He suddenly realized that the thing he was hugging was moving just a little. This realization brought him wide awake.

He stared at Zylvia's sleeping form blankly for a minute. Had he rolled over on top of her? He was glad she wasn't awake yet as that would have been embarra.s.sing. Moving carefully he got off of her and laid on his side facing her.

Her red locks were spread all over the pillow. The way it was sprawled all over reinforced the a.s.sociation with fire that Kaldrek had always found himself making. He reached out a hand and picked up one of her strands of hair, wondering if it would burn him. He was just a little surprised when it didn't. Instead it was cool to the touch. He rubbed it between his fingers absentmindedly and closed his eyes.

He could smell her peculiar scent, which was one of the proofs of her odd bloodline. He frowned softly. She obviously had a magical bloodline, but hadn't yet had any conscious realizations about it. He could only a.s.sume this was because of the nature of her bloodline.

She did not have a normal bloodline. While she could probably learn spells once she realized she had the potential, her bloodline seemed to be of a pa.s.sive nature. But he could sense the vast amount of manna she had. In fact, she was br.i.m.m.i.n.g over with it. It was really because of this that he had first noticed her potential, as she was almost like a storage unit of power.

Her bloodline seemed to be of a supplementary nature. It boosted other spell casters, and even helped replenish manna if they were close enough. Take last night for instance, at most he should have recovered thirty percent of his manna back and yet he was already up to ninety.

This made him feel a little bit guilty because she had no idea about this, so it felt a little bit like stealing. And yet he couldn't tell her because if she hasn't realized yet it was highly probable she wasn't ready yet. And if she wasn't ready yet it could hurt her to make her suddenly aware of it. At least her bloodline didn't seem to be hurting her. Of course he would keep an eye on her to make sure of this.

He realized that he still had her lock of hair in his hand as he shook himself out of his thoughts. He let it fall from his hands, as he looked at her sleeping form. She looked so innocent when she was asleep. Almost vulnerable. It made his resolve to protect her feel all the more needed.

He grinned and shook his head as he got out of bed. He quickly got dressed for the day, being careful to not be loud, so that he didn't wake up Zylvia.

After getting dressed, he sat back on the bed, crossed his legs and closed his eyes. Then he focused himself inward. He mentally coiled his energy and reset some of his pa.s.sive magic.

"What are you doing?" Zylvia's voice broke into his concentration.

Managing to keep his progress from slipping, he answered the girl, "Meditating."

She fell silent and he felt the bed s.h.i.+ft a little as he heard her get up.

He went back to focusing his magical energies. When he opened his eyes, Zylvia had just finished getting dressed and was reaching for her hairbrush.

"Do you want any help," Kaldrek asked as he got off of the bed.

"Sure." Zylvia handed her brush to him, "And then I can see if I can do anything about your hair."

He had her sit on her chair as he started to run her brush through her rather long hair. It didn't take him very long to finish this task. He picked up a green ribbon off of her dresser and tied it to her hair.

"There." He said patting his work happily, "All finished."

"Alright, now you." She smiled as she forced him to sit down.

His hair was every bit as untidy as it normally looked. Zylvia couldn't actually do anything about it. After struggling with it for a while she gave up. "Your hair really refuses to behave."

"I've noticed." Kaldrek stood up, "Ready for the day?"

"Yep," She put the brush back on her dresser. The two of them left their bedroom in order to start their day.