Herald's Silence
by Shadow Flare
Chapter Three: Dream-Sent
***
"Danyen!" a voice called his name, and Danyen Orie turned to see Princess Leshia running down the hall. The Herald-Mage trainee looked unhappy.
"Leshia, what's wrong?" he asked his friend. The Heir gasped, all out of breath.
"Leareth sent his envoy, like Mother said he would." Leshia said, her mouth twisted into a grimace, and hazel eyes irritated.
"Hold on-he wants to negotiate a marriage with YOU?" Danyen said, surprised. "He's far too old for you, and you're still a trainee."
"Not with me, he doesn't want me, thank goodness. I'd want Seryel to repudiate me before I'd marry Adept Leareth. No, he wants Hanna, the envoy said." Leshia told him unhappily. "Hanna's in the throne room right now, listening to all that rubbish the envoy's telling her. From the look on her face when I left, she is not thrilled with this at all."
Danyen felt his heart drop. (Bright Lady, no!) he thought.
"Mother's got a whole list of reasons drawn up why Hanna cannot marry Leareth, and knowing Hanna, she's got her own list of reasons why she can't possibly marry Leareth, and on the top of that list is the fact that she's lifebonded to you." Leshia commented.
"I'd kill Hanna with my own hands before I'd see her marry Leareth." Danyen said coldly. "And then I'd kill myself, too."
"Hanna would probably rather be dead then married to his Darkship Leareth." Leshia added. "Or dying a hideously painful death."
Footsteps coming down the corridor told them that someone was coming, and they both whirled in surprise, to find Hanna standing there.
Danyen saw that his beautiful lifebonded's face was angry, and her silver eyes held the fire of rage in them.
"You've already heard about Leareth's proposal." Hanna said, her voice holding barely-contained anger. "He *knows* that I can't leave now, I'm needed here more then I am as his bride." the petite Herald-Mage began pacing. "He also knows that Arel won't let him within a thousand miles of me...she'd kick him if he tried. Hells, I'd kick him, too."
"You told the envoy your refusal, right?" Danyen asked.
"Not yet...Terilee sent me out, the envoy's giving me a week to think about that...I already made up my mind, even *before* he started talking." Hanna growled. "Leareth knows that I'm lifebonded already, hell, most of Velgarth knows, it's obvious that you and I are lifebonded. So what's he going to do about the lifebond?"
Leshia cleared her throat. "From what I know about Leareth, he doesn't seem the type to be up for a threesome."
Danyen began choking on his laughter, and Hanna stared at her for a moment as if she couldn't believe what she had just heard, and then started laughing.
"I can't believe you just said that." Hanna sputtered.
"I'm trying to lighten the mood. Listen, you have a week to craft a finely-honed diplomatically-correct way to say 'no' to Leareth but being careful not to insult or anger him." Leshia said. "I'm off now, I've got lessons."
She waved and ran on down the hall.
"What are you going to do, Hanna-ashke?" Danyen asked. She shrugged, slender shoulders shifting beneath her white tunic.
"Say no, of course. Other than that...I have no idea." she said quietly, her silver eyes sad and reflective. "ForeSight is not telling me anything...so I guess we'll have to wait and see."
Danyen took a step forward and gathered her slight figure into his arms, his chin resting on top of her silver-streaked blond head.
"No matter what happens, Hanna, I'll always be with you." he said...
***
"WAKE UP, TYLENDEL!" Rosemary yelled. He opened one eye, cursed as Rosemary flipped the light switch and the bright light shocked his vision, and shut his eyes again, pulling a pillow over his head.
"Go away." he muttered weakly. Rosemary grinned at him and tossed her blond head.
"You can't get rid of me that easily, 'Lendel." the petite girl said cheerily.
(5:30 in the morning is too early to be so damned cheerful...) Tylendel thought.
"Whatever you've been smoking, I want some." Tylendel muttered. "It's got to be a federal crime to be so cheerful at 5:30 in the morning in the middle of August. Especially on a school morning."
"As far as I know, it's not." the Healer-Adept responded, as pleasantly as he was grouchy. "Now get up. According to Savil, you have an hour to get your ass out of bed and ready, or we're leaving you behind."
"She wouldn't be so mean." Tylendel moaned.
"She most certainly would. Now, it ought to be a federal crime to begin school in August...it's the middle of August, and we've been in school for two weeks. Unfortunately, it's not." Rosemary's azure eyes sparkled with good humor: she and her twin brother JP were both very easygoing and good-natured, though JP was more goofy then her.
"What kind of sense of humor do you have?" Tylendel grouched. Not only was it too early in the morning, it was also too hot for his taste: heat made him irritable. "You must be crazy."
"I'm a Herald, Tylendel." Rosemary said, together with someone else-JP. "That's close to the point of actual craziness."
JP bowed from the doorway, and exchanged a high-five with his twin.
"Thanks a lot, you two." Tylendel said sarcastically. "I'm a Herald-trainee...so that makes me crazy too?"
"No, just in need of MindHealing." JP quipped. "That's probably why Whites were invented."
"What are you talking about, JP?" Tylendel said, irritation coloring his tenor voice. Under normal circumstances, JP's absurdity would be highly amusing, but this was scarcely a normal circumstance.
"Whites were invented so that MindHealers could see Heralds at a distance and treat them immediately." JP said with a grin.
"Amazing logic, Joseph Patrick Johnson." Tylendel said acidly, clapping his hands sarcastically. "When'd you figure that out?"
"Your theory would make brilliant sense now, considering there are a lot of MindHealers, but what about the fact that most of them are HERALDS?" Rosemary said, the corner of her mouth quirked upward.
"Name all the MindHealers you can think of." JP challenged her.
"Me, for one. Lyn-"
"Though she needs her own Gift the most-" Tylendel muttered sourly, and the other two ignored him.
"Chris-"
"Though a MindHealing Firestarter makes no sense." JP muttered.
"Lancir is a MindHealer, and that's it for the Heraldic MindHealers. Then there are two MindHealing Healers: Rynee and that shy trainee, Talia." Rosemary continued. "That's the most MindHealers at one time I've ever heard of. Plus the fact that there are so many Firestarters..."
"Me, Chris, Sean, Anh, and Griffon." JP added.
"Is that good?" Tylendel asked sleepily.
"Not very. I keep forgetting you're not a full Herald yet." Rosemary said. "Odd Gifts pop up when they're needed."
JP stretched, and the tall Herald-Mage yawned. "Get up, Tylendel." he said, running a hand through his brown hair. "It's quarter 'til six."
"Go away." Tylendel muttered, as JP grinned, his blue eyes sparkling.
"Since I'm such a nice guy, I won't use Fetching." JP said, but he and Rosemary walked over to Tylendel's bed and yanked his blanket off, followed by the pillow over his head.
Tylendel threw a pillow at them with Fetching, but it missed, since he wasn't fully awake yet.
"Omae o korusu!" he growled irritably.
"It isn't nice to threaten to destroy us." Rosemary and JP said at the same time.
"Only on Wednesdays." Scott Summers said from the door.
"Today's Tuesday, dumbass." Tylendel grouched, getting up.
"Or so you think." Scott said.
"Get out of here." Tylendel growled. Grinning like fools, all three left the room...
Half an hour later, Tylendel fell down the stairs and ended up staring up at the ceiling downstairs.
"Do you routinely try to kill yourself?" Savil asked archly.
"No." Tylendel growled.
"You have the hardest head in the world, youngling." Savil said amusedly.
"When'd you figure that out, Savil?" Tylendel asked, sitting up and rubbing his head.
"The moment I met you." Savil said dryly. Tylendel gathered up his bookbag-his government textbook had been digging into his right ankle-and hopped over to the table, wincing. He fell gracelessly into a chair and leaned his head on the table.
"I'm so going to fall asleep in Ms. Block's class." He moaned. "I can barely keep my eyes open."
"And she's going to give you her old-fashioned Ms. Block beatdown." Mickiala snickered, from where she was putting her violin into its case. "Like the one she gave Lyn for forgetting her notebook."
"Shut up." Lyn growled.
"And she's going to slam a book in front of your face to wake you up." Micki continued, ignoring her friend, and snickered again. "But Lyn and I have her 6th period...she's much more on her toes then first period."
"She might be as tired as you. Who knows?" Anh asked, tucking a strand of black hair behind her ear. "Lyn, can I talk to you?"
"About more guy problems? Bright Lady, how many boyfriends have you had in the last two weeks?" Lyn asked sleepily. "And last year, too...can't you ask someone else to solve your problems? Micki knows more about romantic relationships then I do."
"But you listen to everything. Now, Micki doesn't listen to everything, if she doesn't think it's important, she tunes it out." Anh said, grinning, as Micki thumped her on the head.
"Be nice." The black girl chided her Vietnamese friend.
"I am. I could say so much more, but I won't..." Anh said, and Micki rolled her eyes.
"With friends like you, who needs enemies?" Micki asked.
"Not I." Anh grinned.
"Tchah!" Lyn growled. "Would you shut up, I'm trying to catch up on my sleep."
The telltale sound of a violin string snapping echoed through the air.
"Like the rest of us." Vanyel said tartly, pulling a spare A string out of his pocket. "Or trying to get some work done."
"I do my work!" Lyn protested.
"From your grade in my class, you wouldn't know." Savil said sardonically.
"I got a C+ on interim! And I do all my homework!" Lyn protested.
Rosemary rolled all her eyes heavenward. "Give me strength." The petite Herald-Mage said prayerfully: she was the TA (Teacher's Assistant) for Savil's 2nd Period Algebra 2/Trig class. "It should take you 45 minutes, an hour at most, to do your algebra homework. You were up until 12:00 doing Savil's homework, and you started it at 7:00."
"I still get it done." Lyn muttered to her cousin, and put her head back done on the table.
Finally, the bunch of sleepy teenagers had assembled in the living room.
"Scott, make sure that you don't miss the bus to Edison." Savil told him, leveling a withering glare at him, the same glare that flattened her apprentices, even strong-willed Lyn Littrell. Scott, however, was unaffected.
"But it's Scott Skip Day." He said nonchalantly.
"And I'm sixteen years old." The silver-haired woman told him acidly.
"Why aren't you in school, then?" was Scott's reply, and Savil rolled her eyes.
"Sarcasm is totally lost on you." She said.
"No, it's not." Scott said. Savil sighed.
"It must be. Tylendel, wake up!" Donni giggled. "Ms. Block's gonna have your hide nailed to the wall for sure." The dark-haired girl wasn't normally that hyper, but her breakfast had consisted entirely of the entire three-liter bottle of Mountain Dew that she had stolen from Scott's stash. And speaking of the stash...
"Give me the Dew!" Scott growled at his friend, John Pearson, who had stolen the 3-liter bottle of Dew that he had intended to bring to school.
"You'll have to catch me first." the Herald trainee said flippantly as he ran around the kitchen, Scott in hot pursuit.
"Here!" Justin jumped up and down, from where he was at the other end of the living rom. "Keepaway!"
John tossed the Dew, and Justin caught it.
"Give it to me!" Eboni Jerden grinned. The tall black Herald-Mage neatly caught the Dew bottle, and soon, a full-fledged game of Keepaway was under way in Savil's living room. Savil watched the game, a slight smile on her face.
:None of you DARE use Fetching, you hear me!?: she said in Broadsent-Mode.
:Why not? We ALWAYS use Fetching, and you never cared before, except to tell us not to break anything.: Eboni said, also in Broadsend-Mode.
:Before, there was only Heralds, Healers, Bards, and the trainees of all three groups here. But-: Savil responded in Broadsent-Mode, and jerked her head significantly toward Vanyel, who was putting his violin away.
:Ah.: Anh Mindspoke, and caught the Dew bottle, and sent it arcing over to Chris Allen. He sent it toward the door-
"Was it really necessary to hit me in the stomach with a three-liter Mountain Dew bottle? I know that you might be disgruntled that our names sound so similar, but getting nailed with a full bottle of Mountain Dew is NOT the way I like getting woken up." the Herald Kris Valerian said, one elegant black eyebrow raised. "Who's Dew is this anyway?"
"It's mine." Scott yelled. "Give it back!"
Kris threw the bottle to him.
"You're no fun!" Christine Nelson pouted at him.
"Get over it. It's quarter 'til seven." the young man told his classmate.
"I'm amazed. You got up early." Savil said sarcastically. Kris ignored her, and was promptly hit in the head with Lyn's Algebra book, papers flying everywhere. Lyn gave a yelp of dismay and got up to retrieve her homework. Thankfully, she got all of it back together in order. Kris tossed her the textbook.
"Was that necessary?" he asked.
"Of course." Eboni (who had thrown the textbook) said, grinning. "It's not fair that you look so good...we have to mess your perfect face up somehow. Speaking of perfection..."
Vanyel was feeling somewhat jealous of their close camaradie: he'd never seen such a different group of people interact so closely before. Certaintly his own family wasn't anywhere near as warm with each other as this brood of teenagers were.
(I don't need them...I don't need anyone...) the black-haired young man thought, summoning up the memory of his dreams of ice and snow-
Just as Eboni tackled him, knocking all the wind out of him. Vanyel wheezed, finding it very hard suddenly to breathe.
"Jeez, Ebs, calm down! You're killing the poor boy." Micki sputtered, laughing. Eboni released him, and stepped back.
"What was that for?" Vanyel gasped out.
"It's not fair that you and Kris happen to be prettier then most girls. So I have taken it upon myself to make your lives miserable." Eboni said, grinning. "Especially because you both are prettier then ME, and that is the unforgivable sin." she grinned even wider, bowed, and stepped away.
Tylendel watched the proceedings with an absent eye, since he was busy Mindspeaking his Companion Gala.
:Dearheart, do you think that those dreams I've been having MEAN anything? Important, that is.: he asked her.
:Are you blond?: Gala Sent back.
(Has she been taking lessons from Lyn...) Tylendel wondered briefly.
:I'm serious.:
:So am I.:
:What do the dreams mean? Danyen Orie was Hanna's lifebonded, every Herald and Herald-Mage knows the history, as do the Healers and Bards...and what does that have to do with me? I really hate being haunted by the past...:
:You know I can't tell you.: Gala said.
:Are you serious?: Tylendel demanded.
:Do fish swim?:
:I'm serious.:
:So am I.:
This was going around in circles, so Tylendel sent a wordless burst of love to Gala and closed the link, shutting his eyes...
Vanyel looked up from his violin case and the first thing he saw was the dozing Tylendel. A flush stained his pale cheeks as once again he realized that strangely enough, he was drawn to Tylendel...why, why him?
There was a thread of familiarity about Tylendel Frelennye that stretched back more then a thousand years, ten thousand years...like Vanyel and Tylendel had known each other, so long ago that trying to remember was like trying to hold the wind.
Vanyel didn't understand...but there was no denying the tie between them. And not for the first time in his young life, he had no idea what to do.
~End Chapter~
by Shadow Flare
Chapter Three: Dream-Sent
***
"Danyen!" a voice called his name, and Danyen Orie turned to see Princess Leshia running down the hall. The Herald-Mage trainee looked unhappy.
"Leshia, what's wrong?" he asked his friend. The Heir gasped, all out of breath.
"Leareth sent his envoy, like Mother said he would." Leshia said, her mouth twisted into a grimace, and hazel eyes irritated.
"Hold on-he wants to negotiate a marriage with YOU?" Danyen said, surprised. "He's far too old for you, and you're still a trainee."
"Not with me, he doesn't want me, thank goodness. I'd want Seryel to repudiate me before I'd marry Adept Leareth. No, he wants Hanna, the envoy said." Leshia told him unhappily. "Hanna's in the throne room right now, listening to all that rubbish the envoy's telling her. From the look on her face when I left, she is not thrilled with this at all."
Danyen felt his heart drop. (Bright Lady, no!) he thought.
"Mother's got a whole list of reasons drawn up why Hanna cannot marry Leareth, and knowing Hanna, she's got her own list of reasons why she can't possibly marry Leareth, and on the top of that list is the fact that she's lifebonded to you." Leshia commented.
"I'd kill Hanna with my own hands before I'd see her marry Leareth." Danyen said coldly. "And then I'd kill myself, too."
"Hanna would probably rather be dead then married to his Darkship Leareth." Leshia added. "Or dying a hideously painful death."
Footsteps coming down the corridor told them that someone was coming, and they both whirled in surprise, to find Hanna standing there.
Danyen saw that his beautiful lifebonded's face was angry, and her silver eyes held the fire of rage in them.
"You've already heard about Leareth's proposal." Hanna said, her voice holding barely-contained anger. "He *knows* that I can't leave now, I'm needed here more then I am as his bride." the petite Herald-Mage began pacing. "He also knows that Arel won't let him within a thousand miles of me...she'd kick him if he tried. Hells, I'd kick him, too."
"You told the envoy your refusal, right?" Danyen asked.
"Not yet...Terilee sent me out, the envoy's giving me a week to think about that...I already made up my mind, even *before* he started talking." Hanna growled. "Leareth knows that I'm lifebonded already, hell, most of Velgarth knows, it's obvious that you and I are lifebonded. So what's he going to do about the lifebond?"
Leshia cleared her throat. "From what I know about Leareth, he doesn't seem the type to be up for a threesome."
Danyen began choking on his laughter, and Hanna stared at her for a moment as if she couldn't believe what she had just heard, and then started laughing.
"I can't believe you just said that." Hanna sputtered.
"I'm trying to lighten the mood. Listen, you have a week to craft a finely-honed diplomatically-correct way to say 'no' to Leareth but being careful not to insult or anger him." Leshia said. "I'm off now, I've got lessons."
She waved and ran on down the hall.
"What are you going to do, Hanna-ashke?" Danyen asked. She shrugged, slender shoulders shifting beneath her white tunic.
"Say no, of course. Other than that...I have no idea." she said quietly, her silver eyes sad and reflective. "ForeSight is not telling me anything...so I guess we'll have to wait and see."
Danyen took a step forward and gathered her slight figure into his arms, his chin resting on top of her silver-streaked blond head.
"No matter what happens, Hanna, I'll always be with you." he said...
***
"WAKE UP, TYLENDEL!" Rosemary yelled. He opened one eye, cursed as Rosemary flipped the light switch and the bright light shocked his vision, and shut his eyes again, pulling a pillow over his head.
"Go away." he muttered weakly. Rosemary grinned at him and tossed her blond head.
"You can't get rid of me that easily, 'Lendel." the petite girl said cheerily.
(5:30 in the morning is too early to be so damned cheerful...) Tylendel thought.
"Whatever you've been smoking, I want some." Tylendel muttered. "It's got to be a federal crime to be so cheerful at 5:30 in the morning in the middle of August. Especially on a school morning."
"As far as I know, it's not." the Healer-Adept responded, as pleasantly as he was grouchy. "Now get up. According to Savil, you have an hour to get your ass out of bed and ready, or we're leaving you behind."
"She wouldn't be so mean." Tylendel moaned.
"She most certainly would. Now, it ought to be a federal crime to begin school in August...it's the middle of August, and we've been in school for two weeks. Unfortunately, it's not." Rosemary's azure eyes sparkled with good humor: she and her twin brother JP were both very easygoing and good-natured, though JP was more goofy then her.
"What kind of sense of humor do you have?" Tylendel grouched. Not only was it too early in the morning, it was also too hot for his taste: heat made him irritable. "You must be crazy."
"I'm a Herald, Tylendel." Rosemary said, together with someone else-JP. "That's close to the point of actual craziness."
JP bowed from the doorway, and exchanged a high-five with his twin.
"Thanks a lot, you two." Tylendel said sarcastically. "I'm a Herald-trainee...so that makes me crazy too?"
"No, just in need of MindHealing." JP quipped. "That's probably why Whites were invented."
"What are you talking about, JP?" Tylendel said, irritation coloring his tenor voice. Under normal circumstances, JP's absurdity would be highly amusing, but this was scarcely a normal circumstance.
"Whites were invented so that MindHealers could see Heralds at a distance and treat them immediately." JP said with a grin.
"Amazing logic, Joseph Patrick Johnson." Tylendel said acidly, clapping his hands sarcastically. "When'd you figure that out?"
"Your theory would make brilliant sense now, considering there are a lot of MindHealers, but what about the fact that most of them are HERALDS?" Rosemary said, the corner of her mouth quirked upward.
"Name all the MindHealers you can think of." JP challenged her.
"Me, for one. Lyn-"
"Though she needs her own Gift the most-" Tylendel muttered sourly, and the other two ignored him.
"Chris-"
"Though a MindHealing Firestarter makes no sense." JP muttered.
"Lancir is a MindHealer, and that's it for the Heraldic MindHealers. Then there are two MindHealing Healers: Rynee and that shy trainee, Talia." Rosemary continued. "That's the most MindHealers at one time I've ever heard of. Plus the fact that there are so many Firestarters..."
"Me, Chris, Sean, Anh, and Griffon." JP added.
"Is that good?" Tylendel asked sleepily.
"Not very. I keep forgetting you're not a full Herald yet." Rosemary said. "Odd Gifts pop up when they're needed."
JP stretched, and the tall Herald-Mage yawned. "Get up, Tylendel." he said, running a hand through his brown hair. "It's quarter 'til six."
"Go away." Tylendel muttered, as JP grinned, his blue eyes sparkling.
"Since I'm such a nice guy, I won't use Fetching." JP said, but he and Rosemary walked over to Tylendel's bed and yanked his blanket off, followed by the pillow over his head.
Tylendel threw a pillow at them with Fetching, but it missed, since he wasn't fully awake yet.
"Omae o korusu!" he growled irritably.
"It isn't nice to threaten to destroy us." Rosemary and JP said at the same time.
"Only on Wednesdays." Scott Summers said from the door.
"Today's Tuesday, dumbass." Tylendel grouched, getting up.
"Or so you think." Scott said.
"Get out of here." Tylendel growled. Grinning like fools, all three left the room...
Half an hour later, Tylendel fell down the stairs and ended up staring up at the ceiling downstairs.
"Do you routinely try to kill yourself?" Savil asked archly.
"No." Tylendel growled.
"You have the hardest head in the world, youngling." Savil said amusedly.
"When'd you figure that out, Savil?" Tylendel asked, sitting up and rubbing his head.
"The moment I met you." Savil said dryly. Tylendel gathered up his bookbag-his government textbook had been digging into his right ankle-and hopped over to the table, wincing. He fell gracelessly into a chair and leaned his head on the table.
"I'm so going to fall asleep in Ms. Block's class." He moaned. "I can barely keep my eyes open."
"And she's going to give you her old-fashioned Ms. Block beatdown." Mickiala snickered, from where she was putting her violin into its case. "Like the one she gave Lyn for forgetting her notebook."
"Shut up." Lyn growled.
"And she's going to slam a book in front of your face to wake you up." Micki continued, ignoring her friend, and snickered again. "But Lyn and I have her 6th period...she's much more on her toes then first period."
"She might be as tired as you. Who knows?" Anh asked, tucking a strand of black hair behind her ear. "Lyn, can I talk to you?"
"About more guy problems? Bright Lady, how many boyfriends have you had in the last two weeks?" Lyn asked sleepily. "And last year, too...can't you ask someone else to solve your problems? Micki knows more about romantic relationships then I do."
"But you listen to everything. Now, Micki doesn't listen to everything, if she doesn't think it's important, she tunes it out." Anh said, grinning, as Micki thumped her on the head.
"Be nice." The black girl chided her Vietnamese friend.
"I am. I could say so much more, but I won't..." Anh said, and Micki rolled her eyes.
"With friends like you, who needs enemies?" Micki asked.
"Not I." Anh grinned.
"Tchah!" Lyn growled. "Would you shut up, I'm trying to catch up on my sleep."
The telltale sound of a violin string snapping echoed through the air.
"Like the rest of us." Vanyel said tartly, pulling a spare A string out of his pocket. "Or trying to get some work done."
"I do my work!" Lyn protested.
"From your grade in my class, you wouldn't know." Savil said sardonically.
"I got a C+ on interim! And I do all my homework!" Lyn protested.
Rosemary rolled all her eyes heavenward. "Give me strength." The petite Herald-Mage said prayerfully: she was the TA (Teacher's Assistant) for Savil's 2nd Period Algebra 2/Trig class. "It should take you 45 minutes, an hour at most, to do your algebra homework. You were up until 12:00 doing Savil's homework, and you started it at 7:00."
"I still get it done." Lyn muttered to her cousin, and put her head back done on the table.
Finally, the bunch of sleepy teenagers had assembled in the living room.
"Scott, make sure that you don't miss the bus to Edison." Savil told him, leveling a withering glare at him, the same glare that flattened her apprentices, even strong-willed Lyn Littrell. Scott, however, was unaffected.
"But it's Scott Skip Day." He said nonchalantly.
"And I'm sixteen years old." The silver-haired woman told him acidly.
"Why aren't you in school, then?" was Scott's reply, and Savil rolled her eyes.
"Sarcasm is totally lost on you." She said.
"No, it's not." Scott said. Savil sighed.
"It must be. Tylendel, wake up!" Donni giggled. "Ms. Block's gonna have your hide nailed to the wall for sure." The dark-haired girl wasn't normally that hyper, but her breakfast had consisted entirely of the entire three-liter bottle of Mountain Dew that she had stolen from Scott's stash. And speaking of the stash...
"Give me the Dew!" Scott growled at his friend, John Pearson, who had stolen the 3-liter bottle of Dew that he had intended to bring to school.
"You'll have to catch me first." the Herald trainee said flippantly as he ran around the kitchen, Scott in hot pursuit.
"Here!" Justin jumped up and down, from where he was at the other end of the living rom. "Keepaway!"
John tossed the Dew, and Justin caught it.
"Give it to me!" Eboni Jerden grinned. The tall black Herald-Mage neatly caught the Dew bottle, and soon, a full-fledged game of Keepaway was under way in Savil's living room. Savil watched the game, a slight smile on her face.
:None of you DARE use Fetching, you hear me!?: she said in Broadsent-Mode.
:Why not? We ALWAYS use Fetching, and you never cared before, except to tell us not to break anything.: Eboni said, also in Broadsend-Mode.
:Before, there was only Heralds, Healers, Bards, and the trainees of all three groups here. But-: Savil responded in Broadsent-Mode, and jerked her head significantly toward Vanyel, who was putting his violin away.
:Ah.: Anh Mindspoke, and caught the Dew bottle, and sent it arcing over to Chris Allen. He sent it toward the door-
"Was it really necessary to hit me in the stomach with a three-liter Mountain Dew bottle? I know that you might be disgruntled that our names sound so similar, but getting nailed with a full bottle of Mountain Dew is NOT the way I like getting woken up." the Herald Kris Valerian said, one elegant black eyebrow raised. "Who's Dew is this anyway?"
"It's mine." Scott yelled. "Give it back!"
Kris threw the bottle to him.
"You're no fun!" Christine Nelson pouted at him.
"Get over it. It's quarter 'til seven." the young man told his classmate.
"I'm amazed. You got up early." Savil said sarcastically. Kris ignored her, and was promptly hit in the head with Lyn's Algebra book, papers flying everywhere. Lyn gave a yelp of dismay and got up to retrieve her homework. Thankfully, she got all of it back together in order. Kris tossed her the textbook.
"Was that necessary?" he asked.
"Of course." Eboni (who had thrown the textbook) said, grinning. "It's not fair that you look so good...we have to mess your perfect face up somehow. Speaking of perfection..."
Vanyel was feeling somewhat jealous of their close camaradie: he'd never seen such a different group of people interact so closely before. Certaintly his own family wasn't anywhere near as warm with each other as this brood of teenagers were.
(I don't need them...I don't need anyone...) the black-haired young man thought, summoning up the memory of his dreams of ice and snow-
Just as Eboni tackled him, knocking all the wind out of him. Vanyel wheezed, finding it very hard suddenly to breathe.
"Jeez, Ebs, calm down! You're killing the poor boy." Micki sputtered, laughing. Eboni released him, and stepped back.
"What was that for?" Vanyel gasped out.
"It's not fair that you and Kris happen to be prettier then most girls. So I have taken it upon myself to make your lives miserable." Eboni said, grinning. "Especially because you both are prettier then ME, and that is the unforgivable sin." she grinned even wider, bowed, and stepped away.
Tylendel watched the proceedings with an absent eye, since he was busy Mindspeaking his Companion Gala.
:Dearheart, do you think that those dreams I've been having MEAN anything? Important, that is.: he asked her.
:Are you blond?: Gala Sent back.
(Has she been taking lessons from Lyn...) Tylendel wondered briefly.
:I'm serious.:
:So am I.:
:What do the dreams mean? Danyen Orie was Hanna's lifebonded, every Herald and Herald-Mage knows the history, as do the Healers and Bards...and what does that have to do with me? I really hate being haunted by the past...:
:You know I can't tell you.: Gala said.
:Are you serious?: Tylendel demanded.
:Do fish swim?:
:I'm serious.:
:So am I.:
This was going around in circles, so Tylendel sent a wordless burst of love to Gala and closed the link, shutting his eyes...
Vanyel looked up from his violin case and the first thing he saw was the dozing Tylendel. A flush stained his pale cheeks as once again he realized that strangely enough, he was drawn to Tylendel...why, why him?
There was a thread of familiarity about Tylendel Frelennye that stretched back more then a thousand years, ten thousand years...like Vanyel and Tylendel had known each other, so long ago that trying to remember was like trying to hold the wind.
Vanyel didn't understand...but there was no denying the tie between them. And not for the first time in his young life, he had no idea what to do.
~End Chapter~
