~~Review Thank You's~~
Wind_Blade: Yay! You think it makes sense *does happy dance* Yes I know I have sp. mistakes, I did try to fix them but I am unable to because my brain refuses to function that way ^_-
JadeGreenGoddess: I updated **Bows proudly** ^-^
superalicea: ^-^
Angelxd14: You read my bio? Wow, me bio is extensively long... And I'm glad you like my movies :) Ever see The Birds? Tis amusing...
Peachblossom: I know it wasn't fluff, I couldn't do it. I don't function that way. I know, I shudda killed her, oh well, I'll just have to continue the story...And I'm not desperate for reveiws! I just like them very much a lot!
MagicalMoonPrincess: :)
Muslima: KOOL!
mae15: **does happy dance** I write the best fic ever! **Runs around singing**
Cami of Queenscove: Yes, making suggestions does absolutely nothing, but it is still amusing. And I did seriously consider the cliffhanger thing, but then the chappie would have been really short. And when are you going ta update??
Siningami Clara: Gah, sorry, I just can't write fluff, it doesn't work for me, the last chappie was supposed to be fluff, and now look at it...An I calculated how many times you wrote more chappies and I got 63 times....
Peachblossomluver: Fluff is good yes.... ;)
Saturnpyroprincess: Confusing is good! Yah and the whole Erikk and Lia thing? I hate it when all of the sudden ppl are in love. It doesn't work like that. and even though this is a fantasy fic, some things have to be realistic...
White-Wolf: *is highly amused* You didn't realize there was more??? hehehehehehe, I thought about the cliffie thing, I was amused....
Thank you to all of my most wonderful reviewers. You make my day! Luv ya all!
~~:Chapter 18: A Day In The Life:~~
Three days later, they finally let Lia out of her room alone. Lady Maria came to see her as she was getting dressed.
"Yazlia, you do realize you died." Maria said while gaping.
"Yes." Lia said carefully.
"People just don't die everyday Lia!" She yelled. "You need to tell me exactly what happened." She said glaring at her. So Lia launched into the most detailed account of her time in the realm of the gods. Maria seemed confused.
"She didn't give you anything?"
"No, I don't think so. Why?"
"Your aura is different. I don't know what it is. Something has been added, I'll figure it out." She said. "Now," she said, getting right to business, a very Maria like quality. "Over the years I have taught you everything I know. The only thing left is to see if you are a seer." Lia stared dumbly at her. "You already possess seer like qualities. You see magic that is a seer quality."
"Oh. How do you tell if I'm a seer?" Lia asked.
"It's a simple spell, but if you are a seer, it will awaken that power. Then you will have visions of the future. Visions can be violent. They can throw your body into spasms and a sub-comatose state for a while." Maria said seriously.
"Do it." Lia said. She had to know.
"Alright." She settled down behind Lia. "Just relax; this will only take a minute." Lia settled onto the floor and relaxed as Maria entered her head. Suddenly she pulled away.
"What?" Lia asked turning around to face Maria.
"You are; you are a seer. And evidently you have already had a few visions." Maria looked sadly at her. "I'm sorry the burden of this has fallen to you."
"It's alright, I'll live." They sat in silence.
"Come tell me when you have your first vision."
"Alright." Lia said smiling. After Maria left Lia sat on her bed and tried to remember the last time she'd had a vision, Maria'd said she had done it before. When had she done it? Then it hit her when she had dreamed of the black castle on the emerald forest. That was it.
Lia remembered her endless lessons as Maria's student. Every seer saw things in a different way. Some had spasms if the smelled or saw something to trigger a future event. Sometimes a seer just had a sight or a feeling of things to come. And most Seers had a seeing stone. The stone in her necklace: Her hand flew to grab it. It was her seeing stone. Lia smiled happily. She had figured out everything about her sight in a few minuets. All she had to do was wait for her next vision. Lia hated waiting.
~~:~~
A few days later things had finally quieted down a bit. There were no fires, stormwings attacks, or people dying and coming back to life again. Lia had her newly formed mathematics classes every afternoon. Her lessons with Maria became chatty once a week visits. Every few days Lia managed to escape and visit with Renne and Kanti.
In mid April John and his father showed up to meet with a bunch of fief masters. They were talking about the finishing touches to next spring's progress. Lia was finding it hard to believe that it was almost time for that. Involuntarily Lia shuddered. Her squire years would be done on progress. What a joke. She would learn nothing. It was probably a good thing her page's years had been done at Haven.
At the ball that night, things were going smoothly until a Cheshire cat got loose. The fief masters yelled and dove after it. The ladies screamed and jumped onto their chairs. Lia just groaned and ran after it.
She dodged around tables and chairs chasing the poor thing around the dining hall twice. Lia finally cornered the thing between a pot and a wall.
Gingerly she picked it up. Its fur was poofed out, giving the effect that it was larger than it actually was. In reality, the kitten was tiny; the tiny claws clung into her skin. Lia winced but drew the kitten into her breast anyway. Soon it had snuggled up to her and was purring.
"Well Lia that was quite a feat." Kel said reaching down to scratch the kitten on its head. "It's a cute thing, even for a cat. Make sure it doesn't get loose again. Things are settling down again finally." She said walking over and assuring the lords and ladies that all was well.
Lia walked out to the balcony. She wished she had some one to talk to. Her family and Erikk had left a day ago something about a tribal uproar in the dessert. Lia had never been to the dessert. It was one of the places she hoped to see on progress. Seeing that dinner was about to draw to a close she walked back to her room. She looked at the small orange cat in her arms. It was so cute. It looked up at her; its eyes were green, like her own.
"I suppose I'll have to name you huh?" Lia pondered for a moment. "I don't know, Chemise maybe? That's Carthaki for cat you know." She said looking at the small tabby cat. Lia picked it up and held it above her head. "I guess you're a girl then." Lia said, the offended kitten giving her what would have been a very patronizing look. Lia smiled as she put Chemise on the floor of her room. "This is home, or one of them." Lia said as the cat padded around the room. Lia slipped on a nightgown and climbed into her bed. Chemise jumped onto the bed after her and they fell asleep.
~~:~~
Lia had adapted a small leather bag that hung off her hip by a thin leather string. Chemise was small enough to sit in Lia's hand. So fitting in a leather bag was not a big deal. Lia found it amusing when she popped her head out of the bag while Lia was talking to people. They would always comment on it.
"Lia, Lia. Wait up!" Someone called from behind her. She turned; Kanti was running up to her.
"Hey, what are you up to?" Kanti asked, a little too innocent for Lia's taste.
"I have the rest of the day free, why?"
"Really? Perfect. Come on." Kanti said dragging Lia off towards the gypsy square.
"What are you dragging me into?" Lia asked nervously.
"It's Erikk's birthday today."
"I know that!" Lia said slightly offended that she thought she didn't know her best friends birth date.
"Well, we're having a birthday celebration this year. We would have done it next year, when he's eighteen but we probably won't see him then because of his ordeal and the progress."
"Oh, why didn't you tell me?" Lia asked.
"Because we didn't want you telling him."
"What?"
"You're best friends. If he wants to know something that, you know you'll tell him. It's the way the two of you are.''
''You sound more like a gypsy every day." Lia said laughing. As Kanti pulled her into her house, she inhaled. Kanti's house had a wonderful smell. Something was always cooking, even more so today. Kanti was pulling her into the sewing room. Chemise sneezed as she padded around the room.
"You'll need a new outfit. The one from last year won't fit. You grew again.
"You make that sound like a bad thing.'' Kanti laughed as her mother entered.
"Lia! Hello. I think we should do green, red and black. Not the black silver like last year, we want her to look her best." Her mother said as they started pulling dark fabric out of drawers.
Finally, they wrapped a long, dark red scarf around her chest leaving a rather large amount of stomach showing Lia thought. They had her put on a dark green skirt that hung low on her hips. Then she put a thickly beaded wrap over her skirt. Lia was sure that her cat was smirking.
Kanti's mother Elena outlined Lia's eyes in charcoal making Lia look dark and dangerous. Lia found it amusing.
Her hair hung straight down to her waist. Chemise had wrapped herself around Lia's neck and hidden beneath her hair.
"Kanti, I don't think I can pull this off." Lia sad, looking warily in the mirror. She looked a tad too much like the sketch of her in those papers. Lia held her necklace.
"Yes you can. You look gorgeous." Kanti said. Kanti herself was wearing a light purple wrap around her torso and a dark purple skirt. Her dark amber colored hair hung in spiraling waves halfway down her back. Her periwinkle blue eyes where outlined in a sparkling gray shimmer. Her lips were a fruity pink. She just looked, cute, flirty, Kanti-ish.
"Alright, le's go. We're late as it is." Lia said.
~In the square~
Erikk had been surprised when Neal had dropped him off at Sillon's house saying he would see him tomorrow afternoon. As soon as Neal had left, Sillon's mother had dragged them both into her dressing room. She chattered instructions to the boy's. She threw loose black breeches at Erikk and thrust him behind a dressing curtain. A dark blue vest flew over the top of the curtain. Erikk mumbled a thank you. He still didn't know what was going on. He stepped out from behind the curtain. He hadn't taken his shirt and Sillon's mother laughed and removed it. She quickly tied a silver sash around his waist and shoved him out the door. Sillon laughed at his bewildered face.
"Will you tell me what's going on yet?" Erikk asked tiredly.
"Nope. Ya tired or sumthin man?" Sillon asked as they walked towards the square.
"Na, just trying ta figure out what you're up ta." When around his friends Erikk always slipped into a peasant's burr dropping the ends of the words off so that they slid together.
"Well, here we are." Sillon said. "Surprised?" They were standing in the middle of an entirely empty gypsy square.
"To find an empty square? Yes, actually I am surprised, I never see this place completely empty. It's-" He was cut of to a loud yell and a crowd of people appearing.
"Surprised now?" Sillon asked cynically.
"Only a little." He said looking around in awe. Just about everyone he knew had come, except the adults. He supposed he would see them in the morning bearing a hangover cure.
All of his students who had become his friends were there. Laughing and clapping. All of the people he had caught stealing were there. All of the people he had helped through life at one point or another were there.
Except, he didn't see Lia. Had she not come? Then he saw some one running on the wall towards the square. They stopped on the wall directly in front of him. Another person stopped behind them. It was Lia, so she was just late. He could see her little red cat hidden beneath her dark hair.
He couldn't help staring at her. He had always known she was beautiful, gorgeous really. But some how the simple style of the gypsies enhanced that. She didn't need riches or finery. She just needed to be Lia, and that was when she was most stunning. When she was allowed to be herself. She smiled and gave him a wave before descending down the stairs carved into the wall.
That was when he heard someone whoop and people began to clap. At first, it was staggering. and then it blossomed into full-blown applause. He bowed and blushed. The applause got louder. He saw Lia and Kantiazi Standing by the east wall. Both of them clapping and laughing.
The dancing soon started. Erikk danced with numerous air headed girls until he excused himself to get some air. He climbed up to the wall.
"Ditching the girls again huh Erikk?" He turned to see Lia standing behind him. Her arms were crossed over her stomach and he could have sworn the cat was laughing at him.
"You mean the blonde air headed bimbo's."
"Yah those." Lia said with a smile. "C'mon, ya can't miss your own birthday party."
Lia and Erikk had returned to their rooms early the next morning. Both had been dancing the entire night, and Erikk was, oh, lets say, a little tipsy. Just for fun Neal walked into Erikk's room the next morning yelling about taxes. Erikk screamed and fell out of bed.
Lia woke up around ten and went to see Kel about a grant for irrigation purposes. Kel laughed at her for a good ten minutes.
"You are up and working while my son lays abed groaning. How is that?" Kel said still laughing, obviously she, like Lia's mother, had abandoned all hope of keeping in with her Yamani training.
"Unlike your son, I did not feel the need to drink the alcoholic beverages." Lia said smirking.
"Ahh, I see." Kel said laughing. "Well, tell the treasurer I approved the irrigation grant for the north field. We'll see if it helps."
"Alright, great, I will go do that right now. If we start after lunch. ." Lia trailed off as she walked out the door.
After visiting the treasurer and having the supplies brought to the field. Lia was standing on a wall facing the field. She heard some one come up behind her. Turning she saw Erikk.
"Wow, up and moving at noon. What a surprise."
"Be quiet Lia. What are we doing? Irrigation?"
"Ya, the field isn't getting enough water. We'll have to build troughs, put them in the right place so all the plants get water. And then we have to connect all the troughs to the river." Lia said triumphantly. She had worked out exactly how much space would go in-between troughs so the plants would get maximum water intake without being over saturated. "Oh look at that!" Lia said pointing at the sun.
"What? Ow, ow, ow!" He said jumping around screeching. "What are you trying to do? Don't you thing your father injured my delicate head enough already?" He whispered violently. It didn't have the effect he was going for, Lia laughed at him.
It didn't help 'his delicate head' when they spent all day in the sun. They dug troughs and lined them with a thin layer of metal. They finished a few hours after dinner and returned wearily to Haven.
"My head hurts." Erikk moaned. Lia smirked and hit him lightly on the back of the head. "Oww."
"Don't whine." Lia chided. A few minutes later he hit her on the back of the head. "Hey!" She protested.
"Don't hit, especially when the one you're hitting has a hangover." He growled. Lia smiled.
Then she got that feeling, that feeling where it felt like the ground beneath her was opening up and she was about to fall into a bottomless pit. Her hand flew to grab her necklace; she looked up at Erikk who was eyeing her nervously.
"Don't touch me." She said as she fell forward to hit the ground.
The sight hit her like a large rock. For a minute her vision melded together before becoming as sharp as ever.
She was looking at a wooden desk with a map burned into the top. She recognized the top half as the edge of the Carthaki Empire. The rest of it was completely new to her. Lia tried to memorize it before the scene changed. a large forest that could possibly be the emerald forest spanned across the middle of the map, eventually, giving way to the dark sea. In the center of the dark sea was a cluster of what was labeled as 'The no-mans land Islands', possibly where the emerald castle was.
Lia gasped as her vision swam again before she found herself looking at the cobblestone floor. She inhaled and got up and ran back to her room. She heard Erikk following her but paid him no mind. She threw the door to her rooms open and pulled parchment and a quill out of her desk. Chemise was sitting next to the paper looking curiously at her. Quickly she drew out as much as she remembered from the vision. Critically she examined her work before running out of the door. Ignoring Erikk's protests she ran past him and back out into the lower city.
Reaching Maria's home, she rattled the doorknob. It was locked. The sky was dark and Lia realized Maria was probably asleep, but she had to talk to her. Lia pulled a set of lock picks from her boot and quickly picked the lock. The kitten found this amusing and meowed when she saw Erikk round the corner as they slipped into Maria's shop front.
Once inside Lia sprinted up the stairs and shook her old friend awake.
"What do you want girlie?" She said grumpily.
"I had a vision." Lia said calmly. Maria instantly perked up.
"Go make tea child. I'll be down once I'm decent." Lia nodded and crept down the stairs praying to anyone who would listen that Erikk hadn't seen her enter. Funny I should be hiding from my best friend. She taught as she reached the bottom of the stairs.
Luck wasn't with her. Erikk was standing in the middle of the room. His eyes were closed and he was slowly turning in a circle, listening for any possible noises. Lia exhaled as quietly as possible. Chemise glared at her as to say 'stupid human'. He heard her.
"I know you're there. Come out of the shadow. I just want to talk to you. I'm worried about you okay?" He said, looking straight at her. His eyes locked with hers even though she was hidden by shadow.
"What do you want to know?" Lia asked coming out of the shadows to make tea.
"When did you start having visions?" He asked following her.
"A few months ago," Lia said, she couldn't lie to Erikk.
"How much do you know about your destiny?" Now Lia was curious. How much did he know? She asked herself.
"Enough." She said shortly signaling that this topic was off limits. He accepted that and moved on.
"How much do you know about the champions?" He asked.
"A lot." She said simply.
"Did you have anything to do with the murder of that scholar at Port Caynn?" He asked. Lia winced inwardly.
"Yes."
"Ok," He paused to look at her "I'm going now. Be careful." He said as he left. Lia sighed and leaned her head against a wall.
"He knows an awful lot about you girlie." Maria said as she entered the room.
"I know." Lia sighed. Chemise jumped onto the table to look at Maria curiously. Maria glared at it before looking at Lia.
"Now about this vision of yours girli," Maria said getting right to business.
~~:~~
Very early that morning Lia returned to her rooms. Maria had made her add every single detail to her map she thought she remembered. I had driven Lia insane. But, now her map was very detailed and Lia was appreciative of that fact. She was also bone tired. She leaned the leather wrap her map had been attached to against a wall and fell into her bed.
As the morning bell struck eight Lia groaned and rolled out of bed. She was testing her irrigation system this morning and had to be there. Quickly she braided her long hair, got dressed in loose breeches and a shirt she walked out to the practice courts. She needed to beat something. Preferably, a person, but a large immovable bag would work this morning.
