It was two whole days before Jason finally awoke. As soon as he opened his eyes, he immediately regretted it, since there was so much sunlight coming through. He could tell he was on his bed, the scratchy surface oddly comforting. By turning his head, he could see Pythagoras at the table, but with slits for eyes, he couldn't see what was wrong with the man – he seemed to be slumped over his porridge.

Jason motioned to get up from his cozy nest of a bed and check on Pythagoras – something was wrong, he could tell. When he made the motion to get up, stars swam in front of his eyes, and he yelped from the sudden pain in his shoulder, along his right side, and his neck. It felt like everything was in a vice, and he was absolutely powerless to stop it. He panted, trying to ride out the waves of pain, blinking furiously to rid his vision of the black spots that threatened to take it.

Suddenly, Pythagoras was there, soothing words and finding a cool cloth for his head. Jason turned his head – the only thing he could do without hurting himself further, and wanted to say "What happened?", but all that came out was a low groan.

Pythagoras smoothed the cloth over his forehead and smiled. "Welcome back, Jason, we weren't sure if you would ever return." Jason's eyebrows disappeared under his mop of brown curly hair as his groan turned into a question mark. "You've been asleep and unconscious for two days now, and you've only started to heal from the pankration", Pythagoras mentioned softly, noticing how sensitive his friend was to sound. He pulled out a small vial from the bedside floor. "I need you to drink all of this for me, OK" he soothed his friend. Though Jason didn't know it at the time, Pythagoras had created a healing balm laced with a strong sedative.

Pythagoras helped Jason drink the tonic, and watched as the young man's eyes fluttered, losing battle with sleep. "Rest, Jason" he soothed, wringing out the cloth and placing it on the warm forehead for the umpteenth time. "Just rest."