Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Thump. Thump. Thump. Thump.

Martyn can feel his heart thumping in his chest, body crawling with nerves and adrenaline. His breath, slightly quicker than normal, is muffled by the green fabric covering the lower half of his face. He is close now. Right down the corridor and around the corner. He slowly continues down the hallway, passing tall doors, hearing the shuffles of steps behind them, murmurs of people talking. But he ignores those sounds, instead focusing on the sounds of the guards in front of the chamber he needs to get to. They are silent, sometimes a quiet shuffle from a small movement. 

As Martyn gets to the turn in the hallway, he peers around the corner carefully. He sees the two guards, one on each side of the doors. The doors are even taller than the ones he passed earlier, made out of a rich brown wood, painted red around the edges, detailed with gold. Definitely the right room. 

He quickly ducks back around the wall when one of the guards starts turning towards him. He needs a way to distract them, a way to be able to get past them through the doors. Martyn starts humming quietly, muffled down by the fabric covering the lower half of his face to be quiet enough not to be heard by the guards. As he focuses on the sounds of his voice, he feels his magic become active. He turns around the corner once more, looking at the other side of the corridor, at the next bend. 

He releases his magic from his voice, willing it to move along the hallway, around the corner on the other side and making a sound as if someone had tripped and dropped something, leaving it clattering onto the ground.

The noises immediately pull the attention of the two guards, looking in the direction of its seeming place of origin. They turn to each other and nod, one moving further ahead from the other, making sure that at least one of them is still in the visible range of their post. Martyn hears the hurried footsteps from the guard further ahead as they run down the other corridor to check what the origin of the sound could be. The other guard, while in visible range of the doors, has his back turned, looking down the other corridor.

Martyn slowly enters the main hallway, closing in on the doors. He keeps his eyes on the guard with his back turned, and his ears pierced for any hints of the other guard returning to the hallway. As he gets to the doors and grabs onto one of the cool metal door handles, he takes a deep breath and wills his magic to dampen the creaking sound as he opens the door, keeping up concentration until he has entered the room and closes the door again behind him. 

He waits in front of the door, back turned to the chamber, listening for any hint that the guards might have noticed him. After a few moments, he hears the two guards closing in on the doors. Martyn’s whole body tenses up, ready for one of them to ram into the door, but then he hears one of them speak. “There is nothing. Probably just one of the other guards messing about.” They laugh it off before they go silent again.

Martyn takes another breath and turns around, moving further into the room.It is a large chamber, a carpet leading down a path, different artifacts displayed in cases along the sides. He gives a few of them a quick glance and spots a diamond axe, shining from the magic enchanting it, paired with similarly enchanted armor, he spots some jewelry, embedded with red gemstones. 

But these are not what he is after. He looks in front of him, at the only object not encased, instead laying on a pedestal. A book. The Enchanter. A spell book filled with powerful spells, written by a certain group of Listeners, but which was trusted to the royal family of Dogwarts centuries ago, who have kept it safe and guarded for all that time. Its magic has been passed down from Heir to Heir, each heir to the throne learns these spells to be able to protect their people.

It is a thick book, intricate details pressed into the leather binding it, including a familiar symbol on the cover, a symbol which is also engraved on Martyn’s necklace. The symbol of the listeners. 

Martyn reaches out his hand carefully towards the book, aware that it wouldn’t just be left in a room with no more defenses, aware that there is probably some type of alarm that would activate when touched or taken. As his hands brushes over the cover, he keeps his ear pierced for any sign of people running towards this room, but nothing yet. 

He opens the Enchanter, and starts flipping through the pages. He notices that there must be some type of preservation spell cast on it, the pages still being in surprisingly good shape for the age of the book. As he gets to the final pages, he sees a change in the writing. Yes, this is what he was after. The spells in the last section of the book are written in a different language, an old language that the Listeners who wrote the book used to make sure the spells could only be learnt by other Listeners who knew this language, preventing them from falling into the wrong hands. 

Throughout his time with the Listeners, Martyn had learnt some of the language, but he still struggles with reading it, often needing more time to be able to puzzle the meaning of it together. But he knows that somewhere within these pages, there is the spell that he needs, the spell that can take down the Watchers. A grin spreads on Martyn’s face as he closes the book again. He is closer than ever to beating them, his weapon is right in front of him, he only needs to get to them, and use it. 

Martyn’s hands hover on the sides of the spellbook, preparing himself before he grabs it and starts running along the walls of the room. He hears some panicked shuffles behind the doors. So, he was right about the Enchanter having an extra alarm, he assumes.

The two guards burst into the room, looking towards the pedestal where the spellbook had laid. He hears both of them let out a string of curses as they notice it being gone. They hurry further into the room, and Martyn takes his chance to run out of the doors, hearing the guards yell after him as he closes the doors and continues running. Once out of the doors, he hears more guards approaching from both sides. He stops for a moment to listen more closely. Less footsteps are sounding from the left, less guards, better chance of being able to get past them. 

Martyn starts running down the hallway towards the turn on the left. He feels the air through his cloak, attempting to pull his hood off. He holds the Enchanter underneath one arm, and holds his hood with the other. He continues running down the hallway until he spots the guards incoming. He goes to the nearest door, and quickly enters the room, hoping that they won’t have spotted him. 

He backs away from the door, further into the room, focusing on the nearing sounds of hurried footsteps. He only realises that he should have been more observant of his surroundings when he hears a voice speak up. “Who are you and what are you doing in my room?”

Martyn tenses up and turns around towards the voice. Shit. Of course he had to pick a room with someone in it. A man sits at a desk, a man white hair tied into a short ponytail, the shorter hairs secured out of his face with a black headband, fox ears peering out of his hair, the same color as his hair, a scar running over one of his eyes down towards his mouth, scarred skin where his lips splits open, leaving a small part of his teeth uncovered at all times. The man looks him over before his eyes fall on the book he is holding, widening as he realises what it is. He stands up and starts moving towards a sword hanging on the wall.

Martyn quickly leaves the room, hoping that the other guards might have passed the room already, but is quickly disappointed. He panics and runs back in the direction where he came from, hearing the man from the room also following. Martyn feels his breath speed up. He didn’t plan well enough, he didn’t plan for the escape. 

More guards appear from the other side, getting rid of any way to escape. He tries to think of something, anything that he can do to get out of here, but his panicked brain can’t come up with anything, and before he knows it, the white-haired man has his sword pointed at his throat, now having a dark piece of fabric covering the lower half of his face. 

“Drop the book.” He notices Martyn’s gaze still frantically finding a way out of the situation. “There’s no way to get away. Drop the book, or we’ll take it by force.” 

He was right and Martyn knew it, the guards were still slowly closing in, cornering Martyn more and more. “Fine.” He puts the spellbook on the ground, and one of the guards quickly takes it at the fox hybrid’s signal.

Two other guards grab Martyn’s arms harshly and start dragging him down the hallway. Martyn lets himself get pulled away without much struggle, looking back at the guard now holding the Enchanter. 

Shit. This has just gotten a whole lot more complicated.

Chapter Text

Martyn sits in his cell, on his bed, his cloak and mask were taken away along with everything else he had on him, except for his necklace with the Listener sigil on it. He couldn’t let them take it, he couldn’t let them take away his only defense against their Watching. So he had hidden it with his magic. They had also found his bag containing his spare clothing that he had hidden near the entrance he had used to get into the castle.

His hair hangs in front of his eyes as his headband that secures his shorter strands of hair out of his face had been taken as well. He tries to tuck the hairs behind his pointed ear with little success. 

The cell is a small room containing nothing but an uncomfortable bed in the corner and a small table with a singular rickety chair to eat at in another corner. There is a lamp lighting it up in the middle of the room, and a small barred window that also provided some extra natural light during the day. Though the window also allows a cold breeze to pass through. Dogwarts is located higher up the mountains, causing it to be cold for most of the year.

After sitting for a few moments, he stands up, struggling with his hands in manacles enchanted to supposedly restrict his magic. Most cast spells by channeling their magic through their hands, these manacles are enchanted to block that flow, preventing spells from being cast. During his time as a Listener, Martyn learnt how to use his voice instead to channel his magic. Even though this meant that the restraints have no effect on his magic, he doesn’t take advantage of the fact. His magic isn’t very strong, he knows he won’t be able to escape even with it with the guards now all alert.

He looks out of the singular small barred window in one the walls of the cell. The window looks out over a courtyard, seemingly somewhere in the middle of the castle. Martyn spots a few open windows, and hears a few people talking from different rooms. He stands there and listens for a few minutes and notices that he is quite a popular topic amongst the guards, he hears them shocked, nervous, curious, some even slightly amused. Martyn can’t stop the grin that appears on his face, even in this situation.

“My King.”

Martyn perks up, the words immediately grabbing his attention, said by a deep voice in an unfamiliar accent. His gaze starts searching for which window the voice came from.

“I’ve told you before, Doc, call me Ren in private.” Another voice responds, a deep and rich voice. Ren the Dog, the King of Dogwarts, Martyn assumes. 

“Ren. There has been an attempt to steal the Enchanter.”

As the two fall into a short tense silence, Martyn spots a larger window on the other side of the courtyard and slightly further upwards. That might be it. He spots two people, one with his back towards the window, he can just make out long brown hair, flowing over a red cape, lined with white fur, that must be the King. The other man is facing the King. He looks very… green? It is hard to make out details with him being so far away and blocked by both the walls and the king. 

“What?”

“They managed to catch him, but only after he had acquired the book.”

“How did he get so far?” The King’s voice raises slightly, panicked and frustrated. “What were the guards doing? How did he get past them?”

“We don’t know. None of the guards noticed anyone until the moment the alarm was triggered, until the moment he took it.”

The King sighs and turns towards the window. He has his head in his hands. Martyn keeps his eyes on him as he lifts his head and looks into the courtyard. Ren’s eyes wander around before they meet Martyn’s through the barred window. Their gazes stay locked for a few moments before Doc speaks up again. “We have him locked up now, I put Skizz and Impulse in charge of the interrogation.”

The King turns away, letting out a little chuckle. “Skizz and Impulse? Are you sure they’ll be able to get any information from him?”

Doc laughs along with him. “Maybe he’ll take pity on them.”

Martyn raises an eyebrow. He’ll have to expect company soon, and it sounds like it’ll be some amusing company, if he can take anything from the overheard conversation. He turns away from the window as he hears shuffling on the other side of his cell door. He hears keys turn in the lock and the door opens. Two guards walk in and grab his arms harshly, holding them in an uncomfortable position, arms pulled as much to the sides as possible, the manacles cutting painfully into his wrists.

“No need to be so harsh.” He says annoyed, struggling to try to get his arms out of their grasp. “I’ll come without struggle, I won’t try anything.”

The grip on his arms loosen, allowing him to have them more comfortably in front of him, but not releasing them entirely. Martyn continues walking along with them, annoyance still bubbling in his chest.

He gets pulled into another room and is sat down on one side of a table. The guards release their grip and leave the room, leaving Martyn alone. He looks around the room. There are no windows, a bright lamp hangs from the ceiling above the table, lighting up the small room. Other than that, the only things filling the room are the table, the chair he is sitting on, and two other chairs on the other side of the table.

Two people approach the door. They stop right in front of it. “Good guard, bad guard?” He hears one of the two ask. The corner of his mouth quirks up, anticipating the amusing attempt at an interrogation he feels is coming up.

The door opens and two men step inside the room. The first is an imp with short brown hair, two small horns pointing out of his forehead and a thin tail swishing behind him as he enters the room. The other has messy black hair, still short but slightly longer, two large pale white wings sprout out from his back, and his bare arms, covered in scars, crossed. They both glare at Martyn, though the winged has his eyes narrowed more harshly, seeming almost a bit over-exaggerated. 

“So, you two must be Skizz and Impulse?” Martyn looks at them, sitting back in his chair, hands on his lap. He notices a surprised look and a glance at the other from both at the mention of their names. 

The imp slams his hands onto the table and speaks with his voice raised. “How do you know our names?” Martyn smirks, and is about to open his mouth to respond before he gets interrupted.

“Hold on a second.” The other says, his earlier attempt at a tough demeanor now completely having disappeared. Both Martyn and the imp look at him with a raised eyebrow. “Impulse, can we quickly discuss something?”

“Sure…?” Impulse replies and lets himself get dragged to the corner of the room by who Martyn presumes now is Skizz. “What is it?”

“I thought I was going to be bad guard this time.” He speaks quietly. 

“What? No, I’m always bad guard.”

“Exactly! I want to be bad guard this time.” 

Martyn blinks. Are they seriously fighting over who should be bad guard? He watches them with amusement as their talk turns into bickering. He holds back his laughter for as long as he can, but when he does finally break, his laughter interrupts the two, pulling their attention back to him.

“What’s so funny?” Skizz slams his hands onto the table similarly to how Impulse had, the exaggerated glare back on his face, looking down at Martyn.

“Sorry, sorry.” Martyn waves him off, his laughter slowly dying down, but an amused tone still remaining in his voice. “I’m just surprised that the guards who are supposed to be interrogating me are actively bickering about who should be good guard and who should be bad guard.”

Skizz goes around the table with heavy footsteps and grabs Martyn at the collar of his shirt, pulling him up to face him, his wings spreading out, making him bigger. “You listen here-” He pauses, his voice quickly calming and his grip loosening slightly. “What’s your name?”

“You really are bad at this, aren’t you?” Martyn smirks. He hears a small chuckle coming from Impulse as well. “I can see why you’re usually not the bad guard.”

“I don’t think this is going to work.” The imp says as he sits down at one of the chairs across from Martyn. Skizz looks at Impulse with a mix of a pout and an attempt to continue to look tough. “Skizz.”

“Fine.” He releases Martyn’s shirt and sits down on the chair next to Impulse. Martyn lets himself sag back down on his chair. “Let’s get started.”

“Finally. Took you long enough.” Skizz glares at him in response. “The name’s Martyn. I’d shake your hand, but…” He lifts his hands, showing off the manacles.

“Well that answers the first question.” Impulse says. “Martyn. You tried to steal the Enchanter.”

“Almost succeeded.” Martyn grumbles. 

“Right. You managed to get to it as well. But our question is, how did you get all the way there? There are a lot of guards in this castle, but not a single one noticed you. How?”

Martyn shrugs. “It’s not that hard, just find the right gaps between patrols, the right paths, the right distractions. Just listen out for any opportunities.”

Skizz raises an eyebrow. “Are you sure you didn’t get any help from the inside?” He says, suspicion lacing his voice. “Because you’d need very good hearing for that.”

“Well, I just happen to have just that.” He twitches one of his pointed ears.

He gets a skeptical look from both. Fair, Martyn thinks. The Listeners… were a very secretive group, and not many other species have the hearing capabilities even comparable to those of a Listener.

“No offense, but I’m not sure I believe that.” Impulse says as he looks at his ears. “You’re what, an elf? Never heard of any types who have the hearing ability of that level.”

Martyn leans in slightly, putting his elbows on the table, lowering the volume of voice, like he is telling them something secretive. “That’s because I’m not.” It seems to be working as the two start leaning in as well.

“No?”

“Not quite.”

Skizz looks him over curiously, trying to find any hints of what else he could be. “Then what are you?”

“Now that,” Martyn sits up straight, “Is none of your business,” and leans back on his chair. A sly smile stretches over his face as he watches the other two deflate.

“Oh, come on!” Skizz exclames annoyed, making his smile only grow larger, pleased with their reactions.

Impulse sighs with the same annoyance that sounded in Skizz’s voice. “Fine. Next question. Why did you try to steal the Enchanter?”

“I need it.”

“For what?”

“I need a certain spell.”

Skizz lets out an amused but frustrated huff. “Oh, you need a spell book for a spell? Couldn’t have predicted it.” He crossed his arms. “What spell?”

“None of your business.” Martyn repeats, but with his voice more snappy and cold. “But believe me, it would be in everyone’s favor if I had it.”

Impulse exchanges a glance with Skizz. “If it really is in everyone’s favor, then I’d think that it is our business to know the spell.” Martyn gives a glare in response, staying quiet. “If there is something that threatens us, that threatens everyone, we should know. We could help”

“Right, like you even have a chance against them.” He looks at the floor, eyes narrowed, mouth turned down into a frown.

“And you do?” Skizz asks incredulously. “What can you, one singular person, do that the whole army of Dogwarts can’t do together?”

“You don’t know anything.”

“Because you won’t tell us anything.”

Martyn stays quiet, refusing to say anything else on the topic. After getting past the tense silence, Impulse and Skizz decide to move on from the subject. They ask a few more basic questions, Martyn gives the basic answers without letting too much on about himself and his motives. After they decide that they are done, Martyn gets dragged back into his cell, left alone for the rest of the day next to them bringing his dinner.

He sits on his stiff bed, thinking over the interrogation. He thinks of their offer for help. If he can get them to trust him, they might allow him access to the Enchanter. If he can just make some sort of deal…

Maybe some help won’t be too bad. A deal with the King of Dogwarts can provide him with what he needs. This could work.

Chapter Text

“My Lord.”

Ren looks up from the piece of parchment in his hands to the door on the other side of the meeting room. His frown lightens and his ears perk up when he sees a familiar fox hybrid in the opening of the door, holding a familiar spellbook. “Etho! Come in.” He waves him over, putting the letter on the table.

Etho enters the room and places the Enchanter in front of him on the table. After Doc had told him about the near successful attempt to steal it, Ren had asked for it to be returned to him instead of its usual room so he could look after it himself. The news had made him worry, if one person can sneak in and get to it without being noticed so easily, then what does that say about their defenses? What does that say about how trustworthy his guards are? He feels safer with the spellbook near him currently. Ren takes it in his hands and flips through the pages at the familiar spells.

Etho sits down on one of the other chairs around the table in the center of the room as Doc enters the room as well, followed by Skizz and Impulse. They all take their seats as Ren places the Enchanter back on the table to the side, his hand still lingering over the book. “Right, let’s get started. Firstly, Skizz, Impulse, you two questioned the thief, right?”

“Yes.” Impulse nods.

“He didn’t give us much.” Skizz follows up. He and Impulse go over what they learnt during the interrogation. Martyn is his name, they said. Ren feels a slight but still unsure relief when they tell him that he had said that it was an independent operation, wanting to believe it, but painfully aware that it could be a lie to protect an inside helper. 

“There are plenty of species who have improved hearing.” Doc says thoughtfully once they had gotten told how Martyn had claimed he had gotten in.

“True, but to that extent?” Etho questions.

“Exactly, that is why we doubted it as well. He looks like an elf, but claims he’s something else even though he won’t tell what.” Impulse’s voice had a slight annoyance in it. “Said it was none of our business.”

“Interesting.” Something feels familiar about the description to Ren, elvish appearance with strangely advanced hearing, mysterious and secretive. He can’t quite place his finger on it. “What does he want?”

“A certain spell from the Enchanter. Wouldn’t tell us which one or for what.” 

“But he said that it would be ‘beneficial to everybody.’” Skizz adds, using air quotes. “So either, he’s an evil jerkface who wants to take over the world or something, or he’s a normal jerkface who is exaggerating to try to convince us to let him have his way.”

“Or he’s telling the truth and there is a real threat out there.” Ren stands up, and walks to the open window behind his seat, letting the cool wind blow softly through his long, currently untied hair. He closes his eyes as he sighs, letting the cold breeze calm his nerves.

“We don’t know at this point.” Doc stands behind him and puts a hand on his shoulder. “We can’t trust him, my liege. He is a thief. And if there is a threat, we wouldn’t be able to help at the moment, we have all our assets set on fighting back against the Sand Kingdom.”

“Right.” Ren opens his eyes again. His gaze moves down the windows of the part of the castle on the opposite side of the courtyard until it reaches a certain barred window. And behind the window… the current topic of discussion, once again staring right at him. Just as when Doc had first told Ren about what had happened. Part of Ren wonders, if he did have the hearing he claims he has, can he hear them all the way from there? Is he listening to them right now? As he opens his mouth to test out his theory, he gets pulled back out of his thoughts.

“Ren.” Doc’s voice is raised, like it wasn’t the first time he called out for him. When Ren sees his face in a worried frown, he realizes that that may be it wasn’t. 

“Sorry, what was that?”

“Etho asked if you got any update on the attack from the General while on the topic of the Sand Kingdom.”

“Oh, right, yes.” He spares Martyn one last glance before he sits back in his chair. “The attack failed. They were ready for everything we had to throw at them.”

“Again?” Skizz frowned. “How? They always seem to know exactly what we are planning, exactly what we are doing. How? ”

“I don’t know.” Ren drops his head in his hands. “I really don’t know.”

“Could we have a mole?” Etho suggests, quietly and carefully.

“A mole? Are you sure?” Impulse asks nervously.

“It is a possibility.”

The whole room goes quiet at the thought. It is the answer that would make the most sense. They all know that, Ren knows that. It terrifies him. He hasn’t been king of Dogwarts for a very long time, but everything seems to be going completely wrong since he has been. His father died, his brother left, a war started against one of the most powerful kingdoms, no one seems to be on their side, and now there might be a mole. There might be someone in the castle, maybe even someone in this room that he would trust with his life, that is working with the enemy.

He takes a deep breath, trying to keep himself together. “Currently we can only wait for General B to arrive back to get the full story of what happened. Just… keep your eyes out for anything suspicious.” He stands up and grabs the Enchanter as he gets nods from the others and heads towards the doors to exit the room. 

“Ren, wait.” Doc follows him out. “Are you alright? You seem stressed.”

Of course he’s stressed, Ren wants to say, everything is going wrong, he is failing his kingdom every single day that he fails to fight back. But instead he dismisses Doc with a simple “I’m fine. Just tired and need a moment to myself. A lot happened today.” He walks away, leaving Doc behind, worry visible all over his face, but he lets him leave anyway, for which he is glad for.

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Ren struggles to fall asleep that night, his mind too busy with everything going on. After trying and failing to sleep for nearly an hour, he decides to give up and clear his mind. He wanders through the halls of the castle, not having a specific destination in mind.

He finds himself at the doors to the library. He opens the doors and enters the large room, tall bookshelves scattered around the room in an orderly manner. He moves towards a certain section of the library. He reaches a corner that was made cozy with two comfortable chairs, a red carpet with patterns and details embroidered with golden thread. A small chandelier shining with a dim light hangs over it.

His mother used to read him stories here when he struggled to sleep as a child. She would grab one of the books from the smaller bookshelf next to one of the chairs, tell him to sit on the other and read to him until he got sleepy. 

Ren crouches and runs his fingers over the books in the small bookshelf that have been gathering dust for a few years. His eyes glance over the titles, until he gets to one that grabs his attention. He takes it off the shelf and flips the pages open. He remembers this story. It is a tale about a mysterious group of people, elvish appearance, some winged, powerful spells cast through voice, and greatly improved hearing. 

Then it clicks. But… that can’t be right , Ren thinks. It’s fiction. … Or can it? Fiction often has a source of inspiration. Only one way to find out if his theory has any truth behind it. He knows exactly what he plans on doing first thing in the morning.

–––––––––––––

Ren had gone back to his bedroom with the book and had managed to fall asleep not long after. In the morning, he gets dressed in his regal attire, and leaves his room, heading towards the high security cells. The guards bow to him as he passes them, each saying their own version of ‘My King’, or ‘My Lord’, or something else along those lines. Ren nods to each in response.

When he gets to the cell, the guards in front of the door look surprised at his arrival. 

“I want to talk to the prisoner.”

“Yes, my Lord.” The guards had questions, which were obvious on their faces, but they didn’t say anything about it. “Do you want us to bring him to one of the interrogation rooms?”

“No, I’ll speak with him here.”

The guards nod and step aside, one of them taking out the keys from his pocket and unlocking the door. When he opens the door, Ren can see Martyn already standing in front of the bed, seemingly having been ready for his arrival, or at least as ready as someone in a small prison cell can look.

“Leave us.” He says once he is in the cell, and the guards close the door behind him again. He hears the lock click again.

Now that he stands right in front of him, Ren notices Martyn’s bright blue eyes that had stared at him during the meeting, not so different from his own. He notices his messy blonde hair, shorter strands of hair nearly falling in front of his eyes.

“Wow.” Martyn’s eyebrows go up with a grin. “A visit from the King himself, what did I do to deserve this honor?”

“Well, it’s not every day that someone manages to get by all my defenses. I got curious.” Ren says, returning the snarky tone back to him. “Martyn, I heard?”

“Martyn Littlewood.” Martyn reaches out his hand, his other hand dragged along with it because of the manacles. “Ren, I heard?”

Ren can’t stop the small smirk that appears on his face and the way his tail starts swishing side to side underneath his heavy cape. “Ren the Dog.” He shakes the hand of the other man. 

“Welcome to my humble abode.” Martyn says as he releases his hand. “You can either sit on the uncomfortable chair or the uncomfortable bed, depending on your preference.” He gestures to the two options as he mentions them.

Ren ends up deciding to sit on the bed and watches as Martyn takes a seat on the chair. They sit in silence for a few moments, Martyn waiting for any questions that might come from the king. Ren takes a look around the cell, and his eyes fall on the barred window, and further behind it, the window to the meeting room. “You can hear us all the way from here, can’t you?”

Martyn’s gaze follows his. “Yes, I can. Heard you talking about me.”

“From what I have heard about you, you remind me of a story my mother used to tell me.” Ren looks back at him, looking for any reaction from him. Martyn meets his eyes, one eyebrow raised. “A story about a group of people called the Listeners.” A panicked look flashed across Martyn’s face, quickly disappearing behind an attempted smile, though bitterness was still visible in it. “They’re real, aren’t they? And you are one of them.” Ren observes him with eyes full of curiosity.

“Yes, I am. Didn’t expect anyone to know about them.” Martyn says. Ren notices his snarky demeanor having disappeared. “They didn’t usually let anyone know about their existence. But if someone knew about them, it’d make sense that it’d be you.”

“Why?”

“The Enchanter. It was given to your family by a group of listeners.” 

Ren frowns in thought. Was it really? Is it true? He doesn’t know to what extent he can trust the Listener. If he was even speaking the truth about that. He could just be making things up as the conversation goes on. 

“But I was hoping I would have the chance to talk to you, actually.” Ren looks up at him. The quick change of subject joined by a quick change in Martyn’s demeanor, having lost the bitter edge to his smile. “I wanted to see if we could arrange some sort of deal.”

“A deal?”

“I think that our problems may be interconnected in a way. I couldn’t help but overhear that you are struggling in the fight against the Sand Kingdom. That they always seem to be prepared for everything you have.”

Even though Ren knew that Martyn had heard them, hearing him say it out loud, causes his nerves to increase again. He is not comfortable with Martyn, who he doesn’t trust, knowing the severity of the situation. He sits up straight, making himself feel – and hopefully look – taller.

“I believe that my enemies have allied with your enemies. And yes, they are a real threat. I was planning to attempt to take care of it myself, but now, I think we can help each other. I know why the Sand Kingdom always seems ready for your attacks, no matter how surprising, no matter how odd of a location. I can tell you now, your problem isn’t a mole.”

Ren feels a wave of relief flood over him at the last statement. He clings to the hope that Martyn is telling the truth, that he is right, and that he won’t have his trust in his close friends betrayed. The relief drowns out the worries that came from the rest of his statement for a few precious moments. He takes a deep breath before he speaks. “Then what is the problem?”

“First I need you to agree.” Martyn’s eyes have turned cold now, his gaze intense and piercing into Ren’s own eyes.

Ren hesitates. “I’ll have to discuss it before I can do that.” He stands up and walks to the door, raising his hand to knock on the door. “This has been an interesting talk. We’ll speak once I have discussed your offer.” When he knocks and hears the key turn in the lock, he turns to Martyn once more. “Bye, Martyn.”

Martyn stays seated on the chair. “Goodbye, your Majesty.”

“Call me Ren.” He doesn’t know why he says it, but it just slips out. He sees the surprise that he feels reflected on Martyn’s face. When the door opens, he quickly leaves the cell, not looking back.

Chapter Text

Ren enters the meeting room. The rest are already sitting down at their spots on the table.

“There he is!” Skizz says loudly with a smile.

“You sure took your time.” Ren can tell that Doc was trying to use an amused tone, but he can still hear an edge of worry in his voice. “Where were you?”

He passes the table to the open window. “I spoke with Martyn.” He looks down towards the Listener’s window. Martyn once again looks back, but instead of just staring silently like the times before, Ren speaks to him. “Sorry, but this discussion is one I don’t want you to listen in on. You’ll get to know the final decision soon.” He sees the slight movement of Martyn nodding and giving him a small wave before disappearing out of the barred window. Ren closes the window, taking a breath as he feels the calming breeze disappear, and takes his seat at the head of the table. “Don’t want him to listen in.” He explains at the confusion of the others.

“He can hear us all the way from there?” Impulse eyes widen in disbelief. “Are you sure?”

Ren nods. “He overheard that we were struggling against the Sand Kingdom. He proposed a deal.”

“A deal? What kind of deal?” Doc asks, clearly uncomfortable with the idea.

“He believes that the people he is against have allied up with the Sand Kingdom. He proposed that we can help each other.”

“So what?” Skizz speaks up. “He gets the Kingdom of Dogwarts on his side, and we get what?”

“Information.” Unsurety is visible around the table. “He claims to know why they are always prepared for us. It isn’t a mole.”

“Then what is it?” Impulse asks skepticism visible on his face.

“He won’t give up that information until we agree.” A silence falls over the room as Ren finishes. Glances full of doubt are exchanged before the silence gets broken.

“You’re really considering it, aren’t you?” Doc frowns. “Look, I know things are desperate right now, but we can’t trust him.”

“If he’s telling the truth, this could be our best chance at getting out of this corner the Sand Kingdom has us in.”

“But what if he isn’t? What if he is just trying to use our situation to get us to make stupid decisions that will end in his favor? He tried to steal the Enchanter, Ren, the core of this kingdom, the core of your family.” Doc tries to reason. “A deal with him could lead to this kingdom’s downfall. Don’t let him trick you.”

“I won’t.” Ren says, determined. “If he shows even a smidge of intention to betray the deal, to do anything to harm this kingdom, he will go right back in that cell. I promise you this. I will not fail this kingdom again.” In the tense silence that follows, the warm air in the room feels almost suffocating, his hair sticking to neck in the lack of the cooling breeze that usually comes from the window that is now closed. 

Doc sighs. “Fine.” Ren releases a breath he didn’t know he was holding. “I just want you to be sure of this decision.”

“I know. I am.”

“Any hint of bad intentions and-”

“And he goes back to his cell.”

“I’ll hear him out.”

Ren gives his closest advisor a small smile, trying to reassure him of the decision.

“Who is it even that someone like Martyn could be up against?” Skizz questions.

“The Crastle, maybe?” Impulse suggests, hesitantly. “They recently allied with the Sand Kingdom.”

Etho frowns. “Right, they did.” Impulse puts a hand on his shoulder in comfort as he notices him reaching for the scar running over his eyes underneath his mask. Ren knows that the two have a history with the recently established Crastle kingdom, but isn’t sure about the details. “But I’d doubt that they are who he was talking about. They may have some powerful magic, but not to the extent I’d consider them as much of a threat as you said he had described them as.”

“Let’s get him in here, then we’ll find out.” Ren gets up from his chair and tells one of the guards just outside the meeting room to get the prisoner. Then he moves back towards the window and opens it again, closing his eyes as he feels the calming cool wind return to the room, and he stands there for a few moments, waiting until the guard arrives back with Martyn.

–––––––––––––

Martyn waits in his cell, sitting on his bed. He taps his leg, nervous for what the results of the meeting will be, hoping that they will agree to the deal. During the time he is waiting, he thinks over his conversation with the King. With Ren. He’s an interesting man, especially for a king. Martyn was pleasantly surprised as Ren had returned some of his snarky attitude.

And then he had heard of the Listeners, which… was even less expected. It had caught Martyn off guard. Even though he is a Listener himself, he rarely thinks of them, trying to keep thought about them out of his mind as he’d quickly start thinking about how they’re gone now, how he wasn’t there to help, how it’s just him left. How he has to find a way to beat the Watchers all by himself, that-

Martyn shakes his head, stopping himself from spiraling further into the thought. He leans towards the barred window to take another glance at the meeting room. The window up there was still closed. They were still discussing it.

After a few painful minutes of waiting, he hears footsteps nearing his door. Martyn’s head quickly turns towards the door. He hears the jingle of some keys and the click of the lock. He shuffles off his bed and stands up. Two guards enter the cell and take him by the arms. “The King and his council wants to have a word with you.”

He walks along with the two guards through the hallways with no struggle. He hopes that this means that they’ll have agreed. He needs them to have agreed. Nerves build up in him as they get closer to the meeting room.

He is stopped in front of a set of doors. This must be it. Martyn takes a deep breath as the doors are opened. In the middle of the room stands a rectangular table. Ren sits at the head on the other side of the room. On the long sides of the table sit four more people. He recognises Skizz and Impulse, sitting across from each other, the fox hybrid with the white hair whose room Martyn had entered in panic sits in between Impulse and Ren. On the other side of Ren sits the man who he heard reporting his attempt to steal the Enchanter to the King, Doc, if he remembers correctly. He has two grey goat horns sprouting out between his short brown hair, spiraling around his ears. Short fur colored a vibrant green covers his entire body, reminiscent of a creeper. 

He gets moved into the room and to the chair at the other head off the table, right across from Ren. He tries to hide his nervousness and his desperation for this to work out as he sits down. “So, I assume that you have discussed my proposal.”

“Yes, we have.” Ren says.

“Before we agree to anything,” Doc speaks up before Ren can continue. “How can we trust you to help us and not screw us over once you have what you want?”

“How can I trust you to help me and not screw me over once I give you the information and throw me back in that cell?” Martyn shoots back at him with a glare. “You have the power here, you could break your side of the deal and get away with it much more easily than I could. But I’ll just have to believe that you’ll keep to your word. So you’ll have to do the same and believe that I will keep mine.”

Doc leans back in his chair, still suspicious, but accepting the answer in silence.

“As I was about to say,” Ren continued. “We agree to your deal. You help us, we help you. We’ll keep our word, and trust you to do so as well.”

Martyn nods, feeling a wave of relief flow through him. They agreed. He might actually have a chance to beat them now, to beat the Watchers, and it is a better chance than he had before. “Good.” He takes a breath and his face softens slightly. “Thank you.” 

Ren nods at him with a smile.

“Well, I guess I don’t really need these anymore, do I?” Martyn says, a smirk appearing on his face  while he holds up his manacled wrists.

“Right, yes.” Skizz starts to stand up to take the manacles off as he gets a nod in confirmation from the king, but stops when he hears Martyn humming. They all watch him in confusion as he focuses the magic gathering in his voice and manipulates it, concentrating on it until – click – they loosen and he takes them off. Baffled eyes around the table are focused on the manacles as he puts them on the table. 

He turns his wrists a few times, much more comfortable now without them being restricted. “That’s better.”

Skizz is the first to say something. “What.” He looks closely at the manacles. “How?!” He stares at them for a few seconds before turning to look at Martyn. “Could you have done that this whole time?”

“Yup.”

“Casting magic through voice.” Doc observes thoughtfully. “I thought only the royal Dogwarts family was able to do that.” Martyn looks up at that. He had always thought that it was a Listener-exclusive way of casting magic. But Ren can also cast magic with the same method?

Ren barks out a loud but short laugh. “Of course! I should have realised.” His tone gains an undertone of intrigue underneath the amusement and surprise. “You really are a Listener.” 

The Listener grins, and the King matches it. 

“A what?” Impulse looks at the two, confusion visible on his face. “What do you mean, a Listener?”

”It’s difficult to explain.” Martyn says.

”You promised us information as part of our deal.” Doc crosses his arms. “So, tell us.”

”Quick to the point.” Martyn sits up straight in his chair. “Fine.” He takes a breath to prepare before looking across the table at Ren. He opens his mouth, starting to speak with slight hesitation. “Ren,” He can see Skizz starting to try to say something, probably about the way he addressed the King by his name, but Ren stops him by raising his hand and giving him a look, silencing him. Doc gives Ren an incredulous look, which gets responded to by a quick nod, signaling that they’d talk about it later, Martyn assumes. “You told me you have heard about the Listeners, but have you also heard about the Watchers?”

“The Watchers?” Martyn hears Impulse say under his breath.

“I… have heard of them.” Ren frowns, nerves visible on his face. “I have heard rumors of them. Some stories about a… cult-like group. Heard they are bad news.”

“Cult-like.” Martyn lets out a bitter laugh. “That’s certainly a way to describe them. Not that far off. They are certainly bad news. Watchers are these… beings with magic that increase their power as they feed off the suffering of people’s souls. They-”

“Hold on, wait a second.” Skizz looks at Martyn, eyes wide. “Did you say that they feed off people’s souls ?!”

Martyn nods grimly. “It makes them stronger. It is why they are so interested in participating in this fight. I have heard that another Listener saw a watcher close to the king of the Sand Kingdom. It is the perfect place for them, it gives them a place to be able to influence what is going on. War brings pain and suffering to everyone involved, people get hurt, people are killed, people are lost. It is a feast for them. They don’t care who wins, they don’t care who’s side they are on, because they are on neither. They want it to go on for longer, for the suffering to continue on for as long as it can. And even when it does end, they won’t care who wins, they will go after the winner, making them suffer in some other way.”

He looks at Ren, and sees his eyes are slightly wider than usual, showing a panic in them that he is seemingly trying to hide. 

“How do you know so much about them?” Impulse asks.

“As Ren said, I’m a Listener.” He points at his pointed ears as. “Watchers and Listeners have been enemies for generations. Watchers are beings that, next to their morals and intentions, are not too dissimilar from Listeners. They’re part of the same base species, just evolved differently into different types of magic and power. While we Listeners have advanced Listening capabilities, Watchers… can watch anyone, no matter who they are or where they are.”

“Could… could they be watching us now?”

“Yes. Or at least, watching you.” He releases the spell hiding his necklace and pulls it over his shirt, holding it up to show them. “Because I have this.”

Impulse leans in to whisper to the fox hybrid. “Etho, I thought you told the guards to take all his possessions.” 

“I did.”

“This necklace is enchanted to make me invisible to their Watching.” Martyn continues. “They can’t focus on me or see me through their ability whenever I have this with me. It only affects the wearer though, so they could all still be watching any of you.”

The tension in the room was nearly suffocating. “So that’s how they know exactly what we are planning.” Ren says, his head in his hands, voice weak. “Can we… stop them from watching us? Is there any way you could make replicas of your necklace?”

Before Martyn can reply, Skizz follows up with another idea. “What if whoever is talking holds the necklace, then they won’t be able to catch any of the content of what we talk about?”

”Absolutely not.” Martyn says harshly looking at Skizz, voice cold, leaving no room for debate. He clutches the pendant with the Listener signal tightly in his hand. The idea of taking it off… Never. Not as long as the Watchers are around. If he takes it off right at the wrong moment, they could see him. He can’t have that. He looks back to Ren. “My magic is nowhere as powerful as the Listener that made this. I can try to make ones, but they won’t be as effective. They’ll maybe make it harder for them to watch you, but not impossible. Also, the plans made in this meeting rooms are not the problem. They can watch what people are, they can’t hear what they are seeing. They can see what is coming for them, and prepare for that.”

“We can’t exactly hide all the equipment our armies are bringing to the fight.” Doc comments. “As long as they can see what we’re bringing to the table, we’ll always be at the disadvantage.”

”There is a way to beat them though. In the Enchanter, there is a spell that would be able to get rid of them for good.”

Ren frowns. “I don’t remember a spell that mentions any capability like that.”

”That’s because it’s in the section you aren’t able to read.” Martyn sees as the confusion on Ren’s face turns into understanding. “It’s written in an old language used by the Listeners to encrypt some of the most important spells and information that shouldn’t be in the wrong hands. This spell is considered a last resort, so it was included in that.”

”How would we be able to use it if it is written in a different language?”

”Because I am able to translate it. I’m not the most fluent in it and it would take me a while, but I have enough knowledge of the language. So, if I’m given some time with the Enchanter, I will be able to find it.”

”We’re not doing that.” Doc speaks up. “I don’t trust you near the Enchanter. You’ll have to reach a certain level of trust to do that, a level of trust that you are far below at the moment.”

”Doc’s right. I believe what you are telling us is true, but at the moment, we need to see that we can trust you better before I can trust you with the Enchanter.” Ren takes a deep breath and leans back in his chair. “This is all a lot of new information. Thank you, Martyn. Tomorrow the general should arrive back here. We’ll continue this then. I’ll get someone to lead you to a guest bedroom and to bring you your belongings.”

“I can go with him.” Skizz offers, getting a nod from Ren as approval. He tells Martyn to come with him.

Before Martyn joins Skizz, he watches as Ren stands up from his chair and starts walking restlessly around the room. Doc approaches Ren and puts a hand on his shoulder to stop his wandering. “Are you okay, Ren?”

”I- I’m fine, Doc. It’s just… We can’t win. We can’t win this against the Sand Kingdom as long as they have the Watchers.” Martyn could hear the distress in Ren’s hushed voice as he starts following Skizz out of the meeting room, but still listening out to hear the continuation of the conversation between the king and his advisor.

”I know.”

”We can’t win until we know we can trust Martyn, until we allow him access to the Enchanter.”

“You made the right choice, Ren. At this moment, we don’t know him, we don’t know how trustworthy he is. At this moment, he is still a thief who tried to steal this kingdom’s core, good intentions or not.”

”Right, yes.”

They fall into a silence for a few moments before Doc asks Ren a question that Martyn himself is also curious to know the answer to. “Why did you let him call you Ren?”

”Because I told him he could.”

“Why?”

Martyn can hear Skizz trying to say something to him, but he isn’t listening to him, instead focusing on the conversation, needing to know the answer.

”I… am not sure. I surprised myself with it.” Ren goes quiet for a second, thinking it over. “I think I need someone who won’t treat me as a king too much. When I talked to him, it felt more normal. Then he called me ‘Your Majesty’, and it just didn’t feel right. Then it slipped out.”

Martyn looks back at the door to the meeting room as they move away from it. Skizz calls his name, snapping his attention back to him. Martyn can hear Doc starting to say something else, but decides to stop listening. 

He’s happy with the outcome of today. Dogwarts has the weapon that could beat the Watchers, and when they trust him enough, they could use it. They can win .

Chapter Text

Martyn follows Skizz through the hallways of the castle of Dogwarts. They get to a hallway with numerous doors spread spaciously along the walls. “Here are the guest rooms.” He moves towards one of the doors nearby. “This one should be empty.” He opens the doors, revealing a spacious room. A large bed was set in one of the corners, a desk in another with shelves hung on the wall next to it. A closet stands across the room from the bed with a mirror next to it. There is another door on the other side of the closet leading to a bathroom. There is a window above the bed, looking out at the city that stands in front of the castle.

“Welcome to your new home.” Skizz announces as Martyn enters the room. “Well, at least for the duration of this whole thing.”

“It’s nice.” It was nicer than any room Martyn stayed in before. Much more fancy than any inn or any home people would let him stay the night in throughout the past year. “It’s been a while since I’ve had a place to stay for a longer amount of time.” 

“Yeah?”

“Yeah. I’m more of a traveler.” He sits down on the bed. It’s soft, very comfortable. 

Skizz enters the room behind him and looks out of the window. “This doesn’t mean we trust you, you know that, right?”

“Yes, that has been made very clear.”

Skizz sighs. “Look, if we ignore the whole trying to steal the Enchanter thing, you seem like a good guy. What you told us, it sets a lot into a context and it makes sense, so I trust that what you told us is true.” His voice gets colder as he looks Martyn in the eyes. “But if you ever do anything to hurt anyone here.” Skizz turns his body fully towards him as his wings, previously neatly folded behind his back, stretch, almost trapping Martyn right where he sits. “Even just one small thing. And you're done for, buddy. If there is one thing that truly makes me angry, it’s people hurting the people I care about. So if you are planning on doing anything like that, you better rethink it.”

“I won’t.” Martyn says, matching the serious tone. “I promise.”

“I’ll hold you to that. I’m keeping my eyes on you.” Skizz steps back, relaxing his wings and folding them back. His face quickly turns back into a smile. “Well, I’ll leave you here. Someone will probably be here with your things in not too long. Bye!” He waves at him and leaves the room.

Martyn stays seated on the bed in silence for a few more moments before he lays down fully on the bed. He closes his eyes, planning to lay there for only a moment, but he must have been more tired than he thought as a loud knock startles him awake after seemingly having fallen asleep. He rubs his eyes and quickly stands up to open the door. 

A guard stands there with a bag with his belongings. After he hands them over, Martyn returns into the bed and sets the bag down. The first thing he takes out is the strip of black fabric that he uses as his headband. He moves in front of the mirror. He winces at the messy state his hair is in and quickly ties the headband around his head, securing the annoying short strands of hair back out of his eyes. His eyes stay on his reflection in the mirror. He notices dark bags under his tired eyes, a light stubble appearing on his chin. His clothes aren’t the cleanest at the moment. All in all, he looks like an absolute mess. 

He tears his gaze off the mirror and goes back to his things. He folds up his extra clothing, including his cloak, and puts them in the closet. 

He searches through his bag a bit more to check if everything is still in the bag that was there before. His hand lingers on the enchanted compass inside. He takes it out and looks at it. The compass that he refused to follow for the past year, no matter how tempting it has been to return to them, to Mumbo and the others, away from all this, back to that peaceful life he had for a few months. But he couldn’t give up, not at those times, and especially not now, not when he is closer than ever. 

Martyn spends the rest of his day in the room, without much interaction with anyone. Someone passed by his room to bring him some food, but that was pretty much it. He thinks over the day, about everything that happened these past few days, about his position now and his future plans. He grabs his notebook from out of his bag at some point and starts writing and sketching about anything that comes to his mind. 

At one point he feels the exhaustion come back up, and not long after that, he decides to go to sleep. He curls in on himself as he does so, taking up only a small portion of the large bed. It doesn’t take long for him to fall asleep, comfortable and warm underneath the thick blanket.

–––––––––––––

Later into the next morning, Martyn hears that the general has arrived back at the castle. Skizz comes by his room to get him and lead him back to the meeting room. 

As they enter, Ren’s gaze moves from the new presence in the room towards Skizz and Martyn coming through the door. His ears are perked up, and he seems excited. “Martyn! Meet our general, BigB.” 

Martyn’s eyes fall on the general and freezes. They stare at each other in recognition, eyes wide. “BigB?” He struggles getting the words out, his voice weak.

“Martyn?” BigB stands up, and slowly walks up to him, stopping when he stands about a meter away from him. “You’re alive?” Martyn nods, not sure what would come out of his mouth if he would open it again to say something, not sure if he would manage to say something. “We thought you were dead.”

“We?” 

“Me, Jimmy, and Pearl. We managed to get out of there because of you.”

Martyn feels a release in his limbs at the mention of his brother and his friend, allowing him to move again. He lets out an almost hysterical laugh as he stumbles backwards. “You’re alive! They’re alive. Are they okay? Where-”

“You two know each other?” Impulse asks, interrupting them. Martyn had almost forgotten that there were other people in the room. 

BigB is first to respond. “Yeah. We’re childhood friends.” He says with a smile. 

Martyn notices a small change in Ren’s face and his ear lowering slightly, a slight tinge of worry appearing on it as his eyes move towards him at the comment. Has BigB told him about Evo? About what happened there? If so, how much had he told him?

“Well, that at least spares us an introduction.” Doc gestures for them to sit down at the table, which they do. Martyn keeps looking at BigB, he looks similar to how he had the last time he saw him, over a decade ago now, dark skin, short curly hair, but also a number of differences, his face was sharper, a light beard had grown on his chin.

They agree to catch up further later, and the meeting starts off with BigB telling them what exactly had happened during the attack. The army from Sand Kingdom had been ready for their attack, seemingly already having been waiting there for at least a day or so, ready to intercept them and prevent them from even getting to where they were planning on advancing to that day. They also seemed to have a new piece of technology that utilizes magic to create these tall walls of fire as defense, causing the amount of people from their army that were able to fight close-combat to decrease significantly to solely Blazeborns and other fire-resistant hybrids. They have fewer soldiers of the type than the Sand Kingdom has, given the cold climate of Dogwarts being less ideal for warmer hybrid types than the warm desert. The army of Dogwarts were quick to realise that they had to retreat. Though something that was strange is that they didn’t try to follow them, they didn’t try to advance and take more ground, even though it would’ve been easy to do.

In return, they informed him about the involvement of the Watchers.

“They’re back?” BigB swallows, nervous at the mention of them. Martyn nods. “And they’re helping the Sand Kingdom.”

“You know about them as well?” Skizz asks. “How?”

“That’s none of your business.” Martyn says before BigB can reply. He doesn’t know what BigB is willing to tell them about their past with the Watchers, but he doesn’t feel comfortable enough around them to tell them anything. “That’s not important currently.”

Skizz looks at BigB, clearly trying to see if he is willing to let anything slip about it, but he shrugs. “It’s nothing really.” Skizz raises an eyebrow, clearly not believing that it is indeed ‘nothing’, but he lets the topic go.

“We have to find a way to trick them.” Ren thinks. “Now that we know the problem that causes our losses, we can try to find a way around it. ”

“I have been in contact with Cubfan.” Doc says, elaborating at the lack of recognition at the name. “He has been researching the sculk underneath the mountain and its magical properties for the past few years, and lately we have been looking at a way that we could utilize it, to use it as a weapon or defense.”

“Please don’t let this be another one of your projects.” Ren says annoyed, though with a hint of fondness still present in his voice.

“What is that supposed to mean?” Doc almost yells, rising to stand up.

“You know exactly what I mean. I’ve known you for a long time, Doc, I have seen multiple different types of outcomes from your projects. Some good, some bad. Almost all still dangerous.”

“That… is fair.” He sits back down with a huff.

Impulse speaks up. “It could be very valuable though, there is sculk found nearly everywhere underground, though there is a lot of risk with it.” 

“Cub has been working with it for a long time, he has built a… strange bond with it. He has found a way to communicate with it.”

Sculk could be useful to have. Martyn remembers that the Listeners had a type of bond with it as well, and says so out loud. “Sculk is very sensitive to sound, maybe even more than the hearing of a Listener. It apparently reacts strongly to Listener magic, as it uses and at times manipulates sound. I haven’t seen it for myself, so I’m not sure exactly how.”

“Then you should go meet Cub with Doc some time soon, see if you can make something of it.” Ren suggests, at which Martyn nods. “But before that can be of much use, we need a way to surprise them, a way to approach them without them knowing.”

“We could make a distraction for the Watcher’s to focus on.” Etho speaks up. “Get a larger group to do a more usual and expected attack while a smaller group sneaks through their defenses somewhere else where they won’t expect it.”

“That… could work.” Martyn thinks. “They can only watch people and locations they focus on, if they don’t know about another attack, they won’t even think about looking for it.”

They continue to attempt to think of other ideas that could work, other plans that they could make to be able to get through the defenses, to even push the Sand Kingdom slightly back, though not much else is thought of. Their plans for now were to develop the plan for a distraction and to look more into sculk and how they could possibly utilize it. 

–––––––––––––

After the meeting ends, BigB follows Martyn outside of the room. They agree to get lunch and talk more after they eat. Martyn lets BigB lead the way, as he knows the way around the maze of hallways much better. 

As they are nearly done with their food, BigB starts with a question. “So, what have you been up to these past few years?” He chomps on a chocolate chip cookie that he had seemingly taken out of nowhere. Martyn was glad to see that his love for them clearly hadn’t died down.

”I joined the Listeners.”

”I thought something seemed different.” BigB’s eyes fall on his pointed ears. “Didn’t remember them being that pointy.”

Martyn lets out a laugh at that. “Got them together with the hearing.” As BigB continues asking him about the past few years, Martyn tells him how the Listeners had saved him from the Watchers, about some of their operations against different Watcher plots once he had decided to join them, about their successes, about some of his downtime when he would just travel from town to town, exploring the world in ways they weren’t able to in their childhood. During Project Evo. What he fails to mention is the pain of the weeks after he had become a listener, with everything being so loud and overwhelming, barely able to be in or even near any crowded spaces. He avoids the days of loneliness and grief, the days that he secretly wished that they were back in Evo, before everything went downhill. He doesn’t tell him about how the Listener’s are gone now, how they disappeared while he was away, angry and tired. 

After that, Martyn turns the question onto BigB.

“After we got away, we ran as far away from that place as we could. At one point we found a village surrounded by a barrier made of magic, somewhere in a valley, hidden from sight for anyone who wouldn’t know where it was. We were taken in by Scott, an elf just a few years older than us with powerful magic. We stayed there for a few years, and we got more normal lives. Pearl became an artist.” Not unexpected, Martyn thinks. She was always very creative. “Jimmy got married.”

“Wait, what?” Now that was unexpected. “He did?”

“To Scott, actually.”

Martyn felt a pang of bitterness and sadness at the idea that he had missed something that important. He missed the wedding of his brother. He tries to push these feelings down and to just be happy for him, but struggles with it.

“One time, I decided to join the group that would come to the city here in the capital of Dogwarts to get certain supplies. That’s when I met the King. Or well, he was still the prince at that point. I had no idea. I only found out the next time I was there and he was King.” Martyn sees his face contort in embarrassment, making him laugh. 

“Couldn’t have been much worse than me. I tried to steal the Enchanter.” Martyn feels a slight nervousness waiting for BigB’s reaction. BigB looks at him, an eyebrow raised in disbelief. “It’s true. Ask the others if you don’t believe me.”

“Then how are you not locked in a cell?”

“I was locked up for a bit, but we made an arrangement. Information in trade for help. And since the Watchers and Sand Kingdom are allied, it is basically one common enemy. I had my reasons for trying to steal it, and now I’m hoping I’ll be able to access it in a different way.”

BigB hums in acknowledgement. He looks down at the table they sit at. “So they’re really back.”

“Never really left.” At least not for Martyn. The Watchers might have been working on quieter projects, but they still are always present in the back of his mind, always a threat.

They sit in silence. A silence of a mutual thought. They need to be taken down, they need to be stopped. 

After a few more moments of more casual conversation, BigB says that he still has some things to do as the general throughout the day. After they say goodbye, Martyn returns to his room. He still can barely believe that BigB is alive. And that Jimmy and Pearl are as well. He missed his brother so much, scared that he had failed to protect him. But he’s alive and safe. More importantly, he is happy . Though a painful feeling makes his throat close as he thinks about those who didn’t make it out of Evo. He curls up as his mind wanders to Grian, the first to be taken, and Netty, the last.

…

Netty.

How he wishes she was still here. He feels his eyes stinging, his sight turning slightly foggy. He takes a deep breath as he wipes his eyes dry. He had promised her he wouldn’t give up, and he isn’t planning on letting her down.

Chapter Text

Ren rubs at his eyes as he lets out a yawn, his tail sleepily swishing behind him. He had changed into more comfortable, though still decently regal, clothing. His crown is off his head, his hair is untied from its usual messy ponytail, now falling wildly down his shoulders. He often likes to take a short walk around the castle in the evening before going to sleep to clear his mind from the day. 

Ren was happy when BigB had returned unscathed. He is a close friend to him, and often gets nervous about sending him to these battles that they keep on losing. What was surprising was that Martyn and BigB knew each other. Childhood friends, they had said. BigB had told him some things about his childhood, but not a lot of detail. 

He passes through the corridor with the guest rooms and stops as he notices lights still shining underneath one of them. Martyn’s room. He stops for a moment in front of the doors and, after some hesitation, knocks on it.

The door opens, revealing Martyn, whose eyes widen slightly out of surprise when seeing who is at the door. “Ren?” He is still wearing the same clothes he had earlier throughout the day.

“Martyn!” Ren feels his tail start wagging slightly faster. “I was walking by, just thought I’d say hello.” His eyes move to look inside his room. He sees items scattered on the desk and the chair moved out. “Oh, sorry, were you busy?”

Marty follows his gaze towards the desk. “Not really.” He moves back into the room, signaling Ren to follow him, which he does. “I was working on something.” He takes one of the items from the desk. A small brooch.  “I found some of these in one of the drawers and decided to try to make them be able to block their Watching.” He holds it out to Ren, who takes it and looks over it. The brooch is shaped as a heart, made out of black glass, lined with gold swirling outwards and a few red gems embedded in it. “That one is done. It’s… not as effective as mine, my magic isn’t very strong. It won’t block it entirely, but it should make it harder for them. You can keep it.”

“Thank you.” Ren says as he pins it onto his clothing. “So now they won’t be able to Watch me?”

“It’ll be harder for them. At least if I did it right.” Martyn looks at the brooch with a small smile. “It suits you.” He then moves back to the desk, where a number of other brooches lay together with some other small jewellery, forgotten by people who have stayed here before, Ren assumes. “I’m making one for everyone on the council. They may not be able to listen in, but it still feels safer. The next one will be for BigB, but I am still deciding which one I’ll use for his.”

“Were you two close?” Ren finds himself asking. “When you were younger?”

“We were friends, but not that close.” He walks to the bed and sits on it. He sighs, rubbing his neck. “He has told you about what happened then, hasn’t he?”

“Not in detail.”

“What do you know?”

Ren hesitates. It was clear that Martyn didn’t want him to know much or even anything about their childhood, but he also doesn’t want to lie about how much he knows. It still isn’t much, but still more than he assumes Martyn would have liked. “He told me that he and a group of other orphans were taken in by… bad people, who I can assume now to be the Watchers.”

“That would be a correct assumption.”

“He said it was nice at first. Good people, good friendships. Taken care of well. But then it started getting worse. He didn’t tell me a lot about how, but mentioned that at the end, it was only him and two others who survived.” He sits down next to Martyn on the bed, and looks at him. His shoulders are tense, Ren notices. He lifts his hand to place it on one of them, but retracts it after a moment of doubt. “But now, I can see that that number has increased by one.” He says, trying to lift the mood.

“For me it has increased by three, including my brother.” Ren can hear a sadness in Martyn’s voice, but also a hint of a smile and a short laugh out of disbelief. “I can still barely believe it.”

“I can still barely believe this whole situation.” He lets out a chuckle as Martyn looks at him with an eyebrow raised. “Watchers and Listeners? Sure, I have heard of the Watchers before being real, but Listeners? My dude, you’re basically a fascinating childhood story come true to me. I used to have dreams about them.”

Martyn smirks. “So what you’re saying is that I’m the man of your stories and dreams?”

Ren barks out a laugh. “You know, you are quite bold for someone speaking to a King. And a King you tried to rob just a few days ago at that.”

“And you are quite casual for a King speaking to the person who tried to rob him just a few days ago.” Martyn retorts.

“Fair.” He shrugs. They fall into a comfortable silence. Ren looks out the window above the bed. The sky was dark, stars sparkling here or there, but mostly blocked by the clouds hanging over the mountains. “It’s getting late.” He says as he stands up. “We should get some sleep.” He moves towards the door to leave, but stops and turns back. “I’ll trust you.” Martyn looks up at him surprised. “Or at least to a certain extent. Still not entirely. But BigB trusts you, and I trust him, so I’ll trust you.”

Martyn nods. “I’ll see you tomorrow.”

“See you tomorrow.”

–––––––––––––

The next few days go by relatively uneventfully. Martyn finishes the Watching-resistant items for the entire council. It is clear that – while they all knew that the Watchers aren’t able to hear them through their Watching – a certain tension left the room when everyone had one. It gave an extra sense of security during the meetings, a feeling of being able to discuss plans more safely, even if it didn’t entirely get rid of the possibility. 

Throughout the days, he manages to learn more about the council members and what they are like. He learns that Skizz is an intensely loyal guy. He is Ren’s personal guard and is very protective of him and of the other people he cares about. He has a kind nature, except to those who hurt people close to him. He is very close friends with Impulse even though they often bicker with each other. 

Impulse is the weapons dealer as his specialisation on fire and heat magic as an imp allows him to easily shape metal into more weaponry when needed. He is smart and resourceful, but not as trusting.

Etho is more mysterious, he’s quiet, but in the moments when he is more comfortable, he seems more chaotic. This often happens more when he’s around Impulse. Martyn can tell that they have some kind of history together, but is not sure what. Etho often seems more tense when Martyn is around, which he suspects could be because Etho always wears his mask, hiding part of the scar that Martyn had seen fully.

Doc… is an intimidating man. He is tall, often looming over everyone around him. Martyn can tell that he does not trust or like him, with the glares that he often gets from him. He is Ren’s main advisor and close friend. Though Doc also likes messing around with dangerous projects. Martyn learns this from overhearing conversations between him and Ren reminiscing on some of these.

And then there’s Ren. The day after their late talk, Martyn had heard Ren’s footsteps passing through the hallway outside his room again around the same time and stop for a moment. And then they had continued. But the night after, there was a knock on his door again, and they had talked for a bit again. And the night after again. It is becoming a bit of a routine, Martyn notices one night. A routine that he doesn’t really mind. Ren is nice company.

Over the days they start developing a plan to retaliate against the Sand Kingdom. A plan to distract them with a more obvious main attack like usual in one location and trying to sneak through a smaller group in a less guarded area to try to surprise them there and hopefully gain back some land. 

Doc continues his contact with Cub, and they make an arrangement for him and Martyn to go down to a cave at the foot of the mountain to take a look at the sculk. The day that they plan this arrives quickly. 

Martyn stands by one of the exits of the castle with Doc and Ren, ready to leave down the mountain.

“It’s about a two hour walk to get there, and a bit longer to get back uphill.” Doc says. “We’ll be back here near the end of the day.”

Ren nods. “I’ll see you then. Be careful. Sculk is dangerous.”

“It will be fine.” Doc waves him off. “Barely even close to the most dangerous thing I have worked with.”

“And I am very aware of that.” He responds with a smirk. Doc also lets out a snarky laugh. “Try not to scar him as badly as you have scarred me.”

“Oh, come on. You always found it fun too.”

Ren laughs. “That’s true. I’ll be leaving you then. I’ll see you tonight.” He walks down the hallway, leaving Doc and Martyn alone.

Doc signals Martyn to follow him, and they leave the castle and start the walk down the mountain. The first few minutes are spent in an awkward silence.

“I don’t think I’ve ever really seen sculk before.” Martyn is the first to break the silence. He doesn’t get a response. “I have heard and read about some of its abilities though. I-”

“I think it would be nicer if we walked in silence.” Doc interrupts him with a glare. Martyn opens his mouth to say something, but gets cut off again. “I don’t know why they trust you so easily, but I don’t. It’ll take more for me to trust you. Or even like you. So I’d prefer to walk down there in some nice peace and quiet.”

“Fine.”

The same awkward silence from before returns between them.

“What would I need to do to get you to trust me?”

“I don’t know?” Doc snaps at him. “I’ll see it when I see it.”

They continue the journey down the mountain. Neither of them say anything until they reach the cave.

“In here.” Doc says as they enter.

It starts off more narrow, wide enough for two people to walk next to each, possibly three, but it would be uncomfortable and tight. It is about a head taller than Doc, and while Doc is a tall man, it still feels very low. It gradually goes further downwards. Torches are hung on the walls, leading the way with a dim light. As they continue, the cave slowly gets wider until it reaches a large open area, lit up with a large lamp stuck in the ground in the center. 

Two cave branches lead out of it, one slightly smaller, a brighter and white light seen out from it. The other is lit very dimly, even less than the cave they walked through to get here.

As they enter the large cave further, Martyn hears footsteps approaching from the brighter branch. A man emerges from it dressed in a white lab coat. At least… mostly white. It is covered with dark blue, nearly black, patches of what almost looks like a type of algae. The algae spreads not only over the lab coat, but also seemingly over some part of his skin, crawling up his neck, stretching over one of his eyes, which is a strange color of cyan and a slightly lighter shade of the dark blue as his sclera. It also moves underneath his short black hair. Near his ear sprouts a type of vine or antenna that curls upwards. At each step, the vines light up slightly with a deep cyan color, seemingly sensing the vibrations of the sound.

The man waves. ”Hello boys.”

Chapter Text

“Cub.” Doc greets the man. “It’s been a while.”

”Doc!” Cub approaches them and shakes Doc’s hand. “It’s nice to see you again.” He turns to Martyn. “And you must be Martyn.” He holds out his hand.

Martyn takes it. “That’s me.”

”The name’s Cub.” He takes a step back and gestures for them to follow him back down the branch of the cave where he had emerged from.

They are led to a room, the rock walls shaped to create a more square room. A bright lightbulb lights it up, which Martyn’s eyes have to get used to after walking through the dark cave. A desk is set up on the right with equipment that Martyn has never seen before, and a large terrarium is placed in the far left corner in which the same glowing algae that runs over Cub’s face, growing over hanging vines, mossy stone and leaves. There are a few strange small creatures wandering aimlessly, with similar antennae growing out of their heads as Cub has.

“I must say that when you said you build a bond with the sculk, I was not exactly expecting this.” Doc says, looking into Cub’s bright cyan eye.

Cub chuckles. “What can I say? It’s the best way to study it.”

“By letting it infect you?” Doc asks, an eyebrow raised.

“By connecting with it.” Cub corrects. “The sculk is connected to a type of hive mind. Down the other path from the cave back there is an ancient city, fully taken over by the sculk, a large system of knowledge that I have gotten myself access to.”

Martyn stands in front of the terrarium, one hand on the glass. He calls to his listener magic, humming and looking for any reaction from the sculk. When he stops from the lack of any observable response, he looks back to see Cub staring at him, the sculk antenna glowing and clicking.

“I see.” Cub says. “You’re a Listener.”

The confidence in his statement catches Martyn off guard. “Yes.”

“The sculk is very appreciative of your kind. Good allies with comforting magic. Though it is confused by the seeming lack of any of you around in the past year.”

Doc raises a curious eyebrow at that. Martyn looks away, back at the terrarium and changes the topic. “Is this soundproof?”

“Yes. It is completely separated from the main sculk hive mind. It allows me to study it in more controlled and safer conditions. The city is dangerous to be in the sculk has a defense system, it takes over dead creatures, turning them into these creatures I call Wardens that can easily take care of anything it doesn’t want there if it makes itself known. By connecting myself to the connected stream of consciousness, I am not seen as a threat anymore.”

“And if we would enter the city?” Doc asks.

“Martyn would be mostly fine as well, I believe. Your magic calms it. And Doc, you probably will be fine as long as you stay very quiet.”

“Great.” Doc says, clearly thinking quite the opposite.

“You could also stay here in safety if you don’t want to be quiet.” Martyn suggests. 

“Not happening.”

They decide to go to the sculk-infested city after Cub tells them some more safety regulations. As they reach the edge of where the sculk starts in the other cave, their voices lower to quiet whispers. 

Martyn crouches in front of the sculk and reaches his hand out, touching it. It has a strange texture, almost sludgy. The small glowing light cyan spots look like a type of fungi, like small mushrooms growing throughout the thin dark layer covering the rock. He once again uses his Listener magic, projecting small waves of sound from his voice. The small fungi glow bright as the sound passes, accompanied by clicking noises from certain larger vine-like fungi, lighting up the cave in long waves, disappearing from his vision as the cave makes a gradual turn. Martyn notices that the range that it travels seems longer than what he intended to do. Vibrations also seem to come back to him, vibrations of what sound like heavy footsteps.

The sight was almost mesmerising. Martyn continues looking until he feels a strange sensation on his hand. He looks down and sees the sculk slowly climb onto his hand. He feels a too familiar type of tug on his mind and he quickly retracts it and shakes it, trying to rub it off his hand. He looks at Cub with a panic, who takes a step towards him and takes his hand to look over, studying the small bit of sludge that remains on his hand.

“Huh. That’s strange.” Cub curious eyes meet Martyn’s wide eyes filled with panic. “You have to tell me how your magic works.”

“Get it off me.” His voice is tense, putting up defenses in his mind to try to stop the sculk from invading it.

”It might be safer for you to keep it for now.” He goes silent for a moment, looking Martyn’s hand over once again. "I’m curious how-“

”I said get it off!” The sculk around them glows brightly as he yells.

Cub nods and helps him get the thin layer of the dark sludge off his skin. When it’s gone, Martyn feels the tug at his mind disappear and he takes a deep breath. His voice quiets back down to a whisper as he takes his hand back. “Thanks.”

Cub leads the way down the cave, Doc and Martyn following him, more tense and cautious. 

As they reach the end of the narrow passage, they reach an opening to a gigantic cavern. Sculk spreads far, small glowing dots stretching far, climbing through the rubble of different structures. Martyn can see what he assumes is one of those Wardens that Cub told them about. 

“This is huge.” Doc says quietly as he takes in the sight. 

“It really is. I myself have not been able to explore this whole place yet.”

As they continue further into the cavern, they pass some of the structures. They are made out of stone, though seemingly a lighter rock than the dark type that is found underneath the layer of sculk. Ripped up banners are hung on some of the walls of dull colors of red, the vibrancy of the colors seemingly having faded over time. 

Doc takes one of them in his hands. “Is this a Dogwarts banner?”

“Yes, it is.” Cub tells him. “This used to be a part of the kingdom, hybrids that are more comfortable in dim light or darkness would stay here until the sculk ended up taking it over and everyone had to flee.”

“I didn’t know about this place.”

“I found records about it here, that’s how I found out. It's very old”

Cub suddenly holds out his hand, signing for Martyn and Doc to stop. They immediately freeze, standing completely still and silent.

A warden passes by a few meters away from them. From closer, Martyn can see it in more detail. It is large, and a large glowing heart thumps in its chest, visible below an open ribcage. It stops for a moment. A strange sound emerges from it, almost like it was sniffing. It turns slowly towards them. 

Cub signals them to move back. They take careful steps as to not make any noise as they move around the building, continuing into the city the other way around, avoiding the warden. 

Near the center of the city, Cub brings them to a small house, most of the structure still standing strong, though some parts replaced with newer stone and the same type of glass that covered the small terrarium back in the lab. 

“We are completely safe here.” Cub says, voice loud again. “I have made these walls completely soundproof, the sculk can’t hear us in here.”

It feels weird for Martyn. He often is able to hear even just small things far in the distance, meaning that it is never fully quiet for him. But here, he isn’t able to hear these things, out of their voices, it is completely quiet. He is not sure if he likes it.

”You ready to see a demonstration of what sculk can really do?”

”Absolutely.” Doc says, a hint of excitement in his voice. Martyn nods.

Cub moves towards a lever fixed to the ground and flips it. Immediately the sculk outside starts glowing brightly in waves originating from some type of contraption in the middle of the open space in front of the thick window. Martyn presumes that it is some type of sound machine.

It doesn’t take long before multiple wardens limp towards it at a fast pace. It is hard to exactly what they look like in the dimly lit cavern. They are all large, though with some slight size and shape variation. From what is visible through the window, they seem to be roaring as they near it. Some close in, ready to smash it into pieces, while others stay back. The ones that stay back let out a screech towards the machine, waves of the sound visible, so loud that a small bit of the sound manages to get through the soundproofing.

It doesn’t take long before the machine is seemingly destroyed and the Wardens wander away again. A shocked silence spreads in the room.

Cub is the first to speak up. “I have to remake it every time that I do that.”

Martyn nods. “I can tell. Seems very deadly.”

“This could give us a huge advantage against the Sand Kingdom if we figure out how to weaponize it.” Doc says thoughtfully. “But how would we prevent it from attacking our own?”

“As I said, since I have connected myself to it, it doesn’t see me as an enemy.”

“That could work, though I don’t know if everyone would be as willing to do that.” Doc thinks for a moment. “This could be good for a final defense if needed, if we end up desperate to hold them back.”

“I am currently working on trying to find another way to make the Wardens peaceful with people, though I have had no success yet.”

They decide to go back to the lab. Cub first grabs the now broken sound machine to remake a new one for later. They trace their steps back towards the entrance of the city. 

They pass near another warden, its loud, thumping heartbeat matching Martyn’s own. They start to pass by, but then Cub stops Martyn abruptly, causing Doc to bump into him, letting out a short string of swears, quiet, but still loud enough for the Warden to pick up on it. It turns sharply towards them, roars, and approaches them at a fast pace.

“Run!” Cub says. Doc and Martyn start running towards the exit, away from the warden. Cub follows not far behind. Martyn looks back at it as he hears it slow down. His hope that they have gotten away is quickly extinguished as it seems to take a deep breath in, charging up a destructive screech. 

It is aimed at Doc, though he doesn’t realise, solely focused on running away. 

“Doc!” Martyn shouts at him as he runs at him, knocking him away, leaving himself just at the edge of the blast range as the loud sound is released. The shriek is deafening. Martyn clutches at his ears as he stumbles forwards, unable to make a sensible thought for a few moments.

Once his mind starts working again, he feels his ears ringing and he has a splitting headache. He can tell that there are voices trying to talk to him, though struggles to tell what they are saying

He blinks his eyes a few times, focusing on trying to see his surroundings again. A set of hands hold him, pushing his arm around someone for support. He stumbles along, being led towards a brighter area. He assumes that it is the cave by Cub’s lab, though he still struggles on focusing his eyes on anything. 

Martyn groans at the change in light. The hands holding him sit him down on the cold and rough surface of the cave floor. His back is propped up against the rocky wall as he feels the opening of a glass bottle pressed against his lips, pouring a sweet liquid into his mouth he is able to recognise as a health potion, which quickly softens some of the pain. 

The ringing in his ears seems to slowly decrease again as well. He holds his hurting head in his hands, closing his eyes for a moment. 

When he opens his eyes again, they manage to focus better on the shadows of the rocky surface of the cave. His gaze moves over to a figure that sits next to him. Doc is saying something, he realises and focuses to listen to it over the persistent ringing off his ears.

“Can you hear me?” Martyn hears him say, which he responds to with a nod. He notices a tinge of worry in Doc’s voice and face. “Good. How are you feeling?”

“I’ll be fine.”

Doc looks at Cub, who approaches the two, with a doubtful expression on his face. “He’ll be fine.” Cub affirms, he crouches next to Martyn with a piece of white cloth. He presses it against his ear and Martyn suppresses a flinch. As Cub takes the cloth away again, Martyn can see a small dark red smudge on it, which he frowns at. “You were just out of the way of the main blast. I don’t think it will cause anything permanent, but it will take a while to fully heal. You should let someone else take a look at it when you're back at the castle.”

“Will he be able to go back today?”

Before Cub can reply, Martyn speaks up instead. “Just give me a bit longer, then I’ll be good to go.”

“Maybe you should wait until tomorrow. Give yourself some more time to recover before you leave.” Cub suggests.

“Ren is expecting us to be back tonight.” Martyn says.

“Right. He’ll be worried out of his mind if we don’t hold ourselves to that.” Doc sighs. “Fine. We’ll go today.”

Chapter Text

About an hour or two later, Martyn decides he is ready to start the way back to the castle, against Cub’s advice. When they get out of the cave, the sun is already starting to set, the sky turning a light orange. 

Most of the way back they stay in silence, but it feels like a different silence than on the way there, less tense. Doc waits whenever Martyn has to slow down or needs to take a short break from a lapse of dizziness or loss of his balance. Martyn notices that the hostility that Doc’s looks at him previously had has seemingly become much less now. 

The fact that it is later in the day meant that the background noise that was there on the way here is a lot less, something that Martyn appreciated at the moment. Less noise that could make the aching in his head and ears worse. 

As they get further, Martyn feels the pain in his ear get worse, vertigo becoming faster to affect him. 

“Just a little further.” Doc says as he lowers Martyn to sit down, his voice sounding slightly muffled. Martyn had pushed himself a bit too much and almost had almost fallen from the dizziness.

Martyn takes a few deep breaths as Doc sits down across from him. “You know you can go ahead, right? I can find my own way back from here.”

“I’m not doing that.”

”Why not?” Martyn asks. Like Doc said, the castle isn’t far anymore, it is nearly visible again, he’d be fine going back on his own without slowing him down. Doc could be walking on his own in silence like he seemed to want on the way there, but he instead chooses to stay with him. It confuses Martyn. “We’re already late, Ren must be worried.”

”The King can be worried for a little longer, it won’t hurt him. And you need someone to make sure you don’t fall and hurt yourself while getting back.”

”I’ll be fine.”

“I’m not willing to take the risk.”

“Why? I thought you’d want to go on your own in some nice peace and quiet.”

Doc winces at the reference to what he had said earlier that day. “It’s different now. You got hurt saving me from a possible much worse injury, risking yourself to get hurt that bad as well. It doesn’t feel right to leave you by yourself here.”

“It is not a big deal.”

“Yes, it is. I have given you no reason to risk your life for me, I have always been clear that I do not like or trust you. Yet you still did it without a second thought.” He sighs. “Look. I still don’t trust you, but… I’m willing to give you more of a chance.”

Martyn’s eyes widen at the statement. “Thank you.”

”Don’t.” Doc stops him. “It’s the least I can do.”

–––––––––––––

Ren sits in one of the sitting rooms not far from the main entrance to the castle. His leg bounces up and down, a nervous tick he can’t seem to stop. “It’s late.” He says. “They should have been back already, right?.” He looks at Skizz sitting across from him, who had decided to stay there waiting along with him.

“They’re fine.” The guard says with a comforting tone, putting a hand lightly on Ren’s knee to stop it from its nervous movement, “Come on, it’s Doc. He does all kinds of things like this, barely ever gets hurt. And I’m sure Martyn can handle himself as well.”

Ren nods, he knows that he is probably right, but that still doesn’t stop him from feeling nervous about why they are this late.

“Maybe they lost track of time and ended up leaving later than they meant to.”

“Right, yes.” Ren tries to convince himself that that is what actually happened. “They’re probably fine.”

Skizz smiles at him. They continue sitting in silence for a few minutes, until another guard enters the sitting room. Ren quickly looks up as the door opens, eyes hopeful. 

“They have returned, my Lord.”

Ren nods, dismissing the guard, and stands up to find the two, Skizz following him close behind. He spots the two familiar figures of Doc and Martyn by the entrance. Doc was speaking to one of the other guards, while Martyn was standing next to one of the walls, leaning his hand on it with a bit of a distant look on his face.

“Could you go look if the healer is still awake?” Doc asks, and the guard he is talking to nods and hurries down the hallway past Ren to the healer’s chamber. 

Ren frowns. The healer? For what would they need the healer for? His pace quickens towards them, his relief at their return fading into worry. “What happened?” He asks as soon as he reaches them. His gaze moves to Martyn, who he can now see is leaning more on the wall than it seemed like from further away while breathing heavily. “Are you okay?”

It seems to take a few seconds for Martyn to process what he said before he nods.

Ren looks back at Doc, looking for any explanation from him about what might have happened. “He got hurt from the sculk. I’ll explain it better later.”

Ren’s eyes widen, and he looks at Martyn with worry. 

“Not badly.” Martyn tries to reassure him. They start walking down the hallways, following the path Doc had sent the guard earlier. Ren dismisses Skizz, who nods and leaves them. Martyn insists on walking by himself, even with his obvious struggle to keep his balance, instead depending on the wall next to him.

On the way there, they pass by the guard, who tells them that the healer is awake and available. When they arrive, she greets them and gestures for Martyn to sit down. Martyn tells her about his dizziness, the pain in his ears, and the way that his hearing is more muffled, partially drowned out by a constant but quiet ringing in his ears. Doc adds that it had seemingly gotten worse during their way back and that it had bled slightly after the initial injury. 

She asks Doc and Ren to leave the room for a moment. They comply, standing just outside the door.

“What happened?” Ren asks as soon as they are out. His tone is more demanding than he meant it to be. He doesn’t quite understand why he is feeling this amount of worry for Martyn, a man he has known for only about a week starting with attempted theft. Though he ignores this for the moment. Not the time.

Doc explains to him about the Wardens, what they are, and their loud destructive shriek. “We made too much noise, one of them heard us, and started chasing after us. It was aiming for me, but Martyn managed to push me out of the way. He was caught it in the edge of the blast. He saved me, but I don’t understand why.” 

“Trying to get us to trust him?” Ren wonders.

Doc shakes his head. “It happened too fast for him to have thought of an ulterior motive.”

“Instinct?”

“Maybe.”

…

“I think we can trust him.” Ren says after a moment of silence. “I have been talking with him more often. He seems like a good guy.” He smiles when he thinks about their talks before sleep. They are always nice.

Doc sighs. “I’ll give him a chance. We’ll see.”

They wait until the door is opened again. The healer tells them that Martyn will be fine and barely feel anything of it as long as he takes it easy, it should be healed by itself in a few weeks, shorter with regular health potions. He will need to return a few times in the coming days to make sure it is not getting worse in any way.

After that, they decide to go to bed as it is already late in the evening. Ren makes sure Martyn gets back to his room fine, saying goodnight to each other as they split up. 

–––––––––––––

The next day, Ren notices that Martyn already seems to be doing slightly better. There is still a clear discomfort most of the time, especially with more and louder noise. He seems more stable in his footing. Ren feels a warm feeling of comfort knowing that he is doing better. 

That day, Doc and Ren discuss more about how much trust they feel they can give Martyn, and end up deciding to let him take a look at the Enchanter as he said he needed under their supervision.

They decide to approach him with it two days later, after Martyn tells Ren that the main initial pain is gone and it is sure that the injury does not have a real risk of getting worse anymore

On that day, later in the afternoon, after Ren is mostly done with his duties of the day, they approach Martyn’s room. Ren knocks. No answer. Ren tries again, this time louder. Martyn appears in the opening door a few seconds after. His eyes switch between Ren and Doc, an eyebrow raised in confusion. 

“What’s up?”

“Martyn.” Ren says with a smile. “Me and Doc have been thinking for the past few days, and we agreed that we are ready to let you take a look at the Enchanter.”

Martyn’s eyebrows shoot upwards in surprise. “Really?” He says, his voice hopeful and almost urgent as his gaze goes to Doc, who nods, confirming it.

Ren gestures to him to follow. Martyn disappears into his room for a short moment until he comes back out, a notebook in his hand. They go down the hallways until they get to a certain door. Ren grabs a key out of his pocket and unlocks the door. A small study is revealed as he opens the door. A desk stands in the middle of the back wall, two chairs in front of it. It is surrounded by bookshelves on both sides of it. A storage chest sits in the corner left of the door, a large cupboard on the other.

Ren takes the handles of the cupboard and concentrates, a deep hum coming from his throat laced with magic. He guides it down his arms towards the cupboard, and as he opens its doors, instead of opening to a normal cupboard space, it opens to a small extra-dimensional storage space, the Enchanter suspended in the middle.

Ren takes the book, feeling the familiar old leather binding around the pages. He turns back and sees Martyn looking at him curiously. “Huh, that does seem very similar to Listener magic.” He mumbles. 

Ren carries the Enchanter towards the desk and places it there. He notices now that the symbol on the front of the book is the same symbol as the one Martyn wears around his neck, the Listener symbol. Was it really given to them by the Listeners? Ren wonders. It seems likely now.

Ren sits down on one of the chairs, gesturing for Martyn to sit on the other while Doc stays standing behind them. There is something familiar about the set-up. Back when he was still studying all these spells, with his mother or father, sometimes together with his brother, Renbob. Something within him aches at the memories.

Martyn starts flipping through the pages until he gets to the last section of spells. The pages are filled with descriptions in the familiar encryption that Ren has stared at numerous times before, curious what types of spells could be contained there. Strange patterns are drawn underneath each description. At first glance it seems purely decorative separators, but as he takes a closer look, he sees that they are all different in some way.

“So, can you read it?” Doc asks as Martyn looks over the pages.

“With a bit of time.” He responds with a thoughtful frown. “It’s been a while since I have done anything with this language. I’m a bit rusty.” He takes out his notebook and opens it. “I recently started noting down anything that I can remember of it.”

”How does it work?” Ren asks, peeking into the notebook. He can see all kinds of writing inside of it. He recognizes some symbols that are also found in the spellbook. 

“There are two parts to it. The language is used by Listeners to communicate more secretly, using magic to make sounds that others are not able to make, making sure that only Listeners can speak or understand it. In writing it is slightly different, it looks like normal text, just with a strange alphabet. This is mostly correct, though all the letters are scrambled up. A certain spell is needed to put them in all the right places that the reader has to concentrate on, and then you still have to know the language to read it.” Martyn then points to the patterns drawn underneath the encrypted spell descriptions. “These parts are the instructions on how to cast the spell. This will be easier to decipher as it only needs the knowledge of how it works as it already has the protection of only being able to be cast with Listener magic.”

“Could you just decipher how to cast the spell and try it out to see what it is?”

”I could. Though that would be risky. These are spells that the Listeners felt like they had to hide. I have no clue what type there are in here.”

”How long do you think it will take you to find the spell that can beat the Watchers?” Ren asks.

”I don’t know. It depends on the time I will be able to spend translating this daily, on where in this section it will be, and on how well I actually remember it.”

Doc speaks up from behind them. “Could you perhaps contact another Listener who would be able to get through this faster?”

Ren notices Martyn’s body becoming slightly tense at the question, something flashed on his face, but quickly disappeared. “No. That won’t be possible.” He says, his voice having become slightly colder.

”Why not?”

”It just isn’t.” He seems to be making himself slightly smaller as he stares down at the pages.

Ren and Doc exchange a look, confused at the change in Martyn’s behavior at the question, but end up letting it go for now. 

Throughout the rest of the afternoon, Martyn starts looking through the pages more closely, sometimes pausing and starting to hum, which Ren assumes is him casting the spell he mentioned before to unscramble the lettering. He would then switch his gaze between the spellbook and his notebook, trying to decipher anything from what it says. Doc ends up leaving the two after a few minutes.

Ren stays with Martyn, observing with curiosity, listening to the drone of Martyn keeping up the spell.

After a while, Ren notices Martyn slowing down, seemingly unable to keep up the spell as easily.

“Are you okay?”

Martyn nods. “It is tiring to keep up a spell for long stretches of time.” He rubs the skin around his ears. They must be irritating from the spell combined with the recent injury as well, Ren assumes. 

“Take a break, then.” Ren suggests. “Continue tomorrow. I can join you here again.” Martyn’s gaze lingers on their hands. Ren realises that he has placed his hand on Martyn’s and quickly retracts it, feeling his face warm up slightly. Martyn pulls his hand slightly closer to himself with an expression Ren struggles to read. “I mean, either me or Doc will be with you here for at least a certain amount of time. We’re not letting you alone with the Enchanter yet.”

“Right.” Martyn stretches, his face relaxing back into a smile, though still with some tension behind it. “Tomorrow I’ll continue.” He says as he stands up. He moves to leave the study, and opens the door before turning back to Ren. “I’ll see you later.”

Ren nods with a smile as he leaves the room, but when the door is closed his face falls into a slight frown. He was quick to leave .

Chapter Text

In the evening, as Ren reaches Martyn’s door on his usual walk before bed, he hesitates for a moment. Martyn seemed to have wanted to get away quickly earlier. But before he can make a decision on what to do, the door opens. 

“I heard you stop in front of my door.” Martyn says as he is revealed in the doorway. “Took a bit long for you to knock though.” 

Ren smiles as he feels his tail slowly start to wag from side to side as Martyn steps to the side to let him in. His mental turmoil quickly calms down, a small worry still in the back of his mind though barely heard anymore.

“Sorry for leaving so quickly earlier.” Martyn closes the door. “I was tired.” Ren can tell that there is more to it, but lets it go for the time being. 

They fall into a silence as they sit down, Martyn on the edge of his bed, Ren on the chair that stands by the desk, though it is a comfortable silence. Ren finds something nice and comforting about just being in Martyn’s presence, even if they are not talking, if one or both of them is simply working on something else. 

“Can I ask you something?” Ren breaks the silence, knowing that the question he wants to ask will probably disrupt their comfort. He continues speaking as Martyn raises one of his eyebrows. “This spell that you are looking for.” Ren starts. A slight frown appears on Martyn’s face, but he stays silent. “You say it is considered as a last resort. If it is so important to get, why first start with trying to steal it? There are many other ways you could have gone about it, ways that might have been easier, you could have approached us and asked about it.”

Martyn lets out a bitter laugh. “I thought about it, but would you really just trust someone approaching you with this whole story about why they need the Enchanter, this powerful spellbook, or would you think they were crazy?”

Ren goes quiet for a moment. He has a point. This war started over something not too different from that. 

“I couldn’t risk the security on it being increased.”

“Then why are you doing this alone?” Ren asks. “Why is it just you? A last resort sounds important to have, but yet it is just you here trying to get it.” Ren can see that he has reached a difficult subject as Martyn looks away, hiding his face. His body is visibly tense. “You don’t have to answer if you-”

“Because they’re gone.” Ren’s mouth snaps shut as Martyn speaks. His voice is quiet, with-drawn, almost emotionless. “All the other Listeners were locked up somewhere… by the Watchers. It is just me now.”

Ren looks at him, his eyes empathetic. That is a lot of pressure on one person. He knows what pressure like that can feel like. He stands up. “May I?” He asks as gestures to the empty space beside Martyn. 

Martyn looks up at him and nods, though not without some visible hesitation. As Ren sits down, Martyn pulls his hands slightly closer to himself. 

“Did you know I was never supposed to become the King of Dogwarts?” He says as he angles his body more towards Martyn.

Martyn looks at him with a confused frown. “I… didn’t.”

“I have an older brother who was supposed to become the next king, Renbob. My mother died eight years ago. I was twenty. It affected my father a lot, he loved her very much.” It has been a while since he has spoken about all this. “Just a few years later, my father caught a different disease, an unknown one with strange symptoms. It caused him to slowly lose all emotion and will to do anything over the span of a few months until he had no energy to do anything anymore.” Talking about it, he could almost see in front of him how his father had laid in his bed, looking at him with an emotionless stare, strange glowing markings all over his visible skin expanding out from underneath his clothing. He takes a breath, trying to push the sight out of his mind.

“That must have been terrifying.” Martyn says.

“It was.” Ren admits. “After he died, it was my brother’s turn on the throne. Renbob was king for a few weeks before he decided he was not able to handle the pressures and that he needed to get away. So he left a few days after that. I have not seen him since, it’s been about two years now. And then I was suddenly the King of Dogwarts. I was scared. Renbob was the one who had gotten all the extra training and teachings to prepare him. I was there for some of it, but it was always more focused on him. I had no clue what to do, I felt alone and it was tempting to give up and get away from the pressures just like my brother did. But I didn’t, I couldn’t. So I stayed.”

“The first few weeks were the hardest. I had no idea what I was doing, and the only reason I survived them was because I had Doc there with me, guiding and teaching me every step of the way. At least once I actually let him. He already had years of experience as my father’s advisor, so I was already more familiar with him. Not long later Skizz was assigned as my personal guard. He is a good guy, easy to talk to, always helpful, fiercely loyal, he helped me through a lot. Then I met Impulse, who had already been working as our weapons dealer for about a bit over a year. Impulse introduced me to Etho shortly after, then BigB decided to stay here.”

”It got easier once I started gaining more people to help me, who were able to take some of the pressure as well, people that I could trust. Yes, I still get scared often. Especially with this whole war. I barely know what I am doing.” He lets out a small nervous chuckle. “But-“

”But you have to.” Martyn interrupts him, voice soft, looking to the ground in front of him, taking almost the exact words from his mind. “You can’t give up because you can’t disappoint them, because they depend on you. Even if they are not around.”

”Exactly.” Ren shows him a light smile. “My point is that I know some things about how pressure like that can feel, and that it does get easier with help.”

They continue to sit next to each other without saying much else. Ren hears Martyn’s breathing change after a while, and notices his eyes closed and his head slightly lulled forwards, seemingly asleep or at least near the point. He lightly shakes his shoulder, causing Martyn to wake up again with a small flinch. 

“Sorry.” Martyn apologizes as he rubs at his eyes with a small chuckle. 

“No, don’t worry,” Ren assures him. “You’re right, it is late. I’ll let you rest for the night and will do the same myself.” He stands up and moves towards the door to leave.

“Wait.” Martyn says, stopping Ren where he stands. Ren turns back and their eyes connect. “Thank you.” His face is soft and his tone is genuine.

Ren smiles at him with a nod. “Of course. Now, sleep well.”

“You too.”

–––––––––––––

The following week is spent productively. Martyn continues piecing together words and sentences, gradually starting to remember more. The translating of the spells goes at a slow but steady rate because of the struggle he has to continuously keep up the spell needed. 

He manages to translate a few full spells, though not ones that are very useful. The only one he finds that could have the most use to them at the moment is a scry spell, an attempt at replicating the Watcher’s Watching, though with less range and more effort needed to maintain. Martyn tries it out a few times, but struggles with it with his limited magic. 

Most of the time it is Ren that joins him, though he is not always available, so Doc occasionally is there instead. Doc mostly just stays silent, doing his own thing, but Ren gets curious. Martyn often lets Ren look through his notes and translations, explaining certain things in more detail. 

In addition to this, the plans for the next attack against the Sand Kingdom get developed further. Reports from the front line have stayed constant and the same, with the army of the opposition making no move against them, seemingly not changing anything about their position.

The plan is to cause a distraction using a large part of the army in a more central area to attract the attention of the Watchers. Meanwhile, a smaller group will move in on an area with less defense to get some of their troops into their territory in an attempt to push back. 

BigB will be leading the distraction attack, as it is likely that he is a target for their Watching because of his position. After they realise this, Martyn notices a tension in BigB, one that he understands very well. 

They discuss more of the arrangements of the attack, when it will take place and where. They plan for BigB to leave again in a few days and for Impulse to join him with new supplies and weaponry for if it is needed. 

Afterwards, Martyn notices BigB approach Ren. “My lord.” Ren’s ears perk up as he looks at BigB. “I have a proposal.”

“Oh?”

BigB glances at Martyn, who quickly looks away, pretending he isn’t listening in. “Martyn.” He says and gestures for him as he looks back to come over. “I was thinking, and remembered that the place where I used to live is only a small detour.” He looks at Martyn. “Where Jimmy and Pearl live.” BigB turns back to Ren. “I thought that Martyn could come with us until we get there to see them again.”

Martyn feels his breath hitch at the mention of them. At the mention of seeing them again. Seeing that they are actually alive and safe. A desperation rises at the thought.

He looks at Ren, who seems to deliberate it for a moment. Ren moves his eyes to meet Martyn’s, and a tense moment passes before his face softens into a smile as he nods. “I’ll allow it.”

“Really?” Martyn’s eyes widen as he feels the side of his mouth quirk up into a smile.

“Of course. Who am I to stop a reunion like that?”

“I mean… you’re the King here, and I’m just a simple thief.” Martyn says with a grin, his hand on his chest, gesturing to himself dramatically.

Ren laughs. “You are much more than that now. Not quite a thief, since that would imply you were successful.”

“Maybe I’ve been successful at an earlier time.”

“Watch out with what you say, like you just said, I am still a King, I can have you put back in your cell. Also, I definitely would not call the man of my stories and dreams simple.”

Martyn chuckles. He feels a warmth spread through him, and the tips of his ears heating up slightly at the reference to their earlier conversation. The familiarity of the warmth creates a spark of panic in him. Though before the spark can grow larger, BigB speaks up.

“You two done?” He looks at them with an eyebrow raised and a light smirk. The two addressed go silent.

”Right, yes.” Ren stands up straighter again. “You’ll be joining BigB when he leaves in a few days, and come back after your visit. Should there be someone else to accompany you on your way back?”

”Nah, I’ll be able to find my own way back.” Martyn says. “And before you start worrying about if I will even return, I will. You have what I need here.” Ren smiles and nods at the reassurance. ”Thanks, Ren.” 

Martyn smiles at the thought of seeing Jimmy and Pearl again. Even though BigB has told him that they are alive, seeing them will make it feel real, Martyn thinks. It will show him that he didn’t fail as a brother or a friend, that they are living a happy and hopefully peaceful life, away from the Watchers. Safe.

Chapter Text

The three leading up pass slowly for Martyn. He is antsy, excited but nervous, trying to keep himself busy. BigB tells him that the journey there will take about a day and a half, so they will have to camp out somewhere on the way.

When the day itself arrives, Martyn starts it by packing his bag. He takes with him most of his usual items, and does not leave behind much. He already doesn’t have many belongings as he has been living off the same bag for the past year. It feels weird to leave behind some certain things, usually he doesn’t plan on returning somewhere.

As he finishes packing, he hears a knock against the door. He slings his bag over his shoulder before he opens it. Impulse stands outside with a smile. “You ready?”

Martyn nods and follows him to one of the secondary entrances to the castle near the stables. Ren and BigB not far from it with three saddled horses, one of them having a carriage attached to it to pull along.

“The extra soldiers joining you will be waiting just a bit further. There aren’t many, but at least there are some.” Martyn can hear Ren speaking to BigB. Ren then spots the two approaching and smiles at them. “Martyn! Impulse! There you are.”

“Wow, are we being seen off by the King himself?” Impulse says brightly as he moves to the carriage and checks its contents. “That doesn’t always happen.”

Ren chuckles, but quickly turns more serious. “I wanted to wish you luck. We actually stand a chance to get a win this time. I don’t mean to put a lot of pressure on this, but-” 

“I get it.” BigB interrupts him with a nod.

Ren puts his hand on his shoulder. “Just… be careful, okay? I don’t want you getting hurt.”

“I won’t.” BigB waves him off. “I’ll be fine. We’ll be fine.” Impulse nods along in affirmation.

Ren takes his hand back with a sigh. “You better.” He then turns to Martyn as he lets BigB mount his horse.

“Thanks again for letting me leave for a few days.” Martyn says.

Ren smiles. “Of course. It took a bit for Doc to actually let it happen, but I managed to convince him.” 

Martyn lets out a light laugh. “I’ll be back in a few days, not sure yet exactly how long I’ll stay.”

“Take your time.” Ren assures him. “It’s the first time you will be seeing them in ten years, the first time you’ll see your brother in ten years, I understand if you stay for at least a few days. If my older brother arrived back here I would want him to stay a while, I’m sure yours feels the same way.” Martyn notices a certain sadness creeping into Ren’s tone as he mentions his brother, but doesn’t comment on it. 

“Right.” He rubs at his neck. “I’ll see you then.” He moves towards his horse and stands there for a moment, deliberating on how exactly he can get on its back. He tries, but fails horribly, almost falling backwards as he tries to climb on top of it, but he gets caught by Ren just in time, who helps him get up properly. 

Martyn looks away in embarrassment, feeling his face heat up as Ren laughs. “Be careful.”

“It’s been a while since I’ve rode on a horse. I just need to get used to it again.” 

“Are you ready to go?” BigB asks him. 

Martyn nods and gets his horse to walk closer to him, wobbling slightly unstable. He turns to Ren once more and waves at him before BigB takes off, Impulse closely following him.

“Good luck!” Shouts Ren as they leave.

–––––––––––––

Martyn quickly stabilizes on his horse as he remembers how exactly it works. They pick up the extra soldiers as they pass the place they are waiting at. It is not a very big group, can’t be more than fifteen. BigB tells him that this is because the faith in Dogwarts has been very low. It has been a while since they have had any type of win. That is why this attack is so important, why there lies so much pressure on it, even if Ren did not want to make it feel that way. BigB knows the pressures that lie on it, and tells Martyn that he believes that they can finally get a victory now. Hopefully.

“So, who are you visiting?” Impulse asks at one point.

Martyn looks at him. “Two old friends.” He says, deciding to keep it vague after some hesitation. 

“Shared childhood friends?” Impulse looks at BigB. “The ones you’ve talked about?” BigB nods. “I hope you have a good time with them.”

”Thanks.” Martyn says. “You good luck with the attack. I hope it goes well.”

”I hope so too.” There is a moment of silence between them before Impulse speaks up again. “You know, I don’t think we would have had a chance like this if it weren’t for you. So we have you to thank for this.”

“He’s right.” BigB says. “I’m not sure if I would have thought of the possibility of Watchers being involved in all of this. I barely ever thought of them anymore the past few years.”

“I have heard of them before.” Impulse says thoughtfully. “I think I have seen a few of them at some point. Or at least, some people that seemed to fit the description roughly.”

Martyn frowns. “Really? Where?”

”I don’t really remember anymore, it could have been somewhere in town in Dogwarts. It was a few years back and I didn’t think much of it.”

There were Watchers in Dogwarts? Martyn thinks. He had never heard anything about Dogwarts being one of their locations throughout his time as a Listener. “What were they doing there?”

Impulse shrugs. “No clue, no strange reports from that time as far as I know.”

“That’s… odd.” He’ll have to look more into it later.

–––––––––––––

That evening, they stopped on a large open field of grass, where they could have good eyes on their surroundings. A few of the other soldiers start setting up tents while a few others gather firewood in the forest to the side of the field to make a large fire to keep the night warm and lit up. 

After dinner is had and the sky gets darker and darker, the soldiers slowly start entering their tents one by one for the night. After Impulse decides to join them in sleep, Martyn and BigB are the only two left around the campfire. 

“I still can barely believe I’ll be seeing Jimmy and Pearl again tomorrow.” Martyn says after a few minutes of silence. 

BigB smiles at him. “They’ll be happy to see you. It will be a big surprise. We missed you. Especially Jimmy.”

Martyn looks down at the mention of his brother. The moments through the years in which he let himself think about them, about him, he missed him the most. They were very close, almost inseparable. It had felt so lonely without him, and then when he thought that he failed to protect him… He shakes the thought away. He didn’t fail Jimmy, he is alive and safe now, and tomorrow he will see him. Martyn changes the topic. “Why did you decide to stay in Dogwarts?”

BigB looks at him slightly startled at the question. “I didn’t really feel at home in the Flower Valley. One day when I arrived at Dogwarts, I found out that Ren had become king. He managed to find some time to talk to me, and I could see that he was struggling dealing with his new position, so I decided to stay there. It is a nice place.”

“It is.” Martyn agrees. It has been a while since he has felt as comfortable somewhere as he feels in Dogwarts.

“You and the King have gotten pretty close it seems.” BigB says with a slight smirk.

“Ren… is nice to talk to.”

“I can tell. You act more like how I remember you around him.” BigB’s smirk turns into more of a light smile. “You seem comfortable around him. And he seems comfortable around you.”

Martyn goes quiet for a moment. He is right. Ren’s presence often seems to push down the walls he has built up over these past years, it pushes away some of his worries. And that fact scares him. He has barely ever been able to lower his guard around everyone in the past ten years, but Ren seems to do it so easily in so little time. He remembers the warmth he feels spreading throughout him sometimes around him. “It’s not like that.” He isn’t sure who he is talking to when he says it, his voice tense.

BigB’s smile falls into a face with visible worry. “Martyn, it’s been ten years. Netty would want you to move on, she wouldn’t-”

“I said it isn’t like that.” Martyn almost shouts as he stands up, his tone harsher than he means it to be. He takes a breath before turning away. He lowers his voice. “I’m going to bed.” He doesn’t leave time for a response as he walks to his tent.

–––––––––––––

Martyn doesn’t sleep well that night, his mind plagued by thoughts about the next day. He’ll see Pearl and Jimmy tomorrow again. How much have they changed? How much has he changed? What will their reaction be? Will they be happy? Angry? He is just dropping in without a warning, what if it is a bad time?  

The additional noises that reach his ears from the wilderness around them do not help his mind calm down either. They keep him alert throughout the night, listening out for any noises that could mean danger.

The next morning, they continue on their journey after cleaning up the campsite. Martyn notices some worried glances from BigB throughout the morning, but he ignores them.

They continue until around mid afternoon, when BigB and Martyn split off from the rest, leaving them to set up camp once again. BigB puts Impulse in charge for the night before they leave.

It takes about another half an hour until BigB says that they have arrived. They reach a valley surrounded by hills. The valley is filled with flowers, though no buildings are visible next to the five tower ruins on top of the hills around it. 

They approach one of the towers, but before Martyn can express his confusion, a figure emerges on top of it. “Who are you and what are you doing here?” The voice sounds angry, though it quickly lightens up. “Oh, hey, BigB. It’s you!”

The figure jumps over the ledge of the tower and slowly glides down, thin transparent insect-like wings flapping at a fast pace behind him. As he reaches the ground, Martyn can see two antennae sprouting out from his brown hair with a green streak flowing through it. 

“Didn’t expect you to come by.” His gaze turns to Martyn with a raised eyebrow out of suspicion, hand lifted to his side over the handle of his sword. “And who might you be?”

“He’s with me.” BigB says. “Joel, this is Martyn.”

Joel’s eyes widen slightly as he looks between the two. “You don’t mean…”

BigB nods.

“No offense, but aren’t you supposed to be dead?” He asks carefully.

“It… it’s a long story.” Martyn replies with an awkward laugh, surprised that Joel seems to know about him.

“Can you get us through?” BigB asks, at which Joel nods and quickly flies back through one of the windows of the tower.

They wait for a few moments until the empty space in front of them starts to ripple, a type of doorway forming. An elf with light blue hair stands in it, hands spread out, seemingly holding it open using magic. Five green glowing points, almost like stars, circle around his head. Joel stands next to him. 

BigB enters and Martyn follows him. When he is through the doorway, the before empty valley is now filled with houses, many of them smaller but cozy cottages. Many different types and colors of flowers still bloom on the grass between them.

“BigB, it is nice to see you again.” The elf says before turning to Martyn. “I don’t think I have met you yet. The name’s Scott.” He holds out his hand. 

Martyn recognizes the name. So this is Jimmy’s husband. He takes his hand and shakes it. “Martyn.”

Scott’s eyes widen, looking to BigB for confirmation similarly to how Joel had just before. “Well, this is certainly a nice surprise.” He says as BigB nods. “I’ve heard a lot about you. I’m Jimmy’s husband.”

“Nothing bad, I hope.” Martyn responds with a nervous chuckle. 

“Mostly good.” Scott reassures him with a laugh. He turns to Joel. “You stay here, take the horses to the stables, I’ll walk them to Jimmy and Pearl.”

“Seriously? Why do I have to take the horses? You know I don’t like them.” Joel whines.

Scott glares at him, his tone leaving no room for arguing. “Joel.”

“Fine, fine. Whatever you want, oh Scott the Great and Powerful.” He storms off with the two horses in tow.

“Just ignore him.” Scott says as he signals for BigB and Martyn to follow him. The valley is small, and has a fittingly small population. The people they pass often exchange small pleasantries, but also often look curiously at Martyn. Scott tells him that that is because it is not usual for new people to be there. 

“The barrier stops anyone from entering the valley or even seeing this place. Impenetrable by most magic.” He turns to Martyn with a light smile. “Even Watcher magic. This place is safe from them.”

A feeling of comfort fills him at the statement. “That must take a lot of magic to maintain.” 

“Luckily I was born with a lot of it.” Scott explains. “As I got older it got more powerful and unstable, so I had to find a way to keep it at a right level, so then I created the barrier. A constant way of draining magic to a controllable level. I’ve been holding the spell up for about fifteen years now, a lot needs to happen for me to lose my concentration on it.”

They continue walking for a bit longer before they stop in front of a certain house, slightly bigger than most others. “This is it.” Scott says.

Martyn stands still in front of it, silently looking it over. His breathing feels shallow, and his legs weak. 

BigB stands beside him as Scott knocks on the door.

A shout is heard from within the house. And after a few moments footsteps approach the door and it opens.

In the doorway stands Jimmy. He has grown, is the first thing Martyn notices. He’s become taller, maybe even taller than himself. His blonde hair is still the same style as he remembers, the small feathers on the top of his ears still neat. His large bright yellow wings are folded behind his back.

“Hey Scott, what’s up?” Jimmy says with his bright smile. His voice is slightly deeper, though not much. His eyes move to BigB. “BigB, you’re back!” And then his eyes move to Martyn and he freezes. His smile disappears from his face as his eyes turn wide. When he opens his mouth once more, his voice is much softer and fragile.

“Martyn?”

“Hi, Jimmy.”

Chapter Text

The two brothers stand still for a moment, staring at each other. Then Jimmy takes a slow step out of the door. And another. And then he starts running at Martyn, embracing him tightly.

Before Martyn can return it, Jimmy pushes him away for a moment, still holding on to his arms. “Is this real? Are you real? Am I dreaming?” Martyn opens his mouth to reply, but gets interrupted. “Pinch me.” Jimmy says seriously.

“What? It’s me, Timmy.” Martyn raises an eyebrow with slight amusement. The old nickname flows out of his mouth naturally.

“I said pinch me. I need to know that I’m not dreaming.”

Martyn complies, pinching his brother in the arm. 

“Ow! That hurts!” Jimmy rubs at the spot where he was pinched, but quickly gets over it as his mind processes what that meant. “This is real. You’re really alive.” His arms wrap around Martyn once more and he buries his head into his neck. 

And Martyn, for the first time in he doesn’t know how long, lets himself sink into the touch. He holds onto his brother tightly, releasing the tension in his body that he did not realise was there. He feels Jimmy’s wings brush against his back as they surround him. 

Another familiar voice emerges from the house. “Jimmy, who is it?”

As Jimmy lets go, though one of his wings still stays close by him, Martyn can see Pearl in the door. Her light brown hair is longer than it used to be. Her wolf ears of similar color are perked upwards, and her tail hangs slightly further upwards, though it lowers as her eyes fall on Martyn.

“Pearl! Look, it’s Martyn!” Jimmy’s voice is wobbly.

Pearl slowly approaches them, stopping when she is about a meter away from them. “This can’t be real.” She says with an uncertain tone. “You’re dead.”

“That’s what I thought about you three as well until not that long ago.”

“How are you alive?”

Before Martyn can say anything, Scott interrupts. “You should get comfortable inside before you get into that. I will leave you all to catch up, I have to return to my post by the barrier. I look forward to getting to know you better, Martyn.” Scott gives Martyn a kind smile, which he returns.

“Right, yes.” Jimmy agrees as he waved goodbye to his husband. He grabs Martyn’s wrist and pulls him along inside the cabin, to the living room. It is not very large, but it is very cozy. The whole space is used, the center space taken up by a couch and two chairs surrounding a low table. The walls are filled with framed paintings of different sizes. One in particular catches his eyes.

It depicts a familiar group of people, their group from Evo. He remembers the time Pearl had drawn them, she has always been good at art. The painting is a replica of it. An ache spreads in his chest as recognizes each person, growing stronger as he sees himself and Netty. Netty stands beside him, holding his hand. He has one of the many roses she would always give him pinned near the collar of his shirt. 

It was from before everything started getting bad. They were all still so happy, carefree, idolizing the Watchers for giving them a place to stay and be happy.

”Martyn.” Jimmy pulls him back out of his thoughts. 

He looks at Jimmy’s worried face. “This place is nice.” He says before Jimmy can express any of his visible worry. “Very good paintings as well.” There are a number of other paintings hung on the walls, some of different landscapes, including one of the valley itself. He also spots one with just Jimmy and Scott, dressed in clothes that make him think it depicts their wedding.

“Thank you.” Pearl says with a smile. “Most of them are ones I made.”

Jimmy guides Martyn to the couch where they sit down. Pearl and BigB sit in the two chairs across from them.

Pearl breaks the silence that had formed between them. “How are you alive?” She repeats her question from earlier. “We thought the Watchers captured you.”

”They did.” Martyn looks down to the ground, trying to hide his discomfort of remembering those days. “The Listeners arrived about a week or two later. I think. It… was hard to keep track of time.” 

“We waited for you.” Jimmy says quietly. “For about a day. I wanted to stay for longer. If we just stayed for longer we could have-”

“I’m glad you didn’t.” Martyn interrupts him. “I wouldn’t have wanted you to risk that.” He also wouldn’t have wanted them to see him in the state he was or get involved with the Listeners as well, but he doesn’t say that.

“What have you been up to these past ten years?” Pearl asks.

“After the Listeners saved me, they gave me the option to become a Listener as well. Which I accepted.” 

“Why didn’t you come looking for us?”

“They told me you died. The Watchers.” He takes a deep breath. “They told me they caught you three and… had to kill you. The Listeners couldn’t find you, so they assumed it was true. It’s good to see it isn’t.”

“It’s good to see you’re alive as well.” Jimmy smiles at him. “I missed you.”

“We all did.” Pearl adds. She looks at BigB. “How did you two find each other?”

BigB tells them how he returned to Dogwarts and Martyn was suddenly just there. In the castle of Dogwarts. In the main meeting room. Apparently because of him having attempted to steal the Enchanter. Martyn realizes that it must have been just as surprising for BigB to see him walk into the room as it was for Martyn to see BigB standing right by Ren.

”You don’t mean the Enchanter, right?” Pearl looks at Martyn with baffled eyes. “The big spellbook from Dogwarts? The one belonging to the royal family of Dogwarts?”

”Yes, it was that one.” Martyn chuckles nervously. “I was locked up for about a day or two, but then I managed to make a deal that got me out.”

”Why? Why would you even try that?”

“There is a certain spell from it. A spell that can beat the Watchers. For good.”

Jimmy looks at him with wide eyes. “For good?” Martyn nods. “Why is it you who is doing this?”

“Like I said, I’m a Listener now. They go against the Watchers. It’s what they did. It’s what I’ve been doing for most of the past ten years.” 

Pearl looks at him confused. “If a spell like that exists then why hasn’t it been used yet? When was it found?”

Martyn feels himself tense as he frowns. “They’ve known about it for a long time.”

“Then why have they never used it?”

“It’s supposed to be the last resort. I don’t know why. It’s what I questioned when I found out about it. Didn’t get an answer though.” Martyn says bitterly. “But I have access to the Enchanter now. I just have to find it in there, and then this can all end.”

They sit in silence for a moment.

“How long will you be staying?” Jimmy asks him, breaking the silence.

“I’m not sure yet. Few days at the longest. I promised I’d be back soon.” Martyn responds. “If it is possible.”

“Of course that’s possible. We still have an extra room from before Pearl and BigB decided to move into a different house in the valley.”

“Though if you feel like you need to get away from those two love birds, you can always stay with me.” Pearl smirks as Jimmy looks offended.

“We’re not that bad.”

“You are.” BigB says.

“You too, BigB?” Jimmy exclaims. Martyn finds himself laughing in a way he hasn’t laughed in a long time. In the past few weeks he has laughed with Ren numerous times, though that felt different, more fond. But now… it feels more carefree, more like it used to be. 

“I‘ll stay here.” Martyn says, breaking through the continued bickering from the other three. 

Jimmy turns to him with a bright smile. “Great. I’ll get the bed ready for you in a bit.”

Pearl turns to BigB. “And you? How long are you here?”

”I will be leaving later tonight.” BigB says. 

They continue talking for the rest of the afternoon. Jimmy and Pearl tell him more about what their life has been like. They’ve been staying here in the valley for most of the past ten years. They had passed by the valley a few weeks after escaping and planned to stay in one of the surrounding towers, and that is when Scott found them and decided to let them stay in the village. At one point Pearl had decided to go on a trip on her own for a few weeks. 

“It’s where I met Tilly.”

“Tilly?”

“My dog. Or well, not really a dog, more of a wolf, and she mostly just does whatever she wants, she just acts a lot like a normal dog sometimes.” Pearl explains. “Sometimes she’s somewhere around here, sometimes she’s out doing who knows what, but she always comes back here at the end of the day. So you’ll still meet her some time later.”

Scott returns not long after. After they finish the dinner Scott prepared, BigB tells them that he has to go back. Martyn wishes him luck as he leaves. 

Pearl decides to return to her home not long later. Jimmy goes to prepare the extra room for Martyn, leaving him and Scott alone in the seating room.

”So, how was it?” Martyn looks up confused at Scott as he starts speaking. “Reuniting with them.” Scott clarifies.

”It was great.” Martyn says with an almost giddy smile. “I thought I would never see them again. Glad I was proven wrong in that.”

”I’m sure they are very happy to have you here as well. As I’ve said before, Jimmy’s told me a lot about you. He missed you a lot, and struggled for a while with learning how to deal with that.”

Martyn didn’t like the image that put into his mind, the image of Jimmy hurting, of him feeling grief over him while that wasn’t needed. “He seems happy here.” He says. “With you. You care a lot about him, right?”

“I do.” Scott smiles. “I love him.”

“And you’re keeping him safe?”

Scott lets out a light laugh. “Don’t worry, BigB and Pearl have already had this conversation with me. I promise I’ll keep him safe and never hurt him.”

“Good.”

Jimmy returns not long after, the room now ready. He tells Martyn that he can go get settled in. 

It is a smaller room, two separate single beds stand in the two corners on the back wall, one of which is fitted together with a pillow and blanket. He places his bag on the ground next to it. The bed is quite comfortable, though smaller than what he has gotten used to in Dogwarts, not that he minds, he often takes up little space on it as he sleeps. 

He changes into more comfortable clothing for the night. It is not long until Scott and Jimmy decide to go to sleep, leaving Martyn to do the same. It feels odd doing so without his usual conversation with Ren.

He lays down on his bed and tries to fall asleep. He turns underneath the blanket, failing to get himself to rest. He is tired, he had little sleep the previous night, though his mind still will not quiet, lingering on the day, still focused on how Jimmy and Pearl are here and alive.

After what he thinks is about an hour or two of trying and failing to sleep, the bed starts feeling uncomfortable and he decides to get up again, to try to calm his mind.

He takes quiet and careful steps as he goes back to the living room. He lights a few of the smaller candles on the middle table to be able to see the room better. Before he sits down his eyes meet the painting of their group in Evo again. He approaches it and takes it in his hands, staring at it from one person to the next. He isn’t sure how long he stands there until he hears footsteps approach from the hallway. He looks up just as Jimmy steps into the doorway.

“Martyn?” Jimmy rubs tiredly at his eyes. “What are you still doing awake?”

“Nothing.” Martyn responds, he realizes he has said it slightly too fast as he sees Jimmy’s eyes move down to the painting in his hands and his eyes turn more sympathetic and worried. Jimmy takes a few steps towards him as he sighs and lets himself sag from his stiff posture. “I forgot what some of them looked like. I recognise them all now, but I forgot the way some of their hair looked, their eyes, face. I forgot.”

Jimmy puts his hand on Martyn’s arm in a comforting manner. “If Pearl hadn’t made this, I probably would have forgotten as well.”

“When did she make the original version again? It can’t have been more than a few weeks before… everything.”

They go quiet for a moment before Jimmy speaks up again. “So you’ve been with the Listeners for the past few years.” Martyn nods. “Are some of them in Dogwarts now?”

“No.” Martyn hangs the framed painting back on the wall and turns away from it.

Jimmy frowns. “Are they not helping you?”

“They can’t. They’re gone.” 

“What do you mean?”

“Because of the Watchers. I’m the only Listener left who can do anything. At least as far as I know.” Martyn tries to keep his voice more calm and casual, avoiding his brother’s eyes.

He notices Jimmy tense slightly. “So you’re doing this alone?”

“Kind of. Though now I have the council of Dogwarts helping me, so I guess not entirely alone anymore.”

Jimmy seems to be deep in thought for a while. “Didn’t the Listeners originally want to recruit me?”

Martyn freezes at the reminder. It is true. In their original contact with them, they seemed to have a particular closeness to Jimmy, some type of preference. One that he continued to see when overhearing some of the higher ranking Listeners in his first few weeks with them. “What do you want to say with that?” Martyn asks carefully, nervous about the response.

“I could join you as a Listener.” Jimmy suggests. Exactly the thing that Martyn was nervous about to be where he was going with it. “If you know a way, of course. But-”

“Absolutely not.” Martyn cuts him off, his tone insistent and cutting, raised slightly in a way that causes a small flinch from Jimmy. “I’m not letting you do that.”

“Why not?”

“I’m not letting you go through that.” There is no way that he will drag his brother into this, that he will make him go through the long and painful process of becoming a Listener. Never.

“You did it.”

“Yes, because I had nowhere else to go. And I’m your older brother. It is my job to protect you. So I’m not letting you do that.”

“Then who protects you ?” Jimmy asks, catching Martyn off guard. “If it is your job to protect me, then whose job is it to protect you?”

“I have had to take care of myself for the better part of the past ten years. I can protect myself.” Martyn turns away as he sighs. “I’m going back to bed.” 

Jimmy reaches after him as he walks away, though retracts his hand back closer to himself after Martyn closes the door to the spare bedroom behind him.

Chapter Text

The next morning, Martyn is woken up by a knock on the door. He had managed to fall asleep after his conversation with Jimmy, though not after some time of laying awake still. He rubs his eyes as he sits up slowly.

He hears Scott call out for him, telling him that breakfast is almost ready. Martyn replies, confirming that he is awake and will be there soon. He gets up and gets dressed after another minute or two of staring tiredly in front of him.

When he leaves the bedroom, he sees Scott and Jimmy standing in the kitchen together at the end of the hallway outside the living room. As he walks into the room with them as well, he can see the table with three plates on it, each one with two fried eggs.

”I hope you like eggs.” Scott says.

As Martyn sits down at Scott’s gesture to do so, he avoids Jimmy's eyes, trying to ignore his stare with some visible worry still pointed at him.

As they eat, a tense silence is still present between the two brothers, one that Scott also notices and tries to break it numerous times. Not long after there is a knock on the front door and it opens.

“That must be Pearl.” Scott says as Martyn hears a strange type of slow tip-tapping in the hallway. “We’re in the kitchen!”

“Coming!” He recognises Pearl’s voice, confirming Scott’s assumption. As she enters the room, something else follows her in. It is a wolf, coming up to between her knees and waist. It has a fluffy grey coat of fur. The wolf looks around for one moment until it comes up to Martyn as sniffs at his leg. “Martyn, meet Tilly.”

”Well, hello.” Martyn says as he lets her smell his hand before giving her a pet on the head. Her tail lifts up and starts wagging. His hand moves to scratch her behind the ear, which she seems to like very much, head leaning into his hand. Part of him wonders if Ren would also have a reaction like this if he gets scratched behind his ears, though he quickly pushes the thought away as soon as he feels his face and ears heat up.

“I see you immediately found the good spot.” Pearl laughs. “She loves ear scratches.”

“Me and Jimmy both have things to do today out of the house.” Scott tells him. “You can stay here or just wander around the town.”

”I’ll be going to the forest outside of the border if you want to join.” Pearl says. “It’s a nice walk I often like to do with Tilly.”

“I think I’ll just wander around a bit.” Martyn shrugs. “I’ll see.”

They clean up the dining table and not long after Jimmy and Scott leave to do what they need to. Pearl stays for a bit longer with TIlly before she asks if it would be alright with him if she leaves now as well. He lets her leave, now alone in Jimmy and Scott’s home. He sits there for a bit longer before he finds himself getting bored and decides to take a better look around the valley. 

As he walks over the dirt paths between the houses, he does still notice the confused stares he gets from some of the people here. Some are more curious while others are more hostile. He doesn’t judge them for it, Scott had told him that there weren’t often new people, so their behavior makes sense to him. 

It seems like a nice town, Martyn thinks. Well protected and with a seemingly close community. Flowers grow everywhere from the bright and healthy green grass around the different cabins. 

He passes by the man with the green streak in his hair who had let them in the day before. What was his name again? Joel, he thinks. He isn’t alone today, next to him walks a woman with pink hair and thin wings made from a similar material as his, though more colorful, slightly bigger and more rounded. Butterfly wings, Martyn realizes.

When Joel notices him, his eyes light up slightly in recognition. “Oh, hey, Martyn.” He says and looks at their surroundings with an eyebrow quirked up. “You’re not with Jimmy or Pearl?”

“They’re out doing their own thing today. I decided to just take a look around the place.” 

“So you’re Martyn?” The pink-haired woman asks him and he nods. “I’m Lizzie.” 

“My wife.” Joel says, head proudly tilted upwards, earning a light elbow in his side. “Hey, what was that for!?” His voice goes up in pitch as she giggles.

Lizzie turns back to Martyn. “I’ve heard your name come up a few times. Though mostly from overhearing Jimmy and Joel.” 

Martyn’s gaze moves to Joel. “Are you close with him?”

Lizzie speaks up with obvious exaggerated annoyance before he can reply. “Close? Sometimes it almost seems like he calls him babe more often than he calls me that.”

Joel freezes like a kid caught doing something they are not supposed to as Martyn looks at him with amused confusion. “Okay, so I know how that sounds, and I promise you it is nothing like that.”

Martyn chuckles at his panicked tone.

”I mean, he’s basically a brother to me.” Joel winces as he realizes what he has said. Maryn’s chuckle dies down, but he tries to push away the part of him that is jealous of him being here for Jimmy in all the years he himself wasn’t able to. He waves off the comment as Joel looks at him apologetic. “Sorry.”

”It’s fine.” Martyn says. “I’m glad he has someone like that here. I trust that you take the job seriously and annoy him daily.”

Joel laughs. “Oh, yes. Annoying him is one of my favorite pastimes.”

“I did that all the time too. He would get so infuriated with me, it was hilarious.” 

The corner of Joel’s mouth quirks up into a mischievous smile. “You know what would infuriate him?” Martyn raises an eyebrow at him, matching the smirk on the other’s face. “If I would suddenly know a bunch of embarrassing stories about him.”

“Maybe some other day.” He responds, amused by the idea. He isn’t sure if he would want to be there to witness Jimmy’s reaction or if he would want to be away to hide from his wrath afterwards.

Joel nods, though with slight disappointment visible on his face. 

They say goodbye and Martyn continues walking through the town until he gets to the edge of it. The ground starts rising to the tops of the hills surrounding the valley. A light breeze blows through his hair. A calm feeling washes over him as he walks further into the messy fields of flowers.

He spots a rose bush between them and moves towards it. He picks one, carefully positioning his hand on the stem to avoid the thorns. He sits down on the grass and starts plucking the thorns off. Netty used to always dethorn them before she’d give them to him, he has never had to do it himself, so he accidentally pricks himself a few times. 

After he finishes, he turns it in his hand. He lets his mind drift as he sits there. The exhaustion that remains from the past two nights of little sleep catch up to him and he lets his eyes fall closed.

Martyn isn’t sure how much time has passed between that moment and the next, when he hears footsteps approach him. He looks beside him, where he sees Jimmy sit down. 

“So, what do you think of this place?” Jimmy asks him, voice soft.

“It’s nice.” Martyn responds. “Did you finish whatever you had to do?”

Jimmy shakes his head. “It was time for a break and I saw you sitting here.” His gaze moves down to the rose is Martyn’s loose grip. “Can I… try something?” He asks, motioning towards it.

Martyn gives him a curious look but nods and hands it over to him. Jimmy moves to sit right across from him, his wings spread out behind him. “Me and Scott often do this.” He says as his face twists into a concentrated frown, his tongue slightly sticking out to the side. He gets slightly closer as he tucks the stem of the rose behind Martyn’s ear. Though Martyn notices a slight pause in his brother’s movements right after he brushes his hair up to make space for it. Jimmy moves back again, obviously with a question ready to ask, though doesn’t get the chance as he looks at Martyn and lets out a small laugh.

“What?” Martyn asks, with a slight amusement in his voice as he raises his hand towards the rose. He feels the petals against the side of his face and is just able to see a splotch of red in the side of his vision.

“Sorry, but I think roses might be a bit big to do this with.” Jimmy says. “Me and Scott often use small flowers. I think bigger flowers only really work with longer hair.”

Martyn chuckles as he takes the rose back in his hand. Longer hair… like Ren’s. 

“I hadn’t actually noticed that your ears are pointed now.” Jimmy says as he fiddles with the grass around them. “And your feathers.” Martyn winces at the mention of them. So that is what he had seen, the lack of the tiny feathers that used to be on the top of his ears. “They’re not there anymore. Is that also because of the whole Listener transformation thing, or…”

Martyn looks away but nods, not saying anything. The same process that had pointed his ears and made him a Listener seemed to have gotten rid of the points where they used to grow.

Jimmy frowns. “How about your wings?” He asks. “Have you at least been taking care of them?” The mention of the small underdeveloped wings on his back suddenly makes Martyn aware of their slightly uncomfortable position stuffed underneath his clothing. 

Martyn rubs at the back of his neck awkwardly. “Hard to do without someone there to help me, remember?”

“I could take a look at them now.”

Martyn raises an eyebrow. “Now?” His brother nods. “While we are sitting in the middle of a field of grass?” Another nod.

“I can give you my shirt with the slits for my wings. I have something else underneath it, so I can take it off and give it to you.”

Martyn looks at him with uncertainty. He isn’t sure what state his wings are in, he has not thought about taking care of them for years now, and he knows that it will be visible. Because of their small size, it is difficult for him to be able to reach the feathers to preen them, let alone see what he is doing. That together with the lack of motivation to do so has led to him neglecting them, sometimes almost forgetting that he even has them. Though after a moment of doubt he nods with a sigh. “Fine.”

Jimmy takes off his shirt, revealing an extra sleeveless top underneath it. He hands it over to Martyn, who switches his own shirt for the one given to him. He twists his body in a way that makes him sure that Jimmy won’t be able to see the diamond shaped scar located on his shoulder. There are a few other smaller scars visible, though those have easier explanations. The larger and uniquely shaped scar would be harder and less comfortable to explain.

As he lets the shirt fall over his torso, he lets his wings go through the way too large slits in the back of it, movements stiff with discomfort because of the lack of movement he has done with them for the past years. He tries to take a look at them, stretches them out as far as he can – which is an embarrassingly small amount – to take a look at the feathers poking out the sides of his back. He doesn’t get a good look, but from what he does see, he can tell that they are not in great shape, they’re messy and unaligned. 

He can determine the state of the rest of them from the flinch Jimmy attempts to hide. Martyn turns to have his back face his brother. The first time he feels Jimmy’s fingers brush over the feathers, he has to stop himself from folding his wings back closer to himself. He takes a breath as he forces the tension in his shoulders away. 

At first they stay quiet, Martyn letting himself relax with some occasional winces as Jimmy moves on to an area that feels especially sensitive. After a few minutes like that, Jimmy breaks the silence. “Martyn, I’m worried about you.”

“You don’t have to be.” Martyn can feel the doubt in the short pause in movement behind him. “I’m serious. These past few weeks have been some of the best in a while. I have a place to stay for longer in Dogwarts, I found out you’re alive, I am closer than ever to actually being rid of the Watchers, and… Ren.” His conversations with him always stood out throughout the day, the way his eyes would brighten up and his tail would start wagging was something that often makes Martyn smile.

“Who’s Ren?”

Martyn’s eyes widen slightly as he realizes that he had said his name out loud as well. “He’s the king.”

“The king ?” Jimmy’s voice has clear disbelief in it. “Hold on, let me get this straight. You tried to steal the Enchanter, one of the royal family’s most important possessions, and not even a few weeks later, you are on a first name basis with the king ? How did you manage to do that?”

Martyn lets out a laugh as he nods. “I also don’t entirely get it, but I’m not complaining. He’s nice to talk to.” 

“So you two are close?”

Martyn thinks about it for a moment, rubbing his neck. “I’d say so.” He smiles as he thinks about Ren. He wonders how he is doing back in Dogwarts. 

“Wow, I would have never imagined my brother to be close with royalty.” Martyn can hear the amusement and disbelief in his voice.

The two brothers continue with their banter for another while, until Jimmy says he has to leave again and return to his job. When Martyn asks him what he does, he says that he mainly helps with construction and fixing things that are often struggles to reach, mostly roofs, as he can easily fly up.

Martyn changes his shirt back to his own and gives Jimmy’s shirt back to him, once again stuffing his wings underneath it. It feels more uncomfortable again, now that he is more aware of them being there.

He stays there for a few more minutes after Jimmy leaves, but it's not long before he decides to return to the house, where he stays for the rest of the day.

Chapter Text

Ren sits in his study, looking over some papers. It’s already getting late and he struggles keeping his eyes open. Usually he’d have finished his day at this time to go talk to Martyn, but as he is not here right now, Ren decided to continue working for a bit longer than usual.

It’s been a few days now since they left, a few days that have felt tense, the anticipation of if their plan on fighting back will actually work putting everyone slightly on edge. They have kept pretty much constant contact on the plans and the progress through the scroll holders Ren had enchanted to make it possible to transport scrolls and letters from one to the other, but it doesn’t help much with the tension. And with Martyn away, it was harder for Ren to find a distraction from it.

He sags slightly, his head leaning on his hand. His eyes slowly fall closed, his mind drifting to sleep. But right before his head falls on the desk, a knock on the door startles him awake. He quickly sits up more proper as he calls to the door. “Come in.”

As he turns around, Skizz opens the door and steps inside the room. “My lord, it’s getting late.” A tint of worry taints his voice. “You should head to bed soon.”

Ren rubs at his eyes, trying to get the tiredness out of them. “I’m almost done.” He takes one of the papers in his hands again. He pretends to read it in silence for a few moments before glancing back at Skizz, who is still standing in the doorway with scepticism visible on his face. “You can go.”

Skizz sighs. “I’ll be staying here until you come out of this room with me.” He chuckles lightly at the subtle eye roll he gets from Ren. “I’ve been your personal guard for two years now, I know you well enough to know that that means that you either won’t go to bed until far too late, or that you end up falling asleep at your desk. So I am staying right here.”

In the past two years, Skizz has taken up an almost fatherly role to Ren. He would often look after him and make sure he would remember to eat or sleep enough, while most of the time still treating him more formally like a king. Something that Ren really needed to get into his head at the start of his reign. He was the first one who managed to get Ren to actually deal better with the losses that he experienced, to actually get him to talk about it.

“It’s been a bit since I have had to stand here. Not a single time in the past few weeks.” Skizz mumbles the next thing, though just loud enough for Ren to hear. “Not since Martyn arrived.” Ren’s ears perk up as he hears him say that. “He really seems to have a good effect on you.”

Ren feels his face warm up slightly. He turns back to Skizz, who stands with a small smirk on his face. 

“You miss him, don’t you?” 

Skizz’s ability to read him annoys Ren sometimes. Yes, he misses Martyn. While Martyn had told him that he would return, part of him was still nervous if he actually would. The past few days have felt dull next to the nerves of that and the tension of if the attack will be a success or not.

And once again, Skizz seems to know exactly what Ren is thinking. “You know it is alright to miss him, right?” He says as he enters the room fully, approaching Ren. “I miss Impulse a lot myself. He is the one I often have late-night conversations with.” 

Part of Ren feels guilty for missing him. Martyn is spending time with old friends who he thought died. With his brother. He deserves to spend time with them, but meanwhile part of Ren wants him here again. He doesn’t say this out loud. “Of course.”

Skizz raises an eyebrow, looking down at Ren sitting on his chair, clearly knowing that Ren isn’t telling the full truth about his thoughts, but he stays quiet. It is a silence that doesn't feel judgemental, but more empathetic, Skizz’s face soft with a small smile.

“Did you know my brother?” Ren finds himself asking. He’s not sure when his mind drifted there, but the question slips out. 

Skizz looks just as surprised at the question as Ren feels. “I’ve met him a few times, though only in more formal settings. Never talked to him one on one, but I have heard some things from his personal guard at the time.”

“Do you think he’s doing alright?”

There is a small pause. “Yes.” Ren looks up at Skizz with a desperation at it to be true. “From what I have heard and seen of him, I am sure he is plenty able to look after himself out there.”

Ren’s mouth turns up into a slight smile. “Renbob did always enjoy the camping trips we went on with mother.”

“See?” Skizz grins, his tone optimistic. “He’s probably having a great time somewhere out there. He could be camping in the wild, he could be staying with people he met in some other town, or something entirely different.”

“Thanks, Skizz.” The reassurance about Renbob’s probable safety comforted a part of him, but made another part ache more, the part that questions why he still hasn’t returned, even after two years. But he shakes aside the thought for now.

“And now it’s time to end the day.”

“Right, yes. One minute.” Ren stacks the different papers on each other and puts them on the side of the desk to continue on later.

Skizz approaches the door, but stands to its side, waiting there until Ren walks through it into the large hallways. He closes the door behind them and they start walking through the castle, Skizz branching off as they reach a split in the halls. 

When Ren reaches his room, he changes into his night clothing, a dark loose blouse and comfortable pants of which the legs just hang over his feet. He gets into his large and decorated bed and curls up slightly as he closes his eyes. He falls asleep relatively easy, his exhaustion of the busy day quickly slowing down his thoughts.

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The next day, Ren struggles to get himself out of his bed, but he manages it after a few minutes. He dresses himself into his regal clothing once more and goes about his day. 

He finds a moment to himself between the different meetings and tasks he has to do throughout the day. He ends up going to the study with the Enchanter. He uses his magic to open the extra space where it is stored together with Martyn’s notes. He grabs both of them and sits down at the desk.

He flips through them, both to get to the scry spell. Martyn had told him some things about how to read the encrypted spell instructions, using this spell as an example, so he knows how to cast it. 

He starts focusing on the spell, though he struggles with the way to cast it. The way that Ren is best at casting spells is by focusing the magic in his voice and guiding where it needs to go through his arms, which is what makes it easy for him to enchant items. His enchants are very powerful, but he often still struggles with casting spells over greater distance.

First, he tries to scry on BigB. He wills the magic to spread through the environment in the vague direction of the Desert Kingdom, where BigB is on his way to. It takes a short moment until he feels the connection reach its destination, but when he tries to get a look, there are only very short and blurry images. He can just make out BigB in the center of them. He seems busy with preparation.

After trying to strengthen the visual for a bit longer and failing, he decides to move on. He tries to connect the scrying magic to Martyn, though it can’t seem to find him. There seems to be nothing to latch on, not even the feeling of a connection as he got with BigB. Ren frowns as he tries again, getting the same lack of results. 

A feeling of worry rises in him. Why can’t he find him? Is he alright? He tries to push the worried thoughts away, trying to reassure himself that Martyn is fine, that it may be because of some other barrier. Maybe it could have something to do with his necklace? Could the enchantment that makes it completely resistant against Watcher magic also include the scry spell? Ren hopes so.

He is about to close the book before he hesitates. He could try to find his brother. Try to see what Renbob is up to, if he even is somewhere within reach of the spell. He thinks about it for a moment before he decides to try it. It can’t hurt. It will just give him extra reassurance.

He focuses once more on the spell, spreading his magic into the air around him, though this time more sparse and randomly, not knowing even the vague direction in which he could be in. He keeps it up for a while, and is about to give up until he feels the magic latch onto someone. Onto his brother. The connection feels very weak, but it is there. He must be just too far to be able to see, close enough to feel the connection, but too far to get visuals through it.

Ren feels a relief flood through him. While Skizz had assured him that he was doing alright, feeling that connection confirming it is the extra push to knowing for sure that Renbob is still alive and out there that comforts him. It balances out the worry for Martyn a bit.

He flips through the pages of Martyn’s notebook. They look very messy. Either they are mostly unorganized, or organized in a manner Ren has no understanding of. There are some random encrypted words with their translations, some half-translated spells, some that sound more interesting than others, though most of them without much use at the moment.

He looks through the notes for a few more minutes until Doc finds him and tells him it is nearly time for his next meeting. As they walk through the corridor, Ren decides not to tell Doc what he was up to in there. Partially because he didn’t get a lot out of it anyways, but also because he dreads Doc’s reaction at the fact he couldn’t find Martyn. Doc may have started trusting him more after their trip underneath the mountain with the sculk, but still not entirely, so Ren doubts he’d have a good reaction to it. 

Ren will just have to wait for the next few days. Wait for any news from BigB and wait for Martyn to return. He hopes that it won’t be long.

Chapter Text

Another two days pass before Martyn decides that it is time for him to return to Dogwarts. Throughout those days, he spent more time with Jimmy and Pearl. He enjoyed it, and throughout the days he started feeling almost… lighter. It did him good.

One morning he went along with Pearl and Tilly to the forest just outside the protective barrier which ended up being a nice walk. Tilly would often walk off in a random direction before she’d return a few minutes later, sometimes with nothing but also sometimes with a random small critter in her mouth.

Joel had also come over one day, and Martyn got to know him a bit better. He seems like a good guy, a bit odd and loud, but he and Jimmy look like they are good friends. Martyn ended up telling him a few embarrassing stories about Jimmy when he was young at one point, including his old nickname. The moment Joel called him Timmy, Martyn had to quickly make his escape from his fuming brother. 

The morning on which he decides to leave, as he is packing his things, Pearl gives him what he assumes are two canvases, wrapped in a type of paper and string tied around them. She tells him to open them later. Jimmy makes him promise to continue taking care of his wings. He’ll have to find a way to do that there. Jimmy also gives him one of his shirts with slits to fit his wings through.

And then Martyn leaves the Valley on his horse. Jimmy and Pearl wave him goodbye from the edge of the barrier that is being held open by Scott.

The day of travelling passes slowly and boringly. While Martyn used to travel these distances alone much more often, it feels weird now, almost too quiet without anyone else around. There are multiple moments when he feels his eyelids get heavier, almost falling asleep on the back of his horse, but he manages to keep himself awake until the sky starts becoming darker and it becomes time to set up camp. 

He finds a small cave opening at the edge of a mountain where it meets the forest. The rockier terrain shows him that he is already getting closer to Dogwarts. After he checks the cave for any wildlife inside, he decides to spend the night there, feeling that it provides enough shelter and safety for a less paranoid sleep.

He sits on his sleeping mat in front of a campfire he made and takes out the two wrapped items Pearl had given to him. The first he takes is the larger one. He unwraps it, revealing a remake of the same painting Jimmy has in his living room, the one depicting their whole group from Evo. 

Then he grabs the smaller one and unwraps it. It’s Netty. A small painting of just her, a familiar grin on her face. Martyn hugs it tightly to his chest. He feels tears threaten to spill out of his eyes, but tries to stop them, to push them away just like he always has throughout the past years, just as the Listeners had told him to do. Push away anything that could hinder the missions and operations. 

He had gotten rid of any reminder he still had of Evo, of Jimmy, of Netty, of all of them. Thinking about them had hurt so much back then, so he tried to not think of them at all. 

And while he got good at pushing it all down throughout the years, at this moment, he can’t. The tears start rolling down his face, at first slow, but then faster as he stops trying to fight them. 

He stays curled up like that for a while until he manages to get himself to calm down a bit, his breath slowly leveling out again. He sets the two paintings down next to him on the paper they were wrapped in to shield them from the grass. He looks over then once more with a smile before he lies down to sleep. 

His mind drifts to what BigB had said while on the way to the Flower Valley.

Martyn, it’s been ten years. Netty would want you to move on, she wouldn’t-

Martyn knows that he was right, but part of him wasn’t ready to move on himself yet. The past few days have helped with that, but… he’s not sure if he’s entirely there yet. 

He manages to fall asleep decently quickly, even with all the small sounds coming from between the trees. He sleeps in Jimmy’s shirt, letting his wings breathe throughout the night while he isn’t able to preen them. 

The next morning, he quickly packs up his stuff and continues on his way back to Dogwarts. 

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“Any news from BigB or False yet?” Impulse asks. He arrived back early in the morning that day. 

“BigB reported that they’ll be going forward with the attack tomorrow. The scouts False has sent have already seen a decrease in defence at their post, but will wait for about an hour until after the attack has started to keep a lookout for any more men being moved from there to our distraction.” False is the one leading the real attack on the area of lower defence. Contact with both her and BigB has stayed pretty much constant, making sure each of them knows the plan and are able to coordinate it well. 

There is a knock on the door of the meeting room and Doc goes to check it out. The guard on the other side of the door whispers something to him and he nods, dismissing them. As Ren looks at him with a curious eyebrow raised, Doc signals to him that he’ll tell him after the meeting has finished.

Luckily for Ren’s curiosity, it isn’t much longer. There wasn’t a lot more to say about the status of the attack, something that was already known to be probable, meaning that it was left for the final subject of discussion.

When the meeting ends, Skizz quickly picks up conversation with Impulse, filling him in on the different happenings of the past week that he was gone. Etho says goodbye before he leaves the room to continue on with his day and duties. 

Doc approaches Ren, who has been waiting in anticipation of what the message was that the guard had given him. “Martyn has returned.” He says.

Ren’s face immediately brightens up at the news as he stands up, his tail starting to wag. “Really?” Doc nods. “Then I’ll go and welcome him back.” He heads to the door to leave the meeting room.

Doc sighs, but ends up following him. “You know you have more to do today, right?”

Ren rolls his eyes, looking away from his advisor to make sure he doesn’t see it. “Yes, it will just be a short hello, nothing much.” He doesn’t notice his quickened pace as he hurries to Martyn’s room, where he assumes him to be.

As they reach the right corridor, Ren can see the door to Martyn’s room open, a familiar head peeking out with a confused face that turns into a smile as his gaze meets Ren’s.

“Martyn.” He slows down his pace as he approaches him. “You’re back.”

“Thought that might be you.” Martyn grins.

“I wanted to welcome you back. How was it?” 

Before Martyn can reply, Doc interrupts. “Ren. Short, remember? Things to do?”

“Hello to you too, Doc.” Doc gives him a nod. He turns back to Ren. “It was nice, good to see them again.” He keeps to his more shallow feelings. “I’ll tell you more about it later once you’re done with your day.”

“Right, yes. Tonight?”

Martyn nods. Before Ren leaves for his duties again, he asks Martyn if his journey there and back was alright, to which Martyn says that it was fine.

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That evening, when Ren is finally finished with his tasks of the day, he goes to find Martyn in his room again. He has missed their evening talks the past few days, it made him feel almost giddy now. 

He knocks on the door, waiting for the door to open. But there is a moment of silence before Martyn tells him to come in. Ren frowns at the pause, but opens the door. When he steps inside he sees Martyn sit cross-legged on his bed. Instead of his usual long-sleeved shirt, he wears a dark grey sleeveless top. His bag sits half-open against the bed, not entirely unpacked yet.

He is sitting faced towards the door, but looks away slightly. Then Ren notices something sticking out slightly from behind his back. Almost like… feathers? They are a bright yellow color, dulled slightly by the dim lighting from the few lanterns lighting up the room.

“Martyn, do you have wings?” Ren asks.

An awkward smile appears on Martyn’s face as he rubs the back of his head. “Yes. They’re small and useless, but Timmy made me promise to look after them better again.”

Ren approaches him closer. “Timmy?”

“Old nickname for Jimmy.”

Ren looks at him with amusement. “Your nickname for Jimmy is Timmy?”

“It’s more of an inside joke.”

Ren chuckles. “Can I see them?” He gestures to the wings. 

Martyn seems to hesitate for a short moment before he nods and turns around, revealing his back, partially covered by the fabric of his shirt, but the gaps for his arms reaching back far enough to reach where the small wings sprout out. “I’m struggling to preen them, they’re too small for me to reach the feathers and do it properly.” His wings hang slightly asymmetrical and uneven, one pointed slightly higher than the other. Some of the feathers are tattered and damaged, slightly unaligned at a few spots. 

“I could help.” Ren finds himself suggesting. “I know a thing or two about preening.”

Martyn looks back at him with surprise. “You do?”

“Yes. Skizz taught me, he’d let me preen his wings sometimes on more stressful occasions as a mindless task to take my mind off other things.”

“Then yes, help would be appreciated.” Martyn turns his head straight ahead, gaze pointed out of the window above the bed frame. He moves forward, making room for Ren to sit behind him.

“Are you sure?” Ren asks, not wanting to push Martyn into allowing it. “I know it can be a more personal thing for some.”

There is a short pause, followed by a nod. “I’m sure.”

As Ren sits down behind Martyn on the bed, he looks the wings over again, and spots a strange scar on Martyn’s right shoulder. A diamond-shaped patch of scar tissue. He has a few other smaller scars that he can see, but the large scar seems different, not as… natural. Ren frowns as he tries to imagine what could cause such a scar. His curiosity wants him to ask about it, but he ends up pulling his eyes away from the scar, focusing back on the wings.

As he brushes his fingers over the feathers, he feels a small flinch from Martyn. He pauses for a moment until Martyn stretches his wings a bit further, signalling for him to continue. He starts again, letting his hands fall into the rhythm of preening. He can feel Martyn’s tense shoulders slowly relax.

“So, what was it like? Seeing them again?” Ren asks.

“It was great. I got to catch up with them, and I met a few other people there. Including Timmy’s husband, Scott.” His tone turns more teasing, but with genuine fondness still there. “I’m impressed that he ended up finding someone like him. A powerful magic user, handsome.” A small pause. “Not too different from you in those ways.”

Ren feels his face heat up. Did Martyn just call him handsome? Nobody has really called him handsome before, and certainly not so casually. It throws him off. “I-“ He clears his throat, trying to keep his flusteredness from causing a small stammer. “That’s nice.” 

They fall into a short silence before Martyn continues. ”Pearl has a wolf now, named Tilly.” Martyn goes quiet for a moment again and turns his head so that he can just see Ren out of the corner of his eyes. “Can I try something?”

Ren raises an eyebrow but lets him, pulling his hands closer to himself as Martyn turns towards him. Martyn lifts one of his hands up to the king’s head. Then Ren feels him scratching the area behind one of his ears. He feels himself automatically lean into the touch, letting his eyes close. His mind goes quiet, focused solely on the hand in his hair.

His mind only returns to his surroundings when he hears a small laugh. He opens his eyes again and sees Martyn snicker lightly as he retracts his hand away from Ren. Then he hears the fast rhythmic thumping coming from behind him from his tail hitting the mattress repeatedly. His face flushes into a deep red as he tries to restrain his tail, holding it down with one of his hands, but it does not want to listen to him.

His embarrassed gaze moves back to Martyn, who is looking at him with an amused but soft smile. The softest smile Ren has seen from him. His flustered expression changes slowly into one nearly equally as soft as his deep flush turns lighter. Ren feels his heart in his chest quicken. Seeing Martyn like this makes part of him wonder what he has gone through to make these pretty smiles from him so rare. He realizes that he would do nearly anything to make these moments more common, to stop anyone from hurting him again. 

The realization surprises him, he has never felt anything like this before. He isn’t sure what to think, but it feels nice. 

They sit like that for a moment, until Martyn points his gaze away and clears his throat. “So, how were the past few days for you?” He asks.

“Very dull without you.” Ren responds, a small smirk crawling onto his face. He huffs out a small laugh as he gets a look from the other and then decides to be a bit more serious. “It has been tense leading up to tomorrow, when the plan is going to go ahead. But next to that it wasn’t very eventful, just the usual king duties.”

“I hope it goes well.” As Martyn turns his back to Ren once more and spreads his wings slightly again, Ren continues to carefully preen his wings after being given the go-ahead.

“Me too.”

They continue talking for another while about the past few days. At one point Ren finishes with Martyn’s wings, deciding he is done for tonight, even if there are still some rough spots that refuse to align. He thinks about asking Martyn to let Skizz take a look at them some time. 

They say goodbye again after a while and Ren returns to his room, his tail still slowly swishing behind him. He’s glad Martyn’s back.