"Wait here and don't leave without me," Desden had told him. That had been hours ago.

Now he was crouched in an alleyway struggling to decide if it would be safer to leave. The pounding of his head, endless since Desden had shown him some of his memories, had risen to a crescendo as he continued to wait in the old alley only a few streets away from the healer's guild house.

Where was Desden? He'd decided to move them both to a new location just to be safe before they...they...

Reiden swallowed. Before they began the next stage of Desden's—of his brother's?—plan. The word still felt strange. Reiden shook his head, not rejecting the connection but avoiding claiming it for now. Desden had said he'd gotten as far as he could using what skill he had, even going as far as to consult a sorceress who had made a powerful spell involving memories. What was it called? Disastrous Daydreams? No, Mutilated Memories. That was it. But Des had said the spell wasn't a direct fit. He needed those healer notes.

The problem was what it would take to get them.

Reiden swallowed again. He slumped back down behind the crate Desden had left him by and clutched his stomach, trying to physically hold the cramping at bay. No, no, he couldn't do this. Reiden stood and began walking away. His steps landed against the ground smooth and firm. That firmness left him a few minutes later when he broke out into a run.

Nothing chased him yet Reiden ran like flames were licking the bottoms of his shoes. He ran to escape his brother's burning gaze, he ran to be free of the sweltering summer heat, but most of all, he ran to rid himself of the fire that choked his head.

He ran to forget. The memories found him anyway.

Hunger. Not the sharp bite of a missed meal but the dull ache that came from constantly never having enough to eat. The too-big eyes of his brother staring back at him. "Where's Ma?" he asked even as something behind his wide gaze broke at the answer he already knew.

Dormaeus told him it was just the two of them now and that it always would be.

Reiden gasped. He crumpled to the ground mid-step and clung to the steps of the building he'd landed by. He rubbed his face but the image of that slight, hungry Desden remain visible even behind his eyelids. Before the walk through his memories, Reiden had never seen the glimpses so clearly. Something had changed. His head pounding like a battering ram on a door, hammering out that image of Desden again. Des... He'd promised, or at least Dormaeus had promised they'd stay together. What had happened?

Reiden pulled Laryssa's handkerchief out of his pocket, falling into an old habit forged by long, lonely nights spent staring out the window of his cramped rented room and praying that someone, anyone out there was missing and searching for him. Desden hadn't been who he'd had in mind.

His thumb stroked the faded embroidery before he brought the material to his nose and inhaled it like the most addictive of substances. Memories washed over him gently.

"I love you."

"You shouldn't."

"I know." Her voice was soft as a breeze. It slipped through the night and took his heart with it.

Reiden shuddered as the words wafted over him like the perfume's scent. He stumbled to his feet. The street swam before him. Where was he again?

The buildings before him stretched and shrunk, swimming before his eyes worse than the memories from Desden's spell. He cast his eyes around aimlessly but his feet drove themselves toward a purpose. There was something close by. Something important. Something he'd forgotten.

He wandered for both a while and a moment, bumping into strangers on the street and watching them morph into fevered faces he could almost recall. A man's voice coolly commanded that he pay his debt in sweat and coin and blood. It faded into an ordinary merchant's shout. A woman called out his name—Dormaeus's name—sweetly before twisting into a scream that curdled his blood.

He ran the way a bird might fly to escape a net. Bodies bumped against him, both real and unreal, memory and reality and he didn't stop to discern which. Trapped in some twisted bard's tale, Reiden ran and Dormaeus ran behind him. He was a dockworker and a wizard, a brother and a loner, a lover and a mur—

Reiden's feet stopped without warning. He blinked at the building before him, but it remained sturdy and stable like a tree in a storm. I know this place, he thought.

The building was long and squatted and made of chipped, brown stone. A similarly chipped wall circled it, with a low wooden gate that came to his chest blocking the entrance. A bright yellow door stood out against the chipped stone of the building beyond. The paint gleamed, almost making up for its plain surroundings. Children chattering and shrieking in play could be heard from just out of sight.

A sign was at his right but Reiden knew the place without reading. This was an orphanage.

Three things hit him all at once.

One. The yellow was wrong. The door should have been a dingy blue.

Two. He had been here before.

And three—

"I left something here," he muttered to himself. Something precious and important. His chest ached, the reawakening of an old pain. Dormaeus grasped his shirt at the same time he finally grasped the memory.

"I'm—I'm just waiting here until you come back, right?" Des asked. He was older now but his dark eyes were still as wide as a small child's and his bottom lip trembled. "Right?"

Dormaeus reached out to ruffle his hair, but Desden shoved him away. "We're supposed to stick together! Just the two of us!" His eyes swam with betrayal. "We're the Carrow Brothers. You can't leave me."

Reiden tried to shake the face of Desden from his mind but his final words reached out and grabbed him. Dormaeus, not Desden, had said them originally. The first time had been playful.

"You can't leave me yet," Dormaeus said teasingly, pulling her in and pressing another kiss against the soft skin of her neck.

Laryssa—Laryssa! That name alone sent Reiden into shivers—laughed at his attempts to keep her before breaking the pure, sweet spell she'd cast over him, bring him back to reality. "You know you have to let me go." She rose from her spot on their picnic blanket.

Dormaeus finally released her hand. "I'll find a way we won't have to let go. Just you wait."

"Promise?"

"Promise."

The second time had been desperate.

"You can't leave me!" Dormaeus shouted, grasping her hand like a lifeline.

Tears had turned Laryssa's eyes red. She clenched her fists and shouted. "You told me you were done with that life! I trusted you!"

Dormaeus's chest felt like it was going to fold in on itself. She didn't understand. There had to be a way he could explain... "Please just listen—"

"Dormaeus?" The voice wasn't Laryssa's.

"Dormaeus!" Someone shouted beside his ear and shook him hard. Reiden tried to cling to the dream-like image but the memory had already been swept away.

Reiden jolted out of the haze he'd been trapped in. He blinked, taking in Desden's reflection-like face above him. Desden let out a cry of relief and jerked him into an embrace. "I thought you'd left me again," he whispered so softly Reiden wasn't sure he was supposed to have heard it. Desden half-shook, half-dragged him up. "I told you to wait for me!" he growled, eyes flashing in anger.

"You'd been gone for hours!" Reiden snapped back.

"Thing got complicated." Desden released him. "How'd you get here?"

"I felt... I started seeing..." Reiden turned back toward the orphanage. "We've been here before, haven't we?"

Desden didn't reply. He stared at the building like he could burn it with his eyes. "Time to get moving."

"But this place—"

"It won't matter once I get everything fixed!" Desden shouted. He swallowed like a man drinking something unpleasant and tugged on Reiden's sleeve. "Do you want to remember or not?"

Reiden looked back at the house. He thought about Desden's plan, about the rage behind his eyes. Then he thought of the glimpses he'd seen of Laryssa. He'd promised he wouldn't let go. They'd felt so happy. What had happened to them? Reiden's thumb stroked the embroidered handkerchief again. He tucked it in his pocket. "I'm ready."

Desden gave him a harsh, sharp smile. "Good. Let me tell you who we're hunting."

*********************

Author's Note: *collapses into exhausted puddle* Is it my finest work? No. Am I surrounded by boxes at our new house? Yes. Did I finish the chapter anyway? Yes, yes I did. *fist pump* Another Reiden chapter! Complete with more flashbacks. Anyone have any theories about what Reiden remembered? Will he go through with helping Desden? Will Feyla and Sedgewick ever be adorable together again? Let me know what you think in the comments!