Damn.

Double Damn.

Triple Flaming Ammet Damn.

(I hope that no small children are reading this)

I'm back, the unofficial biggest Dalemark fan in the world and universe and any other scientific galaxy out there.

And the only thing I can think of saying is "Damn"

I said that I would write something about the Uprising, but after reading cennorethsdaughter's fic "Such Divinity", I was struck by an idea. What if Maewen had made some sort of bargain with the One? It seemed to me that she didn't have that many friends in her world, and I'm sure she'd rather go back in time instead.

So kudos to cennorethsdaughter for inspiring me to write this. When you've finished reading, review it a few hundred times and I'll love you forever.

lightning bug

'"Just hold it for me while I do some sketches" He passed her the statue. As soon as her hands were on it, she was not there any longer.'- Crown of Dalemark

Maewen found herself standing where she had been that morning. Wend was in the process of putting up the golden statue. "No!" she yelled, and ran towards him. Wend, who didn't seem surprised at her sudden reappearance, continued putting the statue in its case. "You can't put it up! I've got to go back!" She kept trying to grab it from him as he held her back. Maewen found that she was crying again. "No, I've got to go back, please, let me go back! Please!"

"No, you can't. You've done your duty, you can't go." Wend said, in an unnervingly calm matter. And just as he was about to lock up the statue, he froze. His arm was still holding her back, still in the air. Maewen could see out the window that a bird was frozen in the air, mid-flying.

And then she heard the voice again. It was the One, whispering in her ear. "And why must you go back?" the voice said.

Maewen tried to compose herself. "Because I'm happy there. I have friends."

She knew that He knew why she wanted to go back, but she realized he was testing her. "Do you not have friends in your time?"

"Horses don't make for good conversationalists." She said dully.

The One laughed.

"What about your parents?"

"They wouldn't notice me even if I was gone."

"Well, it is possible for me to send you back, but you must name the one real reason why you must go back." the One said.

Maewen knew that if she could see Him, He would have an evil smile on his face. He wanted to see if she could admit that she was in love with Mitt. And she knew that if she said something else, H wouldn't deem her worthy enough to go back.

Maewen let out a sigh. "I want to go back because of Mitt. He is my only true friend. I want to be with him and support him through the Uprising. I want him to have someone he can tell things to. I want him to have another friend besides Moril. I want to go because I know that I'm in love with him." There, I've said it, she thought, and a bunch of other good stuff.

"Very well. But you must be prepared to spend your life there, and with the knowledge that you will never be born in this world. When I send you back, you will be erased from the memories of everyone in this world. Are you prepared to live with that?"

Maewen gulped. It was a big decision; live in the world she was born to and had a life in, or the one that she would give anything to go back to.

"Yes." She said, startled by the confidence in her own voice.

"Very well." Then there was that dark fog thing again, and then suddenly, things got very cold.

Once again, Maewen's clothes were transforming. But now, instead of the Hearthwoman's uniform, her shorts and t-shirt were turning into a dress. Not a ball dress, a dress that one would wear when going on a very long trip. But it was still a very pretty dress, prettier than anything in her closet back at home.

Home. Maewen found herself choking up at the thought. She would never see it again. 'Come on Mayelbridwen, you can't go feeling sorry for yourself now, you made your decision and now you must live with it. No one at home will even remember you. As of now, your home may not even exist.'

Maewen looked around trying to take in her surroundings. The only thing she could see in the coming darkness were trees. "Oh great." She mumbled. "Mitt, where are you?"

Suddenly, as though in answer to her question, a fire started to the left of her. It lit up the area near it, and she could see a camp. Maewen started running towards it, catching branches in her hair. She put a hand up to pull them out, and found that her hair had two braids in the front that were pulled back with a ribbon. She ran on and just as she was edging the outskirts, two thoughts struck her; "If they're going on an uprising, and I come bounding out of a dark forest, chances are they'll shoot me before they really see me." And, "How am I going to explain who I am to them?"

She edged along the trees, keeping out sight of the main fire. Maewen darted out and started walking along the back of the tents. One tent, larger than all the others, was just in sight. Thinking that she was home free, Maewen started running towards it.

"Who are you?" Maewen stopped running. Right in front of her was a girl a little older than her, with bright red hair. She guessed that, by the hair, it was Moril's sister. Oh, what was her name?

"I need to see Mitt." Maewen said.

"Oh sure, I'm just going to let someone I don't know waltz into the Mitt's tent. You've probably been sent to kill him." she said, eying her suspiciously.

Their family's obsessed with suspicions about people murdering others, Maewen thought, remembering Moril's accusations to Mitt.

"I really need to see Mitt." Maewen said again. "He knows who I am, just show me to him, and he'll know who I am."

"Moril!" the girl yelled. "Come here quickly!" then she turned to Maewen. "You better be telling the truth. We've had a dozen spies here, claiming they knew him, and if you're another one of them, you won't come out of this as pretty as you are now."

Moril came from around one of the tents, a piece of bread in one hand and his other draped over the Cwidder. He almost dropped both though, when he saw her.

"Nor- I mean, Maewen." He looked like he'd seen a ghost. "You're back." He ran up to give her a hug, the Cwidder bumping into her side. "We need to take you to Mitt right now. Brid, stay here." He grabbed her hand and pulled her towards the great tent, Brid with a shocked look on her face behind them.

"Mitt miss- I mean, we all missed you." Moril said, avoiding eye contact

Just before they got to the entrance, Maewen stopped him. "Moril, how long have I been gone?"

"Two months" said Moril distractedly. "Good, it's just him and Navis."

Inside, Maewen could hear Mitt and Navis talking. "I don't know all these numbers-oh take that look off your face! Reading and math isn't exactly the first thing a common fisherman learns!"

Moril took the smile off his face and stuck his head into the tent.

"What is it Moril?" Navis asked, his voice told Maewen he was startled by the grave look on Moril's face.

"We found someone lurking around the camp," Moril said in his gravest voice. Maewen tried her hardest not to laugh.

"Not another one." Mitt said exasperatedly. "Well, who are they?"

Moril pulled her into view. "She goes by the name of Maewen Singer."

Mitt looked as though he had just been pushed into a very cold lake. Navis had the expression of someone who's just been tricked by a clever clown and still doesn't know how they did it.

"Flaming Ammet." Mitt said under his breath, still half-speechless.

Navis though, got over his shock quickly. "We were under the impression that you had been sent back to your time by order of the One."

"Navis, could you leave for a second?" Mitt asked, ignoring his sarcasm. "Moril, Maewen and I need to talk."

Navis smirked at them. "Alright, we can go over the maps after supper."

After he had left, Moril and Mitt stared at her much like they had after finding out that she wasn't Noreth.

"So, you're back." Mitt said.

"Well, yes." Said Maewen, feeling that this was inadequate to say after having been missing for two months. In fact, the longer she was here and started adapting to the time, it started to feel like it had been two months. Sudden feelings of missing and loneliness started to fill her, until she was full of sadness. But the sadness was overcome with being back, back where she belonged.

Belonged? Is that the right word? Technically, I belong two hundred years from now, Maewen thought. But I was never happy there. No friends, no family that really cared.

No, belonged wasn't the right word, but happy was. And happiness, she decided, was much more important than what century you are in.

"Yes, the One let me, he knew I wanted to be back." She said. She really didn't want to tell them what she had given up. Mitt would probably try and make her go back, which would make her feel guilty, and then she'd miss home, and everything would be horrible.

I'll just change the subject if they ask, she decided. "So where-" Maewen was cut off though by the two people running into the room. It was Ynen and Kialin, wide smiles on their faces.

"Father just told us!" Ynen said, giving Maewen a shy hug, which she returned, making him blush.

Kialin shook her hand in that lordly way if his. "And we thought that you weren't coming back. Mi- we were all very upset." Kialin cleared his throat and changed the subject. "So, what did you have to give up to come back?"

Everyone in the room was suddenly looking at her. Maewen felt her cheeks get hot and knew they must be a bright red color.

"Well, um, it's sort of complicated." She really didn't want to say anything. But seeing the earnest faces of the people she had stood with while Mitt was crowned, she relented.

"My life in my world." She said, looking at the ground.

The tent broke into noise as everyone started talking at once. "You did what?" Moril asked, his voice shrill.

"No way, no way." Mitt said, shaking his head. "You're going back, you can't just do that."

"Did you ever hear me say I missed my family?" Maewen shrieked above the din. "Did you ever hear me say I wanted to go home? That's because I want to be here, with all of you! I've made my choice and nothing can change it. I'm sorry, but you'll just have to deal with me."

The room went quiet. "Fine," Mitt said. "It's not as though we have a choice. I suppose we'll just have to deal with you sending history in circles again."

Maewen smiled. Strike, wallop, smash, and a nice stolen cup. Who knows, I might invent cars.

"So, I suppose we ought to see if dinner's prepared" Kialin said. "I better tell them that we have another person with us." Kialin left the tent, telling Maewen one last time how glad he was to see her again.

"I guess I should go talk to father." Ynen said. "He wanted to see me about my lessons." Then Ynen left.

Moril cleared his throat. "You don't mid rooming with Brid do you?" He asked. "You don't? Good, I'll go tell her" Then Moril left, leaving Maewen and Mitt alone for the first time in a while.

"Hi" She said finally, breaking the silence.

"Hullo" He said back, smiling at her.

Before Maewen even knew how she had gotten the courage to do it, she was hugging Mitt again, almost crying, but laughing more than anything.

"I missed you a lot too." Mitt said, starting to laugh himself.

Maewen stood back to look at him. He looked very much the same. But there was something new, this strange invisible power coming from him. But in all that power, he seemed uncomfortable in it, as though he could only have that power under special circumstances. Like he needed the right accessories.

That's when it hit her. She knew what was missing. In one corner of the room, she could see the Crown propped on a chair. She went over to pick it up. "Never thought I'd be doing this again," she said. Mitt smiled and bent his head.

Half-expecting Keril to come walking in, she fit the crown onto his head. It was a perfect fit.

Maewen giggled.

"What?" Mitt asked.

"It's nothing, it's just with that crown on, you manage to look regal and like that same boy who put up with all my strangeness on the Green Roads" Maewen smiled.

From outside, Moril called "Come along, it's dinner time you two!"

Smiling, the Girl and the King walked out of the tent, towards a very strange upcoming adventure

"You let her come back?" Cennoreth asked. "This is going to take some weaving and unpicking you realize?"

The One sighed. Cennoreth, bless her, could overreact a bit. "Yes, she told me truth. I value that. And she had asked in the stronghold."

Ammet shook his head. "She is armed with information from the future."

"Yes, but none of the things that really matter. True, she does know some battle outcomes-what child doesn't- and some dates. But she never learned anything about any of them. The most she knows is to make sure the singer gets that portrait done." The One said. It had been a long day, sending people back and forth to the future was tough work.

Cennoreth, still upset, turned on her brother. "Duck, this is all your fault!"

"Calm down Tanaqui!" Wend said. Reluctantly, she turned her glare into a mere stare. "Yes I sent her back…but looking back on it, doesn't it seem like the right choice?"

The One sighed for the millionth time that day. "Yes it was! Hasn't anyone been listening to me?" He took the silence for a 'no'. "Please, we will have a hundred years to reflect on this. Don't we have some things to do?"

All of the assembled Undying grumbled and walked away to their homes, all thinking about this small girl who was suddenly causing a commotion.

A.N: Okay, the reason I decided not to let Maewen stay for longer than a minute in her world was because I didn't want her to know anything that would happen. She'd go crazy wondering when Biffa was going to come in and steal Mitt. On the other hand, I'm going to go crazy finding a way to cut Biffa out. Kill her off? That may work…

Don't ask about the Undying assembly. It's something you might be seeing often in this story.

Well, that was my first chapter of my new Dalemark Quartet story. Hope you enjoyed it and I am expecting an e-mail or review on the message boards…now.

Claire/Maewensdaughter/lightning bug