Morning came, and with it a whole new urge to throw something fairly heavy at the wall. Kendrian just could not understand how it was that she continually found herself in such difficult straights. Downstairs sat three men that were going to escort her south, and one of them was a mage. She hated mages. They were nothing but trouble as far as she was concerned.

Admittedly, the one downstairs, Palin, did not seem all that bad. At least, not once you got past the fact that he was the nephew of the most well-known black-robed archmage in history. Kendrian's stomach turned at the thought. She honestly didn't know which was worse, dark mages with their lust for power and world domination, or white-robbed mages (of whom she often found herself referring to as light mages) with their hypocrisy's and holier-than-thou platitudes.

Either way, with this one traveling with her, she was going to have to watch herself. The last thing she wanted was to cause yet another ruckus and have him hunting her down. She looked down at her travel bags and sighed. Watching herself meant no magic for awhile and magic had been part of what she had been living off of for the last nine months.

Stuffing her spell components and anything that might mark attention to the bottom of the sack, Kendrian draped her cloak over it. She then hefted it over her shoulder and stared at the door in dread. Then shaking her head, she looked up at the ceiling.

"You're just loving this, aren't you?" she asked no one in particular, her voice dripping with annoyance. She looked back at the door. Grasping the knob, the young woman took a deep breath.

"Mages," she sighed under her breath regretfully. "If it were up to me, I'd kill the lot of them." With that, Kendrian pasted her brightest smile and walked out of the door, ready for almost anything.

Unfortunately, almost anything did not include Palin being gone and having to face his brothers alone.

"You should pay more attention," Tanin looked at Sturm. "You didn't see the expression on his face yesterday."

"I did see it," Sturm retorted casually. "I just see no reason to push the matter. He'll tell us what's going on when he wants to. He's just like mother in that regard, stubborn as a mule and just as temperamental."

"Besides," he continued. "If it does turn out to be something serious, he'll tell us. For now, I think it's just better to drop it. There is such a thing as being too brotherly. Who knows how long this little side-trip of his will take. I have no inclination to spend the next several weeks traveling with you two if all you're going to do is argue and sulk. Don't give me that look Tanin. You know as well as I do that he'll get angry the moment you start to pull rank, and you'll get angry the minute he bites back and then it's just like that trip to Wayerth. Both of you will end up sulking to no end and I'm the one who always has to suffer for it."

"Fine," the older brother conceded. "I'll keep my mouth shut. But if this does turn into something more then just a babysitting trip …."

"Then you chew his head off if he still doesn't tell us what's going on and I will be more then happy to help you." Sturm lifted his cup to his lips and took a long sip. Looking up he saw the woman from the day before make her way down the steps toward them. He nudged his brother, who nodded, and they both stood up as she got to the table.

"Hello," Sturm said with a smile, holding out his hand for hers. His intent had been to show his manners off and kiss the back of it, as a knight would, but instead she turned it into a more normal handshake. And a quick on at that. Sturm recovered fairly quickly though and continued on with his introduction. "My name is Sturm and this is my brother Tanin."

"A pleasure," Tanin nodded and waved his hand over one of the empty chairs at the table. "Please, have a seat… uh?"

"Kendrian. And thank you." Kendrian took the pro-offered seat and looked around curiously. She kept her bag on her lap, protectively. "I thought that Palin was going to be here as well."

"Palin went to pick up some items from a local shop. He said he'd be back soon though," Tanin responded as he and Sturm sat back down.

"Oh."

"Don't worry," Sturm added. "He's like that sometimes, but all in all he is a very reliable person."

"Yes," Kendrian smiled wanely as she glanced toward the door. "I'm sure he is."

"Palin tells us you're headed south," Tanin remarked.

"Yes. I have family down there that I need to return to." Her voice was quiet as she avoided eye contact with the brothers.

"Oh, and what family is that?" Sturm asked.

"Just family," she reiterated, suddenly more interested in her hands then in the brothers. Sturm looked at Tanin in confusion. Tanin shook his head lightly and Sturm knew he was telling him to drop the subject. For whatever reason, it seemed that it made Kendrian extremely uncomfortable talking about it.

"Well," Sturm said in a more upbeat voice, so as to change the mood. "It is a good time of year to travel. Not many storms now and I heard that the Knights on the road to the south have cleared most of the bandits out."

"For now at least," Tanin laughed ruefully.

"And with my luck that will last until I get there," Kendrian chuckled sardonically, though she was definitely grateful for the change of subject.

"Well even if it doesn't last long, you have nothing to worry about. Consider us your personal bodyguards," Sturm puffed out his chest for show.

"Thank you," she smiled.

Tanin caught the briefest glimpse of worry in her eyes though. Looking back at the door, he sighed heavily. "Palin should have been back by now."

"I'm sure he will be. He's probably just picking up some spell components or something. He did use quite a bit of his up during the last month." Tanin glanced at Sturm as a shiver went up the spines of both brothers. Though they refused to openly talk about the "incident" that had forced their younger brother to use or lose most of his spell components, that didn't erase the horrible memories from their minds.

"Are you alright?" Kendrian asked the two. The saw the concerned expression on her face and both broke out into broad, though pasted, grins.

"We're fine," Tanin commented.

"And here is the prodigal brother now," Sturm elbowed Tanin to catch his attention. Tanin turned back toward the door, through which the youngest Majere brother had just walked. He started to stand up, prepared to lash out at Palin for worrying him, when Sturm actively, and very loudly cleared his throat.

"Alright," Tanin whispered through gritted teeth, as he sat back down.

"Palin," Kendrian nodded as the mage stepped up to the table. Though Tanin was quick to note that her voice was no longer as relaxed as it had been a moment ago.

"You made it. Good," he smiled. "I hope my brother's are treating you well?"

"Only as well as she'll let us," Sturm smirked. Palin glared at him and opened his mouth to respond, but Tanin spoke first.

"So what took you so long, Little Brother?"

"I was restocking my spell components. Some of them are a little hard to get."

Kendrian instinctively clutched the bag on her lap a little tighter.

"See?" grinned Sturm. "I told you he was fine."

"Well our horses are ready to go," Tanin stated, before he turned to Kendrian. "All we need to do is get your horse ready and we can leave."

"Well then," Kendrian laughed nervously. "That might be a bit of a problem."

"Oh, and why is that?" The eldest brother asked.

"Because…. I don't have a horse."

Kendrian shifted uncomfortably in her place on the horse. Currently she was riding with Palin. Later she would be switched to ridewithSturm and then later Tanin. They had decided this when they thought they were out of earshot of her.

"You're the one that wanted to travel with her, therefore she's your responsibility," Tanin had insisted.

"Yes, but you can't expect me to ride the whole way with her on my horse!" Palin rebutted.

"Yes, I can and I do!"

"Stop it, you two! She's going to hear you!" Tanin had whispered, not realizing that he, himself was still loud enough to carry across the empty room.

"Well, what would you have us do?" Tanin sneered.

"I don't know. How about we take turns? That way we can give each horse a chance to rest in between." Sturm looked at both of his brothers, who both mulled over the idea.

"Actually," Tanin shrugged. "That's not a bad idea. Which is surprising in and off itself, coming from you." Palin chuckled in agreement as Sturm, ever true to form, pointedly ignored the insult and looked at his younger brother.

"All right," he conceded. "So who gets to carry her first?"

Tanin merely smiled at his younger brother. "Don't you know?" he asked.

So here she was, saddledin front ofPalin, whom she was positive was no more happy about it then she was. At least, she hoped that was the case. Kendrian hated to think that she had to be the only miserable one on this trip.

She had actually half-hoped that once they discovered that she had no horse, they would leave off and let her travel alone. Apparently though, she had either made just enough of an impression on the two warriors for them to actually want to travel with her, or Palin was already suspicious enough of her to want to keep an eye on her.

The third would be that they genuinely were concerned for her safety, but Kendrian was far too cynical to ever believe that. She found herself, not for the first time, mentally cursing herself for the small bit of magic she'd preformed on the imbecile that had attacked her. One of these days she was really going to have to learn to control her temper. It had a way of getting her into too much trouble.

Still, maybe this was for the best. If she was wrong about the mage, and he was really as nice as he pretended to be, then being with a mage was the best way to keep other mages off of her back, especially with his being a white-robed mage.

"You must kill him…," came a familiar voice near her ear.

Kendrian stiffened, making an effort to ignore the voice, and the ghost that now hovered nearby. She was not the only to notice the presence of the ghost though, as the horse she and Palin rode astride became agitated and more difficult to control.

"Palin, are you okay?" Sturm asked as he looked back.

"Something's … wrong with the horse," Palin replied. He tightened his grip on the reins, trying to bring the horse back undre control. Kendrian moved slightly to allow him a better grip, but it did no good. With the ghost hovering over it, the horse was not to be calmed down.

"Tanin!" Sturm called to the elder Majere, who was riding a bit ahead, to keep his eye out for bandits and draconions. Tanin stopped and turned, saw Palin struggling with his horse and kicked his horse into a gallop back to the group.

"You have to do this. You said you would kill them if it were up to you. So do it! You have to kill him …." The ghost repeated angrily.

"Stop it!" Kendrian, her hands twisted into the horses mane, yelled suddenly, irritated at Sora's pestering.

Sora straightened up, her face screwed up in fury, and flew away. As soon as she was gone the horse calmed down.

Sturm and Palin both looked at her in amazement. Even Tanin was visibly impressed as he brought his own horse to a halt next to them.

"That's quite way with horses you have," Tanin exclaimed.

"What?" Kendrian looked up in surprise. She saw him looking at the horse and finally realized that they thought she had been yelling at the horse. "Oh, yes," she muttered, patting the animal absent-mindedly, her face tilted down to the ground in thought. "Thank you..."

Palin studied Kendrian for a long moment. He didn't know what had happened, but he knew that she hadn't been yelling at the horse. Something else had been there before. Something that had been unnatural. It hadn't felt menacing per say, but it was definitely something that he wouldn't want to run into without having a few good offensive spells at the ready.

"Let's get going then," Tanin said a little uneasily.

Palin nodded and spurred his horse back into a steady gait. Kendrian's body slumped down in front of Palin, her hair falling into her face, and for the tiniest of moments, he thought he saw the glimmer of a tear.