Both Aveline and I slept late the next morning.  She stirred in her bed as the afternoon sun started coming through the window, which woke me up (I'm a light sleeper).  She rolled over and went back to sleep, and I looked at her, wondering how many nights she had been able to sleep and not worry if she'd be woken by her master.  I got up and washed, and when I got back with breakfast and a bundle from town she was sitting up in bed.  "Good morning," I said cheerily despite the fact it was late afternoon, and she smiled at me groggily.  "Here," I tossed the bundle onto the bed.

"What is it?" she asked.

"Clothes."  She nodded, completely understanding my one word answer, then rose and went to wash and change into the clothes.  After we had eaten and were preparing to depart, I paused for a moment, then pulled a dagger and sheath out of my left boot and handed it to her.  "Just in case," I said in explanation.  "Keep it somewhere comfortable, accessible, and hidden.  Takes a while to find the right spot, but-"  She stuffed it into her bosom.  I blinked and shook the image from my mind.  "Okay then...is that really comfortable?"  She playfully punched me in the arm, laughing.

"You are such an animal!"

"Okay, okay!" I returned, laughing as well.  "Let's get outta here."  We left town and traveled until nightfall, deciding to spend the night on the road.   I got the fire going and we were about to go to sleep when I suddenly thought of something.  "Are you okay with this?"

"With what?"

"Well, I'm a Vagabond," I began.  "Which means I don't stop moving around.  Are you okay with that?"

"If I ever get sick of it, I'll just leave and do my own thing."  Why hadn't I thought of that?  What childish logic made me think she would be stuck with me forever?  Ah well.

"Okay."  There was an Uncomfortable Silence, and I became increasingly worried that she was going to ask about my Magic again.  "Um...goodnight."  And I turned over, putting my back to her, and pretended to sleep.

So pretending to sleep is not a replacement for actually sleeping, as I understood the next morning.  I knew there was a town near here, somewhat military, yes, but I wasn't going to survive the day without Real Food and some of that wonderful imported drink known as Kaffei.  I directed the horse toward the town, explaining to Aveline that we needed some supplies, and also that there might be a chance to earn some money.  This last, of course, was false; considering what happened the first time I looked for work in a military town, I wasn't about to try again.

When we finally pulled into town a few hours later, I was almost falling off the horse.  We were in the market place for all of a few seconds before I turned aside to a stall that was selling some sort of long piece of bread stuffed with meat, leaving Aveline holding the horse.  There was some brief haggling over price, and almost as soon as it was in my hand the food seemed to be half gone.  I turned back to Aveline to apologize for my Short Attention Span, and saw her pinned to the side of a building by a Military Officer.  But I had taught her well; she kneed him in the Gut.

I laughed out loud, delighted, and the officer fixed me with a Look of Death.  He couldn't salvage his Honor (if, indeed, he had any) by defeating a girl in a duel, but her friend (who had been dumb enough to laugh at him), was Fair Game.  He didn't waste any time.  "My honor will be avenged!" he cried, pointing at me.  I'm sure everyone in the market was wondering how my eating had insulted him.

"Don't you mean your pride?" I shot back.  He ignored me, as well as the chuckles from the few people who actually knew what was going on.

"I challenge you to a duel, sir!"

"Well, okay," I said, stuffing the rest of my breakfast into my mouth.  "Let's go!"  I put a hand on my sword.

"A Magic Duel," he amended, and I froze.

"Right now?" I choked out.  This was very much Not Good.

"Sunset then," he allowed cruelly as Aveline came up beside me.  "I understand if you want to prepare yourself for death, pray to the Divine.  You'll need divine intervention!"  He moved off laughing, and Aveline touched my arm.

"Chemicals," I muttered before she could speak.  "I need chemicals."  I turned to her quickly.  "Can I have some money?"

"What?"

"I need money.  It's for a good cause."  I held out my hand.  "C'mon, c'mon, this's my life on the line.  Gimme money!"  She started and hurriedly gave me what little coinage she had.  "Thanks."  I looked around desperately, mumbling, "Apothecary, apothecary..."  I spotted the shop and headed in that direction.  After an hour of getting the right chemicals for a decent price, I was in an inn room frantically preparing the devices I thought I might need.  I'd spent years perfecting these mixtures, but I still needed to concentrate.  Plus I had to decide which would be useful in a one on one duel.  The answer was, dishearteningly, not many (seeing as how I usually tried to avoid Situations Like These), but I would have to manage.

I would like to point out at this point that I didn't think about running.  I know, it's the logical choice, but you'd be surprised how little you think in situations like these.  In any case, it just never crossed either of our minds.

Aveline watched me in silence for a while before offering, "I could teach you some spells."  I said nothing, letting that answer the few questions she must've had by this point.  "So you really can't use magic," she said.  "The only way you've managed to keep that hidden is through chemicals, sleight of hand, and acting...that's amazing!"  I smiled, pleased by the compliment, but didn't look up from my work.  She didn't ask why I couldn't use magic (which would have been answered with a very unflattering "I dunno"), but I was sure she'd heard of me, at least in concept if not with details (half the world had by now).

I finished about an hour before sunset, despite planning to finish only a few minutes before sunset, secreted the various packets on my body, double checked that both my gloves could produce sparks, and I was left standing, fretting.  I make it a point to never say the words, "I'm gonna die" aloud, but I confess, at that moment, it was hard not to.  The silence stretched out between us.

"Would you like to rest?" Aveline finally suggested.

"No."

"How about dinner?"

"No."

"I could put a protection spell on you.  It wouldn't do much..."

"No.  That's okay."

"Do you wanna just go?" she said at last.  I nodded.

"Yeah."  We made out way back to the center of town and waited.  There were still some people out, some of whom I recognized from being in the crowd earlier; I couldn't decide if they were here to see me humiliate the Officer or watch me be gutted by him.

"You're early," I heard a voice say, causing me to turn around and spot the Officer.  "In a hurry to die?"

"That was so ClichŽ."  Did I say that out loud?  Poor Impulse Control strikes again.  Actually, this whole fiasco was becoming an exercise in poor self-control.  I kept being forced to think back to that doctor-waitaminute.  "Is this to the death?"  I asked.

"Of course," the Officer sneered.  "I will have the pleasure of killing you."  Well, now I was really glad I hadn't eaten since breakfast.  I thought about trying to talk to him out of it, but he obviously wasn't going to listen.  Ah well.  I got myself into this; I would get myself out.  That's how my life worked.  "Shall we begin?"  The menace fairly dripped from his voice and I could feel his desire to kill me.  For the life of me, I couldn't think why...

"Sure."  The word was hardly out of my mouth when he lobbed a spell at me.  I dodged to the side and shucked a lighted Bomb at him.  He put up a shield so he wasn't hit, but I used the smoke and dust as a cover to get in close to him and smack a Freeze Pouch on his back.  He cried out a pushed me back with some spell (Expulsion, maybe?), and I had just managed to recover to my feet when an Air Blade came my way.  I was off-balance and couldn't dodge completely, so I ended up with a substantial gash in my side.

"Sil!" I heard Aveline shout worriedly.  The Officer heard her too, and stopped right in the middle of casting his spell.

"Sil?  You're Sil?  The one who stole from Governor Gevaninison and destroyed his mansion?"  Oooo, this was Not Good.  So Not Good.  He took a deep breath, preparing to call for Reinforcements.  I panicked, pulled out a Grease Bag, and threw it at his feet, not even caring about Sleight of Hand by this point.  He slipped and fell backwards, ad I pounced on him, pinning him down and holding a Bomb to his face, poised to set it off.  Unfortunately, he caught the fact that my Spiffy Grease Spell wasn't a Spell at all.  "You-you're not using any magic.  Sil...you're that kid, the one everybody was hearing about ten years ago, the one who can't use any magic...Silvanus-"  Thud.  I knocked him out, but it was too later, the Damage was Done.  Dammit if he hadn't said it loud enough for everybody in a two-mile radius to hear.  There was absolute silence.  I stood, coughed embarrassedly and turned to Aveline.

"Aveline.  I think we should go now."  She nodded and agreed.

"Yeah."  We hurried out of town.

--------------------------

"It was amazing!"

"It was a disaster!"

"Well, it may have been that, too, but just think.  Now not only will people know that you steal from governors, blow up their mansions, and take on military officers to protect women, but you do it all without using magic.  The whole country will be abuzz about you!"

"Precisely my point!  Now every town will be looking for me.  When I walk into a town, I'll be stopped because I match my own description.  And since they know I can't do magic, and I'm the only one who can't, they'll use that to identify me.  'You there, cast a spell.'  'Ah...'  And that'll be it!  I'm Screwed!"

"I realize and understand both the good and bad sides of this.  I just think you need to as well."

"I...what?"  Aveline and I stood on opposite sides of the campfire, arguing.  I don't even remember how it got started.  There was a lull as I worked through her last comment.  "I guess I'm just a pessimistic person," I finally shot back, semi-sarcastically.  I don't think about myself as a pessimist, actually, more a Realist.  

"I just think there's good in this too.  You'll be a hero to every lower class peasant who's been oppressed by the military or politicians.  You may have enemies in every town, but now you have friends in every town too."  I shrugged.

"I guess.  But what can a bunch of Friendly Peasants do against a bunch of Vicious Soldiers?"

"Um..."

"I thought so."  That effectively ended that conversation, and we settled into more important business: Dinner.  I lowered myself carefully on to the ground, being mindful of the (bandaged) Gash in my side.  I hoped it wouldn't get infected (and, indeed, Aveline had carefully washed and wrapped it and cast some spells on it), but I could already feel a burning sensation in that area that Boded Ill.  Accordingly, I ate like a man who knows he won't be eating again in the near future.  Aveline raised her eyebrows at me, apparently wondering why I was so engrossed in our meager fare, but I didn't explain; I didn't want her to worry about me.

By mid-morning the next day I was feeling decidedly Odd, and it was almost evening when I concluded that to continue would be Unwise.  I told Aveline that I was tired and wanted to make camp for the night, and I was pleasantly surprised that I wasn't far gone enough from fever to have lost the ability to tell a coherent lie.  She consented, we found a clearing near a stream in the woods, she dismounted, and I made to do the same.  That was when I fell off the horse.  Now the Fun began.

I think somewhere between the horse and the ground my condition escalated into Full Fever Delirium.  I don't even remember hitting the dirt.  I do remember plunging endlessly into the Great Black Abyss of Hell, being not surprised but hoping for the oblivion that smacking into the fire and brimstone would bring.  It didn't come.  Instead, I ended up landing in a chair across from the Doctor I had met with all those years ago.  We sat there, in our little wooden chairs floating in nothing, and stared at each other for a moment.  I think we then had a conversation about magic and sanity, but the particulars are lost to me.  Then the chair dumped me, and this time I was flying, then I was a god, the only person in the world who could use magic and worshipped for it, and I hated it.  Then I was running, then I was fighting, then I was with the Doctor again.  He asked me a question, and I shrugged diffidently, then there was a long period of blackness during which I was haunted by ghostly and nightmarish apparitions, and I thought to myself that if I made it out alive I was going to be seriously Mentally Messed Up.  Then I realized that that had been a thought, which meant I was conscious.  I forced my eyes open.

It was day, though my mind was still too foggy to tell when.  There was a fire going and I was covered with blankets, cloths, and anything else to keep me warm.  There was a strikingly beautiful girl putting a cold cloth on my forehead.  "...Aveline," I croaked out.

"Oh!  Good," she said.  "You recognize me.  For the last two days you've either thought I was a doctor, a soldier, or an angel taking you to the afterlife.  In all cases, I've practically had to fight you to get close enough to help you."  I made a crack about her looking like an angel, then winced.  My sanity must be suffering if I'd said that aloud.  "I'll forgive you this once," she said laughing.  "You're still recovering.  ...I thought I'd lost you a couple times," she admitted quietly.  I could think of nothing to say, so nothing is what I said.  "Lemme get you some fresh water," she said finally, standing.  I watcher her move off toward the little stream, then I turned to look at the fire.  It seemed to shift and move in a strange way, and I could almost convince myself there was a face in there.  I shook my head and looked back at the sky, unnerved.  My fever had broken; the Delirium should have passed.  Aveline came back with water and I drank greedily before finally suggesting she help me over to the stream.  There, I sucked down water like several deprived camels who have been in the desert too long.  Aveline just watched patiently.  Then I fell asleep right there on the riverbank.

After a couple more days I was fit to travel again, and we hit the road.  I hadn't had any more Mental Glitches, and I decided the first one with the fire had been because of my fever.  Occasionally during the day I'd get a nagging feeling, like there was something I needed to be concentrating on, but it would pass in a few minutes, so I paid it no never-mind.

I had never been more glad for the presence of Aveline.  I was feeling a little Mentally Weird, and having her around kept my mind off things.  We talked a lot during the few days I was recovering, and more while we traveled, and I discovered a lot more about her.  She was smart and righteous (much more so than I) and she told me she badly wanted to do something about the Injustice of Slavery.  I think I made some snarky comment along the lines of "good luck with that" and she fumed for a while before I apologized.  Of course, this led to a different awkward conversation all together.

"I'm sorry," I said.  "It's just...You know how you'll occasionally accuse me of being insane?  Well...Sometimes I wonder.  I mean really wonder.  Okay, so I don't wonder; sometimes I'm certain.  Anyway, when I was a boy my parents took me to see this doctor to see if he knew why I couldn't use magic and if he could fix me.  Naturally, he had no idea, so he bullshitted something about it causing mental instability and recommended a specialist whom we never saw.  I didn't think about it much, but recently I've been having more and more of these moments where I really think I've lost it.  I'll say or do something almost without realizing it and...well, it bothers me is all.  It's a feeling...just a feeling."  I faded out and there was silence for a while.  I didn't want to turn around on the horse to see her face, so I just waited.

"I think..." she finally began slowly, "...that if you are developing, um, mental abnormalities, it wouldn't be because you were born unable to do magic.  I think it would be because of what's happened to you."  I nodded in agreement.

"Think I should retire and disappear?"  She snorted.

"Could you?"  I laughed.

"Probably not.  So, what then?  Suck it up and go crazy?"  She had no answer to that, so the conversation ended there.

We kept riding, and we kept talking, and I wished it would go on forever.  So, naturally, I knew as soon as we rode into town that there was going to be Trouble.  Something, some feeling in the air, tipped me off, and the sudden and alarming appearance of more soldiers that I could quickly count confirmed it.  In an instant, we were surrounded.  They started to draw their weapons, and I rolled off the horse, throwing two daggers as I did so.  My only thought, if I was thinking at all, was to create an opening for Aveline to escape.  I hit the ground and shouted, "Go!", which translated to, "I'll create an opening for you to take the horse and get the hell out of here, don't worry about me!"  She shouted back, "But--!", which really meant, "I really don't wanna leave you here alone, but there's no time to discuss it so I have no choice and I'll do it!"  I put a couple more daggers into guards and drew my sword to keep their attention while Aveline jumped the horse over the bodies and fled.  As soon as she was out of sight I sheathed my sword.  "Well then?"  They beat the Shit out of me for a while before officially making the arrest, but I was beyond fighting back.  There was No Way I could take all of them and I didn't really want to try.  I just waited for unconsciousness to take me.  Eventually it did, and everything went black.