A/N: I'm not really too pleased with this chapter...but it's a transition, so...yeah. If you want a bit of info, check out Stargirl98's review response...it may explain things a bit. Also, go to Colorwoods, which you can find off of Sherwood Smith's website (www DOT sff DOT net SLASH people SLASH sherwood, replacing the DOT and the SLASHES with . and /, respectively.), andthe Q&A sectionsgive you some very nice info about Remalna and its world. Also...next chapter is the beginning of a revolution and the collapse of Marscopa...and maybe a bit of REAL E/A romance...as in a kiss? Hmmm. But maybe not.

And I was looking in my chapter manager section, looking for the story, and then I thought it had been deleted, until I remembered I'd changed the title. Silly me...of course, I can't string coherent thoughts together at the moment, so whatever.

Bound and Planning

I came to in my bed; Jhussav, Ermliana, and Alaerec were sitting next to it.

Jhussav was the first to notice I was awake.

"Lessie!" he cried and threw himself on me. I flinched. He backed off quickly. "Oh…did I hurt you?"

"No, you just surprised me, Jhussav," I told him. "Why am I—"

Damn.

"Mother…"

Jhussav nodded. "Ermliana found you collapsed over her…body. What happened? Do you know how she died?"

I began to speak, a little haltingly, for it hurt to talk about it. "I was coming from word practice, and I was late to luncheon, and I walked in, and she was dead on the floor, and then Marscopa came in and—"

A flash of pain. I doubled over, crying out. Alaerec touched my shoulder, very lightly.

You have befriended my other nephew, Alaerec. Or perhaps you've done more, eh?

I pulled away from his touch. "I can't tell you anymore. She—"

Another bolt of pain shot through my body, more powerful this time. I cried out again.

Ermliana was thinking, fingers playing with a curl hanging by her face. "She…let's see…she…"

"Took my mother's—" I hissed before I nearly blacked out.

"She took your mother's soul?"

I barely managed to nod.

Ermliana twisted the curl around her finger. I focused on it, trying to block all the pain, physical and emotional, from my thoughts. Ermliana's eyes lit up as the answer suddenly dawned on her. "And in taking your mother's soul, she managed to take a bit of yours, for you and your mother are closely intertwined, more so that me and you, or you and Alaerec, because you are her flesh and blood. Thus, since she had a bit of your soul, she can wield complete power over you, sending you immense pain or even killing you if you don't do or say what she wants." Her face fell as she realized what she said. "She can force you to kill others, friends or lovers or brothers or parents or anything. You can't say or write anything incriminating against her without automatically causing pain, even without her orders."

I managed to nod, and hissed, "Debe—" before it hurt again.

This time, it was Alaerec who jumped in. "And, knowing Marscopa, she's going to go over the top and use dark magic off your mother's soul and body to let him have the same power over you. Am I right?"

A hint of a nod.

"The bitch," my brother muttered. We all turned to him.

"Jhussav!"

I didn't really realize my mother was gone, really gone,until the next day, when I walked into my dressing room and Sarina told me to get dressed in my simplest dress, for we had to get fitted for mourning clothes.

I believe I fainted. My mother…my mother was dead. Dead! She was my mother, the only person who understood why I loved to play the harp, the only person who could laugh at me about my deepest, most maladroit insecurities. (There were some things I could not share with Ermliana and Alaerec…especially Alaerec. But the fact that they were older, wiser, and knew more than me always made me feel like a lost puppy. And there were other things…other things I didn't even know how to put into words. My mother would look at me with her wise eyes of a woman who had suffered sorrow and still loved, deeply, and would say, "Someday, Lessie, you'll get it, I promise.")

But Sarina, who was a healer in her own right and had a daughter, Ilsa, who was just as gifted, revived me quickly. And I went, feeling finished and empty and completely alone.

At that time period, one dressed in total black, in the traditional mourning costume, for a week, and then, for another year, wore a touch of black, whether it be a bracelet, or a set of hair gems or ribbons, or even a black armband. The mourning costume was a simple dress, with long sleeves that were tight and wrinkled slightly in the lower arm, with a skirt that flared at the waist slightly. Over that was a black knit bodice, loose with a large band of tighter fabric at the bottom. Its sleeves were off the shoulder, a little longer than elbow-length, and very loose. Ribbons held the bodice up over the shoulders, and one's hair was carefully braided down the back and tied with simple black accessories. Men wore a black undershirt much like the top of the underdress, a loose tunic made of very light cotton, and loose black trousers, held up with a blackweave belt and matching boots. Hair was either braided down the back, or, if it was short, just left to be.

It was also traditional to, after a death, have a portrait done, in black and white, of the surviving immediate family, in mourning costume. I sat next to my father, Jhussav standing behind us. In my hand was a black fan, and a scroll of paper.

For I was now Duchess of Savona.

I didn't swear anything in Court. I would wait, at least, until after my Flower Day before I truly decided to be Duchess. But I was now required to attend Court, and I was also required to be at many parties and Court society things not even Ermliana was allowed to go to. My only friends at those were Alaerec and Yolandis Astiar of Tlanth and her son, Timerius, whose father had died a year before, and, as Count of Tlanth, was required to attend the same things I was.

Ermliana, at sixteen, was able to attend some of the parties, balls, and other events I had to, but not all of them. And, as Duchess of Savona, I had Court duties twice a week.

My life, which had been full of reading, sword practice, and playing my harp suddenly became a busy hassle of Court, parties, picnics, and people I didn't know walking up to me apologizing about my mother.

It didn't help that my father was heartbroken. Jhussav and I were required to wear the mourning costume long after the designated period was over, and would not stand myself or my brother to mention her, even in passing.

He never got angry, just quiet. His eyes filled with a pain that made me feel guilty.

Especially after I was looking through her harp trunk for music.

"What are you doing?" he asked, his voice just nearly a whisper.

I stood quickly, smoothing my black skirt. "I—I was merely looking for some music of…of hers. It was a song she and I liked to play…and—and my copy got ruined in th--the rain recently."

All he said was a quiet, "Ah," as though he understood. But his face showed nothing but anguish, his eyes nothing but pain.

I cried myself to sleep that day, cried for my father, my mother, my brother, for Marscopa and Debegri and whatever they did to me, but most of all for me. For what I had become.

For what had I become? I remembered what I had said to Debegri in the heat of a gloating victory. I remember what I felt when everyone said Jhussav's birth saved my mother, who had been ill after I had been born. I remembered pulling away from Alaerec simply because of a few foul words from Marscopa. I remembered countless other moments of jealousy, of hatred, of selfishness.

I shook it off. My mother was dead. I could fix things after I fixed my father. Of course, I had no idea on how to fix my father, but it would be done. Somehow.

I sat with Timerius at Lorni Chamadis' house during a gathering, bored out of my mind, despite the fact that it wasn't even a quarter of the way through first-blue. We were lodged in a corner; for even if we were required to attend a party, we had to stay out of sight.

I watched one young lady sidled up to Alaerec and flirt with him, as he rolled his eyes and wandered off, attempting to shake her off by turning to one of his older friends and discussing swordplay with them. Amazingly, it worked. Timerius and I chuckled.

The door opened suddenly, and in walked the King and Queen, followed by a sullen Arthal. Timerius and I sighed.

Within moments, Arthal was in out little corner, sulking. Timerius leaned back and closed his eyes. Soft, boyish snoring was heard moments later. Arthal and I sneered at each other and did the same.

Arthal and I had developed a strange, twisted friendship over the years. It was mainly contrived of sneering at each other and insulting each other, peppered randomly with civil conversations. Somehow, she had discovered my hatred for Marscopa, but had always been bound to her and thus couldn't say anything about her. Now, since we were both bound, we couldn't do anything but exchange varying degrees of venomous glares at said evil Queen.

To tell you the truth, I had gotten used to the slight flashes of pain every time I tried to mention Marscopa. I had slowly stopped mentioning her, mostly, but I still laughed when Alaerec insulted her scathingly or Ermliana flattered her to her face, her fan saying exactly the opposite. Marscopa had, sadly (note the sarcasm), never learned fan language.

Arthal, I assumed, felt much the same, but she probably had more trouble, since she probably couldn't even yell at her mother without it hurting.

I had done some research, and discovered that the only way to undo the soul-binding spell was either the death of the caster or the receiver of the spell, or to strip the caster of their magic. Also, the soul-binding spell was Dark magic, which meant it was undetected by the Council of Mages.

Ermliana read the passage not much after I had read it, and told me, "You just sit back, Less. I'll take care of our favorite evil mage." She grinned.

I wasn't a hundred percent sure whether I liked that grin….

Well…nice mildly long chappie for ya there, folks.

Reviews:

Only two reviews? Ah, well, must take the good with the bad, I guess.

Stargirl98: Wow. Thank you…I adoooore long reviews. Yeah, I'm getting rid of Marscopa soon…real soon…like the next few chapters. Only Elestra doesn't do it…Ermliana does. Elestra gets to testify at Marscopa's trial, though. As for the time frame…SS said in CCD that Elestra and Alaerec had Danric late in life, so, seeing as she's fifteen now, I figure she doesn't have Danric for around twenty or twenty-five years. What will happen in between then and now, you may ask? Well, the Pirate Wars and a lot of fluffy angst.

As for the magic controlling their lives…if you go to SS's home page, she has a link to Colorwoods, a site that takes FAQs about the book and Remalna and stuff from Yahoo's group CastleTlanth, and puts 'em up. There's a couple bits about magic, so I go by it. I haven't looked at it for a while, but basically there's light magic, that can do bad things, but (to me) is detectable by the Council of Mages. Then there's a sort of dark magic which gets its power from another living thing. In my little Remalnan world, it's undetected by the Council, mainly because it's very, very difficult and almost impossible to detect.

Hope that helps you. Wow. That's the longest review response I've ever written.

Wake-Robin: Thank you. Here's a nice, long, mildly happy, mildly angsty update for you….

Well, please read and review. The next chappie should be up within a week. Hopefully.

neb