I waited until Ren and Clara had disappeared down the street before allowing myself to move.
The noise outside The Lantern had gradually faded. Most of the people who had gathered to watch the confrontation had returned inside, while the few who remained eventually lost interest and went about their business. There was little entertainment left in watching a man lie beaten on the ground.
Maren was still beside me. She had one hand hovering near my shoulder, seemingly unsure where she could touch without making things worse.
"Are you all right?" she asked.
I tried to straighten up and immediately regretted it. Pain spread through my ribs, forcing a quiet breath through my teeth.
"Uhm, I would say that depends on your definition of all right."
Maren’s lips pressed into a thin line. She glanced over my face, then down at the blood on my clothes. "You’re making jokes now?"
"Would you prefer I complained?"
"I would prefer you didn’t look as though someone had used you to practise breaking furniture."
"That seems a little harsh."
"Joseph."
The way she said my name made me stop. Her brows had drawn together, and the hand hovering near my shoulder finally settled against my arm, careful not to press too hard.
"All right," I admitted. "I’ve had better evenings."
She exhaled through her nose, but the tension in her shoulders did not disappear. "You could have told me."
"About what?"
"House Vellmore."
I turned my head towards her. Of all the things she could have brought up, that was not what I expected.
Maren stared at me as if she were waiting for me to deny it. "You work for House Vellmore?"
"Recently, yes."
"Recently?" She repeated the word, her voice rising slightly. "And when exactly were you planning to mention that?"
"I hadn’t found a convenient opportunity."
Her eyes narrowed. "We’ve spoken about Vellmore. We’ve spoken about the Collective, the trade initiative and the people connected to it. You knew I was investigating them, and you never thought to mention that you had managed to get inside their estate?"
"I didn’t think it would be particularly useful to bring it up before I had anything worth telling you."
"That isn’t an answer."
"No, I suppose it isn’t."
Maren pulled her hand away and folded her arms, though she kept glancing at the injuries across my face. "How did you even get a position there?"
"An existing guard recommended me. They needed additional security, and I happened to be looking for a way in."
"A way in," she repeated, her expression shifting from surprise to suspicion. "So this was deliberate?"
"I wanted to observe the household from the inside. I know House Vellmore has an association with the Thorn Collective, but I don’t know how close that relationship really is. Working there gives me a chance to find out."
Maren considered that for a moment. Her gaze dropped towards the ground, and she rubbed her thumb against the edge of her sleeve.
"I found something," she said eventually. "Records from Sera Voss’s merchant house. Payments were being made to the Collective at least eight months before the Vellmore trade initiative was proposed."
"That is interesting."
"More than interesting. It means the Collective was already operating independently. The trade initiative didn’t create it. Someone simply found an opportunity to bring it into the open." She looked back at me. "If I’d known you were inside Vellmore, we could have compared what we were finding."
"I understand."
"Do you?" Her voice softened, but her expression remained firm. "Because I don’t particularly enjoy discovering important information from someone shouting at you in the street."
I couldn’t argue with that. Ren had revealed my employment in the middle of our confrontation, and I had no reason to expect Maren to be pleased about learning it that way.
Before I could answer, hurried footsteps approached us. The healer Ren had requested arrived carrying a leather case, accompanied by a young assistant. He knelt beside me and began examining my injuries, asking me to breathe deeply and move my arms. The first request was unpleasant. The second was worse.
"You have at least one broken rib," he informed me after a brief examination. "Possibly more, though I would need to examine you properly to be certain. There is considerable bruising, and you should avoid strenuous activity for several days."
"Several days?" I repeated.
The healer gave me a disapproving look. "Would you prefer several weeks?"
"No. Several days sounds reasonable."
Maren gave me a look that made it clear she agreed with the healer.
Once the healer had finished treating the worst of the injuries, Maren helped me sit upright. I was beginning to regret every decision that had led to this evening, though regretting them would not change anything.
Her attention remained fixed on the direction Ren and Clara had taken.
"Do you think she’ll be safe with him?" she asked.
"Clara?"
Maren nodded. "You saw what he did to you. He was already standing over you, and he kept going. I know you provoked him, but that doesn’t make it easy to trust him with my sister."
I adjusted my position, trying to find a way to sit without putting pressure on my ribs. "Ren won’t hurt Clara."
"You sound very certain."
"He was angry with me. Whatever happened between us, it wasn’t about her."
Maren’s fingers tightened around the strap of her bag. "You don’t know that. You don’t know what he’s capable of when he loses his temper."
"I know enough."
She opened her mouth, then closed it again. Her eyes moved briefly to my injuries before returning to my face.
"That’s what worries me," she said quietly. "You always seem to know enough about people, but you never tell me how."
I held her gaze for a moment. There were questions I could answer, but none that would satisfy her. Not without revealing more than I was prepared to share.
"And what happens now?" she asked.
"I need to reconsider my position at Vellmore."
"Because Ren knows you’re working there?"
"Among other things. He already has questions about me, and now he knows where to find me. Staying there might become inconvenient if he decides to interfere."
Maren tilted her head. "Do you really expect him to come after you again?"
"I wouldn’t rule it out."
"He had plenty of opportunities to get his answers tonight."
"He didn’t get the ones he wanted."
A faint crease appeared between her brows. "And you weren’t exactly forthcoming."
"I was trying to avoid being beaten to death."
"That didn’t work particularly well."
"I’m beginning to notice."
She shook her head, though a small breath of amusement escaped her before she could suppress it. It didn’t last long. Her gaze returned to the blood on my clothes, and her fingers briefly curled against her palm.
"Why did you keep provoking him?" she asked. "You knew he was stronger than you. You could have stopped talking, walked away and avoided all of this."
I looked down at my hands.
The truth was that I hadn’t expected to meet Ren at The Lantern. His appearance had caught me completely off guard. But once the initial surprise passed, I had recognised an opportunity. He was angry, suspicious and desperate for answers. It hadn’t taken much to push him further.
I had wanted him to lose control where other people could see it. The witnesses hadn’t been part of any plan. They had simply been there, and I had used what the situation offered.
Unfortunately, Clara had stepped between us, and Ren had walked away with her.
"I misjudged how far he would go," I said.
Maren watched me for a few seconds. "That sounds like a very polite way of saying you made a mistake."
"It’s an accurate one."
She didn’t seem convinced, but she let the matter rest.
My thoughts returned to the confrontation. There was something more important than the injuries, the witnesses or even Clara leaving with Ren.
The word NPC.
I had used it deliberately, hoping to provoke a reaction. I hadn’t expected such a strong one. Ren’s expression had changed the moment he heard it. For a brief instant, the confidence he carried so naturally had disappeared, replaced by something much closer to genuine shock.
He knew the word. Of course he did. He used it himself.
But he hadn’t expected to hear it from me.
That reaction was worth more than any answer he might have given me. It suggested that the connection between us was not as one-sided as I had assumed. I still didn’t know what Ren understood about his circumstances, or how much of his original knowledge remained intact. The Author’s Archive had already warned me that its accuracy would deteriorate as the narrative diverged.
And Ren was no longer following the story I had written.
I had Clara’s departure to account for, my position at Vellmore to reconsider, and the growing uncertainty surrounding the Thorn Collective. Sera Voss was another matter entirely. Her interests and her relationship with Ren were becoming increasingly difficult to separate from everything else.
For now, though, I needed to recover.
Maren shifted her bag onto her shoulder. "Are you going back to Vellmore tonight?"
"No."
"Good." She glanced at the healer, who was packing away his equipment. "At least one of us is making a sensible decision."
"I make sensible decisions."
"Joseph, you’re sitting in an alley with a broken rib because you decided to antagonise a man who could have killed you with one hand."
"When you put it like that..."
"I’m not putting it any particular way. That’s what happened."
I couldn’t help smiling, although the movement pulled at my bruised cheek. "I’ll try to remember that next time."
"Try harder."
She offered me her hand, and I accepted it carefully. With her help, I managed to get to my feet. The pain was still there, but it was manageable as long as I didn’t move too quickly.
Ren had left with Clara. I had failed to get the answers I wanted from him, and he had learned where I worked. Neither outcome was ideal.
Still, I had learned something important.
Ren’s reaction to a single word had told me more than our entire conversation. Whatever he believed about himself, and whatever role he thought he was meant to play, there was more to him than the confident hero everyone else saw.
I would need to understand that before our next encounter.
But first, I needed to make sure there was a next encounter at all.