Sorry I took so long to update, but I've had a crazy week...anyways, please R and R!

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I feel tears welling up in my eyes as I look at the enchanted garden around me. It looks just as beautiful as always, but it is no longer the sweet, innocent beauty it used to be. It is a terrible, alluring, and captivating beauty, which I sometimes wish I could get rid of all together.

"It's so…fabulous!" Isabelle exclaims, twirling away and laughing. Behind Isabelle's back, Felicity gives me a meaningful look. Unfortunately, I have no idea what the look is supposed to mean, so I raise my eyebrows questioningly at her.

She nods in Isabelle's direction and raises an eyebrow, significantly.

I shrug.

Felicity looks at Isabelle, who is prancing around as if she owned the place, then turns and widens her grey eyes at me.

I cock my head to once side, like a confused puppy.

Finally, Felicity just comes up to me and says, "Look at her, Gemma. She won't last two minutes when we go back to that battle."

"I know. I was hoping that you would, you know, watch her?"

"You want me to play nanny for your dorm mate?"

"Well…yes."

Felicity sighs. "Gemma, if I wasn't such good friends with you, I'd hate you." Relief washes over me. If Felicity watches over Isabelle, she should remain safe.

"Thanks, Fee!" I say with a grin, causing Felicity to huff impatiently. "Yes, well, don't get used to me doing favors for you, alright? I'm only helping you because I know that you'll be a boring, depressed ninny until you get your handsome young man back. Anyhow, could you please call the Queen of Sheba over there? We can't go anywhere without her."

"Isabelle! Could you come back here? Please!"

"Oh, all right." Slightly subdued, Isabelle prances up to us. She smiles a slightly drunken looking smile and says, "Gemma, this place is wonderful!"

"I know."

"Oh, the trees are all different colours, and the leaves shine like stars! I wish that I could stay here forever and ever!"

"I know. "

Isabelle looks into my eyes, and her smile droops slightly, "What is it?"

"Nothing." I feel horrible, taking this poor defenseless girl to a scene of total destruction. But I have no choice. "Can you…can you take us back now?"

"Sure! When to?"

I grit my teeth, feeling slightly annoyed. How is it that the girl can remember every word that comes out of our dull teacher's mouths, but she can't remember this one crucial date? "May 6th."

Isabelle beams, "Alright, let's see if I can do this!" She holds out her hands to Felicity and me, and we take them impatiently. She closes her eyes, and the world fades. I focus all of my power and strength on the night of May 6th, on the winterlands, and on the exact moment when I lost Kartik forever.

The world comes back into focus, and I am back in the battle, standing beside the writhing tree of all souls. Felicity and Isabelle aren't with me, but I can see them in the distance, among the carnage of the battle. Felicity is back at the exact same location she was at during the struggle. They turn to face me, and they start to run over.

Suddenly, the injured tree's roots come alive. They twist themselves around my ankles and climb up my shins. I scream and try to move away, but I am being devoured. Oh, how could I forget this?

"We didn't kill the tree?" I find myself gasping, just as I did last time, "Why?"

"It cannot be killed," Amar thunders, coming up from behind me, "It can only be changed."

Felicity, Isabelle and Ann race to pull the roots free while Fowlson runs up and hacks at them, but the shoots are too strong.

"I told you that you would bring her to us, Brother. That you would be the death of her," Amar says sadly to Kartik. Kartik! He is standing tall, alive and well only a few meters from me.

Kartik glares at Amar, but then his gaze softens and he realizes that the monster he is looking at was once his brother. "You told me to follow my heart," he says, and some shred of Amar, whatever remains of him, hears it.

Amar's dark and clouded eyes clear over, and he says, "So I did Brother. Will you give me peace?"

"I will."

As swiftly as a tiger, Kartik grabs Amar's sword. Amar raises his arms, and Kartik pushes it through. Again.

Amar gives a great howl. The light is piercing, and then he is no more.

Kartik leaps over to me, and takes my hand. The magic flares to life, and we are both bright with light, dark with shadow. His strength flows into me until the Winterlands magic mixes with the Temple magic. And for one brief moment, we are a perfect union. I can feel him inside me, me inside him. I can hear his thoughts; I know what is in his heart, what he means to do. He means to sacrifice himself to the tree in my place, again.

"No." I say. I try to break away but he holds fast to me.

Kartik looks determined; he wants to be a martyr for me and the Realms. "Yes, I have to let the tree take me, it's the only way."

"NO IT BLOODY ISN'T!"

I see a tear roll down Kartik's cheek. "Gemma, the tree demands a sacrifice."

"Fine, but it won't be you!" I growl.

Kartik opens his mouth to reply, but I don't give him the chance. Using all of the magic I've got welled up inside of me, I blast both Kartik and me as far away from the tree of all souls as I can, not really caring what the consequences will be.

When we land, a about ten meters away, I rush to do what must be done. I keep one arm firmly around my Kartik, and I slam my other fist on the cracked and dry earth, and I shout the words I need to, to bind the magic to the Realms themselves.

Then I see it; a girl's slim body being pulled in by the branches of the tree of all souls. Her head lolls to one side like a marionette whose strings are cut, and her mahogany hair streams out behind her.

"ISABELLE!"