Disclaimer: All characters except Layissa belong to Tamora pierce and the Protector of the small series. I claim no possession over anything but the plot. Its base, world, etc. are all from the above and are not my own.

Author's Note from Erkith: A long time in coming, I know. And I do appreciate that I left you on a bit of a cliffhanger – my unfortunate habit – grins so I'm sorry. I hope those of you who read True Love Never Ran So Cold and Betrothed will forgive me for spending so much time on them. I regret to tell you that I'll be updating less frequently as school has restarted yay/not. I will try to get something out periodically…

Enjoy!

Erkith

Ps. Anyone interested in reading a Faithful one-shot?

Different Kinds Of Magic

Chapter Nine: I am Human. I am Mortal.

Dom saw Kel sprint by, running full-speed. Then he heard the shouts as Alanna, Numair and the King flung themselves around the corner.

"Kel, stop!"

Dom's mind snapped into focus. Kel was running from them, but why? He chased after them, unsure as to what he was about to do.

"Stop her!" Alanna shouted ahead. Courtiers and soldiers alike were parting like air as Kel burst through them, ignoring their screams of surprise and fear.

Dom was almost there now.

"Goddess, she's headed for the Chamber! The bloody Chamber of the Ordeal! STOP HER!" Alanna cried out again.

Dom was even with the others now, but still too far from Kel. He pushed ahead of them, moving faster than he ever had before. She was headed for the most powerfully magical object in all of Tortall, excepting maybe the Dominion Jewel – one that broke strong men. The Chamber embittered the dreams of the bravest of knights, waking them to nights of cold sweat and fear. It had killed before.

Kel – who was stronger than most – had entered twice before, and returned relatively unscathed.

Had it been that Kel that ran towards the Chamber; Dom might have interfered with the others...

But this was a much weakened Kel; would she survive a third encounter? He wasn't taking any chances.

Though he pressed forward, he realised abruptly that he stood no chance of reaching her in time. She was too determined and too far ahead. He didn't stop to curse, but yelled an order.

"SLEEP SPELLS!"

Purple, green, and blue burned past him. The spells were mere feet from their target when the silver flames lashed out, spearing them out of the air.

The hall was alive with screams and shouts of terror as the foreign magic danced around the girl who did not even turn back. Dom watched as her hand closed over the door to the Chapel of the Ordeal. She disappeared inside.

No, Kel!

He hit the chapel door before it closed, swinging it wide, barely checking his pace. He had to reach her before it had her. The chapel was dark, and Dom looked around it for the entrance to the beast it held within. He'd never been there.

Where? May the Black God take you, TELL ME WHERE!

Then he saw them; the large iron doors opening to admit Tortall's Lady Knight.

KEL! His mind screamed her name.

For a brief moment she hesitated; then she stepped inside and the doors closed. Dom slammed into them a second later. Pounding the silver doors, he tried to force them open with will and strength, but they would not budge.

She was locked in.

"Chamber you've got a lot to answer for!"

"So you've finally come, Protector." The voice that was not a voice echoed around the room. Kel, knowing the Chamber and its tricks, turned to the sexless face on the back of the doors. Her eyes narrowed.

"I should have known it would be you."

"Yes." The Chamber answered unnecessarily.

Tension speared through her jaw as she bit back a nasty retort. She wasn't here to spar with a being infinitely more powerful than herself. Not to say that the idea didn't hold some element of appeal, Kel thought sourly.

"You should have come sooner." Again faint disapproval tinged the words.

To hell with it! "Oh, so you mean I should have stop guarding New Hope to go gallivanting across the realm to Corus to deal with my magic, since it was so obviously that that was causing a mysterious illness to rob me of consciousness and reduce my strength to that of a squalling infant. And, naturally, I should have assumed immediately that it was you interfering with my life again."

The Chamber paused, processing. "Yes."

Kel's voice went curiously flat; her expression placid, blank.

"And I suppose, I was supposed to know that when you gave me a jolt through the door when I visited you after Shinko's wedding that you were providing me with magic that my body cannot handle. Just like I should have known that eventually you would do so after you had chosen me as champion for your purposes."

"Champion. You make me sound like a go, and I am not of their nature. Elementals do not meddle in the lives of humans unless it our place to do so."

Her voice tightened. "Really? You don't call giving me a mission that lead me to commit treason, and then forcing magic upon me unknowingly interfering?"

"You should have known." The Chamber replied. "It was obvious."

Kel's lips thinned as she pressed them together in anger. "Well, forgive me for not being an omniscient, insensitive elemental!"

"Mortal." A small sigh of wind ruffled her hair. Its exasperation and annoyance was tangible.

"Stop that," Kel ordered. Her commander's voice echoing just as successfully within even these hallowed walls. "You've got precious little right to be irritated with me in the grand scheme of this. It's my life you've been messing with. It's me who now has unwanted magic! It's ME who is not immortal and has nearly died! AND IT'S MY FRIENDS WHO ARE BEING SCARED AND PUT AT RISK BY MY WEAKNESS!"

"MORTAL." The Chamber's power blew her over, like a great tidal wave of wind. "You're being too emotional."

"I'm human. I'm mortal. I am, therefore, emotional." Kel tossed back as she picked herself up off the stone floor. "And you can knock me down as much as you like, but you'll have to kill me before I'll allow you to bully me."

"Mortal, I am aware of your opinion of bullies, given your past with them. It was one of the reasons I chose you, Protector of the Small."

"Lovely," was all Kel could think to reply.

"I don't understand your… emotions." The Chamber did sound puzzled. "They render you humans so unstable, and yet you hold them in such high regard."

"I'm sorry that you elementals are bereft of such a burden; as it would be interesting to see you cope with such an unstable force." And a lovely form of retribution too – the basic r-e-v-e-n-g-e.

The room whirled around her, spinning into the endless plain she'd seen before. Vertigo seized her. For a moment up was down, down was up and there was nothing. Nausea threatened to make her ill in greasy waves.

Then the image settled and details rose from the plain. Grass swayed gently in the intangible wind, and in the distance a single tree was visible. Kel focused on its solid, unmoving trunk for several moments to ease her disorientation. She took a shaky step, and fell to the ground.

"You are ill."

"Very observant," Kel remarked wryly. "That would be the result of your damned magic."

"Why don't you just learn to control it?"

Kel stared at the face. "You're making it really hard not to hate you. Elemental magic may be fine for you, but it sends me into life-threatening fevers. The only time I'm even able to see is when it's about to engulf me!"

"You saw reality through a dream. I was there; I helped support it."

"I didn't…" Remembering the silver-veiled dream at Steadfast, Kel paused. "That was my magic?"

"And your display on your way here was quite impressive."

"What?" Kel asked, confused. "What display?"

"This…" the Chamber replied as one wall dissolved its illusion to replay her rush to its doors.

Kel watched in awe as she whipped through the crowd, Alanna, Numair, the King, Duke Baird and Dom chasing after her. "Stop, Kel! Stop her! Goddess, she's headed for the Chamber! The bloody Chamber of the Ordeal! STOP HER!" She heard them cry. Horrified, by what seemed like madness on her part from this perspective, Kel hands rose to her lips. "SLEEP SPELLS!" she heard Dom order.

"Goddess." Kel breathed.

Purple, green, and blue shot towards her image, burning by Dom at an incredible speed. Then silver flames shot out from her body, slapping the spells away, mere feet from her body. They writhed around her as the spells dissolved into nothing.

The image faded back into the plain, but Kel continued to stare at it in shock.

"Very impressive."

Was it her imagination, or did the Chamber seem pleased?This wasn't impressive! This was bad, very, very bad.

They knew. Now they all knew. How was she supposed to hide her magic from the court now? They already were convinced she'd had some sort of magical aid… now they would have proof!

And she'd seen the fear on their faces, nothing condemned faster than fear. Kel knew. Fear was the ultimate motivator.

They were going to hate her…

"I never realized how much self-inflicted damage your gift could cause. You should ask Numair Samalin to help you."

Deal with it later. "Do you think he could?" Kel asked.

"Better than I. I am magic. I've always known how to master it. Samalin has dealt with foreign magics before."

"He couldn't even identify it."

"Not surprising. Few have dealt with elemental magic before, and it has never before been passed to a human. You're the first. I marked you out as you became a knight. I watched you more carefully, tested you harder, and lured you here as a squire to make sure."

"Why?"

"Would you give power to just anyone? Power that no one – not even you – knew how strong it would be? I've been watching and judging more humans than you, your parents, and grand-parents have known combined. Humans are dangerously self-serving."

"But I'm not?" Kel wondered.

Another sigh wafted through. "You committed treason to retrieve prisoners of war who were merely peasants. You took a noble to trial for your maid, and battled with a monarch to have the laws that freed him changed. Before that you risked redoing four years of training to save your maid. And right from the beginning you fought against stronger foes to protect other pages. I think it is fair to term you uncharacteristically un-self-serving."

"Okay, but why would you assume that I would know I was to have magic?"

"Because I laid the foundations for it when you left these walls the first time. Some years ago, I believe, from what you have said."

Shocked silent, Kel simply stared. It couldn't be. But when had her sudden and inexplicable aversion to wine emerged? Right after becoming a knight. Right after leaving the chamber. "The wine…"

"Yes."

"Goddess." If she hadn't been sitting already, Kel was sure she would have then.

"You mortals and your sayings. The gods are not all powerful." The Chamber huffed.

Kel shrugged. "They're a great deal more powerful than us. But why do I need magic..? Ouch!" She'd been stung by something in the grass. Instinctively her power lashed out. Kel shot to her feet and lifted her hands.

"Curse it."

Silver flames raced along them to thread up her arms, it was hot, but left no mark. Kel felt her hair lift off her neck as the energy flowed through it, lifting and fanning it out. Another wind picked up in the Chamber's residence. Cool, unnatural, it countered the other.

Larger flames lashed out as another Chamber inspired gust tried to knock her down. Kel could feel the fever taking over. Her vision went black.

Hot. Cool. Hot! Cool. HOT! HOT! HOT!

Not again!

"Help." Kel whispered as power flooded through her mind. Her hands held her head together as it was battered by waves of fiercely uncontrollable energy flaming through her abused body. Her knees went weak and scraped the floor as she fell. Her back arched in agony. Kel felt her lips crack and bleed as she bit down to contain the scream.

"Protector. Protector come back." The Chamber was frantic – or as close to frantic as the Chamber comes.

The silver flames leapt off her body, scoring the walls like lightning all around her. Silent screams battered even the Chamber as Kel's mind screamed for mercy.

The plains disappeared, and the stone reappeared in its place, but Kel took no notice.

"HELP!"

A stronger wave of power knocked her across the room into a wall, hard. As she lost consciousness, she vaguely heard the Chamber's last words.

"I'm… sorry."

Then blackness overwhelmed her.

Author's Note: Thanks for sticking around to read this! I'm just getting started on the next part of plot next chapter. After all, I can't rightly give her magic for no purpose…

THANKS TO MY REVIEWERS! (SUCH A LOYAL BUNCH!)

Soccerchick: Glad you liked the punch! I thought she was being to cooperative about being perceived as weak. Kel/Kaddar huh? Sounds intriguing! I'll look forward to it!v :D and thank you, I had a lovely vacation!

The Original Meathead: Her magic is just a touch out of her control. Hope you continue to enjoy and talk to me! Thanks for being around so long, Sam!

Rubber Duck: I hope you like th Chamber scene! BUT don't let your fic die! NOOOOOO!

Wake-Robin: GRRRRR! UPDATE! Been months! You're getting worse than me! Lol I hope you enjoy this chap as much as the last. But consider your butt kicked! GET MOVING ALREADY!

Sparkley-tangerine: sorry you had to wait so long, but you did have the crazy one to read…

Ivory Nightshade: Sorry about how late this comes… please keep writing your fic, excellent concept!

Maliafire: Yup! Chamber vs. Kel argument and we'll have another coming up!

King's Lioness: Way to not review and leave your fics name with me rolls eyes lol leave it somewhere for me!

USNA: sorry about the lack of ASAP…

Obsessed-reader: you don't like Kel/Dom faints lol then I'll consider myself honoured that you like mine :D

Atlanta Enchanted: Lol and the Chamber still thinks she should have figured it out faster… exasperating thing. It's funny about the one-shots… I have more reviews for the Soldier (First written) and more hits but the least reviews for Shall I Drown (Best written)

Tatooed Goddess: I'm so glad you're enjoying it! I hope the arguments were realistic enough. I've always thought the Chamber had some human elements to work out (no pun intended). Keep speculating, but you'll see eventually…

Mystic Moon Emperess: Now there's a compliment and a half! Happy (belated) b-day!

Mistywabbit: So we meet again my eldritch friend. I hope this chap was satisfying!

Goddess Of The Moon: Thank you! I can't believe you've read so many of my fics:D

Bamboliblue: She's not required to like him… and it's mostly mistrust, rather than dislike… sorry about the fluffless chap…

Feifiefofum: Here, I've finally updated it. Lol and I am motivated and not insulted by reviews among other things. I too have been searching for more Chamber stuff… seemed pretty clear that it was not finished interfering in her life. Hope you enjoyed the arguments and such between these too wonderful "characters" (do elementals count as characters?)

x17SkmBdrchiczxx: Thanks, I really like that chap too! Sorry this one took so long!

Callie: One again reviewing… cookies and chocolate for you! (and reviews ;) ) Glad you're enjoying this fic! Update soon! (Harry Potter in particular)

Gymcatgirl: thank you! Hope you continue to enjoy it and hope to see you around my fics again!

HyperKathryne: Glad you like it! Thanks for reviewing!