Epilogue

Daine bit her lip as she sat next to Yuki on a bench outside the safe room. It had been three weeks since Numair and Neal had begun their experiments and the going had been slow. Many an hour was spent studying volumes with care and consulting with anyone who may be of help before any action was actually taken.

The time had taken its toll on everyone. Out of pity, Daine had finally stopped leaving the palace since nearly every time she did Neal had another panic attack. While Daine had at first thought it sort of sweet to see Numair's affections so blatantly displayed, everyone soon realized that Neal didn't possess the control of his emotions that Numair apparently had. It hurt no one more than Yuki. She put on a brave face and continued to be friendly with Neal but anyone could see that his attempts to show affection for her were pale in comparison to the way he looked at Daine. Keladry had been asked to try to help Yuki and Neal but all she had really managed was damage control.

Alanna had been surreptitiously asked to keep an eye on Numair but she did not need the prompting. Though to most it appeared that Numair handled his feelings for Yuki extremely well, Alanna sat through session after session of listening to badly composed poetry written to Yuki's left earlobe, right kneecap, etc. At first, the verses had been kept strictly away from Yuki but, after one slipped and set off a fit of giggles despite Yuki's Yamani training, Alanna decided that she deserved the comic relief.

Daine and Yuki had immediately come to a shaky truce, both being completely committed to their man and to solving the problem. Since neither had the training or ability to really help, they worked on setting up a united front to keep the men's romantic tendencies from getting out of hand. But most of the time they just tried to go about their daily business despite the fact that their worlds had been turned upside down.

Numair, with a wink at Yuki that he slapped himself for later, had told them that this particular day he and Neal were going to try something new. It was a minor summer holiday, like Midsummer, but much lesser. Since the switch happened on Midsummer's Day, Numair thought that maybe they required a special day to complete the switch. He thought he could magnify the effect of this lesser day with a number of summertime plants and other such trinkets, through which maybe they could create similar conditions to work under. After three weeks of nothing, everyone was ready to try anything and, since it was the first actual experiment in three days, Yuki and Daine had decided to attend, which meant sitting outside the safe room waiting for news.

The minutes ticked by slowly for Daine and Yuki until a crash, much like a loud bang of thunder sounded from the next room and both men could be heard yelling. This was followed by a few more bangs and what sounded like an argument. Ten minutes later the men burst through the doors, gasping. Blackish greenish smoke drifted from the room in their wake.

"We think we fixed it," Neal wheezed, leaning on the open door.

The women stood immediately and went to their men. The relief and affection reflected in the male's eyes were enough to earn them tight hugs and quite a few kisses from their choice ladies. Minutes stretched before the door Neal was leaning up against suddenly glowed and crumbled and he fell into the heap, almost dragging Yuki with him.

"What's going on?" Daine demanded as she attempted to help a startled Yuki regain her balance.

Neal let out what sounded suspiciously like a whimper and Numair cleared his throat. Both looked sheepish.

"You see," Numair began as he reached for Daine's hand, holding it like a lifeline. "Neal and I did manage to get our emotions in the right places." He punctuated his sentence with a kiss on Daine's hand. "But something else seems to have gone awry."

"You could say that again," Neal mumbled getting to his feet and trying to brush the dust off his clothes.

"What do you mean?" Yuki asked tugging one of Neal's hands into hers.

"Well," Numair moved a little closer to Daine as if drawing strength from her nearness. "We seem to have switched…" He winced. "Gifts."

This revelation was punctuated by a sneeze from Neal that blew the other of the double doors to the safe room off. Realization dawned slowly on his face as he rubbed his nose.

And that's when Neal found out what a real panic attack feels like.