Author's Note:

As most of you know, this book will be a collection of extra stories for the Northbound Pilgrimage series. Unless I specify it otherwise, they are all canon for the saga :) As always, I will move the plotline summaries to be the first chapter, but for now, here are some extra bits :)

This is a side story I wrote for another competition – a spring one with an April Fool's theme. It doesn't depend on anything in the main story, but it does portray the characters from it and the main fic version of them. But still, this story is fine to read by anyone who doesn't know the main fic too.

I hope you'll enjoy it and see trigger warnings below. Despite the theme, this story got a little dark on me O:)

Thank you for reading.

Fun and Games

The sun was shining brightly that day, reflecting the colorful mosaics of the nearby ruin.

He always loved watching the display of colors. He loved camping by any Ayleid structures. It was definitely less bleak than their usual spots – the run-down old farms or musty caves. Those always made him feel weird. He kept coughing and having a hard time breathing in those. He didn't know why, but he always felt like shit there. Not that anyone cared.

Well, Bishop did. He always made sure to take him out on hunts or wherever he went, just so that they were out of those places as much as possible.

But camping outside near the ruins was much better. Especially when the weather was so nice. And the colorful mosaics helped his mood a lot. For a time, he could almost forget about the company. It sucked when everyone was in the camp.

Today though, he and Bishop managed to find a somewhat private place among the pillars. Unless someone looked for them, they wouldn't know they were there.

"What was the name again?" Jules mused as he watched the glittering spectacle.

"Hrotunda… Dale. Or something," Bishop shrugged. "I don't know. They all sound fucking weird."

Right. Yeah. It was something like that. Jules was curious about it and he asked some folks in Chorrol the last time Bishop and he went, but Bishop wasn't too thrilled about him asking anyone at all. He didn't get it, but then Bishop said that people might figure out they were staying there. It made sense. Nobody was ever supposed to know where they were staying. It was annoying. Sometimes Jules made a friend in some city when Bishop was busy, but he couldn't tell them where to find him if he wanted to hang out with them again. It sucked. It was like he couldn't have a friend outside of the family. And he wouldn't mind if Bishop was here more, but he left often. And when they weren't in one of those places that made Jules feel bad, he didn't take him with.

"Your turn," Bishop tore him from his thoughts. He smirked at him confidently as he pointed to the bunch of small twigs and pebbles on the ground between them. He arranged his elaborately already and now it was Jules's turn to shine.

He started to rearrange his twigs and pebbles quickly. Bishop watched him with a measured eye, but soon he got that crease between his brows that told Jules instantly that he was confused. When he was done, he knew he had some explanations to make.

"My stick knight beats your stone atronach because he has the double sword. My three will-o-the-rocks kill your spriggan and I have two rock trolls which kill your stick minotaur. You didn't have enough sticks for its axe," Jules chuckled.

Bishop blinked a few times as he watched the mess of pebbles and twigs in the grass and the way Jules arranged them. He could practically see his mind working, trying to make sense of what just happened.

"Seriously?" His brother finally scoffed in indignation. "How the fuck are you so good at this? You're fucking eleven! You're not supposed to keep beating me at stupid games."

"You're just bad at it! Why would you make a stick minotaur without the axe? It's so useless. And spriggans are shit too," Jules laughed.

"Yeah, yeah, you're just too fucking smart for your own good," Bishop smirked.

"Rematch? Maybe this time you'll be lucky," Jules grinned at him. He wouldn't. But it was still fun to play with him. It always brightened his day to be doing anything with Bishop.

"Fine. This time I'm not going easy on you," Bishop nodded with determination. Hah! As if he wasn't trying his best before.

The two of them began to distribute the pebbles and twigs again according to the rules they worked on ages ago. They'd been playing this game for so long. And many others. But somehow it never got old.

"You start this time," Bishop smirked when they were done. As if that was gonna help him.

Jules looked at his own collection critically. Bishop wouldn't know what hit him. He was going to assemble an army he was never going to beat.

He started to arrange his first fighter, but before he could even finish, a voice interrupted them.

"There you are!"

Their little sister's face lit up as she spotted them in their secluded place. Liesl skipped over closer to them and instantly started to examine what they'd been doing – all those twigs and pebbles in the grass there.

"Playing a game. It's only for two," Jules promptly grumbled. Liesl would ruin the game for them. They would have to explain all the rules to her and she would probably not understand them properly. It wouldn't be as much fun with her there.

"I've seen this one! You're playing those rock armies. That game is so boring! We should play something else," Liesl suggested. She knelt down by the two of them and looked ready to grab all their game 'equipment' and probably toss it.

"No. We're playing this. Go away," Jules snarled at her. He knew she would come here and ruin the fun he was having with Bishop. He quickly outstretched his hand to prevent her from touching their rocks and sticks.

"But I can't play this one with you!" She whined. "Bishop, you don't care what we play, right? We can play something else."

"I don't give a shit," Bishop shrugged. What? Why? Weren't they having fun? Jules felt a little down by that comment. But whatever Liesl would come up with wouldn't be nearly this much fun for sure.

"No, I wanna play this one," Jules growled. He liked this game. Bishop always talked about how smart Jules was after. He was the only one who ever called him smart. And nobody else understood this game anyway so they couldn't see how good Jules was at it. He wanted to play with him longer.

"Fine!" Liesl huffed. Finally! She was gonna leave them to it. "I'll play the next round with Bishop then."

Ugh. Fine. That was probably just gonna be a quick round. Bishop was gonna beat her easily.

Jules only grumbled under his breath again, but he didn't protest further. Maybe she'd get bored even sooner than their round would end. But right now, he needed to concentrate on the game and on beating Bishop.

He could make another small army of will-o-the-wisps. Those were always strong in numbers. But then again, if he used his pebbles to make an ogre instead, it might…

"Sheesh, you're taking sooo long," Liesl huffed. "Just make the little stick men with swords, come on!"

"Yeah, Jules. Just make the little stick men," Bishop smirked at him.

"Pffft. Stupid. I'd lose then," Jules rolled his eyes at Liesl.

"Who cares? It's just a game. Just hurry up so that I can play too," Liesl poked him.

"I wanna win! Trying to win is the fun part. Leave me alone," he brushed her off quickly.

"But I wanna play too! There's nothing to do here!" She whined once more. She was really getting on Jules's nerves.

"Go pester Kari!" Jules tried to chase her off.

"I don't wanna talk to that bitch!" Now it was Liesl who snarled disdainfully. It was fair, Kari was always being a bitch. And she was the worst to Liesl. But nobody was around right now, except for Rina, but Jules wasn't mean enough to send Liesl to her.

But he didn't want her here.

"Come on, hurry up already! Does he always take this long?" She turned to Bishop again.

Shit. Bishop was looking kind of annoyed. Liesl was ruining everything.

"You know what? Take my place. You two can both play then," he let out a sigh as he began to get up from the ground.

Wait, what? No! Jules wanted to play this one with Bishop!

"No, come on, Bishop. You don't have to do that! I'll… I'll hurry up," Jules grumbled. Maybe that would shut her up and he'd be able to still play with Bishop. But he might actually lose for the first time. Liesl wouldn't dare to rush Bishop like this.

"Nah, we can't ruin your streak because you're rushing," Bishop chuckled. Now he really did get up. "Seriously, I don't care. You two can play."

What did he mean he 'didn't care'?

But… maybe he could just watch Jules play. He could give him tips that would eventually be kinda useless because Jules was better at this than him, but it would still be fun.

Liesl eagerly sat down opposite Jules. She better stop rushing him now that she finally got to play.

"Have fun," Bishop smirked and waved goodbye.

Wait. He was leaving? Why was he leaving?

"Where are you going?" Jules's eyes widened. He thought they could team up. Not that he needed the help, but he just wanted to play with Bishop more.

"Chorrol. Met a girl there yesterday. I'll go see if I can find her again," Bishop grinned.

Great. He was not gonna come back in ages. And Jules would be stuck with Liesl now when he was pissed at her. She ruined everything. Bishop wasn't gonna leave, not even because of some girl, not until Liesl showed up and started being annoying.

"Rina says girls don't like beat-up scum with black eyes and fat lips," Liesl chuckled at him mockingly.

"Rina says a lot of bullshit," Bishop rolled his eyes at her. "Besides, it depends on what story you make up for how you got it," he gestured vaguely to his still somewhat prominent black eye. Jules knew all too well how he got it. When Jules was having a hard time breathing a few days ago when it was too rainy and he hid when Torban was looking for him, Bishop covered for him. Again. He always did.

He wasn't sure what stories Bishop was making up, but it didn't matter much. He was clearly intent on leaving and it pissed Jules off.

"Don't let her beat you, Jules," Bishop grinned at him before he turned on his heel. Pffft. As if. But Jules was now much less eager to play.

He watched Bishop walk away for a while until the annoying voice interrupted him again. How did this day turn so shitty so quickly?

"Come on! Play already. I wanna have my turn."

…

Jules had been plotting for a while now.

Liesl was being so pushy and clingy lately, it was seriously making him annoyed. She wasn't usually this bad and he sometimes kinda liked hanging out with her, but he liked hanging out with Bishop much more and she was always butting in.

But Jules knew what to do. He had a plan.

Liesl was easily… distracted. He just had to play on one of her obsessions and she would be in her own little world, day-dreaming the hours away.

And he had just the thing.

A year ago, Liesl found out who her father was. Not that it fucking mattered, but she got obsessed with it for some reason. Rina was lying anyways. Even Bishop said so. Her father wasn't some University mage! Fancy people like that weren't going anywhere near filth like Rina.

But Liesl now thought that she was some natural-born mage or scholar. She was obsessing over it for a long time, but it wasn't that bad lately. Well… it wasn't exactly ever 'bad'. She wasn't so needy when she was in that bubble of hers.

Jules had a great idea on how to get her back into it.

Liesl was deep in it when she could get someone to steal some books for her, or do it herself, but Chorrol wasn't exactly ideal for that. It was an expensive and well-guarded city for the most part and the slums had little to offer when it came to books and shit. Jules wasn't even sure why they'd been near Chorrol for so long. Torban always bitched about it not being that profitable for them.

But he had another idea.

He asked Bishop to get him some parchment and charcoal. He said it was for sketches of his future stick armies, but that was a lie. He needed it to lure Liesl back in. This would be great. A fun prank and she would get obsessed again to boot.

Bishop was currently doing some work Torban made him do in the city, so Jules had a good opportunity to prepare everything in their secluded place. He would tell Bishop once it was done and they could laugh together at how easily Liesl got duped.

Now he just needed to make it look believable.

He grabbed the charcoal and began to sharpen it against a nearby rock. It couldn't be too thick. He was sure that fancy people had all their charcoal sharpened.

And it was easier to write with it anyway. He needed to get to work.

.

Dear Liesl Thrice-Banished,

we're happy to tell you that we want you to study at the Arcane University. You were chosen to be one of our mages. Congratulations. Come to the University to study with us.

Arch-Mage of the University

.

There. She would definitely get obsessed with being a mage now. And she would start pestering Rina again to tell her more about the fancy mage father of hers and she'd be trying to get books again to be a proper mage, even though she didn't know any magic. She did that the last time and they all laughed at how ridiculous she was being. Nobody would ever want her at the Arcane University of all places.

It was gonna be so funny to watch her obsess like that again.

Now he just needed to sneak the letter into her bedroll, like if a mage just summoned it there somehow. This was gonna be so good.

He couldn't wait to tell Bishop and laugh about it with him.

…

The next day couldn't come soon enough. Jules wanted to see if his prank worked.

It couldn't have come at a better time. Bishop came back last night and told Jules that he botched up the job. He would definitely need something to laugh about today.

It wasn't unexpected after that that Jules was woken up by the screaming. It happened a lot whenever Torban woke up, pissed, hungover and demanding results for the tasks he gave everyone the previous day. But funnily enough, the yelling only ever woke Jules up when he knew Bishop was the one getting punished. Maybe because he was expecting it. The other siblings would hardly tell him when they fucked up. Or maybe it was just because it was Bishop. He once told Jules that him getting punished always woke him up too. That kind of made Jules feel like they had some special tele-whatever-that-word-was bond.

Today was no different. Jules probably missed most of the commotion, based on what Torban was yelling for the whole camp to hear.

"You ever fuck me over this fucking stupidly again, whelp, remember that this is only a fucking fraction of what I'll do to you!"

There was no answer. There was never any answer. Nobody dared to answer.

"This is your fucking fault, cunt! Every fucking one of them is useless! And he's getting more fucking bratty and useless each year!" The next outburst was clearly aimed at Rina. There was a sound of a loud slap then and the familiar grunt of pain from her but, fortunately for her, that was apparently where it ended today.

"Ost! With me! Now!"

Right. Now he needed to calm himself by fawning over his fucking perfect mini-copy. He always said he needed to send Ost to fix whatever mess any of the others made, but Jules didn't believe that was true. Bishop also expressed his doubts before. Some of those fuck-ups were unfixable.

When the yelling stopped, Jules waited several more minutes, just to be sure not to cross paths with Torban when he was this pissed, and then he carefully got out of his bedroll.

He was excited to check on Liesl. But first he needed to check on someone else. He knew where Bishop would be licking his wounds.

Jules snuck towards their secluded spot once more. He didn't want anyone seeing him just yet. When Torban was in a mood like this, he either distributed jobs to whoever he spotted, or punches.

Nobody noticed him though. And as he suspected, Bishop was there with a wet cloth in his hand, dabbing the blood on his lip and cooling the welt around his previously unharmed eye.

"Hey," Jules cringed a bit at the sight. It was always shitty to see him like this. It was shitty to see any of them like this, but it was especially shitty when it was Bishop.

"Hey," Bishop tried to smirk at him a little, but he winced instead.

"Need any help?" Jules offered. He could go scour the camp for a cleaner cloth. Or he could go see if he could find some lady's mantle leaves that Bishop could rub on the welt to suppress the pain a bit.

"I'm good," Bishop dismissed him. True enough, it wasn't anything new. He was grouchy though. Of course he was. Jules was gonna cheer him up today.

"Hey, I have a surprise," he grinned at Bishop.

"Oh yeah? What surprise?" Bishop looked interested. That was a good sign. Sometimes he got way too grouchy to even get excited about stuff or even talk to him when Torban was being an asshole. But Jules was glad it wasn't the case today.

"I can't tell you! It wouldn't be a surprise then," Jules chuckled. "But I'll show you soon. I just have to go check how it went."

"Alright then," Bishop tried to smile again. "I'll be here." Good. He wasn't going back to the city today. This would be probably too much for whatever girl he met there, no matter the stories he made up.

Jules skipped away promptly, leaving Bishop to take care of his injuries himself. There was not much to help him with anyway.

He snuck around the camp first, making sure that Torban was nowhere to be seen, before he would approach anyone. The first one he spotted was Morgen. He was sitting behind one of the tents, looking very nervous. His slightly ashen skin made him almost blend with the fur of the tent. That was possibly intentional, but his red hair kinda made it pointless.

"Hey," Jules addressed him. The young boy's eyes snapped to Jules instantly with a startled expression in them, but when he spotted who it was, he promptly scowled.

"Piss off. I'm hiding from Rina," the half-Dunmer growled. He was always hiding from her.

"Have you seen Liesl?" Jules ignored the 'request' and asked what he needed to ask anyway.

"What do I care? Piss off, I said!" Morgen hissed.

Ugh. Fine. Talking to him was just pointless.

He needed to find Kari if he couldn't find Liesl first. He wasn't even going to entertain the naïve idea that he would be able to find Aces. He wasn't even sure if she was around lately.

After a while, the sound of a crying child and angry hisses of chastisement summoned him to where he needed to go. And soon enough, he spotted his older sister sitting by a tree, holding the crying baby Garlic in her hands.

"Shut up, you little brat," she hissed again.

"Hey Kari," Jules interrupted the scene, talking a bit louder than he liked in order to be heard over the cries.

"There you fucking are! Take this thing," Kari instantly started to outstretch her hands, trying to pawn off the crying baby on Jules.

"Can't. I'm looking for Liesl. Did you see her?" He quickly shook his head.

"I've been looking for that little bitch all night!" Kari suddenly bristled in anger. "I was stuck with this crying brat instead. She's the one who likes to take care of him!"

Wait… all night? Why look for her all night? Wasn't she just… in her bed?

This made Jules a little nervous. Why wouldn't she be in her bed? Was she that excited about the letter that she went to… maybe reread her old books somewhere where snoring wouldn't disturb her? Yeah. That was likely.

"Are you taking the brat or not?" Kari barked at him.

"Not," Jules stuck out his tongue. "Gotta find Liesl."

"Tell her to come get this little shit!" Kari called out just as Jules ran off again. "Or tell Bishop. That fucker's not helping either!"

Yeah, Bishop had other concerns right now. And so did Jules.

He ran to the fire in the middle of their camp. He was hoping to avoid this, but there was nobody else he could talk to. Aces was surely not here and if he could find Liesl herself, he would have spotted her by now. She must have been hiding somewhere.

There, by the fire, only two people could be found. Rina was drawing some shit into the dirt on the ground, probably some of her stupid runes again. And then there was the little Redguard. Duful. He looked like a slaughterfish out of water. Both Torban and Ost were nowhere around and he always looked kind of freaked out when they weren't there.

"Have you seen Liesl?" Jules asked Rina. He never wanted to talk to her, but he had no choice now.

"No. All of you ungrateful little shits keep hiding somewhere, like you think you can escape shit. There's no escape. This is life. If you weren't such uppity brats, you would see that the only way to escape it is to find a purpose in Mara's teachings. But all of you fuckers are disobedient and ruined. Where is Morgen?" She hissed.

Yup. Ranting again. He should have expected this.

"Dunno," Jules only sighed and he quickly turned on his heel and started to walk away. Rina was still muttering to herself something about 'ingrates', but he really didn't wanna listen. That was until another quiet voice stole his attention.

"She ain't hiding." It was almost a whisper. Jules got a bit startled about hearing Duful talk. The little Redguard was sitting there on the ground, still looking freaked. But just as Jules was passing him, he spoke. "I saw. At night. She had a pack and all. She was leavin'," he mumbled.

What? Leaving? What did he mean 'leaving'? How could she…

Shit.

Shit. Shit. Shit.

She tried to leave? Did she… did she try to leave for the University? It had to be because of that letter.

She couldn't leave! For one, they'd be looking for her. She would really get it once they found her. And also… the wilderness was dangerous! She was a nine year old girl! She couldn't do shit if she came across an ogre! Or even a wolf.

No. Jules had to find her. And nobody could know she left. Duful knew. Fuck. Should Jules ask him not to tell anyone? He wouldn't obey. He would tell Torban the first chance he got, that little suck-up.

"Oh. That," Jules chuckled merrily. "She wasn't leaving, you dolt. She had that pack to collect some herbs. She's being obsessive about herbs now. We went to collect them together last night. I just can't find her today. She's probably hiding though."

"Oh," Duful only nodded. He was too little to be able tell that Jules was lying, thank the fucking Gods.

Alright. Good. That was taken care of. Now he just needed to find Liesl.

He instantly ran towards the secluded spot. Fortunately, Bishop was still there. He was done cleaning the blood off himself by now and he was just lying in the grass, staring into the sky and probably waiting for Jules. As soon as he heard the footsteps, he straightened up.

"So, where's my surprise?" He chuckled. But a moment later, he seemed to notice Jules's expression.

"Bishop, I think I fucked up."

…

"You can find her, right? I really didn't want her to get in trouble," Jules asked nervously as they both made their way through some bramble and tall grass.

He explained everything to Bishop. And though he admitted that it was pretty funny when Liesl got sucked into her silly dreams of magic, this was a dangerous prank. If Liesl didn't get into trouble in the wilderness, she would still get very punished for 'escaping'.

Bishop and Jules just had to find her before anyone was the wiser. Kari had already been looking for her and Duful did see her leave, even though Jules was confident that he saved that one. This was a shitty situation he made happen and now he had to rely on Bishop to make it right. Again. He couldn't exactly fix this on his own.

It was just supposed to be a prank! It wasn't supposed to go like this.

"We'll find her. Don't worry," Bishop sighed. But Jules knew that he was worried himself. He was just doing this to calm Jules down.

He always did stuff like that.

Bishop tried to track Liesl's footsteps and the trampled grass from her bedroll. He said it was easy, but Jules could see how much he needed to concentrate and sometimes he stopped and kept looking in multiple directions for a long time, probably unsure where to go. It looked difficult. But Jules was still excited for Bishop to finally teach him all this stuff. He promised he would.

The very worrisome part was that they'd been at this for hours. And they were always steadily going in one direction – towards the Imperial City. That stupid tower did more harm than good sometimes, even though it helped everyone with directions. It helped Liesl too. Which meant… who the fuck knew how far she'd gotten?

Jules just worried they would come across her corpse on their way. Bishop already had to lead them away from a minotaur once before it noticed them.

They had been walking for hours and hours. And they would still definitely need to get back to the camp at least by nightfall. People might start looking for them otherwise. Torban didn't like them wandering away for too long.

"Let's try that place," Bishop pointed ahead. Jules wasn't even paying attention to where they were going, lost in his thoughts. But when Bishop's voice alerted him, he saw a small roadside tavern.

He didn't even know it was there. He didn't even know where they were. They'd been going through the forest for so long. He hoped Bishop remembered the way back.

Could Liesl be there? Maybe she got hurt on the way. Maybe she needed help. Maybe she was in trouble. Why else would she stop? She was always so determined when she got something into her head.

Jules took a nervous breath and nodded. Bishop was already rushing towards the tavern. Jules could see how worried he had been about Liesl too.

He fucked up so bad this time.

Jules rushed after him and they both entered the tavern together. There wasn't much inside – it was a tiny and cheap place with barely ten patrons sitting by their tables. But that wasn't important. What was important was the voice calling out to them.

"Bishop! Jules! You're here!"

Liesl ran across the room to meet them by the door. She looked… fine. She was smiling and all cheerful and she wasn't hurt or terrified at all. That was a load off Jules's mind. He thought she would be hurt and scared for sure.

But… nothing bad happened to her. And they could still make it back to the camp in time without anyone the wiser. Hopefully.

"What are you doing here?" Liesl's eyes widened a bit when she realized she had no idea why she was suddenly seeing her brothers in this remote place.

"What the fuck do you think? Looking for you. You ran off," Bishop threw up his arms. "Are you alright? Are you hurt or something?"

"Nope. All good," Liesl grinned. "But I thought I'd come here. The woods are kinda scary. I saw a minotaur from afar!"

Thank the fucking Gods it was just from afar.

"I'm not going back though. I'm sorry. Even if Torban sent you, I'm not going," Liesl shook her head. "Because… look!" She rummaged in her pocket and pulled out a very familiar parchment. This was the letter Jules pranked her with. He knew it was all his fault. But at least she was fine.

Bishop took the letter from her and read it. A mocking scoff escaped his lips as he did. What? Jules made it pretty damn believable! Liesl believed it.

"Yeah. This is bullshit. Come on, let's go before it's too late," he shook his head and outstretched his hand to Liesl to lead her out, but she only took a step back and shook her head as well.

"It's not! It's real. There's a mage from the University who believes it's real. He's gonna help me. Take me there so that I don't get lost or ambushed on the way!" Liesl beamed and she pointed to an older man in the corner of the tavern. He didn't look like a mage – he wore only simple clothes and no colorful robes or a staff, but Liesl was clearly telling the truth – she had talked to him. He was watching their conversation so intently.

She found a mage to take her to the University? That was… that was amazing! Jules was so worried he got her in trouble, but he actually saved her! She was going to get to the University – this mage must have seen some potential in her, despite the letter being fake. Or maybe he really did believe the letter was real and wanted to help her get there. She was gonna study spells and even Torban wouldn't dare to drag her away from the fucking University!

This was amazing.

"We're going," Bishop suddenly snarled angrily. "Jules, get her pack. Now. We're leaving." He pointed to the pack tossed by the feet of the man's table.

"What? But…" Jules gave him a confused look. Why would Bishop do this? He always said that all of them needed to escape this wretched life. He always concocted plans with Jules on how they would eventually do it. Why would he want to take this chance away from Liesl?

"No! I'm not going back," Liesl huffed. "Why are you doing this? I didn't think you're like them." It was clear what she meant. Ost and Torban were always there, menacing and dragging all the 'whelps' back to the clan when they were gone too long or when they were needed. Nobody could escape. But Liesl had a chance now! If it weren't for Bishop…

What was wrong with him?

"Don't talk back. You're coming," Bishop hissed and grabbed Liesl's wrist. All the while he was throwing very hateful glances at the man in the corner. "Jules, the pack. Now."

Fuck, Bishop could be scary when he got like this. Jules obeyed instantly but he still didn't understand a thing. The air was tense as fuck and even that man glared at Bishop. Did he hear the exchange? Jules approached carefully and he grabbed the pack. The man didn't say a word though and Jules could come back to the door without any incidents.

"No! He's gonna take me to the University! I wanna go!" Liesl whined, but she obviously wasn't even trying to get out of Bishop's grip. She may have been too scared to.

Bishop didn't say another word as he dragged Liesl out of the tavern and Jules followed. Liesl was already sobbing, but she didn't fight back. Only when they were a couple of feet away from the place, Bishop let her go.

She rushed ahead, only to be away from him, but she did start marching towards the camp again, just as she was told. Though her sobs still echoed through the forest.

Then Jules finally dared to catch up with Bishop and talk. His voice was quiet and he wasn't sure if it was because he was still a little scared of Bishop's mood, or if he just didn't want Liesl to hear them.

"Why did you do that? I know the letter was fake, but the guy believed it. He would have taken her to the University and…"

"He wouldn't," Bishop growled quietly. "Jules, for fuck's sake, that letter wouldn't convince anyone but Liesl. And that guy was some fucking greasy drunk in a tavern in the middle of nowhere. You really think he was secretly a fucking University mage?"

Oh. Oh. Shit.

"What… where was he gonna take her?" Jules asked uncertainly. He wasn't sure he wanted to know. Fuck, Bishop probably didn't know.

"Does it matter?" Bishop scoffed. "Don't ever think there's no places worse than under Torban's heel."

A shiver ran down Jules's spine. He couldn't even begin to imagine a place worse than that.

"Never do shit like that to her again, understood?"

Jules only nodded hurriedly. It was just supposed to be a harmless prank. It was supposed to cheer Bishop up too. Jules didn't really understand what Bishop just prevented – he just couldn't wrap his head around the concept of a place worse than their camp, full of their siblings and with Torban looming over them.

But he hoped he would never get to find one of those places that surpassed it.

* Trigger warnings: portrayal of an abusive and unhealthy environment, brief descriptions of child abuse and spousal abuse, implications of potential kidnapping attempt, little children cursing a lot (I don't know if that's a thing to warn about, but why not?)