Author's Notes: This capter is pretty short too, but the plotline develops a little more. I'm still working on this, so don't start to worry that I've put it on the back burner. Just keep sending me good reviews, 'cause I'm still gonna keep on writing. Thanx! On with the chapter...



Mist surrounded her, cold and wet, and so thick she could barely see her own nose. It caressed her bare limbs, leaving her shivering. With every forward step it seemed that the water pooling around her feet grew thicker, like she was walking through nearly-frozen tar.

A light breeze sprang up, warm and comforting, disapating the mists that enclosed her body. She turned her face to it for a breif instance, gaining faith from the oddly familiar element. A light flared up directly in front of her, crackling and popping like a flame. Water, barely knee- deep, washed over the tar-like substance, dragging it away and leaving warm, shallow riples in its wake.

The mist continued to thin, then cleared away as the breeze grew stronger. A figure became visible; a young woman clothed in a flame-colored dress that floated around her like sparks from a roaring fire . A second figure stood off to the left, the water on the ground seeming to flow down from her royal-blue gown. The last figure stood off to the right of the other two. Her gown, the purest white edged in green, swayed and rippled in a wind that touched nothing else.

Aska's heart leapt for joy, though she could not really think of why she should be so thrilled. The only time she had ever seen the three of them together like this was when something was drastically wrong. And everything was just fine. Wasn't it..?

Sang Yung?And...a child? Their child? No, that wasn't right. She COULDN'T be carrying his child. It was forbidden. The penalty was-

Everything that was wrong with her world came flying back to strike her in the face. She flinched as if the blow were physical. Dropping to her knees in the shallow water, she buried her head in her hands and cryed.

Fuu's serene smile vanished instantly. Rushing forward, she knelt down beside the sobbing young woman and gathered here into her arms. Aska clutched desperately at the material of Fuu's dress, holding on in a white- knuckled grip as if it were her only life-line. Laying her head on the older woman's shoulder, she cried until her eyes were red and her throat was sore and her lungs burned with each choking sob. And when she could cry no more, she sat, shivering in the cold of the void that had swallowed her heart.

"What happened?" Fuu asked gently, stroking one long, ashen lock out of the young empress's eyes. "What has you so afraid?"

Aska looked up at Fuu, than at Umi who was kneeling next to them, and Hikaru who was sitting cross-legged, leaning forward slightly. Dropping her gaze, she stared at the palms of her up-turned hands, as if seeing something no one else could.

"Sang Yung is going to die," she whispered hoarsely, her tone that of one who had given up on all hope. "He's going to be beheaded."

"What?!" Fuu and Umi exclaimed together.

"Why?!" Hikaru asked, a look of horror on her face. "What did he do?"

"Not 'what did he do,' Hikaru-san," Aska said, curling her fists in barely-contained self-contempt. "What did I do.."

Fuu looked at Hikaru, who blinked at her, then at Umi, who shrugged. Continuing cautiosly, Fuu said, "Very well. What did YOU do?"

"I fell in love with him," Aska answered, her voice so tiny Fuu wasn't sure she had heard correctly.

"Why would that be dangerous?" Hikaru asked, looking slightly perplexed.

"By itself, it would have been just fine," Aska said, her voice a bit louder this time, though just as hopeless. "But...I needed him so badly... I couldn't bare spending another night alone when he was so close." She choked on the last sentence, feeling her heart breaking all over again at the memory of something that could never again happen.

"You mean," Hikaru began, her eyes widening, "that you?...and him?...the two of you?" Unable to bring herself to say the word outloud, she poked two fingers together in example.

Fuu and Umi stared at Hikaru in slight disbelief, before turning back to Aska. The young woman was blushing furiously, but she nodded at their questioning glances.

"And that's bad because?" Umi asked, positive she was going to hate what she was about to hear.

"Because he's not my husband." Aska said, now looking at Umi as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.

"Then why don't you marry him?" Hikaru asked, still perplexed.

"Hikaru-san, I don't think she would be in such despair if the answer was that simple," Fuu said.

"Why can't you marry him?" Umi asked.

"In the eyes of the Council, I might as well have slept with a pig," Aska asnwered bitterly. "All they see when they look at him is a-"

"A creature lower than the lowest dog," A dark voice suddenly whispered. "A man unworthy of the love of a whore, let alone an empress."

Springing to her feet, Aska whirled around, looking for the owner of the voice. "Only a coward would remain unseen and have the audacity to voice such thoughts in my prescense!" she called into the surrounding blankness, every trace of the weeping maiden gone from her. "Are you that afraid of an unarmed young woman?!"

The surrounding air took on a hostile atmosphere, as if it were living and severly displeased. The void around them began to tremble, as if something gigantic were shaking in anger and outrage. The fog that had covered everything came roiling back, as if born on a demon's breath. It looked so thick it could be cut with a knife, and it was blacker than the most corrupted heart.

Before Aska could step back it boiled over her, enclosing her in a shroud of night and freezing, leaving her tingling from the quick temperature change. Her lungs burned as she tried to breath.

"You're too proud for your own good, young empress," the same cold voice whipered in her ear. Aska froze as she felt a hand run itself up the bare skin of her side. "I like that in a woman."

Wrapping an unsen arm around her bare waist from behind, the thing pulled her to it, pressing its invisible body as close to hers as it could.

"I can only imagine what it must have been like for him," it commented, tightening its grip as she struggled and kicked, "feeling you quivering under him, your lips on his, those beautiful legs wrapped around his waist, and you, all hot and wet and-"

"Shut up!" she shouted, closing her eyes against impending tears brought on by the verbal rape.

"Come now, Pretty," it said, pinching her viciously, "I prefer my new mistress to be the Tiger she is at heart, not this weak little kitten cowering before me, ready to cry like a newborn babe."

"Mistress!" Aska snapped, redoubling her efforts to free herself as her pride took over. "Who do you think you are, to address me in such a manor?!"

"That's more like it," the thing chuckled. Reaching up an invisible hand, it seized her chin between thumb and forfinger, holding so tight her skin was already bruising. "Yes," it continued, "I am going to enjoy breaking you, taming you and collaring you."

Letting out a scream of rage, Aska turned to what she thought was the thing's front, intent on breaking its entire face. Seeing it for the first time, she came up short, her fist stopping in mid-swing. The thing looked to be made of fog. No, more as if the fog were gathering around it. No features were visible on the face, indeed on its body also. It was a simple human figure outlined in roiling black fog, and seeming to grin evilly at her without displaying a true mouth.

Realizing that it was staring at her in barely contained lust, and also remembering she was unclothed, Aska tried to turn around and instead found herself once again pressed to the thing, this time facing it and all too aware of its prescence. She struggled, beating against it with all her strength, feeling the tiny tendrils of fog licking up her bare skin. Tears of anger began to spill down her cheeks at the relentless, malevolent caresses.

"Stop it!" she sobbed, trying to push it away. "Let go of me!"

"As you wish," it said simply, releasing her.

Staggering backwards, Aska fell to her knees, scrubbing desperately at her skin, still feeling the tiny unwanted touches. Her knuckles were bleeding, split on the strange substance of the thing. The air still burned her lungs, and she felt weak, like she had just run a thousand miles without stopping. And she felt dirty, as if the very roots of evil were flowing in her bloodstream.

"A warning, my mistress," the thing said. "Next time we meet, I will not be so gentle with you. Now, it is time for you to awaken, and learn from my pupils how to serve your master."

The air began to thicken, until breath could not be drawn. Aska felt her heart slowing, as if she were watching it happen to someone else.

I'm sorry Sang Yung, she thought fleetingly, as darkness swept over her. This is all my fault. I couldn't save you, and now I can't even save myself...

*******

Fuu's eyes snapped open, her heart pounding in her chest. The room around her was dark, but lightning flashed on the walls, and thunder boomed low in the distance.

Breathing deeply, Fuu steadied her heartbeat, thinking over the dream that was not a dream. It was too real. Something evil was lurking in the depths of that dream, and it had covered Aska before they could pull the whole story out of her. Fuu had stood, watching helplessly through some kind of window as that thing nearly... Well, she wan't going to let it happen.

Standing up, Fuu threw on her green dressing gown, turning to the bed to wake up Ferio and noticing for the first time that her husband was no where to be seen.

A tiny whimper barely reached her ears. The baby's room.

Walking through a set of double doors and down a short private corridor, Fuu found exactly what she had heard, along with her husband.

Their daughter, Emeraude, barely 8 months old, was held securely in the arms of her father, who was fast asleep in the rocking chair next to her cradle. The baby girl was kicking, though not violently, and tugging at the gold hoop in her father's right ear. Ferio winced in his sleep at the tiny pulls, but did not awaken.

Sighing, Fuu walked over to the rocking chair, gently taking Emmy from Ferio. The baby gurgled happily at the sight of her mother, who cooed to her and hummed a nameless lullaby.

When Emmy looked up at her with once-more sleepy eyes, Fuu placed her in her cradle, rocking her gently as she thought out loud.

"What could be going on, Emmy? What happened to fill her with such hopelessness?"

Emmy only closed her tiny eyes, falling asleep.

"Who's filled with hopelessness?" a tired voice asked from behind her.

"Aska," Fuu answere simply, turning to face her husband. Ferio stood, eyes half-closed, pajamas rumpled, and hair a mess, looking at her in his sleepy yet loving way.

"And you know this, how?" Ferio asked, shuffling over to lay his head on her shoulder, as if trying to sleep standing up.

"I...I'm not sure-" Fuu began, but was interupted by a loud banging coming from the door of their chambers.

"Fuu-chan!" Hikaru's voice called from the other side of the door, while she continued knocking loudly. "Fuu-chan! I just had the most terrible dream! You must have had it too, because Umi-chan is out here and she says she had it, so it would only make sense if-"

"Alright!"Ferio called to the redhead on the other side of the door he was know opening. "We get the picture Hikaru, you wanna be let in the room."

Rushing past Ferio, Hiakru skidded to a halt in fron of Fuu, who was rocking a wailing baby. Fuu shot Hikaru an evil look (as evil as Fuu can get) and continued to soothe her crying child.

"Sorry Fuu-chan. I didn't mean to wake up Emmy," Hikaru apologized, fiddling with a button on her pajama top.

"Can't you make it be quiet?" Umi asked, covering her hands with her ears as she entered the room.

"Ferio, take Emmy," Fuu said, handing the baby to her husband, who looked at her askance, then went to sit in the rovkingchair and sing off- key lullabys to his daughter in attempt to calm her down. Luckily, Emmy had yet to develop a critical opinion of his singing, knowing only that mommy's sounded better, but daddy's would have to do for now.

"Hikaru-san, Umi-san,"Fuu continued, "let us go and awaken Clef. I have the feeling we will be needing his guidance in this matter."

End ch. 3