Sage's boots made no sound on the hard floors of the castle as he slipped through the hallways, moving quickly towards the room where his own master awaited him. Well...it was an odd sort of relationship, since Casper was the head of the guild and therefore his master of sorts, but they were also a couple, and had been for a while. It wasn't the healthiest relationship, but in some twisted manner, over the years Sage had come to love him. Deep down, he knew he should run as far away from Casper as possible but...well, he loved him. He could forgive him for the yelling and the hitting. After all, he did a lot of good for him, and it would be rude for him to leave. Casper may be ruthless, and treat him badly, but he wasn't entirely unfair. Most of the time it was Sage's own fault for messing up a job.

He paused before opening the door to Casper's room, nerves jumping around slightly as they always did when he neared Casper's vacinity. It was odd, how he could be scared for his own safety and love the other man at the same time. he pushed those thoughts away for now, though, slipping through the door, sliding his normal expressionless mask over his face to hide his nerves. "You called," he asked quietly, not wanting to disturb Casper. He knew better than to do that. He halted a few paces away from the desk the larger man was sat at, automatically staying out of arm's reach. He knew now was not one of the times where he could cuddle in and such.

Casper barely sent a glance his way, gesturing vaguely towards a file on his desk. "New mission," he noted bluntly, adding a sharp "don't mess it up, it's important," onto the words. Sage swallowed dryly, approaching the desk slowly, and with caution, before opening the file and skimming through it. "You want me to kidnap...the prince," he noted with surprise, sort of instinctually flinching away as Casper stood up from where he was sitting. "Yeah," he noted. "Or can you not handle that big of a job," he added in a definitely condescending tone, arms crossing in front of his chest.

Sage just backed away further, jaw hardening slightly as he moved towards the door, file in hand. "No," he noted, trying not to let neither his frayed nerves nor his newfound anger bubble up and into his tone. "I'll get it done." Casper just nodded with a grunt, moving on to grab a bottle of liquor from the side desk, settling down at his desk again as he poured himself a glass. "Get going then," he noted, sipping at the drink as though nothing about this bothered him.

Sage left the room quickly, letting out a heavy breath once he was out of ear shot. He settled down outside, under a tree in one of the forest clearings surrounding their stronghold. He always felt better out in the woods - likely because of his mother, who was a wood nymph. He'd much rather be out here than in there. Alas, that wasn't how the world worked. But he could get out here sometimes, and he always appreciated it when that was the case. He read through the file a bit mroe carefully...Casper wanted the prince scared but alive, and not hurt enough to die on him anytime soon. It pulled a groan from Sage, who knew it wasn't going to be very easy to just kidnap the heir to the throne. There'd be bodyguards, and he might be in the castle, and someone would notice. They'd be looking for him quickly, too, with an entire militia out for blood.

He knew there was no sense in sitting around worrying about it though, so he moved to gear up, a few other men joining him as he started to strap on weapons and a black bandana over his nose, covering most of his face. He pulled his hair back into a tight braid, double checking his weapons before moving out. He had to grab his horse, and slip on the stallion, as they were miles from the town outside the castle. It would take most of the day just to get there.

Luckily, they didn't run into any trouble along the way, and they arrived in the city soon enough. They spread out, listening and watching for any sign of the prince. They were lucky, he supposed, to find him in town and not in the castle...and alone, no less. It was lucky enough that he paused on the rooftops, following and watching at a distance, making sure this wasn't a trap for them or...something. It was just odd, that's all. Eventually though, he knew they had to act if they wanted to catch him without being seen - he'd leave the alleyway soon, and it would be harder to catch him then.

So, he motioned to the three other men nearby, waiting for them to drop down behind the prince. He moved to drop down in front of him, nearly brushing his chest with his own as he landed. The closeness was intentional....the prince jumped backwards, directly into the men who had come up behind him, each one grabbing an arm. Sage grinned, pulling out a small needle and injecting the liquid into the prince's arms. "Night night," he hummed lightly, knowing it would make the man pass out within seconds.

Once that happened, he whistled for the horses, who moved into the alleyway, eager to run again. The prince was draped over the largest horse, and they mounted and took off again, back toward home. When he woke, he'd be in a cell somewhere, and Casper...well, Sage wasn't sure why Casper wanted the prince. It wasn't his place to ask. But he'd wanted him for something, and he'd collect one way or the other. He sort of felt bad for the guy - he'd seen and felt Casper's wrath first hand, and he wouldn't wish it on anyone. But that didn't stop him from carrying out an assigned mission. He knew better than to do that.

Sage and the men that were with him had ridden through the night just to get back home as quickly as possible. Not that he really called it home....but it was where he lived, so it was a home of sorts, he supposed. He wasn't sure what else to call it. Casper's home? Honestly he was too tired to think about it.

They arrived back at the place near the start of dawn - maybe four or five in the morning. It had been a long past couple of days, but a glance back at the prince on the horse behind him made it feel like it was all worth it. he wasted no time in handing his horse off to the stable hand, witha few quick words to make sure the animal would be well cared for and settled into his stall and paddock properly. He normally would have done it himself, but he had a whole prince he needed to secure, so that was a little bit more important at the moment.

The other men had left him by then, so it was up to him to drag the much bigger man all the way to their dungeon. He let out a grunt of effort as he tried to pull him over his shoulders, grumbling a fairly annoyed "Damn you and your fancy palace meals," he as went. It took him a decent while to even get down to the cell that had the cuffs made special for those with magic, considering the prince was both taller and heavier than Sage himself was. Even so, he managed it, wasting no time locking the chains onto the man and locking the cell door behind him.

He made his way back to the part of the property they actually lived in, heading for Casper's office and knockign after a moment's heasitation. He slipped in when Casper called for him to do so, opening his mouth to speak. Before he could say anything, though Casper spoke up. "I take it you have the prince effectively secured in the proper cell," he asked, tone condescending. "yes, Casper," Sage noted, exhaustion evident in his voice and posture. "Good," Casper stated. "Go wash up. You look disgusting," he added. "I expect you to look presentable for dinner." He paused for a moment, finally glancing up at Sage. "Get going. You have an hour."

Sage just nodded numbly and backed out the door, too tired to respond. Besides, he knew there was no use arguing with Casper - that would just result in an even worse situation for him. So, he moved back to the room they shared, numbly moving to climb into the shower and standing there under the warm water, letting out a breath of relief. It could have gone much worse, so he was thankful for that, at least. He didn't want to sped too much time in the shower though, since he knew Casper would want him dressed up and looking nice for the dinner. It was supposed to be a celebration of sorts - which meant he wanted Sage as decoration by his side. And probably a means of pleasure after the fact. He desprately wished that wasn't the case...he wanted to pass out and sleep all day and night. But that wasn't the case. So he washed off quickly, and had just braely enough time to dry his hair and style it, get dressed in the oufit casper liked most of him to wear to this sort of thing, and do his eyeliner and piercings. Everything was perfect - it had to be. Casper would accept nothing less.

The dinner itself seemed to drag on forever....long hours of drinking and loud noises and crowds that were overwhelming enough for Sage to block most of it out of his mind. Luckily, Casper was too drunk to do much besides stumble over to his room and pass out of the bed. Sage was still too worked up about it to sleep, and too nervous Casper would wake up angry. so he decided to just go elsewhere. Checking on the prisoner seemed to be a good idea, so he moved towards the dungeons, ignoring the fact that it was raining a little bit. He was too tired to care if he got wet.

As he entered the dungeons, he heard the voice coming from the cell, and groaned softly to himself before stepping forward and approaching the other man. "I think that's pretty obvious," he noted, voice quiet as he spoke. Honestly, he just knew Casper wanted him, not why. Not what was going to happen now. Maybe a ransom. He wasn't sure. "You're quite the prize, you know. And wandering off by yourself like that too," he shook his head, clucking his tongue slightly as if chiding the other man. "But foolish if you ask me. Those fancy weapons of yours only work if you have the time and the room to use them," he added, a small smirk forming on his face. It was mostly an act at this point - he just wanted to sleep, but knew he couldn't. Not with Casper like that. he needed to wait and make sure he was deep asleep when he came back. So, he could spend a few minutes here. At least he was sure the prince wasn't going anywhere.

Sage felt his eyebrows shoot upwards in surprise when the prince started talking back. Well, he wasn't surprised that he was talking, but more that he still didn't seem to be connecting the dots. Sure, it would seem a bit confusing, and he wouldn't know the exact details, but the fact that he was kidnapped and being kept here for something was obvious enough. "You were kidnapped. You were taken here. You were locked up until further notice. That about sums it up," he noted dryly, moving to wander closer to the cell, one slow footstep at a time. "The rest of it is fine details really. Wouldn't change anything for either of us to know." He realized a bit too late that he'd given away the fact that he also didn't really know anything, but he was more or less too tired to care.

As the prince mentioned being good to his people though, he just gave him an unimpressed look, arms crossing over his own chest. "Just because you're good to people doesn't mean they're going to be nice to you," he noted with a slight frown appearing on his face. "The world likes to take people with philosophies like yours and chew them up and spit them out entirely worse for wear," he added. He didn't really give it away that he'd wanted to be kind to people and had similar thoughts about life at one point, but he had. And now? Well, it was pretty obvious how he viewed life now.

The prince continued talking though, and his next comments pulled a slight chuckle past Sage's lips. "Goonies," he noted. "I suppose that's a good word for it, though they're not mine," he noted with a shake of his head. "I prefer working alone. If it had been the two of us, you'd have been worse off than that injection I was given to use," he noted, a darker tone lacing through his voice. "I don't know why they want you alive here," he mused after a moment, "But if i'd had may way you'd have been dead before you knew you'd been hit and your body would be in this cell." It was a bit blunt, and probably not phrased in the nicest manner but...he really didn't care. He wasn't here to be nice.

He stared at Aziel for a moment when he offered simple conversation in response to his comments, not entirely sure how to proceed. "I should...head back to Casper," he noted after a moment, though his voice lacked the confidence it had earlier. The thought of going back to Casper made him nervous, he supposed, but staying here seemed odd too, and he did need to try and sleep some. So, he shifted to walk away, quicker than he really would have liked to...it didn't appear very confident, the way he practically fled the area.

It didn't take him long to get back to Casper's room, nor did it take him long to wash the makeup off, take out the piercings that needed to be taken out, and change into pajamas. Thankfully, Casper was out cold as he slipped into the bed beside him, and he let out a breath of relief after a moment. Waking him up would have been a disaster. Even so, he cuddled in, unable to keep himself from doing so. Despite how Casper sometimes treated him, times like this were good. He was warm, and they were comfortable. It didn't take Sage long to pass out at all, nad he stayed that way until he was woken by a sharp nudge from Casper the next morning, grumbling something about getting breakfast. Sage didn't catch all of it, since he was still half asleep, but he got the gist of it. So, he moved to slip out of bed, shivering as the cold morning air hit him, and getting ready as quickly as he could before slipping out of the room and heading for the kitchens to bring up Casper his food.