Hey everyone! Thanks for the great reviews!
Here's the sixth chapter. Sorry for the delay, but some people *cough* Anisha *cough* Ac *cough* Annie *cough* decided they were going to take it over, so I had to make those changes.
If you've been reading the story, I changed even more from last time I changed it, including almost every single name in the story (sorry guys, but I was forced to). So, you may want to at least skim through the previous chapters. A lot has been changed.
And Darkfyre, thanks for the review! I swear, I *do* know the difference between twin and triplet. : )
Also, LadyTofu, thank you for the review, and scratch what I said in the last update. My italics don't work, so in the story, I had those person changes marked in italics. From now on, I'm going to have thoughts in between *...*, and mindSpeech will continue to be in between :...: Thanks for your suggestions, though, and I hope this makes it less confusing.
And Elvenhorse, thanks for the review. About Selenay and Elcarth outliving Talia, I had requests from my friends to be...uh...more *important* in the story, so I sort of killed Talia off so that they would be happy. Hehehe...don't get me wrong, I love Talia...
I hope you like it!
I'm hoping to put up the next chapter after New Years, so bear with me! *cough* Anisha *cough* Ac *cough* Lily *cough* ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Sanne...do you have any idea where we are?" Raul looked around the empty hall, utterly confused, "All we did was leave our rooms, and I can't even figure out which way they are anymore."
Sanne smiled, "I'm sure we'll see someone who knows their way around this maze. We can just ask them." They wandered around aimlessly, arm-in-arm, hoping to find themselves in the right place. "Hey! Why don't we ask her?" She pointed at a girl in a light blue uniform who had just appeared in the hallway. Raul caught the attention of the girl with a wave, and he and Sanne quickly approached her.
"You look lost." She winked mischievously, "My name is Kaya. I'm studying to be an Artificer; like you, apparently." Sanne looked down at her new uniform and smiled as the girl led them towards the dormitories.
Kaya's blue-green eyes flashed with amusement at the perplexed looks of the newcomers. "Don't worry. You learn your way around after you spend a few weeks here. Until then, I can show you around!"
Raul smiled, his nervousness melting at Kaya's friendliness. "Great! We're going to need the help! I'm Raul, and this is my friend Sanne. We just got here yesterday, and we seemed to have lost our rooms." Sanne laughed as he grinned sheepishly. The three trainees chatted animatedly as Kaya led the way back to their rooms, "Whoops! We've passed these rooms a few times already. I could have sworn that wasn't it."
Sanne smiled as their new friend wandered off, promising to see them again at dinner. "Wow. If everyone here is like her, we won't have any trouble fitting in!" Raul laughed, and the two friends finally returned to their rooms.
***
The three Heraldic trainees wandered the hallways of the Collegia, their Companions groomed and fed in the Grove. Tala smiled as she looked at her two friends, Edana walking on air with a huge grin on her face and Kaida still trying to get over the shock of being Chosen. "Are you two going to come down from the clouds, or are you going to be like that for a couple days?"
Tala laughed as Kaida started at the sound of her voice. "Wait! What did you say?" Kaida looked from Tala to Edana, and back to Tala, as Edana shook her head mockingly.
"Nothing. Never mind. Go back to the clouds." Tala grinned as Kaida's eyes unfocused, a sure sign that she was talking to Gavan again, "Let's get back to our rooms and get ready for dinner. I think I remember Dean Elcarth saying something about how we absolutely had to take baths before dinner, so let's get moving!"
***
Aaralyn and Aegle walked through the courtyards, talking and looking for Nida. "So, you are our third sister? That means we're triplets?" Aaralyn shook her head, more confused than ever, "But why didn't mother ever tell us about this? About you?"
"My foster parents were close friends with our family; they went to visit our parents a lot before we were born, even though they lived in Haven. They said our parents didn't have enough money to take care of triplets. Our mother, being a Healer, recognized my healing abilities, though I don't know why she didn't recognize yours. They decided to give me up to my foster parents, who could raise me as theirs in Haven, where I could get full training as a Healer." She watched her sister's face as the story began to sink in.
"I guess she didn't tell us because she wasn't even sure if you were alive. She didn't want to tell us we had a long lost sister and then have us find that you were gone forever, or didn't care about us." She smiled, suddenly realizing something that had been troubling her, "I heard her talking about you right before we left, but neither of us could make any sense of it. Hey! There's Nida!" Aaralyn ran around the corner, able to sense her sister's presence, excited to tell her of the news of their triplet, "Nida! You know how I was telling you about what mother had said before we left?" Nida nodded, perplexed, "Well, I've found the answer!"
Nida stood up, staring at her sister, plainly confused. "Well, what's the answer? And how'd you figure it ou-Who is that?" Nida's jaw dropped as she stared at the almost identical image of herself who had just rounded the corner.
Aaralyn smiled at her sister's shocked expression. "Nida. I want you to meet Aegle, our triplet."
***
Elcan wandered out of the Bardic Collegium, having proudly donned his rusty red tunic and breeches, ready to throw himself into his new life as a Bardic trainee. He rounded the corner and found himself in one of the smaller courts of the Palace, with aristocrats, their velvet outfits and fancy baubles everywhere, chattering aimlessly. He made to turn around, and ran into a young man who had been too lazy to get out of the way.
"What are *you*, a Bardic *trainee*, doing here? We don't want to listen to someone like you try to sing! We only want the best of the Master Bards, and you don't even have your instrument with you." The young man, much taller than Elcan, with dark hair and green eyes, covered from head to toe in expensive jewelry and tasteless fancy dress clothes, looked as though he had just dipped his toe in mud. As soon as Elcan explained that he hadn't come to play for the court, the young man exploded on another tangent, "Why didn't you get out of my way? I don't have time to deal with useless trainees getting in my way! *I* am Sindri Ciaran, and much more important than someone like yourself." Elcan was about to retort, but the pompous young man strode off, apparently unwilling to be seen bantering with the lowly Bardic trainee.
***
Edana walked through her new home in the Heraldic trainee dorm rooms, dressed in the grey trainee uniform from head to toe, even down to the boots. *I can't believe this! I'm a Heraldic trainee, at the Palace in Haven.* She smiled as Rolan's mindVoice came into her head.
: You'd better believe it, Chosen, because it's happening! Now, don't let yourself get too dreamy, or your going to walk into someone. Watch out! :
Edana moved out of the way of a girl a few years older than her, with straight, yellow-brown hair and brown eyes, and her nose in a thick, dusty book, dressed in a yellow adaptation of the Heraldic outfits. "Whoops! Sorry about that, I wasn't really watching where I was going."
The girl smiled cheerfully, "Don't worry about it. I'm sure it was my fault." She held up the book, "I'm always running into things!" She smiled and held out her hand to Edana, "My name is Ava."
Edana grinned and shook Ava's hand. "I'm Edana. I just got here, so I'm not quite familiar with everything, but which of the Collegia are you from?"
"I'm a Herald. I just came back from my internship." Ava smiled at Edana's confused expression, "I'm a Herald-Mage."
"A mage? A real mage?" Edana started at the revelation, "But I thought the Herald-Mages died out with Vanyel. That was ages ago!"
"That's true, but we are starting to come back. Elspeth, the former heir to the throne, is the first Herald-Mage in centuries. She and her lifebond, the Tayledras Mage and Scout, Darkwind, teach us here at the Collegia. There are only about ten Herald-Mage trainees and about five full Herald- Mages, other than Elspeth, so the going is pretty slow."
Edana smiled, "That is pretty amazing." She turned towards the palace, "Hey, come on! You have to meet my friends."
***
Kaida and Tala went back to their rooms to grab their new uniforms and head to the bathhouse. After taking some time to wash off the grime from the journey, they split up to wander the halls of the Collegia. Kaida found herself wandering outside, near the edge of Companions Field, towards a strange cluster of tropical trees and foliage. *Wow. This is beautiful, but I've never seen plants like these before in my life! I wonder how this got here.* Kaida jumped at a noise behind her, and turned to find herself facing a most unusual figure. A tall, brown-eyed girl walked gracefully towards her, dressed in a tunic of bright blues and purples, with feathers weaved throughout the cloth. The girl had straight, black hair with a few white streaks, feathers and beads weaved throughout. Kaida started again as she noticed the huge falcon perched on the girls shoulder.
"You must be a new Heraldic trainee. Is that right?" The girl smiled as Kaida nodded nervously, "I'm the daughter of the Tayledras ambassadors here in Valdemar. My name is Starflight, and this is Kalani, my Bondbird."
Kaida began to feel more comfortable as the girl grinned, her bird apparently trying to look as harmless as possible. "My name is Kaida. I-I don't think I've ever heard anyone talk about the Tayledras before."
Starflight's brown eyes seemed to flash with a silver light, but Kaida shook her head, figuring the unusually bright colors of the other girl's outfit had thrown her off. "We are the Healers of the land." Starflight grinned at Kaida's blank expression, "After the Mage Wars, you *do* know about the Mage Wars, right?" Kaida nodded enthusiastically, "Okay. After the Mage Wars and the Cataclysm, the land was wracked with problems, like Changebeasts and Changecircles, and it is the job of the clans to Heal the land, draining it of magic and then replacing the magic the way it should be. I myself am going to be a Mage one day, and I can Heal a little bit, though no one has done as much for the clans as Firesong. He is a Healer Adept. He is the other ambassador, with my parents."
Kaida grinned, quickly taking a liking for Starflight, "Wow. Healer Adept. I've never heard about any of this in all of my lessons. I guess you learn something new every day." She paused as both of their stomachs growled, "Do you want to get something to eat?"
***
The friends came together at last in the dinner hall, dragging along their new friends, ready to share their stories of the first day at the Palace. Elcan, with his brown eyes and cheerful smile, was being swarmed by young girls, as Nida watched him try fruitlessly to escape, becoming more and more upset by the minute. "Why won't those girls just leave him alone? Let him have his peace!" Aaralyn smiled, but the others just looked confused at Nida's violent reaction to the meaningless court games.
"Nida, relax. What has gotten into you? Why are you making such a fuss out of this?" Sanne smiled, confused, but still seeing the situation as rather amusing, "Let him have his fun with the court girls." Nida frowned, not even acknowledging Sanne's remark.
She glared across the room in stony silence until one girl got a little too close for comfort. Nida growled and charged towards Elcan and the unaware girl, as Elcan tried vainly to tell the girl he wasn't interested. "Get away from him!" The girl started as Nida shouted in her ear, and then dropped her volume down to a whisper, "He's mine!" The girl fled, deciding Elcan wasn't worth the trouble he came with.
: Wow, I'm touched, Nida. By the way, thank you for rescuing me. : He smiled, jokingly kneeling and kissing her hand, "My Savior." Nida collapsed into his arms, relieved to have chased off the girl.
: All in a days work, love. :
Their friends looked on in confusion, , trying to figure out what had just happened, as Aaralyn grinning smugly as the only one who knew what was going on. Kaida looked at her brother, then over to Nida, and back to Elcan. She leaned over to Edana and Tala, beginning to get an idea of what was going on. "Remember how we were joking about those two being lifebonded?" The two girls nodded, "I think that may be the case."
Here's the sixth chapter. Sorry for the delay, but some people *cough* Anisha *cough* Ac *cough* Annie *cough* decided they were going to take it over, so I had to make those changes.
If you've been reading the story, I changed even more from last time I changed it, including almost every single name in the story (sorry guys, but I was forced to). So, you may want to at least skim through the previous chapters. A lot has been changed.
And Darkfyre, thanks for the review! I swear, I *do* know the difference between twin and triplet. : )
Also, LadyTofu, thank you for the review, and scratch what I said in the last update. My italics don't work, so in the story, I had those person changes marked in italics. From now on, I'm going to have thoughts in between *...*, and mindSpeech will continue to be in between :...: Thanks for your suggestions, though, and I hope this makes it less confusing.
And Elvenhorse, thanks for the review. About Selenay and Elcarth outliving Talia, I had requests from my friends to be...uh...more *important* in the story, so I sort of killed Talia off so that they would be happy. Hehehe...don't get me wrong, I love Talia...
I hope you like it!
I'm hoping to put up the next chapter after New Years, so bear with me! *cough* Anisha *cough* Ac *cough* Lily *cough* ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Sanne...do you have any idea where we are?" Raul looked around the empty hall, utterly confused, "All we did was leave our rooms, and I can't even figure out which way they are anymore."
Sanne smiled, "I'm sure we'll see someone who knows their way around this maze. We can just ask them." They wandered around aimlessly, arm-in-arm, hoping to find themselves in the right place. "Hey! Why don't we ask her?" She pointed at a girl in a light blue uniform who had just appeared in the hallway. Raul caught the attention of the girl with a wave, and he and Sanne quickly approached her.
"You look lost." She winked mischievously, "My name is Kaya. I'm studying to be an Artificer; like you, apparently." Sanne looked down at her new uniform and smiled as the girl led them towards the dormitories.
Kaya's blue-green eyes flashed with amusement at the perplexed looks of the newcomers. "Don't worry. You learn your way around after you spend a few weeks here. Until then, I can show you around!"
Raul smiled, his nervousness melting at Kaya's friendliness. "Great! We're going to need the help! I'm Raul, and this is my friend Sanne. We just got here yesterday, and we seemed to have lost our rooms." Sanne laughed as he grinned sheepishly. The three trainees chatted animatedly as Kaya led the way back to their rooms, "Whoops! We've passed these rooms a few times already. I could have sworn that wasn't it."
Sanne smiled as their new friend wandered off, promising to see them again at dinner. "Wow. If everyone here is like her, we won't have any trouble fitting in!" Raul laughed, and the two friends finally returned to their rooms.
***
The three Heraldic trainees wandered the hallways of the Collegia, their Companions groomed and fed in the Grove. Tala smiled as she looked at her two friends, Edana walking on air with a huge grin on her face and Kaida still trying to get over the shock of being Chosen. "Are you two going to come down from the clouds, or are you going to be like that for a couple days?"
Tala laughed as Kaida started at the sound of her voice. "Wait! What did you say?" Kaida looked from Tala to Edana, and back to Tala, as Edana shook her head mockingly.
"Nothing. Never mind. Go back to the clouds." Tala grinned as Kaida's eyes unfocused, a sure sign that she was talking to Gavan again, "Let's get back to our rooms and get ready for dinner. I think I remember Dean Elcarth saying something about how we absolutely had to take baths before dinner, so let's get moving!"
***
Aaralyn and Aegle walked through the courtyards, talking and looking for Nida. "So, you are our third sister? That means we're triplets?" Aaralyn shook her head, more confused than ever, "But why didn't mother ever tell us about this? About you?"
"My foster parents were close friends with our family; they went to visit our parents a lot before we were born, even though they lived in Haven. They said our parents didn't have enough money to take care of triplets. Our mother, being a Healer, recognized my healing abilities, though I don't know why she didn't recognize yours. They decided to give me up to my foster parents, who could raise me as theirs in Haven, where I could get full training as a Healer." She watched her sister's face as the story began to sink in.
"I guess she didn't tell us because she wasn't even sure if you were alive. She didn't want to tell us we had a long lost sister and then have us find that you were gone forever, or didn't care about us." She smiled, suddenly realizing something that had been troubling her, "I heard her talking about you right before we left, but neither of us could make any sense of it. Hey! There's Nida!" Aaralyn ran around the corner, able to sense her sister's presence, excited to tell her of the news of their triplet, "Nida! You know how I was telling you about what mother had said before we left?" Nida nodded, perplexed, "Well, I've found the answer!"
Nida stood up, staring at her sister, plainly confused. "Well, what's the answer? And how'd you figure it ou-Who is that?" Nida's jaw dropped as she stared at the almost identical image of herself who had just rounded the corner.
Aaralyn smiled at her sister's shocked expression. "Nida. I want you to meet Aegle, our triplet."
***
Elcan wandered out of the Bardic Collegium, having proudly donned his rusty red tunic and breeches, ready to throw himself into his new life as a Bardic trainee. He rounded the corner and found himself in one of the smaller courts of the Palace, with aristocrats, their velvet outfits and fancy baubles everywhere, chattering aimlessly. He made to turn around, and ran into a young man who had been too lazy to get out of the way.
"What are *you*, a Bardic *trainee*, doing here? We don't want to listen to someone like you try to sing! We only want the best of the Master Bards, and you don't even have your instrument with you." The young man, much taller than Elcan, with dark hair and green eyes, covered from head to toe in expensive jewelry and tasteless fancy dress clothes, looked as though he had just dipped his toe in mud. As soon as Elcan explained that he hadn't come to play for the court, the young man exploded on another tangent, "Why didn't you get out of my way? I don't have time to deal with useless trainees getting in my way! *I* am Sindri Ciaran, and much more important than someone like yourself." Elcan was about to retort, but the pompous young man strode off, apparently unwilling to be seen bantering with the lowly Bardic trainee.
***
Edana walked through her new home in the Heraldic trainee dorm rooms, dressed in the grey trainee uniform from head to toe, even down to the boots. *I can't believe this! I'm a Heraldic trainee, at the Palace in Haven.* She smiled as Rolan's mindVoice came into her head.
: You'd better believe it, Chosen, because it's happening! Now, don't let yourself get too dreamy, or your going to walk into someone. Watch out! :
Edana moved out of the way of a girl a few years older than her, with straight, yellow-brown hair and brown eyes, and her nose in a thick, dusty book, dressed in a yellow adaptation of the Heraldic outfits. "Whoops! Sorry about that, I wasn't really watching where I was going."
The girl smiled cheerfully, "Don't worry about it. I'm sure it was my fault." She held up the book, "I'm always running into things!" She smiled and held out her hand to Edana, "My name is Ava."
Edana grinned and shook Ava's hand. "I'm Edana. I just got here, so I'm not quite familiar with everything, but which of the Collegia are you from?"
"I'm a Herald. I just came back from my internship." Ava smiled at Edana's confused expression, "I'm a Herald-Mage."
"A mage? A real mage?" Edana started at the revelation, "But I thought the Herald-Mages died out with Vanyel. That was ages ago!"
"That's true, but we are starting to come back. Elspeth, the former heir to the throne, is the first Herald-Mage in centuries. She and her lifebond, the Tayledras Mage and Scout, Darkwind, teach us here at the Collegia. There are only about ten Herald-Mage trainees and about five full Herald- Mages, other than Elspeth, so the going is pretty slow."
Edana smiled, "That is pretty amazing." She turned towards the palace, "Hey, come on! You have to meet my friends."
***
Kaida and Tala went back to their rooms to grab their new uniforms and head to the bathhouse. After taking some time to wash off the grime from the journey, they split up to wander the halls of the Collegia. Kaida found herself wandering outside, near the edge of Companions Field, towards a strange cluster of tropical trees and foliage. *Wow. This is beautiful, but I've never seen plants like these before in my life! I wonder how this got here.* Kaida jumped at a noise behind her, and turned to find herself facing a most unusual figure. A tall, brown-eyed girl walked gracefully towards her, dressed in a tunic of bright blues and purples, with feathers weaved throughout the cloth. The girl had straight, black hair with a few white streaks, feathers and beads weaved throughout. Kaida started again as she noticed the huge falcon perched on the girls shoulder.
"You must be a new Heraldic trainee. Is that right?" The girl smiled as Kaida nodded nervously, "I'm the daughter of the Tayledras ambassadors here in Valdemar. My name is Starflight, and this is Kalani, my Bondbird."
Kaida began to feel more comfortable as the girl grinned, her bird apparently trying to look as harmless as possible. "My name is Kaida. I-I don't think I've ever heard anyone talk about the Tayledras before."
Starflight's brown eyes seemed to flash with a silver light, but Kaida shook her head, figuring the unusually bright colors of the other girl's outfit had thrown her off. "We are the Healers of the land." Starflight grinned at Kaida's blank expression, "After the Mage Wars, you *do* know about the Mage Wars, right?" Kaida nodded enthusiastically, "Okay. After the Mage Wars and the Cataclysm, the land was wracked with problems, like Changebeasts and Changecircles, and it is the job of the clans to Heal the land, draining it of magic and then replacing the magic the way it should be. I myself am going to be a Mage one day, and I can Heal a little bit, though no one has done as much for the clans as Firesong. He is a Healer Adept. He is the other ambassador, with my parents."
Kaida grinned, quickly taking a liking for Starflight, "Wow. Healer Adept. I've never heard about any of this in all of my lessons. I guess you learn something new every day." She paused as both of their stomachs growled, "Do you want to get something to eat?"
***
The friends came together at last in the dinner hall, dragging along their new friends, ready to share their stories of the first day at the Palace. Elcan, with his brown eyes and cheerful smile, was being swarmed by young girls, as Nida watched him try fruitlessly to escape, becoming more and more upset by the minute. "Why won't those girls just leave him alone? Let him have his peace!" Aaralyn smiled, but the others just looked confused at Nida's violent reaction to the meaningless court games.
"Nida, relax. What has gotten into you? Why are you making such a fuss out of this?" Sanne smiled, confused, but still seeing the situation as rather amusing, "Let him have his fun with the court girls." Nida frowned, not even acknowledging Sanne's remark.
She glared across the room in stony silence until one girl got a little too close for comfort. Nida growled and charged towards Elcan and the unaware girl, as Elcan tried vainly to tell the girl he wasn't interested. "Get away from him!" The girl started as Nida shouted in her ear, and then dropped her volume down to a whisper, "He's mine!" The girl fled, deciding Elcan wasn't worth the trouble he came with.
: Wow, I'm touched, Nida. By the way, thank you for rescuing me. : He smiled, jokingly kneeling and kissing her hand, "My Savior." Nida collapsed into his arms, relieved to have chased off the girl.
: All in a days work, love. :
Their friends looked on in confusion, , trying to figure out what had just happened, as Aaralyn grinning smugly as the only one who knew what was going on. Kaida looked at her brother, then over to Nida, and back to Elcan. She leaned over to Edana and Tala, beginning to get an idea of what was going on. "Remember how we were joking about those two being lifebonded?" The two girls nodded, "I think that may be the case."