"Aaron!" Talamayas called.

The nomad came around the corner, skidding to a halt in front of them both. It took him all of a glance to see the blistered skin on Harper's feet.

"Wrap them and give him some shoes. I don't need to send someone around to scrub his stupidity off each footstep he takes." Melted flesh already lingered in two spots, and he didn't need any more.

"Sure, thing." Aaron bobbed his head of short, dark hair before he ushered for Harper to sit.

The Song eyed the human with nervousness but did as he was bid, a hiss of breath forcing its way out of his lips as he sank into the stone and lifted the weight off his feet. Aaron fished around in the bags he kept attached to his side when he wasn't manning the blood donor area. While he gave his blood just as the rest of his people, he was a leader among them and always prepared for any misfortune in the deserts, especially with the harsh season this year. Aaron filled a bowl with water form a canteen and set it down by a canister of salve, depositing a roll of gauze on the ground last.

"I have to wipe them first," Aaron said, dousing a towel so wet that it dripped on the stone. "Sorry, this will hurt like hell." The cloth had Harper clenching his teeth, and every muscle in his body shook as Aaron cleaned off his bloodied feet of lingering melted skin. "This will be better, cold, but better." Aaron slicked the salve over Harper's feet bottoms, and a low groan of relief eased from his lips.

Harper was quick to dart his eyes to Talamayas, trembling in fear that Tala might crush him for feeling anything but pain and agony. Tala was considering it.

"You want to stay off these whenever you get to where you're going with Tala," Aaron instructed as he wrapped the bandages around his feet, making sure to cradle the curve of the arch and crisscross them up his ankle so they could tie without hindering movement. "Give them lots of air, and reapply this a few times a day if they feel dry."

Aaron deposited the can of salve and roll of bandages in Harper's hands, and he didn't seem to understand the process of receiving something. It wasn't like they gave souvenirs to residents of the dungeons, and Harper's downright bewilderment had a dark chuckle coming from Tala. That small sound had Harper shaking so badly that he could barely hold the gifts the nomad had entrusted to him.

"You really shouldn't have stepped out on the stone," Aaron sighed as he looked into Harper's wide, terrified eyes. "I know Tala's an asshole, but he would never force a man to permanently damage the nerves in their feet walking the stone at this hour. The damage is slight and will heal if you care for it, but had you wandered much farther, it could have been irreparable. The bottoms of the feet are sensitive, so please take care when travelling the castle." Aaron set a small pair of slippers on the ground, and Harper looked to them only momentarily before locking his eyes with Aaron's.

"Why do you serve him?" Harper's voice was barely audible, but his question was genuine. The Song didn't understand how someone so caring and kind could kneel at the feet of a monster like Talamayas Sol.

"I don't serve shit," Aaron replied, pulling his bag tight against him as he prepared to return to the day's tasks. "The nomads trade with the Sols just as they do with any other clan in the desert or without. The only difference is that we give blood when needed, exchanging it for protection from the elements and ease of passage to trade areas using magic. Talamayas Sol is as good to my people as we are him, and you will find he is that way to any houses he interacts with. You reap what you sow, Song."

Aaron gave Talamayas a respectful nod as he headed off, and Harper dropped his eyes to the ground where the man had left the slip-on shoes. Out in the sands, many nomads wore sturdier footwear, but indoors these kept the air cycling while protecting them from the worst of the heat. They were also comfortable, granted their feet weren't burnt off by sheer stupidity.

"Get up or you can return to your cell," Talamayas said, having little patience.

Harper stuffed his feet into the slippers, and a wheeze of pain accompanied the pressure on his bandages, but he made it to his feet without throwing himself back down the stairwell. It was slow going as Harper followed Talamayas down the hallways, but he managed to walk on his own, using the walls to support him where tapestries hung low enough for him to lean. The man had figured out that using the hot stone to support his bare body would end in similar heat lesions at the least.

They arrived at the lower gathering hall in a matter of minutes. Any longer and Talamayas would have picked up Harper and thrown him to expedite the process. His slow pace was driving a mining pick into Tala's brain, exacerbating a migraine that had settled from his unstable flame magic. It was churning and flaring without Wren, calling out for the master that tamed it with no luck.

Harper was barely a step into the hall before Cadence jumped up, knocking over the chair and nearly tripping face first into the stone. Phoenix was nice enough to stop his descent, and Cadence thanked him even as he flew into his father's arms. Harper stood dumbfounded, having expected his son to be chained and beaten in the dungeons, but none of that stopped him from crushing Cadence to his chest and kissing his hair as he fell to his knees.

"Dad!" Cadence snuggled his face into his father's chest, seemingly uncaring of the bare skin against his own. Or perhaps that's what he'd wanted, the familiar warmth and magic of his father after days of wishing he could return to his people.

"Cadence," Harper kissed his forehead one last time before he lifted his gaze to his son's eyes to gauge his condition. "Did they hurt you?" Harper had the gall to ask as Talamayas stood right behind him, and the man was damn lucky that Tala's arms were crossed so firmly over his chest. Even Cadence flinched from the unspoken accusation, but the boy answered politely as he did much of anything.

"No, um, Tala has been quite nice," Cadence's use of Tala's shortened name had Harper cringing, and Tala couldn't help but smile. "I got to see the desert for the first time! The oasis was so green, and the cliffs are amazing. So big you can just plummet to your death with a step. Oh, and look, look. I'm getting good."

The last words were targeted toward Talamayas, and he leaned just a bit forward as magic swam in Cadence's palms. It spun in a whirl of weak energy before intersecting and solidifying into two chain links. Cadence looked so excited by his process that Talamayas wanted to pat him on the head, but he knew Harper would piss himself if he reached for his son.

"You'll need hundreds of those swimming with magic before they're useful." Talamayas settled for words, but they cut into Harper just as much as his hands would have.

"Do you think this is funny?" Harper's voice climbed in anger, even knelt on the floor at Talamayas' feet.

It didn't seem a position one should start shit in, but leave it to a Song to find a reason. Talamayas had two good feet and was not above stepping on Harper if he thought to challenge him. Cadence looked just as confused as Phoenix who still sat at the table.

"You unsealed his magic and taught him how to form our chains for what?" Harper continued on stupidly. "To have a pet you could build up just to crush the life from it for entertainment? How fucking sick are you!"

"Dad," Cadence timid voice quashed Talamayas urge to splatter Harper on the floor.

Harper turned to his son and his anger deflated as he saw the sadness in Cadence's eyes and how his shoulders had sunk.

"Wren removed my seals." The words scratched out of Cadence's throat, careful with the use of Wren's name when he knew how pained Tala was over his loss. "He said that magic was part of who I am, and that the chains weren't inherently evil even though they'd been used that way. That if I learned and used magic with the right motivations then I had no reason to fear.

"I know what Riff said, but I like it here. The Sols are kind, and Phoenix is the first guy near my age I've interacted with. Wren said I could stay, and I don't want to go back to the caves. Wren said you'd be welcome here as well, if you wanted." The hopefulness in Cadence expression wilted Harper as he dropped his face to the tiles, his hair shading his pain.

"I'm so sorry, Cadence. I don't think that's an option anymore." The sound of tears dripping on tile preceded Harper's sob by a mere moment, and Cadence dropped to his father's side to try and figure out what he could fix.

Harper's grief finally penetrated Talamayas' hatred as the man shook against his son, and Tala shifted his shoulders uncomfortably. It took the honest words of a child to show Harper that there had been a better course than what they'd chosen, and Harper feared that door of peace and life for them closed after what he'd done. It wasn't. As long as Wren returned healthy and unharmed, then the fate of the Songs was up to him, and Wren had a weakness for his people's happiness.

If Wren never returned, they were all damned, Talamayas included.

"Phoenix, watch them please. I need to go find some Cinders and char them until they resemble the meaning of their name," Talamayas said, and Phoenix nodded with a wave.

Comfortably perched on a chair at the table, Phoenix rested his chin on his hands with his black hair pushed to one side over a shoulder, and it just reached his chest now. Tala watched Cadence coax his father to stand, and Harper still resisted his pull as he helped him to a chair to get off his feet. The boy had noticed the injury likely from the smell more than anything, and as his prisoner relaxed into a chair, Talamayas turned to end the lives of every Cinder he could find.

"Talamayas," Kopje's voice was the only one that could have stopped him, and he turned to the corner of the room where the mage was slumped in a cushioned chair. With how weak his magic was and how silent he'd been this entire time, Talamayas hadn't even noticed him. "Speak to Forest first. As much of a scary shit psycho that you are, you are just. I know that not all the Cinders were on board with this, and pummeling them to ease your pain is not that."

"Kop," Talamayas tightened his crossed arms on his chest as he angled his head and lifted his lips in a silent sneer of displeasure. "Don't sit there and pretend the Cinders are a bunch of fluffy, vampire-loving, sympathizers. Each and every one of them deserves to be pummeled for one reason or another."

Kopje's gaze dropped to his lap with a silent despair that ate at Talamayas insides. The man knew he was as powerless to stop Talamayas as he was to protect the Cinders.

"You, however," Talamayas words brought Kopje's only good eye back up. "You are one of my people, and you gave everything you had to protect me and my own. For that, I will take care when dealing with the Cinders and not kill or maim anyone unless I have solid proof they were involved."

"That's the best I could hope for, I suppose." Asmall smile lifted Kopje's lips, easing Talamayas' guilt at his condition. Forboth taking Wren and for harming his mate's best friend, Talamayas would snapbones, crush skulls, and not be satisfied until every last perpetrator screamedfor death.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Word Count: 2085