For a moment, there was silence, only broken by the sound of the poker hitting the ground and Kraghtol’s heavy breathing. The fight had not taken more than a few moments, and only now that his mind was catching up, he realized that Valir had called out for help the instant Kraghtol had tackled him down. Help arrived in the form of some servants and an armed guardsman two minutes later, but that would have been far too late if Kraghtol had not intervened.
The pain in his shoulder, chest and head occupied most of his attention now, and he only registered the servant with a bowl of hot water when they tried to clean his wounds. Suddenly, shame kicked in, unbidden and irrational, and he took the wet cloth from the servant, continuing on his own.
Only when the two unconscious attackers had been hauled away, and Valir had ordered the remaining servants to secure the mansion and leave them alone, did the noble relax a tiny bit.
“That was rather close. I do have to commend your quick reaction.”
While the choice of words was just what Kraghtol was used to from him — avoiding the words ‘thank you’ like they were poisonous — the entire rest of the noble told a whole different story. He was even paler than usual and needed to clutch the back of a chair to keep himself from shaking, his knuckles white. His eyes were glued to Kraghtol for some reason, and his voice was shaky.
“Who was that?”
Kraghtol’s voice sounded strange to him, and he cleared his throat, while Valir shook his head.
“I don’t know. Well, I don’t knowexactly. Kidnapers, probably. I don’t think whatever was on the dagger was lethal, but more of a sleeping or stunning poison. At least the one I tested it on was still breathing.”
“But what did they want from you?!”
Valir shrugged.
“Nothing.”
“Nothing?”
“Not from me, anyway. I guess whoever they were working for wanted to pressure my father into some political action. Or simply tried to extort money from him. I very much doubt it’s anything personal, but I’ll leave that to the officials to find out.”
The matter-of-fact way he explained left Kraghtol puzzled.
“Have they tried anything like that before?”
“Twice,” Valir nodded, “when I was younger. But I always had a bodyguard with me then. I see now that it had been foolish to believe this house was safe.”
He sighed in exhaustion at the latter fact before he continued.
“But I think you have some explaining to do yourself.”
“Me? Why? Because I fought them off for you?!”
Kraghtol’s voice was rising in disbelief.
“No. That much is clear. What puzzles me is what happened to you during the fight.”
An uneasy feeling rose within Kraghtol, and suddenly, he felt extremely self-conscious.
“See for yourself.”
Valir opened one drawer of the desk and handed him an expensive-looking hand-mirror.
His face was still dirty with his own blood, as he had failed to wipe it all away by himself. But that was not what the noble was referring to. He looked different, in a familiar way. His jaw had gotten more pronounced again, and his nose was broader. And it wasn’t just his face. Looking down, he realized he had gotten taller, and the bulging muscles of his torso stretched his now high-riding shirt. On the right side, it had ripped entirely, giving sight to strong biceps with more than just a light green tint. Focusing on his face again, he parted his lips, and sure enough, they were already there, mocking him. Small tusks, barely hidden by his lips, and about half as long as he knew them to be. He looked as if he was stuck halfway between his human self and his normal appearance.
His mind was already trying to come up with a believable lie, how he could possibly explain the changes to the other man, but he was just tired, and in pain, and nothing he could come up with sounded even remotely convincing in his head.
“It’s an alchemical potion,” he admitted quietly. “Helping me to blend in, transforming me into a human. And it’s wearing off.”
There was a moment of coldfire silence between the two. Valir’s face was like a brick wall, not giving anything away.
“I see. So, you’re not human then?”
“Not entirely, no. I’m a half-orc. Part human, part… orc. But I’m not a savage or an enemy, if you think that.”
