Disclaimer: I don't own the rights to anything you recognize from the movie and/or the book. The characters and places that you recognize from the movie and/or the book belong to their respective owners. Though, I DO own the rights to all my personal locations and personal OC's. I make no monetary profit from this story.

Jeaule twisted and turned her body in all the cautiously offensive ways that Sorsha had shone her. She'd found herself a few silent…and very solitary…moments to practice in her own room. The wooden pillar that she'd conjured was scored deeply where her blades were steadily cutting away at it. Sweat was starting to bead on her forehead and she simply took that as a sign that she was working as hard as she'd wanted to.

No one had expected her to dive into this they way that she did. Not even Cyric, she thought with a pleased grin as she brought her sword down in a sharp arch. Sure, he'd given in to letting her learn, but she was sure that while he loved her deeply, he'd merely thought that she would give up when she found that it was actual work. Well, she'd surprised him now hadn't she?

Soft clapping from the doorway let her know that she'd allowed the time to get away from her, "Brilliant, my love." Cyric stood in the doorway, watching her with loving pride in his eyes. She felt her cheeks heat, amazed that he could still make her blush.

"Yeah…thanks." She gave a crooked smile as she got rid of the pillar and the carpet of wood chips and shavings at her feet. As Cyric crossed the room to her, she watched the light and shadows in the room dance over his face, lighting those pale blue eyes that always made her heart flutter.

"Have I told you how proud of you I am?" Jeaule laughed nervously, knowing that he was proud of her, but wondering if that was all that was on his mind. She recognized that gleam in his eyes made her pulse skip with an anxious sensuality. "It's quite a turn on to think you could kick my butt into the dirt." The nerves were gone as the laughter suddenly burst from her.

"I could try." He slipped his arms around her lithe frame and smiled at her.

"You keep practicing like that and you will take me down sooner than you think." She rested herself against the soothing warmth of his chest, letting her heart fall into pace with his.

"Yeah, well…you'll look good covered in dirt." His chest rumbled delightedly under her cheek and brought a smirk to her own lips.

"Don't bruise me up too badly though, that wouldn't be good for my ego." Jeaule pulled back from him and rolled her eyes as she placed a hand on her hip. Looking him up and down quickly, she gave him and cheeky smile.

"Oh, but if I did, I would have to nurse you back to health." That sparkle was back in his eyes at that and her reached out for her again, but she danced just out of his reach.

"Hmm, that might be worth a few bruises. Just promise to give me a bruise that clothing can cover. Then I can have the best of both worlds." His ego was adorably astounding at times.

"Yes, I agree, we can't have you all bruised up at the party now can we?" He groaned. Jeaule knew that he wasn't looking forward to the party. Cyric wasn't one for big glamorous parties, but a man who was happy with a quiet, intimate night with herself.

"I'm not looking forward to all that…fuss," he told her, as much as she'd expected him to, but a second later, there was a defiant little grin where the frown had just been. "Did you invite Damien like we all discussed?" She laughed, amazed at how quickly his moods could flip when it came to Damien.

"Yes, but just like we all imagined, he didn't even dignify it with a response." A gentle knock on the door distracted them both as they called out for the person to enter. When the door creaked open a bit, it was Kessy's golden blonde head that poked through.

"I'm not disrupting your Majesties am I?" Everyone seemed a bit put off by Kessy's meek demeanor, but Jeaule was able to handle it, knowing that she'd been exactly like the poor timid little mouse at one time.

"No, not at all Kessy, please do what you need to," Jeaule said, smiling, trying to let the girl know without coddling her, that she had nothing to fear from her. Kessy didn't seem to pick up the hint and merely went about her business. Jeaule sighed and turned back to her husband, who was one of the people in the castle that didn't quite know how to handle Kessy's attitude. "None of us expected him to come."

"What? Oh, Damien." He silenced himself when he noticed Kessy jerk at the name. "We'll talk about this later," he said, motioning to Kessy who turned to them looking abashed.

"You needn't stop on my account, sire." Her eyes were wide, worried that she'd done something very wrong. "I didn't mean to jump it's just…." She trailed off, embarrassed. Cyric shrugged, uncomfortable with the mortified maid.

"Well, I have a hard time trust people outside of my circle with information like this." Kessy crossed to them, her hand at her heart.

"Sire…" she started on a sigh, "you saved me and my entire family from Damien's rule, from his infertile lands and harsh taxing. You know he took almost everything that we were able to force his lands to give us?" Tears welled in her eyes and touched Jeaule. The poor girl had been through far more than she should ever have had to. "He left my family with the worst of the harvest and decided that we would be able to live on that." Jeaule frowned, confused with something.

"Couldn't you just have used-"

"Magic?" Kessy finished for her with an odd twinge in her voice. "We could have, but my parents are both too sickly to even leave their beds and aren't able to and I'm well…I'm not very adept." The strawberry blush rushed over her cheeks as she rushed on. "That's why I wanted to come here and help in the castle. I'm very good at cleaning and helping heal others, but not very adept at much else." Jeaule smiled at her and hoped that Kessy would begin to realize that not everyone was against her. She wasn't sure if the point got across even now, but Kessy smiled as she left the room.

"I don't know how to handle that girl," Cyric sighed, it seemed like Kessy almost exhausted him in her mildness. Jeaule admitted that it could be draining on someone who was used to stronger women, but she had LIVED as the weakling most of her life. Cyric had met her after she'd found herself, he'd never dealt with the sad whipping stone she'd been for her sister all those years.

That was all for the better, Jeaule reflected as she brought Kessy's quiet demeanor to mind. If that's what she used to be like, which she had to grudgingly admit she had been, she was glad that Cyric had never seen her. If he had, she thought with an inner chuckle, she might not be his Queen now.

Sorsha was seated at one of the long, wooden tables that had been situated in the main dining hall to accommodate the growing number of soldiers they were accruing. The light was filtering through the stained glass windows in brilliant shimmering beams of emerald, ruby and sapphire. The hall had proven to her that there was enough light…and enough silence when it wasn't a set meal time…to give her space to think. It had been nearly a month since they'd started training and at her last count, Sorsha had been astonished to find that they had nearly a thousand able and willing soldiers ready to fight. She would be sure to use every one of them to their top potential be it archer, foot soldier or mounted attack.

Next to her plate of breakfast was a map of the known Underground. There were two places she was sure she would set up camps for separate troops and those were Neerad in the west of Easternlands…gods they really needed to name this place…and Goblin's Claw where the Goblin Kingdom hooked into the Easternlands. She knew that Goblin's Claw would be expected as it had been the site of many historic battles. All she could hope for was that her troops would get there first to take the advantage of higher ground.

As she grabbed a piece of bacon with one hand as her other roamed over the map, thinking of where she could come up from the south in the Goblin Kingdom. Damien wouldn't be expecting that, she thought with a wicked little grin. Tornum might be the best place, though they would have to be careful sneaking into the Westernlands. But the forests outside of the town would be a good place to hide a decently sized troop. She wasn't able to celebrate her choice of base sites because the voice from behind her summarily caused her stomach to clench nervously and her eyes to roll of their own accord.

"Are you always dirt smudged?" Eireach, of course, who else would be bothering her during breakfast? She looked down at her hands and begrudgingly admitted that he had a point, she was nearly always dirt smudged, but she didn't have time to pretty herself up when she was preparing for a war.

Refusing to give him the benefit of seeing the irritation in her eyes, she kept her eyes on the map and picked up another piece of bacon, "Are you always so critical of other people's appearances?" She had hoped that her sharp tongue would make him go away, but it seemed lately that he had developed immunity to it. Sorsha didn't have to look at him to know that there was a jeering smile on his face as he straddled the bench next to her and grabbed the last piece of bacon from her plate.

"Mmm," he moaned in over zealous pleasure at the bacon. "The cook outdid herself this morning, maple flavored."

"Then get your own," she muttered, silently irked that he'd taken her last piece. He took her advice and called a goblin over to take his order down to the cook. She tried desperately to ignore him, but he just sat there, looking over at her and the map in turn, silent…waiting for HER to talk to HIM. Finally, she'd had enough and smacked a hand down on the open map before her. "Why do you insist on bothering me?"

His eyes caught hers, bewildered amusement on his face, "I didn't realize that I was." Adamant refusal to accept what he was doing…that was always his answer. Sorsha rolled her shoulders, trying to work the aggravation from her muscles.

"Well, you're very good at it regardless." His laughter rang through her and she damned herself for the shiver it caused. A goblin sidled up to them with Eireach's breakfast.

"Well then," he said as he situated his plate before himself. "Perhaps it's my subconscious that enjoys ruffling your feathers." When she raised her eyes from the map this time, she was surprisingly touched to see that he had placed one of his own pieces of bacon on her plate. She didn't want to admit to even herself that such a silly gesture had touched her…that was foolish, so she pulled her frustration back around herself like a comforting blanket.

"Go ruffle your own feathers," she mumbled before she bit into the piece of bacon. Eireach smirked over at her again as he followed her example and devoured the bacon.

"And miss out on your delightful company?" he chided her, an impish grin on his lips. "Never." She pushed her plate back and rolled the map up, shoving it under her arm.

"I think I'm done here." Sorsha pushed back the bench they sat on, pulling Eireach out of reach of the eggs on his fork. And yet he still laughed good humouredly as the eggs fell into his lap…it was infuriating.

"See you in a few minutes then," he called to her back. Her brows furrowed in confusion and exasperation as she turned back to him. "Practice," he told her, taking a defiant bite of eggs. "You can't avoid your own partner there." She groaned and to the sound of his laughter, walked out of the dining hall.

Damien was completely fed up with sheltering that know-it-all demoness who was trying to fashion herself as his partner. Kindraa was insinuating herself into every aspect of his castle and its workings. She had even gone so far as to change his menus and had taken to picking out his clothing. In the short time she'd been in the castle, she'd completely taken over his life and he didn't like it. When he walked into his rooms that day, he was shocked to find that he hadn't reached the limits of his anger.

"What in the HELLS do you think you're doing now!?" He shouted at the figure across the room who was sitting at his jewel coffer. Kindraa was reaching into the large mahogany coffer with her overlong fingers. When she pulled out his favorite diamond ring he gave a strangled little cry.

"I do so enjoy your jewelry, Damien." A deceptively delicate blue flame appeared as she snapped her fingers. He was mesmerized by the dancing blue flame for only a moment before she set the band of his prized ring in it and he watched the metal melt like wax. Again he cried out, but in desperate agony this time as she used her frightening strength to bend the material into a smaller circle that he was sure would never fit around his fingers again. The flame dulled as she sealed the band and slipped it onto her finger. "I REALLY enjoy it."

He didn't hear her, his eyes were on the cooling molten metal on the rug at her feet, "My ring…."

"Yes," her voice rang mockingly in his ear. "It's quite beautiful, much better on a woman's hand." He sighed and kept his distance from her.

It had been made very obvious from the moment that she showed up that he would never win an argument against her. Honestly, he thought as forcibly pushed the ring from his mind, he didn't want to fight with her. Memories of dangling by his throat with her lengthy fingers cutting off his air were enough motivation to simply let her have the damned ring.

"Anything else you wish to whine about today, my dear?" He cringed at the endearment she'd taken to using on him. Damien was sure that she insisted on doing that because it 'made him squirm', but he couldn't help it. Would anyone be able to keep composure around a creature like Kindraa? Damien doubted it. "Stop wandering in that wasteland you call a mind…is there anything else you wish to say to me?"

"Well," Damien started, hesitant to bring up the one thing that HAD been on his mind lately.

"Damien, out with it." Kindraa was advancing on him. What a pathetic thought, Damien mused, but there was no other word appropriate for how the woman made him feel. "I am a chaos demon, I see the paths of all creatures. I already know what you want to ask me." There was a dangerous gleam in her eyes that set him even further on edge.

She knew what he wanted to ask and she was already upset with him for it. So what was he supposed to do now? If he asked the question she already knew, it might stoke the startling fire that was already building there. But if he didn't ask it, he would prove himself even weaker than he already had. Steeling his back, he decided not to sacrifice any more of his dignity than he already had, not on this at least.

"I was wondering if I was ever going to hear from your supposed contact in the Easternlands?" He couldn't bring himself to say 'Cyric's castle' for that would be admitting, even if only to himself, that his childhood foe had gained something that Damien had worked very hard to keep him from.

When his question was met without an answer, his eyes sought to find Kindraa. She was no longer moving towards him, perhaps his choice to ask her was the right one…the wrong one? Either way, she wasn't in front of him anymore, but had moved back to his jewelry coffer. She was ignoring him, he realized with a pang of incredulity. Damien wasn't sure if this upset him or not, but was sure that seeing those fingers sifting through his precious jewelry again didn't settle well with him at all.

"Kindraa?" Her eyes flitted to him as if she'd just noticed him there, blinking in silent inquiry to what he wanted. He hated it when she did that, like he hadn't existed the whole time they'd been talking, but he had learned that this is what she did when she didn't WANT to answer him. Well he was tired of being treated like some second rate servant that should remain silent in her magnanimous presence. "When will I hear from the source you promised me?"

"Do shut up Damien," she warned, her voice liquid fire. "You don't want me to wonder if you trust me." Damien sighed, tired of skirting the topic.

"What else am I supposed to think when I haven't heard a thing and you won't talk about it?" She turned to him and was again advancing like a predator to its prey. Her body moved like the flames she controlled, in gentle swaying confidence.

"My girl is there and trusted." He found himself unable to ask who the girl was, his tongue seemed glued to the roof of his mouth. "Still no one suspects her and she has the support of a very powerful woman." Kindraa paused, letting her fiery eyes bore into his own. "And THAT will be enough for you to know until she contacts us."

Eireach walked out onto the training field once he was done with his breakfast. He hadn't wanted the breakfast really, but, he admitted to himself, it had been an excuse to bother her again. His task for Morrigan had become something that he actually looked forward to doing. The only thing that he had to do was figure out exactly why he had so much fun making Sorsha uncomfortable.

"Took you long enough," a voice chided from behind him. Sorsha tossed the sword at him when he turned to her and he nearly dropped it.

"I was enjoying my breakfast." Before Sorsha was able to make a snappy remark, Cyric called out to everyone and commenced the training day. "Shall we?" Eireach asked, bowing and gesturing her to their normal spot on the field. He smiled as she set her jaw and breezed past him. Gods help him, he found it cute. Before he completely lost his damn mind, he fell into the motions of their training.

"Why do you seem so confident when you fight me?" He asked, not sure why he did. She smiled at him as she jabbed at him with the wooden sword which he blocked easily.

"Because I have the support of a goddess." Her smile was mocking when he came at her again. "Do you really think she'd let you hurt me?" He simply smiled at her as he once again fell into their normal routine.

It was never difficult for either of them as they'd found that they were very nearly equally trained. It had frustrated Sorsha to no end to find out that he was an extremely competent sword fighter. Eireach was just happy that she didn't suggest changing the weapons up…he wasn't very apt at anything but a long sword and a bow and arrow.

Laughter drew both of their attentions away from each other and over to Cyric and Jeaule. The two were deep into their sparring session, further than they'd gone before. Jeaule's face was set in lines of concentration as she came at Cyric in a flurry of spinning blades. Eireach had no idea what Cyric had said, but whatever had set the rebel spark in her eyes, Cyric had better stay on his toes or he would end up on his ass.

Almost as he thought it, Jeaule spun out a leg just the way Sorsha had when they'd had their scuffle a few weeks back and Cyric plummeted to the ground with a thud. Never one to be showed up, Cyric's own leg whipped out as a triumphant smile crossed Jeaule's face, distracting her. Her tumble to the ground was by far less graceful than Cyric's had been and her indignant shout sounded out as her husband climbed on top of her, pinning her to the ground.

Eireach looked to Sorsha and for the first time, they shared a laugh. He knew that Sorsha was proud of her student, but didn't know why the shock caused her face to fall until he looked back to the King and Queen. Cyric might have taken his queen by surprise, but that hadn't stopped her in the end for they were kissing in the dirt as if it were their feather filled bed.

"Hmm," he stated as if this weren't surprising as it was. "Fighting as foreplay…not what I would have suspected of THOSE two." Sorsha's brow winged upwards at that before she guarded against his first strike.

"Who would you have suspected it of?" He set himself to guard against her lightning quick offensive strike.

"Well," he started before their swords thudded against one another again. "Someone more like…" The swords clashed again and again in their dizzying dance of attacks and parries, "…you." Their swords locked, their faces mere inches from each other, Sorsha's a mask of bewilderment. Astonishment took him over as he watched the blush spread over her cheeks. "Gods…" the flush was gone as he said it, the normal frown back in place. "I got you to blush!"

"Shut up," she snapped and she came at him again with a downward, over the head strike that made his arms shudder when he blocked it.

"You know, you're really quite fetching when you blush, you should do it more often." He knew he should stop, but that damned blush inched over her face again and he couldn't help it. He hadn't lied, she was appealing when she showed that weakness of hers. But his distraction was his downfall, she whipped her sword in a sharp circle and disarmed him.

Normally, that would signal the end of the match and they would rearm themselves, but his laughter goaded her further and she tossed her weapon aside to charge him. That made him smile all the further. With a sword in her hand, yes, she could probably beat him anyday, but brawn against brawn…he felt he had the edge.

Maybe.

He thanked the gods that Sorsha was enough of a tomboy not to have long fingernails on the claws that scrapped for a hold in his skin. Eireach simply couldn't believe that he'd actually succeeded in embarrassing her for the first time and nearly toppled over when she threw her full weight at him. Staring down at her with a challenging smile on his lips, he decided that if she wanted a fight, she'd get one.

Eireach bent and scooped the harpy up into his arms, realizing too late that her squirming body and pummeling fists might make that a bit difficult. He'd only made it a few steps before she wrenched her body the right way in his arms and sent them both tumbling backwards to the ground. Sorsha had the advantage for but a moment before he rolled his weight over on top of hers.

It wasn't until this moment that both of them realized just what had taken place. His own words came back to haunt him as her body, strong and supple beneath his, went still. Be it from shock or…something else…he wasn't sure, but the surrender was mind boggling.

Her face, mere inches from his again and deliciously flushed looked just as confused as he did. Again his own words flowed through his head before he jumped up from her body and offered her a hand.

Fighting as foreplay.

(A/N: Another chapter down and I hope that you all liked seeing Damien and Kindraa again. I know that so many of you have a great love/hate view on those two and I know that I do too! LOL Random note…watching 'Hook' as I finish this up and it never ceases to amaze me how much I love this movie. "I've just had an apostrophe." "I think you mean an epiphany." LOL oh wow…ok I'm done.

Those who gave me the apostrophe to add a bit more of Damien and Kindraa because I know you love them were:

BattleofEvermore, darklady26, Kaline Reine, Kerichi, Miru88, notwritten and roguegambit

Thanks guys, much love!!)