((Storm-mage-Who's a Mary-Sue in this story??!! I didn't make anyone of them perfect! Thanks to those who gave me name-ideas. I'm going to use a few of them, but I'll still accept more for some more variety! Thanks for all the reviews.))

"Briar!" Trisana called as she walked calmly up the steps. Numair was behind her, cursing whenever a piece of something slipped through the weather-witches barrier and caught him. "Stop that swearing," Tris told him absently. "You sound like your father."

Numair grinned broadly. "Thank you!" he said as they slipped through the door that Lissien had just opened for them

"Aunt Tris!" Lissien said happily as she hugged her. "It's been far too long! You need to stop by the castle more often. That way you could help Tristan learn how to control her magic. Did you know that she's the one who called this up? I think she did it because of what mother said. Has Numair told you what; umph!" Numair sighed and placed his hand over his sister's mouth.

"Sorry about that Aunt Tris," he said. "She sometimes just goes off like that."

"It's okay Numair," Tris told him, smiling. "I grew up with a girl like that."

Briar stood up and walked over to Trisana with his hands stuffed in his pockets. "Thanks for coming Tris," he said in a quiet voice. "Lissien will take you to where Tristan is.wrecking the world." Then he turned to place his hands on Sandry's shoulders.

Tris sighed and for a moment Numair could have sworn that he glimpsed sadness and love in the red-head's eyes. "Come on Aunt Tris," he said, letting go of Lissien. "Lissien will show you the way."

Trisana said, "All right. Come on Lissien, let's stop your sister."

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

Tristan was sitting by the window, tears streaming down her face. The storm raged about her. She lifted her arms and welcomed the wind and the rain. She was half-lost among her feelings. The hate, even guilt, consumed her and made her even more mad then she had been.

"Mother hates me!" she screamed to the storm. A bolt of lightning slashed out of the clouds and struck near a window. Tristan could hear multiple screams, all of them very familiar. One of them was Sandry's. "Did I hurt her?" Tristan wondered and the storm began to calm.

But then she yelled, "Good! She deserves it for all the times that she hurt me!" The storm grew even worse. Tristan watched as a giant tree uprooted and fell over. Father and Numair would be very upset with her, but who cared? She sure didn't.

"Tristan!" The call came from behind her. She half-heard it so she turned. She thought for a moment that she had looked into a mirror. There stood a woman with her hair and eyes, but her skin was far too pale to be her own. "Tristan you have to stop this!"

"Aunt Tris?" she mumbled. She looked behind her and saw her mother, no, her sister Lissien clinging tightly to a pillar, wimpering as the wind and rain whipped her. "Why are you here? Get out!" A strong gust of wind blew at Trisana, forcing her to call back up her barrier.

"Stop this Tristan!" she demanded. "You're going to kill everyone here!"

"Who cares?" Tristan asked. "Mother hates me, she treats me like I'm garbage. She doesn't speak to me. She said my magic was wrong. Then she goes and pampers Lissien like she's the princess of the world. And Numair is the prince. Somehow she manages to avoid me, but for once a week if even. So leave!"

The storm worsened, the wind screeched and the rain felt like small stones biting into the skin. Lissien was covered with rivulets of blood from the rain. Her clothes were torn. "Stop sister!" she begged. "Oh please, it hurts!"

Tristan became uncertain and at that moment Trisana jumped forward and grabbed her. Tristan began to scream. "Your mother doesn't hate you," Trisana whispered in her ear. "She doesn't, she loves you very much."

Tristan struggled but then she stopped, sobbing. The storm began to calm and Lissien lifted her head up from the protective circle of her arms. She looked at Aunt Tris oddly. What was wrong with her? Everyone knew that Sandry disliked her eldest daughter. No one seemed to know why but whenever Lissien asked her mother or father they changed the subject quickly.

"You're lying," Tristan said softly. "Mother does hate me, she hates my magic and the fact that I'm not like her."

Trisana began to rock the still crying Tristan in her arms. Lissien watched and realized how much like Aunt Tris her sister actually looked like. All but the skin and general shape of body was the same. Even the way their faces turned red when they cried. Lissien realized to her great surprise that Trisana was crying!

"Oh Tristan," Trisana said in a choked voice. "I'm so sorry. I didn't know it would be so horrible for you."

Tristan pulled away quickly and looked at Trisana. "What does that mean?" she demanded. "You couldn't have done anything for me! It was an accident of birth. I should have been one of your children. Marpessa, Xanthe, Ariadne and Jasmine are so happy with you. Every time I see them they are smiling and if they aren't it's for a good reason."

Tristan took a deep breath and smooth back Tristan's wet hair. "Tristan, I swore that I would never tell you. Your father and mother said the same. But, you are so unhappy. You have to know."

Lissien's eyes went wide as it dawned on her. She had never been quite as smart as her sister, after all Tristan was older, but she was rather sharp for her age. "No," she whispered hoarsely. "Tristan is my sister!"

Tristan didn't hear Lissien and her mind was too numb for her too understand. "What did the three of you swear? If it's about you and father almost getting married then I know."

"That's not it," Trisana said. She cleared her throat and looked straight into Tristan's steel gray eyes that were so much like her own. "My eldest child is not Marpessa, she's my second eldest and my second daughter. My eldest child is.you Tristan."

"NO!!!" the scream came, not from Tristan but from Lissien. She had leapt up and tears streamed from her cornflower blue eyes. Her hands fumbled on the ground until they grasped a rock. She whipped it at Trisana and it bounced off her left cheek, sending blood spraying out. "You're lying! Tristan is my sister! My sister!" She fell to her knees and put her face in her hands. Sobs racked her body.

Tristan stared blankly for a moment. "No," she whispered. "Sandry is my mother, I'm a noble, Briar is my father."

"I'll not deny that," Trisana said. "Briar is indeed your father, but you're my daughter. Look at yourself and then at me, you know it to be true. Perhaps you have always known it."

Tristan stumbled to her feet. "I need to.to think," she told Trisana. "Please, let me think. I'm confused. Mother, father. Lissien." Her vision began to darken as the toll her magic had taken took hold. She swooned and fell, luckily Trisana caught her.