A/N Thank you all so much! Keep up the reviews and I'll keep up the updating! lol. Here you go, the newest chapter. I hope you like it.

Chapter Ten: So It Begins

Here I am again, Blaine thought as she stood inside the training ring of the long ago duel with Claire. It looked the same as it had before, but this time Darren was occupying the stands that were set-aside for an audience instead of leaning eagerly against the fence as he had the time before. It seemed he was perfectly fine with Merric taking the wheel in her training.

Blaine looked down at the practice sword she was holding and sighed. It was all well and good that she and Merric were on…well, she supposed they could be called civil terms. But dragging her out of bed before the sun was even up to train with swords when she could be reading more about those darn spells?

Tension was thick.

"What are we doing here peasant?" she asked, but her voice lacked the usual bite. She was tired today, for some reason. Very tired. Her limbs felt weighted down by the stress of dealing with Merric and struggling with her feelings and trying so hard to find even the slightest little hint of something to do with the spells.

It was frustrating to work so hard for so long for so little gains. In the past three months they had fallen into a rhythm. Wake up, eat in the mess hall, read in the library, eat lunch in the mess hall, back to library for more reading, and then dinner in the mess hall. By then all the reading had exhausted all of them, so they usually went to bed. Sometimes Blaine would take a book or two with her, but always she fell asleep before getting around to reading it.

Was it any wonder she was so tired?

"We're taking a break! I can't read another book! Now, get into position. I want to see you duel," Merric took the guard position in front of her, motioning for her to attack.

She did, slowly at first, but Merric didn't seem to react to anything, simply deflected her hit and motioned for the next. It wasn't long before she was hitting left and right, throwing at him all the different styles and types of offensive attacks Darren had taught her.

By the time Merric called it quits she was breathing hard and glistening with a fine sheen of sweat. Bending over, putting her hands on her knees, she tried to catch her breath back. "Do you want to do defense now?"

"No, I want to show you something. Hold out your hand while holding your sword," as Merric had been watching Blaine attack, he had noticed something that he was certain Darren hadn't meant to teach her.

Once she had her hand out, Merric stepped up beside her and placed his outstretched hand beside hers. "Look at the way we grip our swords."

Blaine did as she was instructed and noticed immediately that there was an obvious difference. Merric held his sword in a tight fist, or what looked like a tight fist. She could see by his fingers that he wasn't gripping it hard, but all of his fingers were closed together around the hilt. Blaine held hers differently.

Her first was closed around the hilt also, but her fingers were slanted downwards towards her wrist, while her pointer finger was stretched out farther along the hilt, as was her thumb. She frowned, wondering.

"What's the problem with that?" Blaine demanded, stepping away from Merric so she could face him. She had been weapons training for four years and no one had noticed before that she held her sword funny. Maybe he was just being a brat about it.

"There's nothing wrong with it, exactly. It's just not as strong a grip as the one that I use," Merric explained, frowning at her. Blaine looked over at Darren who was sitting outside the training ring. He didn't seem to have any objection to what Merric was saying.

"But I've never had a problem with it before! My grip's perfectly fine. You're delusional," Blaine huffed and stamped her foot. Really, he was just nit picking, she told herself, pouting in Merric's general direction. He didn't want to admit that she was so perfect there was nothing wrong with her.

Startled at her own thoughts, Blaine looked down at her hand. Where had that come from? She wondered. Maybe she was tired, needed to stop reading so much, stop relaying so much on her characters. Her inner thoughts were starting to sound like them.

"You just haven't entered the right circumstances for a problem to occur. Come, get into position again. I'll show you," Merric motioned with his hand and the sparring commenced.

At first, Blaine was tense, watching his every move, taking extra care in making sure her grip was strong. Merric saw this and for that reason didn't make his move quite yet. He waited until she had relaxed into her normal battle mode then struck.

With a sharp twist of his shoulder, Merric hit hard from a certain angle near the tip of the sword. Blaine cried out, feeling her wrist stretching, straining to hold up the sword. She felt the fingers stretch open from the fist, felt the sword fly out of her hand.

"See?" Merric straightened from his battle stance and watched Blaine as she furiously bent and retrieved her sword.

"Beginner's luck!" She spat and got into her opening stance. "You won't be able to do that again."

But he did. He had to wait longer to make his move, an impossibly long time, because Blaine was expecting it now. But he waited for his chance to move, saw it, and attacked.

Blaine saw it coming, was expecting it, she braced for it and still the sword was knocked form her hand. She shook out her wrist, feeling the pain in it.

"Do it again!" she hissed, grabbing her sword and putting it up. Again she braced for the blow and again Merric knocked the sword from her hand. There really was a flaw in her grip.

"Again!" She shouted. This time, however, instead of bracing, as she had done before, when she saw the blow coming, she lunged forward, so the blow, instead of hitting the tip of her sword, hit it straight in the middle. Though she had to struggle with it, she was able to shove of Merric's sword and keep her own in hand.

"Ha!" she gloated, dusting off her hands and giving him a cocky smirk. "There may be a flaw, but as long as I see it coming, it's no big deal."

"No big deal?" Merric demanded. The tone of his voice caught her off guard. Blaine looked up into his face and saw he was truly angry. "It's a very big deal! An enemy won't give you a second chance to master the blow like I gave you, Princess. An enemy won't let you pick your sword back up and continue the fight, Princess. An enemy won't be kind. An enemy will find your weakness, exploit it, and then kill you!"

"Merric, I was—"

"Be quiet!" Merric was really furious, Blaine saw. Her hand rose to her chest, fisted there, as she shut her mouth and watched him with wide frightened eyes. He was just the slightest bit scary like that.

"You're a princess, Blaine! You can't afford stupid mistakes like a weak grip. One wrong move and you could be killed. Royalty can't die that easily. It causes problems for everyone, not to mention the people left behind after your death. I won't let that happen to you!

"Grab your sword, tight, closed fist!" Merric shouted and grabbed her hand himself, crushing the fingers into place then holding them their. Blaine squirmed, crying out, trying to get him to let go. But he didn't he only squeezed tighter and continued to yell at her. "You'll carry this sword around with you, everywhere you go! And you'll grip it like I tell you or so help me, I'll strap you down and beat it into you!"

The pain in her hand was growing, so using her last resorts Blaine lifted up her hand and bit him. Merric cried out and snatched his hand back. He growled and brought his hand back to hit her.

Looking into his eyes in that moment, Blaine saw them glowing from within. She felt time stop for just an instant as she looked into that light in his eyes. But she didn't see Merric when she looked. She saw a shadow of a man's face, could see the sharp chin and rugged jaw line, could see the straight dark hair across his brow. No, she wasn't seeing Merric. And it chilled her to the bone.

The man was smiling too, she could see the white teeth faintly, could see the evil, mocking tilt of it. This man in the light scared her, and he seemed to know it, and that infuriated Blaine. She might be scared but damn it, she didn't have to let it show.

Time started again as Blaine lifted her chin, wanting to face that man head on. She faced something else instead.

Theopen-handed smackcame fast and hard, knocking her off her feet. She had barely landed when Merric was at her side, helping her back up, lifting her chin, inspecting her for other injuries.

And spewing apologies.

"Merric, it's alright," Blaine whispered, trying to get away from him. Trying to create some distance so she could think. What had that been? Who had that been? And what did it mean?

"I'm so sorry! I was just so angry! I kept thinking of how easy it would be to kill you because of the stupid grip and it was making me so angry! It was like… like the anger was a living thing inside me that just took over!"

"Get away from her!" Darren tackled Merric solidly through the middle, sending them both sprawling a few feet away. Blaine, now sitting up and fingering her own chin, quickly thought of how to stop the up and coming chaos that Darren was about to create. She'd have to put thoughts of that eerie light and that evil grinaside for now.

Throwing her head back, she laughed, a glorious, full-bellied laugh. When she had stopped and taken a look at the two men staring at her, bewildered, she considered it a job well done. Chaos successfully avoided.

"Darren, get off of Merric and help me stand," he responded as if he had been electrocuted. It hadn't been seconds when he had his arm around her waist and was supporting her as she stood.

"He didn't hurt you too bad, did he? I'm heading straight to the king to tell him right now that I want that man hanged! Assaulting a princess, he deserves no less!" Darren turned to send a seething glance at Merric, who was sitting with his head down in shame.

"Oh stop!" Blaine laughed and pushed away from Darren. She considered what Merric had said and what she had seen. No, Merric hadn't meant to hit her, but she was willing to bet that man she had seen had. Just one more spell she would be looking for now, it seemed. It had to be a spell, how else could aman get inside of Merric, take control of him like that?

Walking over to Merric, Blaine casually offered a hand to Merric. "I needed some sense knocked into me! He did me a favor. Now, how was that grip?"

Merric mouthed a thank you and began teaching Blaine the new grip. Darren watched them closely for a long time before deciding it wouldn't happen again and returned to his seat in the stands.

As they continued their lesson, Blaine decided she needed to speak to Gainel, and soon.

Blaine used the excuse of needing a snack to sneak away from the men who were reading in the library. From there it was easy walking back to her rooms, locking the doors behind her, stepping into her bedroom and locking that door too.

Taking a seat on her bed, she closed her eyes and called out to Gainel, picturing him in her head as he had instructed her to do many years before. It wasn't long before she felt his presence next to her, smelt that wonderful lavender, felt the utter relaxation his presence exuded.

"Gainel," she smiled and opened her eyes, took in his beautiful face.

"My dear Blaine. What is it that I can do for you?" he smiled and Blaine thought she heard women sighing. Shaking her head she quickly explained to Gainel what she had seen.

When she had finished she looked at his face and saw that he was frowning heavily, his eyes troubled. "What does it mean?"

"Are you sure it was a man?" Gainel asked, and his voice sounded like thunder.

"Yes, I'm sure. But Gainel, what does it mean?" Blaine demanded.

"It means my worst fears are being realized. Blaine!" Gainel was suddenly grabbing her hands, squeezing. "You have to hurry! You have to find that book I spoke of, and you have to find it soon! We're running out of time."

"Time for what? I don't understand. What's going?" Blaine was flustered, disturbed by the desperation and urgency in Gainel's voice. "What aren't you telling me?"

"Blaine?" A knock on the door had her head whipping up, staring at it. Thank the lord it was locked, she thought as she looked back at Gainel. How would it look if they saw her with a god, locked and alone in a room?

"There are many things I'm not telling you," Gainel whispered, his eyes serious and deep. "And for many good reasons. Blaine, you just have to trust me."

"Tell me what's going on!" Gainel was starting to fade. His hands were still touching hers but the contact was faint, almost as if he wasn't really there. "Tell me who that man was! Tell me what it means!"

"Hurry Blaine! Before it's too late," and he was gone.

"To late for what?" Blaine demanded to nobody.

"Blaine!" Darren was knocking on her door. "Who's in there with you?"

"No one," Blaine called out, then whispered quietly to herself. "No one at all."

Two days later, Blaine entered the library early in the morning to find all but one of her books was gone. She whimpered, she cried, she wailed, and blubbered. Then she sat at the table and picked up the last book, started to read.

Three pages in she realized she had finally found what she had been looking for.