Azrael—no, Master White was the first to wake up in the middle of the night.
First thing registered by him was the pain and absence from his missing leg. He was tense, but then relaxed knowing that it has almost grown back. Only the foot was left.
Then the next thing Master White registers is kind of odd, because he turns his head and sees a girl his age or younger. Holding a knife in his direction but fast asleep.
His instincts make him a conjure a {perfect cleaver} and as he was about to attack, he abruptly stops.
Memories of the time he was unconscious floods his mind. He understands what all Azrael did.
He takes a look at the special sac in the system space, then he looks at Ava.
"Lucky and intelligent, girl." Master White mutters looking at her and the knife, then goes back to sleep. He still needs to rest. In the fight leading upto the moment he fainted he had been mentally exhausted.
Even though he had recovered much, but he still wants to sleep. So he passes out.
The morning light seeps into the cracks of the cabin and lands on Ava's face. She stirred awake. And the knife in her hand falls to the ground.
She is groggy but as the knife touches the ground and the metal resounds, she recollected all the events that happened yesterday and immediately picks up the knife pointing warily at the sleeping Azrael.
Seeing that he still hasn't woken up yet. She puts down the knife and relaxes her body.
She gets up and tidies herself. After dusting the sand and mud of her clothes, she picks up the waterskin with the {stream of life} and feeds it to Azrael.
"That is the last dose."
"Looking at his leg, I guess he will wake up today." Ava said looking at the almost recovered leg. Her voice for the first time sounded sweet. It was the first few words of the morning and she probably forgot to put on the cold mask.
After a while, finished with Azrael's task, she exits the cabin and heads out for the town.
When she reached the town it was still silent, but she could see hints of order restoring the workings of the common people.
The soldiers could be seen patroling the streets and the small vendors are open for buisness. When she roams around and asks about it. She got to know that an high ranking minister was dispatched from the royal capital, and he has temporarily taken command of SableWood.
After knowing that, Ava tries to be as inconspicuous as possible. She doesn't interact with people and avoids the road the soldiers take.
Like yesterday, she bought the daily necessities and planned to return to the cabin.
But instead of taking the direct route, she goes in circles and moves with no clear destination. If someone was following her, they would be confused with where she was headed to.
Though no one was following her, it never harms to be cautious. After confirming that no one is after her, she takes a roundabout way and reaches the cabin.
When she opens the door, the first thing she sees in the completely healed leg. It was looking brand new, not even a single scratch is visible on it.
Then her gaze moves upward, expecting to see Azrael still lying unconscious. But what greets her is, Azrael sitting, up straight on the bed, staring at her with an, what could possibly be considered as an amiable smile.
"You look pretty tired." Azrael said looking at Ava who just walked in.
"I hope that I wasn't difficult to care of." Azrael continued, Ava stumbles back and her leather bag falls to the ground. After a few moments, she moves to grab the knife from the fallen items.
"Don't bother with the knife. Its useless now that I'm conscious." Azrael waves his hand in a dismissive manner, and Ava stops midway in her actions.
She stands straight, calms herself down and just continues to stand silently at the edge of the cabin.
They both continue to stare at each other, Ava with a stoic face, but weirdly Azrael's face was coloured in emotions.
His lips would curl and tilt upward marking a smirk, eyes would narrow and then suddenly he would pout like a teenage girl.
Ava seeing all this was confused, scared and was trapped with fear, but still she put up a brave front and maintained her stoic demeanor with difficulty.
And Azrael was not going crazy, but was genuinely expressive due to his company, Master White.
"You really handed our lives to a stranger, don't you consider anything before deciding things?" Master White asked in the mind space with irritation.
"If you were conscious, then I wouldn't have to do it. Who told you to faint, huh?" Azrael retorted with a smirk.
"It was out of my control." Master White replied without giving up.
"Oh, so the all mighty Master White lost and now he doesn't want to admit it." Azrael commented comically
"I lost, and we will talk about it." Master White on the other hand was very serious with the reply. Azrael narrowed his eyes and simply nodded.
"So, what should we do with her?" Azrael asked looking at Ava, his face once again changed to that "amiable" smile.
"We could silence her, that's the best course of action." Azrael said without an ounce of change on his face, Ava suddenly flinched and a terrible sensation dawned upon her.
"No." Master White replied with one word.
"You're being good, that's new." Azrael said with a knowing smile.
"Stop messing around, I know you also don't want it Azrael." Master White replied tired of Azrael's antics.
And when all of this conversation happened between them, Ava just stood there without emoting or saying anything.
After remaining silent all this while, Azrael spoke to Ava, "Now don't just stand at the door, I'm the guest here, this is supposed to be your house.. is this your home?"
Ava shivered then moved inside and sat at the corner, where she had slept the day before. Adjusting her sitting position, "This is not mine." She gestured around the cabin, "I'm homeless, this is just one secluded spot I found a few years back.. and as you wanted somewhere isolated I thought of here." Ava replied looking at him with wary eyes.
Azrael nodded in understanding.
"Ask her about the situation outside." Master White instructed in the mind space.
"What is the situation in the town?" Azrael questioned Ava, his voice was low and it demanded the right answer.
Ava understood that she was treading on very light ropes here, one mistake from her and Azrael would consider her useless, "The Marquis and the Viscount are missing, many people have died in the mansion. The whole town was in chaos yesterday. But today a minister was appointed by the royal family to be in charge of the town, and he is slowly restoring order in the town."
Hearing all that Azrael goes silent, Master White was also processing all the information and their situation.
"We got lucky." Master White said.
"Yes." Azrael nods in agreement, while also looking at Ava. Who had gone silent again after saying her bit.
"Who else knows about this place?" Azarel questions Ava.
"No one except me. I stumbled onto this place by luck a few months ago, when i was escaping those.. Um.. thugs you killed."
"Mm.." Azrael appears to be in contemplation, completely dismissive in addressing the murder of those three burly thugs.
Ava was also quick to notice that and decides not to push further.
"I think we should lay low. And not move from this place, as security will be tight on the borders of the town." Azrael suggests to Master White in the mind space.
"Okay, but we have to be careful even here." Master White implies Ava's existence as a potential blunder to their hiding.
"Don't worry, she has done well till now. We can instruct her going forward." Azrael said.
The cabin adapts to the quiet environment and no sound is made for quite some time.
Azrael was busy chatting with Master White about their future plan of actions and Ava was trapped in seeing the everchanging emotions and expressions playing over Azrael's face.
Ava not able to watch the solo play taking place by her side, finally mustered the courage to take the intiative to question,
"Did you do it?"