A/N: Mouuuu..I'm sorry about the massive delay between chapters but I've been sick as a dog for the past week and a half and when I *wasn't* curled up under my covers, work was being eviiiiiiiiiiil and making me work.-.-;

On another note: As people can tell I'm taking certain.artistic licenses with things and alas for Harmonian society it shall be the same way. I fear my own somewhat bitter and cynical views on Christianity and the Catholic church in general are showing through here as I'm loosely basing how I *think* the Harmonian church would be run off of it. But since I've yet to find any real information on Harmonian church society and lifestyles in general aside from the basics.I'm sort of winging it as I go along. So forgive me if you think I'm making them all out to be corrupt jerks..^_^;;
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Days flowed swiftly in the Holy Kingdom of Harmonia, the sweet days of summer slowly bleeding into fall to turn the trees a motley tapestry of reds and gold that carpeted the ground in it's fiery wealth. A tempered manner had come across the previously mercurial Sasarai, a disposition that few had missed nor failed to mark. The courts were writhe with whispered rumors and speculations ranging a wide spectrum. From a hidden lover to perhaps some form of exterior control or even a slow descent into madness.

There was little to do in Harmonia these days and the people found themselves with an excess of peace and time, a fertile breeding ground for the imagination. Whenever the more wild and outrageous a rumor reached his ears, the warrior priest's smile merely slipped upwards a notch in a maddening smile of ironic amusement that gave nothing away.

His sporadic visits from the impish little Sera were cherished and held with the utmost security. Once more he was thankful for his contrary ways at keeping his privacy and council that kept untimely visitors from his doorstep. As refreshing as the youthful child's visits were, deep down, Sasarai knew he gained a certain degree of devilment and amusement at the wild speculations running about the city and various religious courts. And of course of the various gentry's shocked dismay to learn that the influence of one small child could work such a change upon the previously grim and ill-tempered priest.

Oh yes indeed.... the expression upon their faces would be most priceless indeed. Amusing himself as he sat in front of the crackling fire burning cheerily in the marble hearth, he stared into the flames as the light bathed warmly across his cheeks; the faint scent of sweet wood smoke mixed with smoldering herbs a gentle perfume in the air. At the faint scratch of tiny fingers on the glass of his balcony doors, he turned in his seat to stare at the faintly outlined figure of Sera.

A look of surprise flit across his features as he noted her clad in naught but the patched white nightgowns giving to all temple wards. That perhaps, while unnerving, was nothing compared to the quickly rising bruise marking one side of her tear-streaked visage. The night held a bitter bite to it that he'd noted all too well when he'd traveled through the corridors to his quarters. The wine glass clattered to the ground in a shattering of expensive crystal as he surged from his chair.

The ruby liquid pooled across tiles as he yanked the doors open swift enough to rattle the panes as the doors slammed painfully against the adjoining walls. The expression of dismayed shock brought a fresh sheen of tears to those pale crystalline eyes as she looked up at him. "They threw rocks at me....." Was all she managed to get out before she was scooped up into blue clad arms.

She was carried inside, bundled in protective arms as she was carried towards the fire. Sasarai would find more cuts and scrapes where the group of vicious children had wounded her with sharp rocks. She was different and she was special.... it was she who was allowed to get away with far more them they themselves were and even at such young ages, the green-eyed monster of envy grew strong and swift. She scared them and she angered them because she showed such talent for the magickal arts. This all came tumbling out in a tumult of tears and tiny sobs.

Sasarai listened silently, a cold burning anger tempered by the pained sorrow being the only thing that kept him from seeking out the headmaster of the temple orphanage to call the man to pay for his inattention. He had to treat her first...had to bring some peace to her heart and once the blood had been cleaned away he accessed the power of the Flowing rune. It reacted oddly to the crying girl even as it's magick wrought its soft healing upon the utterly oblivious child as she curled into his robed lap.

"There now....shhh....shhh, sweet Sera....it's alright now...come now...why the tears, hmmn?" He playfully bounced her as a soft nuzzle found her cheek. The bruising was already beginning the face, the swelling slowly draining away. Where an angry mask of darkening blues and purples, the sweet lines of her cheeks were slowly peeking out from beneath the now greening and yellowed skin. "The pain is gone...see? Don't cry now....come now..." the helplessness of any male when faced with the wounded hurt of a crying child was an alien feeling to him. It....unmanned him and left him in an odd state of dismay and helplessness for want to protect her and ease the pain that caused such tears to well in her eyes.

Once more, he was bemused by the strange bond that had formed between them even as he marveled at the strength of it and thus did he begin to feel the first stirrings of unease. He lived under no illusions that anyone who got too close to him could become the pawn of anyone who might wish to manipulate or hurt him. "Sera....don't cry little one...I'll keep you safe, I promise....they'll never hurt you again...." His soft tenor voice was low and pitched quietly as the shadows grew in his eyes. Already he began to formulate a plan to keep her safe as those tender hands stroked and soothed her back.

Those softly whispered words of comfort and gentle support lulled her into a tired silence. Her eyes were tired and burning from so much crying and like the child she was, the exhaustion and tolls of her crying spell begin to extract its price over her. With a sleepy mewl she snuggled deeper into his embrace, burrowing into the warmth of his lap as he sat in the fire-warmed velvet of his chair. He waited until she was deeply asleep, those moody green eyes studying the peaceful visage of the resting child as she lay curled oh so contently and trustingly in his lap.

No...he did not dare risk letting her become a pawn or a tool against him for he found the idea of watching her slowly being stripped of her innocence and the very vigor that made up what she was suddenly sickening and terrifying. Those youthful features grew set and grim as a regretful sorrow glittered in translucent emeralds as he picked the child up, carrying her through his apartments to nestle her protected in the feathered down of his bed. Those pale platinum strands of wispy silvered blond hair pooled across his pillow as one tiny cheek burrowed into the welcoming softness of his sheets in that endearingly sweet manner that laid his pain open freshly anew.

The man who had never once flinched from his duty suddenly found himself suddenly hesitant and weakly resolved as he stared down at the angelic form of the child. But then with a regretful sigh, he shook that silken head of pale golden brown before leaving the room behind to summon Dios to his quarters. And in a mere handful of minutes, the flustered looking man was at his door; a look of open confusion on his face. "You summoned me, eminence?" His breath was unsteady in his throat as the winded man leaned against the doorframe for support.

Sasarai was dressed in the full uniforms of his office, the look of cold efficiency one that sent chills down Dios' spine as the bishop looked to him. And indeed, the low notes of ice that thread its way into his voice only unnerved the man further. "I do not pretend to hold your complete loyalty, Dios. I know ours is a relationship of convenience and for the most part it is mutually beneficial wouldn't you say?" His tone was musing as he looked away to peer at the dying flames that crackled in his heath.

"I...I suppose, your eminence....is there a reason for this odd line of questioning or are you truly loosing your mind as the rumors say?" Only Dios could get away with such a direct line of questioning and despite his ironic words, a glint of curious concern glinted in his eyes as he peered at the priest. Those oddly resolved and flinty green eyes flit back to his advisor.

"I've a mission of utter secrecy and importance for you to carry out, Dios....I can trust in your discretion of course?" At Dios' solemn nod, Sasarai turned away from the fire to walk towards the closed doors of his apartment. "It's come to my attention that one of the most promising of the temple's children has been neglected and exposed to cruel treatment. Just this evening I had to treat wounds caused by the rocks thrown by her own companions and supposed friends. I will not let such a light be extinguished...not when it is in my power to do something about it." One slender hand extended to push the doors open so that Dios could see the child resting in his bed.

"B...But she's but a babe!" he gasped out, eyes wide with shock and then confusion as he looked to Sasarai. "I don't understand how I can be of assistance, sir...."

"I've estates outside the city...I want you to convey her there in secret and personally see that she is settled in. I will set up a nanny and a proper tutor for her immediately of course. She's in dire need of a good education and I doubt she'll learn much of anything if rock fights are allowed amongst the ranks of the temple orphans...." A note of icy disdain colored his voice and Dios suddenly found himself fervently glad that he had nothing to do with the orphanage. Somehow he got the distinct impression that the proverbial heads were going to roll once Sasarai was done....yes...he was most happy to have no affiliations to that part of the church. "No one is to know I house her, Dios....I would not see her abilities abused or exploited by the more....ambitious of our ranks, yourself excluded of course...." He was gifted with a dry little smile and a dismissive gesture of one elegant hand.

"Of course not, your grace...what use is a child to me after all..." Dios answered a bit stiffly as he half-bowed, his ill-mannered hair falling across his brow and into his eyes in its maddening way. His words got a short note of brittle amusement from the priest as he moved into the room, gathering the tiny bundle of the child tenderly in his arms. The azure blue of his blankets was carried with the child to turn her small form into a swaddling bundle of sky blue.

"It's not that she's a child, Dios...it's what she can become...with the proper guidance....she will do great things if given the chance." The soft expression glittering in his eyes confused Dios even more as the child was held out to him. Years of experience with his own children however took effect as he gathered the precious bundle close to his chest as those too wise and piercing eyes met with translucent green.

"Your affection for her is telling...perhaps given the times...it is best to distance ourselves from all attachments...." Sasarai nodded somberly, those dark fans falling to feather across his cheeks and hide suddenly glistening eyes beneath protective lids. "But....if the child cares as strongly for you as you seem to care for her....I don't think she will understand...so is there anything I should tell her for you?" Hikusaak bless him he'd totally forgotten about such things! Sera wouldn't understand what she was being sent away!

"Y...Yes actually....give me a moment if you'd please, Dios....." He whirled away with a soft flare of azure fabric to hurry over to his writing desk. There a letter was penned in his careful and neat handwriting. He tried to express his feelings and reasons for sending her so far away in that hastily written letter, the words plain and lacking it's usual flourished language and poetic lyric. Soon enough it was sealed with the sapphire blue of his office, his own personal seal marking the wax as he held out the letter to the man. "Tell her...that I wish for her to learn how to defend herself from the world in all manner of ways and that the key to that is within knowledge. Tell her that when she is able to read my letter then perhaps she will be ready to return home and that I...." he faltered then, his hands curling slightly as pain carved his face. "Tell her that I shall look forward to continuing our talks once more and that I shall miss her dearly...."

Dios nodded solemnly, a sympathetic light glinting in his eyes as he looked at the suddenly distraught looking priest. For all his posturing and bluffing, he truly did care for the man who sheltered him beneath his wing and name. Though Sasarai did not know it, or perhaps refused to acknowledge it but he did hold Dios' complete loyalty no matter what. "It shall be done...." That grave murmur filled the sudden silent room and he hugged the child closer, the letter being secreted away amongst the fold of her blanket. "Perhaps......perhaps we might offer her some hope of you visiting every now and again sir....while you haven't made it a habit of returning to your estates in the past...." A sardonic little smile curved Dios' lips then, a glint of cagey intelligence glittering in those dark depths. "Your moods have been known to fluctuate lately...perhaps a bit of rustication is what you need to set you back to sorts, hmmn?

His suggestion was met with the first shining glint of laughter and Sasarai grinned in understanding. Some of the black despair that had descended about him fell away and he nodded his approval. "Why yes...I do think you might be right, Dios...." He looked as innocent as an angel though those pale green eyes betrayed the devilment shining just beneath the surface as he clapped the man on the back. "Now hurry...we can't have you disappearing for too long now can we? Whatever shall I do without your sage advice...?

"Heh....indeed....." Was all the amused man said as he made his way to the door and the hallway beyond. "You'd be fair lost without me I imagine...." And with that, he was gone, the bundled child securely asleep in his arms. Sasarai watched them go silently, a mournful expression glimmering in his eyes as they departed, and with a sigh, he too disappeared into his quarters.