The Great Escape (3/3)

They walk a little further, and they see a large bin just outside one of the servant halls meandering off from the main hall. It's a giant dumpster filled to the brim with trash.

Haalfrin takes a quick look at it and says, "Hm... What do they usually do with the trash?"

The Felkin girl answers, "I chat with Tina - one of the maids. She said that they take the trash out and burn it in a bonfire up out of the pit to avoid the stench."

Haalfrin turns to the boys and sees they're both hesitating while looking at the trash. He rolls his eyes. "You guys got tough bodies, so a simple wood fire won't hurt you at all. One of you. Get in there like you discussed earlier."

The boys both look at each other, and one says to the other, "I know we talked about escaping through the trash, but it's a lot stinkier than I thought. I'm the elder brother, so you should get in."

"No!" the younger one protests, "I won't! I-"

Before they can argue further, Haalfrin just rolls his eyes at them and knocks them both unconscious. He picks them up and hurls them into the trash bin.

For good measure, he takes out the bag full of clothes his 4 charges had changed out of when they donned their servant's clothing. He throws it in the trash as well, to cover them up.

It just so happened that the moment after Haalfrin threw the boys away, a very tired-looking kitchen servant had come out with a bucket full of kitchen scraps.

The servant tries saying something to him, but Haalfrin has no idea what the man means – not even what language he's using.

So, Haalfrin just acts embarrassed and responds in the crow language, "Do you know Crow?"

The servant pauses, then responds in broken crow. "Me... uh. sSow-ree? Me ass Who you?"

'Crap. This servant knows Crow.' Haalfrin had hoped he could just pretend that he can't answer the servant's questions due to a language barrier. 'Time for plan B.'

So, Haalfrin puts on his friendly voice, and he starts talking as fast as he can, "You're sorry? Who am I? I'm just a newly hired cook who recently lost his family, so I..."

Haalfrin didn't have a backstory prepared, so he just makes sure to talk in a terrible accent and speak really fast.

The questioning servant sounded like he could barely speak Crow, so this should make him unable to tell that Haalfrin doesn't have a plausible explanation as to why he's in the employee section of the Palace.

The servant gets quickly overwhelmed and just nods his head absently before bowing, apologizing, and leaving. With so many clans around, it's normal for there to be a lot of language barriers.

Haalfrin does one last, polite bow before calmly walking back to where the last girl in his charge is waiting for him.

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Next, we see Haalfrin and the Felkin girl go further toward the exit. She starts to get a little nervous and says, "Um, sir? We can't just go through the front doors. There's too many guards, and they'll notice me."

Haalfrin points to all the hundreds of carriages parked, and he looks around for a moment. He briefly glances at the carriage he and his comrades were supposed to be going back in. He could easily put the little princess there, in his own carriage.

On the slim chance the humans manage to escape with the Felkin girl, the girl would be taken back to the Theshold, and the emperor would likely get what he wants – easy access to a poor Felkin child and her valuable feathers.

Still, these ARE the emperor's orders; he could do his job well and blame this evil on the emperor and his slave collar for making him do it.

Normally, Haalfrin wouldn't even care about giving the emperor what he wants, but he knows that kidnapping the daughter would anger Fheldin so much that he'd no longer have any reservations about killing him.

This way, Haalfrin could get what he wants and die "doing his duty." Nobody could question him about it in the afterlife, right?

Haalfrin's fingers twitch, and he freezes in place, not knowing if he should do it or not.

"Sir? What's wrong?" the teenage girl asks with worry on her face.

"I'm thinking real quick." Haalfrin looks down at the girl. She seems to be very trusting of him for whatever reason, so she thinks nothing of his odd behavior.

Even though she'd probably never make it to the Brancotte emperor, just the act of sending her there feels wrong to Haalfrin. Plus, he'd be putting his comrades and the entire Threshold in danger of Lord Fheldin's wrath.

Still, a little voice in his head is sinisterly whispering in his ears, 'So what? You were just working for the emperor to get across the World Gate, and you only joined the Threshold because they offered to heal your leg. Fulfilling the emperor's orders still counts as falling in battle, so Freyya will claim your soul if the dragon lord catches you.'

Haalfrin looks down and remembers Das showing him the death realm – specifically, he remembers one key difference between a dead person and a living one.

A dead person... never changes. If you die as a particular kind of person, you're stuck that way for all eternity.

Does Haalfrin really want to be an unscrupulous b*stard for all eternity? Would Freyya really continue to be friends with such a person?

No. She had told him that she wanted to be friends with him because she saw something great in him, and she believed he could be that person one day.

Haalfrin thinks briefly about what kind of soldier he really wants to be, and it finally clicks for him.

'No,' he thinks, 'A soldier of honor fights to end conflict at his own expense. To him, war is a sacrifice, not an opportunity.'

With that, Haalfrin feels something click in his soul, and he feels something in his soul start to unlock. It's the familiar sensation of learning another Name.

However, just before the gate fully opens up, the key in his soul stops turning halfway through, and everything is still in his soul once more.

Sighing heavily, Haalfrin thinks, 'Well, I suppose everything was going TOO smoothly after getting all these Names.'

He remembers his old master teaching him about how a mage may have to fall into an epiphany about their soul many times before they can finally comprehend their Names. Of course, Comprehending a Name becomes harder and harder the more Names you have.

With that disappointment out of the way, Haalfrin clears his head of the distracting thoughts and continues with the mission.

With his mind made up, Haalfrin completely passes by his own carriage – resolutely leaving it behind him.

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Once he gets over his indecision earlier, Haalfrin turns in another direction and walks up to a completely different carriage.

After rummaging around a bit with his magic, he mutters, "Aha!" Haalfrin uses his magic and quickly pulls out one of the barrels that was strapped securely inside one of the carriages. He opens it up to reveal a huge trunk full of clean, neatly folded clothes.

Haalfrin opens another identical barrel next to it, and this time, it's full of dirty clothes, and it's completely full. Haalfin whispers to young Felkin girl beside him, "It's probably going to take them longer to open this barrel since normal people don't do laundry every day. Here. I'll burn the clothes. You get in."

After the girl climbs in the barrel, Haalfrin takes out a folded letter and holds it up to her. "Can you read this?" he asks.

"No...," the girl admits reluctantly. "I haven't gotten to learn that language yet."

Instead of getting annoyed at her, Haalfrin nods. "Ok. No problem. It's just instructions for the one going to pick you up, so make sure you keep it close to you and hold onto it. Don't show anyone this letter until they find you in the barrel."

The girl nods her head vigorously and gives him a little solute - imitating the solute she saw the human soldiers giving each other earlier that night.

Chuckling, Haalfrin thinks this is kind of childishly adorable - he'd seen the youngsters in his own Kareen clan act similarly.

So, he pats her head and pulls out one final thing. "Also take this package. It's full of supplies for the trip. I have some food and clothes needed for you."

With that, he seals the barrel back up and pokes a few holes in it to give her air to breathe.

He then slinks away and makes extra care to erase any traces of himself on the way back to his room – leaving only her own scent trail.

For now, his work is complete, and he can go back to sleep.