„Are you alright, Kian?" Enu asked from where she was sitting behind him in the boat. "That's the sixth time you've been rubbing your back and that's just since we got on the boat. I saw you doing it all day!"
"I'm fine. My back's just a bit sore. I fell asleep while reading yesterday, and have been sleeping in an uncomfortable position all night," Kian explained while resisting the urge to rub his back again. It didn't hurt that bad, but the dull pain was still persistent enough to be a bother and impossible to ignore.
"That's what happens when you waste your time reading boring books," Likho said while steering the boat towards the small pier they used to get into Marcuria unseen.
"They're not boring!"
Likho sneered. "They're children books. Why don't you try reading something more advanced for a change?"
"I don't read them because they're easy to read, I read them because the stories are interesting! They contain so much details about the different Magical cultures, so you should be happy that I read them and..."
"Guys! Cut it out!" Enu interrupted them. „Can't you go five minutes without arguing?"
„Quiet! We're here." Likho said in a low voice.
The boat had reached the pier, and while there generally was no one there, especially not at night, because everyone generally used the main harbour, they were still always careful and made sure to get to the pier without anyone seeing them.
After carefully looking around and making sure that they were indeed alone, they tied up the boat at the pier, making sure that it stayed unseen. Kian felt another twinge in his back when climbing out of the boat and he cursed the fact that he had decided to read despite being so tired the evening before. But the book had just been so interesting...
"Should we go to Ulvic, or just get to it?" Enu asked. "We are a bit late, and I don't know if my contact will still be around."
"We go to Ulvic after we're finished. He gave us enough information to work with last time," Likho decided.
Kian looked at him with a frown. "Are you sure? He wanted to get additional information for us, we might need it. What if there have been changes?"
"Then we will adapt to those changes. Like Enu said, we are late, let's not waste any more time." With that Likho started to walk up the street, not bothering to wait if the other two followed him.
Kian and Enu looked at each other, but then Enu just shrugged and followed Likho, with Kian then starting to walk after them as well. He still didn't like to go into a mission without a proper plan, being unprepared could end badly, but the mission sounded easy enough, so he decided to let it slide this time.
Once they had passed Oldtown, or what remained of it, they split up, Enu going to meet up with an informant, who had been feeding them information for quite some time and claimed to have news, while Kian and Likho went on to the harbour. A new shipment of medication was due to arrive this evening, and while it was only supposed to be a small one, they needed all the medication they could get for the resistance. Their numbers had grown recently and a lot of them had been Magicals, who had been fleeing from the Azadi and where injured when they came to them. And with Na'ane in a cell and them not being able to make use of her healing abilities, medication had become something they were constantly in need of.
They arrived at the harbour just in time for the ship to arrive. They hid behind some crates and waited for their opportunity to grab the crates they needed. Kian's back protested against the uncomfortable position he was forced in while crouching down behind the grates, so he kept trying to find a more comfortable position, but his efforts turned out to be in vain.
"Stop fidgeting. You're going to give us away!" Likho hissed at him, which Kian ignored. Instead he focused on watching the Azadi unload crates from the ship, hoping that if he concentrated enough, he might be able to forget about the discomfort his back caused. The muscles in his arms started to tingle and he absentmindedly started to rub them, while continuing to watch the Azadi.
There. That must be one of the crates they wanted. He recognized the markings on it. Likho shifted beside him, getting in a position that enabled him to start to run or otherwise act immediately, so he had recognized them as well.
"One more," Kian whispered, more to himself then Likho, and Likho made a small undefined noise next to him, that Kian took as an agreement. "Do we have a plan that is more than just waiting until their back is turned, then grab the grates and run?" Kian asked, even though he didn't expect there to be a plan. Likho seemed to have a dislike for plans, he preferred to just adjust to the situation as needed. Which in his case generally meant to attack.
And just like he expected, Likho replied: "We could always attack them. That way we could also get the other grates..."
"No!", Kian interrupted him. "We'll stick to the original plan. There are more Azadi around, that would attract too much attention."
"So?"
"So we won't do it. And... Look! Now!", Kian hissed. The Azadi had finished unloading the smaller crates and where now struggling with carrying a big crate down the plank of the ship, not paying attention to anything else. Kian quickly sneaked over to where the crates with medication were and grabbed one. Likho grabbed the other one, and they made their way towards the harbour gate. With every step Kian felt his back protest more and more against the weight of the crate, but he ignored it as best as he could and kept walking as quickly towards the gate as he could without making too much noise.
They were only a couple of steps away from the gate and Kian was about to breath a sigh of relief, when he heard a shout coming from the Azadi at the ship, followed by the unmistakable sound of multiple people running in heavy armour. Likho cursed loudly and the two of them started running.
Unfortunately, the shouting Azadis had attracted the attention of other guards, and when Kian and Likho rounded a corner, they had other Azadi running at them from the front, blocking off their way. Kian looked back over his shoulder and saw that escape wasn't an option anymore. Looked like Likho was getting his fight after all.
Likho seemed to think the same, because he quickly put his crate on top of Kian's and pulled his sword, charging at the Azadi.
Kian cursed Likho while trying to carefully put both crates down without loosing his balance and causing them to fall to the ground. They couldn't afford the crates to break. The moment he had managed to safely put them on the ground, an Azadi reached him and Kian's quick reflexes from countless of battles and sword training were the only thing that saved him from losing his head. He managed to pull his sword while dodging the attack, then quickly blocked the next blow. The Azadi was a skilled fighter and Kian had a hard time blocking and countering the swings. Especially since his back was protesting against all the quick movement and it slowed him down slightly.
Out of the corner of his eye he saw Likho killing one of the Azadi that had followed them from the harbour, while at the same time fighting off the others. At least he seemed to have better luck. But the fact that the others were all focusing on Likho and didn't bother to help the one fighting Kian, meant that he must be skilled enough that they expected him to be able to handle it on his own. Which seemed to be true, because, while Kian was able to block the sword, he couldn't find an opening to strike at the Azadi himself and he was starting to feel his arms getting weak under the strain. Shadow-damned back. He usually wasn't getting exhausted this quickly under normal circumstances. Eventually the Azadi had managed to force Kian backwards and had him cornered, then seemed to decide that it was time to end the fight and struck a forceful blow against Kian, that he was only barely able to block.
The force of the blow had Kian stumbling backwards, crashing with his back into the wall. He threw up his arms, holding the sword in both hands, and blocking the following swing with pure instinct. The Azadi's sword came down on his hard and the additional strain on his arms from holding up his sword and pushing back against the Azadi's caused a sudden fierce pain to shoot up his back. Kian gasped and the grip on his sword loosened. The Azadi swung at him again and the next blow ripped the sword out of Kian's hand. Before he could react, the sword came down on him again and Kian threw up his arms again to protect his head against the blade and anticipated the pain of the sword slicing through his arms.
But it never happened. Instead the Azadi left out a gurgle and dropped down at Kian's feet, dead, revealing Likho behind him. Over Likho's shoulder he could see that the other Azadis had been dealt with as well.
"Did you just drop your sword?", Likho asked incredulously.
"I didn't drop it!", Kian retorted, feeling slightly embarrassed. Someone managing to disarm him like this hadn't happened since he had been a boy.
"Sure looked like it from where I was standing."
Kian glared at Likho, but he was still grateful for his timing. "Thanks. That's the second time you saved my life now," he remembered. Likho had also caught an arrow aimed at Kian before, a split second before it would have pierced Kian's chest.
Likho snorted "Don't pride yourself on it. I only didn't let him kill you because we still need you. And if anyone's killing you it will be me."
„Of course."
Kian picked up his sword and sheathed it, then turned to pick up one of the crates again. His back immediately protested, but he clenched his teeth and started to walk towards the pier, not waiting for Likho to follow him. The sooner they had reached it, the quicker he could put down the crate again.
"What exactly is the matter with you today? I know for a fact that you're not that weak and you can barely carry the crate. And you dropped your sword." Likho had caught up with him and carried the other crate as if it weighted nothing.
Kian ignored him and kept walking. He didn't want to show any weakness in front of Likho. Likho had finally started to respect him and he didn't want to lose that respect again. And it was also a matter of pride.
But Likho didn't seem to want to just let it go and after him growling his name in an annoyed fashion, Kian told him: "Like I said in the boat, my back is hurting. And the fighting didn't exactly make it better."
"That's it?"
"Yes, that's it. Believe me, I don't like my back just sapping my strength like that either. It has nothing to do with me not being able to stand the pain, it's my muscles disobeying."
"Well, then don't fall asleep while reading when you have a mission the next day."
"I wasn't planning to fall asleep!"
They had reached the boat now and Kian sat down the crate harder than he had intended to in his annoyance, making the boat sway a bit. Likho glared at him, but said nothing.
After Likho had stored his crate in the boat as well, they climbed back up onto the pier, and made their way towards the Rooster and Kitten to meet up with Enu and Ulvic.
They avoided the street where they had fought the Azadi, and Kian considered briefly if they should hide the bodies, but with the pain in his back being a constant ache now, he decided against bringing it up. He wanted to avoid the additional strain. And it would have been most likely useless, it would get noticed eventually anyway.
The Rooster and Kitten was packed, so Ulvic merely nodded at them when they entered and gestured that he would get to them later. Enu was already sitting at their usual table, waving at them.
"Oh, good, you're here! You took a lot longer than you should have, so I was starting to get worried."
Likho sat down next to her, while Kian took the seat opposite them.
"There were complications," Likho explained.
Enu's expression soured. "And with complications you mean you killed more people, right?"
"They would have killed us instead. We had no choice." Kian tried to sooth Enu. He knew how much she hated them killing people, and he didn't really like killing his former allies either. But he had little choice in that matter, with him being a traitor and their enemy now, and it was necessary.
"Actually, Kian didn't kill anyone. He was too busy suffering from his aching back like an old man, and let me do all the work," Likho sneered.
"The Azadi was a really skilled fighter, that's why I had trouble!" Kian's voice started to rise. The most annoying thing for him was however that Likho was partly right, his sore muscles had made the fight harder than it should have been.
"Might want to keep your voice down, if you want to keep you killing Azadis a secret.", a voice coming from the left of Kian said. Ulvic had joined them at the table. "Sorry that it took a while, place's packed as you can see. So how'd it go?"
"We have the medicine crates, and, as you heard, got caught on the way back and had to fight," Kian told Ulvic. "Do you want a full report?"
"Nah, that's fine, I can imagine. Enu? Did your informant have the information?"
"He did! The Azadi realized that their medicine keeps going missing, so they want to deliver a huge shipment of it to a secret place, where they hope no one will find it except those who know. But I now have a sketched map of the place and their route, so not so secret anymore!" Enu grinned and her ears twitched in excitement. "We can get so much medicine for our people!"
Likho looked at her with an almost pleased expression. "Do you also know when?"
"Oh! Yeah, almost forgot. It's getting delivered tomorrow."
"So we won't have much time to plan," Kian mumbled. "And yes Likho, we need a plan for that. It's too big to just go there without one," he added the moment Likho opened his mouth to speak.
"I agree, it's too dangerous otherwise. But you gotta come up with one without me, I gotta go back to serve those drunkards more ale," Ulvic said, nodding in the direction of a group of people, one of them waving frantically at Ulvic.
"Fine. What's your grand plan then, Kian?"
They spend a long time discussing and arguing over the best way to get the medicine, and when they had finally found a solution everyone agreed with, it was late enough for the Rooster and Kitten to be almost empty. Enu looked tired and about to fall asleep at the table, and Kian's back had turned into a constant source of pain from sitting on the hard bench for so long. He was really looking forward to his bed now, hoping that lying down would make it better. If it just was one of the soft beds he had had back in Azadir... But it was better than nothing, and he couldn't be picky.
He got up from the table along with the others, barely suppressing a groan when his muscles protested. Enu must have noticed, because she looked at him with a worried expression on her face.
"How is your back, Kian? Still bad?"
"It's gotten worse, actually, but some sleep should help." Kian stretched, trying to loosen up the muscles, but it didn't really help either. Hopefully it was better again tomorrow, or he would have a hard time fighting, if it should come to it.
He could feel Likho's eye on him, and when he turned to look at him, Likho had a strange expression on his face, partly angry, which seemed to be his normal expression when looking at Kian, but also partly... decisive? What was that about? But then Likho turned around and walked towards the door, and Kian decided that it was unimportant enough to just forget about it. Whatever decision Likho seemed to have reached, it didn't seem to be anything that concerned him immediately.
When they got back to the enclave, the place was mostly deserted. Most people had gone to bed already, including Shepherd, which Kian was glad about, because that meant that the report could wait until tomorrow. She probably wouldn't be too happy about the incident with the Azadis.
They put the crates into the storage room and then made their way towards their rooms, Enu yawning every few steps. They passed her room first and Kian only incidentally heard her mutter "Good night!" before she disappeared into her room, too preoccupied to finally get to his own room and lay down.
Only when he had reached his room, he realized that Likho had followed him, instead of going into his own room when they had passed it.
Kian turned to him instead of opening the door. "Did you want something?"
"Yes."
Kian waited for Likho to go on, but that was all he said. "Well, what is it?"
"Inside."
Kian sighed inwardly. If Likho planned to keep up the one word responses, that could take a while. But knowing Likho he wouldn't be able to convince him to just go back to his room and say whatever he had to say tomorrow, so Kian just said "Fine", opened the door and gestured Likho to go inside.
The moment they were through the door, Likho closed it again and then just glared at Kian with his arms crossed. Kian waited a few seconds to see if Likho would start talking, but when he didn't Kian asked: "Well?"
"You will be a burden tomorrow if your back doesn't get better, and I can't constantly keep my eye on you."
Kian sighed. "I'm aware of that. That's why it would be really helpful to get some rest now. So, if you're just here to tell me that I'd better be in shape again tomorrow..."
"No. Telling you is not why I'm here," Likho interrupted him."I'm here to make sure that you'll be fully useful to the resistance again."
Kian raised an eyebrow. "Really? And how do you plan to do that?" Was he going to force him to take a magical potion? Well, Kian might just voluntarily take that, despite not fully trusting magic yet. He knew himself, that if he was in the same bad state tomorrow, he might endanger the mission and he couldn't risk that.
Likho's glare seemed to intensify for a moment, then it changed to determination. "Take off your shirt and lie down on the bed."
Kian blinked. "What?"
"You heard me."
"And why exactly would I do that?" Kian asked slowly. What was going on with Likho? He doubted that it was what it sounded like, but he had no idea what Likho was trying to achieve here.
"Because I won't let you endanger the mission." Likho looked actually frustrated now, but Kian was feeling the same, if for a different reason.
"You are aware that you're making no sense right now?" Kian asked, but he also had a feeling, that he wouldn't be able to get a straight answer out of Likho at the moment. "You know what? Never mind, I'll just do it."
Generally Kian wouldn't have given in that quickly to the Dolmari's strange request, but he was partly curious and partly annoyed and just wanted Likho to leave him alone so that he could sleep, so he decided to just play along.
Kian pulled his shirt over his head and walked over to the bed and lied down, then rolled over when Likho informed him to lie down on his front.
Likho approached the bed, then kneeled down next to him on the mattress. Kian felt his heart speed up in anticipation. What if Likho wanted to... But he never got to finish his thoughts, because suddenly Likho's fingers dug into his back, right into his sore muscles, and Kian couldn't suppress a pained yell.
"Quiet, or the others will think that I'm about to kill you." Likho hissed at him, while continuing the torturous assault on his muscles. Was that... supposed to be a massage? Kian asked that out loud and got a "Of course, what else did you think it is?" as an answer.
Well, that made everything he said make sense. Kian dug his head into his pillow to muffle his pained noises and also felt stupid. Of course it had been about a massage. He doubted that even Likho would be, well, like that, if he was trying to get him into bed. And where had that assumption come from anyway, he wasn't interested in Likho, was he? A mental image of the Dolmari pressing him against the wall, kissing him roughly suddenly flashed through his mind. Shadow take him, why did he suddenly have those thoughts? He never thought that way about Likho before. Just because Likho was taking his back apart at the moment? Because that certainly wasn't pleasurable in any way.
Likho dug his thumbs into another muscle tension, and Kian hissed in pain. "Stop being such a child about it," Likho chided, but he also sounded amused.
"You're enjoying this, aren't you?" Kian ground out through clenched teeth. His back felt as if it was on fire and everything hurt worse than before. Why did he let Likho do this again?
"It's amusing how you pretend to be such a tough warrior and then you can't stand a little pain."
"Oh, so you do have a – ouch – a sense of humour. I'm hardly surprised that it includes causing people pain."
"Just you." Likho dug his fingers into another knot, keeping Kian from replying, because Kian had to dig his head into the pillow again to muffle another loud pained sound. It suddenly occurred to him, that if anyone would stand outside and listen, they might get an entirely different idea of what was going on. Kian felt the blood rise to his face and was glad that it was hidden in the pillow. Goddess, what was going on with him this evening? It might have been a while, but he generally had his libido better under control. And this was Likho, the man whose father he had killed and who wanted to see him dead for it. This was entirely inappropriate. And still... If he wasn't in so much pain, he might have an entirely different reaction.
Kian kept silently cursing himself, while Likho kept attacking the tensions and knots in his back. After what felt like a long time, but he didn't know how long it had actually been, Likho pulled his hands away.
"Done," he murmured.
Kian sat up slowly, expecting the muscles to protest, but they actually felt fine during the movement. His back still felt hot, but the pain and soreness seemed to have gone. Kian carefully moved his shoulders, rotated them, moved his upper body, but he could feel no pain. He looked at Likho, who was looking at him with his usual glare, arms crossed.
"Thanks," Kian said. "I... it feels a lot better."
"I didn't do this for you. You're needed tomorrow, now you might actually be useful. So, don't fall asleep reading again, if you mess up your back once more, I won't help you again." With these words Likho turned around and left, slamming the door behind him for good measure.
Kian let himself fall back on the bed, his body feeling light and floaty after everything now. He even felt too relaxed to worry too much about the conflicting feelings he had felt earlier. It might just have been the spur of the moment. If not... well he would deal with it some other time. Now he let sleep slowly claim him, enjoying feeling as relaxed as he hadn't felt in a while. He probably should thank Likho for that again tomorrow. The pain had certainly been worth it.