<div style="text-align: right"><i>I am fond of them, of the inferior beings of the abyss, of those who are full of longing.<br/>
- Richard Wagner</i>​</div><br/><br/><br/>The last time he saw Nathaniel, it was at the turning of the season.<br/><br/>The air turned colder.  Each morning, the leaves in the trees changed.  At first, a few golden leaves.  And then entire branches decked out in shades of copper.  Time, which hadn't ever held much significance to Asher, had grown more tangible over the years.  He could see it in the growth of trees, and in the way the paint in the foyer had started to fade after countless hours spent enduring the summer sunlight.  As for Nathaniel, he was older too.<br/><br/>He moved with greater caution and he seldom left his property for more than the occasional excursion into town for essential items.  Which meant that he spent more time with Asher; they became enemies who carried on conversations to escape from loneliness.  It worked sometimes and others, it drove the isolation deeper into their bones.<br/><br/>Asher didn't miss the old man, but he would have preferred his company to an empty room.  He knew every square inch of it, and the bathroom as well, down to the cracks in the paint on the frame of a small window.  It didn't let in nearly enough light, but he didn't know what that meant until a storm rolled through and cut out the power to the house.<br/><br/>He spent the night watching flashes of lightning, what little he could glimpse through the trees.  The following morning, he woke to dismal, dreary twilight and for the first time, he wondered whether or not Nathaniel would return.  It was then that he decided to take a risk.  Then, and not when his shirt started to fit loosely, not when he noticed the sharpness of his collarbone and the shadows clinging to his ribs.  Simply a change in the routine, a minor difference that raised too many questions.<br/><br/><i>Where had he gone?  Why hadn't he come home?<br/>
<br/>
Was he hurt?<br/>
<br/>
Dead?</i><br/><br/>He wondered if the wards on the house remained intact.  For several long minutes, he contemplated the locked door that confined him to his quarters.  If there was magic left, an escape attempt would hurt and, if Nathaniel wasn't gravely injured or dead, there would be hell to pay when he returned.  Asher took his time in weighing the risks and then he took the lamp beside his bed and he drove it straight into the wall.  Twenty minutes later, and a mess of broken plaster, and he could see into the hallway.<br/><br/>When he stretched his fingers through that space, he could still feel the magic.<br/><br/>It burned, but not so fiercely that he recoiled from it.  The wards were breaking down.  He could wait, but ...<br/><br/>It wasn't that he lacked patience.  He'd set his course and he wasn't willing to turn back, so he forced his hand through the small space and fumbled around until he found the lock.  By the time he withdrew, he couldn't say that he was unscathed.  His hand felt like he'd scalded himself with hot water and his arm was worse, wrapped in a six inch band of seared tissue.  He told himself the worst was over, and then he clenched his teeth and forced himself across the threshold.  No hesitation, and no regrets.<br/><br/>If he'd made such an attempt the week prior, it would have killed him.  As it was, he collapsed in the hallway, gasping for breath, until he lost track of time.  Darkness crept into the hallway, and the air grew colder.  When daylight returned, he was chilled to the bone.  The sound of a car pulling into the driveway caused him to stir.  Asher was half starved, and the wards had stripped him of what little power he could claim as his own, but he didn't look harmless.  He could have passed as an addict, thin as he was.  He was well dressed in expensive layers, but his clothing was wrinkled, disheveled.  Under other circumstances, he would have minded.<br/><br/>He assumed that Nathaniel had returned, which meant that he needed to plan his every step with caution.  He wouldn't get a second chance at freedom.