Yuui?

Fai tried to open his eyes, but something was holding them shut.

Yuui!

He struggled to move, to find his brother. Somebody was saying something, but he couldn't understand the words.

'I'm going to be sick.'

He could feel Yuui's hand in his, but something wasn't right.

'Don't touch him. Oh gods, seal it!'

Something was chewing on the inside of his skull. He screamed and tried to claw at his head.

'Is he going to be alright?'

He was pinned beneath Yuui's body. There was smoke everywhere and somebody was screaming.

'Shh, don't move. You'll be alright.'

No, he would never be alright, Yuui-

'Are you alright?'

No, he was-

'Are you alright?'

His very bones were cracking, they were splintering apart-

'Are you alright?'

Fai snapped awake. The driver of the coach was looking down at him through the roof hatch. "Are you alright, m'lord?" he was asking. He looked concerned.

Fai drew in a shuddering breath and dragged his hands over his face. He pasted on a smile for the coachman and said, "You're too kind! Just a little motion sickness, I'm afraid. I'm sure I'll feel better once I'm off the road."

The coachman wisely said nothing more, and closed the hatch. Fai let his head fall back against the seat. One hand crept back up to fidget with the eye patch, and Fai watched the countryside pass outside the windows with his remaining eye, and tried not to fall asleep again.

Clow Province was a tiny, mostly insignificant region on the most distant outskirts of the kingdom. It was isolated from politics, and had very little military use. Nobody was terribly interested in the scrap of self-sufficient, agreeably tax-paying, arid land, no matter how hardy and peaceable the folk it produced.

But it did have a sturdy, if drafty, old castle, and was technically entitled to court appointees, like an official Wizard, sent to the countryside 'for his health'. Even if it hadn't had a wizard for two or three centuries.

Fai knew perfectly well that he was being sent there to get him out of the way. He was an embarrassment to the College, which made him an Official Embarrassment to the Crown, and best kept out of sight.

He wasn't expecting much.

The castle town was actually a fair size, bustling with local trade. People stopped to watch the coach with interest, but little surprise. Fai supposed that news travelled fast here. When they pulled up at last at the castle, he could see it was in quite good repair. There was a well-dressed young woman waiting outside the keep, with a young man a step behind her, holding a ledger.

The lady's face lit up in a wide, sunny smile as Fai stepped out of the coach, and she hurried up to him, holding her skirts out of the way. She curtsied deeply. "Welcome to Clow, High Wizard Flowright."

He took her hand and tried to mask his grimace behind a courtly bow and a kiss to her hand. "Please, Baroness, do call me just 'Fai.'" Nobody in the capitol had dared to actually suggest he be stripped of the title of High Wizard, but everyone had pointedly avoided using it, himself included.

The baroness blushed prettily, and said "C-call me Sakura, then! Everybody does!" She turned, still flustered, to the young man beside her, and continued, "This is Syaoran, my seneschal. He'll show you to the rooms we've prepared for you. Please make yourself at home! We can bring your things..." she faltered a bit, confused, when the coachman handed down a single case, probably having expected him to have a great deal more luggage. Fai smiled blandly, and she recovered after just the smallest hitch. "You're welcome to join us for supper tonight in the great hall, but if you'd rather rest after your trip, just visit the kitchens any time you like and the cook will be happy to get you something."

Fai smiled a little wider and bowed to her again. "You're too kind, your ladyship." He took his case, nodded thanks to the coachman, and followed the lad Syaoran into the castle.

As they walked, the young seneschal talked knowledgeably about bits of Clow history, pointing out relevant architecture or wall hangings. Fai made appropriately interested-sounding noises, but paid little attention. He had managed to avoid sleeping long enough to dream again during the coach ride, taking only brief rests, and he was exhausted. He was looking forward to four stone walls and a solid wooden door behind which he could finally sleep, and keep his nightmares private.

They reached the rooms, with a door as solid as Fai could have hoped, and the seneschal unlocked it with a key, which he handed to Fai. He lit an oil lamp and led the way in, chatting away about the history of the suite's previous occupants.

"Syaoran, wasn't it?" Fai asked in a break, and he nodded. "If you don't mind, I am rather tired from the road. I would love to hear all this again another time, though."

Syaoran looked abashed, and excused himself with apologies, leaving the lamp behind. Fai smiled at him, and very carefully did not slam the door after the lad.

Fai sighed to himself. He really hadn't been trying to upset the entire chief household before he'd even been living here for an hour. With effort, he managed to place a simple ward over the door, wincing as a headache sprang up immediately behind the eyepatch. He left his case where it was and went directly to the bedchamber, pausing only to work his boots off before falling onto the bed and letting exhaustion claim him at last.

Fai awoke much later, feeling muzzy still. The lamp Syaoran had left had burned low, and outside the windows he could see the glimmerings of pre-dawn on the horizon. He'd slept half a day and nearly an entire night.

Though he still felt tired, it didn't make sense to go back to bed at this hour, so Fai set about unpacking.

He opened his case. Fai hadn't wanted to leave anything of his – or Yuui's – behind. It would be best for everyone if he was thoroughly forgotten. Therefore, the case contained, in dimensional pockets he'd enchanted easily back in their student days: his entire wardrobe, his library, his writing supplies, his clock, various magical implements he wouldn't be using anymore, other necessities and novelties, and a chest full of Yuui's belongings. That, he left alone.

Fai's new rooms included a sitting room, a bedchamber with a wardrobe, and a private bathchamber – no plumbing, just a freestanding round tub to fill by bucket. After putting some of his clothing away, he brought his writing set to the desk in the sitting room. It was still dark, and the lamp was finally guttering out, so he lit a candle and uncapped his inkwell, opening the slim journal he had started keeping. Fai's pen hovered while he tried to order his thoughts for the page.

"That's my desk," said a voice, behind him, very clearly.

Fai D. Flowright, onetime High Wizard, master magician, graduate of the harrowing curriculum at the College of Magery, squeaked and leapt upright, banging his knee painfully under the desk and upending the chair and the inkwell. He snatched up the journal and tried to stop the spreading ink.

"That's my chair, too," the voice continued irritably, "You're in my rooms. I should throw you out myself."

Fai turned slowly, scalp prickling. He could feel the ward on his door still active, and the windows were too small for anyone to have come through. These rooms had been empty, and he would have noticed any secret passageway.

In the flickering light of the single candle, Fai saw nothing but shadows. He blinked and refocused, and in the shadows he could make out a looming, ghostly figure, glaring at him with hostile red eyes.

"Not going to pretend you can't hear me anymore, hey?"

Fai gaped. Through the windows, the sun was beginning to rise, and the figure disappeared in the light of dawn like fading mist.