Within two seconds I was soaked to the bone, pink dress plastered against me. The rain formed a curtain surrounding me. I could dimly see Mariva's shape, and I couldn't see Aiven at all. "Mariva!" I shouted, though she was barely two feet from me. The pounding rain drowned out the sound.

She stepped towards me, and grabbed my hand. "Did you do that?" she shouted back at me.

"Me? I don't think so. At least, I hope not. I'm no Mage!" I couldn't help wondering if I had done that. I had never seen rain come down so suddenly.

Or stop so suddenly, I thought as I realized that within the space of one blink, there was no longer droplets beating on my shoulders and head. The only dripping came from our clothing and hair - which amounted to enough water to fill a lake.

"My lady," a guarded voice said, from behind me, and I turned to see Prince Tullon standing there, wringing out his sleeves.

"Is there any particular reason you're in this garden, too?" I asked, tilting my head. To hell with being polite.

"I felt an uncontained release of untrained magic," he said, meeting my eyes. It looked like he was trying to contain a smile. I watched as his gaze transferred to his cousin beside me.

"All I felt was rain," I muttered under my breath.

"Rain that you caused." I jerked. I hadn't realized Aiven was so close to me.

"How?" I asked. "I'm not a Mage. I'm not!" I protested as they continued to stare at me.

"The daughter of the Eternal Lah'nayin is not," Aiven said, staring hard at me. "The princess of Lahtorli, however . . ."

I glanced at Mariva to see her reaction, only to be met by a very unusual sight. "Mariva!" I gasped, staring at her face. Blue streak ran down from her eyes, along with black streaks. Red rouge decorated her chin and neck. I couldn't stop from laughing, and she joined in, a sort of desperate laugh.

"You look HORRIBLE!" she told me.

"So do you!" I told her. "Like a monster in a play!"

Catching her breath, Mariva cried out "Boo!" which for some reason made us both laugh uncontrollably, collapsing to the floor. After we finally stopped, we glanced at each other, then were off again.

When I looked at Aiven, he was grinning too, even though he looked like he didn't want too. Tullon was looking at us like we WERE something to be afraid of, but he too was amused.

"Here," Aiven said, pulling out two white handkerchiefs and handing them to Mariva and me.

"They're white," I told Mariva, which made us both laugh again, for a long enough time that the youths started to look concerned - of course, that only made us laugh even harder.

By the time Aiven dragged me away and Tullon took his cousin, I had managed to put on a serious face. "Are you all right?" Aiven asked once we were in his rooms, sitting on the plush sofa.

I stared out the window, watching birds dive about. "I think a better question would be, are you?" I said quietly, returning my gaze to his. "What happened this morning?"

"I could ask the same of you," her said with a wry grin. "You and - your lover - were there one moment, and then you were gone when I came out of my trance."

"He's not my lover," I said, sitting up straighter. "And he never was."

"You said he was," Aiven said, watching my face closely - more then likely because of the smudged makeup.

"I said he was my love," I said, standing up.

"Where are you going""

"To wash my face," I responded, glaring at him. "Is that all right?" I stomped into me room, glancing at the mirror. "I look terrible," I said in disbelief, then hurriedly washed everything off. Make-upless and face rubbed red, I returned to the middle room.

"What happened to you?" I asked him as I sat again. "You said, 'She poisons the blood,' but nothing else, though you certainly acted strange. What happened?"

He looked away from me. "It was nothing. Honestly." For some reason his honestly didn't sound very honest.

"Then tell me why we need to leave."

"We must go to the capital of the Bastian Empire."

"I know that," I said lowly, as if speaking to a slow child. "We've been planning on that. I'd just like to know why we can't wait."

Silence reigned in the room for several long moments before Aiven finally spoke. "They have made their first move."

"What? Who - the bad guys?"

His lips curved slightly - not that I was staring at his lips or anything. "Yes. 'The bad guys.' The Dark Mages. The denizens of flame and air, and the mists of earth and water. The hamadryad. The Saint."

"What happened?"

"You don't need to know."

I glared at him. "Does it ever occur to you that I might want to know? That since I'm involved in this I might be inter - " Aiven stopped me, covering my mouth with his hand. I glanced at him, startled enough that I didn't try to move away.

"All right," he said, which completely stunned me. He was actually going to tell me something? "The crown prince of Clait was found dead this morning, murdered by strangulation in a method unique to the country of Tharlin. Clait and Tharlin have been at odd since the formers king refused to wed his daughter to one of Tharlin's princes, and instead had her marry the son of a kingdom Tharlin dislikes. Because Clait's heir has been murdered, Clait has declared war on Tharlin. Their battles will most likely take place Sarlainth, the mountainous country between them."

"So . . .?" I said. "Two countries are fighting. It's not like it's never happened before."

"That is besides the point. The point is that this is the beginning of the Mages of Darkness' work. They have chosen the physical part of our battleground - Sarlainth, where more dead bodies will not be uncommon because of the war."

"Can't the Seers and Mages in those three countries do something about this? Stop the war?"

"Perhaps. But the Sarlainth Seer has been corrupted - in a way. As soon as a Seer is corrupted, as soon as their loyalties are twisted, so are their powers. They can no longer access the trove of our preceder's visions or any of our shared powered. Their Seeings are warped and blurred. A new Seer becomes the royal one, someone else with powers that were unawakened. The corrupted Seer is no longer the Seer of Sarlainth; that position falls to Favlon, as of two years ago. Rinthe has disappeared." Aiven looked grim, like he was remembering something painful. I wondered if Rinthe had been a friend of his. "It is this twisted Seer that arranged for the war between the other two countries, who arranged for the fighting to be on the land of Sarlainth. And so our fights will be there.

"That is why I want to leave for Bast; the war has come sooner then we thought and we must prepare for it."

I stared, stunned. Amazed as I was by all this information, I was even more amazed that Aiven had shared it with me. He was not exactly the confiding sort.

"So we're leaving now," I said slowly, trying to process all that I'd learned.

"If you'll come," Aiven said, looking away from me and moving back, as if he'd just realized how close we were. I just had; knees touching, foreheads close. Suddenly I felt very shy. I met Aiven's warm eyes.

"Damslae," he said softly, taking my hand. "I . . . what I mean is, you - would you - "

The door opened and slammed shut, and I had an almost irresistible urge to jump up and strangle whoever it was at Aiven leaned back stiffly, his eyes shuttering.

"Your Highness," Aiven said, nodding to the heir, who nodded in return. Rogien looked from Aiven to me spectivily, no doubt noticing the red in my cheeks. Even if I'd dumped all the rouge I had on them they couldn't be redder, I was sure.

"If I could just speak to you for a moment, Aiven . . ." The prince trailed off, looking at me as if by thought alone he could make me leave the room.

"Of course," Aiven said, nodding for him to sit on the seat he had vaquented, and sitting down next to me. To my surprise - and Prince Rogien's - he did not tell me to leave.

"I would ask you to watch over my brother. I know we are all of the same age, but you've been much more in control of your life then my brother or I have been. When you go to Bast, I'd just life you to make sure nothing happens to him." The prince dropped his eyes to the ground, and I wished that I had someone that cared about me as much as the prince obviously cared about his twin. "Please, Aiven."

"Of course," Aiven, agreed, smiling at Rogien. "He won't be on any of the battle fields at all, you know. His contribution will risk only his mind," Aiven said with a wry smile."

"Well that's a relief. He won't lose anything in that case," the elder prince said with a laugh, but I could see he was relieved. Standing, he nodded again at Aiven, then took my hand and kissed it. "I am forever sorry I cannot be your escort he said, smiling charmingly at him. I smiled too, almost unconsciously slipping a ring from his finger as he lowered my hand with his own. He left.

I stared down at the ring in my hand, as Aiven crossed to the window, not noticing. It was a pretty ring, with two green stones and an opal in it, but for some reason I couldn't slip it in my pocket. Without really knowing what I was doing, I jumped up and ran from the room, barely registering Aiven calling after me. I reached the prince.

"Your Highness," I said, knowing I was absolutely crazy. He turned with raised eyebrows. "You dropped something."

"I've heard that before," he said with a grin. "And here I though you needed no one but Aiven - or that servant boy."

"I'm not doing this to flirt with you!" I cried angrily. "You did. This ring." I opened my fist and showed to him.

"Oh," he said in surprise, slipping in on. "I didn't notice that slip off." He grinned again as he slipped it onto his bare forefinger. "My apologies. Some girls just come up with desperate things to get my attention."

"It's all right," I said, curtsying then hastily moving back as my skirt was dripping on his shoes. I really ought to change.

Why had I done that? I wondered as I walked back to Aiven's rooms. I had never felt the need to return anything that I'd stolen before. Never. It just did not occur to me. Yet I had just ran after someone I didn't know or care about, someone with thousands of rings, to give one back. It was as if I had qualms about taking things.

I shook my head as I reentered the room. That was absolutely ridiculous. I was a thief. Period. There was absolutely no reason for me to change.

"Why," Aiven said in a smooth voice, still leaning against the windowsill and staring out, "did you go chasing after Rogien?"

"I didn't," I said defensively. "I just - I was returning something he dropped."

"Really," Aiven said in a flat voice," turning to stare at me, all warmth gone from his honey colored eyes.

"Yes, really. He dropped a ring and I returned it."

"Why would YOU return jewelry?"

Good question. "It was his," I said weakly.

"You wanted an excuse to talk to him, didn't you?"

"Lady, you think that to, don't you? Are all men hopelessly conceited and think the only reason something nice is done is for attention. He left it here and I thought I should return it all right?" I felt my face burn, and I buried my hands in my wet, heavy skirt, aching to get out of it.

Suddenly his face changed. "You stole it!" he said, sounding half- amazed, half-gleeful. "You stole it, then felt bad, and had to return it!"

"That's completely not true!" I argued, but my red face gave me away.

"You shouldn't me embarrassed," Aiven said grinning at me. "There's nothing wrong with being a good, law abiding citizen-"

"Aiven, you're being unfair!"

"Am I?" He said, taking my arm and tugging me down next to him as he sat on the velvet couch. He looked young, smiling and laughing. He was almost never in a playful mood. I realized with a pang that being a Seer had stolen most of his life from him. It wasn't fair I thought as I smiled back at him. He could have had a good life, a happy one, unburdened by all these wars. Married whom he liked . . .

"Did you ever truly love Chayette?" I asked softly, thinking of the pretty brunette that had claimed they were pledged to each other.

Aiven's eyes slid from mine, focusing somewhere around my ear. "No," he said. "She wanted me for a long time . . . I was eleven when I had my first vision. Five years younger then you are now, and a heavy weight was placed on my shoulders. I Saw myself meeting the last Seer in a place known only to us, Saw my powers that had lied dormant awaken, and knowing what he knew as he left our world. A week later, exactly that happened.

"No one but Kiyra and our parents knew. But the rest f the village knew there was something special about me. I would disappear for long periods of time and come back finely clothed. I enjoyed my position; and I still do. With the responsibility come luxuries, friends, wealth, and pleasure in my Seeing . . . I brought back things for my family and close friends. And Chayette's father set his mind on me for a son-in-law when I was only fourteen.

"Chayette was beautiful, confident, and charming. There was the addition that she didn't know who I was; all the court ladies wanted me to wed their daughters, but that was because I was the Seer. Chayette didn't know, which gave her a more innocent air to me."

He shrugged, still staring at my ear. "As I grew older, I realized that I was still the richest youth around, and I served the same purpose to girls in the village as I did to the ladies at court, just on a smaller scale. Still, it was easy to go along with Chayette, just to keep the other girls off me. I never pledged myself to her, though I knew she expected me to marry her."

"You played with her heart."

Now he met my gaze. "As she would have played with mine if I had let her. It would have been simple enough to fall in love with her. But I was not cruel; I always told her I could not marry her. She just chose not to believe me." Is grin was lopsided. "My turn. Do you really love Johen?"

My throat went dry. I wanted to say "of course," but I had the feeling he had been completely truthful with me, and it had not sounded like something he told often. "I . . ." was my sophisticated beginning, "See - We've known each other forever. Since we were five and met when he stopped a lord from catching me when I cut his purse. It was the two of us for years, until we met Tari and Dein. They were my family. And Johen became more. NOT a lover; more then that. Everyone expected that one day . . . well, thieves don't usually marry, but we always thought we would. That we'd - oh I don't know, have a normal life, though neither of us thought of giving up our trade. Then I was dragged off because of the prince, and Johen was taken away to Shi'Gallen, a prison. I was sure he would die; dying would be pleasurable to what happens to people in Shi'Gallan. I spent three months in the company of Yvonhe's royals, then over month after being banished with you. I never really thought I'd see him again. It was absolutely shocking when - when he just entered this room - and I loved him so much. . ."

I looked away. Did I still love him? He had acted oddly, true, but that didn't change anything. And I had loved him for so long. "I don't know," I said finally. "I might - but . . ."

"But you might just be afraid to let go of him . . ."

I looked quickly at his face, which was watching me closely. I had said what I'd tried to keep from myself, what might be the truth. I hadn't ever been so confused in my entire life. Even if I didn't love Johen, I at least felt responsible for him, as if all the torture he had undergone was my fault, and it was in a way. If Praithan had not decided he wanted to marry me, his guards would never have stopped Johen when he was with me.

"I should change my dress," I murmured, slowly rising from my seat and staring down at Aiven. "I'll be ready soon . . ." I trailed off. I seemed to be doing a lot of that recently.

"Laeliena," Aiven said, also standing, and brushing my cheek with his hand. We stood like statues neither moving, barely moving.

"I should change," I said again, and tearing my gaze away from his eyes, I retreated into my room.