Chapter Text
Jarett had escorted Vox Machina back to the castle, but as soon as the drinking began, he chose to exit. Much ado was being made of their new companion--the one who looked like an armored bear with a beard. Jarett couldn’t really see why, but this was clearly a private employers-only affair, and he was more than happy to see his way out. In any case, drinking at dawn never ended well in his experience.
He returned to the garrison, which was always his first obligation these days. They had been gone for less than a day, but it felt like years. Jarett realized how short a time it had been when he found the recruits eating breakfast. He checked on the pup, who’d barely noticed his absence.
“Back early?” Kynan asked, shoveling porridge into his face without really looking.
“Early? We have slain the dragon! How long did you think it would take?”
The teen shrugged. “Iunno. So it was easy?”
“Fuck no, it was not easy!” Jarett said. “We all nearly died!”
“Oh.” Kynan glanced up and looked at him more closely. “You got burned, huh?”
“Burned, he asks. More like engulfed in the flames of hell! Drink your juice, Understatement Boy.” Jarett shoved the glass toward him.
Kynan dutifully took a swig of his apple cider. “Hey, when are those weird blue kids coming back? They said they wanted to spar. I bet I could whack ‘em around the yard some, put ‘em in their place.”
Jarett stared at Kynan in silence for a moment. “Men of honor do not beat down untrained children to prove their strength.”
Kynan’s neck slowly disappeared into his shoulders, and he went very quiet.
Just then, the quartermaster happened to walk through the mess and see Jarett. “What the fuck happened to you?” she asked.
“I killed a dragon last night.” Jarett tried to offer a rakish smile, but his face hurt too much to really manage it.
“You’re going to see a medic, right now,” she said.
Jarett shrugged, which also hurt. “I have received some healing already. Do not worry.”
“Now.” Her eyes were very frightening when she gave orders. Jarett decided it was better to do what she said than get into an argument with her. So he patted Kynan on the shoulder and went off to the healers’ unit.
The cleric on duty was surprised Jarett was still alive. He forced him to lie down and made Jarett put on all sorts of tinctures, salves and poultices. Then came the healing. Jarett couldn’t believe how much of a fuss the healer made, especially when he called in others to help.
In the end, Jarett was stuck in the healing unit all day. When the night medic went to make coffee, he slipped out unseen. That was quite enough of that. Jarett had meant to go home to his private quarters in His Highness’ mansion hours ago. Well, perhaps this would work better. As it was night, the boys would be going to bed soon, and then he would have the Gilt D’amour to himself.
But the mansion was dark when Jarett arrived. He could understand Zaahir Kadin being gone--he might have gone to the castle to check on Vox Machina or Lady de Rolo. But the boys were gone, too. And Jarett couldn’t think where they might be. He checked all the rooms. There was no sign of anyone--though clearly they had been in the house somewhat recently. Even the dragonet was gone.
Jarett looked for any kind of note to say where they might have gone, but there was none. Perhaps they’d only gone out for a short time. The Gilt D’amour might have taken his adopted sons to the tavern to get something to eat. Jarett talked himself down and lit a fire in the hearth in the library to wait for them.
After a few hours with no change, it seemed they were not coming back. Jarett wandered up toward the castle and asked the guards at the midway post if they had seen His Highness come that way. They hadn’t, though the shift had just changed. The guards did share that Vox Machina and some of their friends had left to kill another dragon.
Zaahir Kadin must have gone with them. That made sense to Jarett, but he still didn’t know where the boys had gone. His Highness surely would not have taken them along on such a dangerous mission.
He had questions, but Jarett did not want to trouble the prince consort by calling him through the ring he’d given Jarett. Surely tomorrow it would become clear where Zaahir Kadin and the boys had gone. Most likely, they would all be back home soon.
Resigned to being alone for the night, Jarett returned to the mansion and crawled into Zaahir Kadin’s recently repaired bed. Jarett just wanted the smell of him nearby while he slept. Last night had been such an ordeal, Jarett just wanted something comforting again. Maybe he would even be able to sleep; the healers had alleviated some of the pain, at least. They’d said burns like those he had sustained were often fatal. Jarett felt lucky to be alive.
*
He awoke the next morning a few hours after dawn, which was late for Jarett. He’d slept fairly well. Still, the house felt sad and empty without Zaahir Kadin. Hoping against hope, Jarett went downstairs to check the kitchen, but still no one was there, and he could tell no one had been.
Feeling gloomy, Jarett returned to the garrison, hoping some exercise would help him feel better. But as soon as he arrived, the healers spotted him, and dragged him back to the healing ward for more treatment. Jarett did not want to waste any more of his time in the healers’ unit, and they had to drug him to keep him there this time. Very unreasonable of them.
When Jarett came to, it was late afternoon. The only way the healers could get him to stay longer was to promise Jarett they would tell him if anyone spotted “Shaun Gilmore” in town. Then Jarett fell back into a semi-medicated sleep.
“Patel and Johnson said they saw him rushing toward the castle with the archer--which one is she again? Vax?”
“No, that’s the boy. Vex is the ranger.”
“Oh. Well who the hell can tell with half elves anyway?”
“You’re not wrong.”
Jarett opened his eyes to see who the speakers were. One of the clerics and a field medic. “It is easier if you know them,” he said. “There is a world of difference beyond anatomy between Vex and Vax.”
The medic looked at the cleric. “Should I tell him?”
“What?” Jarett sat up, wincing as the poultices pulled against his damaged skin.
“The checkpoint guard saw your friend headed toward the castle a bit ago.”
“Then I must go as well,” Jarett said, jumping out of bed and rushing for the door.
“General!”
“General.” The medic stepped in his way. “You may want to put some clothes on.”
Jarett looked down. He hadn’t realized they’d stripped him to do intensive skin treatments today. “Yes,” he said, embarrassed. “We must not get ahead of ourselves.”
By the time Jarett got to the castle, Zaahir Kadin was gone. “We took him and Lady Vex’ahlia to the ziggurat. He came back out alone…” One guard looked to the other. “Half hour ago?”
“No, more like an hour.” They looked at Jarett, who swore with frustration. What rotten luck to miss His Highness by so little.
“Thank you,” Jarett told them at last. “As you were.” If His Highness had come back out of the castle, he must have been headed home. Jarett jogged down the hill, impatient to see him.
But when he entered the mansion, it was still empty. Jarett could feel that someone had been there recently, but they were no longer there. When he checked the house, Zaahir Kadin’s magician’s workroom had been disturbed, and many items still lay around as if abandoned haphazardly or in a hurry.
Frustrated, Jarett went to see if His Highness might have left any notice of where he’d gone this time. In Jarett’s rooms, left on his pillow, he spied a small slip of paper. He ran to the bed to see what it was. Jarett smoothed it in his fingers. The piece of paper was so small, it might not even have qualified as a note. It was large enough, however, to contain a single sentence:
I did love you.
Jarett’s knees buckled, and he collapsed onto the bed, devastated. There was only one thing this could mean. Jarett knew a goodbye note when he saw one. He rested his head in his hands, still clutching the paper.