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Aaron had no time to be appalled at Count Benjamin’s little joke before the proctor’s voice rang through the clearing once again, announcing the beginning of the exam. They were told to keep close to their partners—not difficult considering Varis would probably take his arm off completely before he let go—and soon enough, everything was gone. 

The spell was unsettling, to say the least; for an impossibly long instant, all light, sound, sensation, [i]everything[/i] was torn away. Aaron had no concept of where Varis was, where [i]he[/i] was, whether he was moving or still—he hardly had a concept of [i]being[/i] at all. All he knew was the chill, unlike any he could describe, until their jarring foray between time and space came to an equally jarring end in the middle of the forest. 

It took Aaron a second to regain his bearings, planting his feet into solid ground and swaying a little as he quickly re-learned which way was up. Of course, the pain in his arm dragged him back to reality pretty quick, too. Varis must have tightened his grip during the trip; he tried to move his fingers, but to no avail, his hand curling stiffly into a fist as Varis pressed on his tendons. He could feel his pulse thumping against Varis’ hand, and the tips of his fingers were starting to tingle, but what occupied his attention the most was that the pain had graduated from "bad, but tolerable" to [i]very[/i] distracting. 

Varis didn’t seem to realize what he was doing, going off on a continuation of his earlier tangent about the Princess’ flagrant disregard for his position as a noble rather than readjusting his grip. Aaron had to admit, he was almost flattered that the Count saw him as a sympathetic ear. Maybe he shouldn’t have felt too special, as Varis [i]was[/i] generally in the habit of airing his grievances to anyone in earshot, but Aaron would take what he could get. Besides, Varis was keeping pretty close as he fumed—surely that meant he trusted him a [i]little[/i], right?

He didn’t miss the rising pitch in Varis’ voice, and did his best to console him, though his voice did betray a bit more of his pain than before. [color=f0d705]“Well, Master, now you’ve asserted yourself as the only noble courageous enough to stand up to Her Highness. Maybe [i]she[/i] was unmoved, but I’m sure your determination did not go unnoticed by the rest of them.”[/color]

Hoping that would be enough to distract from Varis’ panicking for the time being, Aaron took a moment to try and gather his surroundings, looking around before he activated his spell. As always, he could see everything clearly; they were deep in the forest with no one else in sight or earshot, and the only sign of life was a sign embedded in the tree in front of them, currently blank. He imagined whatever instructions it bore would reveal themselves once he activated his spell, but there was something rather more pressing to take care of first. 

[color=f0d705]“Master, please, you’re hurting me,”[/color] he finally conceded (a little more pathetically than he would have liked) as the pain in his arm grew too great to ignore.
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