When Norrix awoke, he was in his bed, safely tucked, and there was a head on his chest. He opened his eyes gingerly, to see Atha sleeping on top of him.

The vampire placed a hand on the soft, blonde, locks and gave them a couple of pets. Atha stirred, and he raised his head to stare in Norrix's eyes.

"I thought I lost you," the Naga spoke, tugging at Norrix's heart strings without knowing he was doing so.

"I had worse," Norrix said weakly, his hand still in Atha's hair.

"Do you have mana now?" Atha asked. Because, if he had nearly died and still didn't have mana, Atha was not going to let him try to get it back again.

Norrix summoned a slight breeze and had it tickle Atha's nose. The Naga sneezed, and Norrix thought he had never seen anything as adorable.

"I'll take that as a yes," Atha rubbed his nose, and, when Norrix gently began to push Atha's head back to its former place on his chest, Atha let him.

"Why do you ignore me, Atha?" Norrix finally asked what had been tormenting him for all these months.

"I know what you want," Atha informed him, voice tired. "But I don't think I can give it to you."

"Why?" Norrix was going to listen to the Naga. If he couldn't pursue him, then, at least he could find the reason behind why they were not meant to be.

"I have a protection deal, the same as you. They got me out of a cave...full of goblins and some other things," Norrix's expression darkened. Bog was a gentle creature, at heart. But he knew the mindset of the average goblin.

"Atha, I... you don't have to tell me. It was insensitive of me to ask," Norrix could guess what made Atha wake up screaming in the middle of the night, and needing a hamster for support, so he could stop crying.

The vampire had barged in the Naga's and the goblin's room, the first night he had arrived. And he could still see Atha's tear streaked face, which adopted an expression of pure horror upon seeing him. The hamster had hissed at him, and Norrix had left the room without so much as a word.

"I think I need to speak about it with someone, before I get lost in the memories," Atha began, and Norrix hugged the Naga with one arm. "Goblins like to toy with their victims. It took them little time to swarm me and take turns with me. I think their laughter as they did so was the worst. That did not allow for me to mentally escape them, so, I had to listen to their vulgarities and feel them inside me."

"I'll protect you," Norrix murmured, lips going to Atha's hair. "I may not look it, but I am one of the most powerful wind mages there are. I had five thousand years to perfect my craft. Nothing is ever going to touch you again, Atha."

"I want to be able to protect myself," Atha spoke, head rising from Norrix's chest. "If you don't teach me, I'll go to Huergaz and find myself a teacher."

"Atha, the people there give you strange looks. You are not going to Huergaz alone. I'll teach you, but I have no idea if your affinity is wind," Norrix was not going to allow Atha to argue. He'd begin tugging at the Naga's ears, if he had to.

"You remind me of someone I used to know, Norrix. He was a protective mama bear, just like you," Atha spoke with a chuckle. "My older brother."

Norrix resisted the urge to groan. He had wanted for Atha to see him as a potential lover, not a brother. Then, he decided that what he wanted did not matter. Atha was damaged, and he needed to be handled carefully. If a brotherly bond was the only thing they could forge, then Norrix won't stand in the way of that. His desires be damned.

"Tell me about him. Is he alive?" Norrix asked, and Atha's expression became sorrowful.

"He got cancer and died. But, he took care of me until the end. I was too young when he died, so, I can't even remember how he looked. He was old, the first hatched egg of our mother. And I was the youngest and thought a fossil until he took my egg one day and coiled around it. That was the day of our mother's funeral," Norrix nodded. Grief could make men do things in hope of getting closure.

"What was his name?" Norrix asked. He needed to put a name to the image of an Atha-like Naga, but with rougher features and looking far less gentlehearted. For, it took a certain strength of character to take care of someone else.

"Srahaka, it means protector in the language of the Naga. Which suited him, considering he was an SS rank archer," Norrix smiled. So, that was the reason behind Atha getting into archery. "He named me. And I shamed his memory."

"You did not," Norrix protested. "You choose to live peacefully. There is no shame in that."

"He tried to teach me archery, even when standing up caused him pain. But, I was too carefree and liked to read books instead," Atha lamented.

"Which is coming in handy now, considering that, that beautiful brain of yours is going to create the best barrier there is," Norrix assured Atha. He believed in the Naga. Had seen him do something that was nearly impossible, creating the barrier stone.

"I have a couple of theories as to how that could happen," Atha began, lost in thought. "Did you know that, even if a mage cuts off a piece of their soul, they could still make a barrier stone? That is how the SSS ranked barrier stones are made. With soul slivers in them."

"Atha, if you purposefully cut off a chunk of your soul, I will take you over my knee and give you the spanking of the century," Norrix spoke, voice full of indignation. Atha giggled. 

"I don't want to create an SSS ranked barrier, I want to go beyond. For that, I think I will need whole souls. Norrix, I believe it is high time you go hunting again. But, this time, don't kill the catch," Norrix blinked. Atha, squeamish Atha, was asking him to bring him animals whose souls he had the intention of stealing? Well, now he knew that the knife really cut to the bone.