Disclaimer: I do not own the Dark Jewels Trilogy.

AN: If anybody could tell me what age the Birthright ceremony takes place, it would be real helpful. I know that Jaenelle got her jewels when she was seven, but she's sort of different isn't she? When Daemon did his Birthright Ceremony he seemed to be about ten years old.

Italics are the private communications between the Blood

Bold lettering is when inanimate objects are speaking (Selari's replies will also be in bold)

Chapter 1

The Service Fair and the Eyrien

"Selari quit your fidgeting." A man's voice commanded.

Eight-year-old Selari glanced at the man that was sitting across from her and stopped moving. The man was normally not a frightening man, but when he got that look on his face, Selari knew better then to argue. Her father never liked traveling in a carriage when traveling on the webs. Especially when they were traveling on a darker web then his own.

Selari glanced at the rest of the family. When father was not in a good mood, everyone else seemed to take on his mood as well. Well that was except for her, she thought silently. She didn't see what the big deal was about traveling on the webs through a carriage. They all should be happy, they were going to a better place.

Kaeleer is a better place then Terreille. You will be better off there then you were in the other place.

'If that's true why is everyone in a bad mood?'

There is a chance that they could not be chosen at the service fair

'But who wouldn't want to have Father in their court. They would be lucky to have him.'

Child, not all of them will see him in the same light as you.

"Well I think that you all are paranoid, from what you have told me about the service fair, there seems to be a good chance that Father would get chosen.'

Having already gone through a Gate to this part of the realm, they only needed to travel on the webs to get to the service fair.

A service fair is where immigrants from Terreille went to get into Kaeleer. A representative of a court would go and take the people coming in from Terreille into their court. The people going into service had a certain amount of time in which they had to serve that court. This would be the first year that the service fair was going on. They were lucky that they had gotten on the list. For Selari's father had used a few of his connections to get them on to the lists. Plus, the fact that they had used practically all of their savings.

Selari glanced around the carriage looking at her family. Her Mother, Father, and Beatrix were sitting on the opposite side of the carriage then she and Jerrid. Father was silent and had a sullen look on his face. Mother never one to complain had a serene look on her face. Now Beatrix was another case all together, she was both sullen and cranky, she was in no way serene. She had been complaining through out the whole trip. She was only silent now, because Father had yelled at her that if she said one more word that he would throw her out of the carriage and not look back. Jerrid on the other hand just looked bored. Fortunately for all of them they were almost there.

Slowly the carriage pulled to a stop. The coach driver pulled the door open. Selari never a patient one eagerly jumped out of the carriage. Her family followed at a slower pace. Selari, upon her first look at the place, was vastly disappointed.

The place was crowded and it smelled bad. Selari frowned she shouldn't have thought so much into the service fair. But when it had been described to her by her father and brother she had thought that it would be so much more then this.

I told you not to expect much

'But I thought that you could be…you know…sort of… wrong." She mumbled dejectedly.

When have I ever been wrong

Selari wasn't sure, but she could swear that the wind was laughing at her. Frowning she started to say something, when a hand clamped down on her shoulder. Startled she looked up into her brother's face. He wasn't looking at her, but staring ahead at the fair grounds.

"Come on Selari, Father want's to get us settled." Now that Jerrid had turned 17, he tried to act like he was the boss of Selari and Beatrix. Though of course Beatrix being 15 thought that she didn't have to listen to her older brother any more. But Selari was still young and so she reluctantly followed behind her brother.


He exited the tent silently and cursed several Eyrien curses. He had hoped that he would have been here. But he wasn't, he was not on the lists and he was no where on the service fair grounds. The people around him scattered, scared of the Eyrien Prince.

The Ebon-gray Warlord Prince paid them no mind. He had expected him to be on the lists. His Queen had told him that Daemon had finally left the Twisted Kingdom. Lucivar couldn't help the twitch of guilt that he felt. He himself had helped his brother Daemon fall into the Twisted Kingdom.

Lucivar walked into the middle of the area and spread his membranous wings. There was still time. Daemon could still show up, after all it was only the second day of the service fair. So Lucivar pushed thoughts of his brother to the back of his mind for awhile he would think about him later and started to look around to see if any of the other people there interested him.

He started to head for where the Eyrien's had set up their campgrounds, when something touched his arm. Snarling, he spread his wings and whirled around. Lucivar disliked anyone touching him without his permission.

At first he saw nothing, then he glanced a little lower. Folding his wings back up against his body he stared at the child. She was a small thing. Her hair was a dark black that seemed blue. She was wearing sturdy wool clothes, she was obviously not from an aristocrat family. But it wasn't her clothes that captured his attention, but her eyes. They were deep and fathomless, like they were looking into his soul. Midnight black eyes and they were staring directly at him and they held no fear. In fact if he didn't know any better, he would say that they were in awe over him. Her skin was a deep golden telling him that she was that of one of the three-long-lived races, that of a Hayllen.

The child was too young to wear any jewels. But still there was something about her that he was drawn to. Using His Ebon-gray Jewel he reached out to look into her mind. He found a light barrier blocking his entrance. He could have forced his way past it, him wearing the stronger jewels, but the barrier dropped. That surprised him he hadn't expected her to drop it, but then he heard soft laughter. So he moved forward and found that everything was muted. There was nothing, no thoughts, no feelings, there was just nothing.

After that discovery he was even more curious, but he had stayed too long and so Lucivar slipped out of the child's mind. Lucivar stared at her. She smiled at him.

"Who are you?" Lucivar demanded. Any other person would have flinched and backed off, but not her.

"Shouldn't you ask that before you enter someone's mind?" she asked him. Her voice was soft and held no trace of emotion, except that of a child's curiosity.

"Kid, that's avoiding the question." He growled at her, not liking that she was avoiding it.

"Prince Yaslana." The child giggled and placed her hands over her mouth as though she were trying to contain them.

"I did not ask if you knew who I was, I asked who you were." This time his voice was close to a shout and it drew several people to stare at him. He didn't notice, the child held his attention. No she was definitely not afraid, in fact she seemed to be mocking him. And if anything Lucivar hated to be mocked.

"I'm not suppose to tell. I just came over to tell you somethin'." She told him a bit shyly.

Before Lucivar had a chance to answer, one of the people surprisingly came up to the two of them. The people tried to keep their distance from Lucivar and had left a wide space of room around him and the child.

The one that dared to walk up to them was in fact just a young man. He walked up to them bold as you please. When he was about a few steps more away from the girl he seemed to hesitate, but then he took the remainder of the steps so that he was right behind her. The boy was blond haired and blue eyed. His skin was also that of a Hayllen's like the child's. He wore one of the lighter jewels.

"Prince Yaslana." The boy murmured respectfully and bowed as far as he could with the child right in front of him. The child glanced back at the boy, with a glare before she turned back to look at Lucivar.

"Prince Yaslana, I would like to apologize for my younger sister for bothering you. She as a tendency for running off and making a nuisance of herself." The fact that these two were related was what startled him. The only thing that these two had in common was their skin color, but you could also say that about a lot of the people that were at the service fair. If the boy hadn't told him and hadn't sounded so disgruntled over the child he would never have guessed it.

"If you would excuse us, Prince." The boy said to him. He then picked up the child and started to turn around.

"Wait," the child cried out. Sighing, the boy stopped. "I have to tell him something Jerrid." The child whispered into the boy's ear. So the boy...Jerrid…turned back around to face him, the child still in his arms. The child turned and looked at him.

"You won't find him, he's not here." She said softly, switching to the speech of the blood.

"Who?" Lucivar asked cautiously. She gave him a funny look, as though he had missed the obvious. But in truth Lucivar had a feeling that he knew who she was talking about. But how could she know about him, or that he wouldn't be here.

"Your brother." Tons of emotions entered his mind, yet his face was blank. The child tilted her head back, as though she was listening to someone speaking. A look of confusion crossed her face before she turned her head to look back at him.

"The Sadist." She said switching back to speaking aloud. Lucivar took a step towards her as she spoke. The boy took a step back.

"You know the Sadist?" Lucivar asked softly, he had rose to the killing edge fast. The child confused looked at her brother.

"Jerrid, do I know the Sadist?" her childlike voice questioned.

"No, you do not." Jerrid said sharply, while he shook his head vigorously. Lucivar was fast, he moved to stand right in front of the boy; he was barely able to keep his temper. The child was playing games with him. He wanted to tear her apart. The fact that she was a child was what kept him from doing that what he wished to do with her.

"P-Prince Yaslana, neither…m-my sister, nor I h-have met the Sadist." Jerrid told him stumbling over his words. Jerrid knew that the Prince was close to the edge. This had been bound to happen; Jerrid thought glumly, what with his sister and her way of pissing people off.

"If neither of you have met the Sadist, why did she say that he wasn't here? How would she know?" he questioned softly.

"I don't know Prince. She just does, it's always been that way with her." Jerrid told him hastily, just maybe they would both get out of this alive. That is if she doesn't say another word. Ha, that's like hoping for Hell to freeze over.

But Selari being who she was, could never keep quiet for long, especially when something she said was being called into question.

"Hey, don't ask my brother why I know things, ask me. It's not like I can't answer the question." She glared at Lucivar.

"Ok, child I'll talk to you, since it seems like your brother does not know anything about this." Lucivar calmly stated on an Ebon-gray thread. He wasn't sure weather or not she would hear that. She didn't have any jewels or anything, but still, something about her told him that she might be able to speak on this thread.

(AN: The spear thread they were speaking on before was just a common one, with one person speaking to the other. There was no specific thread they were on.)

"Secrecy," she giggled. "Don't want anybody to hear." Then a soft sigh escaped her lips. "I guess I don't want anyone to over hears this either, so…ok, continue on."

It was actually laughable that she would be giving him permission to speak. He had thought that nothing she could do or say for that matter, would surprise him anymore, since she just seemed so full of them. But her speaking on the Ebon-gray thread without actually wearing the jewel did surprise him. But why should it he thought miserably, he was the one who had initiated the conversation on the Ebon-gray thread. He was the one that thought that she could answer on it.

" Ok now that that is settled, let's start with how you know that Daemon won't be here, especially if you have never met him before, so he obviously couldn't have told you."

"I'm not suppose to tell you. But it's true he's not here. He won't be here for awhile." She looked at him with her soft eyes that were filled with sadness, "He's lost, he needs to heal before he can face you again."

What she said hit him hard. In fact he actually took a step backwards. Daemon was lost, he needed to heal. It was Lucivar's fault. Daemon wouldn't have needed this time if Lucivar had never sent him over into the Twisted Kingdom.

A soft hand reached out and touched his cheek softly. His first instinct was to rip the hand and tear it to pieces, but he knew that it was the child's and it was sort of soothing.

"Don't worry, Prince. He will come. He won't blame you either." The sound of her voice was a soft caress to the turmoil going on in his mind. Her hand slipped away from his cheek and dropped listlessly down. Her head then relaxed against her brother's shoulder. She was obviously done with that conversation. Lucivar realizing how close he was to Jerrid and the child took a few more steps back, until there was some distance between them.

"Have you signed on with a court yet?" Lucivar asked Jerrid. He wanted the girl to come to Ebon Rih. He wanted Jaenelle to meet her. He wanted Jaenelle to explain to him this child. Jaenelle would know. Jerrid opened his mouth to answer, but the child beat him to it.

"Yes, we have." This was spoken with a yawn and Lucivar watched the child's eyes flutter and close. Jerrid shook his head at her.

"Prince Yaslana, I think it's safe to say then that we have signed in a court." Jerrid told the Prince in a calm voice, now that the Warlord Prince was not that close, Jerrid could regain his normal composure. "Now, Prince Yaslana I think it's definitely time that we leave. We have already taken up a good amount of your time and I'm sure you have other things to do then listen to an eight year old girl." This time when he turned around to leave there was no objections.

"You won't tell will you?" the voice asked Lucivar. Lucivar turned and walked in the opposite direction of the way that Jerrid and the child had gone.

"Tell, what?" he asked back. Already knowing instinctively what she was talking about.

"About me. Of what I said, of what I told you. It's not time yet." There was a slight bit of panic that was laced in the thought.

Lucivar knew that he should question her on why he shouldn't tell anyone or why it was not time. Or more importantly when would be the time and why couldn't he tell his Queen. But even if he did ask these things of her, he knew that he wouldn't get a satisfactory answer, so really what was the point. It was better to concede the battle now, and come back later in a better position to get the answers.

"You have my word, that I shall not tell a soul of what you said." Lucivar hesitated a second, letting that seek in before he continued. "That is only if you tell me your name."

"Selari," There was a slight giggle and then the connection broke

AN: Ok people what did you think.

And I only except good thinking. Ha ha ha ha.

No, I'm joking anything bad or good would be greatly appreciated.

Soooo, review, review, review!