Two weeks passed quickly, and Chiya felt she was nowhere closer to teaching Cacopheny how to live normally, or to healing his fractured mind, than she was when Aedelian had given the half-blood the common tongue. There had been steps made, yes, like being able to come outside without fear of sun and sky or convincing him to wear clothing, even if all he would wear were dark, forbidding colors. Even so, he was suspicious and moody, untrusting of everyone but a select few, refused to talk about his past or to admit that his "mistress and mother" had been anything but just towards him, and could not be convinced to stop leaving himself bloody every other night. Worse, there seemed to be nothing anyone in Aedelian's home clan could do about the voices he heard constantly or the abrupt change of personality that came over him now and then.

"Take him to Sanctuary," Ketvia suggested as the two of them, Aedelian, and Aedelian's daughter, Admeredith, lounged about under the shade of the pavilion again, as they had been doing every evening since their arrival. "To Yihoto. If anybody can fix him, it's Yihoto."

"I'd be inclined to agree," Aedelian admitted. "I may be good, but I'm hardly the best there is, and Yihoto is the best there is. That anyone knows about, at any rate."

"And it's not as if we need to worry about going into season anymore," Ketvia pointed out. "The time for that's long past."

Blushing at the subject, Chiya hurriedly said, "It's a good idea. I don't suppose you could--"

"Take you with us?" Aedelian interrupted, smiling, with that irritating habit of his of finishing people's sentences for them. "Of course we could. I've been planning on it, actually, expecting you'd wish to, given how little the boy has progressed."

"He has a name, you know," Chiya said crossly.

"You know," Admeredith said slowly, green eyes on her offspring and Cacopheny, himself, where they sat together down the mountain a short ways, talking and smashing bugs that crawled by. There was silence as the rest of them stared at her, waiting for her to finish her sentence. Finally, she looked back at her father and guests. "You know, you might want to try asking Aloia if she would accept him as a bonding candidate."

"You're kidding," Aedelian scoffed. "Bond some poor kit to something like him?"

"He'd be more likely to drive whoever he was paired with insane, rather than the kit helping steady him," Ketvia protested.

"Not if the kit is a strong personality," Admeredith persisted. "Or a psionic. Or both. Besides, with Yihoto so close by, any problems could be nipped in the tail before they had a chance to begin."

"You've slipped," Ketvia snorted. "No kit would go anywhere near him, the way he scowls and snarls all the time, dressed in all that black, feeling like a demon."

"Enyi does," Chiya said suddenly. "Children are braver than you think, Ketvia, and more curious. I'm sure the lady Aloia would be able to arrange it."

"I don't know," Aedelian murmured, frowning in thought. "Perhaps it would work, at least to stabilize him a bit, draw him out of thinking so much about himself and into thinking about the world beyond whatever those voices of his say to him."

"Yihoto could probably do it better," Ketvia grumbled. "Without subjecting a kit's mind to him, first."

"Then why don't we make it our second plan," Chiya suggested. "There will be time to take him to Yihoto before the bonding meetings, right?"

Aedelian nodded. "There would be," he agreed. "And if Yihoto can't or won't help him, ask Aloia and see what she thinks."

"Why wouldn't Yihoto help him?" Chiya demanded, having never considered that possibility.

"Because Yihoto is a strange sort of dragon," Aedelian said calmly. "What he will or will not do depends on some very strange criteria. I think it comes from being able to see the future, and all that."

"Well, I guess that's it, then," Ketvia concluded. "We leave with you the day after tomorrow for Sanctuary."

"Cacopheny!" Chiya called, and the half-demon looked up sharply, staring blankly ahead and across the valley for a moment before turning his head to look towards the pavilion. Chiya beckoned, and he rose, stuffing his hands in his pockets and slouching his way up the mountainside. Enyi trotted beside him, curious.

"Aedelian and Enyi are going to Sanctuary in two days," Chiya began. Cacopheny looked quickly down at Enyi, then back to Chiya, fixing her with those black eyes of his. Today, they seemed unnaturally bright. "We were thinking of going with them. Would you like to?"

There was a moment of silence, as Cacopheny thought. Light played oddly across his face, hiding his expression, and Chiya held her breath. Finally, he nodded slightly. "Yess," he said simply. "I. Vood." Yes. I would.

Chiya let her breath out and smiled. "Good," she said, and it was decided.