This is my first ever fanfic, so be nice, please. Also, does anyone know how to put in a description? I don't understand...

What if Daine was captured at Dunlath, and sold as a slave to Carthak, in the emperor's palace. Then, when Emperor Mage takes place, Daine is forced to be the slave tending to Numair's, Alanna's, and Duke Gareth the younger's rooms? However, when they finally recognize her (she has been beaten into submission, and so has lost her characteristic fieriness), she can't leave because of her terror and Ozorne's threats. Also, Numair has realized he loves her, while she was missing, and she is terrified about it.

After Wolf Speaker, during the beginning of Emperor Mage—

He couldn't stop thinking about her. It was always like this, since she had disappeared, but today was very bad. It had been a year since Daine had gone missing. She had been in Dunlath, blocked from the rest of the world by a barricade of magic, when the barrier had come down suddenly. As soon as it had, he had gone looking for his student, his magelet. She was nowhere to be found. Kitten, Tkaa, and the squirrel she had made friends with, all couldn't find her. He had tried asking the badger, but without Daine's claw, the badger god had not managed to find her. It appeared that it had been lost, one way or another. She was not dead, he didn't think, but was certainly not in Tortall.

Now he was on a boat, heading to Carthak, to try to make peace, and avoid the coming war. He almost didn't care. He would have gladly accepted death, just to see for himself if she was, in fact, in the Dark Realms.

"Numair, you're brooding again. It's scaring me." said Alanna, when she walked into his cabin and saw his face. "Look, I understand, I know you're thinking about her, we all are. But you need to snap out of it, by the gods. We are meeting the man who tried to have you executed, and searched for you for years in order to kill you, in a few hours. If you do something stupid, and get killed, she will never forgive you."

Looking up at her from his seat on his bed, he said miserably, "And what if she is dead? No one has heard from or of her in a year, Alanna. She would never let all of us worry like this."

"If she is dead, then, she would be a goddess. You know that. And if she were a goddess, she would have had the badger tell us she was alright, even if she herself couldn't come. So shut up, get dressed and meet me on the deck."

That night, when the welcoming feast is over—

Numair stumbled into his rooms, overtired from the long introductions and trying to pretend he was not worried about Daine for Alanna. Not looking where he was going, he collided with the slave they had sent to clean his room, sending her to the floor. Mumbling apologies, he tried to help her up, despite her cowering and repeated, "So sorry, Nobility, please do not punish me, it will never happen again, please, Nobility, spare me…"

Ignoring this, he helped her to her feet, and saw her face. Shocked, he stumbled back, now fully awake. It couldn't be… "Daine?"

Sorry for the short chapter, more to come. Just imagine me holding a sign saying,"Will write for reviews", and you have my desperation for reviews pretty much summed up. First one to review gets mentioned in my next chapter!