Verunt looked around in a room like the one he'd left. It had a wide window opposite of the door and a young brown haired girl with a bandage around her leg sitting on the bed, laughing and clapping her tiny hands now and then. Verunt couldn't see what the girl found so exciting. A young woman, close to his own age, sat with her back to him on a chair next to the bed, hiding whatever the girl laughed at. She was dressed in a long white robe, tied together with a wide Forget-Me-Not blue belt around the waist. Her hair was trapped in a messy bun the color of honey, waiting for a chance to spring free.

A shadow passed outside the door, visible through the glass, causing Verunt to instinctively move further inside the room. The little girl caught sight of him and waved happily. "Are you here for the stories too?" She had an unfamiliar melodic accent.

With both women's attention turned towards him Verunt felt oddly exposed in his sheet-dress. The girl still had a wide smile on her lips, but the one with the beautiful hair didn't share her excitement when she turned around to face him, rising in the process. Around her hands hovered a faint golden mist. Verunt blinked and it was gone. She scanned him carefully with her grey-green eyes, not saying a word.

Around her neck, Verunt noticed, hung two pointed crystals, one the color of an afternoon sky and the other like semitransparent gold, each on a thin silver chain. The second one was glowing faintly, but as he studied it closer the glow faded away. Next to them sat a rectangular name tag labeled Amber. 

That name makes sense, Verunt thought, thinking of her hair and smiling stupidly.

Verunt's head began to throb and he answered, as carefree as he could "No, I'm not here for the stories." He turned to Amber, swaying slightly. "I'm looking for my things. Do you know where they are?"

Amber hesitated for a moment before nodding and made a gesture for Verunt to follow her. When he did she turned to the little girl, made a few quick hand movements and finished with a wave. The girl waved back as Verunt left the room behind Amber.

<<>>

Amber had recognized the unconscious stranger as soon as he had entered the room. She had helped Antheia keep watch over him while he slept through his fevers. Seeing him walk next to her made her chest swell with pride. But that pride was accompanied with uncertainty, for she didn't know what to expect from him. All the stories she'd been told about people from the outside had always made the same point; Those who didn't live with them inside the barrier were cruel, ignorant and selfish.

It was hard for Amber to see any of those traits in this stranger though. He seemed just like any other human with his messy dark brown hair and those soft blue eyes warily scanning his surroundings. His speech was faster than the common citizen, but Amber had no trouble understanding him when he spoke once more.

"You're leading me back to where I came from aren't you?"

Amber bit her lip and turned away to face the wall. Was it really that obvious? She turned back to face him and gave him an apologetic look.

You need to rest, she signed clearly with her hands. When he just stood there, as clueless as a rock, she lifted a hand. On her wrist hung a thin bracelet, twinned from a bronze and an iron wire with a small amethyst in the middle. Her yellow crystal began to glow and soon there was a soft golden light shaping itself into a bed above her palm. The stranger's eyes widened as he took a small step closer.

"Wow!" he said astonished. "How do you do that?"

She lifted the glowing crystal from her chest, raising an eyebrow. Has he never seen magic? she thought. Maybe he is different after all.

To make her message get through she added a small silhouette to her glowing scene, pointed at the stranger with her left hand, then at the magic in her right.

As he watched, the little light figure walked slouching to the bed to lay down. Soon it stretched and rose from the bed, shining brighter than before.

This time the light of understanding lit in his tired eyes.  He hesitated at first, but eventually followed her back to his room, too exhausted to ask anything else.

<<>>

The stranger had just fallen asleep by the time a guard returned to the windowless room. He had searched the whole building without finding a trace of the stranger. Pulling his black hair in frustration he had just made up his mind to tell the commander he'd lost him. She would surely punish him severely for his incompetence on doing such an easy job as to guard an unconscious teenager.

Confused, the guard saw how an orange haired healer in training left the stranger's room with an empty soup bowl just as he passed the room. Peeking inside he saw the boy exactly where he was supposed to be. He let out a sigh of relief. Maybe the commander didn't need to know any of his incompetence after all. 

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A/N: What are your thoughts of Amber? Please consider giving this a vote if you like it. It makes it possible for others to find my work. :)