The evening was fast approaching but the hour when prodigies were allowed to go back to their apartments seemed miles away. It had been a slow day for Julian, there had merely been a few routine maintenance procedures to perform but otherwise the portals were in top condition. Admittedly he spent most of the day in the lab, studying the particulars of the fever that was currently raging through Uru and claiming lives. There was already sufficient medicine to cure it and to treat the symptoms but Julian was more curious as to where it came from. If there was one thing he had learned in his life, it was the diseases did not come out of nowhere. They all had some origin and could usually be traced back to said roots, however this fever was tough. The symptoms were similar to that of other illnesses that had swept the through the Ages but the particular effect it had on the body was unlike anything Julian had seen before. In truth he had made little progress in discovering the origin of the fever but it was not, in his opinion, a wasted effort for every little piece of information he gained was important to the cause.

Now, however, Julian looked at the clock with apprehension and longing. Having finished his work for the day he was anxious to get out of the lab to pay a long delayed visit to a childhood friend. He knew that she had been in Riven and J'nanin lately collecting shells and comparing their compositions and he was eager to learn what she had discovered. In turn, he had lately been spending any spare time he had in other Ages studying the animals that lived there and he had spent an inordinate amount of time in Uru searching for any evidence of the elusive and mysterious Bahros. He was pleased with his findings and he was sure that Meesha would be able to offer some valuable insight and commentary to his data. It took another five minutes for Julian to decide that no matter the time he had nothing more to offer to the lab or the portals for today and there was no harm in leaving a little early. More than likely no one would notice him leaving, the other prodigies were too caught up in their own work and the Head Scientist had left in a frenzy earlier that afternoon. So Julian left the lap, mounted his bike and started off towards the Memory Chamber and the encampments of the Protectors surrounding it. The sun was well in the process of setting when he finally arrived and he was careful to take a roundabout path that would allow him cover from the watchful eyes of anyone but the protectors. Smiling to himself he headed towards Meesha's tent discarding his bike on the ground and entering through the side.

The Protectors had long learned that Julian was no threat. Once they had treated him like they treated any other stranger who came near there encampment, even as a boy they had intimidated him and questioned him, but they knew now he was worthy to keep Meesha’s secret and that he was healthy for her to have as a companion. Growing up she had only been around adults, it was not healthy for a girl to have no interaction with children and Julian had provided that friendship that she needed to have even some normalcy in her life. Out of all people in Myst along with the Protectors she trusted Julian with her life. She wished so many times that he wasn’t stuck as a Prodigy so he could travel wherever she went and not be tied here doing the dirty work of Uru, but at least she got to see him from time to time, she missed him when she was gone.

At the moment she was sitting upon her bedroll reading, but Meesha could often be caught reading. It was a book she had found in Riven, old and falling apart practically but she had seen it on one of their market days and had to have it. She had traded a watermelon for it, a fruit that did not grow in Riven and had done her best to try and put the book back together well enough to read it normally. It was just a book with old fairytale stories, she believed it came from an Age that now no longer existed, and although it was missing several pages she would never miss the opportunity to read a book she had never read before. When the flap of her tent moved she looked up curiously and grinned to see it was Julian. Putting her book down she got up and quickly jumped at him, throwing her arms around him in a hug “Julian!” She exclaimed happily “I missed you!”

Julian grinned widely as he caught Meesha in his arms and kissed her forehead affectionately. He deeply regretted that his work didn't allow him to see her more often but he hoped that whoever succeeded the current queen of Uru would rule with a kinder and more selfless fist. It wasn't that he hated his job, he actually didn't mind maintaining and fixing portals and he loved that the lab was open to him. Because of it, he had a vast amount of knowledge at his fingertips. No, he didn't mind he job at all, it was the corruption surrounding his job that he minded. It was the cruel way the prodigies were treated and the callous disregard the queen and their other superiors viewed them with. But it was the fact that the prodigies were torn away from friends and family that bothered Julian the most. He felt sympathy for them and resentment towards the governments of Tomahna and Uru for it.

As he pulled away from his old friend, Julian took a moment to look at her and found, to his dismay, that she looked a little worse for wear. Her hair was messy and tangled, there were scratches and scrapes on her arms and legs, and she had a frightened and almost frantic look in her eye as though she were being hunted. He frowned and brushed some of the matted hair from her face and glanced at the scrapes to see if there was anything serious that needed tending to. "What happened?" he asked. "Are you alright?"

She never was good at hiding things; she was an open book that couldn’t lie right even when she wasn’t even saying words. Julian knew her too well and she loved that he knew her so well but even sometimes best friends didn’t want to say everything. She knew telling him what happened was only going to worry him but she knew he should know “I’m alright. I am. Nothing serious” She was still sore from throwing herself off a balcony into water but nothing that was going to kill her. At least he couldn’t see the bruise on her side, that was the worse and made her feel stiff but the Protectors had put some salve on it to try and ease the pain and it seemed to be working so far. The Protectors probably didn’t even want her to tell him what happened, they were ever so secretive, but she told Julian everything and they knew that by now.

She frowned and looked down to the ground for a few moments and she tried to think how she should tell him, fiddling with her hands “I went…I went to Tomahna the other night to use a microscope…I needed one and, and I was trying to be careful…” She just like she had with the Protectors when she told them, like she was a child knowing she would be punished for the mistake she made “And, well, the…the head scientist saw me and got angry. And he chased me. And questioned me…then he was calm and then he got angry again and…it was very confusing but he scared me and then he showed up here saying he wanted to see the Memory Chamber and….I’m really scared” Her voice started strong but the more she spoke the softer and more frightened it became.