A/N: Now, this is called cutting it close. This is for the Tamora Pierce Experiment September Challenge. It closes today. Nice, huh? Anyways. Circle stuff, weird idea that I had. I love Shatterglass, so I had to stick in Glaki and Keth! Enjoy, tell me what I did right, what I did wrong, what I got wrong, if I should really get a beta, and R-E-V-I-E-W!

s h a k e n

in disaster

"And you can all speak in each other's minds?" Keth said, still stunned. Glaki tugged at his arm. "Keth," she whispered, "you already said that."

Tris laughed, amused at that. Even through the six years since she'd met the girl, and the six years since they'd seen Keth, she still whispered in his ear. It was surprisingly sweet, and even the sharp Tris seemed to relax with them as she did with her foster family. "No, it's all right, Glaki," she told the child. "And yes, we can," she added to Keth. "It hasn't changed since you last asked." Of course, that was six years ago. And it had changed, for a while. But Keth didn't need to know any of that.

"But how did it happen?" he asked, confused. Tris smiled, not surprised that he'd gotten around to this question. "It was an earthquake," she answered. Her voice was soft; her gray eyes clouded with memories ten years gone. "We were all chasing after Little Bear." The dog, walking next to Glaki, barked loudly at the mention of his name. Tris fixed him with a glare, and Chime, who was on her shoulder, made a strange hissing noise, apparently agreeing that he needed to calm down. He stopped barking. "We ran into a cave after him, and then a quake hit." The memories of the heat, being trapped in the cave with three other people and a dog, rose into her mind and made her shudder. "We wanted to get out, so we had to work together, and Sandry- she's the thread one," she added quickly, knowing that her former students could get her friends mixed up, "sort of... spun us together."

"Like thread?" Glaki ventured to ask. Tris nodded, delighted that she was coming out of her shell even more. For the age of ten, she was somewhat shy.

"So you had to come together to save your lives," Keth said. She found something else to be delighted for: he'd learned to speak faster. After the lightning strike, he'd gotten slower; after she met him, apparently slower still. But a lot could change in six years, especially when you were several countries away from each other.

The three mages, very much a close-knit group, tried to stay in contact. Glaki wrote to him whenever they arrived in a new place, and occasionally Tris had as well. She'd written when she and her foster-siblings had moved in together, so that he would know where to get to her. The younger girl was much better in keeping in touch with him. When Keth had written to say that he was coming up north to visit relatives and asked if he could see them, Glaki had been overcome with joy. She'd even gone so far as to tell Little Bear excitedly, "My daddy's coming back!" Later, when Tris asked what she'd meant, the girl had explained that Keth was like a daddy to her, not her real daddy. But regardless, both of the girls were excited to see him coming back. Niko had greeted him warmly as well. The girls and glassmaker were returning Glaki to Discipline after going out for their midday, and catching up. Glaki had asked about "Aunt Poppy and Aunt Xantha" a lot, and Tris about Dema. All three of them were doing well, along with the now-forensic-mage-journeyman.

"That's exactly it," the redhead answered. She combed her fingers through one of her braids. "This braid," she explained, "can have a lot of heat power, because I'm part smith-mage." Glaki smiled at the strange way she put it. Then she gasped. "Oh, oh!" she cried. "Can we go to Gravel Beach?"

Keth shot Tris a look. "Didn't you say that you tried to ha-"

"Yes, Glaki," Tris interrupted him quickly, her voice regaining its usual tart edge. "We can go visit Gravel Beach, if you want." There was a reddish tint to her cheeks now. Clearly she didn't want the younger girl to hear all about the time that she was naive enough to try and halt the tides. Keth rolled his eyes affectionately. That was more like the Tris that had taught him six years ago.

The threesome was on the beach, walking slowly and talking, when suddenly Tris stopped. Her face was white and pinched, like she had just seen a ghost. How was this happening? They weren't supposed to even come near Winding Circle! And now that this one had, how had it snuck up on her? There was little chance that it could, and yet it did Could she stop it? Maybe. She could try and stop it, with her earthquake braid, the most powerful one. That might work. But there was still the matter of...

Keth glanced back at the young woman. "Tris?" he called. Glaki turned. "Tris," she whined, "come on!" The redhead didn't move towards them. Instead she reached up and started undoing one of her braids. It was a thick, heavy braid, one that started on her forehead and ran the whole way to the nape of her neck. Keth swallowed hard. When he'd barely known her, she'd told him that that braid had earth force, bled from earthquakes, and that it was extremely powerful. What was she doing?

That was when the shaking began. Glaki clamped onto Keth, suddenly frightened. Keth glanced at Tris, who still wasn't moving. She looked like she was fighting something in her head now. Chime soared off her shoulder, screeching in alarm. Little Bear howled up at the sun. Keth, desperately trying to remember what to do in an earthquake, ushered Glaki down to the shaking, rocky sand. He looked back up. "TRIS!" he shouted, a sudden, desperate edge to his voice. Why was she ignoring him?

Of course, whether or not he knew it, Tris had her reasons. Her earthquake braid was totally undone, and she was going to stop the shake. It had escalated, though. The ground wasn't just trembling or shaking, it was beginning to shift. Sand was rolling around, and the heavy rocks were starting to tumble. Glaki stared up at her sister-figure, desperately willing her to move.

Suddenly every meticulously-done, meticulously-power-filled, meticulously-pinned braid unwrapped and exploded. This wasn't just a shake. This was a full-on, honest-to-Gods, Temple-killer quake. And Tris was going to wipe herself out trying to stop it. The power from every braid flowed into her palms. Unheard to her former students, Tris whispered two words.

"Go away."

The power exploded into the ground, and all at once everything came to a halt. Rocks that had been tumbling down a slope were suddenly dead still, and everything stayed as it was. Exhausted, Tris took one step forward, then another, and finally fell face-down onto a rock.

Glaki stood up before Keth. By the time he was up, she was at Tris's side. When he got to the girls, Glaki had just rolled her over onto her back. After falling onto the rock, which had turned out to have a disturbing point to it, her head had slid backwards. There was a massive gash running from just beneath her lip on the left half of her face up to-

"K-k-Keth?" Glaki stammered nervously. "Sh-should I run and get help?" Keth, who was randomly startled by the sound of her voice, nodded furiously. "Go to the Temple. Try and find Niko. Get him down here." The girl didn't need telling twice. She turned and ran.

After a second, Keth reached down and ripped a chunk of the hem of one of her petticoats off. "I'm glad you wear so many," he told his old teacher's unconscious form. "Because when this one bleeds through I have a lot more cloth to go through." He pressed the white cloth to her face. Glaki, come back soon, he thought to himself. I don't know what to do.

Glaki fully intended to be back soon. She was running for her sort-of sister's life. And every time she slowed down, every time she thought that maybe she should take a breath for once, half a dozen images kept her going.

Keth, standing over Tris, shocked and scared.

Her momma, who never had anyone to run to get her help.

Aunt Yali, who shared her momma's fate.

Chime, screeching in distress... well, Chime was following her. So that one was real.

Tris, giving her a smile on the Tharian wall.

Tris's face, bloodied and twisted, half her face coated in thick scarlet liquid. The corner of her eye pulled down, probably never to open, as blood gushed.

That one always made her run harder.

Finally, after just a few minutes, Glaki crashed into Niko. He looked down at her, alarmed. "Glaki! What have you been doing?"

Instead of answering immediately, she grabbed his hand and started running back. "T-Tris!" she finally gasped a couple seconds later. "She stopped the quake, I think, but then she fell, and there was this rock, and her face- just," she cried, cutting off her babbling, "just come! She's-" And Glaki had to say no more. The two of them were running full-out to get back to Tris.

in dreams

Fourteen days.

For fourteen days, Trisana Chandler was stuck in the Gods-damned place that was her mind. Hazy memories played over and over in her head, faces and voices drifting through her mind. Every now and again something new came- Glaki whispering about flowers she'd picked, and wouldn't she wake up and see them? Or sometimes she could hear her siblings and old teachers all together, talking amongst themselves, saying that she would wake up, and that she wasn't going to die there and then.

The nightmares were horrendous. They came more often than the good memories. She kept dreaming bad things. She dreamed about Aymery with the blood on his chest, and Yali with the veil wrapped around her neck, and Zhegorz with scars that would make most people terrified. Every now and again, she shared one of her siblings' nightmares about her not waking up.

Nobody knew what was wrong with her. She was alive and staying alive, but she wasn't getting any better. It took her two weeks to get out of this dreamy, hazy place she was in. None of the people treating her knew what was wrong. Some blamed it on her sudden loss of magical energy; others on her injuries. But either way, they did not know what had happened.

But today, we call it a coma.

in waking

The day that Tris woke up from her unresponsive state, there were two people in the room.

It took her a minute to place them, because she was still emerging from that strange, hazy place, and one of her eyes seemed to be having trouble opening. But when she looked closer, she recognized both of the shapes- the one next to her, and the one that seemed to be trying very hard not to look at her.

"Glaki?" the older girl murmured through her confusion. "Keth?" Both heads snapped towards her. The girl by her side clapped a hand over her mouth, tears suddenly streaming down her face. Keth stood up and towered over where she was laying down, in an almost-frightening way. "Do you realize that you have been laying there unconscious and muttering to yourself for two weeks?"

"Two weeks?" she repeated. "No, I don't believe I knew that."

"Don't you ever do that again!" Glaki shouted, her fearful relief coming out as overpowering anger. "We didn't know when you were going to wake up! We didn't know if you were going to wake up! And you're just sitting here, talking about how long you weren't answering to anything! You-"

"But I'm fine now," Tris answered tartly. "Except for the fact that I can't see out of my left eye!"

Glaki stopped in her tracks and looked at Keth, who opened his mouth. "Tris," he said, with the kind of carefulness that people only use when they have really, truly earthshattering news, "before you went into dreamland, what's the last thing you remember?"

"The earthquake. Stopping it," Tris answered immediately.

"Well," Keth started, but he was cut off by the sudden sound of feet smacking on stairs. In moments, Sandry appeared in the doorway. "Tris!" she shrieked, throwing herself in and nearly smothering her sister with a hug. "You're awake! You're up!" She turned to the doorway. "She's awake!" she squealed excitedly. Moments later, more feet pounded on the stairs, and Daja and Briar appeared. Their reactions were very different from Sandry's and each other's.

"You have been out of this world for two weeks, you stupid merchant girl," Daja snapped. Tris smiled dryly at the old name from when they were kids. "Glad to see you too, you filthy Trader." A smile broke out on her sister's face. "Welcome back," she whispered.

"Y'know," Briar remarked from the doorway, "it's a nice change to see your eyes open. Although your mouth I could do without." Tris childishly stuck her tongue out, and he grinned. "Good to see you up and awake again, Coppercurls."

"I'll go get Niko," Glaki offered immediately. She didn't want to be there when they explained what was wrong with Tris's eye. Without waiting for an answer she turned tail and ran.

"Where is Niko, anyways? Are we at home?" Tris asked. She was more awake, sitting up now. Daja nodded. "Number 6 Cheeseman Street," she confirmed. "Niko's out back. He's been camping out here for weeks."

"And why is my eye not opening?" Tris demanded, tired of the beating around the bush. Everyone glanced at each other, and Keth started again. "After the earthquake, you lost all your energy," he explained. "And you feel forward onto this rock."

"He showed it to us," Briar cut in. "It had a wicked point to it."

"You fell face-first onto it," Sandry said quietly. She reached behind Tris's view and pulled out a mirror. Carefully looking away, she handed it to her sister.

The first thing that she noticed, odd though it was, was that her hair was loose. Her power must've all bled out. That was no good, she thought with dismay. Now she needed to braid her hair up all over, and get new power. But then her attention went to her face, and she gasped.

The right side of her face was unchanged, but the left side had been marred horribly. There was a line yanking the left corner of her mouth downwards, never to move again. And her eye looked like it had been pulled half-shut. There was a thick red line running along the side of her face.

"Tris," Sandry said, the gentleness in her voice all gone, "we are not going to let you wallow in your misery." Her head shot up at this. "And what makes you think I'll be wallowing?" she snapped crossly.

"We're your family," Daja explained. "You thought that we'd find you conceited because you could wind-scry. Now we're not going to let you think of yourself any different just because you've got a scar."

"It's hideous," Tris argued.

"And it's part of you," Sandry said earnestly. "It's you, and we love you."

"B'sides," Briar added, "you need to love you too."

Tris quietly lifted a hand to her cheek, using it to explore the new rough crimson flesh that was a part of her. Her family was right. She would wallow and feel sorry for herself, and despise anyone who thought less of her for it. But now she was determined to own up to it. It was her scar. It was part of her. And ugly though it may be, it was, after all, just a scar.

Yes, I suck for not putting Niko in for more than a minute. I can't write him, though. DX so, review, comment, do whatever it is you do to fanfictions. Flame if you so desire. I happen to be exhausted right now, so there's probably a lot of crap in here. So... yeah.

But, mini-celebration for me: it's my first non-THG story, and my first not-poem, not-written-in-some-weird-dark-poetic-style story. CELEBRATE! AND I'LL ONLY BE HAPPIER IF YOU REVIEW!