"Ready," Evanlyn said calmly.

"Clear!" That was Horace.

"Left left! Position one...shoot!" That was Will. The volley was ragged and Will knew that was his fault. He'd called the order to shoot too quickly and some of the men hadn't reached full draw. Through his anger at himself, he heard Horace call for shields again and saw the arrow strikes on the target- as well as the ones that didn't hit.

But now another danger reared its head. Another, smaller target swung out from the target they had just engaged. It was supposed to represent a Kaijin. With his former skill returned, Will drew and loosed and saw his arrow slam into the target, just as Evanlyn called "ready" once more.

"Left! Position three..." he waited, cursing their slowness in his head, then added a correction. "Down a half..." He waited again, then called, "Shoot!"

"Shields!" Horace bellowed, and the pattern began to repeat. But now Will, exhausted from the hours of shooting, waved a hand.

"Stand down," he said. Horace repeated the order in a louder voice. The archers and shield bearers dropped gratefully to the ground to rest. Horace grinned at Will.

"Not bad. I make it twenty out of twenty-five of those targets peppered pretty solidly. And you hit every one of the Kaijin."

"True," Will said a little glumly, then quickly hyped up his tone to something a little cheerier, "but they weren't shooting back."

In all honesty, he was fairly pleased. He'd hit the targets squarely and his men had, as well- mostly, at any rate. His estimations had, so far, proved excellent, and it was definitely a nice feeling. He grinned at Horace and Evanlyn, the expression for once not feeling all that forced. They smiled back.

"Nice work, everyone. Let's take a break for half an hour."

Behind Will, a familiar voice spoke. "Take a break for the rest of the day. You've done enough for the moment."

Dread and excitement stirred inside Will- the same two feelings that now warred within him every time he found himself near Halt. Dread of having to potentially lie to him again- and wasn't every fake smile and forced laugh a lie?- and excitement, because, well, it was Halt. Invariably, there was always something exciting happening around Halt.

"Hello, Halt," he said neutrally, then swiftly forced himself to swing back into Old Will when Halt's expression seemed to become concerned. "What happened? Were the Temujai there? Did you manage to fool them?"

As he asked the questions, he felt a spark of his old curiosity begin to resurface. Good, he thought with a little sigh. At least I'm not completely broken.

Halt's expression, however, seemed to darken the closer he got and he motioned at Evanlyn. "Why have you got Evanlyn involved in this, Will?"

Will hesitated. But he needed her, and he couldn't back down now. "Because I need her, Halt. I need someone to keep track of the men, to let me know when they're ready. Without that, the system won't work."

"Couldn't someone else do that?" Will saw the displeasure in his mentor's eyes and fought a wince.

"I can't think of anyone else I can trust. I want someone who won't panic, someone who'll keep her head."

Halt looked at him. "How do you know Evanlyn won't panic?"

Again, he hesitated. His memories were still a little hazy here and there (and of course in some places entirely nonexistent). But, slowly, he said, "Because she didn't in Celtica- at the bridge."

Halt's gaze passed from him to Horace to Evanlyn and back again. "All right, then," he said. Will managed to muster up a grin. "But don't look so happy about it. I'm the one who'll have to explain to her father if she's shot."

Knowing Old Will would've asked the next question, he said, "Now what about the Temujai? Did you find them at Sand Creek Bay?"

Beside Will, Evanlyn's face clouded, anxiety surfacing. "They were there," Halt said quickly, looking at her, "and they made it clear that they were expecting to see Slagor." he nodded at the princess. "It puts a different complexion on things as far as you're concerned, Princess."

"Ragnak still has his vow," she said dully.

Halt nodded. "True, but at least he's agreed not to act on it until after we've driven off the Temujai."

Evanlyn still looked uncertain, and it tore at Will's heart. He felt a want to protect her, to at least attempt to pay back everything she'd given to him, and he swore that if Ragnak returned to make good on his vow, Will would die before he let her get hurt.

"It's just postponing things," she said quietly.

"Problems postponed have a habit of solving themselves, more likely than not," Halt told her, putting an arm around her shoulders.

Evanlyn smiled, but it wasn't much of a smile. "If you say so. But, Halt, don't address me as Princess, if you would. No point in reminding Ragnak about me at every opportunity."

The Ranger nodded again. "I stand corrected." He drew her off the the side slightly and whispered something in her ear that Will couldn't hear, but by the smile returning to her face, Will knew it must've been something good. She looked from him over to- Will turned around to see- Erak, then kissed Halt's cheek. Will expected Halt to react with either embarrassment or annoyance, but instead he just smiled and said something else to her.

With a last hopeful grin, she turned away from him and started to her quarters, before turning back around and heading to Will. "Are we taking the rest of the day off?" she asked, but her eyes were asking something different. They said, will you be alright if I leave now? Evanlyn had made sure to be around Will as much as possible, fearing something would set him off. In all honesty, Will found it a tad smothering, even though he knew she only did it out of good intentions.

He nodded. "Yes. Halt wants us to, so can't really go against him, can we?" He leveled a grin at his mentor, who glared at him, then looked back at Evanlyn. Yes, I'll be fine, he told her silently. Go rest. You deserve it.

For the third time, Will asked, "What about the Temujai? How did you convince them to go ashore on Fallkork Island?"

This time, it was Erak who answered with a great, booming laugh. "We would have had to fight to stop them!" he told them. "They were scrambling over each other to get back on solid land." The Skandians joined his laughter. "I managed to find a spot where we had the wind from astern, a steep head sea on our starboard quarter, and the tide race through the narrows, all at the same time. A few hours of that and our fierce horse soldiers were like little lambs- sick little lambs."

"They weren't the only ones," Halt said, looking vaguely sick at the thought. Will felt a surge of pity for his mentor, remembering the awful storm he'd gone through and the seasickness that had accompanied him through it. "I've been through some rough seas in my time, but I've never felt anything like the plunging and leaping you had us doing."

Erak laughed again. "Your master here went nearly the same shade of green as his cloak," he told Will, who grinned at the thought- not even a forced grin, either- a real, genuine one.

Halt raised an eyebrow in a way that said Erak was going to pay dearly for his comment. "At least I finally found a use for that damned helmet," he said. The smile disappeared from Erak's lips.

"Yes," he said reluctantly, "I'm not sure what I'm going to tell Gordoff about that. He made me promise I'd look after that helmet. It's his favorite- a real family heirloom."

"Well, it certainly has a lived-in feel to it now," Halt told him. With faint amusement, Will noted the hint of malicious pleasure in his eye. Then the Ranger turned to Will, nodding at the group of archers who were standing by. "You seem to have this group working pretty well."

He felt absurdly pleased at such a small compliment- although, from Halt, even a small compliment was the equivalent of a full-on speech. He spared a thought to wonder why Halt seemed to be treating him so well- from reassuring him his archery technique was still good, to telling Ragnak he was proud of Will, and now to this, Halt was being so nice that Will wondered if there was an ulterior motive.

What if he's trying to flatter me to cover up the fact that he already knows? Will thought, suddenly panicked. Making sure none of that showed on his face, he gave a nod to his mentor. "Oh, we're not doing too badly."

"Better than that, from what I saw," Halt told him, then continued, "I meant what I said, Will. Give them the rest of the day off. Yourself, too; you've earned a break. And unless I miss my guess, we're going to need all the rest we can get in the next few days."

Will did not rest.

How could he? He was all too aware of the fact that, a few days from now, they were going to be fighting for their lives. And Will was still not in peak condition. And may never be, he thought glumly. Although he was aware that he was making progress- his mind was processing quicker, his speech was becoming easier, and memories were beginning to come back to him- it was not nearly fast enough.

So, instead of walking back to his cold, depressing room and sitting there, alone or with Evanlyn, he pretended to walk back to Hallasholm, then diverted and snuck back around, easily blending in with the grass as he moved. Once he was back at the training grounds, he stood there, eyes flicking back and forth a few times so as to ensure there was no one there.

He was still suspicious, but soon relaxed. After all, it was hardly like Halt had been expecting him to disobey his orders, right? Besides, Halt had better things to do with his time than tend to his screwed-up apprentice. He had a war to plan.

Stringing his bow, he reached for an arrow. In less than five seconds, the first one was already flying towards a target. In intervals varying between two to five seconds, twenty-three more followed suit. Once he was done, he examined each target critically from a distance and frowned. Since he'd needed twenty-four things to shoot at, the last twelve had been very far out indeed. Two of them, he'd missed- entirely.

His jaw clenched. Already, he was fighting against a completely illogical bout of self-loathing. He'd never actually practiced any lengths greater than 200 meters- Halt had told him they'd gradually increase the distance, but he wanted Will to have precise aim on closer distances first. There was no reason for him to be so angry at himself when he'd never even practiced.

But, as of late, Will's mind hadn't been the most logical of things. Even as he was walking to collect his arrows, his brain taunted him, murmuring things about Halt regretting choosing him as an apprentice and about how Will would never make it to a full-fledged Ranger- and that was assuming Halt and the other Rangers never found out about his addiction. So lost was he in self-loathing that he almost didn't even hear it.

He stiffened, hand halfway through pulling out an arrow. That sound had not belonged there. But the sound didn't happen again, and for a moment he wondered if it had just been a figment of imagination. Turning a slow circle, he scanned the area, eyes narrowing when he came up with nothing. Either there was no one there...or Halt had been there the whole time, watching everything Will had done, from the two misses to the most likely obvious self-hatred that had accompanied it. Although missing a target was definitely an Old Will trait, the self-hatred was not.

"Halt," he called, "I know you're there."

Silence. He groaned. "Fine, be that way. But I do know you're here, now, so there's really no point in hiding."

Nothing happened. For a long moment he wondered if he'd been talking to the wind or a squirrel; then a flash of movement out of his peripheral vision caught his eye and he turned, beholding Halt. The Ranger wasn't attempting to hide anymore, but to the untrained eye, he still would've been very hard to see. To Will, however, he was as plain as day.

"I was wondering how long it'd take you to realize I was watching you," Halt commented, going over to a nearby target and taking an arrow out. "Took a little longer than I was expecting."

There it was. That deep thrum of shame mixed with anger and self-loathing. Will shrugged, not answering. He'd learned a while ago that if Halt criticized something he did, there were no excuses he could make for it.

A pause, then... "I thought I told you to take a break for the rest of the day."

Will pulled another arrow out of the target. A bullseye, he noted with no small amount of satisfaction. "There's a war coming, Halt. I can't just sit on my thumbs and do nothing."

"I wasn't asking you to do nothing. I just asked you to take a break." When Will didn't respond, Halt said, gentler, "you need the rest. I want you in top condition for when the Temujai get here. The littlest mistake, and you could die."

"I've gotten a lot of rest," Will said guardedly, not wanting to tell Halt that he'd been basically asleep for the greater part of a year. "I want to do something, and I hate how much my accuracy has fallen."

"I'll admit, you were far below par your first day back," Halt said, "but you've regained your former skill quickly enough. In fact, I'd say that you're even starting to surpass it a tad." Halt gave Will an encouraging look. "If you give it a few years, you'll maybe even reach-"

Will cut him off, and they said at the same time, "-mediocrity." He grinned, knowing that's what Old Will would've done. "Gee, I wonder where I've heard that one from before?"

Halt raised an eyebrow and glared. "Apprentices," he muttered under his breath, "always think they're so smart."

Will decided not to answer that one and bent down, retrieving one of the arrows that had missed the target entirely. The pair fell into a comfortable silence as they worked, each by an unspoken understanding collecting a dozen arrows. When Will had gotten his last one, he turned around to notice Halt waiting for him, twelve arrows in his hands. The boy approached him cautiously, not sure if Halt was going to let him continue practicing or not.

The Ranger sighed, apparently reading Will's expression and knowing what he meant. "All right, fine. You can practice some more if that's really what you want to do." He handed the arrows to Will, shaking his head. "All those days back in Redmont fief you complained about having to train. Now I tell you not to do it, and what do you do?"

"Halt," Will said, wanting to clear things up, "those were house chores. Not training."

"Doing the chores is part of your training," Halt insisted stubbornly. Will felt the corner of his mouth tug up despite himself as they reached the spot he'd been shooting from and drew his bow.

"Whatever you say, Halt."

Will flopped down on his bed with a colossal sigh. Evanlyn, sitting on the bed opposite his, looked over, concerned. "What's wrong, Will?" the boy didn't respond so she asked again, "Will?"

He mumbled something in his pillow, then propped himself up on his elbows and turned towards her. "I'm scared, Evanlyn," he finally said. Old Will wouldn't have said that, but he's not Old Will anymore and Evanlyn's the only one that knows that. "I almost had a panic attack during training today and...I..." he looked away, unable to meet his friend's eyes. "What if...what if I get one on the battlefield?"

"You have Horace to protect you," Evanlyn reminded him. "There's no way he's letting those Temujai kill you."

"But he can't call out orders and positions," Will said miserably. "If I'm busy panicking, I can't keep the archers shooting." He finally turned, looking her square in the face. "Evanlyn...I'm broken. I'm not fit to be a Ranger's apprentice."

"Don't say that, Will!" she protested vehemently. "You've had an awful year. Of course you'd be feeling the effects of that! You're only human."

"Halt wouldn't be this screwed up," Will said quietly.

"Stop holding yourself up to Halt. You're not even full-grown, and Halt's, well, Halt. I'm sure he's had his share of tough times, too, and had to learn to deal with them just like you."

"But a Ranger-"

"Will." She reached across the space between their beds and took his hand. "Rangers are human, too. They might not show it, but I'm sure they've gone through bad stuff, and they just learned to live with it. You need to do that, too." He didn't answer, so she sighed. "Stop blaming yourself for everything! None of this was your fault. Nothing that has happened to you was because you were weak."

Will's eyes were disbelieving, but she saw uncertainty there, too, and knew she was starting to get through to him. Not for the first time, she wished they could tell Halt about this. Will and Halt seemed to have a relationship similar to what she had with her own father, and she had a feeling that, out of everyone, Halt was the one who'd be able to get through to him the most. But constantly telling herself that Halt would kick Will out of the Ranger Corps had had its toll, and now she was as reluctant as Will to tell the grizzled Ranger what had really transpired in Skandia.

There came a knock on the door. Evanlyn stiffened and drew back from Will, tilting her head towards the door in an is it okay if they come in? sort of way. Will nodded, so she called, "Come in."

The door opened without a sound and Evanlyn knew it was Halt before he even stepped into the room. The timing of his visit seemed almost uncanny- as if he'd been listening in the whole time and waited until they seemed done with their conversation before he made his presence known. The thought made her shiver, and she silently resolved to tell Erak not to answer any question the Ranger might ask about Will and hers year there.

"What is it, Halt?" Will asked. "Is it the Temujai? Are they here early? Does Ragnak want to see us? Does-"

Halt cut off Will's rapid flow of questions with a wave of his hand. For a second, the sight made Evanlyn smile, but then she looked at Will. Despite the eager curiosity in his tone, his eyes didn't match- they were tired and sad. He's become such a good liar, she thought, and the thought hurt. He's no longer that impulsive, honest to a fault boy I used to know.

"I need to talk to you, Will," he said quietly. His eyes flicked to Evanlyn. "Alone."

Dread surged through him. He made sure not to look at Evanlyn for help, even as his heartbeat started pounding faster and faster- surely Halt could hear it? All he could think was he knows, he knows, he knows. Will had no clue how he'd found out- Will had thought he was acting normal, and Evanlyn had made Erak vow he'd not tell Halt.

But, he realized with a sinking feeling, Erak isn't the only one who knows what happened.

Evanlyn nodded and stood up, but Halt stopped her. "No, you don't have to leave. We'll go to my room. Horace is out training, so he won't bother us." Will just stared at the ground, petrified. His mind felt like it was one of the paddles he'd turned in ice-water all those weeks ago- slow, useless, and desperately trying to function properly.

"Will, come on," Halt said, an edge of impatience in his voice. Will nodded obediently and got up, trailing behind Halt as they exited the room. His heart was racing faster than he'd ever remembered it racing before and he dimly realized he was on the verge of a panic attack. Desperately, he tried to calm down, grateful the noisy Skandians around them were helping to mask his loud, ragged breaths.

"Well, this is nice," Halt said, a few minutes into their walk. "For once, you're not asking any questions."

Will said nothing. The panic was growing stronger, but he was confused- why didn't Halt seem angry? If anything, he himself seemed uneasy, almost...scared. Like he was the one with bad news. Maybe something bad happened back in Araluen and he's just now telling me? he wondered. Even though the thought shouldn't have made him happy, it did. He felt horrible for saying that, but as long as Halt didn't know, he could take anything.

Barring, of course, someone's death.

"Halt?" he asked hesitantly, ignoring the older man's exasperated sigh. "Is this about Alyss? Don't tell me she's..."

"No," Halt said quickly. "No, this isn't about her. She's not dead." He hesitated. "Well, she could be. I haven't been at Redmont fief for almost a year." Will stopped, stone-still. Halt looked back and stopped as well. "Relax," he said kindly. "I'm sure she's perfectly fine."

Now, the thought that Halt was trying to tell Will something about what the Ranger had done was beginning to grow stronger. As long as it's not about him finding out, I can take it, he told himself, panic slowly abating. Ahead of him, Halt opened the door to his room and gestured Will in. Will carefully sat on the bed he assumed was Horace's, not wanting to take his master's bed.

There was a long silence. Will was just about to ask what Halt wanted to talk to him about when the Ranger heaved a sigh. "I should've told you this a long time ago," he said slowly. "I was going to tell you when we were first reunited, but I didn't want to say anything in front of the Prin- in front of Evanlyn."

The last bit of worry faded from Will's chest. If he'd wanted to tell Will when they first met back up again, there's no way this could be about Skandia. He nodded, encouraging Halt to continue.

"When I made that promise to you...I tried to follow through immediately. If I'd had my way, I would've gone after you the moment I could. But the King and Crowley wouldn't let me. They wanted me to hunt down Foldar, one of Morgorath's men, and I wasted valuable time on hunting down impersonations of him. Finally, I couldn't take it anymore." He took a deep breath. "I need you to realize that I tried to appeal to King Duncan. He refused to see me. Then I tried to appeal to Crowley, but he refused me as well."

A bad feeling was beginning to develop in the pit of Will's stomach.

Halt smiled, but it was a bitter one. "Now, as Gilan will tell you, I've never been good at holding my drink. I got drunk one night in a tavern and ended up saying some rather unsavory things about the King. There were a lot of witnesses, and one of them got the Watch." he shrugged diffidently. "They arrested me for treason against the King and I was sentenced with banishment..."

"Halt," Will whispered, horrified. "Halt, you didn't."

"...for one year," the Ranger finished, and a hint of a real, genuine smile lifted his lips.

"Treason is serious!" Will exploded, angry that his mentor had risked that much to save him. "You could've been killed!"

Again, the Ranger shrugged, seeming not to care. "The King rather likes me, if I say so myself. I didn't think he'd kill me."

Will said nothing for a while, trying to process everything Halt had said. He didn't believe for a second that Halt had simply gotten drunk. Although Halt definitely liked a good bit of red wine in his stew, he didn't make a habit of drinking unless it was a special occasion. And he'd never, ever go to a tavern, unless it was to gather information- Will distinctly remembered Halt muttering under his breath about 'filthy, dirty taverns' more than once. But more than that, Halt wouldn't ever be so careless as to get drunk and then badmouth the King.

No, Halt had intentionally done that, because...because he'd made Will a promise. He'd willingly gone through with that, knowing he could be killed, or at the very least, banished.

Impulsively, he threw his arms around his master. "Halt...thank you," he mumbled into the rough material of the Ranger's cloak.

"No need to thank me, Will. I simply did what needed to be done to fulfill my promise to you." There was another long pause. Will slowly drew back. Then Halt continued, "I just wanted to be honest with you. I don't want us...to have any secrets between each other." The words were carefully pointed, and Will forced himself to relax, giving Halt a cheery smile.

"All right. I won't." He stood up and made a show of stretching and yawning. "Anyway, I think I'll be going back to my room. I'm getting kinda tired. Night, Halt."

"Good night, Will."

Will exited the room, closing the door behind him with the barest of clicks. Still sitting on his bed, the Ranger stared at the door, eyes dark. "Well, I tried," he muttered.

A/N: and here you have the first effects of the ripple. I'll warn you that there won't be many changes in the battle, since I didn't think Will's actions would directly affect that. I'm only changing things that make sense with him not telling Halt what happened to him, and I don't think that would change the outcome of the battle in any way.