Healing Ties (Ties, Book 2) | ✓

Chapter 12

Yore placed a hand on Lucas' chest to halt him as they approached the mage. He was still blindfolded, but his hands weren't bound behind the tree anymore. He was hunched forward, head down, hugging himself. Yore didn't know whether to approach the situation with caution or concern.

Yore took another step forward and the mage lifted his head.

"It's me," Yore said. "Keep the blindfold on."

The mage nodded.

"What happened?"

The mage held up the rope and Yore took a few steps closer to get a better view of it. Had it been burned through?

"I'm sorry," the mage whispered. "I didn't mean to. It was an accident."

"This is fucked up," Lucas commented, and the mage's head jerked in his direction.

"It's okay," Yore reassured the mage. "I have a friend here with me, but he won't hurt you. Did you burn the rope?"

The mage hesitated and then nodded. "I didn't mean to."

"Did you get scared?"

The mage nodded again.

"Wow, Yore, who would have thought, a Companion who has trauma related to being tied up," Lucas said as he approached the mage. "Amazing. Never would have guessed."

"Oh, shut up," Yore told him. "He's an expensive Companion. Getting tied up isn't exactly something they typically go through."

"Yeah, I'm kind of feeling like this particular situation isn't quite as straightforward as that."

"Me either. I'm just saying, there's no reason him being a Companion should have led me to believe he had rope related trauma."

"And yet when you told me you'd done this, I knew it was a bad idea." Lucas upstrapped the device from his belt and approached the mage. "Hi. What's your name?"

"He hasn't even told me that yet," Yore said.

"Well, I wasn't planning on giving him my name yet either, so I guess that's fine. We can do introductions afterwards, I just thought it would be easier to give him instructions when he was blindfolded if I could address him by name." Lucas clicked his fingers. "Actually, yes. That's still a good idea. Until we find out your real name I will call you Bob. Is that okay, Bob?"

The mage nodded. "Yes, sir."

"Uh, no, ergh. Don't sir me. I hate that."

The mage dropped his head and hunched his shoulders. "I'm sorry."

"I'm also banning apologies."

The mage pressed his lips together. He was silent.

"Okay. Can you stand up for me please, Bob?"

The mage obeyed.

"Good. Thank you. Now lift your arms up and hold them away from your sides. Good. Now stay like that. Just stand still."

The mage complied, and Lucas switched the device on. He passed it over the mage's wrists first, and then when there was no telltale beep he tried his back and then began slowly passing the device over the rest of the mage's body.

The mage started out standing extremely still, but as the seconds passed he started to shift his feet and then he dropped his hands and started picking at the rope still wrapped around his wrist.

Lucas tapped him on the arm with the device. "Arms up."

"Sor—" the mage started to say, and then abruptly fell silent as he brought his arms back up.