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"Why..." Shalafi began, then nodded softly. "My sight. I had originally thought it was a defect I'd had since summoning, but I was wrong."

Yeande looked away at that, a bit guiltily. "I'm afraid that was caused by a mistake on the part of Youko and I. When his bloom first arrived, we set it out in the sun, thinking that the bloom would do well. He remembered Aileron and Gogol's pale blooms doing well there. Unfortunately, he had no idea that Shalafi was an ice Feien at the time, or that his colouring would make him as sensitive to light as he is."

Nodding stiffly, Shalafi didn't say anything more on the subject. It was still a sore spot for him, but he was loathe to blame his bonded for what seemed to be a reasonable assumption.

Both feien turned towards him then, mixed shock on their faces. "You mean... it wasn't because of us?" Yeande ventured softly, a bit hopeful that she could stop feeling guilty over the blind feien's disability.

This put a new spin on things, Shalafi thought to himself, his mind already working. "But how to explain the others that were summoned around that time? Surely they can't all be failed summoners, and none of them seem to have anything wrong with them."

"Perhaps the other summoner is the one who brought them about?" Yeande was watching Shalafi carefully and could already see the gears whirling in the young feien's mind.

The tone was unmistakeable. "Physical defects, I mean," Shalafi replied softly, his voice immediately changing tone to something softer in an attempt to soothe the summoner's ruffled feathers. "Mental ones are too numerous to list, in the case of some."

Frowning, Shalafi stood there in silence for a few moments, arms crossing over his chest. "He's stopped summoning blooms now, though, yes?" he asked hopefully. If he was one of the LEAST affected by this, then he was grateful that the others hadn't been able to bond. "If not, he has to be made to stop."

"You could likely do the same, if you worked at it. You're merged now, you have more power than most feien will ever see in their lifetimes. You and Yeande both are stronger than either of you think, you just haven't done anything with it yet." Shalafi paced away a few steps, then chewed at his lower lip for a moment. "Perhaps what it will take for Julius to stop is to be faced with a failure that he likely never knew survived. If he was destroying the blooms that didn't make it, then it's possible I was not only mistakenly summoned, but mistakenly bonded as well."

That made him feel a little better. Shalafi kept his arms around his chest, fingers drumming against his skin as he stared towards nothing in particular. "Still... I need to speak with him. I've had enough scorn, pity, coddling and general disbelief directed towards me in my life so far that I can only hope he doesn't put anyone else through this."

"I'll let you know if I can come up with something... however, I'd say not to expect miracles." Already, the boy's thoughts were turning. He did need to see Julius, regardless... and the thought that he was the only one that the ancient had summoned recently gave him a bit of relief.

Yeande simply watched the interplay between the two, one brow lifting. Well, it seemed that Corvus COULD be nice to others... or as nice as he got, anyway. This knowledge might just ease the apology to Aileron as well, knowing how fond the air feien was of Shalafi.