A/N: Well guys. Last chapter. Hard to believe, I know :) I'm truly sorry this took so long, but I had it finished, and then it got deleted. It took me a while to get back the energy I had before to write it all over again. Plus, I'm going to Florida tomorrow night, so I was focusing on that. This thing also pushed back my schedule for Aviahnna, but I HAVE NOT ABANDONNED ANYTHING. I'm the type of person that likes to finish what I started, and it's especially impossible to abandon a story I absolutely love. Who knows though…I may be able to finish an entire chapter of Aviah tomorrow morning…(it's 12 Pm right now on Thursday….I really wanted to get this done). Though I doubt anything like that will happen :) Anyway, enjoy the chapter! And hopefully when I get back from the trip, Aviah will be updated.

Chapter 6: The Flower

After what seemed to be merely a flicker, I was forced to withdraw from our kiss, hearing the pounding of hooves outside the tents. It was only with a flash of irritability that I, with ragged breath, stood straight to face a courier, emerging into the tent from outside. It was the one I had sent to find out where my first courier had disappeared to.

"You said to return if I found Keira, or if I saw anything amiss," he gasped out.

"And?" I provoked as patiently as I could.

The man looked tired and worn, rubbing his eyes. "Streets are empty," he said, "Arrived…second-gold. Ought to have been full. No one out. Not a dog or a cat. No sign of Keira, either. Didn't try to speak to anyone. Turned around, rode back as fast as I could."

Thoroughly puzzled, I extended my sympathy to the man. "Good. You did the right thing. Go to the cook tent and get something to eat. You're off duty."

He bowed and left, dragging his feet.

Although puzzled about why it was happening, I knew what I had to do. I looked across to Mel, in doing so feeling both confused and elated by what had just happened between us. But it must wait; as much as I wished I could hold everything. "Ready for a ride?"

________

While I was ready for one, my troops were far from it, as it turned out. I spent until sundown organizing and entrusting details, when Mel and I could finally ride into the city.

It's odd, how whenever you expect and look forward to something, it turns out so much different then you imagined. I had been anticipating the ride from the moment it was proposed, and now that it was occurring, I could barely think of a greeting to her, alone. Nor did I have any inclination to try. I was suddenly overwhelmed by certain events, and I could only resign myself into reflection.

Most of that reflection entailed wondering what Mel was thinking at this moment.

To both my satisfaction and discomfort, I discovered I probably already knew the answer to the pondering. She was recalling all our friction, and blaming herself every step of the road. I could read it in her eyes, in her mouth.

We stopped at the same inn as previous, the one that, ironically, could have told our entire story in one hallway. Our first meeting, the latest, and now this. We were lead into a large room, whereupon we sank immediately into the cushions. I regarded her carefully, losing myself in everything she was. She was distraught, completely miserable at the moment, and it twisted my heart. She glanced up to see me staring, and I smiled at her, not one of lies anymore, or secrets – it was a smile I had been waiting to give her since the moment I feel for her.

"I knew it," I said, "I knew that by now you would have managed to see everything as your fault, and you'd be drooping under the weight."

"Why did you do it?" she asked, weakly laughing as a filler, "as near as I can see I've been about as pleasant to be around as an angry bee swarm."

Memories filled my mind, some that I would never want to experience again. "At times," I managed to say, "but I take our wretched beginning as my own fault. I merely wanted to intimidate you – and through you, your brother – into withdrawing from the field. What I mess you made of my plans! Every single day I had to re-form them. I'd get everyone and everything set on a new course, and you'd manage to hare off and smash it to shards again, all with the best of motives, and actions as gallant as I'd ever seen, from man or woman." She groaned as I smiled, but I couldn't seem to stop. "By the time I realized I was going to have to figure you into the plans, you were having none of me, or them. At the same time, you managed to win everyone you encountered – save the Merindars – to your side."

"I understand about the war. And I even understand why you had to come to Tlanth," she sighed, "but that doesn't explain the letters."

I drew a deep breath. Exactly how many times had I wanted that question posed, imagined my answer? Countless times. I soon discovered that the fact did not make my heart beat any slower, or my mind stop whirring. "I think I fell in love with you the day you stood before Galdran in the throne room, surrounded by what you thought were enemies, and glared at him without a trace of fear." I paused, letting the feel of that day sink into me like the sun, her image imprinted in my mind soaking through the crevices of my mind, saturating me with taste, sound and smell. My mind then turned to the event that had me floored into absolute shock. "I knew it when you sat across from me at you table in Tlanth and argued so passionately about the fairest way to disperse an army, with no other motive but testing your theories. It also became clear to me on that visit that you showed one face to all the rest of the world, and another to me. But after you had been at Athanarel for a week, Russav insisted that my cause was not hopeless.

"Savona? How did he know?"

"You'd have to address that question to him."

She rubbed her eyes, putting one more piece together. "So his flirtation was false."

I paused, gathering my words. "I asked him to make you popular. – Though he will assure you he found the task thoroughly enjoyable." I almost smirked dryly, thinking of the times when I was downright jealous that he could so easily display his affections, while I, half-sick with love, had to resign myself to a letter. "I wanted your experience at Court to be as easy as possible. Your brother just shrugged off the initial barbs and fronts, but I knew they'd slay you. We did our best to protect you from them, but your handling of the situation with Tamara showed us you were very capable of directing your own affairs.

"What about Elenet?"

That one caught me off guard. What, exactly, did Elenet have to do with my affection to her, or her experience at Court? "What about her?"

"People – some people – put your names together," she stammered, "And…she'd make a good queen. Better than I."

She couldn't possibly think…It took me a minute to gain a better understanding of what she was saying to me. I lifted the cup to my lips, watching her ring on my finger. What did she think? That I loved Elenet? That Elenet was in love with me? "Elenet," I began," is an old friend. We regard one another as brother and sister, a comfortable arrangement since neither of us had siblings."

 I saw her eyes darken, and her lips purse, but for once I could not read what she was thinking, so I simply continued. "She spent her time as a mute warning to the Merindars, who had to know that she came to report on Grumareth's activities, and I didn't want them trying any kind of retaliation. She realized that our social proximity would cause gossip. That was inevitable. But she heeded it not; she just wants to return to Grumareth and resume guiding her lands to prosperity again."

I paused, thinking of Mel's claim that Elenet would be a better queen – which I completely disagreed with. Mel was different than any lady –any person I had every met. Different, in so many ways, from me. I could never be what she was, but it was a pursuit I would relish. I looked her straight in the eye.

 "As for her quality, it is undeniable. But I think the time has come for a different perspective, one that is innate in you. It is a problem, I have come to realize, with our Court upbringing. No one, including Elenet, has the gift you have of looking every person you encounter in the face and accepting the person behind the status We all were raised to see servants and merchants as faceless as we pursued the high strategy. I'm half convince this is part of the reason why the kingdom ended up in the grip of the likes of the Merindars."

She nodded, and I felt overwhelmed by the amount of understanding, of reality in her eyes. Swallowing, she asked the question I had been waiting for. "The goldenwood throne. In the letter. I thought you had it ordered for, well, someone else."

I turned serious, remembering my gamble. "It doesn't yet exist. How could it? Though I intend for there to be one, for the duties of ruling have to begin as a partnership. Until the other night, I had no idea if I would win you or not."

He face broke into a smile, "Win me," she repeated mockingly, "what a contest!"

I smiled back at her, but I was mentally preparing myself to explain to her what had been going through my head at every moment that I had seen her. Previously, I thought this would be easy, but now that it was staring me in the face I was finding it hard to think. I continued with caution. "I was beginning to know you through the letters, but in person you showed me that same resentful face." I shook my head, remembering, "Life! That day you came into the alcove looking for histories, I was sitting there writing to you. What a coil!"

As she laughed, I noted the irony in her tone, the slight cringe in her eyes, and drove on ahead, doing my best not get distracted. "But I took the risk of mentioning the throne as a somewhat desperate attempt to bridge the two. When you stopped writing and walked around for two days looking lost, it was the very first sigh that I had any hope." Life! That gamble seemed so long ago, so far away and so far apart from what had just happened hours ago. It began to seem like the hours I wasted pining could have been spent writing the words 'golden wood throne'.

"Meanwhile you had all this to deal with," she waved her hand towards the north, implicating the plots of my dearest Marquise.

I smirked, knowing full well I thought more about her every hour than I did of the Marquise each day – trying to avoid thinking how that folly could have truly hurt me in the end. I replied evenly yet ironically, "it was a distraction."

She looked away, presumably thinking of our past – of my shortcomings? Life, I hoped not. We had our downfalls –a good many, in fact, but I couldn't imagine never looking into those eyes again for the rest of my life. If she changed her mind, it would be more than just 'a chunk of me missing' or some other equally clichéd scentence, more than my very breath taken away, or the reason I woke up every day. I would be ripped, torn, massacred, tortured, bleeding on the floor. And I'd only kissed her twice. Life, would she be a good queen, if she could do this to me.

She looked up to see me staring, yet again, and, surprisingly, words came to me. "The throne won't be ordered until you give the word. You need time to decide if this is the life you want." Please. "Of all the women I know you've the least interest in rank for the sake of rank."

She countered my intenseness with a smile. "The direct result of growing up a bare-foot countess.

I grinned back, concealing a sense of doom inside me. But it had to be done, one way or another. I took her hands in mine. "Which brings us to a piece of unpleasant news that I have not known how to broach."

"Unpleasant? –Oh, can't it wait?" she exclaimed,

"If you wish," I said reluctantly, for it had taken an act of bravery to even mention it.

She frowned, switching stances. "and leave you with the burden? Tell me, if the telling eases it."

I grimaced at her words. "I don't know that anything can ease it, but it is something you wanted to know but couldn't find out."

I winced as her expression turned pale with realization. "My mother?"

"Your mother," I drew out, my hands still clasped firmly in hers, wishing I could do something more than be a messenger of the news, "apparently was learning sorcery. For the best of motives – to help the kingdom, and to prevent war. She was selected by the Council of Mages to study magic. Her books came from Eidervaen. Apparently the Marquise found out when she was there to try and find a Sartoran marriage alliance. She sent a courier to apprise her brother."

"And he had her killed." I had been avoided looking at her, but now I couldn't help myself. As I saw her glistening eyes the surge of emotion from inside me almost overwhelmed my mind. "And Papa knew about the magic. Which must be why he burned the books."

"And why he neglected your education, for he must have feared that you would inherit her potential for magic-learning. Anyway, I found the Marquise's letter among Galdran's things last year. I did not know how to tell you – how to find the right time, or place." The last part was more of a desperate apology than an explanation.

"And I could have found out last year, if I'd not run away." She took a deep breath, shaking only slightly. "Well. Now I know. Shall we get on with our task?"

Recovering from my astonishment at her strength, I replied, "Are you ready for another ride?"

"Of course."

Looking into her eyes, I didn't resist an urge and kissed each of her hands softly, taking in the scent of her skin, in bliss from even the slight touch. Perhaps I hadn't exactly recovered from her strength.

"Then let's address the business before us," I continued, "I hope and trust we'll have the remainder of our lives to talk all this over and compare misguided reactions, but for now…" I took a deep breath, both standing up and pulling her to her feet, hand in hand. …"Shall we agree to a fresh beginning?"

She tightened her hold on my hands. "Agreed."

I smiled without thought. "Then let me hear my name from you, just once, before we proceed further. My name, not any of the titles."

"Vidanric," she proclaimed and it was impossible not to smile so broadly my cheeks hurt, excited. Yet again, without thought, I kissed her strongly, laughing impulsively as I drew back., and we continued as if everything was the same. But it wasn't – I was better than I had been in weeks.

The subjects I thought over on our ride to Remalna were unvaried, revolving around two subjects. Mel was obviously one, but there was another, more ominous feeling. There was something very wrong at our destination, and a ringing straight through my bones resounded at the thought of it.

Nothing prepared me for what was to come.

As we came to the city, nothing seemed to be amiss – it was a bright day, the sky glistening above the streets. There were no blood-curdling screams of agony, or thunderous booms. It was silent. On examination, this was exactly the problem. It was a beautiful day, yet all the shutters were closed and nobody was out in the streets.

As we reached Athanarel, I looked toward the castle, and a shock hit me with so much force I felt as if all my nerves had been pinched. A strange humming  - or was it singing? – Echoed through me ears, and I felt faint. For standing where guards should have been were white statues that replicated them.

As we walked through the gates, the noise in my ears increased, and I felt like screaming, though I was too choked to even try. The oddness of my surroundings was too overwhelming. Remalna was completely and utterly frozen. Excepting us, not a breath was being drawn in the entire city.

We slowed out mounts as we reached the larch doorway leading in from the Royal gardens, dismounting as we walked through to the Throne Room.

And it suddenly hit me.

This was no mysterious force, no event of nature. It was Flauvic. It had always been Flauvic. His mother's self-serving plans, with all their grandeur, and his unassuming position…all had collaborated to lead up to this one point. And what a fool I was for not seeing it.

I was temporarily blinded by how light the outside had been, and did not immediately see my surroundings. There were three or four white statues, eerily standing unmoving in places where I had seen true people stand.

And then there was Flauvic, moving his hands quite fluidly as he sat on the throne.

"What took you so long, my dear cousin Vidanric?" he drawled as the hairs on the back of my neck prickled.

"Administrative details," I replied, trying to keep the magic that saturated the air from blurring my vision.

Flauvic exerted himself to make a polished, ironic bow on the throne he seemingly had claimed for his own. "For which I thank you. Tiresome details." He glanced flippantly over to Mel as a felt myself tense. His voice was sharp, "Meliara. This is a surprise; I took you for a servant."

She grinned easily, "You have an objection to honest work?"

He smiled slightly, but still rather aloof, waving a languid hand at me, "This I hadn't foreseen. And it's a shame. I'd intended to waken you for some diversion, when things were settled."

I bit the inside of my lip raw at the sick thought of what would have become of us had we been right where he had wanted us. "You included sorcery among your studies in Nente?" I asked.

Flauvic seemed laid back and confident. "I did," he replied, stretching, "SO much easier and neater than troubling oneself with tiresome allies and brainless lackeys."

I felt my lip begin to curl at his next words. "I take it you wish to forgo the exchange of niceties and proceed right to business. Very well." He rose with as much arrogance as before and began bargaining a country that was not rightfully his. "Athanarel serves as a convenient boundary. I have everyone in under this stone-spell. I spent my time at Meliara's charming entertainment the other night ascertaining where everone of remotest value to you would be the next day, and I have my people with each right now. You have a choice before you. Cooperate with me – obviating need for tedious efforts that can be better employed elsewhere – or else, one by one, they will suffer the same fate as our erstwhile friend here."

It was then that I noticed with horror that the statue nearest to me was in fact the Duke of Grumareth, frozen in a stance that indicated a plea for life. I felt my stomach churn, and I fought from letting it show on my face.

I could not help a wince, even for this man, when Flauvic extracted a knife from his attire, jabbing it into the statue and making it shatter, crumbling to the floor.

And he just smiled. "That will be a nasty mess when I do lift the spell. But then we won't have to see it, will we?"

My knees almost buckled the implications hit me. I briefly thought of my friends, my mother, my father…could I really afford to take the chance and oppose him? I did not have much time to ponder, for a sense Meliara, always quick to anger, stepping forward in an aggressive stance.

My heart pace quickened even further, wishing her no harm. "Meliara," I said quickly, making sure keep my eye on Flauvic. "Don't. He knows how to use that knife.

The bastard's smile widened, as ones usually does when in perfect control. "Observant of you," he whispered, saluting. "I worked so hard to foster the image of the scholarly recluse. When did you figure out that my mother's plans served as my diversion?"

"As I was walking in here," I replied evenly, "recent events have precluded the luxury of time for reflection."

He simply turned to Meliara for another jab. "I fault no one for ambition. If you wish, you may gracefully exit now and save yourself some regrettably painful experience. I like you. Your ignorance is refreshing, and your passions amusing. For a time we could keep each other company."

I fought to keep red hot contempt from rising in me. He was a court gentry, he was used to considering people as toys for his refreshment, amusement and company. I suppose so was I. But not her. She was not his toy. I pinned my lips together, waiting for Mel to reply.

She did not disappoint.

Drawling with a slightly unpolished accent, she rebutted, "Unfortunately, I find you boring."

It was not a colossal insult, nor was it a great one, but it was enough to make the color come to the fool's cheeks, and I felt my agitation decreases. It did not last long.

Finished with his alternating barb to Mel, he turned once more to me, it voice now serious, rather than playful, though it maintained its lazy, bored tone. "Well? There is much to be done, and very soon your militia leaders will be here clamoring for orders. We'll need to begin as we mean to go on, which means you must be the one to convince them of the exchange of kings." And he smiled again – this time with victory.

Everything around me disappeared when he face me with the decision. I did not look as him, I did not look at her; I bowed my head to the floor and prayed with myself. What could I possibly do? Kill my people trying to fight him, or let him starve them slowly with his terrifying rule after admitting defeat. The strange humming in my ears did not help matters.

Suddenly, I heard Meliara's voice. "What'll happen to us?"

What…

"Well, my dear Meliara, that depends," I heard his disgusting voice.

"Maybe I'll change my mind…" she mumbled.

I whipped my head up to glare at her. What was she doing. Was she trying to take the burden on herself? Or…or was it something else? "Will you save Branaric and Nimiar from being smashed if I – " And she stopped.

Flauvic's suspicion was inherent in his voice, and I realized there was something she knew that I didn't. "Why the sudden effect of cowardice?" His eyes were narrowed.

It was at that moment that the humming became something tangible – something movig, and towards us. I felt a faint vibration at my feet.

"For a time," she said, "look outside."

As all three of us ran to the window, Flauvic pushing past first, I witnessed one of the most eerie sights of my life. The air was rippling. Rippling in gold's, in waves all over and there was a smell mixed with a sound that spun my head around.

The Hill-folk were coming. Hundreds of them.

For the one second that Flauvic's mouth tightened, I felt triumph. "This is your work!," he screamed at Mel.

Before I could react he had her tightly in his arms, his knife point at her ear. I had drawn my sword, but it was too late. Oh life. Oh, what a fool. I was shaking more than this encounter had made me before, and as she squirmed I felt my heart fail.

"Tell them to vanish," he said to me, "Or she dies."

"Don't do it!" she yelled, trying to wrench away as he tightened his hold.

The rest was a complete blur. I felt the creatures approaching as the vibrations became tremors and the tremors evolved into ground-shaking booms. Flauvic retreated to the dais, Mel in hand, as I was torn. "Tell them now!" he screeched, his voice cracking, but it was then I knew I had him.

The ground began to shake further until the stone started chipping, crumbling and shattering, and before my eyes, Flauvic began to transform. He glowed a brilliant but indiscernible color, and then roots erupted from his feet, branches from his arms, as the tree exploded up to the ceiling.

And then it ceased.

There was no movement, no sound. Only the disturbing image of a great tree growing from marble. A grand, goldenwood tree.

It was then someone coughed, and I realized the statues had fleshed out. I turned , dizzy, to see one of the door attendants fall to her knees, gasping for breath, before she abruptly fell into what appeared to be a sleep. The guard beside her did much the same.

And the Hill-folk were gone.

It was done.

I great sigh of relief escaped my lips before I knew what I was doing. Also, without my consent, my eyes moved to stare at Meliara, my entire body weak with the mixture of fear, relief, and joy. I moved in and kissed her over and over, knowing only half of what had just happened.

But we had won.

A/N: Wow. It's over. Jeez…I feel so…complete now ;) Thanks SOOOOO much to my reviewers, even when it's taken me so long to update. I've decided  not to do that mini-story in the back of the Firebird copy…I think it's nice to leave something for the imagination. Or, if I DO end up doing it, it would take a lot of persuasion. Anyway, I very much hope you enjoyed this story, and that you will continue to read my other works. A new fanfiction may be in the works, but so far, it'll be a surprise!

THANK YOU!!!!