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After spending a few days at Mi'ihen's wonderful castle, it became a goal for the siblings to get Istvan to stop jumping at everyone.

Though he was outwardly calm, the young man obviously had some issues to deal with - and not the least of them was to stop trying to kill anything that got closer than 'across the room' from him.

"Istvan, are you coming to dinner with us tonight? The dining hall is really fancy. Not like the college or our dorms at Windresh." Alexander suggested, softly.

He watched as Istvan tilted his head, then slumped his shoulders. "All right..." He sighed. "I will go," he said without any excitement.

Alexander's eyebrows shot up, he wasn't actually expecting him to accept the invitation. "It's this way. Since you keep yourself holed up in here all the time, we got out and explored."

Istvan grunted, standing, and his expression did not change in the slightest, as he walked silently to his old friend's side.

"... Rey's already there, I think she's picking our seats. Remember when we used to go exploring in the woods? And you found that gulley?"

While they walked, Istvan said nothing. He nodded slightly, but remained his typical reserved, grim, self.

They arrived to the dining hall, and true to form, Rey had already scored their seats. The room was elegant, large, and probably one of the first to have been finished in the new Castle. It was filled with the soft hum of people talking, laughing, and clinking of silverware upon dishes.

The smell of roast, spiced vegetables and freshly baked rolls came to Alexander's nose and he inhaled the smells with gusto. He noticed that Istvan was either cringing, or trying not to breathe.

"What's the matter?" He asked, and Rey waved her arm impatiently from across the room, waiting for them with her own plate already piled high.

"It ... I do not eat very much, told you already... It is very loud in here, for me. But - it does smell good. It has been a long time since I... had this much food in front of me and permission to eat it."

Alexander furrowed his eyebrows in concern, as Istvan walked toward the serving table. A plate was handed to him, which he accepted without flinching. Apparently his urge to eat had momentarily conquered his fear of people. He took only small portions of everything offered, and a glass for water. Alexander was more tempted to take a lot - but tempered himself unconsciously. Two rolls instead of three...

"You made it out of that room," Reynate smiled. "Nice to see you in better light."

Istvan somehow found it difficult to reply with something about how he'd been able to see perfectly well in the dark of his room, but he managed. He flickered a half smile over his thin lips, and sat down next to her, with Alexander on his other side. They correctly assumed that he would feel safer that way.

Eating mostly in silence, the trio was stared at only as much as anyone would normally do so to Aspirants. Everyone knew who the Aspirants of this small clutch were, so they kept tabs on them. There were not all that many people around, really, for a Castle. But Istvan was still rather jumpy, even with a belly full of well-cooked meat and tasty breads.

"Did you maybe want to see the nest we're going to stand at?" Reynate asked. "The mother is quite protective, but it's getting close to time to view them anyway. The hatching might even be soon."

"I cannot see why I must," Istvan said. "I am hardly fit to pair with anything."

"But you've been Judged, and some day you might pair, just like us. I'm excited about it," Rey said, in that jibing tone that she used to use long ago. It would normally have made Istvan irate enough to conquer whatever it was that he was balking at doing.

What it did now, was cause him to visibly deflate into a submissive, tame state, and say, "all right, I will go with you. I ..." He lowered his gaze again, looking at the remains of his meal. "Julian taught me that Draks were monsters. Fierce, man-eating things." He looked up and met the hard gazes that the nearby Knights gave him at that, and he clearly heard the protests that were muttered under the Knights' breath. "But I know better. We used to wait for them to come through Windresh, I remember. Too few of them did, really, because I think if I'd seen more of them then, I would have questioned his 'lessons' about them."

"Man-eating?" Alexander said, taking their plates, "that's insane. Draks never assaulted a human, in our entire history on the planet."

"History was never my strongest subject," Istvan said.

They left the dining hall and wound their way down to the deepest of the caverns - where a warm blast of air met them and they heard voices. The mother of the clutch was there, of course, but also her mate and their Knights. Istvan almost froze at the entrance, but they were beckoned inside by the Knights. It turned out that even Istvan knew that the woman who rode the dam was the High Princess of the Castle - Cywen.

"Ssso there you are," said Water Zaythiel from her mound of hot sand. "I will want sssome privacy for my hatching, sssoon."

The eggs were magical for Alex and Rey. Less so, obviously, for Istvan. There was something clawing at the back of his mind, the whole time he was there. Something that he felt would condemn him to a misery he couldn't yet concieve.

***

When the High Princess announced she'd been shooed out of the Deep hatching Cavern, she made a point of gathering the Judged Aspirants. There were seven, and only six eggs - and it was always possible that more than one egg either might not hatch, or might not bond at all. She examined the Aspirants as they came in, while her drak was busy watching her eggs hatch.

When the time finally came, Zaythiel moved the young hatchlings into the main room where the Aspirants were standing. With an excited hush, the few people present were able to watch as they were examined by the hatchling Draks.

There were some extremely strange people - and dragons - at this hatching. Istvan remained as far from them as he could. Even Alex and Rey stayed clear of the two headed dragon which bonded a night and a day drak - how very odd.

The prize of the hatching, apparently, was a beautiful mutation - a fire opal. She paired eventually, but that was after a male Fire drak insisted upon being named and sent to the Aspirants. He was called Gwaelyn, and his mother told him, "you sshall be Gwaelyn, little flame of impatiensse."

He bounded over to Reynate. It was no surprise to her brother, or to most of the others assembled in the cavern, that she bonded a bold Fire like this. "They took forever, didn't they?" the drak muttered, his voice soft but bright - brighter to Reynate because she could hear the echo of the words in her mind as well. "I know you wanted to be a Peassekeeper," he said, matter of factly, "Now I think there'ss a different kind of peasse to keep."

The little drak looked at Istvan, followed by Rey's eyes, and then they returned to each other's. The fire opal paired, and a few moments later a Rain drak insisted she be named - right after she ran headlong and pounced into her pair.

Then, a quiet voice asked the dam a moment after the Rain had been named, "and mine?"

The Night male, patient and reserved, waited as his mother told him, "Khymelyn, I think."

The last of the clutch looked at the pair of young men - Istvan and Alexander - and chose Alexander. Suiting his personality was important, and Istvan was obviously not right for him. He walked up to Alexander, who was thrilled - but he was also worried, and that worry was a subject that the pair thought intensely about.

Istvan watched this with an air of pained wonder. His friends were happy - it was plainly obvious, and it was as it should be. They'd been Paired to two fantastically beautiful young Draks. But it left Istvan ... alone? Yet again.

No surprise to him. He knew he wasn't set out for this, it was just not time. He was still thinking about how much it would hurt him to have to share anything more, after having had everything he was ripped away from him... When Alex and Rey and their lovely hatchlings came up to Istvan, they had little to say.

"Your trainers will be wanting to talk to you," Istvan said. He tossed his head and turned away.

The transport chief of the Castle, Drendari, would be helping Alexander out in his training. Her forest drak was well suited to the job as well.

"Oh!" Said Reynate with a little surprise, as the High Prince Daon approached her as her trainer. "This is quite an honor, sire."

"I know," Daon said with a grin.

Reynate was sure this was going to turn out great, for her training...