[A/N: A new saga starts and our hentai king carries on his legacy!]
Rigel did not sleep in the annex.
He sat in the gatehouse with two men who complained about the hour, the packet cold against his ribs, Blade's order still in his head. Do not open that latch. Do not check if hospitality learned their names.
Sometime after midnight the cold iron ticked once.
Not a bell.
A stitch.
His mouth filled with flour-sweet air that was not in the gatehouse. The complainers' voices stretched and went thin. He reached for the packet and his hand closed on a robe hem instead.
Then he was standing.
Stone under his boots.
A room cut out of a rock face, lamps, a bed, a desk with textbooks stacked like someone still had to pass a term.
A woman in a cheap nurse costume in front of him, black hair, adult face, thighs bare, smiling like the smile had been practiced until it sat right.
"Good morning, Master."
Rigel did not answer.
Another man was already in the robe.
