Enoch waited until the house fell quiet.
Thomas's footsteps faded above, then the murmur of voices stopped altogether. The hearth crackled low, settling into embers. When Enoch was sure no one was moving, he slipped into his small room and closed the door gently behind him.
The room was plain. A narrow bed, a small chest, a stool, and the faint smell of iron that never quite left him. He sat on the edge of the bed and rested his elbows on his knees. For a moment, he simply breathed.
Then he bowed his head.
"Adam," he said quietly. Just the name, nothing more at first.
He clasped his hands together, fingers rough from work.
"Keep my thoughts steady. Keep my will my own. Let me see clearly tomorrow."
There was no flourish, no praise, no long words. Just that. He lay back on the bed, boots still on, and closed his eyes. Sleep took him quickly, heavy and dreamless.
He woke to noise.
Not shouting, but movement. Footsteps, voices, the scrape of wood against stone. The house felt awake in a way it usually was not at this hour. Enoch sat up, rubbed his eyes, and swung his legs off the bed.
A knock sounded at the door.
He stood and opened it.
Rose stood there with her hand still raised, fingers half curled, clearly about to knock again. She froze when the door opened, her face coloring with embarrassment.
"Oh," she said quickly. "I didn't mean to startle you."
"It's fine," Enoch replied. "I was awake."
She glanced past him into the room, then back at his face. Her mouth tightened, then softened.
"I'm sure you heard… some of what happened last night," she said.
Enoch nodded once.
Rose exhaled slowly. "I shouldn't have raised my voice like that. Or slammed doors. It wasn't becoming of me."
"You didn't do anything wrong," Enoch said. His tone was gentle, steady. "You are just human, after all."
Rose blinked, then smiled. It was small at first, but real.
She stepped closer and hooked her arm through his, the way she often did when she was nervous or thinking too much.
"Come," she said. "Let's go down."
They walked together toward the stairs. The house buzzed around them, people moving about, drawers opening and closing, the muted clatter of packing. As they descended, Rose spoke again, her voice quieter now.
"I've decided to leave with Thomas," she said.
Enoch felt her grip tighten slightly.
"He's been ordered south," she continued. "Closer to the Count's lands. He says it will be safer there. More stable."
She looked at Enoch then, really looked at him, and sighed softly.
"I don't want to leave you behind," she said. "Not without asking."
They reached the bottom step and paused.
"Would you… would you come south with us?" she asked. "You don't have to. I know this is sudden. You have work here, people who know you."
Enoch frowned slightly. He thought of the forge. Of the blade on the rack. Of the doctrine tightening its grip around Greywood. Of Thomas's words, and the direction the village was moving.
Rose began to speak again, hurried now. "You don't have to decide now. Truly. I shouldn't have put you on the spot."
"I'll go," Enoch said.
She stopped mid sentence and stared at him.
"You will?"
"Yes," he replied. "I'll go with you. But I have to take care of something first"
Rose's face lit up. She beamed, nodding quickly as if afraid he might take the words back.
"Oh, thank you," she said. "Thank you."
She released his arm and moved ahead, already weaving through the kitchen where people were packing items into crates and sacks. Wooden spoons, bowls, plates, anything that could be carried. She slipped between them with practiced ease.
Enoch laughed quietly at the sight, then walked briskly to the direction of the workshop. After saying his greetings he took the blade of the rapier and held it for a bit. He looked around the workshop at the busy activity of the other apprentices and couldn't believe how attached he was to this place now. He then took, heated and started folding more blobs of metal to make the guard. He first fitted a line accross the base of the blade. Then fixing it in place then put the hollow sphere that would serve as the arm guard. He fixed in handle using stretched metal he shaped into crude wires then he twisted it around the guard and fixed a pommel. He placed the rapier on a stand and looked at it for a while. He then walked through the other apprentices who had their eyes fixed on the rapier in shock. Enoch walked into master Lanfrey's back room.
"Master, I have come to say goodbye" said Enoch in a low voice
With a sigh master Lanfrey walked towards Enoch with a sullen face.
"I always knew this day would come. Yer are too brilliant for such a place." He said
"What? Did yer get a job from a noble?" He asked
"No. Rose's son returned yesterday and he wants her to leave for a place in the south. So I am leaving with her" said Enoch
Master Lanfrey clicked his tongue, "yer and her remind me of me and my mother, may her soul rest in peace" he said
"Lad, I won't try to stop yer. Just remember that there is always a place for yer here" added master Lanfrey. Then tapping enoch's shoulder he walked out of the backroom sadness written all over his face.
Enoch walked to the others and again shared the sad news to them. Predictably they were sad as well and wished him all the best. Enoch then told them of the noble who would return for the rapier, he told them to share the proceeds among themselves and master Lanfrey. Then he walked away not looking back.
He got to the house now the noise dying down, the carriages already standing in order. He packed quickly, clothes folded into a rough cloth, tied at the corners. Nothing fancy. Nothing he could not replace. He paused only once, glancing around the room as if measuring what he was leaving behind.
Then he went back down.
Outside, the three carriages waited in the yard. One was already loaded high with household goods, tied down carefully to keep them from shifting. The others stood ready, horses stamping impatiently.
Enoch stepped forward, cloth bundle in hand, and joined them in the front carriage. Thomas looked at him again, Enoch was sure that if he could read minds thomas would be screaming at him words along the lines of [ why the bloody hell are you following me and my mother. She is my mother not yours. Why!]
He didn't care, he had no aim for his life at the moment so he might as well just move with the flow. The carriage started moving as they headed to their new destiny.