The Phoenix Arrow

by Kimra

Chapter Six

She groaned. Her head hurt, her body hurt, every part of her seemed to throb with lingering pain. She wanted to sleep, her body was tired, but sleep eluded her and all she could do was wait and hope that the blessed dream state would come back and claim her.

Warm methodical hands moved about her body, the tingle of penetrating magic in her chest. She wanted to fight them both off, but couldn’t get her hands to raise from the pallet and couldn’t focus her mind. For an attack. Liquid spilt into her mouth and unable to find the strength to spit it out she swallowed it trying to gasp in air before more was poured in. If the energy had been there she would have opened her eyes but there was nothing in her but the will to continue.

* * * * *

She woke. Her eyes opening to darkness and scuffling muttering sound. She blinked the darkness from her sight, light slowly finding it’s way to her again. Still nothing was definite, she was on her side, facing the noises. She could see shadows moving against the light, hear fractured words in a language she did not understand.

Her body hurt. Like fire had fought with her, but fire had never been an enemy before. A cold hand touched her arm and her body jolted in shock. There was no pain from the movement but someone gasped. Stuttered words, voice’s a little louder but she did not move again. Cotton softness settled over her shoulders stealing the warmth from her. She wanted to protest but her throat did not work and she did not know what words to say.

Her eyes began to sting and she let them fall closed against the darkness. Sleep swirled around her, the soft singing of another creature, a creature who knew the words to speak but could not hear.

* * * * *

The darkness was deeper, the shuffles quieter. Her body was shaking and she could not stop it. Someone was crying but she had no care for them. Soft melody’s told her the way back to the cold and into the darkness. Distant whispers of flame offered no path from her limbo. She followed the song until the words made sense then moved beyond to where the sense was forgotten. Exhaustion took her back into the light of dreams.

* * * * *

She woke slowly, eyes blinking against shadow, light filtering into her sense’s. Something was wrong. A surreal layer of calm about her refused to allow panic. She lifted her hand, fighting the weight of the blanket above her, and brought it to her face.

Her eyes drifted shut her hand began to fall from the air. A jolt, a moment of stubborn pride that told her she didn’t need to rest. Her eyes opened again, more light illuminating the silhouettes that moved in her vision. The hand before her shaking. She blinked again, wondering why her hand was shaking, wondering when the simple act of holding her hand in the air had become difficult.

Tired limbs, shaking more the longer she fought them let the hand drop. She drew in a breath, apprehensive and fighting for consciousness and sight. But her eyes closed and the sleep that had been her companion before returned.

* * * * *

Her body shifted and returned, shifted and returned. Her eyes opened, light and dark levelling out in her vision until she found the eyes that sat level with, if not vertical to ,her own eyes. She went to sleep again and her shoulder was shaken lightly. She met the eyes once more and found her vision blocked by something else.

She forced her tired hand to raise again and grasp the object, wanting to throw it away from herself. Living cold seeped into her veins and her fingers released in shock. What ever it was fell to the floor and the sound of breaking glass registered in her mind. She blinked in surprise and heard words been passed.

More movement came, her eyes not closing as she tried to push past the black’s, white’s and subtle grey’s to see the image before her. Words where spoken closer to her and she recognised the words, though could not force understanding upon herself.

Her heart was throbbing, her body did not hurt so much any more.

Something blocked her vision again, and she took the signal, her fingers closing around the cold glass, ignoring the bite in her flesh as she brought it to her lips. She raised her head from the softness beneath it and tilted the cup, pouring what she could of it’s liquid contents into her mouth, feeling the slither of wetness that she had missed slide down her throat and disappear.

Her head moved back to it’s perch, the hand falling fast but she did not care. There was no shattering noise, just the gentle tug that made her release the glass easily. Sleep came back to mind her.

* * * * *

She was sitting up, flecks of colour flashing before her taking her eyes and diverting her attention. People where speaking about the room and she knew what the where saying, but her attention belonged not to them. More colour, more shades and a smile tinged on her lips. The man who tended her walked over slowly and she watched his movements cautiously, attention no longer frivolously employed with remembering colours.

He stopped beside her cot “How are you?” He sounded like a priest, all rounded vowels and careful neutral. She gave him a quick smile ready to answer, then paused wondering what the correct answer was. She frowned, took a breath as if to remind herself then felt the quick smile return.

“Fine.” She was as clear in her pronunciation as he had been and she saw the hint of a smile on his lips. It was encouraging, she pushed on with the words that had plagued her since waking that day. “Can I move?”

“I don’t recommend trying to stand yet dear. But you must be bored-“ He sounded hesitant.

“No.” She let a breath of a laugh out. Bored seemed so inappropriate. In the shadows of his undistinguishable face she thought she saw his brow raise. Another question, “Were am I?”

He let out a sigh and settled back on his heals. “You don’t know?” He made a noise of thought, the archivist’s always made the same sort of sound when deep in concentration. A spark of magic. It flared in her sights against everything it’s intricate spirals and tendrils so clear in their ruby glory. The magic twisted to her, slid into her head but she let it in, curious. The priests had never hurt her, she did not think they would now. “What’s your name?”

She didn’t know. Something clicked in her head, the marauding magic playing where it shouldn’t, had a name not come to her that second she would have expelled it in anger.

“Kalika.” She met his eyes, the red magic began to fade, but she could still feel it.

“Go on.” He urged softly waiting for more information.

A defence went up and any hint of a smile faded. Squinting through the dark haze still stifling her sights she glared at the man before her. “I know you.” It was a distraction but he didn’t notice.

“Good.” She saw the smile on his lips, saw the red tinge and looked quickly around the room. Things seemed a little clearer, people where no long silhouettes, though they still seemed malformed. “The last thing you remember?”

“Easy.” She told him quickly, amused. “Esal wake-“ She stopped short the warning ringing through her. A moments thought, the prodding of magic in her head and she reconsidered her answer. She wondered what the last thing she had done was and all she could see was red. “Blood?” She queried softly and it came back to her in an instant.

Automatically guards went up in her mind, and what magic had been there was pushed out entirely.

“An arrow… from behind.” She took a deep aggravated breath. “Cordan Powder. It was smothered in it.” She flinched for a second then rolled her eyes at herself. “That explains why my vein’s feel like they’ve been set on fire.”

“Is that painful?”

“Wouldn’t you know better then I?” She squinted again, seeing features she hadn’t before and recognised him. “Master Swan.”

His smile was clearly visible and she wondered where her sight had gone while she repaired. “I admit to never having been set on fire.”

“Well in all honesty nor have I. The only burns I’ve ever gotten in my life were from magic. So I’m only guessing that it feels like fire caused it.” She could see his curiosity had not left and gave a growl of discontentment. Masters could be inquisitive things some times and it was annoying in her current state. “And yes. It hurt’s like I’ve never felt before, nor want to feel again.”

“Well it seems you got over your lapse in memory well enough, tell me if you can’t remember anything and I’ll see what can be done.” Swan shook his head went to turn and paused, his eyes coming back to her face. “You know what it’s called?” The curiosity was obvious.

“What?” She traced back the conversation wondering what she had said that was out of place… besides not knowing who she was until he had decided to toy with magic in her head.

“The poison. You know it’s name?”

Kalika gave a weak laugh. “I had a lot of free time growing up.”

“I assume this is not your first language?”

“No.” Kalika tilted her head feeling dizzy and squinted at him, trying to see the intricacy’s of his expression but could not force her eyes to adjust so far so quickly. “It’s my third. Though it is common practice to learn the trade languages, only the truly poverty stricken don’t.”

“Third? So the Dreishmikalan Language is your… second?”

“What? No, first. And it’s known as Karaka.” She was amused, wondering what had brought about the topic. She wouldn’t let it go far but for now it was as harmless as everything else about this man. For a moment she wondered why she had thought he was a priest but he interrupted the thought.

“What’s your second?”

She rolled her eyes again, leaning back into the elevated pillows weariness was beginning to take hold of her. “I can’t speak it. But I was forced to learn the Mage Letters.” He nearly choked and her lips broke into a grin. “I told you I don’t speak it… can barely read it. But it is still my second.”

It took a moment for him to recover and she watched the shadows shift as he collected himself.

The slightly amused feeling in her dropped away as she realised he was silently staring at her. “What?”

“It’s just a little strange. Usually when people are ill, or even forgetful they revert to their first language.”

“I was talking a different language? I can’t imagine I had much to say that was worth hearing especially since I sort of blanked out a few seconds after I was shoot.”

He gave a laugh at that, but even thought she was unsure of the shapes around her she could see the lie in his eyes. He was humouring her, letting it drop. A bite of worry in her chest and she too let it drop. He went to walk away again and like before stopped and turned back. This time however he was looking at the small book in his hand.

“Something of interest to you. You’ve been out for over a week, close to two. Last night was the new moon.” He didn’t even smile before he turned that time and she didn’t watch him walk away knowing their conversation was over.

A little voice in her head, the same one that often told her the logical thing to do was warning her that he seemed too curious, but she wasn’t sure where his curiosity was leading so she ignored that voice and focused instead on the one piece of positive information she had heard in a long time. The Dawn of the Sun had just passed her by without the kind of mishap she had been afraid would occur. She was safer now, more secure and she would not allow that kind of mistake to happen again.

* * * * *

She kept her eyes shut, knowing he was there, watching her. It annoyed her because it scared her, somehow his silent observations made her want to shake. But she wasn’t weak, she wasn’t fragile and she would control herself. She was unsure how long he had been there, seated somewhere behind her bed watching. He had certainly been there for some time now, ever since she had woken to the feel of eyes on her he had been there, and that had been several turns before.

She repressed the urge to react again, keeping her breaths calmly even.

She wanted to test her eyes sight, having it so diminished when before it had been so good was something she could not deal with, but the act of opening her eyes would tell him she was awake and she wanted to avoid him.

These last few weeks she had been falling and falling fast into her common spiral of uncontrollability. Usually her brother was with her, usually he would take care of her, lock her in a room and make sure everything was okay. She almost wanted to thank Rel for shooting her, things would have gone in unpredictable directions if not for that sort of intervention.

Light feet approached her, not him, he had yet to move, someone from the front of the tent. There was a female gasp and a few moments of stuttering. Then Togne’s voice filled the air, “My lord, I did not know you would be here.”

“Yes I know.” He was being restrained, cautious of his tone.

“I was just-“ Togne’s words stopped short and Kalika fought every inquisitive urge in her body to glance at the confrontation.

“I set very few rules for the harem, Togne.” His tone was angry, though he was restrained.

“Yes my lor-“

He didn’t let the girl finish. “Yet you are ignoring them.”

“No my lord! I-“ Her protest was once more stopped abruptly.

“Incense Togne? In a healing tent?” He sounded incredulous.

Togne paused, Kalika heard the breath drawn, the courage and clarity return to the girl for what ever reason. “It is so sterile here… Life sometimes needs to be summoned.”

“Indeed, but that is the healers job. Keep your superstitions beyond the entrance.” There was a pause, a moment when all Kalika could hear was the shifting of Togne’s weight and the soft conversations that existed beyond this confrontation. Seres sighed. “I have asked that you treat each other with equality. That none of you think of yourself as higher or lower then the other. Yet here you are!” The anger seemed to make an entrance, his voice rose above it’s usually soothing tones.

“She is my friend!” Togne defended quickly.

“Don’t do it Togne.” There was no mistaking the warning in his voice and words. “I will not force a resolution in this instance and in the end you will be nothing but a slave.”

“But my lord-“

“No.” His voice was tight. “Go back to the tent.”

“You know where my heart is, Lord. I can not ignore it’s reason, I can not ignore it’s call.” And for the first time Togne sounded nothing like the pampered girl she had become since joining Seres’ harem. She sounded proud and certain, and dignified.

“And in this I can not force you to do something against your nature. But, I will not witness it. Go away.” The command was obeyed without a pause. Togne’s retreat was immediate and Kalika found herself once more alone in the close proximity of the Lord Mage.

He gave a sigh, and she heard him stand. Heard him approach her and felt his weight settled on the bed by her chest as he sat down. A hand soothed her hair back behind her ear, but she did not flinch.

“I think my harem is going insane.” His voice was a whisper as if he was telling her alone. “And you?” He gave a little laugh. “How long will you pretend to be asleep just to avoid me?”

She didn’t move at his question, didn’t flinch again. She would not be weak, she had never been weak before and he had no right to draw out such emotions in her.

“Well, if your asleep then you can’t hold this against me.”

Before she could contemplate what he meant a pair of lips touched at the corner of her own and retreated. Her heart broke into overdrive, the need to move, if to hit him or repeat even such a simple action she did not know. He rose from his seat with a laugh and began to walk away.

She opened her eyes to glare at his back. “I hate you.” She whispered harshly, knowing he could hear her, knowing she didn’t care if he knew he was right by saying she was awake.

He turned to give her a quick smile, and she realised he looked tired, weaker then she had ever seen him before. “I’m used to it.” The smile broke larger but he did not stop and return to her side to harrow her. Instead he continued on his path, leaving her alone in the tent.

* * * * *

Someone was watching her again, it seemed to be the hobby of the camp, at least that’s what the grumpy parts of her mind where telling her. It wasn’t Seres, there was something piercing about his watching that she put aside and could recognise as him without thought. It was someone else, someone familiar.

Kalika cracked her eyes opened and raised a curious brow when she noticed Selen was on a chair by her bed.

“I’m used to the healers sitting there.” Kalika drawled surprising the girl. “I wasn’t expecting you.” She would have laughed at the horror on the girls face if she hadn’t noticed beyond that expression there was something darker lingering. Sensing the serious undertones around Selen Kalika forced herself to sit up, she did not want to face what ever it was lying on the same bed she had begun to feel hostage to.

“I didn’t mean to wake you.” Selen frowned a moment then pressed a smile to her lips, an obviously forced smile.

“Don’t worry, this seems to be the highlight of my day.” Kalika glanced only once to where Swan was treating another patient in the tent, then focused on Selen. “What brings you here?” Kalika squinted past the last residue of her sore eyes to get the best possible image of the dark skinned girl before her.

“I just thought it would be nice. If- if you had someone here to talk to. I’ve heard your not going to be leaving the healers tent for at least a week, Master Swan forbids it.” She was lying, at least a little, her words where true but she was practicing avoidance. Kalika could detect it in the light stutter of her voice and the pause before responding.

Even as she reminded herself to argue with Swan about how long he thought she would take to recover Kalika realised the strained tone in the girls voice. Squinting just a little Kalika lent closer to Selen and frowned.

“Are you crying?” She couldn’t help the question being blunt, unless it was necessary tact had always seemed a waste of time to her.

Selen let out a shaky breath. “I’m sorry.” She whispered, and the sound of suppressed tears was thick in her voice. So she wasn’t crying, but she had been, or was going to. “I should have gone somewhere else.”

Kalika caught the girls arm and held her lightly in place. “Why?”

“I shouldn’t be disturbing you.” Selen continued, that soft whispery voice that seemed as alien to her as it was to Kalika. “But your going to be okay right? Your going to be fine?”

“What’s wrong?”

“His just in a mood. I mean, this is the first time anything like this has happened. Except for- well none of us where even around then, well Yan was but I certainly wasn’t.”

“Selen.” She nearly growled it out in warning, Selen was prattling and Kalika could sense the stress that was causing it. “Did he hurt you?”

“What?” As always Selen sounded indignant at the very concept. “No! His never really hurt any of us. I mean not really. Well except for Rel. But she’s dead, so that doesn’t count. Besides, it was probably a blessing for her.”

“What?” Kalika only blinked once as she processed the words. At least it was one less question she had to ask, but she couldn’t bring herself to care nor did she want to.

“Oh sorry. I wasn’t supposed to say that. Too much stress. Your under a lot of stress, and you need to rest. You need to get better.”

Kalika found herself very worried about the girl before hers mental state. Rel was dead, that was one thing but this wasn’t anger or remorse over that that was causing Selen to ramble in a way that was very foreign to her. “Selen I’m fine.” She reassured. “Why don’t you tell me what’s wrong?” She kept her voice steady, un-aggressive, forgoing emotion for the moment.

Selen looked up from her lap and drew another shaky breath. “I’m sorry. But he shouted, and I didn’t want to be there. I’ve never done anything to make him shout before.” What ever tears she had been holding back broke through her control. Kalika waited in silence as the girl gasped a few uncontrolled breaths in. “I had no where else to go. He is my life. But I know he’ll be calm here, you’ll keep him calm.”

Kalika was distracted and frowning when she caught Selen’s hand and gripped it with as much encouragement as she could offer. This thing with Rel, it might have nearly killed her, but it was doing a lot more damage to the other girls of the Harem then she had bothered to think about. Suddenly for them trust wouldn’t be so easily in coming as it would have been before.

“Why did he shout at you?” Kalika kept her voice neutral once more and she felt the returned pressure in her grip on Selen’s hand.

“Nothing. It was nothing. He is just angry. It was my fault anyway.”

“Selen-“ Once more she couldn’t help the warning tones from creeping into her voice. She had only so much patience and the girl seemed to be heading straight back to her thoughtless rambling.

“He said he’d send me home!” Something about the way Selen said it made it sound like far more of a punishment then Kalika could understand.

“To your people?” Kalika asked tentatively.

“To Rawn!” Selen wasn’t looking at her anymore. “I was just looking at it! I wasn’t going to use it!”

“Your making a scene.” Kalika warned softly and she saw Selen cringe. She cringed herself, that she had bothered to say it when the girl was so upset but habit was a powerful thing to overthrow.

Selen’s voice was softer when it came, that same almost broken whisper she had begun with but there was a layer of hot temper beneath it. “I just wanted to look at it. But he shouted at me anyway. Said if I ever touched a weapon, if any of us ever touched a weapon again, or even looked at one, he would send us home without pause.”

She could tell without asking why that the threat of returning to Rawn scared Selen almost senseless but knew better then to ask why and agitate her even further.

“I can’t go back to Rawn.” Selen cried softly, and the tears came back from where ever they had gone, liquid trails falling down Selen’s checks as she let her control slip.

Kalika listened to the crying girl trying to offer as much support as she could muster. It was shocking to Kalika’s tender sense’s to see the girl she had considered the strongest of the nine crying uncontrollably. It was repulsive because Kalika had seen the strength in Selen, seen it in her every actions her every movement and suddenly the strength was gone and Selen was nothing but a broken and empty person. It was a waste of strength, a waist of courage and she knew Seres had not even paused to consider the harm he would do to her.

Selen took a shaky breath and the tears seemed to stop as quickly as they had begun.

“I shouldn’t be bothering you.”

“Stay.” Kalika pleaded wanting to give a person she almost considered her friend a chance to mend before she was once more thrown into turmoil.

Selen shook her head quickly, an action Kalika almost missed. “He will only be more angry.”

Kalika kept her grip on the girl. “I don’t care.” Her voice hard as stone, unwilling to be argued with, unwilling to concede. She saw Selen start and automatically her hand released the girl, eyes swivelling away. She didn’t care what he thought, but Selen did and she couldn’t drag the girl into her personal battles.

Selen didn’t say anything else before she walked away, and Kalika watched the exit with an outward appearance of calm. But inside the stone furry had set into place.

It sickened her that someone so unimportant in his games of power could be so weakened by them. He had no regard for the damage he caused, no regard for the pain inflicted. And even the women of his harem who remained sickeningly dedicated to him where not free from his disregard.

Ivian had been destroyed, but that had been a strategy the destruction of a potential enemy, Selen was nothing, when the balance of power came into question she would not be looked at. But he had damned her anyway and it was the first thing he had done Kalika could find no excuse for.

* * * * *

Kalika stood slowly, her body was shaking and the arm she used for support quaked relentlessly. It had been daylight for only a few hours but the warm sun filtered through cloth walls and heated her skin. She was alert, but still too weak. Swan had checked on her early when the first rays of light in the tent had woken her slumbering mind. She had waited for him to leave, to find another patient to pay attention too and eventually he had walked away.

He had left the tent a turn before, and she had taken that as the most likely que she would get. She was too tired to move fast, her body too sore to respond with the kind of demands she would usually put to it but she was too unsettled to stay. None of the other healers had looked at her when she rose, one had ventured to ask if she needed help when she tried to stand but she had brushed him away quickly enough. There was one benefit to Swan seeing to her every need, at least none of the others tried to pry.

She pushed away from the bed she had just occupied, forcing her legs to work smoothly and taking a slow pace as she crossed the room. She tried to keep calm when shadows of vision would shift and move unexpectedly, hating that her vision had yet to return to it’s full power. But she could see enough, colour, movement, it was all there but faded to a dullness that made it hard to discern.

She stepped out of the tent, the sun soaking into her for what felt like the first time in a long time. She felt stronger in the day light and she realised with surprise that her vision was distinctly clearer.

She moved across the corridors separating tents, avoiding people as she made her unsteady progression out of the camp. There was anger in her, it wasn’t fierce or protective but it was clean and clear. She needed to leave, she knew that for the first time since she had arrived. If she stayed, he would destroy her as he had destroyed the others and she refused to break.

She had to stop, taking the first possible surface she could to sit on. If she sat on the floor she wasn’t sure if she could raise herself again. Her strength was diminished. Never in her life had she been as weak as she was right now and she knew it. People had drugged her before, poisoned her food and tied her down but it had never been real, not like this. She wondered what had caused such weakness in her. Swan had avoided the topic, there was a chance Seres had spoken to him and made an impact of some sort. Or maybe the healer just hadn’t thought she should know.

Someone walked past her seated form, a couple of men who didn’t even look at her as they made their way through the maze of tents. She glanced once at them but doubted they would remember her or be asked.

Was it indignation that made her want to leave? Maybe the return of sanity that had been lost to her over the last few months. She never had been very good the months leading to her bleeding, never had been able to control thoughts as well as she could any other time. But it was just an excuse and she knew it.

She forced herself to stand, knew she had to get out of the camp at least before anyone realised she was gone. It would be Swan going to check on her or Seres gone to stare at her. Either meant Seres would know immediately. Her body trembled, her legs where tired, burning with the effort she was forcing them to give.

She pushed on, there was something bitter in her mouth. Resentful that she had allowed herself to stay as long as she had. If she hadn’t been a fool, too weak for her own good she would never have paused. Maps and war plans where nothing she needed, a feather on an arrow was something she had built her own dependency on. None of it was relevant and she had been acting like a cat in heat since meeting the Lord Mage. So lust was her controller, and she had thought herself above such stupid whimsies.

She bumped into someone, her body fell backwards unable to fight the pull of gravity. She was too weak to find balance anyway. The man stopped his quick movements and looked down at her with a frown. His frown faded quickly enough, and he lent down offering his hand a smile on his lips.

“Shouldn’t you be in the healers tent?” He asked it softly, almost considerately. She didn’t care. She pulled herself up with his strength as support then met his eyes. Blue eyes, that didn’t matter either. He recognised her in some measure and that mattered. She steadied herself against his outstretched arm, wished strength into her legs but there was no strength in her body to share then forced herself to ignore the exhaustion.

“I’m done here.” She did look from his blue eyes as she released his arm. He would report her, she could see it, he knew she was where she wasn’t meant to be. That mattered as well. Her glance grazed across him, picked out his weapons then met his eyes again. “Thank you.” She gave him a quick smile then grabbed the dagger from his hip, ignoring the sword. The blade stung her arm, cold metal biting into her already weakened form. She ignored it as she plunged the blade into his gut, realising her mistake when a cry of shock escaped him. She ripped the blade out forcefully her arms screaming in protest to their violent movements, then slashed the blade across his throat silencing his shouts.

Her body won it’s battle to shut down, her legs gave out under her and she hit the ground conscious. Her breathing was harsh, her right hand gripped around the dagger handle so tight her knuckles blazed white. What ever they had done, what ever healings she had been through hadn’t been enough. She should have gone the other way, liberated her guards, they would have helped her, but they also would have slowed her down.

She transferred the dagger to her left hand, letting the right relax. The man’s fingers curled, his body gave a jerk and she directed her eyes away form him. If the energy had been in her she might have bothered to kill him faster, but for her purposes he was as dead as he needed to be.

His blood began to seep towards her and she forced herself to stand, pushing herself from the ground with tired muscles, avoiding the blood. Blood was too easy to track and the small flecks that had sprayed onto her white healing robes where already more then she felt secure with.

Standing she began to walk away, heading towards the forest that bordered the camp. She would not pause again, not until the night was set.

* * * * *

Kalika woke abruptly. Something was close, something was out of place. Silently she uncurled her body trying to sense what had caused the disturbance in the thick forest around her. She had stopped to rest when the sun was setting and wasn’t sure how long ago that had been, but the heavy darkness around her suggested it had been some turns before.

If the feeling of intrusion hadn’t been so strong she would have cursed aloud. Her body was too tired, too weak from the ordeal Rel had put it through and she had been forced to rest far sooner then she otherwise would have. She had curled up against a tree trunk, deep in the shadows of the forest wondering how long it would take for her disappearance to be noticed.

She assumed that Swan would be the one to notice her gone, when he returned from whatever errand he had gone on. But she wasn’t sure how long that would be and knew that already she was probably being followed.

Nothing moved as she listened in silence, nothing intruding on the soft nights breeze or the midnight bird calls that echoed through the canopy of tree’s around her. A breath of uncertainty left her, soft and quite, too loud for her liking but it did not disturb the night animal songs.

“Kalika.” His voice made her jump to her feet as she spun around to face him. It was too dark to make out his figure, she didn’t need to see him though, Seres voice had a wonderful way of being totally unique and no part of her doubted who the man before her was. She looked to where his eyes would be, unsurprised to see them almost aglow in the darkness and suppressed any questions as to how he had gotten there so quickly in preference for a way to get away from him.

She wasn’t a fool, escape with him so close would be almost impossible, but she had always revelled in the beauty of luck.

“Seres.” She replied mocking his serious tone with one of her own. It might have been near black but she sensed his incredulous look as she backed a step away, bringing her into the opening and away from her resting place. Of course he wouldn’t send someone else to fetch her, Kalika realised, Seres was a man who felt the need to do everything for himself.

“What do I have to do, Kali?” He sounded exasperated as those white eyes fixed on her. Aside from the glow of his eyes he remained as hidden in shadow. Maybe it was her own sight, still unrecovered from what ever had happened, or maybe the darkness of the forest around them was overwhelming, either way the result was the same, and this was a faceless confrontation.

“That didn’t last long.” She bit out forcefully, annoyed that he had gotten there so fast. It was funny, the emotions she had inside, it was the first time she had faced him and had anything to truly hold against him.

He sounded exasperated when he spoke. “Don’t you think it would have been smarter to wait until you where a bit stronger before trying to run away?”

She wouldn’t say to this cool impassive man that she did not trust her anger to last, she did not trust her strength and free will to hold so she had taken the very moment she knew it was there to leave. She refused to allow him to hold that knowledge over her.

Silence stretched between them, he was waiting of course, for a response from her, and she was waiting to see where he would take this aware that all power her fallen into his control. “I can not do this without some light.” He muttered before doing something she could not see, though she heard, and the next moment a soft light settled into their surroundings.

She blinked only twice, forcing her eyes to adjust to the change despite their tired protests, then met his eyes with more force and determination then before. She would not be intimidated by the shadows around them or the ease with which he dispelled them. He stood before her dressed as he usually would be for a war council, black pants, with a lose silver edged white top. He didn’t look tired, but she couldn’t remember ever seeing the man tired, and for midnight he had a sickeningly awake air about him. She scrutinised the more important aspects of him, he didn’t seem angry, not even annoyed, which annoyed her. He seemed as calm and impassive as always. But she knew that he had every reason to be unaffected. It seemed he had found her easily enough despite her merger efforts to get away.

“Are you going to answer my question?” He folded his arms deliberately, it was an attempt at intimidating her, something she assumed worked on most of the men in his army. She repeated a mantra in her head resolutely, telling herself not to budge, not to blink in the face of what ever form this attack would take and forced a smile on her face to counter his bland expression.

“Which one?” She allowed the anger to show as she hissed the question through clenched teeth, she had never made an attempt to hide anger before and she wouldn’t for him, especially when she was sure he already knew exactly how she felt.

He raised a brow at her, settling back into his stance comfortably, unperturbed by her tone of voice. “Your lucky you know, very lucky, Rel didn’t have the intelligence to let you teach her how to use that weapon before she used it on you.”

“Your lucky the whore was stupid enough to think I’d care she was fucking someone behind your back. Else you would never have known.” Kalika sneered, digging at what she knew would be a source of annoyance and possibly anger for him. She wondered why she did it, every time they where together if she wasn’t after something, if he wasn’t trying to intimidate her she was trying to bait him into irrational action.

He seemed mildly amused. “I would have found out sooner or later, Kalika.”

“I doubt it.” She spat the words at him.

“Just because you’ve been in my company for some time now does not mean you know anything about how I monitor my women.” She went to snap a reply and he pressed on calmly not giving her a chance. “And do not presume to know which situation would have been preferable to me. Master Swan, if no one else, would have preferred if I had found out in my own. It would have saved him several near heart attacks.”

“Did you frighten the man that much?” She growled it, she wouldn’t put it past him, at this moment she wouldn’t put much past him.

“Do you know what he had to do to you?”

“Do I care?” she asked sharply her brow rising. She was almost curious, her body was too weak for it to have been anything small but she refused to admit anything as simple as curiosity to the man before her.

“Cordan Power, which is the poison Rel used on the arrow, infects the blood.”

“I know that.”

He seemed to be ignoring her attempts at angry snaps because he continued his explanation without pause. “It was in you long enough to infect your entire system. Swan’s impressed you made it to the tent alive.” His voice shifted then, not as magnanimous and not as easy to interpret as his attention seemed to shift away from her, his eyes finding another focus in the surrounding woods. “He had to drain you of the blood in your system; keep your veins from collapsing in on themselves; keep the rest of you alive; and generate a new batch of blood that your body would accept.” He looked back to her, acknowledging her presence once more and making sure she was paying attention as he forced eye contact. “It took him fourteen unbroken turns to complete the process.”

Any response she was going to make stopped as she paused to register the words spoken to her. Fourteen unbroken turns was more hours of light then a day gave. And the level of healing Seres was suggesting had occurred went beyond anything she had heard of before. The level of power it would require to preform and sustain all of that at once for such an extended period of time was near inconceivable. She had thought Swan to be powerful, for a healer, but nothing near that. “How-“ She began then stopped and stared at the mage, suddenly realising the question she was about to ask was one she didn’t want the answer to, there was only one way Swan would have access to that sort of power.

He almost smiled at her slip, the edges of his lips turning up for a second. “On anyone else,” he continued as if her slip had not occurred “he tells me it wouldn’t have taken nearly as long. Apparently you have a blood peculiarity that made it nearly impossible to create a substitute.”

She pushed shock aside schooled her features into bland observation and returned his look with a stare. “This is thrilling.” She bit at him harshly unable to control the adrenaline pumping through her body in warning. This conversation was dangerous, too dangerous for her to want to keep it going. Her pulse was up her body sweating, she wasn’t sure if it was from the conversation or her body’s overtaxed state. “Is there a point to this? I’m getting rather bored. Why don’t you just zap us back to the camp or let me go on my merry way.” She wanted this conversation to stop, didn’t want to hear something that would cripple the anger she felt for him, but from the look in his eyes he wasn’t going to do anything she wanted.

“So he had to use some of mine.” He delivered it perfectly, the sentence to make her want to crawl out of her own skin was said with such calm precision there was no way to consider the words as lies.

Generating blood from nothing was not known as impossible, she knew that, but it was a complicated and almost impossible task, using someone else’s had a tendency to lessen the work load considerably. “Why yours?” She forced herself to ask while fighting the strange feeling that crept over her with the knowledge that the blood in her veins was not her own.

“He modified it a bit, so he says, though in honesty I missed the whole ordeal. But he used mine because my blood was on offer, and it was strong enough to hold the spells he needed to weave to keep your body from rejecting it.”

“Even Master Swan couldn’t do that.” She was shaking, her body felt strange all over and only after she said the words did she realise they where words she had avoided voicing only moments before.

“His not. I am.” He paused, looking at his left hand thoughtfully. Even in the soft light around them Kalika could make out the unhealed cut across Seres palm. “It’s quite discomforting, having your magic tugged out of you, letting someone else use it. Like someone’s grabbed a string from your chest and their slowly pulling the rest of you out with it.”

She couldn’t imagine, had never had much to do with mages and their ways but she believed him, he had no reason to lie. She didn’t like that small piece of belief she had in his words and forced the anger back, forgetting a moments trust. “Why do it then?” She snapped.

As before Seres seemed to ignore her question and anger as he continued on his explanation. “His been bleeding you every day since. Letting your body replace it’s own blood with something more compatible to you. Until all the foreign bloods taken out your going to be as weak as a kitten.”

“I’m not as weak as a kitten.” She defended quickly no matter how childish the defence seemed. She might have been unable to move for more then three hours without a break but she was never weak.

“Weak as a kitten? Yes. Stupid as a kitten? No. A kitten would never have gotten this far from camp before anyone noticed it was gone.” He shook his head lightly, his complete attention returning to her. “I’m impressed. Really I am. Half dead on your feet and you walk out of an enemy army camp as if it’s nothing.”

“Are you here to take me back?” She demanded, knowing there could be no other reason but trying to cut the conversation short. The pulse in her throat was pounding a fast rhythm into her body and the effect was making her feel light headed.

“Why else would I be here?” He smiled at her pointing out with his response that her question had been as pointless as she knew it to be.

“Did it occur to you that I wouldn’t go back?” She demanded unable to surrender the token resistance. His superior smirk did little but reignite the ire that had been rising in her before. She was angry that he had found her so easily, angry that she couldn’t hold onto hatred as she used to be able to, and angry that he was finding the entire conversation so amusing. But more then anything else she was angry that she couldn’t clutch onto any hatred for him of her own. He had saved her life, and as repulsive as it was she couldn’t stop that thought from registering in her mind. He had given blood and power to save her life and the thought beat against her with an annoying need to dominate any other thought she had.

“You’ll be dead in less then a day if Swan doesn’t oversee you properly. Why do you think you where still in the healers tent? I would have had you back where you belong-“

“Belong?” She seethed clinging to a piece of sanity that effortlessly bubbled her anger back to the surface.

“Yes Kalika. Belong. You belong with me, in my tent.” She could see he meant it, there was a look in his eyes that said he would brook no argument but it didn’t mean she would agree with him.

“I don’t belong with anybody.”

“Not even your Duke?” His eyes glinted with the first sign of expression beyond the calm and sedate man who had come to reclaim her. “I think you would have given a lot to belong with him.” It bothered him, she knew but she could not comprehend why, and refused to attempt to.

“You are from a culture where men can marry a hundred times, where they can buy and abuse women like slaves, where women have less value then animals on a farm.” She glared at him in disgust. “You can not comprehend the complexity of relationships in my country. Did I love Ivian? Yes. Nothing in your world was like what we had between us. There was nothing so honest, so untainted as the strength of his heart and mind. I would have died for him, but I didn’t belong with him.”

“Didn’t he want you?” That was a trap she heard and avoided as easily as it was laid.

“You have no idea Seres. No comprehension of the kind of devotion that can exist between two people without it being about gaining something, without it being about sex.” Her voice had softened, she couldn’t help it when thinking or talking about Ivian. It was not a problem for her any other time. The people she met knew so little about her they didn’t have her emotional anchors to use, but this man knew a bit more about her then any of those others.

“Does it hurt?” Seres asked suddenly, the gleam in his eyes nothing but malice. “Knowing that there’s something innocent in this world, and you’ll never be a part of it? Because what was innocent in you, you gave up a long time ago.” Everything in her stopped, retorts failed her as she stared at the mage. “He was everything you couldn’t be. Isn’t that why you loved him?”

Her heart had stopped beating, she was sure of it. The venom in Seres words bitting into her and ripping apart. She couldn’t breath as she tried to deny his words. She couldn’t make herself deny them. She had made him mad, she could see it from the vindictive expression on his face, she had made him what she wanted him to be but she hadn’t been prepared for what exactly that meant.

He looked down at her not giving her the chance to recover and continued effortlessly. “It’s easy to love a person who can’t hide secrets from you.”

She knew what he was saying because she had thought it herself so many times. Ivian had never been able to hide anything from her, his magic had not allowed it. Tears crept into her eyes, blood pounding in her throat and ears. She wanted to say it wasn’t true that she instilled that kind of trust and loyalty in many people, but the truth was she had never trusted an outsider before Ivian, and she had never trusted one since.

She starred at the man before her, fighting anger, repulsion and a strange sense of nothing that wanted to overwhelm her. If it hadn’t been for Ivian’s magic she would never have trusted him. She would never have worried over him, cried for him, never have done everything in her power to protect him. But it didn’t make her hollow, she refused to believe it did. She had been sensible when placing her trust, there was too much danger in the world, too many lies and deceptions. But here stood a man telling her even if he didn’t use the exact words, that one of the most important things in her existence was tainted and false.

Anger welled inside her, she forgot to be indifferent in the face of such a blunt attack. When battles fell to this level indifference would only aggravate, not destroy and with the anger inside her she wanted nothing more then to destroy the man before her.

“I hate you.” She growled it out harshly, letting the anger resonate with each word.

Seres didn’t respond, the expression that had been in his eyes was gone, leaving only the stoic mage she was too used to seeing. More anger infected her, she refused to allow him to sink back into himself, to be the tormenting bastard he seemed to enjoy being.

“I hate you!” She screamed it, her voice raising above the canopy of trees and echoing through the wind. He didn’t flinch at the sudden outburst, didn’t react, didn’t seem to care or notice that she was pouring the very fibber of her soul into her words. His cool impassive eyes shook the anger in her loose from it’s final restraints and she succumb to the emotions that swelled within.

She stalked up to him, not afraid, not scared of what he could do for the first time since meeting him. She had played games, they both had, but what games had been where over and this was very real, and very dangerous.

Her breath’s came out in jagged uneven gasps as she glared up into those obscurely colourless eyes. She could see the power in him, like always it rippled and collided under the surface of reality and she felt her insides tighten in sensible fear. This man could hurt her, could kill her, it was a reality she had never really faced before meeting him and it scared her, but she refused to cower.

She wasn’t even aware of the tears falling down her checks, a result of the anger that had boiled over the surface, as she glared up at him.

“Feeling better?” His voice was bland, as unaffected as the rest of him even in the face of her emotions.

She wanted to strike him, but knew better, the moment a battle broke things would tumble too far out of control. “I hate you.” She hissed up at him, her voice full of bitter animosity her body shaking from the conflicting anger and fear in her.

He gave a sigh and looked away from the eye contact that had held between them through the conversation gone, she clenched her jaw against the ease of his actions refusing to respond. When he looked back to her, iris’s that had been white where a simple grey but his expression was unchanged. He breached the small distance she had left between them and caught her arm, she couldn’t stop the flinch the contact caused but she did not draw away.

His eyes rose to the sky, blocked by the towering tree’s and she heard a muttered something in his voice. What ever he said though, she could not hear and forgot to try when his eyes returned to her, dark and foreboding, almost black. His voice was smooth when it came, controlled but for a tiny bite that only months of association made her aware of. “It’s so easy to blame me for everything isn’t Kalika?”

It felt like a reprimand for a small child, a belittlement for her reactions as if she was in the wrong but he was unwilling to do more then scold. Her hand clenched into a fist, ready to strike him. Her mind wasn’t ready to fight, but her body was tense and prepared.

“You are the epitome of everything I despise.” She bit at him, her voice tight and strained as she controlled the shaking that wanted to betray her. This is what she needed, she had been hiding too long, failing under foolish weakness as if it would protect her from him. It had been stupid and a waste when victory would only ever come if the battle was fought.

“Am I?” His voice broke with more emotions then hers, a lot of anger she couldn’t see by looking at him but she could hear it. She let out a harsh breath, trying to control the fast pace of her body.

“You’re empty, cold, a lie.” He stepped closer again and she retreated a step ripping her arm from his grip, unwilling this time to let anything get in the way of her rage. She was not stupid enough to deny that proximity to him could distract her, she knew herself better then that.

“And what about me is a lie?” There where emotions in his voice, but ones she couldn’t seem to hear over her own thundering emotions. He tried to breach the distance she had put between them and she backed away once more. Her glance flicked behind for a moment, taking in the terrain should more withdrawal be necessary.

“Everything about you is a lie!” She shouted, her body was too shaken with violence, to enraged to find even a moment of calm.

“Hypocritical coming from a spy.” He bit it out, a flash of white in his eyes his hands curled into fists of his own. “If I am the epitome of everything you despise, then so to are you.”

“I never said I liked who I am!” Her scream made him pause, made his expression pull into a little frown. She took the moment of his indecision to draw in another breath, for some reason breathing was taking more effort then it ever had before.

“Do you hate yourself?” He asked it softer, calmer, but with emotion. She took another step back although he had not advanced. The change was dangerous, the sudden shift of his temperament meant his thoughts had moved from the argument she was desperate to keep alive.

She didn’t know how to answer, why an answer was needed, and she didn’t want to answer because she knew quite well the moment she did answer the fight she was unwilling to give up would shift far beyond where it had begun. Unthinkingly she withdrew another step and this time he followed swiftly.

“Answer the question Kali.” He advanced faster then she could withdraw because he could see where his feet fell and she had to test before trusting her weight to a foot hold she couldn’t risk looking at.

She realised what she was doing again, what this man drove her to and obstinately stopped her retreat. She refused to cower or to admit to the fear she could feel pushing through her body. She had been born to fight battles, raised to win wars, to face the enemy and laugh and she would not give this one man what she had given no other. She would not yield.

He caught her arm again black eyes fixed unwaveringly on her waiting for her response.

Her voice was calmer, more controlled as she centred herself with that one undeniable truth. “What I feel for myself holds no relevance to what I feel for you.”

“I think that’s a lie.”

She just smiled at that, meeting his look with a clam one of her own. And clearly, mockingly she responded. “Think what you will.”

He smiled in reply, unnerving her. “We’re trapped you know. It doesn’t matter how far you run, where you go. You and I are bound.” He brought his hand to the side of her face, fingers still tight about her left arm, and gently traced an invisible line from her brow to her chin.

“No where not.” Her voice trembled and she cursed herself for the very weakness only a moment before she had thought banished. But there was something in his words, or tone, that made it hard to doubt him. The seriousness she sensed more then saw made it real.

“And how many years have you put into studying magic? How many people have you consciously bound to your will, to your person?” He studied her momentarily, as if assessing her very being and she did not like being the object of his scrutiny, she never had. “I’d venture to guess at none. You haven’t a scrap of magical talent in you body.”

“Talent?” It seemed odd to her that he would specify like that when she had no magic at all.

“Gods be damned, Kali. I’d be more of a liar then you accuse me of being if I said you didn’t have magic.”

She frowned at the sudden fever in his voice and replied as calmly as she could. “I don’t.”

“Is that what your scholars told you?” He laughed at her, a small scornful laugh that told her exactly what he thought of them. “I am a mage of the Silver Setting, a rank achieved by only four men in recorded history.”

“And two women.” She said it unthinkingly, an instant response that would come no matter the situation, then wondered if he even counted them.

“And two women.” He conceded expression a little impatient. “I have spent twenty three years in dedicated study to the arts of magic. I have a level of power unrivalled by any human.”

“How do you know?”

“Occasionally Iria says something of use.” He replied simply. “The point, little girl, is that I know far more about magic then even the very best of your mages. You have magic, it’s just so interwoven in your ‘self’ that it’s never confronted you.”

“Explain that to me.” She was unconvinced and mocking.

“Most mages have a moment, somewhere between the ages of five and twenty when the magic will make itself known and wake within them. Like lighting a candle from across the room or blowing your enemy to pieces with a blink of the eye. That’s how they know that their mages, because before that moment they are restricted to normalcy.

“But when your born with the magic already alive in you, and from the moment you can think you can light a candle from across the room, or blow your enemy to pieces then for you that is normalcy and you never stop to wonder if your different. And if it’s subtle, or no ones paying attention the difference may never be pointed out.

“And that’s what you are Kalika, one of those who where born with the magic pulsing through your veins ready to use.”

“I’ve never blown anyone up, I’ve never lit a candle from across the room.” She couldn’t help but laugh at him. “Your not only a bastard, but your also a fool.” She tried to get her arm back from his grip but he refused to release her.

“You just don’t want to listen do you? I must be wrong, I must be a bastard because your to stubborn to allow that things aren’t always perfect that you can’t always make things right with a single flick of the wrist, things aren’t always black and white. Your life’s been too easy on you, things worked out, things fell into place. You killed a man and he was dead and so where the problems he created.”

This time when she pulled away from his grip she did it with enough strength to succeed. “Things are never that easy. And don’t you pretend that I think they are. Don’t you dare belittle me into such stupidity.”

“Prove me wrong and I’ll concede.” Was his mocking reply.

“You think I don’t know?” She demanded. “You think that I’ve lived as long as I have, done the things they’ve asked me to and not learnt?” She glared up at him, “There’s no good, no bad, no truth or lie. It’s a game, and when you win you get to live another day. And if you have to kill a boy, or a dog, or a woman three months pregnant, or a man trying to take over a country it doesn’t matter. You play to live or you die.

“You said it yourself, Seres, I gave up what was innocent in me a long time ago. Black and white faded, everything bleeds, nothings free of taint, I know that. So maybe there’s a bit of truth in the lie that is you. It doesn’t mean I’ll trust you, it doesn’t mean that your not a bastard and it doesn’t mean your not wrong. All it means is there’s a chance.”

“Yes, a chance.” He almost gave a smile as he spoke but it never formed and he remained as he had been, a dark expression across his face. “A chance that I’m not trying to manipulate you, a chance that all I’m doing is telling you the truth.”

“And there’s a chance your not.” She bit out with dry calm.

“Your all about Luck, aren’t you Kali?” His eyes grazed over her face with a look of curiosity. “Carrying a Phoenix artefact around you must believe in luck. Why don’t you test your luck and trust me?” There was a challenge in his voice tinged with the smallest hint of amusement but all it did was make her frown at him.

“I can’t force myself to trust someone. It’s simple Seres, I trust or I don’t. And you’ve given me no reason to trust you.” She knew her voice had become rational. What had begun as an argument had somehow shifted into a debate and he continued it with a rational voice to match her own.

“What have I done to warrant mistrust? I have never lied to you, I’ve never hurt you, I’ve done nothing.” He frowned a little at her searching her expressions for the reply.

“To me. Yes, I know. I’m safe, free from the very person you are to everyone else. You think the harem trust you? Do you-“

He interrupted her quickly. “This is not about the harem Kalika. Don’t pretend it is. You and I both know you are not like any of those girls. There is more life, more strength in you then any of them ever had.”

“How would you know? You destroyed them all before you ever gave them a chance.” She bit the words out harshly, unable to deny the tones of admiration that had been in his voice but desperate to drown them out by modulating the debate back into the safe grounds of an argument.

“Maybe. But if I’d taken you that first night, you wouldn’t have become a submissive lover waiting for me to summon you to my bed, like they did. If I’d taken you that first night you would have killed me,” he smiled lightly “or tried, and then you would have been gone.”

“You presume to know me? You know nothing about me!” She snapped, the more amused he was the more defensive she became but she was aware of it, although unable to fight it.

“Perhaps I know nothing about you, but I know that first night if I’d taken you we would have been enemies.” Impatience had began to creep back into his voice.

“Oh and what are we now if not enemies?” She did not wait for his reply, a little scared to give him the pause. “We are nothing, Seres.”

“Then why haven’t you run away before? Why did you chose to do it today? You don’t even have a real reason do you Kalika? Your running on borrowed emotions, pretending this is what you want as if you have any idea of what you want.”

She watched him as the words sunk in. Shocked by how close to the truth they where. They where questions she had asked herself many times and been unable to come up with an answer for, and sentiments she had been long aware of. Carefully meeting his eyes, aware that she would betray a weakness as she did she asked the question that pressed most into her thoughts. “Why are you doing this? You can have me, you always could, I would never have fought you. Instead you seem determined to tear my mind to pieces. Why are you trying to destroy me?” It was the one thing she needed to know.

“I’m not trying to destroy you.” He responded calmly. “I just want you to stop for a second and be honest with yourself. I’m not saying I know you, I don’t pretend to have the luxury. But you and I are more alike then your willing to admit. So maybe I broke them, those girls, maybe I wasn’t as good to them as I should have been. But be honest Kalika, put pretence aside and ask yourself if you’ve ever broken someone. Ask yourself if you would have even noticed.”

“Does it make a difference?” She asked softly, “I’ll still hate you.”

“You keep saying that, yet you allowed this to happen.” He made a motion in the small gap between them and something flashed before her eyes, something that blazed white and blue and red and pulsed like lightning. For that second she could see nothing but the dazzling effect of lights, and the shadows of her figure and his. Then it was nothing and there was nothing but the two of them in the middle of a forest staring each other down, and nothing had changed between one moment and the next. He continued without a break. “Somewhere inside that obstinate head of yours you wanted this bond to form. You wanted to be linked to me.” He said the last words slower, his eyes darker still. She gasped at the audacity of the claim, denying it with everything in her.

“Linked to you?” She hissed it, surprised he could say anything to make her more angry then she had been. The cold of pure hatred began to seep through her. His insinuation shaking her core. It was truly amazing the shifts her emotions continued to demand of her, the way that stability could exist but never for a moment before once more she was thrown into the turmoil of uncertainty.

“Don’t get me wrong. I have a link with every member of the harem, every creature of value to me. Weak links. Stronger then nothing, enough so I can find them, trace them if need be, and if the circumstance calls for it go directly to them. I forced those links on them all. Because they weren’t all happy to be in my service, they weren’t all happy to be prisoners. And any time they tried to run I knew and found them.”

“Is that how you found me? You tugged on this ‘link’ and there I was?”

“It’s more complicated with you, Sweet.” He had an indulgent smile on his lips, which she ignored.

“Did you get bored and decide to play with your spells and I just happened to be the test subject?” She demanded as harshly as she could.

He gave her an almost charming smile. “You refused the link.” He gave a little laugh, forced and strained. “Liza had fought it, with every bit of her magic she fought it when I made it, it didn’t do anything. But you… You refused the bond, unconsciously using your magic to push it away and refused to allow it to form. It took over a week to get even a margin of a link, and it was weak, fragile, the smallest push from either side would have shattered it.

“Imagine my surprise when I went to fortify it weeks latter and found it was already far stronger then any of my other links. That magic of yours, if you believe in it or not, had not only allowed the hooks of my spell in but had twisted it’s own spindly pathway along the link and fortified it.”

“Your saying that I wanted it? This link? That I wanted to be joined to you and made into another of your slaves. Another of your whores.”

“Subconsciously you did. That’s what I’m saying.”

Her fist moved faster this time then any other time she had tried to strike him, deadlier as she landed a punch in his stomach. She was surprised when he barley respond, as if the contact had been nothing.

“How dare you! I am nobody’s whore!”

“You and I both know when a verbal fight breaks into violence it’s the one who strikes first who’s lost.”

“I hate you! I want you dead!”

“That’s a difficult task to complete, and I don’t think your heart would allow it.”

“There is no love between us.” She growled.

“No there is not. But there is an understanding you continue to deny. We are what we are, born this way, crafted, it does not matter. We both have a careless disregard for life, for emotions. So long as our goal is achieved we do not care. Some part of you, even if you don’t understand it, recognised this and let me in. And now? We are bound. And this connection between us has surpassed even my ability to break it.” He watched her closely, his expression once more guarded. “Do you think with such a bond you could destroy me with out repercussions to yourself?”

“Why did you do it?” She demanded, trying to fathom the answers she needed.

“I told you-“ He began, but she interrupted.

“No. Not that.” She corrected. “Why did you have me taken to your tent?”

“You would have found me that day. I knew it when I saw you on the battle field. You where this amazing calm, collected, perfect creature slowly hunting down it’s prey. If I’d given you enough time you would have seen through the mesh of invisibility spells, so I pressed the battle with magic.

“But why I wanted you in my harem? It’s a question I have asked myself a lot since that day. The truth is, I’m not sure, there’s just something intriguing about you. Maybe it was your magic, tucked back so deep it’s hard to see, maybe it was that perfect changing colour of your eyes, or maybe it was that amazing focus you displayed on the battle field. I have never seen the type of focus you displayed that day in anyone else.” He smiled lightly before his eyes left hers to run down the length of her body and back, when he met her eyes again the smile had become appreciative. “Perhaps it was something to do with that remarkable body of yours.”

“You’re a pig.”

“No. I’m a man.”

“It’s the same thing in my books.”

“And I thought we where getting somewhere.” Another smile, and all she could think was that he was smiling too much. “You are a puzzle Kalika. An amazingly elusive puzzle and I doubt there is an answer for you. But I’ll tell you now, answer or not, I’m never going to stop looking.” It sounded like a declaration, a promise she didn’t want to look too deeply into and as he said the words he slipped his arms about her and she, distracted, did not notice until she was trapped in his hold.

“Let me go.” She begged it, her voice weak and he knew as well as she did that she was not speaking of their embrace.

“I can’t.” He wasn’t sorry for it, would not be sorry, but he could hear the pain in her voice and as with all things when it came to her, it affected him.

“Please.” She wouldn’t look at him. Felt to ashamed of her own weakness to face anyone.

“Kali-” he warned carefully drawing her closer, glad when no protest was made.

“I hate you.” She whispered into his shirt, unable to stop the tears, unable to keep control. She was clinging to him, her fingers curled into the silky silver lining that edged his shirt, her head buried in against his throat.

“I understand. Better then you think.” He brushed her fringe back, tilting her chin so she faced him. “You and I are so similar. And if you don’t hate me, how can you hate yourself?”

It was a truth she was not weak enough to deny, and as the tears slid their way down her checks she found for the first time she did not care that he could see them. He was right. It was the first admission she would ever make of such magnitude in his favour. They where alike in too many ways to count, she would have been the first to acknowledge it if he had been trapped in her world, but the circumstances where in his favour and he had been at leisure to see what she refused to.

She needed to think, almost desperately. But he refused to let her do so yet. Gently tipping her head back away from him so their eyes once more met she found what could only be described as an apology in his expression. She wasn’t even sure what he was apologising for but it was forgiven without thought.

He must have seen it in her expression because a light smile came to rest on his lips, his eyes shifting from that black they had been for too much of the conversation to a steady grey that was almost unaffected. Inexplicably she smiled, and although she was aware of the action, and was unsure why it had happened, she did nothing to repel it.

Softly he brushed the tears lines off her checks, keeping his eyes on her own, the expression intense though not overpowering as she had often found it. Her smile wavered a little, uncertain still of what stood between them, and as if in reply his smile grew. “See?” He questioned softly, his fingers weaving into the hair at the base of her neck. “Not so different after all.” He whispered the words as he slowly lent in towards her lips. She pulled back from the approach unable to quell the uncertainty in her. And his smile, although not so big was still genuine as he waited for her, just a breath away.

She took a few deep breaths, tried to calm the heart that pounded in against her ribs, tried to stop the shaking that infected her limbs. She wasn’t sure if she was ready for this. There was no love between them, she knew it, he knew it, but still he was reaching for the physical. She wanted to deny him, but she wasn’t so scared of him as she used to be. What scared her was the speed which he had turned her around, as if he had explained everything when nothing had really been explained. But there something in her heart that was accepting it all, and that scared even more.

She had said there was no love, but wasn’t a connection the first step? She looked into his eyes, so very close to her own just then, waiting for her permission to do what he had wanted to do for a long time. And the tender patience she saw there was unlike anything she had ever allowed herself to see in him before and she caved under the sincerity of it.

“Not so different.” She replied her voice shaking, a small almost non-existence smile directed to him and he breached the small gap between that lay between them, his lips finding her own in a soft kiss.

She had expected it to go further then a single kiss but he withdrew once more brushing away tears from her checks.

“Now your bleeding.” she hadn’t noticed, “and I’m taking you back to the healers tent.” He said it softly, be it was still a command, but she forgave it this once because now it had been brought to her attention she could feel the blood slithering down from her chest wound across her body.

When he went to pick her up though she refused the action with her usual sense of self dependence. “I’ll walk.” She told him sternly.

His brow rose mockingly. “Kali-“ He began but she refused to hear it.

“Let me walk.” There was a bit of pleading in her voice she chose not to hide.

“If you falter, I’m going to carry you.” He warned, amusement hiding only a little of the concern in his voice.

“Then I won’t falter.” She told him sternly, though she accepted his arm in support and let him pick the direction of the path having completely lost direction and feeling too tired to figure it out on her own.

* * * * *

Fire laced her dreams, as it had many times before. She breathed it in like a sacred scent she had long been without and long wished for. The whispers traced past her like fragile wisps of spider web floating in the ether. Figures, ghost like, came to and faded from the clearing around her never truly taking form.

The clearing was peaceful and solitary, tree’s rising on the edges, their leafs and branches unharmed by the flames that burnt along them, grass that blanketed the clear ground also tinted with the harmless fire and the soothing red glow that suffused off it all to light the sanctuary.

She felt at peace, an unfamiliar though unrepressed feeling. This was home, or as close to it as she could be. Gently she lowered herself to sit upon the ground, running her fingers through the soft grass. She smothered a giggle at the tickling sensation against her skin as the flames slid from the grass to her hand.

“What are you doing ‘lika, that takes so long?”

She looked up from the flames that played across her flesh to her brother, solid and standing before her a mock cross expression on his handsome face. For a moment she puzzled over it, but like him she accepted the moment and chose to move with it.

“Finding myself.” She whispered in reply, feeling reverent in these surroundings.

“Were you lost?” He teased his expression doubtful, his perfectly practiced aristocratic voice full of the kind of good humour he only ever showed her. “You’ve lost weight.” He commented offhandedly, eyes sweeping over her in intense scrutiny.

Kalika stared at her brother for a moment, watching the figure she hadn’t seen for so long. His blonde hair tumbled into his eyes errantly as it always had, but his frame was too lean, as if stress had begun to win over him and his green eyes had faded into something less charming and more desolate then was natural for him.

“Why brother, are your eyes sad?” She probed her voice soothing.

He looked away, those green eyes fixed on something else as if he was unsure how to respond.

The silken threaded whispers around her spoke of broken hearts and lost loves. Bitterly Kalika smiled realising what troubled her brother. So she told him, to spare him the pain of voicing it. “Your lover has left you.”

“You warned me of it.” He conceded lightly, as if he was not in pain but she could hear the sour sound buried in his voice.

“Don’t mourn the loss, you where being used.” She stated bluntly, feeling no regret that it had happened at last.

“Actually its’ your fault.” He gave her a smile, as charming as always. “Apparently its-“ he paused to think “-‘disturbing when a man fixates on his sister’, at least as much as I do.” He gave a bitter laugh. “Whilst worrying about you I was being ‘neglectful and distant’.”

“Good for you!” Kalika encouraged, feeling a little pleased she had been the cause of it. But anyone who would not stand by their lover because it was thought they spent too much time worrying about missing family did not deserve the slightest worry.

“Speaking of which-“ He began sharply, his voice disturbed and no long distracted by his own worries, his features frowning down at her.

“Too late.” She told him calmly as he began to fade from the clearing. He made only one noise of annoyance before he was gone completely and she was once more alone in the serenity.

She closed her eyes and breathed in the warm air, letting it relax her. Her brother would have been the only one to understand, more so even then her, but she was not sure she wanted him to understand and certainly not before her. So she released the muscles that had tightened unnoticeably with his appearance and let herself sink into the feel of security her surroundings offered.

The whispers where louder with her eyes closed, some that smelt like dessert winds, some icy waters, she could taste fear in some and others happiness but she listened to them all as best she could, learnt little but expected no less.

“What are you doing here young child?” A rounded voice asked and she turned to face the source her eyes opening to take him in. He was short and round bellies his face was dark with distrust though there was an aura to him that spoke of intelligence and good nature.

“Dreaming?” Her voice came out as a slow trance like sound but she did not mind, never did she feel herself whist the dreams had her.

The man looked about him quickly as if checking something important before his attention was once more on her. “What is your name?”

“I won’t tell you that.” She replied with childish amusement and he shook his head quickly his expression becoming less distrustful.

“No, no, of course you wouldn’t child.” He seemed to be humouring her.

“I’m eighteen you know.” She could see his puzzlement and continued. “I’m not a child.”

The grin that split across his face seemed natural, though she suspected if she attempted a smile that large she would hurt herself. “Child you need numbers much higher then that before I’ll call you anything but.”

Unsure how to respond to that she moved past it. “Why are you here?”

His expression became blank for a moment but his eyes became piercing. “I live here.”

“In my dream?” she was incredulous.

“No.” He replied firmly.

She considered that for a moment then fixed her eyes on him. He was not a creation of the dream, which meant this place, where ever it was, was real. “Where are we?” She demanded tightly.

“A place.” He replied obliquely. “The question is, why are you here?”

“I feel safe here.” She replied without hesitation.

“That is understandable, it is safe here, it will always be safe here.” He looked over his shoulder then back to her his focus so intense she felt a little uneasy. “Rest here as long as you wish child. If you have troubles crest the hill and travel to the fading sun.” And with that he was gone as if he had not been there.

Kalika forced her mind to remember his words and looked to the hill he had indicated to. There where dangerous games played when your world relied on the luck of a moment. And she had learnt to pay attention.

Slowly she began to relax, aware of her solitude and relishing it. The whispers began again. This time they where louder, but still as obscure as always. A courtesan in Seshen was gossiping about her masters gryphon, and wondering why he locked himself away with it. Another woman, with white hair and a husband, wanted a child and was buying drugs and magic to help. A spy was travelling with his friends, heading for Skiara, to return something.

A phantom kiss to her cheek distracted her and she opened her eyes to the clearing again.

“Too keep you safe.” Whispered across her like a caress and a shudder ran through her body. Nobody was with her, but she felt the presence warm around her before it drew away. She had the sensation of closing her fingers, but the action was not made.

With a little frown she closed her eyes once more prepared to let it speak with her, then realisation that had evaded her sprung into existence.

Her eyes flung open in surprise but there was no red glow, there where no flames, all she could see was the roof canvas of a tent.

Disorientation occurred, the soft bed beneath her, the cool air around her and the muffled conversations from a distance where misplaced. She looked, recognised it was a tent and the next moment knew it was Seres’s tent. She felt her hand gripped around something and looked quickly to find her fingers curled around the shaft of an arrow.

She sat up, bringing the arrow into her line of vision her breath held as she stared at the flaring blue feather. For a moment she wanted to believe it was her arrow, then refused to allow the belief but as she stared as the feather she found it almost impossible to doubt. There where few phoenix artefacts in the world, she had heard of only five plausible ones and she had found three of them already to be fiction, so she knew the unlikely hood of another existing that looked so similar to her own.

Reverently, unsure if she was still asleep or if this was an illusion she brushed her fingers along the barb of the feather, feeling the silky texture as fire burnt down her fingers at contact.

Her breath released, and her eyes hungrily took in what she now held. The feather was hers, no doubt lived in her mind after that first fiery contact but the shaft and point where not. She examined closer with a curious and analytical eye. The shaft was a darker wood, polished black, the head was of a higher quality silver, the kind top marksmen had their arrows made from, and the clasp holding the feather in place seemed as if it could be released. She fingered the clasp carefully, testing it’s stability and was impressed to find, although easy to undo and remove the feather, it appeared it would not fall open without human influence. Her inspection of the basics done she returned her attention to the burning blue feather that had kept her company for so long, and felt a sense of relief that it seemed perfect and unharmed.

But with her examination over she found herself left only to consider what it’s presence by her side meant.

She could recall the voice in the dream, the gentle touch of lips on her check and then she had taken hold of the arrow. Before that moment it had been near, else her dreams would never have been so influenced as they where, but not within her grasp. With time to think beyond the lethargic dream she recognised the voice as Seres, and realised with something akin to shock that he had voluntarily returned the arrow to her possession. An item that had at times been her soul excuse for remaining in his company.

With that thought came the memory of the day before, or at least, her last memory of consciousness. She had to guess she was better, to be in Seres’ tent again, but was unsure how long had passed since her and Seres’ conversation. It seemed like some time, a couple of days at least, but she had been repairing already so it was possible only a few days had been needed for the healing to complete.

Absently as she thought she twisted the arrow between her fingers, letting the soft feather brush against her bare thigh.

She bit into her lower lip. This was unexpected, completely beyond any scenario she could have conjured on her own. He had given it to her. Her key. Her power. As if it where nothing, but she did not think so little of him to think him ignorant of what this action meant. There where some magic’s in the world that could not be overpowered, they where the types of magic one best avoided, and a phoenix feather was made from that sort of magic. To let her have it was letting her have a power over him that he could not fight, if she chose at that moment to run she doubted he would be so quick to find her as he had been, she doubted, in fact, that he would ever find her.

But she wasn’t moving, as if the very action of giving her a chance at freedom had taken away those few remaining thoughts that had wanted it. She considered spitefully taking this blatant release and actually leaving, but only a vindictive part of her wanted to do it, to prove she was still in control.

Strangely enough though, she was in control, and it felt so foreign she was unsure if she had ever been in control before. She had lived her life following orders, first her grandfathers and after, when he had passed away, her kings. Her actions had always been for the good of either man, or more, for the good opinion of either man. She did not care for country’s or lineage, but she fought for them. She had killed hundreds for her king, she had engineered assassinations, civil revolts, anything that was necessary to keep his power. And she had obeyed the summons of his throne, like a god she had bowed to it and her life had been devoted to the threads that influenced it.

But here, right now, sitting in the bed of a man who had done nothing to her but offer her chance after chance she was unsure of how just her dedications had been. Seres had built her up, certainly he had captured her, he had imprisoned her, but he had made it clear time and time again that they where nearly equal. He had bartered deals with her instead of ordering, his violence had been restricted to moments where he had been provoked beyond rationality, and his orders had been limited to times when she had been too stubborn to see the logic in requests.

She could easily remember times when her grandfather had hit her for small pieces of disobedience, times when the orders had been extreme and she had been unsure. She had never questioned those times, never wondered beyond the moment because they had always been there. But it had been months since she had been within their reach. So long since she had heard word of them or their needs and she found herself detached. It was a shock to realise that the people she had obeyed her entire life had faded out of relevance in so quick a time.

And she wondered if this was why she had been brought here. To see what she couldn’t see while under their thumb, while obeying their whims. She was not free, she had never been free. The things she had done had been habit, things instilled into her to do from a young age. Her grandfather had given her the chance to survive, but survival meant obedience and she had done just that.

Her feather, her arrow. It had let her be captured, it had allowed itself to be taken and it had laid in wait for her to understand. As if she could not be of use to it without that understanding.

Softly, silently, she rose from the bed, her fingers wrapped tight around the wooden shaft of the phoenix arrow. Her heart was beating fast but her body wouldn’t move quickly. She wasn’t sure what to do, what she wanted to do. She felt stuck in a trace as she contemplated all the options.

She had a moment of freedom. She had at that moment every choice to make and the rest of her existence would echo with her decisions. It was simple though, in the end, she could leave, or she could stay.

She weighed each possibility, as she moved across the tent to her things, absently pulling a pair of black pants on over her bare legs and roughly tucking in the over large shirt she had woken in.

She considered Seres, knowing full well his role was central in which ever decision she came to. Her grandfather, her king, one was dead, and the other would never know what her decision was. So it was only Seres that counted this time. They had come to a dangerously equal footing in their games and he had done little to fight it while she had been struggling against it from the beginning. This equilibrium between them was not unsettling, it was not disturbing, she found an odd sort of comfort in it. But she had been right before, when she had said no love existed between them because none did.

She considered then what their relationship was.

But she did not know.

There where questions left to be asked, certainly answers left to be given and she could not decide without them. So resolutely, not caring what anyone thought of her haphazard appearance Kalika left the tent determined to find at least some of the answers she sought.

* * * * *

Kalika paid no heed to the indignant sounds of disgruntled men as she stormed into the war council her attention belonging to the only important part of the scene. Seres was standing opposite her, his black hair neat, his clothes in pristine condition, and his attention fixed on the map that was spread across the table. He was talking she noticed vaguely even as silence consumed the room, at least, he had been talking before her entrance.

She could hear wisps of what had past, threads of words that echoed through the arrow for her ears, but they where unimportant and she did little more then store them to memory while the rest of her attention was fixed on the enigmatic man across the room.

She was waiting for the first answer in his expression, the first sign.

One of the generals overcame the silence. “Can we not have a meeting without it being interrupted by one of your whores?”

She didn’t resist the need to see which of the generals had asked the question and found to her amusement it was one of the elder ones, looking as annoyed as he sounded. For a moment she considered killing him, he was interrupting her, interrupting something important to her, but throwing a quick glance back to Seres she was unsure how that would be received and killing meaningless general was another matter to angering a mage.

She turned back her attention to Seres only to find him grinning with amusement, as if he had known what she was thinking. And she realised she had her first answer, she had a right to be there, to interrupt. Her grip around the arrow shaft tightened and she reminded herself only briefly not to break it.

“I see you found my gift.” He was speaking to her directly ignoring the men who watched with hawk like attention. Her grip tightened still.

“Why?” She asked softly, a little unsure even now if she should trust the proof given in her dream, but she needed to know why he had returned it to her.

“It’s yours.” He replied calmly, but his expression was guarded and she could tell. She wanted to approach him but there where a multitude of generals and a very large table in her way. Before she could try another approach he continued. “It’s only a piece of it, of course. I had Beraloe get you a set.”

She couldn’t hide her confusion, staring at him blankly while his grin became a little bigger.

“In your rush to ‘thank me’-“ he teased “-you must have missed the matching bow, quiver and dagger I had left on the table for you.”

“You what?” She demanded, too doubtful to consider tact.

He gave a laugh before schooling his expression and leaning against the table to stare across at her.

“I don’t want you wasting my best healers time from now on.” He sounded threatening, but for some reason she couldn’t take it that way. “And I expect ‘that’-“ he nodded towards the arrow “-will keep you out of trouble from now on.” She wondered how he could make something that could have sounded like concern and precaution sound so condescending and insulting. She was also trying to decide why exactly it was she wasn’t taking offence from it.

“You amaze me.” She said bluntly, staring across at him with a little awe. One of the generals snorted at her words but she ignored it her attention focused solely on Seres. He had just made the most considerate thing he had ever done sound like a punishment and all to keep a standing in the eyes of a group of men he could have killed in less time then it took to blink.

“Really?” Pretence was aside as he looked back at her, the tints of a smile on his lips and she found herself laughing. It was too easy to flatter him, she hadn’t seen it before, but three words from her and he looked more then pleased.

“We need to talk.” She said the moment she had her breath back, her smile still in place.

He nodded lightly and motioned his head to the door. Obediently she left the room, walking down the stairs to the grassy land outside. She stepped away from the council’s building, making her way across the grass.

Most of the camp didn’t have grass between the buildings any more, because the camp had been there for so long, but these buildings were where the generals assembled and lived so the ground had not be trampled as much. Absently she wondered why Seres had placed his tent across the camp site away from where the others of authority dwelled.

Out of the corner of her eye she could see the fence that surrounded the slave camp.

“You make an impression sometimes, Kalika.”

“So do you.” She replied almost to herself, not turning to look at him but knowing he was almost directly behind her.

She heard the smile in his voice. “I’m glad.” He settled his hands on her hips but she ignored that, watching the slave camps out of the corner of her eye, wondering if she knew anyone there. It was a depressing thought that she shook off as quickly as she could, turning her attention instead to the clear sky above.

“I’m confused.” She admitted softly.

“About what?”

She frowned. “You killed Rel.”

“That is the price when someone disrespects my property.” Seres kept his voice calm, but she could hear the anger below.

“But she was your property too. More yours then I’ve ever been.” Kalika replied hotly. She frowned even as she said the words, not quite sure why they had been said. A terrible feeling set in, a realisation of where she was taking this.

“No, you are mine Kalika, and she was whoever’s bed she had been sharing.”

“Why am I yours?” Kalika turned to met his eyes making the question as real as she could. She was not a creature made to accept uncertainty, she had never failed to want answers, never would, and she had learnt to demand the answers she was seeking. “Why?” She asked again when he seemed a little unsure of his answer. “I know, you said we are bound. You said I intrigued you. You said, even, that my body was appealing to you. But it’s not an answer, because you do nothing about any of it. Which makes me think maybe there’s another reason your not sharing.”

“If I recall correctly” he interrupted looked slightly amused “I’m under a solemn oath not to touch you, unless you want me to.” He was smiling lightly, but she could see the intense concentration in his eyes, as if he was as aware of how altering this conversation could be as she was.

“That wasn’t really the wording.” She said absently trying to decide what she was looking for in this confrontation.

“It was the meaning.” He continued, the same assured voice he always used.

“I know.” She was hesitant to continue, but too curious to stop. “If I gave you permission, if I wanted you too- would you claim me?” she didn’t quite meet his eyes for the question, knowing it would be too dangerous if she did.

He gave a laugh, not an insulting laugh, but she couldn’t place what it meant. “I don’t think even a second has to be wasted doubting that I would.” He replied evenly, the fingers on her hips questing a little against her shirt. She ignored that and he continued. “The question remains, as it always has, do you want me to?”

“I’m not sure-“ She whispered, looking out over his shoulder as she tried to think of the answer.

“Think about it.” He sounded easy going, but it was nearly a command as well. She marvelled that he could conceal a command so easily.

She had brought it up, it was important to her no matter the answer. There was attraction between them, it had been there from the beginning and she knew it. The attraction itself had disturbed her at first, worried her at times, but that was not the problem. She felt like any contact with this man would only give him more power over her, but that didn’t seem true any more.

She frowned at herself, still not looking to him. “I don’t love you.”

“And here I had been under the impression that love lust where two entirely different things.” He drawled at her, his amusement was strong and she had to agree with him, she had never considered them the same thing.

“I’ve bedded lots of men in my life-“ She began.

“I did assume as much.” He interrupted.

She looked at him then, curious of his tone. “Does that upset you?” She hadn’t really thought about it, but it was obvious to her that his harem had all been virgins when he had first found them. Most where too young to have been very much out of their first bleeding before he took them. It just illustrated another difference between her and his other women.

“A little. But I’ve bedded lots of women in my life.” He gazed down at her piercingly. “Does that upset you?

“No.” It didn’t but it was hardly a shock since she knew nine of the women personally. A little frown came to her, a spark of curiosity that ran away from the conversation’s path. “Tell me about your wife.” She demanded in a calm voice and she watched his frown pull into place.

“Why?” He seemed annoyed.

“Just-“ She began but he cut her off as if he did not really care what her excuse was.

“Narissa is Yan’s sister.” He began, his voice sounding grave. “But unlike Yan, Narissa was mothered by one of the kings wives, not one of the kings whores.”

“Why isn’t she here?” She was very curious, he went to the trouble of bringing his harem with him, when by all politics she knew the wife had more right to be there.

“Why don’t you tell me about your duke.” He prodded, diverting the conversation and she let him, remembering it had been Yan who had told her to forget any mention of a wife. It was a little intriguing that Yan had been the one loath to bring up the topic of her sister.

“I met Ivian when I was four,” Kalika began “I didn’t speak to him until a year latter when we met the second time. He had an open soul, an open heart and I loved him for it. But no, not like you think, I worshiped him for it, like a sister would an elder brother. I knew, if there was one man made to hold the throne of this country he was it.”

“What about your king then? Your prince and princess? Didn’t you think they where capable of ruling?”

“Capable yes. But made for it? No. The king, I do not question his right to the throne but he is too arrogant to rule well. The Prince?” She gave a laugh thinking about him. “He has no interest in it.”

“The princess?” She could see the curiosity in his eyes, and knew it was a topic that would interest a man like him.

“Would you put a girl on the throne?” She asked as dismissively as she could.

“We’re not talking about me, we’re talking about you. And I’m curious what your opinion of her is.”

“The Princess would not make a good queen. It would confine her too much.” Kalika responded thoughtfully.

“Considering she’s never around-“ He mumbled.

“Ah.” She gave a laugh. “Your spy’s are having fun are they? Tracking my noble rulers around the country?” The concept was amusing, she imagined some of them would be rather difficult to follow around. She had implemented a lot of the protection techniques that surrounded the royal family in her time as the chief spy. “The Princess would let the country fall.” She added as an after thought, but it was her honest opinion.

“I’ve heard better things about her.” He seemed puzzled.

“Are you considering her for your harem?” Kalika teased, knowing it would distract him.

“No. By law a Princess I would have to marry, and after my first attempt I’ve decided marriage is not something I want to be part of again.”

If there was any sign that he truly was unhappy with his wife that was it, but she suspected he would marry again, if he found the women to meet his standards and told him so. “You would marry your harem though. You have more honest attachment to all those girls then most men in your country have to their family’s.”

“Your right. I’d marry all of the harem. And yes, in case your doubting, that would include you.” He smiled charmingly at her.

She arched her brow at him. “But you would object to marrying the princess?”

He gave a sigh. “Princess’s have a habit of being too pampered for my tastes, they tend to expect the world.”

“I expect the world.” She replied calmly but he didn’t look angry he only smiled as if he had known that and was amused she wanted to point it out.

“I think you’ve earned the world.” He replied with less amusement and more honesty then she had expected. And then he kissed her again, not really giving her time to think his words through or consider the meanings in his tone. And she forgot for a second that he had said anything enjoying the contact as her pulse began to pick up.

He drew back from her with a smile still and she realised she hadn’t protested, nor had she wanted to. It took her a few more seconds to think it through though it was not a hard thing to sort out.

She was not a moral being, she had not spent her life saving her virtues for her marriage bed. Her brother had given into her wish’s and brought her a male concubine for her tenth birthday, a year after she had begun bleeding, and from him she had learnt everything she needed to know to survive the world her grandfather had thrown her into. So it wasn’t hard to admit that she was attracted to this man, nor that she was curious of his skills. But it was hard to voice it, and to decide if voicing it was the best option. Power was a dangerous thing and she knew what she would be giving up if she surrendered, but for the first time in a long time she didn’t care.

Calmly she met his eyes, a glimpse of a smile on her lips as she prepared herself for the ultimate difference. She wouldn’t be doing this for secrets, she wouldn’t be doing this for anything but herself and as she thought that she grinned. “I want to be in your bed.” She told him frankly, and managed to glimpse only a flicker of surprise in his eyes before he had control of his expression.

“What?” he asked a little unsure, his voice uncharacteristically ruff and her grin widened.

“You heard me-“ She never got to finish, his lips closing over hers with an intensity and passion that surprised her. They had kissed, on more occasions then he wanted to remember, but it was still shocking the strength of the attraction that lay between them.

She returned the kiss even as the hands on her waist slipped around her body and drew her closer. She knew they where in the middle of the camp, in plain sight of anyone who was willing to walk by but she didn’t think for a second Seres was going to stop and consider that, nor that she really cared.

He drew back for a breath and returned in less then a second. And she allowed it to happen, allowed the kiss’s to deepen, enjoyed the sensations of his marauding hands and fingers as they searched out the flesh below her shirt. She leaned up closer to him, her arms slipping about his neck to secure their connection

She was amazed by how quickly his hands moved while his lips where occupied. She felt her shirt being roughly untucked and his hand sliding up her back below the warm material. Where his arm and hand pressed against her bare back burnt with more intensity then anywhere else they touched, but for their lips. She responded to the feeling by pulling her body closer to his. Her hands abandoned there post about his neck moving along his arms, fingers tracing his muscles smoothly, drawing in the feeling of his warm and sweaty skin.

He surprised her by pulling away, almost entirely, his hand sliding from her back to her waist but they remained below her shirt. He looked about them casually, and she became aware of several pairs of eyes that where staring at them. She refused to look at the slave camps remembering that she probably knew people within it’s confines but did manage a glare at Allen who looked more amused then anything else as he waited for her in the distance.

“We have an audience.” Seres whispered even as his other hand slid up below her shirt. The contact was electrifying and instinctively she began to fiddle with the clip for his shirt. He held her firmly against him covering her mouth with his own again, drawing her off the ground so he did not have to bend for her lips. Her arms moved in below his shirt, twining about his body.

Again he drew away, though she could see it wasn’t exactly what his body wanted him to do, and looked about them.

“Perhaps we should continue this conversation in private.” His face so close to hers still she could feel his hot breath pulsing with excitement. She nodded, knowing her voice would not work if she tried to speak, and his smile was brutally amused. She didn’t bother feeling indignant, he was still teasing her even in the midst of everything and she suspected he always would.

She was a bit surprised when he turned them around and began to walk her backwards towards the councils building but didn’t bother arguing. Besides he wasn’t giving her much of a chance, refusing to give up his ministrations against her lips. She should have hated him, she knew that. But he had done everything in his power to steal the right to hate him away from her. And besides, she was having fun.

His body pressed against hers walking her up the few stairs and through the door. Just as he did, she ignored what ever the generals reactions where, focused instead on him still. He pulled away from her again lips again, but his focus remained hers.

“Out.” He ordered and she knew it was to the commanders not her. His grip itself was testament to his refusal to let her leave. He didn’t pause to make sure they where leaving, instead continued to back her up until she bumped into the table. Expertly he lifted her up off the floor, sitting her onto the edge of it without releasing their contact.

“Was that a question or an order?” Kalika demanded when his lips began to trail down her throat. She didn’t really care, she had done far worse things in her life then fornicate in front of a group of staring men.

“I said out!” His voice made the room shake, and instantly the men where moving, obeying the order with a speed that would rival the harems when commanded.

He seemed to know when they where alone, when no body was within sight any more, because what ever restraint he had been using was gone and with quick easy movements he had pulled her shirt over her head and begun to explore far more then her neck.

She was enjoying his ministrations, taking great please in the way he explored her body as if he where committing it to memory though they both knew once they started this would be anything but their only time together. It gave her an unfounded sense of value that she didn’t feel like arguing with as she pushed his shirt off his shoulders, letting it fall to the floor and ran her hands across the chest muscles she had seen on so many occasions before.

Someone walked in, when Kalika opened her eyes she could see the man over Seres shoulder and squeezed Seres arm to inform him of the intrusion in case he wasn’t already aware. He continued to run kiss’s across her throat, ignoring it, but she was guessing he knew the man was there.

“Err…” The man cleared his throat, trying to get Seres attention, and rolling her eyes Kalika gave up the momentary attention she had given the intruder allowing herself to focus instead on the wonderful burning sensation Seres was enticing across her skin. “Your highness…” the man began again, and a little annoyed Kalika looked at the soldier again he didn’t seem to be getting the picture, and she wasn’t sure how he could be that stupid.

“Go away.” Seres warned, his voice dangerously low as he kept his back to the man his fingers tangling into her hair and he made his way back to her lips. She enjoyed the flavour of his kiss’s as they continued.

“But-“ The man began.

“Not now!” Seres shouted violently as he pulled away. She was disappointed to notice his attention had turned from her and she suspected as she watched the large trembling soldier that had intruded on them that it wasn’t to anyone’s advantage.

“You highness-“ Was all the man said before Seres twisted his torso towards the door where the soldier stood.

“What did you just call me?” Seres sounded entirely focused now, and Kalika let out a groan, leaning herself back against the table as she clenched her eyes closed trying to distract her demanding body from what it had just been enjoying.

“Err… Lord Mage-“ The man stuttered to correct himself, sounding incredibly scared and if Seres hadn’t been angry she probably would have given the man something to be afraid of. She was far to frustrated to bother though, considering he was probably at the limit of his fear anyway.

“You are aware are you not major, that I’m busy right now?” Seres’ voice was deceptively mild, his voice tight and restrained and she knew the wrong answer could be fatal to the soldier still bravely standing in the door way.

“I was ordered to get you, Lord Mage.” There was a tremors in the man’s voice.

“By who, might I ask?” Seres demeaned, still sounding mild.

“General Gorsan, Lord Mage.”

“The man knows I’m busy.” Seres growled, “What is wrong?”

“We’re under attack, Lord Mage.”

“By who?” Seres shouted at the end of his very limited patience.

“A group of Dreieshmikalan forces, Lord Mage.” Was the prompt reply.

Kalika suppressed her groan clenching her eyes closed. “Boe, I’m going to kill your timing.” Kalika hissed to quietly for anyone else to hear.

“Very well,” Seres sounded less angry now though he was still irritated “have my horse fetched.”

“And mine!” She snapped equally as irritable. She expected an argument and was surprised by his accepting response.

“And the lady’s. Now go!” he growled “Now!” was shouted only when the man seemed to hesitate a fraction of a second.

He turned back to her, looking a little distracted and certainly dishevelled. “I thought that thing was lucky.” He motioned to the feather she had dropped against the table at some point. She wasn’t sure which point, because she honestly couldn’t remember having it in her hands when they had walked into the room.

“Maybe I’m not meant to sleep with you.” She retorted, not in the mood to humour him with anything but blunt honesty.

“It better not be telling you that now, because I was starting to enjoy myself.” It was almost light.

“Starting?” She gasped as if indignant and he smirked at her. Slowly he lent towards her again closing the gap that lingered between them. Very gently, ignoring her lips though coming teasingly close to them he lent up to her ear.

“Trust me sweet,” he whispered his warm breath feathering across her flesh, “the things I’m going to do to you are going to take a lot longer then that implies.”

She shivered in anticipation of the promise, expecting he wasn’t at all exaggerating. “It had better.” She replied calmly before pushing him aside and grabbing her shirt back. The moment was ruined, although her body was still riled up she knew it wasn’t going to start again. It annoyed her that Boe’s message had obviously made it back to the castle, it had taken long enough in all honesty and she had for a while thought he might have died on the way, or the message had not been taken as seriously as it should have been.

Seres walked across the room and lent out the door, having somehow managed to make himself look unaffected by what had just occurred. She envied that, but did her best to mimic.

“Allen! I want the weapons from my sleeping tent. A bow, a dagger, and a quiver. They should be on the table.”

He looked back at her carefully as she pulled her shirt on over her head and when she was done tucking it in she met his eyes to find them a little darker then usual. “Let’s see what kind of battle your country men have to offer.”

* * * * *

Kalika didn’t need to look to know Seres was frowning when her horse decided to rear from it’s controller and gallop over to her. She didn’t mind as much, giving it a smile to show her appreciation of it’s loyalty as she patted the sort fur of it’s head. The kind of loyalty animals instilled in their masters was amazing to her, and one of the few loyalty’s in the word she was willing to put her life and trust into.

“It’s nice to see someone’s in a good mood.” Seres muttered, and Kalika grinned a little more. Really she should have been agitated, she was a bit, but seeing, or more, hearing Seres disgruntled did more to amuse then anything else.

“Jasaper is just happy to see me.” She declared, then affectionately rubbed the horses head again. “Aren’t you boy?” she asked it in a mock whisper and was rewarded with a head butt which she couldn’t help but let a small laugh escape her for.

“Jasaper?” Seres asked with a frown on his brow. She heard a tint of confusion, maybe it was something else but when she met his eyes he looked neutral, far more neutral then a man in his condition should have. “Where’d you get the name?” He asked it slowly and she frowned at that.

“Why?” She forced it to sound light. “What’s it mean?” She hadn’t known the translation, she could only know so many words and she wasn’t exactly a linguist but she hadn’t put thought to it. Usually a horse picked what ever fit, sometimes their names mean nothing, just a jumble of letters, sometimes they meant things like ‘the pink mouse’ which she had found amusing when she had met that particular horse, but again, most the time it was nothing.

“Nothing.” He replied with too much disinterest as he turned to the rest of the group of collected me. “Well leave when Allen returns.” Seres proclaimed the frown tightening onto his brow the moment he was no focused on her. She wasn’t an idiot, never had been and she saw the avoidance in his actions thought couldn’t exactly figure out why anyone would avoid a horses name.

She forced it from her thought’s though and looked over the assembled group before the war council building. Kalika re-evaluated exactly what she was doing.

She was going into battle, that was nothing new, no it was something new but she had been so prepared for it that it didn’t feel like anything new. She expected this battle would surpass her usual standards in size if not anything else. But she didn’t really know what she was hopping would come of the battle.

So she was willing to sleep with the Warrior Mage, King of his people but for title because he refused to title. So she was willing to let him have access to her body. That was nothing, that didn’t mean she wanted him to win a battle against her people, it certainly didn’t mean she wanted him to proceed with his plans and attempt to conquer her country. But then again her tolerance for him was rising, her amusement in his company was becoming important, and she didn’t exactly want him to die.

She petted her horse as she waited, rubbing down it’s side and murmuring things to it absently but she wasn’t sure what she was saying. Jasaper didn’t seem to mind, allowed her to readjust it’s blankets and made no noise of protest the few times she was too distracted to realise she was mishandling him.

Kalika gave a weary smile to her horse, feeling a bit stupid. She didn’t want Seres dead, and he was right, she probably wouldn’t be repercussion free if he died when there was a bond between them. And although she hadn’t seen this bond she could almost feel it and with the arrow in her hold it had become palpable and she could trace it to him like any piece of thick rope, though she still couldn’t see it. But her smile was more for the realisation that, as always, she was overcomplicating things.

She wasn’t a main character, she wasn’t a part of this war and she kept forgetting that her actions held little trawl over the ending. Her smile faded for a second, disheartened by the feeling of insignificance but overcame the moment of morbid depression. It was good to be un-noteworthy it was almost surreal and she was going to take advantage of it. She didn’t have to fight, for or against, and she wouldn’t.

With that thought in mind Kalika mounted Jasaper, not in the mood to pretend being equal with all the men who, if they took notice of her, found her nothing but an annoyance or a shock. Seres was keeping his distance, just as well she knew, because with such a sudden interruption to their actions his mind, and body, was probably still distracted.

Another laugh escaped her, a little closer to real, a little lighter then usual.

She was digging herself in and she didn’t care. It was reckless freedom and she almost loved it.

Allen appeared, panting, looking dishevelled and lumbered over to Seres the moment his breath had been caught. She eyes the black leather bound weapons that where handed over to Seres and realised with a little shock that they matched the arrow still tight in her grip. She wondered if they where the ‘gifts’ Seres had said she had missed but didn’t need to wait long because without a pause to care what anyone else would think Seres strolled over to her and handed her a set of well crafted weapons. A quiver of arrows, a dagger she was a little uncertain of touching, and a bow that made her blood hum with raw power.

She was becoming familiar with the wooden contours of her new weapon, having already slipped the dagger into her boot, the quiver over her shoulders and the Phoenix Arrow into the quiver, when the group began to move. Without instructions Jasaper followed, the loyal steed he was meant to be and she made a mental note to give her new acquaintance a treat for being so smart. Not that she thought horses weren’t smart, but usually they weren’t intuitive. She was luck she had been given him to ride, she could have ended up with any sort of horse and been stuck by custom.

It wasn’t a nice thought and she pushed it away. Focusing on the procession even as her hands continued to run along the bow’s wood, fiddling with the leather and string and clips, testing their strength. Seres lead the group, and it wasn’t a small group she realised the second they reached the edge of their camp, a little confused because she was sure they had been ‘under attack’, because the group they met up with was about twice the size. A glance at the camp over her shoulder as they moved out told her that it wasn’t even an eighth of the army’s capacity and she let a shudder run through her. They had numbers, but didn’t they always.

The only weapon she was doubtful of their country’s ability to beat was the man leading the procession talking with a group of generals who looked a little solemn.

She let out a sigh, they where under attack. She had expected a bit more excitement then this dull ride. Someone near her chuckled and an order for silence was barked back at him. She paused a moment in her musings to make her expression blank, realising she was the source of amusement. It wouldn’t help her being the only female in the entire group but she didn’t want to have attention paid to her any more then she could. She didn’t like attention.

* * * * *

The battle was shockingly easy. It lasted long enough, she thought latter, but the battle itself seemed to be smooth and oiled. Derishmikal needed to catch up with itself, they had slowed over the last two kings, at least she guessed they had. The last three kings had done little to maintain the strength of the armies and it had always nagged at her.

But this battle was to easy for Seres’ men. They had managed to make it to a secondary camp which she had been unaware of. And she reasoned with a quick assessment that the secondary camp was little more then a big watch point. Logically she had to assume there where another two or three elsewhere. They had then proceeded to follow through what ever plan it was the generals had discussed and she had failed to try and overhear. And then she had watched ti all unfold, a nice little play on how to lose a winning battle on the Derishmikalan’s part, while she was forced to sit on her horse and morally debate with herself while Seres, beside her, gave a few orders to apparently no-one but she assumed someone through magic.

She really had no idea when it came to magic.

She didn’t resent the loss though, Boe’s message had gotten back, it was clearly a sector of the royal army, but it was obvious that Boe had been ignored, or at least the majority of his information. She only shook her head once at that, ashamed that anyone was stupid enough to overlook a warning like that.

She was glad though that the battle was so obviously thrown. Glad she didn’t have to pick sides because it was clear who was going to win. And glad she didn’t have to raise her weapon against anyone even though it was begging her to use it. She settled for a practice round, telling herself she would try it latter, when she was alone, maybe at night where people wouldn’t gawk.

Seres had warned the harem away from weapons, but he had given her some anyway. It was a clear distinction, again, she didn’t care.

What ever magic was used in the battle Kalika was unsure of. She was pretty sure there where a few bits of invisibility, a few bits and pieces she couldn’t begin to understand and there had certainly been a little group of twelve or so Breasuares which had confused her a little since she didn’t recall seeing them around the camp since her first month or so in it.

At the end of the battle there where twenty more men to throw in the slave camps and a few orders barked by Seres before he turned away from it all and rode off. She was a little more hesitant to leave, something odd stirring her thoughts but she wasn’t entirely sure what it was. There wasn’t guilt, none at all. The men had been going to die, no intervention from her would have prevented that and she was more considering the message the king would get from it then the lives that had been taken during the afternoon.

She followed Seres though, or more, returned to the camp. Not in the mood to follow him and doubting he was at all in the mood for even rational conversation. Something about magic seemed to set him on edge, rather funny in her perverted opinion, but still there was something. But more then that, he was angry with her, and it was confusing and confounding so she chose to accept it and ignore it like she would anything else that made no sense and couldn’t be solved.

In the end that afternoon she fell asleep on her mat in the Harem’s tent, her weapons polished and neat with her things, her arrow, the one that mattered, nestled in against her chest the way she had hugged pillows as a child.

* * * * *

She woke late. Some time in the night, she didn’t care when. There was food sitting near her and she frowned at the oddity of it before kicking it lightly aside, not hungry. The harem where asleep, Pilly was mumbling in her sleep, something obscure, probably another language, the others where almost silent.

The nights air was cool on her bare arms as she crept through the open place behind the tent. She let the grass tickle between her toes, breathed in the thick misty air of midnight and the tension in her body subsided, released into nothing.

She balanced herself perfectly, closed her eyes and raised the bow in her grip relishing the feel that lived within her. Then setting an arrow she opened her eyes and found her perfect focus narrowing onto a tree. She didn’t need a target, didn’t really care anyway as she released her first arrow watching it fly with precision until it sliced through the bark and embedded itself in the tree.

She let herself grin foolishly and did it again. Her mind moving the with arrows as they flew across the distance. This is what she was born to do. There was no doubt, no need for emotion or loyalty, even practicing reminded her of the beauty of the world. For some reason the bow and arrow had always been hers and hers alone. No matter how many times her father struck her for practicing, no matter how many times her grandfather broke her fingers just to see how far she would push herself for it, and how well her aim could be even when hampered. She was good too, no matter what they did. Ivian had challenged her on so many occasions she couldn’t count, she even remembered the day her father found them practicing together and he had gone so far as to strike Ivian for encouraging her, an action he regretted for a very long time after because there had been an undue amount of hostility aimed at him in Betoral for many moons afterwards.

Her lips rose in a less silly and all together beautiful smile as she recalled how angry Ivian had been on her behalf, not at all upset that he had been struck. She considered telling him to get over it, but it had been too sweet. Even her brother didn’t get that protective, he had accepted it long before. Besides their father wasn’t violent. In her whole life she could count less then thirty times when he had struck her and considering her fathers temper it was impressive. Her brother had probably been backhanded more then she had which was amusing, the prodigal son had never been so much a joy as he was a curse.

A staggering sigh escaped her. No she missed them all, but she wasn’t going back.

“Are you cold, umm… Kalika?”

Kalika looked over to the tent to find Togne watching her with a tight little frown on her brow.

“It’s the Dawn of the Sun, Togne, this is the warmest part of the year.” She chided before drawing another arrow from her quiver. She wasn’t sure what Togne was doing awake but she could feel the girl lingering on the edge of her sense’s as if unwilling to walk away. She waited for the conversation to begin, not releasing her arrow, but there was nothing but silence for a very long time.

Eventually, a little frustrated by the intrusion on her midnight break Kalika turned to face the younger girl.

“Why are you awake?” Kalika asked pleasantly despite her emotions.

“Oh!” Togne jumped for a second, looked around her quickly for an excuse and then smiled as best she could. “I was wondering if you where cold.”

A frown as Kalika pondered how stupid the girl was, she had thought it was made clear but obviously not. “No I’m not cold.” Kalika waited, for a second made sure she had been heard then turned back to her target, the arrow riddled tree. But she didn’t release the arrow again, still feeling the lingering presence and out of the corner of her eye she found herself fixedly watching Togne.

The girl was bitting into her lower lip, looking nervous and a little anxious. It made no sense, but whatever the cause Kalika found it very distracting. If her life had been in danger nothing would have stopped her but as it was she didn’t release the shoot again, instead turning to the girl who had yet to make a move to leave.

“Is there anything else?” Kalika asked her impatience obvious.

Togne blinked and the colour drained form her face. “I was just watching.” The girl apologised. “I’m sorry. I didn’t realise I was in the way. I’m so very sorry-“ About there Kalika lost the thread of murmured apologies and frowned in ill humour at the girl. Just because she was awake at midnight didn’t mean she was awake and perky and this girl was really trying her patience.

“Are you done?” she snapped, and there was complete and utter silence. “Why don’t you go back to bed?” Kalika offered as helpfully as she could, frowning nonetheless.

For a second Togne looked more scared, as if she had stepped on a dragon, and the next moment she was gone from sight and there wasn’t even the shuffle the bed covers to disturb Kalika. With a sigh she turned back to her practice.

* * * * *

She was awoken early in the morning, Seres was standing over her, looking entirely disgruntled and for a second she was entirely confused until she realised half the harem was already up and running about doing something…

“Pack.” He told her harshly. She glanced at his eyes and found a solid black wall in them, and almost on instinct she nodded her head lightly and sat up. He was gone a second latter, moving across to Tesh who was still asleep.

Suppressing the grumble she would have made if anyone else had woken her up Kalika lumbered off the sleeping pallet, ignoring her completely disarrayed appearance and stumbled across to the table. Deril was eating something, looking nervous, looking entirely too nervous. Kalika managed to frown as she forced her body to be more awake then it really wanted to be. She grabbed up a piece of fruit.

“Morning.” She said purposefully to the nervous looking Deril who seemed to jump a little before nodding her head concisely and returning her wide eyed attention too- Kalika glanced- Seres who had managed to get Tesh awake and moved onto Liza who looked to be the last one asleep.

Kalika realised very quickly that what ever was happening was happening fast and it wasn’t entirely the best thing in the world to be happening. Listening beyond the rustle of the harem as they stuffed clothes into wooden chests Kalika wondered if there was another attack, but beyond the tent there was nothing but the normal sounds.

A man walked into the tent. Uninvited, unquestioned. Seres didn’t respond, but a shaken Selen intercepted the stranger before he could make his way to where Seres was waking Liza.

“What?” Selen demanded, a little out of breath, Kalika guessed she had been moving about packing pretty quickly.

“Uh… I need to talk with-“

“Not now.” Selen cut of sharply and her voice was a little unsteady.

Kalika frowned and looked over everyone else. Okay so she hadn’t actually spoken to any of them since she had been the cause of one of their executions but none of their demeanours seemed to reflect that part of their history, they all seemed very focused on the moment and where all very quickly packing.

“Kalika.” Seres snapped and her eyes jumped to him. He looked impatient. “Pack.” He ordered and she didn’t think it wise to argue with him, so she grabbed the first piece of fruit she could off the table, ignored that he hadn’t corrected the nervous Deril and strolled across the quickly emptying tent to her few scant things.

She shoved anything that was associated with her into her chest in less the a minute and then sat proudly on top of it as the others continued to pack the odds and ends she knew nothing about. It was kind of nice right then, being the outsider, because she didn’t have to worry about those things the others did by habit.

“Damn it!” Seres snapped looking stressed. “Where is Yan?” That made everyone stop, and eyes flicked about quickly and assessing.

“I think she went out the back.” Tesh squeaked still not out of her bed and looking the worse for the early morning awakening.

“Kalika go talk to her.” He ordered without even looking in her direction.

She frowned. Annoyed that he either knew she wasn’t doing anything or that he didn’t care what she was doing before realising she once more didn’t have a say in the matter and making a quick exit out the back.

Yan wasn’t in sight. Kalika found her anyway, quite easily found her tucked in unde the shadows of the forest looking serene and all together like a princess waiting for something. Her skirts where about her, perfectly neat, her clothes where white and blue with lines of gold in them her long white hair loose as always.

“Seres wants me to talk to you.” Kalika volunteered as she lent against a different tree taking up a view point of the waiting girl.

“I’m fine.” Yan replied.

“He just said talk to you. He didn’t tell me to see how your going.” Kalika retorted a little too sharply but she meant it in humour. She was met with silence and let out a sigh, she wasn’t in the mood, she rarely was. “So how’s your love life?” Kalika asked to amuse herself, it was probably crass in any of the societies she frequented, but she’d been in a few where they used it as a common greeting. She thought it was funny, she knew exactly how Yan’s love life was.

A raised eyebrow was all the response she got that time, but it was progression.

“Personally.” Kalika continued, feeling a little too bored and not up to the ‘pamper the princess’ routine that was required for the situation. “Personally I’m curious as to why where packing.”

“We’re going.” Yan replied, her eyes falling to the ground shoulders less stiff, more subdued.

“Where?” Kalika asked curious.

“Home.” Yan replied, a quiver in her voice.

Kalika’s brow rose, that was twice she had heard ‘home’ mentioned and neither time had it been said with anything close to endearment. “Rawn?” Kalika asked, just to be sure but didn’t need an answer when Yan flinched. A little uncertain, seeing it was a mental wound of some description for the girls Kalika pushed on. “Why?”

Yan gave a manic laugh. “I’m not brave enough to ask him.” She replied and Kalika suddenly realised it was a common thing for this girl, she would probably shadow Seres forever and never ask for an explanation.

“I’ve been here for a while and we didn’t go anywhere, and suddenly where leaving?” She put disbelief into her tones making sure the girl understood it was still a question.

Yan gave a little shrug. “Home is different. Sometimes it calls and we have to go.”

“You travel with him everywhere?” And in ‘you’ she meant the Harem but the girl on the ground knew that.

“Always.” Yan replied after a long pause, a lot of hesitation. Kalika guessed she had been trying to think of a larger answer, but didn’t push.

“Okay.” She wet her lips. “Explain the ‘home calls’ thing.” It was asked stupidly, it didn’t matter Yan knew what she meant.

“Sometimes we have to go for ceremonies, someone’s died and Seres has to burry them and appoint their replacement. Sometimes the nobles want him to tell them what’s happening with his war instead of the messengers. Sometimes she-” there was distaste “-calls him back.”

Kalika had a vague notion not to ask, and although it was vague she stuck with it and let the moment slide and let the bitter resentment and animosity in Yan’s usually placid voice subside.

“Don’t you have packing to do?”

“I finished. It was only a matter of time before the summons came. They’ve left us alone for too long.” Yan released a sigh, and her golden eyes met Kalika's. “Don’t leave?” she asked it softly, and there was so much innocence in Yan’s voice that Kalika felt worry creep into her system. This wasn’t good, she had just seen half the harem show signs of worry and distress.

* * * * *

Kalika stared hard at the man before her, feeling a wonderful emotion of complete and utter distaste.

“What?” She demanded harshly, feeling the tickling need to reach back for the weapon in question and stab it into his throat rather violently.

“It is a request. Not a demand Kalika.” He warned, his eyes focused, as if he knew what she was considering.

“You just gave it back.” She countered still harsh, a bite in her words. It seemed surreal, and made no sense. The entire tent, everything in it and several of the surrounding ones had been empties and packed. They where moving that day, as she had suspected they would. What she had not expected amongst the clatter of packing that did not reach to the entire camp but only an insignificant portion of it, what she had not expected was for Seres to pull her aside and blatantly demand the return of her arrow.

“I am not asking you to surrender you weapon for eternity Kali.”

“Don’t.” She warned, not ready to deal with the manipulation of nick names just now. This was a fight, and using nick names rarely had a place in fights.

“Kalika.” He corrected, giving her a sardonic look.

For a moment she wondered why she had been willing to throw herself at him only the day before. She was also a little relieved that nothing had come of it, it made her wonder if the arrow had prevented the coupling.

“I-“ he began again, stressing the words as if to a child, which she resented “am not demanding anything.” She nearly laughed, even against his warning look but held it in, let him try and explain the retraction of his trust. “I am merely saying that if you walk into Rawn with weapons of any kind of you, you’ll be lynched and beaten before even I know what’s happening.”

“And here I thought you where a king.” She snapped back harshly. It was bitter resentment that fuelled her. Something in him had snapped back into place so quickly after their almost touching meeting in the forest… when ever that had been.

“I am their King, Kalika. But I am not above their laws.”

“And their law’s say I can’t carry a weapon?” She asked tightly, then met his eyes. “Bullshit.” Because that’s what it was. She had studied, she had learnt a their language, learnt their dances, and in the midst of it she had learnt their laws as well. One didn’t enter a foreign country without knowledge of the law that resided there.

“It would be best-“ He began.

“If you told me the truth.” She interrupted.

He ran a hand through his hair, a look of distraction in his eyes. She took the moment to survey their audience. The Harem where waiting, a platoon of guards milling about them, ready to go into formation when the command to move out went. All eyes where fixed on them.

“You can’t carry it!” He snapped, patience at it’s end. She had to guess he was as aware of their captive audience as she. If the situation hadn’t been so rushed she was sure he would have taken the time to do this properly, but as it was she didn’t care and only he was losing this argument. There was no way in the Five Gates she was going to surrender her heirloom.

“Tell me why Seres!” She growled, low, keeping it from the audience unconsciously. Knowledge of the Phoenix Arrow was not something she wanted widely spread anyway.

He met her eyes. Dark fire in their depths. She could see his magic sparkling, ready to take it from her by force, but he wouldn’t. She was almost certain, it was that certainty that had her in his arms the day before ready to surrender her body to his touch. He did not want to force her to do anything and she could see his aggressive temperament fighting with that part of him that wanted some strange sort of equality.

“Why?” She demanded lower, staring into him, waiting for that answer she knew was only a breath away that he seemed so unwilling to share. He calmed. The fire left, his gaze flicked back to the crowd and roughly he pulled her closer bending his head down to her ear. She held her breath and listened, ignoring the physical proximity between them.

“I can feel it.” He whispered softly. “The power of it, burns like a beacon and it will to anyone who comes near it, no matter their power. It want’s to be seen Kalika, it’s stronger then it was and it’s reaching out.” He took a breath and she let her own out, remembering to breath despite the moment.

She couldn’t see beyond him, which was odd, her eyes where focused somewhere on the clear blue sky that hung above them, the sun already half way across the sky. There glare of the sun lingered in the corner of her eye pleasantly.

“Anyone who feels it will try and take it. It will draw attention to us, to you.” The hand that wasn’t holding her still against him reached up and rested against her throat, opposite to where he whispered. “I want you safe, I want you protected. But if you hold it for this journey then you are a target. I can not let that happen.”

“It will keep me safe.” She assured, feeling surreal. This couldn’t be happening in front of a group of gawking soldiers and his harem. It felt to strange to even be happening at all. She could almost feel his presence smothering hers, trying to protect and caution it and she could almost feel the acceptance in herself.

“Let it decide.” He offered slowly and he drew back, that hand still on the side of her throat, one arm almost closed around her waist and his face so close to her own she could feel his breaths brushing against her lips. She met his eyes again and for the first time she thought she saw colour, and realised that streaked in amongst the black and white he had been hiding silver. A sensation ran through her, the need to kiss him, the need to get lost in what ever existence he was offering her tried to overwhelm. She pushed it aside, not now, there where arguments to be had, there where loyalties that where greater, there where things beyond.

She wet her lips and looked away from him to think. But it was hardly a decision to be made, there was logic in his words, he knew more about magic then she did, he always had. Her grandfather had never bothered to teach her anything to do with it, had kept her away from it. But she understood, more then anyone else the essence of luck, the purity of it’s actions and the reasoning behind it.

If he reached for her weapon, and took it, and it left her grip then in some strange way that only she could really justify but he seemed to understand, it was luck, or it would be. He was offering her the chance to resolve the decision that had to be made. He was offering to deal with the moment on her terms.

She met his eyes again, still aware of that perfect silver in their depths. And replied. “Okay.”

He waited and she brought the weapon forwards between them. Her heart was frantic and she wasn’t sure which reaction she wanted. A violent no, an uncertain answer or an easy yes. They had their own rewards, each and every one and she just wasn’t sure what should happen. Maybe that’s why she put her trust in the fate, because she just didn’t know anymore.

He took a moment. A pause she didn’t understand then reached out and touched at the arrow. Something shot through the arrow, a current of power that stirred up her arms and ran a path straight to her head. For a moment nothing was in perspective, everything was dark and their was fire in her veins, and the next there was nothing and he was holding her arrow.

She sighed and hung her head. One day she would find a Phoenix and tell it a thing or two about how little she appreciated the frivolousness of luck but that would have to wait. For now, he was leading her- them to Rawn.

“Okay?” He asked carefully and she look up to him with a smile. He was checking on her, an uncertain look in his eyes. She didn’t think about it, just gave him her smile and moved past him to where her horse waited with ill-patience. She felt the moment he sent the Arrow away, felt it fade from the realm like she had the first time and she felt a part of her fade back into the recesses where it always waited. He was right, the Arrow would draw attention like nothing else. Even her other weapon’s had been hidden, but she had to argue even if it was pointless and trivial.

* * * * *

They had been travelling for a few days. If it where just the soldiers they would have gone faster, but the harem where not masterful horsemen some of them seeming to be very new to the animals and not at all sure of the creatures below them. They had stopped too many times in the day to count. The soldiers had to look out for the harem’s riding as well as their own. And camp had to be made at least an hour before the sun set every night so the smaller but still adequate tent could be set up. There was also of course, the matter of the luggage that was travelling with them.

Kalika was almost in awe of the procession, small but so bundled with expensive goods it was surprising some drunken thugs hadn’t decided to try and rob them. The party wasn’t going to be robbed, there wasn’t a chance that anyone attempted something like that would get anything but a sword through the ribs but get anyone drunk enough and they would think they had a chance.

Kalika shifted in her seat, she was a little out of practice for the long rides herself, embarrassingly enough, but she was still not as rusty as the girls. They where complaining, a little knot of them riding slower then everyone but the men who where meant to be guarding them. Something about food or sleep or some other commodity they hadn’t learnt to live without. Kalika was trying not to let the whining tones get on her stretched nerves.

There was nothing good about this. If she ignored how strained she felt since the removal of her weapon there was still enough to upset her that it was concerning. The harem hadn’t gotten better. She almost though their whining was a self defence against thinking about what was happening. Yan had developed more and more of those personality traits that Kalika had glimpsed in her before and was too difficult to read, snapping between violent rages to withdrawn silences as quickly as lightning. Pilly was talking in whispers to Liza and Di’ark all the time now, the three seemed to be locking themselves together for protection. And the rest of the harem where almost scattered and scared sheep and although it was amusing it was still disturbing.

Seres was also affected the further Sunwards they travelled. What parts of him she had known existed but barely glimpsed where coming into play with alarming speed. He was not happy, nor forgiving or generous in any pretence of the words. He was mercenary in his instructions and actions. He was segregating himself from everyone and more concerning then anything, he was segregating himself from the harem. He hadn’t touched any of them in the three nights they had been travelling which was strange and altogether out of place. She had almost, though she was glad it had not happened yet, expected him to try and recommence where their last interrupted conversation had been leading to. But he had barely looked at her, except to ask for the return of her arrow and it made no sense.

“Stop, we’ll set camp.” Seres barked tightly and even as Kalika leisurely lowered herself from Jasaper the soldier’s, their guards took up the spot Seres had indicated and begun the nightly ritual. Kalika looked up as her feet touched the ground. It was still three or four hours till the sun set, but they where a large party it may have been the only place in the next six hours they could stop safely.

“It’s a bit close to the road.” Selen muttered as she got to the floor, a cringe marring her face for only a second before she pushed it aside to look unaffected.

“Who cares!” Tesh declared, fumbling out of her saddle and almost falling to the ground. “If I have to ride this beast for another second I’ll have serious and permanent damage for the rest of existence.”

“I know.” Kalika whispered softly to her horse in consultation, ignoring the conversation that sprung up between the girls, or the sound of Liza as she managed to trip before touching the ground. “Their stupid and ignorant though, we can’t expect them to understand.” She patted Jasaper affectionately. Finally ridding her horse had given her a better feel for it. That was a bonus she wasn’t willing to overlook for anything. “Besides beautiful creatures like you shouldn’t need the gratification of ungraceful riders.” She crooned, feeling soft and exhausted. Conversation’s with horses, although not uncommon as far as she was concerned, generally waited till people where out of ear’s shot. Not that the horse ever answered, back, except in it’s body language but she knew it understood.

“Would you-“ Surprised a voice behind Kalika and she spun sharply ready to attack only to find Togne looking meek and seemingly intimidated.

“Would I what?” Kalika demanded. Something in the girls actions was annoying her more then any of the others because they weren’t trying to shadow her like the slave girl was.

“Would you like me to tend to your horse?” Was the timid and all together disgusting question.

Kalika forced herself to calm down, look at the moment rationally and realise the girl was trying to help. It took effort but when she replied she sounded close enough to thankful that Togne wouldn’t know the difference. “No. That’s okay, I can look after Jasaper.”

Togne didn’t move and Kalika frowned, she was sure she had said it almost sincerely.

“I mean…” Togne tried again. “I can-“

“No.” Kalika snapped. “I look after my horse. Why don’t you try looking after yours?” She didn’t like shadows she never had.

“Yes, lady.” Togne replied and before Kalika could word her disgust at the honorific title Togne had returned to her horse and out of ear shot. Kalika frowned highly annoyed then turned back to Jasaper ready to groom him and settle him down for the night, she refused to think about the oddity of the people around her just now.

* * * * *

It was midday two weeks after leaving the army camp. Kalika was bored with the people around her, they had become predictable again. Oh they weren’t the same as they had been, but she had adapted to them. Allen seemed in the best mood, her personal guard was rather chatty and the other guards too where willing, at times, to partake in conversation with her.

They had passed many groups of travellers along the road over the days. Some of them had ignored them like sensible travellers, a large group of them had eyed the goods being brought with them and then considered the guards before moving on peacefully, then there where the little groups, the ones that didn’t travel often or travelled so much they knew to keep a hand on their weapon as they walked by. Nothing out of the ordinary though, well maybe that one man with streaks of navy blue through his skin but then again she had seen stranger and what ever ailed him had not affected them.

“We’ll reach the docks tonight, then a week on boat to Encholalin, and another two or three weeks to Furish, Rawn’s Capital.” Allen supplied thoughtfully, completely out of no where but she was feeling light and relaxed so it wasn’t an unpleasant intrusion. Besides even the harem seemed too tired to talk today.

“I suppose it always takes this long?” She replied a bite of distaste in her voice. It had taken her and her guards, from the Thieves Pass, only three and a half weeks to get to Rawn or more it would have if they hadn’t been doing important deals between.

“No. We’re making good time.” Allen replied, and she saw him roll his eyes with a level of distaste she could have sworn he was incapable of showing while working.

“I did this path once.” One of the other soldiers started looking frazzled. “And it took me only two weeks.”

“But you where not travelling with women, or belongings, and your horse was probably dead by the end of it.” Seres interrupted his head turned only a little to them before he was looking back to the road and away from them. Kalika scowled at his back annoyed, that was as much life as he had bothered to show in the last three days. Besides commands he wasn’t talking and it annoyed her, just a little, she just wasn’t sure why.

“Well-“ The same soldier continued looking a little embarrassed “-actually I went through three horses.”

“Here that, Kali? Three horses?” Seres turned his attention to the conversation interrupting before even Kalika could react to the words that had been spoken. Her body began to stiffen though, her hands on the reigns tighten against the need to strike the soldier who had been talking. Seres flicked a glance across her body, probably as aware as she of how much she wanted to strike just then, before smiling. “And what, soldier Korrz, was the emergency?”

“Emergency?” The soldier in question repeated sounding confused.

“Well…” Seres continued, not looking away from her, judging her every reaction. “A horse is an expensive thing after all.”

“Well, yeah, but I- that is to say…” the soldier shifted his position for a moment looking uncomfortable under everyone else’s attention. Because when Seres had stopped so too had everyone else. Kalika may not have been looking at the man, too busy trying to decide the purpose of Seres provocation to look, but the soldier had her attention just as well as he had all the others. “Well the army expense’s covered it… I had to get a report back to the nobles in Rawn.“

“But there was no explicit emergency was the, soldier Korrz?” Seres sounded pleasant, but staring back at him Kalika knew he was anything but at this moment. Curiosity about why he was doing this, rubbing her face in someone else’s appalling actions was tampering with the anger she felt.

“What? Err.. not as such, Lord Mage, sir.” The soldier stuttered. “But I wanted to be home-“

She reacted without thinking, she reached for the concealed dagger in her boot, but before the weapon could land Allen had made a grab and her, pulling her back with surprising strength. She didn’t think the man had it in him to be forceful about anything, but she didn’t test his strength, the immediate lunge set aside she wasn’t in a frenzy to kill. Indignant rage, though, seared through her veins and she glared murder at the shocked guard.

“You have no respect.” Kalika growled out at him, Allen still holding her arms back, the dagger still tight in her hands.

The stunned silence of the party, attention now focused on her stretched for a long time and Kalika did not blink or look away from the soldier who hadn’t yet caught up with the moment. If he thought long enough she knew he’d realise she had nearly killed him. If not for Allen she probably would have had the dagger in and out of him before he knew what was happening.

“Let her go Allen.” Seres interrupted the silence carefully, his voice without the traces of manipulation she had heard a moment before.

Allen let her go on command without reluctance and she turned in her seat to glare at Seres the dagger still in her hold. And then he turned away, as if nothing had happened and the party moved to follow him again.

Kalika didn’t start. Watching them move off, Allen waiting patiently by her side for her to continue on. She was frowning in concentration, wondering why he’d done it when he could have defused the situation. No. He had been prodding at it, making it happen but the reasoning was beyond her.

“His just jealous.” Allen told her frankly, and she swung her head to face him.

“What?” She asked incredulously wondering why he had spoken.

Allen gave a shrug, looking towards the moving troop. “Your talking to the soldiers, his not able to talk to you. His just trying to remind you that there is a breach between them and you, trying to make you see us unfavourably.”

“Why can’t he talk to me?” She queried curiously.

“What? With that whore about?” Allen was obviously shocked by her question.

“Which one?” She looked over at the harem a little confused.

“No. I meant figuratively.” Allen shook his head. “Everyone knows his wife has a bite to her.” He supplied and she frowned still confused.

“So what does that have to do with me?”

“Not just you,” Allen corrected, and motioned to the girls riding ahead of them “all of you.” He motioned for her to start moving as he set his horse into motion and without argument she followed, rather interested to hear what a third party had to say about Seres wife. “The Great Queen Narrissa Tricuon” Allen began in a storyteller voice “is rather… how do you say?” He only considered for a second “She’s a bitch. She is also completely and utterly free of our laws, unless she’s stupid enough to try and kill Seres.” He made a motion to show how unlikely he considered that to be but Kalika ignored it mostly thinking about it. A queen was generally protected so that any guard couldn’t just kill her but it had never been her business to consider the after effects of that protection.

“She can hurt them?” Kalika asked softly, realising for the first time where some, if not all, of the harem’s fear came from. Seres protected them, he could because his word against his men was law and if they disobeyed any of his orders he could kill them. But this wife, this queen was protected by those same laws.

“She can hurt you.” Allen corrected.

Kalika snorted at that, “I’d like to see her try.”

“Obviously Seres doesn’t.” Her guard replied carefully and she looked away from him. She didn’t want to reply to that, because it sounded like it could be a question and there wasn’t really an answer for it. So she motioned Jasaper into a gallop and caught up with the rest of travellers.

* * * * *

Kalika stood on the deck, looking over the edge of the ship’s rail with a strange sence of insecurity. She conceded that her brother was right and that possession of the Arrow might have scewed her perspective on some things. He’d told her she was reckless with fire and she had to admit to a certain love to the fire’s life essence, and he’d told her she had an irational dislike of water. Okay so she knew how to swim, she was pretty good at it, then again you had to be to survive the twelth year trial at the palace.

Not that she was meant to participate, but having seen her brother dive off the cliff, especially after his taugnts the previous night she had felt compeled to prove him wrong. That of course was before she’d been given the arrow. But still, the ability to swim wouldn’t have been burnt away in a few seconds. After all she had swum to the dragon island right after him, and he’d proceded to accuse her of trying to make him drown from laughing. Aparently their father been an amazing shade of purple when he’d looked back.

No body else had found it funny though, her Grandfather had decided if she wasn’t going to respect the oceans on her own he’d teach her how formidable it could be. Three weeks of that kind of training and she had never liked the ocean again. Funny, bath’s didn’t bother her, lakes hardly made her blink, but the free flowing currents of the ocean set a sickeningly painful feeling in her gut. She couldn’t see shore, she wasn’t safe, that was all her mind could think at times.

“Stare at the water and the Mermaid’s’ll come and snag you.” A sailor told her bluntly. She ignored him and continued to stare. Mermaids lived near the reef mostly, they weren’t stupid enough to swim out in the depths.

A shudder ran through her. And she wondered if her brother had been through the kind of ‘training’ she had if he would call her fear irrational.

“There ain’t no Mermaid’s around here miss.” A young boys voice told her and she glanced at him, curious.

“Do I look like an idiot?” She asked carefully and surprisingly he blushed. She scrutenized him, he couldn’t have been twelve, or maybe he was, but a very early twelve.

“Nope miss. But Mermaid’s aren’t much of a problem for pretty ladies so it wouldn’t matter either way would it?” He had his head lowered, but was peaking up at her timidly. It was such an obscure role reversal. She was too used to seeing the woman do that sort of thing when confronted with a powerful male.

“Aren’t you a little charmer.” She replied casually before looking away. Okay, she had no idea who he was but there was only so much interest she could find in him.

“My dad told me that when a girl stares out the water like that she’s searching for her love.”

“Your father should be shot.” She replied acidicly and glared at the boy now. “Maybe I’m just looking?”

“Did you know-“ the boy began excitedly, meeting her eyes with determination “-that the water spirits can steal your soul if you let them?”

Too tempted Kalika bent down, meeting his eyes at an equal level. “Did you know-“ she began her tone dark “-that in the dead of night if the wind blows towards the third star and you do not wake, the Licren will tug the spirit from your heart. They will take it far far away from here, and break it until it bleeds a thick red trail that can only ever be seen when the sun is swollowed by the waters.”

“That’s a lie.” The boy shot back, looking a little pale.

She smiled softly to him. “And every man who’s lost his spirit will forever be drawn to the setting sun. They will forever want to follow the trail until they find the place the Licren keep the spirits. And if they don’t follow it, they will slowly die, rot away into nothing, because you can’t exist for long when there’s nothing inside to hold you together.”

“Shut up witch, he’ll never sleep again.” A gruff male voice demanded. She shugged lightly, not offended as she looked away from the boy.

“I tell him nothing that’s not true.” Kalika replied calmly.

“The Licren only hunt the Sailor’s souls for invanding their homes.” The man snapped.

“I’d say his at least third generation Sailor. The fine bone necklace gives it away.”

“So you noticed that? Where you going to forgo telling him that the Licren will pass him by in respect of his stolen ancestors?”

“Yes.”

“That’s not very nice.” The gruff man repremanded and she turned an arch look to him.

“A little fear of the unknown is never a bad thing when there is so much that is unknown.” She replied flippently, meeting his brown eyes levely then dismissing the conversation making her way below deck where she would only have to face the harem.

* * * * *

She tested her weight against the wooden dock, getting her footing back as quickly as she could. The world was swaying again, it always did when she disembarked and it wasn’t a problem so long as she didn’t have to run somewhere immediately. By the time the luggage was unloaded she would be stable again so it wasn’t a problem in these circumstances. She had been in others where it had been a problem, but even then it didn’t take too long to overcome the motion disorientation.

“You look like an idiot.” Tesh snapped at her from across the wide dock. Kalika glanced only for a second at the girl wondering if she should take the words as an insult or let them pass. A second of trying to stabilise the image in front of her and she decided on the latter, she didn’t have it in her to care if Tesh was in a grumpy mood right now anyway.

“She looks like she’s getting her balance back to me.” Yan interjected in a soft, almost defensive voice that showed a little spark of the life she had at times shown while at the Army Camp.

“Well I don’t need to do anything that silly.” Tesh replied.

“No.” Selen stated, clearly a tinge of patronisation in her voice, “You don’t have any balance to regain.” There was a few moments of silence and Kalika assumed Tesh was translating what had just been said to her because when Tesh began again there was a tightness to her tone that suggested restrained anger.

“If you’re telling me I’m not a fighter I could have told you that. Only Karaki fools-“

Togne interrupted, unexpectedly animosity in her voice. “Does she look Karaki to you?”

“What?” Kalika gaped, turning to stare down the slave girl.

She went to point out how ridiculous a question that was when Tesh surprised her into silence with a thoughtful. “She’s part Karaki at least.”

“I assure you,” Kalika replied haughtily, stopping any speculation to the contrary, “I am of the Karaki people.”

“But you’re not a full blood-“ Togne tried to coax.

“Yes I am.” Kalika replied tightly, her hands gripping into a fist as her frown increased.

Togne began, “Of course your no-“

Kalika interrupted, harshly, voice full of venom as she fought a battle she had never expected would arise. “Hold your tongue.” She almost growled at the girl before her. She straightened her posture absently, staring at the shocked look on some of the females faces. They weren’t all shocked, some of them had known she had it in her to be overbearing but she had never done it to them before.

“I just-“ Togne began timidly.

“I said shut up!” Kalika shouted, her voice shaking with the effort of control that was suddenly slipping away from her. That stunned them all, some of the sailor’s unloading the boat and some of the lingering soldiers also froze at demand. “I am Karaki, my Father and Mother where both Karaki. Their fathers and mothers were Karaki, and so on and so forth.” She bit out. “Do not dare assume you know anything when it comes to my people. You, Tesh, are a Keli ingrate who hates my people so much you would never have bothered looking at one of them. And you-“ She glared at Togne, “-slave girl, you are from the lands of the rivers eye, so far from Derishmikal you wouldn’t even know a city’s name let alone what its people look like.” Kalika paused, her eyes still fixed on them as she waited for a reaction but it seemed the harem wasn’t even willing to blink at that moment and she wasn’t surprised with the strength of her vehemency.

Togne was the first to react, the first to slowly move again and unblinking she made a curtsey to Kalika, lowering her eyes for a moment and they all heard the whispered “Sorry, lady.” Before once more silence reigned.

“Allen, take my ninth to our accommodations. She’s obviously exhausted and needs rest.” Seres snapped from somewhere on the dock.

Kalika turned to see where he was, out of curiosity, when she was surprised by Allen taking a hold of her elbow and gently pulling her away from the harem. She blinked once, tried to figure out why he was taking her when she remembered with Rel’s death she had been raised a number. She had expected Togne to be carted away, and that had made no sense, Allen was effectively her guard and it had been she who had been causing the problem, not Togne.

* * * * *

Allen kept ahead of her as they progressed through the city streets, a pair of guards, one to each of her sides, kept in line with her. She wasn’t so surprised that she had a few more guards and suspected by the time they reached Rawn she wouldn’t go anywhere without at least four. Then again, she doubted that once they reached Rawn Seres was going to let any of his women off on their own.

She frowned at that, not liking the self designated title. She was one of his women, certainly she hadn’t slept with him, yet, but that was a technicality that only circumstances had prevented. She was one of his many women and although he didn’t have as many as he could, although he was picky with his harem, he still had a harem, she was still one of a group. It didn’t suit her, and she found that strange. It also made her aware of something far more drastic, she wanted to be segregated, special. Disturbingly she wanted to be noticed as something apart from the other girls.

Repulsion filtered through her. She would sleep with him, she was happy and curious to do so, but she had slept with hundreds of men in her life. When sex was so easy to use she tended to use it a lot and circumstances had often required it of her. It was just easier, because she refused to be a victim. But something was changing, something was wrong with her and she could see it disintegrating. She would sleep with him, that was no true stretch of the mind nor had it ever really been, but the need to stand out… it implied something far deeper, something she did not want.

“Where are we going?” she blurted out quickly, feeling the aggravation of earlier pushing up to the surface, it was always easier to be angry. Allen didn’t even look back to answer, pushing on through the crowded streets, her guards keeping anyone from her.

“To our accommodations.” was the formal reply. Annoyed Kalika pushed on, she needed conversation, her thoughts where too troubling to linger on.

“Where?” She demanded.

“Have you been here before, lady?” Allen replied in exasperation.

“Why? Haven’t you?” She replied tartly, she knew the city well enough, this was a major trade point and she had been here several times over the years. She noticed Allen wasn’t going to reply and pushed on. “Are we going to the Red Griffin, or the Sailors Quarrel or somewhere else?” She tried again.

“We are going to the High Lord Seres’ Encholalin residence.” He maintained his formal voice, a little annoyance creeping into his tone though.

Kalika shifted closer, picking up her pace to match his and ignoring the disgruntled reply of her extra guards.

“Doesn’t he live in the capital?” She tried to sound nicer, there was no need to make Allen angry with her because, knowing her luck, he would stop talking all together.

“He has a residence in the capital as well, but being on a major trading and in a strategic position he also has a residence here. It’s not so big, for him, but enough to host our party.” Allen replied mildly, his attention on the path not her, according to appearance.

“How delightful.” Kalika drawled, feeling bitter and ignored. She was trying to distract herself and Allen was doing his best to be the token aloof guard. She had thought they were beyond that, but obviously there were a few barriers left to break down before he would get over it. “When will my horse get there?” She tried again, not really concerned.

“Probably some time after he’s taken off the boat.”

She could hear the strain in his voice and gave up, dropping back to where the other two guards stood, letting them feel like they where doing their job when their presence only singled her out for attention instead of protecting her.

Distracted by her annoyance, she found herself sufficiently employed for the remainder of the trip.

* * * * *

Kalika stared out the window into the busy street below. She had watched Jasaper being led in not too long before along with all the other horses but the rest of the ‘luggage’ was taking longer to sort out. The harem weren’t within the rabble congregated outside the large building, they had disappeared some time after arriving, probably knowing the house better then she and being happy to use its amenities.

Kalika was rather happy to sulk, at least that was what she thought it was and she wasn’t bothered with the concept of sulking. Being stuck in this house, with the two stranger guards, not Allen, posted at the bottom of the stairs was reeking havoc on her thoughts. Usually when this sort of thing happened she wouldn’t give herself the chance to think, but the confinement was preventing that.

She had contemplated a covert escape, out the window and down or up, it didn’t matter which. But had disregarded that. She didn’t feel up to anything so physically draining. Her mind just wasn’t in it. So she was left to brood, to sulk and to pound over the same thoughts she had been sorting through over the last hour. Thoughts of Seres and herself, and the ringing question of what he was to her.

She didn’t love him, no, she knew herself well enough to know that. There was no need to please, no need to pamper and obey or accept. Though she did accept him. But no, there was none of the symptoms she had been told were attached to love for him, nothing that made him anything beyond any other man. But she didn’t hate him either, hatred required repulsion, she wasn’t repulsed by him or his actions. He was still just like any other man. He was acceptable as a creature, not so vile she felt the need to kill him, nor so perfect she felt the need to kill him. He was just a flawed creature moving about in the world like most of the rest of them.

Not hate, nor love, but there was something.

Curiosity. Yes she would admit to that. Curious as to what drove a man to suddenly decide to try and take over every country in range. Curious to see what kind of a man was moving towards success in that area. Curious too to understand his fixation with her.

There was that too. His fixation with her. There had been people fixated with her before, Boe was probably one of the simpler ones. There had been a harem girl in Paran who seemed nothing short of besotted with her, and two men in Beala who had fought to the death over her, plus various others that weren’t so memorable. But there was a quality to Seres’ obvious fixation that reverberated with individuality and held no taste of familiarity to it.

Maybe that’s where the true trawl was, to understand what he wanted, what made him want her.

It didn’t explain it though, the need to be separate. It only made it more confusing. If she were in love it would make sense, if she hated him too, that would in a strange way make sense. But this was out of place in her knowledge of human interactions. She knew he was powerful, stronger than her with magic but maybe not in mind. She knew that, one against the other, the result would be undecided. Oh, he could kill her in the blink of an eye, but so too could she, in her own way. She knew a lot about him from her time around him, but she still didn’t understand it.

Maybe he was unique to her, in a way that separated him from the norm but not with emotions. She had strived for her fathers good opinion when he had ignored her, but that was no good, because she had loved him. No, no, it was something else and she wasn’t quite sure what yet.

Silently Kalika moved across the room, one of the floor boards creaked and she made an absent note not to step on it again. She didn’t feel afraid, or confused. There was no palpitations of the heart of stressful fluttering that came with those sorts of emotions. She was focused, controlled and seeking understanding.

When the door opened and Tesh walked in, Kalika let the thoughts go. They weren’t urgent, just confusing and she would deal with them in time.

“The servants have prepared our meal, if you would join us.” The girl made a motion to the door but Kalika did not move, studying the girl. She wasn’t over thirteen though she looked older, and she held the character trade marks of the Keli people, a set of perfect rusty brown eyes and a flaring red hair that hung in unmarred ringlets down her back when free from it’s long plait. And those eyes looked annoyed, the edges creased, the tightness of a frown between her brows and something indecipherable in them that gave it away.

“Did they send you up here?” Kalika asked curious. The way Togne had been acting recently Kalika would have expected her to be the one to deliver the message. Tesh gave a concise nod in reply and Kalika let out a sigh. “Come in.” She motioned into the room that was by rights all their room. It was obvious they where meant to share, Kalika hadn’t expected any less. But the invitation had to be made, and Tesh begrudgingly accepted, walking into the room and letting the door close behind her.

There was a stretched silence that followed the action and Kalika wondered what was expected between them. Obviously they where meant to come to some sort of truce, though their fights where small and barely lasted a sentence or two. Kalika suspected Yan was forcing the issue into resolution and as she didn’t feel like climbing out the window just to distract herself she didn’t feel like keeping the animosity between herself and Tesh.

“I had nothing to do with it, you know.” Kalika began, going for the most important factor of their relationship. The deep rooted dislike the Keli people held for the Karaki. Tesh resolutely walked to the other window, across the room, to look down at the street below. “It was over a thousand years ago.” Kalika continued incredulous. The Keli people where very good at holding grudges and had so for the thousand years since they last fought Derishmikal.

Tesh gave a bitter laugh. “The people you were so determined to claim as your own on the docks destroyed mine!”

“A thousand years ago!” Kalika cried, impressed by the level of anger in the girls voice. There where very few alive still who had been alive then, and those few Kalika doubted the girl had spoken too.

“It’s not that long! Your king exiled us from our own country!”

“You tried to kill him.” Kalika replied bluntly, wondering at the beauty of history and the way it twisted itself to suit the moods of the people recording it.

“He was a tyrant.”

“So? Do you think that means he should have been more accepting of the assassination attempt?”

“We lost everything! Our land! Our sacred grounds! Everything!”

“I still didn’t do it, nor can I fix it. Why hold an entire race of people responsible for actions taken long before any of them where born?”

Tesh went to reply, went to speak and stopped. She took a breath, tried again and stopped once more. Nothing seemed to come to her, or more, a lot of things seemed to linger on the edge of her tongue as she debated which one to say. Finally, after a long drawn out inner conflict she began. “We pass on stories of what it used to be like. Do you know? Since the exile we have had four famines? You took our king and his line from us, and if that wasn’t enough you executed our religious leaders. We’re not even sure any more if we’re worshiping our old gods! Our written histories where burnt to the ground, our homes invaded and stolen. A quarter of our race are half breeds from when your armies decided our women were pretty enough for their nightly enjoyment.”

Kalika let out a hefty sigh. She wasn’t at all sure of how to explain someone out of their prejudices. Bothered by the rant that Tesh still seemed to be on, however, she chose to interrupt. “And it’s all very hard and very wrong.” Kalika interrupted, almost bored but trying to sound slightly compassionate. “But it happened and no amount of hatred to me is going to take it back. Nothing will change it now.”

“It makes me feel better.” Tesh muttered darkly.

“Hating things always does.” Kalika agreed understandingly. It was something she knew rather well from her life. “They want us to get along though.” Kalika pushed forward, a bit of cheer in her voice. “Otherwise they wouldn’t have sent you up here-“

“Yan has this strange idea in her head that we’re all sort of like sisters, I guess. That we can’t fight because we’re only going to be hurting Seres.”

“And that must be avoided.” Kalika scoffed forgetting any sentimentality she had for him for the moment. Besides, admitting to weakness to him seemed entirely different to admitting it to the rest of the world.

“Yes, it must.” Tesh snapped, defensive.

“Then stop calling me a Karaki Bitch.” Kalika snapped, amused despite herself. The girl wasn’t seeing the simplicity in the situation that Kalika was. “I’ve done nothing more to you then you’ve deserved for being so aggressive to me. So just drop it. Forget where I’m from if you feel the need and let it go.” Kalika gave her a twisted smile. “For Seres.” She bargained, amused by the surrender she could see in the girl’s eyes and wondering if it would last at all.

Tesh nodded her head sharply after a long hesitation then looked to Kalika. Testing Tesh tried to smile, but it was obviously forced.

“I respect your loyalty to your people and memory of the hardships they’ve faced.” Kalika whispered, feeling for a moment in sympathy with the girl. “If it could be taken back, I would do it.” She shook her head slightly. “But it is long gone, and long over.” The girl still looked unhappy. “We must all face trials and it is overcoming them that proves us the greater. Your people, through their trials, have been proven great, and I respect that as well. And that is all I can do.” Slowly, calmly Kalika moved across the room, passing the watching girl before coming to the door. “You said there was a meal?” Kalika asked in a much less reverent voice, making it as normal as possible. She felt, or suspected the nod more than saw it and turned to face Tesh passively. “I don’t know my way about. Think you could show me?” She asked and, without another word, the girl moved and the two of them left the room to join the Harem.

* * * * *

Kalika meandered through the small courtyard garden listening to the bubbling of its resident fountain. It was nice to find something as green as this in Encholalin, and it would become even rarer once they continued their journey to Rawn. It was hot already, and the desert country would yield very little plant life along the way. So she was appreciating and had been appreciating it for some time now. She took a deep breath, drawing in the cool serenity around her, feeling the moon reach down to light the courtyard.

They would be staying here for a few days, she had been told, but nobody has specified how many days that was. She didn’t mind, it gave her time to leisurely recover from the boat journey.

“Up a bit late aren’t we?” Allen asked from somewhere behind her and she turned to give him only a fleeting smile.

“It’s pretty here.” She admitted, running her fingers along the soft plant leaves.

“You shouldn’t be wandering about on your own.” He admonished, though still calm, no signs of aggression or intrusion in his voice.

“But I’m not.” She replied, meeting his expression as she tilted her head thoughtfully. She had felt someone watching her before, but maybe her guard wouldn’t be so happy about that knowledge so she kept it to herself. “You’re here.” She smiled to disarm but he wasn’t tense so it wasn’t necessary.

“What are you doing?” He asked, leaning up against one of the walk way pillars, arms crossed over his chest.

She gave a little laugh and motioned to the beautiful contracted courtyard of water and plants. “I’m revelling.” She gave another laugh, a little louder and it carried through the enclosure yard and echoed up over the rooves in a soft whisper. She smiled at that too. She was in a good mood today and the moment was too serene to find displeasure in it.

“You should be in bed.” He told her.

“I didn’t need sleep, I needed peace.”

“It’s the same thing for most people.” He gave a laugh of his own and she looked to him, a serious expression in her eyes.

“I don’t dream well.” She told him and she let sadness into her voice and let fears creep into her mind. Perhaps it was the water, just a scratch on the surface and things wanted to ooze out a bit before it reheeled. She let out a sigh when she saw his surprise and turned away, she should have said it. But her guards weren’t up, Allen was not a danger that she could see.

“What ghosts haunt you?” He asked in the most personal and conversational voice he had ever used with her.

She laughed properly at that, tilting her head up to the sky to see the pearl orb that shone down on her. The moon washed soothing feelings through her, taking away the hysteria before it could settle in. Bitterly, Kalika swallowed and forced back emotions.

In her mind she knew she should probably kill him. For this moment alone, for a near slip she would have killed anyone else a year ago. She didn’t know what the change implied, but she wasn’t comfortable with it. She should kill him, but she just didn’t care.

“Nothing hides in the dark.” Kalika told him, and looked back down from the sky, instead staring thoughtlessly at the rippling fountain water. “There are no lies when it’s dark.”

“I-“ He stopped. “What?” He asked confusion in his voice, nothing quite stable in the question.

“Don’t worry, Allen.” She turned to him with a bittersweet smile, there was no way to explain to someone something as complicated as the hidden lies in daylight. “I should go back to the room, shouldn’t I?” She was surprised by his shake of the head.

“No. He said you could stay out as long as you liked.” Allen replied casually.

“He was watching me, wasn’t he?” Kalika asked carefully, not sure of her thoughts. She saw Allen blink and knew immediately that his tongue had slipped where it shouldn’t have. Kalika didn’t push. “But you’re tired? You want to sleep, so I should go back to my room.”

“No.” He replied quickly, less formal again. “This is nice. Out here.” He unfolded an arm and motioned about them. “You look comfortable.” He admitted, a wistful look in his eyes.

She grinned suddenly, surprised by the shift in him and amused by it. “You’re the only one happy about returning.” She told him and for a moment he looked embarrassed. “What’s waiting for you in Rawn?” She asked, lowering herself to sit along the fountain’s edge.

Allen had a sheepish smile as he took a seat on the bricks surrounding a near by garden bed. She waited, but he didn’t reply.

“A lover, I guess?” Kalika pressed, and his blush returned, a little darker. She considered mocking the action, just because he seemed so susceptible to reaction right now but let it slide, she could always pick on him latter for it, anyhow. “One you are highly dedicated to.” She let out a deep sigh. “So much so that Seres will trust you around his new toy.”

“The Lord Mage has many reasons to trust me, Kalika.”

“You said my name.” Kalika beamed at him, impressed, pleased. And then hated herself for being so happy about something so small as a name.

Allen rolled his eyes. “You know, under most people’s scrutiny this would be a romantic rendezvous.”

“Yeah, but if your anything like my bro-“ She stopped short of saying ‘brother’ and titled her head to examine Allen with more intensity then she had previously. He looked nothing like her brother, dark brown hair cut short, a set of soft brown eyes, and a lean frame that seemed more a scholar’s body then a Captain’s. She gave a laugh. Even Allen’s stance was completely different, everything about him seemed different, but for that one thing she had picked up on very early and never identified. It just went to show how distracted and off balance she had been since her capture.

Another laugh, more heartfelt and she felt tears rising to her eyes.

“Something funny?” Allen asked, frowning a little at her, in confusion or anger she wasn’t sure.

“I just-“ She smiled at him, properly, “I just realised why Seres trusts you around me.”

“Hmm… and why is that, fair maid?” He asked lightly, not looking worried. Kalika smiled across the distance to him.

“Because you have no interest in me.” She told him cryptically. Oh he knew, of course he knew if Seres knew, but the connection made in her head was so vague that Allen would not assume she knew.

“I’m sure I’m not the only one.” He replied teasingly and her grin broadened.

“Nor any of the other harem.” Kalika continued pleased with herself. He arched a brow as if to say his last answer stood for that one as well. “Nor any woman.” Kalika whispered conspiratorially and saw his flush return. Her grin became mischievous at his reaction. “So your lover is waiting for you? He must be quite a catch for that kind of devotion.”

“How by the Third Stream did you put that together out of nothing?” Allen asked, looking surprised as he stared at her.

“Wouldn’t you like to know?” Kalika teased, feeling light and frivolous.

“Yes, I would.” Allen replied teetering on the edge of annoyance.

“Do they know? All the other soldiers? I mean, Seres must know, but your comrades in arms?”

Allen was frowning at her, not at all happy with the conversation’s path. “They assume. If they had proof-“

“You’d be dead.” Kalika finished for him, remembering reading that particular law when studying Rawn. Allen nodded carefully. “But Seres knows.” Kalika contradicted.

“Seres finds me useful.” Allen replied. “Besides he is a very liberally minded man, especially for our people.” Allen gave a little laugh then, the tension that had built around him seeming to fade. “Sometimes it’s hard to believe he was raised in Rawn at all.”

“But he was?” She was curious, very little was known about the Lord Mage.

“Yes. He was the previous King’s eldest son. I think he spent so much time studying the magic though, that he missed the social etiquette.”

“He’s a better person for it.” Kalika said accidentally and the voice she said it with was far too soothing and accepting.

“Not to anyone but you.” Allen interrupted.

“And the harem.” Kalika countered.

“Please.” Allen drawled doubtingly. “They used to have bruises as well.” He replied. Kalika cringed at that. Oh she knew, she had heard the stories. “But you’ve calmed him down.”

“That’s stupid.” Kalika told him sharply. “You can’t change people.” It was something she knew, something she had always known.

“You’ve done something.” Allen replied, amusement now in his voice. And it didn’t go unnoticed by her that it was at her expense. Abruptly she wanted the conversation to end.

“Are you allowed to talk like this to me?” She asked, a little tightly, and he fell into silence. She didn’t give it much time to see if he would break that silence, pushing on instead. “I’m tired now. I think I’ll go to bed.” And she stood and left the room, Allen trailing behind her quietly, perhaps sulking, or perhaps aware that he had crossed the line, if only for a second.

“Hmm… and why is that, fair maid?” He asked lightly, not looking worried. Kalika smiled across the distance to him.

“Because you have no interest in me.” She told him cryptically. Oh he knew, of course he knew if Seres knew, but the connection made in her head was so vague that Allen would not assume she knew.

“I’m sure I’m not the only one.” He replied teasingly and her grin broadened.

“Nor any of the other harem.” Kalika continued pleased with herself. He arched a brow as if to say his last answer stood for that one as well. “Nor any woman.” Kalika whispered conspiratorially and saw his flush return. Her grin became mischievous at his reaction. “So your lover is waiting for you? He must be quite a catch for that kind of devotion.”

“How by the Third Stream did you put that together out of nothing?” Allen asked, looking surprised as he stared at her.

“Wouldn’t you like to know?” Kalika teased, feeling light and frivolous.

“Yes, I would.” Allen replied teetering on the edge of annoyance.

“Do they know? All the other soldiers? I mean, Seres must know, but your comrades in arms?”

Allen was frowning at her, not at all happy with the conversation’s path. “They assume. If they had proof-“

“You’d be dead.” Kalika finished for him, remembering reading that particular law when studying Rawn. Allen nodded carefully. “But Seres knows.” Kalika contradicted.

“Seres finds me useful.” Allen replied. “Besides he is a very liberally minded man, especially for our people.” Allen gave a little laugh then, the tension that had built around him seeming to fade. “Sometimes it’s hard to believe he was raised in Rawn at all.”

“But he was?” She was curious, very little was known about the Lord Mage.

“Yes. He was the previous King’s eldest son. I think he spent so much time studying the magic though, that he missed the social etiquette.”

“He’s a better person for it.” Kalika said accidentally and the voice she said it with was far too soothing and accepting.

“Not to anyone but you.” Allen interrupted.

“And the harem.” Kalika countered.

“Please.” Allen drawled doubtingly. “They used to have bruises as well.” He replied. Kalika cringed at that. Oh she knew, she had heard the stories. “But you’ve calmed him down.”

“That’s stupid.” Kalika told him sharply. “You can’t change people.” It was something she knew, something she had always known.

“You’ve done something.” Allen replied, amusement now in his voice. And it didn’t go unnoticed by her that it was at her expense. Abruptly she wanted the conversation to end.

“Are you allowed to talk like this to me?” She asked, a little tightly, and he fell into silence. She didn’t give it much time to see if he would break that silence, pushing on instead. “I’m tired now. I think I’ll go to bed.” And she stood and left the room, Allen trailing behind her quietly, perhaps sulking, or perhaps aware that he had crossed the line, if only for a second.

	Property of Kimra Lelanst, do not duplicate without consent.