Out in the garden their new temporary helper was making more and more mistakes as the days passed. Isaac knew that the kid didn't like gardening, but even for something he didn't like he should be getting better, not worse as time went on.
"You... You know that's the wrong tool, right?"
Jared practically dropped the gardening implement that he had picked up, and looked over at Isaac with wide eyes for a moment. Renard paused in his clipping to glance at the younger boy, and he rose an eyebrow to see that he was making a mistake that he'd already made five times today.
"Not really cut out for gardening, are you?"
The comment was made with a joking tone considering Renard's soft laugh, but it made the boy flinch nonetheless. Jared promptly apologized and put the tool back into the bucket; he clearly knew what his mistake was though, because he promptly grabbed the right tool and turned back to the plants. Renard was satisfied with this and turned back to his own work, but Isaac was quiet as he scrutinized Jared for a couple moments.
Something was wrong.
Isaac had spent a decent amount of his time with Jared when they were in the Deveris household, and Isaac's assessment of the boy was that he was rather shy (reminded him of Kyrie, honestly), but good-natured. As long as his shyness wasn't getting in his way then he was usually very efficient with his work. Perhaps Renard's presence was throwing him off this afternoon, but Isaac felt like there was more to it than just that: even when they'd first started working together in the Dandridge household he hadn't make this many mistakes.
Isaac went back to his work, but he slowly began making his way over towards Jared. He kept an eye on Renard too, though not because he particularly wanted to talk to him: when Renard got far enough away that Jared might be able to relax a little more, Isaac intended to move in and try to talk to the boy. This didn't take long, honestly; Renard tended to get pretty into caring for the plants, and unless he was specifically addressed during his work time he didn't say a whole lot. It was perhaps the only time in a given day that this was true. Renard could be serious when he needed to be, and the fact of the matter was that he did a good job whenever that switch flipped. A part of Isaac respected him for being able to move so easily between his faces, but at the same time, he felt like it wasn't exactly ideal to only show very few people more than one part of himself.
Once Renard finally disappeared around one of the hedges, Isaac turned to Jared rather suddenly.
"Are you doing alright?"
His voice was low so that Jared would know that he was only speaking to him, and once again the boy flinched to be addressed directly; the way he gripped the cutters he was working with told Isaac that he was even more nervous than before.
"Of course! W-why? Do I not look alright?"
Isaac scratched the back of his head at this response. Something was definitely bothering the kid, but he wasn't sure that Jared was really going to share. Isaac could hardly blame him, they might've spent a month together but they still barely knew each other.
"No, not really. You seem even more twitchy than usual. I just thought I'd see if there was something I could do to help."
The older man shrugged a bit at that and went back to his work, and Jared bit his lip a little, his brow furrowing as he struggled with this inquiry from Isaac. He glanced over at Isaac who was just calmly working before looking around to make sure that Renard was still around a corner. Satisfied that he was, Jared then spoke with a voice that was low and kind of mumbled.
"What would you do if your master gave you an order and you failed to do it correctly?"
Isaac paused at this, his hands slowly moving away from the hedge that he was working on. Whatever lightness and levity his expression might've had quickly disappeared, and even though he tried to keep it off his face, he felt like this kid was in a potentially quite dangerous situation.
"What do you mean?"
Here Jared set his mouth shut, and Isaac assumed it was because he wanted to try and mitigate this failure of his by not sharing it around. Isaac let out a sigh and ran his hand through his hair at how tight-lipped Jared was being, but he could certainly understand it. Even without the exact details though, there were some questions that Isaac could ask in an effort to help.
"Does this master know yet?"
"N-no, I don't think so."
"Can you correct it?"
"No..."
"Can you keep it hidden from your master that you didn't do it right?"
Here Jared hesitated, and he seemed to send a little glance up at the manor before looking back down at his feet.
"I don't know... I-I think I might... Maybe..."
It was clear that Jared was terrified of being found out: the younger boy was shaking a little and staring down at the ground, his whole body having shrunk from this line of conversation. Isaac wasn't really sure what punishments were like for slaves in the Dominion, but if Jared had failed to do something that a master told him in the Terra Kingdom then there would be hell to pay. A slave could be sold if the master was merciful, tortured if he was not, and perhaps even killed if he was one of the worse ones.
"Hey."
Isaac put a comforting hand on Jared's shoulder then, though the younger man's trembling didn't stop. In fact his eyes were tearing up now.
"Why did he have to choose me? I didn't want this, and now I've gone and failed! I-I don't know what's going to happen to me. What if he sells me to someone awful?"
Despite Jared's best efforts, the tears began running down his face. Aggressively trying to wipe them away, he couldn't really seem to get them to stop, leaving him to let out a choking noise of frustration. It was nice that his chief worry was being sold to someone awful though, at least that established more of a norm for punishments in the Dominion. Less death and physical pain and more just a more miserable experience. It was still awful, to be sure, but not the worst.
A little at a loss with what to do for a crying young man, Isaac looked around him for a moment as if looking for some help. Renard was still out of range though, so Isaac just did what he knew worked best for Kyrie when she was crying: he pulled the kid in for a hug. Jared's eyes widened in shock for a moment to feel this, but after that initial surprise he just accepted where he was. He didn't hug Isaac back, but he didn't try to pull away either, and Isaac could feel the trembling beginning to slow.
After a couple soft pats to Jared's back, the younger man's breathing began to calm down, and only then did Isaac venture to speak.
"Look... I've got no real idea what you've stumbled into, but if you're truly worried about your safety, I can see if we can get you an audience with Lady Dandridge. She may have a reputation for being scary or hard to approach, but she's a very fair woman who has a lot of power. Even though she is friends with one of your masters, I have confidence that she'd be able to keep an objective mind. You have to be completely candid with her though, if you lie or leave things out then it will just make your situation worse."
"B-but... She's one of the people who was not supposed to find out what I was doing..."
"All the more reason then. If you've failed then she already knows at least something of what you're doing; we slaves do what we can to survive, and if we can't find favor with one person then perhaps we can find favor with another."
Jared grew quiet at this, and even though he had stopped crying, he looked almost defeated by this whole line of dialogue.
"I'd hoped so much that I would never be a part of their intrigues. I thought that surely working out in the stables, away from the main body of people, would keep me safe."
These words were practically mumbled by Jared, and Isaac let out a soft sigh of commiseration. Pulling away from Jared, he still held him by the shoulders though while he looked him square in the eye.
"Unfortunately such things can find even us. I can't say I have a huge amount of advice for you, but I'll be here if you need someone to talk to. You could even talk to Renard as well about this, it's possible that he'd have a bit more insight than me."
"I might have more insight into what?"
Here the blonde male emerged from around a corner near the two of them, though both his eyebrows shot up when he saw the scene in front of him. Immediately Jared scrambled away from Isaac, and Isaac's hands just fell to his sides to give an easy smile to his friend.
"Oh you know, anything and everything."
It was Jared's choice to share with Renard if he wanted, Isaac wasn't going to try and force that on him.
"Hmm... I can't say I have much to say about what I just witnessed."
Not missing a beat, Isaac took a swing at Renard's arm which landed with a light thud.
"And here I thought you had sampled a little of all the world has to offer!"
Renard simply laughed before turning back to his work, effectively having concluded this interaction in his mind. Jared had not said a single word during this exchange, and had turned back to the flowers with the right implement of destruction this time. Well, it looked like Renard's entrance had clammed Jared up again. Nothing to be done about it, really.
Turning back to the flowers himself, Isaac was surprised when he heard the soft voice of Jared murmuring from right next to him.
"I... I would appreciate it if you could grant me an audience with Lady Dandridge."
A little surprised to hear that Jared would be facing whatever this was head on, Isaac had to admit that this was probably the best course for him as much as the younger man probably didn't want to. If Kyrie was anything to go by, Jared would be completely dreading this meeting; still, it would help in the long run for sure.
"Consider it done."
The two men shared a smile between them before Isaac dropped his tool, brushed off his clothes, and headed towards the manor.