That ... have...” realization dawned on the boy, he had given the crystal back yesterday, and even if he hadn’t it had been completely drained dur...ing his practice. He had no power source for the shield, yet there it was in front of him. His eyes full of questions, he looked at Ikuno, “How... ?” he was so stunned didn’t even know what to ask.“Exactly,” she said, staring at Kal’s magic shield. Her expression softened a tiny bit, “I don’t have answers for you Kal and that frustrates me. Humans. Don't take any notice of me, Adrian, I'm just rambling on again."We all chuckled at the transparency of that remark. Sheila's laugh ended in a genuine yawn, which quickly proved contagious, so we decided that it was indeed bedtime. Julie and I crawled into Sheila's bed, while its normal occupant joined her twin in his.I managed to stay awake just about long enough to satisfy myself that Julie was now okay after our over-vigorous bout, and to tell her that I loved her, before those earlier. Ever. It will be painful, it will be embarrassing, it will degrade you as a human being, but it will never truly harm you and you will always find pleasure at the end. Do you understand?”“Yes Mr. White.”“First, when in privet you will call me ‘Master’ you will only use ‘Mr. White’ when we are in a professional setting with other people nearby, in a non-professional public setting you will use such names as ‘My dear’ ‘My darling’ ‘My sweet’ as to give the impression to the casual listener that. “Who was it that was on the phone daddy?” I asked him, turning and wrapping my arms around him and placing my head on his chest.“That was your brother,” he said a little quietly, like he did not want me to know that it was Aaron on the other line, “he is coming to visit us this weekend.”PART TWO : AARONS FIRST NIGHTI sat in the living room nervous, waiting for my brother. I felt like I had changed so much in the short time that I had been here and he would not know who I was anymore. Not that I.