Takeo started slowly, but then his stories took off. Before she knew it, Trinity was being bombarded with her past. First it was stories of her childhood then it was her training. Then he talked about her parents and of how proud of her they were and how they had known how powerful she was. Then he talked about magic and war and the evil king that had taken over the realm and wished to end all magic. She had stopped listening a little while ago. When his stories came to an end, she had only one question for him. "When you talked about my parents, you used only past tense. Was that a mistake or..." She didn't need to finish her sentence.

Takeo went pale again and looked at his hands. "They died, Trinity, long ago." He looked up to face her again. "You never really got over it, and you have never wanted to be princess, but you are capable of it, I know it."

"How?" she asked.

"How, what?"

"How did they die." She didn't remember her parents at all, but she wanted to know what happened now so she wouldn't be in so much shock if her memories came back.

He sighed and interlocked his fingers, his right thumb rubbing his left aggressively, "You were fourteen. It was right about the time the king conquered everything. He wanted to make sure that he was the only one left with magic. It was the best way to create fear. He sent out his army to slaughter those with magic, even those from his own kingdom. They raided your town and killed those that tried to protest. They murdered your parents. They both were very powerful, but instead of fighting back, they were only worried about keeping you safe. They stalled so I could get you out.

"I don't have magic, but when I saw what was happening, I ran over to your hut as fast as I ever had before. Your parents made me take you far away. I had to carry you kicking and screaming. You saw them, the second I was out the door the army came into your tent. You saw them kill your mother. You were out of the tent before you saw them do the same to your father. You went limp and I had to carry you for weeks. You never fully described to me how your mother was murdered, only parts of it."

He took a deep breath, "Eventually we ran into the rebellion. If we had been any later, we both would have starved. They took us in and raised us, they trained us to become a part of the rebellion against the king, but they could never train you to use your magic. It was too dangerous for anyone to have magic, for it was rumored that the king could smell magic from ten miles away, and would do whatever he could to eliminate it.

"I, however, did try and teach you how to use it. You were more powerful than I have ever known was possible. Most shapeshifters could only shift into three or four different creatures, but you... for you it was a different creature every time you shifted." He looked up at her with tears in his eyes. She pretended not to notice, "We were really close, before all of this happened, and one thing lead to another. You were thirteen when I first kissed you and I have never let you out of my sight since then. I was raised to be your protector, but I grew to be something more." He gave her a shy smile. He was trying his best to not scare her away.

"How did my mom die?" Her voice cracked.

"Trinity..."

"Tell me." She barked.

Takeo looked back down at his feet, "You told me that there were five men on her and before she even knew what was happening, three of the men attacked. One cut open your mother's chest while the other cut down her wrist. You said the last one waited for her to cry out before he attacked," His eyes teared up, "but you never described it to me. You always stop there. You told me that they held your father to his knees and made him watch. I heard their screams, it was the worst thing I had ever heard."

"How did we end up here?" Her voice was hoarse from keeping back tears of her own. She was starting to remember that night of the raids and didn't want to think about it any more than she had to.

He met her gaze and tried to smile, "I honestly am not sure, I was hoping that you could tell me when we woke up. The king had finally found our hideout and sent men for us. The leader of the rebellion warned us that we had to leave, so we did. We tried to hide, but it was no use. One minute we had found ourselves trying to escape the king's army, backed up against a wall, the next we were falling through a portal. Then we ended up here. On the way down you hit your head pretty badly on a rock. You have been asleep for about five days now. I thought maybe you formed the portal or something. Can you remember anything?"

She shook her head, "No, I hardly remember a thing." And that was the truth. She barely remembered Takeo at all and the only other thing she slightly remembered was her parents' deaths. She knew nothing of shapeshifting or of an evil king. What she did know was that she was starving.

Takeo must have been able to read her mind because he said, "It's been a long day, how about we go back to the room and order some room service?" He stood up and held out his hand for her to take.

She took a step around his hand and said, "I could use something to eat." Takeo's hand dropped to his side and nodded, indicating for her to follow. She immediately felt bad for avoiding his hand, he fell silent and rigid.

They took the elevator on the way up and their trip was mostly wordless. Takeo was giving her time to think about what he had told her and it looked like he was trying to piece together something himself. She wondered what was going through his head and if any of it had to do with her.

They made it back to the room where Trinity flopped on the bed. She was grateful to be back inside. Takeo ordered some room service and five minutes later, it was at their door.

Trinity could not recall a time where she had eaten so much so quickly; that being said, she could hardly recall anything at all. I guess five days of sleeping takes a lot out of you. Takeo had hardly taken a bite of the meal before it was all in her stomach, but he never protested. Trinity was well aware that he had been staring at her the whole time, but she didn't care, she was too tired to care.

Later that night, neither of them had spoken one word to the other. Takeo fell fast asleep in the other bed. She knew he was trying to give her space, but she couldn't shake the feeling that she had hurt him in some way by not remembering him. That was the least of her worries though; the whole night she was up, thinking about what Takeo had told her, about her parents, magic, the king, his army, and the portal. She couldn't sleep no matter how tired she actually was, tossing and turning for hours. It was about four in the morning when she finally fell into a deep sleep.