyria wasn’t interested in drink, something she shared as a trait with Phaeton. She took a cursory sip of her beverage, and it made her nose and eyes run, as well as burned her throat.  She pushed the glass over to Slykk who was only too happy to down it and order more. While he and Moira drank, Lyria leaned on the table, bored, and relegated to doing not much more than watching people as they came, ate, drank, and occasionally fought. She would observe what she could, and report anything of interest to Phaeton. The more Slykk drank, the more likely a herd of wild beasts could run through the tavern overturning tables and stampeding people to death and he wouldn’t even notice.

Three blocks away, Phaeton was seated at a bar on a stool, slowly nursing a single brewed beverage. He hated drinking, and was only doing this to blend in. He spoke to no one aside from the bartender, and instead listened, and observed. He had learned long ago that you could learn more by listening, than talking.

“Ruddy awful weather tonight...” said a gravelly voice off to his side, and it was a moment before he realized someone must be talking to him. Uninvited conversation was not something he had planned on, but he wasn’t totally surprised by it either. Slowly Phaeton turned his head toward the speaker, and in the darkness of the bar, he couldn’t see many details about the man speaking to him from the next stool over. 

He was smaller in size than Phaeton who was just over six feet tall, and appeared to be much older. Old people were a rarity, so that in itself was of slight interest to Phaeton. “The weather is what it is.” he said quietly, and sipped a pantomime sip of his drink. “What good does it do to discuss it.” he added in a sour tone of voice. “I find it good to discuss things important, and not so important.” he older man replied. “When you have seen as much as I have, it gives you a lot to talk about. Tell me, what have you seen in your life time?” he asked Phaeton.

Phaeton slowly turned to look at the man, his face still hidden in the shadow of the hood he was wearing, even inside of the tavern. He was giving him and “You are kidding me, right?” sort of expression, but in this dim light and partial masking, it was a futile attempt at non verbal sarcasm.  “I’ve seen a lot. Mostly bad. My life is bad, my past is bad, my future is bleak, and full of death, and suffering.” he said quietly, then realized how melodramatic it was sounding, so he gave a short laugh. “I am not the ray of sunshine everyone needs in their life, obviously.” he added.

“Ah... It’s hard not to have a life like that now. There is no organization, no government, no laws. The cruel and evil rule now a days, I think we are entering the End of Days prophesied by the Bible so many thousands of years ago.

Phaeton sighed loudly, and obviously at that remark. “There is no God. That is why the world is what it is. We are living in the world we made.” he smirked, then sipped at his drink, this time for real.

“How can you be so sure?” The man pressed, and it was becoming readily apparent to Phaeton that this man was a zealot of some sort, and he had less patience for that sort than drunks. Phaeton had a witty reply ready for the man, but then decided that the best way to get him to shut him up and leave him alone would be to ignore him, so he did.

Phaeton stared straight ahead into the mirror behind the bar. IT was cracked of course, dirty, smudged and really was of no use as a decent looking glass anymore. He supposed it was just left there more for tradition than anything else. If it had not already been broken he was sure he would be tempted to through something into it to break it. Let him have seven more years of bad luck, he didn’t care. He had lived and survived through more than thirty now, and so far nothing had managed to kill him or keep him down for long. Phaeton chuckled again at that realization. Many had tried, even more had died.

His tactic of ignoring the old man worked, and eventually, he moved to another place in the tavern, and on the edge of his perception Phaeton could hear him preaching the same litany to someone else.  He was glad to be free of him, and anyone else for that matter that would distract him from his task of listening to conversations and gather information about this little town. Hours passed, and with only a smattering of whispers of nefarious activity going on, but more so about this supposed government that was forming up North, and now there was rumors of mass camps, and prisons, and genocide of people not willing to fall in line with the new regime. Phaeton didn’t buy any of it. He finished his now warm ale and then  slid down off of his chair to leave and go in search of Slykk, and hopefully both of the women. He remembered too well what had happened the last time Slykk had taken Lyria out on the town. That was years ago, and after all of the time she’d been with him now, she knew better than to let herself get taken away, or run off on her own. He would find her. If he had to track her through the nine circles of Hell, he would find her, and then the punishment would be brutal, thorough, and last for days and days. As he was leaving the tavern, someone bumped into him. Reflexively his hand went to his waist where he carried his weapons, silent, sharp and deadly. He  hissed at the person and rounded around to glare at them. The person was a meek sort and shrunk away from Phaeton’s fatal gaze. 

“No trouble, no trouble friend.” he said nervously. “I’m not accustomed to seeing the rough sort outside of Wassy Street.” he said, then winced as if that was the wrong thing to say to this dangerous looking person.

“I AM trouble...” Phaeton growled at the man, and he startled him so much, he back peddled quickly and ran into some one carrying a tray of food. A crash of food, and platters sounded next, and in a blink, Phaeton was gone, out of the door and lost in the shadows of the streets.

He walked along until he found his way to the Tavern he had sent Slykk to.  He slipped inside and looked around from a dark corner just inside of the door, seeking out the blonde and his slave.  This bar was packed, and there was no simply looking across the room and spotting the blonde. Phaeton sighed and began to make his way through the crowd. He bumped a few people out of his way, and all it took was a look to make them think twice about confronting him back. Finally, at a table in the back, glowing like the midday sun was a head of bleach blonde, flanked by two women, one dark haired the other blonde. Bingo. 

Slykk was slouched down in his chair, laughing loudly with his arm around Moira’s shoulder and his hand creeping down into her dress. Lyria was sitting as far from him as possible, her chin in her hand, her elbow on the table looking glum. Phaeton stood a dozen paces or so away from the table and just watched what they were up to, if anything. Two minutes of observation told him what he already suspected was going on. Nothing. Slykk was drunk, Moira appeared to be most of the way there as well, and Lyria wanted to be anywhere but there. Phaeton made a silent signal with his hand, and he was pleased to see Lyria noticed it right away. 

She sat up at attention almost, and gave him as much of a welcoming smile as she was likely ever to give him. She was actually glad to see him. Imagine that. Phaeton strode over to the table, and reached down to grab her by the wrist and pulled her up to her feet. She let out a soft shriek of surprise, and stood there while he sat down, then equally roughly, pulled her back down to sit across his lap. Slykk had barely noticed and looked over in their direction by the time the action was done.

Phaeton snorted a derisive laugh. He could have killed him three times over before he would even realize he was falling down to the ground, dead. “Phaeton!” he called out happily at the sight of his partner.

“Shut it you ass!” Phaeton growled as he leaned over to place his face inches from Slykk’s face. “I don’t need a fucking royal announcement from you to let everyone in this town know I am here.” he hissed. Slykk’s expression became instantly sober in expression and he nodded quickly.

“Sorry. Sorry. Glad to see you is all. You find anything out?” he asked, as he tried to bring the topic to business and away from his own mistake.

“Glad to see you managed not to lose the slaves and get yourself killed or pinched.” he said in a low tone. “This place is full of normals. I did hear mention of a street where our type might be found. I don’t want to check it out with you in this shape and the toys in tow.” he said quietly.

Lyria was listening to him of course, but kept silent since it didn’t matter what she thought or wanted, she would go where he wanted her to go, or stay where he wanted her to stay. She tried to get comfortable sitting on Phaeton’s lap with the assortment of gear trapped between her backside and his thighs. It was far from a pleasing place to sit, but there was no other option.

“Where is this street?” Slykk asked quietly, but in a slurred tone of voice. He was sauced and as far as Phaeton was concerned, even more useless than usual to him. He was more a liability now than an asset.  

“I don’t know you ass. I’m as lost in this town as you are. I only have the name, but it shouldn’t be hard to get directions to where we want to go. This isn’t the biggest of towns. I don’t want to attempt it today, with you a drunken blonde whore, and your twin with tits there.” he said, clearly displeased.

Lyria was unable to hold back a snort of laughter at that, and immediately regretted it. She looked fearfully at Phaeton, but he was still looking directly at Slykk so either he hadn’t heard her over the noise in the tavern, or he was letting it go because he agreed with her.

“So what’s the plan then?” Slykk asked him, and then seeing Phaeton has his slave sitting in his lap, he tried to pull Moira into the same position, but only managed to pull her sideways so much she nearly fell of of her chair and onto the dirty floor.

“Slykk stop!” she called out, and in a lightening strike, Phaeton had brought his hand up and struck her across the face, knocking her back into Slykk. “Shut up you stupid whore!” he shouted in her face, and she bit down on her swelling lip, and then turned to bury her face in Slykk’s hair on his shoulder.

“Hey...  Don’t hit my slave.” Slykk whined at his partner. 

“I’ll hit whoever I like, when I like.” he growled in response, then gave Lyria a shove, and luckily being sober, she landed on her feet, and stood up at the same moment he did. He grabbed her chain off of Slykk’s belt and relocked it onto his. “I”m leaving. I’m taking her back to the hole and then going out again. You staying here until you end up drunk and half dead in the fucking mud again with your bitch stolen or are you coming back with me?” 

Slykk pouted, and then righted himself, and helped Moira to sit back up straight as well. “No, we’re going with you. Are you going to come back into town tonight?” he asked the other quietly.

Phaeton rubbed his hand on his chin, it was getting scruffy, and he needed a shave, but that could wait. “We’ll see what shape you are in after we hike back and put the toys to use.” he said with a cruel smirk in Lyria’s direction. Moira was wiping tears away, but not making a sound. She was a fast learner apparently. 

“Let’s head out then.” Slykk said and Phaeton stepped back to give Slykk plenty of room to either get up, or fall down on his ass. Either had a equal chance of happening at this point. Surprisingly, Slykk managed to get to his feet without knocking over the table or anything on it, and after making sure he had all of his belongings, living and otherwise with him, he followed Phaeton and Lyria outside, then they headed back out of the village, toward their hidden sanctuary.

A little over an hour later, with Lyria’s help, they relocated the cabin, and went inside. They found it as they had left it, and before they went down into the lower house, Phaeton stopped Slykk by grabbing hold of his shoulder. “Wait. We are going to split this little group up.”

Slykk looked at Phaeton, suddenly worried about what this could mean. He was quickly losing his buzz with all of this serious, and unhappy talk. “What do you mean?” he asked cautiously.

“Two floors, two houses. You and the other blonde get up here, I’m claiming downstairs.”

“What?!” Slykk protested.

“Don’t worry, we will still share all of the food and supplies, but I am going to gut someone if I don’t get some space.” he said and didn’t need to say aloud who he needed space from.

“How come we have to stay up here?” Slykk asked and was unable to keep the whining tone out of his voice.

“Because I said so. If it gets too cold or something else goes down, we’ll bring you down there, but for now, you guys are topside.” he said with a smirk. “We already straightened up the place, and I’ll send her up with some food. You’ll be fine.” he said and it wasn’t so much a reassurance he was giving the other, it was an order. Slykk had no choice but to agree, and nodded. 

“Open the trap door.” Phaeton ordered Lyria, and she crouched down to slide the panels around in the right combination, and then lifted the bed up to revel the stairs going down. Once the entrance was open, he put his foot on her back and gave a shove to indicate for her to get down there. She had to catch herself to keep from being sent head first down the stairs.

Without a word, she quickly made her way down the stairs, and lit the little glow lamp she had recently located in the hide out, and then quickly slipped into the bathroom before Phaeton had a chance to grab hold of her, and through her onto the bed before she had the chance to use the toilet, before going to bed.

Phaeton was laying on the bed, reclining on the pillows watching her as she came back into the room. She stopped at the edge of the bed, and looked at him. He seemed to be waiting to either say something, or for her to do something. As the silence went on, she realized he was not going to be forth coming in any orders or suggestions. Lyria sighed, then summoning a smile, she moved closer to him, then lowered herself down onto her knees. She avoided looking him in the face as she slowly slid her hands up the length of his thighs to the lacing ties and belt as his waist.

Lyria felt him sigh, and slowly he pulled his blades one by one out of the leather holsters on his belt and set them aside on a shelf on the wall behind him. He didn’t want anything sharp and nasty around his groin while she was attending to him. Once she had the belts undone, and gently removed from around his waist, she undid the laces on the fly of his pants, and leaned up farther to rest between his thighs as she carefully loosed his cock from his pants and began to stroke it slowly in her fist. He began to harden slowly in her skilled grasp, and once he was erect enough, she put her head down and took him into her mouth.

Phaeton closed his eyes and gave a long sigh. This was a nice way to end the day, and perhaps he would wait until the next day for further explorations of the village. He knew Slykk would be useless at this point, and he would need him sharp, or as sharp as he got, when checking out this street he had heard mentioned, Wassy Street. He briefly wondered about the name of the street, and what or who he might find there until Lyria’s skills brought his thoughts back to his groin, and he wrapped his hands in her long hair to guide her strokes and pace to his liking until he reached his climax moments later.

Once he was finished, he pushed her aside, and lifted his hips up to pull his pants back up and then laced them closed. When that was done, he rolled over on the bed to lay on it properly, and laid facing the wall, his back to her. “Take the idiot squad some food, enough for a couple of days, then get back down here.” he ordered her.

“Yes Phaeton,” she said quietly, and before she saw to that task, she pulled the covers up over him so we wouldn’t get cold, then went to select food to take up to Slykk and Moira.  She climbed up the stairs, and knocked on the trap door to let them know she was there. She heard movement, then the trap door with the bed on it was raised, and Slykk looked down at her. “Here’s the food.” She said quietly, and passed up a duffel bag with the food to the blonde.

“Yeah, thanks. You guys get the safe place and we are up here, having to watch out and defend ourselves. We could be slaughtered up here and you wouldn’t care, you probably wouldn’t even hear anything.” he whined at her. Lyria wasn’t sure how to respond to that, so she shrugged, then went back down the stairs. 

Slykk slammed the trapdoor back down, and caused Lyria to flinch. “What the fuck was that?!” Phaeton roared from the bed as she walked back into the room.

“Slykk slammed the door.” she said quietly, then went to sit down on the edge of the bed. Phaeton swore, and made some vague threats about how he was going to get back at Slykk, then he shifted around slightly and was quiet. Lyria was in no hurry to get into bed with Phaeton, but there was nothing else for her to do. She sat there looking around the dark room, lit only by the soft green glow of the luminous ball. She stared into it, falling into a trance almost as she let her mind go blank, and just sat there.

She didn’t realize how long she had sat there until Phaeton speaking broke her out of her fugue. “Get into bed. It’s cold.” he said, which meant he was cold, and wanted her to warm the bed for him. Ever since she had known him, he had been this way. “Yes Phaeton.” she sighed and after stripping down to a shirt and underwear, she slipped under the covers and moved to lay close to him. He grabbed her around the waist and pulled her tightly to him. Once he was settled, spooned up close behind her, he nuzzled his face into the back of her hair, and let out a long sigh.

Lyria remained awake for a while longer, lost in thought. Another day was over, survived, and tomorrow would bring another, and it would be another closer to winter. She was fearing that more than anything else at the moment. The winters were long, cold, and merciless. It was nature and the world’s way of thinning out the remnants of humanity. Sometimes she thought it was for the better, but on other days, she didn’t want to starve or freeze to death. Even in her present situation, life was still better than death, and nothingness. As long as she was alive, there was hope for life to get better.

Both Lyria and Phaeton slept well that day, unmolested or disturbed by Slykk and his slave and their cavorting. They were only woken up when Slykk ventured down there to inquire what the next plan of action was. Phaeton, not happy at being disturbed announced the first order of business would be to kill all blondes in the area. After that bickering session was over, they decided to go back into the village and check out the street that had been mentioned the night before. This time they would leave the women at the hide out to enable them to travel lighter, and faster.

Moira was brought back down into the basement house and chained to the second bed while Lyria was chained to the one she shared with Phaeton. They were threatened with great bodily harm if they got into anything or made a break for it, and once that had been stated, the men left, locking them in the lower house, then disappearing off into the night. Once they were gone, Lyria went to a shelf where there were some books. She never would attempt to read with Phaeton around, he had no need for books, or anything like that. Fear, killing, and violence were his hobbies. She picked out a book and returned to her bed and laid down to read.

Moira watched Lyria and once she had settle down with a book to read, she was bored. She sighed loudly, then got up to wander around the room. The sound of the other moving around caused Lyria to look up from her reading and once she saw what Moira was doing, she went back to reading.

“Reading is dumb!” Moira taunted from her side of the room. “It’s a waste of time.” she said, and Lyria rolled her eyes, and continued reading. She was glad Moira only had enough chain to reach from the bed to the bathroom so all she could do to annoy her would be talk. She had blocked out far worse things before. “We should be trying to find a way out of here! We should try to escape, get free!” she urged the other. Lyria ignored her. “Don’t you want to get away? Don’t you want to go back to Von666? It was so much better there! We can get out of here and go back there!” 

Finally Lyria looked up from her both at Moira. “Are you insane? Do you remember how long it took us to get here, and all the danger we had to go through? We’d never make it. Besides, Phaeton would track us down in hours, and I know what he does to slaves that try to escape. No thanks.”

“You’re happy with Phaeton, that’s why. You like him beating on you and shit. I can tell.” she taunted Lyria with the hopes of instigating some sort of response or action from her. Lyria looked over at her with an unamused expression. “That’s why you stay, that’s why you don’t try to run. You love him.” she continued on.

Lyria actually laughed at that last comment and returned to reading. She was going to ignore the other, there was no way she was going to provoke Phaeton in any way shape or form, that was for sure. “Go ahead and leave, break loose, and go. You can travel faster on your own anyway.” she said calmly, knowing that neither wouldn’t be able to get out of their chains so it was all just talk anyway.

Moira stared at Lyria and got more and more angry. She knew she couldn’t do this alone, and if there was any chance of them escaping and surviving to get to another safe place, she would need Lyria to go too. “We need to go! We need to get away from these psychos before they kill us!” she implored as she went between hopeless and angry.

“I would get some sleep while you can.” Lyria said and turned the page in her book and kept reading. Moira let out a growl of frustration, and turned to grab hold of the chain that ran from her ankle to the bed post and began to yank on it.  She pulled and pulled on it, screaming at the top of her lungs as she tried to break it loose from the frame on the bed. Lyria looked up at the struggling woman and sighed, then went back to reading. It was going to be a long, and likely not relaxing evening.

In the village, Phaeton and Slykk walked close together, and were keeping their eyes open for anyone watching them, while they made their way toward the street mentioned to them the night before, Wassy street. They had asked someone they had found outside of one of the taverns, and he had given them directions to the street they sought. They also had been warned it was a dark, and dangerous street. Phaeton had wanted to tell him that suited him just fine, but instead he thanked the man for his advice and they had carried onward toward their destination.

“What do we do when we get there?” Slykk asked him as they walked along.

“We find a bar, we go inside, and we sit, and listen. You are not getting drunk, and we are going to find out just what goes on in this town.”

“Right...” Slykk nodded. “Got it.” He said with a shake of his shaggy head. Phaeton gave him a long look and noticed at some point he had chopped at his hair to make it appear like it did, instead of just long like his hand grown out to be. He noticed with a smirk that Slykk’s roots were showing despite the shortened and spiky look to the top of his hair. “Your roots are showing.” Phaeton grinned at this partner. Slykk immediately swore, clearing annoyed by that fact.

“I know....” he whined, and reached a hand up to ruffle up  his hair. “I need to find some bleach again, that stupid place we are staying doesn’t have any, I’ve looked.” he said in a petulant tone of voice. Phaeton just rolled his eyes and kept walking.

Once they had reached the street they were seeking, they were surprised to see it wasn’t much more than an alley. Phaeton was not expecting that, and with a silent signal, indicated that Slykk was to stay near the entrance of the alley, and wait there while he went to check it out. This was fine with Slykk. He was used to being the back up man, and he was more than willing to let Phaeton take the lead in any possible confrontation or ambush. While he stood there keeping watch, he drew out his own knife, and kept it concealed alongside of his leg, just in case it was needed quickly. 

Phaeton walked slowly down the center of the alley, then came back walking close to the walls on one side of the alley, examining closely the bricks, and other material the buildings were constructed from. He ran his gloved hands over the surface of the walls, obviously looking for something, but Slykk had no idea what.

Once he had surveyed one side of the alley’s walls, he started down the other side. There had to be something here, he just had to find it, or figure out the clues he was certain were there. He flinched when Slykk called out from the end of the alley, “Find anything yet?” Mentally he made a note to punish him for that when they were out of this situation. In order to keep Slykk from further shouting, he turned towards him and put his finger to his lips, indicating a signal even a child could understand. Slykk nodded enthusiastically, and Phaeton went back to looking at the brickwork on on particular section of a wall. 

He had found openings in the grout between the bricks and thought perhaps he had found a door, but the open seams were not in the normal shape of a door. He traced the path of the of channels where the grout was missing, and found that they extended out as part of an unusual, irregularly shaped shape that when he had traced out the entire track of the channel, it could be an opening, just one designed to conceal it’s shape. He stepped back from the wall, and rubbed at his chin as he thought.

Slykk craned his neck and squinted to see what Phaeton was doing, and finally began to wave in a frantic manner to attract Phaeton’s attention. It worked, and Phaeton turned in Slykk’s direction, now expecting trouble. “What?” he whispered as loudly as he could without flat out shouting.

“What did you find?” Slykk loud whispered back. Phaeton decided it was better to keep Slykk at close quarters, so he waved for him to come to the end of the alley and join him. Once he had arrived, he again put his finger to his lips, then with the tip of the same finger, traced the breaks in the grout between the bricks, showing Slykk where there might be an entrance. “Clever....” he whispered to Phaeton and ran his own finger through the channels, and tried to figure out how this sort of portal would open. “It has no hinges on the outside, and no wear makes on the edges of the bricks.” he said, adding his observation of the bricks.

Phaeton nodded. “It has to slide straight in, and out.” he said, then crouched down to look at the ground for evidence of that sort of movement. The alley was paved in ancient, well work concrete and there were marks and gouges of all sorts on the ground, nothing that had left a pattern that a heavy stone door had been pushed out onto it repeatedly. “No marks down here...” he said quietly, and Slykk bent down to have a look as well. He came to the same conclusion Phaeton had, and then stood up and began to trace the path of the missing grout once again.

“It’s definitely in the shape of an opening, not really tall or wide, but you could climb through it if you had to.” he said in a careful whisper. Phaeton nodded in agreement, then pressed the side of his head to the wall and listened. He had hearing that neared the level of an animal, so he could hear things most men could not. Slykk noticed this and kept silent while his partner listened for signs of something lying behind the wall. Slykk turned to keep an eye on the entrance to the alley, and while Phaeton listened, he saw not a single person out walking around this part of the village. That was fine with him, and he was sure it was fine with Phaeton as well. He traded between looking at Phaeton and at the end of the alley, keeping watch over both while Phaeton listened. After several minutes, Phaeton stood up and stretched out his long legs. They had started to cramp from being crouched for so long. “I can hear talking, low, quiet. Doesn’t sound like a bar, or tavern. We need to see what is in the front part of this building next. I have a feeling the front and back are two different places.” he said quietly as he ran his fingers over the channel again.

“Looking for a button?” Slykk asked.

Phaeton nodded. “Some sort of trigger. If this is a concealed entrance, there has to be a way to open it from the outside as well.” he said, then turned fully to Slykk. “We have to watch it.” he told the other then looked around the alley, and up at the other walls that boxed in the dead end street. Conveniently enough there were no windows facing the alley, and he had a reason that had been done, or arranged on purpose. Clever, clever. “We will have to find another place to watch from, no windows here.” he said in a soft voice, then went silent as he tried to formulate a plan of how to surveil this place without being seen, or noticed.

“Let’s go check the front.” he said finally and started to walk in that direction with Slykk falling into step beside him. When they left the alley, they looked for any movement on the streets, and saw none. All of the good people of this village appeared to be safely tucked in bed for the night. The front of the building revealed to be a small shop that sold old and curious items. There was a dim light on inside, and it was hard to see any details of what the shop held through the dirt and grim on the windows.

Phaeton peered in through the door, then put his hand on the handle and opened it. “Stay out here.” he instructed Slykk, and then went inside of the little shop. Slykk didn’t like always being told to play the watch dog, he felt he was perfectly capable of taking the lead and doing the investigating. One of these days he was going to tell that to Phaeton, and prove it to him as well.  Just, not tonight. He didn’t like the look of that store at all, it looked like nothing but dust and junk.

Phaeton carefully closed the door behind him, and then began to pick his way through the piles of debris, tables of bit and pieces of this and that, and glanced at the odd things hanging on the walls. Junk, it was all junk, rotten, rusted, covered in dust and dirt. It didn’t make any sense.

Not long after he entered the room, a curtain behind the sales counter parted and a man emerged. He was not as tall as Phaeton, and looked a great deal older. He was apparently missing his right eye or it was damaged since he was wearing a black patch over it. He had a turban sort of cloth wrapped around the top of his head, and was dressed in a long black gown of some sort. He nodded at Phaeton, then gave a creepy sort of smile that showed he was missing a few teeth.

Phaeton remained silent, but gave a polite nod in return, and continued to browse the wares spread in a seemingly careless fashion all around the shop. His mind was running full speed, trying to figure out the puzzle he knew was here. Every thing he had learned in life told him there was far more to this shop than met the casual eye. No one would want to come in here, there surely wasn’t anything he could see of any value for either trading, or survival. So why was this shop here?

He looked around the shop, over and over, taking his time to browse. Nothing, nothing of interest anywhere, everything was broken, and useless. It was nagging at him that there had to be something, something was a clue, a way to get into the back, a key.  Then on his third time around a particular table, he spotted something. It was a ancient key, simple in design of a sort he had never seen before. the end of it appeared to be broken off ages ago, so it would never unlock what it was intended to at this point. He picked it up from the table, and lifted it up to examine more closely. Rusted, scratched, broken. He gave a soft chuckle, it was a lot like him. 

Phaeton took the key to the counter, and set it down carefully. “How much?” he asked the man behind the counter, and then reached into a tiny concealed pocket in the waist of his pants and pulled out a single, silver coin which he kept palmed in his hand, hidden from sight for now.

“You pay, what ever it is worth to you.” the man said to Phaeton in a low voice with a strange accent he did not recall hearing before.

Phaeton nodded, and put the silver coin back, then fingered out a smaller coin, this one made of gold. He carefully placed the coin down on the counter, then put the broken key into the hidden pocket. The man behind the counter looked at the gold coin, and then picked it up. He examined it in the weak light in the shop, provided by oil lamps. After a moment, he smiled, and seemed pleased with the quality of the coin, as well as the markings on it. It was not just any gold coin. It was one that had been given to him by Vonn666 many years ago in payment for a job well done, and it carried on one side, the crest of the master assassin. Phaeton watched the man closely, and waited.

“A fair enough exchange,” he said at last, and put the coin into a pocket of his, out of sight, and continued to speak. “Come back tomorrow night, this same time, bring your women, it will be an enjoyable evening. The key will gain you entrance.” he said then bowed politely to Phaeton, and turned to walk away. He disappeared behind the curtain, and left Phaeton standing there alone.

He pondered over what he had been told, and had gotten before he left the shop and rejoined Slykk out on the street.

“What did you find out?” Slykk asked him immediately as Phaeton began to walk quickly, eager to leave the area for now.

“We have a key, and an invitation, for tomorrow. We need to clean up the sluts, as they want them to come along too.” he said, still thinking this over hard in his head.

“What? What do they want with the girls?” he asked, and was clearly not OK with this development in the situation.

“Don’t know, don’t care. We bring them.”

“I’m not giving up my slave!” Slykk protested and gave Phaeton a resolved look of defiance to what was being expected of him.

“Fine, then you and the cum bucket can stay at the shack and I will go. You will be left out of the deal.”

“What?!” he protested and got closer to Phaeton to speak.

“Why do we have to bring them? Why do we have to bring them both. Let’s just bring Lyria, she’s community property anyway...” he started to say, when Phaeton suddenly stopped walking and turned to glare at Slykk.

“You are so wrong on that idea... friend.” he said in a tone that was far from friendly. “You lost her when she was community  property, remember?” he said and reached up to poke the side of Slykk’s head hard with the tip of his index finger. “You lost her, then you lost the money. Remember?” he said, reminding the other of his major screw up from years past.

“Right, but now....”

“Now, she’s mine. Just like you got a gift from Von666, so did I. There is no community property anymore. You can’t handle being responsible for community property, and I wouldn’t want part ownership in anything you’ve been in anyway.” he sneered, and for the moment, Slykk was silenced. “We return tomorrow, we bring them both, and either we both keep them, or both go if needed to get us into this Guild.”

“This is a Guild?” Slykk asked Phaeton, clearly curious about this new prospect of successful dealings.

Phaeton sighed, rolled his eyes, and just kept walking. Some day, some day he would strangle this idiot and be free of the constant stupidity, and ignorance of the other despite years of having the chance to improve.

When they arrived back at the cabin, they checked the security of the outside first, and finding all of their traps and snares undeployed, they deactivated them, rehid them in the upper cabin, then went down in to the lower cabin to eat and check on the slaves. Slykk went down first and swore at what he saw. Phaeton quickly followed him down the ladder and looked around as well.

“Son of a bitch!” Slykk swore as he looked at the damage to the hideout, his bed and belongings specifically. His bed was torn apart, bedding was all over the floor and everything in his duffel bag and Moira’s had been dumped out on the floor it looked like, then scattered all over the place.

“What the fuck happened here?” Phaeton shouted and shot an angry glare at Moira who was standing beside the bed, still chained to it, looking disheveled and defiant. She didn’t say a word, and Slykk strode across the room with rage in his eyes. He grabbed her by the hair and pulled her down from the bed to drop her roughly on to the floor.

Phaeton watched for a moment as the beating began, then turned toward his own bed. The canopy sheet was down, and there was no sign of movement. He pulled aside the curtain angrily, and saw the silhouette of Lyria, apparently asleep, her back to him, under the covers. “WAKE UP YOU!” he shouted and gave her shoulder a terrible shaking. Lyria let out a cry of fear and surprise from the rude awakening and turned over to look into the furious face of Phaeton. “What’s wrong?” she asked fearfully.

Phaeton grabbed her by the arm and dragged her to the edge of the bed, and showed her the mess spread out all over the floor and Slykk’s bed. “What the fuck is all of this about?!” he shouted at her. Lyria looked up at him fearfully after seeing the mess all over the place. 

“I don’t know! I didn’t do it! I didn’t see her do it! I was sleeping!” she said in a rapid stream of words, hoping to appease the rage she could see building in Phaeton’s face. She then looked over to see Slykk savagely beating Moira, and tried to pull back from Phaeton and hide on the far side of the bed. “I didn’t do it!” she shouted at Phaeton, who was still glaring at her. He continued to stare at her for a long moment, then he turned to Slykk. 

“I guess you aren’t planning on taking her out to the party tomorrow.” he said in a taunting voice. A cruel smile crossed his face as he saw Slykk pause, and look up at him, confused. “What?” he asked as he held down the crying and struggling girl on the floor.

Phaeton laughed and began to shrug out of his gear and hung them on the corner of the bed frame of his bed. “Make sure all of that shit is picked up by tomorrow.” he snarled at his partner, then looked over at Lyria, “Get me some food, I’m hungry.” he ordered her. She scrambled from the bed quickly, and went to the cupboard to bring some of the food that Phaeton preferred. By the time she returned to the bed, he was stretched out on it, as calm as she had ever seen. Lyria sat down beside him, and after opening the food and removing it from the packaging, she started to hand it to him.

He didn’t seem interested in eating right away, he was leaning slightly over the side of the bed watching Slykk, and how he was handling the disaster he had come home too. Lyria sat patient, and quiet until Phaeton laid back down, his head propped up on the pile of pillows at the head of their bed. He looked over at Lyria and opened his mouth. At first she wasn’t sure what to do, then slowly moved a morsel of food toward him, and dropped it onto his tongue. Phaeton closed his mouth, chewed and swallowed the food, then opened his mouth again. Lyria nodded and then continued to hand feed him while he laid there reclined, and watching the Slykk and Moira playing out across the room.

When all of the food was gone, he tossed the food containers aside onto the floor near where Slykk would have to be doing clean up, and then pulled down the curtain on his bed and turned to face Lyria. “You were the good girl today.” he said in a soft tone of voice as he stared right into her eyes, “Tomorrow night, we have a meeting to go to, could be a party, could be an ambush. Either way, you are going with me.” he said in an even tone of voice that didn’t need strong inflections to indicate how he expected her to act, or behave.

“Yes Phaeton.” she said quietly, then got back down under the covers beside him, and nuzzled up close to him. Phaeton remained laying on his back, and moved his hands up to under his head and laid there thinking for a long time. It would do no good to try to sleep at that point, Slykk and Moira were still making too much noise in the small quarters. “Take it, and her upstairs!” he finally yelled at this partner. “Clean that shit up later!” he ordered them. Without bothering to argue or complain, Slykk grabbed hold of Moira, still crying and screaming, and dragged her up the stairs to the cabin room above. The trap door slammed down, and finally, it was quiet in the lower cabin.

Phaeton remained laying the way he was, and spent a good time thinking about what was to happen the following night, and just how he was going to handle it. Meanwhile, with the drama over, and apparently she was not in the line of fire for punishment, Lyria went back to sleep.The following night found the trio of them heading into the village for the appointed meeting. Moira had been left behind, suitably tied, chained and gagged for the evening. She was a mess with a tattooing of bruises after Slykk had gotten done with her, so there was no way she was going to be shown off in public for a while. Phaeton and Slykk were dressed in their newest clothing, cleaned up as they had been for the last time they had gone before a guild and Lyria was free of all of her traveling gear, and dressed in a clean simple dress made of layers of thin material with a long cloak over her. Both had been found in the cache of clothing inside of the cabin. She was as nervous as she could be, not knowing why who ever had instructed Phaeton and Slykk to come the following night had told them to bring their slaves along. Her greatest fear was not of being harmed but being donated at the evening’s entertainment for who knew how many men. She kept close to Phaeton as they walked along the forest, then finally came to the village once again. 

As before, it was dark, night time and there were few to no people about on the streets. They made their way to the storefront of the dark and strange shop, and when Phaeton tested the door, he found it locked. He gave a grunt of displeasure and after looking in the windows and not seeing a single light on, he turned to Slykk. “Shop is closed, we try the alley.” he said in a low tone.

“What good is that going to do?” he said as they went to the spot they had found the night before.

“We have a key, and an invitation this time.” Phaeton answered.

“A broken key. A lot of good that is going to do.” he replied in a sulky tone. Phaeton ignored him and when they reached the place where the bricks were missing the grout, he took out the key and then began to run his hands over the brick looking now for a place for a key. Several long minutes passed and Lyria shivered in the quickly chilling air. Phaeton was having no luck in finding the entrance or a key hole and was getting more and more frustrated. Finally, he reached for Lyria and roughly pulled her over, close to him. He showed her the broken key, “Find where this goes or you will experience pain so rare....” he started to stay when she nodded and moved in closer to him, fairly shoving him out of the way so she could look.

Her eyesight was a great deal better than Phaeton’s and she easily found the unevenly shaped channel in the bricks with her fingers and began to trace along the upper edge, about four feet high first. While she looked, Phaeton pressed the side of his head to the building to listen.

“What do you hear?” Slykk asked him after a moment, trying to stay involved in the situation because at the moment he was idle in the efforts. 

“Shh!” Phaeton hissed sharply at him, and he continued to listen. “Many voices. Lots of talking.” he said after a moment then looked over at Lyria. “Find it yet?” he asked in a playful tone, knowing she would already be on edge from the earlier threat.

“No!’ she whispered loudly, and shivering from the cold she started down the side channels of the bricks and then at a brick that was set vertically, near the bottom of the brick was a tiny slot, it had dirt and moss all around it like the surrounding bricks, so a casual glance would not reveal it. “Here! Look!” she called out to Phaeton who had gone to stand beside Slykk while she looked.

Phaeton quickly went to crouch down beside her, and put his fingers where she was pointing. It was incredibly hard for him to see, and once he’d located the tiny hole, he knew it was likely he would never have spotted it. That was something he would never admit to of course. He reached into his belt, into a hidden pocket, and pulled out the rusty key. He handed it to Lyria, and smiled.  “After you.” he grinned and watched as she reluctantly took the key from him and leaned back down to fit the key to the hole.

She pushed the key into the hole, it went about half of the way, and since there was now way to rotate the key, she paused trying to work out how to get it to work, if it even would work, there was no guarantee of that. She pushed against the key, and felt a bit of springy resistance. “Here we go.” she said softly, and shoved the key in as far as it would go. There was an audible click sound, and then something heavy began to move. Stone upon stone began to grind and as they watched, the oddly shaped section of brick began to lift up from the bottom and backwards into the building. As soon as it started to move, yellow warm light spilled out at their feet. Sounds of people talking and laughing could be heard faintly, and finally when the secret door had lifted fully, Phaeton looked over Lyria’s shoulder into the room that lay beyond.

It was a storage room, full of boxes and debris, but beyond that, more, brighter light showed, and it was clear there was a gathering in progress, a party from the sounds of the voices beyond. “Get in!” Phaeton urged Lyria, and gave her a shove forward. He followed her, pausing only to collect the key from the hole in the brick, then Slykk followed third. Once they were inside, Phaeton and Slykk turned back to look for the way to close the door back down. Slykk spotted and wooden lever protruding from the bricks on the left side of the opening, it was in the up position. Without waiting for a cue, he reached up, and pulled it down. Silently the brick door lowered, then softly scraped back into place, sealing off the opening. “Well done.” Phaeton said to Slykk, then with the key stowed back into his waistband, he led the three of them toward the sounds of the party.

The warehouse looking room gave way to another, but it was clearly not used for a warehouse. It had been made over into a sumptuous parlor on a grand scale. The entire floor of the building had been decorated with tapestries, carpet, lounging couches and tables pilled high with food, and drink. Candles and oil lamps suspended from the ceiling provided the light, and at the back of the room was a large fireplace with a roaring fire inside, and an assortment of large pillows and comfortable chairs arranged in front of it for relaxing and talking.

“Wow....” Lyria said, the first to speak. Phaeton stepped up close to her and she could feel him fiddling with the lock on the chain around her waist. Lyria looked down at his hands, making quick work to undo the lock, then recoiled the chain back up, and then wind it around his own waist before fastening the lock to it once again. She looked up at him, a confused look on her face. “What are you doing?” she asked him in a whisper.

“Giving you a chance to behave.” he muttered to her, and once the chain was put away he gave her an appraising look. She didn’t quite know what to do next, so she slid her arm around his left bicep, and clung close to him. Phaeton gave her a half smile, then slowly entered the room. It was clear it was a party of some sorts, and the more he gazed at the directions, it seemed to be a Winter Fest celebration. He could could on two fingers the number of times he had been to such parties, and knew he would be far out of his element here. Phaeton was the anti-socialite, and shunned these sort of gatherings like they were the plague.

Slykk leaned over to whisper in Phaeton’s ear, “It’s a party?” Phaeton nodded in reply, “Apparently so. So fucking behave.” he whispered back, and then after taking a deep breath, he leaned down to whisper in Lyria’s ear. “Go where you want, I’ll follow, for now.” he said, knowing he would be so out of place and awkward here, he would follow her around for now. Lyria nodded and after looking around the room, found all of it so inviting, especially the area near the fire. She opted for going towards the tables of food first and led Phaeton in that direction. Slykk followed reluctantly, and his mood only brightened when he spotted the assortment of corked bottles on the buffet table near the plates of food. As he reached for one, he received a glare from Phaeton. “Don’t. We need to be on our game, I don’t need you sloppy fucking drunk and making trouble.” he said in a warning tone.

Slykk frowned at Phaeton. “It’s a party, it’s a holiday. Just a bit. I won’t overdo it.” he said with a wide smile. “I can keep it under control.” he assured the other. “I promise.” he said and drew an X across his chest over where his heart was.

“You’d better, or I will gut you myself as entertainment.” Phaeton replied, then looked back to Lyria to see what she was doing. She had taken a plate and was filling it with food. When she saw Phaeton looking at her, she lifted up a small piece of roasted meat and moved it toward his mouth. Phaeton stared at her for a moment before he opened his mouth and ate it. He smiled as he chewed it. It was marvelous. It was real food, not processed, canned, or packaged sustenance, real beef, or a meat of some sort. “It’s good.” he muttered to her and gave her a smile.

Lyria then took turns between feeding herself, and then Phaeton while he continued to keep an eye out for whomever was in charge. He knew he had to be here somewhere, who ever he was. Slykk took a glass and filled it halfway full with one of the liquids from the bottles and gave a sip.

“Mmmmm Honey wine.... God, I haven’t had this in so long...” he said with a contented grin on his face, and after taking another sip, he offered the glass to Phaeton. Phaeton made a snorting sound and turned away from it. 

“You know I don’t drink....” he growled, and then accepted some other bit of food from Lyria.

“Good, more for me.” Slykk smirked and resumed sipping on the sweet but potent beverage. Phaeton gave him another warning glare, then once again scanned the room for the host of the event. He say a fair mixture of male and female guests, none of which he recognized, and that could be a good thing. After he had let Lyria have her fill of the food and sweets, he gave her a small nudge to move on and venture farther into the party. Lyria seemed at ease moving in and around the guests, so Phaeton followed her trying to appear as relaxed as he was able. Lyria looked at the tables of food, then went to a wall to admire the tapestries hanging there, and the sconces holding candles that dripped wax into pools on trays beneath them.  Phaeton followed her around, and while she looked at the bright and shiny, he was watching faces, and movements of others. Then, he had to keep an eye on Slykk as well. Without a slave to keep his hands busy, there was no telling what sort of trouble he would get them into. At first, Phaeton tensed when he realized Slykk was no longer walking beside him. “Where’s Slykk?” he asked her in an urgent whisper. Lyria looked around, and it didn’t take long to spot Slykk.

“He’s over by the fire, talking to someone. Male, dressed really, really nice.” she whispered back to him.

“Watch them.” he instructed her, then reached for a cup, and filled it with something that didn’t contain alcohol to sip on. Lyria watched the two men talk, then tensed slightly when Slykk turned around, looking for something, or someone, then pointed across the room to Phaeton.

“He just made us to who ever he’s talking to.” she whispered to Phaeton as she casually turned toward him to speak. Phaeton gave a low growl, and looked over her shoulder in Slykk’s direction. Sure enough, Slykk was pointing, the other man was looking, looking interested, then Slykk and the other smiled, and the blonde waved for Phaeton to come over and join them.

“Oh fantastic.” he muttered to Lyria. “Come on, we are being summoned.” he said sourly, and with Lyria once again holding on to his arm, he strode casually across the room to where Slykk was standing. “Good evening.” he said softly to the man standing beside Slykk.

“Good evening!” he man said, clearly in a good mood. “I am so glad you and your partner came to the party. My name is Lendon Squires, I am the Master of this Guild.” he said as he reached his hand out to Phaeton. Phaeton nodded, and extended his to the other as well, where they clasped lower arms, and not hands in the traditional way of their trade. “Phaeton Slay.” he said quietly.

“I know who you are, I am honored to have you hear in my conclave. Even this far North we have heard of you, and your skills. The coin you bought the key with was only the second I have ever seen in my career. They are not easily won.” he said, then reached into his vest’s watch pocket, pulled out the coin, and handed it back to Phaeton. “We had no knowledge you were coming this way, or we would have sent out a welcoming party.”

“Thank you.” Phaeton said smoothly when he was given the coin back, it had apparently been the golden ticket to gain entrance here. “I don’t announce my travel plans in advance, it works out safer for all concerned.” he replied to Lendon.

“Ah, a good tactic surely, and who is this delightful companion you have here?” he asked now looking at Lyria with interest.

Lyria blushed and turned her face to press against Phaeton’s arm. The tall man with the dark complexion, and elegant clothes made her nervous now that he had noticed her. She had hoped to avoid any such attention that night. Phaeton gave a smile, and reached a hand around to delicately turn her face back forward for inspection. “This is Lyria, my companion as you have guessed. I’ve been with her for quite a while now.” he said as casually as you might breathe. Lyria’s eyebrows went up slightly hearing that kind assessment of her status with him, and of course wouldn’t say a word to conflict his version of things.

“Well, she is a prize, a delight to look at, and helpful to you too I am sure.” he said as he turned his attention back to Phaeton.

Phaeton simply nodded, then steered the conversation away from Lyria and back to business. He was never one for idle, social chat. “I’m honored you have heard of me, and my skills. If that is the case, then you must know why we are in your village.”

Lendon nodded, “You seek work, and work you shall have. Come sit with me in the parlor, and we can discuss business briefly. Tonight is a festival celebration for all of my associates and their guests.” he said with a grand sweep of his arms indicating the large party in progress. “I will arrange for more in depth talks later.” he continued, then started to walk towards to far end of the hall where there was an area roped off with velvet strands of material. There was a circle of large ornate pillows, very eastern looking in style, hanging sconces that smoked with incense, or flames for lighting. In the center of the circle was an ornate glass object with several material coated hoses ending in brass nozzles.

That caught Phaeton’s attention almost immediately, and he gave a sly glance toward Slykk as the guard watching over the lounge lifted the rope out of the way to allow Lendon to pass through.

“What is that thing?” he whispered to Slykk. He didn’t have much faith that Slykk would know, it looked to be some sort of the toy only the wealthy owed, and he’d never seen anything like it. However, Slykk was well versed in ways of getting loaded and high unlike most people alive in that day.

“It’s a hooka.” he whispered back. “You smoke it.” he said giving the shortest explanation in the time they had before they were being called to join Lendon in the lounge. They waited for Lendon to sit first, then once he was seated and reclining comfortably, Phaeton sat down in a large pillow, arranging himself so he was still sitting upright mostly, and Lyria settled in a pillow right next to him, curled up comfortably in it much like a cat preparing for a nap.

Slykk dropped into a pillow, and immediately pointed to the hooka. “I haven’t seen one of those in years! A long time.” he said with a wide smile. Lendon smiled back.

“Ah, so you know what it is for then? Excellent. I found this one several years back as part of a shipment of goods from the far east. Once I saw it, I knew I had to have it.” he said proudly, then leaned forward, and pulled a smoldering stick of wood from a censer nearby and lit the dried material in the main bowl. Slykk, Phaeton and Lyria watched as he took one of the hoses and drew on the end of it, to get the device working.

It took a few tries, but soon he had the smoke moving delicately up the center of the hooka, and was taking in long drags of the smoke, holding it in for a moment, then blowing it out up towards the ceiling. “Please, indulge yourselves.” he smiled and made a gracious motion with his free hand.

Phaeton flickered a glance over toward Slykk and saw he was already reaching for one of the hoses and leaning forward with an eager expression on his face. This was not his game by a long shot, and he never partook of such mind altering substances. He smiled and looked over at Lyria next. “Ladies first...” he said as he reached for one of the hoses, and handed it over to Lyria. Lyria looked at him wide eyed, not believing what she was seeing happen. She wasn’t about to argue, or refuse him in the presence of someone who obviously held all of their near futures in his control. 

“If you’ve never done it before, start with short inhales of the smoke, hold it in, then blow it out.” Lendon instructed her. Lyria nodded, and put the nozzle to her lips and sucked gently. She inhaled a half lungful of the smoke, and held it in until it made her cough.  “That’s right, it takes some getting used so at first.” Lendon said in a reassuring tone of voice. Lyria nodded, and then took another hit, then another. She got better at holding in the smoke with each try, and after four, she smiled and passed the nozzle over to Phaeton. 

Phaeton glanced around the small circle. Lendon, and Slykk were inhaling like old pros at this, and watching and waiting for him to partake as well. He hated the pressure of such political, and social situations, and even more so he hated being out of his mind on some substance. He had no choice here since he was courting favor from the Guild Master, so he inhaled long and slow. The smoke burned his throat, and lungs, and he coughed out the first hit he took. He was determined to not let Slykk outdo him on this or anything, so he hit it again. This time he was better at holding it in, and once he’d found how much he could take in without over exerting his lungs, he took four more hits from the hooka, then handed the hose back to Lyria.

“Did you like it?” Lendon asked him, and before answering, Phaeton gracefully blew the smoke upward before answering. 

“It’s something different to me, surely.” he said and leaned back into the pillow he was seated on. He watched as Lyria took two more long, eager hits from the hooka, then handed the hose back to Phaeton before snuggling up closer to him, hugging his arm to her. He raised his eyebrows in surprise at both her show of affection, and how much she seemed to be enjoying this intoxicating toy. He gave a short amused laugh at her, then hit the hooka twice more before setting the hose aside, and leaning back more. 

“Good, good. I want everyone to feel good.” Lendon said, and then he looked at Slykk in particular for a moment, then looked to his nearest attendant and waved him over. “Find a suitable companion for our guest Slykk please, and send Wistia over to me.” he instructed. Having heard this piqued Slykk’s attention, and he smiled, clearly now stoned at Lendon.

“More party favors?” he asked with a hopeful grin.

“Oh, indeed. We can’t have you be the odd man out.” he explained, and in a few moment’s time, a  pair of very attractive women approached the lounge area, and entered gracefully. They were dressed in layers of silk veils, and decorated at their wrists, ankles and neck with glimmering golden jewelry. One was Asian in appearance, the other had dark brown skin, large brown eyes and shimmering black hair that fell in ringlets down to her waist. “Have your pick,” he said to Slykk, and waited to see which he would select. Phaeton shifted his position on the pillow as he began to feel the effects of the herbs in the hooka running in his blood and his mind. Relaxation was washing over him, and he tried to fight it. It was not something he wanted, to relax, to be off guard and wiped out like Slykk was so fond of being. The more he tried to fight the calming, and tingling feelings, the stronger they seemed to become. He looked over at Lyria, and she was watching him with a contented smile, she was clearly enjoying this very much.

He looked over when Slykk selected the darker skinned beauty, a great change from his usual preferences, and as Phaeton watched, and read the body language between Lendon and the Asian beauty told him she was his favorite as he welcomed her to sit in his lap with a long tender kiss. As he did that, Phaeton noticed the attendant at the lounge was drawing a curtain around them, dark blue in color with elaborate silver thread embroidery in patterns of stars and waves. It was now a very intimate gathering of six, and he felt in his gut, it was going to get a lot more intimate before negotiations resumed. Was this a test? A trap? Neither? he wondered inside of his confused state of mind, and watched as Lendon took the lead and began slowly peeling off the layers of his consort’s costume as he rolled with her onto the pile of pillows to lay side by side.

Phaeton looked over to Slykk, and having seen what was on the menu now, he was delicately taking the face of his companion in his hands and kissed her in a deep and seductive way he had never seen him do before with a woman. Was it the power or illusion of the drug, or was Slykk really that smooth when he wanted to be? His hands moved carefully over the body of the woman and it was her that seemed, quite willingly to pull him down into the pillows to lie with her. It apparently was quickly turning into an orgy, and he couldn’t think of a place he would want to be involved in less. This was so out of his experience range, it was mind boggling to him. What could he do? What should he do? He turned to look over at Lyria for her reaction to all of this.

Lyria smiled at him, again with the blissful expression of someone stoned out of their mind. He watched as she slowly lifted her hand up to slide along the side of his face, then leaned up to kiss him tenderly on the mouth. The touch of her mouth on his sent a shock through him he’d never felt before. He couldn’t ever remember actually kissing her before, it was not needed to accomplish what he used her for. It only seemed natural to do what he did next and reciprocated the soft touch of his hand on the side of her face to return the kiss, deeper than before. Lyria closed her eyes, and moved to lie on top of Phaeton, her body pressed against his chest to thighs. His hands came up to grip her waist, and the kiss continued on and on.

Slykk glanced over at his partner moments later, and even in his stoned state of arousal, was shocked to see the tenderness and erotic interaction between Phaeton and Lyria, it was something he had never seen in all of the years he had known the other. He grinned, then turned his attention back to his own willing partner, and undoing the delicate fabric wrappings that were between him and her.

Phaeton lost himself in a kiss that was easily the first time he’d been touched like that. Her mouth was amazing to him. Her tongue and lips caressed and pulled at his, seeming to draw him into, and closer and closer to her. He lifted his head up briefly to look around the area. The six of them were still enveloped in a light haze of smoke from the hooka, and surrounded by the curtain that kept all activities in there hidden from observation. Lendon had laid his consort on the pillows bare as the day she was born, and he was just finishing undoing the clasps on his pants and pulling them down to his thighs in preparation to mount her. Phaeton watched, transfixed while Lyria peppered his throat with kisses, and began to unlace the ties on his shirt to expose his chest to her seeking mouth.

With his breeches down, Lendon pulled forth his cock and after placing the girls legs up on his shoulders, he gripped  hold of her hips and pulled her tight against his groin, sinking himself deep inside of her with a series of powerful forward thrusts. She moaned underneath him, her hands clutching the pillows in her fists, and she lifted her hips to meet his thrusts, eagerly, and  hungrily.

Phaeton licked his lips as he watched. They moved in synchronicity, his thrusts in and out, her hips rolling, grinding her sex against him, panting with pleasure and desire. He could feel himself getting achingly hard watching the couple grind against each other in a dual taking of pleasure he had never seen the likes of. Finally, he was able to avert his eyes from the scene as she panted, moaned, and clawed up at Lendon, begging for more, and deeper from him. He saw Slykk near to him, fully stripped down, and in the process of burying his face between the spread thighs of the dark skinned woman. She was on her back, her hands tangled in his hair as he buried his nose and tongue into her wet slit, lapping at it, and rubbing a finger at the top of the opening, causing her to squirm and moan aloud with glee. He didn’t realize how long he had stared at Slykk and the woman until Lyria put her hand on his cheek and turned his gaze back to her.

“Have at me. I want you too.” she smiled, and ran her hand along side his cheek again, then gave a playful tug on his hair. Phaeton gave a soft growl as response and slid off of the pillows to stand up and unlace the front of the leather pants he was wearing. Lyria remained laying on her back on the pillows, and was ridding herself of her leggings, and then the dress she had been wearing. Phaeton removed his shirt, and tossed it to fall with her clothing on the pillows nearby. He shimmied his pants down to his ankles, then lowered himself down between her parted thighs. He gazed down at her, reading her expression, her body as she slid her hands up and over his shoulders, then down his sides in a gentle demonstration of affection.

He stared into her eyes for a long time, then gave a quick glance to Lendon, then Slykk and the two women who were writhing about, and clutching to them as they were pleasured as well as the men were. He turned back to look down at Lyria, then leaned down to kiss her again. When he pulled back from the kiss, his eyes met with hers, “Have you ever enjoyed me?” he asked her in a whisper to low for anyone else to hear over the moans, and sighs of pleasure surrounding them.

Lyria blinked at him, the question being the last thing she had ever expected to be asked by him. “Phaeton...” she started to say carefully, “I enjoy it when you enjoy it.” she said with a shy smile, and even stoned, he saw through the obvious evasion in her answer. There was no way she took any pleasure from him when he raped her, and brutalized her. She endured it, survived it.

He felt a challenge rising in his brain, and he lowered his face to kiss her deep, tender, and hungrily once again. His hands slid down to lift her thighs up to cradle along side his ribs, then pushed her down deeper into the pillows so her hips were higher than her head. He reached a hand down next to gently stroke, and swirl a finger inside of her, then gripped himself, then milked some of his seeping fluid out to lubricate his shaft, pushed into her slowly. He watched her close her eyes and sigh with the long, slow entrance. He felt himself stopped short of fully being sheathed inside of her, he had discovered long ago she was smaller in size that most females, making her delightfully tight. Lyria gave a gasp when she felt him sheathed inside of her and her hands reached up to grip at his biceps.

“Fuck me Phaeton....” she breathed, and feeling his own desire surging in his blood, he began a rolling motion with his hips, pushing in and sliding out of her over and over again. Once a rhythm had been established that caused her to moan soflty with each thrust into her, he shifted the angle of his hips so that his groin rocked against her mound. “Oh.... God....” she whispered at the sensation, and she clasped her feet together behind his back, holding him all the tighter against her, keeping him deep inside as he rocked in and out of her. 

He lifted his head up to watch her face as he continued the motions in and out, in and down, in and out. Her eyes were clenched tightly shut, her mouth open and gasping for air he could feel her body tensing and releasing beneath him in time with his. He leaned down to kiss that open, gasping mouth, and stole the breath from her until she broke the kiss and turned her head to the side, gasping for air, and moaning his name as she dig her nails deep into his waist where she was now holding on to him. “I’m there.... I’m there... there...” she whimpered and then her whole body went rigid and stopped moving as she felt the electric charge of the orgasm wash over her. Phaeton felt the tightening of her body around him, heard her moans, of pleasure, not fear and pain, and that drove him over the edge. He crushed his mouth to hers, silencing her moans as he grunted with each thrust, feeling his body tingle from head to toe, and then shudder as he came with a roar of satisfaction into her mouth.

Slykk, was finishing up with his own pleasure, the girl riding atop of him while he laid on his back, and looked over at the final sound Phaeton made before collapsing in a spent, and sweaty heap onto Lyria. “Oh, wow...” he said when he saw her wrap her arms around his back and hold him close as he recovered. She kissed the side of his face, then hugged him tightly once more. That was something he never expected to see in his lifetime.

Later, after they had all recovered, and were now laying about on the pillows draped in fur robes, Lendon smiled warmly at his guests. “I am pleased, that all of you are pleased. I had never heard of the great Phaeton Slay taking such pleasure among others before, so I am honored to see that you were comfortable enough in my home to allow yourself that, freedom. Phaeton was leaning back on a pile of the pillows, Lyria’s head in his lap dozing softly. He gave a short, amused laugh, then reached to take another draw on the hooka. “Thank you for the opportunity, and the security to do so.” he replied, then inhaled deep before passing the nozzle to Slykk.

Slykk grinned, and took the hose for another hit. This was fabulous. This was the best night he could ever remember having. Even Phaeton had apparently enjoyed himself and Lyria as well. It was mind blowing to the blonde to put it mildly.

“Let us redress, there is a washroom behind the curtain, behind this lounge, and shall we meet for dinner, and more discussions of arrangements to suit us all quite well?” he asked with a pleasant wide smile.

Phaeton nodded, “That would be excellent.” he grinned at the suggestion. He looked over at Slykk who also shook his head in agreement as he stood up to gather his clothing. After taking turns washing up, and redressing, they followed Lendon to a side room where a large, long table had been set up for a grand feast. Lyria had never seen so much food, in her life, and the decorations on the table were exquisite from the real china plates to the glittering gold candelabras and utensils. They were shown to their seats, two on each side of the table right next to Lendon who sat at the head. When everyone had been given a goblet of drink, weather wine or water, he stood to propose a toast, to all in attendance, and to wish them all a happy, healthy and prosperous life. All replied in kind and then drank from their cups while the food was then passed around. 

Both Lyria and Phaeton had chosen water to drink, while Slykk had chosen wine for himself and his companion for the evening. While they ate, Phaeton and Lendon spoke of a partnership, and what each could offer the other in exchange for a contract between them. Lendon was eager to have him and Slykk join the ranks of the Guild as soon as possible. He offered them lodging in town, but graciously understood when they wanted to remain where they were for the time being. The cabin still had plenty of supplies, and they were close enough to the village should they need to venture out for supplies.

After the huge meal was over, Lyria was spent, and finding it hard to remain awake. She leaned on Phaeton’s shoulder while they continued to negotiate with Lendon. By the end of the evening, all was in order, and by the following week, they would be working for him, and their futures secure and set for the foreseeable future. As they prepared to depart, an attendant of Lendon’s approached them with three small packages wrapped in foiled paper. “A small token of appreciation from your host.” he explained, and then departed. Lyria looked at her box, it was square, and rather heavy, then she looked up at Phaeton for a cue. “Go ahead, open it.” he said to her while he watched. Quickly she tore off the paper, and opened the box to reveal an orb inside made of a pale green stone. She set the wrapping and packaging down on at table nearby, and turned the stone over an over in her hands. “What is it?” she asked Phaeton quietly.

Phaeton shrugged, “Dunno, but you can keep it.” he said then turned his attention to  his own small package and opened it. The wrapping revealed a small black box, and that opened to reveal a steel, finely polished version of the Guild Key. He smiled and showed it to Slykk. Slykk quickly opened his box and found he had received the same sort of key. He gave Phaeton a smile and a high five hand slap, then exited the building and started on the journey home. The night was starting to give way to day as they walked along. All three were so tired, and giddy from the events of the evening, no one spoke the entire way.

Once they reached the safety of the cabin, they relocked the upper cabin securely, then because he was in a good mood, Phaeton agreed to let Slykk and Moira remain downstairs to sleep. They found her as they had left her, tied down in the bed, she was sleeping when they came in. Her attitude had been adjusted appropriately, and was more than grateful to be untied and allowed to eat and use the facilities. Phaeton placed his key on a chain, then hung it around his neck before he stripped down to just shorts to sleep. He fell into the bed beside Lyria, who was holding up her green ball, as she lay on her back. “It’s glowing.” she said and showed it to Phaeton.

“Interesting.” he said then pulled her close into their sleeping spoon positions, and gave a massive yawn before settling down to sleep. Lyria set the ball down next to her on the bed, and watched it glow softly until she fell asleep as well. It had been quite the evening indeed.

All of the activity of the evening at the party, the food, the drugs and the sex had worn Phaeton out so much that he had fallen right to sleep after coming home and stripping down. He had fallen into a strange sleep, the dreams not like his usual nightmares but of traveling, walking, and walking, on and on, alone. He rolled over in his sleep, and as he did so, something woke him up, the call of nature. He opened his eyes, and was now laying on his back reorienting himself to the here and now. He laid there a moment longer before he had to get up and use the toilet. Phaeton tossed the covers off of himself, and shuffled across the floor and into the tiny bathroom behind the curtained doorway. He stood there drowsily with one hand on himself, the other leaned on the wall as he yawned, and waited for gravity to take over. Once he was done, he shook himself, then turned to head back to bed. It was cold walking around in just shorts, and he didn’t want to be out there any longer than he had to.

Phaeton stepped out of the bathroom and had taken about two paces toward his bed when he was intercepted by someone. He sensed the other’s presence at the same time he made himself known. Phaeton startled, blinked and looked  into the eyes of his partner Slykk. “What the fuck are you doing Slykk?” he muttered in the dark. “Get out of my way.” he said and tried to side step around the blonde and whatever drama or bullshit he was about to bring to life. 

“I have to tell you something first.” Slykk whispered. “It’s important.”

Phaeton sighed, and rolled his eyes as he folded his arms across his bare chest, mostly to combat the chill in the air. “What? Make it fast.”

“I should have told you this before, a long time ago. Tonight, I saw something I had never seen before, in you. You confirmed something I’ve suspected all along, and now, I can’t keep it from you any more.” Phaeton frowned and had no idea what the Hell the blonde was talking about, or where he was going with this. Frankly, he didn’t care.

“What? Keep what from me?” Phaeton asked in an annoyed sort of tone.

“The truth, that you and I belong together. I realized it tonight. You don’t need Lyria, you need me. She doesn’t love you unless she’s stoned. I’ve loved you... forever..” he said, and at that moment, Phaeton’s brain locked up. His gut tensed and he couldn’t believe what he was hearing, was he dreaming? It had to be a dream, a nightmare. Suddenly however, it became very real.

Slykk’s hands were on him, one hand reached around to grasp him by his long ponytail of hair, and the other went down low and cupped his crotch in his palm, then squeezed. Before Phaeton had a chance to scream or react, Slykk continued the attack and planted his mouth over Phaeton’s and did a sweep kick to the back of Phaeton’s knees, knocking him down to the floor onto his back, hard.

The impact stole his breath from him, and hitting his head on the floor stunned him for a moment. It was enough time to allow Slykk to press him down to the floor kissing and molesting him as savagely as he had ever seen him go down on a girl. Phaeton turned his head from side to side furiously trying to dislodge Slykk’s mouth from his, he felt the hand on his dick, squeezing and pawing at him, sliding into the opening flap of the shorts now, Slykk’s fist wrapping around him. Finally, he snapped. He broke the seal of Slykk’s mouth on his with a savage twist of his head to the side and back again, then brought his head up in a brutal head butt.

Stunned slightly now, Slykk paused in his attack, and gave Phaeton just enough time to get his arm situated and brought up a fist to connect powerfully with the blonde’s jaw. Slykk surprisingly held on to Phaeton with his hand on his hair and inside his pants. Phaeton hit him again, and again in the face and jaw until he finally let go of his hair and brought up his hand to try to deflect Phaeton’s punches now. Once he had momentum, Phaeton used his legs to roll himself over, taking Slykk with him. “Lyria! Blade!” he called out in the darkness, and continued the fist fight until he could put hands on something more lethal.

Lyria had been awoken by the struggle a moment before and finding Phaeton gone from the bed, had remained hidden and silent under the covers. When she heard him call out, she immediately moved into action, and crawled across the bed and felt around in the dark for his belt. One she had located it, she pulled out one of the knives and slipped out of the bed.  Lyria immediately came upon the brawl happening on the floor. She thought she could see blonde hair and black rolling around and was confused. “Gimme the blade!” Phaeton shouted and she was broken out of her fugue of confusion and she dropped down to the floor and moved towards where the fight was taking place.

Suddenly out of the dark, and hand reached toward her, and she recognized the bracelets and fingers, even in the dark. Quickly she slapped the handle of the blade into the open palm, then scooted back out of the line of fire. There was an awful, horrible scream that rang out through the room. Moira woke up and began to scream when she found Slykk missing from their bed. She jumped out of the bed and ran into the middle of the room. Another scream rang out in the dark, hers. Lyria didn’t realize she was screaming as well until Phaeton appeared at her side,  one hand clamped over her mouth, the other wrapped around her, holding her close. She was panicked, terrified, afraid she was going to be next, but it didn’t happen.

Phaeton was holding her tight, and trying to soothe her. He held her close to him, and leaned his head on hers, and slowly  he moved his hand away from her mouth as he whispered in her ear. “It’s OK, it’s over, it’s all over. He won’t hurt you now. He’s gone.” he said in a soothing tone to her over and over. The question was, who was he trying to comfort, her, or himself? Neither of them would be able to fall back to sleep for the rest of the day, so when that was realized, they got dressed, and silently went about the business of disposing of the bodies, and cleaning up the mess in the cabin.

Later, they sat across from each other in silence, neither eating the food Lyria had put down before them. She wasn’t looking over at Phaeton, she was fidgeting with the glowing ball in her palm, and Phaeton was starting out into space, his chin resting on his fist.

Suddenly, Lyria began to cry, she hung her head down, and covered her face with her hands. Phaeton looked over at her, and watched. He couldn’t cry, he wouldn’t. Slykk had betrayed him in a way that would die with him, and remain a secret for all time. He knew he would miss him over time, but he always knew he would walk alone in this unforgiving world, it was just a matter of time, and circumstances that slowly had diminished his gang of four, down to one. “Go to bed.” he said quietly to Lyria, and sniffling, and shaking, she swept up from the table, taking her ball with her, and retired to under the covers. She continued to cry softly for a long time before she fell asleep. Phaeton remained at the table staring  out at the silent room, lost in thought, and now haunted by even more ghosts of those he had slain.

The following night, when Lyria awoke, she reached across the bed, and found the other side cold and empty. Quickly she sat up, and looked out into the main room of the cabin. Phaeton was there, putting on the last of his working gear. He looked over when he sensed movement from her. “I’m going to the Guild. Stay here.” he said, and the last part was unnecessary as she undoubtedly would be chained to something before he left.

“I’ll finish cleaning up around here.” she said quietly, and watched him finish prepare to go, then without saying anything else to her, he went up the ladder, then out of the trap door and was gone. Lyria sat there for a long moment, still lost in morbid thoughts, and confusing feelings of loss, and mourning. She had never liked Slykk. He was slime. He was just as abusive as Phaeton was, but some how he seemed to be emulating what he saw, unable to come up with his own style or tactics. She shook her head, and tried to put it out of her head. 

Fortunately, the fight had taken place in the dark, so she hadn’t seen the fatal strikes and slashes Phaeton had made on the pair, but she had seen, and  had to help mop up the aftermath. She started to feel sick thinking about it again, and forced the event from her mind like a thousand other ones that had passed before her eyes since falling into Phaeton’s hands those long years ago. Several moments passed, and finally she moved from the bed to start putting away things, and consolidating the remaining food into the same cupboard. By her estimations, they had about two weeks worth of food left, so it was a good thing Phaeton was seeking work.

Lyria spent several hours giving the cabin a complete cleaning, and scrub down. When she realized she was trying to wash away memories more than dirt, blood spatter and garbage, she gave up and went back to bed. Laying there she noticed how she had put on some weight, and now no longer looked like a starved waif, she had shape to her hips and chest now. She couldn’t remember being this well fed, rested and healthy since she had been with Dart all those years ago. As she remembered him, she began to cry. He had gotten off easy. He’d been killed by Slykk quick and dirty, and his suffering had ended even before hers had began. It gave her comfort to know he was at peace with their ancestors, and hopefully, someday, she would see him again in the after life.

Up in the forest, Phaeton stood along in the dark. His breath made fog in the cold air. He stood there silent, and still, staring up at the sky. He was angry. He was hurt. He was alone. He knew all along something would happen that would leave him alone, but he could never have seen the events coming that had. Tears ran down his cheeks, staining the skin, but he would not cry. He had never cried for anyone else, and he wouldn’t cry now. He would push it down, bury it, turn it to anger and hate. He would blame Slykk for what he had driven him to do. If he hadn’t crossed that line, he would still be around, things would be fine, and they would be going on as they had for so many years. Now, it was ruined in a moment of madness and slaughter. Two minutes, that how long he estimated the entire fight and murders had taken. It was so easy to take a life, it took no time at all.

Now all he has was more regret to add to his life.  Slykk’s ghost and memory would follow him around like the hundred or so others that haunted his dreams, and stained his soul. Finally, after hours of standing there, mourning in his own way, he continued on his journey to the village, and started to formulate the story he would tell that would explain the premature demise of Slykk.It was a two months since Slykk had gone, and the food had run out at the cabin. He had taken jobs through the Guild, successful ones, so he had been able to purchase supplies for them. The winter was coming on strong. Wind storms, and terrible rain that drenched the area for hours or days at a time were getting worse, and would soon lead to snow and ice. Finally, when Phaeton returned back to the cabin one night, he announced they were going to leave it, and move into a room at the village that the Guild would provide for them.

“Will we come back in the spring?” Lyria asked him as they packed up all of the personal supplies they would be able to carry with them.

Phaeton shrugged and kept packing. She looked at him for a moment longer, waiting for more of an answer. When one wasn’t forthcoming, she let the subject drop, and continued packing. When they were both loaded down with two large duffel bags of goods, they secured the lower cabin, then exited to the upper cabin, and Phaeton waited while Lyria

pulled down the bed trap door, and slid the boards back into place in the sequence that would lock the upper cabin off from the lower. Once that was done, they left the cabin. Lyria talked him out of setting the snares and booby traps just in case more of her people followed the path indicated by the rocks to the cabin. She also convinced him to make a side trip to the rocks so she could rearrange them indicating there was no food or supplies at the cabin, only shelter. That message was the only reason he had agreed to it with the hopes it would keep anyone from occupying the cabins, so that they would have a back up residence if needed. After the rocks had been reset, they began their hike toward the village, several miles away. The wind was blowing, and it seemed to be picking up in speed, and changing direction more and more the longer they walked along. Lyria looked up over head at the tree branched blowing about and creaking against each other. Debris from needles to full branches were falling down all around and onto them. She shivered from the iciness of the wind and the unnerving feeling that the forest seemed to be throwing things at them, meaning to inflict harm. She didn’t dare voice her fears to Phaeton, he was hunched over carrying the two larger of the duffel bags, leaned into the wind moving forward. She could feel herself tiring faster due to the heavy load she was carrying, and fighting the blustery wind that seemed to always be changing direction, so it was nearly impossible to continue to lean into it in the right direction. When a large branch came down in front of her, as thick as her leg, she stopped and screamed from fright. Another fell not far behind her. “We have to stop! We have to hide!” she shouted up to Phaeton who hadn’t noticed she had stopped until she had shouted at him. 

Phaeton turned around to glare at her. “We have no place to stay! You want to get crushed out here?! We keep moving!” he shouted over the roar of the wind, and pulled on her chain which was extended to it’s full length of about a dozen feet, and dragged her back up closer to him, making her scramble to get over the fallen branches. She managed to keep her balance, and then resumed walking, but closer to him this time.

An hour passed and with battling the wind, and now having to detour around fallen trees and debris that took them off of their desired path, they were still far from their destination. Lyria was wearing out, but knew better than to complain. She continued to plod along beside Phaeton, grateful for the moments when he provided a wind break for her when the wind came from that direction.

She looked up once again when there came a loud, horrible cracking from the trees overhead, and then before she had a chance to scream, the upper part of a tree had broken off of and came crashing down. It took out half of a tree next to it on the way, and with a terrible crashing sound, the tree fell down around and on them. Lyria screamed, covered in branches and pine needles on all sides. She hurt but found she was trapped by the duffel bags caught in the branches of the fallen tree. Just as she started to try and escape the pile of branches, she heard a terrible scream.  “Phaeton?!” she screamed but it was carried away on the wind. She swore and wrestled with the duffel bags, finally shedding them, then found the chain that was perpetually around her waist. She pulled on it, pulling it toward her hand over hand in the hopes she could follow it to Phaeton.

She heard him scream again, it was a horrible, terrible scream that made her blood run cold, and for a second froze her in place. She snapped out of it, and pulled on the chain again, only to have it suddenly pull loose and the end came flying toward her, and struck her in the chest. “Fuck!” she swore, then realized, it had been broken, snapped by something. “Oh God!” she screamed and began to fight her way through the branches and and thick foliage until she caught a glimpse of Phaeton buried under branches and leaves.

“Phaeton!” she screamed and furiously dug down to him, pulled what branches away she could until she found him. He was laying on his back, his face twisted with agony. Quickly she crawled her way over to him, and pulled away more branches until she uncovered more of him, and then saw the problem. One of his legs, his right was trapped under a huge branch that had snapped off one of the trees. His leg was pinned between the branch and the ground, and it was bleeding badly. “Oh God! Oh God!” she cried and looked around. There was no one else around of course, and she had no idea of what to do to help him. She tried pushing the log off of him, with no luck. “Phaeton!” she screamed at him, but he didn’t appear to hear. He was clawing toward his trapped leg with his hands, but there was no way he could reach it. Lyria let out another scream, and this time Phaeton looked over at her. 

He was frighteningly pale looking to her, and he had the look of a rabid, trapped animal in his eyes. She was afraid to get closer to him, but she would have to do something or he would die there. “Help me!!” she shouted at her, and she flinched at the savageness in his voice. She looked around, then began to scramble out of the grasps of the tree branches. “I’ll get help! I’ll go.. I’ll get something!” she shouted at him, then continued to fight her way out of the sea of fallen branches until she found a clear spot to stand. She stood there, trying to get her bearings, to figure out where they were so she would be able to find him once again. Finally, she looked up, and since the night was clear, but windy, she memorized the position of the stars, then found the outline of a mountain range in the distance to triangulate the position from. Finally satisfied with the landmarks memorized, she took of as fast as she could manage against the wind and the falling debris back towards the cabin.

“WAIT!” he called after her, frantically, but the sound of his voice was lost in the maelstrom of the storm. He laid there, trapped, helpless, and alone. The minutes that began to tick by felt like hours, and as they went, the direness, and fatality of the situation he was in.  He was trapped, impossibly trapped, and wounded, badly. There was no way he was going to get out of this without help, and his only lifeline, his long abused and tortured slave had just taken off running into the night, likely not to return.

Phaeton let out a scream skyward at the storm, and tried to tear at the branches holding him prisoner, but he was unable to move any amount that would free his leg. He was trapped like so many of his victims in the past.  He laid there and the longer he did, listening to the merciless wind and storm that raged around him, he realized he was going to die there. Lyria had gone off, free and unhampered by the threat of him being able to give chase and run her down. He had heard her call that she was going for help, but she was a clever girl. He gave her a half an hour a the most of trying to run through that storm ravaged forest for aid before she realized she was free. She would realize he would not be able to find her, or even give chase, and she would take off in the opposite direction as fast as she was able to travel.

This realization filled him with a sense of helplessness and dread like he could not ever remember feeling. Helpless. Defenseless. Left to die. This was worse than being killed, or murdered. This would be slow, agonizing and lonely. Just what he deserved actually. Phaeton let out the loudest, and longest scream he could, until his throat was raw, and he ran out of air. Then, he did it again, and again, and again. Eventually, hyperventilated, and dizzy, he passed out.

Lyria ran and ran, partially out of panic and fear for what had happened to Phaeton and partially out of fear of the storm that was blowing all around her, taking down trees and branches, and threatening to do the same to her as it had done to Phaeton. Finally, when she could not run anymore, she took shelter against the trunk of the largest tree she could find, and crouched down. She was panting for air, and while she caught her breath, she looked around, to make sure she hadn’t lost her bearings.  She was still a long way from the cabin, she knew that.  The thought of going all the way back there, then having to find her way all the way back to where Phaeton was, filled her with dread. He was heart bad, really bad. She could tell that from the way he was screaming, she had never heard him scream like that before, and she was certain she did not want to hear it again.

Phaeton was jarred out of blackness by the pain in his leg becoming so intense, he considered reaching for one of his knives and cutting it off below the knee, then seeing where things went from there. He moved a hand to his waist, to his belt and felt around. He located one of his larger knives in it’s holster, and pulled it out. He grimaced from the pain as he looked at it, considering what his next move should be. He could amputate his leg, the gore wouldn’t bother him a bit, but he was sure the pain would short circuit his brain, make him pass out, then if he was in the middle of the operation, he would bleed out.

Then there was the task of stopping the bleeding after removing the leg. He glanced around and only had belts he could use for a tourniquet, he had no fire to cauterize it, and wouldn’t that be fun to do? Take hold of your severed limb and hold it against something red hot. Fantastic. He let his head drop back down, and laid his arms crossed across his chest, still holding the knife.  He could always just slit his throat and bleed out that way. Wouldn’t that be poetic justice? After all of the people he had slain during his life, that he would be the one to take himself out to avoid a long, agonizing death? He let out a long feral scream at the storm raging around him, and for his efforts a small branch blown from a tree by the wind smacked him across the face. Phaeton growled again, and swung the knife around as if fending off an unseen attacker.

When he wore himself out, he went back to his arms folded over his chest, clutching the knife, just in case. This was not the way he thought he would go out, not in a million years. He always figured it would be an assassination by either an enemy, of which he had thousands he figured, or a close ally. Slykk. He had to snort a laugh when he thought of Slykk as his killer. That was so unlikely, it was pathetic. He tried to count how many times he had had to jump in and save Slykk’s pathetic self from total annihilation. He was going into shock from the slow loss of blood, and the injury to his leg, but the symptoms were manifesting itself as silly random thoughts. It was entertaining however, and was keeping him amused until he either passed out, or expired.

Another thought crossed his mind, and made him realize how out of his mind he was. He  had let her go. She had gone off on the pretense of finding help for him, but he was certain that she realized this was her first and only chance to be rid of him, so she would take it like the gift from Fate that it was and run as far and as fast as she could until she either found someone who wanted to do her harm, or she ran into someone like poor old Mondoni who had gone all peace and government loving, and would take her in and brainwash her to their way of thinking. He supposed he had brainwashed her as well, though fear, pain and more fear and pain. He hated to lose her. Hell, he hated to be losing her and his lift. It was not fun to lose the two best possessions you owned in one felled branch of a tree, then be left alone to think about such things until the end came.

The end. Should he end himself, or wait, and hope for help? He was out in the middle of a thick forest somewhere near a village settlement, but he could bet that no one in their right mind was out in this storm now, just wandering about. It had come upon them so suddenly, they were already halfway between the cabin and the village, so pressing on was their only option unless they dug a hole like rabbits. He wondered if she would head to the village, or just head into the unknown. Phaeton glanced to his right, and saw the end of her duffel bag, still trapped under large amounts of debris, so she didn’t have any supplies on her. Perhaps she had thought of that when she left?

There were still some supplies back at the cabin, not many, but enough to sustain someone for a week or so. Plus, she could travel much faster and farther without the load of the duffel bag on her back.  Clever girl, she would survive. She had survived him hadn’t she? If anyone could live with him, and not be killed for fun, she could talk or play her way into a comfortable position. Then it dawned on him. Von666. Maybe she would try to make it all the way back to LA to return to the kinder master he had swindled her from?  That was quite a long ways away, and their were the wolves on the mountain to contend with, plus who knew what else in the way of roaming mobs, and enemies.

Maybe she wouldn’t make it? He was upset he wouldn’t get to see that happen. He would never know what became of her, and she would never know what became of him. He was certain that she wouldn’t give a shit what happened to him now, and probably was hoping for a fate so terrible it would give most people nightmares. What did he hope for her? He found he didn’t care. She was gone now, so there was no use in dwelling on the loss that was financial as well as vital to his survival now that he had had this little misfortune.  Maybe someone would come along. Maybe. They would find him trapped, weak, helpless and then slice him open like a hog, take all of the supplies and leave him behind to rot.  Well, the longer he laid there, getting colder and colder, he wished they would hurry the Hell up and get it over with. It was boring to lay there and wait to die. Maybe who ever showed up would get close enough to stab at them, and at least go down fighting. That would be the better of several bad endings he could have.

Again he let out a long, loud, and frustrated scream lost to the tempest of the wind. He shivered. He was always cold it seemed, and now he felt it creeping up on him, not just from his feet, well foot, the injured leg was now numb, and probably dying faster than the rest of him. He felt a numbing tingle above where his leg was trapped, and the cold was creeping up his other leg and body like a slowly rising river. Another shiver. He stuck the knife into the ground beside him, and reached out for the duffel bag that was closest to him. He could not reach it, and so all of the food and supplies contained inside were of no use. There was nothing to pull over himself to block the cold so he wrapped his arms around himself, and closed his eyes. His teeth began to chatter next, and the shivering he was doing was causing pulling on his trapped leg, and that woke it back up to excruciating levels of pain coursing through his body once again.

He wondered what time it was, and since he didn’t have a watch, there was only three times of day in his world. Day, Twilight, and Night, then Twilight once again. It was still very dark out, and he was wondering if he should give himself a time limit for laying there. One day? Until morning? Until the next night? He thought about it over and over, and once again, he was getting sleepy, he closed his eyes, and drifted off to sleep. The weather and blood leaving his body were his  two greatest enemies right then, both were relentless, and unstoppable at this point.

He was dreaming, of water, and a river, and trying to figure out how to get across it. He had no boat, and did not swim very well, and this water was moving very swiftly. How would he get across? Suddenly, someone placed a hand on his shoulder and it startled him. Phaeton jumped and his eyes shot open. He was instantly aware he was not alone, and at the same time he turned his head to the side to look at who his assailant was, he reached for the knife he had left stuck in the dirt, but it was gone.

“I’m back!” the person said, and it took him blinking a few times to get his eyes to focus on who was there and so close to him.

“Lyria?” he said hoarsely, and saw her nod.

“We have to get your leg free. I can use another branch to lift up the log, but you have to move out of the way when I do. Do you understand? I will lift it, but I can only do it for a second, then you have to scoot out of the way. Phaeton!” she shouted when apparently he started to close his eyes and drift off again.

“Right. Right.” he said in a fog, and tried to get his mind to clear enough to comprehend what was going on, and to try to determine if he was still dreaming or not. When he looked to the side again, Lyria was gone. He had imagined it. He shivered in the cold now that he was awake, and sighed. He was about to go to sleep again when he heard a shout so loud it startled him.

“MOVE!!!” came the shout and at the same time, the pressure was lifted off of his leg, and the resumption of blood flow to the trapped limp brought about a fresh wave of the insane pain the tree tourniquet had been masking. He rolled to the side, clawed at the earth below him and tried to crawl away from the burning pain in his leg. In what felt like a huge effort, he managed to go about a yard before he passed out, and fell face down into the dirt of the forest floor.

The next sensation he felt, was warmth. He was warm, and comfortable. He was in a twilight state, hovering between awake and asleep, but he could feel the warmth that was... beside him. He slowly lifted a hand up, and realized he was laying on his back, and then felt to the side that the warmth was coming from. He felt a body laying beside him. His hand found the curve of a hip first, then down lower to slide along a shapely thigh. He frowned in his sleep.