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Aaron withheld his sigh of relief when Varis let him go, and equally contained a painful hiss as the feeling returned to his fingers and he rolled up his sleeve to assess the damage. His forearm was a splotchy mess of redness, and just like William, he could already see marks left by Varis’ fingers. He grimaced. That would probably be a nasty bruise in a night or two. 

A flash of indignation, however, distracted him from the throbbing in his arm as Varis admonished him. Contrary to the Count’s remarks, Aaron [i]did[/i] have a high pain tolerance; he was accustomed to taking hits and continuing his assault without skipping a beat, letting pain clear his mind of the haze of adrenaline and keep him alert and in the present. But that didn’t mean he was interested in trudging through a cold forest for six hours with a marble vice clamped around his arm! And Varis attributed the inherent fragility of a human body to a lack of discipline on Lucan’s part. Ridiculous; Aaron recalled a particularly [i]gruelling[/i] phase of his training where each session began with a broken nose, just to teach him how to take a hit without losing his focus. Hell, every other session ended with cracked ribs or broken fingers, and even the ones that didn’t were never painless. He had a burgeoning dependency on life magic because of it, for stars’ sake! All of which Varis knew perfectly well. He’d seen his medical records. 

But, Varis’ insults needed not be true for his purposes, and Aaron got the message loud and clear. He had thought that the Count would have appreciated being told if he was damaging his assets, but apparently not. Lesson learned. He did feel a twinge of guilt over it—in retrospect his phrasing may have come off as accusatory, especially with Varis in the mood he was in—but it was best just to learn and move on. 

[color=f0d705]“Of course Master, pardon my griping. I meant no offence,”[/color] he replied dutifully, stepping in front of Varis and kneeling facing away, as ordered. The prospect of Varis literally riding him for the duration of the exam was… iffy, to say the least. Sure, being reduced to a beast of burden was demeaning, but Aaron had been learning to value his dignity less and less during his time with Varis. No, his principal concern was why Varis didn’t think it was demeaning to [i]himself[/i] to possibly be seen being carried by his mage like some kind of stubborn child. 

But that was his prerogative, and Aaron wouldn’t argue. He tried to look on the bright side; at least this way he could probably travel faster than if he was concerned with guiding Varis’ every step alongside his own. He turned to reach behind him, taking Varis’ arm as gently as he could manage and placed his hand on his shoulder. [color=f0d705]“Here I am, Master.”[/color]
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