Regan carefully lowered her feet to the floor and tested her legs. They felt brittle, like her bones were made of blown glass, but they held. She gripped the headboard of the bed to steady herself and gently ran her hand across her bandaged stomach. She could feel a sharp ache where the flesh was slowly beginning to knit back together. 

It was an overcast morning, and diffused, grey light spilled across the rumpled bedspread that had been her world for the last fifteen days. She looked at the bed with distaste as she picked up the clothes that Sarafina had left on the bedside table. There was a pair of jeans with rips at the knees and a black tank top with words 'bad gurl' sewn onto the front in silver sequins. 

Regan sighed. 

As she changed into the clothes and ran her fingers through her hair, Regan felt her strength returning. She still felt weak as a newborn kitten, but at least she could stand without swaying. 

Regan listened at the door for a second before she carefully opened it. She found herself in a short corridor lit by a small skylight. The house was made of heavy brick with solid wooden floors that bore the scars and scratches of generations of feet. There were framed pictures of a small family hung at irregular intervals along the wall with colours that were beginning to fade and give the people inside them a ghostly, unreal quality. The pictures followed the length of the corridor to where it dropped away into a staircase. Regan walked past them with barely a glance. 

As she reached the stairs, Regan put her hand on the wall to steady herself and lowered herself onto the first step. She moved carefully, not yet fully trusting her legs to hold her weight. A little way down, the stairs reached a small landing and made a right angle turn. Regan paused on the landing. There were voices drifting up from the floor below. 

'Ashcroft keeps asking when you're coming back,' said a boy's voice. 

'I'm dealing with private issues,' said Sarafina calmly. 'It will take as long as it takes.' 

Regan could hear running water and the clink of dishes in a sink. There was a faint smell of coffee and burnt toast. 

'It would be easier if you'd just tell me why you disappeared suddenly. I can help you.' 

'I'm sure I mentioned that the issues were private.' 

'Is it something to do with Gareth? Has he been around again?' 

The sound of running water suddenly stopped. 

'Just tell Ashcroft I'll be back soon,' Sarafina said curtly. 

Regan padded down the stairs and stopped on the last step. She was in an airy, rustic kitchen with oak cupboards and a wooden bench that looked like it had been hewn from driftwood. On one side of the room, a set of glass sliding doors opened out onto a weather beaten porch and let in a soft breeze. Sarafina was standing behind the solid bench at sink that was full to the brim with soap bubbles. She was wearing a pale blue skirt with a green halter top and a pair of bright yellow washing gloves, and looking pointedly at a boy with sandy hair who sat at a small wooden dining table with his back to Regan. Eva sat next to him, dropping marshmallows into a mug of hot chocolate with the intense concentration of an engineer building a suspension bridge. 

Sarafina looked up when she saw Regan coming down the stairs and a slightly harried expression crossed her face. 

The boy turned to follow her gaze and looked surprised. He had a slight build that was artificially broadened by the heavy grey jacket he was wearing. There was a silver badge in the shape of the shield on his right arm and a sword sheathed at his side. The handle was carefully wrapped in crimson binding that looked like it had barely felt the touch of human hands. 

'Hello?' he said cautiously. 'Sarafina, is this the private issue you were talking about?' 

Eva gave a small chirp and slid off her chair to hide behind her sister. Sarafina took her gloves off and placed one hand on Eva's head, nestling her fingers among her short, dark curls. She looked from Regan to the boy. 

'Regan, this is Forester. He's an old friend.' 

'Where did she come from?' said Forester. 'She looks like she's been dragged behind a moving car.' 

'Forester, you can't tell anyone about this. Not a soul.' 

Regan silently walked past Forester into the kitchen. As she walked towards Sarafina, Eva moved so that her older sister was firmly placed between them. Regan could feel their eyes on her, as if she was a viper that had escaped its cage. 

'I need food,' she said quietly. 

Sarafina nodded and went to get a loaf of bread from the cupboard. It was clear from the look on her face that she was relieved. She placed the bread on the bench, then filled a glass with orange juice from the fridge and handed it to Regan. 

'Is this why you disappeared suddenly?' said Forester. 'Sarafina, why do you have to be so secretive all the time?' 

'Because it's nothing to do with you. This is personal.' 

Forester looked at Regan. He looked like an amateur pilot who'd suddenly been placed behind the controls of space shuttle. 

'I'm Forester. I'm an apprentice transporter with Silverwater, the same organisation Sarafina works for.' 

Regan took a sip of orange juice and gave him critical look over the rim of her glass. There was a dusting of stubble across his jaw that failed to completely harden the boyishness in his face, and his hands were smooth and free of the tiny nicks and scars that came from training with a sharpened weapon. He crossed his arms uncomfortably under the intensity of Regan's stare, as if she had uncovered a guilty secret. 

'Your eyes have no hardness in them,' she said. 

Forester's eyebrows furrowed in confusion. 'What?' 

'You don't have a fighter's eyes. You don't have the strength required to kill.' 

Forester laughed uncomfortably and rubbed the back of his head. 'I'm hoping it won't ever come to that. I chose to be a transporter because it sounded like a peaceful life. I mean, I get to spend long, quiet hours on the road making sure things get from place to place. It's one step away from being a postman really. I would be perfectly happy if I never had to kill.' 

'Do you think your sword is just a decoration? Someday your weakness will get you killed, and you'll deserve it. If you're lucky, it'll just be you.' 

Regan took a drink and looked at the floor. 

'She's just a ray of sunshine, isn't she.' said Forester. 

'Weaklings who run around with swords they can't use are just asking to get themselves killed,' said Regan. 

Sarafina handed Regan a blue china plate with two thick slices of toast on it. 

'You talk like you know about these things,' she said. 

'I know how to point out the obvious.' 

'It's okay, Forester,' said Eva. 'I don't want you to kill anyone.' 

Forester rubbed his eyes and grinned. 'Thanks kiddo.' 

'You shouldn't be mean to him,' she said to Regan quietly. 

She was still behind her sister, but her expression was defiant. 

'Sure, that way he can have a warm, fuzzy feeling in his chest right up until someone cuts him in half.' 

Sarafina cleared her throat. 'I'd prefer it if you didn't talk to my sister about people getting cut in half.' 

Regan finished the glass of juice then took the two pieces of toast off the plate and dropped it in the sink. She ate quickly, without any indication that she enjoyed or even tasted the food. 

'Sarafina, I know you've always had a fascination with spiders and snakes and scorpions,' said Forester. 'But what possessed you to let this girl into your house?' 

'You didn't see how she was when I found her.' 

'I'm healed enough to walk,' said Regan. 'I'll be gone by tomorrow.' 

'Thank god for small mercies,' said Forester under his breath. 

Sarafina shot him a warning glare. 

'There's no way you're healed enough to travel yet,' she said. 'You still look like death.' 

Forester gave a resigned sigh. 'She's right. You should take a look at yourself in the mirror. You're covered in cuts, your skin looks waxy and your face is battered.' he brushed his nose. 'That cheap, patchy dye job isn't doing you any favours either. 

Regan felt like a heavy lead ball had dropped in her stomach. Her mouth dropped open as if all the oxygen had suddenly disappeared from the room, and the world began to spin. 

'Are you alright?' said Sarafina. 

'She's gone all white,' said Eva. 

There was a door across the room behind Forester. Regan ran for it, ignoring his shout of surprise as she barrelled past him. She wrenched it open and stumbled into an unfamiliar corridor. There were more doors on either side of her. Regan violently shoved the closest one open. It flew open with a loud bang that shook it loose on its hinges. She kicked open the next door and the next. She was vaguely aware of Sarafina's voice shouting at her, but it was as if it was an echo from the far side of the world. There were thin fingers holding onto her, but she gave a sharp twist and they slipped off her like tendrils of mist. 

She ran for a door at the end of the corridor and hit it with her shoulder. She burst through it into a bathroom decorated in white and blue tiles. There was a large mirror over the sink shaped like a clam shell. Regan gripped the edge of the basin and stared at her reflection. A wild animal looked back at her -- an animal with a ravaged face and splotchy blue and brown hair. 

There was an ear-splitting crash as her fist hit the mirror. It shattered instantly, turning her reflection into a rain of knife-like shards.