Raül hadn't had a very good winter. He hadn't been expecting one, not since the day his former master's former slaves decided that it was a good day to burn down the estate and flee into the countryside. It was a better day than usual, since most days your government isn't being overthrown by a group of terrifying archmages, but apparently these weren't Andoren archmages since the baron had sent out soldiers to find and kill everyone who participated in the rebellion. He still wasn't sure if he had survived the winter because he wasn't technically a slave and therefore they hadn't been looking for him, or if his strategy of looting the estate on the way out and hiding out in an abandoned house all winter actually worked.

But it was spring, and the food and money he had stolen on his way out would run out eventually. Could he go back to the estate, see who was in charge there, and repeat the same strategy that had worked out for him last time: (1) make himself useful, (2) find out a secret, (3) blackmail whoever has power over you, just enough to avoid the worst jobs and get the best scraps, but not enough for them to want to kill you?

Going back to the estate probably means being an indentured servant again, which wasn't great. Maybe he could go try this somewhere else, and hope he's never tracked down, but that would involve getting travel papers forged. Assuming the new government is still enforcing travel restrictions (not that he'd know, having spent the winter in a draft shack minimizing contact with outsiders, but why wouldn't they?) that's definitely more likely to end badly than going back and trying to resume his old place without anyone caring enough to punish him. Maybe he can spin some tale about having been kidnapped by one of the fleeing slaves.