Roic timed the seizure—it was a long one, suggesting m'lord had been pushing the limit.  Roic was used to the rolled-back eyes, the weird grimace, and the shivering, but he doubted he'd ever be quite reconciled to the strange absence of that driving personality animating the face.  In due course, the neural storm passed, and m'lord lay slack, his eyes opening again on the universe as though his gaze recreated it.

"God, I hate this," he muttered.  His standard mantra at this point.

"Yes, m'lord," Roic soothed.  His standard response.

"I'll be useless for the rest of the night even if I do get slept out.  And tomorrow as well."

"I'll bring you coffee."

"Thanks, Roic."  M'lord rolled over and drew up the covers, surrendering at last to the demands of his depleted body.  Muffled into the pillow, almost inaudibly, "F'r everythin' . . ."

Roic shook his head and tiptoed off to find his own bunk.

#

Jin blinked open sore eyes in the semi-darkness of his sister Minako's tiny bedroom, then bit his lip on a groan.  He'd meant to stay awake, outwait and maybe outwit his captors, but the exhaustion of the past day had betrayed him.  He sat up on his elbow.  A nightlight low on the wall shed a dim pink glow, but the room lacked a clock.  It was still full dark outside, and the muffled rumble of Uncle Hikaru's snores sounded through the thin walls of the next room, so everyone else was asleep, but it could be any hour from midnight to near-dawn.

He swung bare legs out from under the covers of the narrow futon.  Aunt Lorna had put him to bed in his underwear, since his cousin Tetsu's pajamas had been too big, and his cousin Ken's too small.  His own clothes she had hauled away to wash, or maybe burn, she'd said, since there was no telling where they'd been.  Jin sure wasn't telling, anyway.

Hopelessly, he went to the window and tried the lock.  It unlatched, but the window only slid aside about three centimeters.  Uncle Hikaru had climbed up on a borrowed ladder, after the argument at dinner, and blocked the window groove with a rod.  Jin could just curl his fingers around the frame, but couldn't get his hand through.  He wasn't going to be able to repeat his escape of last year.