The next day awaited us with not just one but two surprises. Since Mathias was injured we were allowed to sleep in, but we didn't really get to enjoy that privilege because shortly after the others had started the day a frantic knock woke us from our slumber.

My mind was still hazy and it took me moment to register that this was not James' usual stoic knocking but someone else's doing. And just as I finished that thought the door flung open and a breathless Tino stood in the doorway. I blinked with bleary eyes against the bright light that poked in through the open door and tried to get my wit together.

"Hey Tino, what's up?" Mathias greeted as cheery as ever, damn why was he never affected by early mornings? Tino was trying to tell us something but it seemed he had forgotten how to produce sounds; he opened and closed his mouth like a fish, but Mathias' question pulled him out of that stupor.

"Quickly you have to come downstairs; you've got to see this." He wildly gestured and was close to bouncing on the spot. I groaned at the thought of having to get up so early, especially since we had gone to bed extremely late the night before. How could anyone be this energetic this early in the morning? "Why? What is downstairs?" Mathias asked but Tino had already dashed down the hallway to get to whatever it was that had him so excited.

I decided to go back to sleep, I was too tired to really be curious. I wondered if I should send Mathias to close the now open door to keep out any cold draft but before I could even snuggle back under the covers, Tino had already returned with a pair of very, very crude crutches in hands. Without a further explanation he tossed them on our bed, effectively waking me up for good and disappearing again.

Mathias let out a hearty laugh and pulled away the cover to get out of bed. That was it; I was going to request a single room! Since there was really no use in trying to fall asleep now I dragged myself up and out of bed, but before I could shuffle over into the bathroom I was pulled into a tight embrace by Mathias. "Good morning babe." Balancing on his good leg Mathias had managed to sneak up on me and given me my morning hug. Sneaky bastard.

I turned around to place a kiss on Mathias' lips, dispelling the last bits of morning drowsiness. This never ceased to revive me. "Morning." I mumbled and shoved Mathias back on the bed, this whole one usable leg thing was a bit too shaky for my liking. Mathias chuckled and took the crutches for a closer inspection. They were the closest embodiment to crude I had ever seen, and I highly doubted that they would carry Mathias' weight. "Seems like Tino wants to get back at us for insulting his throwing stick." Mathias joked as he carefully tapped one crutch against the floor to test its stability.

"Well at least he got you crutches." I commented and took a few steps backwards. I didn't want to be in range when the crutches collapsed. But to my slight surprise they seemed stable enough, the wood bent horribly under Mathias' weight but they didn't break, yet. While Mathias hopped around the room for a stress test, I went to the bathroom to get ready for the day. I was still tired and the bed seldom looked this attractive but now curiosity had pricked me and I wanted to know what got Tino so excited.

I quickly changed and then waited more or less patiently for Mathias to do the same. He tried to get me to help him but knowing him I was sure that his attentions weren't as pure as he made them out to be and although I usually didn't mind at all, I was far too lazy to get involved into any major movement at the moment. And to be honest I was starting to get really hungry.

Mathias had gotten used to his new crutches pretty fast, only the stairs took him a while, even though mostly because I forbade him to just jump down the stairs. We entered the main room to find it full of soldiers who were tearing away at one of Hannah's hearty breakfasts. For a moment I was lost at the door, all those unknown faces at once were a bit much but then I spotted a few familiar blondes at the far end and we made our way through the room.

We were stopped midway though by a familiar man who had stood up to greet us. "David!" Mathias exclaimed and was grinned broadly; the whole scene had visibly gotten him excited. David nodded curtly as form of greeting but hesitated as he saw Mathias' bandaged foot. "What happened?" David seemed even more reserved than the last time we saw him, I was not the only one who was unsettled by the presence of all those soldiers.

Why were they even here? Had they come with David? If yes, did that mean that was our escort? I swept my eyes over the room and tried to assess their number but my brain refused to function in the middle of it. This couldn't possibly be true, why would someone send half an army to escort a group of people to the capital? Were we that important? A small spiteful voice inside my head reminded me that we were of no importance whatsoever but Mathias was.

As on cue one of the soldiers noticed us standing in the middle of the room and alerted his companions to our existence. "We have our fist battle hero." One proclaimed and slapped Mathias a hand on the shoulder. "How many did you take on?" Another asked and raised a tankard that sloshed with something suspiciously similar to beer. "Come on don't be modest." The first one urged and shoved David out of the way to get better access to Mathias who seemed to enjoy the attention.

I used the opportunity to slip away almost unnoticed and walked over to the table with my friends. To my surprise though they didn't seem happy at all, despite our escort, that was admittedly a bit over the top l had arrived. And that got me extremely worried.

I squeezed in between Emil and Francis who both tried to make space for me and exchanged a few morning greetings. No one spoke; instead everyone was busy with their breakfast or at least pretended to be busy. I looked over to Mathias and saw that he had been dragged to a table and sat now in the middle of a mob of cheering men who listened to his animatedly told tale of how he had slain a horde of wild mountain trolls. Someone should go and get Peter, he would love that story.

Hannah was nowhere to be seen, only James popped out of the kitchen every now and then, delivering an endless supply of beer and food. Seriously just how full was their food storage? Or rather how full would it be once all of these people were gone? "We will depart tomorrow." Arthur interrupted my thoughts, but even though he had broken the silence he deliberately avoided my gaze.

"That's a good thing isn't it?" I tried to get the others to talk but again I was met with silence. This was becoming more and more frustrating. Finally Berwald spoke up, his voice serious as ever but I didn't miss the uneasy undertone. "They surprised a bunch of Orushians this early morning who were preparing a stealth attack on the inn." I tensed at his words and a cold wave of horror washed through me. We had been out last night; they could have surprised us out in the open just like that. I had allowed myself to believe that we were safe while in truth we had been far from that.

"It's okay now, they were operating independently from the main army and they got all of them." Arthur placed a hand on my arm to calm me, but I doubted that I could relax so soon. How clueless we had been. "How do you know that?" I asked, sounding more apprehensive than I would have liked. "That they main force won't be bright behind them?" Suddenly I felt far more at ease with all those soldiers around me but I doubted they could do much against a whole army.

"Because after half of them were killed they surrendered, and one of the prisoners was quite cooperative." Francis explained, but the way he was saying it made my uneasiness grow even more. Somewhere on the other side of the room the group around Mathias was laughing, oblivious to my distress, despite the danger they had just faced only a few hours ago.

"It was Ludwig." Tino said, eyes trained on the flat table surface. "They came after us." Maybe that revelation should have shocked me more than it did, but after all this time of running away and being caught again I was not really surprised that Ludwig had caught up to us once again. "Only there is more to it than that." Emil spoke for the first time this morning; he looked up from the bird he had groomed until now. "He says he wants to change sides."

Wait what?

I opened my mouth to say something but found that there were no words in my mind. I stood there for at least five seconds with my mouth open and a look of sheer disbelief on my face. There was no way this could be true. I had met Ludwig, the hell I had slept in his arms for heaven's sake, albeit not willingly and he had done everything in his power to capture us and get some good money out of us. But a small voice kept nagging, reminded me that he didn't hurt us and he let Berwald go.

It was an understatement to say that I was confused.

Finally I remembered how to use my voice again and I asked one simple question, the only one I could think of and the most dumb one at that too. "What?" Seriously they could at least have tried to explain everything to me instead of just pushing me into a pool of revelations.

Tino shoved a mug with something that suspiciously looked like hot mead in my hands and since I really could use the drink I took a heavy swig. Unfortunately the liquid was still hot and I spurted a shower of mead over the table in an attempt to save my tongue from burning off.

Now breakfast was definitely ruined.

Arthur gave me a napkin and I cleaned the area around my mouth from any mead that had landed there, then I helped him clear up the mess I had made as best as possible. Thankfully most of it had landed on an unoccupied area of the table so the food was mostly still edible. But I wasn't hungry anyway; I felt a sick and constricting feeling in my stomach ever since I heard the news.

Ludwig seemed like a ghost from the past that came again to haunt me, to remind me that wherever I would go I would never be safe. Not even the thought of going home soon could clear up the gloomy feeling. To put it bluntly, I was afraid. We had tried to run countless time and in the end it always had been in vain.

"Come on." Emil said and patted me gently on the back, trying to get me out of my dark mood. That was entirely wrong, I had to get it together, I was supposed to take care of my brother not the other way round. I blinked a few times to regain my focus and looked at the others with a questioning look. There was no use in worrying before I didn't know the whole story. "So what happened exactly? Tell me from the beginning." I ordered and leaned back, bracing myself for the story to come.

"Well we really don't know much ourselves." Francis explained as he started to peel an apple. "They brought the men here and they are currently locked up in one of James' cellars, I only hope it's not the wine cellar." Francis mused and began to cut up his apple. Arthur rolled his eyes and snatched one piece of apple, earning a slap to his hand from Francis. "No one cares about the wine. Anyway they are tied up because David doesn't trust him and until they decide what to do with them they'll stay there and there are two guards with them."

"I think Hannah is bringing them some food in the moment." Tino added and gratefully accepted the apple slice that Francis offered him. "Yeah, James was a bit pissed at first, because one of the captives started yelling and insulting them but then Ludwig ordered him to stop and then apologized. After that they stayed calm and even walked down into the cellar by themselves without struggling." Emil informed as it was his turn to accept an apple slice.

Francis gave me the last one and I started to nibble at the juicy fruit. I was rather glad that I had been asleep during all this. "But why does he want to change sides?" I asked after I had finished with my apple slice. The fruit had fueled my appetite and since Ludwig and his men were safely locked up the feeling in my gut had also subsided.

"Yeah, that is a bit suspicious, if you ask me." Arthur shoved another apple in Francis' hand which he started to peel after he had stolen a kiss from Arthur. "Especially after two of his men got killed and another one seriously injured." It was somehow calming to see my friends returning to their usual behavior. Maybe it was really not that bad.

"It was their plan from the beginning to change sides I think, they only got surprised by David and his men." Emil nodded thoughtfully and sighed then. "But I don't get why they thought that sneaking up on us was in any way a good idea. Maybe it's just a ruse." He ran a hand through his already messy hair, while the other had mostly settled down again; Emil was still concerned about the situation.

"I don't think it's a ruse." Berwald said, his brows were furrowed, indicating that he was thinking hard about something. "I don't know." I traced the rim of my mug with a finger, the steam was still rising from the beverage, taunting me to try and take another sip. "He seemed like he was taking orders seriously, but still he let you go…" I trailed off, remembering that moment of shock and horror as Ludwig had spotted us and all hope had been lost until Berwald had jumped in between and secured our escape. Oh the guilt I had felt back then, the terror and the insufferable fear that we had lost him for good. And then he had reemerged, badly hurt but still alive.

And all because of Ludwig.

"I want to talk to him." I announced, all this worrying was getting me nowhere; I had to see for myself. "Actually we all wanted to talk to him; we just waited for you and Mathias." Tino said and placed a hand on my arm. I smiled weakly and looked over to where Mathias was still in the middle of his tale. "Let's go get him then." I declared and pushed myself up to stand, but since I was still squeezed in between Francis and Emil I got stuck midway and now half stood half sat at the table. It took a lot more of shuffling and people getting up until all of us had managed to safely standing on their own two feet again.

It was similar complicated to reach Mathias in the middle of his admires and get his attention but after a bit of shoving I managed to break through to him. Still he insisted on introducing me to the leader of the troop, a blonde man with a scar on his right temple and a rather cold stare. He saluted once as he greeted me but didn't speak a word to me. It seemed that he accepted Mathias status as the descendant of a Lord but rather looked down on a lowborn like me.

According to Mathias his name was Jan, but I figured he wouldn't like it if I called him that. My suspicions got confirmed as he was introduced to the rest, again showing respect to Berwald and Tino but mostly ignoring Emil, Arthur and Francis. Jan agreed to lead us to Ludwig, albeit not without lecturing Mathias on the consequences that could have, but in the end he bowed to the wish of his Lord.

It was not that Jan was exactly unfriendly, at least it didn't feel like that, but he seemed rather uneasy around people who didn't belong to the social ranks he was so used to be around. He tried to ease up a bit and gave a few curt explanation of the status of the prisoners and after Arthur had asked he further explained the plans they had for our departure but he couldn't quite shake his cold attitude.

We had of course let Mathias in on the whole news at first and it was no surprise to me that he wasn't pleased at all. He still insisted on seeing Ludwig though, but I figured that was mostly because I wanted to. On the way to the cellar where they were kept Mathias caught up to me and gently nudged me with his elbow. How he did that at the same time as fluently using his crutches to walk was beyond me. "It will be fine, I'll protect you, I promise." He said with a warm smile and hadn't we been in the middle of far too much company, I would have pulled him down in a deep kiss right now. I didn't doubt a second that Mathias would smash his crutches over anyone's head who dared to lay a finger on me.

"Oi Tino." Mathias yelled, as if he had heard my thoughts. "Thanks for these. Did you get the wood from an ugly wood troll who sold you his mother that turned into a tree?" He grinned wildly at Tino as he indicated the crutches. Tino smiled back, an evil glint in his eyes. "My pleasure Mathias, I hope they don't break under you heavy ass, the troll's mother seemed rather old you know." Mathias burst into laughter, startling Jan who wasn't used to Mathias open personality.

Still I knew that both Mathias and Tino were just as nervous as the rest of us, it was just their way of dealing with it. To Jan's terror Mathias insisted on hopping down the steep cellar steps with his crutches and every time the wood creaked the slightest bit he winced and almost seemed ready to jump down the stairs to function as a cushion in the case Mathias should fall.

But whatever wood troll got enchanted into a tree was stable enough to survive the abuse and we all reached the bottom of the stairs unharmed. There was a long corridor at the end of the stairs, a few torches stuck in iron holders at the wall, making the shadows dance with every disturbance of air. The corridor was lined with doors and one door was guarded by two bored looking soldiers who snapped to attention once they spotted their superior.

It was pretty crowded with all of us down there so we decided to only let a small group in the room and so Jan, Mathias, Berwald and I stepped through the door into the damp cool room. Jan was carrying a torch to add to the light that two candles on top of a big wheel of cheese cast into the room. Okay there came all the food from.

Three figures slumped against one wall that had been cleared to make space for them. A fourth lied on the floor on what appeared to be a linen sac; half of his face was hidden under a bloody bandage. A plate with a few bread crumbs was placed before them, the meal that Hannah had brought them before. One of the men looked up, his eyes were shadowed but his features were clear enough for me to recognize.

Ludwig.

...