Zott found Rae while he was carrying Komao back to the palace. He was still in such a state of shock, that Zott plummeting down from a tree branch didn't startle him at all.

With a thud, he was standing a foot away from Rae, and Komao was reaching out for him.

“Zotty!” she cried.

“You found her?” Zott said, his face blank as ever.

“Yes,” was all Rae could say.

“Is something wrong?” Zott asked. He glanced between them.

How to explain? Rae was struck dumb.

Think. Think.

“There was…”

Rae wasn’t thinking in words. The same terrible image was all he could conjure.

“Zotty, I’m tired,” Komao said, ending Rae’s torture.

They walked back to the palace. Zot eventually noticed that Rae was getting increasingly unsteady on his feet, and took Komao from him. As they walked, the child chatted away at a speed Rae couldn’t process.

The trees thinned out, until the world felt a little less oppressive, and Rae’s breathes mostly came easily again.

“I need to find Bejuk,” he said.

“He’ll be with the Shana, I imagine,” Zott said, before adding, “Are you feeling alright?”

Rae truly thought the words he needed would come this time, but they were still caught in his throat. He cursed Zott, it was that concerned expression of his that was throwing him off. Before he could force the truth out, Komao spoke.

“There was a witch!”

“She wasn’t-”

“-She snatched me, like a witch from a story. but then his… his mad… maj…”

“His majesty,” Zott said.

“He gave her a good telling off, and just as we were about to get away, the witch vanished!”

Rae looked between the branches to the west directly into the setting sun. His eyes pricked with tears. They were close now, and a few servants shouted at the sight of them.

“Miss Komao!”

“The Shali has been found!”

“Notify the Shana, and someone, go fetch Young Master Ven!”

Soon they were being fussed over by dozens of servants. Rae drifted into a dream for most of it, half-consciously smiling whenever Komao said something childlike, nodding solemnly when asked if he was the one who found her, shaking his head when offered tea or a warm cloak.

He only broke out of the daze a little after Duke Ashem, Duke Bejuk, Sebi, and the Shana arrived.

“You look very pale,” Bejuk greeted him, after he had checked on the child, “are you feeling unwell?”

Rae nodded.

“I was worried about you, Sebi said you were on your way to meet with me, but you never showed up. And the servants said you’d wandered into the forest…”

“Sorry… I was planning to come see you, but I had an idea of where the Shali might be, so I went to check,”

Terror was gnawing at his gut. Stop talking… if you keep going, you’ll…

“It’s a good thing you did. Where was she?”

“In the forest to the northeast, well off the path,”

“By the heavens! That part of the forest is quite treacherous, it’s not a place for a child to play,”

With that statement, Bejuk looked like he might start scolding the Shali. Rae grabbed his sleeve, steering the duke back to face him. Bejuk was stunned silent.

“The Shali wasn’t alone… She was taken there by someone from the palace… They… they fell from a cliff. I didn’t dare look… I don’t know what became of them,”

Rae could feel eyes on him. His breathes came laboured but he fixed his eyes on Bejuk and gripped his sleeve tighter.

“I need you to send someone to check on them,”

Rae’s vision blurred.

That was fine. He’d got the words out. He could depend on Bejuk. Whatever was waiting in the forest would be dealt with.

The voices around him warped and pressed against his throbbing head. Bejuk’s silhouette swayed, and a dull pain engulfed Rae’s body.

----------------------------------------

He had fainted.

A few minutes later, his awareness returned. Sebi cool hand was on his forehead. Rae fluttered his eyes shut, hoping the crowd that had gathered around him would assume him dead if he kept still enough.

“What’s the matter with him?” Duke Ashem said.

That cool hand felt Rae’s wrist.

“He’s not ill, or injured. It seems the stress has become too much for him,” Sebi said, quiet but sure.

“We had better move him somewhere more suitable. Sebi, can you lift him?”

Despite his still pounding headache, Rae couldn’t keep up his facade any longer.

Sebi?! Lifting him? With his willowy limbs and fair face contorted in effort as he carried Rae off like a new bride? He almost shuddered at the humiliating image.

“I’m fine,” Rae said, forcing himself into a sitting position, “I’m going to rest in my rooms,”

He caught sight of a dozen faces as he dragged himself up. He reeled at the way their eyebrows were knitted in pity. Even the child seemed to know just how much he had disgraced himself. The only saving grace was Duke Ashem, glaring at him with less disdain than usual, but still without an ounce of sentimentality.

Thank the heavens, Some people never change!

Sebi hovered at his back, shadowing him on the entire route back to his rooms, barking orders to anyone else who tried to follow to leave Rae alone. Rae could have hugged him, if not for his dogged focus on closing the distance between himself and his bed.

----------------------------------------

Rae was left to himself for the rest of that day and night until the following afternoon. Not completely alone, servants still came and went, but nothing was asked of him. He lived like a ghost: lying in bed, pacing the gardens, replaying the horrors over and over in his mind.

Then Bejuk came to fuss over him and force him to drink some concoction. A gloopy mixture of inconceivable origin, smelling strongly of basil. He didn’t mention what they’d found at the cliff, and Rae didn’t ask.

“Sebi has been fretting over you,”

“Yeah?” Rae asked. Of all the pleasantries Bejuk had tried to distract him with, this was the only one which caught his interest.

“I’ve never known him to be so worried. Even as a child, he was never fazed by anything…”

“I suppose I behaved a little dramatically…” Rae cringed.

Bejuk didn’t try to argue with him. He went over some boring matters, relaying the duties he and Duke Ashem had taken on Rae’s behalf. It wasn’t long before Rae was drifting into a daydream again.

“Ashem is making plans to return home soon. I will stay with you for a little longer, but once I know your health is well taken care of I must return to my camp,”

“Of course,” Rae said, not relieved to be free of prying eyes, nor disheartened at being abandoned.

“Your cousin says he hopes your Aunt and Uncle will be coming to visit soon, so you won’t be completely without company,” Bejuk said.

“I’ll be fine,” Rae said, for the thousandth time that day.

“There’s one more thing. The Shana wishes to meet with you,”

“With me? Why?”

“It’s nothing bad. I think she wants to thank you for saving her daughter. But I know your feelings towards her… If you don’t want to see her, I’ll find a way to placate her,”

Bejuk was being so gentle, so delicate with his feelings. Rae cursed himself. He must truly look a state for everyone to be acting so attentively…

“I told you, I’m fine. Tell her she’s welcome to come,”

A few hours later, after Rae had bathed, combed his hair, and brewed tea, the Shana was admitted into his rooms. Rae fixed his expression into a noncommittal smile, as he watched her look around.

“It’s so strange…” she mused, and Rae knew how that thought ended.

It’s so strange that he’s gone. And you’re here in his place.

“Bejuk told me you’re preparing to leave,” he said.

“Yes,” she said, shaking off whatever memories had a hold on her, “I’m excited. I haven’t seen my home since I came here, thirteen years ago. There are many things I’m looking forward to showing the girls,”

The Ashem ruled the lower lying valleys to the east, their land straddling the beginnings of the black river. Little more than a stream when it passed through Camp Ashem, this river flowed all the way the plains peoples’ imperial city. Traders from both the the plains and the northern desert travelled up and down the Ashem pass daily, bringing exotic luxuries and wealth to the Ashem clan. They were the Shak’s window to the outside world.

“I’ve heard the peaks there are beautiful, and the climate mild. I’d love to see it myself, one day,”

In truth, Rae hadn’t heard much about Camp Ashem, and had committed to memory even less. His grasping at straws was an attempt to distract himself from how awkward he felt.

“We’d be happy to host you. Ven especially,”

Oh heavens! Could it get any worse?

Rae disguised his mortification with a cough.

“Was there anything in particular you wanted to talk about?”

The Shana smiled, “oh! Yes, of course. There’s a matter I want to request your blessing regarding,”

“Oh?”

As the former Shak’s Shana, there was little Rae could deny her without seeming impolite.

“I’ve decided to name the baby Raefu,”

Raefu: ‘glory to nobility’. Or ‘glory to Rae’.

If the Shana had said this a few months ago, Rae might have been sickened. Was it mockery? Was is sycophantic? Now, looking at the Shana’s slight smile, he dared to hope. He hoped it to be sincerity.

“Are you not worried it will be a difficult name to bear? Something more cute, to match Lim or Komao, might fit better,”

I truth, it didn’t sound to bad. It had a pretty, feminine sound. But Rae couldn’t let himself sound too eager, lest this be a trick.

“I know its a little unusual, but I think the sound is quite pleasant,”

“Then you should name her what you like,”

“As you wish,” the Shana said.

Her business over, she didn’t leave right away. She lingered, as if there was something she longed to investigate, but dare not touch anything out of turn.

“Is there anything here… something of my father’s… that you’d like, as a memento?”

She shook her head, “no, no. I have six little girls to remember him by,”

It was this moment, when Rae realised that baby Raefu was the last sibling he was ever going to get. The six closest relatives he had would soon be out of his reach, possibly forever.

“That time in the forest, Komao called me ‘your majesty’…”

“Ah, she must have heard a servant call you that, I’ve barely-“ The Shana cut herself off but Rae knew what she was thinking. I’ve barely mentioned you to them.

“Not out of… not out of disrespect… I just didn’t want to get their hopes up, in case you didn’t want anything to do with them…”

The Shana was red-faced as she finished.

In his heart, Rae had many more questions, and knew this might be his last chance to ask them.

Did father ever mention me? Mention my mother? Mention Nukaim? Did he miss me?

Did you tell him to send me away? Did you cast a spell on him?

Did you ever feel guilty for what you did to me? What you did to my family?

Some of these questions were unfair. Some were idiotic. Some were just embarrassing.

“Will you… tell them about me?” Rae asked, scratching the back of his head.

“Yes, of course. But you should also tell them yourself,”