Disclaimer: Welcome, welcome, to the story. Come in, my children, for I must tell you, that characters found in Misty's books, will never be mine to claim. Now the story may continue.
Authors note: Same basic stuff, blah is thoughts, :blah: is mindspeech. If anyone knows what lies to the west of Valdemar I'll give them any sweet they want!
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Lira's sightless eyes traveled back and forth across the endless busy of the Collegium. The sounds were amazing; horses hooves, companions bell-like jingle, continuous chatter, pots clinging, and above all else laughter.
The sounds almost overpowered her, much as her gift would if unshielded. Her oversensitive ears were used to a small village of 100, busy, but quiet. This clanging noise scared her. She shrunk back away from it all, her hands clasped tight around her ears.
Footsteps came towards her. Lira reached out and touched the material, a Heralds material.
"Follow me Lira, you'll be living in the Bardic Collegium, the Heraldic is all filled up unfortunately." Following the Heralds footsteps, she maneuvered herself into the constant noise, trying to block out all the sound. Nobody noticed.
In and out, curves, strait pathways, switches of directions, Lira was soon very, very lost. She didn't even know if she was still in the Palace district.
: You most certainly are youngling.: A deep bass voice filled her head, and out of habit, she swung her head around looking for the source of that voice. Of course, she didn't see anything, and with the shield so tightly placed around her, she couldn't search with her mind. She tried a mindcall back, not knowing if she was managing it the right way, or if the voice could even hear her.
: Where am I? : Lira felt a jolt of shock, as for the first time she formed her thoughts together and deliberately spoke to someone from her mind. She was doing Herald things, and she was certainly not a Herald.
: You give the Heralds too much credit girl, other people have mindspeech, it's just that most people associate mind gifts with Heralds. I am undoubtedly not a Herald, or one of those crazy horse-like beings.: The voice snorted. : You are in the Palace District, near the Bardic Collegium.: Lira was heading up stairs. :In fact, you're in the Bardic Collegium.: The voice was lightly teasing her, and Lira grinned at open air.
: Who are ya? Ya're awfully blunt.: Lira knew that it was definitely a rude question considering how nice the voice was being to her, but she wanted to know, quite badly in fact. She wished her sister was here, Tric, would know how to form the question diplomatically. She wished her whole family were here.
: I am Altra, I'm a cat. Of course I'm blunt.: The voice waited for a response, but when he got none other then a questionable mental tab, she could feel the exasperation in his voice.
: I'm a firecat, who belongs to Karal, the Sun Priest and Ambassador from Karse.: She still didn't understand anything, or the significance of it, other then this Priest Karal was from Karse. The enemy turned ally, who had stopped the dreaded storms from killing her family's crop. She supposed she should be grateful to them, but in some small portion of her mind, something was ingrained that said, 'Karsites are horrible people. They are always wicked and intentionally try to hurt you. They love the demon's, if only because they ruin the lives of people you love.' It was ridiculous, after all the actions that Karse had after the Storms, she should know better, but somehow, she didn't.
: The demon summoning has stopped youngling. They won't return for as long as Solaris lives. We're not the enemy, not any longer. Karal is my friend, and before you ask, the reason I'm talking to you is that you have something in common with Karal. I thought that maybe you two might want to meet. : Lira was somewhat dragged down by all the suncat- or was it firecat- was telling her. What would a Karsite have in common with her?
"Kaho, there's a cat talking in my head." Even as she said it, she knew how stupid it sounded. It sounded like she was going crazy. Kaho didn't respond like anything was out of the ordinary.
"Does that sort of thing happen a lot?" Lira seethed, Kaho was treating her like a little girl again. With the type of question that says, 'if you answer the right way then I'll tell you why I asked.'
"Why would I have a cat talking in my head all the time?" Lira snapped. Inside her mind, she could hear the Cat talking to her. : Temper, temper, she's only trying to help.:
: I don't care if she's trying to help m' Cat, I don't want 'er treating m' like a babe!: Lira tried to calm herself down. She tried another question.
"'e says Karal an' me might want ta meet." Kaho stopped suddenly, and Lira ran into her. Lira scowled openly at the Herald.
"This is your room. Your roommate will be around shortly I imagine. No, I don't know anything about her. Karal is a Sun Priest. He played a major roll in saving our Kingdom from the storms 4 years ago, and lost his sight for it." Kaho's voice quieted. "I was in my final year of training when that happened. I only learned afterwards how much risk the country was in. Anyway." Kaho's voice brightened, "let me show you around your room." She led the girl around, letting her touch and feel her way to where things were. In 20 minutes, Lira had examined the room, in ways that Kaho didn't even think about. Suddenly, Lira turned to her.
"Lead m' back ta the bottom, where the entrance is." Lira commanded. She had to get this right, her whole future of not getting lost depended on it. So, Kaho lead her back downstairs, and walked her back up to her room. Then back down they went. The second time, Kaho let go of her, and gave her voice commands. One time Kaho didn't notice a step and Lira tripped. She swept herself off, and continued to go on, brushing Kaho's apology away. She was mainly focused on memorizing the route, and right now nothing, not pain, not confusion was going to get in her way.
After the fifth time Lira got upstairs onto the 5th floor without any major mishaps, and she flopped on her bed. She was grateful that Kaho had put up with her during that time. The Herald left, muttering something under her breath about 'grooming the demon.' The cat's presence came back into her mind.
: That was very neatly done, human, it would have taken Karal ages to think of something like that so soon after losing his sight.: Lira didn't recognize the compliment, she was mad about the fact that the Cat didn't know her name.
: M' name's Lira. And, since ya're snooping in m' brain anyway, why can't ya figure out m' name? :
: You call me Cat so I call you human. By the way Lira: The Cats- no Altra's voice turned less haughty, : A girl is looking at you from the doorway, I'm guessing that it's your roommate. : Before Lira could ask Altra how he knew that, he was gone. She turned her head towards the door, not that it let her see any better.
"'m Lira McCallistar. From the Western border of Valdemar." The girl came closer to her.
"I'm Eimily Johnson. Welcome to Bardic." There was an awkward silence between them, until Eimily finally said something.
"Is it a custom where you're born that you don't shake hands?" She asked curiously. A faint tint of pink colored the other girls face, as she hastily let out her hand, directly to the right of where Eimily was standing.
She accommodated Lira and stepped so that they were facing each other again.
"Are you… blind?" Her voice was hesitant and she immediately berated herself for asked such a frank question, I mean the answer was obvious.
"Yes, why?" Lira's voice was suspicious. "Do you not like blind people, is that it?"
"No, it's not that, my brother was blinded after an accident. He killed himself a month after. He never learned to live without color." Lira reached out and touched the other girl, and suddenly, she was in the other girls memory, seeing from her point of view.
***************FLASHBACK *********************************
Eimily dashed out of the house, her brother's yell was painful to her ears, even as her heart trembled when she saw her brothers attackers. They had already punctured one eye, and when she got there, they did the next one.
Eimily fell on the floor screaming, the blood was pouring out of her brothers' eyes, and it looked like they'd massacred his entire face.
"You want to know what it's like not to see boy, now you know what you made our leader go through." She could see Riley struggling for breath.
"I did it to save my sister, he was going to hurt her, use her in ways that would eventually kill her. Her voice isn't worth that, and my eyes are more then worth my sisters talent." Riley knew something was happening, he could hear her sisters terrorized screams, and he strained into a sitting position. The guards pushed him back down. Eimily could see them about to give her brother the killing blow.
"STOP!" Her scream surprised even herself. It was a scream that would have made a born brawler like her father proud. The men stopped in mid-strike.
"Yes, little missy?" They turned towards her expectantly, letting her brother drop. He was running out of blood, they'd hit one of the vessels in his eyes, if she didn't get him to a healer soon, he would die.
"I'll… do anything… just keep my brother alive." The men grinned in malice even as her brother groaned. He would have done anything to keep her from those men, now because of his actions that's exactly where she was going to end up.
"We'll see you at work tomorrow then, eh?" One of the men said winking at her suggestively. She turned her back away from him in disgust and turned back to her brother, tears pouring out of her eyes.
"Don't die Riley, I'll do anything, just don't die!"
************/ FLASHBACK *******************************
"What was that?" Lira's eyes widened, she had seen color again of course they were dull shades but it was color nonetheless! The other girl touched Lira's eyes carefully.
"You saw that?" Lira could tell she was doubtful. She didn't really blame the other girl, she never would have imagined that she would see color again, even in shared vision. She cherished her new experience, an experience that she had SEEN!
"I saw color! I- red, yellow, brown, gray. It was all there, I was starting to forget them, and you gave them back to me!" She threw her arms around the other girl. Finding it comfortable and not at all awkward.
She had her two wishes granted; the voices had stopped talking into her head, and she finally found a friend, a friend that she could trust.
Suddenly a voice broke through all of the barriers that Kaho had so carefully put up. It was her sisters' voice, and she was screaming for help.
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A/N, Sorry to leave it on that note, but I still need to know what the country that lies to the west of Valdemar. Erg, I hate it when I have questions that I can't answer. So, anyone who can will get my greatest gratitude's. Reviewer thank you's coming right up!
Fireblade K'chona: Thankie mucho!
Andi G: tak sa mycket! I know that I have some grammar issues, but I'm working to correct that *winks* By the way, I am very offended, I do NOT bite! I do kick however, so be afraid, be very afraid. Tak sa mychet for dit forslag. : )
Vreader: Chappie, Chap'per, chapter, there got it, I can say chapter now! *watches in fascination as pop up struggled to get free of the sticky surface and throws both away* I'd hate to be stuck with it forever, and what a waste of a lollypop! Thank you for the review, I'm glad you enjoyed the humor!
GoldenSquirrel: I'm sorry, I didn't think you were reading this one since you don't read Mercedes Lackey. My mistake. I hope that you like Brightly Burning. Thanks for the review!
Katsiebee: Thanks *grins*