Enaid moved slowly up the stairs, through the trunk. There was a force that rippled through the wood and pushed at her. The grain bowed and threatened to crack. What had Dipak brought into her tree? She loved him, but it seemed that she had less patience for him lately. Hopefully he wasn't aware of that, but he most likely was. He seemed to know everything. Why had he not entered the tree with Amser?

When she topped the stairs, she could easily see Amser but there seemed to be something enveloping him. There was nothing to see at first, but it slowly coalesced into a dark cloud. Then a form began to take shape. She put her fingers to her mouth.

"Raven," she whispered.

At first, he said nothing. As though it were a great effort, he turned to look at her. Agony painted his face ashen. What had happened to him since she saw him last? Dipak had told her that Raven had died.

"Enaid," he croaked.

She stifled a sob.

"He is ours and we will tend to him," he wheezed, turning back to Amser.

"What happened to you?" she asked.

He crouched down and folded his large black wings up against his body.

"I died," he said.

Touching his fingers lightly to Amser's neck, Raven was relieved to find a faint pulse. Pulling a large black needle and coarse black thread from the layers of his feathers, he began to hum. He used one of his long claws to cut the front of Amser's shirt and he pulled the fabric back to reveal the cyanotic flesh. Driving the curved needled into Amser's chest, he began to sow careful stitches. Blood oozed out around the thread in bright beads. He reached into nothing and pulled out a handful of black silken ribbons which he began to work into the stitches and flesh.

Amser groaned and his eyes fluttered open.

"Pahana," Amser whispered.

"He is alive. Humans are so fragile and you will have to protect him now. Choas is coming," Raven said as he tied the thread off into a double knot.

Amser put his hands up to the work that Raven had just finished.

"You are bound ot him now," Raven explained.

"I didn't mean to break the law," Amser gasped out the words with the burning pain beneath his hands.

"The threads of fate bound you to this course long before you were born. When you accepted the watches, you accepted this destiny," Raven said as he put the needle and thread back within his feathers. Then he pulled out a decaying acorn.

"You are the acorn," Raven said while he held up the nut where Amser could see it.

The acorn was cold when Raven pressed it against Amser's chest but as he increased the pressure it grew hot and began to melt into the flesh. It sunk out of sight.

"Soon, you will come to know how important you are," Raven said.

Raven stood and stretched his wings out as much as the cramped space would allow. Glancing back for only a moment, he smiled at Enaid. With that look came a flood of memories. The past had faded almost completely away for her and now it stood out brilliantly in her mind. The tears came freely and she tried to thank him but her voice failed her. She hoped he knew how grateful she was for the gift of remembering.

"It is a gift you once gave me," he said as he stepped out of the tree.