Taking his clothes off again was even more painful, as the wet fabric pulled at the cracks in his skin. The maid at least was gentle in her assistance, and fetched a stool for him. Taris sat, acutely aware that he was nearly naked in front of Aera, in her chambers. Were this any other time, he would have been hard pressed not to make a move on the beautiful Raielwen woman. But he just watched as she pulled out a jar, and told him about the first day she walked under the sun and the friend that had given her the salve for her burns. With care, she moved his hair and began rubbing the salve on his back. Between the pleasure of her hands on him, and the soothing effect of the salve, Taris’ eyes slid closed. The maid began on his stomach and his chest while Aera moved on to his arms. The salve was amazing stuff, he could feel his magic sparking under his skin, enhancing the effect ten-fold. Aera went to change her gloves as the maid finished his legs.

“How does it feel?” she asked him. Taris opened his eyes once more, and smiled at her, “Much better, thank you Milady.” He paused a moment, “I was nine the first time I’d even seen light. I was born part of a special group of children to live our lives purely in darkness. But I was a rather reckless child and I defied my master's rules and made my way to the gorge my people had built their city into. I was just lucky it was night at the time I got out of the tunnels. As it was the meager light almost blinded me. I stumbled around for a while before I collapsed against a wall from the pain. That was when a girl named Layne found me. She took me inside, until I could see again, and brought my masters to retrieve me.

“We’d become friends in the few days we’d had together, though, and I kept sneaking out after that to go see her. Without Layne I couldn’t walk in the daylight at all, she worked to help build my tolerance to the light and sun. I didn’t know why at the time, until I asked why she was always willing to spend so much time with me….” His voice faltered, even after all this time it hurt to talk about it. “I’m sorry,” he told Aera with his usual smile, “I’m rambling…”

A roar outside informed them that the Melee had just concluded, leaving only the jousting tournament before the trophies were awarded, and the banquet began. “They’ll be missing you downstairs, won’t they?” he asked.