"You were gone a while," Jika said as Kydyn shoved open the door. Cinder followed behind him, closing it gently instead of letting the warlock do it. He would have slammed it shut. The drive back had been precarious with Kydyn's mood increasingly foul. 

"About damn time he star gazed. But then the rebels decided it was the perfect time to try to kill him," Kydyn snapped in return. 

Cinder groaned as he walked past Kydyn and took a seat on the couch. Leaning back, he draped his arm over the edge of the arm and let the pillows support his weary body. Being exhausted didn't help in dealing with Kydyn's horrible mood. The man could turn the happiest moment into something disgusting. Cinder was secretly calling it Kydyn's personal talent. He was exceptionally good at it. 

"Coffee?" Lyn was sitting down next to Cinder and offered him a hot cup of the pitch black liquid. Nodding, Cinder took it and cradled it between his hands. Blowing on it, he lifted his eyes from the cups dark depths to watch Kydyn pace the floor. It wasn't unusual for the warlock to be so agitated, but it was starting to irritate Cinder. 

"If they want to kill me instead of use me, why did they wait so long? I've been here for months," Cinder asked after he took a sip from the mug. 

"Does it really matter? They're desperate because now you're approaching white magic. You'll probably tip into it in a few days. You're easier to sway if you're neutral. Since they can't turn you black, they'd rather kill you than let anyone else have you. Didn't I already say that?" Kydyn threw off his question without a second thought.

"They must have thought they could get the jump on Kydyn," Lyn said, ignoring the warlock's dirty looks that were shot at him and Cinder. "Obviously they didn't, but he's right. They're going to get desperate soon. You've made a lot of progress in the past few months. And as to why they haven't tried all too much, you can thank me for that." Lyn pointed at himself with his thumb, a giant grin on his face. 

"Lyn's been keeping the house wrapped in illusion. Taxing at times, but he's done a great job keeping us hidden," Jika said as he set a plate of snack food on the table and took his seat across from everyone else. 

Cinder watched as Lyn's face turned a pale pink color. He kept his smirk though, but refused to look at Jika. "So yeah, there you have it. Kept all our asses in one piece. Great right? Totally confuses those bastards as to where we are or if we're even in the city. I guess the only other thing is why they've never attacked you two when you're out fucking around in the fields outside the city."

Kydyn snickered at Lyn's use of words. "Oh he wishes we were fucking. He'd enjoy it more than what I do to him already."

"Just. Shut up!" Cinder groaned and ducked his head down behind the cup.

"Want to tell them what you saw star gazing?"

"Hell no!"

"Oh now I'm curious, do tell," Lyn pressed, leaning forward as he stared at Cinder. Cinder shot Kydyn a dark glare before he took another deep swig of his coffee. It burned going down, but it helped ease the stress. 

"Fuck," Cinder hissed under his breath. Leaning forward, he set the cup down on the short table between the couches and loveseat where Jika was seated. "I saw a couple of things. The first was the Capitol building in the middle of the night. I was starting to go toward it but then all these shadows came up and scared the hell out of me. One of them said they could see me. I ran away and ended up in Kydyn's room for some god awful reason–"

"That's not what you said earlier," Kydyn interrupted with a grin.

Cinder raised his hand and flipped him off without stopping his recount of the star gaze for the second time that morning. "Nothing of importance there, and then it changed again to me being tied down to a damn rock again. I was attacked by this weird fiery chick and it was awful. It felt the same as it did when those weirdo's had me locked in a cellar. Trying to push me into black magic. The feeling was pure evil. And that's it."

"He forgot to mention that he was in my bed—"

"Can it, Kydyn," Cinder ordered, cutting him off before he could say much more. The warlock's grin faltered for just a moment into anger and Cinder swallowed dryly. "That's all I saw and apparently this shit is supposed to happen at some point in time?"

"Yes," Jika answered, eyeing Kydyn with a disapproving frown. Rolling his eyes after a moment, he focused on Cinder. "It is. Star gazing is one of the more important parts of being a magus. It's why you're so prized. You get snippets of the future given to you. You're basically walking through time but you can only see so much and you can only go so far. With practice you'll be able to see more and perhaps have clearer star gazes, but for the moment that'll do."

"Sounds like the Capitol has some nasty shit going on," Lyn said. 

"Yeah. Feels off, doesn't it."

"Maybe we should go pay them a visit," Kydyn offered, the cold tone saying that he wanted to do more than just go say hi. 

Cinder frowned at him. "No. Let's not."

"And your reason is?" Kydyn prompted, giving Cinder a dark look.

"I just don't think it's a good idea. I have something I want to find out anyway, first."

"Well, well. What a change. You were all for hitting up the Capitol whenever you wanted before. Why don't you tell me what you and Odain have been doing lately? Been getting comfy with the old pervert?"

"What? Hell no! I had questions and he answered them for me. Not like you would know anything about what I wanted to know."

"Try me."

"My parent's asshole. You didn't know them. Odain did and I wanted to know a little bit about them since they're dead! And I can't remember shit! So I went and talked to him. So what? He told me what I wanted to know and that's it."

"Just talked, hu? What'd he tell you about your parents?" Kydyn moved from behind the other couch and stood directly in front of Cinder. His hand was on his hip, and the angry look wasn't going away any time soon as he glared. Kydyn was getting close to letting his magic take over and using it to intimidate Cinder like always.

"Told me they had money. We were rich and the council used to regard my father rather highly. I guess he was a part of the council for a while. Mom was a druid. Worked in the medical wards for our society and for the humans."

"Pretty common for a druid. I'm guessing Odain knew about her through your father," Jika commented. "What was your father?"

"A warlock."

"Interesting," Kydyn said. "What else. Come on, spill it before I make you. I want to know every little detail."

"That's all I know. That's everything Odain told me," Cinder replied, a hard edge to his answer. 

"Mind telling me why you didn't share with us?"

"It wasn't important and they're my parents, Kydyn. Why the hell should that involve you? I got what I wanted and I haven't seen Odain in a long time since then."

"If I find out you're lying to me, rich boy, I'm going to flay your ass. Got it?"

"Whatever. My parents are long dead; it doesn't matter if you know anything or not. It's not going to kill us."

"So, what is it that you wanted to go looking for," Jika asked, turning the conversation back from where it had deviated. 

"The rebels who attacked us earlier, their insignia.... I feel like I've seen it before. I want to go see my old house." Cinder fidgeted as he answered. His eyes dropped to stare at his hands in his lap. Glaring, he tried to reason out why exactly he wanted to go then instead of wanting to go when he found out about his parent's death, when the memory had been unlocked for him during the unsealing ceremony.

"And your house has the answer to this? If I remember correctly, you said there was a fire. It probably burnt down," Kydyn said, sounding skeptical of Cinder's choice. 

"Just. Can we go, please? I can't shake this feeling."

"I have a bad feeling about it," Lyn said. He had his arms crossed over his chest as he watched Cinder. "Like someone's messing with us."

"How so?" Jika asked.

"His memory gets sealed away along with his power. He doesn't have any idea about his parents until after the ceremony at the Capitol. He has no desire to seek out his parents or the house he used to live in, or find anything else out about it afterwards. Instead he keeps going to the Capitol. They're attacked today, months later, and all the sudden he wants to go look at shit? Don't tell me that doesn't give you a bad taste either, Jika."

"Sound's iffy to me too. Which is why we should go to the Capitol instead." Kydyn said, glaring at Cinder who completely ignored him.

"Fine. You wanna go to the Capitol? Go right ahead. I'm going to my parent's house."

"Yeah? And how are you going to get there?"

"Walk," Cinder answered and got up off the couch to do just that. He pushed past Kydyn but only got a few steps away from him before fingers curled around his forearm and held him in place so he couldn't go anywhere. 

"I don't think so."

"Let go, Kydyn. I'm going and you're not stopping me."

"Didn't say I was stopping you. Just said you're not walking. And you sure as hell ain't going alone."

"Neither of you have slept. Could you at least get some sleep before you both go waltzing around like idiots? As I've said a thousand times before, I'm not a fucking miracle worker. Get your asses in bed. We'll all go later today." Hearing Jika order everyone around wasn't new for Cinder. It wasn't the first time and he knew it wouldn't be the last. It just depended on who listened to him and who didn't. Yanking his arm out of Kydyn's hold, he brushed off his jacket and rolled his eyes. 

"Fine," he muttered and headed for the hallway where his room was. 

Cinder was thankful that Jika was driving. Though he'd gotten used to Kydyn's reckless style, the ride was a thousand times smoother with the druid behind the wheel instead. He rested his head against the door in the backseat, Lyn opposite of him with Kydyn and Jika in the front. Cinder's memories were foggy, so telling them where to go to get to his house was near impossible. But, with the information that his father had worked for the council, it was easy to assume that they had lived within the city borders. 

The hard part was finding an old mansion like house with two stories. That ended up being nearly every house in the richer side of town. Tempers were rising in the car the longer they had to search. Outside of downtown, the neighborhoods started to get older, the houses speaking of more Victorian styles than the newer modern homes in town. They were also spaced out farther, the street growing longer with each home having more property than the ones before it.

They must have been a good hour or so from downtown, two from the house they lived in which was provided by the Capitol. Cinder was beginning to wonder if what Odain had told him was true. As they passed each house, he stared at them, trying to pull something from each one to jog his memory. It was difficult and in the end he gave up with a sigh. Letting his forehead hit the window, he groaned and rubbed at the back of his neck. 

"Just turn around, Jika. It's not here."

"We'll go a little farther, there are more houses," Jika answered, he was obviously determined to find it.

Cinder, however, was not. "No. If we haven't seen it yet, than my parents didn't live here."

"Which would make Odain a liar," Kydyn snarled from the front seat. 

"Yeah, I guess it would." Cinder muttered the answer, certain no one would hear him. 

"There! That one?" Lyn all but bounced in the back seat, flying forward from his slouched position and pointing at something. He tapped the window before he reached over and pulled on Cinder's shoulder, forcing him to look. It was a beautiful house from the side, but as they pulled up, it was clear that the Victorian home had caught fire at one point. The front was charred so badly it wasn't recognizable for Cinder. The walls had crumbled, showing the inside of the house to be in much the same state.

"Yeah.... That's it," Cinder breathed.

"Good, let's get this over with and get back," Kydyn said and was the first one out of the car the moment Jika had parked it against the sidewalk. 

As they approached the house, Cinder looked around, noting the pieces of wood that had rotted over the years, left littering the front yard from the explosion. It seemed like no one wasted the time on cleaning it up. Like old abandoned houses that no one cared about in a ghetto neighborhood. It would simply fall apart as the years rolled by. As the others walked around the house, inspecting it, Cinder walked up to the front door and peaked in, leaning on the beam to his left to balance himself as he looked inside the burned down house. 

His heart was pounding hard as he searched, but he didn't see what he thought he would. The fire had to have been put out by the fire department. For some reason Cinder expected to see the bodies of the people who had died in the home, but he didn't. Of course not, they would have been removed. At least that much would have been done for them. Stepping over the burned remains of the front door that was knee high, he entered the house and immediately felt unsure of its stability. The floor beneath his shoes creaked with is weight, wood and bits of old glass scrapping as he walked into the parlor. 

The giant staircase leading to the second story might have been beautiful at one point, but it was a ruin then. Pictures that had remained on the walls somehow were charred black, the papers beneath the glass melted and fused to the frames. Cinder started with the living room to his right, walking slowly, measuring his steps carefully and praying that floor beneath him wouldn't give out. He couldn't remember if there was a basement or not, and he didn't want to find out the hard way. 

The couches that might have been ornate were crumbled in bits of ash as were the coffee table and dining table that stretched out in another room beyond the one Cinder was in. The fireplace seemed to be the only thing left standing in there. Jika peered through the wall from the outside and gave him a worried look. "Hey, be careful in there."

"Yeah," Cinder waved at him offhandedly. 

Turning away from the broken walls, he headed for the dining room. Peeking inside, he searched the floor first, making sure it was all intact before venturing forth. Once again, he was slow and careful. The chairs and table were rubble, little more than piles of soot. He could only imagine what it might have looked like when his parents were still alive. Cinder was sure he'd still be living in that house if they hadn't died. 

He recalled watching his father fall from the second floor, someone tangled up with him. It had been a struggle, there was no question there. His mother had been stabbed, too. Someone had set out to kill his family and they probably meant to kill him too. Unless they were after him because he was a magus. His first thought was the rebels. They had a grudge against the Capitol. His father worked for the council. It made sense they'd target his family. Especially if Cinder was a magus.

When he found nothing in there, he headed back to the parlor to go up the stairs. He made the landing and looked right and left. The halls on either side were still standing thankfully. It seemed the fire hadn't destroyed too much of the second floor. At least from what he could see. The pictures were a little less ruined, but still hard to distinguish even if he leaned in and rubbed at the ruined glass to try to see. The faces and bodies were melted into distortion. Shaking his head, Cinder clicked his tongue in annoyance and started down the hallway. He opened doors and peeked in, forgoing a couple of rooms as the floor was rotted through and he could see down below. 

Cinder wasn't entirely sure what he was searching for. All he knew was that he wanted to see his parent's house since he couldn't remember it at all. Despite his walking through it, he still couldn't feel anything from it. He was trying to chalk it up to the fact that it had been burnt so badly, but he knew that some part of him should feel at least a little familiar with the halls and rooms. Yet, nothing struck him. It had his stomach twisting with guilt and a bit of fear. Why was it so hard to remember? No. That wasn't the question. It was more like why there was no memory at all.

Cinder wet his dry lips and tried to keep the anxiety from taking over. Opening the next door in his search, he found the floor to be complete with no holes or other rotted spaces to suggest that it would crumble once he stepped inside. He eased into the room still, careful of how he shifted his weight. The house creaked horribly with each step he made and he couldn't get the feeling of danger to leave his mind. 

The room was large, burn marks running up the walls to the ceiling. The furniture was in better shape than the ones down stairs. Some pieces were little piles of ash, only a handful of solid wood shapes intact still. The bed was charred, the blankets flaking and he was certain if he touched it, the sheets would disintegrate into dust. As he was looking around the room, the house creaked again and he knew it wasn't him. Looking to the door, he felt his body tense up. Cinder wasn't sure who he thought was going to come through that door, but when it was just Kydyn, he relaxed a little bit. 

"What are you doing? This house isn't stable enough to go running around in, you moron!"

"Its fine," Cinder shot back. "I'm just looking, all right. I haven't fallen through anything, so give me a break." 

Shaking his head, Cinder turned and ignored Kydyn's low growl of anger. Where he'd been careful and cautious before, he wasn't right then. Walking to the other end of the room, he was headed to the nightstand near the bed. The floor made awful sounds under his feet. It wasn't until a solid snap hit the air that Cinder froze. Kydyn ran from the doorway, reaching Cinder just as the rotted wood beneath them crumbled. He felt Kydyn's arms wrapping around him as they fell. Cinder heard the warlock's chant under his breath right before they hit the floor. 

The air was knocked from his lungs, but the impact had been lessened somehow. Groaning, Kydyn lifted himself up off of Cinder. Both of them cough as ash kicked up and the remains of the room above toppled over them in a pile of dirt and rubble. Waving his hand in front of his face, Kydyn glared down at Cinder. 

"Damn it, that's what I meant!" He coughed after yelling at Cinder, so the edge that usually graced his angry, Irish accent was lessened.

"I was fine until you came in yelling at me," Cinder fought back. 

There might have been more arguing between them, but the floor underneath Cinder was starting to shift and he felt it. With a startled gasp, he jolted, hands sliding across the hard wood as if he could find a spot that wasn't going to give way. Kydyn cursed, in a couple different languages. He grabbed Cinder, pulling him up against him and rolled them over just as the floor cracked and split. A whole section crumbled, dropping both of them a second time. 

"Kydyn!"

The warlock didn't answer him as they hit another floor. Cool air wafted up around them, filtering out through the opening above. The question of a basement was answered as Cinder lay on top of Kydyn. Untangling himself from the warlock, he looked around before tapping Kydyn's chest.

"Are you all right?"

"Fucking peachy, move. You're heavy," Kydyn growled in response.

Cinder rolled his eyes and got off of him. "Yeah, you're fine." Cinder brushed himself off as he muttered that. Looking around, he groaned at the darkness. He wasn't very good at creating light, but at least he'd been practicing. Opening his hand, he used it as a focal point and steadied his breathing. As soon as it was calm, he quietly uttered the few simple words that Kydyn had taught him. There was a pulse throughout his body, a ripple that he was steadily getting used to. A ball of white light slowly peeked out from the palm of his hand. Pushing a little more energy into it, Cinder forced it into something brighter so that they could see the basement.

A dull throb took his attention for a mere moment and he rubbed at his hip. Wincing, he pulled his hand away and looked down. The side of Cinder's jeans were torn, but under the dust and dirt it was hard to tell if anything was wrong. It was likely just a bruise, so he ignored it and returned to searching the basement. Kydyn was walking around with his own light, but his was made of red fire instead of the white ball that Cinder had created.

"So what the hell were you looking for anyway?" Kydyn asked, his grumpy attitude only added to his thick accent.

"When I saw the insignia on that guy's clothes, I could have sworn I had seen it before. I just... I thought that I might have seen it here somewhere."

"Why would you think that?"

"Don't know. Just had a feeling I'd see it here somewhere." Cinder shrugged as he answered. "Feels like I've seen it before."

"That's a lot of 'feels'. Same thing as 'what ifs'. That kind of shit doesn't usually work out."

Cinder didn't respond. He knew going off of vague feelings wasn't the best idea, but he didn't have anything else. It was important. That much he knew. He had to know about the insignia. There was no question about that. As they walked around the huge basement, voices from the hole in the floor filtered down to them. Jika and Lyn had braved the rickety house. 

"Hey, you guys okay down there?" Lyn was yelling until Jika said something to him. 

"Yeah, we're fine. Pretty boy here thinks he's on to something," Kydyn answered.

Cinder bristled at the insult and shot the warlock a dark glare from across the room. "Could you not be a complete ass for one minute?"

"Not something I'm good at," Kydyn answered without skipping a beat. 

With a groan, Cinder resorted to ignoring him. He continued his search through the dirt and spider webs that had accumulated in the dank basement. Old furniture rotted in the corners, some of it too worn out to even touch without it falling apart. Cinder carefully worked his way through all of it. His searching paid off. Blowing at a desk that was covered in soot, the billowing cloud that lifted revealed a handful of patches laid out on the table. Cinder eyed them carefully before picking one of them up. 

"I knew it," he breathed.