Book One – Chapter 15

With his oh-so-special senses, Yu had expected a job that consisted of standing around, sitting around, and staring around. It was, in fact, the only part of this entire arrangement he had remotely looked forward to — shitty joke fully intended.

Combat? Magic? He lacked not just skill and experience for either, but even the basic physiology to fake it. He could not stress enough his lack of arms, hands, or any other practical extremity one might employ in a fight. That alone should have firmly planted him on the easy side of things.

Of all the soul-sucking ways to scrape together a living, this had actually seemed one of the least intolerable. Room and board included? A small mercy. Though it was hard to feel grateful while standing in this claustrophobic cave, surrounded by shit weather, a deadly witch coven, and expectations he could never hope to meet. Truthfully, he hated everything about this place.

If it were up to him, Yu would have happily spent his life “rotting away”, as his shirka had called it, back in his room on her estate. Those years had been perfect — well, they would have been, if not for Tria herself. Though by now, Yu would take her over arseholes like Estingar and Gurs in a heartbeat.

Yu had grown up cocooned in comfort, never wanting for money, clean clothes, or food. Responsibilities? Someone else’s problem. His life had been a hazy, indulgent dream, untouched by the petty dramas that consumed everyone else, and blissfully free of the endless expectations people seemed so eager to shackle themselves to.

Stepping outside? Socialising? Pretending to be a functional, respectable part of the community? Pretending to feel blessed to be alive? Pretending to want to be?

None of it had been necessary.

None of it had mattered.

Because, as simple as it was, Yu had not mattered.

And it had been perfect.