He hadn't thought much about his vices while he'd been away. Though he'd managed to keep up his smoking habit by learning to roll cigarettes and earning their base components off of visitors to the court, drinking had been a much less frequent indulgence. The rare goblet of fairy wine was nothing compared to a stomachful of whiskey. He should have known better, since drinking this much this quickly would have been a dicey proposition before the tithe, but it had been a while, and he'd been too eager to lose himself tonight.

Despite his determination to avoid anything even vaguely shaped like responsibility, a difficult and rather important decision had found its way to him anyway. He could either remain where he was, lying still in his bed, mind gently spinning, or he could venture to the bathroom to relieve himself and potentially end up face down in a puddle of his own vomit. Unpleasant thoughts of pissing the bed eventually got him out of it, though it took him the better part of fifteen minutes after that to get to the toilet and do what he needed to. The door behind him had shut somehow by the time he was done, and rather than think it strange, Rabbit swung it back open, freezing when he saw where it led. He reached for the knob to steady himself, missed, and fell forward in slow motion, not into the predicted puddle of puke, but into his fetch's arms.

- - - - -

He awoke to a low crooning, a song in a language he didn't understand, and even though his eyes were scratchy and his head was still whirling, he knew exactly where he was and who he was with. Rabbit recoiled, shaking as he pushed himself upright and glared at the desiccated creature as sharply as he could.

"Stay there," he rasped, the words familiar on his tongue, something he'd said scant rooms away in an entirely different context. The fetch ignored him, just as Juniper had, creaking to her knees and scooting around behind, pulling at his shoulders until he was lying in her lap once more. They were sprawled across the cool marble floor of the sapphire study, halfway between one of the sumptuous couches and the piano. There was no sign of the tithes' great escape or the damage that Temperance had done to the window. Rabbit was somehow certain that the puddle of blood he'd left in the grass outside had been hoovered up too.

"Why doesn't anyone listen to me?" he asked, voice caught between a sigh and a whine.

"I am my Lord Bennett's servant in all things. And though I would gladly lay down my life for yours, it is also my duty to share truths that you might not wish to hear." Her long, brittle fingers sowed gentle furrows into his scalp, and though he tried to hang on to his fear and distrust, those feelings melted away into contentment. "You lack conviction. A spine."

"W... what?" His eyes blinked open again, slow and stupid.

"I know you once had one or Mynn would have had a harder time with your life, but something claimed it before Ezra stole you away. I daresay just before, or he wouldn't have taken you at all."

The fear tried to return at the mention of Mynn, but it didn't stick. The fetch was dead. Rabbit was a noble, not mortal, protected by...

"What's your name?"

"I am Oroh. Rest, Lord Bennett. There is hope for you, and we will have plenty of time to talk." She began to hum, the same song as before, and he let himself be carried away on the rise and fall of her eerie tune.