"What did that mage want by the way?" I asked, trying to look like I was more interested in plating the salad for myself and Sharish. It did look delicious, to be fair.

"Sell information, you could say..." for some reason, he seemed absent-minded, and not in a contemplative way. In a worried way.

"Well, did you buy anything?"

Sharish let out a soft sigh. "He said he might be able to track down my brother..."

My hand twitched above the plate. I was wondering what that bastard was playing at since the kanh announced his arrival... We didn't discuss any plans, diversions, nothing that would involve him further in any way, so I thought he simply left once he poofed away again. But this... Was he trying to betray us? Or to somehow bring Light into it all in a way that would turn to our advantage...?

"I didn't know you had a brother..."

Sharish put down his fork, his shoulders slumping. When I looked into his face, his gaze was turned away at nothing in particular, lost in some other realm "It's my fault..." he whispered.

I felt some weird sting in my chest. Where did that ruthless mage just disappear to...? "What is?" I asked softly.

He got up, turning away and walking towards one of the bookshelves. "Some time ago, I sent him on a mission to find the Disciple of Ralethiel... he never returned..."

Careful now... I told myself. "Well... if you trusted him with a task this delicate, then he must possess some impressive skills that you put faith in, right? And he surely wasn't stupid enough to agree to something he knew he couldn't handle?"

"Yeah..."

"So how is it your fault?"

"I knew where I was sending him to. To a human settlement. If but one of them somehow caught wind of who he was..." Sharish's hand clenched.

"But if the mage said that he can track him down, that must mean he's alive, right?"

The hand loosened up again. "Yes... and I'm willing to pay any price for getting him back."

I closed my eyes for a moment, so they wouldn't betray me with a hopeful glimmer. Leaving the food to go cold, I got up as well and approached the mage. "You must be very fond of him..."

"He's my only family."

"Want to... tell me more about him?"

Sharish's eyes left the spines of the books that he was absently staring at and switched to me, becoming mildly surprised. He seemed to wonder where to start for a moment, before reaching up to some rolls of parchment on one of the shelves and slowly walking over to the desk.

"He... always saw the world in his own ways. Rarely trusted what others said or what was written unless he verified it with his own hands or mind." The mage unrolled two of the parchments and pinned the corners down with some writing utensils.

Before me spread two star charts... Mind-blowing star charts. Meticulous and painstakingly drawn with the thinnest of quills, each dot named and many of them connected into constellations. I subconsciously reached out and brushed one of them with my fingertips only to immediately flinch back. Around the constellation I touched, a faint outline of a ship appeared, depicting what the formation represented. It was the Dawn's Corsair...

"This is amazing..." I whispered in genuine awe. "Did he make it?"

"We made together."

"You're astronomers?"

A small smile warmed up Sharish's features. "It's a passion that runs in the family... But I always thought he had more potential than anyone before him."

"Really? Between siblings, I'd have rather imagined you argued and competed to prove who was better rather than the older willingly admitting that the younger is."

"We're not silly humans. We respect talent when we see it, we don't try to cut each other's wings for our own satisfaction."

"Right, sorry..."

"He always insisted I'm the wiser one in return. Called me 'Walking Telescope' all the time, because I was taller and all."

I let out a puff of laughter. "Sounds kind of accurate."

Sharish made a face that I probably could have interpreted as slightly offended. "'Gabby Micromoon' wasn't far off either."

This time I really laughed a little. "I can guess where the micromoon came from, but why gabby?"

The mage pulled the chair closer and sat down, so I perched on the edge of the desk, mindful of the two pieces of art. "Because of that way of being of his I guess. If it was something he was enthusiastic about, sometimes the words just flew out of him as if he didn't even notice them go. Imagine... a fourteen year old brat listening to a teacher at the mage academy talking about stars shining. The kid lifts his hand, and when the teacher tells him to speak, he simply says: 'Stars don't shine, sir. Stars burn.'"

I held back another snort of laughter. Funny as it was, I didn't want to make it too obvious that I could picture my master doing that no problem. "What did the teacher do?"

"Felt offended of course, and invited Light to come to the front and explain why he thought that. Obviously, the class had a laugh at him, but that only made him more determined to prove his words."

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"Fascinating... How did he know something like that though? To me, the stars shine, probably reflecting the light of the moon or something. Where did the idea that they burn come from?"

"That's... a story for another time," Sharish suddenly cut off, starting to roll the charts back together.

I watched him do it, not pressing further. Once he put the rolls back in their place, I decided to address my suspicions instead: "Is he the reason why you're going against humans?"

"What makes you say that?"

"I was just thinking... Pretty much any mage nowadays has a reason to hate them. Yet none ever went as far as you do. And somehow, you don't strike me as some sort of extreme idealist or martyr ready to do anything for his kin. No offence."

He didn't turn to face me again, just stared at the books for a moment. Then he walked over to the fireplace and put some logs in. "You can only be strong if you understand the reason why you're fighting..."

"I'm not sure I get it..."

"You already stepped onto your path to strength, because you understood that my cause is just. Unlike Siaril and Yasenka. Their weakness comes from being lost, torn between craving peace in our world and the stifled realization that they can't exactly blame me. Especially the Empress, who experienced the cruelty of humans on her own skin..."

I had to admit, I didn't even bother to keep up my act much as I pondered over his words. And weirdly enough, the thoughts that decided to make their way out of me didn't sound strange even to me: "If they're lost, how is it that they can use fire...?"

"What are you talking about?"

My hesitation about disclosing our secrets was brief. If I was to achieve something here, then I couldn't count on just him disclosing things to me. Plus... it might push him into thinking... "The Disciples only summon fire out of a honest desire to protect. I don't think Yasenka would be able to fight you if she didn't honestly wish to protect humans."

"Interesting..."

"Just wondering... if your magic was restricted to a fire like ours, would it burn bright if your reason was the overall wellbeing of mages?"

A small sigh escaped him. "Look, I just happen to be in possession of resources that allow me to go that far..."

I smiled a little. "You know you can't fool me..."

Sharish frowned at first, but I could see that he remembered quite quickly. And the understanding was followed by a certain discomfort that he almost managed to conceal.

And he wasn't the only one to realize the position he was in now.

In a sense, I had the upper hand here. He knew that he had to be truthful with me, otherwise he risked seeming untrustworthy. And he couldn't afford that.

Our staring contest continued for a few more moments, before he sighed again. "Yes, it's because of Light..."

"Did some human do something to him...?"

The piece of used parchment that Sharish just took from a small basket by the fireplace rustled as he clenched his fist around it. After a few seconds, he threw it under the logs, a spark of magic igniting it to start the fire. "He almost got murdered..."

My skin crawled at the sheer thought. "Why...?"

"For being innocent, why else would anyone try to harm him?!"

The outburst made both me and Sharish freeze, me in surprise, him from the realization how loud he suddenly got. I narrowed my eyes. I've seen him angered in the past, but this was different...

"Tell me..." I whispered.

His shaky exhale was almost drowned out by the first crack of the flames that started to nibble on the wood. "He was curious about how humans live, the differences between our lifestyles... So we went to Siareet, a city near the last peaks of the Dragon Mountains, pretending to be human, of course. All he did... was cheer up a crying brat on the street with a tiny magic trick... And already the next night, we had an assassin in our inn room..."

"That's ridiculous..."

"Why don't you tell that to whoever sent him?"

"You both survived though, right?"

"Me, yes. Light... I wouldn't have called it surviving... That filth had the blade at his throat, and if I hadn't woken up, he would have overcome Light... Still, the tiny cut that he managed to leave was enough to turn my brother into but a shadow of his former self... He refused to leave the house even after we returned north, was afraid of every knock on the door, had trouble sleeping..."

Sliding off the desk, I quietly returned to the armchairs in front of the fireplace and pulled them closer together. Sharish watched passively, but when I sat in one of them and invitingly adjusted the pillow on the other, he settled next to me.

"I was left with one option..." he picked up. "I asked Canidralth... to erase the events of that night from Light's memories. The change was instant, but... to force me to do something like this with my own brother..."

It was my turn to let out a small exhale.

A shaken exhale of realization.

I suddenly felt tempted to tell Sharish how torn those few sentences made me, how weak I suddenly became if I were to apply his logic...

"I'm sorry this happened to you... because of my kin no less..."

"Don't try to blame yourself. It shouldn't be our responsibility to teach them. It should be common sense to not condemn anyone who has never done anything wrong."

"But then... can we blame all of humanity just because one or two were stupid enough to assume you were a threat to everyone around?"

Sharish averting his gaze spoke volumes. "I don't care... I'm not risking it ever again..."

The disbelief that stung my chest and eyes was almost painful. This man was everything but blinded by hatred... nor was he fanatical... Just like me, Siaril and Yasenka, he knew well enough that what he was doing wasn't fully right. But for Light...

If only some people knew how one rash and inconsiderate action could turn great love into even greater evil...

Was that why Canidralth showed himself? Did he just want to point out this route to me, the route that would make Light... no, that would make us all actually understand what we're doing?

"What is it?" Sharish asked, voice dull.

"Wh... no, nothing! I mean... I think I might have just realized something..."

"Oh?"

"I need to confirm it first. Say... would you mind if I stayed out tonight? I have an idea that might just bring us a step forward..."

"Now I'm curious."

"You'll see tomorrow, promise."

"Be careful, whatever crazy idea you just came up with."

I took a piece of cheese from my plate and put it in my mouth, getting up and pointing to the still full dishes. "And you make sure this doesn't go to waste." Giving him a small smile, I quickly left, trying to not make it look frantic.

The light of day had just lost the fight with approaching night. Meaning the kanh would only be starting to wake up, not ready to be very perceptive about their surroundings just yet. Perfect for me.

I flew over the rocks wreathing the valley on the eastern side and scanned the walls of the ridge in search for that one crack that concealed a small cave... It wasn't easy to spot, which in this case was a good thing.

As I stepped inside, I was greeted by dead silence and an even deader campfire. "It's me, Sig. We need to talk..."

Light quickly came out of hiding and rushed to give me a bear hug. "Everything alright there...?"

"So far, yeah. Yasenka and Siaril are safe and sound, in a comfy room and ready to be interrogated."

"Stop that..."

I rubbed his back apologetically before reviving the campfire with my flame. As we sat down, I couldn't stop my eyes from dropping to his neck... I don't know if I was just seeing things because of what I just learned, but there really was a tiny, brighter spot of a scar just where his collarbone started... "It's fine, really," I reassured him, mentally shaking my head. "Sharish won't hurt them when he knows I'm against it."

"That's good... but why are you here? We agreed to only meet in emergencies."

"There is one, though it's quite far from what you might usually define as an emergency..."

"Talk normally."

"Sure. Say, you surely had arguments as kids in the past, right?"

"Of course?"

"How did you resolve those?"

"Um... mostly with little magic competitions."

"Well, that might not be the best in this situation..."

"What are you getting at?"

"Remember how you told us that you regret never telling Sharish that you don't agree with him?"

"Yeah?"

"How about I give you an opportunity?"

"... eh?"