Swallowing, Cormal admitted, “I had Perian abducted and inadvertently put him somewhere where he was attacked and nearly killed. Brannal found him just in time and brought him right back to the castle—so I told everyone he was a carnalion and had him thrown in the dungeon.”
Trill stared at all of them with wide-eyed astonishment.
Perian started talking again, explaining how the doctor had helped them realize that rather than hurting anyone, Perian had actually been the one responsible for making the Princess feel better—which had finally made him realize that he hadn’t been giving her energy, he’d been giving it to Prince Kinan.
“Renny convinced everyone that Kee was real by explaining how Kinan had had a crush on Cormal forever.”
Cormal couldn’t help but laugh even as Kinan mock-glared at Perian.
Perian explained how the Queen had agreed to let him try to help, and he glossed over most of the rest of the details, once again being more kind to Cormal than he deserved. But it was also clear this was difficult for him, and there was no need to make the recollection worse.
“That’s when the doctor explained how I’d kept Molun from dying, so I knew that I’d already healed someone who was hurting.”
“Healed a body that was hurting,” Trill corrected.
Perian nodded, looking puzzled by the distinction.
Trill huffed. “You don’t know how often I’ve wished to heal other hurts, but I’ve never been able to. I don’t know exactly what happened to the Prince, but it’s obvious he’s not actually here in body. You healedhis energy.”
Perian shrugged. “I didn’t know any better, I guess. I poured everything that I had into him. I tried to think of him as whole and happy and healthy. I thought about what I wanted him and Renny to be able to do in the future. I pushed and pushed and pushed as hard as I could.”
Until, as Brannal then explained, although Kinan had become visible, Perian wouldn’t stop. When it was obvious it was hurting Perian, Brannal had put up a shield between them.
“Perian collapsed, and it was chaos until we realized that he was alive but unresponsive, and while we could see and hear Kinan, he was intangible.”
“And then it was me again, being a disaster,” Cormal admitted with a sigh. “I still thought of Perian as a danger who had to be removed from the castle. And since Brannal was basically camped out at his bedside, I faked a report of a bad enough nightmare and wraith attack that Brannal would have to go deal with it. He took Arvus and Delana with him, and while they were gone, once Perian was awake, the Queen and I banished him here—while implying that Brannal and everyone else wanted him gone because a carnalion couldn’t be involved with a Mage Warrior, let alone Summus.”
Trill winced.
“Exactly,” Cormal said with a grimace of his own. “Which is why Molun, Arvus, and Kinan rushed out here to try to make sure that Brannal didn’t simply kill me as soon as he saw me.”
It was sort of cathartic to get everything out in the open, but it certainly didn’t show him in a good light.
Brannal looked at Trill. “When I got back and they presented me with that ultimatum, I simply resigned and came after Perian.”
Trill smiled at him. “That’s so sweet.”
Cormal sighed. “And I wound up with a job that I didn’t actually want, having left everyone to assume that I’d connived to get the position. I was miserable and angry—and still blaming everything on Perian—until Kinan took pity on me. I shared the whole stupid story with him, and instead of declaring that I was the dumbest human on the planet, he forgave me.”
“Well, youcanbe kind of dumb,” Kinan said with a smirk. “Are those two things mutually exclusive?”
Cormal huffed a laugh and leaned into the other man, making their shoulders overlap for a second.
“All right.” Trill nodded, a considering look on his face. “I’m definitely not an expert on any of this. But the fact that there were wraiths in the room and wraiths pull energy out of people, and somehow the Prince ended up with all his energy out of his body shortly before all of the wraiths were destroyed… I don’t know if it makes sense, exactly, but if I were trying to conjure up a way where something like this could happen, I feel like that has at least some of the pieces that could fit.”
The others were nodding along. Cormal supposed that did seem sort of plausible. If the wraiths had somehow pulled out all of Kinan’s energy, but then Brannal had thrown up a shield that separated Kinan from them at that crucial moment before they could consume it… It seemed wildly improbable… but better than any other theory they had.
“We can try to give the Prince more energy, but—” Trill trailed off, looking uncertain.
Carefully toneless, Kinan said, “You don’t think it’s going to work.”
“I don’t think it’s going to give you a body again,” Trill admitted apologetically, his hands twisting together in his lap until Molun and Arvus each took one, smoothing their hands over his skin until he relaxed a little. “But like I said, I’m not an expert at all! I’m making my best guesses.” He cleared his throat. “To be perfectly honest, I have another concern. Two other concerns.”
Cormal could feel himself getting tenser, though he tried not to show it.
Trill admitted, “I’m still not sure what’skeepingyou here. I would have expected your energy to dissipate. That’s what normally happens. It’s consumed by someone who can consume it, or it dissipates back into the world. But you’re… just here. All energy, but… cohesive energy. Energy that’s making ayou, all person-like, but without a body. I’m not sure, but I think you mightneedpeople like me or Perian to keep giving you energy periodically so that you stay… together.”
“Happy to do it!” Perian offered immediately.
