The curtains had been opened when I woke. Warm sunlight was pouring through and Chike was sitting on the couch, leaning over large pages of bright paper. I sat up, startling him when I did.

With a sigh he spoke, "morning, you seem actually well enough to form a sentence." I huffed and settled back into my comforters. "No, come now, don't fall back asleep, I've been waiting hours for you to wake up."

"What?" I said, realising there was a small meal waiting for me.

"I need to scan your leg with this." He raised a vibrant green stone, reflecting in the light around us.

"Why?"

"So I can make you one. Setria, guide me, I'm too busy for this, just give me your leg." He walked up to me and I curled into myself, glaring at him. "They're going to come in here and tell you to shower too, so it's leg now, and I help you or they do." With a hard stare towards Chike, I sat up. "Stop glaring, your stupid face is going to stay like that." He mumbled, "can you stand? It'll be easier."

I inhaled slowly, wobbling with my hunger which made itself known with a low rumble between us. Chike laughed quietly, motioning up as he knelt, "hold onto my shoulders so you don't fall." I did, shivering when I touched the soft shirt which hardly hid the cool temperature soaking through my palms.

His casting was abrupt, and something that was unexplainably comforting, it felt sentient, and reached out to hide the pain that was centreing itself deeper into my hip. It made my eyes droop with the sudden ache to sleep. "How can you cast so easily?"

"Practice." He said, "I've been casting since I was old enough to even understand magic." He circled the stone around my limb. Steady and with a concentration that made me want to shrink back.

"What is that?" He raised a brow towards me.

"A crystal…?" He answered, "Do you know nothing about magic?" I shook my head, and he slowly inhaled, his shock making my heart beat.

"That's…that's not good. I'll have to speak with—" I squeezed his shoulder, making him pause briefly. "Nothing bad is going to happen, but uncontrolled magic isn't something to be tested. As you probably know from how you blew up the servant room previously." My palms steamed with his comment. "Calm down, I don't want to explain to my parents how another room nearly burnt itself down." He had finished scanning the sides and top of my foot before he had me sit before he continued.

"They're probably going to start magic training immediately while I make this leg—"

"I didn't ask for your help."

"Excellent; I don't care. You're still a fire mage with hardly any control of his powers. You nearly burnt down the servant's wing and I've been granted responsibility for it thanks to you." His expression was hollow, his words weighing me down until I was sick with frustration. "So, do this for me and we'll both get something out of it." He gathered his scrolls and left, I wasn't able to look up at him.

I could hardly taste what I was eating, but it calmed the nausea settled at the back of my throat. Eventually, I lowered myself to the floor when I was finished with the restroom, settling down in front of the open window to watch the brilliant colours shift occasionally with the brief animal bound through the forest.

The plants were endless, so many variations imprinting in my mind with the most amount of detail when I thought about them later. I itched to find a piece of charcoal to draw with, something to commit to memory the insane beauty of the scene. I could feel, in the back of my mind, that someone had been proven right. That I had lost an argument that was ages old, something that I felt a steady weight of regret. I inhaled slowly, bitter that I couldn't continue that conversation, because there was a too late, and I couldn't remember aside from the battered buzz deep in my brain.

I startled when the door opened, grasping the support beside as Hawkins and Yuna walked into the room. "Hey you." I blinked up at Yuna while she knelt, "want to go for a walk?"

"Where?" I asked.

"Outside, there's a closed garden." I looked outside.

I scratched my arm before slowly looking back towards the forest. "Camping?"

"Sure, camping." Hawkins added, crouching in front of me with his palms raised to help me. I took his hands which Hawkins pulled me up slowly, allowing me to only use him as an extra support. "Here are your crutches." He said, waiting for me to gather my balance. "Yuna is going to walk with her hand under your arm in case you fall." I looked up at her, stepping closer into her warm touch. Walking towards the hall had me stumbling back briefly, the anticipation of darkness so profound that I hid behind Yuna.

"Are you alright?" She asked.

"Are the hallways safe?" I whispered.

"Yes, there are only guards patrolling." I froze entirely, looking up at Yuna with horror.

"Good guards, they won't interact with you unless you ask something of them." She said, "We actually will have a few watching you, since Hawkins and I will be returning to our home to prepare for you just briefly. The man we're introducing is a very kind person."

I inhaled through my shudder, unsteady beside Yuna with a wild heartbeat. Hawkins was behind me for a moment until he walked easily right on my heel. I would have hated him for it if he hadn't made me feel calmer as we made our way through the grand halls. They were far too decorated, leaving me feeling overwhelmed. Above us was a clear ceiling with metal shapes bent into plants, coloured into a supple green flower and deep green strings with no end. The walls were half-stone, the top was a smooth black that seemed imprinted by a pattern continuing the decadent leaf motif. The floor was soft with a green and metallic colour woven into the edges.

I squeezed my eyes shut every time we walked past a guard, their presence looming despite how they bowed deeply and kept their gaze away when we walked by.

"Are they always there?" I said to Yuna.

"No, they'll switch out with other people. They're there to help you."

"No they aren't." I said. "The guards hurt people."

"Well, we don't have guards who do that, and if you are hurt by a guard you can talk to one of us." Hawkins replied, his tone firm as we approached the door. It made my chest warm against the thump under my ribs. Yuna opened it and I hesitated, glancing back at the guards before I stepped forwards, wobbling into Hawkins. The tension of my fear was brief, once I realise his grip was gentle under my arm. Steadying, but not forceful while he helped me forward and into an overpowering scent of purity.

It was clean, sweet, the warm smell filled my lungs with a long breath. I coughed briefly, blinking against the bright light haloed in the leaves above as I shook my head and hid behind Hawkins' arm.

"Too bright?" He asked, I nodded, straining to hear Yuna.

"I'll return shortly, you two stay here." She mentioned, a small whimper was cut from my throat.

"Here, how about we go over by the tree? There's a seat for you." Hawkins said, I couldn't move. "Can I pick you up?" I nodded eventually, and my supports were carefully taken, Hawkins scooped me up then adjusted me against his hip. "We gotta get some meat on your bones, kiddo." He said, the depth of his voice startling me with how comfortable it felt. I sat down in the shadows but when I opened my eyes the same bright ache followed. I squeezed them shut, rubbing at the tears falling from my cheeks. My hands were briefly pushed away until a cloth tapped at the streaks.

"Hawkins?" I whispered, waiting for his hum of acknowledgement before I continued, "is Twelve a name?"

He inhaled slowly, "it depends, for a person to have a name as yours isn't bad, but people will feel conflicted calling you a number."

"So it's not a name?"

"Not really, but it can be." He said.

"Can I change it?"

"Of course. Do you have anything in mind?"

"No." I answered, finding nothing else to say. I sat in silence, feeling the warmth of light upon my skin, Hawkins was sitting beside me and when Yuna returned I felt her kneel.

"Can I wrap something around your eyes?" She asked. I nodded and raised my fingers to her wrist. Feeling the bracelet clasped upon it, the charge of magic was vibrant enough I pulled back. Yuna finished tying off the fabric and with a pleased sigh, retreated.

"Open your eyes." She said, I did with great hesitation. Blinking past the residual ache that now focused down to my hip.

But around me, I could finally see, I reached to trace the thin veil of fabric, soft under my fingers. The garden was small, quaint, overflowing with a cluster of colour. The grass was healthy, green, and I scoot to feel its prickle under my fingers. There was a woven coloured window above us, spreading dyed light around us. Behind me was a large looming plant, which I tried to remember what it was called, but found myself unable. We were sitting upon a smooth cushion embedded into the ground, with a few smaller ones thrown around us.

"Do you know your colours?" Yuna asked, I looked around me through the black clutter, pointing at what I could recognise.

"Green, brown, black, grey, white, red, blue." I said, looking down at the different coloured skin on my inner wrist. I covered the mark with my other hand, the disgust I felt viciously buzzing down my spine.

"Can we teach you more?" Yuna asked, I looked up at her with a soft gasp.

"Why?"

"Because we can make a crown of all your favourite flowers, then you can tell me all about why you like them." Hawkins leaned back on his hands, looking towards Yuna with a soft smile that was blurred under the cloth. There was warmth in his expression, and I found it difficult to look away from, especially how his eyes didn't seek to leave her.

"Okay, let's start with the primary colours." She stood and looked around the garden. She returned with only three, one of them red. She set them down and with a smile began to show me the colours—absolutely rapt. I leaned forward on my knee blinking up at Hawkins when he collected the petals and with a circle of vibrant sparking loops showed them to me.

I reached for his hand, which he already had lowered for me to see the new colour Yuna called purple.

"How did you do that? The static—magic." I pointed to where the circle had been.

"You feel magic as static?" Hawkins asked.

"It's too much sometimes." I nodded.

"Well, it's easy." Yuna said while she slowly adjusted herself closer. "Here, open your palm," her fingers laid upon my knuckles. "Now, very, very, carefully, think of a small flame, then concentrate on it and keep that feeling and image in your mind." I breathed slowly, it didn't hurt, rather a kindling. A sense of safety that bloomed into something more.

"First try!" Yuna clapped quietly, "very well done! Careful now, keep it there." I tried to maintain it, allow its shape. But it fell away quickly, and I sat with my hands splayed upon the cushion, trying to clear the darkness and high pitched ring raging through my mind and body, almost straight into the pain surrounding my hip.

"Breathe, kiddo." A large hand caressed down my spine. Clarity followed with a sharp inhale, and I found myself on my side, a hand upon my shoulder. "Don't exhaust yourself so readily. You're still healing." Hawkins said, I nodded hating how ashamed I felt. "But—with that said, I think we should start on some lessons for you while we wait for your leg to be made. That demonstration of first time casting was very impressive."

"Do you know how to read, kiddo?" Hawkins asked, helping me to my foot.

"A little." I said, while I was helped back to my room, Yuna left down the halls.

The books brought to me were simple, Yuna had sat me upon the bed while she was laying on her side, having me read to her. I was taught basic words, and I recognised the letters on the page individually, but putting the larger combinations into words proved far more difficult than I thought. But it was fun, Yuna and Hawkins were patient with me; despite how much I shook when I got something wrong. They corrected and helped me when I stumbled, but eventually they stopped, as my head drooped against my palm.

I woke to absolute darkness, briefly lacking pain until I tried to sit up and saw the first body laying by my bed. My gasp was staggering, cold, tinged with bloody rot pungent enough my stomach groaned in protest. I flinched when the body moved, its squelch loud as I became aware of my paralysis. It moved closer to me, groaning sickeningly as it reached for me.

A scream tore through me, wild enough that it freed me from the fearful shackles. I tumbled from the sheets, smacking my head upon my crutch as I fell and tore my nails on the floor to hide. The door and light flooded in, blindingly that I covered my eyes against the flash of light.

"Dim the lights!" I flinched through my cry, immediately pulling away from the touch upon my shoulder. "You're okay, you're safe." I looked up at Yuna, her hands were raised in front of her, and she was kneeling in front of me. I leveraged myself upon my shaking arms, panting until a harsh sob broke through my chest and I was reaching for her. She sat closer, picking me up with a gentle hush. "What did you see to scare you from your bed?" I shook my head as I buried my eyes against her neck. "I have you," her whisper was quiet and struck deeply at the terror that was shaking through me.

"Yuna!" My exclamation was choked down by a hard, loud, sob so sudden that it hurt my ears. She rocked with me with a hand down my back circling in a swirl of calm through my trembling.

"I'm right here. You're okay." She hugged me tighter, when I felt another person kneeling beside me.

"Hey, Kiddo." A palm rested on the back of my head. I looked up at Hawkins, pulling farther away with a terrified hum. "What terrified you?"

"A body…" I shuddered.

"Was it laying in the dark?" Hawkins said, looking behind me as I nodded.

"Don't leave…" I said.

Yuna hugged me tightly, shushing while she adjusted me into her lap. She slowly stood and knelt upon the bed. I tightened my grip further, the returned embrace withstanding the heat slowly pushing heat into my face. "I'm not leaving." There was a brief pause while Yuna pulled the blankets around me. "Hawkins." Yuna said, he hummed and left with a hurried pace as mumbled voices squeezed past the closing door.

Yuna laid with me, humming through the anxious jolts flinching through me. "Is this better? Does it help?" I nodded, opening my eyes to see a memory of someone who I knew before Yuna focused through blurred tears.

"Why was there a body? Did Hawkins take it?"

"No, no," Yuna's middle finger caressed from my brow to my ear, slow and continued. "Were you woken from your sleep?" I nodded, her expression softened.

"It happened before." I whispered, pulling my arms underneath my chest. My hip was pulsing with each breath.

"In the other room?" I nodded again, as her finger picked up a tear.

"I didn't mean to." My words were forced from my throat by a choked cry.

"It's okay." Yuna said. "It happens. You can sleep, I won't leave."