Aegis had felt incredibly nauseated at the thought of eating raw meat, but it was ... strange, to put it mildly. It satisfied a hunger he didn't even know he had. His head was clearer, he felt calmer.

Raw meat was good.

He realised, as he sat across his twin in the shabby house with his orange plastic tub, that should have had some a long time ago.

Sukui seemed to be in a talkative mood too, which was great for Aegis at least. They were still seated on the dining table with Sukui stiff as a statue, his arms neatly folded across his lap. Aegis, on the other hand, sat slouched, with one leg crossed and the other dangling.

He had uncovered a lot of things about himself that he didn't know. For instance, Aegis found out that he had a second stomach solely for the digestion of raw meat. H also found out that he had a pair of wings and a tail tucked away inside his body somehow.

"We have two forms," Sukui was explaining, "this one is more likely to appease humans for mating."

Aegis felt the discomfort he felt as a slave return, "Why is everyone so obsessed with mating and children?"

"Archaic laws," Sukui responded with a shrug, "up until Vinea's generation our kind wasn't allowed to have more than one child either. I'm certain our grandfather only saw one changed that law to create fodder for his experiments."

There it was again, their kind, and the word had been thrown so casually, "What am I? What are ... we?"

"I like to believe we are ancient creatures that predate humans," Sukui replied, hinting a small smile, "but all I can say with confidence is that we creatures called Elementals."

"Elementals," Aegis repeated more to himself. He finally had a name, "and we eat raw meat and have ... powers?"

"We call them our Gifts," Sukui interjected, still wearing a benign smile, "we discover them at a very young age and hone them as soon as we can."

Aegis didn't see how healing people he touched was a gift that needed honing. But he kept his thoughts to himself, "What about your Gift?" he asked next, remembering how the shed had suddenly been engulfed in darkness the first time they met. "You can move things without touching them, can't you?"

Sukui nodded, "In essence," he admitted, "but I can do quite a bit more." He hesitated for minute, looking at Aegis and then away before he spoke, "I can also invent false memories and plant them in one's head, I can eliminate memories altogether-"

Aegis stood up automatically, he didn't really care what else his twin was going to say, not unless he could help him, "Can you fix me?" he asked, slamming both hands on the table harder than he had intended to.

Sukui ran both hands through the short, neatly kept waves on his head, "Umm," he said after much deliberation, "maybe?"

Aegis sat back down with a raised eyebrow, "Is that a yes or a no?" The false calm that had taken over him was fading away now.

But Sukui looked just as hesitant as before, "I don't know," he confessed, "your memories aren't gone, Aegis," he then said, in an unnecessary effort to explain. Aegis didn't want an explanation, and he would have snapped again but he wasn't sure how patient his brother really was. So he listened instead, "If they were gone," Sukui said, "you would have forgotten how to talk, to walk, to read." He gave a slow, pointed look that made little sense to Aegis.

"Then why can't I remember anything?" he demanded.

"Because," Sukui continued gently, "there's a very powerful block in your head. And taking it off is dangerous, I don't want to end up hurting you instead."

"I don't care," Aegis snapped, if there was a chance to restore his memories, he was going to take it.

But his twin shook his head, "If I get this wrong," Sukui insisted, "you could end up catatonic."

"I don't care," Aegis repeated, getting more and more irritable by the second. Anything was better than the broken shell he had turned into.

"I'm sorry," Sukui said more firmly than before, yet his voice was still soft, "but I do. I will not turn into a murderer, not even for you."

He felt as if an oversized weight had been dropped in the pit of his stomach, "So that's it?" Aegis wondered aloud, "I'm going to be like this forever?"

Sukui gave a soft sigh and stood up, making his way around the table and to a chair beside his twin.

Aegis moved back instinctively, whatever was happening seemed like it was going to involve touching. He'd been held enough. Enough for a lifetime.

But Sukui kept his distance, his fingers were interlaced together on his own lap as he spoke, "I swear," the royal twin said earnestly, "I will do everything in my power to find another way to fix you, but it cannot happen today."

"Fine," Aegis grumbled and decided to return to the original conversation, before the interruption, "so we're Elementals with two forms." He slumped back on the chair, crossing his legs once again.

Sukui nodded, relaxing a little as well, "This form," he said, "is smaller ... more human looking," he paused, deliberately avoiding eye contact before he spoke again, "and this is the only form that has ... genitals."

Aegis didn't comment, his twin had already said that this was the form for 'mating.' He didn't need to understand something he was never going to have to worry about. He was far more interested in the other form anyway.

"Our other form is much taller, sharper ... more threatening-"

"Claws," Aegis cut in, remembering the scaly, black form his hand had taken when he was being drowned by the Hanshö, "my hands turned into black claws." He looked down at his fingers, still pale and soft.

Sukui nodded, "Transformation is always our body's natural reaction to any threat," he said, and his hands unclasped for a moment before stapling together again, "but with the appropriate training, it can be controlled."

Aegis wasn't really listening anymore. He had lost track of the conversation when his brother had called it a 'natural reaction to threat.' What was the threat in the sewers? Drowning? Or the Hanshö? If it was the Hanshö, why did it take so long to happen? He was definitely under duress during his bout with Sukui, but no transformation had happened back then.

But the more he thought about it, he had never thought he was going to die with Sukui's bout. The feeling was there when he had been attacked by the guard after he had knocked Kovolic out, but Captain Philip Carter had come to his rescue almost instantly.

Carter ... who had risked his life for this rebellion, even though he had a child of his own. It didn't make sense, "Why is Carter helping with the rebellion?" Aegis interrupted again. He was vaguely aware that Sukui had still been talking about transformations, but he didn't care, "He's the Captain of the Hanshö, he has a family. Why would someone risk that?"

Sukui shrugged, "I suppose he wants to pay back the debt he believes he owes our father," he said quietly, "it's the same reason Xiao raised our sister as if she were her own child."

"Because they couldn't save our mother?"

Sukui shook his head with another small smile, a sadder one. "Aegis our total lifespan may be far longer than humans, but all the male members of our kind lose their sanity before the age of fifty."

"Why?" Aegis felt the bile rise in his throat, this was an odd bit of new information and it made him a little sick. Did he only have thirty years left? Half his life had essentially been wiped from his mind then. It wasn't fair.

Sukui shrugged, "We call it Larissa's Curse, but its really just a second metamorphosis that we male undergo." He was still giving the ridiculous sad smile, as if his pity was supposed to help, "There are only two people that have ever negated the second metamorphosis: our father and his father."

Aegis didn't share his thoughts about their father out loud. The dead man's revolution against Vinea-the king, was the reason Aegis had no memories. He had no love for a selfish father who never stopped to consider how one personal fight had torn apart their family. If anything, Sukui had been more family to him in the past twenty-four hours than their father had ever been.

So instead, Aegis switched topics, "We keep getting side-tracked," he said, "why is Carter helping you if it's not because of our mother?"

"I'm getting there," Sukui smiled again, calm and composed, but with a warmth that made Aegis feel both irritated and wanted, "Our father lived for over a hundred years before he was killed." He paused expecting Aegis to ask more questions, but be didn't. So the former continued, "Before he had us, he raised a good number of orphans from Sector 2 as his own."

Of course, that's why the other soldiers had called him-whatever that word was, they didn't think he was the same as them. He was Sector 2 scum. Aegis' head shot up instantly in realisation, "Kovolic too?"

Sukui nodded.

Aegis scoffed, power had clearly gotten to that idiot's head. He looked back up at his twin who had gone silent.

"What?" Aegis demanded.

Sukui shook his head, "I'm here to answer all your questions, Aegis," he said, "I promised you I would."

"I don't know what else to ask," Aegis responded, looking down at his feet. He wanted to feel normal again. He was so tired of feeling incomplete.

"We'll find a way to fix you," Sukui promised as if reading Aegis' mind until he realised with another infuriating pang that his twin probably had. It wasn't the first time he had responded to Aegis before the latter had formed an actual question in words.

So Aegis shot his brother a very pointed glare. It seemed to work, the back of Sukui's ears turned a bright shade of red.

"I can't control it sometimes," he said, averting eye contact, "it's like overhearing a conversation. You forget you're not supposed to be listening."

Aegis didn't react to his apology, he wasn't sure what to say anyway. "How long until the pair of them return?" he asked instead.

Sukui turned to the entrance, "I'm going to give them another thirty minutes," he said quietly, but his eyes narrowed in concentration, "and then we move to an emergency phase."

"What's that?" Aegis wasn't even sure he wanted to know, he'd nearly been killed twice already.

"I have ..." he paused as if considering the word, "friends," Sukui finally decided, "in the other Spheres. We have a common goal, and a pact."

More promises. Aegis knew exactly how he felt this time. Promises were just a naive man's false hope, he pitied Sukui and his naivety. But he snapped his head up, suddenly remembering something from an earlier conversation.

"If any of us are in trouble," his twin continued, unaware, "the others will come to their aid--"

"Yeah sure," Aegis waved a hand dismissively, he had a more important questions to ask, "are these the friends you made when you were 'away'?"

Sukui shook his his head, "I was away because I was trying to negotiate a deal with a few surface countries. They're on the brink of civil war and the king wanted me to intervene."

Aegis felt his eyebrow twitch, "Intervene?" Or perhaps coerce?

"I didn't hurt anyone," Sukui said, and his eyes slanted again. Aegis sighed, regardless of how he felt about any of this, Sukui had been very honest with him.

"Do you think he just sent you away so you wouldn't find me?"

His twin's expression stayed solemn as the young man nodded, "Highly likely."

"Okay fine." Aegis shook his head, it was the past anyway, "whatever. What's our plan next? How do we contact your friends?"

"I," Sukui insisted, "have a way to request their presence. I shall head to the palace. You will be safest here."

Aegis' eyebrow went up at the statement, "You're a moron if you think I'm sitting still," he said. Despite his lack of desire to be part of the rebellion, being alone in this empty city seemed worse.

"I cannot take you with me," his twin stressed instead, "it's too close to him."

Him ... Vinea? Of course it was, "So I just wait here for you?" Aegis didn't bother masking the bitterness in his voice.

"Please."

"Fine," Aegis lied, "I'll wait." But he didn't really focus on the lie itself. He didn't want his twin second guessing him or worse, tying him down. "I suppose there's enough to explore in this village alone."

Sukui smiled again, "I'm still here to answer more questions until then."

"Whoopee," Aegis muttered, with as little enthusiasm as he could manage but his gaze diverted to the tunnel. How safe were they really?

How safe would he ever be?