Disclaimer: If you recognize it, I don't own it.

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"Daine!" Numair called, quickly getting more and more frustrated than he already was. He was jogging silently through the halls, trying to catch up with his student. Only once did she stop in her rooms, but Numair did not notice if she took anything with her. She continued along the halls.

She led him into the stables. Thinking Daine just wanted to show him a horse giving birth or something, Numair slowed to a walk.

"Hurry up!" she called back over her shoulder when she realized Numair was only walking. "The faster we get there, the less you'll complain!"

When both teacher and student were in the stables, Daine quietly called,

"Stefan! Wake up!"

A rustle was heard over by a haystack, and what Numair thought was a pile of rags actually turned out to be a human, Stefan the hostler.

"Aye? What do ya wan'?"

"Get us out of the palace gates as quietly as possible, as soon as you can!"

He gave her a strange look, sighed, and agreed. He slung on his cloak, saddled his mare, and went to the palace gates. Daine went over to the gate and opened it.

Numair had been standing silently through this whole exchange, but when Daine told Stefan to get them out of the palace, Numair was starting to get worried. He didn't say any thing though, seeing as how his student would stop at nothing to do whatever she was doing.

"Are we…going out in the rain?" he asked.

She, once again, did not answer.

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"So why can't we just walk through the gates?" Numair asked. "And are we going out in the rain? Please say no."

"No."

"Do you mean no as in 'no we are not going out in the rain' or no as in 'no I won't say no"?"

"As in 'no I won't say no,'"

"Oh"

Silence followed, until broken by Stefan coming back.

"Thev agreed, but thay say it'll nay happen again."

"Thank you, I won't forget that. I would've messed that up, sweet-talking to the guards," Daine told him.

More silence.

"Why can't we go through the other gates?"

"All of the other gates are closed already, and now they've agreed to stay open for us to go in and out of the city. We should only be an hour, and an hour they'll stay open.

"We're going out in the rain?" Numair asked, petrified.

"Yes, live with it."

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Numair's day was quickly progessing from bad to worse. Now his insane student was leading him into Corus, for no apparent reason.

The guards had told them that they would close the gates on an hour, and no longer. They agreed.

The rain itself was dropping harder and faster. Numair had never seen Daine or himself this wet before.

They were walking, Numair not having enough sense to bring a horse, or even a cloak for that matter. Daine herself was happily humming to herself.

"So?" he asked, practically yelling over the steady rain.

"So?" she yelled back.

"Where are we going?"

"I've said it before and I'll say it again: Open your eyes."

Numair was pretty sure his eyes were open. Yes they were. When he was about to tell Daine so, she jumped in front of him, trying to stare him in the eyes, but seeing as how he was head and shoulders taller, the feat was impossible.

"No! Not physically open your eyes open your eyes as in think and look."

He looked around. There travels had taken them into the Lower City, seeing as how taverns and inns were abundant.

"Look down," she whispered. Although Numair couldn't hear her, for some reason he knew exactly what she said.

He looked down. His feet. Interesting. He was in the Lower City, to look at his feet.

Then he looked in the darkened alleyways. Eyes met his.

He jumped back. He continued looking however, and just one yard away a boy, much younger than Daine, was holding out a bowl, filled with water. His eyes were shallow, and his skin was covered in some sort of disease. Numair wouldn't have called his clothes even rags.

Daine dug in her pockets, and produced a small bag, presumably of coins. He was right, and Daine dropped a copper into his bowl. He looked up at her, and hastily ran away.

"Let's go," Numair said, still shaken at what he had seen.

"It will get worse."

As they walked deeper into the Lower City, more and more shivers crept up Numair's spine, and none of them from the rain.

That night Numair had seen the worst of the worst. Children without parents, clothes or food. One meal could mean a life. Rats and other animals crawled through their living spaces. Some atrocities he could not even begin to imagine or describe.

Through it all, Daine was giving out a copper to each person she passed, which was not that many, seeing as how many were in the alleys or unconscious.

"Numair!" she called. He was a bit farther behind her. "We have to turn back now, if you want to sleep in the palace tonight!"

He caught up with her. "No."

"I have enough money to cover the fare off an inn, should we-,"

"No," he said. "The only way to truly understand something is to live through it."

He walked over to the side a tavern. He groaned and lied down.

"G'night."

Daine smiled. Her teacher was learning. That was Numair, not really learning something until he had fully explored the topic at hand.

She went beside him, and the rain slowly lulled her to sleep.

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"How was your sleep?" Daine asked tiredly. It was morning.

"Sleep?" Numair asked. "I don't think I know what that word means, after tonight." He stiffly stood up, using the wall for support. Daine followed suit.

They both shook out their legs.

"What now?" Numair asked.

"Well, the gates should be open by the time we get back. And that's that."

They started the trek back to the palace, Numair finally learning his lesson. Yesterday had not been a bad day.

It had been a good day.

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A/N- The End. Ta da!