"Star?" Sleep glazed the boy's eyes, refusing to be blinked away, clinging to his expression even as Lumen balled his hands into fists and pawed at his eyes.

"Lumen," I said quietly, shifting so that my own body lifted into a sitting position. "Are you okay, rat?"

Lumen had been sick for the last three days. Between burning up and vomiting, as well as releasing other bodily fluids in which I had wanted no part in cleaning, he had seemed to decline greatly, almost to the point that I had let Jonathan persuade me to call in a doctor. I hadn't; the boy, as I predicted, got better on his...