A/N: This is the first story that I have ever put on line, so bare with me if I have a few technical difficulties along the way. I'd really like to know what you think, even critisim as long as it's constructive. That said, I hope you enjoy. The none original character show up in the next chapter.
Prologue: Be Careful What You Wish For
"Blessed Lady, please, hear my words," The small redhead begged. Her head was bowed over the Wishing Spring in supplication, tears breaking the pristine, smooth surface, and creating ripples where there had only been calm moments before. "I wish no harm to those who have hurt me, but my heart has broken and I fear it may not mend. Please, Blessed Lady, hear my prayer, and bring me far away from here, where I may make myself whole."
If ever her plea was to be heard, it would be here, in this grove on this night. Midsummer was the night of the Lady. For several long moments, there was no response, then the barest stirring in the breeze was followed by a light touch on her back. A sense of mounting power drowned everything else away, and in the haze of it, she lost consciousness.
When she again awoke, she was still in a forest glade, but that was the only thing about her position that held the same. Even the colors were wrong, drab and dull, and the sky was of all colors blue, not the violet to which she was accustomed. The sounds were off as well, thought not so glaringly so. It was almost as if someone had taken her home, changed the color of the sky, and cast a fog over everything else.
Was this the way her plea was answered then? Angry tears began a slow trek down her cheeks and neck. This place, whatever it was, was entirely alien, totally foreign. Nothing here seemed real, just some pale shadow of what she had so loved. Was this a test then? Had she some flaw that was being punished for her presumption that the Lady had the leisure to help her in her innocence inflicted agony?
Or was it more sinister than that? Had Risa gotten one of her friends to do away with the unwelcome "child" in her new home? How could they have done this to her? Morrin whom she loved so dearly, and Risa once her best friend, until she'd pulled her back from the brink of death. The rage that came to her then frightened her, she could not imagine how she was allowing herself to feel such dark things, but she could feel it twisting at her insides, turning her stomach to a roiling mass.
After all she had done for them, all the information that she had gathered for the Guild, all of Morrin's students she had Healed. After everything she'd done for him he took another to wife! Not just any other either, no, he took Risa who had cursed her when she'd saved the older girls life. Called her Hell-spawn, and treated her as a monster. All of these things she had done for them, and so many others with no hope or expectation of repayment in any way. She'd done it all for love, and then she'd been cast aside like some useless tool when another presented themselves.
Perhaps she should have gone with Daemion, he'd promised her a place at the Cerian Court. She should have gone with him, but the sorrow on Morrin's face had kept her from it. How could he have stolen a possible future from her, and then destroyed the one she had planned? Again the anger and pain crept deeper into her, radiating up her spine and down her legs, a chill was followed by a was of burning rage and something changed in her. Slowly, Rain became calm, coolly calm. What had happened had been tragic, but it was in the past and beyond redemption. There was only one thing she could do now and that was ensure that no one else had to go thorough this pain she was feeling.
A rustling in the brush was all the reminder that she needed that she was in unfamiliar perhaps even hostile territory. Fleet as any woodland animal, she was on her feet and disappearing into the trees. First she would determine the lay of this new land, and then she would start on her mission. No one under her watch would go through these painful, frightening emotions so long as she could do anything about it. She had to have been put into this place for a reason, now all that there was to do was determine how best to go about accomplishing that purpose.