Sorry for the delay, I actually don't know what I did all the time, but I was not writing. This chapter I finished with my last one, so I just needed to correct it. But I already continued... only some sentences... but it will get more for the next chapter. SO have fun reading it and please review.

Like you.

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"Michiru, you don't have to keep silent. After all she's your daughter and she has the right to know that. She will understand your reasons for giving her away. I know that… she is as smart like you!"

The aquanette smiled lightly. "I wish she would understand, but I don't want to destroy her life and her trust in her family." She sighed looking in the eyes of her green haired companion where she saw appreciation. "I don't know what to do when I meet her. But nevertheless I finally want to see her. It's hurting so much. You don't know how hard it was and is for me only to have the memory of her birth but nothing more."

"Don't you see her?" Setsuna looked dumbfounded and Michiru shook her head.

"I tried at her thirteens birthday. But she refused me, I couldn't see her clearly. I thought it would be me, I didn't feel well that day probably of my sorrow I felt that day. That was also the motivation to finally see her in real after so many years… the next time I tried were some years later. That time I couldn't see anything at all and it became clear to me that she has got the power to suppress me." She smiled sadly. "Only one had the power to suppress me like that."

"Haruka!" Her companion stated and Michiru nodded. "It looks like she's got something more from him than only the blonde hair."

Michiru's brow rose. "Blonde? At her birth she had dark blue ones!"

"Oh yes she had, but only some weeks later they turned more and more into blond. The same blonde the Haruka of your childhood had!"

"Her blonde was the most beautiful!" She smiled but then pouted. "You've never told me that!"

"My princess didn't ask!" The older woman twinkled and after some moments of silence she told her how her daughter looked like. "She's got your eyes, that powerful and deep blue and the most important she's got your beauty. Actually your features are more dominant than her fathers from whom she has only the hair color and perhaps the nose. Oh and of course she does have your locks."

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Haruka watched Aiko trying not to attract attention, but was definitely noticeable. The observed girl was playing with one of her blonde curls and winded it around her index finger. Between the two was a small bonfire when suddenly the short haired girl got bumped from her brother sitting next her. "Don't stare at her that obvious; no one can be so stupid and not feel your glares!" The blonde tomboy looked at Arat with an open mouth.

"I didn't glare. I was just looking what she's doing."

Her brother was about to lecture the blonde when Aiko spoke standing to their sides. "Would you mind if I sit down next to you Haruka?"

Said persons mouth opened more and when she realized what the other girl asked she wagged her head. "Not at all." She bumped into Arat pushing him away to clear the way for her companion.

That couldn't be, is that girl interested in Haruka like she is in her? Arat disbelievingly watched Aiko sitting down next to his sister. "You know what?" He jumped to his feet. "I will see if I can find some more wood for the bonfire that it can burn the whole night. At least I think Haruka has to sleep some hours and maybe Aiko wants to rest a little bit as well as me." He nodded to them and vanished behind the trees leaving his sister with a still gaping mouth behind.

Both watched the fire making its movements in accordance with the shallow wind sitting side by side in silence. They were that near that Haruka felt the warmth the girl next to her was emitting.

"You're a halfblood!" The tomboy turned to watch Aikos face who looked straight into the fire. Then she followed the smaller girl's view. The fire's warmth danced on her face.

"What makes you think that?" Haruka asked after some quiet moments.

Aiko smiled faintly. "I've observed you. It's not like that that you like to sleep, it's because you need to as Arat mentioned before. That's the human side of a Lebenlang. Besides, you could have almost fooled me with your strength; your fighting movements looked like an Ewige. But still, you are not that light-footed and elegant."

"What?" Haruka laughed. "Have you ever seen a Lebenlang? They trample so much more than me, they are not trained by Ewige like I am and would look like an elephant next to me!" She protested.

"So you are one and you were just trained by Ewige?" She stated and Harukas mouth gaped again, thinking about what she said. "I thought so because your brother is indeed one of us and probably your family too. You're raised by them, so you behave like we do, but you can't be one of us. It looks like your something between a Lebenlang and an Ewige."

"Woah. Hey, hey, hey. I didn't say that I'm a Lebenlang." Haruka looked at Aiko dumbfounded. She was something in between. Born a Lebenlang, but raised like an Ewige and she doesn't belong to any side.

The blonde girl looked at her. "But you didn't say that you're an Ewige neither!"

Haruka observed her deep blue eyes and sighed. "That's because I'm not one of them. As much as I wish to, it's nothing I can achieve! I'm not one of you and will never be one of you!"

Aiko nodded lightly and spoke after a moment's silence. "What makes you think that I am one of them?"

Haruka looked confused. "You are not? But your aura and your…"

"I know my aura and everything else… It's kind of complicated; I am one of them, but as well like I'm not one of them."

"I don't understand." The tomboy stuttered.

"You know there was a reason I accompanied you and Arat that day when you came to rescue me?" She stretched her hands which were covered by gloves made of Cynester and lifted her right hand towards the other blondes face.

Haruka winced when the special fabric of the glove touched her cheek and caressed it. It was so soft and in the next moment indestructible. Cynester was a fascinating substance and that was the first time Haruka came in contact with it. The deep blue eyes bewitched her and she couldn't move but was afraid what would happen next. "Aiko, I am…" But then she felt her fingers touching her ear and stroke above the peak.

"The peaked ears, that's what makes you recognizable as a Lebenlang. I only know it from books. I haven't seen someone of your kind before. Not in real life and not in a dream." The next moment she removed her hand from Haruka and pulled her long blonde curls behind her ear and revealed ears which were peaked. They were not as much pronounced as the tomboy's but they were definitely recognizable also from far.

"You are a…" Her mouth stood wide open.

Aiko shook her head. "No, I'm no Lebenlang. But I also don't feel like a real Ewige, although the abbess told me that I definitely am." She shook her head and her hair covered her ears again. "It's not only the peaked ears. They are quiet easy to hide but something else isn't preventable that others wouldn't be conspicuous about…"

"And that would be?" Haruka asked curiously.

"I grew faster than the people my age. My body looks already like a human with fifteen while others look like about seven or perhaps eight."

The swordsmith looked confused. "How old are you really?"

"I'm getting 52 in the month of the two moons falling."

Haruka choked. "I'm getting 53…"

"And you look like eighteen. You see what I mean?" The short cut blonde nodded. "You are the first person I've met who's live is closely resembling mine, that's why I decided to meet you again and accompany you!"

"Who are you parents? Are they…?"

Aiko shook her head. "They are normal Ewige. My father told me that some ancestor of us were like me, but somehow I couldn't believe him. I actually don't know whether they are my real parents, I mean I do have some looks like my brothers. But nobody of them has got peaked ears or growing faster." She chuckled. "I researched in books and studied our line and ancestral chart. I don't know what to believe, it's…"

They felt Arat coming back. "Hey! I thought Haruka would sleep already till I come back…" He saw the looks in their eyes that something's going on. Oh no. They didn't make out, did they? "Did I interrupt you or something?"

Haruka shook her head and Aiko fell silent. "Ok, ok." He threw some wood on the burning fire and sat next to his sister.

-ö-

Arat watched the blonde girl carefully. She looked into the flames still sitting next to his sister who slept for almost an hour now. "Your name sounds quiet familiar Aiko. Who are your parents?"

The girl kept quiet.

"I think I remember your name given to a baby girl from the royal family." She didn't react at all. "And at least the duke of Odenwald is the son of the queen. But then I remember his daughter being born about fifty years ago which wouldn't make sense after all. You're too old for that." Suddenly she turned around and ocean eyes met brown. They looked angry and sad simultaneously.

"You don't know anything about the duke and his daughter. So don't make any conclusions. My name is maybe the same like hers, but it doesn't have to mean that I am automatically her." She tried to speak calm.

Arat looked dumbfounded. "I'm sorry. I was just thinking about your name all the time and your guards… I mean you look noble and it would have been so easy to combine it." Aiko watched the flames again and remained silent. The dark haired man sighed. "Ok. I understood, just tell us about you when you think you're ready." Haruka was right: That girl was indeed weird.

-ö-

Uran was set in a hollow, which made it invisible from a certain distance. The forest hid the big town walls on the hills around the city. The only way in was the big river. On almost every hill was a tower rising above the trees and occupied by soldiers anytime ready to spot enemy troops and give alarm with a fire which was ignited by the tower first seeing the fiends and after that by all others giving alarm to the city. The towers get less and less leaving the city, but there remained always a chain from city to city.

The two cloaked figures made their way down the valley to the street by the river following its flow down into the city. Humans were walking and riding horses or taking a horse carriage up and down the broad way. It was really loud and vivid like human cities were and Uran was at least the capital of the humans.

"I can feel him. He's probably also in town." Red eyes turned to her companion.

Michiru only nodded. "I saw him entering the gate to Uran. It was only some hours after we felt his aura in the forest around the dead human bodies before we got to Heidelberg. He wants us to know that he's also here!"

"How do you know?" Their eyes locked.

"He turned looking straight in my eyes and then he started to grin! He wanted me to watch him entering the city and wants us to know that he's here. He's probably joining the ball as well."

"At least we are here to stop him before he's going to burn the city again!"

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Please R&R