Harry was woken early on the morning of his Healer's appointment by the feeling of being watched. He tried to ignore it as he was still sleepy and the bed was warm and cozy. But eventually he cracked open one eye and tried to figure out if Ash was about to play a trick on him. She had been having way too much fun with the products she had purchased from Fred and George's shop. Luckily for him, she was just as likely to prank unsuspecting strangers as she was to do so to Harry himself.

Not seeing Ash anywhere in his line of sight, he finally sighed and sat up in bed, rubbing his eyes free of sleep as he did so. When he opened them again and looked around, he was surprised to see Fionn sitting at the foot of the bed with a pad of notebook paper and a pencil. The Fae dropped his eyes and fiddled with the pencil for a moment nervously before smiling shyly at Harry.

"Good morning. I didn't mean to wake you..."

"It's okay, I would have had to get up soon anyway. And better you waking me than Ash!" He laughed and then covered a yawn with one hand.

"What are you up to this morning?"

Fionn glanced back down at the notepad, and then slowly reached out and tore the top sheet off of it. He looked at it for a moment longer before holding it out to Harry. "It's not very good, but I don't have anything else to give right now..."

"You don't have to give me anything Fionn, we've been over this. You are not a slave anymore, I freed you and you can be your own person again." Harry looked down at the paper in his hands, and then he blinked and looked again. It was quite good. Maybe better if it wasn't on lined notebook paper, but he could easily tell that at some point in the past the Fae had been an artist of some kind. The sketch was of Harry, wind blowing through his hair and wings half-spread with a smile on his face as he looked at something off in the distance.

"I know, but I wanted to give you something... do you like it?" Fionn still looked nervous, the pencil rolling between his fingers.

"This is really good, were you training to be an artist?"

The Fae shook his head, glancing down at his lap shyly. "No, not exactly. I was apprenticed to a tattooist and only had another year left before I could start my own shop. Making your own designs is part of the job so I had to learn to draw."

"Is that something you would like to try to get back into?"

"I...don't know. Maybe?"

"Are you two up yet? We need to hurry if you want breakfast before your Healer's visit Harry!" Ash bounced into the room and stood halfway between the door and the bed, totally oblivious to what she had just interrupted.

"I know, and if you'll get out, I can get dressed." Harry rolled his eyes fondly at her. She was annoyingly cheerful, and sometimes exasperating, but he found that the longer he was around her, the more she was growing on him.

They were shown into what looked like the same room they had entered the last time, and Harry once again took up his position on the edge of the exam table. Ash had of course stolen the chair, but at least this time Fionn wasn't kneeling at Harry's feet. The Fae had leaned against the wall near Ash, though he watched Harry from under his fall of hair. It wasn't long before Healer Tristan hurried into the room, he smiled at the three of them and then approached Harry.

"Well, I'm afraid I have both good news and bad news in regards to the brand and the binding on your magic. Which would you like to hear first?"

"Uh, the bad news I guess..." Harry's stomach twisted itself up as he worried that the bad news was that the Healers couldn't remove the binding.

"Well, the bad news is in two parts... The first part is that from what we have been able to decipher from the brand and the magic surrounding it, it would appear that not only is there a binding on your Demon abilities, there seems to be a kind of...well, there's a soul component as well. We're not sure if it is meant to switch your soul with another's, or if it has some other purpose. There's a Djinn we can consult, but only with your permission. He's one of the oldest Djinn in this area of the Realm and knows a lot of soul magics."

Harry just nodded, shocked speechless for a moment. As if his life hadn't been complicated enough already, now his soul was potentially in danger as well? "And the second part?"

"Well, in order to remove the brand and the binding, we need to have access to the Wizard or Witch who cast them. They need to be physically in the room while we remove the magics so we can monitor both that person as well as you and be sure nothing is left of them on you. But since we don't know who did this, we'll need to send out trackers to find them. Do we have your permission to do that? The Warriors who go will have to be told why they're seeking, so they have some idea of the possible danger they'll be facing."

Harry closed his eyes for a moment and then nodded at Healer Tristan. "How will the Warriors be chosen? And how many will have to know?"

"That depends. We'll need at least one Shadow Demon as they're the best trackers. And depending on which one agrees, that will decide how many others know. Shadow Demon Warriors tend to have a group of two or more that they prefer working with, and we won't know how big that group is until we find one who will agree." Healer Tristan looked apologetic and spread his hands to show there really wasn't any better answer he could give them right now.

"Harry, Gideon?" Fionn spoke softly from his place near Ash.

Harry considered for only a moment and then nodded. "Can I request a particular Shadow Warrior? I actually know one already, though I only know his first name and the first name of one of his friends..."

"If we can figure out which Warrior he is from your description, I can send for him and ask." Tristan pulled out a small notebook and pen from his pocket, flipping it open to a blank page. "You said the Shadow Demon was named Gideon?"

"Yes. He has purple hair and grey eyes. He's always been in the company of an Earth Demon named Herne. Herne has brown hair and hazel eyes. And when I first met them, there was a third... I can't remember his name, but I think he was a Storm Demon and had black hair and light blue eyes...?" Harry frowned to himself, trying to remember the last Demon's name.

"You know Gideon Reed?" Tristan looked surprised, then quickly made a few more notes. "Which would make the Herne you spoke of Herne de Rossi, and their third is Laric Winters. Gideon and Herne are quite high in the ranks of Shadow and Earth Demons. If they agree, you won't have to worry about them finding your Wizard or Witch. They have a lot of experience in tracking down dark mages."

"Reed and de Rossi? No wonder they looked familiar, I'd never actually met them before Harry tried to run them down..." Ash laughed. "You never seem to do things by half, do you Harry?"

"Yeah, yeah. Story of my life." Harry made a face at Ash before turning back to Tristan. "If they're of such high rank that you knew them just by description, do you think they'll agree? I mean, would it be rude to ask in the first place?"

"It was the purple hair, as well as the names and Demon types that made identifying them easy. And it would not be at all rude Harry. They're Warriors for a reason, if hunting down people and bringing them back to face trial, or whatever else, wasn't something they wished to do, they wouldn't have become Warriors in the first place. And I won't know if they agree until I ask. If they don't agree, I'll send you a message and you can either pick another group if you know of one, or I can introduce you to a few and we can go from there." Tristan closed his notebook and smiled reassuringly at Harry.

AN: Since I've had a few questions on this, yes, Harry will be getting a Warrior mate. *grins* I had one in particular in mind, but the way my muse is running, I could be convinced to add in a 2nd one as well. Which would make 6 mates instead of 5 for Harry.

Also, new forum now created. You can find review replies and general chatter there, link is on my Profile.