Summersea Saga

by crosseyedbutterfly

Sequel to Twisted Tortallain Tale! This time, our fav group of teens are sent to Summersea...and it's crazy boy mage who runs things behind the scenes! Chapter 22 up!

21.

And we're back with chapter 21 of Summersea Saga, folks! The reviews are slowly trickling in again, and thank you for those who took the time to read your way through all 28-34 pages of the chapter, much appreciated as always. Guess I won't bore you too much with my rather random talk so here, my friends, is chapter 21:

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Ben scurried around with the other servants, scrubbing and cleaning like their lives depended on it (and with the guards stalking around restlessly it probably did) they had the entire mansion and grounds sparkling within hours. Clearing away any traces of their presence at all, the Master had the few, like Ben, who performed special duties clean themselves up and put their uniforms on and line up in the main hall for an inspection.

"We're going to have special guests in," explained their taskmaster, the Mistress of the usual household affairs that in general had little dealings with the likes of them. "And if something is not done right...you shall not enjoy the consequences!" Given the way she snapped the charcoal stick she was holding in two, they were inclined to believe her. Listening obediently as she rapped out her orders, they then hurried off to their posts straightening their collars and hose as they went.

Ben took up his flute and began to run a few scales on it, making sure he was well warmed up before the Master arrived. Outside the main hall he could hear carriages rolling up, others running out and shouting orders and several sets of footsteps were ushered towards him. Beginning to play the moment the double doors opened, the young musician stuck to the soft melodies of wandering shire songs and keeping his volume low enough to be pleasantly unnoticed. And unless he was told otherwise, that would be his hob for the next how ever many hours the Master and his guests decided to dine until he was dismissed.

Observing the newcomers, he understood now why the cook and others had been more than happy to more than happy to let others be the ones to personally deal with these strangers. They were not the types that looked likely to forgive a mistake or the slightest misstep. Dressed completely in dark, somber colors, their robes were sparse and trimly made, wasting no more material than necessary. They were not cheap, though, and he would guess the fabric of their outer layer alone was a gold maja a yard it was so richly woven. Men with such wealth and a strange way of displaying it, his curiosity was piqued but not enough by any means to venture a guess as to who they might be. Usually he might go and inquire with the stable men as to what their luggage contained (as they were prone to usually take an inquiring peak) but he doubted anyone would dare even tough these guests' bags unless ordered to. He certainly wouldn't.

"Something more lively, Ben," ordered his lord, giving a false laugh as he did. "You will put us all to sleep otherwise." Glancing about nervously, he only got a sour smile from one of his companions and blank looks from the rest.

"Yes, milord," he replied immediately, keeping his voice low and level with nothing but the utmost respect. He wasn't sure of these guests would punish any of their hosts servants should they find them inattentive, but he wasn't about to find out. Moving on to the same country-style pieces, he ran through some of the lighter reels and dance tunes that he could remember from his times traveling with his sister. Feeling his heart tighten slightly at the thought of her, he buckled down on it and continued to play. He could float among his memories later, right now was not the time for it.

Further observation of the dark guests revealed nothing more than nothing seemed to please them and none of the servants were comfortable in their presence. Hours of mumbled talk and sore fingers later, the musician was finally released and hurried off to his quarters where he was surrounded by those few curious servants who hadn't had a chance to see the new visitors yet and hadn't seen them before.

"Stay away from them," he advised them seriously. "They look like nothing but trouble."

If only he knew how right he was to be.

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Jon stumbled back into his house late that night, surprised to find Briteyes still awake and sitting by the fire playing her lute.

"You're still awake," he said in surprise.

"Putting the final touches on the 'spell', sort of like a ward to keep people away." She shrugged, continued to play the same patterns over and over as if weaving something. "It's mainly minor cords, just giving them an automatic feeling that the house is empty and not worth looking into."

He nodded, kicking his boots off and pouring himself a mug of coffee from the pot still on the fire. "When will you finish it?"

She smirked. "I was able to close up the final hole when you walked in."

"Oh..."

"You're late," she commented, though there was no anger in her voice.

"Had a lot of students to visit and cancel classes for," he replied with a shrug.

"Did you eat anything while you were out there?"

He shrugged, thinking back over the evening. "Had dinner with the Baker family."

She nodded. "What did you drink?"

"Some sort of juice, a mug of ale before I left...maybe...I dunno, I'm tired, so I'm gonna go to bed..." He ran a hand through his hair, messing it up as he headed for the ladder.

"That's fine, I'll be down here if you need me."

"There are other beds upstairs," he reminded her, a little confused. "Kristen or Cam wouldn't mind at least, and you wouldn't be on the floor..."

"I also wouldn't be by the fire," she reminded him with a shrug. "Don't worry about me, I'm fine."

"I won't."

She laughed dryly, putting down her instrument as she prepared her bed for the night. Dressed in borrowed clothes (it always seemed to be raining when she arrived...) she curled up under her blankets and drifted asleep slowly to the dancing flame-shadows of the fire.

The next morning came far too soon, though, and while she lingered on her mat far longer than usual it was not that late when she finally crawled out of bed and put on a pot for coffee for breakfast. Toasting bread and frying some bacon, which she'd been craving for weeks, it wasn't until after she'd finished eating and cleaned up after herself that she wondered where her housemate was. Climbing up the ladder, she brought a cup of coffee with her out of courtesy and pounded on Jon's closed door and got a grumble in reply.

"Are you awake?" she called, an amused note in her voice.

"Yeah...I think...hey, can you come in here a sec?" His voice was muffled by the door, and she had to strain to hear it.

"Why?"

He hesitated, uncertainty showing in his voice. "Well...I think I'm seein' things."

"Ok..." She eased the door open, finding Jon sitting on the side of his bed staring at his arms which were now covered in blue-colored rashes. "What the...?!"

"This isn't normal, is it?" he asked, frowning as he did.

"No," she replied with a shake of her head. "Jon...you caught the plague."

"Oh...crap."

"What else did you drink yesterday??" she asked quickly, putting the mug in his hands before backing away again.

"Just what I had at the Baker house...and a sip from one of the water fountains in town, but those are supposed to be purified..."

"Idiot, this isn't some normal disease!" she leaned against the doorframe, all most at a loss for what to do even though she could already see his skin beginning to flush with the fever and the spots seemed to grow before her very eyes. "Look, just...stay here. I'll bring you some food and something else to drink. We're going to need hydrate you as much as possible."

"Amanda...how do people die from this?"

She paused, then answered. "The fever. It dries them out from the inside. It's magically induced, so willow bark tea won't help much at all."

"Oh..." Closing the door behind herself, she sighed. This was happening a lot sooner than she thought it might, and she wasn't sure if she was going to be able to hanle it either. It was going to be an interesting ride, that much was for sure...

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"I still think we should stay around Summersea some," argued Randy as they continued to head north.

"Yeah, only because you're a wussy who doesn't like the cold," Olivia snorted mockingly. "Cold-blooded freak..."

"Hey, I'm not the ice-mage, alright? It's not my fault my body doesn't automatically adjust to the temperature around me!"

"We agreed to go north because Olivia is the only one that's never gotten formal training from a mage in her particular area," broke in Bryanna, rolling her eyes as she did. "I've been around healers, you've been around illusionists, but we've never found another ice mage as our teacher. So where would one find an ice mage teacher?"

Randy grumbled under his breath. "Where there's ice."

"And where do we find ice?"

"In the north, where it's friggin COLD."

"Exactly, so we're going north to find her a fellow ice mage."

"We'd better be staying some place that's got a good heating system, then," he muttered with a sigh.

"This early in the summer, I don't think it's going to be cold," pointed out Olivia dryly. "At least I'm not asking you to go in the dead of winter."

"Yes, I would have serious objects to that myself," added in Bryanna with a nod. "But in the summer, at least it'll be warm enough not to wear coats in the day time."

"And let me guess, for them that's shorts and tee-shirts weather, right?"

"Right on, my friend."

"It's like those strange folks in Chicago," went on Olivia, allowing herself to ramble for once. "The moment the snow's gone and the thermometer hits 70, BOOM they're outside in bathing suits on towels trying to get some sun because they don't know if it'll get any warmer half the time!"

"Ever been up there in the summer?" asked Randy curiously.

"Once, yeah, on a family trip. It wasn't cold, really, just you couldn't wear shorts every day. If it was overcast you'd probably be better off in pants, because if the sun wasn't shinning it wasn't very warm."

"Whatever."

"Besides, I have a feeling we don't want to be in Summersea anyways," went on Olivia with a shrug.

Bryanna gave her an odd look. "What makes you say that?"

"Well, you know I read the books once, right? Like, a LONG time ago."

"I think you might have mentioned that once..."

"Yeah, so, I can't remember anything that happened, really, just occasional flashes, but still...we are not gonna wanna be around. That's all I know."

"...ok then."

And they continued to ride north.

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Alyse stood in the kitchen helping Kaitlin and Carrie fix something for lunch, Landon out in the main room with the rest ridding the last two, Rupal and Cheeks, of their unmagic taint.

Their resident accountant being next, she put her hand palm down on the table and looked away as Landon took a small knife, similar to a scalpel, and wincing as much as his patient was as he scratched the symbol for purity into the back of her hand. Holding her wrist firmly so she couldn't squirm away, Landon then took the blood that welled up and with his forefinger dotted around the symbol twelve times and with a final dot in the very center of it all pushed a hint of his power through her body.

The iridescent flame raced along her veins, easily decimating the few dark patches here and there as it went. Once through and he was finished, letting her go with a sigh. "I hope that didn't hurt too much," he said apologetically, getting a weak smile back.

"Yeah, you're just doing what has to be done," she replied as Libby took her hand and washed away the blood, putting a thin layer of salve over the scratched symbol before wrapping it up with a few strips of fresh linen. "It's more important to get rid of this 'taint' now that later."

"If you waited too long, there wouldn't be a later," replied Alyse as she entered the room, a tray balanced on each hand.

"Why is that?" asked Cheeks as he moved over to be next, pushing up his sleeve so it wouldn't get in the way. "You cleared the fields without doing any damage that I can see to the plants."

"That's because plants don't have souls," explained Revlis from her spot across the table, currently engaged in doing some re-lacing on her leather vest. Seeing Carlton open his mouth, she hurried on. "Yes, they have a 'life-force' like us, they aren't just 'things' like a piece of dirt or a crystal, but they don't have a soul. When unmagic feeds on you, it firs sucks all the life out of your flesh, your 'physical self' before it begins to suck the life and sanity out of your mind. That's why most unmagic mages are addicted to some sort of drug, which helps them control the onset of insanity longer than most. Once you've reached that stage, where it's permeated your very mind, there's nothing you can do...only by completely destroying ALL of it including the mind, flesh, and soul can you rid yourself of the unmagic as well."

"Which is why we can't show any mercy with those types of mages," went on Alyse quietly. "It's not a pretty job, not at all, but someone's got to do it I suppose."

"That's enough about our grisly job," put in Landon as he finished with Cheeks, washing his hands in the water provided thoroughly. "Alyse said we could afford to stay for today at the most, and we have a lot of time left, so... Tell us about this farm, it looked like things were going really well before whatever it is that happened to it. How'd you guys end up in a job like this?"

Everyone looked to Brenna, who shrugged and started to tell their tale. "Ok, we found ourselves in a field not too far from here..."

"Don't forget to tell them about you thinking you were back in Tortal!" put in Libby suddenly with a smile. Getting a glare in return, she just giggled. "You were being so silly..."

"Hey, I'm the one telling the story here! Anyways, so, it was about two years ago, actually two years exactly this summer, that we were pulled into Summer sea and found ourselves in a field just across the way from here..."

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Brenna sat with Carlton in the middle of one of the fields the day after Alyse, Landon, and Revlis had made their exit, following his movements through the fields as he 'showed her' the difference between the plants she wished to grow and those that she didn't, those that were harmful and harmless, and the difference between healthy and unhealthy plant growth on the ones she did want.

Taking everything in that was presented to her little by little, they eventually decided to call it quits for the day she opened her eyes to find her instructor looking at her quizzically in their domed circle of protection.

"What?" she asked as she brushed her curly brown hair from her eyes, standing as she did.

"Nothing," he replied, looking down as he did. "You have just improved faster than my sister predicted, is all."

"Does she usually predict right?"

Carlton snorted wryly. "She's never wrong. However, since we're done, you need to go help your friend prepare the fields for the planting."

"Cheeks? He's a strong fellow, he can take care of it him..." Brenna sighed when she caught the flat look her instructor gave her. "Alright, alright, I'm going..."

"Take this and clear the roots and rocks behind him as he plows," instructed the senior plant mage as he tossed her a sack, before heading towards the house. "I'll be cleaning out the garden between the house and barn so we get some use of it this season."

"Was it part of the area cleaned out?"

"Of course." Carlton fixed her with a serious look. "If your friends left a trace of unmagic behind, especially in a place once so heavily tainted, it would be of the greatest betrayal to their oaths as unmagic hunters as well as to your friendship."

"Oh...ok..." Brenna shook her head as if to clear such thoughts away and she headed towards the fields. "I was just wondering, really..."

"Get going, we only have an hour or so more before the light will no longer be favorable for our work."

"Yes, sir." She walked out to the lone figure in the distance, the sack slung over her shoulder as she started at the far edge of the field and began to pick up the large rocks she found in the plowed rows as she walked. Depositing them in the sack on her back, she dumped it out at the end of each row when it became full, making sure to place them far enough away where they wouldn't get in the way. Catching up to Cheeks within a half an hour or so, she paused and sat next to him as he was taking a quick break in the shadow of the oxen. "Having fun?"

"Loads." He rolled his eyes, rubbing the sweat from his forehead.

"Having any trouble breathing?" she asked, taking a small swallow from her water bottle.

"Nope, not since they did the purifying thing." He held up the back of his hand, the mark still visible though it had scabbed over almost instantly. "It felt weird when they did that, you know? Like they were taking away parts of me, but it was parts I didn't mind having taken from me because I didn't realize they were there in the first place."

"Whatever it was they did, it was a good thing," replied Brenna with a shrug. "Come on, Carlton is looking this way and I'd rather not make him walk over here and tell us get moving again."

"It's a rough pace, but it's for the good of the farm," he sighed as he stood, dusting off his pants. "I already plowed the field there to the right, so you might want to get to de-rocking that one."

"De-rocking?" Brenna raised one brow slightly. "Right..."

"What? It's easier that saying 'get to picking up all the stones'. See? That's six more words than I used in the first one, which only used one."

"One word that's made up."

"Nothing wrong with that!"

"Uh huh, sure..."

Cheeks just clucked to the oxen, driving them into moving again and pulling the plow along behind. They had too much work to be arguing, not until the farm was back on its feet again.

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"Hey...isn't that the same guy from the last port?" Gwen tilted her head to the side, staring at the sea man dressed strangely in mostly dark colors while Jenny ignored her and continued to barter with a baker for the bread and flour they needed. "Jenny, look...he's...oh, now he got away!"

"There's lots of ships that travel similar paths to our own," said the Captain tersely as she sealed the trade with the man. "It's not strange to see the same people in the last port you were in."

"No, but he was following us last time!"

"Gwen..." Jenny's voice held a note of exasperation, the younger girl frowning.

"No, I swear! He kept following me and Trevor around whenever we went somewhere selling something!"

"You're imagining things."

"Am not!"

"You are so...thank you, sir. My men will be back with this contract later this evening." Jenny flashed the signed paper once more before slipping it into her inner vest pocket. "Come on, let's get back to the ship."

"But, I...he..."

"Enough, Gwen! There's no body following us, ok??"

"...alright."

Still, something strange was happening that the crew didn't specifically notice until they hit the third port in a series of short jumps with their destinations being only two or three days apart at most. They began to encounter less and less ships on the open seas or in the harbors themselves, and though it was still early in the season for ships to be traveling a great deal unless they had a wind mage on board it was strange for their sightings to grow fewer at the same time.

At their fourth port, Gwen began to refuse to go on shore, claiming to see the same people tailing them over and over again. Jenny, as Captain, claimed she was imagining things again and believed so herself until they reached the fifth port on their list. It was their second day there, and if things went well their last one as well.

She was on shore again; helping Tanner sift through the rope the local maker was selling to help replace some of their own, when she noticed someone out of the corner of her eye. Turning slowly she saw the same dark-clothed man Gwen had been pointing at just a few ports before walking past, his gaze centered somewhere in the distance though she got the feeling he still knew she was there just the same. Shaking off the shivers that wished to run down her spine, the Captain put it out of her mind until she got back to the ship, letting them load everything before she gave orders to cast off immediately.

"Skip the next port," she ordered quietly as they pulled out to sea, Trevor at the helm. "Go to the next one on the list."

"Why?" he replied, frowning as he looked over the map beside him tacked to the railing. "We need that one for fresh meat..."

"Skip it, I want to test something." She looked it over herself. "We'll go back if I'm wrong, we can afford it. Just do it, ok?"

"Alright, Captain..."

Jenny didn't sleep much the next few days, and insisted they remain far out at sea when they passed the next town. Confused, her crew obeyed, a little worried about her sanity as she stood at the bow of the ship for hours before their arrival as if waiting for something.

Gwen joined as they pulled into the harbor, scanning for something just as her Captain was. Jenny was just about to turn away in relief as they moored the ship when something caught her eye, and she froze as the sight of the same sea man standing on the dock as if waiting for something came into view.

"Do you believe me now?" asked Gwen as she shrank back, crossing her arms almost protectively over her chest.

"Yes," replied Jenny quietly, going white as she felt her heart begin to race. "I believe you."

"What are we gonna do about it?"

"I don't know..."

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Briteyes sat with her back to the wall on a cushion messing around on her lute, Jon lying in his bed across from her slowly eating some soup with the blue spots showing prominently against his pale skin. His fever and rattling hack were growing, and both knew there was nothing either could do to stop it without getting help from the outside and possibly revealing their unexplainable immortality.

"Hey...Amanda?"

"Yeah?" She looked up, not bothering to correct him for once as she continued to tune her lute.

"What's it like when you die?" He gave a short laugh after he'd spoken, setting his soup bowl aside as he sat with his back against the wall facing her and sipping more water slowly straight from the ladle. "It feels strange, asking you that question. You're alive, I can see you and hear you...but you've died already. Just strange to think about, you know?"

"I know," she sighed as she began to play, just running through some scales as she did. "You have no idea how weird it is knowing I can answer that. Death...I always thought of it as being so final, so...unbeatable. And in a way it is, if not for our 'connection' thingy with three worlds we'd never be able to come back like we do. But...it's still strange."

"That's all very nice," he replied, laying his head back wearily. "But not what I asked." He paused as he began to cough, face turning red before he was able to regain control of himself again. "What's it like?"

"I...don't remember how I died the first time," she admitted with a shrug as she paused in her playing thoughtfully. "It's a little odd to think I did and not knowing how, but it had to be pretty painful. Real bloody and all, it left me with a lot of scars and I can remember recuperating a little. I remember...floating. And then speaking with the guy who brought us in here, I think his name starts with a 'D' or something like that."

"Where do you talk at?" Jon dropped the ladle back into the bucket unnoticed, the water he never finished mixing in with the rest.

"I guess it's their work shop...something like that..." She strummed through a few chords. "It's nice there. Peaceful-like, I think."

"And then?" His eyes were drooping now, slumping over as the fever and his combined weariness began to take a hold of himself.

"And then...I woke up. It was like coming out of a deep sleep."

"A deep...sleep...?" He laid down, curling up on his side as he did pulling the blanket over himself.

"Yeah." She rose silently to her feet as she set her lute aside, crossing the room to collect the bowl and pick up the ladle to take a quick sip. He'd promised to use only his cup, so it should still be safe for the moment. Glancing back at her companion once more, she made sure he was sound asleep before heading downstairs to get some food for herself and catch a few hours of rest. His condition, without the attendance of a healer, would soon start to decline. Something she was not looking forward too in the least.

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Kristen sat outside the Inn they were currently residing in, looking over the letter she'd received from the local school of the combative arts just a few towns away. Though her eyes were focused on the script, her mind obviously wasn't and Cam had to call her name a few times before the young woman would finally look at him.

"Huh?"

"You alright?" he asked, sliding her the tea she'd ordered and sitting down next to her with his own mug of lemonade. "You've been zoned out all day."

"Yeah...just thinking."

"About Brite and Jon," put in Chris as he sat across from them, carrying a mug of lemonade himself. "They're gonna be fine, you know. We just have to wait here until the danger passes, and then go home and things will go back to the way they were before. Minus several townsfolk, maybe, but not that much different for us in all."

"I know, it's just not fair..." She took a sip of her tea, shrugging deeper into her cloak. It was still a little too nippy to be outside eating at this time in the evening, but it was too crowded inside and she didn't feel like climbing to their room upstairs just quite yet.

"They can't die, so they stay and weather out the plague," said Cam with a shrug. "It makes sense to me."

"And you're not worried about them one bit?" replied Kristen. "Cam, that's your cousin back there!"

"And she'll still be my cousin when we return and find them both alive," he stated firmly, trust obvious in his voice. "Amanda said everything's gonna be ok, and therefore it is."

Kristen sat her tea back down, disbelief written across her face. "And you'll just accept it at that? That there's nothing you can do and you might as well just take what you can?"

"Yeah, pretty much." He nodded, drinking down his lemonade while sitting back calmly.

She shook her head, looking away as she did. "You're too trusting, kid."

"No, I trust her just enough. Maybe you're not being trusting enough."

Kristen gave a short laugh. "Yeah, maybe."

Mike and Matt came up to their table, a bit of paper between them that they scribbled on occasionally as they spoke in low voices.

"What's that?" asked Chris after a moment, managing to get it out of their hands and seeing just a ton of numbers jumbled together. "What the heck..."

"It's odds," explained Matt elusively.

"Odds for what? Some race or something?"

"No, not quite..."

"Odds on whether or not we come to find little Jons or Mandas running around," explained Mike, earning himself a smack on the side of the head. "Ow! Alright, it's odds on who will lose how many students..."

"I'll be upstairs if anyone needs me," said Kristen as she abruptly rose, heading for the stairs.

"What, scared of what you might find out?" Mike called after her tauntingly.

"Excuse me if knowing how many people I know might die as interesting." The door slammed shut, leaving the rest of them outside in the cold.

Mike clucked his tongue as Matt went back to his calculations, Chris and Cam sliding off to the side a little to talk between the two of them. "Temper, temper."

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Olivia sat between Bryanna and Randy, enjoying the ale they'd been served greatly.

"Hey, shouldn't you take it easy on that?" suggested their lone counterpart as she drank it to the bottom. "I thought you were the responsible one here!"

"No, that's me," broke in Bryanna with a smirk.

"You're not responsible because you can drink down as much ale as you want like water and just burn in out of your bloodstream with a flicker of your magic," grumbled Randy as he bent over his own ale, his first one as he had no wish for a hang over the next morning. "That's just plain lucky."

"One of the Masters there actually suggested something after I complained about loosing control when...intoxicated," put in Olivia thoughtfully as she tapped the table with the tips of her fingers. "He said there was some friend of his in the North that, when he drank too much, he would freeze the alcohol in his stomach enough that it would only partially affect him and then the rest would melt off slowly and given him a fairly constant high for the rest of the evening without hitting him too hard. Besides, so long as I keep my body temperature lower than usual it can't do much to me."

"Yeah...and I get stuck with light." Randy snorted, swirling the amber liquid in his mug as he leaned over it. "Yeah, sure, I can make a room bright if there's no candles or lamps, but what the heck does it do for me when I've got a hang over? Nothing! And the one person who can help me is too stubborn to..." He shot a look in Bryanna's direction, which she pointedly ignored.

"Just enjoy your drink," said Olivia, rolling her eyes as she leaned back against the wall behind them. "It's a good ale for being homemade, and we're not likely to be staying at places this nice all the time."

"Why not, we can afford it can't we?"

"Well, yes." Olivia shrugged, taking another sip of her drink and enjoying it as the strong liquid burned a trail down her throat. "But there may not be a place like this to stay as we get up in that in between area from the boarders of Duke Verdis's lands and the kingdom surrounding the Syth to the north."

"Oh, I never thought of that..."

"No, you just don't think period," put in Bryanna with a laugh. "Not that that's a bad thing, it makes me laugh most of the time. When it doesn't involve burning my things, that is."

"Gee, thanks..." Randy chugged the rest of his ale, deciding to abandon his hope for control that night and signaling for another.

Bryanna fixed her sweetest, most deceptive smile. "You're most welcome."

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Heading out at a steady walk, the trio of unmagic fighters talked quietly back and forth as they gave their horses a little bit of a break with the slow pace. Unsure of where to go now, except that they were to be moving, they simply followed the road and at every crossroads flipped a coin to determine which way they would head next.

"You know, we've been going now for over a year," commented Landon out of the blue, hunching over his saddle with a brooding look on his face. "A year's a pretty long time, isn't it?"

"I'd say so," replied Alyse, wondering where he was going with it. "Yeah, a lot can happen in a year's time."

Landon went on, brow furrowing as he did. "And we've had a fair amount happen to us, yes?"

"Yeah, so?" She leaned over in her saddle, poking Revlis who was close to asleep where she sat. "Hey, strap yourself in at least if you're gonna do that."

"Huh? Wha....oh. Ok." The cat girl took the straps on either side of her saddle and quickly had herself secured in place so she wouldn't fall out of her seat while napping. "Thanks..."

"No problem. Anyways." She turned back to Landon with a nod. "Go on, what about a lot happening to us?"

"Well, I mean, I know only so much can happen in a year, but..." He trailed off, rubbing his chin as he did. "I dunno, maybe I just feel like this last year's been nothing but a waste..."

"Because we only found two groups," Alyse finished for him with an understanding nod. "You want to get back home."

"I miss my family," he replied slowly. "And when I do get back, I have to wait a whole year more to see them when I return from America."

"It hasn't been a waste, though," pointed out Alyse carefully. "We've done a good job with our day job, and our side job of finding the others isn't hopeless either. Two groups in the first year, that's far better than Libby and Artman did their first time through."

"They were the mages, then? The ones sent to find everyone? How long did it take them to find someone?"

"Yes, and..." Alyse thought about it, unsure in her mind as she tried to sort out all the things that had happened in that time. "I'm pretty sure it was more than two years. I could be wrong, but from what I recall they were the last to meet up with anyone at all."

"You mean the other groups found each other," replied Landon, sounding rather droll. "Before they every found someone else?"

She nodded. "Pretty much...yeah."

"Wow...that 'Guardian' person-thingy had a real sense of humor, didn't she?"

"Trystan?" Alyse laughed, a bit dryly. "Yeah, something like that...I gotta say, she really messed with us a couple of times."

"On purpose?"

"Who knows, you can never tell with those semi-spirit type beings. Anyways, we've found, including ourselves, 10 of the 24. That's almost 50, and only in a years time." She shrugged, settling back in her saddle as she took the reins from Revlis's limp hands so her horse wouldn't go off the road. "Well...maybe closer to 40, but not bad if I do say so myself."

"How many more years do you think we've got?" ventured her companion uneasily. "One? Five? Twenty?"

"We won't know until it's over," she replied with a shrug, knowing the unease he was likely feeling with that uncertainty and sharing in it herself. "It's all up to our Guide, and the whims of his world."

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Brenna was outside pulling up the weeds that had overtaken the flower beds in the front just a few hours before sunset when a lone wagon came into view, pulled by two nearly-dead looking donkeys with a worn old man clucking the team along. Spotting the farm, his face brightened considerably and he called behind himself to whoever else was with in inside the covered structure.

Rising and dusting off her pants, the farmer woman straightened her wrinkled work-clothes as they pulled up in front of her, the old farmer slowly climbing down as she approached them cautiously.

"Excuse me," she said as she stopped a few yards away. "Something I can help you with?"

"We were just wondering if we might stay on your property for the night," he explained, wringing his hands a bit nervously as he did. "You see, we haven't the money to stay within the town limits without paying the fine and it's a dangerous road for folks to be out on all alone at night."

"Brenna, have you finished- oh. Excuse me, I didn't realize we had company." Carlton continued to walk towards them, though he'd changed from assertive to polite in a moment. "Good evening, sir. What brings you to this farm this evening?"

"They've asked to stay on the property for the night since they couldn't afford to stay in the town," explained Brenna quickly so only Carlton could hear, seeing a young woman likely in her thirties poke her head out of the wagon along with two little boys. "I really don't have a problem with it, but I'll have to ask the rest..."

"It's a fine farm the two of you have," said the old man quickly. "We promise, just let us make use of your well and light and fire and we'll be fine for the evening."

"It's not my farm," replied Carlton quickly. "I'm just a helper here for the moment."

"I'll go and make sure it's alright with the others," added Brenna as she turned around quickly. "Be back in just a moment!"

"Oh, thank you very much!"

She pushed open the front door, finding Kaitlin in the kitchen as usual with Libby sitting at the table tending to Pinky who had somehow scratched her poor little paw and Rupal nearby working through the account books.

"Hey, we've got some people who want to stay on the farm for the night," she said with a jerk of her thumb. "Is it ok with you guys?"

"I don't have to feed them, do I?" replied Kaitlin as she paused in her work momentarily.

"No, they said they just want a safe place to have a fire and to use our well," replied Brenna quickly. "So?"

"I don't care," replied Rupal, never looking up from the heavy volume currently in front of her.

"Neither do I, so long as I don't have to feed them," added Kaitlin quickly.

"Lemme come out and see," said Libby as she stood, following Brenna back outside where the old man and young woman now stood with the two little boys beside them. "Aww...they're so cute!"

"You can stay," said Brenna with a nod as she motioned over towards the well. "Go head, you can stay right over there next to the well, and if you need them the privies are in the back. Your fire, so long as its not in the tall grass or the fields, you're welcome to put near your wagon, and we have a few extra stalls in the barn so your beasts can stay there the night if you want."

"Thank you so very much!" cried the old man, bowing over and over again as he humbly expressed his thanks. "May Mila rain blessings upon your wondrous and fertile fields, miss!"

"Thank you," she replied with a quick nod. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to get back to my work and I'm sure my friends do as well..."

"Bunny!"

Everyone looked over at the cart, a young girl sticking her head out of the front pointing at the fuzzy creature in Libby's arms.

"Toni!" The young woman bustled back quickly, blocking the child from sight as she tried to pull her back into the woman. "Now, we told you, you must stay in bed or you won't get better..."

"Is she sick?" asked Libby, frowning as she did.

"Just a slight chill, from staying out too late the night before," replied the grandfather, shaking his hands as if to dispel any possible suspicion from himself. "Truly, nothing serious, it's just best if she rests right now."

"Oh...well, if that's the case she can see the bunny if she really wants to," offered Libby, coming forwards a few steps. "Pinky likes making people happy, isn't that right sweety? Yes it is! You're just the cutest bunny in the whole world..."

"Bunny wabbit!!" The little girl stretched her hands out, the mother watching on with an obvious mix of worry and fear though none were sure why. Libby let her pet Pinky a few times before pulling away with a smile. "Bye bye, bunny wabbit!"

Libby waved Pinky's paw back. "He says goodbye back! Come on, Pinky, time to go feed you and your family..." She headed inside, Brenna having a few more words with the family before heading inside. "That woman doesn't take very good care of her children," commented Libby as her friend sat beside her, currently occupied with chopping up some early vegetables for her bunnies. "If there was such a thing as Child Services here I'd call them on her!"

"Why's that?"

"The little girl had blue spots on her arms," explained Libby seriously. "Like bruises or something. Maybe it's the old man, who beats'em when he gets drunk and she's just trying to protect him."

"Maybe..." Brenna paused, running that through her head a few times and unable to pin down what it was that struck her as odd other than it was a horrible, horrible thing and they really weren't in a position to intercede. "Oh well. It could just be that her brothers got too rough playing with her."

"Yeah, but a good mom wouldn't let that happen."

"I guess so..."

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"What do you mean you won't go on shore?!"

Jenny stood before the majority of her crew, Tanner, Trevor and Tyler helplessly off to one side and unable to deter their determined friends and family members.

"We won't," said one of the young men simply, looking pale beneath his dark skin. "All of us have seen them now, the shadow-stalkers that follow us from port to port no matter where we go! You cannot deny their presence; you acknowledged them as following us mysteriously days ago."

"Yes, there is someone following us," admitted Jenny with a shrug. "And they are a little creepy looking. But they haven't done anything other than follow us as of yet, and if they haven't made a move by now I would think that they aren't going to at all!"

"But you don't know that for sure!" another piped up in the back.

"Talia, what about you?" called out Jenny, seeing her in the crowds with the rest of the dissenters. "Are you going along with this foolish notion as well? That it's unsafe to set foot off my ship?"

"Yeah," added Talia, though it was obvious she didn't wish to speak but felt she had to. "You're a good Captain, and we respect you for that. You've never led us wrong, and never have we had a loss in our entire time as your crew. But...this is a risk we just fell that can't take. Not with the circumstances that we've been presented with thus far. You can do whatever you like, cast us from the ship, put us all in the brig for insubordination, but we will not as members of your crew willingly set foot off this ship until the shadow-stalkers are gone."

"Cowards," muttered Jack from where he stood behind Jenny. "I would cast you off this ship myself, were your Captain not stopping me."

"I'd like to come and see you try!" said a voice in the back, the First Mate jumping up the moment it was heard angrily.

"Come out and say that to my face!" he demanded, the crew trading knowing smiles as no one said a word. "Too scared, huh? Guess that just proves my point! I don't see why we've kept half you this long anyways, you're just a bunch of lazy, weak-minded, useless lumps of-"

"That'll be quite enough," cut in Jenny, giving him a glance that silenced him effectively enough. "Everyone who won't go off the ship is on repair duty, then. And with as many of you as there are, I don't want even a splinter out of place when we leave this port on my ship. If that's go, get below deck and get to work. Everyone else stay here."

The group was, of course, just herself, Jack, Nicole, Tyler, Trevor and Tanner.

"Gwen went with them," said the nymph as she landed on Jenny's shoulder.

"I knew she would," replied the Captain flatly. "She said as much the first time she figured out they were following us."

"Six isn't bad," said Tyler as he hopped off the railing, standing there respectfully with his arms at his sides. "You never assign too many more to that to go off shore anyways."

"Five," corrected Jenny with a shrug. "As much as you're useful, Nicole, you're not much help on shore."

"Yeah, yeah...I'll be below deck, then, if you need me," she said, floating off towards the hatch with a shrug. Repairs were usually part of her job anyways.

"Who's on accounts duty?" she asked, rubbing her brow.

"That's me," admitted Trevor sheepishly.

"Down to four," coughed Tanner with a shrug.

"Three," corrected Jenny. "No, not even that, only two. Tyler's the only one nimble enough to get up on the masts easily and help inspect and repair things there, and I have to leave one of you two behind as in charge in case anything comes up."

"Well, you two have fun," said Jack, rubbing his hands in anticipation of getting to lord over his underlings once more. "I'll be below whipping those lazy brats into some real work..."

"No, you'll be coming with me," said Jenny firmly, heading towards the gang plank. "Come on, you've got a lot of hauling a head of you. And Tanner? Send me Tyler when you're done with him, Jack might've kicked the bucket by then since he's not used to hard labor and might croak on me."

"No, he won't be needed!" spat the First Mate angrily. "I'll be able to haul anything you throw my way!"

"Good." Jenny smirked to herself. "Let's home you can keep that up with two fifty pound bags of flour over either arm, because the miller and the baker are our first stops."

"What?! Why you..."

As Jack went off on a rant that turned the air blue, Jenny just smiled.

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Briteyes stumbled around the kitchen as she rose from her mat, her head strangely spinning and with a dull ache behind her eyes. Feeling her forehead, she realized she had a fever and wondered if it wasn't just a result from sleeping by a blazing fire all night as she walked into the bathroom, filling the basin and splashing her face with the freezing water. Shivering, she groped blindly for her towel and did a double take in the mirror over it as she finally got a look at her self. There was a blue mark near her hairline on her forehead, and looking down at her hands and arms she saw the same marks covering her skin there as well. Changing her clothes she found more marks, and as she felt her forehead begin to practically radiate heat with a high fever the young woman admitted to herself that which she'd feared since she'd seen the first mark.

"Oh no..."

Leaning against the counter, the performer rested her heavy head on the wall and wondered just what in the world she was going to do. Following the only basic logic she was able to as dazed as she was, she made sure the illusion that the house was empty was still in place before grabbing some bread, the soup she'd thrown together and a blanket before heading towards the ladder.

That was a most interesting experience. She had remained on the bottom floor long enough to regain most of her sense of balance, climbing the ladder in three or four trips to bring up everything they might need before lugging it all to Jon's room and dropping it there. Once in the room she set it all up, leaving the soup by the bed and sitting down next to it in a chair, wrapping the blanket about herself as she felt chills begin to race up and down her spine. Reaching over and drinking straight from the ladle, she felt some of it spill down her chin as she fumbled with it clumsily.

"Looks like this is gonna be a bit rougher than I thought," she murmured, though Jon was still out cold with his fever-flushed face pointed towards the ceiling. Slumping down in the seat, she let her head fall back against the wall behind her even as her eyes began to close again in fatigue. This had gone from bad to worse, and any more so and she wasn't sure she could take it. Praying death would come quickly this time, for in it she could find relief, the young woman let herself completely relax and fall into the twisted and fever tortured realms of her dreams.

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Mike and Matt were having the time of their lives, facing off against the senior students within the fencing division at the school Kristen had written to about letting them stay over there for a few days. They'd been welcomed with open arms, even putting Chris to use in repairing some of their old building's defects and making new practice weapons to replace the ones broken with time.

"Who's next?" offered Matt, smiling genially though inside he was gloating, all puffed up with his overgrown pride. "Come on, I must stay in shape while away from my school!"

"To fight him now would be the kind thing to do, because he won't find anyone else to beat upon when he gets back home," added Mike. "Poor man..."

The students laughed, their teacher nodding in amusement as one of the younger students stepped forwards, ushered by his companions as the easiest scapegoat.

"You challenge me?" asked Matt, raising his brows as he studied the slim young man, if he was even that.

"Yes, sir." The young man lifted his chin slightly. "If I do not frighten you too much, sir."

"Frighten me?" Matt laughed. "C'mon, kid, show me what you got."

"As you wish, sir."

The two stepped back, everyone else filing along the edges of the matted area as they took their positions.

"Ready?" called the Master instructor. "Begin!"

Kristen stood in the next partitioned off area over, watching what appeared to be intently as Cam faced off against some of the other higher hand-to-hand students. As her personal assistant, he was of course expected to be very well trained and the growing young man had made a good showing of himself thus far. Though here eyes were focused on him as he managed to take down a larger, and far older opponent using his speed and resilience to his advantage, her mind was focused on those back home facing the plague by themselves.

"Master Kristen...?"

The young woman looked up, immediately smiling when she noted Cam standing over his fallen opponent. "Well done," she said with a short nod, still a little distracted with her previous thoughts. "Very well done indeed."

"You have trained him very well," offered the Master instructor for the school with an approving nod. "Class dismissed! Remember to practice for the testing begins next time."

"Yes, sir!"

Kristen admired from a fellow teacher's standpoint the way the young people neatly and quietly filed out of the room, taking the mess they'd made with them and leaving the room as spotless as it had been before.

"That was a very educational experience," she told the Master with a nod, putting a hand on Cam's shoulder as she did. "Thank you."

"Of course, you are both welcome to visit anytime," he replied with a smile. "Though, it would have been interesting had you yourself agreed to a match, few of my students have ever met a woman Master of their Arts."

"Perhaps tomorrow," she replied, giving him a thin smile. "I apologize for that, I just not focused today."

"Something I could help you with, perhaps?"

She shrugged, trying to appear nonchalant. "No, just a family matter back home. Thank you for asking, though. Come, Came, we should go find the others."

"Yes, ma'am!"

And so they walked off, Kristen's mind once again in the clouds.

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"I don't see why we have to leave so early."

Randy huddled down in his saddle, Bryanna looking at him askance from her mount to his right all bundled up in cloaks and warm clothes as Olivia just shook her head on his left. The sun would be rising soon to chase away the frost from the evening before and burn away the fog that settled around the horses' hooves, but it was still be rather chilly out as they were heading farther and farther north with the summer still behind them far in the south.

"Why didn't you put on more clothes if you knew it was going to be cold?" asked the ice mage after a few more moments of his mutterings. "You had plenty of time this morning, we even let you sleep in a little."

"Yes, you woke me at the crack of dawn instead of fifteen minutes before it decides to even start to rise. That's really very generous of you." His words were cold and sharp, though they didn't harm his companions in the least. They were used to it by now. "And I didn't put on more clothes because I thought we weren't leaving until the sun was fully up and over the horizon, like normal travelers do! You said we were going to be taking it easy from where on out."

"Actually, most travelers do leave before the sun is fully up," put in Bryanna knowingly. "It's the best time to cover the most ground, before the sun is high over head and their beasts get tired faster. That, and this cool air's kind of nice, it helps keep me awake and alert."

"Easy for you to say, you've probably got some healer power that lets you warm yourself right on up, right?" he muttered, hunching over once more.

"Actually, no." Bryanna gave him a degrading glance. "Olivia's the only one who's got that covered, ice queen that she is. I'm going to be having to deal with the cold just as much as you are when we finally get up there, so you might as well save you complaining for when it'll really count."

"But I'm freezing..."

"Why don't you let me freeze the blood in your veins," offered Olivia warmly with a hint of ice in her voice. "I bet you'll feel a whole lot warmer then...no charge, either, it's give your friends a discount day."

Randy paled, huddling over himself in his saddle even more as he edged away slightly. "Thanks, but I'll pass..."

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"Wake up, sleepy head..." Alyse opened her eyes to find Revlis bending over her, Landon behind her looking the other way.

"Good grief...how late did I sleep in?" The young woman yawned as she sat up, brushing her tousled black hair out of her eyes.

"Late enough to miss breakfast," replied Landon as he flashed her a quick grin before looking away respectfully again. "Then again, we've been moving along pretty quick these last few days, I'm still tired myself."

"Why didn't you wake me up earlier?"

"You just looked so cute curled up in your blankets..." Revlis poked Alyse in the side, getting a squeak and jump in return. "Anyways, I got a message while you were away in the lands of nod."

"Another mission?"

"Nope, just something I need to take care of. You two are to carry on as planned and keep traveling until you find more unmagic which to rid us all of," explained the cat girl with a brisk shake of her head. "I'll be rejoining you soon, the council said it wouldn't take that long. Maybe two weeks at the most, I would imagine."

"That's not too bad," agreed Alyse, bringing her legs to her chest with an understanding nod. "Alright. You get moving then, the sooner you do the sooner you can get back."

"Aye-aye, Captain!" Revlis gave a mock salute, winking before turning and heading out the door. "Take care you two, and try not to get into too much trouble while I'm gone. It's not nice to hog all the fun, you know!"

"I think we can manage that," replied Alyse with a laugh and a wave. Sitting there on her bed, she laughed to herself before she realized Landon was still in the room. "Uh..."

"I'll go find you some breakfast," he said quickly, heading towards the door as well with a blush. "Come on out when you're ready, ok?"

"Ok, thanks!"

"No problem." Closing the door behind himself, the young man disappeared from sight as Alyse climbed out of bed and walked towards her saddle bags on the table. Quickly changing, it was only a few moments before she rejoined him outside at the front of the Inn to be given a cold sausage and cheese biscuit and admire the view before them.

"You know, I don't think we've been this far south before," observed Alyse as she looked out over the ocean waters, seeing only one ship in the distance at bay. "Want to keep traveling along the coast, if only for a little while longer?"

"Sure, we don't have anywhere else to be right now."

"Ok."

And so that's what they did.

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Libby woke two days after the Caravan left, Pinky nudging her worriedly as she wondered why her head hurt and she felt so hot. Forcing herself out of bed, she slowly made her way over to the basin in her room and poured herself some fresh water within which to wash her face. Finishing that, she was about to turn away when something caught her attention in the mirror. Pulling down her collar ever so slightly she saw a blue rash on her neck, reminding her of the time Kaitlin let a certain someone have a little too much access to her neck during prom. Only instead of a brilliant red it was blue, and a little freaky looking.

"What in the world...?"

"Hey, Libby? What is it that...holy cow." Brenna froze in the doorway, the mark clearly in view and everything snapping into place. She put a hand on her friend's forehead, finding her to be warmer than usual. "That girl, did you go see her again before they left??"

"Yeah, she wanted to see Pinky," came the confused reply as Libby let her shirt fall back in place. "She kept hacking all over the place, and then when I gave Pinky a bath later with me to clean it all off I think she made me swallow half the water in that tub she fought me so hard..."

"Libby, her blue marks, did they look like the ones you have now?"

"What, these? Well...sorta. Yeah."

"You have the plague!"

"The what?!" Libby frowned, backing away as she did. "Brenna, are you sure Kaitlin's not doing more of her experiments with breakfast this morning?"

"No! The fever, the marks...Libby, you caught the plague from that little girl."

"But I..."

"Stay here, I have to go get the others out of the house!"

"What, why??"

"They can't catch it from you!"

"Yeah, but what about me?"

"You'll live, remember? They won't!"

"Oh, that's right...hehe, sucks to be them."

"Just stay in bed, ok? I'm going to go get everyone over to the twin's house."

"Alright, I think I can do that..."

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Jenny was absorbed with closing a deal, and so merely brushed Jack's constant pestering aside until they reached the ship. Due to their last few port's worth of him and her doing all the legwork on shore, she'd learned to tune him out rather effectively and often times it was the only thing that saved him from being thrown overboard the moment they got back. However, this time he was unusually persistent and as the gang plank came into view, she paused and gave him an annoyed look.

"What?!"

"They're gone!" he said, waving his hand around as he did. "I've been trying to tell you all day! Why wouldn't you listen? I do have important things to say sometimes, but no...can't bother to lend an ear, now can we?"

"Who's gone?" she replied with a frown. "The ship's right there and I can see Tanner from here...are you sure you haven't been out in the sun too long?"

"The people!"

"People?" She looked around, back away a step as she did. "Jack, there's people everywhere. In fact there's more ships and people here than there have been for the last few ports..."

He smacked himself in the forehead with an exasperated sigh. "No, not those people!"

"Then what people?!" she cried, grabbing him by the collar and giving him a good shake.

"The ones dressed an in the creepy dark colors that appeared everywhere!" he replied harshly, pushing her off and straightening his shirt. "They're gone, and you'd have noticed it too if you were paying any sort of attention at all. Some Captain you make..."

"Excuse me for paying attention more attention to the closing of a good deal that betters the finance of my ship rather than some insignificant detail like who's tailing me today!" she retorted, rolling her eyes. Taking a good look around, though, she had to admit that he was right. Usually one of their followers would show themselves, as if for 'scare value' and to make sure they knew the crew knew they were still there. This time there was...nothing. Just normal sailors, street hawkers and town folks that one found at any average port. "You're right, though. They're gone...for now at least. I wonder where they went off to."

"What does it matter?" replied Jack with a careless shrug. "Come on, let's get back on the ship, dinner's soon."

"Alright..." Jenny followed him, apprehensive for even though it seemed like things had gotten back to normal she had a feeling they'd be seeing those dark figures again sometime far too soon.

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"Having fun?"

Ben looked at the boot that had suddenly left a muddy print in the middle of his work of cleaning the outside front steps. Following it up, he saw Artor standing over him with his usual slight smirk on his face. Ever since his last birthday that spring and he'd started having professional fencing lessons he'd begun to act more and more like the chauvinist pig that his father was. Honestly wondering how any woman could ever find that attractive (as his elder sister had condemned such types many times within his hearing) he stood and nodded respectfully.

"A great deal of fun, sir."

"You don't have to lie," joked Artor, turning more like his boyish self in a blink of an eye, slapping Ben on the back in a friendly manner. "I can get you out of it if you want, make up some bull excuse and then we could slip off for awhile and go riding through the woods."

"No." The servant shook his head, though he smiled at the same time. "It wouldn't be fair, and I don't mind so much really."

"You don't mind doing women's work?" Artor snorted derisively. "One might think you've turned fey if you're enjoying a female's job, Ben. Wouldn't want others to think that, would you?"

"I'm not," he said simply with a shrug. "And you know that too. It does not behoove a master to lie and expect his servants to be honest, sir. If I may be so bold as to say so."

"You can because I find you funny," replied the young man with an easy shrug. "There has to be another reason, though. Who'd get stuck with it if you didn't do it today?"

Ben shrugged, bending down to start work again. "No one, likely, I would just have to do it tomorrow instead."

"Oh...then...why?"

"Why what, sir?"

Artor snorted, knowing Ben was simply playing dumb to get to him and refusing to rise to the bait for once. "Why do you not mind doing such work? Why does working a job as a female should do not bother you?"

"Because it's honest work." Ben stood, motioning for Artor to move back and the young man complying as he poured water over the steps to wash away the soap suds. "Because it keeps me in shape, and keeps me busy during the day. Because it's what I do to get fed and have clothes on my back and a place to sleep at night. Is that a good enough reason?"

"Oh...I guess..."

Ben nodded respectfully, putting the buckets over his shoulders. "If you'll excuse me, sir, I have other work to do now."

"Of course...you may go..."

Ben rolled his eyes as another bit of the boy's father slipped out in him. He was going to be difficult to deal with in a few years, and he hoped he was just out of there by then. If he ever got out, that was.

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Jon 'woke', finding himself cool and comfortable for the first time in what seemed like awhile. Sitting up, he found himself in a corner of a workshop room just like Amanda had described, a small boy standing by the fire watching him curiously.

"Well, we've had one die by torture and another by hanging," he commented lightly, as if speaking of the weather. "You're a plague one, right?"

"I would guess so," replied Jon, recognizing him from somewhere. "Say, have I...?"

"I was the one that greeted you into this world," he replied with a shrug. "Name's Devan, younger sibling of the one you know as Trystan."

"Oh...uh...nice to meet you." Jon cautiously walked over, taking a seat on one of the cushions by the fire as the young boy motioned for him to. "So...uh...hi."

"Plague seems to be pretty common this time around," went on the young boy with a shrug. "We'll be having multiple visits from cause."

"Multiple visits?"

"Yeah, the...oh, time's up." Devan clapped his hands again, the room beginning to spin around Jon in a strange manner.

He tried to clutch onto something, and found himself unable to. "Hey, what's going on?!"

"You're going back to your body," replied the mage as his voice began to fade in the background. "You only died from overheating, nothing really that traumatic, so the healing process only took a short while...your companion was not quite so lucky...not the first time...enjoy your stay..."

"But I..."

Jon sat up straight in his bed, blinking as if dazed as he tried to make sense of his surroundings. Realizing that he really was 'home' and back in his own body again, the young man gave a shuddering sigh and leaned back against the wall his bed was set against. Looking around when he was sure things were back to as normal as they ever got in another world, he spotted Briteyes strangely slumped over in the chair next to his bed with a blanket wrapped around herself.

Rising jerkily, and grabbing the wall or the table a few times as his body figured itself out again. He made his way over to her, shaking her shoulder gently and suddenly jumping back when he saw her eyes roll up in her head limply. A quick check revealed no pulse and she wasn't breathing, something that truly creeped him out even more than his own death, and the young man slowly backed up to the bed and numbly drank some water from the pitcher there while watching her the whole time. Half expecting her to suddenly jump up and trying to kill her like in the movies like 'Resident Evil', he waited barely daring to breath for something to happen.

Hours passed, and he fell asleep without realizing it and woke to find the room flooded with light. Briteyes still hadn't moved, but when he glanced over at her he could swear there was more color in her skin and after a quick check he affirmed her heart was beating again and she was breathing. Rising, he headed for the kitchen as his stomach grumbled loudly and he was sure hers would be doing the same shortly.

Whipping up some hot sandwiches and tea, the young man brought it all back upstairs and ate his as he watched her slowly return to their plane of existence.

"Welcome back to the land of the living," he said in a joking manner when she noticed him, getting a small, weary smile in return.

"Thanks," she croaked, reaching first for the tea. "It's good to be back."

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Randy sat huddled under two blankets in the main room of the suit they'd managed to secure for the night, Bryanna already fast asleep in the 'girls' room on the right and Olivia studying some book she'd picked up earlier over at the table.

"It's so cold," he shivered through shaking teeth. "So cold, so cold, so cold...can't ever be warm again."

Olivia didn't reply, just glanced up before turning back to her book intently. Whatever it was, it seemed to be pretty important for the moment.

"It's not fair," he added, talking more or less to himself now as he was used to the girls tuning out his whining about things like this. "I'm a LIGHT mage, not a heat mage. When I make heat, things catch on fire because I can't control it. It's not my forte. And what idiot goes and catches themselves on fire just to keep warm? I may not be bright, but I'm not that stupid!"

Olivia just snorted, and he couldn't tell if it was in reply to what she said or something that she'd found remotely amusing the text. Considering the volume was old as dirt with the leather cover close to rotting and the pages actually crumbling to the touch if one wasn't very, very careful, he doubted it. Angling for pity, and whatever came with it, he went on.

"So, so cold," he said, burrowing under the covers up to his nose and making himself look as pathetic as possible. "The things we guys do for our girls, even going into freezing cold areas that we don't like just to make them happy. Enduring hell for their joy. Going through trial and troubles just so they can have their own way. The problems of being a guy..."

He jumped a little when he heard the book slam shut beside him, a chair sliding back and someone who could only be Olivia rising to their feet. Cringing in the anticipated smack on the side of the head that usually came when he'd poured it on too thick, Randy waited with his eye closed and was a little surprised when not only did the smack never come but there was suddenly a warm presence curling up into his side.

Slowly peaking one eye open, his mouth dropped open slightly when he found Olivia nestled there into his side wrapped in a blanket of her own looking like she was asleep on his shoulder. A little scared, he opened his mouth to speak and was in for another surprise when she nudged his side gently.

"Sleep," she told him shortly, voice muffled by the blanket. "And it's appreciated. Really. But go to sleep."

Dumbfounded, and not one to argue with logic when he was suddenly very warm and comfortable indeed, he just nodded and cuddled back as much as he dared. Quickly falling asleep, neither one moved until a smirking Bryanna prodded them awake the next morning with a very amused look on her face.

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Alyse and Landon carefully made their way along the coast, creeping towards a dormant source of unmagic Alyse had felt from miles off. It was powerful, though currently still rather 'small' in amount and if it existed within a user still rather un-tested and unformed. Wary and cautious, they reached their goal when they happened upon a lone ship docked in a natural harbor by itself and surrounded by less than honorable looking men and women.

"That's them?" asked Landon as Alyse sat there scanning on a well-hidden bluff above the ship and crew.

"Yeah," she replied faintly as she came out of her trance. "They've got someone...no more than a boy, I think. I can't tell much more than that, and I don't want to act if he's just the 'carrier' for something and he can be saved."

"What if he's an adept?"

"We have our orders."

The two sat there silently, Landon pulling out a telescope and looking more closely. After several minutes of observation, he nodded slightly. "A boy," he said firmly. "Can't be more than 11 or 12 years old. Maybe a little older, but he's so starved looking one couldn't tell."

"Why is he sitting funny?" Alyse leaned over a little more, squinting her eyes as she was without the telescope. "It almost looks like...oh no..."

"They cut off his legs," said her companion tightly, swallowing as he did. "And recently, too, maybe within just the last week. They're poorly bandaged, probably infected from carelessness and the filthy conditions they exist in. He'll never walk again, even if he managed to find someone to make him fake legs after some miraculous escape the stumps will be rotted out so much with the way they're treating him..."

"For the love of life..." Alyse closed her mouth tightly, hands clenching into fists as she did. "We strike tonight. I don't care how many of those, those bastards go with him! He's just a kid...I don't want to kill him, but his life will be better because of it. No one deserves that sort of torturous living."

"He's not a 'carrier'," added Landon softly, putting the telescope down slowly as he met her gaze. "There aren't any marks or symbols on him, and he's not wearing any sort of a seal that would make him a container either. He's a 'user'. And it's been pulled out past the point of no return. We have to kill him, or he'll soon be spreading its taint to others as well."

"I understand." Alyse moved back before sitting up, resting against a tree trunk there. "You take first watch, and I'll get what sleep that I can. We'll move in tonight."

Hours passed, first Alyse and then Landon dozing off for short periods of time while the other watched over them until the moon had finally risen to its peak. They finished their preparations and were just about to slide down the rocky face to the camp below when an explosion went off, several dark-masked figures swarming the encampment from all sides and taking the pirates by surprise.

Confused, and unwilling to die without a reason, the pair remained in place and though Alyse tried to fall into a trance they lost track of their unmagic laced boy in the melee and were left with nothing but several dead bodies and a few smoldering fires by the time the confusion had ended and the sun was peaking its head over the horizon. The pirates had lost whatever battle is was that had been induced, and with their ship halfway sunk into the bay, Alyse and Landon left in an attempt to track the unmagic they had found there. Still, it was masked from them, wherever it was, and they were soon back to the same place they'd been before: searching endlessly for that which they were to destroy.

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Libby lay in her bed, sweltering with her fever and gasping for breath as it became increasingly more difficult for her to bring in the oxygen her body required to live. Brenna sat next to her, stroking her hair and wiping her red face constantly with a damp, cool cloth as she murmured to her suffering friend soothingly.

"No more...willow bark tea...?" rasped Libby as she groped for her friend's hand, spasmodically squeezing it as her body occasionally twitched uncontrollably.

"No," replied Brenna, squeezing back gently and shaking her head. "It wouldn't do you that much good, anyways. You just gotta pull through, ok?"

"You know, I watched them hang you," replied her companion, looking past her into the distance with glazed eyes. "I watched you die, too, and I didn't know if you were going to come back. I thought I would never see you again, but I'm not sure which is worse. Knowing that I will likely die, and will come back and possibly have to do something like this over again or that I will die once and never return again to suffer any more."

"I wouldn't know," she admitted feebly, taking the damp cloth off her forehead and replacing it with a fresh one. "I never died and didn't come back. I guess we could've in Tortall, we were in danger a lot of the time I just never really thought about it like that."

"It was more like a game there," went on the weak woman. "Much more like a game. You walk around, you find your companions, you kick butt, and you go home. It wasn't always easy, we got hurt sometimes, and there were times I was scared out of my mind, but it never got this bad. There was never not any food, never a time when I wasn't well-clothed and sheltered. Never a time when I was too sick too even move, or too weak to stand up unless it was from over-drawing my gift. Having been a hero there, and now just a failed farmer here...sometimes, I just want it to end completely."

"You don't have a choice," said Brenna simply. "You'll come back, just like I did."

"But this...it hurts...it hurts so much..." Libby coughed, turning over on her side as she tried not to gag. "I just...I just want it to end...please make it stop..."

"Shh...it'll be over soon, I promise...just, hang in there, ok? Soon, it'll be all over and you won't have to feel like this again..." Brenna paused as her breath caught in her throat, choking back the sob that threatened to well its way to the surface. "Just hang in there a little longer..."

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Ami sat with Nicole on the roof of the upper deck cabin, watching the festivities below as several of the trader crew members danced in circles about the lower deck in time to the rollicking music the small make-shift band was creating. Each nursing a small ale, which was the most alcohol Jenny ever allowed on board at any given time, they gossiped and laughed freely at the crew members below.

"Jack actually ain't half-bad for a guy," giggled Ami lightly. "Physically, I mean. And neither is Tanner, they both got that big, built look to them without being ripped with veins popping out all over the place. Personality wise, well...we just won't go there. But I do like their bodies."

"They aren't bad," admitted Nicole with a shrug, wrinkling her nose as she did. "Excuse me if I ignore Jack, though, for...well...I hate him. Yeah, that's about it, I can't stand him so much that I can't think of him in good terms at all."

"I don't see why, he can't exactly do anything other than tease you..."

"It's the fact that he ignores my existence except in attempts to cut me down even smaller than I already am that get to me the most," admitted the nymph, pouting. "If not for that, and if he ever learned to keep a decent tongue in his head, I might be able to stand him. Be he doesn't, and therefore I can't."

"Eh, it can't be helped, I guess." Ami shrugged her shoulder, leaning over the railing in a completely relaxed manner. "The Captain's been in a good mood since the deal with those creepy folks has been over."

"And understandably so, she's not doing all the work herself any more."

"True, true...oh, Talia scored some extra points with her today."

"Really?" Nicole perked up, more in an 'informative-listening' sort of way rather than true listening, though. "How so? Jenny's not that easily impressed, not when she's been Captain for as long as she has, anyways."

"Talia took it upon herself to go back and fix a bad deal that was made earlier today," explained the translator with a shrug. "She needed me, of course, to translate what was being said but Darik really needs to be more careful about the nuance of words when he's working deals. Didn't tell Captain or anything, just went, did it, got it fixed, and saved us a couple dozen gold maja's in the process."

"Well...that's not that impressive..." Nicole frowned, turning away as she tried to shrug off the feat as if it were as only as important as finding a minor mistake in the ship's accounting records. "I mean, it's been done before..."

"Yeah, by the Captain," replied Ami with a snort. "Never one of the crew members, though. She got a personal thank you and everything. Not that Jen's stand-offish with us or anything, but she's not one to praise needlessly either. You get a pat on the back for doing your job any old day, but you only get a smile and heart felt congratulations for doing something pretty special."

"Well...I don't think it's that special..."

Ami just laughed and pushed her mug over so Nicole could dip out another cupful. "Whatever you say, little nymph, whatever you say."

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Briteyes looked out the window of the house, hidden behind the curtains so as to not draw attention to herself. The smoke pillar from the island where the bodies were being burned was still present, but a general calm had settled over the city as mages and dedicates in the robes of Winding Circle spread through the streets and clinics, giving out the medication that had finally been created to counter the disease and saving likely dozens of lives in the process. Order had finally been restored to the noble city, and Duke Verdis was said to have made his first appearance since word of the plague had spread through the city sometime that day.

"How're things looking?" called Jon from by the fire, stirring the stew there was it was his turn to cook.

"Better, calmer," she replied flatly. "I think it's time I left again for a little while."

"Not until Kristen and the rest get back, you're not going anywhere," he replied with a shake of his head. "They still want an explanation from last time, you know."

"And if I don't have one to give?"

"They won't like it very much..."

"I need to go get Silven!" Briteyes frowned, turning around to glare at him. "And find out exactly what I missed at Winding Circle."

"Fine." He shrugged, smirking at her relieved sigh as she turned away that he wasn't going to fight her on this. "But I'm coming with."

She turned back around. "What?! No, you're staying here to await their arrival! If both of us are gone when they return, they'll flip!"

"Not my problem, and they'll forgive us when we return," he replied with another shrug. "And I'll be in a lot less hot water if I say I was making sure you weren't running away again rather than they come and find out I haven't a clue where you went off to this time."

"Matt and Mike wouldn't care," she argued hotly.

"But the other three would," he pointed out quickly. "And when it comes to having to deal with people, it's those three that matter more. Matt and Mike, you get them mad you go buy them a drink and they're happy again. Those three, you make them mad and its hell and purgatory for a freaking week."

Staring each other down, the performer gave simply on the grounds that she didn't have time to waste and nodded reluctantly. "Fine, get your things, we're going right now."

"Ok."

The walk over to Winding Circle was a quick one, owning to the fact they were able to catch a ride on a supply wagon for most of the way, and soon they were making their way down to the Cottage with thumbprints on their foreheads that marked them as without the disease and safe to walk around in public.

Knocking on the door, the pair were greeted by a pale Tris, Silven curled up comfortingly on her shoulder and the other three children seated around the breakfast table behind her.

"Hey," said Brite with a sheepish smile. "I miss mu-whoa!!"

Jon was forced back as all four mobbed the young woman, pulling her into a giant group hug at the sight of her well and alive once more. The squirrel wrapped herself about her friend's neck, showing now intention of letting go as she chattered on angrily and her friend just laughed in return. Another woman poked her head out of a side room, joining the hug when she saw who it was.

Giving Jon a quick introduction when they finally broke it up again, everyone piled into the house around the fire for some tea and tales of what had happened for awhile before the pair returned to the dojo with Silven in tow. Everything had turned out fine, and it was a fact that all appreciated greatly.

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Um...sorry? ducks the dozens of objects thrown at her I am really!! This chapter was almost completed about a month ago, but you can thank a certain 'kitten' for my distraction these last few weeks from anything else other than school and itself. My self-control will be greater, though, and the next chapter should not take nearly as long. Again, my apologies, and thank you to those of you who are still hanging with me here. It shall hopefully, in the end, be worth the wait!

crosseyedbutterfly