He knew he needed to be paying attention to the book. Rialyn had said there would be another quiz today. But Fionn was having trouble concentrating on the words in the book, when he kept hearing bits and pieces of Djuran and Rialyn's conversation. Djuran was keeping his voice low, but Rialyn seemed to be arguing and his voice kept getting louder then softer.

He knew it was wrong, but the years under Adzir had taught him it was safer to know everything going on around him. He knew he was safe now, not in that place anymore. But he still knew so little about Djuran, and old habits were hard to break.

Golden eyes flickered around the room, he was still alone. Rialyn and Djuran were just down the hall, still having their almost argument. Fionn slowly slid himself and the book he was supposed to be memorizing, down the bench and along the long table he was sat at. He stopped moving every few inches, stilled his breath, and listened. No signs that he had been heard yet. He finally made it to the end of the table nearest the door, which was across the room, but sound was carrying easier now.

The sunlight he found himself sitting in was warm, and lit the book brightly. It would be easy enough to say he had moved to be able to see better if anyone were to question him. He placed a finger lightly beside the sentence he had last read, tilted his head down as though he was reading, and listened.

"I don't like this! Not at all!"

"So you have said."

"I know how powerful you are, but even you need someone to watch your back. This whole thing sounds off. I get this itchy feeling every time I think about you going out there alone."

"Magically? Or ..?"

There was a pause, then Rialyn's voice spoke again a little bit softer.

"I... I'm not sure. It's hard to pin down exactly. I just get this feeling of dread, and I can't tell if it's because this whole thing feels off, or if it's a warning."

"Will you See for me? Maybe you will be able to tell what is bothering you, put both our worries to rest."

There was a pause, and then suddenly the door slammed shut! Fionn jumped, and looked up guiltily, but he was still alone in the room. Hastily, he gathered the book and scooted back to where he had started. He tried to go back to reading and memorizing, but the conversation he had heard kept playing in his head. Where was Djuran going and why?

Shaking his head, he shoved the thought to the back of his mind. He didn't have nearly enough information to even speculate. Looking back to the book, he gently turned the page and went back to reading. He was concentrating so hard, he didn't hear the door open, or Rialyn's soft steps as he stalked closer.

"Quiz time!" Rialyn sang out, from just beside Fionn's right ear, as the red-haired Fae wrapped his arms around Fionn's shoulders and spun him around on the bench.

Fionn yelped and clutched at his chest, heaving in air as he tried to calm his heart down. Narrowing his golden eyes, he took in the amused smirk that didn't actually reach the dark red eyes of his teacher. Rialyn's caramel skin was slightly pale, and his crossed arms were just slightly too tight against his body.

"We're going to try something different today. Instead of drawing your answers, you are going to create illusions. I want to see 3D images of each thing I ask for. If you get them all right, you can have a week off. If you make a mistake on any of them, you will have to draw and color the next 5 chapters... Upside down."

This time the laughter reached his dark red eyes, and he clapped his hands sharply.

"Show me the left lung of an Incubus; the right kidney of a Demon; the heart of a Fae; and the brain of a Djinn."

Taking a deep breath, Fionn brought his hands together, then slowly drew them apart. A shimmering golden glow coalescing between his palms and growing longer then a bit wider. He spun it in place and tweaked a few things here and there, before pushing it away to hang in front of himself and starting again. Once he had 4 glowing images, he sat back and waited as Rialyn walked around them.

The red-haired Fae looked closely at all the illusions, then began pointing out mistakes.

"Make this slightly longer here. That part needs more rounding. That one is too wide, narrow it and curve the tip more here. This ridge should be on the opposite side, yes. And that line doesn't belong at all."

Once all the changes had been made, Rialyn walked around them a final time and nodded.

"Pass. But as I had to point out the mistakes first, you still must suffer your punishment! As well, Djuran had to go out on a job. So one of your mates or their Guides will need to take you home."

Calling up a wisp of magic, he spoke quickly. "Fionn is ready to go home and will need a ride." Flicking his fingers to send the message orb on it's way, he looked back to Fionn.

"Any questions while we wait for the taxi service?"

Fionn shook his head, then paused.

"Well, out with it!"

Shrinking back slightly and ducking his head, the Golden Fae licked his lips slightly before speaking.

"It's not about healing exactly. But you said last time that Djuran needed the sparring sessions to get rid of magic safely?"

A soft snort brought his head back up to see Rialyn flopped in a chair, toying with one of the amber beads hanging from his red braids.

"That is technically about healing. In a way. Djinn grow more powerful the older they get. Which means they have access to more magic. The more magic they have, the lower their body temperature gets. It never gets to freezing or anything, but their temperature is below human-normal, just like Fae are a bit above human-normal."

Fionn nodded to show he was listening, eyes fixed on Rialyn and trying to catalog everything with the rest of what he was learning about Djinn.

"If they go to long without using their magic, they need to bleed some of it off. Otherwise there is always a chance of it exploding out of them, or super-powering something they were not intending it to. Sparring, fighting, manual labor, running, dancing, sex..." he paused and looked slyly at Fionn.

"Anything that makes them exert themselves, will help to bleed the excess magic off without accidents happening. As Djuran is older than almost any of the other Djinn in this area of the Realm, he has a lot of magic, and so he needs to bleed it off more often."

"Is that what happened to Fred and George? Did he have too much magic and so it changed them into Demons?"

Rialyn flushed faintly and his eyes flicked towards the window and then back.

"Nooo... That was a slight miscalculation about how much magic was bound, and it's affect on the horcrux Djuran insisted on removing at the same time. While it's true that I had Seen them as Demons when I checked your Harry's conditions to our favors, I didn't bother to see why or how it had happened." He shrugged one shoulder, then sat up as a CRACK! of thunder sounded and Laric appeared in the room.

"Your taxi is here! See you next week!" Rialyn was up and brushing past Laric on his way out the door and further into the house. Laric sighed softly, then held out an arm towards Fionn. Both of them too used to the red-haired Fae's antics by now.