Zatelia was… an interesting woman, Kevza came to discover very quickly. Kind, of course, but… odd. And while Natavali had only really been willing to speak of her only when his homesickness grew too large to carry on his small shoulders, deep in the dead of their nights as Magi, those things that Kevza as a boy had thought too outlandish to be true were all proving themselves as fact now.

            It had been weeks (since the first night of their arrival really) since they had sat together in the cozy dining room in Natavali’s set of rooms. But time had found them there once again, Zatelia roping them into a meal with warm, honied words and a bright smile the way an experienced mother was well versed in.

            But there were moments, still, where the woman didn’t quite seem to be present. Her gaze would turn slightly to one side, or she would speak without looking at any of them, or mutter to herself when they were otherwise occupied. Natavali used to speak of her distractions with fondness and bitterness both, but to see it in action… Kevza wasn’t quite sure what to make of it. The only sure thought he could have was a sudden understanding of how a mother and child who loved each other so much might have made the right choice by living apart, only seeing each other for special occasions.

            It must have been so hard for them both, at the beginning…

            “And then she knocked him into the river, and you would think he had died for how she wailed,” the woman was saying, laughing as Natavali hung his head in his hands, embarrassment flushed across his face. With an amicable chuckle, Kevza watched as Danae reached across the table for a bread roll, his own appetite sated and feeling content.

            Suddenly, the woman jolted, her knees banging against the underside of the table as she pushed away. The happy expression on her face faltered for a moment, her breath heavy as she brushed out her skirts.

            “Ah,” she said softly, creeping towards the door. “Excuse me a moment.”

            “Are you alright?” Kevza asked, half risen himself.

            “Fine! Just fine… just…” She slipped from the room before he could ask her more.

            “Apologies for Mother,” Natavali said after a long awkward moment, settling back at the table. “Sometimes they take her by surprise.”

            “What’s that?” Danae asked, still looking at the door, the dinner roll she’d reached for forgotten on the plater.

            “Natavali’s mother is a seer,” Kevza explained, pushing his food around his plate for a moment before setting it aside.

 “Sometimes her blessed eye catches things she is not prepared for,” Natavali added on. “Do not take it personally. The Keep is awash with things that might draw to her. Hence why she does not come often.”

            “She’ll be ok though?” Danae asked.

            “She’s lived her whole life like this,” Natavali said, noncommittal as he slightly shrugged one shoulder. “And though we have not been together much over these last sixteen years, I’ve never seen her too overcome.”

            He rose from the table then, clearing his setting and the few empty platters from the wooden top. It held the air of simplicity, a calm cleaning after dinner, but Kevza remembered a thing or two about the old days too. Natavali did not like others to see him falter, and in the past, he would hide behind normalcy to avoid addressing things he didn’t want to deal with. So, following suit, Kevza brought his plate over and leaned against the counter with it as he watched Natavali toss out the remaining scraps into a pail, searching his face.

            “Are you alright?” he asked lowly, seeing the tension in the other’s hands and shoulders, the steely veneer of a dutiful host fixed on his face.

            “I do not wish to discuss it,” Natavali answered, swift and quiet.

            “I thought that’s what you’d say,” Kevza nodded simply, reaching over to clear his own dishes before adding them to the stack in the sink. “But I’m here if that changes.”

            “…thank you. It’s not your burden to bear.”

            “It’s a good thing you’re not a burden then, isn’t it?” Kevza said with a small grin, patting the Magus on the back of his shoulder as he passed, heading back to the table where Danae was just finishing the last of her food.

            Natavali had turned like he might say something else when there was a loud crash from the other room, the three of them turning in an instant to the door, pausing for only a beat before moving almost as one.

            Zatelia stood, hunched and shaking, over the back of a chair, a mess of books and broken glass knocked from the side table at her feet.

            “Mother,” Natavali called out with urgency, rushing across to take her gently into his arms. “What is it? What do you see?”

            The woman gasped, a strained sound, almost as though she were in pain as she slumped against her son’s strong form. Small muttering came from her, but Kevza was too far away to hear it clearly, even as the slight paling of Natavali’s face indicated it wasn’t something good.

            The alchemists both sucked in a breath as the priestess turned slightly, a trail of red slipping over her cheek from the rim of her one pale yellow eye as she swayed. The Magus shared a slightly panicked look with Kevza before looking back down at his mother, gently steering her back towards the other side of the room.

            “Come, Shra’ma,” Kevza could hear the dark-skinned man say in a soothing voice as he slipped into his suite’s personal guest room. “You’ve traveled a long way and are tired. Let’s get you to rest.”

            Kevza sighed, watching the dark wood of the door for a second before turning to ask Danae to grab the wastebasket from the corner as he knelt, carefully picking up shards of glass from between the books to throw away.

            “I don’t think that was normal,” Danae said quietly as she handed the basket over, as though she was afraid that Natavali and his mother might hear them.

            “Just because they call it being blessed doesn’t mean having magic is always a blessing,” Kevza said simply, his already pensive mood dropping a little more.

            They were silent as they finished cleaning up the mess, arranging things back as well as they could while the door to the guest room remained closed.

            “Should we go?” Danae asked when Natavali didn’t emerge after several long minutes.

            “I don’t know,” Kevza said, crossing his arms and leaning against the back of the chair. “He seemed shaken up too, but I don’t want to be pushy or invade his privacy.”

            “Well out of the two of us, you’re the one he knows best,” she said, looking over at the door. “You wait here for him. I’ll get things straightened out in the kitchen, right? One less thing for him to worry about.”

            “Good idea,” Kevza nodded, his own tension still wound up.

            With a decisive nod, Danae headed back into the other room, the door clicking closed behind her softly. Kevza, it turned out, didn’t have to wait long. No sooner than the quiet sounds of washing up had started coming through the kitchen door, the guest room opened, Natavali slipping out quietly. His face still looked a bit pale from its usual tone, and he gave Kevza a tired look.

            “I’m sorry,” he said softly, coming over to stand next to his guest. “She has not been as well these last few months as she has in the past.”

            “There’s nothing to be sorry for,” Kevza answered with a shake of his head. “We just wanted to make sure everything was alright.” Part of him also hoped, just a little bit, that Natavali might decide to share what his mother had said, if only so he could calm his and Danae's racing hearts.

            “I appreciate it. It has been… worrisome.” He seemed to take a great time to settle on the word, a furrow pinched between his neat brows. “She did not want to concern anyone, I am sure.”

            “Of course it's got you worried,” Kevza said. “She’s your mother. There’s no shame in wanting to be there for her.”

            He wanted to say more, to lay out every reassurance Natavali might need, or offer to sit and listen to his every woe. After all, his family had been in Kath all this time, his mother and her sisters consumed with their duties as priestesses, and his father notably never mentioned being in the picture. And he had been sent the continent, truly left alone in the hands of the Coven for all intents and purposes. How many more “worrisome” thoughts and fears were hiding below the surface?

            But Kevza remembered that Natavali had said he didn’t wish to talk about it, so he didn’t press any further. In this, he could offer nothing but respect for the Magus’s wishes, choosing instead to offer his support once again if Natavali should ever find himself in need of it.

            Once the words were exchanged and the messes cleared, Kevza and Danae bid Natavali goodnight, and they made their separate ways once more.

***

            “You could have said you were busy, Shra’Li’Li,” Zatelia said as they walked down the hallway the next day, once again on course to Danae’s room. “I would have waited for you to finish.”

            Even as Natavali smiled and gave a “yes, Mother”, Kevza wasn’t so sure about that. She’d been very enthusiastic about dragging all three of them away from the task the day before, after all. But what could be said about a loving mother and her excitement?

            Kevza hadn’t been by the room in a week or so and was surprised to see that several areas of the room had been switched around.

            “You redecorated,” he said, quietly surprised.

            “You kept complainin’ about the way I had it,” Danae shot back with a teasing grin. “So I changed it.”

            Given that she’d cared enough to do such a thing, Kevza decided not to mention that it felt exactly the same to him, right down to the way it made the short baby hairs on the nape of his neck stand up, and his skin prickle with unease.

            But, for once, it seemed like he wasn’t the only one having an odd reaction to the room. Natavali and his mother both fell quiet and lingered by the doorway.

            “Something the matter?” Danae asked, turning around to look at the three of them from the desk in the corner, a contraption hanging between her fingers.

            “I thought I felt something,” Natavali said quietly, his brows drawing together.

            “And… I’m still getting that weird feeling,” Kevza quietly confessed once he was no longer a lone enigma, shifting his weight back and forth. “It’s like… it’s like…”

            “Like something scratching at the back of your mind,” Natavali said, rubbing his neck.

            “Exactly.” Kevza nodded. Something here just… wasn’t right. "That little feeling whispering that something's wrong, right?"

            “You two are both goin’ mad then,” Danae said, cocking her hip. “I’m in here every day, and nothin’s ever come to bother me. And you’re my friends, but I’m not swappin’ things again, no matter how good your taste is.”

            “Oh, child, no,” Zatelia said holding a hand to her chest as she entered. “It’s in here.”

            “What?” Danae asked.

            “Mother said something was on you last night. And it’s back again?” In the last part, he turned, addressing the seer.

            “Oh yes,” the woman said, stepping further into the room and looking around. “It is thick here.” She took a few steps over to the dresser, running a finger along the seam for the top drawer. “In here, I think.”

            “There’s nothin’ in there except for the gear from Hawthgrove,” Danae said, coming over and pulling the drawer open. “See? Just my blades and…” she picked up a container filled with a lump of black cloth, “…this. I forgot all about it.”

            Danae flicked the top open and folded the fabric back, and Zatelia stepped back with a sharp breath as the dark shard of stone from the fight with the water dryad was revealed. With a curious sound, Danae tossed the bit in her hand a few times before tapping it on the wall, opening her mouth to speak.

            Before she could, there was movement and sound filling the small space. Almost all at once, Natavali rushed to his mother’s side as her legs buckled, dragging him down to the floor with her as dark, writhing energy spilled off the shard, making Danae yelp and pull back.

            The feeling of absolute wrongness that suddenly poured from the thing overloaded Kevza’s senses and left him feeling rooted to the spot, hardly even able to breathe, even while a little voice in the back of his mind started wailing for him to get out of the space.

            But as soon as the rock hit the stone floors, the decision was taken from him, the black lines sucking back in and exploding the rock spiral with enough force that it threw him through the doorway and back out into the hall.

            And then, with ringing in his ears and pain in his chest, everything went black.