When they reached the top of the stairs, they found themselves in a brightly lit wide corridor. The sun shone through the massive window behind them and in front of them, they could see two doors on each side of the corridor and a big blue door at the end of it.

Given that the blue door stood open for a little gap, it gave the impression that somebody had just left the room and just forgot to close the door behind them.

The four other doors were closed shut.

Mesana ignoring the four doors on the side, single-mindedly hurried to the blue door, leaving Mesanth and Spera to slowly walk down the corridor alone.

Spera curiously looked at the walls seeing no kind of decoration, only bare walls.

Thinking back at the living room downstairs, she realized that even there no kind of personal items or pictures were displayed.

Before she could think further about that particular topic, they had arrived at the blue door, which Mesana had pushed open on her entry.

The room within was very different from the rest of the house that they had seen. The color blue was still present in the curtains and rugs on the floor but the walls were painted white and the massive bed that took up half of the room had a black frame and was made with white sheets.

Spera could see Warthon sitting in the bed, Mesana standing next to him, just handing over the bowl that she had taken from the kitchen.

He looked at her in excitement and gratitude completely ignoring Mesanth and Spera that stood in the doorway.

“Thank you Mesana. You are an Angel.” He said making her aunt blush with his smile.

“Warthon … Good to see you.” Her father said making his presence known.

“Oh!” Warthon whipped his head in their direction, however, the sudden motion hurt him as a pained expression surfaced.

“My friend take your time!” Her father worriedly called out taking a few steps towards the bed.

Getting a closer look at Warthon, Spera gasped.

When they had first entered the room, he looked normal, as she could see no wounds or bruises on him, only his normally bright shiny blue hair was a bit dull.

However now that they could see his entire face, she could see that the entire right side of him had several states of discoloration and his eye was swollen shut. Seeing the extent of his injuries only on his face and neck she didn’t want to imagine the wounds and bruises he had on his body and the pain he had to endure.

No wonder her father had warned her beforehand.

“Hey, princess, everything is ok!” Warthon said, giving her a half smile as one side of his mouth was too painful to move. “You don’t have to cry,” he said, sympathy clear in his voice.

Surprised Spera touched her cheeks, her hand coming up wet from her tears. She hadn’t even realized that she had started crying.

Mesanth looked down in shock. He had been so focused on his friends state that he also hadn’t realized the effects it had on his daughter. “Oh sweety … Warthon is going to be ok.” He said rocking her up and down while caressing her hair, trying to stop her from crying.

“Urting!” Spera exclaimed, pointing at Warthon.

“Yes, dear, but he is already much better. In a few days, he will be healthy once again. Do you want to go closer?” Behaving as if she was more fragile than normally her father looked at her worriedly.

Nodding her head, Spera tried to get her tears to stop, but every time she saw Warthon’s face, she teared up again.

Mesana still stood next to the bed awkwardly, so Spera reached out to her and she easily took her from her father’s arms.

“Hahaha, seems like she thinks you are better for this task.” Her father quaffed the corners of his mouth, twitching, even if he wanted to seem brokenhearted.

“She just knows us best!” Her aunt proudly said cuddling her to her chest. Spera could feel the slight trembling in her arms. Seems like she wasn’t the only one that was disturbed by Warthon’s state.

Sitting down on the bed, next to Warthon’s legs, Spera sat in her aunt's lap enjoying the feeling of her embrace while closing her eyes and leaning against her upper body. She had missed her terribly the last couple of weeks.

After a few moments Spera had still not moved from her position in her aunt's lap, Warthon looked at her with a smile.

“Princess, didn’t you come here for me? Why do I feel like an outsider right now?”

“Ou no ouzider! Ou no cuddle!” Spera murmured with closed eyes, making the adults in the room laugh.

“Darling, of course, Warthon is not cuddly. He is a Warrior,” her father told her, hiding his smile behind his hand, however his eyes danced with mirth.

“Master! “ Warthon complained earning him another round of chuckles.

Taking pity upon him, Mesana nudged Spera a bit. When her eyes opened she gently shoved her in Warthons direction making her intentions obvious.

“Alight, alight … A ou etter?” Spera couldn’t seem to look directly at him, focusing at his left side to make it easier on her.

“Yes, princess, I am going to be alright. Even the doctors are astonished by my quick recovery. I will be better in a few days.” He smiled down at her, wincing a bit at the motion.

“Ou an all me era!” She suddenly announced smiling up at him.

Helplessly looking to his best friend who seemed to want to be in another room at the moment Warthon couldn’t answer her.

“No ood?” She asked looking like she was on the edge of tears.

“Oh, sweetie it’s not that!” Mesanth hurriedly interrupted, taking her into his arms.

“You see, as my close aid, Warthon will be at all events that we hold with us in the future.

It would be devastating if he made the blunder and called you by your name on one of these events, so it would be better to not even start with it.”

“But e an all in pivat!” She argued, showing just how stubborn she was on that topic.

“But what if, just out of habit, he accidentally called you by your name in public? Dear … it could cost him his head,” he said saddened, however, he could have never anticipated how angry his little treasure would get when she was confronted with their present predicament.

“No! Ow dare ey ant u hurt Arton! E is mine! No dead!” She started screaming and tearing up, repeating that he was hers and that she would never let anything happen to her, as her breathing got heavier and her eyes puffed from all the crying. Finally, under the effort of all three adults that assured her that nothing would happen to him, she fell asleep on her father’s chest, still murmuring “No dead! No dead!”.

Caressing her head, Mesanth looked at his sister and his best friend in shock. He was quite scared by her outburst. Remembering her reaction to the fact that she wasn’t normal in the standards of his race, he looked at them helplessly.

“Mesanth … what just happened?” His sister asked, fear in her eyes. She had never before seen her niece so distraught and it scared her.

“Is she alright?” His friend asked, a thoughtful look in his eyes.

“I hope so. This is the second time since her birthday that she behaved like that. I don’t know what happened on her birthday, but I find it has a more negative influence on her than I would like.”

“What do you mean the second time?” His sister scooted closer, looking worriedly at his daughter, reaching a hand out to pat her small body.

“When I told her about your condition yesterday, through a random comment we came to talk about her uniqueness. At the thought of being different than ‘normal’, she had a mild form of the breakdown that she just showed you both. I don’t like it …” He said, looking down at his daughter and tightening his arms around her. He wanted to protect her from everything. But how do you protect your child from her own mind?

“Mesanth, I think it would be better that you leave. We wouldn’t want the little miss to have a repeated episode when she sees me,” looking reluctant Warthon spoke up.

““Warthon …”” both Mesana and Mesanth spoke up with pity in their eyes.

“It’s ok guys. I am not that easy to damage.” He smiled at them, however, both of them could see the traces of sadness in his eyes.

“I will come again. I promise,” Mesanth said, slowly standing up and leaving the room.

“Warthon… it’s not your fault.” He could hear his sister try to cheer him up when he closed the door behind him.

Looking down at the precious cargo in his arms he slowly made his way back to her room, taking longer than before, but avoiding everyone by walking in the shadows of his home, literally.

Entering her room and closing the door behind them, Mesanth called out to Jeanne.

Immediately the shadows in the corner moved and the man appeared out of them.

“Master, you have called?” He asked while bowing, his right hand on his heart.

“Jeanne, is your wife finished with your children?” He asked, sitting in the lounge chair next to Speras bed in exhaustion.

“Yes, sire. They finished a few moments ago. Do you want me to call them?”

“Would you be so kind to call Leon here? I want him to have the first shift.”

“Of course sire. Do you want to inform the Mistress of your return?”

“No … let her sleep for a bit. The last few days were quite taxing.”

Slowly he stood up and lay his daughter on her bed, lovingly tucking her in.

“I will try and work for a few hours. Please call me if either my wife or our daughter wake up.”

“Of course, sire,” he said, bowing once again.

Walking to the door, he stopped just before opening it. With his usual cold face, he turned once again to his butler.

“I assume you saw what happened today?”

“Sir …”

“Don’t think I don’t know that you have a few tricks up your sleeves.” He leveled him with a hard glare.

“I want to be perfectly clear. My wife will never hear a thing about what happened today, do you understand.”

“Yes, your Majesty.”

Mesanth eyes becoming gentle, once again he looked at him.

“Hahaha ... you only call me that if you think that I am really angry with you. Don’t worry, old friend, it will take more than that to cause serious harm. But you know that I would hate it if I have to take actions against any of you.”

“I hear and obey,” he said, fading into the shadows.

“I know,” Mesanth said to the empty room.

When Spera woke up from her nap, she found herself lying in her bed, staring at her ceiling.

Feeling the presence of two people on each side of her, she slowly turned her head left and right, recognizing her parents.

Slowly her memories of the hours before came back to her, making her wish to forget them immediately.

She herself didn’t know why she had reacted so strongly to the idea that Warthon might be killed, however, she did have the suspicion that it had something to do with her lost memories.

A small motion from her mother alerted her to her awakening so she focused on the present, not the past. Turning her body so that she lay on her side facing her mother, she greeted her with a smile as her eyelids fluttered open.

“Hey, sweetie, how are you?” Emerthelil asked, after kissing her on the forehead.

“Mommy eim fine,” she answered scooting into her mother's embrace.

“Your Daddy told me that your visit to Warthon was too emotional for you … do you want to talk about it?”

With that question, Spera became aware that her father didn’t tell her mother everything. Not knowing why she shook her head. He must have had a good reason for it.

“Darling, I heard that you wanted to meet Fon …” before she could say more on the topic, her father woke up with a gasp, startling both females.

“Oh, my loves, I am so sorry,” he apologized and kissed them both on the cheek.

After her parents had gotten ready, her father apologized profoundly.

“I am so sorry sweetheart, but something came up so I can’t take you to meet Fon,” he said hugging her tightly. Not wanting to worry her father she patted him on the back saying “No worry, No worry.”

“Thank you, sweetheart. I love you both.” Kissing her and her mother on the cheek, he hurried out of the room. Almost forgetting to slow down and put on the “cold fassade” if not for Jeanne who suddenly appeared and gave him “The look”.

When they were alone, her mother turned to her smiling brightly.

“Do you still want to meet Fon?”

“Yesh!” Spera answered beaming up to her.

“Wonderful. You see I invited the old buffon to the sitting room. He should be there already.

Let’s go and meet him, shall we?”

She said, making it clear that she had arranged for that from the beginning.

“Mummy dosh Daddy now?”

Blushing a little her mother winked at her.

“Don’t tell him ok? It’s just a coincident that I wanted to see him too.”

“Of coush, Mommy,” Spera said with a smile, but you could see that she didn’t believe in it at all.

When they entered the sitting room, Spera looked around with interest.

She hadn’t been here since her birthday, but from a first glance, the only thing that had been changed were the flowers that stood on a small table that she had just seen next to the door.

As the door closed behind them with a light ‘click’ Spera looked over her mother ’s shoulder and saw that Lorain had preferred to stand guard outside of the room.

Turning back she focused on the man that sat on the white couch.

By the gasp that her mother let out, she was also shocked by his state.

Spera could still remember the vibrant, powerful man that she had met just a year ago. However now his hair was almost entirely gray, even his beats-ears on top of his head had only small stands of dark brown hair.

His body sat slumped on the couch, elbows on his knees and his head buried in his hands.

It was the picture of a broken old man.

Her mother immediately ran to Fon, sitting her down gently next to him on the couch, before falling on her knees in front of him, taking and cupping his hands with hers and trying to look into his eyes. Spera could see that she was on the verge of tears.

“Fon, what’s wrong?” She softly asked but the man didn’t react. Not even one action told them that he was even aware that they were here.

“Fon, please talk to me …” Her mother said, her voice beginning to have a pleading tone.

Slowly Spera crawled to the man, and lay one hand on his muscular arm, shaking it with her little strength.

Her mother started to cry and plead with him, stroking the man’s grey hair and shaking it. Not understanding the situation and being both scared of her mother's behavior and the man’s state Spera began to cry.

Just as her mother started to get hysteric, almost screaming at the man, a slight twitch went through his body, halting both of their actions.

Fon slowly lifted his head, the action seeming to take up all of his energy.

“Thelil …” He whispered, his voice speaking of exhaustion and relieved to see her mother.

With tears on her eyes, her mother just nodded, gripping tightly onto Fon’s hands that lay lifelessly in hers.

“Who made you cry?” he asked, mustering just enough strength to reach out and wipe a tear from Emerthelil’s face. His eyes looking dulled and it was as if he wasn’t even aware of his surroundings,

Shaking her head, she just held his hand against her cheek smiling slightly.

Slowly over time with the contact of both Emerthelil and Spera who still held onto his arm and stared at their interaction, Fon’s strength returned.

As the life returned to his eyes, his body strengthened and he started to sit more upright.

“Thelil … what is going on?” He asked her mother.

“I don’t know. You weren’t responsive. You scared me,” her mother confessed, still crying slightly.

“Wha .. I am so sorry I don’t remember,” he said, reaching out and pulling her into a hug.

“What happened to you?” She asked holding onto him as if he was going to disappear again.

“ … I don’t remember,” he said shaking his head.

“What do you mean?” She asked. She had already disentangled herself from his hug and was now sitting next to him, still holding his hand in hers.

“Well, we were …” He began but suddenly stopped, seemingly remembering that he was about to talk about a topic her mother shouldn’t know.

“Not again …” She exclaimed looking at him with anger.

“I know that you all are hiding things from me. I don’t say that I mind it very much. But if it is something that affects you like that and results in your current condition I want to know,” she said, squeezing his hands.

Looking at her with a fond gaze, Fon started to talk.

“What did Mesanth tell you that my unit does?” He asked.

“He said that you are patrolling the border. But I think that is a load of crap. The border doesn’t require you to be on the move for a whole year,” she said, glaring at him.

“I always knew that you are a smart little thing.” He smiled down at her. However, instead of continuing he suddenly turned his head to Spera looking like he had only just realized her existence.

“Oh, my, who is this cute fellow?” He asked, taking his hands back from Emerthelil and grabbing her under her armpits, holding Spera in front of him.

“Are you really just going to change the subject now?” Her mother asked him indignantly.

“Yes,” he responded, smiling down at her.

“You are not going to answer me are you?”

“No. If Mesanth thinks you should think that I am patrolling the border, you will not get something else out of me. Thelil, please understand that we all want what’s best for you. Even if that means leaving you in the dark about certain things.”

“I know … It’s because I can’t help, is it?”

And the look he gave her spoke volumes.

“Haaa ~ Alright. But I will get to know what is going on.”

“I know you will,” he smiled, and you could see that he wanted to ruffle her hair. However, that was the moment that he realized that he still held Spera in his outstretched hands.

“Right … Back to the little one. Who is she?”

Baffled Emerthelil looked at him as if she had seen an idiot.

“That is my daughter of course!” She almost screamed.

“Oh!” He said, setting Spera down on his lap.

“Sorry, back then Mesana immediately grabbed her, so I didn’t have a strong impression. And I had to depart almost immediately afterwards.”

“Speaking of Mesana … Why did you hurt Warthon like that?”

“I did what?” He exclaimed looking at her with shock.

“You don’t remember?” Her mother asked suspiciously.

“No!” He said getting worked up over the topic. To calm himself down he started stroking and petting Sera’s head, in the beginning with a bit too much strength but after she exclaimed her softened his touch.

“Thelil … what did I do?” He said his voice betraying his fear.

Looking down on his free hand which was shaking slightly on his lap, she took it but couldn’t look him into the eyes.

“When you came back, you overheard Warthon and Mesana arguing. I don’t know what exactly happened, but Mesana said that you lost all reason and started beating on Warthon. You had to be forced off of him but he was already in a very bad shape.

Since then Mesana wouldn’t talk with you and spends most of her time tending to Warthon.”

“I … I don’t remember,” he said in a small voice. His hand tightening onto Emerthelils and his other hugging Spera to him.

“Please, Fon. I want you to talk with Mesanth about it. He said that you started avoiding him. And since you don’t want to tell me what you did in the last year I can’t help you.”

“I will,” he said, hugging them again.

The next few hours they just talked about the past. Fon wanting to hear every event in Speras life up to now, and he also talked about Mesana and how, after he had adopted her, he had to bribe her with food just to let her let her guard down.

Spera could feel the love that the old man had for his family and was feeling very fortunate that he regarded her and her mother also as his family.

Making herself comfortable in his embrace she slowly fell asleep to his low laughter and his big callused hand stroking her head.