“Trust is a complicated thing.”

- A memory of the Old Ones.

***Carinthia***

***Sely***

“I can't believe that I am allowing you to do to this! It's grandpa Hatlix!” Magnus walks from the left side of my operating room to the right and turns around to repeat the exercise. He is so nervous that he can't stand still. It's as if I was about to give birth.

I wave the bone saw at Hatlix's head. “If you don't want to, we can wait for nature to fix him the natural way. I've no problem with that. It's just that I can help him to recover much faster and maybe I can even solve his language issues. You mentioned that he has a problem with learning new languages.”

After we escaped to the dungeon’s entrance, we sealed Hatlix inside the labyrinth. Afterwards we devised a plan to catch him. It was clear that Hatlix went completely insane during his time inside the chest. It wasn’t easy, especially since we didn’t want any casualties, but collapsing a tunnel’s ceiling did the trick. It crushed his legs, but that’s nothing to an Old One. When we finally had him inside a net, he just screamed and tried to bite us.

My eyes wander from Fiacre to Cecilia and then to Tina. None of them seems comfortable with my suggestion to speed up Hatlix's recovery. “Have you checked for any other Bathomeus who might be locked inside a chest?”

Magnus pales.

Fiacre nods frantically. “Of course! They haven't locked anyone else inside a chest. At least nobody who doesn't deserve it.”

I don't want to know what she means by that.

Magnus gestures at his grandfather. “Why was he even inside that chest!? I can't believe that the traitors put him in there. They always talked as if you and I were the last survivors.” He glares at Fiacre and I can see the old animosity returning.

Fiacre raises both her hands to deflect the unspoken accusation. “Do you really think that I knew? He is my father! Had I known, I would've gotten him out long ago!”

I use the bone saw to gesture at Hatlix's head. “The answer is in there. We just have to help him in his recovery. The choice is yours.” I gesture at the screen with the X-ray of Hatlix's brain. “And I don't think that the arrowhead in his frontal lobe is healthy. Surely it's responsible for his inability to speak properly.

Tina winces. “That's something I don't understand. Don't our bodies push out any foreign object when we heal? I've seen it many times. Why is that arrowhead still in there? It looks like it was made in the Stone Age.”

“That's what normally happens, but this arrowhead is lodged inside the bone of his skull. I've seen such cases before. Our bodies push out foreign objects by encapsulating them in a layer of tissue and fluids. Then they are forced out of the wound channel as the wound heals from the inside outwards. When the object in question is lodged in place, for example in a piece of bone, then it can happen that the wound closes around it,” I finish the explanation.

Tina nods appreciatively. “It's rare that one of our kind cares for medical problems.”

Fiacre sighs. “Just do it. Right now he is just a danger to everyone around him. It would be great to have Dad back. And even better if he can talk normally.”

Finally! I switch on the bone saw and start cutting. Hatlix is already drugged and in a state halfway between awake and his dreams. We had to do that since he acted like a rabid dog when he was conscious.

Magnus leaves the room when I start fixing Hatlix. Before I start the real operation, I have to map his brain. I show him various pictures and judge his brain's reactions. When something doesn't work as it should, I try to correct it. It takes a long time to map his brain's functions, but the result is acceptable.

I wonder if the others appreciate my special skills.

First of all, I remove the arrowhead. Then I try to identify the sections which are responsible for his memories. The work is tedious and time consuming, but in the end I feel fairly certain that Hatlix won't be able to remember most of his time inside the chest.

Two hours later, I close him up and loosen the screws which are holding his head. The others left the room when it became clear that they can't help me by watching me work. I leave his restraints on and roll his bed into a neighbouring room. Annia and Kath intercept me on the way there.

My little sister studies Hatlix with interest. Now that his beard is off, he looks like a slightly older version of Magnus. If I were a human, I would probably think that he is his brother. “Will he be fine?” Annia asks.

I smile. “Maybe. But you shouldn't take off his restraints. I don't know if he'll be violent when he wakes up.”

Kath stretches to poke his cheek with a finger. “Then we'll wait here and explain everything once he wakes up. Do you think that he knows many stories?”

I furrow my forehead. “I guess so. Why is that important?”

“Because Annia said that he is a very old grandpa, and grandpas always know a lot of stories!” Kath explains and nods, as if everything of importance was said. I realize that she is searching for yet another person who reads her a bedtime story. Something she learned from her human parents. She already conscripted Fiacre, Tina and me for the task and it looks like Leila is turning into her fourth victim.

Hatlix would be her first male conquest.

“Just make sure to inform us when he wakes up.” I turn and leave the room.

Two minutes later, I join the others in the living room. “It'll take a while for the anaesthetic to wear off, but I hope that Hatlix will be better when he wakes up. I should remind you that he won't be able to speak right away. He might understand us, but he'll have to relearn the correct pronunciation.”

Tina nods and looks at all of us with a grave expression on her face. “We might as well use the time to talk about our next steps. The elders won't be happy when we tell them that the fae have the orb. And there is also the issue that the orb wasn't taken by just any fae. I would recognize the white hair anywhere. It was Winter himself.”

Magnus furrows his forehead. “The king of the wintercourt himself? I suppose that explains why he was able to escape me. What a nuisance. I'll have to take my property back before the elders can complain about its loss. Though it's a Bathomeus relic. There should be no reason to hold us accountable for anything the fae decide to do with the artefact.”

Fiacre covers her face with both hands. “We are so screwed! Earth faces an ice age, the fae try to use the humans to wage war against the supernaturals, and now they even have the orb. And we have no way to invade Fairy.”

Magnus raises a finger. “That's not entirely correct.”

I look at him as if he is nuts. “You have a way to get to Fairy? Are you nuts? The elders instructed everyone to search for ways to attack Fairy! If it comes out that we not only lost the orb, but also withheld information, then we are fucked!”

I use both hands to make an obscene gesture. “And I mean not just fucked, I mean royally fucked! Like Hammon-fucked!”

Magnus shakes his head. “I don't think so. They said that they want a way to launch a large scale attack on Fairy. I can't do that. But what I can do, is to get a limited number of people in and out of Fairy. Do you remember the Horus? Fairy's protection relies on a similar mechanism as our Veil. The Fae found a way to copy our Veils and they are using it to protect their trees. All we have to do, is use Sely's amulet. I can make some copies. The only thing we need is a fairy tree which is connected to Fairy.”

I groan. “And then what!? We storm Fairy with a handful of people?”

“I had a commando operation in mind. One or two people go in and try to get the orb back. Of course, everything under stealth. We can even gather information and bring it back to the elders. It would be the first time for an Old One to see what's going on in Fairy. I mean, we have our theories, but nothing concrete.”

Kath enters the room. “Hatlix woke up!”

I reach for my forehead and touch it with my fingertips. “I think I might get my first migraine.”

Fiacre jumps to her feet. “Already!? That was fast! You are a genius, Sely. Not even Tetrach recovered that fast!”

Cecilia touches her chin with two fingers. “Come to think of it… Where is Tetrach?”

Magnus opens his mouth, then he closes it again, thinking hard. “It’s possible that we forgot him in Atlantis.”

“That was more than a week ago,” I mumble. Yep! The migraine is coming.