The bed was simple and rather narrow, yet it was comfortable as any of the furniture you would find in the building. The sheets were white, just as the bedcover, the only sign of colour proceeded from the sleeper himself, whose long and wavy crimson hair surrounded a face devoid of all colour.

Amber open opened suddenly, the body springing to sit as the man's breath grew frantic, hurried. The strong body was trembling as the sheets slid off the naked body to pool at thigh-level. One trembling hand rose to cover his mouth, as if to muffle the scream that was threatening to escape his mouth, the other went down to rest on his belly button, or rather in the precious stone the was nested upon it, emitting a dark blue light.

The man that called himself Kado felt sick by the pure shock, fear and anger than ran trough his veins like liquid fire, he would have vomited if he had eaten anything the day before.

The stray... 

Every member of a pack was linked to the others, the Naevus in their bellies made sure of that. It was a necessity, not only it was a help to control the wild magic, but it created a union, a motive to keep on existing. And it also kept madness, the worst enemy of their race, away. 

Every human that was reborn as part of their kind had to be given one by their makers. It was a non written rule that every cub had to have been given the benefit of a pack. Yet it was an universal truth that every rule had exceptions, that was were the strays fitted in, lost puppies whose wild spirit frequently leaded them to madness if not found and taught control on time.

Whoever found one of those lonely ones was committed to take the place of their absent master. It was another non-written rule that was also respected to the letter by all of them. From the first time he had set his eyes on the broken kid, from the first instant Kado had recognised another of his kind, he had been bound by that rule. Two centuries ago he would have presented himself to the boy without doubts, assuming said role willingly and happily. But now... he did not want to do so now. It would mean to break his loneliness, to go back to the pack. And as much as he loved his brothers and sisters it would hurt too much to see them again.

He would not reject the stray tough, could not, but he could not take care of him either. So he had chosen the only other possible route, Nasma. Of all the other she was the most patient, with the better understanding of other people's minds.

She would take care of the stray without a doubt, and of all the others she was the only one that would respect his decision of remaining apart, that would not force him to anything he was not ready to.

It was the best thing, for both of them.

But first he had to know what had happened to the boy. He had to know if there were hunters anywhere close. Not only to warn Nasma, but to make sure there was no danger for his pack. He would not be able to live with himself if something else happened to them. So he had used the wild magic to put himself on trance, to enter on the unprotected mind of the stray as he dreamed. How easy had it been, how terribly amazing was to feel that the other mind could not even know you were there.

He had expected pain and suffering. He had expected the faceless hunters. But he had not expected the other set of memories. He had not expected the abject terror, the torture. The word Master was imprinted with fire in the boy's mind, and the picture that went with those words held a face he had struggled for decades to forget. It was impossible. It had to be a trick, a joke. The past kept passing before his eyes, that night kept passing before his eyes... could they have been so blind? So centred in their rage?... Yeah, they could very well have been, he knew he had been.

He had to force himself to get a semblance of self control. He did not completely manage it tough, as he stood and dressed up the jewel in his belly was still shining faintly.

He crossed many Pages in his way to the cellars, some of them tried to get his attention, most of them didn't at the sight of his pale face and tight lips. He acknowledged no one as he walked towards the room he knew contained the Palace's archives, following a terrible instinct he hoped was mistaken. He closed himself in the huge dark room, knowing he would not be interrupted as he opened the first book on the shelves and began reading...

Somewhere there was a room fool of buckets, each one with the name of the person written on it. Every time you had a surprise the bucket would fill a little more. Nightshade would have loved to have a look at his bucket, he had been sure that it had been filled years ago. But obviously someone had been cheating, or the bucket was bigger than he had thought.

He would also have liked to see the name written on it, just to see which one it was.

And he also wanted to know why was he thinking of such stupid things. Oh yeah, because Lodan was taking the bandages off and subsequently having a good look at the body they so conveniently hided.

On the good side, if the fire stopped, for any reason, Nightshade was sure the blush of his cheeks would warm up an entire wing of the Palace.

When had he turned into a Scarecrow? His bones had grown. Yeah, that had to be it; they had never been so monstrously noticeable before. It would help if the Key would smile a little bit less. Honestly, if he had had no ears the smile would have reached the back of his head and the top of it would have fallen off. Plop! Just like that... imagine the mess.

The lips of the blond man had been moving for a long time, but Nightshade was much too busy with his own thoughts to pay attention. On the good side Lodan didn't seem to mind... hey! Where was he going?! Cursing his weakness he twisted around and managed to hold himself to one of the bed posts, lifting the upper part of his body so he could follow the sight of the retreating tattooed back.

Oh, it was the kid again. The slight smell of food reached his nose, he could feel his mouth water as the tray changed hands. Treacherous relieve made itself noticeable inside him and he frowned slightly, had he been afraid he had gotten angry or something?

Naaaa, couldn't be, he was only hungry. Yeah, that was i...

Suddenly Lodan's face was turned and looking back at him. With a soft curse he practically dived into the mattress, groaning at the thought of the smug smile he just knew was now decorating the blond's face.    

For a second Lodan felt disconcerted, then a smile spreaded slowly over his lips.

The eyes disappeared from view, a soft thud was heard. Grinning softly he looked back at the small form of Lil holding the tray precariously.

"I also brought some clothes with me, right here in this back pack..." With a fast movement, the blond Key managed to get the tray before the kid began a mysterious series of frantic movements, apparently destined to get the clothes out of the back pack with the same hands that held the food. Amazingly enough nothing fell and a packet with neatly folded clothes was produced.

"Great, leave them on the couch...and tell the healer there will be no need for him to come today."

"Oh, he is not going to come," said Lil, missing the surprised look on Lodan's face since he was walking toward the indicated couch.

"He isn't... why is that?"

"Well, I think it's mainly because Mr Nard told him not to."

"A clerk giving instructions to a healer?" Lodan was not sure of how the Palace worked, but as far as he knew healers were more or less independent... seemed like he might have been mistaken.

"Well not really, you see it happened after the healer left your room yesterday. He told Kado he could do nothing else for the boy, and that living or dying depended basically on him. Although he would not put any bets on the boy living. Mr Nard just said that, since his skills as a healer were obviously so useless, he might as well not come back and use the time to study some more. It all went pretty much down-hill from there." As he said that he had left the clothes and had walked back to stand in front of Lodan, smiling brightly.

"I see," managed finally the Key, confused by this turn of events. Suddenly the look that had crossed Kado's eyes before leaving returned to his mind. Maybe they knew each other from before? The idea made him frown visibly as a touch of jealousy filtered unexpectedly to his heart.

The young page had no idea why the expression of the Key had darkened so, but years in the Palace had taught him when it was time to make a rush exit. "Have to go now, lots to do." He had not even finished the phrase when he reached the door and escaped trough, managing to close it behind him before falling nose first into the floor.

"Ouch!"