Henry had never given much thought to how it was like being entirely blind, even after losing his eye. And if Kismet intended to make him aware of his utter dependence on his eyesight, she had not missed the mark.

He had, over time, gotten used to a certain morning routine, and it had never posed too much of a difficulty – until now. Being most unpleasantly woken after what could not have been more than five hours of sleep was one thing, but being most unpleasantly woken into absolute darkness was another.

It took Henry a full ten minutes of most ungracious reeling around to remember he could use echolocation to orientate, only when he ran over his still standing yet luckily not burning torch, he realized he was making things harder for himself than he had to.

When he had at last gotten his bearings, the next problem arose in the form of urgent lack of water. Henry always carried at least one full water bag, but he had emptied what he had brought yesterday after the meal, and there was none in sight. When he meant to ask Kismet for water to freshen up and wash the taste of sleep from his mouth he for the first time noticed she was nowhere to be found.

Unease rose in Henry, what if something happened now? He felt more vulnerable and helpless than he had in a long time, and if not even she was here to handle a possible danger, what...?

Yet Henry quickly reprehended himself, pulling at the blindfold. If danger should arise, he'd ditch the thing in two seconds. Preemptively, Henry picked up his torch from the floor and stashed it in his backpack, where he couldn't run it over again, and knew where to find it in case of an emergency.

Still – he instinctively raised his head, despite his blindness, and snapped his fingers. Where had Kismet disappeared to, after she had woken him?

Henry began making his way further into the cave, contemplating how he hadn't even properly explored it yesterday. It turned out not even remotely as big as it had seemed, instead, a narrow tunnel in the very back of it led downward, Henry could make out something like stairs someone must have arduously knocked into the stone.

He hadn't snapped his fingers in a while, only stood still in front of the tunnel, contemplating if she was perhaps down there, and winced as Kismet's voice sounded in front of him – "Were you looking for me?"

"I wanted to ask if you had any water", he mumbled and snapped his fingers, to perceive her seemingly moving up the stairs toward him.

"We eat breakfast, then you can go fetch water", was all she responded, and Henry opened his mouth to object, then closed it again, thinking "but I have a different morning routine" was probably not a convincing enough argument. "Let me guess", he reluctantly trotted after her, "Firebeetles?"

"What else?"

Why am I here? The question circled his mind like a predator, ready to strike. Why am I... He listlessly swallowed the rest of his last Firebeetle and shuddered internally. Henry was tired, miserable to the bone, and there was no apparent reason to expect change any time soon. He was here, with this strange rat, doing her every bidding, for... what?

"Why am I here?"

He did not see her, yet Henry sensed Kismet halting. "Excuse me?"

He sighed. "I mean", he flailed his arm through the air randomly, trying to find the right words to ask what he meant. "I mean, Ripred said you could help me. And you, as reluctant as you were, apparently know what he meant by that." He sighed. "So... will any of you fill me in on it as well?"

Kismet was silent for a moment, then he heard her laugh. "He did not even tell you WHAT it was I could help you with when he sent you here?"

"No", Henry scoffed. "I mean... he said something about seeing without my eyes, and a "second threshold", whatever that's supposed to be. But no, he didn't specify."

"And you... CAME. On... THAT basis alone?"

"I'm desperate, okay?!"

"Yeah, I grasped as much."

"So will you tell me then?" Henry pressed his lips together. "It has to do with echolocation, has it not?" Both Ripred and Kismet had seemed especially pleased when they found he could use echolocation. And hadn't Kismet formulated it like... "You asked me when I had passed the "first threshold" earlier, referring to echolocation, right?"

Kismet hesitated for a moment, then crunched the shell of a Firebeetle between her teeth. "What you so amateurishly refer to as "echolocation" is not really "echolocation", at least not even remotely all there is to it", she hissed. "It is the very basics of a much larger and much more powerful concept than you and your little brain can even begin to fathom."

Henry narrowed his eye beneath the blindfold. "And how do YOU know so well how much I can fathom?", he shot back, thinking she and her arrogance could go to hell. What was it with people and underestimating him, anyway?

Kismet laughed. "Feel free to prove me wrong."

"You can bet on that."

"In any case", another shell crunched between her teeth, "as I told you yesterday, I am a researcher. I've spent a large portion of my life on studies, and among behavior and personality aspects, another of my passions was the concept of perception, with a special focus on echolocation. I had taken to pushing the back then seemingly established limits of it, and discovered they were no limits at all."

"Woah, wait a second", Henry interjected, "you... DISCOVERED this "higher form" of echolocation? Really?"

"As unbelievable as it sounds", he heard the smile in her voice, "before me, nobody has ever bothered. Or at least not so much they would have documented their research. Believe me, I would know. Those born with the skill could not be bothered to work on it more, and those born without believed it to be unachievable anyway."

"People are lazy, I guess", Henry mumbled, and Kismet laughed. "So if what I use", he snapped his fingers, "is not "echolocation, or at least not even remotely all there is to it", how much... is there to it, then?"

"Much more", she paused, "you said it was your flier who taught you?"

"He dragged me out of bed an hour earlier every day for nearly eight weeks until I had that first...", Henry snapped his fingers again, and not to see this time, "eh, how do you call it? Breakthrough moment. When I first actually SAW something. Or... perceived, I guess."

"You could call it a breakthrough moment", Kismet snarled, "though I have taken to calling it... a threshold."

Henry's head shot up, "Oh, so that's what you meant..."

"Yes. When you had your so-called "breakthrough moment", you passed the first threshold of echolocation. Eight weeks, eh?", she pondered, "That's a decent enough time. I've heard of people trying for years without making any progress. I've my theories on why it is easier for some, yet that's a conversation topic for another day."

Henry tilted his head. He was curious, yet asked a more pressing question instead – "Is that how you... see, then?"

Kismet hummed. "Precisely. When the last of my eyesight began failing me, I guess I could call myself lucky to have dedicated my life to studying alternate methods of perception."

"But how...", Henry frowned, "DO you see? Like, you don't make any noise that can bounce off things, do you?"

"No", he thought she had stood up, "yet we will get to that part in due time. Perhaps you are forgetting you're still on trial, and I've not agreed to help you pass the second threshold yet."

"How many thresholds are there?", Henry asked, ignoring her attempt at wrapping up the conversation.

Kismet laughed. "Two. Though, in terms of levels, there are three, at least as far as I've discovered. Level three needs you not to pass a threshold, but I would still refer to the skills it allows as a separate level. Maybe one day you will see why."

"Hmm", Henry hummed, not entirely sure whether he had understood all of that. "Regardless", he yelped as she grabbed him by the collar and lifted him to his feet, "we've sat around idly for long enough. If you think you can stall like this every day, you're gravely mistaken. Up you go."

"Oh come on", Henry protested, "I was asking important questions!"

"Maybe. Yet you are not here to ask questions. You are here to work." Her claws scraped on the floor as she moved away, "You said something about water, did you not?"

Kismet led him to the back of her cave and then turned right. A narrow path led upward, and in the cave it mounded in, Henry heard the distinct bubbling of water. It sounded not like a creek or a spring though, more like... "These are hot springs, they produce boiling water heated by the magma of the volcano beneath us", she explained, and Henry remembered the crawlers had mentioned she lived in an inactive volcano.

"And the water is fresh?"

"I've been drinking it for...", she hesitated, "for as long as I've lived here, and it has not killed me, so it will not kill you either." She moved past him and he snapped his fingers to perceive her beside a large boulder. "I usually collect it in this hollow, to let it cool, but I presume you have some sort of vessel to carry water of your own."

Henry nodded, sprinting towards the path to the main cave and directly into the wall instead. Apparently, the opening was a foot to the left.

Henry cried out and sank to the ground, holding his throbbing head. Behind him, Kismet laughed. "Not funny!", he attempted to suppress the uprising tears. "What if I'd broken my nose?!" He carefully touched it and winced in pain. It was not broken, but certainly hurt.

"Come on, over here", she pulled the half-heartedly protesting prince up and dragged him along. "You'll have to get better at this if you intend for your nose to survive this week."

Ten minutes it took for Henry to gather his things and find his way back up to fill both his water bags with cooled water, wash his face, drink, and refill the bags again.

The water Kismet had gathered in the hollow was nearly out by the time he was done, so he rolled away the boulder to allow new water to replace what he had used. It hissed and sizzled as it came in contact with the cooler water that had remained in the hollow, and a couple seconds later Henry closed the opening back up. He had no idea if the hollow had filled yet, but he was certainly not about to check with his bare hands.

When he rejoined her in the main cave, Kismet was waiting for him, and Henry's eye beneath the blindfold widened when he heard what she had in store for him now.

"We would not want you to grow fat and lazy, would we?", she announced and led him out of the cave, down the cliff they had climbed last night, then through a series of tunnels that led back and to the cliff in a circle, forming a type of obstacle course. Sprinting, climbing, crawling, traversing different types of floor and different sizes and shapes of environment.

"Whenever did you set this up?", Henry asked, unable to suppress a grin. If she thought exercise was a type of punishment for him, she could not know him as well as she thought she did. In fact, for the first time since he had come here, he found himself looking forward to something.

"I did not set anything up", she replied a little too quickly, "it naturally existed in the environment. I merely decided it should be an obstacle course from now on."

"Sure", Henry's grin widened, yet he didn't bother to argue. He instead stretched his aching back, every fiber of his body looked forward to the long-overdue exercise.

"You don't seem too unwilling", Kismet remarked and Henry shook his head. "Absolutely not, I love exercising. Am in great shape too, at the moment."

"Good." He was unsure whether she was pleased or unsettled. "In that case, you'll do five laps, and that cliff is part of the course. I want to see you poke your head in here five times before you call it a day, got it?"

Henry only grinned, tugging at his belt. He hadn't had the mind for it yet, but now he thought he should maybe ditch some of his belts and bags and put on a normal shirt instead of his leather vest. It had been cooler in the cave itself, but out here it was nearly as hot as in the jungle. "Mind if I get changed first?"

For the first time since he had arrived here, Henry's misery and unwillingness evaporated to make way for confidence as he took to the obstacle course.

It was far from a breeze doing it all blindly, and the first lap he spent mostly figuring out how to best do it, but by the third and fourth lap, he had memorized it so well he barely had to snap his fingers anymore. And by the fifth lap, he felt an immense wave of pride when he arrived back by the cliff, not having used echolocation the entire round.

"Hey, can I do five more laps after lunch?", he asked as he dragged himself over the edge into Kismet's cave, panting happily, and heard her laugh. "Why does it even surprise me you're an exerciser?", she called and drew closer, "Fine by me. As long as we balance it out with a little ritual before bedtime I feel you will like much less."

Henry only shrugged as he made his way over to his backpack to put on a shirt. After some consideration, he'd ditched the leather vest after all before taking to exercise, and decided he'd put on a fabric shirt afterward, to keep all his clothes dry.

Even the Firebeetles seemed less awful, now that he had something to look forward to after the meal, and only fifteen minutes later Henry whizzed back down, to see if he could do even better this time. Maybe, he thought as he jumped the last couple feet to the floor, he could put up a stopwatch here as well, at some point.

"So, how did it go?"

Henry barely raised his head from where he had leaned it on the wall and smiled proudly. "I might even extend the course a bit, there's that one cave I discovered I could include, maybe even put something up in it."

The exiled prince would have bet a lot Kismet grinned. "Is that so?" He nodded and she remained silent for a moment, then spoke again – "You will go to bed soon, then?"

"I'm incredibly hungry", Henry sighed and placed a hand on his growling stomach. "Those beetles aren't just horrendous, they're also... not food. At least they don't seem to function like food, because food is supposed to make the hunger go away."

"Oh my bad", the rat snarled, "how could I have forgotten you have STANDARDS. I will of course go out of my way to provide for them at once."

"Yeah, yeah", Henry grumbled and sighed, before picking himself up from the wall. "I got it. No need to strain yourself or anything."

Kismet laughed somewhat forcibly. "You get used to it", she then mumbled, and Henry miserably dragged himself over to her stash of beetles. He forced himself to eat up a whole of ten of them, yet his stomach still growled when he thought he couldn't choke down a single more. Oh, what would he have given for some grilled fish with a fresh mushroom salad and fruit juice! He nearly began drooling just imagining it.

"I'm going to go to sleep", Henry dejectedly mumbled and yawned, before stretching his now aching limbs. As fun as the exercise had been, his whole body was already stiff and sore from it. He did not even want to imagine how he would feel in the morning.

"Not so fast", the rat cut him off and Henry groaned. "You are forgetting I allowed you some more playtime with the parkour only under the condition we'd do a little pre-bedtime ritual."

"But I –"

"Come, sit here", she ignored him and Henry followed her over to his backpack reluctantly. "What do you –"

"Sit", was all she said, and he plopped down with his legs crossed beside the bag, frowning beneath the blindfold. "Right. And now?"

"Now, you sit still."

Henry's frown deepened. "I – what?"

"You sit", she repeated, and he was certain he heard a grin in her voice. "You've exercised so much you must balance it out. You spent, what? Three, four hours on that parkour – you will have it in you to sit still for a measly ten minutes."

Henry froze. "A... did you just say TEN –", but Kismet cut him off, "SILENTLY I mean." Something clanked, like stone on stone. "I have here with me an hourglass. The sand takes five minutes to run through, so by the time you hear the second turn, you may move. And if you make even the slightest noise, well", she gave something like a mix between a sigh and a hum, "let's just say, by tomorrow you'll wish you hadn't."

Henry's head spun. Ten minutes, he thought over and over, ten whole minutes of... what? He blinked into the blindfold, shifting in agitation. What the hell was he supposed to occupy himself with? Looking at his surroundings was out of the question, and if he had neither his eyes nor his ability to move, what else was there even left?

He twitched as he suddenly heard a scraping sound. His mouth opened automatically to ask what Kismet was doing, then he closed it again.

Perhaps the hardest part was not knowing what was going on around him. The temptation to snap his fingers and look was so strong Henry eventually shifted to sit on his hands to keep them in check. He could neither move, nor look, nor perceive anything, and with every passing second it drove him crazier. The only sense he had left was his hearing, so his attention shifted to it until he pressed his lips together, desperately attempting to hear, to perceive anything.

Naturally, he cried in shock and nearly fell over when a loud crash sounded, like someone had dropped a boulder onto the stone floor.

"There goes the first strike", Kismet called from the same direction and Henry clenched his fist. "You did that on purpose!"

"Strike two", was all she responded. Henry's mouth shut at once. Who knew what she would have him do for all of these strikes tomorrow.

When he could not bear it a second longer, he began seriously considering whether taking another strike to ask how much time was left may be worth it. He had heard a sound that had suspiciously resembled the clanking from when she had first put down the hourglass a while ago, and besides, he had to be over half time at least. There couldn't be much time left at all. Henry felt like he had been sitting there for ten hours, not ten minutes.

"Hey, how much time is left?", he finally called and Kismet laughed. "Oh come on, you really just did that? It's barely been three minutes."

Henry froze. "Wait... THREE –"

"Strike three, and strike four", Kismet snarled, "you better be extra quiet for the remaining seven minutes."

At that moment, Henry honestly believed he would rather die.

The exiled prince jerked up so violently he ended up slapping Kismet in the face with the back of his hand when she shook him awake the next day. "Up, up", she gleefully hummed despite the hit and Henry groaned. "What... it's been what? How long have I been –", he was cut off by an especially long and profuse yawn.

"Four hours sharp! You'll go refill the water supplies, eat, and then I want you out here. There's something you'll have to do for me." With that, she disappeared and left Henry sitting up where he had slept, eye widened beneath the blindfold. "FOUR HOURS?!", he yelled after her, yet Kismet was gone.

"Four hours", he mumbled to himself and yawned again, wanting nothing more than to be miles from here. To eat a lavish breakfast, to fight some epic battle – and to sleep for longer than four hours. But somehow, his past self had believed being here was the best course of action for him. Somehow.

Eating, drinking, refilling the water supply... Henry ran on autopilot, barely in control of his movements. He narrowly avoided running into the wall again as he stumbled out into the main cave where Kismet waited. "Should have sat still the full ten minutes and I would have let you sleep for eight hours", she greeted him. "Let's see if you can do better today."

Had he his vision, Henry would have spent the entire time she had him carry boulder after boulder up the wretched cliff death glaring at her. Apparently, there was a specific type of rock somewhere down there that helped her determine the state of the volcano, if it was still dormant and all, but of course Henry saw nothing, so he had to make do with trial and error. Which was of course the point.

By lunchtime, he was dead on his feet, and not in a good way like the day before. When Kismet finally let him off the hook he collapsed beside where she stored her supply of Firebeetles and hadn't she lifted him by his collar, he would have fallen asleep then and there. "Leave me", Henry groaned, barely keeping his eye open.

"You've not brought me the correct rock today, so we'll try again tomorrow", she only snarled, sitting him down. "Keep at it, and don't worry, unlike that of Sisyphus, your task is at least finite."

Henry was much too spent to ask who the hell Sisyphus was, he only reached for the beetles. At this point, he couldn't care less what it was, if only he could eat it. But when his hand only found two of them where there had once been a huge stack, he was instantly wide awake.

"Eh... Kismet, you're out of bugs", he uncertainly called to where he had last heard her. "There's only two left!" He stuffed one into his mouth, twisting the other in his hand.

"Oh, is that so?", she replied from further into the cave. "Well, sucks for you then."

"WHAT?!", Henry cried and somehow even pulled himself up before stumbling forward. "What do you mean? Aren't you going to catch more?"

Kismet laughed. "For who? Me? I eat them whenever I see them, consider the fact I even had a stash a feat of luxury. I seldom collect a large amount."

For the first time, Henry felt a jolt of actual panic. "And what the hell am I supposed to eat?!", he called, waving the last beetle in how he presumed her direction.

"Hey, I never said you couldn't catch some for yourself", she replied, "or were you expecting me to serve them to you on a silver platter? It is you who wishes to stay, so find a way, or leave. What even am I, that you expect me to feed you as well? Your mother?"

Henry groaned. "Hey wait – I don't even – WAIT!" He cried from pain as he stubbed his foot on a rock and had Kismet not caught him, he would have hit the floor.

"You will find tons of them if you follow the tunnel leading downward, to the right of the cliff", she put him back on his feet. "And you know what", he heard a quiet rustling, then the clanking of metal on stone. "I'll even give you this back. But only if you share your catch with me."

Henry's heart skipped a beat as he dropped to his knees to pick up the – he could not suppress a joyous cry as his hand closed around the oh so familiar handle of Mys.

"Good luck then", murmured Kismet, yet Henry barely listened. Who needed luck if they had the most glorious dagger in the whole world?

Right. Because not even luck could help him. Henry hoped with all his might Kismet would not be in the cave when he attempted to sneak back in, after what must have been hours of fruitless attempts to stab beetles in the dark. He did not feel like taking any of her imminent gloating, not now.

In all his enthusiasm, he had to admit at least before himself he had kind of forgotten the whole part where he would have to do it all without his eyesight.

He had first tried to stomp them dead, then realized he could not eat bug mush, so he would have to catch them by hand. But they had quickly turned out quite agile, and apparently could fly, as well as demonstrated a clear aversion to being held in place. And stabbing them with the dagger, which was probably the only way to actually get them, was utterly impossible without eyesight. Even taking off the stupid blindfold had left him as blind as before, for he had not brought light and the cave was pitch black.

"So, how is our exterminator in training? Will we dine lushly tonight?"

Henry froze and nearly dropped Mys as Kismet's voice sounded up ahead. Of course, she'd been waiting for him. "It is IMPOSSIBLE!", he exclaimed, plopping down by the wall. "I can't stab them without seeing them!" He tugged at the blindfold he had preemptively put back on. He was rather fine with not finding out what her punishment for taking it off would be.

"Oh really?", Kismet sounded amused. "How do you presume I do it then?"

Henry blinked. He had not given that a thought before. "Echolocation?", he guessed, and Kismet hummed. "How have you tried it?"

"Echolocation", he groaned, "but I have to snap my fingers for that, and they move around, so as soon as I've localized them, they're already somewhere else. It's hopeless!"

Kismet was silent for a long time, and Henry began wondering if this was her thinking her words through as usual or if she would not respond at all, when she spoke – "You know what, I am disappointed. I presumed you were better at thinking outside the box, but apparently, you are like everyone else – so focused on the fancy skills you have that you forget the correct way is often the simplest one."

His head shot up in something like protest. "What the hell are you –", but Kismet interrupted, "Nevermind, you can try again tomorrow. Now, let us find out how long you may sleep."

At least this time, Henry found he had something to think about. He was so preoccupied contemplating what he had so apparently missed that justified her calling him a disappointment so openly. Henry bit his lip as the words rang in his head, and chipped his pride like acid.

For the first time, he made himself aware that, for as much as an eccentric, overbearing, at times plainly insufferable, slave driver she seemed, it had all... served a purpose.

The more thought he gave it, the more he understood, as much as her tasks and exercises and challenges had seemed random, none of them had actually been. She'd not even committed to teaching him anything yet, and in theory, she could have him do anything she wanted, but instead... she was already teaching him, in a way.

She had limited his ability by disarming and blinding him, forcing his focus into the rest of his senses, which was, in fact, exactly what he had wanted to learn. To rely less on his eyesight. And though only a couple days had passed, he now orientated himself much better than he had before. Even if he still occasionally ran into walls or rocks. Occasionally.

She'd sent him to run an obstacle course by the end of which he'd found his orientation and ability to perform without his eyes or even echolocation had vastly improved – not to mention it was physical exercise.

She'd had him climb and traverse the terrain carrying heavy rocks, forcing him to work on his balance, by the end of which he had found himself much more steadfast on the steep cliff.

She had him sit here, still for ten minutes, for – Henry hesitated, then begrudgingly admitted it was probably supposed to help him focus and calm his thoughts.

And now she had him... stab beetles in the dark? He frowned, and nearly jumped as the hourglass clacked. Was it really halftime already? Henry suppressed the urge to ask, his sleep was on the line here, and he would not sacrifice a single hour needlessly.

What did she mean, the simplest way was often the best one? What was the simplest way, if not echolocation? Henry groaned, and instantly reprehended himself as Kismet sighed. "Really? And you were doing so well. But that's strike one."

Henry angrily clenched his jaw and focused his thoughts on the beetles again. His stomach audibly growled and Kismet laughed. He barely suppressed the urge to snap at her, but to his surprise, she proceeded to address him, and her tone held not a single ounce of mockery – "It is not that hard, you know? And if you're currently screaming at me to give you a hint in your head, I can say this much – try letting the beetles make the noise."

Henry frowned beneath his blindfold. Let the beetles make the... His hand twitched and he stuck it under his leg again. His lips determinately pressed together. He would show her. Whatever that was supposed to mean, he would figure it out, tomorrow. He would bring back a whole mountain of bugs, and that would show her for being disappointed.

"Let the bugs make the noise...", Henry mumbled absentmindedly, clutching the handle of Mys as he sat in the middle of the same cave he had attempted to catch the Firebeetles in last night – only this time he had freshly awoken from seven hours of sleep. It had done wonders for his ability to focus.

Henry sat in nigh unbroken silence, pondering on the words when he heard it. Tiny feet scuttling along the floor to his right. He frowned and turned his head, focusing all his attention on the sound.

Tap, tap, tap, tap. Henry dared not move as the bug skittered closer. It was like they were alone in the room, like there were not at least ten others around. Henry did not question how he knew the sound's exact position or how he perceived it so clearly – all he did was raise the hand with Mys.

Tap, tap, tap, tap. The dagger whizzed down as he sensed the bug beside him and when Henry raised it again, he could collect the neatly impaled Firebeetle from the tip.

An immense wave of pride and joy swept over him and the exiled prince nearly laughed out loud, yet the moment he moved, the rest of the beetles around him scattered. He quickly sat back down, stashing the bug he had killed in his bag. He was not done yet.

The next ten minutes Henry spent sitting silently in the middle of the cave, holding Mys ready to strike. And instead of hunting the bugs actively, he had them come to him. As Kismet had said – all he had to do was shift his focus from the noises he made himself to the noises they made.

Yet as much fun as he had with it at first, concentrating on that level and ignoring his breathing and heartbeat was far from easy if you did it for longer than a couple minutes. He slipped out of focus periodically, and the longer he spent hunting the harder it became. By the end of the ten minutes he was more mentally exhausted than he had ever been, but he also proudly clutched a large bag filled to the brim with Firebeetles when he at last began making his way back.

"Ah, I see you got the hang of it after all." Henry grinned at where Kismet's voice came from and couldn't help but feel she sounded proud. "It is as you said", he gripped the bag harder, "all I had to do was have the bugs make the noise. And now", he raised his chin even more and strode towards the tunnel to the hot spring, "these are mine, so I'm entitled to at least steaming them. Maybe they'll taste more like food then."

"Watch out or your head will explode from all the hot air!", she called behind him but Henry only laughed. "I'm taking that risk!"

From this point on, the exiled prince grimly decided, he would not miss a single hour of sleep anymore. If he could sit still for ten minutes in a cave hunting beetles, he could also do it on Kismet's watch.

Now, of course, it was much harder without the additional occupation to keep his focus on, but Henry quickly found he could concentrate on any sound, localizing it unbelievably accurately if he only focused. And if there weren't bugs to monitor, he did it with Kismet instead, who never remained entirely silent throughout his ten still minutes.

For the first time now, he asked himself if she did it specifically to give him a sound to focus on. If figuring this out had been the point of sending him to stab beetles in the dark. Well, most likely.

That night he slept for a full eight hours for the first time, after a nearly luxurious-seeming meal of steamed Firebeetles. The process of steaming actually made a huge difference, Henry found, and all he had to do was roast them over the hot spring for a measly ten minutes. Ha, hadn't he thought ten silent minutes were unbearable when she had first had him sit them out?

And then it was back to gathering rocks, to running the parkour, to steaming more beetles, to hunting, to sleeping, to climbing, to sitting still. To listening. To rinsing, and repeating. To rinsing, and repeating. To rinsing, and –

"How about we do something else today?"

Henry's head shot up from the Firebeetle he had been eating. "Something... like what?"

"Oh, you'll see", she snarled, "but considering I've just woken you for the seventh time, I thought it a worthy enough occasion to break up our routine a bit."

Henry froze. The beetle nearly slipped from his hand and hadn't he been blindfolded, he would have stared at her in disbelief. "Wait, today is –"

"Oh come on", she scoffed, "don't tell me you've not at least kept tabs on how many days it's been! Do I have to do EVERYTHING around here?"

Henry broke into nigh hysteric laughter. "Dammit I didn't even keep – is this really my last day on trial?!"

"Just be ready in five minutes. And bring your whole backpack. We're going on a bit of a trip."

Henry finished up the beetle grinning widely. That's right, he hadn't even... Had a whole week passed since he had first arrived here? It hadn't even felt that long. Ever since he had fallen into the routine, everything had just... whizzed by.

As soon as he had finished up his meal he stood up, confidently walked over to his backpack, and suddenly became almost too aware this was his last day on trial. His last day on... Henry's heart beat out of his chest and a nigh forgotten pep returned to his step as he shouldered his bag and began making his way towards the exit. His goal was close, oh so close. Closer than it had ever been.

"You done?"

Then again – some of his enthusiasm abated as he followed Kismet down the cliff. His goal might be closer than it had ever been, but as much as today marked the end of his trial, it also marked only the beginning of his actual training. His ordeals weren't over, they had only just begun. This is probably only the appetizer for what else she has in store for me, he grimly thought and jumped to the ground.

"What's with the long face?", Kismet laughed. "Changed your mind? You can always leave if that is what you want."

"Not a chance", he scoffed. "You're not getting rid of me that easily."

Instead of answering, she proceeded forward, and Henry easily followed the even sounds of her steps. Kismet had never asked him for how exactly he had managed to catch the Firebeetles blindly for the first time, yet she had from that point on began testing his directional hearing at every possible occasion, especially during their "ten still minutes" ritual.

He had not exactly gotten much better at it, but his ability to focus had at least improved so much he could do it for ten minutes straight and had even occasionally taken to doing it outside the ten still minutes. Kismet had not commented on the development, yet after what must have been five days or so told him he could take the blindfold off if he wanted.

Yet Henry had refused.

When Kismet had asked for the reason, he had resolutely stated he now understood why she had him wear it, and though she had not responded, he felt like he had passed another test by refusing. Her silence had just sounded so... satisfied.

Now Henry quickly deduced she must be leading him somewhere entirely new. He did not recognize the path, all he registered was that it consistently declined and that about half an hour must have passed by the time he first heard a distant rushing. "Hey, is that a river I'm hearing?", he stopped and squinted to focus.

"Not a river, a waterfall." The sound of Kismet's steps abated as well. "Kudos on already hearing it. It is half a mile away, still."

Henry grinned widely and resumed walking, toward the sound. Kismet's claim you could not "improve" your senses rang in his head and he wondered if it was true, if all of this had been available to him before, if he had just not listened properly – or if being stripped of his eyesight had indeed improved his hearing. It certainly felt like it had. Then again, he could not really tell.

Another five minutes of somewhat steep descent later they finally arrived somewhere Henry, with a snap of his fingers, perceived as a large cave with the deafeningly rushing waterfall. It streamed into what he thought must be a fairly round lake that filled up most of the cave.

It must be at least a hundred feet tall, he crooked his neck to the ceiling, despite not seeing anything. "Woah...", he smiled at the faint echo of his voice, "it's enormous!"

He approached to feel the water, registering it was pleasantly warm. And suddenly his every fiber wished to jump in, to swim a couple laps, and take the first proper bath in a week. "Hey Kismet", he turned to her, "mind if I go swimming for a bit? I'll do whatever challenge you have for me here later, promise."

He had already tossed his backpack together with the belt holding Mys at the wall and pulled his shirt over his head when he heard Kismet laugh. "Are you not hungry?"

Henry froze mid-movement. "Hun... wait", he slowly turned to her, eye widened beneath the blindfold, "are you telling me there are FISH in this lake?"

"It is clean, and not boiling, so why shouldn't there be?"

The exiled prince stared in her direction and felt first a wave of immense joy, then searing anger overwhelm him. "There are FISH only HALF AN HOUR from your cave and you have me EAT BEETLES FOR AN ENTIRE WEEK?! Could you not have SAID SOMETHING?!"

Kismet laughed. "But these are the reward, you see? For doing better than I... thought you would." Henry opened his mouth to shoot back but she kept talking, "And besides, I rarely come here because the territory of the pinchers is right across the lake, they usually dislike visitors, so we should be careful. I'd rather avoid making enemies, you know?"

Henry stared her way, mouth agape, for a few more moments, then he shut it. Sure, avoiding a bunch of six-foot-long lobsters wanting him off their lands was a good enough excuse, but still.

Henry sighed and made a face, then turned back to the lake. Whatever, he decided, he was here now – no point crying over the past. He'd just enjoy it seven times more now.

Not for a second longer he could restrain himself and barely heard Kismet laugh as he dove headfirst into the lake. Fishing and eating would come later. First, he would have a little fun.

Henry took some half an hour to enjoy the water, swim lap after lap, and not worry about trials, perception, pinchers, or food. Just... relaxing. The water was heavenly and only when he surfaced near the beach he had left his things at and heard the distinct sound of Kismet eating, he remembered his own growling stomach.

"The fish any good?", he called out to her and she hummed, "Go on and catch some for yourself... if you can."

Henry grinned and nodded, then froze. "Hold up", he frowned, "you want me to fish... blindly?"

Kismet was silent for a couple seconds, then laughed. "I told you you could take the blindfold off days ago. It was YOU who insisted on leaving it on. But if you wish to try it without your eyes, be my guest."

Henry pulled himself out of the water and shuddered. His hand automatically darted up at the blindfold and the temptation to ditch it and fish normally, to reward himself for the ordeals of the last week, overwhelmed him, yet he soon lowered his hand again and turned to where he heard Kismet still gobbling up the fish. "Is this it then", he asked, "your last trial challenge?"

The eating noise abated and the rat broke into laughter. "Oh Henry, must everything be a challenge for you? Can you not just take the moment as it is and enjoy yourself for once?"

"So I'm right?"

"OF COURSE you're right, and now get at it, before there'll be none left!"

Henry broke into vigorous laughter and Kismet soon joined. "I knew something didn't sound right about that", he murmured, already pondering on how to do this. He could attempt to use Mys, but he doubted he'd catch anything, especially without his eyesight. But the lesson was to think outside the box, and the moment the thought crossed his mind, he had an idea.

Henry quickly tiptoed over to his backpack and fetched a large cloth, then jumped back into the water. He took a deep breath, once more thankful he had practiced holding it in the Vineyard of Eyes, and dived.

At first, all he heard was the muffled rush of the waterfall and the sound of his own bloodstream. It took him nearly half a minute to focus so much he could successfully block it out. Yet he still had to come up for air three times before he heard a different type of rushing. It moved sporadically and Henry had a hard time following it, but some five minutes later he'd caught the source of the noise in the cloth.

Henry leaped out of the water with a joyous cry and released one end of the cloth, allowing the fish to slip out. "No DAMMIT!", he yelled, plummeting back in, after the fish. Kismet only laughed.

Another five minutes later Henry had caught two fish and, for the first time in forever, set up his torch to grill them then and there. He pondered how he was supposed to gut them blindly when he noticed Kismet was not producing any sound anymore. Henry immediately rose and snapped his fingers in search of her, and perceived her sitting still on the beach.

The rat did not flinch as Henry plopped down next to her. He let his feet dangle into the water and sighed, before finally raising a hand to remove the blindfold.

Henry squinted as the violent brightness sparked in his eye he was not used to using anymore, then cautiously opened it again. And when he then caught his first glance at the scenery before him, his jaw dropped.

The lake was nigh perfectly round and glowed brightly, more than normal water bodies of this size. And not from algae, Henry blinked in awe. There must be a magma pool directly beneath it, giving the water a gorgeous, orange glow that brightly illuminated the vast cave.

Or maybe, he smiled, it just seemed bright to him because he had not seen any brightness at all in a week. "I passed, didn't I?"

Kismet turned her head, and when he caught his first actual glimpse at her Henry's eye widened in surprise. He remembered the tattered rat with the clumped fur, cowering in her hunched-over position – dangerous and intriguing but still... well, old, and clearly not too keen on personal hygiene.

"Hey, you look great", he threw at her and smiled. She smiled back sourly, her freshly tidied, sleek fur shone almost white in the glow of the lake.

"You know flattery isn't going to help you, right?", she grinned. "And you know very well you passed. You just want me to compliment you."

Henry let out a snorting laugh and Kismet joined in. "Though I have to say – you DID do better than I expected you to. Not that it changes much about what's to come." She shook her head. "Even attempting this is... insane", she hesitated, "I've never even..."

"Hey", Henry kicked water in her direction. "Aren't you overthinking this?" Kismet hissed as some of it landed on her and the exiled prince grinned. "Stop thinking for a SECOND, will you? Like, seriously..."

"I will... when you start thinking, for once."

They both laughed.

The first time in forever climbing the cliff without the blindfold, the whole trip felt unreal to Henry. The only evidence he had was his incredibly full stomach and his moist hair.

Henry sighed as he pulled himself into the cave. He'd have to make the trip to that lake to fish at least twice a week from now on if he was to stay here. He was not passing any thresholds with only beetles for food.

"Henry!", Kismet who had climbed in front of him called, from further into the cave, "Come here, now that you can see again, I want to show you something!"

Only when he reached her he realized he'd not even lit his torch, but Kismet waited not for him to go back. She instead disappeared down the narrow staircase he'd spotted on his first day here, and never explored.

With every step Henry's anticipation rose, he could suddenly not wait to see what incredible secret she had hidden away down there, and to his eternal astonishment, he soon spotted a fiery glimmer ahead. When he squinted and turned the last corner at the bottom of the staircase, Henry's jaw dropped for the second time that day.

He barely registered a lone brazier in the corner of the cave that must be at least double the size of the one above and gawked at the densely covered, smooth walls. "You... did say the writing upstairs was nothing, right?", he squeezed out as he took in the thousands of scratched-in words covering walls, and even parts of the floor and ceiling. The same type of simple elevator the rats used to fetch prisoners from their pits stood in the corner, and Henry thought she must use it to reach the ceiling as the cave was at least ten feet high.

"Oh, I did."

He tore his gaze away from the walls and blinked in surprise to see Kismet stood before him, holding a man-made book. Only now he registered a whole stack of them, almost as tall as the ceiling, took up the entirety of the far corner.

"Take a look, will you?" She laid out the book, a great, old tome that looked like it hadn't been opened in years, and Henry knelt to inspect it. He glanced at the page she'd opened and froze. It appeared to be an old human chronicle, and on the page in front of him was depicted a family tree. A very familiar one, too.

Henry's hand hovered above the page, the picture must be ten years old at least, but back at him stared his own face, remarkably well painted.

"I...", Henry swallowed and slowly raised his gaze, fervently trying to think of something to say, but to his surprise, Kismet shook her head. "Do not feel as though you need to explain. I was merely surprised the human, the outcast, who sought out my help, was royalty."

"But...", he rose to his feet again, "you took the time to find out! Why bother if you don't –"

"Henry – or, should I say Prince Henry – you still don't understand, do you? I did my research because I wanted to know more about you, not because it made any difference." She gazed at him pensively, then shut the book. "Look, I am an excellent judge of character, I knew I would not get around teaching you from the very moment you first stood before me. And if I am supposed to teach you, I can do with any information I can get. Besides", she grinned, "I thought you looked somewhat familiar."

"You remembered me from this book."

She nodded. "And I called you here today to show you because today marks the day from which on I must stop pretending I am not attempting to teach you anything. As... unfortunate as that is."

Henry laughed, yet Kismet spoke on. "For once, I feel compelled to ignore the imminent risk of inflating your ego beyond reason and admit you've done excellently." She smiled. "For as excellently as a human could ever do. And if it is indeed possible – if you and I can find a way to make it possible – I've no doubts you will one day surpass us all, in terms of perception. I've seldom ever seen one so in tune with their physical surroundings. It is quite remarkable."

She turned and carried the book back over to the stack, then addressed him again – "What you lack is focus and attention, and of course there is that insatiable thirst for stimulation we must work on, but we will get to that soon enough. My point is, I will not attempt to make you quit anymore. Things will change. Not much, but they will."

"Well, the lesson is whatever you end up learning, right?"

"It is", Kismet stood in front of him again. "Be you prince or beggar, it matters little. What matters is that, whoever you were before, now you are my student. And as such I will treat you. Are we clear?"

Henry grinned. "Crystal clear."