It's funny, thought Takuya, watching the soldiers make camp for the night. Used to be that all I worried about was what Shinya was going to try and blame on me next. Now, I'm a 'demon' who's a prisoner. He looked over at the twins. Kouji was still not taking their imprisonment well, and sat, huddled in his brother's arms, looking pale and scared, while Kouichi muttered away to him in their language of rustling sounds, also looking scared. Takuya scuttled a little closer, and brushed Kouji's arm, only to be glared at.

"Relax," whispered Takuya. "They obviously want us alive, and the cage isn't so bad. We don't have to stay in it forever."

Kouji shook his head. "You don't understand. We are supposed to be wild, free. Not in a cage." He sighed and pulled off his own headband. "No use hiding, I guess."

Takuya tilted his head. "… wow, you're…" He then blushed wildly as he realised what he had almost said. "I mean, uh, you know, I'd never imagined you with your ears, even though, you know, I knew they had to be pointed, like Kouichi's, but…" He was interrupted by a sharp clang against the cage bars.

"Pipe down, demon."

"Not a demon," muttered Takuya, sulkily. He looked at his hands. "Wish I could control it enough to melt the bars or something."

Kouichi raised an eyebrow. "You aren't thinking it was chance anymore?"

Takuya shook his head. "It's time I stopped running. Even if I ran forever, I'd never escape myself." He closed his eyes. "It's there, and it's real. I just can't reach it." He concentrated, and something inside him stirred slightly in the direction of the campfire, then faded away.

Kouichi appeared to think about something, then took Takuya's hand gently. "Don't be afraid of what I do."

Takuya looked puzzled for a moment.

//Can you hear me, Takuya?//

"Wha… What? How are you…?" Takuya looked at Kouichi, confused that he heard him speak without seeing his mouth move.

//This is what I was talking about before. That Kouji can hear me like this, in his mind. Other people it's more difficult, but it can be done.//

Kouji leant in closer. //So what is it you don't want them to hear you say, Kouichi? That we'll teach Takuya?//

Takuya looked at them both. //This is scary. How can you talk like this for long?//

Kouichi smiled. //We've been doing this since we were born, maybe even before that. It feels entirely normal to us. Sometimes it used to annoy our honoured-father, but was great for playing tricks.//

Kouji glared at him. //You thought it was great. I was the one who always got into trouble.//

Takuya looked at them. //So what is it you don't want the guards to hear?//

Kouichi looked around, as if confirming something. //I don't know what they were told, but there's no magic in these bars. They've anointed them with something oily in places, from the smell, herbs used in protection charms. But there's no magic anywhere.//

//So the mage is a liar?// asked Takuya. //There's nothing stopping you using your magic to escape?//

//I'd say the fifteen men with bows are stopping us from escaping,// sarcasmed Kouji.

Takuya was confused. //But you can stop them.//

Kouji shook his head. //I can't move while the spell is running. It would take away too much of my concentration.//

//Magic isn't infinite, Takuya,// explained Kouichi. //Each time we use it, it takes us a while to recover. And mostly, it's about will and concentration. The harder the spell, the harder we need to concentrate.// He shrugged. //And that's why I'd like us to stop talking like this before I get too tired. I don't like not having reserves to call upon if I need them.// He let go of Takuya's hand.

Takuya rubbed at his palm thoughtfully. "That was pretty weird. I've never heard you talk like that before. You know, properly."

Kouichi just shrugged. "It was understanding, not words, so you heard in Common what we said in our speech."

Takuya turned to face the fire again, watching it hypnotically. "How will I learn if I'm caged?"

Kouichi stretched then lay flat on the floor of their prison. "We will find a way. But maybe we should wait until there are no soldiers to shoot us?" he teased.

Takuya laughed, then laid down too. "Good idea."

They fell asleep together in silence.

********************

It took three days of bouncing along the roads before the company drew within sight of the capital, Lyndora. It was a sprawling city at the base of a hill, with one long paved street leading to the lower castle gates that rested in the defensive wall that circled the base of the hill. Takuya could see clearings among the houses while they were still descending into the valley which were obviously market places, or squares meant for gathering. The houses were uniformly neat, well cared for, but still showing their age, and the age of the city in general.

Travelling the long road through the city to the castle gates turned into a gauntlet as people started to line the street, throwing abuse and rubbish at the three youths huddled in the centre of their cage. It dismayed Takuya that his own people could show such hatred towards them, just because they were different. After all, those myths about all the things demon and elves did are just rumour and legend. Why take them as truth? Finally the convoy made it inside the gates, and started along the path up the hill to the inner wall of the castle. As they moved up the hill, they saw groups of boys scattered about in red tabards, doing staff and sword drills, some were even mounted on horseback. Finally they drew into the inner courtyard, and a hive of activity. Overseeing it all was another man in blue, this time with even more ostentatious gold embroidery to show his rank. Next to him stood a foolish-looking man in a long wine coloured robe that hung down to his ankles and had many symbols of protection and conjuring embroidered in silver thread all over it. In his hand he held a wooden staff topped with an opal, his piecing blue eyes and unkempt red hair completing the suggestion that this was, in fact, a madman.

He moved closer to the cage, looking over Takuya and the twins.

"Yes. Excellent specimens, Captain Travell. They will no doubt improve our understanding of the dark arts these creatures use to destroy our realm." He inserted his staff through the bars and used it to turn Kouji's head forcefully to the side, revealing his ears. "Are these a mated pair of elves then?" he asked.

Kouji snorted once, looking embarrassed.

Takuya laughed. "They're twins, sir. Both male."

The staff moved so quickly that Takuya didn't know what hit him, just that his ears were ringing.

"Silence, demon!" The mage's hand started moving in intricate patterns. "I bind thee from speaking, or of thee using thy silvered tongue on any mortal within these walls!"

Takuya looked out the corner of his eyes to Kouichi, and was unsurprised to see a small black glow at his fingertips for a second before a minute shaking his head.

No magic there, then. Just a load of hot air.

The mage drew back, letting a man and a boy slightly older than the twins were forwards. Both wore breaches, with aprons made of leather covering their otherwise bare chests, carrying sets of chains and collars. Takuya swallowed as he had no doubt as to what they were to be used for. The soldiers surrounded the cage on foot, taking aim with their bows.

"Now then," said the man Takuya took to be the castle smith, "Out you creatures come, one at a time. And don't you try nothing, I've no wish to be turned into a lady's pincushion by these soldiers." His voice was trembling slight under the bravado, noticed Takuya as he silently crept forwards out of the cage. He stood perfectly still as the smith raised the collar to his neck, and fastened it with a bolt. A strange burning sensation covered his neck for a moment, then faded as if it had never been. The smith passed the chain attached to Takuya's collar to one of the soldiers standing near, then took another collar from his apprentice, fastening it around Kouji's neck as he held his hair out of the way. Kouji looked shocked as the collar was fastened, obviously feeling the same strange burning Takuya had.

When Kouichi's turn came, he again started to test it with his magic, but cried out in pain, pulling at the collar fastened to his neck. Kouji started to rush forwards to help him, but was restrained by his own collar, its chain held firmly by one of the guards.

The mage smiled thinly. "That is just a taste, creatures. You are bound to me, Frederick Goodwinson, for all time, as these chains that bind you cannot be broken. Use of your black arts will cause pain as bad as all that you have inflicted on we humans, the rightful rulers of this world." He stamped his staff against the ground. "Take them to his highness Prince Raoul's private courtyard. I am told he finds the very presence of these beings… intriguing." He swung round, deliberately using his momentum to swirl his robes impressively. Takuya guessed they were weighted, but didn't speak as he did not want to infuriate their jailer further.

**********************

The prison consisted of a medium-sized courtyard with a lean-to assembled against one wall to shield a bed of hay from the rain in the secluded spot, and a makeshift privy at the other which was surrounded on three sides by low walls. At the centre of the arrangement, a metal stake had been driven into the ground, and it was to this stake that Takuya, Kouichi and Kouji found the end of their chains attached. With their prisoners secured, the guards retreated, leaving them alone to explore what little of the formal garden remained from the renovation into a prison for them, testing to see how far their chains extended.

Only an hour or so passed before someone returned to the courtyard. A trembling, wide-eyed child in a red tabard, with scruffy brown hair and green eyes snuck quietly into the courtyard, carrying a platter of raw meat and a pitcher of water. Takuya was the first to notice the newcomer, and approached cautiously.

"Hey there."

The boy froze, terrified, staring at him. "Please… please don't h-h-hurt me, Mi-mi-mister Demon."

Takuya stopped advancing, and knelt, bringing himself to the boys eye level. "Hey, its okay. No matter what the adults may've said, we don't hurt people. They're just a little confused."

The boy nodded nervously, his head-bobbing turning into a repetitive nervous motion. "Confused. Yes. You're not demons and you're very friendly, yes I believe you." He put the platter down, pushing it towards Takuya. "I've been stuck with kitchen duty, so here is your dinner."

Takuya wrinkled his nose up at the idea of eating the raw meat. "You expect us to eat that?"

"W-w-well, we can't give you babies, or human blood or anything."

Takuya looked at him puzzled. "What's your name?"

"Tomoki Himi, s-sir." He straightened, trying to look unafraid. "Page of the court of King Elbert of Grunweld."

Takuya smiled. "Tomoki, we're not demons, and we're not dangerous." He made a face. "And we don't eat raw meat. We eat just the same food as you do. Is there any chance of you getting other food for us that we can eat?"

"You sure you don't eat people?"

"Positive."

Tomoki scuffed at the dirt with his foot. "I guess I could try to get the cooks to give you what they give us pages. It's not going to be fancy food or anything…"

Takuya smiled. "Before we were captured, we were working as farmhands. I think we can cope with whatever your cook throws at us."

"O-okay." He scooped up the platter and started to back away from Takuya, watching him for any sudden moves. "I'll go ask them." He made it to the door leading back into the castle and vanished inside.

Takuya sighed. No one is going to trust me here for a long time, I just know it.