OMG! I can't believe I wrote this much today. Guys that's like three chapters. Hurray for me! And for you, cause you get to read it.

Kakeru's smiled faded a bit as he saw the desperation in Ren's eyes. There was something wrong and he was about to ask what, when Lantis burst into the room. All four people turned to the intruder. "Kakeru," he shouted in a big voice that he had not heard come out of the big man before, "He's here, where is she?"

Kakeru's eyes widened as he realized what the swordsman was talking about. He dashed to meet Lantis at the door as he answered, "She's in our room, she was napping." They both sprinted up the stairs. "I felt his presence about two minutes ago, but no one knew where she was," Lantis explained between breaths.

"There's no way he could be after something else?" Kakeru asked hoping.

"He never came here until you showed up. And he's made his intentions toward her abundantly clear."

Lantis burst through the bedroom door first but he didn't go very far in. When he saw the two figures in the room Kakeru skidded to a halt as well. Clef stood in the center of the room. He turned slightly when they came in and Kakeru saw that he held Umi in his arms. She was struggling, but weakly as if she had been hurt. Kakeru felt his anger rise. This, this was the reason that she was crying. He gripped the sword in his hand, his sword, and prepared to rush him, but Lantis held him back. "Why have you come here, Clef?" he asked gruffly.

Clef smirked at his former student; "I'm holding her in my arms, Lantis. You can't hurt her anymore."

Kakeru's body tightened with pent up rage.

"It looks to me like you're the one hurting her Clef. She struggles against your hold and there seems to be bruise on her cheek," Lantis spoke with a menacing calm. "Why did you strike her if you came her to save her?"

"You turned her against me Lantis. She believes the lies you've fed to her. And this boy has stolen her love from me. When she is away from you she will believe me, and she will love me again."

"So you haven't come for her, you've come for yourself, Clef," as he spoke he gestured to Kakeru. His eyes and hands told him, go closer, get near her, but do not attack. "You wish to use her just like I have."

"No, when she shakes the spell she will want to stay with me. She will know that everything I have done has been for her."

Kakeru winced at that as he inched along the far wall, toward the mage holding his bride. That statement was not going to help Umi's view of the situation. If she was even conscious, she had stopped moving and hung limply in Clef's arms.

"Everything? When you destroyed that village? Was that for her?"

"That was for you, Lantis. I knew you and the fairy were hiding there."

"The fairy? You called her by name once, Clef."

"I laughed at her death, swordsman. I knew what it would do to you." Clef's face grew darker with every dark pronouncement. He clung to Umi now, as if she were the last light, keeping him from the abyss. Kakeru didn't know how he would get her away from him, even if he got close enough.

"Primera didn't deserve that fate, Clef. She didn't desert you; she wasn't even at the Palace when we left! I saw the creature you sent after her. I saw her body when it was finished. Why? Why did you do that to her?" Lantis now had to rein his own fury in. Neither of them could risk attacking the mage or he would bolt and they would lose Umi.

"It was for you, Lantis," Clef repeated.

"Why?"

"Because I hate you!" He cried. His fingers dug into Umi's bare arm and she stirred from the obvious pain. Kakeru was almost close enough. Clef still hadn't seen him. All of his attention was on Lantis. Just a few more steps and he could pull it off.

"Why?"

"Because you were strong enough, and I wasn't," Clef choked out, defeated. Kakeru sprinted the last few strides and punched the mage with all his strength. The uppercut sent Clef flying and loosed his hold on Umi. Kakeru caught her easily and backed away until he ran into the other wall and slid down to the floor with Umi still cradled in his arms.

Lantis was in front of them in seconds, sword at the ready. "The next time you come into this fortress I will kill you."

Clef laughed and stood slowly, glaring at them through the hair that had fallen in front of his face, "I will have her eventually here or at the shrines. You cannot guard her forever. She will be mine, as she was meant to be." As he spoke he faded and disappeared.

Kakeru carried her down to the gathering room, just to get her away from the place she had been attacked. He laid her on one of the benches and sat down on the floor next to her, exhausted somehow. Fuu and Sierra rushed over to examine her, Hikaru hung back a moment, then knelt and settled her attention on him. His sister brushed the hair out of his eyes and did a brief examination, "Not hurt are you?"

"Please," he smiled, "I didn't even lift my new sword."

"It looks like she doesn't have a concussion," Fuu was saying.

"I can't believe he could have hit her that hard," Sierra replied, "He doesn't have that kind of power."

"Or didn't before," Lantis said from the back of the crowd. It parted to make way for him.

"Is she okay," both of her protectors asked at once.

Fuu continued her diagnosis, "She has some bruising on her left shoulder and arm and the right side of her face."

"There are some cracks in the plaster on the wall of your room," Lantis directed his explanation to Kakeru, "He must have struck her from the right side and sent her flying into the wall."

"There are also four small cuts on her right arm," Fuu added, "Like fingernails."

Kakeru responded detachedly, the rage drained from him, "I saw his fingers dig into her arm when you were talking about the fairy. He really hates you for some reason."

"Yes," Lantis confirmed shortly.

Fuu looked at them, "I can use my Healing Wind and that will cure the cuts and bruises, but I don't know when she'll wake up. He hit her very hard, emotionally and physically."

Hikaru gazed sadly at her unconscious friend, "She must not have been expecting it. When have any of us known Clef to raise his hand to anyone?"

Again Fuu continued, "If I don't know when she'll wake up, I don't know what her condition will be when she wakes up, and I don't know if any of this will delay our journey to the shrines. The water shrine is the first."

Ren stepped forward, "Do what you have to do, Fuu. We can all wait a few days if need be."

Caldina put a hand on the outsiders shoulder and smiled, "Right, Ren, it's not like the world's fallin' apart or anythin'."

Fuu sat with Umi and Kakeru in a different bedroom. They had moved her and what little she and Kakeru had brought with them, thinking that it wouldn't be the most pleasant thing for her to wake up the room she was attacked in. Fuu studied her long-time friend. She lay in the bed, still unconscious but breathing easy. Her hair was perfect as always and flowed around her like the element she controlled. Fuu looked up and saw Kakeru, on the edge of his chair, leaning toward the bed, tensely, his hands clasped together. "She's going to be alright, Kakeru."

"She trusted him!" he exploded, "You know that's why she got hurt."

She stayed calm; it was what he needed, "So you blame her?"

"No, of course not. It's his fault, this is all his fault. He's the reason we're here, he's the reason she's sad here, and he's the reason she was acting so strange at home. She says he's being controlled somehow and she doesn't blame him at all, Fuu. You know she blames herself. She said it on the bird, I remember."

"Umi started that after her parent's divorce, blaming herself for things that go wrong, I mean."

"What? I didn't know that."

"She doesn't talk about that much. She likes to pretend it didn't happen. She remembers them like they were when she was younger. She talked about them a lot; I remember she called their family breakfast the Love-fest. When they broke up she blamed herself, especially when they started fighting over custody. The politician and the successful business woman both felt it would be handy to a have a devastatingly beautiful teenage daughter around."

"Yeah, I heard that part. But I didn't know she hadn't always, you know, done that," he sat down in the opposite chair again, his anger buried for now. She new it would come back when they say Clef again. And they were going to see Clef again.

There was a light knock on the door and Sierra entered. "Liesse has asked that you join her and your companions in the gathering. There is something she wishes to discuss." Kakeru looked hesitant and so she continued, "Don't worry, nothing is going to happen to her while I am here, and if she wakes and I will come and get you both."

"Thank you, Sierra," Fuu replied as she stood and waited for Kakeru to exit the room reluctantly before her.