DISCLAIMER: I don't own any CCS characters, they belong to CLAMP or (very unfortunately) Nelvana, so don't sue me.




Secrets and tea




Eriol followed his ears into the kitchen. "Hello, what's everyone doing here?" He sniffed, "and what is that awful, awful smell?" he asked, making a face.

Rika and Sakura turned around and said hi. "I'm showing Sakura how to make this headache tea. Sorry about the smell. Unavoidable." Rika apologized, not looking up from the pot she was stirring.

"Yeah, Syaoran came in before and said he had a headache and Rika said she had a really good tea that worked on headaches."

"And even though it smells now, it really tastes excellent, really," Rika added, hastily turning off the head on the oven.

"So what was all that noise?"

"We were making a lot of noise?" Rika looked at Sakura. Both shruged.

"You make a lot of noise when you're cooking," Sakura stated matter-of-factly.

"But it's a tea!" Eriol said, clearly confused.

"Oh, but you should look at the recipe," Sakura ominously joked.

Eriol did, taking the slip of paper Sakura had offered. As he read, he started frowning. "Rika, when did you write this?"

"Right before you walked in. Why?" she asked.

"Really?" Eriol asked disbelievingly. "You wrote this poem that quickly?"

Now it was Rika's turn to frown. What the heck was Eriol talking about? She looked down at the paper and her expression grew uncertain. "Oh, that." Eriol looked at Rika expectantly. "I wrote it...once before this."

"And - ?"

She let out her breath in a low hiss. "I don't remember writing it though. I wrote it once before at home. Home, home. Before this all happened."

"Do you know what this says? Rika, this was like a prediction," he said in awe.

"I know that now. But then..." Rika laughed. "I didn't even tell Yoshiyuki. I usually tell him everything."

"Mr. Tereda would have understood, I'm sure," Sakura patted Rika on the back.

Rika gave the paper to Sakura, careful to hand it to her with the recipe facing up. "The honey is boiling."

"Rika," Eriol called as he left. "I'd pay attention to what you write from now on."

She nodded. "You needn't be afraid of this Eriol," Rika called after him.

Eriol came back. "How did you know I was afraid?"

"I...I don't know, it just came to me, that you were afraid of uncontrolled magic. or...or something like that," Rika stuttered.

Eriol sighed. "You're right. I am. Do you know how dangerous uncontrolled magic can be?" Both Rika and Sakura shook their heads. "I've seen how it can destroy people, sometimes emotionally, sometimes physically." Now he looked at Sakura. "You're magic, was awakened when you opened the Clow book. Had you not opened it, your magic would have sprouted on its own and you probably would have known thing that you couldn't explain, and 'cuz you're so naturally helpful, you would have tried to warn people. You either would have been alienated or idolized. I can't say for certain which."

"I thought you couldn't look into the future," Sakura accused.

He shrugged. "I can't, really, I can only see bits and pieces, possibilites. And what you just heard, was a possibility. It could have been that you might have been able to keep your magic a secret. Or something like that. Possibilities remember?"

"In my past life," he continued, "I've seen more dangerous magics consume their owner. The person becomes a slave to magic when the magic is supposed to be working for him." Eriol sighed, "I didn't mean to scare you like that, but I suppose...we don't know anything about the kind of magic you have, Rika. That shield you put up to block Concha and Sobek, back on that other planet. It kind of implies that you might have other more dangerous powers as well. And that you seem to know exactally how to comfort people. That might be empathy. And if it is, you've had it for a long, long time. Maybe your magic has something to do with emotions. I don't know. We can only guess right now."

"So, I should stay away from you all?" Rika intoned.

"No! That's the last thing we all want," Sakura exclaimed. "No matter what happenes, you'll always have the seven of us, and Tomoyo."

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Sobek was cursing loudly, and he was cursing everyone and everything in sight. Things were not going well, not going well at all. He had intended, no hoped that this would be easy. Defeating the Child of Dark. But she seemed to be more powerful that he had imagined. She had somehow appeared to Concha as Jadis. He cursed Jadis too. Driving her to kill herself. That was just too cruel.

The servants notices that their master was crotchety. No, "crotchety" was an understatement. He was even worse than "crotchety." He was beyond "angry" and "outraged". One could practically see the flames coming from his ears and mouth he was so "crotchety."

Sobek had never been a very pleasant, erm, man to get along with. He was always yelling and howling at the servants for being slow and incompetent, but now he was yelling at people who weren't present. Working for the self appointed Lord of Darkness had never been more interesting.

As a general rule, the servant often knows more than the master simply because the servant is in a position to over hear many things. That however, was not the case this time. This time, all they could to was avert their large eyes whenever their master was on the rampage, and hope that they were not singled out from the crowd for some imagined misdeed and turned into a pile of ashes like the last servant unforutnate enough to cross Sobek.

Sobek had no trusted servant or advisor to confide in, but then again, of course not, he purposely trusted no one because trusting lead to involvement and involvement meant self-endangerment. Unfortunately, he just broke his own rule and got involved with Concha.

Concha. She was the reason he was so ittatable. Sobek knew that giving her strength and magic would connect them in some unknown manner, and that would cause him emotional suffering when she died. So he mourned her. But what he hadn't expected was to discover that he was still quite in love with Concha.

The discovery of this emotion angered him at first. He was supposed to be the all-mighty, unfeeling leader! But as he though more and more about it, the more his anger became directed at Rika, the Child of Dark; the shadow of revenge brought a definite pall over his life and fulled his anger. He knew why she was called the Child of Dark now.

Sobek was going to kidnap Rika at the next place she stopped at and use her power for his own motives. The bauble knew where their next stop was. In fact, it seemed to know a lot more after it had taken Concha. There would be time to wonder how later. Now, Sobek needed to plan his attack.

On his way to his room, he bumped in to a small child. It was one of his youngest servants. The child, like all the other servants, had huge luminous eyes and helped him navigate his way about the dark castle. His large ears twitched when Sobek shifted. This little servant was different than the other some how; he looked and behaved exactally like the other little fuzz balls, but he was different. Sobek was about his fire at the child for crossing him, when the little servant convulsed and laughed a high pitched laugh, unnatural to his kind.

"I have a secret," the child managed to gasp out between bouts laughter. "I have a secret that you want to know, Sobek."

"How dare you address me by my name-" he raised his hand to strike when he was suddenly frozen in place. Then the child spoke, still laughing hysterically.

"You will fail, Sobek, you will fail!" and the voice faded. The child and Sobek both sunk to the ground. Sobek reached over for the child and picked him up by the fur on the back of his neck. He brought the unconcious servant close to his face and hissed. The little one slowly opened his eyes. Noting his proximity to Sobek, the child whimpered and tried to escape. Sobek wanted to ask the child or the child's parents whether anything strange had happened, but what was the use? They'd probably lie, thinking he was looking for an excuse to kill the child.

Sobek hissed again and tossed the little servant aside carelessly. As soon as the little one scrambled away, his bauble came and nudged him. The bauble had never been able to do anything that required too much substance, like trying to push Sobek up, but that was exactaly what it was trying to do now. One of these days, he would have to find out what had happened to his pocket of darkness after it had taken in his beloved. One of these days - but for now, he had more pressing matters to attend to - the kidnapping of the Child of Dark.