Sorry people, if any of you were offended by my semi-random use of the f-word (as it were). I didn't even think to post a warning, I mean it is rated teen though, so I don't really see a problem. I don't know if this upset anyone, but I'll say this just in case: I'm sorry, but I'm not changing it. Rikash is a fifteen-year-old male in a state of stress; of course he's going to use the f-word (and yes, the word did exist back then. The word I kept having trouble with was 'hell' because hell doesn't exist in the Tortall world. I used it once by accident, however. If you can spot it I'll give you a cyber-cookie. Ha. I was actually surprised Fei didn't call me on it…) Reviews! Woohoo!
Ace Ryn Knight, I don't have a little brother, but I do have a little sister (who is bratty but the few times when she's not being a snotty little brat make up for it I guess), and I'm glad I managed to make them realistic. I've had plenty of guys that were like my older brother though, so I also see how the younger-sibling feels, even though I'm a first-y. Ha. I like to think that I can relate to and see the points of views of almost any body, and that's what makes me a good (yes, I'm arrogant) fiction writer. It's lucky for me I know how to say "hell no!" or people would walk all over my sympathizing personality.
I also over-think situations, that's what makes me get really complicated things but I bomb when it comes to the simple stuff. It took me forever to figure out how to get our toaster over to work. That thing still burns my pop tarts every time, oh well.
You think Gainel is great? Thank you!
Kel and Dom? Yes, they're perfect for each other. The only thing I absolutely hate about every fanfiction I've read about them getting together, (even though some of them are still very good works of fiction, despite this flaw,) is that everyone overlooks the fact that if you're in the Kings Own, you can't get married. I made Dom a commander now (yeah, I retired Raoul, even though he's awesome, but Buri gave over the Rider's so it just makes sense that Raoul would give someone new a chance at commanding them,) so now him and Kel could get together! Gods I'm brilliant! Just kidding.
Yeah, I pretty much hate Mary Sue's. I mean sometimes they're a laugh just to see some of the stupid stuff people think is "good" writing, but after a moment I just want to rip the writer's head of and tell them they just suck…because they do. I also hate it when they have about two hundred reviews saying it's the best story ever. God I hate that. I want two hundred reviews saying my stuff is the best ever! It isn't fair! I just don't get it! I have yet to understand what makes them review in such numbers. So much for being able to see 'everyone's' point of view, I don't see those people. Okay, sorry for the rant, there. If you have a clue, tell me someone…I'm dying to know their secret.
Nativewildmage Yay! You reviewed for me! I thought you'd abandoned me!Some thing evil happens? Well…I'm not telling what'll happen. But once again I'll say that I absolutely hate sad endings; so you can bet everything will turn out okay in the end…maybe. If any one wants to guess what they think will happen at the end I'd like to hear it. I want to know what you guys are expecting, and see how it matches up with what will actually happen. If you don't mind that is.
Feifiefofum, no paragraph-long criticism of my typos? I'm touched. Or maybe it just got boring, whatever. More material? What kind of material? Read and review man, read and review.
Numair's Lover I find it unnerving that almost everyone mentioned my use of the word fuck in the last chapter. What does that mean? No they aren't gradually getting shorter. Chapter 9 is the longest with 4974 words, then it's chapter 13 with 4557, and third is Chapter 6 with 4346. Although, the last two were short, it's true. This one's slightly longer, I hope this makes up for it a little.
And I don't think you have to worry about you're mental stability, you seem well enough to me. If anyone needs to worry it'd probably be me, I'm pretty crazy. Have you read my fanfiction turn from shadow? I think nativewildmage asked if I was Bi-polar. Read and Review please!
Kaito-Orenji Thanks for another review! Yes, it is because they woke up at the end; Provy only makes appearances in real time situations. He's picky like that. I think Rikash is cool too! I'm so glad you agree. And you adore Gianel? Oh, so do I! I know it's pathetic for someone to fall in love with their own fiction character, but I really like him too. I'm a weirdo. Thanks for reviewing and read this and review again! Please!
Providence Smiles
By LGR
Part III: Beleif and Uncertainty
Lynn jerked awake.
And immediately started reeling.
She fell back to the ground with her head aching and vision swirling and shifting in and out of focus. Her ears were ringing and she kept hearing loud rumbling sounds from the distance. Upon hitting the ground, she immediately started coughing and hacking, causing her head to throb even more, from the giant dust cloud that had been flung into the air upon her collapse.
Lynn's mouth throat were coated in dust, making it hard to breathe as she used her shifting powers to heal the slight bruising at had been done to her brain. Her breathing hitched and set in a new wave of coughing as the pain increased from the use of her power while her brain was slightly injured, then lessened to nothing as it was healed.
Lynn also took the opportunity to remove the burn marks that Discord had given her.
Ooh, The next time I see that woman, I'm going to bitch-slap her ass half-way to the next CENTURY, Lynn thought hatefully, pouring emotion into every syllable, if she laid but one FINGER on MY Gainel, that bitch will HANG!
Lynn looked up from her position to examine her surroundings.
It wasn't pretty.
She was sitting on the top of a giant sand dune of mixed black and ruby granules. It appeared that her fall hadn't kicked up the dust; instead they had been flung into the air by the tumultuous wind that whipped at her hair, and nearly blinded her.
There was light, but it was a diffused sort of orange, and the sky was covered from horizon to horizon with black thunderheads that belched great forks of lighting to strike the ground or just ripple across the clouds' undersides.
The red and black sand was constantly changing, and her dune grew smaller, even as she sat on it, and another rose up to tower behind her. It was like a great shifting sea; the dunes great waves in a storm.
Suddenly she was dragged from her place on the dune by a hand that was clenched painfully around her right arm.
She fought and kicked and screamed her rage, as she was kept from shifting out of the hand's grip as pressure built in the air and a shaft of white fire erupted from the ground.
No, not from the ground: from the sky. Lightening had struck exactly where she'd been sitting on the dune. Lynn's ears were still ringing and a purple streak, an after image of the lightning's path, was obscuring her vision.
Blinking her sight clear, she saw that before her was a small crater of glass black glass and soot.
Breathing sharply, Lynn spun around to identify with her rescuer, only to come face to face with Discord. The Goddess's Gold eyes flashing in the dim light like a cat's.
And to think Lynn liked cats.
"You!" Lynn gasped in surprise and anger, "What did you do to him? If you hurt him I'll—!"
"Do what?" Discord asked amusedly, "Silly mortal…don't you realize you are week compared to the powers the gods command? You couldn't—ahh!"
Discord hadn't expected the blow coming and Lynn landed a punch to the goddess's left eye, but the kick that followed it, was grabbed and Gold fire seared through her clothes into Lynn's flesh and her other leg gave way and she collapsed in a flurry of dust and sand particles screaming.
"Now, don't try that again," the goddess, said in a tone that could freeze the blood.
Lynn could barely hear through her own gasps and sobs at the pain, until she's used her shifting powers to repair herself, even as she felt the faint energy vibrations of the Discord doing the same for her eye.
"Hmm, so you've learned to use you're powers to heal yourself. I must say, I am slightly impressed—but only slightly. You're powers can't help you here, mortal." Discord told her condescendingly.
Discord's voice was arrogant and filled with scorn, but in truth the goddess was shocked, at such a display of power by a mere human. Shape-shifting, phasing…these were powers specific to the race of the Divine. She was dangerous to have around, and should be destroyed as soon as her Mistress had used her to get to the Living Realms.
And Discord had been skeptical that the girl would be able to be of any use to her Mistress at all, despite the special significance that Uusoae had assured her the mortal had. Shifting ones self, and shifting others were not the same. The awareness that one had as to the condition of one's own body was not present when trying to shift or phase others. You needed a special ability to connect with other matter and organisms. This too, was an ability exclusive to gods.
The girl also didn't have any qualms with trying to hit a god. Gainel had babied this mortal: she thought she what I took to stand up to a deity.
Gainel. She still couldn't believe that he hadn't known.
That he hadn't understood the implications his union with the girl would have had. She'd assumed his affection was only face value; that he'd been using her to get his own freedom to exist within the living realms. It still shocked her how deep his fondness for the girl lay; it was ingrained to the bone.
Discord hadn't known until her Mistress had informed her, that the mortal Lynn was one of those few mortals born with an elemental affinity. It was very rare, but it cropped up every so often amongst the humans.
When a being had an elemental affinity, they gained certain faculties that could interact with the elements around them. Gods and Goddesses coveted such humans, to help enhance their own powers. For instance, a human with an affinity for water, could greatly enhance the powers of a deity that presided over water, and increase the success rate of everything the human did that was at the deity's bidding. However, if the deity was, say a deity that presided over fire then most everything the deity wanted of mortal would likely go desperately wrong.
With Lynn at his side, he would no longer be constrained to his own realm; ever. The girl held the element of choice.
It was too bad; he and the rest of the Gods would be destroyed and taken into the mass that was Chaos. Order would cease to exist and her Mistress will have won. It was such a pain that the very essence that was chaos rejected the idea of choices; a choice required conscious effort at thought and deduction. Chaos was no thought; just instinct. Her Mistress would have to take her freedom, for it would not be granted to her.
The goddess of Discord reflected on the irony. Gainel who had always wanted freedom but did nothing to make it his own had been handed the means to his release, but Uusoae who had done everything possible to break from her prison using every means at her disposal, and some that were not, had no such gift.
But that was The Balance for you, the scales of the cosmos, that took all debts and marked the ways in which the elements would react, and there was no changing it. Not even the Gods had that power.
She was under his nose all along, and he hadn't even known, she thought. It was ridiculous really.
"Hey! Yeah that's right, I'm talking to you!"
Discord turned to see that Lynn was yelling at her, but didn't pay her ravings any mind; here, in Chaos, she was no threat, even with her powers.
Lynn, was scared, but she wasn't going to back down, not even from a Goddess. Gainel was her patron. It was her duty to uphold his honor and authority; that was what devotees did for their gods. It also helped that she cared more for him than she ever had for herself.
"ANSWER ME!" Lynn shouted at the Goddess, who happened to be ignoring her in favor of the dark horizon. "ANSWER ME OR I'LL--I'll…OR I'LL HIT YOU AGAIN!"
The Goddess didn't so much as blink or shift an eyelash in Lynn's direction, making the shapeshifter's blood boil all the more hotly.
She wasn't going to take this abuse. If Uusoae wanted her, than Discord wasn't likely to do anything to her that might leave lasting affects. Her guess was that it had something to do with he powers, so she'd have to be well enough mentally and physically to use them.
But…if Lynn was wrong…and Discord did hurt or, dare she say it, kill her, at least Lynn's own powers would be out of Chaos's reach, hopefully.
Come one Lynn, if there was ever a time to suddenly figure out how to phase without someone or something to guide you this would be it! She thought to herself, focusing all her energy and focus on this one task, but then sighed in dismay; she was sweating from the effort but nothing was happening.
If she could just leave this place, then she could go see Gainel, see if he was safe. Oh she hoped he was safe. She knew it was a ridiculous concept for a mortal to be worried about a Gods safety, but she couldn't help but feel that way at his moment. Despite her own position, it seemed to her that he had been the one in real danger all along.
He'd wanted to keep her safe, and what had happened to him? She'd seen him trapped in that between-place, unable to leave to save her or himself!
She'd sensed him near and opened her eyes from the darkness to find that he was there. For a moment she'd thought t might be a dream, but reality had come crashing down as soon as she'd realized she was being carried by a chaos-construct. She recognized their 'feel' from five years ago.
But that sort of situation was exactly the kind she'd been training and preparing herself for; but even with her sudden ability to shift him herself, it hadn't been enough.
She hadn't known she could do that; it surprised her how many uses her power really had. But they still weren't enough. They still weren't enough to stand up to the power of a God.
Even if it is true, she thought, I'll never be able to be with him. He's a god, and I'm nothing. Humans don't live for more than a century at best, and I could never stand at his side to help, how had I ever thought it could work out!
"How indeed? How could you ever have thought so? Stupid, useless human." Lynn jumped at the sound of Discord's voice.
Slamming her hands to her ears she cried, "Get out of my head, you witch! Stop listening to my thoughts! I won't fall for your lies!"
"They aren't lies, you thought them yourself, and you know they're true." The goddess laughed unsympathetically and wearing a smirk. "How could you have ever hoped to equal him? When the truth was it was impossible?"
Lynn tried to ignore the Goddess's voice, praying to anyone or anything that could hear her from the cesspool that was the Chaos-realm, that her utterances were untrue.
Discord, had yet some time to wait before everything would be ready for their departure into the Living realms when she would present to her Mistress the shape-shifter, and Uusoae would take over the girls mind, and force her to take the Chaos Queen to the Living realms, but she thought she could get away with spreading a little discord now. Not enough to make her kill herself, as she'd promised Gainel she would; but enough to set that doubt, that sadness and sense of uncertainty that she lived for, that was her essence.
She smirked, "Yes, it's true, you're unfit to be his partner. You can't even control your own powers. You can't even leave her yourself! You're worthless to him! Why do you think he wanted you under his wing? Had you ever thought? Did you think he had cared for you? Liked your company? Or was it something else? Perhaps he saw potential in your powers?"
Lynn's lost her inner battle for peace and shot Discord the most vehement look she could manage, "Don't you DARE compare him to you! He isn't like that! He wouldn't take advantage of me like that! I know!"
Discord was slightly surprised at the extreme amount of belief held in that statement, but she supposed it was only natural, with the deep amount of devotion she had toward him.
"Wouldn't he? You've already admitted that you are no match for the complexity of a god. Don't you believe he could trick you? It would be easy he'd known you since you were a little girl; it would have been easy."
"No!"
"Have you ever wondered why you like him so much? How someone can feel such attachment to any one thing, especially a god? How unnatural it was!"
It had seemed unnatural. She had wondered…
"Haven't you ever thought that maybe he'd bewitched you? Made it so you felt this way! That your affection is an artificial illusion created specifically to make you his loyal dog?"
Lynn started laughing hysterically, and Discord's brows furrowed in confusion and annoyance, but Lynn didn't stop.
"Have you listened to yourself? You're pathetic." The mortal said condemningly, and before the goddess could stop herself, she'd crossed the span between her and the girl, to release the wards on her power and grab the girl with shining gold and black hands.
"YOU THINK I'M PATHETIC HUMAN!"
Power blazed off her in great swathes and ripples, as the girl screamed from the burning might of her glory.
Oh, she'd teach this mortal a lesson she wouldn't soon forget—
She choked as a greater power than hers constricted her mind and her body, crushing her. Discord dropped the girl with shaking, now lightless hands, and writhed on the ground gasping for breath, gold and black blood pouring from her eyes, ears, nose and mouth.
"YOU WILL NOT THREATEN MY PLANS, DISCORD." Came the great voice of her Mistress Uusoae.
Lynn was recovering from the torrential energy that had threatened to rip her to shreds with it's very being, but no sooner had she repaired the damage done by the Goddess of Discord, was she clamping her hands to her ears and shrieking again
A massive 'thing', an ever shifting and changing shape, had manifested itself before her. Interchangeable squid eyes and frog noses and lions manes and humans mouths shifted out over the goddess's body; sometimes where they were supposed to be, some times not. The sight of an endless amount of different body parts displayed then banished from the Goddess's surface within the blink of an eye was enough to make Lynn wretch.
With Discord still thrashing in the sand, her blood mixing with the granules of dust and soot and sand, Lynn was free to move but she found she couldn't. The Goddess of Chaos turned what looked to be her head, a wiggling mass of five giant, saucer-sized silvery blue eyes, at the moment, to look at Lynn, and said:
"COME TO ME."
Had the careful planning all been for naught? But Providence could no longer help the girl, he turned his attention to other matters, wishing that his endeavors would be successful, for it was her only hope…
