Uncle--whose real name was Destrius--had a guest bathroom larger than most houses, clad in gleaming white marble with a circular sunken tub as its centerpiece. Wooden shutters largely obscured the tall windows, leaving thin strips of morning sunlight to peek through.

Adrian floated on his back. He would inevitably peruse the massive collection of various soaps, oils and perfumes in the frosted glass bottles beside him, but for now he was content to simply relish the hot water.

An opaque white curtain hung over the spacious archway that led into the bedchambers. Cedric's voice drifted in from the other side.

"Adrian? You haven't drowned, have you?"

He huffed and swiveled upright. "A distinct possibility. I've encountered ponds that were smaller." He paused. "Are you sure you're all right, Cedric? What happened at the market?"

There was a long pause. Then, a grudging, "I overextended myself. You were right."

"So if it hadn't been Destrius you tried to rob…"

"Eternal imprisonment for both of us," Cedric finished, a little sharply. "Well, for me, if you'd had the sense not to run up like some--"

"What was it with you back there?"

Another pause. "I don't know."

Adrian popped open a bottle of blue frosted glass and sniffed it. A strong citrus scent wafted out. He poured out a generous dollop of something yellow and viscous and began to lather his hair.

"You'd told me about Destrius, back at Oleanna's," Cedric said in a transparent bid to change the subject. "I never imagined he'd be so well off."

Adrian's cheeks began to burn, and not from the soap. He lathered harder. "Neither did I."

"Didn't you say he would've come back for you if--?"

"I did!" Adrian dunked his head in the water and scrubbed furiously, then surfaced with a violent splash. He wiped his eyes. "I did, didn't I?"

The archway was silent.

Destrius, to his credit, had recovered admirably from the shock of their reunion. After chalking up the whole affair to a misunderstanding and dismissing the guards, he'd delivered Adrian and Cedric straight to his home and to the care of his household staff. But as gratifying as his hospitality was, Adrian wondered whether the man would want to actually face him.

A few minutes later, Adrian emerged from the bathroom wrapped in a luxurious white towel. Cedric sat on the bed, watching him with wary dark eyes. His own freshly-washed hair hung in damp, burnished tresses.

Yet again, the realization struck Adrian as profoundly as a slap. He's the Heir of Darkness. King Rava. Divinity incarnate. This one.

He was clad in the fine garments that the servants had acquired for them: a loose-sleeved white tunic beneath a blue velvet vest, with tan breeches and calf-length leather boots. Perhaps he didn't act the part of nobility, but he certainly resembled it.

Adrian's own set of clothes--the same breeches, boots, and tunic but with a burgundy, gold-trimmed doublet instead of a blue vest--were laid neatly on the bed beside Cedric. The latter continued to watch him as he dressed, betraying no indication that he even knew of the concept of looking away. Rather than draw attention to it, which would only make things more uncomfortable, Adrian pulled on his garments as quickly as he could while fighting an insistent blush.

Once finished, he observed himself in the nearby standing mirror. The clothes fit well, and not just because of the servants' discerning eye for measurements.

This is who I was always meant to be. Instead, I was abandoned like gutter trash, set to scrubbing floors as barely more than a slave.

Anger flared in his chest, undercutting the pleasure in his reflection.

"It suits you," Cedric said quietly from behind him. Adrian smiled, not without bitterness.

A gentle knock at the door of the bedroom. "Masters? Have you finished with your baths?"

Masters... "We have," Adrian said. "Please, come in."

A delicate mist of perfume preceded one of the twin servant girls who opened the door. She clasped her tiny hands. "The master of the house requests the privilege of your company for lunch. If you'll follow me…"

"Of course."

This should be good.

*

Cedric was exceedingly grateful for the guidance of the servant girl. Without her, they would have surely lost their way in the high-ceilinged labyrinth of Destrius' home. From the outside, it'd appeared even bigger: multiple stories of gleaming white stone and red tile, an enormous courtyard adorned with symmetrical patterns of yellow and pink flowers. Theodore Caelum's residence seemed quaint by comparison.

The interior decor was also unlike any that Cedric had encountered. As he and Adrian closely trailed the assured steps of their guide, Cedric spotted a hefty wall-mounted animal skull with curved tusks, a ten-stringed instrument on an iron stand, and an oddly iridescent globe of blue glass sitting on a parlor table.

They reached the entrance to a spacious balcony furnished with a large table, cushioned seats, and a cloth canopy to shade from the sun. Destrius occupied a seat as the other twin fluttered a fan to cool his head.

A generous variety of food spanned the table--cured meats, small roasted birds, clusters of grapes and berries, meat pies, red and golden stews, and a fluffy loaf of bread.

"Welcome," their host said genially as they took the remaining seats. "Please, help yourselves."

Despite having already eaten his fill back at the market, Cedric eagerly partook. The events of the past hours had reset his appetite. Only when he was well into a delicious roast quail did he realize that Adrian hadn't moved.

Instead, Adrian stared at Destrius and chewed his cheek, as if fighting a building outburst. Destrius pointedly avoided eye contact with him and addressed Cedric instead.

"Cedric, is it?" he asked.

He swallowed and wiped his mouth, remembering the cloth napkin beside his elbow too late. "Aye, sir." Then, belatedly, "And thank you for hosting us--"

"Not at all. But--forgive me--I can't help but notice that you bear a... striking resemblance to the description of the royal bounty."

Cedric cautiously put down his cutlery. He reached out for the well of dark energy in the diamond, now sitting in the pocket of his new breeches, and was again rebuffed.

Destrius giving him up to the Heirs was an entirely reasonable possibility. But the thought didn't strike fear as it once would have. Whether he was free or imprisoned, what difference would it truly make?

"I'm not the one you ought to be conversing with," Cedric said flatly. He jerked his head toward Adrian. "He is."

Adrian's eyes widened. Cedric shrugged and returned to his meal.

"I never meant to abandon you, Adrian," Destrius said eventually.

Adrian crossed his arms. "And yet you succeeded."

"That time was… difficult for me. I had to start afresh. And I couldn't be sure that I'd be able to provide for you."

Adrian looked around in mock amazement. "You're right, all this couldn't have possibly done the trick!"

"Adrian, what I went through in Laetera, witnessing the Madness, forced to care for an infant not even weaned--"

"My heart breaks, old man." Adrian leapt to his feet, fists clenched. "Do you have the slightest idea how Bigby treated me? You abandoned a noble-born to an existence less dignified than a dog's, when all this time you were fat and comfortable--"

"Hold on, lad," Destrius cut in with such sharpness that Adrian stopped mid-sentence. "Did you say 'noble'?"

Adrian's cheeks were dark with rage. His fists had begun to tremble. "Aye, you heard me. What of it?"

"Who told you that you were noble-born?"

His mouth opened and closed in outrage so profound that it was silent. "Y-you did!" he burst out. "Before you left, you said--"

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Destrius shook his head emphatically. "No, no, I never said anything of the sort. Your mother, Rayna, was a brothel woman. If it hadn't been for the Madness, the Whore's Rot would have taken her within the week."

Adrian had frozen. His lips were pulled taut, and rapidly turning pale.

"Young children have an abundance of imagination and little grasp of logic." His voice now had a terrible gentleness to it. "They convince themselves of all sorts of things. You likely heard of the Purge of the Dark Apostles from passing townsfolk, and you bonded with the fanciful notion of secret nobility. You had no one who would've cared to disabuse you of that notion, and for that I am truly sorry. But Adrian, I swear upon the Goddess that you are, and have always been, common-born."

*

Adrian's fingers were numb as he undid the fastenings of his doublet. He threw the mocking garment upon the bed, followed by his breeches. Clad only in his maddeningly soft silk underthings, he slumped face-down onto the covers and let the smothering darkness consume him.

Either twenty minutes or an eternity later, a firm knock rattled the bedroom door. "Adrian?" Cedric called. "I'm coming in."

"It's locked."

"Will you unlock it?"

"No."

There was a startling splintering sound as the door was forcibly shoved open. Adrian jumped--yet again, he'd forgotten who Cedric was. What he was.

He was effortless, especially in nobleman's clothes. Naturally superior. Special. Adrian sat upright and ground his teeth. "Was the previous scene not humiliating enough?"

"Was it?" Cedric said mildly. Adrian wanted to hit him.

Instead, he fixed his eyes on an empty corner of the room past Cedric's shoulder.

"I… I thought I was above them." The words were strained, as if pulled out against his will.

The bed sank beside him as Cedric sat down.

"I thought you and I were kindred spirits. Two special boys denied their rightful destinies, their true potential, by forces beyond their control. The master and his intended servant… what could it be but divine providence?"

The tension and rage were draining from his body. Shame and embarrassment had begun to replace it. "Even the commoners, the rabble, don't succumb to such pitiful depths." He clenched his hands until they hurt. "So what does that make me?"

"A lonely, unhappy child."

"You're relentless."

"Or I'm simply well-acquainted with the concept."

Adrian's breath hitched. He'd known on some level what Cedric, as the disgraced Heir of Darkness, had been through, but he hadn't made the conscious connection until now. He turned to him, equally thunderstruck and abashed.

"Oh Goddess… how long were you…?"

"I wouldn't know exactly. I was six, or thereabouts."

Eleven years, alone in the dark… Suddenly, Adrian's crisis of identity seemed rather quaint.

Cedric grasped his shoulder. "Adrian, you're a gifted terramancer. You're my friend. You saved my life, and you've repeatedly endangered yourself to keep saving it. That is who I know you to be."

Adrian swallowed against his dry throat. "You… forgive me, then? For surrendering us to the Bloodclaw?"

"How ungrateful would I be if I still begrudged you that?"

He sniffed hard and quickly wiped his eyes before they betrayed him.

"Go to him," Cedric said.

"I suppose I should." Adrian considered their luxurious surroundings as he re-dressed himself. "I'm not ready to be thrown back to the streets just yet."

*

Destrius was still seated at the balcony table when Adrian returned. He'd dismissed the twin servant girls, and his vaguely guilty expression was not dissimilar to that of a chastened child.

Adrian took the seat across from him, grabbed a cluster of grapes from the nearby platter, and began to pick at them. His mind buzzed with potential conversation-starters, but all felt uncomfortably awkward for the situation. He shouldn't have asked Cedric to remain behind.

"I had a pleasant chat with your friend…" Destrius said hesitantly. "He's a good lad. Rather dashing too, I daresay." A pause as the unspoken question hung between them.

Adrian put down his grapes. "Your instincts are correct. He's the kingdom bounty."

Destrius's chubby hands, clasped together on the table, briefly turned white at the knuckles before relaxing again. "I… see."

"You won't turn him in, and you'll shelter us until tomorrow."

"Will I?"

"You will." Adrian stared hard into his eyes. "That is the least you'd owe me."

After another uncertain pause, Destrius broke into a broad grin.

"Aye, you're Rayna's son, all right," he chuckled, slapping a palm on the table and making the dishes rattle. His eyes twinkled. "And what sort of host do you take me for? You and your friend will stay for as long as you desire, for whatever reason you care to give." He gulped the last bit of wine from his chalice. "Besides, I still need to know how you befriended the most wanted man in Iridesca."

Adrian shook his head. "You first."

"By that, you mean…?

"Tell me about my mother."

All amusement promptly drained from Destrius' face. He poured himself more wine from the silver jug before him. He waved it at Adrian, and the latter held out his own chalice in acceptance.

"Very well," Destrius muttered as he filled the cup to the brim. Adrian sipped and greatly enjoyed the acidic warmth that flowed down his throat and into his belly.

Destrius settled back comfortably into his seat. "Rayna was… remarkable. As unyielding as the Goddess Herself. You wouldn't expect it, given her circumstances." He sighed. "I was a young flower salesman in Laetera, tending to a little stall in the morning market. One day, this willowy young woman no older than seventeen walked up to me. Upon her purchase of a red rose, I made the dire blunder of asking her whether she was in love, and who the lucky gentleman might be."

He smiled distantly at the memory. "She cackled like an old witch, 'If any bloke was better than the coin he paid, I'd have long left the business!'"

Adrian choked on his wine.

"Rayna would come to my stall every few days and drop a mark for a rose, or a bundle of daisies, or a lily. She'd set them in a vase in her room, as small tokens of beauty. Eris knows she needed them."

"We came to know everything about each other. Her parents drinking themselves to death, accepting the brothel madame's charity that saved her from the streets. I offered my hand in marriage countless times. Not out of infatuation, mind you, but as an avenue to freedom. She refused for years, perhaps out of pride or some lingering sense of obligation to the brothel madame. But once she was with child, she finally allowed herself to be convinced."

"On the day she was set to leave with me, however, she did not come. I barged my way into the brothel, through the madame and her girls. I found Rayna in bed, in the beginnings of labor, her skin overtaken by patches of red and yellow. The Whore's Rot, you see. It may slumber in a body for years before abruptly emerging for its final, deadly blow. Rayna knew she had but days left, and begged me to take you in. I, and a few of her friends, stayed with her as she labored through the night. "

Destrius' expression twisted. "Then, the Madness struck."

Adrian's breath caught.

"I'll leave what transpired to your imagination. Even now, the thought of it…" He swallowed hard. "I sustained serious wounds, but survived. No one else was quite so fortunate. Until I saw you, of course. Squalling in a bed of blood, your cord still attached."

Destrius drained his chalice.

Adrian blew out a large, shaking breath. His mother's story hadn't fulfilled or completed him as he'd expected it to, but he still found the closure somewhat comforting. He reached for another cluster of grapes, if only to occupy his hands.

"You and Rayna, you two never felt for each other?" he said after a minute's silence. "I mean, as more than friends?"

"The company I desire would certainly not have included your mother. Rayna knew as much."

Adrian's mind went blank as he tried to comprehend the implication. Then, all at once, understanding bloomed. Along with a timid spark of familiarity.

"Don't pretend this is the first you've heard of dispositions like mine," Destrius said in amusement.

"Not--not among us. Not our kind." His heart had begun to flutter in his chest.

"Aye, the Divine Heirs have never been particularly discerning of their chosen partners, not in this respect. Men or women, they flit between them at will."

"But they're the Heirs. We're not like--" The instinctual protest suddenly sounded absurd. Hadn't Adrian been traveling with a Blessed One for the past several weeks? And if they hadn't come upon that curious meadow surrounded by stones, would he have ever realized Cedric's true nature on his own?

"The Heirs are borne of flesh and blood like the rest of us," Destrius said. "And you'll find that a sizable city such as Faircross may harbor more… colorful folk than you're accustomed to."

Adrian slumped back to digest this tantalizing revelation. No girl in Laetera had ever caught his eye, but he'd also been foolishly contemptuous of all the townsfolk, men and women alike. He'd long ago resigned himself to a lonely existence, and hadn't thought to revisit that assumption until now.

Adrian hurriedly gulped down his wine while Destrius observed him with a far-too-knowing smile.

"Is this why you left Laetera?" Adrian asked, suddenly eager to change the subject.

The man's eyes lowered. "Only a small part. I now recognize that I was simply running away. From the pain, from the Madness... from you."

"From me?" Adrian recalled so little of his earliest memories; even the man he'd once known as "Uncle" had been no more than a face and a voice before today. "Why? What did I--?"

"No, no, you did nothing wrong," he said hurriedly. "You were an innocent child. The fault lies with me." He sighed and looked out at the sprawling city below them. "You would have prospered here."

"I never left Laetera," Adrian said flatly. "You could have come for me at any time."

"Yes, I could have," Destrius agreed quietly.

They lapsed into a silence that wasn't quite hostile, but not exactly comfortable, either.

Destrius' open acceptance of blame couldn't entirely quell Adrian's anger. Neither could the inescapable fact that Adrian himself had made worse choices just recently, and for pettier reasons. The most primal part of him still writhed in stubborn refusal to forgive.

At least his appetite had returned. He leaned over and spooned some of the lukewarm red stew onto his plate and ripped a handful of bread from the nearby loaf, heedless of the few table manners he knew. "I suppose you'll want to know my part of the tale now," he said, swirling the soft bread around his plate and taking a large bite. Savory and spicy flavors burst across his palate like delicious fireworks.

Adrian told Destrius of his journey with Cedric while excluding anything related to the Divine Heirs. Naturally, this resulted in an unsatisfying, hole-ridden story. He found as much in Destrius' expression, though also visible relief that Cedric wasn't dangerous.

"What could he have possibly done to warrant such a bounty?" Destrius asked, bemused.

Adrian shrugged. "He's harmless to those who mean well. What does it matter?"

"I suppose, but…"

One of the twin servant girls reentered the balcony bearing a sealed scroll on a silver plate. Destrius took it from her, popped open the wax seal, and read its contents.

"Pity," he muttered. "I'd ordered the black goose specially…"

"What is it?" Adrian asked as he chewed.

Destrius cleared his throat and put the scroll down, then took a large draught from his cup. "I happen to be hosting a rather sizable gathering in three days."

"Is that unusual for you?"

"Oh no, certainly not." He laughed, mostly to himself. "You and Cedric may not be accustomed to the nature of the events I host, that's all. But regardless, you're welcome to attend. Two strapping youths at your distinctly rare age would undoubtedly enliven the festivities."

Adrian stuffed the last of the bread in his mouth as he rose to his feet. He paused, then awkwardly stretched out his hand. Destrius stood as well and shook it. His grip was strong and warm.

"Thank you… for lunch," Adrian said haltingly. He forced himself to meet his former guardian's eyes. "It was delicious."

Destrius smiled kindly. "Of course, dear lad. Inform me of your decision to attend by tomorrow, if possible."

*

"A party? What kind?" Cedric asked from his reclined position on the bed.

"Any sort of party would be novel to us," Adrian said. He sat on the edge of the mattress, then chuckled a little. "We can't go, of course. We've still got ways to ride, and limited time…"

Cedric was nodding along. "Aye, it'd be foolish to remain longer than we need to."

"What use are parties, anyway? Frivolous wastes of time, if you ask me."

"Not to mention dangerous if we're recognized…"

They stared at each other. Then, almost against their wills, they both grinned.

"I'll go tell Destrius," Adrian said.