Brannal swallowed thickly.
It was Perian who resumed the explanation. “No one else could see or hear Kinan, but rather than his energy dissolving when he died, it somehow… separated from his body. And it attached itself to Renny. She could still see and hear him, though she couldn’t touch him. While neither of them knew it, she was sustaining him. He couldn’t get very far away from her, and she was often drained and ill—because as it turned out, she was sustaining two people when she only had enough energy for one.” He smiled kindly at Kinan, who was rigid at Cormal’s side. “Kinan would never have willingly hurt his sister, but Renny is so glad that he stayed with her. She said she’d do it all over again to get to keep Kee.”
Kinan sucked in a stuttered breath. “She says that a lot.”
Cormal squished even closer, so that he and Kinan were slightly overlapped. He couldn’t leave Kinan alone right now. Kinan flashed him a small smile.
Perian went on to explain how he’d met Renny when he first came to the castle, and he’d spent time with her basically every day. She’d kept growing stronger, without anyone realizing why, because Perian was inadvertently providing energy to Kinan.
“And eventually, he was even able to leave her side and come with me!” Perian exclaimed. “He went away for a few days of training, and I didn’t even know that he came with me.”
Trill asked, “Did it feel the same, being with him as being with your sister?”
Kinan tilted his head back and forth. “I think so? I mean, Perian always felt different, though I couldn’t figure out why back then. When Renny told him the truth about me, he actually treated me like a person, like he believed her, even when there was no reason to.”
“I believed that she believed,” Perian said with a smile.
Kinan smiled back and added, “So much felt different about that time. Renny seemed to be feeling better, someone else was treating me like I actually existed… and then I suddenly realized that I hadn’t felt that terrible tug back to Renny that used to happen if I got more than a dozen or so feet away from her. I experimented and found that I was able to do a few short walks through the castle, but sometimes I got pulled back quickly. Eventually, I realized that I needed to be near RennyorPerian, although even then, I could be further from them than I ever had been before. I decided I needed to see if I could actually go with Perian and leave Renny behind.”
Perian waggled a finger at him, trying and failing to look really severe. “Which, let me point out, could have been a disaster if it didn’t work!”
Kinan did look sheepish, and Cormal forbore from scolding him more only because he knew how restricted Kinan had been. And hehadcome out of it all right. But the thought of what could have gone wrong, and no one would even have known he was there—
It made a shiver race up Cormal’s spine.
Kinan shrugged. “I felt like I had to try. Renny saw that I was able to mount up behind you, and she saw us ride off. If she’d seen me fall off or get stopped not far away from the castle, she would have made sure I could get back to her.”
Perian opened his mouth, no doubt to point out all the ways that could still have gone wrong, but after a moment, he closed it again.
“You couldn’t communicate with him?” Trill clarified.
Perian shook his head. “I couldn’t see him, couldn’t hear him, and had no idea he was there. Which, let me just point out, if you heard anything you shouldn’t have, that’s all your own fault!”
Kinan looked amused. “I stayed out of your tent, don’t worry. I spent the night in the cave.”
Perian huffed a breath. Then he looked more serious. “Our stay unfortunately ended with the demon attack that hurt Molun.”
Trill frowned. “You said it was lesser demons?”
They all nodded.
“There were nightmares and wraiths as well,” Brannal added. “Thankfully, they didn’t all converge on Molun, Nisal, and Perian. The rest of us were separated from them when the lesser demon attacked Molun. Perian got him back to the castle through sheer force of will.”
Perian gave a ghost of a smile, but it was clear that these memories were hard for him. He looked at Trill.
“I didn’t know that I could heal anyone. I just told Molun that he was going to be fine and he couldn’t die—and hedidn’t. It wasn’t until much later that the doctor told me that there was no way he should have lived through it. But I didn’t really know what I was doing, so I probably didn’t do a very good job. Sorry.”
Molun stood up to go over and give Perian a huge hug. “You did the best job. You don’t ever have to apologize for saving my life. In fact, please don’t. People might take it the wrong way and think you don’t love me or something.”
Perian hugged him back hard.
Cormal had never really let himself think about how amazing that had been, even once the doctor had revealed what Perianhad done. Perian had been acting purely on instinct and caring and stubbornness, and he’d saved Molun’s life.
“You did a fantastic job,” Trill reassured the man.
With a sigh, Cormal took up the narrative. “And this is the point at which I screw everything up.”
He explained how he’d overheard Brannal telling Arvus that they needed to jerk off, confirming what Cormal had begun to suspect, that Perian was a carnalion, and making him realize he needed to act immediately, because here was another Summus letting a demon into the castle and thinking he had everything under control.
