“Uh, crap. That was insensitive. Sorry. Do you want to go outside? I may hit the floor as well, though.”

Kuo grabbed his hand and squeezed it so hard Benji thought he’d have bruises tomorrow.

“Don’t you dare! I’ll stay with you until the Mages are back. I’m not bound, so you can dip into my spark.”

Kuo desperately hoped Embry would return. He didn’t even want to entertain the thought of the Mage not returning.

Benji gave him a droll look. “Aww, see, this is why I picked you as a bestie. Thanks for not letting me die.”

“It’s not funny,” Kuo squawked in horror.

Benji sobered and looked around. They stood in the middle of frantic Pages trying to make sense of the situation. He felt lucky to be unharmed. Yet. “It’s really not. Sorry.”

The conversation felt out of place when Pages were sitting or lying on the ground, groaning, and sparks were flying everywhere. Surreal. He’d never seen anything like it.

Aro got up from a crying Page, searched the room with a worried look and frowned when he found the two young men. With quick steps, he went to Kuo, clutched his shoulder with a shaky hand and looked him sternly in the eyes.

“Listen to me... I know he's not your Mage, but... is Embry still alive?” He whispered in a calm but strained voice; his green eyes were filled with worry for the Mages and the monastery.

Kuo didn't understand why he, of all people, was being asked, but the answer was on his tongue before he could consciously think about it.

"Yes," he breathed.

The old Headmaster exhaled in relief and raised his index finger in warning.

"You don't tell anyone about this. And stay away from the Pages. I don't want you to get hit with a drain. Especially not in this situation. The night is going to be long enough as it is."

The groans and the screams got louder, and the headmaster rushed off to another Page caught in a drain.

Kuo clutched Benji's hand tightly, and the young Page squeezed back just as hard.

“Don’t let me go,” Benji whispered.

Kuo looked at Berinn, who frantically clutched his throat and the ripped stripe of his bond, forever broken and gone. “Never.”

***

When the Mages came back, it was early morning. The battered men and women shuffled through the main gate, tired and murmuring. Some of them limped or leaned heavily on their weapons, as many had lost their horses to Cashûndo or worse. The three horses that were left carried badly battered Mages, unmoving and barely breathing.

Caroll wasn’t one of them, although you could see her teeth grinding as she hobbled alongside the entourage, hair wild and weapons busted. Carla looked beaten up, but her head constantly whipped around, counting heads and ensuring nobody slumped down on the cobblestone.

She stopped the defeated-looking group before anybody could slink away towards their rooms or the bathhouse. “Leave your weapons on a pile. I need five people to carry Henryk, Lin and Hado to the healers.”

She turned to Embry, who was supported by a tired-looking Aik. Both were covered in grime, blood, and rancid globs of foul-smelling liquid.

“Em, are you okay for now?” She paused carefully, adding, "Or should I ask the healers for a sleep potion?”

Embry shook his head in bewilderment. “No! No, I’m… I’m good. Kinda. I’ve gone longer without a bond. I won’t cause trouble.”

He didn’t want to be knocked out so people wouldn’t have to fear his magic. Aik had told him that sometimes it was necessary when the magic lashed out. But oddly, he didn’t feel as lost as he had after losing his mother and Page in Ûwila. There’d only been guilt and regret when he returned to his senses.

Carla nodded. “Aik, bring him to his room and clean up, then join me and Dawid in the library. Be quick. I’ll check in with the Pages.” She took off, not turning back to check on her team, expecting everyone to follow her orders without a blip.

“I should go see Berinn. He has to be upset,” Embry murmured.

Aik shook his head. “Mate, I fear it will be ugly if you see him right now. Let Carla deal with it for now.” He dragged him to the Mage’s quarters. “Leave the clothes outside; I’ll ask somebody to come and get them. They’re useless anyway.”

The stitching had to be destroyed, and the residual magic had to be burned out. The weeks' worth of work was only good for burial now unless you remove every Page thread. Embry tugged on his clothes, the heavy woollen coat already uncomfortable and suffocating, heavy with mud and itchy with the Spark that started to feel fiendish.

Once they had climbed up the stairs and were in the barren hallway, alone and only surrounded by locked doors, Aik looked him up and down and touched the non-swollen side of Embry’s face.

“Now Carla’s not here. How do you feel? No bullshit lie.”

Embry leaned against the cold stone, welcoming the contrast to his bruised and hot cheekbone. He would be healed by tomorrow, but he welcomed the pain right now.

“I feel okay, and that makes me anxious. You know things became complicated, and the doe didn’t help. I kinda had it coming.”

Aik frowned. “Did your shield break?”

Embry just laughed humorlessly. “No, man. Nothing broke. I just got punched really hard and went down. The shield didn’t even go up. It just wasn’t there. I don’t even know when the bond ripped. It just happened, and it was so meaningless my magic didn’t bother reacting to it.”

His eyes turned glassy. “I… what if it’s my fault? I feel awful.”

Aik sighed. “My man, that’s the gamble with a bond.”

He squeezed the grey-haired Mage’s shoulder. “Come on. Get naked. I promise I won’t ogle you.” He waggled his eyebrows, making Embry huff out a tired laugh, before turning around and tapping his feet. “Move it, move it. I want to eliminate the smell before I get yapped at by Dawid.”

Elsewhere, Carla was marching toward the hind buildings of the monastery. The sewing rooms were still brightly lit, and healers met her at the door, informing her quietly about their work. They had given the drained Pages some mead with herbs and bandaged the bloodied markings of Berinn. They couldn’t do more.

She nodded, thanked them profusely and walked into the Pages' work area, eyes already searching for her own Page. Eva lounged on one of the tables, fiddling with a string and watching the exhausted bunch napping at their workstations or nervously wandering around.

Carla was relieved and cleared her throat before talking loud enough for everybody to hear. “Thank you all for your work. Please go to bed. Lin, Hado and Henryk are in the infirmary. Embry is in his room and will stay there for a while.”

She glanced at Berinn, who sat in the corner of the room, cradling his bandaged hands and eying her with red, swollen eyes. She willed him to understand that he couldn’t see Embry right now.

“Henryk?” Aro asked her, a frown deepening the worry lines on his face. “What’s wrong with him?”

“He got hit by a curse. Embry said the shield broke, so I assume the bond broke.” She looked around. “Where is she?”

A low murmur started, and Pages looked around, counting heads and realising one was missing.

Within the chaos of the evening, one Page slinking out had gone unnoticed.

***

Kuo tuned in carefully. Ears straining in fear he’d miss anything. Benji listened just as intently. The blonde’s eyes grew big when he heard Anya’s name. “I haven’t seen her all day. You?” he whispered.

Kuo shook his head. He was still trying to remember everybody, who belonged to whom and whose Mage did exactly what and where he had to go to see a certain spell stitch because everybody concentrated on different things. He knew who Anya was, but she didn’t stand out like Berinn or have the bubbly personality of Benji. After bonding with Henryk, she had stayed calm and quiet, maybe even more so, and Kuo started to wonder if they had missed something important.

A strong hand clapped on his shoulder, nails digging painfully into his flesh.

“You two will come with me and search for her. I cannot see her, and it upsets me,” Eva whispered into his ear, her voice deep and smooth like deadly smoke. Benji eyed her warily, fear written all over his face. He wasn’t keen on interacting with the Ouga, and her snakelike movements were creeping him out. Not many Pages interacted with her beyond the need for fabric that led them into her domain.

Only Kuo nodded, unbothered by her strange demeanour. He’d seen worse. “Come on.” He tugged Benji to the back door, following her swiftly moving silhouette through the darkness of the garden.

“Shouldn’t we ask Aro if this is okay?” Benji asked meekly. He didn’t like the dark, and stumbling around almost entirely blind wasn’t something he considered safe, even within the rather safe walls of Gimma. He could be a bit of a jester but even he had limits, and this was definitely beyond all of them.

Eva hummed, her white eye glowing in the dark. “No. He knows anyway. Don’t slack. Benji, where would you hide if you were her?”

They passed the atrium, avoiding healers who rushed towards the Mage quarters with their bags and baskets and stopped only when they were on the dark and quiet path behind the winery.

“Um…I… I wouldn’t be in the bigger storage rooms… because I could accidentally spoil the goods for everybody else?” He looked at Kuo, who nodded affirmatively.

“Yeah, that makes sense. She’s not egotistical.” Unlike Berinn, the Spark added in his head, but Kuo didn’t dare say it out loud.

“I also would avoid people. Mages and Pages, anyway, and also the Enforcers. And also the walls,” Benji continued.

“Would you leave Gimma? And stay outside?” Eva asked.

Benji shuddered. “Oh hells, no. Why are you asking me and not Kuo?”

Eva smiled. “Because you’re more like her than him. Kuo wouldn’t hide anyway.”

The young Page looked at his companion and wondered what Eva meant. “You wouldn’t?”

Kuo smiled. “Nope. I’d run.” Like a coward.

“That leaves only one spot. Let’s go.” Eva dragged them along the path and slipped back into the light of the main square.

“Where are we going?” Kuo whispered. Benji shrugged but kept on moving. There was no use in questioning Eva, and they both knew it, so the Spark ducked and tried to look inconspicuous, which was useless since nobody should have been able to see him anyway.

Nevertheless, he had the feeling of eyes following him as he slipped past a gathering of people. And maybe he was seeing things, but the young blacksmith looked in his direction for a suspiciously long time.

“Tarit is weird,” Kuo mumbled.

And he would have sworn the apprentice narrowed his eyes, but the redhead turned away and spoke to a wall Mage who stood next to him.

Benji laughed. “Duh. He had the hots for my brother. What did you expect?”

Kuo cringed and craned his neck when they stopped before the big barn. “Here? Really?”

He would have never chosen the barn to hide. The animals got spooked easily, and it was in the common area.

Benji shook his head while slipping inside right after Eva. It smelled like hay, horses and some shit piles, but that was to be expected.

“It kinda makes sense, in a weird way. You won’t be able to access the small backyard any other way. It’s usually where Aik takes his hookups. It’s one of the quietest places.”

The young Page’s eyes were trained on the back door.

“Also, the cows let you know when somebody enters the barn.” Benji looked around; the place was eerily quiet. Not a single animal moved. “Usually. When Eva isn’t scaring them to death.”

She shushed him and stalked towards the back door, which stood slightly ajar. There was no sound to be heard. After seeing the rupture of Berinn’s contract, Kuo would expect cries or at least whimpering. Berinn had looked bad, all bloodied up, with wounds not healing. Impossible to stay quiet with these kinds of gashes.

They reached the door, and Eva swiftly slipped through.

“Stay.”

They heard a quiet murmur and - for the first time - a harrowing sob. Oddly, to Kuo, it sounded like relief.

“What’s going on?” Benji whispered.

They didn’t dare move or intrude, so they stayed, abiding Eva’s threatening glare, and listened, but nothing else was to be heard.

“Maybe she’s using a muting spell,” Benji wondered, crouching down and rubbing his hands to fend off some of the morning dew chilling the air.

“I’ve never heard of it. Is that possible?” The southern Spark wondered if he’d missed out on just about everything while stuck in Lioht.

Benji rocked back and forth on the balls of his feet, obviously impatient to find out what had happened. “Kuo, my dear friend… You know what Aro says to the trainees in the sewing rooms.”

“There’s a stitch for every itch,” he murmured.

The gnarly door to the back opened with a mean squeak, and both jumped, gasping. Anya was in Eva’s arms, holding onto her as her life depended on it, eyes filled with tears, but her mouth a grim line.

“Kuo,” Eva barked. “You must cloak her until we’re at the Page quarters.”

Kuo nodded, hands twitching at his side, unsure if that meant he should support Anya as well. Eva shook her head quickly before turning to Benji.

“You must rush to Aro and tell him it’s a switch. Carla will come around later. Tell him quietly in his room. Not where the others are. This information can’t be known to the rest. Am I clear?” She glared at him, her Ougbenti flaring up with a menacing glow.

Benji nodded, shaking in fear, and took off.

Kuo concentrated on stretching his glamour. He wrapped his spark around the two Pages like a blanket, feeling their answering Sparks and… something else. Something small like a humming bee, heart fluttering and-

“That’s enough, Kuo,” Eva chastised in a low voice. “Don’t say a word. To anybody.”

His mind was reeling, thinking about all the possibilities. Anya looked like her emotions were about to hurl out of her again, eyes wide and glossy, another frantic wail coming.

“I won’t. I’m sorry. I will keep you both cloaked,” he stammered and looked at Anya, tucking his hands behind his back in fear he’d set off her panic again. “I won’t touch you. I promise. I just… I just want to keep you safe.”

He stuck close to them, his Spark sending off unpleasant waves that made people crossing their path naturally move out of the way. He’d used it often. He knew how to trick humans. This he could do. But he wouldn’t be able to fix Anya’s problem. And the uneasy feeling that followed them made him shiver.  

And at the same time, excitement was mixed with dread and guilt. Embry was free of Berinn. And maybe, just maybe, the Mage could finally belong to him.