Kane felt more like his old self with every mile they put behind them. Just as well since, at Jack's urging, they hiked through the groves like hunted men. Though the mage made no other displays of emotion after that first morning, he moved with a restless energy: he hardly ate, hardly slept; even when they stopped to rest, he paced nervously, never sitting still. He seemed none the worse for it, but Kane found it extremely worrying.

It was almost surreal, like a dream, when they at last entered the city once more. They reached the castle gate late in the day. The guards on duty, different guards than they had seen on their first visit, dressed in plate armor rather than the brown hardened leather they'd been wearing before, were reluctant to admit them. Kane understood the guards' hesitation, given how he and Jack must appear after days of hard travel through the forest, but it took considerable convincing to get the guards to send even a short message to Gollor.

"I don't like that," he whispered to Jack when a messenger finally ran inside. "Either these particular guards take themselves too seriously, or they've tightened security on the castle."

The messenger returned only minutes later. Kane and Jack were allowed in, though the guards watched them suspiciously as they took the path around the side of the castle toward the servant's entrance closest to Gollor's rooms. The old man was waiting for them at the door. "Thank the gods. This way, quickly," he said, motioning them to follow him within.

He didn't speak again until he'd ushered them into his study, closing and locking the door behind him. He looked between the two of them and his brows drew together in concern. "Where are your companions?" he asked.

"They're not back yet?" Kane asked. He turned to Jack. "They should have been here by now, surely?"

"We don't know how long it might have taken your father to recover," said Jack, shaking his head. To Gollor, he said, "They were fine when we left them. Kane and I took a different path."

Gollor settled into a chair, motioning for them to sit as well though neither of them did. His voice was weary as he said, "Something happened, didn't it? Three nights past?"

Jack stiffened at those words. "Did the curse break?" he asked breathlessly.

Gollor sighed. "Yes. And yet, no. It's as strong as ever, but Aryon grows weaker by the day. Its nature has changed. It used to exist independently of the prince; now, it's using the prince's life force to sustain itself. Lena says it's dug in like a tick."

"How is she?" Jack asked.

"Tired," said Gollor. "We all are. The king has grown especially paranoid. The entire castle is on high alert."

That explains the guards, Kane thought. He said, "We found something that may help, but we left it with my father. He was supposed to be here before us." He sighed. No time to worry about that now. "We need to tell Lena what we've learned. Where can we find her?"

"She's with the prince," Gollor said. "It will do her good to see you've returned safely."

Kane nodded. "Come on, Jack."

But as Kane moved toward the door, Jack didn't follow him. "Go without me," he said.

Kane stopped with his hand on the door handle. That drive to reach Elfheim so quickly, the force that had kept the mage going these past few days, it had been for her, hadn't it? He looked at Jack, but as usual those blue eyes revealed nothing of what he might be thinking. "What?" Kane asked.

"I need to have a word with Gollor," Jack said. His voice was level, but he dropped his gaze to the floor.

"Gollor will wait," Kane said, glancing at the older mage who nodded in agreement. "Come on."

"I can't," Jack said.

"Why not?"

"She'll know what I've done," Jack said, no more than a whisper, but Kane heard the guilt in his voice.

Kane remembered Jack saying, "I did to him what he was planning to do to you." But that wasn't his fault! he thought. He spoke sharply, his tone reflecting his slowly rising anger. "You saved my life. That's what you've done. Lena will understand. Now come on." He grabbed Jack's shoulder and propelled him toward the door.

The mage pulled back against Kane's grip. "I can't," he said more forcefully than before, but with panic in his eyes, as cowardly as Refial had been outside that Leifenish ruin.

Kane stared at his friend, but released him, perhaps more roughly than he would have liked. He counted silently to ten before he spoke, though there was still an edge to his voice as he said, "Have it your own way, then," and left the room.

By the time he reached the prince's hallway, the anger was gone, replaced by weariness. It was beginning to set in at last just how long the journey for the crown had been, how focused they were on getting back here, to this place, to the white mage who waited just inside this room, and now here he was at the open door.

She didn't notice him at first, as she bent over the prince and worked whatever spell she was doing, murmuring quietly to him as she recited Leviathan's prayer. Kane leaned against the door frame, waiting, letting her gentle voice sooth him as well, but then the glow over her hands faded. She wiped the back of one hand across her sweat-soaked forehead and stood, sighing, arching her back as she stretched. Then her eyes went wide as she noticed Kane and she stumbled as she ran to him.

"Kane!" she said, throwing her arms around him, beaming. "Oh, Kane! I was so worried about you!"

Tiny as she was, she still squeezed him hard enough to hurt, but he didn't care. He hugged her in return, lifting her bare feet from the floor as he did. Jack will be sorry he missed this, he thought, but Kane knew he would never tell him. It would have been cruel.

Jack tried not to fidget as Gollor read his aura. The old man's eyes glowed blue-green, squinting over at him, not seeming to look in any particular direction as he read the aether. "Strange," Gollor said as the corona winked out. "Remarkable. How do you feel?"

"Like my skin will split open," Jack said. "Gollor, I've never held this much aether before."

"But you feel that you are in control of it?"

"I am now, but it won't last. I can feel it slipping. When I-" He still had trouble thinking of himself this way. He stopped, took a deep breath and tried again. "When I drew power from you, I had better control for a little more than two days. It's been longer than that since I drew from Astos."

"You drew more from Astos than you did from me," Gollor pointed out.

"I stole the man's soul!" Jack snapped.

Gollor gave Jack a level look. "You stole his power, not his soul. Don't buy into those fear-monger stories; you're smarter than that." The older mage looked down at the ancient book Kane had taken from Astos's dead hands. "I'm afraid my high Leifenish is not up to this task. I see here the ritual you described, but I don't know enough to tell you if this thing can be undone."

Jack sagged in his chair, hanging his head. "I can't stay like this. If I lose control of this much aether…" He thought of the moment immediately after the ritual, when grief and fear had overwhelmed him and the ice had begun to form, and he shivered. For Cedric, it had been storms, but for Jack it had always been ice. "So much can go wrong."

"If it worries you so, have you considered drawing power from someone else? The control it brings you does seem a tangible benefit."

Jack frowned at the idea. "I've gone my whole life without that."

Gollor shook his head. "You've nearly doubled your reserves. It would have taken decades of dedicated training to achieve those sort of gains naturally, decades in which you would also have been learning to control that power." He looked down at the book again, his lips moving as he ran his finger over the page. Jack waited, not wanting to disturb him. Finally, Gollor said, "You should be dead."

"Thanks," Jack said dryly.

"No, look here. It seems to me that you shouldn't have been able to complete the ritual against someone as powerful as yourself. If I'm reading this correctly, it's usually not done on mages. Astos's power, your power, and the aether flowing through the circle should have been enough to kill you. How did you survive that surge?"

"I used it. All of it. On a Teleport."

Gollor's brow furrowed in confusion. "Teleport is an aether-intensive spell, but it wouldn't account for the amount of aether the ritual-"

Jack squirmed. It seemed uncomfortably like bragging to go into detail about what he'd done that night. "Thirty miles. Give or take."

"Thirty… Thirty miles?"

"With Kane."

Gollor spluttered, "But… but he must outweigh you by-"

"A stone and a half, I'd say."

"Remarkable," Gollor said again. He looked down at the book once more, squinting in concentration.

"That isn't all I wanted to talk to you about," Jack said. "Seeing as how Astos turned out to be a dark mage, I'm wondering if Cotto is entirely trustworthy."

The old man looked up sharply at the mention of that name. He stared at Jack for a long beat, then said slowly, "Yes… yes, I already know about Cotto."

"What happened?"

"Lena encountered him a few days ago," Gollor said, and Jack's breath caught. "Nothing untoward happened, I assure you," he added quickly. "But she was quite shaken. I was surprised to hear her assessment of him: partly because he's never done anything to arouse suspicion, and partly because none of you felt the need to mention she was a soul reader."

"You never thought to tell us the king was cursed," Jack pointed out.

Gollor chuckled bitterly, looking back down at the book as he spoke. "Well, we all have our little burdens, don't we? Cotto may be the least of our concerns."

"What did she tell you about him?" Jack asked.

"Nothing I can act upon. He may have been working for Astos, but we have no reason to think he's a dark mage himself. Besides, Cotto has the trust of the king, and we dare not confront the king in his madness. I've set Thadius to watching him; it's the best I can do for now."

"Thad? But he's a child!"

"The boy is a sneak and a thief - a talented one, if you haven't noticed. A great observer of people. He reports to me in the afternoons, but so far has had nothing of note to say about the man." Gollor returned to the book, signaling an end to that line of questioning.

Jack pinched the bridge of his nose, trying to ease a brewing headache. The room was too warm for his taste. He clutched the little knife at his belt, wondering if he had enough control to hold the ice spell, but decided against it. With this much aether, I might freeze the entire room, he thought. Instead, he shrugged out of his coat, letting it drape over the back of his chair, and moved toward the window, opening it to the evening air. It wasn't any cooler outside, but at least there was a breeze.

He turned at the sound of voices outside the door, raised in anger, and recognized the speakers before he could make out the words. The door opened, and as Jack had expected, Kane and Thad came in together.

"It's good to see you, too!" Kane shouted, his tone at odds with his words. "Glad to know you didn't pine away for us while we were gone!" He looked at Jack, shrugging as if to say, "Can you believe this?"

The gesture wasn't lost on Thad. He crossed his arms over his chest and snapped, "You abandoned us!"

"Abandoned?" Kane said, affronted. "We left you here for your own good!"

"So you say!" Thad all but yelled.

"Enough!" Gollor said sharply. "Thadius, what did you find?"

Thad sighed, sagging a little. "Nothing really. He never does anything. He's either with the king or studying in his rooms."

"Where's Lena?" Jack asked, ashamed at the flutter of panic he felt at the thought of her.

Kane must have sensed his mood. "She asked about you," he said. "I told her you were here. She said she'd come when she's done healing the prince." He sat in a chair across from Gollor, leaning back to stretch his long legs out in front of him. "In fact, she kicked me out so she could get on with it."

Gollor smiled, but shook his head. "It takes her longer than it did. A week ago, she'd have been done before..." He trailed off mid-sentence, staring at the book in his lap, then sat a little straighter as he held it up to read it better. "I don't believe it…"

"What?" Thad said.

"The curse came from this book!"

Jack leaned in to see what the old man had found, resisting the sudden urge to jerk the book from Gollor's hands. It would have done him no good: in high Leifenish, he understood perhaps one word in three. "What am I looking at?" he asked.

"I can't be sure," Gollor said. "It's exceedingly complex. The ritual would have taken days. But I think this passage might be a counter-curse..." The old man turned the pages slowly, skimming the words. An illustration on one page showed an aether flow, another showed a hideous, tentacled beast. "By all the gods…" said Gollor, tracing his hand along the words that accompanied the picture.

"What is that?" Thad asked.

"That almost looks like an ochu," said Kane, standing over them and peering at the book upside down. "I thought they were plants…"

Jack sighed. "They are, but that does us no good."

"Why not?" said Thad.

Gollor explained, "There are no ochus anymore. Their aloe was the primary ingredient of elixir, purportedly the greatest healing potion in the world. They were hunted to extinction over it near a century ago."

"But I've seen one," Kane said. "Matoya had a little one in a pot."

Jack did grab the book then, turning it toward Kane and pointing at the illustration. "You're sure that's what you saw?"

"Of course I'm sure. I asked her what it was. She specifically told me it was an ochu."

Jack looked at Gollor and saw in the old man's face a reflection of his own surprise. "Could an elixir break the curse?" he asked.

Gollor shook his head. "I'm afraid I don't know. Perhaps the devouts can-"

There was a commotion in the hallway, a loud clanging that grew closer and closer, finally resolving into the figure of Segeth, Gollor's granddaughter. She stood panting in the open doorway, dressed in the same plate armor the gate guards had been wearing, face tight with worry. "Thad! What did you do?"

"I didn't do anything!" the boy said quickly, darting farther into the room so that Kane was between him and the door.

"You must have done something! Cotto's ordered us to collect you for questioning. He's saying you're a Cornelian spy. The other guards will arrive any minute."

"But I really didn't do anything this time!" Thad squeaked. "I'm not even Cornelian!"

"He must have seen you following him," Gollor said, standing and putting a hand on Thad's shoulder. "Come, I know a man in the city who will hide you."

At a sound in the courtyard outside, Jack turned back to the window. He could see a cluster of guards moving toward the servant's entrance. "It's too late," he said. "They're already blocking the doors."

At a shout from down the hall, Kane leaped to the door, looking out, then quickly shut and bolted it. "They're coming. What will they do to him?" Jack noticed the way the guardsman's hand went to his sword, ready to draw at a moment's notice.

"That depends on what Cotto tells the king," said Gollor.

Someone pounded on the door. The bolt held, but Kane leaned against it regardless. Thad squealed in fright.

"Jack," Kane said. "Can you Teleport us out?"

Jack could only stare at the guardsman. His skin tingled with aether already; it surged within him like a storm-tossed sea. If he drew more, he feared it would overwhelm him, like trying to pour that sea into a bucket. "I can't," he said. "What I did before... Those were unusual circumstances."

"Just Shipman, then? Can you do that?"

"You only have to get him out of the castle," Gollor said. "It won't take as much power."

"I don't think I can control it," Jack said.

Gollor moved closer. "Draw from me," he whispered.

"No," Jack said through gritted teeth.

"Do it. And get him out of here. They'll kill him if you don't."

The pounding on the door increased. Thad began to cry. Jack realized he was afraid too: afraid for the boy, afraid of his own power, afraid because he realized he wanted to do as Gollor suggested. The aether in him roiled with his fear; he could feel the air around him getting colder. I won't be able to control it anyway. If they break down that door, if they try to take him… He had no choice. His breath quickened as he made up his mind. "Thad, how much do you weigh?"

"Why would I know something like that?" Thad sobbed, throwing his hands up in clear frustration.

It didn't matter; the boy was small enough. "Kane," he said. "Tell Lena I'm sorry."

"For what?"

Everything, he thought, but he said, "Leaving her again."

It grew quiet. The pounding against the door stopped, replaced by the pounding of Jack's pulse in his ears. I didn't get to see her, he thought, suddenly unable to remember why he'd been afraid to face her.

"I will," Kane said.

A loud boom shook the door. "They're going to ram it down!" Segeth said, bracing herself against it beside Kane.

Jack looked at Gollor; the old man nodded. Jack drew from him, slowly at first, still afraid, but then the old man's aether hit Jack's reserves and those rough seas became as calm and still as glass. When he stopped, Gollor sagged against the wall beside the window.

At another crash against the door, Jack covered the distance between him and Thad in two long strides, grabbing the boy by the back of the neck and holding firm. "Take a deep breath," he said.

He grabbed a thread of aether flowing through the room and pulled hard.

It was easier this time. Everything went black for an instant, as though he'd blinked too long, and when the light came rushing back it was different. He felt a jarring sensation traveling up from his feet to his knees, as if he'd jumped down from a high place, and suddenly they were outside in the slanting light of the sunset in Elfheim's harbor town, a good five miles or more from where they had been. A few dockhands nearby gasped and hurried away, apparently surprised at their sudden appearance.

Thad, blinking in shock beside him, released his held breath on a scream.

"Stop that!" Jack snapped, uncomfortably aware that they had already drawn more attention than would have been wise. What was I thinking, aiming for the harbor like that? he thought.

Thad's hands flew up to cover his mouth. The scream faded to a whimper, but then even that died off. Jack worried he'd frightened the boy, but when Thad turned to him, there was more awe in his gaze than fear. "We're at the docks! We were at the castle and now we're at the docks! How did you do that?"

"I'm still trying to figure that out. It went better than I expected." He was breathing harder than normal, as though he'd run across the small harbor town, but otherwise, there seemed no ill effects. He still had perhaps a third of his aether reserves sitting still as a stone in his soul while, around him, raw aether flowed by as though he wasn't there. Was it truly that easy? Did a dark mage need to draw from others in order to keep the aether at heel? But Cedric never mentioned it… Jack thought. Why?

"So where are we going?" Thad asked.

Where indeed, thought Jack, looking about. A few sailors and dockhands still stared at the two of them, murmuring, but none approached them. Why had he come to the harbor? Matoya, he realized. If an elixir can break this curse… He could see the Sahagin Prince farther down the quay, waiting. "Come on," he said, striding off toward the docks without even glancing back to see if Thad followed him.

The crew saw him coming; there were shouts as he approached the ship that could either have been greetings or alarm. By the time he reached the gangplank, Gabbiani waited there for him, flanked by several armed crew-mates.

"Captain," he said. "Is the ship repaired?"

"Aye, for some days now. Where are your friends?"

"That's why I'm here. Lena's trying to heal someone. There's a rare ingredient, an herb, north and east of Cornelia. We need to get it."

Captain and crew only stared at him, hands to their weapons. Jack waited, remembering only then that he still held the aether, that his eyes would be glowing with it, and that pirates were afraid of black mages.

"It's true," said Thad, coming up behind him. "We have to hurry! Lena could be in trouble if she fails."

The captain regarded Thad quizzically, then turned and had a quick, whispered conversation with some of the crew, who broke away and ran toward the town. "Need to gather in a few of the boys who've gone ashore, then we can shove off," he said. "Get aboard, and stay out of the way."

Once on deck, Jack stood by the railing, eyes closed, massaging the bridge of his nose between thumb and forefinger. He'd released the aether, hoping that without the corona the men would be less frightened of him, but the power drained out of him so very slowly. Another consequence of having more power? he wondered. How long before I know the full extent of what I… what Astos did to me?

But it was there, with his eyes closed, that his fading aether sight picked up a pulse in the aether. He blinked and lost it, whatever it was, against the backdrop of the crew moving about the deck. He reached for the aether once more, shutting his eyes as his aether sight returned to full strength, and there it was again.

"Thad!" he called. "Come here, please."

The boy's green aura approached him from across the deck, and without the distraction of his physical eyes, he noticed the way the aether shimmered in front of Thad, like the heat haze over Crescent Lake on the hottest days of the year. He opened his eyes, and could see it there still now that he knew to look for it.

"What?" said Thad, looking down at his shirt. "Is there a stain?"

Jack shook his head. "I think it's the orb. It's doing something."

The boy pulled on the chain around his neck, retrieving the orb that the sailors called Syldra's Tear, the lucky charm they all believed made the winds blow fair. Jack held his hand out for it, and Thad obligingly passed it to him.

Jack closed his fingers over it as he closed his eyes again. It glowed like a star, the aether changing and shifting and swirling in his hand. "I can see it," he said, though it came out in an amazed whisper.

"See what?" said Thad.

"The wind." All of it, every breeze in the world was connected to the orb, not with the force of a hurricane, but through threads of aether no thicker than spider silk, through currents of air smaller than the force of a butterfly's wingbeats. I can see them, Jack thought, and in his closed fist he could feel them, running through him to get to the orb. I can control them.

"Get the captain," he said.

Jack didn't know much about sailing, but he suspected they were about to make some very good time.

"I thought you were done healing him for the day," Kane said, sitting in the chair Thadius normally used to read to them in the afternoons.

"I was," Lena said, as she bent over the sleeping prince. "I am, really. But…" She glanced over at the guardsman, noticed that he leaned the chair back on two legs the way Thad sometimes did. The difference, though, was that Kane's feet still reached the floor. As she turned back, her eyes skimmed over the leather coat lying across the foot of the bed. "I may not have been as thorough as I would have liked. I was trying to hurry."

She had been too slow. How her heart had thundered when she approached Gollor's study and saw the hallway full of castle guards. She had waited, cowering around a corner, for them to leave, wondering what her boys could have done in the short time they'd been there to draw such attention, but when the guards finally left, Kane and Gollor had told her it had been Thad they were after. He must have been so frightened, she thought.

Kane had been frightened for him, she knew, but his fear had slowly given way to a simmering anger, half-fueled by an overwhelming sense of helplessness - there was nothing he could have done for Thadius. The guardsman's emotions sat in the back of her mind like a warm coal in a hearth, pleasant, even if the emotions were negative, and she realized she had been… bored wasn't the word, but yes, bored. Aryon dreamed more often than not anymore, giving off no emotions at all, and Thad spent more time away with Gollor. It was nice to feel something outside of herself.

"I'm sorry you didn't get to see him," Kane said.

"Hmm?" she said, but then she realized her gaze had gone back to Jack's coat. He'd left it draped over a chair in Gollor's study. She didn't know why she'd carried it to Aryon's room with her. Because he'll come back for it, she thought, knowing it was foolish. "Oh, it's alright. It wouldn't be the first time he's run away without me when there was trouble." She tried to smile, but she knew it for a poor jest.

Kane scowled. "That's not funny. He felt terrible about that."

"I know. I'm sorry. I just… I would like to have seen him again." She bent close to the prince, trying to focus on the healing spells, on smoothing over the bits of Aryon's aura left rough by her earlier rushed efforts. "The days all seem to run together without… " she said absently, not really thinking of the words. She stopped, catching herself before she could say anything awkward. "Without all of you here."

Kane grew thoughtful, and for a time she was able to ignore him and resume her work more thoroughly, but then he spoke. "I think he really cares for you. I think if he had it to do over again, he would have burned those pirates to a crisp rather than risk you."

"You're wrong," she said. "If he cared for me in that way, I would feel it." But even as she had that thought, she wondered if it was true. She rarely felt anything from the mage. "Besides, I've read his soul, remember? He's no killer. I know what that would do to him."

Kane's face didn't change, but emotionally, he reeled. A sick, twisted-gut sensation struck her from him as he ducked his head, making a thorough examination of his own boots.

"Kane, what is it?"

The guardsman shook his head. "I wasn't going to say anything. It's not my place."

"About what?" Lena pried.

Kane's lips tightened into a thin line. She felt his internal struggle, the room practically rang with his shame. He kept his eyes down as he said, "He killed a man to save my life. That was why he wouldn't come see you: he was afraid you'd take one look at him and know. He couldn't bear it."

For a moment, she could only stare. His emotions and his words together were like two people shouting at her at once: she had to run what he'd said through her mind again before it began to make sense. She realized it wasn't Kane's own shame that filled the room, but the shame that Kane felt on Jack's behalf. Oh, Jack, she thought. "Thank you for telling me," she said. "I don't know how I would have reacted if I had felt what he must be feeling right now without any warning." But would I have felt anything from him at all? Surely he couldn't hide something like this...

She turned back to the prince, trying to remember what she'd been doing. Her hands hovered over him, and she stared at his aura without seeing it.

"What's it like for you?" Kane asked. "As a soul reader, I mean. Do you only feel that others are sad, or do you actually feel sad yourself?"

"It's hard to tell sometimes. It's easier with strangers, to separate my own feelings, but with friends… Surely even you feel joy when your friends are happy, and sadness when they're grieving. It's like that for me, only stronger."

"And pain?" the guardsman asked. "Do you feel that too?"

"Sometimes. It depends on how people handle pain. Some people, when they get hurt, they let the pain happen. Others get angry about it, or sad, and it all gets tangled together. I'll feel their pain right alongside the other emotions." She didn't tell him that some emotions were painful, that the heartache of shame and grief and sadness was real and physical. He hadn't asked. "Kane?"

"Yes?"

"Would you… would you leave me to this, please?"

"Of course," he said, feeling as relieved as she did that this conversation was over.

When he'd closed the door behind him, she gathered her wits long enough to finish tending Aryon - she hadn't much left to do, after all - but she didn't leave the room. Instead, she sat on the edge of the bed, and pulled Jack's coat into her lap. It smelled strongly of leather and ink and old books. Of him, she thought. She'd never seen him without it, except for that night at the ball. Now that she looked closely at it, she could see that it was older than she had realized. Though the leather was cracked and stained in places, it had at some point in the past been warded, and the white mage who had done it had taken great care in the warding: every thread of every seam was Protected. This coat might be older than she was.

She ran her hands over the wards, admiring them, but stopped when she felt something in the righthand pocket. Boys and their pockets, she thought, remembering some of the oddities she'd seen Thadius carry around, wondering what sort of thing the tall and silent mage would have squirreled away, and she couldn't resist the urge to look.

It was a conch shell.

"I don't think she's in any danger," Gollor told him as they ate a small supper in the old man's study. It was a simple meal, a chicken roasted in some manner of elven spice, but compared to what he'd been eating as he traveled through the groves, Kane found it delectable. Gollor went on, "I don't think Cotto sees her as anything more than a servant. But he knows Thadius supposedly worked for me. He knows I'm the one who had him followed. I don't believe he cares about Thadius one way or the other. I think he only meant to send me a message."

"A threat, you mean," said Kane. "'Back off, or else.'"

"Exactly."

Kane sighed, finishing his meal in the silence that followed, disturbed only by the night music of the frogs sounding through the still-open window.

"You'll have to see that Lena eats something," Gollor said, nodding toward Kane's empty plate.

Kane looked at the darkness outside. "So late? Hasn't she had anything already?"

"I'm afraid not. Thadius usually saw to it. She becomes very focused on her work, to the point of forgetting to eat."

Kane ran the words through his head but it was as if Gollor had spoken a foreign language, nonsense words that Kane's brain couldn't fathom. "Forgetting to eat?" he repeated. "Is that… Is that a real thing?"

Gollor chuckled, and was still chuckling when Kane left him.

He didn't encounter a single soul on his way back to the prince's rooms. The entire wing seemed abandoned. Gollor had told him it would be, with the castle staff limited to the barest essentials, but the empty castle still made him vaguely uncomfortable. Castles should not be empty.

She was still there, as Gollor had predicted, curled into a ball at the foot of the bed, asleep, wrapped up tightly in the long coat Jack had left behind. He noticed now that she did look a little thinner than she had been, her face pale against the dark leather.

You have to protect them, Sarah had said. Do you know how hard it is, he asked her in his mind, to protect someone who doesn't have sense enough to eat? He slipped his arms beneath the white mage, but she didn't stir, and although he got lost twice trying to find the room near Gollor's study where she slept, he didn't wake her to ask the way.

Author's Note: 9/23/16 - In case you forgot, I love Final Fantasy music. (All my chapter titles for this story come from FF songs.) I once saw the Distant Worlds concert in Omaha and Nobuo Uematsu himself was there. He sat in one of the middle rows, right in front of a guy in a very impressive Sephiroth cosplay. When the legendary composer was escorted to that seat, Sephi freaked out, muppet-flailing in pure joy. It was quite a sight.

That said, although I was sad that Nobuo retired from making Final Fantasy music, I was so excited to hear that Yoko Shimomura was doing the music for Final Fantasy XV. I loved her work on Kingdom Hearts and Legend of Mana. If you're as excited as I am about that, go over to YouTube and look up the London Philharmonic Orchestra's recent "Final Fantasy XV Live at Abbey Road Studios" concert. There's some great stuff in there, and I can't wait to hear it in the context of the game.