With the rain washing her curled soaked hair and clinging to her eyelashes on its way down her face Enira waded slowly up stream.  Even gorged on the week of constant pouring rain the head of the Serpent River near the waterfall was barely waist deep.  The ages had carved a shallow and wide streambed with steep cliff walls for the river to lie in and the water stretched out for yards to either side of her.  Pushing, but not struggling, she made her way up river, a slow journey on slippery rocks but a force she had never been able to resist or identify drove her.  Eventually the riverbanks pulled closer and the water rose to around her shoulders while she stubbornly kept her footing so that she wouldnt loose ground.  Pushing on she made it past this channel of the river that held all the water exiting the moss green pond at the bottom of the towering waterfall.  Once inside the wider expanse of slow water the lakebed lowered till the water was just over waist deep and the current attempting to steal her away down stream lost its strength.  The small Shada continued on towards the waterfall, a long thin stream traveling vertically up the face of its cliff to a point, yards above Eniras head, at its top.  The rainbow, so clear from afar, winked at her from the mist, disappearing and reappearing as she waded closer. The waterfall itself, a thread-like line from a distance, was wider than a dozen people could reach across but its width was dwarfed by its length; due entirely to the towering height of the craggy cliffs it issued from.  The waterfall hit the lake with enough force that a drenching spray joined the pouring rain from above, and they combined so that there was more water in the area around the base of the waterfall than air.  Enira had never felt so clean before, in much more than a physical sense.  All past troubles had floated away down stream and her guilty memories and debts were washed off to mingle with the colors of the rainbow.  She walked forward a ways to where the waterfall made the water an undulating froth and a strong undertow replaced the current pulling at her.  Slipping through the water, which seemed to be half frothy air, she stepped beneath the downpour of water and the rain ceased to exist, the mist vanished from her mind, there was only the pounding slippery water on all sides.  Her nerves reached overload and she tingled from head to foot from the pressure.  As her muscles complained and fought for their release she was pushed out of the waterfall by its own force.  Enira sank down into the cool and almost peaceful pond that was still dappled with rainfall.  The current slowly pushed her down stream and shore ward where she found a comfortable rain washed stone with a smooth rounded portion broken off that would work well to curl up in.  Struggling against shaking muscles she levered herself into place and sank into a deep sleep that echoed still with the sound of the nearby waterfall.

            While Enira shuffled along jade corridors following the paths traced on her finger, a hungry flame smoldered inside her consuming her spirit.  Glimpses of dear friends reflected in the green mirror-like walls did not even start to dispel her storm of anger and self-loathing.  Though the flames burned inside her she felt cold and there was a heat from with out pressing down on her.  She hoped the flames would die soon, would finally end her agony by consuming her, but she knew somehow even her end would not extinguish them.  Laughter and weeping echoed along the narrow endless hall she walked and both swept through and past her on their way to some unknown destination.  Her soul cried along with the weeping and the flames cackled in harmony with the laughter.  But she wasnt alone when she was with the fires; the flames kept her company.  Though the burning was endless it was deep and it accepted, even hungered, for her, for whom she truly was.  No one and nothing had ever known her so deeply; no one had ever been able to stick close after a certain depth of knowledge.  There was no dark secret she hid and there were no savage instincts they feared.  None-the-less they always left, but the fire would never leave her.  It would be there till the end and the fact that it would most likely be the cause of that end hardly mattered.  She sank into the searing embrace of darkness, but this was all a dream, not quite real, and yet somehow more than real.

            "Nira wake up!  Shes looking for you.  How could you leave her all alone?" Came a voice perched above her head.  Without opening her eyes she snarled quietly and waved away whoever had come to pester her.  "Shesh sister dont you get any sleep?"

            "No!" She replied and rolled over in bed, except she wasnt in bed and she splashed into the rippling pond beside her rock.  Siting up in the pond she emerged to applause of mirthful laughter and glared at her Brother Satero. "And where have you been Bro while I've been in mortal danger?" The young shaggy haired youth's eyes went a cold dark blue.

            "Who is after you Nira?" His serious business-like tone made her lunge out of the water with hands reaching for his throat.  Fortunately for him he was seated a few boulders up and light on his feet so all she managed to do was settle herself on her previous bed like a half drowned cat, water dripping from her hair and down her sleeves.

            "If you cared a bit you'd have been around." She retorted, unconsciously echoing Teyls previous words.

            "I have work to do Nira you know that, I haven't been totally gone, just...unavailable."

            "Oh I see, a nine year old brat has better things to do with his time than getting rid of his elder sister's assassin."  Enira said while wringing water out of her dress and beginning to scale the large boulders that led up the side of the cliff.  After gaining some height she stopped and looked up daunted.  Already she had scraped knees and bruised hands. "How in the world did you get down here Tero?" Tero, who had been picking his way horizontally along the boulders looked up and back at her surprised.

            "Nira that's the edge of the tall bluffs bordering the waterfall.  Are you trying to kill yourself?  Why not just use the caves behind the waterfall?"

            "Caves?  Why didnt you say so?" Shaking more water out of her skirt she gracelessly and recklessly descended the boulders shed scaled and hopped along the ones Tero had used to get to the waterfall.

"Forget my earlier question, you are suicidal Sis." Tero stated, waiting for her.

"So what if I am?"  She retorted and he shot a disturbed frown at her that made her look away, and when she looked back he had disappeared through the waterfall.  Re-drenching herself she stepped through the waterfall to find a dry and smug Tero waiting for her.

            "How...urg I dont want to know any more, youre worse than Teyl I swear!"  Tero smiled smugly and led the way along the winding caves at a pace Nira could barely keep up with.  Reaching the exit after Tero, Enira was happy to recognize this part of the forest, not too far from where shed entered the river down stream.

            "Now go round up your horse and apologize, she was very miffed that you leapt off the cliff into the river and left her there on her lonesome."  Tero scolded.

            "She could have followed me if she'd wanted."  Enira said sullenly.

            "She didn't want to follow you to where youd planned on going Nira."  Tero said quietly and walked off into the woods in the opposite direction of the Palace and the city.  Since Enira had nothing more she wanted to say to him and he didnt seem to want company she watched him go and then started walking to where she'd last seen her loyal horse.

            It is amazing how large the Palace gets when you need to get across it, and amazing how small it gets when you just want to get lost in its passages.  Enira hadnt yet managed to wander clear of the area or the Palace that her friends habitually haunt.  Considering that that area contained pretty much the whole building she had to hunt for some solitude and peace of mind.  Her friends didnt give her head aches really, but she was worn thin today and if anyone caught a hint of it and offered sympathy her cracked shielding would shatter and shed be reduced to a helpless sobbing little girl.  Enira was terrified of such an occurrence, such a show of weakness, shed run off to the dubious haven of Belzak before she allowed herself to crack.  Had Enira been an Other Blood the guards would have been suspicious of her shifty cautious journey through the castle, but she was of Rillain and the Neven barely even saw her.  Every time she narrowly missed an encounter with a friend she shook with relief and stumbled on.  Those few times she couldnt avoid it she stammered something about feeling ill and dashed off towards the nearest bathroom.  Not all her friends were totally convinced and Teyl had grabbed her arm as she tried to flee, but he had let her retreat when she whispered harshly in a strained voice that she must leave.  Sooner than later she came to an exit on the ground floor and shied back from the sunlight pouring through the large green stained glass doors and the surrounding windows.  Stumbling backwards across the stone floor her heel caught on the edge of an ornate woven floor rug and she landed on her back with a thud.  Some of her mind rejoiced at this deserved punishment but then silently screamed in frustration when a kindly Neven offered her a hand up.  Crawling backwards away from the outstretched helping hand she entertained swirling thoughts of flight to a dark enclosure.  She sprang to her feet and ran till she couldnt breathe.  Then she slid down the chilly stonewall she leaned against, curled up in the space where the wall met the floor, and slept.

            When she came back to herself the pressing stone had chilled her deep within, but the tears had finally retreated leaving her chest tight, and her eyes heavily lidded, but leaving her in control again.  Once more she felt she deserved some sympathy or comfort, but if a friend offered a hug shed fall back into her salty sea of tears.  She shuffled zombie-like, with a weariness that cut all the way through, back to her room and sank into her enveloping bed.  Smoothing out the sheet beneath her she dragged her layers of warm cotton blankets up to her shoulders and curled up into a tight ball around her sleeping kitty.  She allowed her shields to dissolve and felt a soft contentment radiating from the snuggling kitten.  Subconsciously highlighting her own reasons for contentment she yawned and sank into a blissfully deep sleep in her darkly lit room.

            Consciousness seeped back into her slowly, helped along by the dreaming kitty pressed against her side.  With her mind still swimming upwards towards wakefulness she stretched as though she was as feline as the cat next to her.  Cat have perfected the art of long, graceful, seductive stretching that makes any human in sight crave to pet them.  Yawning expansively and then baring her teeth menacingly, Enira felt almost ready to arise.  She dropped her hand to her side and petted the sleeping, dreaming kitty, which then decided her hand was a bird and dug dainty fangs into the fleshy part of her palm.  Whimpering and awake Enira pried her hand out but the still sleeping cat decided her exposed side was prey of a sort and sunk both claws into her waist.  Crying out this time Enira lunged out of bed and the cat sprang awake upon Sensing the mental outcry of pain that had accompanied her cry.  Jumping up on her feet, ready for battle, her kitten looked for the adversary who had harmed her Shada.  Enira laughed weakly and stooped gingerly to snag a random shirt to press to her pair of puncture wounds that were weeping emerald blood.  The kitty licked her teeth and tasted blood, paused for a second, and then was a fawning ball of fur licking Eniras free hand with its ears pressed flat to its head and tail hanging low.

            "Oh fine stay put for now, but if you ever repeat that you're out of a home!"  Enira grumbled as sleepiness pushed the pain back somewhat.  She walked into her bathroom and found two bandages; one for each set of bleeding claw marks, and secured them with strong bandage tape.  Then she frowned concerned as three green spots started to form on each white piece of cloth immediately.  She hadnt bled often enough to know what she needed to do beyond a bandage so she pulled on a shirt that actually covered her stomach, unlike her nightshirt, and changed into jeans so she could wander the halls to the Healing Ward decently.  Shooting a glare at the kitty curled up tight and submissively in the bundle of covers she left her room and locked it. 

Her side was causing her enough discomfort that she held her arm against her side to add pressure.  On her way towards the Palace Healers Ward in the underground levels she met no one and so didnt have to explain about her wounds to anyone.  As much as she would have liked to complain to Fan for a few minutes she was especially glad of his absence because hed have arranged for the cat to be cooked for dinner; he doesnt like cats.  So she made it unhindered to the Healers Floor with its mint green walls and spicy calming scents in the air. 

Small groups of Healers, and their apprentices, walk the cool halls talking in hushed distracted voiced and all wearing loose clothes of varying shades of muted green.  Enira walked unnoticed among the small busily talking groups but the first free Healer, a short brunette with brown eyes, Felt her pain despite her shielding it and ushered her into a free consulting room before pulling the green curtain closed across the entrance.

"Take off the shirt and let me see what you've done." The healer said calmly and briskly.  Enira pulled off her over shirt but left the midriff nightshirt on because it revealed more than it concealed.  The Healer sat her down on the padded table in the middle of the room and carefully pulled back one of the bandages.  Calmly noticing the shape of the marks and the new rush of blood the Healer made a few notes on a pad of paper and got a green towel, some sturdier bandages, and an orange colored liquid in a clear bottle.  She used the towel first to clean the wound and another one to liberally apply the orange liquid that felt oddly like honey.  The orange liquid started to dry quickly and left a sticky scab-like skin over all three greenish holes.  Enira restrained herself from testing the orange seal with her fingers as the Healer repeated the process on the other set of claw marks.  After both seals had set, the Healer looked at the bandages, then up at Enira appraisingly.

"Can you be trusted to leave the seals alone?" Enira thought about the Healers question for a moment.

"And if I can?"

"Then they wash off in a week and you dont have to come back to get these removed." She indicated the bandages.

"Removed?" Enira asked surprised.

"The adhesive has to be dissolved to come off, it can be...uncomfortable"

"Oh...I'll be fine like this then." Enira pulled on her shirt and the Healer went back out to watching the door for more patients.

Of course the first thing Enira did once she was a level up in the basement from the Healers was to find a bathroom and examine the newest additions to her body.  They felt like rubber cement the color of jellow and the strength of glue.  Despite the Healers warning she couldnt so much as dent the seal with her nails.  As soon as she prodded them the tiniest bit pain shot through her wounds and she once more donned her shirt and went walking.  As long as she didnt touch the marks of bend too far around she didnt feel a thing, and she climbed through the next two flights of stairs with ease.

"...arrogant Rel, snotty male!  I challenge you to a duel!"  Enira stopped short in the vicinity of the Weapon Rooms upon hearing the challenge.  Duels down here were regarded as spectator sports and she faintly recognized the female voice, shrill with rage, issuing the challenge.  She took the nearest hall directly towards the beginning conflict.

Upon entering the doorway of the Arms Masters training room Enira saw a startling sight.  Ruora, dressed in a backless blue day dress, with her wings twitching agitatedly, was exchanging furious blows with the aged but experienced Arms Master himself.  Abandoned pupils dotted the room and stared in awe at the daring elder Shada.  The little female Shadan wore masks of delight as they saw someone, who theyd readily elect a sword Goddess, keeping pace with their grumpy superior tutor in the art of weaponry.  Enira watched hypnotized as they exchanged blows, parrying and feinting with grim accuracy, and knew shed never replicated it, ever.  She was flashing back to a few years ago when the Arms Master had trained her in fighting with daggers and knifes, by the time she passed she could dodge most of the Masters attacks swiftly and if he knocked her attacks away it was within inches of a vital organ when he did.  Enira kept seeing openings in which shed strike if she was in the duel and had to remind herself that she wasnt involved and this was a sword fight where neither were expectingoh itd be great to surprise them.  Suddenly Ruora lunged for his face and laughed merrily as she pricked his nose, but she had over extended herself in enthusiasm and before she could pull back the Master swatted the sword our of her hand.  As she dodged to retrieve it, and he snatched it up from the floor, Enira saw multiple minor slashes in the material of Ruoras blue day dress and a relatively deep gash on her upper left arm that resumed bleeding at this quick movement.  Ruora hissed, frustrated and in pain, as she clamped her left hand over her new wound, conceding his win.

            "I'll find someone to practice with and when I come back I'll beat you!  No male can best this Shada for long!"  Ruora boasted and spun towards the door.  Enira's clouded storm grey eyes met Ruora's coal dark eyes that were shot through with sparks of anger.  Involuntarily Eniras eyes widened in awe of such strength of anger and she wove thicker shields around her mind to avoid absorbing the extra emotion that Ruora was casually letting loose into the room.  Warm laughter danced with the almost tangible prideful anger and Ruora stiffened to hear the Arms Master laughing patronizingly at her.  Surprised, Enira watched the Master firmly take Ruoras arm and examine the wound hed given her as a lesson.

            "Well we'll have to get that tended for you Shada and have to see about getting you something more appropriate for a warrior Shada to gallop around in than pretty day dresses...not sure what to do about an apprentice with wings..." Enira heard the Master thinking outloud as he took Ruora by her arm and lead her out and around the corner towards the Healing Ward.  The startled Shada struggled in vain, and only weakly because it didnt look like she was in trouble or in danger.

            Enira glanced around the room full of abandoned apprentices and could feel the residual anger lending them all arrogance and pride.  As two elder boys returned to practicing and that practice became a duel Enira decided it was best she leave before one of the younger females along the wall decided she was up for the challenge of fighting an older Shada.

            After she left Enira took the longest most twisted path toward her room that she could in hopes that shed wander upon something more entertaining than staring out her window trying to find something to do.  The level of the weapons training, on the second level of basement, was abandoned except for flighty giggles of prankster children hiding in old dusty rooms and the occasional bustling Healer hurrying towards or away from the Healers Ward directly below this level.  The very top level of basement was the Rels ground and here was where food was readied, cooked, or stored.  Neighboring the rooms assigned to those tasks were underground suites designated to various Rel families to live in.  Much in contrast to the level just below it this floor reminded Enira of the city market place with mothers standing in doorways chatting between shifts and children darting along halls and shirking chores, or in the very kitchens where cooks shouted orders like vendors in the streets advertising their wares, except here there was no question in the cries, there was command.  It is easy to get lost in the orderly chaos that exists on the Rels floors, especially in this bottom most level that hold their very houses.  For a few minutes a wandering Shada can weave among the Rel if she is kind enough not to get in the way, but even so after awhile shell find herself on the outside of the bustle looking in once more and not sure how she was so gently pushed aside.  Enira slipped along the sidelines of the action today and went directly to the stairways leading from the lower kitchens to the upper kitchens.  The higher kitchens were for arranging the prepared food artfully or for making specialties instead of breakfast en mass.  This large length of a room borders the Main Dinning Hall and is the pathway the Rel go through to serve food and drink to the ruling family.  In this gorgeous mess of activity Enira also skirted the activity and escaped through a side door into the Main Entrance Hall of the Palace.  Somewhat awestruck with the huge grandeur, as few Shada really are and as Enira always was, Enira walked slower in hopes to perhaps gain some of the majesty that the room exudes. On her way up the huge emerald carpeted stairway directly in front of the massive double doors she noticed few people around, perhaps because dinner was almost ready and the Dinning Hall was most likely full already, besides most Palace regulars avoid the huge main stairs as there are quicker easier ways to descend the levels.  One person at the head of the stairs and going down them as Enira went up caught her eye as he was obviously staring at her.  Refusing for once to look behind her at whatever he was probably looking at, certainly not herself, she tilted her chin up regally and studiously ignored him.  When they had together traveled half the distance between them he was still looking her way and certainly not at anything else.  Self-consciously she tilted her head to hide behind a loose curtain of hair and continued the long trek up the Main Stairs.  Each step closer she felt she could feel eyes watching her and she clenched the hand not holding the rail and studied the green and gold swirling pattern woven on the steps below her feet, she very much regretted not taking the door that led to the Rels back stairs.  She imagined it was those steps she walked right now, a faded but sturdy forest green with less slippery railings and brightly lit alcoves at each of the floor landings.  So deep into this fantasy she had descended that she didnt notice that the guy who had been walking down towards her was a few steps above her and waiting for her to come to him.

            "Hello, shy are we?" He greeted her as she ascended and glimpsed feet on the same step she had just gotten to.  Intimidated by any unexplainable interest in her, her face as she lifted it to meet his was half wide-eyed and cautious, and half a discouraging glare.  He was undaunted.  "I'm sorry Shada, just trying to meet the local residents of the Palace.  You are native Rillain are you not?"  Enira let him keep his natural assumption that any person wandering the Palace was Shadan, as it was the safest way to assume, but she was surprised that he questioned her as native to Rillain.

            "Why yes I am."  She replied tilting her head a little different so that the Rillain-green sparkles abundant in her hair coloring would have to show.  "How could I be anything else?"

            "Well you have the red hair of Deltav and the deep grey eyes of Geldam, quite a pretty collage."  Once more Enira was suspicious of the unexplainable interest of this foreigner but decided he was being polite enough and he was cute enough to have caught her notice even if he hadnt been so blatantly staring at her.  He had very short straight white hair; of the bleached white that only occurs naturally in Sperin, his eyes were leaf green; the exact feline color that Enira had always wished to have, he was taller than herself by a few inches; barely, and he had the thin grace of an active explorer of a Realm; as opposed to a laze about Shad.

            "Most of the time appearances betray origin immediately, Shad of Sperin."

            "Right you are, both about appearances and my Realm, but I am no Shad.  I am a visiting Lyr envoy from Sperin here to balance out the visitors from Perna you are entertaining.  I hope they aren't causing too much havoc in your Palace and cities."  He sounded truthful and sympathetic, but then Perna had no reason to be polite to Sperin and they were on the roughest of terms, perhaps he really thought they were being rude.

            "If they were being impolite we would escort them home.  A few of those Perna Shadan are being accepted as fosterlings."  Enira said with a faint cooling in her tone.

            "My congratulations that the Pernans have taken to your Realm better than mine, but few could blame them since one of their Shad, straying in our lower plains, got consumed by one of our fierce Rair Tiger packs when he couldnt teleport away from the ambush they had lain for a stray human.  Hunting is getting low down there."  The lack of remorse in this Lyrs tone bothered Enira and she was hunting up some excuse to hurry away when he beat her to it.

            "Well I must get to dinner before the spot saved for me is gone.  You arent going to the Dinning Hall?"

            "No I prefer to dine alone or at a friends room." Enira replied readily.

            "Well I'm Lyr and I'm staying in the uppermost Liran Hall in that wing, room D 26.  If you're ever with out someone to share dinner with..." Enira flashed him a broad false smile to match his and fled decorously up the stairs.  After there was a significant distance between them again she glanced back furtively and she wondered why it was that most of their conversation had fled her memory and his charming smile and gorgeous eyes stuck foremost in her mind.  She smiled to herself, someone in the whole of Merendi thought she was worth stopping on the stairs, thought she was cute.

            "Nira!"  Came a bewildered dismayed cry as Enira reached the top of the steps, "Nira whats wrong with your Palace?  Why can Rel abduct Shadan and stuff them into new clothes before proceeding to brutalize them in combat?!"  Complained a disgruntled Ruora who came flying down the hallway Enira had just entered.  The local Shada stared at the Perna one and laughed.  The foreign blonde was now clad in a sturdy green outfit of a lower Neven, having lost her gorgeous blue day dress.  Though it was far from the usual finery Ruora usually sported the female version of woods clothes was flattering and functionary on the midsize blonde. "What are you staring at??  Yes, yes I know I look horrible in green, where can I get this junk bleached white?"  Ruora grumbled.

            "Ruora dear the Master has caught you, hed hardly allow you around in bright white garb that screams 'shoot me pleeeease'."

            "My Realm wears silver and white and they do fine." Ruora grated.

            "And your Realm is made of white clouds and marble instead of trees, grass, and dirt."

"Oh, well yeah"

"Ruora you're lucky, face it, most apprentices come to Him not the other way around."

"Then he should let me go." Ruora fumed, glaring at Enira.

"Could you take the insult of him giving you up as an apprentice?"  Think of how that'd look.

"I'm not a quitter."

"Plus you look cute in Rillain Neven garb."  Enira smiled.

"Neven?!  I'm an Other Blood!  I will not be a block-headed loyalist to a foreign Realm!"  Ruora exclaimed starting to tug off her green leather tunic.

"Please, Ru, dont strip in the middle of the hall!"  Enira hissed, glancing at passing people.  That stopped Ruora short. "And clothes dont make the girl, they just give you and edge." Ruora smiled now.

"I like edges.  She purred as she laid her hand on her sword hilt. And who was that slime ball who stopped you on the stairs?"

"You saw him?"

"He's still watching you from the bottom."  Enira spun and saw the lower landing empty of any blonde males.

"Kidding, kidding, but he didn't look away till he left the Main Entrance and entered the Dinning Hall."

"Isn't he kinda cute?" Enira mused.

"If you like the sharp yet slippery kind." Ruora grimaced and Enira glanced at her puzzled.

"What are you saying?"

"Oh sure he thinks you're cute, who doesnt." Enira frowned wondering who else does, "but hes a gold digger through and through." Ruora stated matter-of-factly.

"You cant tell that from a look!" Enira protested.

"Nira...sweetie" Ruora crooned patronizingly. "We royalty have many ways to Know things, try using those excellent Talents of yours...whatever they are." Ruora tisked.

"I'll show you mine if you show me yours."  Enira teased.

"Well, thats all right, I dont mind being lost," he said cheerfully.

Enira sighed and wandered off to the left. "Arent you supposed to be at dinner?" She remembered suddenly as she walked down the hall with him following attentively.

"Oh, I ate some but you weren't there so I left," he said matter-of-factly.  Enira shot him a cautious, nervous look.  He certainly has an odd fascination with me, so quickly too.  Hmmm, maybe hes just friendly. "So how was your solitary dinner?" Tisan asked politely.

"Same old, same old." Enira replied, shrugging.  She wished he would go away so that she could have the dinner he had assumed she had already had. 

"That's good," he replied; obviously unable to think of anything more to say.

Recognizing the door up ahead as one leading into the garden maze, Enira swerved towards it, Tisan following unerringly. 

She wandered randomly among the maze, bestowing an admiring touch on a flower here and there. Every time she looked back Tisan smiled encouragingly at her.  Finally he tugged at her sleeve to get her attention.  Is he leaving now? Enira thought hopefully.

"Nira," Tisan said, automatically guessing her nickname. "You're extraordinarily pretty," He added while extending for her a handful of flowers; every sort that she had obviously admired as she passed. "Will you go with me to your formal dance tomorrow, the one that your Tir is throwing for both Perna and Sperins arrival?  I would be honored to have a native Shada for a partner." Enira turned pink and looked at the ground embarrassed, until the last sentence reminded her of Ruora's earlier comment against him.

"I know a few female Shada arent too particular who they partner to a dance if just any native Shada will do," Enira replied quietly.

"No, only you will do, it feels like I was sent from Sperin for you." Tisan said seriously.

"Aww, isnt that cuuute," Said a sweet voice stepping around the corner into view, "But we all know you were sent here for me and my Realm." Ruora sang softly, mockingly.

"How could a foreign Shada even hope to see my purpose here?  This Shada here has altered it somewhat," He replied smoothly, still holding out the flowers to Enira.

"Those flowers given from your hand and lips will soon wilt and die.  I'll accept them for her because their death will be no loss to me." Accepting, or stealing, the flowers from Tisans hand, Ruora bowed and kissed his hand mockingly.  "I'll accept your favor, dear Lyr Tisan, but I'm afraid I'll not take you to our ball."

"No loss of mine, here it is she who pays a price." Tisan gestured gallantly at Enira who stared on, wondering what their cryptic verbal battle was about.

"Ah true, no pain to you, just to her, but trust me her pain is yours too." Ruora replied.

"You cause us both pain, Perna Shada, perhaps you should go," Tisan said menacingly.

"Your pain is sweet to the eye and hers is the pain of truth; both those and I shall remain." Ruora shot back.

"She learns no truth, look at her!" Tisan laughed and Enira felt stung.

"She shall be taught, but not by you!" Ruora growled and stepped between.  Enira backed up into the green wall of the garden maze that she suddenly remembered she was in.  It looked as though she'd be witness to a fight, and one over her of all things!

"Ruora!  That boy'll find you again if you keep yelling like that." Fan announced as he rounded the corner onto the scene. "Oh, looks like you found another suitor already, youre on your own with this one." Fan said, eyeing the Sperin Lyr and Pernan Shada facing off, and Enira trying to keep to the background.  Ruora blinked at Fan trying to understand his misunderstanding and Tisan eyed the tall peasant warily.  Enira sighed, disappointed, as Fan's gaze left her and a slight hint of her discomfort reached his ears, and Reached his mind. "Are you two leaving poor Nira out?" Fan went on to ask, looking at his silent, frozen, uncertain audience.  He rose an eyebrow inquisitively at them and plucked a flower from beside Nira and tucked it into her hair just above her ear where it would stay put.  Enira caught his blue eyes for a second before blushing at the ground again, and even more red than before.  Tisan hissed and leapt at Fan.

"I gave her flowers first!  This damned Shada just ruins things!"  He said, hissing at Ruora and getting ready to jump Fan.  In that moment Ruora withdrew a small dagger from her new dark green Neven wardrobe and leapt at Tisan.  Enira froze, stunned, but her voice still worked to cry out "Stop!" at the two attackers.  The command in her voice froze all three; Tisan with hands reaching for Fan, Ruora preparing to strike him with the less-than-lethal hilt of her dagger, and Fan backed into a stance that said he didnt need defending.  Enira, through use of Others, gave them all a mental stab of selective Empathy in which they Felt acutely her overwhelming fear and dread.  Fan loss his stance and his eyes grew a darker blue, the only sign of his newly acquired emotion.  Ruora dropped her dagger, unsure of where the fear was from, and stood shaking at Fan's side while glaring at the blonde Lyr.  Tisan had jumped back from all three of them and then slunk to Enira as his safe haven.  Enira turned him to the nearest exit, all flowers left scattered on the grass, and motioned silently for the other two to go in the opposite direction.  Ruora shook her head firmly, but also fearfully, and took a step towards Enira and Tisan.

My problem... Enira Sent Telepathically to Ruora.  She pursed her lips angrily but nodded and allowed her quarry to slip away with Enira.  Before Fan turned away, Enira petted the flower in her hair and Sent him the image of them meeting at the Ring in his backyard at sundown--in an hour or so.

After walking silently for a few minutes towards the nearest exit of the maze that Enira knew of, Tisan finally broke the silence.

"I'm sorry, Nira," He said unexpectedly, "I should have known a Shada, especially you, would be taken already, but you didnt show it, you didnt say anything." The silence returned for a minute while Enira thought and walked.  She and Fan werent really anything that she knew of, but on the other hand taken described her attitude towards Fan and other guys very well.  Fan had never been so overtly interested before, that shed noticed, perhaps they could be something; she wasnt sure what that something could be. 

"I'm not with him, and he was just being polite." It had to be interpreted like that, surely that's all that had happened.

Tisan glanced at her, a skeptical and shuttered look. "Why do you hate me?" He asked quietly, shocking Enira.

"I dont hate you, I dont hate anyone."

Tisan smiled at her carefully.

They had reached the exit of the maze and an entrance to the Palace.  Tisan plucked a tiny bloom from a nearby flower bush and tucked it into Enira's hair next to Fan's blossom.  Enira, who had thought she'd pushed him firmly enough away, felt her eyes go icy, but obviously Tisan didnt notice, as he brushed his fingers along her hair.  Of all things hes touching my hair...  Enira held her temper closely in check.

"It's getting dark, this door leads to a main hall, and from there you can find your room." She said curtly and turned away.

"You sure you wont show me the way?" He asked softly.

"Quite sure"

After walking calmly out of sight of the entrance to the Palace and back into the maze, Enira then ran full tilt toward the stable.  It had been fairly close to sunset when shed Sent the image to Fan, now the sky was a watercolor of golds and purples, perhaps hes waiting already.  After reaching the stables at a dead run, she raced amount the maze of stalls heading quickly for Willows.  Rounding the final corner, she was met with a greeting whinny, but it wasnt actually for her.  In front of Willows stall stood Fan and his golden mare.  Enira stopped short, was she seeing things?  Fan also stood there silently watching her.  After a moment she noticed that she was fidgeting with Dawns reins, she realized slowly that she wasnt the only uncertain one.

"Uh...you dont know the way," Fan explained.

"Oh" Enira replied, feeling undone. "I could have followed my memory..." Fan just shook his head.

"It...would have died eventually," Enira quietly pointed out, and wondered if he could hear her because they still stood a few stalls lengths apart.  Fan looked more thoughtful but didnt speak again and a long silence began.  The horses broke it; first Willow stamped and snorted impatiently and then Dawn shook her head and neighed in agreement.

"Should we go then?" Fan asked.  Enira smiled and nodded feeling too intensely shy to speak.  She approached her horses stall slowly because the bedazzling pair, horse and rider, still stood with in reach of it.  She stopped as close as she could get to Willows door and looked at Fan wryly.

"Can I get in by chance?" She asked softly sarcastically.

"Oh you dont need your horse do you?" Fan asked lightly but his eyes help some meaning.  Enira clamped down on a shiver, he was suggesting sharing a horse again.

"Well, I uh...kinda need a horse, unless you want me to go on foot." She replied, halfway pretending not to see his meaning.

"Yeah you know your own horse best, better take her." He replied easily with just a trace of disappointment in his eyes.  So, just like that, his offer was gone and Enira missed it, regretted letting it go, very deeply.  But she would not grasp at the past and she saddled up Willow after Fan retreated to let her by.  She used a tendril of mixed Lepa and Control to call her horse when  leaving the stall, although Willow was plenty ready to leave without encouragement.  Fan and Dawn consciously matched strides with her and Willow till the huge Stable doors where they stopped mount their horses; Enira bareback and Fan with just a saddle blanket.

"She's not used to bareback yet?" Enira asked Fan curiously.

"She is, I'm not. He replied ruefully," rubbing Dawn's protruding spine.  Enira grimaced in sympathy before signaling Willow into a sudden canter across the wide fields surrounding the Stable.  Dawn followed just a heartbeat behind her as the hit the edge of the forest.  In a sudden burst Fan's mare shot forward till he could tug on a strand of her free hair.

"You're it!"  He smiled before he and Dawn peeled off sharply to the right.

"What?!" A startled Shada called after them before urging her own horse sharply off to the right.  At first she gained rapidly on the pair but inexplicably they sped up, and kept speeding up.  Enira was baffled till she remembered Fan's talent for Control, the Talent that had allowed him intimate communication with his land.  The only explanation for his horses phenomenal burst of speed must be that his rider is influencing her speed in a positive way, somehow, with Control.

"Now that's not fair." Enira grumbled and called upon the rest of her store of strength to use Talents, having used a lot up during the Tisan-Ruora conflict, and then poured that energy into her Others to be able to copy Fans level of Control, to remove his advantage by boosting her own horse as well.  The Control washed over her and suddenly the living breathing horse beneath her took up so much space in her mind that she couldnt see where that creature was galloping.  Letting her mind carefully view each working system in Willow her new instinct informed her that heart rate would be more efficient as such.. it changed minutely, and that the release of that from there would help this, ect.  Subtlely her horses speed increased till she was once more over taking Fan, but she did not see this yet and many yards still lay between them.  As a last measure her new Talent showed her how to convert the last of her Talent reserves into pure strength, and how Willow could sap this from her.  Unknowing to her this last resort was far from needed as Willows full capabilities outdid Dawns recently trained ones, and she Willow was wining the race already.  Enira opened glazed eyes to see Fan laugh as she went hurdling by.  Willow, unused to this new speed potential, misjudged the arc she completed to face Dawn again and Enira slid off the back of her horse to land jarringly in a large woody bush.  The impact stunned her temporarily and the fight back to normal consciousness was not easy with her energy exhausted, all of it.  After the only start she saw above her were the ones really in the sky she couldnt keep her eyes open any longer, and Willow was laying down for a nap next to her.

Good idea..

Enira flicked her eyes open and saw herself standing in front of a floor to ceiling mirror.  Her hair fell in waves past her waist and the locks of hair framing her face were tied back behind her in a wooden clasp.  She wore no jewelry on and part of her and obviously she shouldnt for all it would do is detract from the appearance she put on in her eccentric but simplistic dress.  Reflected in the mirror she saw herself in a close fitting, grey, full-length dress that pulled close around the waist and needed neither sleeves nor straps.  Over that Enira's reflection wore a wispy overdress of translucent Cloud Silk pulled tight with a cord high up on her stomach and shot through with strands of hidden silver much resembling lightning or the veins in a block of expensive marble.  Over top of both, and low slung on her hips, was a belt as wide as her hand, made of sturdy grey leather and meagerly decorated with silver threading.  Hanging from this was a blade too short to be called a sword and much too long for any reputable dagger.  When exposed to the light this knife boasted a tarnished and well-used edge that was somehow sharp as the day is was forged when it was run across her finger.  Realizing that she herself matched her reflection she paced around the cluttered cabin a few times trying out this wardrobe that brought together Perna, Geldam, and Neven styles to created the perfect ensemble for Enira Leoren the Guardian of..of she knew not what.  This reminder that she was a Guardian brought up a need to look for the charge that she had been given.  The minute one-room cabin she stood in had three large bay windows looking out at the forest that she knew surrounded her, but all were boarded up, shuttered, and nailed closed for some reason.  Upon trying the large double doors filling the fourth wall she found them stiff and warped with age, why have I stuck around here long enough for all of this to happen?  She twisted one of the handles off the door and poked a splinter around in the mechanics inside till she felt it loosen, then she used the hilt of her sword to forcibly remove the knob from the other side of the hole.  Still the door budged only a little in the lower corner between the two doors because humid weather and rain had warped the wood.  Suddenly she sighed irritated at herself, how could I have forgotten?  There was a private Telepad in the center of the cabin, a few feet behind her.  Obviously because she didnt have Maxed Port she couldnt just pop around from here to there, but by using a Telepad and her Strong Port she could pop to the cabins Pad from anywhere and to anywhere back to the cabin.  She turned around and started clearing the floor of discarded clothes and weapons because anything within the radius of the pad left with the person when they activated it, and only that which overlapped the pad left.  A few unlucky people had lost fingers by not centering themselves correctly into the four-foot diameter of the Pad.  After the less-than-perfect alternatives to her outfit, and unworthy swords, were kicked into a wide circle further from the Pad she stood in the middle of the grey stone Telepad and gathered her dress around her so that all of it would come with, though she didnt have a very full skirt at all, but the Cloud Silk loves to billow and fly even with out a breeze.  Picturing the front porch of the cabin and calmly centering all her concentration in the middle of her stomach she felt her eyes pulled shut, as always.  A cold wind swept in from behind smelling of the Void and then a warm wind came from ahead smelling of the woods as her stomach lurched forward, complaining about the sudden change in location, and then her eyes were free to open and glimpse the woods surrounding her cabin.  Though many seconds had passed in her mind she had left and arrived in the space of one note from the bird welcoming the sunshine in a tree nearby.  This time lapse has made many frequent travelers subject to early aging and bad health; as her unhappy stomach was merely a minor case of Port-sickness, which in some cases can even prove fatal.

Outside of the blind shelter of her cabin her mind, still less shielded because of her use of Talent, was leapt upon and her shields torn down, with a struggle, by a whirlwind of mental teeth and claws that descended on her from the forest depths.  Her mind crumpled in weakness and pain, wounded, and she dropped down among the leaves as her world spiraled away.

Then it floated back again on the wings of a bird, hastened along by the slippery tongue cleaning her hand enthusiastically.  A slow trickle of strength flowed into her by way of that happy greeting.  She sat up refreshed with the energy of a new day and the medium sized white dog took over her lap smiling puppyish and happy at waking her up.  She hugged the puppy close still pulling in an extra tendril of strength where they touched.  After a minute of cuddling the puppy leapt up and grabbed a stick.  Enira smiled, brushed off her Cloud Silk, and stood up to tug the stick from the Hounds grip throwing it off high into the woods.  With a shrill cry a white hawk dove from the sky and snatched it before it had even begun to fall.  Startled Enira stared as the bird returned to her perch in a near by oak tree, among the upper most branches.  She glanced down to see the Hound growling menacingly up into the tree and angrily scratching its claws through the bark.  Enira snatched up the young Hound to stop it damaging the tree more.  The puppy calmed in her arms till the Hawk loosed the stick and it conked him on the head as it fell.  Baring his teeth once more the Hounds claws grazed Enira's skin where the Cloud Silk had fallen back to her elbow when it struggled in her grasp to get to the Hawk.  Red welts appeared as Enira quickly set the young Hound down and cautiously eyed his extraordinarily black claws.  The Hawk issued a low cautious warning cheep, followed by a loud joyous greeting as she left her perch and winged off over Enira's shoulder to regale a new comer with greeting and warning.  The Hound dashed after her furiously barking and growling a challenge before haling quickly in front of the stranger.  Enira saw wary hesitation in the dogs stance, but the Hawk saw more, she saw a greedy hunger.

Standing inquisitively in the shade flicking his ears to listen to the Hawks greeting and towering over the Hound stood a tall brown Stallion with the faintest golden sheen.  Enira stared entranced.  So fixated was she that the Hound had advanced towards the Stallions long graceful neck with bared teeth and she didnt see it till the Horse reared back with pawing hooves and the white Hawk dove on the ferocious hunting Hound.  Everything slowed down for Enira and she had ages in which to shout "No!" and shrilly whistle for the Hound to return to her.  Neither the Hawk nor the Hound responded, the first still pawing the ground and retreating cautiously, and the second trapped in mid dive.  The dog forcefully wrenched himself out of confrontation with the pair of beasts and, at this first sign of retreat; the Hawk extended her wings to painfully halt her dive feet above the Hounds drooping head.  Suddenly repentant and submissive the hound slinked back to Enira to rub his head against her ankles apologetically.  She pushed him aside ashamed and walked forward to meet the gorgeous Stallion and the aggressive Hawk.

"He's not mine, I just met him, but I am still sorry."

The Hawk eyed her then cried softly, almost calmly, and loosed a feather to fall at her feet.  At this sign the Horse stepped forward and sniffed her hair a big before whuffing with approval above her forehead.  Unlike most horses this Stallions breath smelled of something primitively male and woodsy.   She was disappointed to see the pair retreat into the woods and angry to find the Hound crouched with menacingly bared teeth when she returned to him.

            "Eh you can follow me home but you're staying outside." Enira said reproachfully.  With a happy puppyish yip the hound dashed off to follow her back towards her cabin.  When she got within sight she Ported inside and found a cord belt to secure the dog to a nearby tree.  You will be after that Stallion again after I turn my back I know it.  The hound growled softly at something and Enira sighed knowing what, or rather who, was behind her.  Sure enough she turned to find the Stallion standing at the edge of the glade surrounding her cottage and watching her silently, waiting.  She hesitantly walked over and was sad to see the horse turn to leave, but when he stopped to wait for her she ran to catch up.  A sharp bark announced their departure but neither paid much attention to it.

            At the edge of the woods the horse ran off with a challenging neigh and she got an odd mental Sending of a suggestion for hide and go seek.  Laughing happily she turned around so he could hide but she didnt really need to because he was already out of sight.  Realizing this she spun around again and sprinted off where hed gone.  She couldnt even find hoof prints, crushed grass, or any sign of him till she rounded a tree and there he stood.  Certain she hadnt seen him behind the pretty thin tree she reeled back startled and continued back a step as he playfully charged her and bowled her over with his nose.  Blinking up at the Stallion from the ground he was even taller and he whuffed with impatience at her because she wasnt trying to hide yet.  How do I know that?  The question left her mind as she wondered how to hide from this Talented horse.  Well, reply to magic with magic.  She stood up and motioned for the horse to turn around.  Puzzled he plodded around in a circle till his shiny long golden-brown tail faced her and turned his head around to watch.  She motioned him to look away again and Sent him the idea of waiting for her invitation to hunt.  Bobbing his head once in understanding he stood there staring of into the woods waiting, but not patiently as his shifting hooves and switching tail betrayed.  Enira half-lidded her eyes and used her somewhat formidable Restric to lower gravity and slowly ascend from the earth to a few inches above the under brush.  Keeping her height maintained she used more Restric to match her scent to the surrounding plants scents and dashed off silently in mid air towards a fat old beach tree a few yards off.  She circled around to be exactly opposite the horse and rose up a few more feet to peek through the branches.  The Stallion still stood there but still this time and with ears cocked and nostrils flaring, already he was puzzled she laughed silently.  Sending the challenge to hunt for her, she dipped down a few inches, now that she had the hang of floating again, so as to be completely hidden by the tree.  A greeting whiney from below startled her out of the air and right onto the horses back and off he charged happy to have a rider like her.  She had merely finger tips tangled in his mane as he leapt off and they had to suffice to keep her seated bareback, the one type of ridding shed never quite gotten the hand of; her horse in the Rillain Stables had a sweet temper and a sharp bony back.  They sprinted a good many yards before the Stallion lurched to a stop and bucked her off over his head into a bed of moss and ferns.  Standing up in her rumpled dress and tousled hair she was a snarling little Shada but even she melted at the sight of the horse dancing and snorting in mischievous delight.  Suddenly the claws tearing at her shields came back and once more she was weakened from using her Talent, she fell to her knees.  She struggled this time till another taloned presence carefully cut apart the rest of her will and the spinning blackness ensued, the Stallion anxiously Said goodbye as a barking neared in the distance.  Her brief blackly clouded dreams were filled with voices; one male and worried, one answering reassuring the first with a plan, and a soft angry laughter behind it all.  She tossed even in her forced sleep and dug into the plants trying to struggle out of the dream to run and help, or at least to run.  The voices settled down and the laughter grew and grew until she screamed in her dream to drown it out.  The laughter and voices and screaming all stopped simultaneously as her unshielded mind Absorbed the pain of one, the triumph of another, and the uncertainty of the only other left.  Her mind was freed of its veil and she snapped to consciousness and to her feet at the same time.  Her body reeled, violently complaining, but she pushed weakness down and Searched for where everything she Sensed was originating.  Getting a direction she left at a dead run, faster and faster, to burst upon a glade where in the middle the Hawk and Hound struggled in a mass.  The bird had her talons deep in the dogs chest and neck and the young hound couldnt turn far enough to grab the Hawk with his teeth.  Then he rolled on the ground but the bird surged off and flicked her wings to gain height above the glade to prepare for a dive.  The Hound, sighting his target, the Stallion, limping away leapt at his exposed flanks but Enira dashed forward, instinctively knowing whom she had to help, and slashed the dog from behind with the blade she hadnt realized she'd unsheathed.  The young dog spun on her then sat back with a look of betrayal and pleading hope in his eyes but she didnt get time to react because the Hawk swept down and ended the battle with her talons in the hound.  Now, still caught up in the determined and unemotional heat of battle, she moved onto her next task; helping the wounded Stallion.  She Felt waves of rage and embarrassment radiating from the Hawk now perched in the lowest branches of the tree directly above them.  Enira caught that the Hawk was enraged that the Hound had scored on the Stallion, and embarrassed that not only had she raked her talons across the Stallion in her first dive to eliminate the Hound but also that she had failed to initially fatally wound it and had needed human help.  Enira, as that human, could care little who had killed who, only that the Stallion needed help.

            She inspected the two wounds, one claw mark across the back of his leg that thankfully had severed no tendons and not torn much muscle, and the one across his upper flank where one of the birds talons had scored deeply but cleanly.  Enira decided that the dog hadnt actually caused much harm, just pain and washed that one in the nearest stream but she worried about the upper one because it would leave a very ugly scar even if it didnt get infected, and living out here in the woods she didnt have medicine to help that sort of thing.  On top of that it had severed an artery near his hip and this was the cause of his extreme limp.  He was bleeding to death because of a friend.  She looked at the Stallion for long enough that he turned his head to look back worriedly.

Fan saw Nira fall and bolted forward on Dawn to help her.  Sliding gracelessly off onto the ground he found her still and slack with barely fluttering eyelids.  Despite appearances her pulse still beat strong, steady, and visibly in her throat, and her breathing was soft but continuous.  Her eyelids stopped flickering and she lay still, She's asleep, concussion possibly, Fan thought and grimaced feeling guiltily.  He knelt and felt no bump on the back of her head and startled back as a brown hill among the leaves behind her sighed expansively.  Willow, too tired to sleep standing up, had fallen asleep beside her mistress.  Finally convinced that both were merely sound asleep, most likely because of whatever shed done to gain that burst of speed, he wondered if she should just leave them there.  It didn't seem right for a Shada to sleep out in the bushes in the open, but this was Nira.  Besides, if he moved her inside where would he put her?  Her room was always locked when she was out and he didnt know where she'd hide the key.  He could put her in his house tonight and sleep on the floor, but there was no moving Willow, and Enira would not thank him for leaving her horse out her alone in a nearly comatose state as anyones meat.  While he was considering what options he had left a horse came crashing through the underbrush a distance away.  Fan stood up and watched the loud rider catch sight of Dawn's dark bulk and plunge directly at them.  Fan stood closer to Dawn's protective size and positioned himself and Dawn between the approaching figure and the fallen Shada.  Soon the horse was almost upon them, coming at a dead run and making no use of stealth.  The rider pulled out a vatel lantern, hidden until now on the back of his saddle, and scanned the forest hastily for something.  Stopping short in front of Fan the boy, cloaked in shadows yet blinding Fan with the unshielded part of the lantern, swayed catching his breath.

"Where's Nira?? "The boy breathed fearfully.

"She's..." Fan wasnt sure what to say to explain her fallen state and just moved him and Dawn aside.  The boy gasped horrified as the light fell on the Shada and her horse.  He ran to her side where he fell to his knees brushing her hair out of her face.

"What have you done to her??" Leaping to his feet and turning on Fan the rider looked suddenly taller. You'll pay for this. His voice was now calm and enraged and...eager?  Fan stepped back from the figure, backlit buy the lantern now lying at Nira's side; it was Tisan.  The silhouette of a sword was expertly held in the foreign Lyr's hand.  Rustling leaves and a broken twig brought Fan's attention briefly up to the forest canopy, a trap?  Tisan bowled Fan over but dropped his sword in the process, jealously blinded the Lyr and flung him into a savage mood, he didnt look for his sword but Fan, temporarily pinned, did.  Tisan wrapped one hand around Fan's neck and the other in his hair, no longer seeking death but pain instead.  Fan's hand found the sword blade which bit into his palm fiercely and distracted him from Tisan's vicious possessive mutterings about Nira.

"...mine, my assignment, I hurt her not you, I can keep her if I want, you can't be with her!" Fan shoved Tisan up off him while rising, usually a good move if not for Ruoras sudden attack.  She reangled her scimitar to gut Tisan soundly but her dagger, forgotten in her left hand, plunged into Fan's back just below the shoulder.  Ruora released her scimitar, leaving it and her victim to fall to the ground forgotten.

"Fan,"  Ruora whispered horrified as he lowered himself to the ground gingerly. "Oh! Fan...I..." She watched his eyes stare off going glazed. "Oh Rima, RimaSaro, what have I done?  Help me Goddess, save him, he's needed!" She quavered.

"You're..praying... to the wrong...God..."Enira yawned, woken by the commotion and the double Sending of pain that her Empathy stirred for.  Tisan, who had fallen across Enira's legs, was recognized immediately when she tried to move and the Shada scrambled out from under him shrieking and breathing too fast.  Ruora grabbed Enira before the frightened girl could run madly out into the night screaming about the blood on her clothes.

"Nira, Nira, calm down, calm..Help ME!" Ruora yelled over Enira's spooked babbling about waking up under a corpse, for Tisan was fully, quickly, dead.

Enira startled at Ruoras shout and sank to the ground when the Perna Shada let go.

"He's dying Nira," Ruora clutched one of Enira's wrists too tightly. "You can help him, you can!"

"Tisan..." Enira shrugged shaking "he can die."

"He is dead!" Ruora pointed out, "It's Fan...I stabbed him." Ruora choked.

"No" Enira breathed, "But...I..." she broke off "He cant leave me."  She scrambled over to her fallen friend; laying with his horse shifting spooked nearby.  She felt his pulse, heard his breathing, and then Sensed his life, which required nothing more than weighing the internal force of an unguarded mind.

"He's living because you didnt hit his heart or..." She paused, dredging up tired Empathy and Telepathy to Sense what pained him. "Nope the dagger fell short of the lung, but...you hit whatever that major artery is..." Ruora had been gaining hope but Enira felt her spirit crash and winced as it affected her too, Ruora started shaking in shock. "No time for me to Send for Healers, not way back here, there is one way...I have heard of Healers giving their all, literally, for a wounded Tiran.  I have the ability to be a court Healer...call for the Healers Ru, I'll need them if he doesn't."

"I'm not Strong in Lepa Nira..." Ruora weakly reminded her.

"Then Shout!" Enira replied shaprly and sank down beside Fan, one hand on the dagger hilt.  Ruora retreated back a ways, her eyes falling on Tisan and gaining strength--unlike Enira--from his death, she sank into a relaxed crouch with her eyes screwed up in concentration and Sent with all her mind a single phrase to the castle.

Healers to the forest come save my Shada

A Maxed Path Shada would have woken the entire Palace with that much will power, but Ruora only woke a few outside of the Healers ward, but all those inside the ward heard her and responded, which is all that mattered.

Meanwhile Enira had re-gathered all her Strength, just as she had when she used Others to boost Willow, but this time she left nothing for herself.  Placing her hand over the wound with the dagger sticking out between her fingers she slowly tugged, then harder as she felt the tip dislodge from among bones.  Blood started to flow faster from him and she gathered her Strength, everything of her, in her hand; now coated in hot slippery green blood.  She tried to start the Healing before she even got the blade out but Gifting her Strength to him was not easy and it resisted.  Last moment, before the blade was free, her hands slipped digging the dagger into the soft tissue between her first and second fingers.  She was stunned into shocked silence as pain cut into her hand and both their bloods mingled to allow her Strength to follow its course into him.  She removed the dagger fully and it dropped to the ground forgotten when she pressed both hands to his wound, only one hand really contributed though by passing along Strength and Healing from one blood to another.  Her body lost blood and Strength and knelt weakly balanced for a second before toppling backwards away from Fan to stare unblinkingly at the canopy, softly lit by the abandoned lantern laying somewhere. 

We're coming, a soft universal Sending came in on the breeze.

"Nira theyre coming-" Footsteps crushed the grass nearby, "Oh Rima!  Theyre both dying now!"  Ruora cried dismayed at her two fallen friends.

Enira moved her lips and Ruora knelt to hear her, the Shada repeated herself softly, "Done."

"Done?  But he looks...or is he..." Ruora crawled over to Fan nearby and shone the lantern she had retrieved on Fan.  Though he was still out of it and quite literally decorated with his own emerald blood the skin shone Healed under the gash in his shirt beneath two cleaner spots the shape of Enira's hands.

"My turn..to..sleep," Ruora barely heard Enira whisper and then the Shada closed her eyes gratefully.

"No, you cant sleep yet." Ruora ordered as Enira sank into sleep, then below it and kept on descending till her remaining Strength help her put, just above the edge of the abyss.

Across the horizon, along the silhouette of the mountains, walked a lone figure; Fan.  He was far above Enira, almost to the Pass leading out of this Valley.  He seemed to pause at her notice and suddenly she wanted to be up at that path walking with him, her ever present fascination with what lies over the dark cliff in front of her left at this thought.  This new wish to leave the Valley released a golden rain from the white clouds above that filled the canyon gap before her till it brimmed over to swirl around her ankles.  It rose slowly up her ankles at first, tempting and taunting her.  She walked forward a few steps and then sat down on the edge of the cliff full of glowing golden liquid and slid over the side to float chin deep in the warm slippery stuff.  Quicker it came, and quickly it came faster.  Her hair, she noticed now, slid in and out of the bright flood red, smooth, and dry as ever; her hands too.  Now it was full enough, high enough for her to lie on her back and float even if the random currents pulled her out from above the abyss.  She closed her eyes languidly and swirled her hands and feet just barely to stay firmly afloat, it takes effort to stay above the water and to ascent from this Valley.  Now the golden lake stretched on forever till it touched the silhouetted mountains and the twin passes, opposite each other along the horizon.  Fan still stood by one, waiting, and a current was boon to carry her towards him.  She looked at the other pass into the mountains, that one was familiar, that one she wanted but couldnt reach, oh well.  When she reached the pathway leading out of the lake, leading up to Fan, he made no move to assist her and she took back upon her shoulders the weight of gravity, which she had been relieved of in the golden lake.  Wondering at Fan's pointed distance from her she advanced cautiously.  He noticed this.

"You have been helped to ascend this far, the next steps are your own, and I dare not descend to you even one step.  We must both go up," He said glancing at the gate into the mountains before them, "Not down.  We, uniquely, have company during our climb."  Enira still looked lost and wary. "We are leaving the Valley of Dark Death, at least we are here in our minds. He started to explain to her. We travel back up the path between Dark Death, one third of the circle of unconsciousness, and Pure Talent, another third bordering it.  This is the Path you flew down to rescue me, and so our ascents are linked and I have waited for you.  When we get through the gate we must climb still, ascend, for to go down the path is to over extend your Talent Strength, to Burnout and die, as you almost did." Enira took this all in stride, it all sounded as it should be, like she was being reminded and not taught.

"But what is the other third of the circle of unconsciousness?  The one between Dark Death and Pure Talent?"

"Full Imagination, the place of dreamers and sleepers, I walked down the path between there and Dark Death, leading to physical sickness, and at its end death."

"How are we here and not on our paths any longer?"

"You linked your descent to mine, and because we were on different paths we got snapped into the place between them, in our case Dark Death.  Then your Strength filled the Valley floating me up to here, and leaving you there.  Then this gold Strength--yours was green--from some Healers somewhere brought you back and we must walk back up the path to the pyramid where conscious existence lives." Enira nodded her head in agreement, still just being reminded.

It took perhaps a mile of ascension in her point of view to get to the shinning pyramid that pulled her forwards and towards home.

"Do we go to the top?"

"Not yet, that's where you go when your spirit is old and you die a natural death, that is not our place."

Enira nodded remembering.  Side by side they walked up the edge of the stepped pyramid till a gateway inset in one corner of it was before them.

"This is the door you left by Nira, go on back now. Fan pushed her gently forward."

"Are you staying behind?  You have to come back too." Enira stated worriedly.

"The gate I left by is over there," He said pointing to the door on the next corner of the pyramid; off to the left and over looking the trail nestled between Full Imagination and Dark Death. "That is the one I must take to come back."

"Oh, alright then, see you on the other side." Enira said slowly and a silence rode in the small space between them.  Of a single mind they moved together in the doorway for a hug, both clinging slightly for reasons the other couldnt know.  Enira gave Fan's blue eyes one last deep look before turning resolutely and leaning her whole weight against the large wooden door.  It opened easily spilling her into a room of blinding brilliant emerald eyes, and the cool crisp floor gave way to the secure warmth of closely tucked blankets.  Then it all went away leaving room for deep dreamless sleep to stride in possessively.

Fan walked into a hot room of forest green mist that filled his head with sounds of worried talking, the feel of a warm bed, and the sound of a girl singing softly in his mind.  Before these had time to surface sleep snatched him away from consciousness also.

"Aww come on you've slept long enough," Fan felt someone poke him in the arm and he shifted away a bit. "No, no, no, wake up boy. " The voice placed and ice cold cloth on his forehead and his eyes flew open.  Tossing the cold wet thing back in Sora's face he snarled and rolled over away from her.  Now facing right he saw Enira sleeping in a hospital bed on the other side of the room.  He could tell she hadn't woken up yet became she lay peacefully on her back, practically posed.  Normal people dont sleep like that, and the one time hed seen Nira's bed it was in horrible disarray.  She was one of the ones to sleep with sprawled limbs and tangled hair.

"Why..." He started to ask, unsure which question to start with.

"Oh she's still asleep because she's had it rougher than you." Sora said, assuming a lot.

"I wasn't going to ask that," Fan replied, still facing away. "But she's doing ok?"

"Yeah, the Healers are muttering about miracles and I haven't quite figured out what they mean but it seems she used an extreme method of healing that few Healers know exist, thats held in reserve for use on the Tiran because it tends to kill the Healer.  The Healers who know how to do this worked together to bring her back so now none of them are weak at all, they've never thought of that before it seems..."

"Um...who stabbed me?" Fan asked when Sora paused thoughtfully.

"You mean you dont know?  Well maybe you were too hurt to remember anything." Fan waited for her to go on. "Oh, well it was Ruora...she launched an attack at Tisan, but you moved and she stabbed you both.  Then Nira woke up and Healed you while mostly killing herself.  Then the Healers came, having heard Ruora's summons, along with many of us."

"How's Tisan?" Fan wondered quietly.

"He didnt survive Ruora's initial attack, and he was dead when the Healers arrived."

"What did he do to provoke her so badly as that?"

"Apparently he arrived here to convince Rillain to cut off a major part of Perna's supply of food.  Then he got attached to Enira, and Ruora came to me to complain.  Turns out Tisan is a Galazi, I recognized him but no one could track down Enira anywhere.  Seems his orders either to woo her, or in failing that to kill her.  Ruora knew this but never got a chance to warn Nira when Tisan wasnt around, so she followed him as he followed Nira.  Then you came between him and her without realizing it." By now Fan had turned to look at Sora as she explained.

"So complicated, why's it all revolve around Nira?" Fan asked.

"Wish I knew," Sora replied glumly.  Her eyes traveled back behind Fan to find Enira awake and facing them with an expression of gloomy depression.

"You'd all better stay away from me so you stop getting in their way.  I'm just a danger to you." The Shada choked out.

A pounding came at the door and Sora grimaced, got up, and yanked it open.

"He's after me again!  Make him go away Fan!" Ruora yelled around Sora.

"Now is not a good time Ruora," Sora replied firmly. "He's to stay in bed."

"Well then you can help me!" Ruora decided.

"But..." Sora said turning to glance at the scene behind her, Fan looking at Enira closely, and the Shada hiding her head in her pillow. Then she was yanked out into the hall and Ruora clicked the lock on the door before shutting it.  Ruora shot them and unnoticed wink that suggested more reason for locking the door than just keeping Sora with her.

Fan got up and moved to Niras bedside.  She hadn't heard him and didn't move.  He touched her shoulder and she slowly looked up with heavily lidded groggy eyes.  He sat down on the edge of the bed and looked at her sympathetically.

"What's wrong Nira?" He inquired quietly.  She opened her mouth to respond then hesitated looking at him closely, nervously, and coming to some sort of decision she crawled out of the covers and sat up on the bed, facing him now but with her eyes on her clasped hands.

"I dont want to end up alone, but people come and then leave so easily.  I could die, the loneliness is so thick after they're gone." She started.

"And then you realize you were alone all along..." Fan added softly, Enira looked up to find him looking away. He really understands somehow.

"But..." She started to add something then paused to push away the tears that sprang up at the next thought. "But you all have reason to go, you have to go, and if I dont make you all leave me than I'm a bad friend." She choked out. "Guess its my Fate, but it hurts so much..." by the time shed stopped speaking tears ran unnoticed down her face and Fan had scooted over to hold her.

"Sometimes, what makes us strong is sharing things with others, like the heroes of the legends; they come together and are stronger because of it.  You understand?  Doesnt seem to wanna come out right..." Enira had turned to look up at Fan and now she let her head rest experimentally on his shoulder.  After a long pause to think and get comfortable with his nearness she decided she agreed.

"Perhaps you're right, but you'll all leave me even if I do confide in you all." Her throat constricted again.

"We'll never leave you when you need us." He assured her.

There, hes said it. The closest thing to a promise that she wouldn't ever have to be alone that she'd probably ever get.

She let the fearful tension wash out of her and followed numbly as Fan arranged them both more comfortably among the pillows at the head of her bed.  She curled up closer to the guy who had temporarily given her great hope and infinite happiness.  With the room having fallen silent she was distinctly aware that her head now rested just above his heart.  It pounded soft and steadily with a liquid murmur just beneath her ear.  She listened to it beat, keeping him alive, till their breathing slowed and sleep curled up with them both.  Tomorrow would be the same old routine, but for now he was all that was real in Merendi, all that could actually affect her.