Chapter 9: Yet another person

Reini stormed back to her room and slammed the door shut. Damn Tsair! Why did he always make me feel so confused!

The tiger leapt onto her bed to lie down beside her. Silently, she stroked the soft fur. Then she frowned.

"I haven't found a proper name for you yet. I don't think Tiger would be very original, hmm?"

The tiger, as if it understood, stretched and shook its head, ruffling its fur. She laughed and felt more at ease.

"How about Snow, is that good enough?"

The tiger purred.

Tsair grimaced as he was thrown into the cell. The hard stone wall scraped against his unprotected skin, causing several spots to bleed. He scowled as Maria leaned close, smiling coyly.

"I suppose you'll have to get used to this place for a while."

She turned her nose up in disgust at the lumps of moss and strands of spider webs on the cell walls.

"Disgusting."

He continued to glare at her, silently but seething with unsuppressed hatred.

Then she left.

He slid to the floor and started to lie down completely when the prison doors slammed open in the cell across from his and city guards threw in a man, who seemed about around his mid-twenties.

"Now you learn to control that slithering hand of yours or Lord Provost'll learn of your scheming faster than you could even dream of escaping."

A low chuckle sounded. Tsair looked up, half in amusement and half in curiosity.

"Hey! Quiet in there!" The guard sneered.

The mage turned his face, watching the two. The guard seemed to quail and crawl away, then the man's face could be clearly seen. Tsair did a double-take. The man had white hair with pale pinkish eyes. His skin was a dead ivory color that was definitely abnormal. He was an albino! The man looked up at him, raised an eyebrow, and grinned.

"Name's Clem. Crime: lock-picking. You?"

"I'm Tsair. Treason. Just out of curiosity, what were you lock-picking at?"

The man smiled cheerfully.

"My Lord Provost's bedchamber door. T'was a dare."

"You got caught?"

"Nah, Garrett squealed on me."

"Who's he?"

"Your average over-achievin' thief."

"Ah."

Then, suddenly, a metal pin and a small ribbon made of the same material appeared in his hands. Clem grinned at Tsair's look of surprise. He quickly checked the walkway and smiled slyly.

"Now let's see what this thing's made of."

He slid the pin in first and used the steel ribbon to twist the opening of the lock. It held for one entire minute before springing open. He rubbed his stubby chin.

"Hmm…not bad."

The albino raised another eyebrow as he looked at the mage's wide stare.

"What?"

"You did that with only two pieces of steel? I shudder to meet Tortallan thieves in our prison. In fact, the building would probably become a ballroom instead of a lock-up."

The thief's eyes narrowed, scrutinizing him.

"You speak as if you're from another place. (Clem's eyes took on a thoughtful look) Are you?"

"Yes, Scanra."

"Ouch."

Tsair winced.

"Don't remind me of our country's disagreements. At this moment, my life is in peril. And the fact that I came from there only makes it worse."

"Hey, how bout we escapin' together?"

The mage blinked. Clem strolled over and squatted. Then waved his right hand in front of him.

"Oh…what? Why?"

He shrugged. Then grinned.

"Well, it'd get my Lord Provost's loincloths in a twist, that's for sure. Trust me, it's worth it."

Tsair frowned.

"Those locks are magic-proof though."

"Do it the old-fashioned way," answered Clem as he extended his trusty two-piece lock-picking tools.

In the same amount of time it had taken Clem had freed himself, the lock on Tsair's prison bars sprung open.

"You've got to teach me that."

The next day…

Reini woke up at the sudden weight pressing upon her stomach from outside of her bedcovers. She rubbed her eyes sleepily and was going to wave Snow off before he could drag her out of bed. It took her a while before she realized that the tiger was trying to tell her something. She followed his gaze to the door and raised an eyebrow, confused. Then a knock resounded, causing her to grumble incoherently.

She stumbled over to the door and opened it to find the Masbolle brothers. Reini instantly recognized Dom, but not the younger man beside him. They had similar facial features, but were still vastly unique in their own way. The younger one had green eyes.

"What."

"Keladry!"

The next moment, she felt like her insides were being squished out of her by an amazingly strong hug, from the unknown man.

He's here!!! ((calm down, Cami)) **cheers** :] I hope this will last awhile to buy me some time to write the next chapter. To tell you all the truth, I'm planning this as I go along. Who knows what the ending will be like. Perhaps no one will die. I've strayed away from the original ending, and decided on another one.

By the way, if you wanted to know the original ending, the **somebody** who was going to die was Tsair. ((be happy Dom-lovers!))

Tsair didn't have time to reply, so in place of him, I've decided to show you something else…

Supposed-to-be ending ((the part that I had all planned out, but decided to change after all))***warning, ReAlLy Emotional***:

Tsair made sure that Keladry had reached a safe spot before slumping down. The arrow had pierced him accurately, giving him a horrendous wound. Blood was flowing freely, much too freely.

Tsair winced as Keladry ((she had returned to her normal self)) ran over, accidentally shifting his shoulder. He looked down to see the hole in his chest from the arrow that Kel had taken out. Kel, felt tears form from behind her eyes as his skin grew paler with every passing moment. His brown eyes were fazing out slowly, blonde hair damp with sweat.

"You're safe. You belong in Tortall."

"Tsair, hang on, just wait…"

"I c-can't breathe…I hope you'll…" ((his lung was pierced, Tsair can't heal himself, he doesn't specialize in healing))

"I'm listening."

"…forgive me."

She felt him press something into her palm as his hand fell down, motionless. Kel stayed in the same position for a while when she heard footsteps behind her.

"Kel, you're back!"

"Dom…" She turned back to Tsair.

"He was truly a good person…"

"I know."

Keladry stood up, her eyes still on Tsair, and let Dom wrap his arms around her in comfort. She remembered the object and opened her hand. In it was a glass rose. ((there was suppose to be a scene with roses…))

**The Original Ending**

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