Alex poured them both another glass of wine and led Xaxac to the sofa.

“Alright, so, few years ago I was where you’re at now. Just calm down. You’re jittery and it’s catchin.”

“I ain’t jittery,” Xac said, “I don’t know what’s wrong with me.”

“Ain’t nothin wrong with you,” Alex said, “You’re in a new place and you don’t know how to act, and you know if you don’t act right it can mess you up. Just sit down, let me think, I’m gonna walk you through it.”

Xac nodded and plopped down on the sofa.

Alex studied him for a moment while he drank his wine, as if looking for something in his face, then spoke.

“You’re real cute, real good bones. Big eyes. Your teeth are fucked up, but you can’t have everything,” he decided, “But the bones are good and that’s important.”

“My teeth ain’t fucked up,” Xac countered.

“Don’t argue with me,” Alex told him, “We ain’t got a lot of time. But you do got buck teeth, though. It don’t matter, ain’t nothin to be done about it, but take care of um. You start doin a lot of drugs it’s easy to forget to take care of yourself. Every night you take your makeup off, brush your teeth, comb out your hair, and moisturize your skin. Every night. If you pass out drunk do it the second you wake up. You gotta keep your skin firm. You don’t do that it’ll fuck you up real bad in just a couple decades. Our lifespans are short in this business and I don’t know what happens when they get rid of us.”

“Lorry said I could work for him,” Xaxac said quietly.

“Elves say a lot of shit to humans with more attraction than sense,” Alex warned, “Don’t never believe a word they tell you. Just smile and tell um ‘ok’ and then forget they said anything. It probably ain’t gonna happen.”

Xac nodded. That made sense. Besides, Lorsan had made this offer before he had found out Xaxac was a shifter, before he had bitten his father and scared him half to death. That probably was completely off the table now.

“Right now, you can get by on your looks if you’re cute and sweet and innocent, but after a couple years that gets old and you gotta develop a personality. You gotta be fun to be around. You’re gonna have to have a gimmick, somethin you can do, an instrument or a game or somethin.”

“I can’t really do nothin,” Xac said, wracking his brain for any skill he may possess, “I like… clothes? My mama taught me how to knit.”

“No honey, you need somethin you can do at parties,” Alex explained, “Once your adjustment’s over you’re gonna have to start goin to parties. We ain’t like the other slaves, we can’t just fade into the background. He’ll keep you right on his arm and expect you to talk to people. Not for a while, for a while you can just pretend to be shy and keep your head in his chest, but he’s gonna get tired of that.”

“Oh,” Xac said, “Um… he took me out to see the fighters. I like that.”

“See, now that’s a good ‘un. Them elves love rodeos. You like cage fightin, learn everythin you can about it. They take bets on that shit. Lost one of my brothers cause Ky’s a bettin man.”

“Oh,” Xac looked down at his wine.

“Don’t dwell on it, we ain’t got time. I’m tryin to think what else you need to know. Be funny, be charming, you can look at um, after you been around um a while, and see on their face what they want you to say. Usually when they’re trainin you they’ll tell you over and over and you can pick it up if you ain’t an absolute dumbass. Or they’ll introduce you like, ‘Alex loves to dance, don’t you, darlin’?’ so it’s pretty easy to figure out when you’re supposed to say, ‘Oh yeah, master, I love to dance!’.” Alex paused to take a sip of his wine, “Then halfway through the party they usually put us all together somewhere and forget about us, then we all get shitfaced drunk and that usually just,” he waved his hand to indicate something that Xac did not understand, “becomes an orgy’.” He took another drink, cocked his head and said, “Wish they wouldn’t separate us from the girls but I get it. They wanna control the breedin’. I just know a lot of folks I don’t hardly ever get to talk to.”

“I’m a shifter,” Xac said quite suddenly, because he had been trying to work it into the conversation for some time and had finally decided he would never have an opportune moment.

Alex laughed, scoffed, and said, “No you ain’t. That ain’t a thing.”

“Look,” Xac glanced to the door, “I ain’t tryin to- why do folks keep thinkin I’m lyin about that? I am a shifter, and day before yesterday when the moons was full I bit Master Agalon. And I don’t know what’s gonna happen on account of that. That’s what’s wrong with me. That’s why I’m so scared, and I ain’t been able to tell anybody before now, and I don’t know when they’re comin back, and my mommy said nothin would happen, but,” he ran out of air and began to cry.

Alex glanced to the door, then back to Xaxac. He leaned forward to set his glass on the coffee table, then crawled to him on the couch, took the glass from him and set it with his own. He stood there on his knees for a second, processing the information, before he wrapped an arm around Xac and squeezed.

Xac leaned into the affection and buried his eyes in his shoulder.

“Honey, I know you’re upset, but this is silk from the water continent. You get makeup on it I’m gonna get in trouble.” Alex said as he rearranged Xaxac’s face to cry into his neck, “You can’t do this. You can’t cry like this. We ain’t got time for this.” He held him, sighed, and continued, “I believe you believe you’re a shifter. But I don’t believe you bit him. You wouldn’t be here. You’re cute but you ain’t that cute. He’d’a sold you bigger than hell.”

“I’m scared he’s gonna,” Xac sobbed, “What if he leaves me here?”

“He ain’t gonna leave you here, I don’t reckon,” Alex said, considering the possibility, “But if he does I reckon we’d work together. Maybe I wouldn’t be so goddamn bored. I’d like to have somebody to talk to, truth be told.”

“He said he loves me,” Xac sobbed.

“Darlin, listen at me,” Alex said softly, “You’re thinkin too much. You can’t do this. You gotta get outta your own head, turn your mind off. I don’t think this happened. Sometimes when you’re left alone all day with nothin but your own brain you start makin shit up, and it seems real, so real you’re sure it happened, but it never did. So here’s what I want you to do. I want you to let me run and get somethin to dry your eyes, then I want you to drink with me while I tell you all about what a good time we’re gonna have, ok? And we are gonna use alcohol to obliterate any trace of that fake memory.”

“Somebody’s here,” Xac whispered before Alex heard the turning of a key in a lock.

“Aw, hell,” he said.

“It ain’t Aggie, it’s Lee. They walk different,” Xac mumbled.

He was correct. Lee entered the room, followed by the man with a mustache, carrying several bags of luggage.

“Xaxac!” Lee admonished, “You have not been crying again!”

“I’m sorry,” Xac said.

“What did I say?” Lee asked.

“Look pretty and smile,” Xac sobbed.

“Xaxac, Master Agalon will be up here as soon as he finishes dinner. We have to get the room set up. Why on Xren are you like this? Why are you cryin? What set you off?” Lee asked.

“Leave him alone!” Alex snapped.

“He can’t be like this,” Lee explained with great practicality, “Xac, quit cryin. You’re grown!”

“Stop tellin him that!” Alex snarled, “It ain’t workin.”

“Alex, quit bein contrary,” the man with the mustache said, “Lee, I’m gonna set up the room. You do somethin about that boy. They take ‘um too young, that’s what’s wrong with him.”

“That ain’t what’s wrong with him,” Alex argued, “He thinks he’s a shifter. He thinks he bit his master. He’s thinkin too much.”

“He is and he did,” Lee said as he walked around the couch, “And Lorry tore his ass about it. Xac? Boy? You want me to slap you again?”

“You better not fuckin hit him!” Alex clung to Xaxac more fiercely.

“I ain’t gonna hurt him, I’m gonna calm him down. I had to do this the other day when he started bawlin like this in the kitchen.” he paused, looked to the side and admitted, “The day after he bit him.”

“He ain’t a shifter,” Alex argued, “That ain’t a real thing.”

“Boy, I saw it with my own eyes! I seen that monster, six foot tall, teeth half a foot long, big claws on it.” He huffed, jerked Xac out of his arms and asked, “How about if you don’t know somethin you hush?”

Xac heard the mustached man laugh from the bedroom.

Then he felt the pain radiating in the side of his face and heard Alex scream.

But the pain was real.

The pain was real, and it was right here, right now, undeniable, and it was so real and so present that it was the most important thing to attend to, not something in the past that was crushing his chest and choking up his heart for no reason.

“Thank, Lee,” He said and leaned up to hug him, “I dunno why that works, but it does.”

“Don’t thank him!” Alex said, aghast, “He hit you!”

“It calms me down,” Xac said, “Pain calms me down.”

“That don’t make no sense!” Alex argued.

“Xac, boy, listen,” Lee took him by both shoulders and stared down into his eyes, “You have got to quit doin this. You’ve got to quit breakin down like this. You ain’t a baby. You’re a grown man now. I hate that it had to happen too quick, but it did. You gotta keep yourself pulled together or much as I hate to admit it, Alex is right, you’re gonna fuck around and think too much and drive yourself crazy. They don’t give y’all enough to do. Your mama told me you like to knit. When we get to Basilglen and Master Agalon takes you to the seamstress, you talk about that. You make a big deal about it. Tell him you like clothes, you like to knit. Butter him up, like you did to get Nancy sent off. He’ll get um for you, and then you can think about all the pretty things you’re gonna make instead of dwellin on nonsense, ok? You need somethin to fill your head up.”

“You really do,” Alex agreed, “I do watercolors.”

“You paint?” Lee asked skeptically.

“He’s actually pretty good,” the mustached man said from the bedroom, “Believe it or not his pictures look like the things they look like. Except the ones he keeps in his wardrobe, he thinks nobody don’t know about. That’s some crazy shit.”

“That’s what I do with my demons!” Alex said chipperly.

“Ok well,” Lee jerked his head from Alex back to Xac, “We ain’t got time to unpack all that. Xac, get up, come in here and let me fix your face before anybody gets back.”

Xac nodded and allowed Lee to pull him to his feet.