Year 782 Octavus, 38th of the sixth-month Dailainus

Sidastir waited insistently in front of Akana’s classroom. His own lessons had ended a while ago but Akana’s lesson had been prolonged. He assumed that Diplomacy had more flexible hours, but it had started to darken outside. The door opened after a while and students started to pour out in waves but Akana didn't follow suit. Sidastir frowned and looked into the classroom to locate his husband but Akana was not there.

Sidastir descried a young woman scrutinizing him. Her wild, white hair but human appearance spoke of a Balkravian origin.

“Have you seen Akana den Rifabeinn? He is from Auone so he should be hard to overlook,” Sidastir asked and the woman tilted her head while she squinted incredulous at him with her dark eyes.

“He's not with you? The lesson ended a while ago and only students who had an interest in asking questions remained,” she said and Sidastir could feel the gears turn behind the eyelids.

“When did the lesson end?” Sidastir asked with a rising cold feeling in the pit of his stomach.

“Around two hours ago,” the woman replied carefully.

Sidastir hissed and began to move rapidly towards the direction he came from. He must find Magnus quickly. Magnus should be able to aid Sidastir in finding Akana.

He had already been in Cathurn and Akana were not there. There was no risk that Akana would take a detour. He always goes straight home after his lessons. He should already have been home when Sidastir first arrived.

Hopefully, Akana had merely gone astray but Sidastir’s instincts told him that something was amiss.

Sidastir almost collided with Magnus who came around the corner with a group of students.

“Where is the fire, Sidastir?” Magnus said, who skillfully had avoided colliding into him.

“Akana is gone, he should have been home for over an hour ago,” said Sidastir and stopped abruptly when he saw the wavering in Magnus facial expression.

“What is it?” he asked abruptly.

“Probably nothing but I have been looking for Zhan for a while now ...”

Sidastir left without another word as he felt the blood freeze. If Akana is hurt...

*****

Akana looked around.

The sun had been lost and he could in no way determine where he was. Why hadn’t he use a wagon? It was such a foolish decision. Akana had decided to walk home instead. He wanted to memorize the city but had quickly found out that he had gone astray. Now as he pondered it, hadn’t the wagon turn to the left, not right, when it made its way to Cathurn?

Akana sighed and decided to take the next corner into a small alley. He halted abruptly when he realized that he barely was able to see anything in the dark. How would he be able to find his way home if he wasn't able see his hand in front of him?

Akana turned around to go out to the main street again but walked into something solid. He groaned and rubbed his aching nose while raising his gaze, to look upon the object he had collided with, only to grow rigid in fear.

Zhan regarded him in return with malignant eyes. Akana pulled away and Zhan brushed off his clothes almost like he had dirtied himself.

“Is this the one, Zhan?” asked a man, who was clearly drunk, behind Zhan. The man was probably twice as wide and a head taller than both Zhan and Akana. A third man appeared on the left side of the Zhan with a vacuous grin on his face.

Akana could sense every nerve in his body to scream in fear. They were not here to assist him. Akana continued to back away to a safe distance from the three but was met by a high stone wall which blocked his escape. There was only one way now. Forward.

“Is it not obvious from his filthy looks? You can smell the dust from the desert rat,” Zhan said. His voice was so distorted by the disgust that his words sounded more like a hiss.

“I wonder how the desert rat got Frostking to melt?” the huge man, to the right of the Zhan, chuckled.

“How should I know? Maybe Eitirans has a fondness for animals,” Zhan snarled and the men retorted with a laughter.

“Probably, there are just trolls and dragons left in Eitir so the Frostking must have a lot of training with animals.”

Akana tried to get past the men, but Zhan was quick to grab his tunic and with a hard jerk, Akana was hurled back against the wall. The collision squeezed the air out of his lungs and he gasped for air.

“Linger, we still have a few questions for you,” Zhan said with a sneer and Akana could hear one of the men get closer.

Akana had no desire to answer their questions and directed a strike towards the assaulter's stomach because his chin was out of reach for him. The man cursed and bend over in agony. The other man laughed and grabbed hold of Akana who attempted to wiggle himself to freedom.

“Hold him still,” Zhan snarled and Akana felt pain shoot through his body when a strike landed on his face. Akana groaned and tried to get away from the iron grip he was in while several punches landed onto him.

After a while, Akana began slouch in the man's grip when he slowly began to sink deeper into unconsciousness. He could hear the men shouting for Zhan to stop.

“Do you want to kill him?”

Akana’s last thought was that the question was foolish. Zhan is a Huzhidi. Of course, he wished for the death of an auon. That's what his people live for.

Akana opened his eyes to an unknown location. He could still feel the pain flow through his body and his inner world trembled for each time he was struck but this was not the alley he had just been in. He was in a dark cavern with drawings on the walls. They looked ancient and seemed to depict events.

One of them represented a young man standing in front of an enormous beast which Akana would presume to be a dragon. The man seemed to absorb the dragon and then started to burn in later images. Other men came and executed the young man but in the last picture it turned out a young woman existed with the same ability to set herself on fire.

Akana could hear deep breaths coming from the cavern's interior. Dark and heavy. He saw bars on the other side of the cavern and walked cautiously closer. The breaths came from the other side, but whatever it was who breathed was surrounded by immense darkness that concealed the view from intruders.

Akana caught hold in the bars and tried to reach what was on the other side. He felt his hand growing warm and white fire burst out from his hand but the fire did not lit up the darkness. He could hear a dull chuckle on the other side, and something moved. Something colossal. Akana threw himself away from the bars when two giant golden eyes scintillated and Akana could just for a second to see a gape with white, sharp teeth grin at him from the darkness.

Akana tried to crawl away from whatever was imprisoned on other side, but something seized him and ripped him up. Akana was pushed hard against the stone wall and he gasped for air. One arm pushed him against the cold wall and Akana stared at the assailant. A face was just within a hands range from his own face. A face identical to his own, apart from one small detail. The attacker's eyes glowed silvery-white instead of his own dark eyes.

“Why have you come here, brother? Did you find it so difficult to cope with the reality that you must seek help from specters in your mind?” The identical assailant’s voice sounded like a thousand voices that spoke in unison. He seized hold of Akana’s face and Akana could feel the assailant’s claws digging into his cheeks.

“Your lover wants you back. I guess I've played enough for now but you should invite me out more times. After all, I have never seen the world as you, brother, have and I deserve it as much as you.” Akana tried to wiggle out of the man's grip but couldn't move at all.

“If not more.”

*****

Sidastir ran towards the street. “Where are you, Akana?”

He had evoked a seekersphere. It is developed by means of a strand of hair from the object it would search for and could find Akana. Sidastir had taken a lock of hair after the incident when they first arrived in case something similar would occur again. He had realized that it was a bit eerie to take a lock from his husband but at the moment he thank the gods for having done so.

The little sphere of light, which he had evoked, hovered back and forth as if it tried to detect Akana’s scent. Sidastir followed anxiously and could only hope it was not too late. He suddenly heard screams. He first had not intended to attach any importance to the screams and continued to regard the sphere. But then the sphere flew with immense speed towards the shouts and Sidastir could feel a lump shaping itself in his stomach.

With the heart in his mouth, he rushed towards the shouts. People ran in the opposite direction and Sidastir had to wade through the crowd. He caught sight of a familiar face.

“Magnus, what happened?”

Magnus turned his face toward him and Sidastir could see that he was pale. Sidastir ran up and followed Magnus gaze toward the alley and stopped abruptly in front of the alley.

The scene was more than just terrifying. It was dangerously unreal. Akana stood swaying against a stone wall and with blood flowing from the arms. Three bodies lay around him. One of them, Zhan, tried to crawl away from Akana with terrified eyes. The white fire burned around them, and all three men had serious burns. Akana’s hands flamed with the white fire that danced around him like snowflakes.

Sidastir went closer and Zhan caught hold of his leg. He stared up at Sidastir who glared back with disgust over this frail creature. Sidastir could see him shape the word demon before he kicked away Zhan and continued closer to Akana whose face was hidden behind his long white hair. He could hear Magnus dragging away the three men from the scene.

Sidastir unleashed a frostgale in hope of extinguishing the white flames but as he already suspected it was futile. This was the magical fire, not an ordinary fire.

“Akana? Are you injured?” Sidastir said and tried to lift up Akana’s face with his hand.

Suddenly he felt a hard push across his chest, and he went down. Before he could react, Akana straddled him. Two glowing eyes in silver, white light looked down upon him.

“I'm condolences but Akana is not present at the moment.”

Sidastir was able to perceive the sound of Akanas voice, but it could be heard over a multitude of voices that all spoke at once. This was undoubtedly another creature.

His consort’s face was shaped in a dangerous and ravenous smile. Sidastir could feel hands caressing his chest as if to inspect him. The feeling was far from pleasant and Sidastir released his ice powers.

The ground beneath them immediately froze and a light blue aura was formed around his body as if to protect him. The creature who straddled him merely laughed. His powers had no effect whatsoever on this creature just as they had not affected Akana.

“Mm, you have flavorful mana. It has the taste of sweet fruit.”

The creature licked Sidastir lips and Sidastir made a grimace in disgust and tried to wiggle himself free, but the creature was holding him down with inhuman strength. Sidastir also noticed that his own aura had vanished. This creature devoured mana.

“What is it? are you not used to being the bottom?” the creature asked and Sidastir hissed out a curse.

He released his powers again. A shockwave lashed out like ripples on the water in the alley, but the creature just seemed more ecstatic about the meal and brought his fingers across his lips as if he tasted something delicious.

“You taste like cold apples. No wonder Akana is so fond of you,” said the creature with a sigh.

Sidastir seized the creature and drew it menacingly closer to him, but the creature merely seemed amused of Sidastir sudden dominant gesture.

“Where is Akana?” Sidastir snarled and he could feel his rage luring out his magic again.

No other living creature could now reside the alley without freezing into ice. Sidastir could hear how people hauled themselves away from the alley towards safety while Magnus' voice shouted at him from a distance.

“He's up here,” said the creature and pointed to his head.

“Has Akana become possessed?” thought Sidastir but showed no emotion over the face.

“Give me my husband back,” he snapped.

“I think not. I still have some things to take care of,” said the creature and his eye was moving towards the opening of the alley.

Sidastir seized the creature's face and forced the intruder to look him in the eyes. "Did it sound like a request? I command you to give me Akana back!"

Sidastir met the eyes without looking away.

“I'm starting to become jealous of Akana. Why such love for the half-finished product? I can give you so much more than what he can,” the creature took a look on Sidastirs's face before he burst into laughter.

“You look as if you've eaten something sour.”

The laughter died away and the creature sighed. “I hate sour things. I prefer sweet things ... Back to the darkness, I suppose.”

The creature's last words sounded almost sad but Sidastir had few feelings for the creature as he saw it fade away from his beloved consort’s face.

Akana’s eyes stopped to glow in the same hue as the moon and became dark as the night. Sidastir could feel Akanas's body start to tremble and eyes ran wild on their surroundings.