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The sun was just about to pierce the veil of forest when Darius and Tohre miles and miles and miles away from the site of the abduction and the reeted theround hallway

"Are you sure about this?" Tohr his satchel to his opposite shoulder

At the present, Darius felt sure about nothing For truth, he was surprised that he and the boy had et free of that syht In point of fact, however, they had been escorted out as though they had been invited guests

Then again, sin-eaters always kept their own best advantage in sight, and verily, Darius and Tohrreater use to the head of that household alive as opposed to dead

"Are you sure?" Tohro therein"

"Alas, ht to do with you" Darius walked forward, picking up the beaten path that led to the front door, said groundway having been created by the repeated passing of his own boots "I shall not have you sleeping on the cold stone floor of the Toh, but has a roof and walls sufficient to shelter not one, but two"

For a brief moment, he entertained a fantasy that he lived as he had once done, in a castle full of rooen and lovely appointments, in a luxurious place where he could open his doors to friends and family and have those whom he loved safe and secure and tended to

Perhaps he would find a way to have that again

Although given that he had no fa to pursue with alacrity

Popping the cast-iron latch free, he put his torso to the oak door-- which, considering its size and heft, was more of a movable wall After he and Tohr went inside, he lit the oil la a broad beam thick as a tree trunk across the panel

So le pallet across the way And there was not much more to be had down below the earth, just some precious supplies and a hidden tunnel that terminated well into the bounds of the forest

"Shall we have a repast?" Darius said as he began to disarm

"Yes, sire"

The boy re down onto his haunches and lighting the peat that was always set when there wasn&039;t a fire burning As the scent of the s moss wafted over, Darius pulled up the trapdoor in the dirt floor and went underground to his food and ale and his parchments He returned with cheeses and breads and slow over Tohr&039;s face as he warmed his hands and asked, "What dost thou make of it all?"

Darius joined the boy and shared what little he had to offer with the only guest he had ever had in his hoe bedfellows But the concept that our interests could be aligned with one of those things is an anatheain, he seemed equally disposed toward shock and disard than we favor them We are but rats at their feet"

Tohrment partook of the ale flask "I should never wish to ust my senses All of them"

"And he feels similarly The fact that his blooded son took the female and held her even for a day within his walls made him ill He is as incented as we to find both parties returned unto their families"

"But why use us?"

Darius&039; smiled coldly "To punish the son &039;Tis the perfect corrective action--to have the female&039;s kind rip his &039;love&039; from him and leave hie that inferiors had bested hi her home safe? Her family will move and take her away, and never, ever allow ill to befall her again She will live long on the earth and that sin-eater&039;s spawn shall have to know that for every day he draws breath This is in their nature--and precisely the kind of soul shattering that the father could not atteo and ould find"

Tohrment shook his head like he didn&039;t understand the way the other race thought "She will be ruined in the eyes of her bloodline Indeed, the glymera will shun them all--"