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Tundra
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A Fanfiction based on "The Immortals" series by Tamora Pierce
By Sivvus
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This story is the Sequel to "Desert" and "Forest". You will find it rather confusing if you haven't read the first two sections! I hereby include summaries of both "Desert" and "Forest", just in case. If you're planning to read either and don't want to spoil them, don't read these summaries!
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SPOILERS
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DESERT:
The stories are set in the same timeline as The Immortals, although the majority of Desert happens when Daine is seventeen. Rather than recovering her sanity when her village hunts her, she is captured by a slave trader named Kavan, who is searching for gifted children to sell to Emperor Ozorne. He taunts her out of the "madness", and tells Daine that he will kill Cloud if she does not obey him.
Knowing that Daine believes the wolf pack will save her, Kavan kills the wolf cubs to scare them away. Daine doesn't know this, believing the People have betrayed and abandoned her, and submits to slavery. Cloud knows that the cubs were killed, but does not tell Daine- at first out of pity, but eventually because she knows Daine will not believe her.
Daine is taken with two other gifted slaves- an older girl called Katryn, and a young boy called Danny- to Carthak, where the three are trained as spies and assassins. Katryn is a powerful mage, relying on her ears and her ability to break shields. She is very secretive about her motives and her past. She is scornful of Daine, believing her to be "weak"- however, she begins to rely on Daine to help her with her blindness. Daine also cares for Danny, who was kidnapped from his family because he can see magic. The three form a family, if not a friendship.
During the slaves' training, Tortall is struggling. The immortals run through the land, killing thousands. The country suffers a famine as the villagers die or cower in forts. Seeing its weakness, the lady of Dunlath and the Scanran lords invade the country. Starving and near-defeated, Tortall calls a temporary truce while it sends ambassadors to Carthak to ask for help.
Numair and Alanna travel to Carthak. Numair expects to be executed on his arrival, as a legitimate term of the truce. However, Ozorne welcomes the ambassadors and presents them with a gift- three young slaves to serve them during their stay.
Alanna is openly cynical about why Ozorne would act like this, and who the slaves are. Her suspicions are heightened when Numair (in hawk shape) is attacked by a second shape-shifter as he tries to contact Lindhall at the university. Numair fights off the attack and the shape-shifter falls from the sky. He lands and finds Daine, hurt and afraid, who warns him that he is in danger. She doesn't say from what, and after Alanna heals her, spins a story to make the threat seem less important.
Alanna knows she is lying, and finds Katryn spying on them with her gift soon after. She tries to convince Numair that all three slaves are dangerous, but he continues to try to talk to them. Daine is punished by Ozorne for letting Alanna heal her, and asks Cloud for advice.
Cloud is jealous that Daine spends more time with Danny than with her, and bitter that she is being treated more like a "pretty pony" than as a person. She refuses to speak to Daine.
Both ambassadors are angry at the irrational demands the emperor has produced for the truce. They realise that the emperor has no intention of helping Tortall. Alanna is shocked out of her fury when Danny asks her what the "pretty magic" is that she has around her neck. Realising the boy can see the Ember Stone through her shirt, she lets him see it. However, Katryn appears and drags Danny away before he can ask any more questions.
The next morning, Daine finds Katryn searching through Alanna's belongings for the stone, which she hid when she realised Danny could see it. Daine is dubious about stealing it, but Katryn tells her that after the "peace talks" of the day, Alanna wouldn't remember the ember stone at all. As a failsafe, Katryn makes a nectarine appear to be the stone, and takes the real ember to Ozorne.
Ozorne believes the stone to be the Dominion Jewel. He tells Katryn that Numair and Alanna had attacked him during the peace talks, and that they should be killed as traitors. He tells Katryn how to kill them so the other countries will believe the attack actually happened.
Daine overhears the meeting, and is appalled. She tries to ask Cloud's advice, but once again the pony is elusive. Returning from the stables, she runs into Numair. She tells him that she is an assassin, and that she is supposed to kill him. Numair takes her to talk to Alanna.
Alanna refuses to believe Daine when she outlines the plan, until Daine points out the spelled nectarine she is wearing. Amazed to find that her most prized possession is a fruit, she begins to believe Daine. Daine outlines Ozorne's plan.
Later that night, when she is heading back to her room, Daine is confronted by Katryn. Katryn says that Daine is a traitor, and tries to kill her, killing Danny first because he tries to follow Daine.
Daine runs away, but is backed into a corner. Katryn, half consumed by the fire of her gift, tells Daine how she was blinded by her family because she killed someone with her gift. Bitter at Daine's ability to make friends, she relishes the thought of doing the same to her.
Before she can do so, Numair appears. He had seen the encounter and realised Katryn knew the Tortallans plan to escape, and had left to warn Alanna. When he returned, he found the corpse of Danny and trailed the two girls. Katryn scoffs at him as he casts shields to protect himself and Daine from her magic, and disbelieves him when he says he doesn't need to attack her- that she's being burned alive by her gift. Katryn begins charging a spell with the last of her life force to kill him, when she hears Daine pleading with her not to kill herself. She hesitates, and the spell slips from her hands and kills her.
Numair and Daine find Alanna outside Ozorne's bedchamber, where Alanna had just cast a sleep spell on the guards. The three enter the room and confront the emperor, only to find that he has set an ambush for them. As they fight off the attackers, Ozorne tries to kill them with the ember stone. He is surprised it doesn't work, and concentrates on it. As his shields fail, Daine leaps on him in wolf-form and tears his throat out. She leads the way to the docks.
When they arrive, a Tortallan sailor sees Daine and is terrified. Hurt, and afraid that once again she will be outcast, Daine runs away. Numair follows her, and finds her preparing to ride out into the desert-where she will surely die. She tells him that she deserves to die, and she is afraid of people hating her like her village did.
Numair tells her she is worth saving, otherwise he wouldn't have followed her. He tells her that he and Alanna owe her their lives, and they wouldn't let her be an outcast. Comforted, Daine agrees to return with them to Tortall…
FOREST:
(this one's more complicated)
Forest continues directly after Desert. Numair and Alanna arrive back in Tortall with Daine in tow, bringing the mixed news that yes, the emperor is dead and won't be fighting, but no, we still have no allies. Jon and Thayet meet them, and have equally doleful news- the country has become overrun by bandits and immortals. The country has no grain reserves, and the people refuse to work the fields for fear of the immortals. The passes are all snowed shut, and the country is under siege and starving.
Daine is embarrassed when she finds out who Jon and Thayet are, and leaves to talk to Cloud. While she is away, Jon asks who she is and is horrified by the story- worrying that Daine is dangerous, still an assassin, and a threat to the nobles of Tortall. Outraged at his suspicions, Numair tells Jon he will be entirely responsible for anything Daine may do- and leaves to find her.
He finds her at the stables where she has fallen asleep, and is in the grip of a horrible nightmare about the deaths of her family. He wakes her up and offers to teach her to meditate- just to control the nightmares. Daine is frightened of anything she sees as "magic", however innocent- a repercussion of Katryn's magical attack in Carthak. However, she agrees to learn to meditate.
After the lesson, she tells Numair that the stable is the same one where she was held prisoner when she was first sold- and finds the spelled cord she was held with to prove it. Numair is impressed at the strength of the spell, and asks how Kavan got through Tortall undetected by any other mages. Before Daine can answer, a strange voice screams at them through the collar. Calling itself the "Rancune", it warns Numair not to ask any more questions... or pay the consequences.
Alanna and Numair take this attack to mean that there are listening spells on the collar- meaning that even though Daine is no longer a spy, she is still acting as a spy for someone on the other end of the spell. They worry that this might make Jon see her as even more of a threat, but decide not to tell Daine as they are unsure how she might react.
Having passed out from the speaking spell, Daine dreams that she is in a dark realm, speaking with a strange demon called Scul. He tells her that her nightmares and chaotic life have made her perfect, but doesn't say what for. He seems about to offer her a proposition, but is distracted by her irreverent comments and lack of fear into a rage. Before he can become further enraged, she forces herself to wake up.
As she leaves the room, she comes across a family of Starlings who are just about to leave for the winter. For the first time in years she speaks to the birds, and is delighted when they answer her. She's even more delighted when Numair finds her and gives her a letter from Jon. The letter reads that she is a citizen of Tortall- that she is free of Carthak for good, if she wishes it. Thrilled, she hugs Numair and thanks him for the lovely gift.
That evening Alanna, Daine and Numair meet to have a meal out, to say goodbye to Alanna who leaves for her home the next day "to say goodbye". During their discussion, Alanna and Numair discover that Daine had once flown across the ocean to carry a curse to a ship. They ask if she thinks she could do it again.
Daine dreams of Scul again, this time in the company of some strange subservient beings called the Runners. As the Runners drone on and Scul doesn't turn up, Daine falls asleep in the dark Chaos land and dreams of her village in Galla, with its plants and animals. When she wakes up, her imagination has come to life in the realm- an apple tree grows out of the nothingness.
Scul is furious at this "desecration" and attacks her. Before he can seriously hurt her, the Badger appears and forces Daine to wake up, fighting off the demon. Daine wakes up, and finds one of Scul's claws on her pillow. She is then visited by the Badger who convinces her that, no, she's not dreaming.
He tells her that when people meditate, they separate their spirits from their bodies- and that when she sleeps, the same thing is happening, except she's going to the Chaos Realms night after night. He tells her Scul is a dangerous demon who can only be destroyed if his mortal host is eliminated, but that he has no idea who the host is.
She visits the kitchen to find some breakfast, and is confused when the kitchen maid is terrified. The maid runs to find the head of the kitchen, who yells at Daine for "killing her family" and using "evil magic". The cook triumphantly tells Daine of what Jon said about her the first night she arrived- how she is seen as a threat, and how they don't trust her. Frightened and upset, she changes into a bird and flies away.
Flying over a copse a few miles from the port, she sees a large group of Spidren. Curious as to why there are so many, she lands too close to them and becomes stuck in a web. The leader realises she is not a simple bird when she turns into a snake, then, after she hears him talking about the Rancune, a human. She tries to convince him that she's on the same side as them, but he sees the collar and decides she's just a slave. He leaves her stuck in the web, and promises that he will deliver her back to her "master", who will kill her. He tells her they are planning to attack the port.
Daine remembers what the Badger told her about separating her spirit, and wonders if she could escape from the web that way and warn someone at the port about the Spidren. She eventually manages it after she throws the chaos claw away from her.
When she gets to the city, she realises no-one she talks to can see or hear her. Frustrated, she stands in the middle of the street and yells for someone to hear her. A nearby healer woman is terrified, and Daine realises that gifted people can detect she's there as a spirit. She goes to find Numair.
She finds him meditating in his room. He takes the news of the Spidren more calmly than he takes in the fact that she'd severed her spirit to speak to him. He shows her how much she's faded, and explains that in tearing herself away from her physical body she'd cut herself away from everything that sustains her spirit.
Daine realises she's dying and turns to go back to the Spidren camp, but Numair stops her. He offers her some of his own life force, telling her without it she'd die. Scared of his Gift Aura, she argues. He grabs her hands and casts the magic anyway, finishing the spell by kissing her.
Confused by the kiss, Daine runs back to the encampment and rejoins her body...then realises she's still trapped in the web. Seeing the claw nearby, she tries to saw through the threads, then discovers the claw snaps the web easily when she says the word "break". She frees herself and looks for the absent Spidren.
They are digging a tunnel that runs towards the port. As she goes a little way inside the tunnel, she sees that every time the tunnel passed under a house the spider monsters had burrowed through the floor, killed and eaten the occupants, and moved on. She takes some clothes and a dagger from one of the people, and backs out of the tunnel. She falls asleep outside the forest.
Numair wakes her up, angry, and demands she tell him what's going on. She promises to, after they have done something about the tunnel- and sealed any other tunnels in the area that the Spidren might use to dig into the city. They do so, burning the Spidren alive in the main tunnel.
Daine tells Numair that she knows who the elusive Rancune is- Kavan. The tactic the Spidren use, the tunnels and the way he uses the magic in the collar convinced her. She is right- Kavan is indeed the Rancune, and he's furious that she's worked it out. On the other end of the speaking spell, forced to spy on then by Scul, he is slowly going insane.
Daine also tells Numair about Scul, and the land of Chaos. He is worried, asking her if she accepted anything from the demon, but when he finds she hasn't he is relieved. He tells her of his own plan to fly across the sea to enlist the help of the Yamani people. Daine tells him he's mad to try to fly across the sea in winter, but goes along with it anyway. To speak to each other flight, Numair creates a speaking spell.
They manage to reach the Islands and collapse, exhausted, at the ambassador's house in the court grounds.
Daine dreams of Scul again for the first time since the Spidren incident. She asks her how she managed to avoid him in her dreams for the past few weeks. She doesn't know what he's talking about, but Scul evidently does- after magically reading her mind, he seems very amused. He transforms into a visage of Numair and asks her how he managed to give her some of his life-force. He asks her why she hasn't told the mage she's in love with him. When she doesn't answer, Scul tells her to make a choice- either to carry out his proposition, or to let Numair suffer. He tells her to wake up and think about it.
Upset, Daine avoids Numair. He finds her and works out part of why she's upset, telling her he can fight Scul. She tells him that Scul wants to hurt him because she's in love with him. Rather than answer, he kisses her.
Ilane and Piers, the ambassadors, tell Daine and Numair that to gain entrance into the court they must prove their honour by challenging a Yamani warrior. Daine is intrigued by the mention of "The Wolf" and agrees to fight him. When Ilane and Piers remain sceptical, she transforms into a wolf to demonstrate.
That night, Daine dreams again of Scul. He knows her decision and doesn't try to change her mind. Instead, he lets his Host talk to Daine- Kavan, the Rancune. He tells Daine that she must ally with Chaos- if not, he will use his standing army to slaughter thousands in her name, until the world (And Numair) despise her. Horrified, she accepts the offer- and he gives her a necklace to wear to show her allegiance.
The next day, they visit the court, where Daine formally challenges the flirtatious Wolf. While she is speaking to him, Kavan- the Ranune- speaks to Numair, asking for his help to escape Scul. When Numair refuses he angrily begins to tell him of Daine's "betrayal" since she kept the conversation a secret. Before he can, Daine speaks to him and wards him away from Numair. However, when Numair reassures her that he wouldn't believe anything Kavan says, she tells him he probably should.
Before she can fight The Wolf, the Hunter God appears in the court. He tells the assembled crowd that she allied with Chaos, and puts God-fury in the Shang Warrior's eyes, telling him to kill her. She fights off the attack and makes him yield, but the court arrest her for her "betrayal of the gods".
Numair is summoned by the emperor. At first he refuses to hear any excuse for Daine's betrayal, believing she deserved to be punished. Even when the emperor tells him that, as she fought with honour, he can dispatch the forces Tortall needs, he doesn't calm down. However, something the emperor says makes him realise Kavan's part in the plot- and he works out that Kavan didn't need to make Daine a comrade in Chaos, he was trying to make her a replacement host for Scul so he could be free. Realising that Kavan would try to kill Scul by killing his new host, Numair heads for the cell where Daine is trying to be held.
He arrives too late. The two mages both lie unconscious on the floor- Daine having been hit by a magical attack, while at the same time slitting Kavan's throat with the chaos claw. Kavan is dead, and Daine comatose.
Blaming himself for Daine's coma, Numair stays by her side as the Yamani court carry out trials, finding Kavan the traitor and Daine innocent of the charges made by the Hunter God. The priests say that the God had shown signs of remorse for his anger- the statue in the temple had cried, and the burned offerings were not accepted.
Ged (The Wolf) visits the ambassador's house, possessed by the Hunter God. At first Numair is suspicious of the God, but the Hunter apologises for his anger and tells Numair that the reason Daine can't wake up is that her spirit is trapped in Chaos. Numair asks him why he cares, and he tells him he's her father. Before Numair can ponder this too much, the God sends him to sleep and sends his spirit to the Chaos realms, to find Daine.
Numair finds Daine asleep in the dark dream realm, but when she wakes up she thinks he is Scul in disguise (again) and runs away from him. Before she has gone 200 yards, she sees another "Numair"- this time actually Scul. Unable to tell which one is which, she stands by helpless as they fight. Because they both act as the same person it's evident that neither can win the magical battle, that she'd have to intervene. She makes a rushed decision, attacks and kills one of the Numairs.
Thankfully, it's the right one. The Hunter Gods draws them both out of the Realm- Daine into natural, healing sleep, and Numair back to wakefulness. Numair thanks the God, who tells him not to tell Daine who he is just yet, then gives the body back to Ged. Ged, puzzled about the 30 minutes he was possessed and can't remember, tells Numair they should be friends since they're going to Tortall on the same boat, with the army. The two men leave the room, leaving Daine to sleep undisturbed.
