“Xaxac.”

Xac blinked the sleep out of his eyes and tried to understand what was happening to him. It had been so long since the last time anyone had tried to wake him up for anything that he had forgotten it was a thing that happened to people, and his pounding headache made his anger over the disservice even worse than it could have been.

“What?” He snapped and slapped away the hand shaking him.

“He’s grumpy this morning,” Agalon chuckled, “He’s probably sore. Get up, darlin, we got shit to do today.”

Xaxac pulled the pillow off his face and rolled back to see what was going on. This wasn’t how things were done, not in the manor house, not to pleasure slaves. He slept as long as he wanted, woke up to a glass of wine to get rid of the headache, and sat around doing nothing all day until Agalon got back. But apparently that was about to change, and the idea that he could potentially do something else put an instant, sincere smile on his face. He had shit to do today! He had something to do!

Lee was standing over him, and had apparently been the one shaking him.

“Get up,” he whispered, “Get dressed and presentable while I do Master Agalon’s hair.”

“Good morning!” Xac told him chipperly and threw his arms around him before he could stop himself.

He had something to do! He was going somewhere! Was he going to Basilglen? To see the fighters? To get new clothes?

He had moved much too quickly and his head hated him for it, so he was forced to release Lee and grab it with both hands. He hadn’t realized he had made a sound, but Agalon responded instantly to his moans of pain.

“Hair of the dog on the nightstand, darling,” Agalon said, took a bite of what appeared to be a muffin, then set it back on the vanity and held his arms outstretched.

Xac watched in amazement as Lee picked up the outfit that had been laid out on the bed and began assembling on it. Agalon really didn’t dress himself. Why in the world… he got out of his clothes easily enough, and he was a grown man! Why was this happening? Lee had told him he did this every morning but Xac hadn’t really believed him until he saw it with his own eyes.

To be fair, Agalon did wear even more clothes than Xac thought he did. The outfit was laid out in pieces and it took up half the bed- Xac recognized the outer layer with the leggings and tunic, but there were also underdrawers, two different undershirts, and an outer layer of what seemed to be jewelry of various types and at least five different belts, then his cape would go on over that.

“You’re gonna be so hot, Master,” Xac said.

“Hopefully it’ll cool down eventually,” Agalon said as if he wasn’t looking forward to the heat any more than Xac was, “Summer’s gotta give way to Fall. I can’t stand this heat. They’re wearin corsets at the capitol but I’d flat die. I already can’t fuckin breath.”

“I detest the latest fashion,” Lee said, “You got a classic look that suits you.”

Xac wasn’t sure he had ever heard the word ‘detest’ before, but he liked it. He took a sip of his wine and brushed out his hair, then picked up an apple, took a bite, and tried to work the oil from his scalp through it to make it presentable.

He didn’t really have time to think about last night, and he was excited about the day ahead!

But he really wanted to think about last night.

Last night had been… mind blowing.

“What did Lorry say when you asked him to come along?” Agalon asked Lee.

“Somethin I sure wouldn’t repeat,” Lee huffed, “But he ain’t goin.”

“I’m gonna have to do somethin, eventually,” Agalon sighed as he sat on the edge of the bed and Lee began to comb out his hair, “That boy ain’t right.”

Xac sat down at the vanity and began the process Lee had shown him to fix his face, humming a tune as he gave up trying to control his thoughts.

“Braid it tight and pull it up,” Agalon instructed, “Xac is right, I’m gonna have a goddamn heat stroke. I got the vapors already. I wish to god this would let up.” Then he smiled, and to Xac said, “You got a spring in your step. How you feelin, darlin?”

“Great!” Xac said, “Everything’s great! Thank you, Master!”

“You do good today and I’ll take you into Basilglen after you shift,” Agalon told him, “Get you some clothes and see where the hell my goddamn furniture is! I ordered that shit weeks ago.” He winced as Lee began sticking hairpins in the braid he had wound around his head and added, “Hey mix me up some hair color for when I get back tonight. I look a hot mess. I can’t go into town lookin like this.”

“Yes, Master,” Lee said, sounding less than thrilled about the prospect.

“The fighters ain’t in town?” Xac asked. He had finished the makeup process much more quickly than Lee had anticipated, picked up his wine, and went to sit on the bed across from Agalon to eat.

“What?” Agalon asked as if the question shocked him, “No, darlin, it takes a couple days to get to Basilglen. My fighters are here; they’re on the edge of the plantation, out past the fields, barns and everythin.”

“Wow…” Xac said, “This place is huge. I love it here!”

“You ain’t sore or nothin?” Agalon asked him and Xac shook his head.

“All done, master,” Lee said, and Agalon allowed him to direct him to the vanity so Lee could apply his makeup, which Xac actually never really noticed he wore.

The things Lee did to him were much more subtle than the things he had taught Xac to do, but still, Xac watched with interest. Everything Lee had done to him was meant to make him more cute; it made his eyes look bigger, his lips look fuller, and his cheeks look rounder and more rosey. But with Agalon, the primary goal seemed to be to make him look younger, not young enough to be mistaken for a child or a teenager, but Lee spread a clear oil all over his face while Agalon sat with a practiced patience Xac wasn’t sure he would have had. Xac ate three strawberries in the time it took to dry, then Lee went over his face with a paintbrush and Xac understood what they were doing. Whatever the clear oil had been, it had set up a sort of barrier on his face, like a canvas, and now Lee was going over it with paint the exact color of Agalon’s face.

Agalon had wrinkles, which wasn’t the sort of thing Xac really felt needed to be hidden, especially around his eyes and the corners of his mouth. Xac realized, in that moment, that he had never really seen them before now. He suspected that Agalon always wore make-up, and he had never before seen him without it. He had only ever seen him asleep once, and he had been more concerned with not waking him up than he had with looking at him, but Lorry was right- Agalon was old. The roots of his hair were grey, and he covered them with ‘hair color’. There were wrinkles on his face, and he covered them with make-up.

Why did he feel the need to hide that? Why didn’t he want people knowing he was old?

Xac was afraid he would get angry if he asked this, and remembered what Lee had told him about asking questions, so he ate his breakfast in silence with a smile on his face.

He took to humming again as Lee stepped back to let the paint dry, and Lee seemed to enjoy the tune because he sang along as he mixed two powders together the same way he had shown Xaxac, the light setting powder and the pigment, to get a tone to match Agalon’s skin.

“Little Bunny Foo Foo

Hoppin through the forest

Scoopin up the field mice

And boppin um on the heads.”

“How cute,” Agalon chuckled, caught himself, and stared into the mirror as he returned his face to a blank mask.

“I can’t remember the rest of it,” Xac said.

“Down came the fairy and the fairy said

‘Little Bunny Foo Foo

I don’t wanna see you

Scoopin up the field mice

An’ boppin um on the head.

Little Bunny Foo Foo

Know that if you do

I will turn you into-

A goon!’

But Little Bunny Foo Foo

Thought she couldn’t see him

Waited until Midnight

And got right outta bed.

Little Bunny Foo Foo

Went hoppin through the forest

Scoopin up the field mice

An’ boppin um on the heads.” Lee sang, and Xac began to remember, so joined him.

“Down came the fairy and the fairy said

‘Little Bunny Foo Foo

I already warned you

About scoopin up the field mice

And boppin um on the heads.’

Then she turned him into

A goon.

Little gooney Foo Foo

Swimmin through the back pond

Scoopin up the tadpoles

And boppin um on the head.”

Xac giggled, but Lee continued, “And the moral of that story is: Hare today, Goon tomorrow.”

“Why do nursery rhymes always have such godawful endings?” Agalon thought aloud as Lee applied the setting powder, “Half the time it ends in a death.”

“That’n starts with a death,” Xac said.

“Yes, but of field mice,” Agalon said, “I hate them little sons-a-bitches. Get in the storehouse and wreck absolute goddamn havoc.”

“How does that look, Master?” Lee asked.

“About as good as it’s gonna get, I reckon,” Agalon said, as if he was dissatisfied with the man in the mirror. “Come on, Honey Bunny.”

Xaxac ran to him and clung to his side, and as they walked into the sitting room, he turned, waved at Lee, who was busy cleaning and putting away the various things he had used, and smiled. Lee smiled back and nodded.

Agalon led them down the hall and stopped at the door Lorsan had gone into the previous night. He knocked loudly, and when he got no reply opened it and led them inside. The door opened into a sitting room very much like the one outside Agalon’s bedroom, except that the books on the shelves and the things in the curio cabinet were different. Agalon stopped outside the bedroom door and banged on it.

“Lorry?” He asked.

“Fuck right off!” Lorsan yelled, exactly like a teenager who had been awoken from a deep slumber. He sounded the way Xac had felt when he had been awakened with his pounding headache from his whistful slumber and been forced to come to the heartbreaking realization that he was no longer asleep.

Agalon snarled and shouted at the closed door, “I let that go last night but you are not gonna talk to me like that! Open this door! And what’d you say to my butler? He wouldn’t repeat it!”

“I told him to fuck off!” Lorsan screeched so loudly Xac grabbed at his ears. “I ain’t goin to watch your stupid goddamn bloodsport!”

“Well you’re doin somethin,” Agalon shouted back, and Xaxac backed away from him toward the center of the room, hoping it would do something about the noise, “You ain’t gonna lay around all summer! Get your ass up!”

“Make me, old man!” Lorsan shrieked, “You can’t make me do shit! I’m all you got! You know somebody’s gotta deal with all your shit when you’re gone!”

“What the hell is wrong with you?” Agalon asked as he tried the knob and found it locked, “I don’t know what’s got into you but you ain’t gonna keep tearin your ass like this. Get your ass up and get ready.”

“Go away!” Lorsan yelled with a voice so shrill Xac doubled over in pain at the sound of it.

“Master, please,” he begged, “Can I wait in the hallway? I won’t move, I swear!”

“You know what, Lorry?” Agalon snarled, kicked the door, and shouted again, “You wanna stay in here all day? Then stay in here all day!”

“I will!”

“Yeah, you sure as hell will!” Agalon roared.

He marched into the hall and Xaxac rushed after him, darted behind him and watched him slam the door to Lorsan’s sitting room. He reached into the bag on his hip and produced a set of keys, which he flipped through with purpose until he found the one he was looking for, which seemed a feat to Xaxac because they all looked almost identical. Agalon held the door closed, locked it from the outside, and tried the knob. It would not budge.

When he turned to Xac, his emotions had taken a complete turn. He wore a soft smile, and there seemed to be no tension in his body when he wrapped an arm around him and said, “Come on, darlin. We’re gonna ease you into this, but you might like it if you give it a chance.”

“I liked everything you said I would,” Xac agreed and snuggled into him, nervous about how quickly he had changed. He had never seen anything like it, never seen Agalon that angry before. Everything had been fine until that boy had showed up and ruined it!

Agalon led them down the hall and back into the impressive foyer, but this time there were people in it! A human man in the uniform of a houseslave stood at the big door, the one Xac knew led outside, let to the road he had seen, and as they approached him he stepped forward, took the left door by the handle, and pulled it open.

Outside was a large porch, set out with furniture, flowers, and other niceties, and Xac wondered how often he would be allowed out here. It looked at if it was set up so that someone could eat out there, with a wooden table and wicker chairs, but no one sat there. There were actually far more chairs than could fit at the table, and they were arranged pleasantly around the exterior of the house, as if Agalon often had many guests who would spend time out here, which seemed odd to Xac. Did people come by and just sit on the porch?

It was hot, oppressively hot, but Xac didn’t really notice it. He still had his light, fancy clothes, and he had felt much worse when he had actually been forced to work in it. Sunlight beating down on someone, all day, every day, for years, leaves them with a terrible misconception about what ‘heat’ actually is. This was nothing.

There was another human man outside holding the reigns of a horse, and Xac knew him! He was Jimmy Ray; Xac had worked under him when he was a very small child, and his father knew him well. Xac wanted to speak to him so badly- wanted to tell him to tell his father he was alright- but surely Abe knew that, didn’t he? He had been so happy when Xac had gotten his new job.

Agalon climbed expertly onto the horse and gently stroked its mane before he reached down a hand, and Xac smiled at Jimmy Ray, trying to communicate as much as he could with his eyes.

Please tell my daddy I’m alright. Tell him I’m safe. Tell him I’m happy. Tell him I got out of that room. I know you can’t tell me anything about him, but please tell him I’m alright.

Xac took Agalon’s hand, though he didn’t need it, and allowed him to pull him onto the saddle.