For three days and nights, Brindisi was my constant companion (mercifully, he’d resumed wearing his dark scale armor over his chest runes after that first, horrible bare skin morning). Sometimes, in the evening, when I was free from the intensity of Brindisi’s will, I vainly listened for any sign of Jona, even though I knew he was dead. During the long nights, I wondered if he had truly died of his injuries or if Brindisi had killed him so that he might claim me.
