Lady Milana was tired but happy as she returned to her quarters after a long day of fulfilling her duties as First Bard of Pellinor. New rumors concerning the Dark had kept her busy lately, making it hard for her to spend more than the smallest of moments with her young children, Maerad and Cai, or to enjoy the company of her husband, Dorn.

The rumors had been dealt with though, at least for the moment, so it was with a sort of relief that she took her lyre from its place in the bedroom. She could hear Dorn singing in the nursery. She smiled. Surely, she though, that is why I love him. If the Nameless One had heard Dorn's voice, he'd have started an age of song rather the Great Silence.

She walked quietly to the nursery and stood in the doorway for a moment, watching. The two children were cradled in his arms, though Maerad was more on his lap than that description implies. She watched her father's lips move and reached out, touching his throat as he sang, paying far more attention than many would deem possible for one her age. Now there's a true Bard. We'll have to start her music lessons once her hands have grown a bit. Cai was sleeping, the music having calmed him a little too much.

Milana lifted her lyre and stepped into the room, playing the soft chords that would perfectly harmonize with the gentle lullaby that he was singing the children. The lullaby was about Afinil, celebrating its beauty and mourning the loss of its innocence and its destruction. It was a duet, the celebration and the sorrow divided into two parts, and Milana sang the heartbreaking second part, which detailed Afinil's fall. Her voice joined with his forming the song just as the two of them had been joined in the children they sang to.

Maerad and Dorn looked up at her from their chair facing the door. The little girl smiled and carefully slid from her father's lap before running to her. She stopped at her mother's feet to ask politely and silently, with pleading eyes and a tugging gesture on her dress, to be picked up.

Milana knew what she wanted and carefully dropped to her knees, not missing a note. Maerad sat on the floor in front of her, watching her hands move and reaching out to touch her mother's wrists or the carved script on the lyre.

When the song ended, she rose, sat the lyre on a chair, and turned to scoop her daughter up into her arms.

"By the Light! My loves, you are a sight for weary eyes. Who'd have ever thought that the day would come when being First Bard would mean working hard," she said softly, with a wry smile, "And once again it seems that my Maerad has grown in my absence. Didn't I tell you to stop doing that?"

Maerad giggled a bit before saying, "Have to get bigger, Momma. Make music."

"Now why should you have to get bigger to make music? Dorn, what have you been telling this child?"

"No more than the truth, Milady. Her hands are too small to grasp a lyre and think how silly she'd look if her hands grew and the rest stayed small."

"Well, I can't argue with that. Alright dear, grow all you want, but do try and do it slowly. I'd hate to miss out."

Maerad nodded solemnly.

Dorn smiled at her before rising and putting Cai into his cradle.

"Now that that's cleared up, I think it's time for our dear one to join her brother in sleep," Dorn said, taking Maerad from her mother's arms and putting her on her bed. Once settled under her blanket, she drifted off to sleep almost instantly.

The two parents watched fondly for a moment, then Milana took her lyre from the chair were she'd placed it and the two left the nursery. They went to their bedroom and sat down on the sill of an enormous window, drawing back the curtains that kept the room from heat through the glass. Gazing out, they could see much of the School.

There were stone pathways and walls inlayed with mosaics that had been formed long ago from bits of colored glass and stone. There were lifelike statues and fountains of pure water, some with flowers floating in them. The walls stood strong and seemingly invulnerable, almost out of sight from where Milana watched through her window near the center if the School. Everything seemed to glow in the moonlight and even as the hour grew late they could hear distant singing and music, both from elsewhere in the building and more distantly from groups of musicians who gathered by the larger fountains with old friends.

How dares the dark to threaten this place? Milana thought. We have so much to protect and to fight for. My children will learn here. My love and I will count this place above any home we've know, and so shall the multitude of others that will build lives here. This place will not fall while hope still lives in me.

"So pensive, my love. Do the rumors still trouble you?"

Dorn took her hand in his, massaging it gently while awaiting her reply.

"I've done what I can. The number of guards at the wall has been doubled, and the people have been warned to be on alert. It just doesn't feel like enough. How are the children? Maerad seems well enough."

"They are brilliant, as always, though they've missed you. Maerad is wonderfully excited about starting lessons soon and Cai is beginning to find his balance. We're going to have our hands full with them quite soon."

"We don't now? If Maerad were anymore stubborn she'd be insufferable and you can already see the mischief in Cai's eyes."

"As if you don't love them all the more for it. In all honesty, if a little stubbornness and mischief are the biggest of our worries, I will count us far too fortunate."

"I've counted myself far too fortunate from the moment that I first saw you."

Dorn stood and used the hand that he'd been massaging to pull her into his arms, pressing her back to his chest and leaning down to kiss her cheek. Milana relaxed against him, allowing the warmth of his arms and the love words he whispered into her ear to sooth her after a long day of research, and meetings, and decisions. Tomorrow, there would be other crises demanding her attention, but tonight she could rest. Her School and her loved ones were safe and would remain that way. As long as hope lives in me, she vowed once more as she turned to kiss her husband. She pictured Cai and Maerad in her mind. As long as hope still lives, this School can never truly fall. I swear it.



Hey Guys, I'm back again after a long forced hiatus from Pellinor fanfiction ( I didn't have access to the books so I had to wait until I could acquire them). This was set before the sacking of Pellinor and is just sort of how I imagined things. Dorn is singing to them and putting them to bed because Milana is tired.

Thanks to everyone who reviewed / alerted the first story in this collection. The next one shot may still contain Maerad and Cai, I'm toying with the idea of doing one that focuses on the two of them . One way or another I should be posting another for this collection soon.

Thank you all for reading this and any reviews would make me very happy. Till next time, P_M.