At the doorstep the skinny guard stopped them.
"Wait. I need a favor. My…colleague needs a favor. He's sick again, isn't he? Otherwise you would have stayed for longer."
"Is that…thing a sickness?" Serenica asked.
"I wouldn't call it beneficial, either," Ed said. "You could have warned us that there's a transforming beast of a man running around. Scared us all to death."
"I know, and this is why I am begging you now."
He stopped, as if the words he had used had been shameful somehow, and Serenica got the chance to examine his face.
He was serious about it. He wanted help, perhaps not because of any fear he had for the beast – but the other guard had to be dear to him. The plain anguish on his face was the fear of parenthood, it was the worry of a friend, and Serenica could not bear it. She hated to think of anyone in pain for the sake of love. Her heart was still tender. Pain, he was in pain, and she was a healer.
