A/N Well... yes. I did indeed update today. So yeah. But I just want to clarify, when I wrote of Tori from other people's point-of-view I used the pronoun's she and her. But that's only because it would get confusing, for me mostly and maybe you too, if I had referred to her as a he. So, yeah... no one knows that she's a girl. Now... on to my shout outs

Lain the Fluff Master: Sadly, I have not been able to get my hands on Frankenberries. lol. And don't worry about being a bad fan-girl. I am able to say the same about myself.

...: I'm not sure what didn't make sense to you, but if you have any questions about the last chapter feel free to ask me and I'll try to explain as best I can.

cloverluck11: Well, if I do write that story, which I'm not certain about any more cause I started it and it didn't go as I thought it would, I'll be sad to miss your reviews.

Mage Light: lol... I think you must be a grammar queen. I can really never find these errors, but I do try to catch them. But grammar was never my thing. Please excuse me if there are any errors.

Demented-dreamer: If you're wondering where she got the name for the rocks, she made the names up. If you're wondering how she knew that there was a home rock and a field rock, I guess I just didn't explain it well enough... or maybe I forgot too. But how she knew was because the woman knew and because she's connected to the woman she has the knowledge also. It's not really a conscious knowledge, just something that's there and she doesn't have to think about it at all. Does that explain?

Wingedrider: I'm glad you liked the rocks. I've been working on those for a long time. And there's more to come with them too!

Fyr's Shadow: Interesting review. I can see how you would think that Neal and Numair would be able to tell. If I had been reading this story objectively I would have thought so to. lol. And they probably could be able to. But it doesn't fit with the story. So, yeah... lol. And I can't wait for the others to find out she's a girl either! It's gonna be so much fun to write! Also, I'm curious as to why you think the woman from the dreams is evil. Not that I'm saying she isn't or that she is for that matter. But why do you think she is? And on a final note, have you read my other stories? I think you'd enjoy them also.

warrior of tortall: I think your questions will be answered quite nicely in this chapter.

Faelin: I'm so glad that you like this story. Have you read my others? Actually, this is the final story in a triligy. lol. And thank you for the compliment.

Chapter Eleven:

The next morning, when Tori awoke, it was to the very annoying sounds of poundings on her door. She supposed that the pain in her head must have begun when the pounding on the door started because the pounding in her head was banging to the rhythm of the banging on the door. With a thoroughly angered grumble, she slammed her way across the room and yanked the door open, her face set in a furious scowl.

Derek, surprised beyond belief at the sight of his innocent little Torick scowling, stood on the other side of the open door. At least he was surprised until he heard her mumble out a swear word and then surprise turned into downright shock. His eyebrows raised and he studied the young soldier.

She looked very worse for wear, in Derek's opinion. There were deep shadows under her normally bright green eyes. Now, the young man's eyes were dull with… fatigue? Derek wasn't certain. What he was certain about was if Torick didn't start acting normal, he was sending for Neal again.

"What?" Tori snapped, her voice crackling like thunder through the air, filling it with a tension that had never before appeared between them. She would have noticed it too, if the pounding in her head would simply just stop.

"You do not speak to your commander that way!" Derek barked, so furious and, yes hurt, that Torick would use that tone with him that he didn't see the boy flinch with pain at the raised voice.

"Well sir, don't shout at me!" Tori yelled back and winced again, this time though, it was her fault. She was just so tired, she thought as she controlled the urge to drop her aching head into her hands. She know she had gotten sleep, she had fallen into bed only moments after getting to her room a little after dusk the night before. But now it felt as if she hadn't slept in days, weeks even.

"You took that tone with me before I shouted!" Derek again shouted and considered laughing at the conversation, but he was to frustrated, and yes he had admitted already, hurt, to do so. Torick was not acting at all like the kind young boy he knew. What was wrong?

"That is not of importance. What is of importance is that you still haven't stopped yelling at me!" she returned fire in a voice just as loud and wished when she was tired she could be able to control herself as she could when she was well rested. She was never argumentative when she was well rested. And certainly she wasn't stubborn enough to yell just to irk her commander even though it caused her pain and him nothing but a mild discomfort, when she was well rested.

"I will stop yelling at you when you stopped yelling at me!" he roared, his face going red with the furiousness, and yes, hurt—why did he keep having to remember that part? —that was welling up in him.

"But you started it!" she roared back herself and felt a whimper catch in her throat. Really, this was doing her anything but good, so why couldn't she stop? She knew that it would be ever so easy for her to just admit defeat and turn back into the room, but there was something that was holding her back. But what?

"It doesn't matter who started it! What matters is that I, your commanding officer, shall finish it!" Ah… that was it, Tori thought with a grateful sigh. It was hurt… welling up through her body and stabbing into her heart. She was hurt that Derek was treating her like this. Couldn't he see that she wasn't feeling well? Wasn't well rested? Couldn't he forgive a girl for being under the weather? With that pitiful thought, she gave into the need and dropped her aching head into her waiting hands.

She was certain when she went to dress in a moment or two, the evidence of her under-the-weather-ness would make itself known. She would have to sneak off and wash her clothes in secret again… she sighed, shook her head slightly and turned to close the door, more then willing to block Derek from her mind. He was hurting her anyways, why should she be nice to him?

But as the door began to close, she felt more then heard Derek slam his fist into the door to keep it from closing. The vibrations from the sudden force slamming into the door, shook up her arm across her shoulders and down to her feet. Startled, she looked up at Derek with wide, innocent eyes.

"Don't you ever close a door on me, Torick. Not ever," his voice was no longer a shoot but that didn't mean it was any less frightening. His usual deep voice had dropped another octave making it like dark smoke slithering around her. And the hardness in it, it had been like liquid stone, wrapping around her and crushing her in an embrace of fear.

She turned her startled green eyes up to his face and saw it now, as clearly as day. She had hurt his feelings. But as quickly as it was there, he had put it away, shuttering it from her view. He hadn't meant for her to see it, but now that she had, she felt even worse.

"I'm sorry, Derek," she whispered, her voice too faint for him to hear the little catch in it. Now, not only was she hurt by what he had said, she was hurt by what she had said that had made him hurt. Life was so complicated all of a sudden, she thought. Where had these feelings come from?

A week ago, Derek could have shouted at her all he wanted and she wouldn't have minded. Or would she? Was she really as indifferent to Derek as she thought she had been? That first night at the tavern, when she had first met him, hadn't she felt drawn to him? Hadn't she wanted something more from him?

And what had that something more been? What had she been looking for when she saw him in the tavern that fateful night? And if she had suppressed those feelings for so long, why the hell had they jumped out for no reason all of a sudden? And therefore, if they were just repeats of the same feeling long ago, were they still as potent, still as real?

And what were they? Her head was ready to explode and it was all his fault. First, he had pounded on her door making her have this damn headache, then he had shouted at her and made it worse. And now… now he was making her feel all these feelings that she never wanted to feel in the first place. Well… that was a lie… maybe she had wanted to feel them back at the tavern, but now they had no room.

But, well… she couldn't really say anything to him, because obviously she had hurt his feelings so she had to get out of that without making it worse. But hadn't she just apologized? It was his turn to apologize, not that he would. He wasn't a man to go and apologize for no reason. He probably didn't realize he had even done something wrong. It was on the tip of her tongue to demand it when he shocked the words right out of her.

"I'm sorry also, Torick. I shouldn't have yelled. Lets start the day over. Are you ready for breakfast boy?" he gave her a devilish grin and motioned for her to go before him out the door.

"I need to dress, sir. I'll meet you in the mess hall," she gave him a small smile, really just a tug on the corners of her lips, and moved to close the door again. He put his foot in the way of the door.

"I'll wait for you out here then," he told her with another smile. He had come to the door for a reason and now that he remembered it, he wasn't letting Torick get away. Numair, after catching only a glimpse of him, had enlisted Derek's help in sticking close to the boy.

"No, it's alright. I know the way to the mess hall. I'll meet you there," she gave another tugged lip-corners smile and tried again once more to close the door. But once more Derek didn't let her do it.

"I said I'd wait for you. You wouldn't argue with you commanding officer would you?" he demanded in his commander's voice, but in his eyes she could see the twinkle of laughter. With a sigh she nodded and closed the door.

She changed hurriedly and stuffed her soiled clothes into the space between her mattress and the bed frame, where she stashed everything she didn't want the maids for that week to find. She'd have to sneak back in later and wash them herself.

When she opened the door again it was to see Derek's intense gaze focused on where the door would have been had she left it closed. Instead it was fixed intently on her chest. She felt an instant flutter in her chest and knew it to be her heart. But why the hell was it doing that?

With a scowl, she snapped at him that she was hungry then stormed down the hall, intensely perturbed at the fact that yesterday she had fallen asleep in control and today she had woken up with out any sense at all at what her emotions were doing.

Derek stalked beside a sudden scowl on his own face, probably in retaliation against hers, but she didn't care. She turned her head slightly to the side, and not because the sight of him was making her heart race, but because she didn't feel like looking at him.

When they finally joined Numair and Daine it was to slammed trays and stony silence. Tori felt she slammed her tray much harder then Derek's and therefore was allowed her smug smile.

It quickly faded when she found Numair's eyes glued to her chest, again where her ring rested. Her hand flew to her chest and covered it hastily, her face paling until the only color in her face was her haunted emerald eyes. Her lower lip trembled and she viciously bit it with her teeth to hide the telling sign.

A stillness had settled between the four of them as Numair continued to stare and Tori continued to pray that he wasn't really seeing the ring, was merely looking at her chest. She knew that it couldn't really be what she hoped it was, but she didn't know how it could be anything else. There was no way he could see the ring… was there?

"That's an interesting necklace," Numair finally whispered, his voice slightly hoarse, as if he had undergone a great effort recently and was struggling to regain strength.

But the second the words left his mouth her entire body began shaking violently, deep tremors that were visible to whoever bothered to look. Derek looked, only because he could feel the tremors. She had leaned against him without knowing it and her shaking was making him shake in response.

He looked down at her small, innocent face and saw something he had never expected to see in her, ever. He saw grief and he saw stark terror. It shocked him… more then he could say. He had known that Torick was hiding something from him, but he had never realized how scared she truly was of whatever she was hiding.

"Boy?" he asked, turning more towards her, but she just slid against him. All the strength seemed to have left her and she sat and stared. Derek quickly shook her shoulder, but still, she did nothing. Her eyes had gone suddenly dull.

"What did you do?" he asked Numair, his voice suddenly fierce. He turned hard eyes on the mage, stony eyes that demanded answers. And Numair gave them. Or tried to give them.

"The necklace is—"

"How did you see it?" the chocked voice whispered out from Tori's swollen throat. The emotions that had risen had caught her off guard momentarily, but she had them under control now. And she had her senses back. "I think we should take a walk, mage. Just you and me."

Numair, about to protest, saw the look in the emerald eyes told him he'd get nothing unless she got her way. "Yes, a walk would be nice." He smiled and rose, dropping a casual hand on Daine's shoulder, squeezing it in reassurance then nodded to the door.

Tori rose and followed him out. Her knees were shaking but that didn't stop her. She couldn't allow Derek to know anything about the ring. He had likely seen in when Robert had been wearing it that first night she had met him at the tavern. She couldn't chance it.

When they were alone, she turned to Numair, her eyes accusing and angry. "How did you see it?"

"Torick… it's glowing like a beacon! How could I not see it?" Numair demanded, taken aback by the boy's anger. Numair had thought the boy would be happy that he had seen it. She had been making it glow, hadn't she?

"Glowing?" she shouted, her face once again going pale. She whirled away, muttering and rubbing at her forehead. She paced away then back then away again. When she wasa few feet away from him she stopped through up her hands and in a shout exclaimed, "I never asked for this! Why couldn't they have given me something normal?"

She mumbled some more, paced a few more feet and then came back too him, her face pale once more. "Always glowing?"

"No, only sometimes. Most the time it doesn't. But yesterday, and this morning it was glowing," Numair said, frowning at her chest again. It had shifted so it rested against the corset so it was glowing no longer.

"May I see what it is that is glowing?" Numair asked, and his eyes filled with an eagerness to explore. But she hesitated. She didn't know what he would find when he did look at it. Or if he would find anything. But if he did find something, would that lead her to her parents? And if she found her parents, would that bring her one step closer to finding the people who had killed Robert?

More then a little uncertain, she slowly drew the chain over her head and handed it to the mage. Immediately she felt cold, as if something was missing. She shivered and wrapped her arms around her stomach, cupping her elbows.

Numair made a humming noise in his throat and examined the ring closely for several minutes without making a comment. At one point he held his hand up to the jewel and when he did that, his eyebrows drew together in a frown, but other then that, he didn't react any other way.

By the time he gave it back to her, her lips were turning blue with cold and her hands were shaking. Numair frowned more at her, but she didn't notice because she was busy trying to get the necklace over her head.

When it had fallen to rest on her chest, she felt a rush of heat so strong, she gasped and stumbled back—

—bringing her hand to her face to cover the stinging flesh where her mother had slapped her. She steadied herself against a chair and kept her face turned away, not trusting herself to keep the hatred from her eyes.

"How could you do something like that?" the hysterical woman screamed. At times, she was ashamed to call her mother. "Do you have any idea what you have just done?"

"Of course mother," her voice was devoid of emotion, and for that she was blessed. The hatred that was capable of spilling into her voice would have burned. "I've started a war. One that rightly should have happened years ago."

She straightened with a wince. The wounds the man had given her had yet to heal, the ones between her legs the worst. But like the wounds on her frozen heart, they would heal.

"I can't believe you!" still the woman screamed. But she had her beat. She was the one with the power. Everyone knew the wives were given nothing. It had been by her grace that her mother had been allowed to stay apart of the court at all. Now, now that she had the guts that she had been lacking before, she said what she had always wanted to say.

"Mother I think it would be best if you left court. Now that I'm taking control, there just won't be any room for you. In fact, it'd be best if you left the city. I'll be starting the war negotiations soon and you wouldn't want to be around that. Yes… it's for the best. I'll send someone to help you pack and escort you from the city," with that, she turned and walked away, already dismissing her from her mind.

For so long, she had suffered the torment of seeing her mother, the reminder of those horrid days when she had been younger. But now, now was her chance to get rid of the old baggage. She couldn't be happier.

Tori came back when she felt Numair's hands gripping her upper arms. Her feet weren't touching the ground. Her head hurt and she had the oddest thought that she had fainted.

"Are you alright?" he demanded, looking her in the eyes. He had lifted her up so they were eye level. She could see concern in his dark eyes. She nodded and lifted a hand to her head.

She had thought the visions had been answering her questions, but now it had only given her more to ask. What had happened between the mother and daughter to cause such hatred? And why did it seem that only the daughter felt it?

She wanted to go sit and think about it, but Numair was demanding answers from her. She struggled out of his grasp and dropped lightly to her feet. Her hand touched her head to stop it from spinning and when it had, she looked up at Numair.

"Okay, start over. What do you want to know?" she whispered. Suddenly, she didn't feel so wrong about telling him. She needed to tell someone, and she felt that, though he was a mage, maybe she could trust him. He was a mage, and maybe he knew what was happening to her.

"What was that?" he asked her, his eyes intense. And was that… concern? She was ready to tell him.

"Will you keep my secrets?" she asked, her voice small. Numair nodded. "All of them? Even if I broke laws?"

"What kind of laws?" Numair demanded, but she was shaking her head.

"You have to promise me first," she whispered.

"Alright, I'll keep your secrets. Now tell me. What was that?" she looked around and found a bench and lead him over to it. This would take a while, she knew and she wasn't inclined to stand around telling him the whole story. She'd much rather sit.

"That was a vision, Numair," well, just because she was willing to tell him didn't mean she would give it all up voluntarily. He'd have to ask her what he wanted to know. And if he happened to forget something, she wasn't going to tell him.

"What kind of a vision?"

"One between a mother and a daughter. I don't know who the daughter is, but she looks like me. And I don't know anything about the mother. I've never seen her face. But I do know that the daughter intensely dislikes the mother. I think it had something to do with her father, who she hates even more," she shrugged when she was finished.

"How many of these 'visions' have you had?"

"Hundreds. I have at least one a night. And sometimes I have them during the day. That used to be rare, having them during the day, but now they're happening more often," she turned towards him to find him gazing at her once more with those eyes that were eager to learn more.

"Are they always of the same thing?"

"No. They all have the same person in it, the girl, but they're always different. Sometimes the visions have parts of ones that I have seen before, but then they go farther, expanding."

"What are they about?"

"Mostly, they're about the girl. Just little clips of conversation between her and her people. Nothing spectacular, but there's a mystery to it."

"When did these visions start happening?"

There she hesitated. What could she say? They had started when she had picked up the sword, but somehow she knew that they had only been waiting for her to pick up the sword to start. The sword had opened the floodgates, but they had always been there.

Before she could answer though, Derek came bursting out of the door to the mess hall. "Torick! Get ready. Bandits have attacked a village nearby and taken hostages! We're riding out to get them!"

A/N Well... there it was. Yep yep, the latest chapter. What do you think? Do you think Numair will catch on that she's haveing visions of a girl that looks like her when supposedly she's a boy? Hehe... guess you'll just have to wait to find out! Review me!

Nubia