Within the land of Thece, in the capital city:

  YeFeng strode through the halls, searching for the object of his desire.

  He narrowed his eyes, watching for any hint of where his goal might lie.

  He stepped past doors on either side of the hallway, knowing that they contained nothing of his wants.

  As he walked, he spied something, and his eyes widened again as he saw the door that he knew must hold his desire, and he stepped forward.

  He threw open the door, and smiled, seeing what he desired to obtain lying before him.

  Dashing forward, he ran to take his want, and the people in the room reacted in surprise and indignation. They tried to stop his movement, but he dodged them, knowing that they could not stop him, and reached forward, taking the object of his desire.

  Carrying his prize, he escaped into the hallway.

  * * * * *

  Daero discovered YeFeng, sitting in the middle of a flight of stairs, a plate of food held in the strange boy’s hands.

  Yefeng gave no indication of noticing him, taking a bite out of a wrapped piece of bread, the spicy flavour of the meat inside giving the boy no pause.

  “I heard you gave the cooks quite a fright.” Daero said.

  “Mmfh.” YeFeng said as he ate.

  Daero smiled. “You are a strange child. You do know that, right?”

  YeFeng shrugged, swallowing. “Maybe.”

  “We have something important to do.” Daero said. “Something that might be interesting.”

  YeFeng stood, looking at Daero questioningly.

  “That man who tried to kill you a short while ago. I think it would be a good idea to see if we can find anything out about him.”

  YeFeng finished his meal, and set the plate aside. Standing up, he put his hand on his knife, and stepped forward.

  Daero smiled, and turned to lead YeFeng down another flight of stairs.

  YeFeng followed, and Daero led him into a room. There was a door, leading past a heavy stone wall on the far end, and Daero stopped before it.

  “You’re prepared?” He asked, and YeFeng nodded.

  Daero opened the door, and YeFeng stepped forward past it, seeing Vatoris on the other side, slumped, tied to a chair.

  Vatoris looked up, and noticed the new arrival. He smiled. “I guess I was right to kill you, after all. You were bad enough before, but now you’re one of them.” He said, spitting down onto the floor.

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  Daero walked forward, up to Vatoris, and crouched down, looking at him from the same level. “Why did you try to kill this boy?” He asked.

  “Try to kill him?” Vatoris asked, then grinned even more widely. “Oh, you have no idea!” He said, laughing, before it suddenly devolved into coughing, his body spasming from the strain.

  Daero grabbed Vatoris’ shoulders, forcing him to still. “Attacking an innocent boy like him is a punishment I could kill you for, and no one would bat an eye. You need to cooperate with us, or you will be killed.”

  “Better than helping someone like him!” Vatoris spat, before he smirked again. “It’s too late, anyway. Even if I wanted to, I wouldn’t have enough time to tell you what you want!” He coughed a number of times, and then continued. “It’s a hysterical tragedy!”

  “What’s going on? Why are you acting like this?” Daero asked.

  “Honestly? My humor is probably a side effect of my impending death. My body knows it’s going to die, so it’s flooding me with mirth to make it easier!”

  “Die?” Daero asked. “What’s killing you?”

  “This whole time I’ve been talking to you, I’ve slowly been magnetizing the iron in my body, and it’s tearing me apart from the inside!”

  “You’re killing yourself?” Daero asked. “This is better than saving your life by telling us what we want?”

  “As I said, better than helping one of them.” Vatoris replied. He coughed again, and a line of blood ran out of the corner of his mouth.

  YeFeng stepped forward, drawing one of his knives.

  Vatoris looked at it, then YeFeng’s face, and grinned. “You think you can torture it out of me? Do what you will. Whatever you can do with those knives can’t possibly compare to the pain I’m feeling right now. I probably won’t even notice it!”

  “We can’t heal him from what he’s saying he’s doing. YeFeng, knock him out before he makes it irreversible!”

  “Oh, you’re far too late for that. Only a moment more, and my heart will cease… to beat.” He winced, suddenly. “Ah… there it is…” He said, and his body slumped over. His breathing slowed, before it stopped completely, and he stilled.

  “You idiot, Vatoris…” Daero said. “Killing yourself to make a point? You weren’t even just trying to keep information from getting into our hands. You said you started killing yourself when we walked in. If you really cared that much about keeping us in the dark, you would have done it earlier. No, you just wanted to make a point. Can you get any worse than that?”

  YeFeng sheathed his knife, and stepped forward, looking more closely at the slumped corpse.

  Daero stood, and spoke. “That was mostly unhelpful, but we did learn something. We now know that you became something, part of a group, and that Vatoris despised that group with every fiber of his being.”

  He turned to YeFeng. “You should meet with someone, someone who’ll be working on this.” He took something out of his clothing. “He and I may support opposing sides in the war, but he is one of the best you can find. His name is Nadren, and he’s very, very good at what he does. I’ll give him what we learned so far.”

  YeFeng nodded, and Daero held out what he had taken from his clothing. It was a small token, depicting a snake wrapped around a branch.

  “This will identify you to the important people involved in this. I’ll get Nadren to meet with you later today. You do what you want, but you should go to your room sometime shortly after you eat your next meal.”

  YeFeng took the token, and turned to leave.

  “Don’t get yourself killed.” Daero said, as YeFeng opened the door.

  “I won’t.” YeFeng said, stepping through, and moving to exit into the hallway.

  He walked up the steps, and paced through the hallways again until he found the door he had so rudely intruded into earlier in the day, and sat across from it. He waited for a while for any people to enter the kitchens, but no one approached for a long while.

  He began practicing with a handful of salt he had just stolen from the kitchen, shaping it into constructs as he waited.

  Eventually, the cooks arrived, and began working on the next meal, and YeFeng waited for a few minutes, before he walked in again.

  He took a meal, this time having to push past a cook who tried to block his path, and then left. He sat outside in the hallway, and ate.

  After he had finished the food at last, he walked back to his room, and entered it.

  He waited, taking out the salt again, and began again shaping it, the grains flowing through the air, weaving like thread.

  A while later, a knock sounded on the door, and YeFeng stood. He opened the door, revealing a red-haired man standing in the opening.

  “You are YeFeng?” He asked, and YeFeng nodded.

  “Yes.”

  “I am Nadren.” The man said. “I understand that you should have something to show me?” He asked.

  YeFeng took the badge that Daero had given to him, and presented it to Nadren.

  “Good. It is somewhat ridiculous to have to test a child for subterfuge, but I suppose, in cases like these, it is always best to be sure of whom you trust.”

  YeFeng stood, unmoving, until the man took out an identical token. “Everyone who claims to be part of this endeavour should have one of these. If they have one, you can trust them.”

  YeFeng nodded, and stepped sideways.

  Nadren walked forward, into the room, and closed the door, before turning to face YeFeng.

  “Lord Daero informed me of the interrogation you two had performed on Vatoris. I understand that it was not very profitable. However, the conclusion that he had come to, I also agree with, and I found this paper on Vatoris’ person.” He said, taking a folded paper, before unfolding it and presenting it to YeFeng.

  The paper was of a typical colour, though it had, drawn on it, a design of an eye within a septagon.

  “I’ve already sent investigations into this symbol.” Nadren said. “For now, that’s all we have at our disposal. However, you are a useful tool, though, having to have a child as a weapon seems abhorrent. Unfortunately, we’ve had it proven that they consider you significant, and that makes you our best bet for destroying them. I might need to ask you for assistance in the future. Until then, keep… well, keep stealing food as you like.” He said, smiling.

  YeFeng gave him the slightest smile in return, and Nadren opened the door again, before leaving.

  YeFeng took out his stolen salt, and set it down carefully beside his bed before he lay himself down to sleep.