A/n: This is set after Magelet and Spy, say...a couple of months later. I was going to abandon writing altogether, but then I read Rainfall and LeopardDance's reviews and decided to try again. ^ ^ (Which reminds me, this first chapter is dedicated to you two...do I get donuts now? I love sugar). Many thanks to my other reviewers as well, you guys are awesome!!! (And now, enjoy the show.) Which reminds me, if there are any contradictions between this story and my last one, please please please tell me so I can fix it! It's darn embarrassing that I can't remember every detail of my last story, considering the time I spent on it. Anyway...

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Ch. 1:
Eos looked around in the house Darkan and Tristan, who were currently *oddly* glaring at each other, had built for her and broke into a smile. "Thank you, both." She actually hugged both of them in excitement. "I can store my weapons here, and put a couple of death spells for unwelcome visitors, and maybe I can-" Tristan looked at her guiltily and rather oddly. "Well, I actually wanted you to keep this place running while the both of us smooth over your...existence with the clan. The women are a tad upset that they have 'competition' as they aptly put it, now, and the men are a tad more upset because they've been forbidden to court you."

Here Darkan and Tristan shared wry, then hard looks. Tristan continued with a glower, "-so we were forced to keep you somewhere doing something that would be considered useful while we talked to everyone about you and tried to keep the women from viewing you as competition." After entering Scancra, Darkan and Tristan had brought her here to Tristan's family and clan. To say the least, Eos's informal introductions had not gone well. Eos stared at him.

"But you could just say that you're betrothed to me, because it's true, so we could just go with that." Darkan stepped up at this point. "Actually, Tristan has agreed with me on the point that that certain piece of wonderful information should be temporarily withheld from everyone in the castle." Eos snarled softly at him, but acquiesced easily when they pointed out that people in the castle would only look at her with true envy, hate, or scorn if they knew that she were...betrothed. It sounded weird in her mind, that she was politically attached to Tristan. She looked at him with a critical eye, noting the handsome features and silver-blonde hair framing the ice blue eyes that made Tristan so...Scancran. She recalled the deadly cruelty...and strong friendship that lay in his intricate personality that she had discovered during her stay in the past year in Carthak.

In turn, she studied the dark haired Darkan, as different from Tristan as night was from day. Opposite from Tristan's glacier, Darkan was intense, yet as brilliantly attractive in his own way. He had dark emerald eyes and slightly long black hair, tied neatly in back of his head with a leather thong. (A/n: no, not the underwear. don't even go there...besides, can you imagine any self-respecting person doing that? And leather too for God's sake. How uncomfortable is that?) Instead of Tristan's cat-like slimness, he was more muscular although he retained similar agility and shape. The both of them were formidable warriors, both enabled with magic and physical strength that could defeat all but few....which unfortunately included Eos, for them.

Eos smiled, bringing a glow to her almost irrepressible and irresistible aura. "Can you imagine the commotion it would make if the women in the castle realized that Tristan were betrothed to me and Darkan my Guardian? I think they'd all faint, or try to kill me with pitchforks and kitchen knives." She smiled more widely at the thought, then quickly looked over the assortment of throwing stars, Shang assassin daggers, and various spelled weapons she carried subtly on her body. Darkan raised an eyebrow, reminding her that the throwing stars and Shang daggers had been 'presents' from Tristan and himself on board the ship. Tristan smoothly cut into the undertones passing between Eos and Darkan, and said, "Oh, don't worry about that. It's tradition for Scancran noblemen to have mistresses, did you forget?" He yelped as Eos chased him around the room, knocking down Darkan and creating a rather odd scene of three grown adults chasing each other around in mad circles. Darkan gasped as he ran his fiftieth round around the forest, "I'm not doing this anymore," and caught Eos around the ankles, effectively slamming her to the ground. And Tristan, who had the good fortunes to have been caught by Eos as she fell. Darkan gave Eos a good thump on the behind. "I ought to give you a spanking for that, " he gasped, "but I'm too tired to do anything but sleep." And promptly fell asleep on Eos's legs, easily trapping her with his body weight. Eos glared up at Tristan, who had wiggled his way out. Tristan sat down, and grinned as Darkan winced but said nothing through Eos's attempts to kick his throat through his brain. Finally, Darkan sat up. "I don't think we should do this everyday," he said while rubbing his throat. Eos groaned in response.

A voice carried through the forest, annoying in its high pitched noise. "Trrrriiiiiisttaaaaan!!!!!!" A pretty young woman emerged from the low hanging branches, and Tristan inwardly groaned. "Shanie, I told you that I can't." Shanie only pursed her lips and smiled. "I'm serious, Shanie." Tristan looked at Darkan and Eos with a plea in his eyes. Eos sighed, and mouthed behind Shanie's back, 'Do I really have to do this?' She got a puppy look in return, and only smiled viciously at Shanie while she imagined the things she would do to the choking Darkan later. Sitting fluidly on Tristan, Eos cooed, "But of course, since he is my betrothed..." Shanie flushed with anger, and looked at Tristan's bland eyes. Then she got a crafty look that boded ominously for Darkan. "But then you won't mind me going after him," she gestured toward Darkan, "-would you?" Eos replied promptly, "He's my guard for this trip, and also a celibate monk."

After Shanie flounced away, Eos turned to Darkan and Tristan. "Explain."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Alright, I know. But I swear, I'm not writing that badly on purpose. Pointers? Please?

-Golden-Twilightflame