Jessi: Hiya everyone. Again I am so very sorry for the delays in all my fanfiction (espically Yami II). This is due to the fact that I lost my notebook (where all my fanfiction stuff resides, apart from cyberspace) and the fact that the school overloaded me with coursework, homework and revision for my mock GCSE exams. Because of these mock exams I may not be able to update for three weeks unless I find time during next week or on my days off during the fortnight that my mocks take up.

Ugh... School is hell.

Chel lay on his bedroll, his pale eyes open and his face free of the dark shadows of fatigue. His head was turned on its side so that his vision took in the blades of grass beyond his bed and his silver hand laying palm-upwards. A sigh escaped the winged elf and this drew the attention of the female sitting a short way away.

Vale lowered the comb that she had been pulling through her golden tresses and walked to Chel's side. Though he gave no sign of having noticed her, the young cleric knew that his keen senses would have detected her approach.

She reconized the look on his face. It was one of abject sorrow and of deep depression. Though these moods were not uncommon in the avarial she had just as much effect on lifting it as she had as a child. Which is to say, none at all.

"Chel?" she venturned the question with unusal timidness. The beautiful male's only response was to sigh again and seemily sink downwards. Downwards even deepier into depression. Vale felt her eyes sting... she feared always that this would be the time that he would not rise out of it.

She knelt, careful to avoid pulling on his snowy tresses, and lifted a silken strand to her lips. She kissed it, brushing it against her cheek, so pale compared to her dark gold skin.

Still there was no responce from Chel, he was barely blinking.

Biting back a sob she lay down and, gently repositioning his wings, hugged him to her. Her hands laced together and she held on tightly as though afraid he was going to be taken from her. Tears started to make their way down her face as she relised that in a way he was being taken.

Was this it?

Was this when his mind was lost permently to the gloom of depression and pathos?

"Please don't leave me..." her voice was muffled with her mouth against his shoulder but Chel heard it as surely as he felt the tears splashing onto his delicate neck. He glanced down at the hands on his stomach, noting their white-knuckle grip on each other and on himself.

His slender fingers slid onto hers, resting lightly on her hands,

"I'm sorry..."

Vale sobbed in relief, kissing his cheek. A small, sad smile flickered onto Chel's face as he took her hands in his own.

The dark robed figure sat at a table made of polished wood. The carving were mostly scratched away by her claws but no such flaw marred the crystal ball in front of her. The scrying device threw a ghoulish light onto the demonic mask. Images flickered in the depths of theball as fleeting as the passing wind.

The masked woman stared into the ball, searching. Her old body slave was losing his appeal to her: multilating him had been fun but soon she would tire of him altogether. His only purpose then would be to amuse her as she killed him, taking care to prolong the agony.

One image caught her eye and she centred the ball onto it. The image showed a winged elf looking out over a pool of crystal clear water. The skin had just a hint of silver to it and the eyes were just as pale, the colour of a tropical sea, a pure blue-green. The hair was grown longer than any woman'sand fell down in an alabastar tumble.

She had thought that the elf was female at first but the body shape was definetly male. The unearthly beauty was not a disadvantage though... far from it, the slit pupils and slightly longer canine teeth adding a most attractive feral edge.

Her hand reached out to touch the face of the pale elf,

"You, my pretty, will be mine. I'll make sure of it myself."

In the crystal ball Chel turned, unaware that he was being watched.