"...I don't have a name," he says, in a quiet tentative voice.

"That's okay, most don't, I just like to check. Have Water over there or any of the others told you about how I'm kind of weird?"

Shadow doesn't seem to know how to answer this question. He hesitates, watching her warily.

"That sounds... nice," he says, sounding... somewhere in the neighbourhood of hopeful, but perhaps not as close as next door.

He nods. "It's nice of you."

"I have a scrying assignment today. I could do it a lot of ways, but I came here hoping that I would find someone to help me with dark scrying in particular. If you want more time to settle in, or can't think of anything you want and don't just want me to owe you, or you'd rather have the time free, or for any other reason don't want me to check your amulet out, I can ask the others or come back later or just do without."

"I don't really want anything, but I'll help you," he says.

"If you think of anything later, I'll have a record in my notebook of how long you spent helping me and you can call in a favor," Maurabel says. "A couple things before I get the amulet - I try not to, but I'm prone to using implicit control when I'm distracted, especially if you're physically very nearby. If I start, you can remind me and I'll stop. Outside of unlikely emergencies and leaving the university minimum orders in place, my goal is not to control you at all and just communicate verbally - even if you do things that are annoying or socially unacceptable - but if you do do those things I will be less likely to ask you for help again in the future. If you want to know whether something is annoying or socially unacceptable without trying it, you can ask me as long as we aren't concentrating on a working right at that moment. Does that all make sense?"

He nods again.

"Any questions?"

He shakes his head.

"Okay. What's your university number?"

"Thirty-six."

He doesn't follow her when she leaves the room, but he comes to the door when she takes his amulet.

She smiles at him, a little weakly, and heads in the direction of her room. "We can make conversation if you want, or not if you don't."

He seems to take this as an invitation to not say anything. But he does follow her.

In the absence of any specific instruction or suggestion, Shadow sits on the floor next to the bed. With his elemental halo obscuring him under a layer of shadows, he's nearly invisible in the dark - but presumably this will change if she successfully achieves dark scrying.

"All right. If I understood my textbook correctly, I'll be able to steer the vision myself without having to control you, but doing that will let you override me. I'd prefer if you didn't do that even though I'm going to let you; there are specific things to look at and data I have to gather for my assignment. Ready?"

"Yes," he says, in case she cannot see him nodding.

"Weird," she murmurs, and she asserts her will over the vantage point and maneuvers it through a wall so she has enough unbrightness to see by while she maneuvers to the objects she's supposed to scry so she can identify them to the professor and confirm she did the assignment.

"I haven't thought of anything," he says. Under the concealing shadows of his halo, his face looks somewhere between wistful and worried.

"Okay. Well," she looks at the clock, "I will owe you about forty-five minutes if you think of anything later." She stands up. "Or if you want to give it to one of the other elementals, that works too, although I've never had it happen before unless you count what Earth fifty-four likes to do with his accumulated time." She heads for the door to her room.

"There isn't anyone here I know that well," he says, following a little ways behind her.

"I understand. You'll probably settle in after a while," she sighs. "And make some friends."

"Just based on how it usually seems to go. Maybe you're even more introverted than I am." She shrugs, and heads down the stairs.

Shadow follows quietly, enveloped in his shadowy halo.

It is again his prerogative to set the conversation/not-conversation option for the duration of the six minute walk.

Six minutes of silence it is, then.

Shadow doesn't wave back, but he smiles tentatively.

It is! He's wearing his halo how he usually does, as a symmetrical pattern of broad-leafed vines wrapped snugly around him, and talking to the Lightning who is inexplicably his best friend. When she looks their way, Earth glances at her and offers his usual friendly smile, and Lightning's halo sparks aggressively.

Maurabel approaches closer once she has the smile; otherwise she might have waited. "Morning," she says, glancing at Lightning to acknowledge him but primarily addressing Earth.

"Good morning," Earth says pleasantly. Lightning sighs. Earth pats him on the shoulder; sparks dance harmlessly over his fingers.

"I was hoping to make a dent in this semester's volunteer hours and still don't have a more interesting idea than going to the hospital. You up for it?"

"Of course," says Earth, smiling. He gives Lightning a hug, effectively forestalling an incipient pout.

"Five hours, tops," Maurabel tells the both of them. "Unless there's a quake or something, then they might want to keep us longer and I'd have a good excuse for the wards teacher, but it's not likely."

"All right," Earth says agreeably. Lightning turns to hug him back, and for a moment they both disappear in the eye-smarting white-violet glow of Lightning's wings; then Earth gets up to follow Maurabel out.

Maurabel squints when Lightning wraps up his friend in his wings like that, then heads out. She waves at the ones she knows especially well who happen to be around (a Shine, an Ice) and again to Shadow on the way to the amulets, where she reminds the minder of which Earth this is (fifty-four) and receives his amulet. On to the hospital.

"Yes. He helped me with my scrying project, I owe him forty-five minutes but he hasn't thought of anything yet. Why?"

"Hmm... I think he's had some bad experiences," says Earth. "More than the rest of us, I mean. He gives that impression. I thought that might be the kind of thing you'd want to know."

"He was very quiet. I wasn't sure why."

"I'm not sure either, specifically. But the sense I get is that he's... afraid to say the wrong thing, maybe. Something of that nature."

"Yeah. I'm not - I'm never sure how to deal with anything like that. I can talk about what I'm trying to do till the stars turn all the way around, and nobody has to believe me. These things only prohibit lying in the one direction." She gestures at his own amulet where it rests at her throat.

Earth smiles slightly. "I know. I'm sorry I can't be more helpful. You're doing a good thing; I wish more people recognized that."

Maurabel makes a face. "I feel like identifying what I'm doing as a good thing is sort of like calling somebody tall if they've never been in a room with a high enough ceiling to actually stand up. And have refrained from sledgehammering said ceiling for fear of disturbing the upstairs neighbors. Insert sound of metaphor cracking under strain."

"Not especially. I do the best I can for him, but..." he shrugs, "he's not going to be happy."

"I'm worried eventually somebody's going to buy one of you and not the other. You more likely than him."

"Yes," says Earth. "So are we."

"I might be able to scrape up enough in research grants, maybe charitable commissions, to buy one elemental when I graduate. Not two."

He nods, leaves rustling. "I'm not surprised."

"I mean, if you wanted it could maybe be you and I could take you to the university to visit regularly, I think alumni are allowed that much, but that wouldn't help if someone else bought him later and didn't feel like allowing visits anymore."

"It seems somewhat unlikely that anyone will want to buy him," Earth points out. Then he sighs. "But, unfortunately, not impossible."

"Exactly." She shakes her head. "The sort of person who would want to buy him would probably be the sort who considered his personality irrelevant, which does not bode well."

"Yes," says Earth. "It's a problem. And I haven't thought of a solution."

"Well, if I do, you'll be the first to know."

"Thank you."

"I can imagine," says Earth.

Yes, yes it would. Earth can fill in the blanks pretty well on his own, anyway.

"Any ideas on making Shadow comfortable if I wind up borrowing him again? ...Is he sufficiently damaged that I shouldn't ask him again?"

"I couldn't really say. I don't think so, but it's hard to be sure."

(Her Earth is well-behaved enough not to comment.)

"All right," says the receptionist, and she writes Maurabel a temporary ID badge, stamps it, and directs them to the convalescence ward (Maurabel hasn't taken enough classes to be expected not to get in the way in an emergency case, and they need the beds on that floor anyway) and tells them to talk to a particular junior medic. Soon enough she's deploying adamant on one end of the room for broken ribs and cracked kneecaps, and Earth is set up to help some people recently out of obstetrics and suffering miscellaneous complications.

On the way back, lacking anything substantial to bring up, Earth is quieter.

Maurabel doesn't have much to say either, although as they approach the barracks, she says, "You've got eight and a half hours racked up now. Saving for another full weekend?"

"We'll see," he says, smiling slightly.

"Well, if you are, three weeks from now would be good, bit of a coursework lull, I can go visit my parents again."

"Maybe I will."

Shadow looks at the floor and quietly walks into the room with the other elementals. His halo is as dense as can be; his features are only recognizable in silhouette, being otherwise cloaked in deep shadows.

...Earth observes all this with concern.

Moments later, Shadow emerges.

Maurabel holds the door out of the building for him.

Out he goes. He remembers the way to her room, but he doesn't go ahead of her by more than a few steps. And he continues to look at the floor rather than at Maurabel or anything else.

When they've been walking for a couple of minutes, she murmurs, "If you just want to sit by yourself that's fine. You can. If you - I don't know how to tell you that if and only if you want to talk to me then you can, without making it sound like I have opinions about whether you should, but if you can think of a way for me to have done that you could pretend I managed."

He glances at her with a flicker of a barely-visible smile.

That is all she has to say. She opens the door to the building, leads him up the stairs, and lets him into her room.

He finds a corner of floor to sit on, and does that, tucking himself into the space between desk and wall.

"I'll be back a little after dinnertime. You can eat the snacks in the drawer under the bed if you want, that's what they're for," she murmurs. "Uh, please don't break anything or try to get into the warded box in the closet." She swallows and pauses a moment in case he has any questions before she leaves him alone.

"Okay," he says quietly.

When she returns, she will find that to all appearances, Shadow has not moved from his corner.

"Brought you a jelly bun from the cafeteria if you want it. If you don't I can give it to somebody else when we go back," she says softly.

...He peers at the alleged jelly bun.

She holds it out in his direction.

Tentatively, he accepts it.

"Don't have to go just yet if you'd rather," she murmurs. "Cutoff for getting back in the dorm isn't till midnight, it's just the library that closes early."

"I only have guesses. I don't know that guy or rumors about him or anything."

"It's... something that used to happen a lot, where I came from," he says. "I thought not everybody would be like that. I guess not everybody is, but - still some."

"I don't have numbers for you on how many it is. If he bothers you specifically a lot, seems focused on you, and has anything resembling a predictable schedule for it, I can try to get you first at the relevant times and keep you out of his way - there's not much I can do if it's irregular or spread out."

He nods. He nibbles his jelly bun.

"I didn't know that was a thing that happened," he murmurs. "People being sorry for us, I mean."

"There's a decent population who'd lump you in with - puppies or something, and object to blatantly mistreating you for similar reasons. I haven't found any more of me."

"Maybe there just aren't any."

"Well, there's me. I don't think I'm a literal freak of nature."

He doesn't have anything to say to that.

Maurabel flops her head onto her arms on her desk, having fiddled-with-items to the point where there is a space clear for this behavior.

Shadow follows, quietly. He is good at quiet.

And Shadow returns to the elemental barracks. Quietly.

It's debatable whether he hears her; he's most of the way through the door already, and he doesn't turn around.

"Hello."

"How are you doing?"

He shrugs.

"Want to help me do a scrying ward?"

"Okay," he says.

She collects the amulet, she clears it, she leads the way to her dorm.

Shadow follows, as quietly as ever.

He smiles back.

Presently they're at the dorm, and her room is where it usually is. "I have a box of objects I'm supposed to ward against three kinds of scrying, my choice, and then next week we check other students' work but I don't know which kinds I'll be assigned to check on, so I don't know if I'll be back for you then."

"Okay."

He nods.

"Okay," says Shadow.

Shadow smiles.

"Thanks." She puts the box on her desk; she'll turn it in later. "Okay, that's all I have for today."

"Okay," says Shadow.

"You have any plans for your chunk of time, or are you still waiting to think of something?" she inquires, getting up to lead him out.

"I still haven't thought of anything," he says. "And I haven't made any friends here to give it to."

"Earth - the one I borrowed the other week, fifty-four - he's friendly. Although his best friend isn't, so that might be off-putting. One of the Shines is very sweet - twenty-one. Dust is nice, when she talks, although more often she daydreams, which might suit you. Let me know if I should stop recommending you friendly elementals."

"It's okay," he says, smiling.

"Both of the Stones seem nice enough. One of the Ices - twenty-eight - is pleasant to me, but I'm not sure if that's just because she likes going to the library and doesn't have someone like Earth is to Lightning who'll split earned time with her... The newest of the three Glasses was the most recent acquisition before you and might not have made close friends yet either, but I can't vouch in much detail for her personality."

"I'm probably not going to make friends with any of them," says Shadow.

"I... had a friend. Before our owner sold me to the university. I miss him a lot," Shadow murmurs.

"And I don't think I could be friends with anyone else like I was with him. And I don't know any other way."

"Like you were with him?" asks Maurabel - aiming as best she can for "gentle curiosity" and not "invasive prying".

He hesitates, then shakes his head. "I don't know if I can explain."

"Okay."

And now, more quiet.

Earth and Lightning do in fact want the weekend. Lightning is even in one of his less belligerent moods when she asks; he smiles instead of ignoring her or glaring.

That will make the escort to her room pleasanter! She checks them both out, tells the attendant it's going to be all weekend, mutters something inaudible about homework that seems like it might involve insulting her Wards teacher, and then absconds with the amulets and their attached elementals.

They hold hands on the way; Lightning's sparks fizzle harmlessly on Earth's skin, and the loose end of a vine from Earth's halo loops itself around Lightning's wrist.

Maurabel lets them into her room. She's already packed a weekend bag. "Are you all set?" she inquires.

"Yep!" says Lightning. Earth nods corroboratively.

"Hi, guys. Ready to go back?"

"Yes," says Earth. Lightning sighs and hugs him, halo crackling.

Maurabel escorts them both back to the barracks, vaguely apologetic.

Earth makes sure to say thank you to her before they're back inside.

And there he is, sitting quietly in a corner. He does that a lot.

"Hi. How're you doing?"

Shrug.

"Sure."

He goes along. He doesn't say anything.

"I'm not sure, anyway," he says, shrugging.

"It seems like the most efficient thing to do if I'm staring inevitable death in the face anyway. Mind, I'm planning to work on the inevitable death thing. But if I don't get anywhere and I'm ninety..."

"Then you'll just... just so some of us could be free?" he says. "Even though they'd probably kill you?"

"There's a reason I'm not planning to do it tomorrow afternoon. I don't have a deathwish. But I thought you might like to know."

"...yeah," he says.

"It's on my mind because today I went to a lecture on the limits of Shine healing," she sighs. "Anyway. Scrying." She closes the shutters.

Shadow settles on the floor.

"Ready?"

"Yes."

He smiles up at her; the shadows of his halo are sparse enough at the moment that the expression is clearly visible.

"If you wanna tell me who used to have you - well, he probably won't have the same address, maybe be alive at all, by the time I'm ninety, but I could write it down in case he is and has terrible security."

"...He - does have terrible security," Shadow murmurs.

"And... I don't know his address, but I know where he lives," he says.

"Where is it?" She flips to a different page in her notebook than the one containing scrying assignment notes.

He shakes his head. "No, I mean - I know the place, I remember it. I couldn't find it on a map, but I could go there. Or show you. He isn't warded against dark scrying or shadow-walking."

"In a box in a room downstairs," he says. "When he's asleep. But I guess there'd just be Fire, now, unless he's caught someone else. That's what he does. He catches wild elementals."

"I don't think he would. Fire keeps it turned up. He can't burn anything with it, Master won't let him, but it makes him feel better."

"Because it would be a hundred kinds of suspicious if a Fire went missing one place and then one turned up somewhere else, but if - stop me if I'm getting ahead of myself, maybe he wouldn't want to be stolen and he'd rat me out to the first cop to wonder whether I really inherited him from my great-aunt."

"No. He would want to be stolen. Especially if he could be near me. And he'd like you," Shadow says authoritatively.

"You think he would like me fast enough? A stolen elemental is news, instant news, and there are hundreds of mages in the city but they'd actually look."

"If you took me to steal him he would like you immediately."

Shadow doesn't say anything, but his halo flickers darker.

Shadow sits quietly and doesn't interrupt her.

"If it'll keep him away from Master, yes," says Shadow. "All of that. He'll want to see me in private, but he won't do anything that would get him repossessed even if he can't."

Shadow goes back to not saying anything.

"Tell me about this hunter's schedule?"

"...What do you mean?"

"I mean, is he consistent about going to bed at a reasonable hour, does he sleep soundly? Or am I taking my life into my hands entering his home in the middle of the night?"

"Once he's asleep, he's asleep. Fire used to try to wake him up in the middle of the night by yelling from downstairs and it didn't work."

"He's not... I mean... I don't think he thinks anyone would come in and steal someone from him. People don't do that."

"Which definitely means I can only do this once."

Shadow shrugs.

"Not quite yet," says Maurabel wryly.

"Thank you for even planning to."

"For that you're welcome. I've never shadow-walked before. Can we do a dry run of that?"

"Okay," he says. He stands up out of his corner.

"The fact that I haven't actually covered this in class will probably help with plausible deniability. I don't even know how. What's the procedure?"

"We have to be touching. You can just hold my hand or something," he says. "And I'll do the rest. Humans aren't very good at steering a shadow walk, anyway. It's like all the parts of dark scrying you're bad at, but more so."

"Okay," says Maurabel. She holds her hand out.

"Okay. So that's - straightforward on my end, anyway."

"I think I'd better keep you checked out overnight. If I return you to the night attendant he's more likely to think it's weird since I'm usually not there at night."

"Okay."

"And then you and Fire can have your reunion right away as long as it's quiet - and I'd like to get some sleep before class even if it's only a few hours."

He nods. "We can be quiet," he murmurs.

"Okay. You can get me right next to where the amulet is? It'll be obvious?"

"I can scry it first to show you if that'll help. But I think it's pretty obvious."

"Scrying it can't hurt."

"Okay."

Maurabel sits down and shuts her eyes and taps him. "You're gonna have to steer this one."

"Yeah. In the next room," he says, aiming their viewpoint at the relevant door. "That's where we're - where he's kept."

"I've known him all my life," says Shadow. "We were caught together. I know how much he'd want someone to steal him and what he'd do to stay stolen."

He shrugs. "No."

Shadow sits in a corner on the floor and doesn't do anything.

"You can read any of my books. Or eat the snacks in the drawer. If you want," she reminds him.

Shadow stands up too.

"In, out, explanations wait till we're here," she says. "Okay?"

She is unhesitating in reaching for the box to open it up and swipe the amulet inside.