Jay couldn't believe he'd gotten himself into such a mess. It was just supposed to be a half-day contract. He thought he might even be back in time to see Ken and walk him to the church like normal. The lord couldn't make him stay longer than he was contracted for, could he?
Well, technically speaking Jay knew the noble could just go back to Dog Services and get a new contract drawn up. Or an extension on the current one. That was permitted. And Lord Fyre was basically the most important man in the city so he could afford it. He was pretty far down the line of royal succession (far enough down that Jay didn't remember the exact number) but he did have royal blood. That put him closer than anyone else in the city. Not only that, but his sister was the highest judge in the region.
Between the two of them they could make anything happen.
He should have just let the stupid noble drink the damned tea. It probably wasn't even poisoned! But it was too late now. What was done was done.
Ken was going to be worried sick if Jay didn't make it back before dinner.
The door opened and closed quickly, the guard not taking any chances on Jay slipping out through the small crack. Jay felt an ear twitch at sounds in the hall, muffled by the rugs on the floor, and a scent drifted to him from the tray Barkley carried.
Jay wasn't ready for a test, but that didn't smell like an experiment. It smelled like food. And after lunch he could go home - to Ken.
Jay wasn't silly enough to think either man had forgotten. Jay also didn't want to spend the rest of his life on the run. He needed to be sensible. Eating lunch sounded sensible enough, particularly if he didn't have to pay for it.
Barkley handed over to the noble a bag filled with paper as Jay watched from under the chair. Based on the smell and the worn-out patches and the cobbled-together spell against rain, Jay figured it was from Dog Services. Barkley worked very quickly. It normally took two or three days to get any sort of information on contracts beyond the past few days - one of Jay's former employers had complained loudly about that - and the guard had gotten enough to fill a bag in less than an hour?
Maybe he'd sent someone earlier. That was the only explanation. Dog Services never moved that fast for anyone.
The only consolation was that Jay knew his records were clean. Well, mostly clean anyway. A few people may still be under the assumption that their father was alive and the room they rented was still technically under his father’s name, but that wasn't anything to fuss about. Right?
His attempts to enroll in mage school might be in there too. That wasn't anything bad, just embarrassing. How many times did he need to be told he had no magic before he believed it? Four? Five? Jay had made it a point to forget. It was the past. His magic wasn’t like anyone else’s here and learning how they did it apparently wasn’t an option for him.
He had Ken to care for. He didn’t have time for school anyway.
Lord Fyre snapped his fingers and pointed to a chair. Jay followed the order without protest. Lunch was food, and his grumbling belly wouldn't say no to a few scraps. He wished he could sneak some back home to his little brother, but this body wasn't exactly made with pockets.
Jay used his hind paw to scratch at an ear while the noble gave his guard an arrogant smile. Jay didn't know what the man was so smug about; it wasn't like he'd actually done anything.
"It proves nothing," Barkley said. Jay decided they were continuing an earlier argument and laid down to inspect the pads of his feet. He was being paid to ignore what they said, not listen in. That was probably still true.
"It proves something," the noble countered as he leaned back in his chair. "It's not the first time. Wordless, and even silent, orders."
"He's not a dog, my lord," Barkley pointed out. His beard had poofed a bit with the wet air, and he smoothed it down with his hand as he cleared the table. The food, Jay realized, was all the way over on the service table. He looked towards it and wanted to whine. The sooner they ate the sooner he could leave, and he thought some of it was supposed to be his! Jay's stomach gave a soft growl as the smell drifted towards him again, but it was drowned out by the guard's gruff: "He's human in his head, and even a simpleton could see what you meant."
The noble sighed as he stood up to join them at the table. "Fair enough. And you're right. He's not an animal. Which means he can be trained faster and obey more complex commands. Why don't we do this with the dogs more often?"
"Because it’s expensive, and most of the dogs that come out of that hole are addicts," Barkley snorted. Jay laid his head on his paws and wondered if it was really a crime to be addicted to life. "It's usually gambling or drugs. Sometimes sex. Rarely anything worse, but that doesn't mean he's clean. We still have to get those records from the courts. And if he doesn't have one that just means he's never been caught. Doesn't make him clean. You know what magic depletion does to a man."
Jay wondered if he'd ever get a say in any of this. They were talking about him, after all, and he could tell them he didn't have a record because he was too busy trying to keep Ken fed and in school. And he couldn’t have magic depletion because he didn’t have magic. Then again, if he said that they might wonder why his father wasn't paying the bills. And that would just get awkward.
Something sounded off, and Jay peeked open an eye to find the noble staring at him, the rubies in Lord Fyre's ears glinting from the firelight, the gold so fine it almost blended into the red hair. Jay closed his eyes again and tried to be as uninteresting as possible.
"He doesn't act like a drug addict," Lord Fyre drawled as some of the papers shuffled around on the table. Barkley had pushed them to the side for the food and the lord was pulling them back out again. Jay yawned at the stupidity of it. "Short jobs are more likely to show that problem, but he'd be showing signs of withdraw by now. Either that particular vice is new or he doesn't have it. Besides, these jobs alone wouldn’t pay for something like that."
Jay couldn't help the low growl in his throat. He didn't do drugs! The two humans ignored him, though. "Agreed, but he’s spending his money somewhere," Barkley huffed. He was moving around again, further from the table this time. Jay's nose twitched, and he sat up when he saw Barkley was serving himself and the lord some strange drink. "I'll ask the men stationed around town for any gambling grumbles. Answers might take time, particularly if it's not his own problem he's feeding. I saw the record on his father."
Lord Fyre made an interested noise, sliding paper around with the mug in one hand until he found what Barkley referenced. "Oh. Well, that's unfortunate."
'Unfortunate' was a nice way of saying his father was a foreigner and didn't belong.
"I don't think I'd trust what he said, if he could talk," Barkley grumbled. He was back at the serving table dishing out food into individual bowls.
"Now, now," Lord Fyre scolded, "you don't need to be like that. You barely know the pup."
Barkley scoffed out a laugh as he set a bowl down in front of the noble. "I don’t need to. Silver-tongued cheats, the lot of them. It's a wonder the father ever shows his face." A smaller bowl was set down at Jay's seat, then Lord Barkley sat down with his own dish.
Jay scooted closer, tuning the conversation out for a moment as his nose inched closer to the food. When he didn't get any reprimands or shouts to stop, he stood on his hind paws with his front paws resting on the table top and paused again. The conversation was still going, but it wasn't important. Jay didn't hear the key words - stop, bad dog, no - and there weren't any hisses or smacks aimed at him. Another sniff had him curious. The meal was a stew, something that had probably been cooking since breakfast, and he didn't recognize half of the large chunks floating in the sauce. Lord Fyre had something similar, though his was served over a helping of rice, and Barkley was nibbling on the edge of something skewered.
"I reviewed the work he's done recently," Lord Fyre was saying as Jay finally decided to reach his tongue forward and lap up a taste of the sauce. "He's basically just a toy. He sits around and looks cute. Nothing accounts for his actions earlier or indicates he's had any training." Training sounded hard, and complicated. No one mentioned Jay tasting the stew, and the noble was watching him. Encouraged that the meal actually was meant for him, Jay dug into the delicious bowl. He couldn't help the way his tail wagged without official permission from his brain. That was just what dogs did.
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