Dedication and Recommendation: the moment you finish reading this chapter, go read the Alanna22039 story Forever and For Always, because that is how an AJ fic (in my personal opinion) is supposed to be written. This chapter is dedicated to Alanna22039 for her review on the last chapter, and for the amazing read!

Oh and: hey MOLLY (Abiona Marchand), I lied. I'm updating before you do.

Chapter 21

"Numair!" Daine and Eliena cried again.

"Shh! Keep it down!" Numair hissed. He shut the door.

"Is it really you?" Eliena asked, reaching out to touch Numair's hand. When she felt his skin, her hand flew off like it was burning hot. Her violet eyes were wide with disbelief. "It is!"

"Of course its me, Eliena," Numair said. "Who else would it be?"

"You were right!" Daine told Eliena breathlessly. "He is alive!"

"Wait, you knew?" Numair and Lindhall asked together. Eliena nodded, cheeks rosy. (She looks so pretty, Numair thought.)

"I had this…feeling," Eliena replied. "Its almost like I can feel your Gift… it happens with mother, father, Duke Baird, Uncle Thom… all of them. I don't know how to describe it."

"You can feel my Gift?" Numair's eyes lit up in the way that they always did when he was excited at the prospect of something intellectual. "You can feel my Gift!"

"Yes… that's what I said…" Eliena said, confused.

"You can feel my Gift!" Numair repeated.

"I believe we established that, Numair," Eliena told him.

"You can feel my Gift!" Numair crowed.

"All right, repeating yourself time is over Numair. Tell me what you mean!" Eli ordered in her special I'm-the-princess-and-you-have-to-do-what-I-say-even-if-I'm-rude voice that she often used when she was aggravated. It was a royal order, but a lax one.

"Eli, if you can feel my Gift, and your parents', and Duke Baird's, and whoever else's you can feel, it means that you have a stronger Gift than we imagined. What does it feel like?" Numair asked anxiously.

"I don't know… like a… presence I guess. Almost like a… I don't know… feeling that there's something else inside of me… I don't really know how to describe it…" Eliena replied, almost mumbling.

"Is it heat?" Lindhall asked.

"Kind of," Eliena replied.

"Is it like how I feel when immortals are near?" Daine asked. "Like there's something else in your mind? For me I hear their sound."

"Yeah, kind of, only I can sort of see the color of their Gift and feel the heat of the flame," Eliena replied, closing her eyes. "Yeah, that's it. I can see the color and feel the heat."

"Are you feeling it right now?" Numair asked. Eliena nodded.

"Mm hm," she replied. "Yours is black and sparkling, and Daine's is coppery."

"What about Lindhall's?" Numair asked.

"I can't see his," Eliena answered. "Only yours and Daine's."

"So its people who you're close to…" Lindhall mused. "That's funny. That only usually happens when they're blood related."

"Like mother and Uncle Thom," Eliena supplied.

"Are they related?" Lindhall asked.

"Twins," Daine, Numair, and Eliena chorused.

"Who else can you feel?" Numair asked. "When they're near, I mean."

"Uncle Gareth, Uncle George… um… and sometimes even the Gifted pages or servants," Eliena replied.

"Tortallans?" Daine guessed. "She can feel the magic of Tortallans?"

"But you aren't Tortallan," Numair reminded the girl.

Daine nodded. "Right. But maybe my da was…"

"Numair isn't Tortallan," Lindhall told her.

"A tiny bit. My several-times-great-grandfather was," Numair corrected.

"But we've never heard of this before," Lindhall remarked. "Usually only when one is blood related can they feel the presence of someone else Gifted. She can feel anyone with Tortallan blood."

Eliena's violet eyes fluttered open. "Could it be the Jewel?" she asked, looking at the mages. "We have the Jewel. It ties father to the land, could it work the same way for me?"

"But your father can't feel Gifted Tortallans," Numair said.

"Maybe it works differently on me, cause I'm a girl," Eliena suggested.

Lindhall shook his head. "No, that couldn't be it. We know much about the Jewel. It always works the same way."

"Mother!" Eliena cried. "And father! They're both Bazhir! Father's the Voice of the Tribes, too! Could it be the ancient Bazhir magic, because I have double?"

"Possibly…" Lindhall replied. "We know very little about the magic of the Bazhir."

"But, again, neither of her parents get this," Numair said.

"Must you always be a spoil sport?" Eliena asked him, putting her hands on her hips and glaring at him.

Numair copied her. "Yes." She stuck her tongue out at him and he returned the gesture.

"Stop it," Lindhall commanded. "We need to figure out what this is."

"I agree with Eliena that its Bazhir… but only because it's the only thing that seems to make sense," Daine put in.

"And I've been told several times that there were plenty of Bazhir at my birth," Eliena said.

Numair sighed. "If only we could contact your parents without being caught…"

"I think I can manage something short with your help, Numair," Lindhall said. The two of them whispered to each other and came up with a spell to guard them against all magic- sight, hearing, etc. The fire circled the room and Eliena pictured her parents, throwing a flame into Lindhall's fireplace.

"Why you have a fireplace in this heat I'll never know," Numair grumbled.

Alanna and Jonathan's faces appeared. "Eli? What is it?" Jonathan asked.

"Is there some kind of Bazhir spell on me that makes me feel anyone with a drop of Tortallan blood in them?" Eliena demanded. "I want to know and I want to know now."

Alanna exchanged a look with her husband. "Eli…"

"Right now," she said sternly.

Jonathan drew in his breath and released it slowly. "Should we tell her, Alanna?"

"Do you hear her? She's getting like me. We had better," the queen replied. Jonathan nodded.

"You're right. OK, Eliena. Listen closely…"

The story

When I was becoming the Voice of the Tribes, Ali Mukhtab, my predecessor, told me that if I married my true love, my heir would be a girl. And that it was my duty as the Voice and as the King of Tortall to be sure that she would know all Gifted people with any Tortallan blood in them to allow our country to be safe. He did not elaborate, and the spell was in the back of my head.

When you were born, Eliena, the spell came back to memory. During the Moment of the Voice the evening of your birth, I told my people that I would have to use some of their magic to help me. They all accepted, because you are the daughter of Bazhir legends, and they trusted me. I tapped their magic and placed the spell on you that night.

End story

"Whoa," Eliena breathed- not only because of the story but because of the sound in her father's voice.

Jonathan's voice was usually a midrange baritone- deep, rich, and clear. Eliena always loved his voice- especially his laugh. But when he told her the story, his voice deepened almost to the bass range. It rumbled like thunder, rushed like whitewater, and whooshed like the wind. It was a powerful, ethereal voice that Eliena imagined was what a god might sound like- one of the Great Gods. When her mother had described the Great Mother Goddess's voice, she compared it to the sound of wolves.

"Exactly. Whoa," Alanna said. "If it caused you any trouble-"

"None," Eliena replied. "I was… confused. See, we all thought-"

"Eliena, we have to go. The spell is going to break any second," Numair told her.

"Spell?" Alanna asked. "What's wrong?"

"Lots of mages around here to listen in. Must go now. I love you both and I'm perfectly fine. Love you!"

"Eliena!" Jonathan called, but he was gone.

"That was powerful," Daine said, shivering. "I never knew a mortal could sound like that."

"Me either," Eliena remarked.

"Now that we understand, we have to turn to the situation at hand," Numair said. He looked at the girls seriously. "Carthak has lost favor with the gods- or Ozorne has. We are in grave danger even being here." He looked at Eliena. "Especially you."

Author's Note- OK, bad ending, but whatever. Now, go read that story I told you about at the beginning. And, MOLLY (Abiona Marchand), UPDATE SOON. Now, everyone click that little button and REVIEW.