The plot is thickening, like gravy…but I still don't own the Tortallan world. Was that Random? Yes it was…
Reviews!

Ace Ryn Knight, yeah that school, it's tough I know. Hope oyu do well, and I'm glad my story can brighten your day. I sound like a hallmark greeting card, ha. Anyways thanks for the review and review again!

Numair's Lover, I like fast updates too, I know I love it to see all my favorites updated, I'm usually really bad about updating but this story is just screaming to get out! Thanks for the review and review me some more! I do so love reviews, I really do…

What happen's next you ask? Read and find out! I hope you guys like Rikash, I wish I had one for myself…a Rikash that is.

Feifiefofum Rather twisted. You said rather, ha. So do I. Anyways, I was feeling a little down, I kind of felt like you were just trying to give me a hard time, but I think you've cleared things up for me, and with all those heaps of praise my Self-esteem is bordering on arrogant. I always thought I was good, but I know that I have a pretty high opinion of myself and know that others wouldn't have the same bias as I do for myself, and probably didn't think the same way.

A Master of the English language? Can't possibly be a normal average fanfic autheress? Man, you make me sound so cool! Stop it! I'm blushing! The praise is well received and I do indeed thank you for it. Anyone else who wants to tell me I'm cool is welcome to. Ha.

Those Damnable Knews! I hate them! I really am going to take a look-see at all my other chapters and fix them later. I do know how annoying it is to read something with spelling and grammar errors, it sometimes impedes the reading and destroys the moment.

And you wanted the truth? Here it is:

I'm a sixteen-year-old female, I'm about five feet, four and a half inches. I have olive colored skin and I'm fairly tan as it's the summer. I have glasses, (I can't stand anything near my eyeballs, that's why I flinch at any movement, no matter who or what makes it, and I started hyperventilating when my mom wanted me to try and put contacts in.) I have long brown hair it's naturally curly but it's a pain so I had it chemically straightened (I got lucky and got it for free, it's usually $$$ crazy), brown eyes and I drink on average five sodas a day and it doesn't put a dent on my boring-ness. I'm usually horribly mellow unless someone provokes me then I'm terribly sarcastic, but the rest of the time I'm a push over. When I'm around a bunch of my friends or my little sister I act insane. I'm also terribly lazy. And I have a very round shaped face which is supposedly says to peoples unconscious that they should be my friend or something; at least that's what scientists say. Whatever. It doesn't help me when I'm trying to read during lunch and everyone is bugging me to join in the conversation.

There is the truth. Pretty boring but I like to think my insides make up for it. My internal organs are probably awesome to look at. Ha. I don't know if anyone got the joke there…

Oh and I have sweet tooth that could make Godzilla nervous and Santa clause jealous. Nobody eats ice cream and cookies like me.

AND EVERYONE BE SURE TO CHECK OUT MY NEW FANFICTION! It's called Turn from Shadow and it's a focus of Thom and Naranda as well as some original characters, you'll love it! I promise! Well, I guess I can't promise but you know what I mean.

Providence Smiles

By LGR

Part II: Confessions

Gainel smirked again, "But I thought you liked your brother!"

"Of course I like my brother!" she said, "I'm doing this out of love for him…"

Gainel really was thick sometimes when it came to everyday things that she took for granted. Things like playful banter or teasing between relatives often escaped him, and she couldn't really blame him, not having had much of a family to do such things with, but Lynn thought she'd cured him of most of this a long time ago.

"Love? Maybe it's a mortal thing, but I just don't see the connection—" he said skeptically. Oh how her nerves just twitched when he said that word, but she hid it from him as best she could.

She snuffed yet again; he must be playing dumb, "As if all you're teasing me isn't the same thing! You know exactly what I'm talking about."

And her heart stopped. Lynn's mind told her she must be wrong though her heart longed for it to be true! And she looked into his eyes, those color shifting pools, like a dream in themselves and she wondered if he could see what she was thinking.

She was in shock, she was so surprised, the disbelief kept running through her brain but she wanted it so badly, she always thought those sighs of quiet interest and kindness were just how he was, and that made her like him even more, but she'd always thought it could never be.

She wanted it to be true, and she couldn't help but gaze hopefully at him but he seemed ridden with fear.

Does he care for me? Is it True? Is it TRUE?

But swift as lightening he turned and fled, and her hope melted away and she couldn't help calling out to him as they dreamscape disappeared and she was suddenly awake in the morning, staring up at the ceiling like she'd had the week before, with the same feel of supreme grief.

She felt like someone had died, and maybe they had. Those dreams of being happy with him that she'd known could never come true but had cherished anyways until they'd grown to fill her through and through. That dream was gone and dead, never to become real.

When that dream died she felt like the Lynn everyone knew had went with it, and everyone else seemed to see it too, though they didn't know the reason behind her sudden forlorn expression and faraway look that morning at breakfast.

She ate in the Rider's mess like she always these days, and everyone asked her if she was feeling well. She didn't bother to say she was fine when she obviously wasn't, she said she wasn't feeling well. Many suggested she see a healer, but Lynn shook her head and said it wasn't anything like that.

Most shrugged but didn't pressure her. Lynn had never been the happiest person, even if she was particularly gloomy, though Lynn herself hadn't known that people had noticed how she didn't really seem there most of the time.

That morning after breakfast she marched out to the pages training ground with a heavy-heart. The weather was clouded and misty to match her mood, and she came up and sat down on the fence next to Rikash.

He hadn't noticed until he saw her climb the fence right next to him and then his expression was panicked and looked around frantically.

"L-Lynn! What are you doing here?" he stuttered, but Lynn only shrugged and stared off into the distance.

Rikash was fifteen and still growing even though he was already taller than her nearly six feet, by a few inches. He had a slightly darker complexion than his sister, but the same gray eyes, even if his hair wasn't curly, but decidedly straight. It had enough body to it, though, that it stuck out all over. And luckily for him, his mother's willowy figure had won out against Numair's stork-ness, as he called it, and Rikash looked rather well made and not at all gawky.

He was a rather good looking-fellow, though Lynn would never say so to his face.

"Naori's pretty good, isn't she…" Lynn said, and Rikash flinched and the blood ran from his face. She smiled slightly and said, "Don't worry I won't tell."

"How'd you know…" he asked, not really convinced.

She shrugged, "Well, I know you're not into guys—" Rikash frowned, "—and hell knows you're not watching Eda Bell."

He sighed, "Is it that obvious?"

"You never used to watch to pages before, you should have been more discrete about it, but I don't know, I mean, I am your sister, it's hard to say, I guess, whether anyone else has noticed." She said.

She'd never really outright talked to her brother like this and Rikash knew something was up, but she almost wanted to tell him what it was. Though they were close siblings, they weren't the kind that was best friends. Part of that might have been the gender difference, but she guessed that some of it was that nothing really emotional had ever happened to her. She was pretty lucky, she realized.

"Lynn, are you okay?" Rikash asked worriedly.

"I…" She hesitated, but Rikash cursed and Lynn furled her brows.

"Shit, she's coming over!"

"Rikash! Watch your language!" She shouted at him.

"You're my sister not my mother." He said scathingly, but his expression turned back to panic, "What to I do! What do I do!"

"Damnit, Ricky, just stay cool!"

"Don't ever, and I mean EVER, call me Ricky, EVERagain." Rikash commanded most urgently, but then said mockingly, "And now who needs to watch their language, eh Lin-Lin?"

Lynn grimaced at the use of a child-hood nickname. "Seriously, just kill me now and get it over with." She said but he wasn't paying attention, Rikash had gone stiff as a board because Naori was only a couple yards away and closing.

"Hi guys," she said when she came up, "What's going on?"

Rikash looked like he had gone into cardiac arrest, his muscles taut, and a nerve in his cheep was twitching. Naori was giving him a weird look but apparently decided to ignore him.

The girl in question was of small stature and looked deceivingly harmless, with her small bone structure. But Lynn knew that behind those almond shaped green eyes and straight black hair, was a sharp-witted girl who didn't take being ignored. And these days she had the sword skills to back up her scathing tongue, even if she was only a beginning fourth year page.

Her own problems temporarily forgotten, Lynn had a stroke of mischief.

"Oh nothing really," she told Naori, neither her voice nor her manner betraying what she was about to say next, "Rikash over here was just admiring you this fine morning,"

Rikash's eyes bulged at her words and he turned red as he growled, "Lynn!" through clenched teeth.

Naori's eyebrows went up in surprise; "He-he was?" and the half-Yamani was now as nervous as Rikash had been a moment ago; she'd never been good at that Yamani-calm.

"Oh, yes, haven't you noticed?—" Lynn smiled slightly at the two younger teens.

"Lynn!"

"—He always comes out here to watch you, he thinks you hot! —" Lynn was now grinning like a fool and Naori's face had a blush to it and Rikash looked about to blow-up.

"Lynn, you are so dead!" Rikash lunged at her but she was faster and she set off at a full out sprint across the lawn as Rikash's shout got the attention of everyone in the training yard.

Rikash was right behind her down the grass, his longer leg advantage making up for his lack of physical conditioning. And besides, he was pissed.

"When I catch you, you are going to be DEAD! You'll be DEADER THAN DEAD!" His shouts were slighted muddled by the effort of running, but the meaning was plain enough.

"Deader than dead? That's all you can come up with?" Lynn couldn't help but laugh, and she shape shifted into a cat and leapt up the side of a tree. Rikash made a mad-grab at her tail, but she managed to flick it out of the way before he could get a hold of it.

He let out a tormented growl and flopped down onto the grass to pout.

"Oh, how I just want to set that tree on fire…"

Climbing onto a strong branch, she shifted back into a human and said, "You even try it, and I'll tell Father." There was a chiming cheep as Fancy flew from the sky and sat on, not Lynn's shoulder, but her brother's. Apparently, she sensed his bad mood and wanted to cheer him up.

Lynn chuckled slightly at the bird's jesture.

"Ahhh, see? Fancy likes you."

He snuffed, "Yeah, and she's the only one. Now Naori thinks I'm an idiot."

"Naw." Lynn said, swinging her legs on the tree branch, "You'll see, she'll probably ask you on a date, now." Rikash snorted.

"Why would she do that?" he asked unbelieving.

"Didn't you see her blush? She likes you, too."

"Or maybe she was just embarrassed." He said blandly from the ground.

"Well, she probably was embarrassed," Lynn admitted, "but I think she liked you as well."

"And what would you know about it?" he asked skeptically, "You've never even had a boyfriend."

"Well, I'm a girl, doesn't that count for something?"

"Not in my book." He said but she rolled her eyes at him.

"And the reason I haven't had a boyfriend is because I haven't wanted one, there's only one person I'd go out with," she said without thinking, and immediately regretted it as Rikash's face took on a mischievous grin.

"Oh, really, now who might that be?" he asked tautingly.

"That's none of your business," she said indignantly, "And besides, it would never work out..." She sighed, depressed, her misfortune now at the forefront of her thoughts again.

"Why not?" Rikash asked as he petted Fancy, catching on to Lynn's mood.

And once again she really wanted to tell him. She didn't know why but she did. Lynn had never been the one to pour out her heart and soul into other people with crying fits and long talks, but she really wanted someone to know. Just one person to know how much she was really hurting right now.

"You know…when I disappeared for four days…a couple years ago?" she whispered.

Rikash hadn't expected this but he knew she was going to tell him something, something she'd never told any one else before. Something important.

"Yeah," he answered, " I was nine or ten. I almost thought I'd imagined it, we never talk about it," he said.

Lynn climbed down from the tree. Their race had taken them far from the pages training ground, into a little walked area of the palace gardens, because it wasn't particularly interesting, just lots of grass and a few old trees.

She sat next to her brother, against the tree, and looked at his face. She was nervous, but he was her brother, he'd understand. Lynn could tell he was taking her seriously.

"Do you remember what I told Ma? What I told Father?"

"Yeah, I believed you. Was it a lie? Did that not really happen?" he asked.

"No, it happened." She assured him, "but…that wasn't all that happened." She could see that he was waiting for her to continue, but she'd kept it secret for so long she could barely make herself say it out loud.

"I really did meet Gainel, and he wasn't what I would have expected. He was lonely you know? And we talked awhile. And not through his constructs, like Father had thought, I could hear what he said, we still don't know why."

Rikash noted the use of 'we' instead of 'I', but didn't want to interrupt, lest she stop. He could see that she'd wanted to tell someone for a long time, and Rikash was actually honored that she'd chosen him, her brother.

"I liked him sort of, in some childish way, even then. And when I had to go, I made him promise he'd visit me, in my dreams, that it wouldn't be the end. He's my patron, you know. He never had a human look to him before, you know? He can't talk to us, or meet us, the way the other gods can, but he wished he could. He really does care about us mortals, you know?"

She was babbling slightly, but Rikash made himself look calm; made himself look as if his sister always came up to him and to tell him the secrets of her life. That she had gods looking in on her through her dreams.

"And when some things from chaos attacked me, he saved me, it was an amazing sight, Rikash, you've have gone crazy to see it. And when Discord and Violence opened the Gates of Chaos to let the last of the creatures back in, he glared at Discord when she looked at me funny. Uusoae wants me, and like the hearing Gainel, we still don't know why."

Chaos wanted Lynn? Rikash was beginning to see what it was that was so important about her story, why she'd kept things a secret, and he was afraid for her.

"You know Fancy?" she asked, and the immortal in question, still sitting on Rikash's broad shoulder, chimed in recognition of her name, "He made her from his favorite construct that was injured when a chaos construct attacked his Chateau; he said it was his favorite, he told me later, he could have just been pulling my leg, but I don't think so. She's meant to protect me, if anything were to happen."

"Fancy? Our little Fancy?" he was slightly awed.

"Yeah, she can phase shift, and all kinds of things."

"Wow…"

"Yeah. Gainel visits me almost twice a week," Lynn said, "We talk about things and…"

And Rikash could see that she was finally getting to the heart of the matter, that this was the beginning to the explanation of why she had been acting so oddly lately. This was what he had to pay attention too; what was even more important to her than the threat of chaos.

"It was about a year and a half later, I started to like him in…a different way. It might seem strange how someone can…can care for someone who is a God, I still don't know why I do, but Grandma did too, so I suppose it's…I don't know what I suppose!" Lynn cried out and she was on the brink of tears now, and shaking. Rikash put his arm around her shoulders and she seemed comforted, despite the fact that she had started crying.

"In don't know what I was thinking!" she yelled out through her tears, "That's what probably got me into this mess! I was thinking 'Grandma could do it! Ma and Father worked things out! Why couldn't I!', When it was just stupid nonsense all along!"

"On my birthdays then he asked what I wanted! And I wanted him to love me but I asked for a hug instead by Shazdale meadow! How could I have let my silly hopes go that far! When I knew it was doomed from the start!"

"And to think, I half-convinced myself that he thought the same way!" she was now out-right sobbing and almost hysterical, and Rikash had been started at his sisters confession, but he knew she wasn't finished yet.

After a moment for her to gather herself and calm down a moment, she said, "Last night we were talking again," she half chuckled through her tears, "About you and Naori actually, pretty ironic really. I was telling him how I was going to tell Neal and Kel and Dom and Alan; to embarrass you. And he said that he thought I liked my brother."

"I told him I was doing it out of love, playful banter, that sort of thing. And he said he didn't see the connection. I said he was lying, because he teased me the same way all the time…and for a second he both stared at each other, he was shaking and nervous, and I thought that…that he might…"

Her voice fell to a whisper and she finished, "That he might feel the same way. But he…he ran away, so it seems I'm just some idiot after all…"

He ran away? Rikash almost laughed, he did laugh at how his sister didn't see what was really going on. He supposed it was true that men and women thought differently after all.

Lynn 's face was pale; she'd mistook his laughing for contempt at her musings, even though it most definitely wasn't.

"Lynn, Lynn? Don't you see? You scared the poor man! He doesn't know how you feel, he thought you were going to reject him!"

"W-what!" she said in utter disbelief, "No! It-it can't be!"

"It can be, and it is!" he insisted, "You said to trust you because you were a girl and you knew those sorts of things? Well, you trust me, because I'm a guy, and I know."

"But…I…" she was just in shock; she didn't know what to think.

"Just give him a few days, we males always fess-up in the end if we like a girl, you'll see. He really cares about you, I can tell just from listening to you talk about him; it's dead obvious." he said.

"You…you really think so? If you're just messing with me I…I'll beat you up!"

The threat was a serious one; the redoubtable Shang Wildcat hadn't praised Lynn for her Hand-to-hand fighting skills for nothing.

Rikash shuddered, "I wouldn't dare. You know Lynn, you're pretty intimidating to a guy. You're as tall as most full-grown men, and you stare down your nose quite strikingly," Lynn glared at him but he ignored her, "And don't take this the wrong way or anything but, but your really good looking, It makes the sane ones of us nervous when a pretty girl is around," he confided.

Lynn smirked, "Thanks, Rikash, you know, and don't take this the wrong way or anything, but I always thought you were a pretty good looking guy too."

"Why, Thank you!" he said with a laugh, "And if all that's not enough, you've got those mad-Shang skills." He told her.

"Well, I haven't told him about that yet…" she confessed, "I didn't want him to know, because I mostly started it so I could help him if I ever got attacked agai—It's not funny Rikash!"

He was laughing at her again. "Yes, it is! But I suppose it's a good thing you didn't tell him. Gainel isn't really one of those Big-muscle fellows, is he?"

She shrugged, "He's no wimp I'll tell you that, even if he isn't some brute.

"As I expected; See, if he'd known you were practically a Shang, it would have taken him ages to talk to you again; he'd have been afraid you'd beat him up for sure." Rikash said seriously.

"What could I do to a God?" she asked skeptically, "All he'd have to do is think it, and I'd be nothing but dust, trust me, I know."

"You'd be surprised I think, girls can hurt a man bad, even without fists." He sighed, "Woman, you can't live with 'em, and there's no resale value." He joked.

"We could say the same thing about you guys, you know." She informed him.

"Well, than maybe we don't think so different after all." He shrugged and they sat in silence for a moment.

"Rikash? Thanks…" she said at last.

"No problem, what are brothers here for? I know I still haven't found out what sisters are here for but…"

She gave him a small jab.

"Hey, that hurt!" he said and jabbed her back.

"Ouch! You can't hit me, I'm a girl!" she professed.

"You're not a girl, you're my sister, and besides you hit me first!"

"Did not!"

"Did to!"

"Well, you made fun of me, you deserved it!"

"I did not!"

"You did to!" They stopped fighting for a moment until Rikash said, "That has got to be the stupidest argument we've ever had."

"Well, we had to make up for that tender moment just a few minutes ago."

"I suppose." He said.

"Rikash, you won't tell anyone will you?" she didn't have to say what she was talking about.

"Naw," he said, "No body, not unless it was life or death; because you never know…" he said.

Lynn sighed in relief and looked at the sky, it was sunny now.

"When did the clouds go away?" she asked looking at the sky.

"I dunno." He said now looking up too.

Fancy, who until this point had been silent, suddenly started chiming extremely loudly, and Rikash pushed her off his shoulder and put his hands on his ears, as Lynn did like-wise.

"What has gotten into that bird? She's going insane!" Rikash called above the noise. Some people in the courtyard farther away, who hadn't noticed in the least Lynn's crying, were now looking over to see what the noise was.

"Stop it Fancy! You're making a scene!" Lynn demanded, but she didn't stop and she thought her ears were going to explode.

That was when Rikahs got a funny look, he did sometimes, he often knew when something odd was going to happen, and she knew that some thing was wrong.

"Rikash, wha—"

A hand smacked her from behind, and fancy turned into a lightening bolt and zapped a monster, as Rikash let out a startling sound, and it turned to stone, before her eyes.

But that wasn't all of them. Lynn scrambled to her feet and struck a fighting position, determined not to be caught of guard again.

One construct slithered like a snake and tried to grab her in it's mouth but she phased just enough that he couldn't catch her, then back flipped away to shape shift into an unnaturally large black jaguar, and slash and bite at the create with all her might.

Rikash was calling lightening, Flames, and Magic to their aid, and Lynn thought they might almost come out of this alive, when disaster struck.

The tail of one of the construct waked him in that back of the head and Rikash slammed into the ground in full-out unconsciousness.

She screamed her little brother's name, now in her human form again, and rushed toward him, not thinking of the consequences.

Fancy summoned a shield to block the first swipe of the construct, but it broke through her second, slamming the bird construct into a heap on the ground. Lynn could see some people running away, or maybe running to help her, she didn't know, but she was alone.

She phased through the lunge of one construct only to be taken out by a violent blow from behind.

She fell to the ground, breathless, and everything was black.

And Providence could do naught, but let events take place as they might.