Vale is one again stunned into silence. A light glow comes from the doorway, but I ignore it. Grabbing the last of my med kit I start to tend to my own cuts letting the alcohol burn me.

"Clothes in closet." I mumble throwing my hand to my room. I don't have much, but I can offer something in exchange for being drug into the world of hurt that my father delivers.

She leaves the space, and I let the silence comfort me. People tire me. 

"Tan? What is this?" She calls out walking into the room with the messenger paper. A familiar black scribble is shown on it, the pen I had with with dangling off her other hand, "And who is this King demanding to speak with you? Is this some sort of personal writing?" 

Dropping the cream I snatch the paper from her. The warmth of it heats my cold front. My eyes stay wide looking at her, she holds her hands in front defensively, "Tan?" 

"Um." 

I scurry passed her dropping onto the spring filled bed. Each of the metal springs dig into my butt centering me back to earth. Myrina's warning floods through my head, Vale doesn't seem to catch the idea following me into the small space. 

"Tan, are you on drugs? Is this what's this about?" She tries to seem comforting, but her gaze is worrisome, her focus on the tight hold I have on the paper. 

"No drugs, confusing." I sound like a child. My defensive side coming out of me. I don't know how to process care, or love, and now that she shows even the slightest bit of that I want to scream and run away. However, if I tried, I know the warriors would catch me. They wouldn't let me wring my neck like I would want. 

Don't be so hard on yourself. I let the subtle reminder float through my head and leave on the other side. I can't think like that. Nothing in this world is worth living for, even Myrina. See brought me a moment of confidence, but Jamal shattered it. I'm not strong enough to handle anything thrown my way. I can't even talk back to my father. 

"Well, start explaining. You look crazy holding that burnt paper against you." 

I tug the paper away from myself to read the writing, Raphael's message loud and clear across the paper. 

"The world isn't what you think it is. There is more things outside of earth than we know. Mythology is a myth, Tazi Warriors are running the worlds, and the Blood Order is about to come into play by the tyrant King Raphael." 

She pauses, running her teeth over her bottom lip sucking lightly. Her breath catches, the next line reading something that halts any further thought. 

"Okay, so drugs. With abuse I can see that as a fair out, and I won't stop you from getting as high or as a dosed up as you want, but you sound fucking crazy." 

"I wouldn't call her crazy, but I would call her ignorant." 

Jamal.