"Your master will be here shortly," prince Yuen said calmly, clearly not worried.

Zen opened his eyes slowly and pushed on the man's chest, trying to get back to his unsteady feet. He didn't try to hinder him, but he also didn't bother to help, either.

The intensity of the pain from the flower's roots was already dying down, but it took him another few moments before the room stopped spinning and he could finally straighten up. It was good timing, too, because he heard his master's footsteps approach right as he was comfortable enough to turn and face the open entrance to their pavilion.

"Prince Yuen..." Qi said, an air of authority to the two simply words that Zen was unfamiliar with.

His master was a prince in his own right, but he rarely spoke in such a way. There had never been a need back home, where everyone simply obeyed him because he treated them fairly and never gave him need to raise his voice.

The other prince took his time replying as he relaxed back on the bed, crossing his arms behind his head as a makeshift pillow. "Good evening, your highness," he finally said calmly, clearly seeing no issues with their current situation.

His master offered a hesitant bow, then replied, "prince Yuen, I apologize for not being here to greet you when you arrived, but I had to attend his majesty's dinner invitation."

Prince Yuen chuckled quietly and shrugged one shoulder.

"No worries, Zen has been quite a gracious host."

Glancing back at his master, Zen noticed that he was staring at him instead of the other prince. Remembering his manners, he quickly turned and bowed to Qi, but his master didn't even wait for him to finish showing his gratitude for his return before pulling him tight against him.

"All is well, your highness. I have done nothing but play with my curiosity," prince Yuen said as he slowly sat back up, then stood from the bed.

"I must ask you, though... why do you offer him light spiritual energy, when darkness suits him far greater?"

The hand his master had placed against his side pressed him closer, drawing Zen's attention away from prince Yuen. When he looked up at Qi's expression, he was surprised to see anger. His master didn't get upset often, and it rarely, if ever, showed on his face.

"If you will excuse us, your highness. I believe it is time to wash up before bed," Qi said, completely ignoring the other man's question.

Prince Yuen didn't seem interested in pushing the subject, so he merely shrugged his feathered shoulder and walked to the open doors. There, he stopped and turned, looking at Zen specifically. He would have turned to face the man, and honestly wanted to step in front of his master, just in case, but Qi refused to release him and he would never fight him on how he wished to handle a situation.

"There is a bathing pool out back... do be cautious not to mistake it for the one you have already discovered, though. They aren't as shy when dinner walks right into their home."

With that, prince Yuen grinned, gave a slight bow of his head, then turned to leave.

Zen would have watched him until he was completely out of sight, but his master quickly moved to shut and lock the door, then took his hand and tugged him into his larger room. He was then guided over to the bed and told to sit, which he had no qualms about doing. He was quite tired after his previous ordeal.

"Look up at me, please," Qi said, drawing Zen's attention up to his face as a warm hand settled beneath his chin to help lift it a little more.

The man immediately went for the flower, making Zen unintentionally flinch away. He was worried that Qi might have figured out what had happened, but then again, he always seemed to know, anyways.

"You will accompany me whenever I go anywhere from now on. Invited or not," he said as he gently began using his spiritual ability to warm the flower in Zen's hair. It seemed to take quite a bit more effort than most of his usual spiritual tasks, but Zen sat silently and still, not wanting to cause anymore trouble.

He wasn't sure how long he'd sat there for before he began feeling the little roots the flower had dug beneath his skin begin to slowly, centimeter by centimeter, withdraw from his flesh. He barely felt a thing this time, and wondered if his master was using his numbing ability to stem the pain.

"Do not worry, Zen," Qi said calmly, though his voice had a hint of exhaustion to it that he was unfamiliar with. When his master carefully removed the flower from his hair, Zen turned his head to look, curious.

It's petals have turned black.

Qi set the flower aside and placed a warm hand against Zen's cheek, making him nuzzle against it gently and close his eyes.

"I'm sorry that I wasn't here sooner. I'm not sure what his goal was when he fused some of his dark energy with you using my spiritual device, but thankfully I got here fast enough to safely remove it."

Zen blinked his tired eyes open and looked up at his master's worried face. It had hurt a lot, but there was no more pain.

However, he could never hide things from his master... ever, which was clear when he slowly nodded his head against the man's hand. He could see his master's expression begin to falter and quickly straightened, lifting one hand to take Qi's from his face. He then brought it down to settle in his lap before reaching toward it with his other one.

His master knew what he intended to do and knelt down before him, watching as he slowly wrote a question against his open palm, then looked up at Qi, waiting for an answer.

"Why would anyone try to infuse me with dark energy?"

He wasn't the best at using the light spiritual energy Qi trained and raised him with, but he would surely do much worse with dark energy... not that he would ever be willing to try it to begin with.

His master took a moment to process the question before meeting Zen's eyes with a small frown.

"I do not know, but I will not let him get another chance to hurt you," he said as he grasped Zen's hands together, then stood, helping him to his feet as well.

"I'm sure he'll be back to try and stir up trouble again at some point, but let's not mind it anymore tonight. I have a barrier around this area, so your sensing skill isn't needed this evening," Qi said as he guided Zen toward a small sliding door in the back corner.

He followed without question, and as they both stepped through, surprise colored his face. Prince Yuen had been quite modest about the bathing area. Yes, it looked like a large pond, but it was actually a hot spring that rose to the surface from beneath the ground that left tendrils of steam floating upward into the moonlight. Large rocks and plants decorated the area, some natural, some clearly having been moved for ambiance. Either way, it was quite a beautifully designed space.

Remembering himself, Zen quickly bowed to his master and hurried behind him. He gently grasped the man's outer robe and helped him out of it, then, once Qi turned to face him, began working on the few buttons he had sewn into his thinner, undergarment one.

He was nearly finished when his master reached up and gently began undoing the belt at Zen's waist, drawing his attention upward as his own fingers slowed to a stop, confused. His master never bothered with his clothing...

"I told you, Zen, I will not be leaving you alone. You will bathe with me from now on," Qi said, making Zen's heart flicker uncomfortably as he hurried to look back down and not fumble with his master's buttons.

Surely he was simply jesting. They had never bathed together. It was not proper. The master always washed before the servant. Even if the servant was called to help, which he never had been after he'd finished removing his master's clothing, it was still frowned upon for those of such different status to bathe together.

Zen felt Qi's hand beneath his chin, guiding it up as he finished the last button on the man's inner robes. He heard the garments fall to the bamboo mat beneath their feet a moment later, which was unacceptable, but he didn't dare look away from the attention his master was silently demanding of him.

"Be good and let's wash up. I can see that you are exhausted, so let's waste no more time."

He had no valid argument, and wasn't even sure why he felt like he needed to avoid the situation. So, with a slight bow of his head, he began undressing himself, but to his surprise, Qi refused to allow him to tend to his belt, and instead, finished undoing the fabric himself. Once it was untied, Qi let it slip from his fingers, then reached up to carefully remove Zen's outer robe from his shoulders.

Before that garment could be completely taken off, however, Zen cleared his throat, something he only really did when he got extremely nervous, and moved around his master to edge closer to the water. He shed his remaining robe and undergarment as he moved, allowing him to quickly slip beneath the water's surface.

That's when he realized that he'd actually gotten into his master's bath before him, and without direct permission!

He quickly scrambled to climb out, but Qi met him at the edge in a kneeling position and, to his confusion and surprise, shoved him backwards with a quiet chuckle. Zen gasped from the push, but no matter how hard he tried to right himself with his flailing arms, he couldn't manage to find his balance. His left hand did find something, however, and gripped onto it tightly.

Unfortunately for his master, he was what Zen had managed to grasp. The right arm he'd extended to shove his servant back into the water, to be exact. They both ended up falling into the hot spring rather unceremoniously.

Zen fumbled to the surface first, but by the time he managed to wipe away the water from his eyes, Qi was already above the water, laughing heartily.

He couldn't understand what was so funny, and he was so nervous about all of the mistakes he'd already made that his heart just refused to calm. His master seemed to realize his growing terror because he quickly ceased his laughter and swam closer in order to pull him into a calming hug.

"It's okay, Zen. I'm sorry I suddenly got very defensive over you and changed the way we do things so abruptly," Qi whispered against his hair as he lifted one hand to softly pat his head.

When he finally nodded after his heart calmed down to a more manageable beat, Qi released him and offered a reassuring smile. Unfortunately, Zen still wasn't sure what he was actually supposed to do, and after looking around for a few moments, decided to retrieve a bar of soap from a small open box at the edge of the water and help wash his master's hair. Surely that was something he could do that would please him and make the situation a little less awkward?

He headed that was quickly but calmly... only to be cut off by Qi at the last moment, making him literally swim right into the man's arms. Confused, he quickly backed away a little, only to see his master rummaging through the little box and pulling out a small tan bar of soap.

"May I wash your hair for you, Zen?"

May?

He was a servant and his master was asking him permission if he could do something? And that something was what he should have been doing for him?

"You really are too cute when you're confused," Qi said as he gently grabbed one of Zen's wrists and tugged him over to the edge of the water.

There were plenty of large boulders both above and below the surface, allowing him to comfortably rest on his bent legs against the cool rock wall.

"What happened earlier?" Qi asked abruptly as he lifted a few lengths of Zen's hair, examining the ends that had clearly been tangled a bit previously.

The situation that had happened right before prince Yuen had appeared replayed in his mind, making him actually calm down. He was used to being attacked, considering he was the royal guard to a prince.

Finally relaxing some, Zen turned to face the hot spring wall as Qi reached for one of the three different brushes within the box of soaps. As Zen began to write out the basic details of what had happened, Qi rhythmically ran the brush through his hair, making sure to remove any tangles with the utmost care, while at the same time looking over his shoulder to make sure that he wasn't missing anything that was being written on the smooth rock.

"Someone attacked you by a strange fish pond?" Qi asked, already understanding that the event had happened, but clearly wanting some more details.

As he spoke he began to work a lathered bar of soap into Zen's long hair, moving slowly and taking his time.

Not minding the attention, since his focus was on his story, Zen continued to write about how the fight went, but decided to leave the warning from prince Yuen out of his version of what had happened. It wasn't that he was trying to omit important information, but he wasn't sure if the odd dream had actually taken place, and he definitely didn't want to make his master even more worried or upset.

He did definitely mention what he thought was the most important thing, however, and that was the fact that prince Yuen could control the toxin in his injured hand.

"A curse master..." Qi whispered as Zen finished his story with that little detail.

Zen nodded before Qi gestured for him to dip his head beneath the surface to rinse out the soap. He did as told, then surfaced a few moments later. He was just lifting his hands to wipe away the water from his face when he felt a cloth gently pat around his eyes.

He was able to open them shortly after, but was a bit surprised when he saw his master set the cloth on the edge of the hot spring, then climb out to sit beside it. For some reason, he found himself staring at the man's well-toned body, but as soon as Qi began running soap over it, he realized how inappropriate his unabashed attention was and hurried to turn away. He then cleaned himself quickly before climbing out of the water.

"Dry yourself well before you get dressed in your evening robe... and you will be staying in my room for the remainder of our visit," Qi said as Zen hurried away, shivering slightly in the cool air.

He stopped by the door upon hearing his master's command, but like always, he had no rebuttal. So, he turned and calmly bowed, then dismissed himself to dry off and get dressed.

Once ready to rest, Zen laid out a bamboo mat next to his master's bed and curled up, already drowsy from the warm water and long day. He decided to forgo eating any of the fruits or small cakes that had been left for them before they had arrived and was just about to fall asleep when he sent out a small flicker of his ability, unable to break his normal evening habits. He was hoping that he had enough energy from what he'd borrowed from his master earlier in order to do one small scan of the area.

Wait... how?

Not only could he sense every single person, insect, and blade of grass within the entire palace grounds as his powers searched through each pavilion and pathway, but instead of hearing jumbled musings and unintelligible voices like he normally would, he could understand every single word clearly, and even pick and choose which conversation he wished to listen to at any given moment.

The sudden improvement was terrifying, especially considering that his chest was beginning to feel colder and colder as he hesitantly explored his newfound level of skill. Thankfully, the sound of his master stepping into the room broke his focus and he quickly withdrew the spiritual energy he'd been using and closed his eyes. He knew that pretending to be asleep was the last thing he should have been doing at that moment, but he didn't want to cause his master more stress.

He would figure out a way to explain it to him tomorrow... after he hopefully figured it out himself.