A/N: Super sorry to everyone for such a late update. I have just been so darn crazy-busy, and it's only now that my schedule has a rare light moment in it. Starting tomorrow, though, I'm back in workload hell. I took the opportunity to type up this quick chapter, although I had no time to edit it or anything. So I'm really, really sorry if it's not all that good this time.

Also, as my registered reviewers know, I reply to all reviews--although I haven't answered those who aren't registered at FFnet. I'd just like to give a shout-out of thanks to them. I'm especially pinpointing Chris, because I'm concerned about you, dear mysterious reviewer. I hope that whatever's going on in your life works out somehow.

Lastly, I'd like to dedicate this chapter to my friend Brad Trinity 666, for helping me out during exams. He doesn't read this fic--he doesn't do Kyou Kara Maou and only reviews my CCS story--but even if he doesn't know it, I'm thanking him. And of course to starlight2005, beloved best friend!

Well, this is taking a bit too long, so without further ado, I present to you Chapter Six.

Chapter Six: Captivity and Silence—the Lies that Hide the Truth

"How did this happen?" Conrart asked grimly. Greta shook her head through wordless sobs. Thankfully, the fire had been put out just a few hours ago, but the smell of flames and sulfur lingered in the air. It reminded him of his little brother—and where Wolfram was, he didn't know. For a second he glanced down at the many golden-haired corpses littering the ground but he tore his eyes away.

"He's not there," Gwendal told him, looking down as well and going white. Still, he kept his voice steady, like the true soldier that he was. "Thank Shinou—although we still can't be sure whether he's alive or not." The older man looked upset for once, his anxiety cracking through his usual stern exterior. "I thought that he would be safer here at home."

"No one could have known what was coming," Günter interjected. "It wasn't your fault."

Gwendal shook his head. "No, it was my responsibility to foresee this."

"Greta, darling, it may be very hard for you, but could you tell us what happened?" Conrart asked gently.

Slowly she lowered her hands from her face. "They took them," she said in a tremulous voice. "They took Yuuri, Wolfram and Murata."

"Who did?"

"They came during the evening… or early morning. I can't remember properly." She shook her head. "And now they're gone."

In a cage, miles and miles away, Wolfram leaned against the bars before shying away from them almost immediately.

"You okay, Wolf?" Yuuri whispered from the cage beside his.

"I'm fine," the prince said, curling up into a little ball in the very middle of his prison. "I don't really feel like talking right now, Yuuri." Tears seeped out of the corners of his eyes. "I didn't know that he was a traitor."

"You can't blame yourself for what Devon did," Yuuri said comfortingly.

"It's all my fault!"

It had been sometime around two in the morning when a larger-than-expected band of humans had arrived. Better-equipped, and certainly more prepared than they had ever dreamed. Even Conrart wouldn't have been able to foresee what would happen.

It had been Wolfram's turn on patrol, at the east side of the walls—just where they were weakest. He had just prepared to shoot up his signature flames when he had felt a knife on his neck and a hand skillfully snatching his sword away from him.

"I don't advise that, Prince Wolfram."

"Devon!" he breathed. "You—"

Still, he wasted no time and shot up the tongues of fire. With a curse, Devon placed the knife closer to his skin, making a small incision. He gasped, felt dizzy; it was a blade made of esoteric stone. "You're a demon too," he managed to say.

"I'm an orphan, Lord von Bielefeld. Surely you knew that? Grew up on the very borders of the Great Demon Kingdom, where I was taken in by humans instead of my own kind." A smile forced it way on his face. "I'm a half-blood, Prince Wolfram. And I have no reason to be grateful or loyal to the Demon Kingdom."

And to think that he had accepted Devon because he had felt sorry for him! "You lousy human scum!" he said. If he couldn't attack with his magic, the least he could do was lash out at the boy; weaponless, he tried to strike with his fists, but Devon leapt agilely out of the way.

"It's nice to see that all the training you gave me hasn't gone to waste, Lord von Bielefeld. I learned a lot from you." Devon looked almost sorry. "And I suppose that I fell in love with you like all the rest, but even you aren't worth giving up everything that my adopted race has done for me."

"I don't care for your flowery professions of some sad infatuation," Wolfram snapped. "They're coming. Can you really butcher your comrades in cold blood?"

For a moment Devon seemed to pale at the statement before he recovered and said, "Theseare my true comrades." He smiled at a group of men who had appeared out of nowhere. Oh, Shinou! They were already inside.

"He's the one who sent up that signal? We ought to wring his pretty little neck."

"No!" Devon said harshly. "He's the demon king's fiancé. He's insurance; as long as we have him, they won't fight back."

Wolfram heard the words with a sense of dread. "No, no…" he tried jerking his head back so that dagger would bite deeper into his skin. The esoteric stone would have killed him, but Devon quickly moved it away. "They're going to come, and they're going to fight!" They would, wouldn't they? He felt nauseated as Devon thrust him at one of the rebels.

"Keep an eye on him," Devon said sharply. "But mind that you don't treat him too roughly, or we'll have a pack of trouble." He winced when he saw Wolfram's beautiful head of golden hair grasped in the man's hand to hold him up, because Wolfram was weakening rapidly.

His soldiers came pouring in, and he was relieved to see the mass of blue-uniformed men through misty, blurred eyes. They stared at him, held up by a mere hank of hair in some rough human's hand.

"Don't just stand there!" he cried out. Devon held the knife menacingly to his throat, but Wolfram just laughed sardonically. By pure instinct, he knew that the traitor wouldn't actually do it. "Go ahead and try, Devon. It would be the worst stunt for you to pull." He raised his head at his soldiers. "FIGHT, DAMN YOU!"

He felt a foot kicking his stomach, and he crumpled. He was relieved only by the sound of war cries and anger from his men. Good.Through his rapidly darkening vision, he could barely make out the faint outlines of two double blacks racing to the scene. And that was all he remembered before he passed out.

Murata reflected that in retrospect, their actions had been admirable; very noble, very brave—but also very, very stupid.

"The double black," the humans had muttered, glaring at them. "Two of them."

Devon smiled, waved, trying to look nonchalant as he did so but failing spectacularly; he looked odd—a demon in the midst of humans. He looked like a reminder of some sin from the past. And he was killing his comrades, although Murata could see the greenish cast of his face when he did so. Andrew fell first; then came Bernard. All the people who had been appointed to guard the east side with him. And he was using the moves that Wolfram himself had taught him.

Murata felt Yuuri going into King Mode, until suddenly Murata grabbed his arm. No, no, no!

"Shibuya,no!"

Yuuri's big grayish-black eyes looked back at him; still devoid of the magic that he used, thank Shinou. But already he could see tendrils of blue light mixing with his dark hair. "Murata, what…?" Already his voice had lowered to a growl of anger.

The Great Sage's words were choked, but it only took three words. "They have Wolf." And everyone else was dead.

"Wolfram?" The magic faded. His eyes fell on the prince slumped limply on the ground, a knife held to his throat made of the same shining material of the swords of their enemies. His eyes narrowed. No wonder; they were made of esoteric stone. Devon was good, but not good enough to take down a whole squad without some 'help'—in other words, telling his human friends to utilize the demon weakness. He saw that there was a cut on Wolfram's neck, and the blonde demon wasn't breathing. "WHAT DID YOU DO TO HIM?"

"Even if you tried to use magic to save him, he would be dead before you would be able to finish us off," Devon warned. "He's still alive. But if you act, not for long."

"Shibuya…"

Yuuri's face darkened, but he did nothing. "Do we have any choice?"

"He's our insurance," one of the humans said smugly.

"DON'T TALK ABOUT HIM LIKE THAT!" Yuuri yelled. "Who the hell do you think you are?"

"We don't think we're anything. We're his captors."

"I swear to you, you will diefor this," Yuuri hissed. Murata put a warning hand on his shoulder. He couldn't let Yuuri lose control. He wanted to rip them apart, one by one, sentencing each man to a slow and painful death… but that would have to wait until Wolfram was safe in his arms again. He couldn't let them do anything to risk Wolfram.

"What is your purpose in coming here?" Murata asked.

"We have come to claim what is rightfully ours, demon filth. This land is ours and your king is but our slave."

"So basically you're thugs making delusional claims," Yuuri said angrily. "I've tried making peace with the humans!"

"That's what you claimto be doing," one said coldly. "And yet, if that were true, why do you continue oppressing our people? That incident where you fled with our female prisoners at the esoteric mines—"

"They were married to demons! Of course I had to take them back, they didn't commit any crimes!"

"Yes, they did." Devon glared at him. "Mixing the races—what were they thinking?"

"You can't control love!"

"What do you know of love?" Devon pointed out.

Yuuri turned crimson. "I... I love Wolfram!" he burst out. Murata paled, but restrained him with difficulty.

"Calm down, Shibuya," he said softly. "You're making the situation worse. We can't do or say anything that will let them get the upper hand."

"It is a crime," they said, and it was settled; they left no room for argument (or rather, they refused to listen to Yuuri afterwards). "And you have committed a crime as well, by breaking our rules and setting free prisoners over whom you have no authority."

But Wolfram's signal had not gone unnoticed; in a nearby village, Gwendal's men were already riding towards them. Conrart, Jossak and Günter were on the way as well.

One of the human lookouts came towards them. "It's no use, we can't take the castle all in one go—and apparently thisbrat alerted them." And with that he kicked Wolfram in the side. Yuuri was alarmed to note that Wolfram didn't even respond to this brutality.

"Burn it, then."

"NO!" Yuuri cried out, but Murata grabbed him.

"Shibuya, whatever you try to do, they'll take it out on Wolfram. And don't think that they'll just kill him outright; they'll torture him slowly." He exhaled slowly. "We have no choice."

"But… Greta… and Anissina…"

"They don't know that they're there," Murata said quietly. "I told them to hide in the woods behind here just before we came out."

"Stop whispering," ordered one of the humans. "Just stand there." He leveled a sword at Yuuri's throat. "And this one will die."

Murata let out a laugh. "Just try it."

"He'd better do as we say, if he doesn't want his pretty little fiancé to get killed…"

"Don't, Yuuri," he whispered urgently in the other double black's ear. "Help's on the way… and besides, Wolf wouldn't want you to die for his sake like this. They won't kill him."

"How can you be so sure?"

Murata's eyes were like black ice. "Because if they do, I will kill them. Every single one of them. I'll completely annihilate the human race in one stroke."

Devon started at the tone. "No, they're… ah… they're more useful as bargaining tools!" he said suddenly. "The lords won't hand over the demon kingdom in exchange for a mere prince's life. The only thing to do is to take all three of them."

"But…"

The former cadet put his hands on his hips. "I know the way this kingdom works! They won't agree—they only see Prince Wolfram as one product of the queen's many, many affairs. There's no point. We need the king and the Great Sage."

Later Murata was grateful that Devon had spoken up. If not, he would have gone mad—absolutely mad—wondering what they had done to Wolfram. If not, he and Yuuri could be dead; and likely he would also have wiped out the humans, as he had told Yuuri.

Yuuri held out his wrists willingly. "Here."

"Shibuya…?"

"If they're taking Wolfram… I'm going along too."

Fools, the both of them, Wolfram thought after Yuuri had finished recounting what had happened. He couldn't help crying, and the tears flowed freely down his face. Not that he had much of a choice—his hands were bound, and he couldn't wipe them away. He still felt nauseous. Instinctively he knew that his ropes were studded with esoteric stones, and it was a miracle that he was still conscious. So, too, was his prison; it was made out of esoteric stone. They must have spent a fortune on this endeavor, to be able to afford so much of the precious, dreaded jewel.

"Ah… Wolf?"

"Don't. Talk. To. Me. Right. Now."

"But… are you mad?"

"Head. Hurts." He rocked back and forth in the fetal position, wondering how long he could stay sane under these conditions. "Yuuri. You. Idiot."

"Idiot?"

His emotions overcame his pounding migraine. "Yes! An idiot! How could you just chase after me like that? You could have gotten rid of them… and a fire? You could have put out a fire, no problem. Why? Why did you have to listen to them?" He looked accusingly at the other man through the bars of their cages. "All my soldiers…" His stomach twisted.

"You'rethe one being an idiot, Wolfram!" Yuuri countered. "Did you really think that I would just leave you to die like that?"

"Yes, you could have. For Conrart, Gwendal, Günter. For Greta, Anissina, mother… for Andrew and Bernard and Sylva, for Kier and Leopold, for Johann and Lander, Japes and Colville… for yourself, you fool! For the Great Sage..."

Yuuri heard the prince sniffling even though Wolfram turned his back to him. "Wolf… ah, no, I'm sorry! But… if you were in my place… I think that you would have done the same thing."

Wolfram wiped at his eyes. "Shut up! If it was one of my men, in my place, I would have known that they wouldn't want me to sacrifice the kingdom just for their sake."

"Wolf, what if the person whom you loved most was in that position?"

He closed his eyes, picturing it. Would it be Yuuri… or Murata? All he could see was a blur of dark hair. He couldn't see the face clearly. But he knew—he knew with all his heart—that he would readily have given up the whole world just to save that one person. Still, he refused to admit it to the king. "It doesn't matter, Yuuri! I… am not the one whom you love the most."

"You… are."

The prince's eyes snapped open. "What?"

"I'm sorry… I just… when I saw you lying there I realized that I would have given anything—given anyone—just to have you safe… and I thought, would I react this way if it was someone else? Would I want to destroy all of them without even thinking before I act? And I… I came to understand… that I…"

"YOUR TIMING SUCKS!"

Yuuri flinched at the vehement tone. "I know, I know…"

"You wimp." Wolfram was crying harder now. "I thought… oh, Shinou. I thought that I should just give up on you. Stupid, stupid… wimp…"

"Wolfram, love…"

He even used the same pet name that Murata had given him. "Where… where's the Great Sage?" he asked abruptly.

"He… ah… I don't know." Yuuri squinted. "I assume that he's here somewhere…"

"You assumed?"

"I don't understand why they would separate him from us… or anything like that… but that's just the way that it goes… something that Devon said to the men…that he wanted to talk to Murata…" Yuuri eyed him anxiously as he finished his broken sentence. "Wolfram, what's wrong…? I thought… that, you know… you'd be happy. You know, even though I only realized it now. Areyou happy?"

"I am," Wolfram said miserably. "So happy that I want to cry."

"How are you feeling, Great Sage?"

Murata had the cheek to reply, "Just fine, thanks." He raised his chin at Devon. "So, cadet. Fancy meeting you here." In some human hideout, but he didn't know exactly where. They had knocked both him and Yuuri out cold on the way here, and it was highly unlikely that Wolfram had gained consciousness on the trip.

"I… I apologize." Devon sat down near the bars. He seemed to be ill at ease with the esoteric stones as well, but he managed tolerably.

"How come you don't react the way Wolfram does?" Murata questioned.

"I'm a half-human."

"Ah… yes, that would explain it, wouldn't it?" Murata shrugged. "I hope you're treating Wolfram better than me." He gestured at the cage with a vague smile.

"Worse."

"Is that so?"

"Yes… esoteric stones in the ropes and bars. We couldn't take any chances. The same went for the king, but I don't know how much that'll affect him."

"Devon, why are you telling me all this?"

The soldier took a breath. "I didn't mean for it to come to this. I suppose that I got fond of you and of Prince Wolfram during my stay at the castle—definitely a side-effect that we didn't foresee," he said grimly. "Although I'm glad to say that my burning hatred for the king hasn't changed a bit."

"Why? I thought that Yuuri treated you with the utmost kindness, just like all the other cadets…" Then Murata paused. Oh yes, Yuuri was insanely jealous of Devon. Whoops.

Devon smirked. "He didn't tell me outright that he disliked me," he said, as though reading Murata's mind. "Although you could feel it sometimes, whenever I talked of Lord von Bielefeld. Quite amusing, in fact—I picked up on that fact immediately and used it to my advantage. He never liked me, when I acted as though there was something morebetween me and Lord von Bielefeld. Foolish, though. As though the prince would ever deign to look at someone like me with anything more than a slightly patronizing comradeship." He rested his chin in his hand. "He always treated Prince Wolfram like dirt, didn't he?"

Murata's lazy smile fell. "Your statements are baseless."

"Oh, but so true! I watched—I saw more than the average soldier did, that was for sure… you even borrowed clothes from me for Prince Wolfram and I knew that you loved him. You did, didn't you?" he snickered. "The two of you were fooling around behind the king's back." The Great Sage didn't reply, merely stared coldly at him. Devon went on. "I understood, though. We all pretty much fell for Lord Wolfram… who wouldn't? Only the king was too much of a dunce to see how special and lucky he was."

"I would rather be alone, thank you, than listen to these… these lies," Murata said.

"You have no right to object. You're a prisoner, after all." Devon attempted to draw himself up haughtily. But there was something like discomfort lurking in his eyes. "Now what will you do, with Prince Wolfram locked up with His Majesty? Suppose that Prince Wolfram decides that you are not…?" He let out a yell as he was knocked back by the sudden blast of power that sent him flying into the wall.

"Fool, do you know what you are talking about? You know nothing," Murata said. "Leave."

Devon wiped away the trickle of blood at the side of his mouth. "Impressive… I see that you aren't the Great Sage for nothing…" He laughed quietly. "To use your powers even within this cage of esoteric stone…"

"Don't underestimate me."

"I don't. I'm merely curious, Great Sage… why is that you're so loyal to the demon king, even with all this? It's pointless. The demon lords would acknowledge you as king if ever His Majesty happened to die anyway. Or if not, you would at least be regent or adviser while someone like Lord Von Voltaire takes the throne. And they wouldn't object to you marrying Prince Wolfram."

"But I would." Murata's laugh was low and bitter. "Yes, I would object a great deal—Wolframwould object a great deal. I'm not like you, Devon. I would never bind Wolfram to me that way, because I would lose him completely. Don't think that Wolf wouldn't know who did it—he would. But you don't care whether he knows or not, do you? I suppose that you didn't anticipate…"

"What… what do you mean?"

"It's fairly simple to guess what you have in mind. At first, I suppose that it was your friendship with the humans that convinced you to do this. Next, they probably fed you some cock-and-bull story about making you a lord—or perhaps higher? They might even have told you that you could be king, although I doubt it. And I'm sure that you recently asked them whether you could have Wolfram—and that you never foresaw the possibility of falling in love with a demon before." Unnerved, Devon took a step back. "I'm telling you now—give up, Devon."

"I…"

"You fell in love with Wolfram? You're right in one thing: a great many of us have. But ask yourself whether he would love someone like you, a turncoat to almost everything that he stands for. Love. Trust. Loyalty. If you don't have that, you'll never have him. You're sickening. To him, you're only filthy human scum—no, even worse, because Greta's a human and yet he still loves her; to him, you're the lowest of the low. A traitor." He smirked. "Now… GET OUT."

Devon fled the room immediately, not caring whether Murata had the right to order him around or not.

"Wolf?"

"I'm trying to sleep." Anything to take his mind off the ache in his head.

Yuuri looked at him with concern. "You don't look too good."

"Because I don't FEEL too good, damn it. Do you expect me to look my best after being manhandled, tied up and imprisoned?" Wolfram rolled his eyes. "Look, wimp, if you don't want me to snap at you, I advise that you turn around and start talking to the walls instead."

The king felt a surge of despair well up in him. "Oh, Wolfram… what are we going to do?"

Wolfram raised his head slowly, painfully. "I'm sure that Gwendal and the others are searching for us even as we speak. We'll pull through somehow until then." I only hope that they get here before it's too late. "Besides, we're all their 'bargaining tools', remember? They won't hurt us, and they'll probably try to contact Gwendal to trade us off for something. I hope that Conrart doesn't persuade him into some foolish agreement, though."

"Ah… yeah."

"Well, you're the king. Couldn't you do something to maybe get us out?"

Yuuri raised an eyebrow. "Just because I'm the king doesn't mean that I can 'get us out'. Even if I tried to use my magic, there's Murata to reckon with. We still don't know where he is. I'm afraid my other half might hurt him by accident."

Instinctively, Wolfram knew that Murata would be fine. There was an almost zero percent chance of him getting killed, if ever anything happened.

Sure, there was the whole injury factor to take into consideration, but the probability of it being fatal? Practically negligible—he could get hurt, but it wouldn't totally incapacitate him. But he couldn't bring himself to say so. "Then we'll just have to wait."Because I don't want to see a single hair on his head get harmed, even if it won't make him die—even if it's our only chance.

"Are you mad at me or something?"

"No, of course not." Wolfram managed to sit up, slumping slightly. "I'm just a little… I'm trying to think things over." He sighed, staring at Yuuri's face through the bars that held him. "And I feel like hell."

"I wish I could get out of this," Yuuri said. Wolfram looked at the ropes that bound the king and saw that they were dotted with esoteric stones too, but it seemed to have little effect on him, and he envied him.

"Then use your big, scary demon king powers and bust out. After that, you can switch back to normal Yuuri."

"I might not be able to switch back."

"Then, as I already said, we wait." Wolfram leg accidentally brushed against one of the bars and he instantly recoiled. "Yuuri, please,pleasedon't talk to me right now, or I'm going to be sick."

"Gee, Wolf… you look so miserable…"

"BECAUSE I AMMISERABLE!"

"I wish that I could set you free. I was furious with them when I saw them touching you…" His voice had turned low, cold. "I wanted to kill them, every single one of them… I wanted to deliver justice…"

Wolfram shot him a pained glance. "No, Yuuri, don't turn into the king! Stop thinking about those things. I'm sure that Conrart and Gwendal will come soon." He sighed. "If they don't, I'll stop feeling the pain pretty soon anyway."

"What? Really?"

The prince gave him a sickly smile. "Yeah, really. So don't worry too much about it, okay? I'm going to sleep."

"But… I've never heard of a demon eventually becoming accustomed to esoteric stones…"

Wolfram sighed. "The cases where a demon is under prolonged exposure to esoteric stones is rare anyway—and I've never heard of one actually being boundwith esoteric stones. However, based on the information that I've gotten from reading some obscure history books, I think I have a pretty good idea of what's going to happen." He shrugged. "Murata reads in the library a lot, and he used to ask me to accompany him. That way I learned lots of stuff that I never quite knew before."

"And you'll really stop feeling the effects of the esoteric stones?"

"Yes, I'm fairly sure. Don't worry about it, Yuuri."

"Promise, Wolf?"

"It'll all be gone in a few days." He paused. "Hey, Yuuri?"

"Yeah?"

"I love you, wimp." Why did he sound so sad when he said it?

"Greta said that they passed by the woods, but they didn't see either her or Anissina, thank Shinou," Gwendal said, digging his heels into the sides of his horse so that it would go faster. "She had a hard time controlling Anissina to make her stay put. I'm glad that she did, though—otherwise it could have been a great deal more problematic. At least Anissina realized that she would endanger the both of them if she tried anything."

"Heading off somewhere to the north. That'll be hard… they went off into the mountainous regions," Conrart said. "It'll be difficult to track them. And as it is…" He examined the grass. "They're good. Not too good—you can see where they made some marks—but all the same, it'll be very difficult."

Günter was looking uncharacteristically serious. "I think that there's an even more pressing problem, though."

Jossak frowned. "What, you mean even more important than the king, the king's fiancé, and the Great Sage all being kidnapped? Plus the fact that the castle was practically destroyed?"

The adviser flushed and glared at him. "Well, when you put it that way, of course not. But while you three were preparing the troops for the search, Greta mentioned something else to me."

"Well, get on with it. There's no point in dragging it out."

"She said that she noticed that the ropes that they were tied up in were glittering with tiny blue stones."

Conrart gave a little start of surprise. "Blue stones?"

Günter winced. "Yes. And what blue stone would they possibly use to bind three demons?"

The others took in a collective breath. "Esoteric stones?" Conrart said in horror.

"Unless they've started using sapphire ropes, there's really no other possibility, is there?" Jossak said dryly. "Well, I don't think that the Great Sage or the king will have a problem. But Little Lord Brat's another matter."

"Being tied up with esoteric stones… it's never been done before," Gwendal said, a deep line cutting between his brows. He remembered the pain of being trapped in a jail whose walls were covered with the esoteric stones. But to have them in direct contact to your skin… "We have to find him. Now."

Murata wondered how much time had passed since they had been brought here. He wasn't sure how long he had been out cold, and there were no windows in the chamber containing his tiny cage. He felt like an animal, longing to escape. Where were Yuuri and Wolfram? It wasn't fair that he was on his own, while the two of them at least got to be together.

In the room just beside the one where he was imprisoned, Wolfram felt as though he was slowly going mad. He made soft, whimpering sounds that nearly broke Yuuri's heart. He cried out for his mother and for Conrart. When he was younger, they were the two people he had run to when he had nightmares. And he was looking for their presence to soothe him and to tell him that it was all over. Shinou, he wished that it was all over.

And at times he wept out Murata's name, making broken, incoherent statements about the Great Sage that almost drove Yuuri crazy with anxiety.

"Wolf… I'm getting really, really worried. You're not looking any better at all," Yuuri said.

"I… fine…" Wolfram managed to choke out through panting breaths, tears forming in his eyes from the effort, turning lucid once more. "No… worry… Yuuri…"

"How can I notworry?" he cried out. "I can't stand seeing you like this!"

Wolfram held up a hand to signal him to be quiet. "It's… only… been… half a day, I think… so… it's… nothing… I don't… I'm fine…"

"Good evening," Devon said, entering the room. He was carrying a tray loaded with food. "I thought that the two of you might be hungry." He glanced at Wolfram and paled, but he merely busied himself with their meal. He held out a bowl of some poor stew for Yuuri. "Your Majesty," he said, his voice laden with venom as he said the title.

Yuuri wanted to turn it away, but his stomach grumbled and he hesitantly accepted it.

"It's not poisoned," Devon added contemptuously. "If we wanted to kill you, a sword would have been neater work—cheaper, too."

"Maybe you wouldn't be worrying about your budget so much if you didn't waste all your money on buying esoteric stones," Yuuri said.

"But if we did that, then we wouldn't have any prisoners in the first place, would we?" Devon returned. "I'm not saying that I wanted this to happen to Prince Wolfram…" He looked genuinely troubled as he set the food down beside the blonde demon.

"Can't… eat…" Wolfram muttered, shrinking away from the smell. "Give… my share… to Yuuri…"

"You'll die if you don't eat!" Devon said. He seemed to be debating something with himself. "Oh… oh Shinou… I wish I could…" He stopped, shaking his head. "I'm sorry. I can't do anything for you."

Yuuri pounded on the bars of his cage. "Yes, you can! You have a choice!"

"No, I DON'T!" Devon glared at him.

"Yuuri… stop it…" Another time, he might have been the one yelling at Devon. But now, he was just weary and sick of it all. "Please."

"Wolf…"

Devon ducked his head. "I really am sorry, you know," he said softly.

Wolfram raised his head. "Where… Murata?"

The former cadet flinched as thought the word was a blow. "He's fine. I made sure of that."

"Please… let us all… just stay… together…" The prince had been reduced to begging. Once you were ill enough to refuse food, it seemed that you were ill enough to plead—pride just didn't seem as important when he was caught in such pain. "Please?"

"I can't do that either. If he were here, he might devise some plan for the three of you to escape." Devon sat down. "We canlet you go free, though. But there are a number of conditions."

Yuuri looked warily at him. "What kind of conditions?"

A/N: Cliffhanger again! Thanks for reading this far. Sorry if it was really rushed. I'd still like to get your feedback on this, though. As always: more reviews, faster updates. Of late the reviews for Broken Trinity has been decreasing, so I hope that it'll get back up to it's normal number. Thanks again!