AN: Set sometime after Firebrand, Karigan has just returned. Queen Estora has given birth during her return trip but didn't survive. If you're a fan of Estora…sorry, but I've been on the KxZ train since the battle at Lost Lake…I took a liberty or two with Karigan's magic but not many.

Karigan leaned back in the stiff chair, watching the flames in the fireplace. She was stiff, she was sore. And she was tired. Karigan was a type of tired one feels in their bones, something sleep won't cure. She wasn't sure what would. Maybe nothing would, maybe she'd been through too much…seen too much for her soul to feel like again. So many things had changed in her life. Karigan sighed and shifted in the chair, her back stiff and protesting the movements.

She was healed. As healed as Karigan suspected she'd ever be. She could move, could walk, could ride. Could even do minimal sword play, but her former strength and mobility…only time would tell if that was something she'd get back.

Fegal and Teagan laughed in the corner of the common room, their conversation lost on her but she still noticed them casting her sidelong glances when they thought she wasn't aware. They all did. The new riders had before she'd left, yes. But now, after word of the battle with Second Empire spread even her friends cast more and more sidelong looks at her. Too many of them were filled with pity.

Karigan shifted again, suppressing a sigh of irritation as her back refused to allow her a moment of comfort.

The door opened and shut, Mara's voice filling the common room. "He's sick again."

Karigan turned in her chair to see Mara as she flopped onto the battered sofa. "Who?"

Mara signed, a sympathetic look filled her eyes. "The king. Ever since his return, he's been plagued with bouts of fever. Some worse than others. Ben can't figure out the cause, but thinks its tied to the injury he received on his shoulder."

Karigan frowned, worry ticking at her breath. "What?"

Mara shrugged. "I don't know all the details. I still don't attend his meetings as often as Cap- General Mapstone had."

Karigan nodded absently. The bite. From the demon. "But he recovered after the battle," Karigan spoke softly.

"Something about the wound persists."

Karigan took a shaky breath. They knew nothing about the demons that had attacked them, save their bite killed almost all. She ran a shaking hand over her forehead. She needed to see him, shouldn't, but needed to. What if it was the bite? Karigan needed to know. "Where-"

"Returning to his quarters." Her question was cut off by her former captain's steely voice.

Karigan raised her eyes to the woman as she entered the common room but remained standing near the end of the sofa. She wanted to ask, wanted to say, she was going to see him. The steel in Mapstone's eyes made her pause, but Karigan had been there with him when he'd been ill the first time. She needed to be there this time.

Karigan sighed through her nose. So much had changed between them, everything had changed all the while nothing had. But Estora was gone, many of the castle still in mourning black, and everything had changed in the woods on the battle field. Everything and nothing and Karigan was having a hard time knowing where she stood with him. Where she wanted to stand.

She gripped the arms of her chair to stand. "I'm going-"

"Stay seated." Came the cold reply.

Karigan glanced again up at her old captain, the woman who knew more than Karigan would ever guess and met the stare. "I know what bit him. I may be able to help."

"The healers have read his and your reports."

Around them, Karigan noticed the room had gone quiet, all eyes on them. Slowly, with more anger in her veins than she understood, Karigan released her grip on the chair and leaned back. She understood, of course, where her captain was coming from. Nothing good could come from the two of them together. But- that small part of Karigan, the part that she let have a moment in the snow with the man she wanted, that small part that didn't care about consequences was getting bigger.

She turned away and went back to staring at the flames, not feeling their heat.

"It isn't your place."

Karigan heard the soft words meant to ease the sting of Mapstone's earlier ones and snorted. She wasn't sure where her place was anymore.

Sounds in the hallway, loud scuffles and muffled shouts, brought everyone's attention to the door. Karigan rose from her chair, ignoring the twinges from her back. Laren turned to the door, intent on opening, when it burst open before she reached it. Fastion charged in, dragging a writhing, grunting Zachary, with a second Weapon following and shutting the door.

Karigan was walking forward without noticing. "What happened?" she demanded.

Fastion turned to grip the king who was shouting and mumbling, his eyes glazed with fever and sweat on his brow. "He took a turn without warning. The fever spiked, he started hallucinating. This room was the closest."

"Somebody get Ben!" Laren shouted.

"Fight! We must fight! They are everywhere!" Zachary shouted, his eyes whipping back and forth over things not seen.

Karigan was to him without thinking, her hands on his hot face. "You are home," she was saying to him. "You are safe, Zachary. You aren't fighting anyone."

Zachary gave a guttural scream and pulled free of Fastion's grip. Karigan threw her arm across his chest, gripping his arm, to stop him from falling. "Zachary stop!"

His momentum pushed them back and they fell to the floor in a heap, Karigan landing hard against the front of the sofa on her back. A scream burst through her lips at the sharp pain that flared across her spine. Fastion was in front of them, trying to grab Zachary's arms when the king lurched forward. Karigan leaned forward and threw her arms around the king, pulling him back against her chest. His skin was hot through his clothes, as she held him to her.

"Zachary I am here!"

"We are not safe!"

Karigan wrapped her arm around his chest, ran her other through his damp hair. "I'm here. We are safe." She spoke into his ear, tucked his head against her chest.

"Kari?" He whispered, calmed his movements. His heart beat in his chest and Karigan felt it in hers.

"Mmmh." She hummed and shushed him, rocking slightly, still running her fingers through his hair. "We are not fighting. We are safe."

He panted, but stilled against her. His hand found hers on his chest and gripped it hard enough to make her wince.

Fastion knelt in front of them, his face more strained than normal. "Ben is coming."

Karigan nodded.

"Karigan?" his voice was so confused, his breath coming so fast.

"Yes, love. I'm here. Ben is coming."

More weapons filed in the room, and Karigan could hear the other riders shifting nervously behind her. Karigan dropped her hand from his hair to his injuried shoulder and felt something throb, something that shouldn't be in their world. She pressed her fingers into his skin feeling for what shouldn't be. Zachary groaned and Karigan shushed him.

"What is happening?" Zachary whispered.

Karigan saw Laren stepped in front of them, giving Karigan a stern eye but not speaking. "You've a fever. Something to do with your shoulder. Ben is coming, though. Don't worry."

Zachary squeezed her hand against his chest, his skin hot and flushed.

The door to the common room burst open, Ben rushing in and falling to the ground next to them. "How did this happen?" he demanded while pulling the king's shirt open.

"His shoulder, Ben." Karigan spoke urgently. "There is something that shouldn't be."

Ben looked at her askance but didn't question her. He pulled Zachary's shirt away from his shoulders. The wound was red, inflamed, and when Karigan touched her fingers to the scars they burned. Zachary groaned at the touch and she pulled her hand away, returned it to his hair.

Ben cursed and poked around the wound. "What is it? Where?"

Karigan touched her finger gingerly to the reddest space of the scars. "Here, I think…" she swallowed and met Ben's eyes. "I think it may be part of a tooth."

His eyes widened. "Reports said he was bit by…"

Karigan stayed silent and met his worries eyes.

"And you think there's a piece of tooth…" his eyes returned to the painful wound.

Zachary began to struggle anew, and Karigan hushed into his ear, put her cool hand against his hot head. "Hush, you are fine."

"This can't be real," he huffed and turned his face into her neck. "You would not be here if it were real."

Karigan felt tears clog her throat. She ran her thumb across his knuckles, where his hand gripped hers in a death grip. "Well," she had to stop and swallow before she could speak again. "I am. Now let Ben work."

Ben pulled a knife from his bag and met Karigan's eyes. "I need to remove it. You'll need to hold him still."

"Here?" Laren's voice cut through the tension in the room.

"I don't want to move him," was Ben's distracted answer as he lowered the knife to Zachary's shoulder. He met Karigan's eyes and lowered the blade to where she'd pointed.

"You'll know it when you find it, Ben."

He screamed when the blade cut into his skin. Karigan's arms tightened around him. Her hand on his forehead kept his head against her chest, his hand crushing hers. Ben worked quietly, and efficiently, looking for the chip of demon tooth buried in the king's flesh.

She could feel it, throbbing and pulsating, like a thing trying to break free. Maybe it was her connection to the God of Death, maybe it was her ability to walk between layers of the world. Maybe it was for some other reason entirely, bur Karigan could feel when Ben's blade drew close.

Zachary groaned and writhed against her, and Karigan felt tears dampen her shirt collar. She buried her nose against his hair and gasped with Ben when he pulled the tooth out. The thing glistened black, even as the blood dripped from it.

"The fire, Ben." Karigan growled.

The wide-eyed, Ben jolted and tossed the thing into the fire. It hissed and spit sparks as it burned. Zachary sagged against her, his breath coming in a long puff. Ben turned back to Zachary and peered into his eyes.

"Do you know where you are?"

Zachary grunted and rolled his head gently to look around. "Rider commons," he whispered

Karigan let out a sigh and her eyes drifted up to Laren's as she frowned down at them. Ben started cleaning Zachary's shoulder.

"I'll bind this then we can move him to the mending wing so I can look at it further."

Zachary relaxed his hold on her hand, but only slightly. "Kari? Tell me what has happened." His voice was hoarse and shaky.

Karigan ran her hand through his hair. "The bite on your shoulder, there was a…complication. But Ben's sorted everything out now."

"Mmmh, has he? And you're here?"

Karigan nodded against his hair, pressed her lips against his head. "Yes. Soon as he's finished you're off to the mending wing."

He hummed again. "You'll follow?" he asked softly.

She nodded against his hair and he squeezed her hand.

Ben knotted off the last of the binding and stood. "Now, sire, if you can walk…"

Fastion stepped forward, and together with Ben, helped the king to his feet. Zachary leaned heavily on Fastion as they shuffled their way out. Ben turned to Karigan, still sprawled on the floor against the sofa. He held his hands out and Karigan held back a cry of pain as she was pulled up.

"Do you need me to look at-"

"No," she cut him off, though she thought it would be a good idea, it could wait. It will wait. Karigan held back a wince as she turned toward the door to follow Ben.

A hand landed on her arm and Karigan looked up into Laren's eyes. "Karigan," her voice thick with warning.

Karigan shrugged the woman's hand off her arm and continued.

"Do not follow."

Karigan turned and faced the woman and, not caring for those who watched, not caring for the reprimand she might receive, shook her head. "No," she said firmly. "I will follow."

"It is not your place."

Karigan glared and turned away. "It is my place."

She would follow him to the mending wing. She would be there till the fever breaks, just like before. And…she decided sometime while holding his fever wracked body and her voice bringing him some sort of peace, she would be there after.

This is my first go at fanfic...so be kind. I'm not sure if I want to continue this, give me your thoughts.