Thanks for reading, lioness!

This story is being written for the July challenge for the Tamora Pierce Experiment: Writing Challenges. The challenge this month was to write a canon scene from a different point of view. Since I was on time I, of course, had to go overboard and plan a multi-chapter. Go figure. So this is the beginning of the Circle series from Niko's point of view. I hope you enjoy!

Here's the forum link: forum (dot) fanfiction (dot) net/forum/The_Tamora_Pierce_Experiment_Writing_Challenges/70302/


"Niko! I didn't know you were back in Emelan!"

Lark opened the door fully to give the tall man a hug. He responded warmly, but quickly. "Is Rosethorn around?" he asked, looking around the small cottage. "Can you get her in here?"

Lark looked the mage over critically. He was skinny, as always, but seemed to be verging on gaunt in a way he hadn't the last time the wayward mage had passed through the temple. His long jacket was wrinkled at the bottom, the shirt underneath had a small circular stain on the collar; only slight musses, but for Niko, always meticulously neat, it caused Lark's concern to rise. He looked stressed and distracted and when men like Niklaran Goldeye looked like that, it usually foretold disaster. She made Niko sit at the table before she fetched Rosethorn from the other woman's workshop.

When Rosethorn came into the room, she took one look at Niko and her eyebrows snapped together.

"Sit, please," Niko said. "I need to talk to both of you." Lark put the tea she had been brewing on the table in front of him. Her hand brushed against his sleeve and she allowed her magic to straighten wrinkles and the stain fell away from the fabric. He gave her a weary smile and she joined Rosethorn on the other bench.

"You still have no charges?" he asked.

Rosethorn shook her head.

"Good, good," Niko said, standing up.

The women exchanged a glance, one concerned and one exasperated. Lark set a light hand on Rosethorn's knee, calming what would have no doubt been a sharp reprimand of wasting time, regardless of her concern for her friend.

"Off already, Niko?" Lark asked, instead.

"I only stopped by as an afterthought," Niko admitted as they walked him to the door. "Duke Vedris has asked me to visit him. There is some issue to do with a plague on Hatar."

"And you needed to know if our house was empty because…?" Rosethorn's patience was put on a touch too thick and Lark sent her a quick warning glance.

"I have the feeling you'll have a guest or two in the next few months," Niko said as he walked down the path. "I'll see you soon!" He was gone before they could ask him anything further, his long strides carrying him out of earshot.

"Well!" Rosethorn said with her mouth twisted in a frown. "Thank Mila we know we'll have an unknown number of guests in an unknown amount of time and that we'll see him soon. That is all very helpful information!"

Lark frowned as well as they walked back into Discipline, her thoughts on Niko. She wished she had had a moment to weave spells of protection into his clothes before he left; she suddenly had the feeling that something monumental was going to happen and that he would be at the centre of it all.

Rosethorn suddenly wrapped her arms around Lark, holding her tight.

"He'll be all right, my heart," she said. Lark schooled her face into a smile.

"I know, Rosie. He always is." Still, the feeling remained and she held the other woman tight.