Hey, this one's rather long, actually. But that's just because I couldn't find a very good cutoof point. Oh well. Next chapter is where interesting things start to happen. Although this is cool as well.

Jaydn and Kuviay were shocked. "You left?" Jaydn asked incredulously.

Josef looked affronted. "What would you have done?"

"What did Shathir do?" Kuviay wondered.

Josef sighed. "He sent a messenger to Sancta, questioning the cause of our expulsion. The reply said only that Courem had much evidence that we had committed a heinous crime against Sancta Hold. I have heard nothing since, but from that point on, Sancta has given no respect to the Heralds. Our position has gone downhill from there, as you are both aware of."

"So it all started with Courem," Kuviay muttered. "Then why did Cayri kill her husband?"

"I've never heard that there were any strong feelings between them," Josef remarked. "It was, after all, an arranged marriage."

"So, a power struggle," Jaydn guessed. "A Hold that big, it couldn't be solely that she disliked the man." He glanced at the purple sky. "I'd better get to Court." He hopped off the fence and hurried off, and Kuviay and Josef went their separate ways.

Jaydn was dwelling on that strange conversation that evening. There was so much to wonder about, so many questions left unanswered... questions that if he could find the answer to them, it might prove crucial in uncovering the reasons behind Cayri's hatred of Heralds, which was the first step to fixing the problem, since it was obvious that Cayri would not be put out of her position as Lord Holder. Questions like, what on earth had gone on that night of Josef's visit, that cryptic rejection with no explanation and no word about it since? Why was it that the first action of Cayri as Lord Holder, when they had barely received the news of Courem's death here in Haven, was to ban Heralds from Sancta, and, efficiently, the smaller northern holds, since they lay close to Sancta Forest. Why was it that her hatred was so great of the Heralds, and the Companions, that she would be willing to kill, or at least order the deaths of, a pair? And the most important question was simply, why? Why this furious hatred?

"Jaydn!"

Queen Shaunah's voice called him back to reality. "What?"

She asked him some boring question about a duke or a baron who had previously addressed her; Jaydn responded with a glib, uninformative answer, as his mind wandered far from the usual Court functions of the evening.

No, his thoughts remained on a slender, redhaired woman dancing before his seat next to Shaunah's throne, clad like any lady in a white silk gown, white owl feathers woven into the hair that spilled across her shoulders like a tumultuous waterfall. She danced with feline grace across the floor, stepping smoothly in time with her various partners. Jaydn had always seen Cayri downplaying her appearance to avoid the undue attentions of those she worked with—wearing men's breeches and shirts, like many Heralds, and keeping her hair tightly braided, though curling wisps always escaped. But this night at Court, she was transformed.

The other ladies in attendance were unimpressed. Several times during the night, Jaydn noticed that as Cayri passed them, women whispered nasty insults. Their partners never heeded, but it was impossible for Cayri to ignore them, and she accepted the vicious slurs and suggestions with a polite but thin smile.

But something else happened that put these observations as less than paramount concerns in Jaydn's mind. Cayri was dancing right in front of the throne, closer to him than anyone else, and he glimpsed for what was perhaps half a second a glimmer of her true feelings about tonight—she hated coming to Court, and regretted it. Then the mask resumed, but he did not forget. But suddenly, another pair brushed by—a woman's foot stuck out in exactly the right place—and Cayri, carried in a sudden momentous sweep by her partner, was sent sprawling to the floor.

Shaunah jumped up a bit after Jaydn did. It appeared that no one else had seen what Jaydn had—everyone knew only that one moment all was well, and the next moment, Cayri was on the ground. Jaydn found himself moving quickly to her side, a sudden empathy come of that half-second when she had let go her masks.

Cayri was frighteningly pale, much whiter than her usual fair complexion; her red hair was morbidly bright against skin and dress, reminding one of spilled blood on snow. She seemed to be short of breath, and was certainly in pain.

"What happened?" Shaunah asked, unnerved by the suddennes of the event. Jaydn was only surprised that tonight had been the night where something had actually happened; the very night when a desire for the truth had been seeded in his own mind.

:This is the night of change. Secrets shall become clear and truths shall be made plain. Questions will be answered. Wait.:

An unbidden voice in Jaydn's mind, the voice of a Companion that he did not know. It was clear that no one else had heard it, for none of the aristocrats and Court viewers gathered round had Mindspeech, and though Cayri did, she was in obviously too much pain to pay attention to anything, and Shaunah had never been good at controlling her expression. He was the only one who had heard it. He knew it, somehow, to be a Companion's voice, but not the voice of his own Tuviel, nor of any he recognized. It had a strange quality about it, almost a sense of others as some had described the Grove-born. Who the owner of the voice was, Jaydn could not say, nor tell the meaning of its message. This is the night of change. Questions will be answered. Jaydn could only hope that it meant his own questions.

"Get a Healer!" Shaunah cried, oblivious to her Queen's Own's confusion.

"No!" Cayri cried before someone had the chance to dash off. "No—no Healer. Just—just get me—back to where I'm staying." Her pain must have been very great, perhaps more than the fall had warranted. Her control, tempered steel under the worst circumstances, was fading and faltering, laying her pain bare for the world to see. Shaunah percieved this as well as Jaydn did, and wondered aloud at her refusal.

"You endure so much pain and yet deny a Healer?"

Cayri gritted her teeth and brought herself back under grips. Perhaps, Jaydn thought, there had been more going on here tonight than just a physical fall. Tonight is the night of change, he said. The past is going to have to come to terms with the present. Maybe she knows it. What in her past could have tortured her so much this night?

"The pain is nothing," she said after a moment, her voice steadier. "I would hate to disconvenience your Healers. Just allow me to return to my guest quarters."

Shaunah looked like she wanted to refute, but Jaydn stepped in before she had a chance to. Tonight was the night of change, the voice had said, and there was no way he was going to miss it. It never once occurred to him to doubt the voice. Once the comparison to Grove-born had been made, the words seemed absolute, their statements utter truth.

"Allow me to assist you," he said calmly, stepping up to Cayri and assisting her upright, with much tight-lipped control on her part. For her sake, Jaydn pretended not to notice how tightly and heavily she clung to his arm. :Kuviay,: he Mindcalled. He knew that his old friend would want a part of this. He as well had questions. And one other. :Josef. Meet me in the Companion's Field. Don't wait for me there; follow me after I pass. You would do well to stay out of sight for a while.: He shut off the link, preventing questions from either of them. He knew that they would not refuse his request.