Cinder flapped the leather patch, trying to get the rest of the dust off. Brushing it against his jeans, he finally wiped enough of the grime off to see it clearly. Engraved in the leather was the pentacle star, the coin in its center and blooming from the middle of the coin, the rose. He stared at it, mouth growing dry as his gaze followed every curve of the symbol. 

"Did you find what you wanted?" Kydyn asked, his voice coming up from behind Cinder. 

Cinder didn't turn. He hardly heard the warlock to begin with. The words didn't register and as he lingered on examining the leather patch, he felt the familiar rippling pulse of his magic. It was almost the same as when he'd star gazed, but slightly altered. Instead of the heavens above seemingly sucking him in, he sort of fell into the visions that flooded his mind. A weightless sensation took over. 

His father, who he couldn't clearly see was standing in the living room. The fire was burning, crackling loudly as it cast shadows all across the room. His mother was turned just enough for Cinder to see her. Bright green eyes were narrowed in anger, and a nasty frown painted her pretty face. They were arguing. About what, Cinder wasn't sure. All he knew was that it wasn't a good conversation. That they were mad at each other and he didn't like it. The natural feelings of a child who hated when their parents fought. He didn't understand it.

The tall, dark haired man with his back to the door waved something in his hand and his mother snapped something in return, pointing at the leather patch as if it was the cause of every bad thing in the whole world. For a moment, Cinder just stared at the green patch, the symbol etched on it not even tangible. To him it was only lines on a circle. 

The vision changed, sweeping him into darkness and down a long hallway that never seemed to end. Turning left, a door swung open, but Cinder never went into the room fully. Instead, he peeked in from the hallway, watching his father's back as he spoke to someone. The long robes reminded him of the old council men that walked around at the Capitol clothed like that. As his father moved a little to the side, he caught sight of a short beard, a face that wasn't as wrinkled with time, and warm brown eyes that were very familiar. 

What they were talking about was nothing but droned noise. Muffled sound that had no clear words to it. No matter how hard he strained to make it out, he couldn't understand the fuzzy wash of voices. As he leaned in further to the room, noise assaulted his ears. He flinched at the sound, but more from the heat that he could feel burning his skin. Fire crackled, and Cinder was swept into the memory of the flames that tore apart his house and family. 

He was upstairs that time. His father shouting at someone, the argument didn't last long as an explosion from some part of the house drowned out everything else. Cinder's father rushed down the hall, sweeping Cinder into his grip and hurrying down the stairs. Put near the doorway, he was told to wait while his father went to get his mother. The flames were sparking and spreading from the living room, licking at the walls and creeping up into the second floor. A loud crashing sound filled the room and Cinder flinched. Looking to the other side, a bottle smashed against the wall from the window it had been hurled through and an explosion rained hot liquid all through the room. It splattered the wood and furniture, setting it all ablaze.

"Cinder!" 

At first, he thought it to be his mother's voice. He whimpered and squirmed, unsure if he should leave the corner he'd been put in or not. When his name was shouted again, it had a deeper tone. Like a man was yelling at him. He felt his body being shaken hard enough to snap his head back and forth. Groaning, he pulled himself out of what felt like a dream, and blinked several times to clear his vision. Reaching up, he pressed a hand to his throbbing forehead.

"Ah, fuck..."

"Cinder!" Kydyn's Irish was slipping through again.

"Stop. Yelling at me," Cinder complained, moaning as the loud noise from the warlock was increasing the pain of his headache. 

"Then snap out of it! What the hell do you think you're doing? You can't just slip into... whatever the hell that was! What did you just do?"

Did the warlock sound worried, or was that just Cinder's delusional mind making things up again? "I didn't do anything. I just was looking at the patch."

"Yeah, then you collapsed on me like a fucking rag doll! Moaning, flinching like you were in pain. I swear to god, I should have just let you hit the floor instead," Kydyn snarled in anger. A kind of anger Cinder wasn't used to hearing from him.

"I wasn't in pain," Cinder answered but he didn't sound too convinced of it himself. He realized then that Kydyn was holding him still, his back propped up against the warlocks raised leg as he knelt on the stone floor. 

"Liar. Oh just shut up. We're leaving. You have what you wanted, and I'm not sticking around to wait for this piece of shit house to cave in on us. I've had enough scares for one day."

Cinder scoffed at him. "Scares? Yeah right. Nothing scares you."

"You'd be amazed," Kydyn retorted, almost sounding put out, but he covered it well as he got up and hauled Cinder to his feet whether he was ready for it or not. "Get your ass moving, don't make me say it twice."

Cinder did as he was told, but not without shooting the man a nasty look before looking for a way out of the basement. It took longer to find the staircase then it had to find what he'd been looking for. Of course, buried under furniture that looked to be centuries old, it would make anything hard to find. With Kydyn's help, they managed to clear a path through the random crap and get to the staircase that led up into the house. 

"What happened?" Jika asked as they emerged from a side door that had looked to be a part of the charred wall. 

"Dumbass over here decided it was a good idea to star gaze."

"Star gaze? That's impossible unless he's looking at the stars, Kydyn."

"It's what I saw."

"I didn't star gaze," Cinder huffed. "I don't know what it was. Something similar to when Odain and the council broke the seal mom put on me."

"So a memory," Lyn said. He stretched, putting his arms behind his head as he gazed at Cinder with a small frown tugging at the corners of his lips. "You seem to have a lot of locked up memories and feelings. I'd be a little more worried about it if I were you."

"Well, if someone would hurry up and find that damned enchanter, I bet we wouldn't be having this problem," Kydyn said, leveling an accusing glare at Lyn.

He held his hands up high over his head. "Look man. It's a hell of a lot harder than it looks. The bastard is really good at hiding his tracks, okay? I'll find him! Just give me some time, shit."

"Can we argue about this inside the car instead of in here? I would prefer not to dig myself and everyone else out of a collapsed building," Jika said and tugged at Lyn's arm to get him to head back through the front door. Cinder rolled his eyes and followed after, the leather patch still held in his hand. He pocketed it, fingering the engraving as he stepped over the ruined door and down into the grass of the front lawn. 

They piled into the car again and Jika got them headed back to the city. It was quiet at first before Lyn leaned over and got close to Cinder, startling him at the proximity. "Can I see it? The thing you were looking for? You found it, right?"

"Yeah," Cinder answered slowly and pulled out the leather patch from his jacket pocket. Handing it over to the enchanter, he watched as Lyn rubbed his fingers over it much like Cinder had been doing. Lyn's lips pulled down as he narrowed his eyes at the leather. 

"Definitely belongs to the rebels. That symbol is universal by now. Why would this be in your parent's house?"

"Don't know." Cinder shrugged as Lyn handed it back to him. He eyed it as he continued. "There were quite a few down there too. I hate to think of it, but my parent's might have been a part of it somehow. Or maybe they were just helping the council hunt down the rebels."

"If your father worked for the council, then hunting the rebels would be far more plausible than being with them," Jika said.

"Doesn't quite explain why your parents had all of those patches though. You're not secretly working for them are you?" Lyn asked, prodding at Cinder's side with his finger. 

"No," Cinder snapped and slapped Lyn's hand away. "Why the hell would I? They're the ones who strapped me to an altar and tried to make me their fucking war weapon. I don't think so."

"Any other brilliant ideas?" Kydyn asked from the passenger seat.

Cinder paused for a moment. He fidgeted in the back seat because his first initial answer to Kydyn's question wasn't something the warlock was going to enjoy, nor agree to. But Odain had answered all of his questions before. Not to mention he was pretty sure he'd seen the old man talking to his father in one of the memories that had flooded his mind.

"You're going to hate this—"

"Yeah. You're right. I'm going to fucking despise it," Kydyn interrupted.

"I haven't even said what it is!"

"You don't have to. When you open with a statement like that, I know exactly what's going to come out of your pretty mouth."

"Yeah? And what's that?"

"You want to see Odain about this."

Cinder had to admit that Kydyn was good at predicting what he was going to say. His jaw tightened as he pressed his lips together in a tight line. He glared at the back of the warlock's head. Kydyn didn't turn around. Cinder was used to it though. Jika leaned off to the side, resting his arm on the center console as he drove down the street, hitting the highway so he could get into downtown faster. 

"So, are we going to the Capitol or not?"

"Yes," Cinder answered and Kydyn made a disgusted sound. 

"Whatever. It's not going to make much a difference if we do or don't. You better make it quick, or I swear I'm going to destroy that fucking place."

"Don't threaten the council, Kydyn. That never ends well," Lyn chided though it was soft and with no real anger behind it to drive it home. 

"It could end well if everyone would let me do what I want."

"I'll go in and talk to him. The rest of you can just stay out in the car. Okay?" Cinder said, rolling his eyes from the back seat. There was no answer to that other than Jika looking in the rearview mirror to make eye contact with him. Silence fell in the car and Cinder enjoyed it all the way back into town. 

"I really should go in with you," Kydyn said as he leaned against the hood of the car, arms crossed and giving the Capitol building a wry glare. 

"Honestly. I'm not a kid. I'm just going to ask him about this and that's it. I'll be right back." Cinder waved the leather patch at Kydyn who slapped at his hand to get it out of his face. It might have been amusing, the dejected look on the warlock's face, but Cinder wasn't in the mood. Kydyn had been the epitome of an asshole for weeks on end and it was really starting to grate on his nerves. 

"We'll be right here," Jika said and also took a spot against the hood to lean on. Lyn was stretching out across the trunk of the car, staring up at the gray clouds that were slowly rolling in over the city. Cinder turned on his heel and headed up to the huge building. Unlike the many times before, he didn't feel like a hundred pairs of eyes were staring at him as he climbed the steps. Slipping inside, he spotted the red haired woman at the desk and approached her. 

"Odain again?" she asked, giving Cinder a frown as she looked up briefly. 

"Y-yeah," he answered, nerves making him fidget as he watched her pound away at her keyboard. 

"You know where he's at. Unless you need something else." It wasn't really a question and her annoyance with him was very clear. 

Nodding, Cinder skirted around her large podium in the middle of the lobby area and headed up the stairs to the second floor of the council building. He made his way quickly down the hall, finding Odain's office near the far end of the huge wing on the left side of the building. He knocked twice on the door and waited. 

"Come in."

Cinder pushed the ornate wood open and stepped into the dimly lit office. "Odain. I'm sorry I haven't seen you in a while."

"It's all right. You're busy getting control over your magic. It's essential you do that rather than come and spend time with a boring old man," he said and smiled as he gestured to the chair across from him. 

Cinder offered his own smile as he took the seat. "I'm getting better at it. Well, Jika says I'm good with healing and white magic. Kydyn doesn't think so, but that's just him."

"Kydyn means well."

"He's an ass."

"Be nice, Cinder. He means well. People all have their own way of showing they care. Kydyn is no different. Perhaps a little rough on the edges but that's just how he is."

Cinder frowned as he dropped his gaze from Odain's to stare at his lavishly painted desk. He was silent for a while, but Odain didn't push him. He always waited. He had the kind of patience that Cinder wished most people possessed. Chewing on his lip, Cinder finally brought his hands up with the leather patch between them. Setting it on the desk, he pushed it toward Odain.

"I found this. At my old house. It was in the basement. I wanted to know why my father had it. The symbol. It belongs to the rebels too."

Odain took it and held it up near one of the candles burning on his desk. Moving it in slow circles, he examined it for a long time before he set it back down and tapped a finger on it. "That is a very good question, Cinder. I'm sorry, but it is one of the few questions that I don't have an answer to. Your father was a very particular man. He had his fair share of secrets as did most of the old council back then."

"Is there anyone left from the old council that could tell me what he was doing with this?"

Odain shook his head, lips pursed together as he stared down at the patch. His finger traced over the embellished leather. "No. Unfortunately not. Many of them were already far too old to continue serving when your father was sworn in. They passed halfway through his term, and the rest followed a handful of years ago."

Damn, Cinder thought sourly. He tangled his fingers together and squeezed tightly. He'd been hoping for something. Anything to help figure out more about his parents and why they were killed. 

"There's really nothing left, then is there."

"I'm sorry, Cinder. I wish I could do more. If I were to take a guess, though. I would say he had this in his possession due to hunting the rebels. They have been around for a long time, after all. The council has always been their enemy for one reason or another. Perhaps he was trying to figure out what the symbol meant, or just had it on hand so he knew what to look for. There are many possibilities."

"Yeah. That sounds about right," Cinder agreed as he leaned forward to retrieve the patch.

"Would you mind if I held onto this? You said it belongs to the rebels. It would help us greatly to have their insignia."

"I.... Sure. I don't really need it. Thanks, Odain. I'll come again if I have any more questions." Cinder pushed up out of the chair as Odain twisted the leather between his fingers again. Heading for the door, he paused. He wanted to ask Odain about the memory he saw with Odain speaking to his father, but he felt his stomach twist and the idea was brushed aside quickly.

"Have a safe trip home, Cinder. We'll talk again soon, I hope."

"Yeah." Cinder's answer was soft. Then he was out the door and heading back to the courtyard where the others were waiting for him.