Hey peoples. I'm back. As promised I have a chapter for you. It's a little late I spose since I think I promised it a week ago, but I was grounded for a while. Now this probably won't be very interesting, but you have to know what happens next don't you?

Disclaimer I'm not Tammy so of course I don't own the characters.

Dedicated to Bekah, Amy got a dedication so why shouldn't you. You're always so nice to people even when they get you and Amy mixed up.

Chapter 10

The Aftermath Begins

Two days after waking, both Kel and Neal were permitted to leave the infirmary. Duke Baird gave them strict orders to behave. He had promised the two that if they required his services again, he would teach them never to take advantage of a healer.

Once back in her rooms Kel saw that any evidence of the battle with Sythrak had been removed. A mage had come to get blood stains out of everything. The rest she assumed the servants had cleaned up. That was, except for Sythrak's body, Dom had told her that Numair had taken it. He wanted to examine it. According to Dom he found it very "Marvelous".

Sighing, Kel walked into her bedchambers. She was glad to be back in her own rooms and finally out of bed. She had been abed off and on for roughly three weeks. She took a quick look around her bedchamber, and then walked back out into her main rooms.

A knock at the conjoining door to Tobe's room caught Kel by surprise. She hadn't thought Tobe would need to see her right when she got back. He had come to the infirmary to see her. Did he want to check on her again?

Kel slowly walked over to the door. She paused a moment, then opened the connecting door. It wasn't Tobe who stood there. It was a tall, brown haired, green-eyed man that Kel know very well. Neal stood in the entry way to Tobe's rooms. Why had he com through Tobe's rooms instead of straight to hers?

As if knowing what she was about to ask, Neal said, "Kel, I need to talk to you. Yuki's been following me all morning. She wants to go through with the marriage after all. I told her I need time to think but..."

"Are you going to marry her?" Kel asked calmly her emotions were hidden under her Yamani mask, though her insides had become one big knot.

Neal looked at her carefully before saying, "I don't know what to do, Kel. I love you, but if I tell Yuki that I won't marry her, it will kill her. I don't want to hurt her. She doesn't deserve that."

"I know, Neal. She's one of my closest friends; I don't want to hurt her, either. Neal, you need to decide what you think is right thing to do, and then do it," Kel responded as the knot in her stomach tightened even more. She had only just admitted that she loved him. Was she going to lose him after everything that had happened to get them there?

Neal knew that Kel was hiding her emotions. He leaned down and kissed Kel gently. Then she said, "I don't know if there is any way to tell her that won't hurt her."

"I know, but we can try not to hurt her," Neal said quietly.

"You better go talk to Yuki before she finds out from someone else," Kel said as she heard a knock at her door.

As Neal went over to Tobe's main door, Kel closed and locked the conjoining door to Tobe's room. The knock at the main door sounded again louder this time. Kel quickly walked to over to the door and opened it. Yuki was standing there.

"Kel, have you seen Neal? I wanted to know if he'd made a decision yet about what I asked him this morning," Yuki said, not letting any emotions show.

Glancing over Yuki's shoulder, she saw Neal leave Tobe's room; shake his head and then sneak past. Looking back at Yuki, Kel replied, "No, I haven't seen him since we left the infirmary this morning."

"I think he's avoiding me, Kel," Yuki said, still keeping emotion from her face.

"Why would Neal avoid you?" Kel asked, knowing the answer her question. Kel didn't like lying to Yuki, but it was better that she heard it from Neal.

"Do you think Dom could have seen him?" Kel asked, hoping Yuki would go before something slipped.

"I suppose he could have gone to see him," Yuki replied, walking down the hall away from Kel.

Kel sighed; Yuki wasn't often absent minded enough to forget to say good-bye. Neal avoiding her had to be making Yuki wonder over what his answer would be. Kel knew that Neal couldn't avoid Yuki forever, and when she found him there would be a lot of explaining to do.

If she had to wait for the inevitable, Kel would do something useful. She walked into her rooms, closing the door behind her. She walked over to her weapon rack and pulled down her glaive.

Kel's muscles protested to her swinging the glaive about, but Kel continued with the pattern dance. Kel worked until the naginata was only a blur in the air. The Yamani word naginata, meaning glaive, brought memories of the islands back to her.

She had spent years in the Yamani Islands. Kel remembered how all the native Yamainis had looked at her with the blank stares they gave to foreigners. Then her mother had rescued the sacred swords and she'd met Yuki. Those times had been so simple. They hadn't had to think about marriage or love. The only thing they needed to worry about was pleasing old Nariko with the glaive and hand to hand combat. The only other thing they had to worry about was not displeasing the emperor. Why couldn't things be that simple again?

Kel knew it was a pointless thought, but she sometimes did wish things weren't so complicated. She scolded herself for this; she had once been told that nothing in life was easy. If it were easy then we would get no satisfaction out of it. Life would be boring if you didn't have to work for any of it.

Kel put the glaive down, her muscles not as stiff as they had been when she'd begun. She pulled her sword from her sheath. She needed to practice this more. She was starting to believe what Alanna had told her once during a duel- maybe she had been using her glaive too much.

After Kel had gone through a few simple combat moves, she paused. She thought she had heard yelling in the corridor out side. There it was again, growing slightly louder. The people who were yelling passed by her door and continued on. Kel recognized the two voices. They were Neal and Yuki. It had finally begun, the final aftermath of Sythrak's scheme.

A/N Another chapter should be up soon. I think I'm going to have it be a songfic chapter thing, mostly between Yuki and Neal, and how Yuki feels about everything. We'll just have to see though now won't we? I hope you enjoyed this chapter. Please go and review my lovely readers. Bye bye.

-Krissy-