I left my bed and slowly got dressed while Aeryn attended to me. Whether she was angry or jealous over finding me in bed with Saria, not of that expression crossed her face, and her actions were as skilled and practiced as always. At some point, while I was getting dressed, the light and noise had finally disturbed Saria out of her stupor. When she sat up, rubbing her eyes, I was nearly finished dressing.

  Saria looked at Aeryn helping me with my coat. The sheet wrapped around her chest felt slightly as she rubbed her eyes, causing her breasts to become exposed to the chilly night air. Aeryn met her eyes, looked down, and then smirked. It was nearly the most imperceptible smirk, but Saria’s expression went red, and she pulled her sheet up around her body.

  “You… maid, help me get dressed!” She snapped in a fiery voice.

  I prevented myself from sighing. It looked like there was a bit of iciness between the two women. I had been hoping to avoid any competition between them, but it appeared to be an inevitability. As for why Aeryn hadn’t leveled her iciness in my direction, the answer was pretty obvious. It would have no result. I acted how I wished to act, and there was nothing she could do to change what I had already done. Thus, she decided to level her scorn at Saria instead.

  “I am Master’s servant,” Aeryn responded, almost arrogantly.

  “I’m his wo- his wife!” Saria’s cheeks grew pink slightly. “That means you’re my servant by extension! You must do what I say!”

  Both girls looked in my direction. Aeryn merely cocked an eyebrow, while Saria leveled a full gre. I didn’t want to get involved in such a thing. I didn’t understand why Aeryn was acting this way. She hadn’t acted this way with my mother or my sisters, or even Saria’s sister, Ba. Then again, those times had all been about control and dominance. I slept with Saria mostly because I wanted to, and she wasn’t my sve even at this point. Could it be that Aeryn could recognize the difference and didn’t like that I had shared a moment with Saria not routed around dominance and ensvement?

  “As long as her orders do not contradict or invalidate my own, and do not put me in any kind of danger or disadvantage, you will do your best to serve Saria.” I gave my final edict.

  Aeryn, in the end, was just a maid I had ensved. She had been acting a bit above herself recently, so having Saria knock her down a peg or two wouldn’t necessarily be a bad thing. Plus, there always had to be a clear pecking order when it came to women. As much as women compined about men and power, women were even more obsessed with such things. Status was an extremely important thing to women.

  “As you command.” Aeryn frowned, her back stiffening slightly.

  Saria wore a gloating look, her eyes glowing a bit with her sadistic tendencies. “Good then, I order you to wash my feet!”

  “Yes, mistress.” She responded, her normally expressionless face returning as she went to fetch water.

  I checked myself quickly and then headed for the door. I opened it, stepped outside, and then shut the door behind me. However, instead of walking away, I remained where I was with the door open just a crack.

  “What are you doing?” Saria’s voice came out.

  “Getting the washbasin.”

  “Hehe… you’ll clean my feet with your tongue!”

  After a moment of silence, I rolled my eyes and then shouted. “Aeryn, come, we’re leaving.”

  “I apologize, Master’s commands take precedence,” Aeryn responded without hesitation.

  “H-hey! Where are you going?”

  “Saria, you too!” I added.

  “Y-yes!”

  The girls could enjoy their little pissing match at another time. I might even enjoy watching them catfight, but we didn’t have the time right now to screw around. I had pnned to escape my sister’s blockade, and I wasn’t going to waste another day just because my fiancée wanted to put my maid in her pce. Thankfully, both women listened to my commands, and that was what was important. As long as they were mine, everything else could be worked out at a ter date.

  I headed down into the commons room, where even the innkeeper was now gone to sleep. He was just a man after all. He’d need sleep as well. His room was on the first floor just off the commons though, so someone could knock and wake him if they were in the need of things. For us, we deliberately didn’t want him to be awake. He was a potential spy who could report our movements, and thus couldn’t be trusted.

  When I reached the common room, Ba and the guards were already there at the ready. Baba looked like she had never left. She was sleeping in a sitting position, her head on the table and her hand wrapped around a mug of alcohol. Given her young age, the sight was especially arming. The first time she had started seriously drinking, the innkeeper had given us several hard looks. It wasn’t like we announced Baba’s identity to everyone we passed.

  “What is the situation?” I asked quietly.

  “I’ve located three areas that are unlikely to be watched, or if they are watched, will not be heavily guarded. Of those three, I believe one of them is ideal to escape without being seen.”

  I nodded thoughtfully. “How about the second-best option?”

  Ba cocked her head, a fsh of confusion on her face. She seemed to be asking if we had the best option, what was the point of an inferior option.

  I sighed and expined. “We can presume that your observation skills are solely unique. Someone on my sister’s side will likely be able to determine the weakest points as well. If they knew one spot was the absolute most vulnerable, wouldn’t that be the spot they’d make sure had no holes?”

  She frowned, seemingly unconvinced. I didn’t bme her. She was a swordsman used to direct conflict. That wasn’t to say she didn’t understand feints or tricks, but she was confident in her ability. If she found a potential escape route, it was because her skills were at a level where she could identify it. Suggesting that others were secretly watching the route she had verified was the best was akin to suggesting that there was something wrong with her eyes. I decided to try it a different way.

  “It is possible that they would deliberately leave that spot open in an attempt to trick us. It may be the best spot, but they could have an entire regiment waiting on the other side for wherever we got out. Do you understand?”

  After another moment, she gave a nod. While she wouldn’t accept that there was something wrong with her senses, she would accept that others were liars and deceivers. Growing up with her sister, she was likely used to following rules that didn’t make a whole lot of sense to her. Of course, there was the possibility that she was completely right, and I was giving up the ideal escape route on a guess. If my sister was extremely clever, she might have the middle spot be the one watched best, assuming I would skip over the ideal spot.

  It wasn’t that I was doubting her intelligence, but this sister of mine didn’t know my own intelligence, so she probably wouldn’t be aware of how deeply I thought about these things. If it was me personally, I would set a trap in all three locations, while not bothering to guard the normal routes. No one in their right mind would try to escape the city the obvious ways, so there was no point in watching them. However, that was just me.

  “Captain Moar?”

  “We’ve managed to systematically go through the supplies and sneak them into the inn.” Captain Moar expined. “I’ve gathered enough resources that I believe we’ll be able to make the trip across the desert. Of course, the cart and horses will be abandoned and everything will need to be carried. It will be quite a challenge though. I suggest that we leave the… less fit… behind.”

  As he said this, his eyes flickered behind me. I gnced to see that Saria and my mother were now joining us, having finished getting ready. Aeryn had already slipped in silently a bit before and was now standing at attendance, likely to avoid whatever Saria had pnned for her.

  “The inn?” I ignored his slight against the women.

  Even if I desired to ditch my mother or my wife, I would choose to do neither. I wouldn’t have allowed Lucy to leave either if I felt I had a choice. I supposed there was something to be said about gaining allies and utilizing them properly. People were more useful to me out there working in my name. However, I had so few allies at the moment, I had to take what I could get.

  “It’s being watched.” Captain Moar shrugged. “If you wish to get out without being seen, we’re going to need to crack a few skulls.”

  “I understand…” I turned to Baba, who was still seemingly sleeping.

  I took a few steps, and then kicked her. There was a time where the elf princesses would have cried out in arm at seeing me kick the Grand Magus. This was a powerful woman whose strength and ability couldn’t be their match. Their names alone were enough to cause nations to shiver. There were only three Grand Magus in existence, yet that was about all I knew about them.

  Each Grand Magus seemed to have a purpose, and their purpose and how they went about achieving it differed. Baba’s purpose was to achieve bance in the world, and she was achieving this goal first by remaining in the human world and bolstering their clout with the other kingdoms, and now by following me. She had allegedly been an old man when she followed my father, but when I first id eyes on her, she had the appearance of a young girl. Despite traveling with her and even allowing her to teach me a bit, I still had the feeling like she was just a child, and it couldn’t be helped.

  Suffice it to say, after seeing my interactions with Baba over the st few months, no one seemed to grow worried that I’d suddenly offend her and do something everyone would regret. Their once grandiose opinion of the great mage seemed to have dropped substantially. The Grand Magus herself didn’t seem to care how people saw her in the slightest.

  “Ah! Geh… Hack… what?” She sputtered and coughed as she looked around in confusion a bit.

  She finally gained some level of bearing on where she was, and her eyes finally settled on me. “You… what do you want?”

  “Don’t tell me you spent the entire time I was upstairs drinking? You’re supposed to find a way to pull down that spell, right?”

  She frowned. “Do I look like your dog who just does whatever you demand? Where is the respect?”

  “I’d give you more respect if you weren’t unconscious in the inn common room,” I responded.

  She gnced around, finally seeming to realize exactly where she was. She shot me a slight scathing gre like it was my fault.

  “I took a look at the spell. It might have been put together by faeries, but what are faeries to someone like me?” She responded arrogantly. “And what have you been doing, my lord?”

  Saria’s cheeks turned pink at her words, and Baba grew a knowing grin as if she knew exactly what I was doing. These words also interested Ba, Mother, and the guards. They had likely heard things earlier, so they were well aware of what had happened. Mother, in particur, had an unhappy expression on her face, while Ba only looked curious.

  “I was strategizing,” I responded without missing a beat. “We have a long night ahead of us, so I wanted to make sure I had considered every option.”

  “Your strategizing meetings are noisy.” Baba wouldn’t let up after finding such a weakness.

  “My strategizing meetings are effective,” I responded, leaning closer to her. “Would you rather be a part of the next time?”

  I realized I had errored that comment the second I made it. I was trying to make her sweat, but I forgot that along with drinking, Baba was also rather lewd. A perverted grin formed on her face.

  “Oh, hoh… is that an offer? Be careful, it has been a while. I might just be a bit too youthful for you to handle?”

  Of everyone present, Baba was probably the most skilled with her words, even managing to slid the word ‘youthful’ in there just to make an extra jab. Since I couldn’t win this round, I decided to just press with what I wanted and throw away any pride.

  “How long will we have?”

  “Instantaneous?” Baba responded nonchantly.

  My eyes fshed. “No time at all?”

  She shrugged. “What do you think? I can bring down the spell. I didn’t say I could make it so they aren’t aware. The best you can hope for is that they won’t know what direction we flee. As for the time we flee, that’s something I cannot control.”

  I let out a sigh. I had hoped she’d come up with some kind of means of deying their notification. Maybe, she could fiddle with the spell and make it so it didn’t trigger. Or maybe she could make it trigger at a false point. Maybe, she could put up a fake spell so they wouldn’t be able to tell it was taken down. Perhaps, I had been hoping for too much. Then again, maybe Ba hadn’t cared to come up with a better pn because she was too busy drinking.

  “I guess that’s the best you can do.” I sighed. “So, a Grand Magus can only do so much.”

  Baba stiffened slightly, and I felt just a bit of pleasure getting back at her earlier.

  “Well, how about this!” She responded defiantly. “I can take care of the guards watching the inn! A simple sleep spell and I can knock out the entire outpost. Then we can move without fear of being seen by anyone. As long as we keep off the roads out of town, we can move unhindered.”

  “Oh?” I raised an eyebrow. “You can do such a thing?”

  She crossed her arms smugly. “Of course, I can!”

  “Baba is the best. I truly am no match.” I reached out and patted her head.

  “Hehe… as long as you admit it.” She said that, but she had her eyes closed and was smiling happily as I patted her head.

  “Good girl.” I nodded in defeat.

  The others looked at each other in disbelief. My admittance of defeat didn’t feel like defeat at all. From their perspective, didn’t I have her trained exactly like a dog? She was even preening over head pats!

  After I finished rewarding Baba properly, she put her hands together and began a spell. It only took a few minutes, and when she was done, she turned to the rest of us.

  “They will eventually be able to tell we’re making our move if they have any kind of guard turnover. I suggest we get moving immediately.”

  I nodded and looked back. “Moar?”

  “I got them. Everyone is going to have to carry a bit though.”

  I nodded, but by the time ‘everyone’ was given a bag, that didn’t include Saria, me, or Baba. The guards ended up carrying our supplies, and while they had regretful looks over carrying nearly twice as much stuff, they understood they weren’t in a position where they could compin.

  “Ba, lead the way.”

  With those words, she nodded and pushed her way out the door into the night. We quickly crossed the street under the moonlight, heading for the alley on the other side of the street. As I walked by, I noticed a man hidden in an alcove. His head was pressed against the wall and it was clear he had fallen asleep. It really would have been difficult to slip out without being seen, it seemed.

  The group moved in a single-file line with Ba at the head. We weaved in and out of a few buildings, but the outpost was small and we quickly found our location. We would have made it there even faster if we could take a direct path, but that would risk being seen by those barricading the outpost from the outside.

  Ba stopped in someone’s backyard. There was a small garden with various desert pnts that were currently flowering. She kneeled and started to dust off the dirt on the ground, slowly revealing a wooden ptform shaped in a circle. Carefully, she tried to lift it, but ultimately needed the help of the guards to pull it off. It revealed a rge hole leading down lined with bricks.

  “A well?” I whispered.

  “It’s empty this time of year,” Ba spoke quietly. “There is a small path that leads outside of town.”

  I frowned. “Big enough for people?”

  “I did say that it wasn’t ideal.” Ba shrugged as if that expined it.

  “How did you discover this?”

  “Accidentally.” She responded her face coloring slightly under the moonlight. “The old dy who lives here thought I looked like her daughter, so she invited me in, and while giving me tea mentioned this while rambling on. It’s unlikely she would have mentioned it to the Faery.”

  “Why is that?”

  “She doesn’t trust them. She made that very clear.”

  “I see… then, good job. Let’s get going. We’re moving on borrowed time.”

  Only a few minutes after leaving the inn, we climbed down into the well one after another. Captain Moar took up the rear, and he closed the wooden door back up. Like that we had disappeared into the night. We had a path out of the city that it was unlikely they would be watching. However, once we reached the border and knocked down the detection spell, things were going to go to hell.

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