Boy of Light and Dust

Dayin

Though Ica had told him to go back to his room before he'd disappeared with Max in his arms, Dayin didn't immediately head back toward the fifth floor. He found himself warily retracing their steps back to the classroom he and Ica had been training in, wondering if they'd somehow missed something in their worried state.

He didn't find anything, to his disappointment. He was under the same impression as Ica, that someone had put Max to sleep, rather than Max randomly falling asleep in the hallway. Dayin didn't know Max well enough to say whether it was normal behavior for him, but it had clearly terrified Ica. And that had made Dayin worry.

He couldn't explain why Ica set him off the way he did. Dayin had never had friends, so he had no experience in how to respond to someone else's dismay. But he'd never imagined that he'd be so concerned just because Ica was upset. But, he supposed that's what friends were for; helping and understanding when nobody else does.

Dayin did slowly make his way back to the fifth floor after giving up on finding clues about Max's mysterious nap in the hall. He didn't necessarily want to be back there; he hadn't been able to sleep well in days, but there was nowhere else to go this late at night.

As he closed his door behind him, he slowly imagined himself building up his wall around him, as Ica had suggested he do, just to practice one more time before he went to sleep. Only, as he put the last brick in place, something felt... Off. Earlier, when he'd practiced putting his shield up, once it was complete, he felt safe. Now... He didn't. It felt like someone was watching him like it had felt when he'd woken to Riverton burning before William had whisked him away.

His golden gaze flickered around the unfurnished living space. He took an unsteady step backward and nearly tripped over his own feet, trying to reach back at the doorknob to leave his room again. He slammed the door shut behind him, his heart racing as he turned toward the other doors down the hallway. "Ica!" he yelled, hoping that it would be enough to at least get someone's attention, even if it wasn't Ica.

For a moment, there was no sign that anyone had heard him, and he took a silent step away from his door, hoping that whoever, whatever, was in his room didn't follow him into the hallway. Someone down the hall pulled their door open. Dayin didn't bother to look and see who it was as he warily backed away from his door.

"Why are you yelling?" said the sleepy voice of who Dayin was pretty sure was Jensen, but he wasn't sure until he looked over his shoulder to see that it was Jensen. Finn's and Jensen's voices sounded too similar.

"Someone is in my room," Dayin said, the words catching in his throat. Had the Turned warlocks already found him? They couldn't—

"Dayin?" came a second voice. Ica.

Dayin turned to face Jensen and Ica, letting the shield he'd put up on himself fall. "There's someone in my room," he said quietly, with a side glance at his door.

Ica, who had looked exhausted only moments before, now looked horrified and very wide awake. "I... Thought there was someone in my room earlier," he said as he bit his lip. "Jensen. Get Finn and Samantha."

Jensen grumbled something under his breath that sounded like, "Sam," before he went back into his room, leaving his door slightly ajar.

"I'm going to get Max. Stay right here," Ica said, his voice urgent. He disappeared back through his door, returning only seconds later, with Max by his side, looking sleepy, though it was apparent that Max had been awake before Ica had retrieved him. "We need to go see William," he said quietly to Jensen as he slipped back through his doorway, with his twin and sister following at his heels. "Get Alexander and Chloe up."