Herald's Silence

By Shadow Flare

*Shadow Flare: *blinks at her inbox* I wasn't aware so many of you liked this story…and ya'll found reasons I didn't even think of. And my friends Scott and Justin knocked some sense into my head, as well as you…alright, alright, I'll continue! Sheesh…by the way, the setting is sounding very implausible…as if it didn't already*groans* Ay, carumba…in case you're wondering, Lyn Littrell was supposed to based on my friend Lynne, the 'great wonderful fantastic', who also writes at fanfiction.net…of course, the character has taken on a life of her own…Lynne, if you're reading this, I'm not insulting you, I swear! *

Chapter Five: Hanna's Warning

Vanyel opened his eyes to see Rosemary sitting in a chair near his bed, placidly reading a book, which she put down when she saw he was awake.

"Your head must be hurting like a bitch right now." she said cheerfully. "Lyn and the others complained when they woke up. So here, I'll give you some stronger stuff in a sec, but take this first."

The blond handed him some aspirin and a glass of water, which he both gratefully downed.

"And the *others*?" he asked.

"Oh, you weren't the only one to take ill yesterday." Rosemary said. "Lyn, Eboni, Brandon-"

"Who's Brandon?" Vanyel asked, as the name was unfamiliar.

"Ah, he doesn't live here. He lives near Lyn's parents, in Maryland." Rosemary said. "But he was visiting his mother over the weekend, but stayed over Monday long enough to get knocked out."

"I don't get it. If Lyn's parents live in Maryland, why does she live here? In fact, why do so many people live in this house? Savil's a teacher, no offense to her, but she probably can't afford to feed all the kids and adults who live here, much less pay the mortgage." Vanyel asked.

"Oh, no one told you about this place? Well, the best way to describe it is that it's like a 60's commune. All of us kids for various reasons came here, and are under the legal custody of one of the adults who live here. Such as JP and me…we came here to go to Fairfax County Public Schools, and Jaysen Kondre, who is our legal guardian now, is a friend of our family, he agreed to take us in. Lyn's family moved to Maryland-she has a younger brother named Joe in addition-but she wanted to go to an IB school, and she was set on it even when she was ten. He didn't care, so he went and she stayed. Maybe about twenty adults and 30 kids live here, on this property, though not in this house. The adults all work, and basically all help pay expenses. Some of us actually are orphans, or are foster kids…Mela is one."

"It would be like a boarding school, except that we go to public school. But what about the horses I saw?" Vanyel asked.

"Ah. Well, zoning doesn't allow too many houses on the same piece or pieces of land. So Savil has a license as a horse breeder, which are those white horses out there. She *could* sell them, but doesn't sell them to just anybody, mind…the horse chooses its partner."

"That makes sense. Why buy a horse if it doesn't like you?" Vanyel asked. Rosemary vaguely wondered if he knew the truth about the 'white horses'.

"That's true. So, that's the overview." Rosemary said. "Any questions?"

"Yes. What about Tylendel? Where did he come from?" Rosemary noted that Vanyel flushed slightly when he mentioned the older boy. The Healer- Adept also had noted that the two had been acting strangely around each other lately. (Hmm…) she thought, but didn't press the matter further.

"Oh, he came from Georgia. His accent's toned down, but when he's mad, you can hear it. He got a scholarship to attend a summer school program here, and just stayed to go to school here. That answer your question?"

"Yes." Vanyel said.

"Good. Drink this." Rosemary handed him a mug of some kind of tea, which he regarded skeptically. "It doesn't taste very good, but it works better then it tastes."

She watched him like a hawk while he drained the bitter-tasting liquid, which Rosemary was right about. The girl took the mug back, and sat down in her chair again.

What was amazing was that the concoction worked. His headache vanished, and soon, Vanyel was drifting in a state that was three-fourths of the way to slumber…there must have been a soporific in that tea. He floated dreamlessly…

Until loud, quarreling voices, alto and tenor, slammed him back down to earth. Vaguely, he identified the voices as that of Lyn and Tylendel.

"I don't care that you hate Helen, you will be civil to her!" Tylendel shouted.

"Who are you to order me around?! It is my business who I am civil to!" Lyn screamed.

"Stop being so damned childish, Lyn! You are a Herald, or nearly, and you must be impartial!"

"Impartial? What do YOU know about being impartial?!"

"I know what impartial means. My family's down in Georgia feuding with every neighbor they've got, it's been like that for years and it's gonna go on, I have the power to help them out, help them to win, but I'm keeping my nose out! It hurts, but I'm impartial! So don't tell me that I don't know what impartiality means, little girl!" Tylendel yelled, and indeed, his southern accent was indeed thickening. By now the tension in the air between them was so thick, someone could have cut bricks out of it with a knife.

"I am not a little girl!" Lyn shrilled.

"Sure you aren't. Do you ever wonder why you're still a trainee, even after six years? Sariel Chose you when you were ten, and you still aren't ready for Whites! Let me put this to you in words I'm sure you'll understand." Tylendel's voice oozed sarcasm. "You are a capable girl. You are very powerful. But capability and power are not enough, do you hear me? You will be a fine Herald someday, if you ever grow up! Fucking hell, Lyn, you're so fucking immature! How Scott manages to put up with you is a blessing, and Savil a miracle! You still have a lot of growing up to do-"

"And you can't talk about immaturity, Tylendel!" Lyn shrieked. "Remember how YOU got Chosen? Trespassing here, walking on the damned fence, and you fell under Gala's nose! You were breaking the law!"

"So? At least I can admit my faults! I really can't see why Sariel Chose you so early-"

The sound of a hand striking flesh was just as loud as their voices.

"Let me tell you of something you can't admit, Tylendel. Scott knows I love him, I know he loves me. It took courage to admit that, courage you don't have. How is it that I can tell the boy I love that I love him, while you can't tell the boy you love that you do?" Lyn said.

"That is none of your damned business, Lyn Liandrin Littrell. Keep your Empathy out of my way." Tylendel said coldly, and Vanyel sensed two very bright colors of auras, gray and violet, that suddenly flared up, and even from here he could tell that they belonged to the arguing duo out in the hallway. The violet was more powerful then the gray, but both were very powerful and bright: somehow, Vanyel knew that gray was Lyn, and violet was Tylendel, even without really seeing either of them.

"Fucking hell…" Rosemary muttered under her breath. "I ought to throw both of them into the river and run off to Canada with their money."

She got up, apparently put her book down, and ran out of the room.

"Lock it down, trainee." She coldly ordered one of them-and Lyn's gray aura faded. "That goes for you as well." she ordered Tylendel, and his aura was gone as well. "I ought to throw both of you into the river and run off to Canada with your money. Now get out of here and out of my face, before I do just that."

Vanyel heard the sounds of two different people storming off in opposite directions. It was then that he finally slipped off into sleep…

***

"It took you long enough to get here." A young woman said archly, her soprano voice coming from somewhere behind Vanyel. He turned to see a petite woman standing there, wherever they were, dressed in some kind of white uniform, with her arms folded across her chest. She was slender and about an inch taller then him: while she looked young, the silver streaks in her long blond hair were making determining her age difficult. The strange woman's facial features were a strange mirror of his own, and silver eyes-the same shade of his own-stared evenly back at him.

"And where is here?" Vanyel asked.

"Nowhere that exists in any known plane…" the girl said, sweeping one arm above her head in a half-circle. "And never shall. You see, I have brought you here, to this place, wherever it is, to tell you of important things, Vanyel Ashkevron. Very important things."

Vanyel was still confused. "Who are you, first of all? How old are you? And how do you know my name?"

"My name is Hanna Latria Adele, Herald-Mage of the now nonexistent world of Velgarth. I was 36 years old when I died 10,000 years ago. To answer your last question, it would be stupid to NOT know my own name, wouldn't it?" Hanna said.

"Herald-Mage? But-how can you be-" Vanyel got only part of his questions out.

"What a Herald-Mage is, will be will be explained in time and by others. And I will not answer your last question…all I will say is that my spirit is part of you. Why and how, I'm not telling you. " Hanna said. "Now, the important things. You've seen the future…others have seen it. That is NOTHING compared to what will happen if the evil that destroyed my home world is allowed to destroy yours as well. I could go on and on and tell you everything that happened when Leareth invaded my home world, but that would take a very long time. Read that book your-friend-" she emphasized 'friend' in a way Vanyel didn't understand- "Tylendel is reading. That explains a good deal."

"What can I do? Why are you telling me this?" Vanyel asked.

"You have the Gifts I lacked, and those I have, and in greater strength. You have the strength to do what I could not. You have the power to make a difference. That's all I can tell you…that and you will find what I lost so long ago."

"I don't understand…"

"You don't need to." Hanna said. "Farewell."

And with a thread of bell-like music and a gust of wind and mist, everything spun away…

***

The first thing Vanyel saw when he woke up was Tylendel, who was draped all over every chair in the room, reading a book, and something inside him just-fluttered, and he didn't understand why.

"Hey, you OK?" Tylendel asked. Vanyel nodded, and saw the purplish bruise on Tylendel's right cheek.

"What happened?" he asked, knowing perfectly well why.

"You must've been knocked out good or something by that tea." Tylendel commented airily. "Nothing much, except Lyn and I got in a fight, she slapped me-man, does that bitch hit hard- Rosemary had to break us up…and Savil bitched at ME about it. It's just not fair…and if Rosemary really does throw me in the river…I'll get her."

Vanyel blinked, still very confused about everything. "What's today's date?"

"Oh…hmm…damn, I forgot…" Tylendel looked at his watch. "Monday, September 10th. Hey, don't worry, I've got all the work you missed…it's not like you missed much…except a government quiz…that I failed…"

"How could you possibly on the face of this earth, fail a government quiz?" Vanyel asked sarcastically, surprised that Tylendel, of all people, failed a government quiz. Everyone said that Ms. Block's class was hard, but he himself found it to be quite easy…except for the damned bill…

"Easy. If you're overconfident and didn't study. Ms. Block could have killed me for it, too… " Tylendel rolled his eyes heavenward. "Lord and Lady, give me a brain, please."

"Can I read your book?" Vanyel asked, remembering what Hanna had said, and hastily remembered to add "please."

"Uh…I'm not done with it yet." Tylendel gulped: it was a history of the Velgarth refugees, and their original world and new one, from the very beginning, then to Hanna's time on, and he really didn't think that Savil- or any of the other Heralds-would ever let him loan it to Vanyel on account of he wasn't a trainee of anything. "It's gonna take me a little while longer…yeah…"

"…alright." Vanyel said, suspicious that Tylendel was hiding something. The older boy undraped himself from the chairs-a truly odd sight-and got up, with his book.

"See you tomorrow…get some sleep, alright? I don't want to see you collapsing again." Tylendel said, concerned.

(Why is he so concerned about me?) Vanyel thought, even more suspicious now.

"…good night." Vanyel finally said, as Tylendel left the room and shut the door behind him. Hanna's final words still echoed in his mind.

^…You have the power to make a difference…^

"How can I make a difference?" Vanyel whispered.

^…We shall see…where? Who? What can we do?^

~End Chapter~