Timaeus was right to not hand over his brother to the drunk prince.

He didn’t flinch as the sword found a sheath within the slave, even though it was a brutal death. Other men may have balked at the sight of the pool of blood forming on the cobble, but Timaeus was no stranger to the one thing that made them all equal in the end. After all, he had been a soldier and a mercenary in his youth. His own hands were practically dripping red with the blood of men like the bloodied corpse-strewn on the ground. Old, young, free, slaves. It didn’t matter. Everyone would die in the end and some would be brutal, but quick. The slave should consider himself lucky that regard. It was over so quick that Timaeus doubted he felt anything at all. But then again, what was one man who could easily be replaced to the baron who called death an old friend?

Besides, it could have been very well been his brother that had been stabbed instead. That alone gave Timaeus enough reason to not intervene any further in regards to the violence that night.

He had a twinge of concern for the Princess as Zanon dragged her by the scruff of her neck into the palace, but Timaeus knew that it wouldn’t be wise to rush to her defense. There had already been enough carnage here tonight thanks to the Baron’s interference. So, once the large doors closed behind the royal couple, Timaeus finally turned back to the bloodied scene in front of him. The two remaining slaves who had the fortune of not resembling Silanos’s stature were clearly traumatized by what had occurred that evening with their mouths agape and the younger boy, barely older than 15, clearly shaking. This was clearly something they were never going to forget for as long as Timaeus allowed them to live.

For a moment, the baron considered if it would be wise to tie these loose ends together and keep the truth of what happened that night confined to the three people who had no benefit of revealing what they knew. However, he quickly decided against it. As vital as it was for Timaeus to protect his brother, there had been enough carnage tonight. Instead, it was far more likely that the two of them would be sold to the mines or sent to lands afar, where no one would care for the actions of a foreign baron. Regardless, this would clearly be one of the last nights they would spend in the service of the Valaoritis household.

“Leave him where he lays,” Timaeus said emotionlessly as he walked over to them and took the horse’s reins from the pair. It would be best if Tim didn’t interfere any further in tonight’s matters. Zanon surely would want to dispose of the body in the same way all “traitors” were disposed of. Disturbing this scene would cause more questions and would almost surely be considered a confession of guilt on Timaeus’s fault as taking care of his funeral rites may be seen as a remorseful act. After climbing up into the saddle in seemingly one fluid motion, a place that felt more natural to this man than breathing itself, he said his final words to the pair of them, “Return to the manor. Wake the cook and tell him to open the wine cellars. Then,” He paused for a moment as he forced the chestnut colored horse to turn to the two slaves right in the eyes as he continued in a grave tone, “Make yourselves scarce. I do not wish to see either of you until you are summoned.”

Both men nodded quickly to show that they understood his command and the underlying threat of what Timaeus would do if he saw their faces before he knew what he was going to do with them. With that, Tim rode towards the front gate and away from the scene of his family’s crimes in search of where Silanos had decided to hide. With long, winding roads and no light to guide him other than what the moon and stars could provide, it wasn’t going to be an easy search for Timaeus, but at least he now had speed on his side. The baron wouldn’t have been surprised if his brother spent the last few minutes running as far away from the upper levels as his legs could take him. Hell, if it was Timaeus in the kid’s shoes, he probably would have run all the way back to their little haven in Eubocris. Leave this whole damn city behind and get to a place where the Kotas family could never find him. But tonight had made it very clear, once and for all, as similar as the brothers may be, Silanos did not think like Timaeus. His brother would not make the same decisions the elder brother would.

Still, he urged the horse into a gallop down the roads, frantically searching for any sign of where his brother could be. The path he took was a familiar one even in the suffocating darkness of night. It was what he knew to be the closest route to the manor on the edge of the upper levels that the baron rented from some wealthy merchant from his home province. It was a simple, almost modest household in comparison to some of the other properties on the mountainside, but it served its purpose as a home base for Timaeus whenever he was in Midas for his duties as a senator. Naturally, this is where Timaeus thought Silanos would go after he fled from the scene.

However, he didn’t too far before the scent of fouled air told Timaeus that Silanos probably didn’t make it that far from the Kotas household after all.

Once he reached a point in the road where the smell of vomit was unbearable, Timaeus brought the horse to a harsh stop. After quickly dismounting, Timaeus cautiously looked around for the source of the smell. Without the harsh noise of the horse’s hooves on the ground, he could hear the stifled retching of his brother, clearly trying and failing to stay quiet. As his eyes adjusted to the darkness, he could now see the faint outline of his brother’s chiton, the back of it still crumpled from where Timaeus had grabbed it earlier, bent over a bush as Sil lost control over his own stomach. Tim’s stomach also became queasy as the stench overwhelmed his senses, but the relief of knowing that his brother was safe was enough to keep it in check, for now at least.

“Sil…” Timaeus said quietly, hopefully announcing his presence to his brother if he wasn’t already aware. Stepping forward, Tim tied the horse’s reins to a nearby tree in a loose knot. It was just enough to keep the steed there for the moment, but certainly not tight enough to keep him from breaking free if it was spooked. Then he approached Silanos cautiously, unsure of the boy’s current state thanks to that evening’s emotional trauma and the inebriated state he had witnessed earlier.

Once he was close enough, Tim cautiously placed his hand on his brother’s shoulder as a form of support while he also tried not to look down at the mess the boy had made, lest he’d lose his dinner too. After a moment’s silence, he asked in a far more calmer and bewildered tone than before as his anger was finally beginning to come down a bit after everything that had happened, “Just what in the name of Hades were you thinking?”