Thank you everyone for the response I've had to this story so far! I certainly hope to live up to your expectations and kind words!

All fairy-tales have the happy "once upon a time" and then the "one day an evil time came to pass" parts of the story long before we ever reach "happily ever after." It's time for the evil to come.

Enjoy!

In the fall of the year when Sakura turned eight and Syaoran nine years of age, a steady feeling of apprehension and disquiet began to seep into the Kingdom of Clow for those with the magical gift to perceive it.

In the weeks prior to the day of the Autumnal Equinox, High Priestess Nadeshiko retreated into her temple many, many times, always seeking a vision or fortune that would help her understand the growing shadow at the edge of her awareness. Touya, also highly aware of such shifts in fate, became increasingly gruff and angry, snapping even at Sakura with a vehemence he had never before shown. The Six Keepers, Keroberos, and Yue – in the form of Yukito – virtually vanished from sight, locking themselves in a study that had once belonged to Clow Reed and speaking to no one.

Syaoran noted these changes in the people around him, and particularly the worried confusion it caused for Sakura, but he did not himself experience the same foreboding until the very night before the Equinox. On that night, as the full moon rose, Syaoran could not sleep, could barely remain still in his room. Something inside him bubbled and trembled, as though his very blood wished to escape from his skin and flee.

Seeking answers, or perhaps solace, Syaoran climbed out of the window of his room to the palace roof. There, he gazed at the bright full moon; Syaoran's magic was finely attuned to both the sun and moon as Clow Reed's had been, and he felt much stronger and could perceive more closely under the silvery light. But the clarity he sought brought him even more disquiet.

Syaoran also became aware that he was not the only one out under the moonlight.

Though he was on the wrong side of the palace to perceive with his normal sight, he could sense a gathering of moon power that could only be Yukito – or perhaps even Yue himself absorbing what strength he could from the only remaining source of his magic hanging above. Not far away coiled a tense, humming power that Syaoran knew to be Kinomoto Touya. But it was a third beacon of magic that drew him along the tiles to the northern tower which served as the private retreat for the High Priestess.

For Kinomoto Nadeshiko's magic sang not of fear or anxiety, but of pure, profound sorrow.

Syaoran found her sitting on the roof as he had been, her feet tucked under her and her hands open to the sky as though in prayer. He did not interrupt and made very little sound as he approached, knowing well that she could sense him far more keenly than he could her; she had probably known of his arrival before he had left his bedroom.

After a few minutes of watching her steadily, Syaoran made bold to sit beside her.

Nadeshiko dropped her hands and her eyes to look into the dark gardens below.

"Do you remember your promise?" she asked softly.

"Yes." Then, because he needed to understand, he asked, "What is coming? What can I do about it?"

"That which approaches us now is not of import, not the way you think," Nadeshiko said. "I know the form it will take, but even if it appeared as nothing but a songbird, its danger would be the same. It is evil and hatred and vengeance. And power. Such power."

"Then we have to fight it!" Syaoran would have leaped to his feet but for a sudden stilling hand on his shoulder.

"This is a power greater than any leff in the Kingdom of Clow at this time. Should you attempt to combat it, it will overwhelm and destroy you."

Syaoran sat back heavily. "You have seen this, then?"

"I have." Nadeshiko closed her eyes and Syaoran was near enough to see the tear that slipped down her pale cheek. "There is hope, but it will be bought with great pain and suffering first."

"Tell me what to do," Syaoran dropped all pretense of politeness. "Tell me how to help."

Nadeshiko opened her eyes and looked at Syaoran and for an instant Syaoran could not tell if the light in her eyes was a reflection of the moon or her own inner power. "Already I have your sworn promise. That is the first and most important task for you."

Syaoran did not flinch under her gaze. "I will keep my promise. I will protect her no matter what."

She nodded once, sharply. "Good. Even if we fail in everything else, that may be enough."

Syaoran thought of the knowledge Kinomoto Nadeshiko had traded with him more than a year before in exchange for that vow and said nothing.

"But you must not only protect her from harm. You may also need to protect her from the hurt that will soon come upon her. Her heart is gentle and will know great sorrow. You must guard the light within her against the shadows that will fall into her spirit."

Syaoran clenched his teeth at that idea.

"I cannot tell you all that will be. I must trust that you will know what to do for yourself. But if I may offer you one other piece of guidance, it is this: do not let my son's antagonism blind you to his true intentions."

That surprised Syaoran and he knew his face must reflect it, for Nadeshiko smiled a bit.

"My son has a vast reservoir of power within him, but he knows well how and when it must be used. To this end, he will be responsible for several difficult choices which may cause great distress. It may appear to you that he has made the wrong choice. I beg you not to judge him too harshly."

Syaoran was the heir to the Li Clan and a fine and honorable person, but he was not patient and he was also still rather a boy himself, so he huffed and said with more than a hint of petulance, "He never talks to me anyway, so I won't need to tell him if I think he's wrong."

Nadeshiko's smile widened. "My son's feelings toward you are not charitable, I'm afraid. And if you do not yet know why that is so, you will learn it someday. But it is more for the sake of my husband and Sakura that I ask. You must not let them doubt in Touya."

Something in that chilled Syaoran anew. "Won't you be here to tell them? Won't he?"

Nadeshiko's smile faded and she turned away to lift her eyes to the moon once more. "Tomorrow is only a dream, not a set path. I can hope it is so."

Syaoran felt the dismissal and rose to his feet. He bowed to her, as properly as if he had stood in her sacred chamber once more. "I won't fail you, High Priestess."

"No, I don't believe you will. Now rest, Li Syaoran, that you be ready for tomorrow."

The boy was halfway back to his room when she finally dropped her gaze from the sky to look after him. He could not hear her blessing, but she spoke it anyway.

"May your days have more light in them than I have foreseen. And may your heart stay true in Sakura's keeping, and hers in you. Oh, please be safe and protect my family. Remember, Li Syaoran. Remember everything I have told you."

Then Nadeshiko climbed carefully back inside. She passed through the dimly lit hallways as noiseless and still as any ghost, sensing that Touya, too, was of a similar mind. They met outside the grand library, exchanging only solemn expressions before they entered.

Fujitaka was bent over a large pile of books, working furiously, his face haggard with worry and exhaustion. An untouched tray of bread and a pot of tea sat to one side, next to a narrow couch where Sakura was curled up, fast asleep beneath her father's cloak.

Touya moved to his father's side while Nadeshiko stepped close enough to Sakura to touch a hand to her tiny head. She whispered, "Do your best, my dearest Sakura, and know that I love you and believe in you."

"Nadeshiko," Fujitaka finally looked up with a clear attempt to keep his anguish from his expression and voice. "I have searched everywhere, but I have found nothing."

"I know," she said, gliding to him and taking one of his trembling hands in her own. "I did not expect that you would. Some things in this world are inevitable, my love."

Beside them both, Touya's hand clenched into a fist and he would have brought it down upon the table with all his strength but for his sleeping sister who would surely wake. "It's not right!" he said in a fierce undertone.

"No, Touya, it isn't," Nadeshiko's eyes were wet again at her son's pain. "But you must have faith."

"Have faith in what?" he returned. "I can't see what difference this will all make! It seems that it would be easier to fight and fail than…"

It was Fujitaka who put out his other hand to grip his son's shoulder. "We must not think that way. Your Mother is counting on us. If you give up now, all will be lost."

Touya's rage subsided slightly. "I just...I would do anything to change places, to let it be me that…" He closed his teeth rather than admit the words aloud.

"I know," Fujitaka squeezed his shoulder. "So would I."

Nadeshiko moved and Fujitaka shifted so that the three formed a small triangle. Without releasing her husband, Nadeshiko reached into her robes and drew out a small item. "I entrust this to you now, my son. At the very instant the world breaks, you will know what to do with it."

Touya accepted the Key of Clow with both hands, looking at the little thing with sorrow. "If I could release the Seal, I could save us all."

"Yes, but you cannot," his mother said. "As you know better than I."

Touya nodded. Yes, he did. Even at fifteen years old, Touya knew that he was not the true heir and inheritor of Clow Reed, even if he did possess enough power to force the Seal to weaken. His heart was not pure enough for such responsibility.

Still, he tucked the Key into a pocket and felt the warmth of its power settle there – not belongingly, but willingly. Nadeshiko leaned forward and kissed him on the cheek with a whisper of magic and warmth and true motherly love.

Fujitaka smiled at Touya and it was rather watery. "Take Sakura to bed, please. She should rest properly even if none of us will do the same."

The three moved to Sakura's little couch together, Fujitaka folding up his cloak and Touya lifting her in his strong arms. At the motion, Sakura's eyes blinked open.

"...Ne?" she asked with a sleepy smile.

Nadeshiko cupped her little round face and pressed their foreheads together for an instant. "It's all right, Sakura. I'm sure everything will be all right. I love you, Sakura."

"...Love you too, Mother." Sakura yawned. "Love you, Father."

Fujitaka brushed a kiss over her forehead as his wife stepped back. "See you in the morning, Sakura."

"Mmmm." She snuggled down into Touya's arms and he curled her as close to him as he could.

"Good night," Touya said, looking at his parents as though he could never look quite enough. Then he set off down the hallway with his precious burden tight to his chest.

"Big...Brother?" Sakura's soft voice reached him just as he pushed open the door to her room.

"Yes?"

"Why...are you crying?" But her eyes were not open and there was no sorrow in her words, so deeply asleep was she.

"Never mind," Touya told her, tucking her into bed and pulling up every blanket he could find as if he could protect her with them. "Just sleep, Sakura."

"Okay. I love you...Big Brother."

Touya's hand lingered on Sakura's head. "I love you, too. Don't worry. I'll protect you."

But the promise felt like ash in his mouth when he turned away and closed the door. For it was entirely possible he had just told Sakura the first and most terrible lie in his life.

-==OOO==-

The attack came at midday.

Because everyone had seemed thoroughly troubled all morning, Sakura had decided to surprise her friends and family with a bouquet of flowers from the garden, so she was all alone outside gathering them into her arms when dark clouds began to roll in across what had been a bright blue sky with alarming speed. Sakura paused in the process of pulling long-stemmed pink flowers into a large bunch and looked upward, a shiver running through her.

"What is it?" She tipped her head to one side, feeling her heart begin to race. The flowers forgotten, Sakura got to her feet and found her legs carrying her without direction. She could not seem to look away from the dark clouds. The flowers she had already gathered fell and scattered around her.

"Birds?"

Leading the clouds were two snow-white birds, tiny songbirds that should have been invisible against the massive clouds, and yet they were almost luminous against the encroaching darkness. Sakura's hands rose without her bidding them as if she could reach the birds and touch them.

The thunder rumbled a name. "Clow."

"Sakura!"

Sakura thought perhaps she imagined a familiar voice calling her name because surely if she heard someone calling her would turn, wouldn't she? But she kept reaching skyward. The birds were dropping closer and closer to her now, and the clouds swirled after, angrily echoing the name again and again. "Clow. Clow. Clow. ClowClowClowClowClow…"

If she could just touch those birds…

And then a weight hit Sakura from the side, shattering her strange trance with surprising violence. She felt arms wrap tight around her and her body was cradled as she was carried in a diving slide down a grassy embankment and to the side. Only when they stopped moving did Sakura realize her feet were wet – she had begun stepping into the fountain without even being aware of it.

Syaoran did not release his grip on Sakura when they came to a halt, his heart thudding in his chest in near panic. He had almost been too late! Syaoran didn't know what exactly would have happened if Sakura had touched those birds, but he knew in his very soul that he could not let it happen. Only High Priestess Nadeshiko's cry of Sakura's name had broken his own paralysis when he had sensed evil's approach and allowed him to speed into the garden to pull Sakura to safety in time.

Sakura blinked at the boy wrapped protectively around her. "...Syaoran?"

"Stay down," Syaoran ordered, lifting his own head enough to be able to see what was happening.

At the edge of the fountain's basin near where Sakura had been so lost in trance, Kinomoto Nadeshiko stood with her head thrown back and her long hair wild around her. Her words were lost in the endless rumble of the clouds, but Syaoran could sense the magic she wove in desperation.

Sakura's scattered flowers blew and vanished into the clouds that swept down from the sky to surround the garden.

"Sakura!" Touya's voice rang out and he sprinted across the garden straight to where Syaoran had thrown the pair of them for cover.

"Big Brother! What's happening?" Sakura did not fight Syaoran's grip, but rather closed her hands on his arms and held on.

Touya reached them and slid down the slope to crouch beside them. He spared Syaoran a glance so quick the latter could not read it at all. Then he fixed his eyes on his sister.

"Stay down here and keep out of sight. We'll protect you." Then he held a hand out. "Kid. Give me your sword pendant."

Syaoran leaned back, pulling Sakura with him, and sneered. But before he could refuse, he remembered his conversation with the High Priestess only the night before. Frowning darkly and without letting Sakura slip from his arms, he produced the pendant and passed it to the older boy.

Touya held it in his hands for an instant and the pendant glowed a slightly silvery color. Then he handed it back and stared into Syaoran's eyes with greater force than the storm above. "Don't let go."

And Syaoran knew he also meant Sakura, so he nodded.

"Big Brother?" Sakura's eyes were wide and frightened.

"Here." Touya reached forward and hung a cord around Sakura's neck. Clow's Key settled against her heart. "It will help you. Keep it secret for me, monster."

He could see Sakura's thousand questions and fears, and not a few in the kid's eyes either, but he was out of time. He spared an instant to ruffle Sakura's hair before he sprang from the grass, heading towards his mother.

Syaoran and Sakura could not help but crawl slightly up the grass to where they could see better. They might have gone more quickly if Syaoran had taken his arms from her, but he did not and they climbed together as one.

At the instant they reached the crest of the hill, a bolt of lightning struck the fountain just where Sakura had been only moments before. In the wake of the frizzling light, a form emerged.

"Where is Clow Reed?" The voice was imperious and furious and filled with power.

"Clow Reed is dead," Nadeshiko said, arms out stretched. "He died long ago."

"Impossible! He must be here! His magic is here!"

"That is all that is left of him," Nadeshiko answered.

The figure appeared to contort itself briefly before it straightened once more. "Then if that is all there is, I will take it for myself!"

Nadeshiko's voice was oddly serene. "You will never find what you desire if you do this."

"What I desire is for you to perish!"

A lance of black-tinged lightning flashed, piercing Nadeshiko as easily as if she were made of paper.

Sakura and Syaoran both screamed, their cries lost in the roar of pain and denial from Touya who was just close enough to catch his mother in his arms as she fell. With only a few moments left of life, she smiled at her son.

"Be brave, Touya. Have faith."

Fighting tears, Touya managed to whisper, "I will, I promise, Mother."

High Priestess Nadeshiko turned her gaze back to the evil that had slain her. "With my last power, I protect those dearest to me. And I bind you such that when the time comes, you will not succeed."

"You do not have the power to bind me, priestess," the rolling cloudform replied.

"We shall see." Nadeshiko's eyes slid closed. "I am sure that…"

And she said no more.

Sakura buried her face in Syaoran's chest and began to sob, and even Syaoran could not look at the body of the High Priestess, instead pressing his cheek to Sakura's head and closing his eyes tightly.

But while the humans grieved, another force had awoken with rage.

"You! You will pay for harming the people of Clow!" Keroberos, fully transformed into his true self, led an airborne charge, fire erupting from his very wingtips. Beside him, Yue had never seemed so cold and deadly, and the Six Keepers soared behind the pair, their powers raining from them.

"You smell of Clow Reed. You will bow to me or be destroyed!"

"Never!" Keroberos shouted. Then he roared a fireball that seared the very treetops nearby. But the figure in the fountain merely rose into the air to catch it, extinguishing it amidst a fold of cloud and dark water.

The Six Keepers did not remain in the sky with the Guardians, instead diving to battle the evil being with grasping claws and bared fangs. But each of the Six was stopped against an impenetrable wall of magic.

"You are disappointingly weak. Has Clow's great magic truly failed so much?"

"How dare you insult Clow Reed!" Yue's voice was raw and a bolt of pure moonlight screamed through the sky against his enemy.

But it, too, was absorbed.

"You are nothing to me," the voice was slowly becoming more human and less thunderous, and it had taken on a female tone. "I will have Clow Reed's power. Surrender it to me!"

Touya, who had been bent over his mother's body to protect it from the battle, looked up. "Never!"

"Insolent creature!" Another bolt of lightning echoed the furious shriek, Touya its goal.

But before it could strike him down, Yue managed to intercept it, though he screamed with pain as it tore through him. Yue was flung by the force of the impact into a nearby tree from which he did not emerge.

"Yue!" Keroberos bellowed the name of his companion Guardian and counterpart with rage and grief. Then he turned back to the coalescing form which was increasingly solid. "Attack!"

And he dove at his enemy recklessly, the Six Keepers flanking him.

"I tire of this! You do not have the power to defeat me!" More lightning flashed, but rather than striking the seven remaining defenders, it imprisoned them. "If you will not bow, you will be drained and discarded like the useless things you are!"

Keroberos and the Six Keepers howled with sudden pain as their traps closed around them, ripping magic from them brutally and unforgivingly. The seven dwindled in size until they were all but invisible in the raging black lightning.

"Now be gone!"

And a wind rose and scattered what remained of them far away into the dark sky.

A moment later, the figure became solid, stepping from the air to the ground across from Touya and the body of Nadeshiko as a remote, cold-eyed woman who would have been beautiful if there had been anything of her that was not malicious. The robes of an Empress flowed around her.

"This land and all its powers are mine now," she said. "I am your Queen Madoushi, and you will serve and love me."

Touya could see Syaoran and Sakura out of the corner of his eye, their faces pale and wide-eyed but neither had lost their senses from terror; in a moment, either might call out or otherwise make themselves known. The weight of his duty was heavy in his heart, almost as heavy as the weight of his mother's body in his arms.

Touya looked to Madoushi. "Not a chance. You'll never take Clow from the people who love him."

"Oh, tiny mortal. You may have some power of your own, but you know nothing of true magic."

Shadows began to spill from beneath Madoushi's robes.

"I cast a curse upon this kingdom. Let none remember the name of Clow, nor any powers that were his, for they are now mine. Let none remember any who have seen me here. You will be a stranger to every man and woman of the kingdom. Let all believe it is I who have been Queen for a thousand years and shall be for a thousand more. And you," her eyes turned upon Touya, "you will bow your mind to me and give over your powers."

The shadows trailed across the garden and Syaoran could feel Sakura shiver at their approach; their touch was deathlike. But they passed the pair by, and only then did Syaoran realize his pendant and the Key were glowing softly, sparing them Madoushi's curse.

As the shadows vanished to travel the length of the land, Touya shook his head as though waking from a deep sleep. But he still looked steadily to Madoushi and held himself with pride. "I will not bend to your will."

"Impossible!"

Madoushi lashed out with a lance of power that struck wildly throughout the garden, felling trees and uprooting bushes. Syaoran had only enough time to pull Sakura's head down into the cradle of his arms and turn his back before the two of them were blasted from their hiding spot into a now-ruined flowerbed halfway across the garden.

They landed limply, Sakura falling away from Syaoran a bit, for the sheer amount of power had stunned them both. Syaoran dropped unconscious when he hit the earth, but Sakura remained awake long enough to spot a touch of silver under a tree nearby and to wrap her small fingers around Syaoran's nearer hand before she, too, succumbed.

Touya saw, but Madoushi did not, and he dared not alert her to the presence of the pair of children. So he shouted at her again. "I will not bow to you!"

"Your magic is strong," Madoushi might have sounded approving had she not sneered so angrily. "Very well. Then as Queen, I decree that any person found within my kingdom possessed of magic who refuses to surrender it to me shall be imprisoned in the castle's dungeon until they submit."

"I will never submit."

"Then you will rot in the dungeon for as long as you live, for I will have that power! Guards!"

Palace guards charged from the castle when they had been strangely absent before. Their tunics and the ribbons on their weapons no longer bore the Sun and Moon Crest of Clow Reed, but instead a crown interwoven amidst streams of water. They formed up before Madoushi and bowed low.

"Take this wretch to the dungeons!" she ordered, pointing at Touya.

Touya looked into the eyes of a dozen guards, every one of whom he knew by name, many of whom had taught him the arts of combat. But their eyes held no recognition for him now. Fire lit in his chest, but Touya remembered himself and instead carefully set his mother's body on the ground before rising and stepping towards the guards – he could not bear to let them trample his mother. The guards gripped his arms painfully tightly.

"What about this one?" shouted one guard on the edge of the formation.

Madoushi primly picked her way across the garden, trailing upon one of Nadeshiko's sleeves as she did so, to find the body of a young man with white-grey hair unconscious beneath a tree.

"He has the smell of magic as well," she said. "You know the law."

"Yes, Queen Madoushi!" The nearest guards gathered up the still form of Yukito and dragged him beside where Touya was led away.

"I believe I shall inspect my holdings," Madoushi told the remaining guards. "Attend me."

"At once, Queen Madoushi!"

And she strode away, deliberately leaving the body of the former High Priestess unburied and unconsecrated. She cared nothing for the woman's spirit, and there was none left in the kingdom who would recall the woman at all save the boy she would lock away until his stubbornness gave way.

She never saw the final figure at the edge of the garden, hidden all along, slip in after her to move to the three still forms, two of which were still holding onto one another.

-==OOO==-

Sakura woke from vague nightmares into a far worse reality. "Mother!" She sat up with a sob.

Suddenly arms were around her. "Nadeshiko is gone. I'm so sorry, Sakura," Fujitaka said softly. "Please let yourself cry now. Your...your Mother would not wish you to try to hold back your emotions."

Sakura's head fell onto her father's shoulder and she lost herself for a time in tears and feelings that hardly seemed to belong to her at all. She had always been so happy and cheerful, and such grief was a stranger. She cried and cried in her father's embrace until she could cry no more.

Only then did she blink burning eyes and take in her surroundings. It was not a room she recognized.

"Where are we?"

"These are the servants' quarters," came Syaoran's voice. Sakura turned and realized he had been in the room all along, standing with his his sword out and his back against the rough wooden door.

"Thank you for protecting us," Fujitaka said to him as he unfolded himself from his daughter. "But I believe the worst is over for now. If Sakura is awake and none have noticed, we are as safe as we may ever be."

"Father...Syaoran...what happened?"

Fujitaka settled himself on a low bench where he could see both children.

"Three days ago, an ancient enemy of Clow Reed named Madoushi came to the kingdom to claim his power for her own. Nadeshiko did all that she could to protect us, but this...she assured me there was nothing I could do to save her." His eyes were wet beneath his smudged spectacles. "Other than to stand as witness, and to care for you, and to see that her body was respected. The...queen Madoushi did not make the last of those easy for me, especially without you or Touya."

Sakura's heart found a new kind of pain, the pain of realizing that her mother had already been burned and buried. And her father had done it alone, had bid farewell to his wife, his one true love, in secret and without any support.

Sakura crawled off the narrow bed and wrapped her arms around her father again. "I'm so sorry I wasn't there."

"It was necessary for you to rest and recover," he said, though his breath was heavy and his words seemed less sure. "You are both too young to face the amount of evil power which nearly killed you. If not for Touya, it...could have been far worse."

Sakura drew back. "Father, where is Touya? Is he…?"

"Touya and Yukito are alive, imprisoned here in the castle. Queen Madoushi intends to keep them confined until they surrender whatever power they have to her."

Sakura's eyes went wide. "Yukito! But then Yu-"

Her father raised a hand to stop her before she finished the name. "She does not know. And you must never let her know what Yukito is. It is the only reason he is alive. But he, like Touya, is too weak to survive another battle."

"Why is Big Brother so weak?"

"The queen cast a spell to force everyone in the kingdom to forget about Clow Reed completely and anything associated with him, including his magic. She also cursed everyone to forget anyone who had been present for her battle in the gardens with your Mother and Touya. Touya's magic protected him from her curse, but both of you as well as myself might have been susceptible. Therefore, Touya is channeling some of his power to keeping our memories intact."

Syaoran spoke. "He is also hiding us from her."

"Yes," Fujitaka nodded. "For as long as your brother's magic is his own, he will be using his gifts to shield the two of you. The queen Madoushi has a sense for magic, and if she finds that you have been concealing your own, she will demand the same from you." Then his eyes fell more seriously upon Sakura. "Do you know what your brother gave you?"

Sakura had forgotten it until that instant, but she remembered at once and drew the Key from where it had been hidden beneath her dress. "The Key of Clow!"

"That and Li Syaoran's pendant will protect and hide you, but of anything you do, you must never let anyone other than myself, one another, and Touya and Yukito see the Key. It is our last source of hope."

"Because only someone who can break the Seal will be powerful enough to defeat her," Syaoran concluded.

"Yes."

"Then why give it to me?" Sakura wondered.

"Because it was your mother's last wish," Fujitaka said gently. "She believed the Key would be safest with you."

"So what do we do now?" Syaoran asked, moving away from the door and concealing his sword once more.

"For now, we can only wait. The two of you are not strong enough to stand against Madoushi, nor do you yet have the ability to shield yourselves. If there were anyone I could trust, I would take you both far away from here, but I cannot leave Touya and Yukito defenseless and without friends in the castle."

"Write to my family," Syaoran suggested. "They may be able to send someone."

But Fujitaka turned to him with sorrow. "Touya believes that Madoushi's spell has spread to your family as well. That they will not remember they ever had a son they sent here. I am sorry."

"Oh, Syaoran," Sakura's own heart constricted at the surprise in the boy's face. He had been so brave when she had been scared, and now he had lost everything – at least Sakura still had her father and brother. Sakura reached out and took Syaoran's hand in hers. "Don't worry. We'll be your family for now."

Fujitaka put a hand on the boy's shoulder, recalling all Nadeshiko had told him in secret. "Sakura's right. You are not alone, Syaoran, if you will have us in your own family's stead."

Syaoran took a deep breath and nodded. But he squeezed Sakura's hand tightly and said nothing, not quite trusting his voice yet after that painful surprise.

"The good news is that even though everyone has forgotten us, they are not surprised that we are here – it may be because of Touya's magic or the Key or perhaps even Nadeshiko's will. I have taken a post as a castle scribe so that I will remain close to the queen and can observe her actions. I will also be able to ensure the safety of our people as best I can. The two of you, I am afraid, will have a much harder time of it. You can only be servants now, and you will have to work very diligently so as not to draw attention to yourselves."

"We can do that, Father," Sakura said, trying to feel sure. "We're not afraid to be servants, are we?"

Syaoran shook his head. No, he was not afraid of that. As long as he could keep his promise and stay at Sakura's side he was afraid of very little.

"Good. That will also ensure you can look after Touya, because they won't think twice about someone of your age bringing food to prisoners. But I was only granted one audience under the pretense of taking notes. I...likely will not see him again for some time," Fujitaka's shoulders dipped ever so slightly.

Sakura couldn't stand the helplessness of everything else, so she made a decision in that instant to do her very, very best to keep her father and Touya and Yukito and Syaoran as happy as possible. She couldn't do anything else, but she could do that much.

So she managed a smile and said, "Don't worry. I'll take care of both of them and I can pass messages, too."

Fujitaka brightened at Sakura's earnest, surprisingly fragile smile. "We'll all do our best, then."

"Until when?" Syaoran asked.

"I'm not entirely sure," Fujitaka admitted. "But Nadeshiko had faith that an answer would come to us in time. Perhaps your magic will grow and you will be able to shield yourselves so Touya can apply his to helping himself. Perhaps the heir of Clow will appear and, as long as we have protected the Key, will be able to defeat Madoushi. Perhaps something none of us can imagine will happen. But we must work hard so we are ready when it does."

Syaoran understood and nodded. He would do whatever it took to become strong enough to protect Sakura as he had promised and to be ready to fight against Madoushi if he got the chance. And, as he looked into the green eyes that were at once so filled with pain and yet such determined hope, Syaoran vowed to keep Sakura's heart pure, because to see despair claim that smile would surely end Syaoran's life more quickly than any blade.

Unbeknownst to him, Sakura had silently vowed something rather similar – that she would be brave the only way she knew how in order to keep the people she had remaining from giving up. It was, she was sure, what her mother would have done.

And Fujitaka looked at both children with pride for their courage, but also great fear. For the years ahead would not be kind, and he could only do so much. He had no magic and no influence now, only his intelligence and his love.

Fujitaka prayed that between the three of them, that love would be enough to save them.