"We were young. Very young, and very stupid. We wanted to go play in the forests, to pick nuts and fruits and annoy the ladies who lived with the trees," said Davis. "We had been told we could go anywhere we wanted, except there. So naturally, that's the only place we wanted to go. We had a plan."

Davis bit his lip, looking at Miriam's blood.

"We would distract the tutors with some pranks and head off. The trouble was, we needed help with the pranks. So we decided it was something we should all do. We told the twins and we told Eniso. We told you too. Remember? But you couldn't go because you were being sworn to the queen in a few days...Do you remember the oath they wanted you to take?"

Prendre nodded, looking like he had eaten something sour.

"She would order us to live in service of the crown, to live to uphold and protect, and we'd repeat it to her. There was more along the same lines. I was the youngest, the last of my family to take the oath. My older brothers and sisters teased my about it, interrupted my practice and tried to get me to mess up."

Davis nodded and continued the story.

"We shouldn't have told Ensio. I can't blame him though. He only told her because he didn't want us to get hurt. He was forever doing the right and proper thing. It used to drive me mad! We should have known better to tell him. He told her, and the Queen ordered us not to."

"The girls took it well. They didn't care what they did so long as they were together. But...It was annoying. We didn't even have to be punished because we had to do as she ordered. We couldn't, physically, disobey her."

He glanced at Miriam, his eyes pleading.

"So we got talking. The king had tried to order her when she found him. But she was a foreigner. She didn't have a light. She told us about it, called it 'free will'."

Davis snorted.

"It made it seem like none of us were free. That no matter how much better she had made the kingdom since taking over, we had no choice in it. She could turn horrible the next day and nobody would be able to stop her."

"Grand ideas for little boys," said Prendre.

Davis shrugged.

"Mostly, we just wanted to go play in the forests. We were looking for excuses to disobey. And then it happened. We were sitting on the steps behind that door."

Davis looked at the heavy door they had been trying to open.

"It was always open then, remember? This is my first time seeing it closed. It feels so wrong."

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He put a hand on the door, shook his head.

"Get on with it!" hissed Prendre.

"We sat on the steps and I opened my mouth and said 'I wish'...That stuff isn't supposed to work for us. We give wishes and we get paid. That's how it works, right?"

He wasn't looking at anyone now. Davis was staring at his hands.

"I didn't know. All I wanted to do was be able to disagree with her, to argue, to disobey every once in a while. But I didn't say 'I'. I said 'we'. And it included every damn person in this kingdom. I made a wish. Jace took payment in everything I have been taught. He was always curious. So I don't remember anything of those lessons I was so eager to ditch."

"What has this to do with my family?" asked Prendre, snarling.

"WHAT ABOUT EVERYONE ELSE?" screamed Caleb, from where he was sitting next to Echo. Everyone looked at him.

"You think all those lights you have hanging from you didn't have families?" he asked. "You think all the people you hurt didn't have someone that cared for them?"

The cat walked towards the lion, snarling. His fur was on end, making him look bigger on instinct. His eyes glowed. Everyone was so surprised by this that they didn't move.

"You think you are special? You are nothing. A troublesome little flea in the whole of everything. You think your tragedy matters? We are guide, connected to this world and all who live in it. We are ancient. We are whole. We see the truth of things, the true worth of them. You are worthless. There is little in this world that matters to us. But you all just take and take and take. There is only one kind that does not."

The cat's eyes were getting brighter. They were all frozen in the glow of it.

"They mimic and watch, they love and wait. They live on the joys and the pains of others without taking a thing. They live separate and yet love entirely," he said, then he paused and looked at Echo. "And to hurt them is the greatest of sins."

"You think that all those you hurt had no one who cared for them?" asked the cat. The light in his eyes vanished.

"I CARE!"

The cat launched at the lion, who was so surprised he took a step backwards, off of Miriam. Miriam rolled away. Davis ran to her and helped her up, pulling her back away from the lion.

The cat clung to the lion's face with his claws and used his small mouth to bite and bite and bite.

But it couldn't last. Prendre jerked his head to the side, loosening the little cat's grip, and then backwards so Caleb flew into the air. He landed on his feet and jumped to strike again. Caleb's body slid across the floor. Miriam yelled. Davis cursed.

The lion caught the little cat with it's huge, sharp teeth and flung him away. Caleb landed near Echo, his ginger fur now mostly red.

Prendre fixed his eyes onto Davis.

"Continue."

Davis glared at him, holding Miriam back. She settled for spitting in the lion's direction.

"Monster," she hissed.

"Yes," said Prendre, looking at Davis, "but I'm not alone in that. Continue."

Davis walked away from them both, checked on the girl and the little cat.

"I can't tell with Echo, but Caleb's still breathing." And bleeding, but Davis didn't say that.

"Continue!"

"All right!"

Davis glared at the lion.

"I made a wish and Jace took payment. But the trouble was, that everyone suddenly had the ability to disobey the Queen. Most people did so immediately. They didn't even mean to, it was a knee-jerk reaction. You were the only one of your family not to take the oaths, right?"

"Yes. What does that matter?"

"She ordered them to live in service. To live."

Prendrepaused, holding his breath for a moment. Then he laughed and the sound held no joy.

"You're lying."

Davis stood up, faced his old friend and took a breath in.

"It wasn't Jace who killed your family. He was just acting on instinct. Like we all do when we hear a wish."

"YOU'RE LYING."

"I'm sorry, Prendre."

It wasn't a roar. There was too much hurt in it for to be a roar. The lion attacked him screaming.