"What?" What did she mean, blood? I scrubbed it off; I know I did! He followed Alaina's gaze down until he was looking at the slice on his thumb, a small droplet of red beading up. He jumped, quickly wiping it off on his arm. It only served to smear it though, leaving a crimson stain behind.

"What? That can't be right." Merkos walked over, trying to examine him as Xoris proceeded to back away, eyes wide. "It's always been the right colour. Remember when he cracked his head open? Ugh, I'll never forget that." But even as he took hold of his hand, turning the cut over in the lighting no matter how hard Xoris fought him on it, he couldn't deny it.

"Xoris... were you Stained?" Alaina's face was a mixture of hurt and fear, her eyes trying to read into him, glinting silver as she delved into the majik lying within her. "Naeh was right. His majik... no, energy is strange." Fear flashed across her face as she stared into him, finally realising. "H-heka..."

It came as a frightened whisper, her hands twitching. Xoris wanted to answer, but his words were caught in his throat as he stood there, breathing faster to steady the lopsided heartbeat in his ears.

"But how? He doesn't have any markings... his hair isn't white, and I didn't see any fangs. He looks nothing like one."

With a final yank, Xoris got his hand free, stepping back slowly as they drew closer, examining him. He was forced to stop as his back hit the wall, the shock of it knocking a few pinned papers loose.

"I... I can explain." His hands were back up in front of him. He could see it now, thin, raised lines on his skin where he knew the eyes lay nestled beneath. It was harder to keep them out of sight in his panic, but he couldn't do that to them. He couldn't scare them away.

Tensing up his body, he attempted to take a breath to clear his mind. It was getting harder to focus, harder to push away the black spots in his vision but he couldn't let go. Not now. "I... I said I had important news, but you all were so happy with your project, and- and sharing a dinner together, and I didn't want to ruin it."

He didn't deny it, nor confirm it, but he could tell from the looks on their faces that they were beginning to piece something together. Xoris knew that it had to be done. It was why he'd come here in the first place, but still it hurt. He felt ashamed as tears began to well up in his eyes, just something else out of his control. They're going to hate me, they're going to think I'm evil, and I'm never going to be able to see any of them again.

But even as his panic sought to consume him, he heard an aggravated sigh coming from Alaina. He opened his eyes to find her pinching the bridge of her nose. "We're trying to figure out if you're a Stained that wants to kill the entire Human race, and you're worried about interrupting dinner? Do you realise how inconsequential that is right now?" She threw her hands out, gesturing to the whole of him.

"Well, if that's not like him, then I don't know what is." A laugh eased out of Merkos. Xoris could tell he was still clearly unnerved from the sweat dripping down his forehead, but he was at least working with it. "I guess that answers the question though. If he was like any other Beast, he wouldn't be able to talk, and would have just attacked us from the start. Still, I'm curious..." He gave Xoris his space back, taking a seat on his bed. "You said you could explain, so when did that happen, and how? I can't imagine you'd do something ridiculous like try to swim in a river."

Xoris went back to biting his lip. Perhaps it was better to leave that part out... and a lot of other things. So what to begin with then? He'd imagined the speech several times over, but was too tired to remember even half of it, and besides, he hadn't expected to be caught first. At least they were willing to listen though. He appreciated that.

He was about to open his mouth to speak, when a call echoed up the stairs. "Food is ready! Please come downstairs!"

With that, he could hear Luina walking away, no doubt to set the table ladened the food he couldn't eat. He blinked, staring down at the floor awkwardly. I really didn't think this through, did I?

The two just looked at each other, unsettled. "Are they... supposed to know? The Warden and Luina, I mean," Merkos asked, playing with his sleeve as he fidgeted.

"I did say that I came here to tell everyone, for better or for worse." Xoris leaned over to pick up his gloves, sliding the smooth leather over his forearms. He never should have removed them. There was an awful silence between them as they headed down the stairs together, but Xoris supposed anything was better than what their reaction would be after he'd gotten everything out.

He rubbed at his face as he made his way into the dining room, the salted smell of meat making his empty stomach churn. All the same, he scraped back the wooden chair with his name carved into it, even after being gone so long. As he sat there, his eyes closed for a moment, his head drifting to somewhere blank and peaceful, taking a small rest despite his best efforts to focus.

"Xoris!" Luina's voice yanked him back into reality. "Do you think your own family is going to attack you?"

"What?" His eyes shot open, body stiffening. "Why would you do that? You shouldn't do that, I don't think. It seems like a bad idea, yes."

A light laugh echoed through the room, Luina shaking her head with a smile. "Go take off the armour and come back, silly. I'm not having you eat like that."

"Oh! I'm so sorry I..." He hadn't meant to be rude, but then again, where would he even put it? The uneasy feeling spreading through him faded though as he felt Merkos' black eyes boring into him from across the table, and as Xoris glanced up, he could see Merkos rapidly flicking them between the door, and him. "Fine, I'll go change."

"And you can put it in my room. Here, I'll help!" Merkos threw back his chair a little too quickly, too eager to help. Xoris didn't appreciate how he put his hand on his back, ushering him out of one room and into another. Still, the sound of a lock behind them was satisfying, and his body deflated, a groan rumbling through him as he ran his hands over his face. Then he began to remove his armour, revealing the thinner clothes underneath. A thunk sounded as one piece hit the floor, then another. He heard a gasp behind him.

"Xoris, what happened?"

He glanced down at himself. The once grey pants had become soaked in patches of light blue and dark green, stiff and crusted from the blood. The black shirt that he hadn't thought much of, being covered with the breastplate, still held the bite-shaped tear along his side, the slit of a stab mark right below that. "A lot, for sure," he answered dully. Luina wanted him to eat dinner like this?

"I'll... I'll let you borrow something." With that, Merkos was digging rapidly through his closet, tossing things left and right in an already very cluttered room. "Here." He held up a rich blue cloak. "At least it will cover it."

Xoris accepted it. It was certainly not his colour, but if the heavy, itchy material avoided causing more terror, he supposed it was worth it. Within moments, they were back into the kitchen, everyone's eyes on him. He felt exposed, especially without the extra layer of protection, and he shrank back, hunching over to not tower over them all.

Luina then gave him another smile."That's much better. It's good to have you back Xoris. It's been too long."

"Far too long," Alaina echoed, poking at the breaded meat in front of her, eyes boring into the table.

Xoris smiled apologetically at her, trying to loosen the tension that had formed in the air. Even now, he could feel Naeh staring at him from her own seat, studying his every move. The warm meal lay in front of him, meant for the person whose name was carved into the very chair he sat in, but that person that didn't exist anymore. His skin crawled. Despite being home, he'd never felt so out of place.

"So, you said you had news for us," the Warden began, ignoring the fork in front of him as he grabbed one of the two sarkya on his plate, taking a large bite. "We don't get many updates out here, but we did hear about you becoming a paladin. What happened to being a scribe?"

The words floated lightly through his mind. They really didn't know much then. It would be all too easy to just answer vaguely, tell them that he was a hero, given missions to end the war and put a stop to the slaughter raids. It was tempting, but as he opened his mouth to answer, he felt Merkos' nervous gaze again. No. That's not what I'm here for, and I already don't know how much time I have left.

So he ignored the Warden's question. It would be too easy to fall into dancing around the truth and endless small talk. He came here for one admittance, and that was it.

"Luke died."

A collective gasp was pulled through the air. A dish shattered to the floor as it slipped from Luina's hands. All at once, their heads turned to look at the one empty seat, name still engraved along the top. A hand was over Alaina's mouth, Merkos was reaching over to hold Asim, the second of the twins as they shook in his arms. Ifeh burst into tears, with Naeh only looking confused as she patted her tiny hand on her shoulder.

"What? How?" The Warden clutched the wooden edge of the table, looking as though he could snap it in half just from the pure pressure of his grip. "Was it in battle? But why would they tell you before us?"

Xoris could see Merkos' gaze flicking to his hand, where he was still covering his thumb. He didn't like the insinuation, but he couldn't blame him for it either. "Before I became a paladin, I was drafted to fight. Luke managed to pull a few strings so that we would be alongside each other, but during the first battle, he lent me his shield so I'd be safe and..." His hand trembled a bit as the sight of arrows and fire flashed through his mind again. He'd never forget the amount of death that had surrounded him that day. "I couldn't protect him in time. He was shot in the neck."

"But he was one of the Fae!" Alaina was pushing herself out of her seat, standing to slam her hands on the table. "Shouldn't he have healed? How was that enough to kill him?" She lowered her head, staring into Xoris as though that would give her answers faster. "This is Luke we're talking about. The same person who tried to drink out of a river, eat dirt, and fell off the roof. How? Just... how?"

Xoris sighed. This was where it all fell apart, but he couldn't explain one thing without the other, no matter how hard he'd thought on it. He either said everything, or nothing at all. "Because I bragged about his abilities. They used him to get to me. The day he got shot I... I did something terrible, and after that, the king wanted to use me to his advantage. Anything he could do to cause that type of reaction again, he was willing to go through. They didn't care how good of a soldier he was, or what he'd done for the Human race. The way they viewed it, if hurting him once was enough to cause it once, then surely killing him was enough to make it happen again."

"What did you do?" Luina asked, trying to keep her voice steady. "It's not as though you have majik..."

"I... turned them to stone. Everyone except Luke and I."

"How is that possible? You're not a majik-wielder! And even if you were-" The sarkya in the Warden' hand shook as he yelled, long since forgotten.

"I'm not but..." He opened up his fist, looking at the pink line across his thumb. "I'm Stained."

"I said your energy was strange." The young girl shrugged from across the table, seeming proud of being right as she ate a bite of her own dinner. Xoris didn't really expect a child of five or so Withers to be able to follow along with the conversation, but her confidence irked him a bit.

"What? Are you sure? ... you don't look like one," Luina pointed out, her voice trembling as she tried to pick up the shattered bits of yellow glass on the floor. "You aren't even acting like a Beast. When would that have happened?"

"According to Kraim, the king's advisor, I was born that way. My ancestors were related to a Horror called the Thing of Eyes and Teeth, and something about that battle caused me to be able to connect to it. Otherwise, I most likely would have looked Human for the rest of my life."

He tried to settle the growing lump in his throat, hating the hard feeling sitting in two areas of his neck now. "I'm sorry I couldn't protect him. I didn't mean for any of this to happen." Another thought crossed his tired mind as tears began to fall faster down his face. "And now I'm ruining dinner. I'm so sorry. I never should have come to eat with you all. I just hated the thought of you not even knowing and-" He cut himself off. It was too hard to talk.

"No... you didn't ruin anything! I'm sure it's not your fault." Luina cast a glance at the Warden before putting aside the broken chips in her hand. She came over to Xoris, putting her arms around him. "I'm going to be honest. I'm incredibly confused, and shocked, and... upset, but it's not your fault. None of it is."

Xoris felt her hand gliding through his hair softly. There was a jolt as her fingers grazed across the scar under it, and he knew she couldn't have missed the warm breath of air that had escaped where his final mouth lay unclosed, tucked under his hair. She simply moved past it though, sticking to the top of his head instead.

"And you always were worried you were never going to be a good mother. Look at you! We managed to raise every race there is." The Warden laughed awkwardly, trying to clear some of the tension even as Xoris could hear the rapid pace of his blood rushing through his body. He looked at Xoris, crossing his arms. "So, Thing of Eyes and Teeth, hm? That doesn't seem to be a very apt name for you."

Well, if they were going to attack me, I suppose they would have done so by now.

With that, he released his grip on the heka, letting it course through him, offering a small relief in the constant exhaustion. He looked at the Warden with both pairs of eyes on his face. Instantly the man seized up, a curse escaping his lips as he jumped back, the wooden seat grinding out its disapproval. "Why not?" Xoris asked, words sounding hissy through a mouthful of fangs.

Immediately, he knew it was a bad idea. Everyone was screaming, everything was loud, and it only aided the pounding ache in his skull. His hair was accidentally tugged as Luina pulled herself out of the embrace, taking several steps back as she pressed against the wall in shock.

Oh right. I wanted to avoid constant terror.

His head began to dip towards the plate of food he'd still had yet to touch, and with a wrench he brought it up again only to find Alaina in his face. "That's what you looked like this whole time?"

"Is that a mouth on your neck? How does that work?" Merkos started reaching, his hand far too close. His blood already smelled sweet beneath his skin; Xoris could bite his fingers if he wanted to. Ifeh was still sobbing in her chair, and he could hear Naeh asking Luina if she could have more to eat. It was all so much.

"I- I..." He opened his mouth to answer, but his thoughts were too muddled, spinning in directions he couldn't understand. His own heartbeat sped up as he glanced between them all. He had scared them. He'd ruined everything. I... I need to fix this. I have to help. But how was he supposed to do that?

As if to answer, the coaxing heka in his chest flared up.

Right. They would feel much better if he just calmed them down for them, since they couldn't themselves. Without his armour, there were plenty of violet eyes exposed. I can help them. I would only need one for each. Something in his tired mind told him they'd feel much happier for it. He knew he always did whenever he used it. Taking a deep breath, he sat up more, a light smile on his face as he went to focus his eyes. "Actually if you don't mind I-"

"Can everyone let Xoris have some space?" the Warden cut in, his voice much louder than Xoris thought was necessary. "Can't you all see that he's exhausted and hurt?"

Immediately, he could see them backing up.

"But-" Asim started, gesturing to Xoris standing there, their dark eyes wide as they tried to take it all in.

"No arguing. The sky is closing, and we should figure this out in the morning. There's too much to sort through right now."

"But... But it's important, and I don't know how much time I have to explain!" Xoris cried, his voice sounding strange, no doubt due to his head being so muddled from lack of sleep.

"No. Arguing."

Xoris hadn't heard the Warden use that tone in quite some time. The man scanned over everyone in the room, and even Ifeh's sobs fell into silence under his gaze. "We'll figure out this mess in the morning. In the meantime, Xoris..." He paused at his name for a moment, choosing to stare at the table rather than look up at him. "You have a bed here."

Xoris knew what the words meant. He tilted his head for a moment, trying to catch sight of his face if only to show his gratitude. "T-thank you."

The Warden only continued to look away though as Xoris pushed back his chair, stepping out of the room. Hurt filled his chest as he closed the door behind him. The Warden was the closest he'd ever had to a father, Luina to a mother. They were the people who raised him, taught him right from wrong.

"Xoris, look up from your book when you talk to people. It's rude."

"If you're not going to make eye contact, then it's politer to not even speak at all."

It was simply manners, ones that they had raised him to uphold, and yet...

He couldn't even look at me.

A few steps away, he heard their voices pick up again. He wanted to keep walking, but something about the tight, anxious knot in his stomach made him halt.

It can't be anything bad, right? They're my family... I should trust them. Still, a quiet spike of fear flared up in him, and he made his back over, softly pressing his ear against the door.

A groan reached him, most likely from the Warden with its deep heaviness. "Dear Palkhiv, descended from a Horror? Those things are awful. I didn't want to say anything to make him feel bad but... he looks terrifying."

Xoris winced a little bit at the words. I didn't mean to scare them. As his heart sank, he pushed himself off the door. If it was just comments on his looks, he supposed he didn't really have to listen, but then Luina started.

"Are you sure this is the best decision? I want to trust him, but the Stained... I've never seen one that didn't just want to attack."

"Well, he said he was born that way, and he's never hurt a soul in his life. The kid I knew wouldn't even squash a jiun if it flew up to sting him. You want to trust him, then I say we trust him," the Warden concluded. "Besides, I think we're all a bit... emotionally unstable after hearing about Luke. I don't want to take that out on him."

Xoris could hear the sound of crying in the background, but... It can't be. Alaina? She never cried at anything.

"I don't want to push that on him either. I just wanted to know more and... He's a monster? Or always has been? Or never... I don't know what to think anymore. It's so much to take in."

No! He wanted to shout. I'm not a monster. I can... I can kill the Beast. I can be a good person, I swear. The temptation from before returned. All he would have to do was burst in there and look at her. Then he could explain himself as easily as he liked.

His fingers brushed against the door handle, toying with the concept for a moment before he caught sight of the eyes on his hands, half-closed in excitement of what was to come. His stomach dropped, his shoulders painfully flinching as realisation struck. What person could convince another that they were right so easily? The idea... That hadn't been Human either. None of him was anymore.

"Don't say that! He might... I'm sure he isn't like that," he could hear Luina assuring. "We can ask more questions in the morning, but I think it's better not to press him for now."

Other concerns and sounds reached him, but he figured he'd listened in enough already. This... hurt. He didn't want to think about it. All he'd wanted was to make sure that they weren't going to say one thing to him, and act out another. A bitter scoff left his lips as he stepped away, his feet lifted from the floor to silently head for the stairs. When did I become so distrusting?

He opened up the door to his childhood bedroom with a creak. Strips of papyrus rustled as a draft swept through, still left out on his desk even after so many Withers. Luke's bed was on the other side, and even though his head was turned, he could still make out the countless stuffed toys laid across it.

A sharp, rattling gasp left him, tears returning to him. That was his bed. The one they had jumped on, bashed each other with pillows on, whispered stories to each other from across the room all night had passed until the sky was opening once more... A specific memory came to mind: of Luke watching him shake from across the room as he'd peered up at the sky. It had been closed then, despite being midday. It was only a Crack, the same occurrence that happened every four or so tallies, but each time, the flashing lights— the way the world echoed with hollow pattering sounds echoing from above with nothing to cause them. The way the pitch black of the closed sky jumped to a dull orange webbed in purple, twitching Cracks, the loud rumble that followed shaking the entire world...

"Aww, are you scared?"

"No! It's just... so loud," he remembered admitting sheepishly. "And it's Cracked. Aren't cracked things broken?"

"No?" Luke had given him a strange look. "That's how the sky is supposed to be. Don't worry so much. Nothing's wrong."

Then, he'd lifted the edge of his blanket and let Xoris climb under it, like every other time. It didn't seem so bad, sitting in the makeshift fort. He'd spent countless Cracks that way, until he'd felt silly asking to not be left alone.

But that's how I am now. Alone. Always... alone.

He sniffed pathetically, turning away from Luke's soft white bed, back to his side of the room. It felt wrong to lay here, after all he'd done. He didn't feel he deserved the soft sheets, the comfort of his own Welk-skin mattress as the gentle drips of the water clock brought sleep ever-closer. He didn't deserve it, but he would accept it.