As he woke from his deep sleep his mother had been caressing his hair, running her strong, slim fingers through his hair. “I’m sorry. Did I wake you?”

“No, of course not. However this is not the time and place to rest.”

“I’d no idea you have been this exhausted or I’d called you tomorrow.”

“Doesn’t matter. How do you feel?”

“Better, actually more awake then these past days,” she added with a reassuringly smile and wake eyes. Then the smile disappeared and her look grew rueful.“My dear son, it seems like just yesterday when we left home for here and you have grown ever so much over these past years. It is time you know why we had no other choice.” She paused awhile, seemingly contemplating her next words carefully. “Do you remember that day your father and I reprimanded you for something that seemed natural to you? The incident with the horse?”

Josserand merely nodded as he did not welcome to remember that day. “You have a talent, awesome in power yet fearsome as well. My dear boy, it is called magic and some who wander this world seem to be able to use it for their purposes. It is completely natural yet only few are gifted as you. It required great concentration and responsibility for with great power comes great danger. Over these years you seemed reluctant to use it, this is good since it should never be more than a last solution. Using magic for vain purposes is a waste and a sin.  You see when a child, born Bretonnian, shows his affinity for the arcane, it is taken away by the Fay.”

The Fay? Josserand thought to himself. The fair folk in legends and myths to scare children into behaving? What have they to do with this? "Led by the fearsome Fay Enchantress they take this children deep into the enchanted forest. What happens there is a mystery for all safe the chosen and they don’t tell. We ran away from your fate a couple of months later.”

“If this is my fate, why?”

“Since the chosen of the Lady, introduced to her secrets and will, are only those of the female gender. Never had a man returned from the forest. I pray you forgive us but we couldn’t let that happen. Ever since that day your father and I had been planning for you and I to escape if she would come to claim you for Her.”

Something finally dawned on Josserand: “That’s why we pray for forgiveness each fortnight. These secluded keep far from life. All this secrecy.”

His mother merely nodded in reply.

“I can’t start to express my gratitude, mother, to you and father for the risks you took. I do not like the sound of those who disappear never to return and thank the Lady, no..., you for this.”

“Your father will arrive with all his household knights next year in order to fulfil your oath of the Errant. Then you will be beyond the grasp of Loren as the damsels hold no power of knights. Prepare for this day, for it will be the day we shall return home at last, my son.” They sat both in thoughts at each other side for a while until the stomach of Josserand protested.