The rooms, as expected, seemed to be as unnecessarily expensive as the rest of the building. The cream coloured sheets on the double bed were as soft as any material Hyara had ever touched. The top layer seemed to be made from silk, but here at least some sense had been used. The other layers weren't quite so frictionless.

Hyara didn't spend too long enjoying the softness of her bed, but she decided that she deserved a few moments of just lying back and staring at the roof; it had been a long day.

She jerked her head towards the door as a loud knocking broke the silence. "Hyara," Dareth sounded annoyed for some reason. What it could be escaped her completely. "Hyara, come on. We're already ten minutes late."

She sat up, her confusion increasing. "Late for what?"

"You want to eat don't you? You don't usually take twenty minutes to get ready, never mind two hours."

Two hours? She slid to the edge of the bed, and looked around for a chronometer. Typically, there weren't any in view. It seemed like the whole galaxy was trying to stop her from finding out the time today. She rushed to the door and opened it; glancing down, she noticed that Dareth had already gotten changed.

Dareth's expression went from annoyance to frustration; "You're not going to eat dinner in that are you?" He indicated her travelling clothes, then sighed in resignation. "I suppose it doesn't matter this time, but you've got a lot to learn about this kind of thing if you're going to convince people you're an Adept. Etiquette is basically half of an envoy's job."

Hyara blushed, her face becoming as red as her complexion allowed. "Sorry. Have we got any time left at all?"

Dareth checked his personal chronometer, and Hyara made a mental note to get herself one as soon as possible. "Not unless you can travel backwards through time; come on." He stepped aside for her to leave her room. The way Dareth was acting, it seemed like she'd opened the window and shouted their plans at the top of her lungs. Falling asleep and not dressing for dinner wasn't going to break their cover.

She stopped on the stairs and Marianna almost walked into her; "What's wrong Hyara?"

'I wasn't even tired.' Hyara remembered. 'How did I fall asleep if I wasn't even tired?'

-

Lucius sat at his desk, frowning at the documents in front of him. There was nothing about them specifically that was annoying him. It was just an odd sensation that he wasn't in as much control as he had always thought. He knew his power extended over the whole sphere of the planet, and some distance into the surrounding space. He would have noticed if any of his subjects had broken his hold. Even those who weren't under a direct influence. He pushed the feeling aside, and turned his mind to more important matters.

-

Although Hyara had wanted to find out whether Count Angelus' chef was as good as the rest of his staff seemed to be, her waking thoughts were not concerned with the matter. In fact, her waking thoughts were 'Why am I waking up?'

It was only when she verbalised the thought that she noticed Marianna sitting by the bed. She pulled herself up into a sitting position as Marianna stood up, waving at the butler to leave.

"You stopped on the stairwell and just toppled over. We barely caught you. There's nothing physically wrong with you, but it's not physical trauma that we were worried about."

Before she could start asking questions, Hyara cut in. "Where's the butler going?"

"He's going to find Dareth. I convinced him that only one of us needed to stay here, so he's questioning the staff." Marianna gently pushed Hyara back down onto the bed.

"Just like him. For such a patient man, I've never known him to wait around for something trivial like this." She lay back and closed her eyes, relaxing her body, but keeping her mental guard up. Focussing her power for the first time in a while she finally realised what was so strange about this place, and Alexia, and the butler.

Before she could explain it however, Dareth hurried into the room, followed at a more sedate pace by the butler, who calmly closed the doors so roughly thrown open by Dareth's entrance. As her guardian almost ran over to the bed, Hyara sat up again, and smiled weakly at him. "I'm fine Dareth. A little tired I think, but other than that there's nothing specifically wrong with me." Relief flooded his face, and he sat down in the chair placed opposite Marianna's. The butler was standing just by the door, clearly waiting to see if his services were further required.

Making sure that he couldn't see her mouth, Hyara actively tried to contact his mind. 'Thank you, we will call if we require anything'

He didn't even blink. Only one thing happened, and Hyara was in no state to notice what it was.

Marianna gasped as Hyara's eyes glazed over and her body fell backwards; her head bouncing off the pillows and all signs of consciousness vanishing completely.

It's a bit shorter than usual I know, but that just seemed a good place to pause. If anyone wants to take a guess awhat's happening feel free.

As always, your opinions are welcomed, especially if it helps me improve.

Don't forget what it says in the summary though. Flame me, and I WILL Karamazov you!