Dave sits up and lets out another scream as he snaps awake. “He’s just having a nightmare,” James says to the crowd who’s gathered at his door. “Go back to bed.”

“Thought someone was dying in here,” comments Jiron as he leaves the room, shutting the door behind him.

Dave’s eyes dart around for several moments as if he’s not aware of where he is. Slowly, his breathing begins calming down and his eyes settle on James. “You okay?” James asks.

“Yeah,” he says, voice quavering. James can still feel him shaking from whatever nightmare he just experienced. “Thought I was somewhere else for a minute.”

“Where?” James inquires.

Turning his eyes to James, he says very quietly, “I don’t know. It’s fading.”

“That’s the way with some dreams,” says his friend. “Just try to go back to sleep.”

“I’ll try,” replies Dave.

What happened to him in the Empire must’ve really screwed him up. Worry about his friend keeps James from falling asleep for awhile, but eventually he makes it.

The next morning, he wakes up before Dave and gets dressed quietly so as not to wake him. Going to the kitchen, Ezra prepares a plate of food and sets it before him on the table.

From where she’s cleaning up at the washbasin, she asks, “How is your friend?”

“Alright, I guess,” he says. “Did he disturb you last night?”

“I think he disturbed everyone last night,” she replies.

“Sorry about that,” he apologizes. “He went through a bad time in the Empire.”

“I understand,” she says.

He eats in silence and when he’s through tells her that he’ll be out in his workshop should anyone need him.

Once out the back door, he sees where Illan has the recruits doing morning exercises as they begin their daily drill. Glad he’s not one of them, he walks across to his workshop and goes inside.

The sack of crystals Delia brought is sitting atop his workbench. He checks and finds them similar to the ones she brought before. Next he goes over and makes sure the receiver crystal isn’t aglow. A glow would indicate someone or something has disturbed the hiding place of the Fire. He’d hate to think what that would mean. Satisfied it has remained undisturbed, he goes back to the problem of what he learned in Saragon.