Neo rolled quickly out of bed, his heart beating in his throat.

"Impossible," he whispered harshly to himself, "how could… I would have noticed…"

He broke off his vocal denial when he heard footsteps coming down the hall.  One glance at the candle that counted the marks and the brightening sky outside his window told him how odd that was.  It wouldn't be but a few candle marks till dawn.  What was someone doing walking around so early?

Abruptly, he realized that his mind was running desperately away from the problem at hand, giving him busy-work so he wouldn't fall into a pit of despair over… over the infection, over 'Nasa…

The footsteps drew closer, and stopped outside his door.  He glanced up just as the person swung his door open without even a courtesy knock.  He glowered at the invasion as his eyes peered through the semi-darkness to identify Menith… a very angry looking Menith.

"What in the bloody hells were you thinking, you ignorant Aristo?!" he near-screamed, storming into the room and grabbing Neo by the shoulders.  He began to shake him with every word, "Leave the bloody Companions alone!  In all my years as a Herald, I've seen nothing like this!  Have.  You.  Completely.  Lost.  Your.  Mind?!"

Neo sat frozen in shock by the rough handling, then gritted his teeth and violently pushed Menith away.

"Don't touch me, Herald!" he bit out, dark eyes snapping in fury.  Menith met his gaze with equal anger.

"Explain yourself now, Neoka Marron, if you don't want to be sent to the stocks for near killing a Companion!" the Herald shouted.  Neoka opened his mouth to argue, then realized he had no idea what the man was talking about.

"What?" he asked, drawing his head back and narrowing his eyes in confusion.

"What?  What!  What did you do to Amaro, you silly little git?!  He's wreathing in pain down in the stables, and all we can get from him is your name.  Now, explain before I flay your hide myself!"

Neo went pale. 

Even in the not-quite-morning light and the flickering candle illumination, Menith could see the boy's skin go from soft-gold to chilling white.  He frowned and made as if to take a step closer to the Blue, but stopped when Neoka flinched violently away from him, looking as if his breath had been stolen from his chest.

Neo trembled a little as he stumbled towards the door, shock-smothered thoughts flinging themselves around his head.

Had Amaro somehow been infected by the Sickness as well?

Or worse…

Had Neo infected Amaro, himself?  Had his own virus gotten to the Companion before Neo spotted it, or while he had been trying to corner it?

He rushed down the corridors, completely forgetting about the irate Herald in his room.

He wasn't even aware of when his unclad feet stopped hitting paved ground and started digging into the soft dirt of Companion's Field.

He bolted into the stalls, breath coming harshly to him although it hadn't been that long of a run.  He rushed down to the end of the building, where two Companions and the King's Own stood.  He shouldered roughly past them, not sparing them a look as he flew to Amaro's side.

The Healer that had the Companion's head in her lap sent him a grateful look that he missed completely.

"There you are, Trainee Marron," she took his hand, which had been trembling while it nervously stroked Amaro's neck, "do you know what's happened here?"

Neo stared blankly up at her, uncomprehendingly, until he swallowed and nodded.

"I… just… a moment, please…"

He pulled his hand from her grasp, and laid it on Amaro's temple, closing his eyes and Searching.

It took him a few agonizing moments, but he found no black marks, no inky Sickness blotches.  The only thing out of ordinary was the channel that connected Amaro to Neo; it was throbbing painfully, chafed and sore and bruised rather than a pure white flow of energy.

Gently, Neo laid a string of his own power in the channel, warming and healing it softly.

When the channel began to look normal again, Neo pulled out of Amaro's mind.  He opened his eyes to look up at the Healer.

"He's fine now…" he said quietly, then backed away from the Companion and leaned against the stall wall.  The Healer watched him for a bit, then nodded and got up.  As she left, she ushered the King's Own and the two Companions out.

Neo turned his head away from Amaro, towards the shadowed end of the stall. 

He had near panicked when Menith had told him what had happened.  Why?  Amaro wasn't that important to him, really.  It wasn't like the Companion was his sister…

A gasping moan filled the air, and it took a moment before Neo realized it had come from him.  He closed his weary eyes, pulling his knees up to his chest, laying his arms across them, and burying his head.

"I'm not a Herald," he whispered aloud, though he was not sure why exactly he did so.  Perhaps it was just to comfort himself, "I don't care about the Companion.  I'm not a Herald… Amaro told me himself, I'm not a Herald…"

Authors note: well, what's with that?  I don't remember Amaro saying anything like that, do you?  *evil grin* I think the next chapter should have a nice little flashback, explaining what Neo's saying, hmm?  Also, there's gona be some more angst, for those of you who miss it.

^^ now, for my chapter-ly griping section.  It seems I've got a culmination of about three minutes of on-line time for the entire month of February.  I've got a new job (bleh for coffee-shop-slave-position) a new sister (long story, but in short – uncle died, mom's the godmother, cousin is the new sister) an old feud between me and cheerleader-type-really-annoying-chick reignited thanks to me almost running her over with my friend's car (even longer story, but in short – she needs to stop hanging out in the parking lot.  It's common sense.  If people don't like you, and they drive cars, DON'T FRIGGIN TEMPT THEM!!!) a referral and a few detentions for almost killing the cheerleader-type-really-annoying-chick (meh, it was kinda worth it…) and last, but not least, a new Chinese restaurant opening up (I love them.  They have good egg rolls.)

Right.  That's about it.  Review!  As if your life depended on it!  Because, my pretties, if I ruled the world (and it's on my list of things to do!), it most certainly would… *enter shaking of fist here*