Karazin's head hurt; it felt like a bunch of bull trolls had done a polka in his skull. Then again, a headache was better than dead any day. Come to think of it, why wasn't he dead? The last thing he remembered was getting shot in the chest. Several times. He could still feel the wounds, but the pain was… dull, as if he was already starting to heal; and the only way that was possible, was if… Oh no.

Karazin opened his eyes and shot up into a sitting position, and instantly regretted every choice he'd ever made that had led to that moment; the pain was… well, it felt like he had been shot in the chest. Several times. Evidently he wasn't completely healed, which meant that he hadn't been out for too long; if he was where he thought he was, then he should've been fully healed in days.

Karazin looked around and, sure enough, he was in a small room with a wooden floor and ceiling, stone-brick walls, and a single window across which cloth drapes were currently drawn to darken the room slightly. The room was sparsely furnished; only containing the bed on which he was currently sitting, a small bedside table right across from where his head had just been, and a couple simple wooden chairs on the other side of the room.

He'd never been in a private ward of the Weldyn medical center, but he was pretty sure this is what they looked like. He was a little surprised that 'she' hadn't put him in his old room, but he supposed he injuries must have been so severe that immediate medical attention had been required.

Karazin sighed. "I guess there's no escaping now; 'she' has me, and she's not going to let me out of her sight again until…"

His train of thought was interrupted by a knock at the door.

"Are you awake?" came a young, feminine voice from the other side of the door.

"Y-yeah," Karazin said, wincing at the sharp pain it caused between his eyes.

The door opened a crack, then closed abruptly.

"A… are you decent?" asked the voice.

Karazin looked down and realized, to his embarrassment, that he was not.

"Hold on just a second," he told the voice.

Karazin got out of bed and stood up, and was immediately wracked with waves of intense discomfort as his body protested that no, he was not well enough to get up yet thank you very much. Suppressing the pain, he scanned the room for any sort of clothing. Seeing that the bedside table had a pull-out drawer, he opened it and saw, to no small surprise, his old clothes. Pulling them out of the drawer he saw that they'd been freshly washed, and the holes in them had all been sewn back up; they looked better than they had when he'd originally left Weldyn.

Now Karazin was starting to get confused; why would his old clothes be here, and why had such great care been taken to clean and repair them? It's not like they were the only clothes he had, or even the nicest; he'd have expected them to be thrown away, and a new set procured. It didn't add up…

Realizing that the girl, or the person he assumed to be a girl, was still waiting for him to get dressed, he quickly did so; ignoring his aching chest, and the suspicion which was growing in his mind. Maybe all wasn't lost; maybe, somehow, 'she' hadn't found him. He had to make sure, and there was only one person in the immediate vicinity who could answer his questions.

"Okay, you can come in," he said.

The door opened, and into the room stepped a girl who couldn't have been more than eighteen; Karazin's own age. She had auburn hair which was tied up in a bun, striking forest-green eyes which were vaguely catlike, and ears which, like Karazin's, tapered to a point at the tips; in all, her elven heritage was even more clear than his own. She was wearing the white, dress-like robes of the White Order; Mages specially trained in the healing arts, and commonly employed as doctors.

"Good to see you're awake," she said. "You were in pretty bad shape when they found you."

"I'd imagine so," Karazin said. "Now then, question one; who's 'they'?"

"A rapid-response team of Seekers," the girl answered, "under orders directly from the High Council. I can't tell you any more than that."

Karazin nodded; Seekers were Mages trained as elite trackers, and masters of teleportation and spatial-warping magic. It would make sense that the Council would send them after him and, in retrospect, he was kind of glad they did.

"Okay then," he said, "Second question; where am I?"

"About three feet in front of me," the girl answered with a cheeky grin. "Why?"

Karazin smiled despite himself. "Very funny, but I'd really appreciate a straight answer."

The girl rolled her eyes. "Okay, fine; you're in Elensefar. More specifically, you're in the emergency ward of the Elensefar medical center; although I'm guessing you probably could've figured that one out on your own."

Karazin shrugged. "Probably. Anyway, question three; how long have I been out?"

"You got here the evening of two days ago," the girl said, "And it's morning now; you slept like a rock for more than a full day. And a good thing too, or you wouldn't have recovered so quickly."

"That's not too long," Karazin muttered to himself. "Alright then," he said, addressing the girl again, "my last question; who knows I'm here aside from you, me, and the Council?"

The girl looked looked thoughtful. "Well, no one really; you were brought in as an anonymous victim of the attack on Fort Tath, and I was assigned to you. I only recognised you once I got a good look at you; you look almost completely different, but I recognised your… well… never mind."

Karazin raised an eyebrow in a quizzical manner. "My… what, exactly?"

The girl sighed in resignation. "Your smell; even after living on the road for I don't know how long, you still smell... different; like the air right after a summer storm. I've never met anyone else who smelled like that, so I knew it was you."

Karazin was completely stunned; she knew him by smell? Who exactly was this girl? She was obviously very familiar with him, but how was that possible; he wasn't exactly the kind of person who people were… familiar with. Plus, he couldn't remember ever meeting her before.

He must have looked just as astonished as he felt, because the girl furrowed her brow in concern.

"Are you okay?" she asked. "You look like you've seen a ghost."

Karazin forced his expression back to neutrality. "I'm sorry to have to ask this, but... who exactly are you?"

The girl was stunned for a second before Karazin's words sank in; when she realised what he was saying, she looked as though the words had ripped a hole in her chest.

"You… you really don't remember me?" she asked, almost pleadingly. "Maria, from the Academy? We… we studied together."

Karazin closed his eyes and searched his memories; he could barely remember his time spent studying at the Academy of Alduin, the single largest school of Magic in Wesnoth. Trying to remember anything about his past was like looking through a thick fog; he had to know exactly what he was looking for.

Then, he found something; the girl, Maria, was telling the truth. They had studied together, and had become close friends; that explained why she knew him so well, but he still felt like there was something he couldn't see. Something he was missing…

"I… I remember," Karazin said, calling up as many memories as he could about Maria; and with each one, Maria's image in his mind grew stronger and more defined. "You always wanted to be a Sorcerer, but your parents wanted you to join the White Order instead. You…" he chuckled. "You got me into a lot of trouble with my parents; I remember sneaking up onto the roof one night and watching a meteor shower together. I'd expected to hate the Academy, but you made it almost… fun."

Maria looked relieved, but slightly disappointed at the same time. "Is that all you remember?"

Karazin grinned impishly. "I remember helping you with your homework a lot; especially where chemistry was concerned."

Maria giggled a little. "Yeah, and I saved your butt when you almost failed herbology."

Karazin winced. "I thought we agreed never to speak of that."

Maria laughed. It was a sweet, innocent laugh; almost childlike. Karazin liked they way she laughed; he remembered being, to be honest, a bit of an idiot sometime just to try to make her laugh. Hearing it now, he felt genuinely happy; which was something he hadn't experienced in far, far too long.

"I haven't laughed like that in a while," Maria said once her laughter had stopped. "I've missed you so much, J…"

Before she could finish her sentence, Karazin clamped his hand across her mouth; her eyes widened in surprise, then she slapped his hand away angrily.

"What'd you do that for?" she said, glaring at him.

Karazin sighed. "I'm sorry, I really am; but you can't use my real name."

Maria's expression became one of concern. "But… why not?"

"Because I'm pretty sure there's a hex on it," Karazin said. "As well as other words relating to my… position, if you catch my meaning."

Maria looked like she was struggling to comprehend what he was telling her. "But why? What's going on; I mean, you're the c..."

Once again, Karazin quickly placed his hand across her mouth before she could finish.

"Sorry, again," Karazin said, removing his hand. "But it's really important that you don't use my real name or title; at least for now. Until this all blows over, my name is Karazin Duskwalker; I'm a wandering swordsman from Blackwater Port, nothing more."

Maria sighed. "Alright. And I suppose you can't tell me what this is all about either?"

He shook his head. "No, sorry; I couldn't describe it without triggering the hex. I can't even be sure that I haven't already."

Maria nodded. Hexes were rather nasty pieces of magic which could detect when a certain word was spoken by anyone within a certain radius of the caster; it worked by simultaneously searching for matching sound waves, and a matching mental image which went with it. They were tough to maintain, and weren't always accurate, but it was one of the easiest ways of finding someone if all you knew about them was their name; and 'she' had more than enough manpower at her disposal to investigate any and every time the hex was triggered.

Karazin furrowed his brow in confusion at a sudden realisation; if 'she' already had him, then what would be the point in being careful about the hex. So why did he still feel on edge about it…

"Wait a second," he said. "Maria, you said I was brought here anonymously; do you think… does my mother know I'm here?"

Maria shook her head. "No; the council hasn't informed her yet, as far as I know anyway. Which, I have to admit, I found kind of strange..."

Karazin breathed a sigh of relief; suddenly he felt much more at ease. The Council certainly knew it was him, so their failure to inform 'her' meant that they were siding with him; or at least, they were reserving judgement until they could give him a formal hearing. In which case…

"There's still hope," he thought to himself. "If you can convince even one or two of the council to support you, then the others might be convinced as well."

And, although he hated to admit it, he knew exactly which two Council members would be the first to trust him.

"I need an audience with the council," Karazin said.

"That'll be fairly easy," Maria said. "They told me to send you in as soon as you were well enough to walk."

Karazin nodded. "Thank you; in that case, I won't keep them waiting."

He took a step towards the door, but Maria put her hand on his shoulder and held him back.

"Now, wait just one minute," she said sternly. "I don't care if you are one of the most talented young Mages in recent history, you just took three arrows to the chest.

Karazin scratched his head. "Really? I only remember there being two arrows..."

"Trust me, there were three; I had to pull them out," Maria said. "You looked like a pincushion; but that's not important! You're not fully healed, and you're not going anywhere."

"And you think you can stop me?" Karazin asked, raising an eyebrow.

Maria smiled smugly. "If someone's chasing you, and they're smart and powerful enough to put a hex out for you, then I'm guessing you can't risk using magic; if that's the case then yes, I think I can. Now then, back to bed with you."

Karazin scowled, but he knew she was right; he needed to rest more, and she was more than capable of making sure he did.

"Yes, 'mother'," he said sarcastically, walking back over to the bed.

Maria chuckled. "You know I'd love to be your mother, except that then I wouldn't get to…"

Karazin, who was in the process of pulling the sheets over himself, looked at her quizzically.

"Wouldn't get to… what?" he asked curiously.

Maria shook her head and turned to leave. "Nothing," she said, with a touch of sadness in her voice. "Just an old dream I once had."

With that, she closed the door behind her; leaving Karazin to wonder what on Irdya she could've meant by that.

"Women and their cryptic comments," he thought to himself. "You might live your whole life with one, and still not understand them one bit."

He sighed. "If that's the case, then I'm never getting married; things I don't understand frighten me."

"There are plenty of women you probably should be afraid of," he thought to himself again, "But Maria isn't one of them; trust me on this one."

"I hope you're right," he muttered.