Coatl-ome looked past where the lizard sat at the table to where Master Sai was standing was standing behind it. Her eyes were narrow. "You seem very lucid today," she said slowly.

  "I can't understand why anybody would care about me," Master Sai said. The shackles felt very loose for some reason.

  But the lizard did not try to break them. He tried instead to tell Master Sai that he cared. That he understood the orc's desire to be free. But then the shackles tightened down harder than the lizard had ever felt them, biting painfully into every crevice of his being.

  This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

  "And I'll not have another reliable subject killed out of some misguided sense of loyalty," said Master Sai. "Heel."

  The lizard took its usual place just behind Master Sai's left shoulder. He tried to scream, tried to fight against the shackles, but every thought he had, every time he even considered trying to act, sent burning lances searing through his skull. He would have wept, but thinking of that hurt too.

  "It's the right choice," said Coatl-ome. "The quezpalli are unruly and require a tight leash." Master Sai sighed in response. "It's okay, Wulfgar. You can say I'm right."

  "We're done here," said Master Sai. He stormed out of the egg chamber. The lizard followed close behind, struggling to shrink himself to fit inside his tiny mental cage.