A/N: I think (though I'm not completely sure) that this is the second-to-last chapter of this fic! I can't believe I managed to stick with it this long. I know I wouldn't have, without the support of my awesome bunch of readers and reviewers. Special kudos go to viper676, alex, Reana, elfin2, and Shima And Tempis, all of whom have reviewed fairly consistently from the start. And, of course, I would be nowhere without my good pal Jasen Morgan, whom I bounce ideas off of mercilessly. Hope you don't have to bloody up this one, captain! Have fun reading, and I will hopefully have the next chapter up by Monday.

Chapter 11: Uh-Oh

It was like being eaten alive—except that Dairine thought that might have been a bit more pleasant. She revised her opinion. It was like being painfully digested for a thousand years before finally dying.

And it hadn't even started yet.

Nita sat stiffly on Dairine's bed, looking at her with an evil eye to shame a basilisk. In turn, Dairine could not bring herself to look at her sister. Neither could she bring herself to talk her way out of this one. Nita had been through enough. Dairine would answer her questions and take her punishment.

"I know what you did," Nita said unnecessarily; Dairine couldn't think of any other reason her sister would have to barge into her room and demand an explanation. "But I don't know how you did it, and I'd like to know that, right after you fix it!" she continued, anger coursing through her voice.

Dairine nodded. "Do you have your name with you?"

Nita's eyes widened, and she looked at Dairine with an increased disgust. "You tampered with my name?!" she almost screamed. "And the Powers didn't do anything? Lord, Dairine, what were you thinking!"

I'll take that as a no, Dairine thought. It didn't matter; she had saved a copy of Nita's name to Spot after she'd made her changes. Spot obligingly scuttled onto her desk and flipped up his lid to show a screenful of the graceful Speech. A minute's toggling, and Dairine had the physical representation of her sister's personality laid down on the floor of her room.

She scanned over it, looking for the part she had changed. It hadn't been much; in fact, Dairine had been shocked at the ease with which she'd been able to effect such a behavioral change in Nita. Finally she found what she was looking for. "This is the section I modified," Dairine said, keeping her voice steady. It was difficult, with Nita breathing down her neck like some avenging dragon, but she managed.

"Change it back," Nita said, rage still openly evident.

Dairine nodded. She pulled a pen from her desk and uncapped it. Then, at the beginning of the section of Nita's name that was involved with romantic relationships, she inserted a new character in the Speech: a slight, filled curve, representing a closed eye. Instantly, the characters immediately following it, the ones that told of Nita's interest in Kit, faded into invisibility. The rest of Nita's name shifted to fill in the now-empty space.

Dairine wound the name back up into its usual tight ball of words in the Speech and handed it back to Nita, who was for the first time in this encounter not looking exclusively angry. "That's it?" she asked, sounding almost puzzled. "What happened to all of those other characters?"

"They're hidden from you," Dairine said, having looked up this particular effect on her own. "And, since they're hidden from you, they're hidden from those who know you. But they're still there. All a wizard would have to do to make them visible is to open that eye."

Nita looked at her with a mixed expression. "You swear that this is the only thing you did?"

"I swear," Dairine said, the overtones of the Speech evident in her proclamation. She switched back to English to say, "All you need to do is use that in a spell, and you should be back to normal."

Nita was silent, as if uncertain how to respond. Finally, much of the anger gone from her voice, she looked at Dairine and asked, "Why?"

Dairine wasn't sure how to answer. She didn't want to get Nita angry again, when she had just calmed down. "I wanted to pull a good April Fool's prank on you," she said evasively. Well, it was part of the truth.

"I doubt that's all of it," Nita said.

Dairine sighed. "Okay, so it's not. I really thought that you were being dumb, not admitting you liked Kit." And you were, she added silently to herself. "But I think that I was dumber, to think I could make you see what you didn't want to," she added, finding that it was completely true. "If you want to open your eyes, you've got to do it for yourself."

The last remark had probably unbalanced Nita, Dairine thought. There was no other way she would have simply walked out of Dairine's room, saying nothing more than "I've got to go tell Kit" and not making good on any of the threats she had attacked Dairine with. Against all the odds, Dairine smiled. She might not be able to open Nita's eyes for her, but at least she could point her in the right direction.

Dairine had been sorely tempted to remind Nita that the first spell she had done with the changed version of her name would not have worked if the change had been too large. The fact that the first spell had worked was more indication of Nita's true feelings than anything else. But Dairine knew she was treading on thin ice with her sister at the moment, and had decided not to mention it.

It was at that point that Spot, his case still open on her desk, said very plaintively, "Uh-oh."

————————————————————————

Nita sat in her room, holding the fixed version of her name in one hand and looking down at it. Why wasn't she mad at Dairine any more? She had every right to be furious with her younger sister. And yet…

And yet, I know that she was right. The thought resounded through her consciousness. Dairine was right? Since when had she ever admitted that? Though she had to admit, the evidence here was pointing disturbingly in that direction. Nita had been sure that Dairine had meddled with her on such a level that it would take an immense spell to undo, but she had been wrong. It had only taken a pen, and a single added character in the Speech.

It would take even less to change it back again, a voice inside her head said. All you have to do is open that eye…

Nita realized that voice as not being completely hers. Then she remembered she would have to use her changed name in a spell for its effects to take place.

Then, she realized quite belatedly that she had left Kit on the moon without any explanation. Well, she thought as she drew up the transit spell that would take her back to the moon, at least now I've got an explanation to give. She uncoiled the ball of her name, attached it to the proper place in the spell, and drew the Wizard's Knot. Then she recited the words in the Speech and vanished.