Heyla, everyone. Chapter 3 is up now. My computer annoys me, though, it took me three tries before it would upload the last chapter properly on Fanfiction. Oh well.

Winddancer: This chapter has a bit of the great lady's stuff. Ok, quite bit,  but it wouldn't work without.

Shadowwalker: So don't flame, unless its constructive. And even then … meh.

Winddancer: And don't worry, its not going to be a Lavan type fic. Actually, I think someone's doing one, so if you like it, check it out.

Back to the fic.

***

I think the first months were the hardest, Calsa thought three years later. We finally got to the point I was at with Tor teaching, and concentrated more on the homework. Then Garth  relaxed because I was slowing my pace down, and the rest of the boys stopped treating me as an oddity. She sighed, quietly. I am lonely, though.

She curled up on her bed and went to sleep the way she had that first day. But this time, she did have a dream.

***

---This isn't the first time I've dreamed about this place, Calsa noticed. She was in a large estate. The fields had horses that any Emperor would be proud to own, the house was not so much large as confusing. Calsa knew from experience that it was easy to get lost here.

The odd things about the dreams, though, was that she was never in control. She thought the way she normally would and all, but it was, she had thought the first time, as though she was in another's body.

The person turned a corner. On the wall directly before them (him?) was a mirror. He quickly averted his face, but not quickly enough for Calsa not to get an idea of her 'host.' It could have been her, except as a boy. His hair was longer than her's, but the same deep black. His eyes were also silvery, and she got the impression that they were what he wanted to avoid looking at.

They ended up in a weaponry, and for the first time, Calsa felt that the boy was happy. She wondered why. In the other dreams, she had gotten a feeling of despair when they ended up here. 'Lisa,' he smiled. 'You could come.'

The girl, tallish, brown haired, brown eyed, and with a beak of a nose, smiled back. 'Well of course, Van. Did you think I wouldn't come. This idea of yours, not using Jervis' method, will probably work better. And if you're going to show it to that lump, you had better have worked all the kinks out of it.'

He bowed to his cousin's logic, and then went to work.

From what Calsa could work out, this style of swordplay depended on Van staying away from the other as much as possible. It was almost like a dance, rather then the mindless thrashing she had seen through Van's eyes.

I'm glad, she thought to herself, that he finally found something to suit him. Well, something else. That thing with instruments, that was driving his father crazy, even if he is good at it.

Smiling, she went on to other dreams, leaving Van and Lisa to 'work the kinks out of it.'---

 
***

A calm sort of resolution fell over Calsa the next day. She drifted through breakfast, but then had an energy burst in class. Fortunately, it jolted her brain into super mode, enabling her to finish all of her class work for the first time. Good. Now I only have the homework to do, and not all the class work I didn't finish on top of that.

She noticed Garth hesitating around her during her lessons, but ignored it. She was determined to get out of this damnable Apprenticehood as soon as possible, preferably before summer started. Then she could go and visit Tor.

'Collen?' he requested after a bit. 'You've completed illusions, so why are you building one?' Oh-oh. Calsa turned to see what she had done. It was Van, down to the last detail. Even the half-sad expression was right.

'You always said, sir, that not practicing was the worst thing to do. I figured that since I had already completed the assigned work, I could practice.'

'Hm. Very well, you may practice. But may I ask, who is that? He has the most fascinating eyes.' Calsa didn't even flinch.

'Oh, just someone I saw on the streets with my cousin. I liked the eyes too.'

***

The dreams followed that pattern for a couple weeks, Van was generally with his cousin Lisa. She was also there to notice how he'd avoid his brother's and cousins, and saw how his mother's silvery eyes smiled upon him, while his father's brown ones mostly avoided him. And saw the play on the weaponry field with the real weaponsmaster.

---Van was going to the weaponry field. Calsa recognized the route by now. But something was wrong, he was scared, terrified in fact. Feeling slightly guilty, she regarded his thoughts.

Oh. So it's the moment of truth. Will the hack-and-bash method triumph over the dancing method? She pitied Van. Well, at least its only his cousin Radeval. Jervis would kill him if he found out what he was doing. Calsa did not think highly of the weaponsmaster. To be honest, she thought that Lisa would do a better job.

The effectiveness of Van's dance surprised even Cal, who had been watching this for probably as long as Van had been practicing. So the shock to his cousin must have been that much worse. So much worse, in fact, that Van scored him.

'What the bloody hell do you think ye're doing,' asked a grating voice. Van and Cal's hearts sank as one. 'Cheatin' on a half-grown lad. I'm ashamed of you, Vanyel.'

'He wasn't cheating,' said Radeval. 'He was actually really good. Might have even scored a kill if he'd put his weight behind it.'

But the weaponsmaster wasn't listening to reason. He insisted on 'testing' Van's method. And when Van went down, he'd pull him back up again. Oh gods please let me wake up. I don't think I can take much more of this.

For in this state, Cal felt everything that Van did, and Van burned with pain. She wanted to scream in anguish, but didn't. Not that she could have, but it would have been a release. When he went down for the fifth time, she heard a sickening crack, and the searing pain that shot up her left arm told her what had happened.

And still, the weaponsmaster tried to pull Vanyel up. Then Calsa heard a god-blessed voice. 'What in Haven's name is going on here?' Lisa demanded.

'Ah, it's nothing,' said Jervis carefully. He might dislike Vanyel, but he was careful around Lisa. She had power. 'We can just strap his arm to a board and continue. It's only his shield arm.'

'He is going straight to his room,' Lisa informed him, 'and the only people who'll be going in there are me, the Healer, and his parents. In that order.'---

***

When she awoke, her arm still ached. What a sadist, she thought. Cal had started feeling very protective of the dream-boy, and the idea of anyone trying to hurt him made her rage.

Thankfully for the rest of the school, the first thing that Tor had taught her was shielding. She was certain that the rest of the school had no wish to have an Empath blast rage through the halls.

She couldn't wait for tonight. She needed to know what had happened to Van.

***

Winddancer: I didn't like that part much.

Shadowwalker: Me neither. Now I need some cookies. *looks around hopefully, then sighs.*

Winddancer: If anyone knows the name of the capital of the empire? Well, we can't find it. So put it in with your review if you know it.

Shadowwalker: Maybe more later … if you R&R. ^_-