Darien showed no expression as he slit the wrist of the mage in front of him. "A little blood to strengthen the spell." He explained, ignoring the man's panicked screams. He then began the spell that would give him the man's magic. When it was over the mage lay dead on the floor, lying in a pool of his own blood. Darien cleaned up without emotion. Soon I'll be back, and stronger than ever. He thought, then went out in search for another mage.

"Lark? Can we talk?" Tris asked.

"Of course dear, come in." Lark said. Tris entered Lark's workshop and sat down in the chair she was offered. "What's wrong?"

Tris sighed. "Me. Lately I've been acting very…wrong. I've been using my magic in all the wrong ways. I don't mean to, it just happens."

"What do you mean that you're using your magic wrong?" Lark inquired.

"I've been hurting people with it. I set up illusions that fooled Briar and Adam and also ended up hurting them. And I accidentally set fire to Sandry." She admitted, shamefaced.

"Illusions?" Lark asked, confused (and choosing to ignore the fact that she Sandry afire). "You don't have illusionary magic."

"Oh, that." Tris said, blushing at having left out such an important part of the story. "I took Darien's magic from him so that he couldn't use it to hurt anyone."

"Oh no. You didn't?" Lark asked, distressed. Tris regarded her oddly.

"Yes. Why? What's wrong?" She asked. Lark sighed.

"Darien used his magic for evil purposes, and thereby tainted it. If you take tainted magic, you can't shape it to your will completely. It will do evil whether you want it to or not. You have to get rid of it." She told her. Tris looked at her, horrified.

"I can't do that again. That was awful!" She protested. Lark looked at her sympathetically.

"I know. It is an awful process to take magic away from someone but you must do it. Otherwise you'll keep hurting people. It won't be too bad, though. The magic hasn't gotten a real chance to connect to you yet, so it won't be as hard to get it to disconnect."

Tris sighed and gave a grudging nod. She knew Lark was right and so prepared herself for the horrible feeling of having a part of her sucked out again.

When Adam came home, he was distressed. The animals in the forest had been saying strange things about a man killing other men and taking their light. He knew that to animals, magic looked like a light inside people. That meant that somewhere close by someone was stealing magic from other mages and murdering them. He was afraid of who it might be.

When he came inside, he saw Tris sitting at the table with a cup of tea in her hands. She was pale and shaking a little.

"Tris? What's wrong?" He asked fearfully, "You look like you have a fever." She shook her head and he relaxed a bit.

"Lark took Darien's magic away from me." She explained. "It was why I was hurting everyone. It was tainted." She said, spitting the last word out bitterly. Adam looked at her guiltily.

"Then you're really not going to like what I have to tell you all." He said. Tris looked up at him.

"Another 'announcement'?" She asked. Adam nodded. "And I'll guess it's still not that you bought a pony?" He blushed and nodded again. She sighed. "I'll get everyone." She offered.

"No, I will." Adam said. "You rest." Tris glared at him.

"I'm not going to break you know." She informed him. He just laughed and left.

When everyone (this time including Sandry) was sitting around the table again, Adam told them all what the animals had told him.

"You don't think…?" Elizabeth asked, leaving the question unfinished.

"I don't know." He replied. "It could be that Darien is back, but it could also be someone else. Although it does seem like an awfully big coincidence."

"We just can't get rid of him can we?" Briar said, frustrated. "He's like a stray dog we fed and can't get rid of! No offense to you little bear" He said, assuring their huge dog they had taken off the streets he meant nothing bad of him.

"He says none taken." Adam remarked absently. (A/N: Sorry! I totally forgot about little bear! Let's just say he's been there the whole time, he just wasn't a significant part of the story. Okay?)

"We have to find him." Dan said firmly. "If it is him, then I'd rather get him now, before his power grows any more, then later when there's no way we can beat him."

"And what if it's not?" Sandry asked. "Hasn't he been put through enough? I mean, I know he's an appalling man, but how long until we can leave him in peace?"

"If it's not him then we have no reason to hurt him and we won't. But if it is, then we'd better do something now rather than later." Elizabeth explained.

"Right then. Let's go." Adam said. Sandry shook her head.

"I'm not going. I can't do this to him without sufficient evidence that he's guilty. Besides," She added with a small smile, "who's going to save you guys when you get yourselves into major trouble?"

"Me." Evvy said. Everyone looked at her. "Well, I've saved you all every other time." She said defensively.

"You just can't let it go, can you?" Briar asked her with mock annoyance. She just rolled her eyes at him as they left for that all-too-familiar path in the woods.

Author's Note: Changed my mind! Lark can know what happened to Tris. I found something better to move the story along.