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“See you then,” he says as he opens the bedroom door and slips out.

Once the door shuts behind him, James lies down on his bed and thinks about Miko. It must still have some control over him. The sooner I get rid of it the better.

When the sky first begins lightning with the coming of the day, James gets up and finds Jiron still sitting up in the front room looking tired. “Anything?” he asks.

Shaking his head, he says, “He stayed asleep the whole night. He’s still in his bed now.”

“Good,” replies James. “Get some sleep if you can. I’m going to finish what I need to do before breakfast.”

As Jiron goes back to where his pallet lies, James enters the kitchen and finds Ezra already there beginning to prepare breakfast for everyone. Arkie lies asleep on a blanket in the corner. “Good morning,” he says as he passes through to the door.

“Good morning,” she replies.

Leaving the kitchen through the back door, he makes his way out to the woods to collect the two crystals that have been charging the last two days. Over by the barn he sees Illan putting the new recruits through their morning drills. James has heard rumors they’re glad Illan is going to be leaving for awhile and that their morning drills will be put on hold.

The crystals are still exactly where he left them, each having a fair sized glow within them. Not exactly maxed out, but still not too bad. Taking them back to his workshop, he begins the final stages of transferring power and setting up the spells.

Taking one of the crystals, he transfers the stored power it has to the defensive crystal. The spells contained within the defensive crystal he leaves inactive. He doesn’t plan to activate them until the box lies in its final resting place. The other crystal he infuses with the spells which will light up the receiver crystal which will remain here in his workshop.

Taking the receiver crystal down, he sets the spell of the transmitting crystal to seek out this particular one and send almost all of its stored energy to it. This in turn will cause it to light, warning James that something is not right with the Fire.

When all the spells for all the crystals are just the way he wants them, he replaces the receiver crystal back on his shelf. The transmitting and receiver crystals go into his pouch and he picks up the iron box, carrying it back to the house. He takes it into his room where he sets it on the floor by the end of his bed.

A noise causes him to turn around and he sees Miko standing there. “Everything ready?” he asks James.

“Yes,” he replies as he searches for any sign that the Fire is effecting him. When he doesn’t discern any oddities about his behavior or facial expression, he says, “Sit down for a moment.” Miko moves into the room and sits on the bed next to him. “I need you to stay here while I go do this.”

“Why?” he asks, hurt already beginning to show on his face. James sometimes forgets that inside this ‘man’ is actually a young boy. Who, though he has the outward characteristics of a man, still hasn’t matured within yet.

“I feel you shouldn’t be anywhere near this,” he says, indicating the iron box, “than you have to.”

His eyes flick toward the box where they pause a moment before returning to James. He can see warring emotions going on within him until finally he says, “I understand.”

Just then, they hear Ezra call them for breakfast. James claps him on the shoulder and gives him a grin. “Don’t worry, I’ll be back soon.”

“I hope so,” he replies.

They leave his bedroom and head out to the kitchen where Ezra has everyone that’s leaving with James crammed in at the table. Thankful that his seat is at the head of the table where there isn’t any room for another, he sits down and the meal commences.

“Miko will be staying here while we’re gone,” he tells Roland. “You might need more than just the new recruits if something should happen again.”

“We’ll be okay,” Roland tells him. “With them out patrolling, it would take quite a bit to take us unawares.”

“True,” says James.

Illan glances