It’s disappointing that Master saw me when he did. I would have been able to visit the Place of the Fallen to speak with the wisemen there. They seem to know what to do in most of the situations that I find myself in. Oh well. No point in stalling that trip home any longer.

“MASTER!”, an annoyingly familiar voice calls. Osgood. What does he want with Master? Nothing good can come from this. I’d better get there before Master does. It wouldn’t help the relationship between us, but at least I would know what happened, and not the lies that he thinks he can feed me. There were too many times that he lied to keep me “safe and away from trouble”. That annoys me even more than Osgood, if that’s even possible. Jumping over the alleys, and over the heads of people who were awake at this hour, I start looking for Osgood. There was usually nobody out after nightfall, but this year seemed to be an exception to everything; the crops, the festivities, and the people themselves. There was never a time like this in the history of the realm. Even when the Shadow was a threat the people were thankful that there was something to celebrate, even if they were wary of all the shadows in their city. Farad did put an end to it, but festivity surrounded that as well. A sad festivity, but still a festivity that there was no longer a threat that could hurt them. Even the Ketakutan were mostly chased out, and they take forever to get rid of.

Finally, I reached the dwelling of Far- Eutla. It is reflexive to think of the dwelling as Farad’s. He was a friend of my father’s. My real father’s. Master was there as well, but as more of his brother rather than a friend.

“MASTER!”, Osgood sounds close, meaning that either I had moved quicker than I had expected, or Osgood had moved from his dwelling. Against Master’s rules, but allowable, regrettably. He should have done something more drastic, then I would be back to best student and he would be kicked out. Not that I’m wishing him to fail. That is a fate I wouldn’t wish on my worst enemy, which he is, unfortunately.

Master appears below the building that I was standing on a moment after I jumped to the next one. He doesn’t look like he noticed my presence, but I hide it anyway. There was no way to make sure that Master didn’t see me, so hopefully the pandemonium that followed Osgood’s call will hide me more than I can.

“OSGOOD! I CAN’T DETECT WHERE YOU ARE!” Master sounds desperate. I can definitely tell why. There has never been a person who could block Master’s detection so completely. Even Farad was detectable. This was either a trick or… kidnapping. However impossible the later was, the first option was more. No one could vanish so completely. Checking my empathic center, I noticed that the connection with Osgood was still open. It was a surprise that Master couldn’t detect it.

“Zenia.” Master is suddenly behind me, his hand on my shoulder. “I need you to use that connection to find Osgood.”

“Why? Can’t detect him yourself?”, I ask arrogantly. If he wants my help, he can ask nicely. Arrogance is a dangerous game with Master. One only I am willing enough to play with him. Master’s dark eyes stare into mine, taking apart every wall that I build to keep him out of my mind.

“Please, Zenia. Help me.”, his voice turns soft.

“Stop!”, I order, using the language of the Ketakutan, “Nice try Ketakut, but I am not so easily fooled.”

“How? H-how did you know?” The Ketakut’s anger is visible even in its dark eyes. It slowly shifts forms to the more repulsive version of itself.

“No character of my father. At all.”

“Ah. You’re his daughter. Should’ve known. Same character and attitude.”

“Hey!”, I interrupted. “No one compares me to him!”

“Oh well. Fare ye well.” The Ketakut starts to dissipate, and a short while later disappears completely. A shiver shakes me. Had I helped, Osgood might have been captured. Not that I’m entirely opposed to that happening. Speaking of Osgood… Stretching out my ability to its limits I touch his mind. The anguish in it is real enough that I feel it, though there is a distance of at least a hundred houses. The power necessary for this connection to be holding so stably was immense, so where did Osgood find the power to do it? It couldn’t have been possible. Even Master didn’t have enough power to do something like this. Continuing my path toward Osgood, I decide that it wasn’t worth telling Master of the meeting with the Ketakut. One wasn’t a problem, just as long as nobody listened to it. They were always mischievous on their own. The real problem was when they banded together, which was never going to happen.

Master, the real one, was already standing in front of Osgood, unemotional like always. Osgood, on the other hand, was in tears, the weakling. Master was right to tell him, and everyone else, to hide any emotions. It wasn’t warrior-like to have tears. It definitely wasn’t heroic. Suddenly, I noticed that Osgood was looking right at me, even though there was no light for him to see me clearly by. There was a slight feeling of déjà vu, and an inexplicable want to run as far as I could from Farad’s dwelling. Eutla’s dwelling I correct myself. It’s been more than a decade since he was gone. Why could I not stop calling it Farad’s?

The news that I wanted to hear had already been spoken. I was too late, thanks to that Ketakutan. However, I was not too late to hear the reaction to it. Master’s face twisted into such rage, I thought that he was going to destroy something. This was the first time that I saw that type of anger on his face. Actually, this was probably the first type of strong emotion that I have seen him show in a long time.

“IMPOSSIBLE! She had the most advanced protection in the whole realm! Are you sure that she was captured?”, Master is shaken, that I can tell. It was his protection on everyone that kept trouble away. I can’t help but wonder who they are talking about.

“I waited for her for a greater part of an hour. She couldn’t be on an errand for that long! I fear the worst has happened to her. There was also a device of some sort that projected her presence as if she was there. I took it with me, just in case it was important. Here it is.”

The object that Osgood hands Master looked like a small disk with incisions on both sides. There was also some sort of writing on one of the sides. Despite the plain look of it, the fear that I see in Master’s stance frightens me as much as it does Osgood.

“What is it, Master?”, Osgood’s voice sounds shaky, even from the distance. Master turns the disk around so that the writing is facing down. The bottom of the disk resembled the top, but it didn’t have the same writing on it. I decided that I was done hiding and jumped from the roof of the building to the ground near Master.

“Master?”, I ask, “How may I help? Who was captured, and how are we going to return her?”

“My mother was the one captured, but I have no idea how to find her. This was never something that I was prepared for.” Osgood interjects, but I can't be too angry at him. I've understood the writing on the device, and its implications were too great.

“No one could prepare for this. Even Farad.”, Master is definitely shaken. Not once has he mentioned Farad, not since he had fallen in that fatal battle in which so many brave men fell. 

“Nightshade.”, The whisper is out of my mouth before I can stop it. It can’t be. He was destroyed fifteen years ago, so how could his gadget get into the city? The possibility of that happening was so small that I wouldn’t have believed that the device was in the safest place in the realm, if it hadn’t been in front of me. But it was. And with the disappearance of Eutla... There wasn't any way this would be good.