"Wait here," Laisa said under her breath, "let me see if Master Ennis is still in the room with Taris."

"Told you, the name is Alan," Burke whispered, annoyed, but the healer was already out of earshot.

He exhaled slowly, trying to look as if he belonged in this corridor. Maybe he should start polishing one of the wooden statues decorating the walls, in case some guard appeared around the corner.

But it was only Laisa who appeared a moment later and tugged lightly at his sleeve. "We're alone for now," she said, just as quietly as before, and Burke ignored his suddenly thudding heart and followed her into the room.

Voltis' house reminded him a bit of Galen's old home in the City - it wasn't wedged into the crown of a tree, but built from the ground up like a human building, probably because no tree would've been able to accommodate its sprawling size. It went over two stories, and the room of 'Master Ennis' was on the upper floor.

The interior was pretty spare: a desk, a bed, a trunk, some shelves that were filled what had to be Al's carvings - a boomerang, something with a lot of wooden cog wheels, and even something that looked like a miniature oil rig, though Burke didn't study the contents of the shelf long enough to be certain. His eyes were drawn to the man who had been sitting on the only bed (and where did he sleep? In his own room? On the floor, like a dog?), and was now slowly rising, staring at him with a mixture of incredulity and... something Burke couldn't quite put a finger on.

Virdon turned to the healer. "Why did you bring him here?" His voice was a little rough, maybe from shock, but otherwise, it sounded like always, just like the man himself looked like he had before, now that all of his bumps and bruises were fading.

... save for some red welts peeking out from his collar, on the left side of his neck. Burke couldn't remember if Virdon already had them in the healer's garden; he had been too distracted by the fact that his friend was alive against all odds. But now he couldn't tear his eyes away from the wound. It looked like...

Shit, Al, what've these sick monkeys done to you? His own hand involuntarily crept to his neck.

"I asked her to," he forced out.

"Did Master Ennis allow this... visit?" Virdon asked. He was still talking to Laisa; after that first glance, he now studiously avoided even looking at him.

Burke let out an exasperated sigh and scratched his jaw. "Look, Al-"

"My name is Taris," Virdon said evenly.

"No, it's not!" Burke snapped. "Goddammit, Al..."

"Dehni, calm down." Laisa's soft voice stopped him.

Burke moistened his lips and drew a measured breath, remembering Galen's admonition not to put too much pressure on his friend. "Before you fell into that river, your name was Alan," he said, fighting to sound as calm as the healer.

"I don't remember this 'before'," Virdon said, and demonstratively turned away from him and towards the healer. "Why did you bring him here, and without Master Ennis' permission, to boot?"

"For two reasons," Laisa said lightly; she began to take her cone-shaped paper bags out of her basket and piled them on the table. "The first is that no matter whether you remember your past or not, it has happened. It's real, and it's not healthy to run away from yourself, no matter the reason."

She stopped rummaging in her basket, and straightened to calmly regard Virdon, who froze under her gaze like a rabbit before a snake. "Those memories haven't been destroyed, Taris - they aren't lost. You just put them away somewhere in your mind and refuse to turn around and go looking for them. Dehni here wants you to look, and he wants to show you what exactly you need to be looking for."

"And the second reason?" Virdon said hoarsely.

"The second reason is that Dehni is your friend, and you were his friend," Laisa said gently. "And he's grieving the loss he's suffered."

Burke felt heat rising into his cheeks at that calm diagnosis. So what if he wasn't okay with Al playing A Boy And His Dog with that monkey? Everyone still in their right mind wouldn't be okay with that!

"I'm a healer," Laisa was saying, "I cannot just stand by idly and watch people suffer."

Well, lady, last time I looked, it didn't say 'shrink' on your door plate. Stick to your herbs, and leave the psych eval to ANSA!

"I feel fine," Virdon said, though he sounded a bit pained now. "I have a good life here - and if he were my friend, he'd be happy for me."

Now that's enough bullshit for one day. Burke suddenly didn't give a damn whether he was being too pushy with Virdon. Let the healer fuss over the man, but this was just too, too...

"Listen, Al," he growled. "You're not in a position to judge whether playing house with a monkey constitutes a 'good life' or not. You're out of your fucking mind, Colonel, 'cause when you lost your memories, you also lost a world of context, and I literally mean a world!"

He gestured towards the shelves. „You have a son of your own back home, Al! You told me how you'd make these machines and stuff for him, to teach him about physics, and it's what you're trying to do here now, too, with this monk... with that ape kid. But you can't be his father, Al. You can't even be his fatherly friend. All you'll ever be is his pet. You two will be a boy and his dog. That's... that's beneath you."

"Serving the apes is a human's place," Virdon murmured.

"But it's not your place, don't you get that?" Burke clenched his fists in helpless rage.

Virdon was just shaking his head at his outburst, looking at him with those hazy blue eyes, and smiling one of his painfully familiar half-smiles. "I'm nothing special... Dehni... it's my place like it's every other human's place in this world."

But you an' I ain't from this world, Al, an' we know, we know that it's not our place. But he couldn't tell Virdon that, he couldn't give away their peculiar origins while the native healer was in the same room with them.

Not that it would've made a difference - if Al didn't believe him that he'd had a life worth remembering in general, adding starships and wormholes wouldn't make it more believable to him, either.

"What about your family back home?" Burke said desperately. "You think it's fair to just forget them?"

At the table, Laisa was biting her lip. She looked stricken, all of a sudden, and Burke fought down his surprise - took a liking to your patient, eh? - and focused on Virdon, who was now frowning, and looking more alert than he had been for all of their conversation.

"You could just be making that up..." he said doubtfully.

Burke spread his arms. "Why would I do that? You have a wife, lovely lady, an' a son who's got your hair, an' your eyes, looks like a miniature you, an' a baby daughter, but you've never seen her 'cause you had to leave before she was born..."

"I'd never leave my wife while she was pregnant," Virdon declared. "Unless... unless my master gave me an order..." He looked deeply worried for a moment, and Burke allowed himself a moment of hope - maybe 'Taris' had suddenly realized that his place under the monkeys' table wasn't as comfortable as he had been made to believe.

"Was that the reason?" Virdon wanted to know. "Did my master send me away?"

Burke stared at him. Could he sell ANSA as, technically, their master? But if he started camouflaging everything in ape costumes, he'd just confirm Virdon's misguided assumption that they were natives of this time. Maybe he'd even develop false memories.

If he wanted to get Virdon to remember, he'd have to remind him of their real origins, however fantastical they might sound. But for that, he'd need to catch him alone.

He breathed out heavily. "No, Al. It's a bit more complicated than that, an'... maybe we should continue this talk at another time. Don't wanna get Laisa here into trouble for bringing me here, if your master turns up all of a sudden, an' sees me chatting with you."

"Yes, that's... you're right." Virdon looked way too relieved for Burke's taste.

"Yeah, I guess it's better we go now," he murmured, trying not to feel defeated. Laisa had told him that he couldn't expect instant results. Galen had told him, of all people! But he couldn't stop brooding about it.

"You're unusually quiet," Laisa remarked as they passed the outer gate of Voltis' estate.

"'m doin' some thinkin'," Burke muttered.

"Oh. Well, then I won't disturb you," Laisa said solemnly, but Burke could hear her amusement underneath.

"Just because I'm not crackin' jokes all day..." he grumbled. "Y'know, I didn't really expect him to remember anything. I... I know it's not that simple. But I hadn't expected him to be so... so against even trying. It's like he doesn't want to remember! "

"Yes, that's my impression, too," Laisa agreed, to his surprise. "Did anything bad happen to him recently? Something that frightened him deeply, for example? Sometimes people can't remember because there is a memory that is just too monstrous to cope with for them."

"Not that I'd know of," Burke murmured, but his thoughts wandered involuntarily back to Etissa. He had been attacked in the street there, and had been forced to fight and kill in illegal manfighting matches. By all rights, he should be the one with amnesia!

But Virdon had been oddly... withdrawn since then, too.

And Burke had seen rope marks around his wrists.

Something had happened to his friend in Etissa.

"Not that I'd know of," he repeated absently. "But I'm sure as hell gonna find out."


"I am so grateful that you agreed to meet with me, Chairwoman," Zana said, and bowed.

The Orangutan sitting regally in a plush chair across from her gestured for her to take a seat, too. "Well, the case is quite outrageous," she said. "Of course I'm interested in the details. If I can help you with your human in any way, I will."

"Your help will be invaluable, Zorya," Zana said, relieved, and sat down. She almost vanished in the soft cushions - a sensation that was completely unfamiliar after almost a year of sitting on wooden benches, wooden chairs, or around a campfire with nothing but a blanket between her behind and the naked earth. She wasn't sure if she'd ever get used to plush cushions again.

"I'm sorry that your journey took such a disastrous turn recently," Zorya said, and reached for her teacup. "But the roads are treacherous at this time of the year. I cannot imagine traveling at all in this weather. How did you deal with all that rain?"

"The canopy of our wagon was waxed," Zana said, forcing herself not to twitch with impatience. Orangutans never tackled a subject head-on; there was always a round or three of seemingly meaningless chit-chat, although in most cases, it wasn't as meaningless as most Chimps thought.

You grew up with this, Zana - you can navigate small talk, even if it drives you crazy. The ape across from her was not only the founder and de facto leader of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty against Humans in Chubla, her organization was the origin and the hub for all human protection societies in the north. If anyone knew how to deal with Alan's strange predicament, it would be her. And if Zana had to humor her by engaging in Orangutan small talk, by Cesar, she would!

"But the fog! And the wind! I would've been miserable all the time." Zorya took a sip from her cup, and Zana reached for her cup on the table, and followed suit.

"I'm certainly relieved that we'll stay in a solid house with walls on all sides for the rest of winter," she admitted. And it was true - the inn was lovely, or would have been, if Peet hadn't been prowling it like a caged bushcat. Watching him despair was painful - even more painful than the knowledge that healing Alan meant losing them both.

Zana took another gulp of her tea and focused on the burning pain as the hot liquid ran down her throat. She needed to distract herself from the grief that always pounced on her when she remembered their talk after Galen had returned from his futile audience with Voltis. Galen had been sensible as always, laying out all the reasons why releasing Alan and Peet into the Forbidden Zone was their only option for freeing Alan; and Peet had been relieved, although he had taken pity on her when she had teared up...

"Chubla is a good place to hibernate," Zorya interrupted her brooding. "The best place north of the mountains, or so they say. We have a lot of amenities here - restaurants, theaters, there is a monastery to the north of Chubla that offers retreats for laypeople - I go there several times a year, to replenish myself. Working for the Society is taxing for the nerves..."

"I can imagine," Zana said, seeing her opening. "You must see a lot of abused humans... traumatized humans..."

Zorya flicked her a wry glance that was uncannily reminiscent of the glares she had always received from Zaius, and Zana hastily took another sip from her tea.

"Why, yes," the Orangutan said, and put her cup back on the table. "Though I've never come across a case where a human lost all of its memories. It is quite intriguing, apart from the personal tragedy. What happened, exactly?"

"A part of the road broke away right under our wagon," Zana said, and put her cup on the table. She wasn't sure that she wouldn't break the delicate china if she kept it in her hand - she could already feel her body tensing up at the memory of how Alan...

"The wagon sagged, of course - two of its wheels were hanging in thin air all of a sudden, and all of our belongings were skidding to one side, adding their weight and shifting its balance even further. The... the wagon began to slide off the edge, and the road was muddy, so it was very slick, and didn't offer any resistance to that motion..." She took a deep breath, rubbing her hands in her lap.

"What a nightmare," Zorya murmured sympathetically.

"I'm still having nightmares about those moments," Zana confessed. "I always dream that I'm plummeting into that abyss, but in reality, it was, was Nait - he stayed in the wagon after everyone had already jumped off, to cut the horses from their harness. The wagon would've dragged the poor things with it otherwise, but... but I still wish he'd jumped off in time, too."

"So your human fell into the river, together with the wagon," Zorya mused. "It's a miracle that the wagon didn't strike it to death when they both hit the water."

"That's the real tragedy," Zana said with a trembling voice. "My husband had managed to grab Nait's hand, and he and Dehni were about to pull him onto the road again, when he... he slipped out of my husband's grip. He... Kova swears that Nait let go of his hand," she added in a whisper. "Nait wanted to save him and Dehni from being dragged over the edge by his weight. He sacrificed himself to save them."

"That would've been an extraordinarily noble gesture," Zorya said. "What does your husband think?"

Zana felt her fur bristle. Did Zorya believe that humans were devoid of nobility and selflessness? Shouldn't the founder of the Human Protection society be more open about human potential? Did this woman, despite all her efforts towards a better treatment of humans, still believe that they didn't have souls?

"Humans are unique, in that they are the only animals able to grasp the concept of death," Zorya said. "That is the reason you won't find suicidal horses, or cats, but occasionally, you'll find a human who finds its situation so unbearable that they overcome their natural survival instinct and try to kill themselves. I wonder if there could've been something that made life seem unbearable for your human - yet stayed completely hidden from you."

"That's quite a damning verdict on our aptness to keep humans," Zana muttered, but Zorya's words had struck her to her core. Alan had wrestled with something dark and terrible since they had left Etissa. Something that... something that had made his life seem unbearable? Galen had insisted that Alan had let go of his own will. That he had wanted to fall to his death.

"It's not a verdict at all, Mila," Zorya said evenly. "I'm not judging you - you were in a demanding situation, traveling in this weather... you were probably distracted and overwhelmed. It happens - none of us is perfect. But it seems to me that in order to move forward, you have to trace back your steps, and find out what threw your human so out of balance."

"I'll do that," Zana vowed. "Now that you mentioned it... But as you said, traveling at this time of the year was gruelling." She sighed. "I just can't shake the fear that if I let too much time pass, Nait will have settled into his new life as Ennis' human..."

"I wouldn't worry too much about that." Zorya poured them some more tea. "As far as I've heard, he's being treated well... even indulgently... and a safe and friendly environment actually provides the best conditions for a spontaneous reemergence of his memories. He would still need friendly encouragement, and if possible, cues that would prompt a memory. But no aggressive probing - that would be detrimental."

"I'll keep that in mind," Zana murmured, "although it's a bit difficult to even see him at the moment. Voltis' son is very protective of his new human - he's probably aware that if Nait regains his memories, he'll be no longer willing to stay his pet."

"Voltis should never have colluded in this farce," Zorya said sternly. "He knows perfectly well that your Nait isn't a wildling, and to ask for papers, after you barely saved your very lives, is just unconscionable!"

"Well, he told my husband that he is doing things strictly by the book," Zana said faintly.

Zorya allowed herself a tiny, ladylike snort. "If that was true, he'd have rooted out the Kobavasa a long time ago."

Zana frowned. "The what?"

"The Kobavasa. A gang of reprobates that terrorize the humans in the district. At first they just preyed on lone humans they could catch away from the villages, but over time, they grew bolder. They have laid waste to a number of human settlements, killed humans in their huts... whole families vanish overnight without a trace. The humans are terrified."

The tea cup clattered on its plate as Zorya put it on the table. "They smear sick paroles on the walls of upstanding citizens - all in all, they are an embarrassment for the district, not to mention the financial damage that the prefectures are suffering, with their workforce too terrified to go out into the fields anymore." She rose and stepped to the window, the usual Orangutan serenity gone. "I don't have to tell you that the Society has been strongly advocating for increased security for the humans, as well as for a vigorous investigation of the Kobavasa."

She turned away from the window to face Zana. "But neither has happened yet."

"But... why not?" Zana wondered. "This is a serious threat to the wellbeing of the humans... or, as you said, at least a threat to the financial wellbeing of the prefectures. Surely Chief Voltis would at least admit that the latter is a problem?"

Zorya threw up her hands. "I have no idea what's holding him back. The humans are scared, the prefects are livid, and the guard is annoyed, and, well, getting restless . And Voltis is coming more and more under fire for not getting this problem under control. Instead, he's wasting his time and energy on indulging his wayward son with a human that he knows is rightfully yours! The man has lost sight of the right priorities ever since... ah well." She exhaled heavily and flapped her hands. "Forgive me for wasting your time with this gossip."

"You didn't waste my time," Zana said, and rose. "My other human is fond of running along the river every day. He was a racer once, and... well, but he's all by himself. I can no longer allow these runs, after what you've told me."

Voltis should've told Galen about these Kobavasa. What is wrong with this man? Peet won't like this at all. He'll go insane if he's cooped up inside all day.

Mothers, I will go insane, cooped up with him all day!

And then there was the problem how to get Galen to open up about Etissa. Zana had the distinct feeling that it wouldn't be advisable to have their explosive human in the same room with Galen when the truth about Alan's employ finally came to light.

She wasn't sure if she wanted to be there to hear it, either.