*ahem*
And so begins:
" Winding Circle vs. Tortall": a crossover of Tamora Pierce's works.
Co-written by Meitian and Silver Wind Dance Faiirie
Chapter One: Worries
Jonathan of Conté tapped his fingers on his expensive desk, wondering if he was doing things the right way. Opening negotiations with another country was always a difficult process. It didn't help that only a precious few Tortallans had ever traveled there.
He hoped fervently that he had made the right choice in making Bethany Grey head of the diplomatic party. The nobles had given him a lot of flak for choosing a commoner. Jon might have chosen someone else, but as she was one of the few people who had actually been to the country of Emelan, she was the best he could do. And he had tried, after all. He couldn't give her a fief, as she was a woman without any family. And she refused all offers to be adopted into a fiefdom.
The rest of the contingent he could deal with. Alanna of Olau and Pirate's Swoop was, at the very least, predictable. Keladry of Mindelan would keep her head in any situation, and could probably keep the heads of the rest of the party, as well. And he certainly wouldn't have to worry about Daine. Numair he only had to worry about if someone kidnapped Daine.
Okay, maybe he did have to worry.
Bethany Grey was a little apprehensive at being in Tortall again, even if it was just for a little while before she went back to Emelan. Tortall held bad memories for her. The only place she didn't feel paranoid was... well, there wasn't anywhere she didn't feel paranoid.
And there was that rather unfortunate incident some years ago that had earned her the permanent dislike of a certain deity. She hadn't told King Jonathan about it - well, she hadn't told anyone about it. You didn't just tell people that there's a deity that has a problem with you. They tend to run away from you if you tell them that. Even if it wasn't your fault at all and it was years and years ago.
Why did she have to be watching over her shoulder all the time? That incident was old history, and she had done what she wanted, anyway, in the end. Of course, deities are for the most part eternal... but at the time, Bethany was only thirteen and scared out of her wits, and had just found out her entire family was dead. Most people wouldn't have blamed her. Goddesses tend to be more used to getting their way, though... and have as much time as they want to hold a grudge.
Perhaps if Bethany was in Emelan for a while, she wouldn't notice. It was awful far away from Tortall, after all. But there was the matter of the King's Champion with her...
Bethany collapsed on her bed. Why couldn't things be simple again?
Numair SalmarÃn was apprehensive, too, but for a different reason. Really apprehensive. He knew that this mission would be for the good of the kingdom, but that wasn't stopping him from being apprehensive. After all, it wasn't the mission that was making him nervous.
It was the fact that he would be accompanied by Veralidaine Sarrasri, better known as Daine, his friend, fellow mage, and lover. It wasn't that she was younger, or female - it was the fact that she was Daine.
On the last diplomatic sojourn they had both been on together, she had been kidnapped. There were rather sour memories attached to that time for him, and he didn't want to repeat the ordeal they had gone through there.
But one way or another, he would have to control his nervousness. His magic started to leak out and make things happen when he was nervous, and that was never good. The last time he had been nervous, he had accidentally burned his own eyebrows off. Now that was something he certainly didn't want to repeat...
Keladry of Mindelan had finished packing and was now looking out of the window of her old room at Fief Mindelan. She looked out over the forests and the fields and the town and wondered where her life had gone in the past few years.
It had just been her birthday, and now she was over twenty. Twenty-one! That was an awful long time. And there still remained the question of what she was going to do with herself. She would be a knight; but what else would she be?
She sighed, and ruffled her finger through the pages of the book she held in her hand. The title was "The Etiquette and Traditions of Emelan." Her father had given it to her for her birthday, after he had found out that she was part of the diplomatic envoy to Emelan, over by the Pebbled Sea.
I guess I'll wait until after this whole thing is over until I think more about my future. It's giving me a headache, thought Kel, to herself, and didn't think about it anymore.
Alanna of Olau and Pirate's Swoop was irked at having to leave again. She had just been off to war for the past Goddess-knows-how-many months with the whole Scanran ordeal, and now that prat Jon had assigned her to be part of a diplomatic conference with some country she had never even heard of.
She had wanted to spend some quality time with Aly, too, after her sojourn to the Copper Isles. Alanna and her daughter had never been the best of friends, though they loved each other, and Alanna hoped they could get to know each other better.
The diplomatic mission had messed up all her plans for her family. Alanna understood how important alliances were, especially since there had been quite a lot of turmoil in her own lifetime (and most of it involving herself).
Sometimes, though, Alanna wished someone else could do things, for once.
Veralidaine Sarrasri was packing again. She didn't mind going places a lot, which was good, because she did. Her younger years had been full of packing and moving, though those places she never went back to. Only now she had other things to worry about.
Like a baby.
Now that she was a mother... things were trickier. Daine knew that she was a person of interest among many people and was prone to kidnappings. Her daughter might be an even hotter commodity, and she didn't exactly want to bring her to a foreign country. All right, she didn't want to bring her to a foreign country. But she very well couldn't just leave her daughter in Tortall.
Why did everything have to become so complicated all of a sudden?
Hi! Are you interested so far? This story is extremely strange, no doubt. The authors are Meitian and Silver Wind Dance Faiirie!
This chapter was written by Meitian (), who will be writing all/most of the Tortall chapters. Silver Wind Dance Faiirie (henceforth referred to as SWDF) knows the Winding Circle characters better because she's read all the books. Heh. *has only read first two - eep* Anyway, I don't usually write so angsty, so don't expect more of this. It's sort of how I get into writing the characters. And start pitying Bethany now, it's best to get ahead. And no, she's not self-insertion. I'm not blonde, and she is, and I wouldn't ever want to be blonde.. And if I was, or I did, it would be more like self-infliction. Yeah.
I appreciate concrit and people who want to tell me I'm uber-cool. I don't like flames or random people saying "u sux0rz" in my reviews. Those reviews will be deleted. *waves* until next time! ~Meitian
