Disclaimer: I own not one whit of aught in the Immortals Quartet. I only own what you've not seen within them.

Chapter Eight: Through the Mists

Zircah watched from her perch in an elm tree as a dozen Stormwings wallowed clumsily in the shallows of the Long Lake in a futile attempt to rid themselves of the onion smell they so hated. She rolled her eyes at their blatant stupidity. Was she the only one who had ever learned a cleansing spell? She thought about the reek that followed her flock everywhere and decided that it was probably a stupid question.

Since their encounter with the mage earlier that day, the Stormwings had refused to patrol in favour of plunging themselves repetitively into the lake until the onion smell was gone. Zircah was watching them boredly, wishing she had something more to do. She saw no point in patrolling, no matter how that might have curried her favour with Tristan. The human mage had been in a pet all day because of Salmalín's meddling with the Barrier. She didn't see the problem – it wasn't as though he'd broken it, was it? She snorted derisively, tossing her hair back over her shoulders with a loud chiming of feathers.

She was worried for Maura. She wasn't sure how long the girl's disappearance could remain undetected by the Lord and Lady of Dunlath. A few days at most. Perhaps it could be arranged that Yolane see some illusions of Maura around… or even Belden. She would need to speak to Rikash about it. Zircah looked around for him impatiently, expecting him to be among the fools dunking themselves into the lake. He wasn't, and she couldn't see him anywhere. She opened her mind to sense him out and was surprised to find that he was some way off in the forest. Unobtrusively, she spread her wings and went to find him.

She found herself following a meandering stream that fed into the Long Lake. She found she could no longer hear the other Stormwings here. It was quite pleasant, she reflected. Had Rikash chosen the spot for that reason? How strange to have something truly in common with him, if he had. She found him standing beneath a miniature waterfall, soaking wet, eyes closed. His bottom lip was caught between his teeth as though he was in pain. Zircah landed silently near him.

"You know, if any creature of the human realms could work up the nerve to attack a Stormwing, it would be you." Rikash jumped at her sudden, sharp words. "Completely unguarded. I could have killed you." Zircah continued snidely.

Rikash stared at her with cold green eyes and closed his eyes again with a mirthless chuckle. "Oh, go ahead. Really, be my guest. I don't think you could."

Zircah paused to stare at the male. "Well, I won't now, just to spite you, but isn't it enough that I nearly killed you once?"

"Of course. I'm terrified of you and of your powers." Rikash informed her. His voice was so plain and untainted by mockery in any form that Zircah became immediately suspicious and somewhat concerned.

"Are you feeling all right, Moonsword?"

Rikash stepped out of the waterfall and tossed his hair with a clatter of bones, somewhat muffled by all the water in his hair. "Just fine, Bladewing, thanks for your concern." Zircah stared at him as though he had lost his mind. She couldn't tell if he was serious or if it was some sort of joke. When she reached for him with her mind, his location was still cold and glassy to her. She realised that he was probably still fuming about his humiliation earlier, and that anger had formed a complete wall against those he perceived as a threat. She felt a moment of pride knowing he considered her threatening, but an itching sensation was building in her wingtips. She examined Rikash's mind-signature again and noticed a faint tinge of pain to it.

"What's the matter with you? You feel… sick."

Rikash stared at her in consideration, eyes slightly less blank than before. He turned his back on her. Zircah would have taken offence, but now she saw the burns that decorated the previously smooth tan of his back, interspersed with cuts and slices from her own wings. She grimaced, moving closer and balancing perilously on one leg to run the flat of a cool talon across the flushed skin. Rikash hissed in pain, Zircah in sympathy.

"Did you let the mage hit you with his godscurst onion spell?" She asked, not sounding particularly impressed with his level of intelligence. Rikash made an annoyed sound in his throat.

"If you must know, I was wondering where in the Black God's realm you'd got to. Salmalín threw his spell from the trees and I didn't have the chance to get out of the way. That Barrier sticks," he complained viciously.

Zircah smiled. She knew what he meant. "I can Heal this, if you'd like." Rikash shook his head in refusal, shrugging his shoulders as he spun to face her, hiding his painful back from her sight. Zircah stared at him curiously. "You're mad, you know. That will make flying difficult, and painful. It might scar. The infection might kill you by making your wings too weak to allow you to control your flight. You aren't impervious to damage, Moonsword. Let me Heal it."

"No! Meddling –"

"Maura would hate it if you were crippled. I would dislike it, because it would have been my fault and I hate to kill people by accident. Let me Heal your godscurst back, Rikash." She held up her wings and cast a spell that spun him around. Rikash made an angry attempt to break free, but Zircah lay her wrist-joints on his shoulders. Rikash froze. Zircah could feel a sudden nervousness bloom in his aura. "Stay still, fool." She ordered softly, leaning forward and marvelling as the nervousness grew until it was almost a sickness in itself. "Unless of course you want your tail sticking out the top of your head."

For the second time, Zircah sank deep into Rikash. Skirting the burns for now, she seared the cuts and knit the skin together. Several of the cuts were deeper than she had suspected, more like shallow stabs than scratches. Guilt tried to distract her from her purpose, but she wouldn't let it. Carefully, she nurtured new skin beneath the burns. The scabbing hardened, dulled and fell to the ground, leaving nothing to show what had been but a faintly lighter skin colour. She felt slightly dizzy…

"What? Zircah, what do you mean?"

"Huh?" Zircah felt strangely disorientated, as though she had just woken from a heavy slumber.

"You said something about the Southern Fort." Rikash sounded a little worried. He was facing her again. Zircah stared at him blankly.

"I… must have blacked out. I hope I didn't ruin your back… uh… the Southern Fort, you say…?" Zircah closed her eyes and tried to recall, but she could remember nothing. "No… nothing. I suppose the message must have been for you… odd. Perhaps you should visit the command post to the south."

"Right." Rikash said uncertainly. "Tomorrow. I think that's what you said." Not that I was really paying attention until your head fell onto my shoulder and I had to catch you again, Bladewing. He suppressed a shiver at the memory of her normally ice-blue eyes turning the shade of a discarded snake-skin. Not that he had been complaining at the time, but – Stop it! Bladewing! Instant death! He had always been under the eerie impression she could read thoughts, and that was not a reassuring thing to believe when such thoughts drifted unchecked through his mind.

Zircah only looked glazed. "Hnn… I think I need to go… rest… premonitions usually precede a true Seeing… an important one…" She blinked and her eyes unfocussed momentarily. Rikash blanched.

"Uh, sure. Don't bother patrolling until your… uh, Seeing is over." Zircah nodded with a dazed half-smile and flew off. It was only after his shaky near panic had subsided that Rikash realised he was supposed to be mad at her.

*

It was over twenty-four hours later, and the Seeing had not come. A fog had rolled across the length of the valley, unusual for the season, and now the Northern Fort was plastered with it. Even with her excellent vision, particularly at night, Zircah couldn't see half as far as she usually could. She sat in the fork of the tallest tree she had been able to find, watching the silvery fog gravely. Her only consolation at the reduction of vision was that the fog didn't mar her magical senses at all.

Rikash had left early that morning for the Southern Fortress, and he had not yet returned. Zircah wondered whether whatever message she had given to him had led to his demise. She shrugged, trying to ignore the tendrils of worry creeping through her stomach. It wasn't as though it was her fault. Shakith's judgement was none of her business. Annoyed and slightly afraid for reasons unbeknownst to her, Zircah shut out all her magical senses out of some masochistic wish to be completely alone.

The moon drifted lazily above her, pale gold in the indigo night. Zircah looked up at it, the only thing as alone as she was. She missed Weiryn and the Green Lady. It seemed an age since she had seen them last, but she knew it would seem only like a week or so to the god and goddess. She sighed, looking up at the tiny specks of stars. So many, and yet none drifted near to the moon… she sighed again, heavily, and watched the sky sadly.

*

Rikash cursed to himself and occasionally at Zircah for suggesting that he visit the Southern Fortress as he flapped his way north. A mage who could become a squirrel had broken into the command tower and had been reading up on the happenings of Dunlath when Rikash had surprised him and trapped him in the room. However, the dratted mage had escaped due to those stupid ground-pounders… If they would just listen… he let out another muttered string of curses as he fought his way through the cold night air toward the fuzzy lights of the Northern Fort.

He worked his way as high as he could with his magic and his wings through the thoroughly uncooperative air, then set up a glide that would take him to the fog-wreathed fortress and the Stormwing mews. He smiled grimly as he glided down far too quickly for his liking. Now that he wasn't flapping like a demon, he could hear high, sweet notes in the still air. Rikash frowned. Are the mortal soldiers celebrating something? But no, this couldn't be human music. Rikash listened, entranced, as the clear haunting melody rang through the night air. Unable to curb his curiosity, he followed the song through the still night. Through the silver fingers of the fog he flew, the music becoming louder and more beautiful as he neared its source.

Finally he espied the minstrel, very close, and nearly crashed into the tree she sat in as he recognised the moon's soft glint off feathers in her hair as well as wings. He corrected his flight hastily, but Zircah had heard his blunder and spun around with characteristic swiftness. Her voice stopped the rippling notes as she swept her wings up before her, prepared to do serious damage with them.

"It's only me, Bladewing." Rikash had time to reassure her before he landed just above her on one branch of the fork. Zircah dropped her wings back down and sidled up the other branch to be on the same level as he. When he opened his mouth to comment on her song, she gave him a withering glare that made him shut it again immediately.

"You certainly took your sweet time. Where have you been all day?"

Rikash nearly groaned. You'd have to ask! "Following up on your damned prophecy…" He proceeded to grind out the entire tale. He had enough wit to remember a compliment on her singing, a rare, if not unique talent among Stormwings. She blushed very prettily as she gave him a pointed glare to signify that it would never be spoken of again.

Then she became thoughtful. Rikash was almost convinced she had forgotten he was there when she spoke. "Rikash, this squirrel… did it look like a normal squirrel? I mean, was it a strange colour or… anything like that?"

"How should I know what's normal or not for a wretched tree-rat?" Rikash demanded scathingly. "It wasn't blue, if that's what you mean. It looked perfectly ordinary apart from the fact that it was reading and had enough sense to dodge my magic."

"Animals have a lot of sense, Moonsword. However, it does not usually extend to predicting the movements of an opponent." Zircah raked her front fangs over her bottom lip, thinking. "It may have been conventional magic, but my guess is that it was wild magic… a skilled wild mage can place themselves in the minds of a creature. Were I not immortal and thus glued to this form, I could also transform myself into a beast, I believe. It may be the squirrel had simply been the familiar of a wild mage, giving it more human intelligence than a regular squirrel." She mused. "What do you think?"

Rikash's aura had gone cold again. "I think," he said frostily, "That you would be better off talking to someone who knew what you were talking about. Why don't you scurry off to Jakaal and talk to him about this magic you both seem so fascinated by?" Zircah stared at him, slightly offended. The bitterness in his voice surprised her.

But she thought she understood. Rikash hated feeling like a fool, and she had been asking him a serious question on a topic he knew next to nothing about and discerning far more from a situation than he had seen himself. Her hair gave a soft tinkle like a gently brushed wind chime as she took off, otherwise silently, withdrawing from his presence. As she flew away, it occurred to her that it might be a good idea to discuss her theory with Jakaal.

She left Rikash in the tree, staring at the horizon. Something nagged at the edge of his consciousness that he'd done the wrong thing, but he elbowed it roughly away. His gaze drifted down to the silvery fog that wound its way through the trees, as though the huge life forms were no more than reeds in the great silver stream. Rikash looked at this, disgusted by his sentimentality, for a long time. Then he too dropped off the branch and worked his way slowly, wearily, back to the Stormwing mews. Zircah was speaking to Jakaal in hushed tones when Rikash landed a little heavily outside the roost. Jakaal eyed him mockingly as he came in. Rikash felt the bitter cold settle over what might, loosely speaking, have been called his heart. He beat his wings once to settle at the far end of the roost from the rest of the Stormwings (Zircah's end). Sending one final withering glare Jakaal's way, Rikash wreathed himself in bitter jealousy and closed his eyes. Jakaal laughed at something quietly, and Zircah along with him. Rikash cowled his wings to cover his head rather than being seen openly snarling as he slept.

*

Zircah was in that place of clouds and rushing winds. Surrounded by a faintly greenish haze, she flew. She barely had to move her wings either to direct herself or to stay aloft. She felt utterly weightless, as she did when she soared on the thermals that abounded around Stonemaze.

Through the fog she saw Dunlath castle and the Long Lake. Closer, a voice whispered, and she obeyed, letting the dream take her where it would. It did so swiftly, so that she could barely tell where she was going. She knew it was south and west… and cold and damp. She was surprised to recognise the badger god, who often visited Weiryn, speaking to the mortal wild mage, Daine.

--Haven't you seen, in your travels, that you alone speak to all three kindreds: humans, immortals and beasts?--

Zircah frowned, even in her dream state. Alone? But she, too, had those talents. She felt herself withdrawing from events, back to the place of clouds. Shakith, blind white eyes wide, smiled. Listen. Learn. You were given these abilities so that you might save your kind, but you are trapped within your form. Thus, she was born of two realms as you were, so that she might save her own kind, and the kind you both hold dear. Zircah was back with the badger and Daine.

-Shape a bridge between kindreds. Find allies, my kit – not just among the People, but among humans and immortals.– The badger god seemed to see Zircah and Shakith. She could feel the barest tingle of his amusement as he asked, -How do you deal with the Stormwings, may I ask?-

Daine's reply was muffled and warped, as though she was trying to speak with a pipe down her throat. Zircah was losing her grip on the Seeing. She clung to it, desperate for more information.

-…bound to the service of humans, so can Stormwings.-

Daine's next burble was angry. Zircah vaguely recognised the words 'Maura' and 'Rikash'. She wondered what the mortal was speaking of as she drifted away.

-They sound almost like real people, not monsters.-

Zircah opened her eyes with a start. She was back in the mews. Damp air clung to her, making her skin feel clammier than the cold sweat of Seeing usually did. She felt ill and light-headed. The rushing sound of the place of winds had followed her into the mortal realm as rain. The hastily built roof leaked something dreadful, allowing runnels onto several Stormwings including herself. She scowled and sidled closer than she would have liked to Rikash, whose wings still shielded his head. She was out of the rain, but she was cold, and there was a distinct aura of melancholy about the sleeping Rikash that pervaded Zircah's mind. Determinedly, she cut herself off from her magical senses and closed her eyes to concentrate on her Seeing.

So, Shakith wanted her to be an ally to this mortal chick, Daine? Only she wasn't mortal… she was of both realms, Zircah remembered. And the badger… what did the badger god have to do with this?

You were given these abilities so that you might save your kind.

Feeling confused and beset, Zircah fluffed her feathers and sank into an uneasy sleep. She dreamt of cages and of her queen.

*

A/N: ^^ At last I have the time to make a proper effort on this fic! I'm not particularly pleased with this chapter… it sort of ran itself into the ground. *grimace* Anyway, just a few comments to my wonderful, wonderful reviewers! ^^ I love you all ever so.

Um, first off… I'd like people to stop worrying about the death of Rikash. I have it under control. As I've mentioned to Kenta Divina, there are several ending that I have planned for this fic… I'll get you to vote on which you'd like when the time comes and you can visit my site (up soon, honest! *dies*) to read the alternate endings, or I'll just post all the alternate endings here anyways.

Also… Rikash and Zircah have no real special connection. Zircah just has a natural bond to all living creatures, y'know? And when one of them who is usually fairly open starts to fold in on himself, she feels him drawing away. Otay? ^^ No special bonds yet, people! *grin* And yes, Nogard, it is going to be a Zircah/Rikash. Sorry if you had higher hopes. *lol*