Pak

　　I ask if they`ve found my father yet.

　　They`re working on it, they say. They`ve taken a small sample of my blood. Their mages are finding a way to track him. The old person said you don`t have real mages`, I say. They assure me that they do. These things just take time.

　　The voices whisper while I draw. While I walk. While I tattle on my city.

　　Any day now.

　　Cabbage doesn`t come when I call, when they return me to my room and I have some time alone.

　　Do you think he forgot about us&?

　　I tell myself he must not be able to hear me from down here. Or maybe they have wards to keep him out.

　　I don`t smell any magic.

　　Do you?

　　Maybe he knows to stay hidden, like how I know to hide the knife. Maybe their spoli are watching me.

　　Maybe he doesn`t want to come back&

　　*******

　　One hundred and thirty-two meals have passed. What else could they possibly ask?

　　I`m getting impatient, demanding. Tell me what`s going on, I say, gritting my teeth. But I know I`m powerless. They know I`m powerless. Tok`sera placates me, but what once was soothing has become unbearable. Don`t give me that same old shit, I say. But she keeps giving me that same old shit.

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　　*******

　　I start to plan my escape. I`ve memorized this cavern, every inch that she lets me see. I plot out the narrowest tunnels I think I can squeeze through and send my spoli spies when she`s not paying attention. They don`t just carry sounds - they bring images, too, of whatever I ask to see. Most tunnels end with a rock wall. I ask them to find the false jelly-walls for me, but they won`t, or maybe they can`t. Those walls really are warded. The work of real mages`.

　　I would cut through the rock with the weapon, but when the rock splits, the whole wall shakes. It scared me the one time I did it here, when I was thinking about escaping that way. I don`t want to cause a cave-in. I don`t want to kill anyone. The soldiers panicked when it happened, but they couldn`t find the source, and the rock seems to have settled. Still, I hear whispers of migration. Nagaleen is crumbling. It`s only a matter of time.

　　The far-away sun from the cavern`s natural funnel makes me long for the sky. I once read about a ritual that can make a person fly, but I doubt I could do it even if I could remember it. It probably had something to do with feathers, and those aren`t easy to come by down here. And even if I did escape& Where would I go?

　　*******

　　I sleep fitfully. Tossing, turning, never dreaming.

　　I rock back and forth, watching the spoli dance.

　　I think back to my life in Iridan, always holed up in a room, usually alone. How little things change.

　　I think about Kano. I`m not angry with him, and I`m not surprised he moved on after we left the school. But I miss the days when we`d stay up all night talking, smoking, enjoying each other`s company. He was the only person who ever made me forget that I`m a freak. He`s the only one who ever made me smile.

　　(I miss you so much&)

　　*******

　　Mushroom soup, mystery jerky, dirt-flavored water, day in, day out. I can`t stand it anymore.

　　One-hundred and sixty-one meals-

　　Tok`sera opens the door.

　　Kano and Cabbage

　　When Kano woke up, he was on his back, in motion. He choked on his gag and tried to launch himself upright, but he was bound, tied up to whatever beast was carrying him like a pack on a mule. Its slick back slid against him with every undulating movement, pressing scaly imprints into his skin. Cabbage was nowhere to be seen. He must have been captured or killed. For the first time in his journey, Kano was truly alone. He lamented his survival. It would have been a kinder fate to die beneath that terrible worm than make him endure whatever torture awaited him at the hands of his captors. He quietly sobbed, praying for a swift and merciful end.

　　In reality, Kano just couldn`t see the aura of magic surrounding his fur-feathered friend. Cabbage flew above him, invisible to anything other than Dream-creatures, coasting along on the currents of the Dream itself. He kept a window between the realms open so he could watch the half-human and intervene if necessary, but the Du閚 had strapped him to a giant snake, and they seemed to have some sort of magic at play which shrouded their movements in the tunnels, keeping them safe from predators. Cabbage was quite glad they`d come along, actually. He had just been about to drag Kano`s unconscious body out of the tunnel when they arrived, saving him the effort. They had reliable transport, food, water, and a destination in mind - heading in the same direction as Pak, no less - and though Cabbage knew that the Du閚 were supposed to be enemies` of Iridan, they hadn`t made any motion to harm Kano. If they started torturing him or making strange ritual preparations for sacrifice or something equally insidious, he would reconsider his route. For the moment, though, he was content to float along, confident that their path was correct.