Alanna barely noticed as Coram closed the door behind her. "Mithros, Thom, you don't know how good it is to see you! I thought you were dead!" Alanna's voice broke as she struggled not to cry.

"Nottoofarfromit…" Thom muttered.

"What did you say?" Alanna demanded of him.

"Nothing, Alanna. I have to agree with you, I was worried about what you had gotten yourself into. It was easier when you were a roaming knight." Thom smiled bitterly. "Do you think that you would still be considered a knight, even now?"

"Once a knight, always a knight. I still uphold the code of chivalry, and I serve the true king of the realm." Thom chuckled at his sister's fierce loyalty to her leader.

"I doubt Roger thinks the same way." His laugh turned into a cough, similar to the bark of a hoarse dog. Alanna frowned, and then walked closer to his bed. She placed her hands on him saying, "You wouldn't mind, would you?"

Thom attempted to speak, but it came out as a strangled cough. Instead he shook his head, and grabbed a mug of water on the small bedside table. Alanna glanced at the table and winced. A vase of anemones, flowers thought to bring peace to those who were dying, were placed in a prominent position on the table. She plucked the flowers from the vase and threw them under the bed, grinding them under the heel of her boot. Alanna couldn't bring herself to the reality that her brother was dying, the only person left in the world of her own blood. So instead, she released her feelings on the flowers.

Thom finished drinking from the mug, and placed it back on its place upon the table. He glanced at the empty vase with a look of puzzlement, then shrugged and turned back to Alanna. "Wait until we finish talking to heal me. Yes, it hurts when I cough, but I'll be too exhausted if you heal me now to continue on with our wonderfully intellectual conversation." His voice still held that undeniable note of sarcasm. Alanna nodded as Thom began to speak again.

"I'm sorry things have been left unexplained for so long, but it was impossible for me to talk to you sooner. You see, I knew Roger had taken the Dominion Jewel from you." Alanna's eyes blazed in anger as she struggled to control her emotions. A dozen thoughts screamed in her head at once. She bit her lip, drawing blood, and pressed her boot harder against the anemones as she let her twin explain himself.

"I was under a silencing spell, but I am able to talk to you now. Roger used my magic to summon the Jewel to him, so I knew about it as soon as it happened. I confronted him. He placed the silencing spell on me, with my own magic. His magic still had not returned to him, so he leeched mine. I can tell you now, though, because Roger no longer uses my magic. My magic is so weak right now, that there is not even enough left to make the spell work." Thom smiled in a way that made Alanna shudder.

"Just think. Me, who many consider to be on the way to becoming the most powerful sorcerer to walk the kingdom of Tortall, is dying because of that same magic that caused me to get into this position." He smiled his awful smile at the cruel irony that was his existence.

"I'm sorry Thom." Alanna was at a loss for words at what to say to her twin's bitter outlook on his life. "I'm sorry for being unsympathetic, but I have to know: Can Roger use the Dominion Jewel?"

"Thank the gods, no. As soon as he stole the jewel, I burned all of the papers I had been working on for Jon. But first, I copied them over and hid them, so if Roger magically asked for the papers, I could honestly say I had burned them without feeling the wrath of the spell." Alanna grinned at her twin's brilliance. "And ask he did. You would have loved to see the look on his face when I told him that I had burned all of the papers. He was furious. He stormed through the library, and even attempted to use my magic to resurrect them from the fire. I thought he might try that, too, so I burned them in a small bonfire outside.

"He might have made up some spells himself, but I doubt that the success rate of them is high. He was never good at improvising spells, especially considering that there is very little to look up about the Dominion Jewel." The expression on Thom's face changed to that of a self-satisfied smile. "I, on the other hand, had hundreds of spells created from what little I could find on the other instances when a ruler was in possession of it."

Alanna rolled her eyes at her twin's excessive cockiness. "Now where, exactly, are these spells hidden Thom?"

"You really expected me to leave them at the castle? They're here. There's only one problem…"

Alanna sighed. "What, Thom?"

Thom pointed to the vase next to the bed. "Umm. . . I transfigured it. I can't change the vase back into the papers, because of my lack of magic." Thom glanced around the room. "What happened to those flowers?"

Alanna shrugged, but her eyes drew to the spot where the now dead flowers lay. Thom followed her gaze. When he saw the crushed mess, he gritted his teeth, and frowned.

"Those flowers you ruined were part of the deal too. Since they are now mush on the floor, a lot of those papers will be missing."

Alanna glanced at the mess under her foot. She grinned at Thom sheepishly, then gathered the heap into her hands, careful not to miss a single petal. She muttered a few words, and the sorry heap rearranged itself until it looked like the flowers had been freshly picked. "Sorry about that Thom. How was I supposed to know?"

Thom stared at her. "Where'd you learn that fancy trick?" he asked Alanna, obviously impressed.

Alanna shrugged. "After the coronation, I got really angry. We were at an inn of some of Jon's faithful supporters, and I started to throw thing at the walls. Umm, the innkeeper's wife was kind of mad about that, but she was able to fix everything I had broken." Alanna grinned impishly. "I asked her what the spell she used was, in case I ever let my temper get the best of me again."

Thom chuckled. "The masters never bothered trying to teach us that one. I suppose it is similar to healing, is it not?"

Alanna nodded. "I guess I should have figured out how to do that by now, but no matter." He grinned, and a dull sparkle entered his eyes as he said, "And I do not happen to be famed for sudden bursts of temper."

"Unless you want to count that whole 'bringing Roger back from the dead' thing," Alanna muttered, rolling her eyes.

"No, it wasn't. It was merely a demonstration of skills," Thom attempted to correct her.

Alanna snorted. She found the phrase 'demonstration of skills' a little too close to 'showing off.' Thom, you are such a prig. We all know Delia was making fun of you, and you had to prove you were the best!"

Thom's pale face blushed to a feverish shade of pink. "Was not. Anyway, now that you have fixed the flower, transfigure it back to the papers. I would myself, but. . ." Thom sighed wistfully.

Alanna summoned her magic, careful not to call on too much power at once. She would be incapable of healing Thom if she used up all of her magic on transformation. She gathered the vase and flowers into her hands, and closed her eyes. She chanted under her breath, so it came out as a dull sort of murmur. Thom watched her face bunch up and begin to sweat with the complexity of the spell. He looked down at her hands, and stared as amethyst light transferred from her hands to the vase and flowers. They began to glow, emitting a soft violet light, that gradually turned bold and vibrant. They flattened out into thin sheets of parchment.

As the glow of the magic faded from the parchment, Thom picked up the stack. He quickly flipped through the pages, muttering under his breath. He reached the end of the stack, and looked up at Alanna. "They're all here. They're all yours." He handed the stack to Alanna. She took them from him and went to retrieve her bags from where she had dropped them. As she neatly packed them among her other possessions, Thom spoke to her. "Give them to Jon once you have possession of the Jewel."

"I know. Do you think that I should disguise it as something else?" Alanna told while finding a small space for the papers. She settled them into place, and walked back to Thom's bed.

"No, don't bother. If you're captured they'll just torture you for information anyways, so don't waste your strength." Thom was as frank as humanly possible.

Alanna shuddered at the thought of her capture, and of the truth of her twin's bluntness. If she went, everyone would go with her. "I guess that's true enough." She laid her hands upon her twin's forehead. "You've told me more than enough already." Purple lightning enveloped her hands, then spread to Thom's forehead. She healed his cough, and allowed him to drift into a natural sleep.


Author's Note: I thank all of you who reviewed! Special thanks to PsychoLioness13 for her help on formatting! And please, take note of this: If you have never written a story before, we writers REALLY love to have reviews, even if you are criticizing. (As long as it is "constructive" criticism.) And to all of you who DO write, you know the feeling. If you review my story, there is a big chance that I will do the same to yours. Think about it!