In Nimur in Hatar:

A small group threaded their way through the bustling crowds in Nimur, Hatar. People rushed back and forth, paying no attention to their neighbors, focused only on their own lives. A red-headed girl stretched out her hand to snatch a small, dark-haired girl from the path of a rumbling cart.

"Glaki, stay close to us," Tris scolded. "It you dart ahead of us you'll get run over or lost."

"Okay, auntie Tris," the girl said, nodding agreeably. Glaki slowed enough to be in between Tris and Kethlun and thus protected from the careless Hatarians.

Niko led the group through the streets, striding forward purposefully and glancing at the street signs every once in awhile. The river of people diminished to a trickle as evening approached. Finally, Niko stopped in front of an inn, announcing that they could stop for the night.

Their rooms secured, Tris took Glaki upstairs to put the little girl to sleep. When Glaki was safely settled on Tris's bed and sleeping peacefully, Tris went back to the main room below, leaving Chime and Little Bear to guard the sleeping child.

She found Niko in a deep conversation with another guest so, not wanting to disturb them, she went outside to explore in the small amount of daylight left. Smelling traces of salt in the wind, she headed north and eventually reached the shore of the Pebbled Sea.

'Over there,' Tris thought, looking towards Dupon Island. 'Just across the sea and I'll be back home at Winding Circle. Despite her four year absence, Tris still thought of Winding Circle with a tinge of homesickness. 'A few more days…'

The sun was barely up and the wind was starting to blow cool air from the sea. Tris shivered in the cold as she turned to head back to the inn. The seas would definitely be rough for the next few days if the winds kept up like that.

~*~

Tris did not sleep much that night and instead stayed up studying an interesting book on scrying that she had found. Her long nose was mere centimeters from the book she was so absorbed in it that it took Glaki three tries to get her attention. "Niko wants you to come down to eat," the girl informed her, looking at her solemnly with her dark eyes.

"Alright," Tris replied, snapping the book shut. "I'll be down in a bit."

Glaki left and Tris soon followed suit. After their breakfast, they mounted the horses from the inn and rode north towards Maryn Port where they would board a ship to Emelan.

The day was chilly with cold, biting gusts of wind. There were few people on the streets, and the few that were in the streets were rushing to finish their business as the weather almost certainly promised a storm.

Tris sniffed the wind and savored the fresh, spring air preceding a thunderstorm. Glancing at her student, Tris smiled inwardly as she noted his badly-hidden desire to touch lightning again in a storm. Glaki had somehow picked up an enthusiasm for thunderstorms as well and many times, Tris had stayed up nursing a little girl with a fever from running through the rain and wind.

Glancing up, Tris saw dark clouds rolling in overhead. She watched the clouds drift over Nimur and forgot about the horse; it had been specially trained to follow the lead horse currently carrying Niko. The gray clouds roiled and shifted, like a pot of boiling water. Glaki, riding in front of Tris, turned and saw her foster mother frown suddenly. The child looked up as well, but saw nothing other than the seething clouds. "What's wrong, Auntie Tris?" the child inquired.

"The clouds, there's magic…" Tris seemed to be thinking out loud rather than answering Glaki's question. Tris's head snapped down, and she grabbed the reins abruptly. "I need to talk to Niko for a second," she explained. Tris guided the horse around Keth's and caught up with Niko. "Niko…do the clouds seem…strange to you?"

Niko glanced up at the clouds. "They look fine to me. Why?"

"Oh, nevermind, it was probably just my imagination. I could have sworn…But if you don't see it it's definitely not there."

Niko looked at her sharply. "See what?"

"Well," Tris hesitated, "I thought I saw a flicker of magic. The clouds were rolling and I thought I saw a little bit of magic, but only for a second."

Niko frowned. He examined the clouds again, but still saw nothing. "Let's hurry to Maryn Port first," he said. "We can talk about the clouds there."

He sped his horse up a bit and Tris and Keth's obligingly followed the leader.

~*~

At Maryn Port:

Tris watched fat raindrops splatter and slide down the window. 'Stuck again. Why is everything trying to slow me down going home?' She turned from the window and surveyed the main room. Many people were gathered in the visitors room of the trading house, most grouped around the fire and drying off. She, Niko, Keth, and Glaki had been lucky arriving just moments before the skies started dumping water over the port. 'Dumping' was an appropriated term as the rain fell so heavily that it was impossible to see more than a few feet in front of oneself. Through her magic, Tris could feel the speed of the rain and knew that it fell hard enough to bruise. Scanning the motley group of people, Tris could see that some already had bruises showing.

"It's crazy," one man was telling his neighbor. "the rain's like hail but it falls so hard that it hits worse than hail. This is probably the worse storm Maryn's seen for awhile."

"Yeah," the woman he was talking to replied. "The wind almost lifted me off the ground. It was like hurricane winds or something."

"Attention!" the owner of the trading house shouted. "The storm's probably going to last the whole night so you all better find places to set up places to sleep. We just had some blankets and pillows from down south, but there's not enough so you have to share." He eyed the people already edging towards the pile of bedding. "If you can't share and start fighting, I'm taking them away. I won't have you ruin the shipment." He looked around. It looks like a set of bedding for every three people. Make groups of three and we'll see how many groups there are.

Tris grabbed Glaki's hand. "We'll share," she explained to Niko and Keth. You two can have the two sets that we brought with us." She led Glaki up to the front where blankets and pillows were being taken by the groups. The man who had spoken kept a sharp eye on everyone. She grabbed a pillow and blanket without looking and hurried out of the way. Despite the man's words, people were still pushing to try to get the big heavy blankets and plump pillows.

Looking around, she spotted Niko and Keth setting up in a corner away from the fire, where people were now fighting over sleeping space.

"It's probably safer here," Keth said. Tris nodded and set up her and Glaki's bed. Luckily, she had grabbed an adequately warm, but large blanket, which would make the sharing easier. Likewise, she had grabbed a long flat pillow that would also work well for two people. People in the warehouse were already fighting over the blankets and pillows they were to share.

"This storm's got everyone in a bad mood," Keth remarked.

Niko was silent. Glancing at him, Tris saw that he was in his "brooding mood" as she had so aptly named it. His dark eyes were unreadable and his eyes were unfocused. He was stroking his beard slightly and paused every once in awhile to glance around without actually looking at anything. Tris, deciding not to interrupt his train of thought, sat across from Keth and drew Glaki into her lap, leaving Niko alone behind Keth. The three were in the middle of an animated discussion about a performing troop they had seen on the way when Niko's head suddenly snapped up.

"What is it Niko?" Tris inquired. He looked troubled and uneasy. Niko did not answer and instead walked over to the window where the water poured down, obscuring sight. "Niko?" Tris said again, walking over and tapping his shoulder. Niko jumped slightly and turned to see her, Glaki, and Keth staring at him.

"What is it uncle Niko?" Glaki asked.

Niko seemed to think before answering the child's question. "This storm is very…odd. None of the weather mages have reported anything about a storm in the west."

"The west?" Keth asked.

"This storm is moving in from the east. It's a major storm so someone ought to have found some sign of it. It is also very unusual for this time of the year…"

"Magic?" Tris questioned.

"Maybe. But the thing is none of the rain shows any signs of magic tampering. It looks like a natural occurrence, but I can't help but feel uneasy." Seeing Glaki's worried face, he hastily assured her, "Oh, I'm sure it's just my imagination. After all I am an old man." Glaki looked slightly reassured and when Keth engaged her in a game with Chime's glass flames, she seemed to completely forget about it. Tris watched them play for awhile but kept casting worried glances at Niko every once in awhile. Seeing her gaze after a few minutes, Niko beckoned her over.

"This storm is very troubling," he informed her. It's more of an instinct rather than a suspicion from evidence. Tris reached out with her magic to the storm.

Probing the clouds, she found that they were normal but they did feel a little strange. Furrowing her brow, Tris descended even deeper into her magic, assimilating herself with the clouds. Examining herself, she could tell that something was definitely wrong. She explored the expanse of clouds and followed the trails of rain across the sea to the west and found herself looking at a fleet of pirate ships. A red robed man stood in the crow's nest and Tris could see him feeding small streams of magic up into the rapidly condensing thundercloud overhead. He seemed to sense her because as she drew closer, his head whipped around to stare in her direction. Tris quickly fled back to her body.

Opening her eyes, she saw Niko looking at her intently. "Pirates," she whispered. "Pirates are attacking-" she thought back to her geography lessons, "Sotat. A man is making the rain clouds. I don't know how but his magic is turning into rain clouds."

"What else did you see?" Niko inquired.

"There was a fleet of ships. The man in the red robe was in the crow's nest making the rain and the rest were rowing to the shore. I think he saw me," she added gingerly at the end.

"He saw you?" Niko demanded sharply.

"Well, he seemed to at least feel me. He turned to look in my direction but I don't think he could have seen me because I was hiding in a patch of magic, so my magical body should have been indistinguishable from the magic cloud."

"Yes… he might have sensed your magical body though. Everyone's magic feel different, and if he made the magic cloud you hid in, he would have felt your different magic."

"And they were attacking Sotat you said?"

"Yeah, at least according to what I remember from a map. The place was on the coast near Nidra Island, a little below Hatar." Niko thought for a second.

"There are two cities there. But if it's a fleet I'll go with Green Rock; it has a harbor. Fallor's coast is rocky and impossible to land on."

"What do we do Niko?"

"We could never make it to Sotat in time to help. The storm is getting worse and I fear that the mage is destroying the natural balance in this whole area. He could cause a great deal of natural disasters and affect many countries."

"So what can we do to stop him?"

"I'm afraid there's not much we can do to stop him. You and Kethlun could disperse the clouds but I'm afraid there's no way to stop him. Someone in Sotat must attack his physical body to stop him."

Tris tugged a braid in frustration. "So all we can do is shoo away some clouds which he'll immediately replace?" she demanded. Keth and Glaki looked up from their game, startled by her outburst. She hastily smiled and shook her head to reassure Glaki.

"Put Glaki to bed first Tris," Niko said. "We'll talk after she's asleep." Tris nodded and went to break up the game. She settled Glaki in their bedroll and luckily the little seemed tired out and quickly fell asleep. When she went to Niko, Keth was with him as he had seen that there was something wrong.

Niko had already briefed him on the situation so Tris only had to tell him what to do. "You take the clouds at the edges of the storm and drag them away. I taught you how to leash them in Mulin, remember? I'll try to push out the heavier clouds for you to pull away. I'll see if I can slow the mage or something too."

"We've got a door from the cellar you can get out through," the owner of the warehouse said, coming up to them. Leading Tris and Keth downstairs, he showed them the small door in the wall.

"What are they doing here?" Tris demanded, gesturing to the group of men and women standing to the side of the door.

"They're going to help shut the doors. Let me tell you now that once the door is closed, you aren't coming beack in 'til the storm's over. We'll have a hard enough time trying to close it now when it's not even the full power of the storm."

Tris thought about telling him that she could hold off the winds to open and close doors herself and that even a bolted door was not an inconvenience to the foster sister of a former thief but thought better of it and held her tongue. "Fine," she said waspishly, annoyed that he seemed to think they would come crawling back in defeat. She grasped the doorknob and yanked the door open.

She was hit by a blast of fast moving wind and pellets of ice and water assaulted her. In no mood to play nice, she lifted her hand and threw the oncoming sleet back. She grabbed Keth's wrist and dragged him out, leaving the warehouse owner's crew to shut the door after moving her shield. She and Keth moved to a cluster of boulders and wedged in a small hollow under the rocks. "Ready?" she asked. He nodded in affirmation and she released her magic. She saw Keth's blaze move toward the fringes of the storm and she headed east to where the red robed mage was just begging for his just punishment.

~*~

Keth quickly shot out lines of magic and attached them around the centers of the clouds. He turned and dragged the group of clouds west. He had heard of droughts in the west and planned to dissolve the clouds in the hot climate and maybe relieve some of their problems. He towed them to the coast of Anderran and released them. They still retained the momentum of their journey and continued inland. He turned and went back for another group.

~*~

Tris quickly reached the fleet of ships and flew into the large cloud forming above the fleet. She spread her hands and streams of wind shot out from each finger, blowing the thunder clouds outward, away from the main group of clouds. The mage had sensed her intervention and his eyes were darting around, trying to locate the troublemaker. Tris was moving around, pushing all of the clouds away from the man. He had stopped forming new clouds and was focusing on getting rid of Tris. 'If I can distract him long enough, someone ought to be able to attack him.'

Tris flitted around the mage, pausing in places and speeding up when he located her presence. She seemed to be annoying the man a great deal as red rage rose in his face and his eyes bulged out. 'Maybe he'll die of a heart attack or high blood pressure,' Tris thought with a tinge of morbid humor. The mage started shooting bolts of magic at her, missing by a lot. Tris could move faster than the eye could see and by the time a bolt of magic reached her previous position, she could have lapped the area 3 times.

As the mage unsuccessfully tried to get rid of Tris, Keth was clearing the skies. The clouds were not as dark or thick and rain no longer pelted the land below. The storm seemed more like a spring shower. Tris was dodging the mages attacks with ease when she felt Keth grab the wrist of her physical body. 'You better get back quick,' he said, his worried voice resounding in her ears. 'We've got big trouble.' Regretfully, Tris turned and flew back to her body.

"What is it?" she demanded, opening her eyes. He responded quietly.

~*~

"Niko!" Tris cried, pelting up the cellar stairs into the main room. The warehouse owner turned to stare at her.

"How did you get in," he asked.

"Honestly, if you just stuck a stick in that lock and wiggled it, you'd probably have a 50% chance of opening it." Tris snapped. "Now, where's Niko?"

"I'm right here Tris," Niko said coming to her right. "There was no need to make so much noise," he reprimanded mildly.

Tris ignored his reproof. She had bigger things to worry about. "I need to talk to you. Privately," she added, seeing the owner about to follow them.

She led him into the cellar where Keth was waiting for them. "We've got a problem," she stated crisply, turning to face Niko. She gestured at Keth to relate what he had seen.

"I was clearing the clouds like Tris told me to and I was coming back from Anderran when I saw the waves. There was a chain of waves and they got bigger with each successive wave. I watched it for awhile and the waves kept getting bigger. From what I know of tides, it will eventually form a tsunami and it's definitely headed here. I don't know how big it'll be but it's probably gonna be big enough to swamp most of northern Hatar, maybe even to Marli."

"That's impossible," Niko said. "There's no way a wave can get that big."

"But you said that this magic would affect the balance of nature," Tris reminded him. "Isn't it feasible that between the mage and us we could have created a tsunami."

Niko thought for a moment, then sighed. "I suppose that could have happened. But we need to find a way to deal with the tsunami. Hatar has just recovered from the smallpox epidemic and another large disaster could mean anarchy here for the next few decades."

"But how can we stop it, or even divert it. And if we deflected it, wouldn't it just cause problems for someone else?"

Niko was silent. "I have absolutely no idea how to handle this." he admitted. Lightsbridge never prepared any of us for this and I don't think anyone else has ever had this problem."

"Maybe we can take power from it and put it somewhere," Tris ventured gingerly. Like I did with the tides and the rocks."

"Absolutely not!" Niko shouted. "You were lucky to live through your first attempt and I don't want to know if you'll survive a second time. You could even make it worse, like with the earthquake in Ragat."

"Well what can we do?" Tris demanded crossly.

"I'm sorry Tris, but I don't think there's anything we can do." Niko said quietly. "The wave will probably hit in about an hour. I need to alert the mages in Hatar and see if we can't move the people and try to prepare people for it." He turned and went up the stairs, followed by Keth.

~*~

Luckily for Niko, a transportation convention was being held not too far from Marli and the mages transported people from the north lower south. Tris helped people pack up and move to the transportation areas.

'I can't believe this,' she fumed, watching another family leave their house and most of their belongings to the mercy of the tsunami and flood. A girl who couldn't be more than five years old wept as she bid farewell to her garden and house. 'They'll lose everything and who knows where they'll live next.'

She smiled sadly at the family, "Please follow me," she said quietly. They trailed after her without protest; they had already lost everything, there was no point in arguing with the bearer of the news. She left them I the square to seek out Niko.

"We can't even do anything to help them," she cried in frustration when she met up with him.

"I know Tris. Mages can't solve everything, no matter how much power we have. It's just a natural law," he consoled her. He patted her shoulder before leaving to talk to the mage hailing him.

'Natural law…,' Tris thought for a second. Her face slowly spread into a small smirk. "Seeing as how we've been breaking laws of magic left and right, I don't see what the trouble is with trying to break another one." she muttered to herself in a satisfied tone.

Tris managed to coerce a transportation novice into taking her back north to Maryn. He didn't seem particularly bright as he left when Tris told him she would just walk back so his services were no longer needed. She climbed a rocky path to stand looking at the sea from a cliff. 'Just need to find something to anchor myself down,' Tris thought.

"Knew you'd be coming." Tris whirled alarmed, but calmed down when she saw Keth with a grin that just about split his face in half. He offered her one rope which he had tied through a hole in a boulder and another which he had anchored to a large tree. Tris accepted both and tied them around her waist.

"How long have you been you waiting," she asked.

"Only an hour or two. I came early to make the hole. I knew you'd show up as soon as you made up your mind to disobey Niko."

"You knew I wouldn't listen to him?" Tris asked, half amused and half annoyed that he could predict her actions.

"I did hear about your days at Winding Circle, including a battle against a pirate fleet."

Tris grinned crookedly. "Since we're both here, why don't we get to work. I can probably absorb some power into my braids, though you'll have to help me back to Niko. I'm afraid you can't help me with that," she said, gesturing at his bald crown. "I really don't know what you can do," she added. You don't really have magic with the sea."

"Perhaps I could reroute the power of the tides like you did," he ventured.

"No way," Tris said. "Too dangerous."

"What you're doing is dangerous too," he argued.

"Yeah but at least I know I'll live through it. I think. But you're my student and I really do not feel like explaining to everyone how I let you die playing with nature."

"Well I need to do something!" he shouted. "I want to be able to help people somehow, even if just by putting my body in the path of the flood to knock back even a little bit."

Tris sighed. She did understand where he stood though. "Ummm…" she thought for a moment. What could Keth do to help? "I really don't know of anything you can do. The only thing I can think of is lending me your magic. But it's really dangerous because if anything happens to me, it'll happen to you too; In other words: I die, you die."

"Is there nothing else I can do. Anything to slow the wave or something." He thought for a second. "Maybe I can strike it with lightning and break of parts of it."

"Not a good idea," Tris informed him. "The lightning would just go through the wave and you could make it worse if you charged the tsunami with electricity."

"So you're just going to absorb the waves?" he asked, cocking his eyebrow. "I really don't think you can hold that much."

"I plan on absorbing some and making some new waves to run into the tsunami and knock some of the water back. I think I'll try to make some winds too."

"But it's gonna be huge. You can't stop it," Keth argued.

"I know, but I plan on making it just a bit smaller."

"You don't understand. It gets bigger every second. For every part you take away, it increases by about five times of what you took!"

"Look Keth, I'm going to try to help these people no matter what. I know I'm risking my life but I think it's worth it for all of those people." Seeing the determined glint in her eyes, Keth decided to concede the debate.

"Fine, what are you going to do?"

"First, I'll link out powers so that I can use both of our stores of magic. I'll undo my braids and go in the water. The braids will absorb some of the powers from the waves and I'll use that power too. I'm going to make winds to push it back and waves that should knock some of the water out of the path of the wave, preventing it from getting bigger." She paused to think. "If worse come to worse and the tsunami hits me, I'll absorb as much into my braids as possible. I might die from so much power and I doubt I'll be able to take all of the power, but I'll shrink it significantly."

"You'll die from having so much magic running through your body or so much in your body?"

"Both. My body will be swamped with the power of the tides and I can't use it all that fast. My body will be strained to its limits and I'll die." She said this so calmly and so serenely that it seemed like she was merely talking about an everyday event and not her possible death."

"Couldn't I help you?" Seeing her inquiring look, he elaborated. "If our magic is combined and we share it, can't I use some magic too?"

"It should work both ways," Tris said slowly, "but you need to use it. You can't store it because the power of nature cannot and should not be stored in anything. I only borrow the power to put in my braids. I am not keeping to power because otherwise I would most likely die."

"I can use the magic," Keth said. "Umm…" he looked around to try to find a way to use the magic. "I can make lightning. That uses a lot of magic."

"Uh-huh. And pray tell, where would this lightning go?" Tris asked tartly.

Keth looked for some source of inspiration. "Couldn't I generate the lightning in my body and send it up to the clouds."

Tris pondered his idea. "That might work but you could make it worse and have lightning hit everything."

"What if I just send it into the sky, just into clear space. Would that work?"

"Probably, I don't think it would hit anything and it would just break up in the atmosphere. But you had better make sure it doesn't get even near a single cloud."

"Fine, I can do that."

"You do that only if I definitely have to take the power of the tsunami. I need you to take the power of the tsunami and not our combined powers. I need every drop of magic I can get. While I'm battling the wave, you try to make a very clear space above us to shoot the lightning. Just tow them away because that uses less magic."

"Alright then. I guess you should get started." Keth grabbed he ropes and followed her to the edge of the cliff. He lowered her into the water and retied the ropes to anchor her so that she wouldn't get swept away. "Good luck," he called before rising in his magical body to move some rain clouds.

~*~

"Cap'n Chandler, we can't make it! We're being pulled back!" a sailor screamed. They were trying to get to Summersea Harbor but the current, instead of going north towards the harbor, was pulling them south, back into the main body of the sea.

"Damn," Derrick cursed. "It means there's a tsunami forming to the south. It's what's sucking all of the water back. I've only heard of this happening and I've never heard of anyone surviving getting pulled into a tsunami."

"Oh gods," one crewman yelled. "We're going to die!" At his outburst, many crewmembers started screaming and wailing. The ship was in an uproar in mere seconds.

"Quiet!" Derrick shouted over the noise. "We're not dead yet and if we prepare we may just survive this. First, everyone put on your air suit and grab your air globe!" The men obediently put on their air suits and grabbed a bubble-like apparatus which housed compressed air. If they were pitched into the sea, they would jam the globe in their mouth and they would last for about an hour on the air inside. "Find a place to winch yourself to the ship. If the ship is destroyed, unhook the line and grab a plank. If your air suit leaks or pops, use the plank and the globe. Everyone keep your cool and try to stay alive," he said grimly.

~*~

Tris shivered as Keth lowered her into the freezing water. She found a crevice and wedged herself in. Undoing her braids, she let the power of the tides flow into her well of magic. A few seconds later, Keth's magic trickled in and mixed into her own power. Tris had an ample amount of magic, but not enough for what she planned to do. Closing her eyes, she concentrated and magic from the tides flowed through her hair into the well of magic. Focusing, she sent her magical body out. She coasted over the water until she found the soon-to-be-tsunami about two miles north. Looking at the water, she estimated about two minutes before the tsunami formed and another minute before it reached her physical body.

'Time to get to work,' Tris thought grimly. She used magic to push water away from the wave. It traveled in the direction her magic urged for about ten seconds before it was pulled back in by the undercurrent of the forming tsunami. 'Shoot!' she thought. "I need a way to keep the water from coming back in." Tris paused while she went through possible plans, discarding most for one reason or another. Tris narrowed her options to two. "Make magic walls or make a magic current. Hmm…" She finally decided to make an undercurrent as it would move the water away from the tsunami and pull water from the tsunami itself, although it would expend more magic.

Magic rolled out of her body in waves, pulling water away the strip between the tsunami and Hatar. Near the coast of Hatar she needed little force, but the closer to the tsunami, the more she had to struggle to establish and stabilize her undercurrent. Once she had formed the undercurrents, she set them to draw from her magic automatically. Looking at her magic, Tris drew in more power from the tides to refill the greatly depleted level. 'I'm gonna pay for this,' Tris thought, anticipating her weeks, maybe even months in bed. 'Unless I die of course,' she thought offhandedly. She felt Keth's magical body somewhere to the west of her and examined the clouds above. The clouds were thin with a few empty patches. 'We might actually pull this off,' she thought in surprise.

Tris turned her attention back to her task and focused on the waves. She was halfway through her allotted time of three minutes. The waves were now about two to three feet high, and growing. However, they did not grow extremely quickly as Tris' undercurrent was disrupting its formation. Tris flung bursts of magic at the base of the waves, experimenting what to do. The wave collapsed and the water gushed forth and stirred the water. 'Better not try that again, unless I want a flood that goes even farther inland.' She hit the edges of the waves with magic and was delighted to see a whole side collapse backwards when a gust of wind pushed it back. 'So,' she reasoned, 'I need to hit the weakened end with a quick gust of wind and it falls back because there is nothing to support it.

Tris waited for the tsunami wave to form. She blasted a hole at the base but the water was moving too quickly and collapsed, pulling more water from the sea to fuel its power. 'Damn!' Tris cursed. 'I forgot that there was a lot more water in the tsunami. She flew to the middle of the tsunami and tried the trick again. 'Yes!' she thought, elated. 'It worked!' She collapsed parts of the tsunami, though the wave only shrunk the slightest bit.

She turned to look behind herself and saw that the wave was less than a minute from the coast of Hatar. Already, it towered high in the sky, taller than any building Tris had ever seen. She could feel the tsunami pulling at her underwater currents, and the currents closest to the tsunami were destroyed, her power not strong enough to resist the wave's force.

Tris was losing magic rapidly through the currents and her own attack on the tsunami. Her magic and energy reserves were extremely low, and she still had to take the brunt of the attack. Tris looked up and found that Keth had cleared the sky for a large radius while she had battled the tsunami. The tsunami was less than half a minute from the coast and it had sped up somehow.

Examining the situation, she realized that she had vastly underestimated the power of nature. Tris formed a new plan. She could not completely stop the wave, but she could reduce its destructive power. It was worth the sacrifice if she could prevent families from being destroyed. She had seen too many broken families and knew all too well the pain inflicted on the people. She renewed her attack on the tsunami. She knew the consequences of the plan and knew what would happen. She had nothing left to fear.

When the tsunami was mere yards from her physical body, Tris released her magics and flew to her body to prepare for the onslaught. She felt strong and revitalized, and her senses seemed to have heightened and she swore she could feel everything in her body, from the flow of blood through her veins to the beat of her heart. She closed her eyes and opened her channel to Keth. The tsunami hit her body.

Tris drew as much of the power into her body as she could. Her arms were open and welcoming, inviting the strength of the tsunami into her body. Dimly, she felt herself being lifted from the crevice and she felt the tension of the rope before it snapped. But she barely paid attention to her physical sensations, for her body was crackling with power. And being destroyed. The power of nature was too much and she could feel it tearing her apart as it surged through her body. She registered Keth's presence above her and heard his hoarse scream as power flowed from her into him.

She felt him clumsily gather the power into a concentrated ball to become his bolt of lightning. 'Not enough,' Tris thought to herself. Keth would not be able to discharge even half of the tsunami's power. And her deteriorating body was too weak and too small to do anything. But she couldn't let it destroy the lives of people. She would not allow it to wreak havoc and pain upon the people of Hatar.

When she came to her conclusion, she felt something in her body give, and she knew that she had done something to her body, to her magic. She pulled as much of the tsunami's power into herself before her mind faded into darkness.

~*~

"Tris, oh gods, Tris!!!" Niko rushed up the rocky outcropping. Glaki scrambled to keep up with Niko. The seers and searchers who had come with Niko hung back, bowing their heads respectfully to the mage who had given her life to save them.

"Auntie Tris!!" Glaki added her cries to Keth's. She didn't know what was wrong with her foster mother, but it reminded her too much the circumstances in which two other women she had called mother had left her. "Auntie Tris, wake up!" Glaki shrieked.

Niko merely stared down sadly at the still form of his former student. Her skin was deathly pale and her clothes were wet and tattered. Clumps of seaweed clung to her body and hair, and Niko could see a dried trickle of blood from her temple. She was covered in scratches and the salt on her skin and in her hair reflected the rays of the dying sun. Her hair was a mess, a swath of red hair and green seaweed with sparkling white strands from the salt. He couldn't believe it, couldn't believe that she was dead or what she had accomplished through her death.

Keth knelt beside his teacher, tears running down his face. Glaki was holding Tris' hand and shaking it vigorously. "Auntie Tris, please wake up!" Glaki cried hysterically. Chime swooped down to land at Tris's side. She nuzzled Tris while a whining Little Bear licked Tris's face. Niko crumpled to his knees, still silent and dry eyed from shock. Keth had grabbed Glaki and was rocking the girl in his arms, as much to comfort her as himself. Niko reached out a trembling finger and tentatively lay his hand on the weather witch's forehead. He brushed salt from her face as his tears finally emerged. Little Bear and Chime had backed away and were regarding Tris's body in confusion and apprehension.

The small group remained undisturbed until the sun was no longer visible on the horizon. The head of the seers came forward and laid a comforting hand on Niko's shoulder. Niko rose, limbs heavy, and turned away from the sight of his student's body. Keth rose with Glaki and turned with Niko to regard those who had come with them. Niko cleared his throat.

"She-," his voice cracked, "-she didn't make it. She saved us but…" the rest of his words faded.

"I'm sorry for your loss," one of the searchers said sympathetically. He continued quietly, "We should be going back soon, and bring…" Keth nodded sadly. Several men started up the slope to approach Tris's body when Little Bear suddenly jumped at them, snarling.

"Little Bear, what in the-" Niko began indignantly. Keth started toward the girl's body as well but Little Bear reacted the same way. Niko's approach elicited the same reaction.

"What's going on?" Keth asked Niko, puzzled. Chime suddenly descended from the sky and alighted on Tris's chest. Chime's small body curled into a ball and she stuck her glass head up to peer upon Tris's face. Unlike usual, her eyes were glowing with a warm golden light, her eyes whirling orange, brown, and yellow. Her body seemed to glow in the dark of the early evening.

"What's happening?" one of the men demanded. Niko and Keth could only shake their heads in bewilderment. Chime raised her head to the sky and opened her jaw. A high pitched keening sound caused all present to cry out in pain and cover their ears. Chime's wail continued, her cry soaring and dropping.

A bolt of light shot from the sky and shone on Tris. In Niko's vision, the magic pillar of light glowed with a bright electric blue, with strands of white dispersed throughout. Honey yellow, fiery red, and bright green twisted about the sky blue pillar. The light disappeared and darkness descended once again.

"Tris?" Keth called tentatively. No answer. He approached the body with Niko, Glaki trailing behind them. Chime flew out of the darkness to land on Little Bear, who was now laying docilely on the ground. The men who had come with Glaki and Niko stayed where they were, wary of what would happen next. "Tris?" Keth called again, uncertainly. Niko reached Tris first and looked down at her, hoping that the light had done what he hoped it would. He knelt and tapped Tris on the shoulder. Glaki had reached Tris too and she reached out for her aunt's hand.

"It's warm!" Glaki exclaimed. Keth gave a sob of relief and Niko leaned back and let out the breath he had been holding. Wild barking met their ears as a flash of ivory streaked towards them. Little Bear came to halt barely inches from the group, Chime squawking in protest as she clung to his back. Little Bear bowed his head and enthusiastically began to lick Tris's face. The girl did not respond to his ministrations and the group of three almost gave up hope. Then, Glaki felt Tris's hand twitch in hers and a small moan escaped from the weather witch.

"Tris!!" Keth shouted. He shook her shoulder. Tris stirred and opened her eyes, looking around blearily. Suddenly, her gaze sharpened and her expression returned from bewilderment to her usual observant, slightly wary look.

"What happened?" she demanded. She looked down. "And why are my clothes such a mess?!" the merchant girl shrieked. An arm of seaweed flopped into her face, dislodged when she had shaken her head slightly. She scowled at the offending plant as Glaki reached to take the other strands from Tris's hair.

"Uh-oh,' Glaki intoned solemnly, peeling up a corner of the plant.

"What is it," Tris asked slightly frantically, wondering what could be worse than almost drowning. Glaki lifted the strand of green completely from Tris's head, smiling slightly. Niko looked at her head with a mild curiosity while Keth looked at Tris with horror coupled with a badly suppressed desire to burst out laughing. "What?" Tris snapped. She had just escaped death and her companions were now laughing at her!

Glaki handed Tris the mirror she had found in a previous city. Scowling, Tris lifted the mirror, her pale face illuminated by the unsteady light Glaki had learned to produce. Tris's eyes widened in shock. She reached a hand back and pulled forward a strand of hair. White. "What in the gods' name happened?!" she half shrieked. She lifted the mirror to get a better view of her shock of white hair.

Niko rubbed his chin. "My guess is the magic you tried to absorb drained your body. Magic is in everything, including hair."

"Is it going to stay like that?" Glaki asked.

"No idea," Niko answered. "I've never actually heard of this before. There are stories that mages who use all of their magic fade. But I've only hear of the person themselves disappearing."

"Oh great," Tris ranted. First I'm a redhead. Now it's all white."

"Not all of it," Keth interjected. "The part at the back of your head is still red." Glaki walked behind Tris and viewed the hair critically.

"It's just the top in the front," she agreed. However, her comment did little to console incensed mage.

"I can't believe this! As if red wasn't bad enough, now it's white?!"

"Only on the top." Glaki's contribution was completely ignored in the face of the ongoing tirade.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Of course I didn't kill Tris off!! She's my favorite. Anyways, hope this long chapter makes up for not updating. You'll find out more about what happened to Tris in four more chapters. I'm a slow writer and my mom doesn't want me on the computer more than an hour so you'll probably have to wait a year ^-^; Sorry. No idea how long until next update. I'll try to be faster though.

*Star Lily*