8 April 2018: I can hardly believe it's already April. Where has this year gone? But as it is April, it is time to definitely post an update to this fic. Depending on if Dragon of Winter Nights has time to beta read the next chapter this month, there may well bea second update before May.

Chapter 10
In which Clef faces the Council… alone

The force of Umi's spell ricocheted through the both of them. Clef just had time to check Rio and Pao were safe before he thumped backward onto the bedroom floor, arms wrapping about Umi as she slammed into him. His staff clattered down beside him as he tried to get his bearings back. "What were you thinking?" he demanded, pushing the hair from Umi's face with shaking hands. That amount of magic could seriously injure someone if it backfired, or worse.

There were none of the usual quips from Umi about knowing her limits, no defence for acting so rashly. She didn't respond at all.

Instead, she lay across him, lifeless.

He practically ripped open the buttons at the top of her nightgown to get at her neck, but his hand was trembling too much to actually feel her pulse. Her skin was cold without even the hint of magic current beneath it.

He screamed for help, for Getz or anyone who could hear him, with his voice and his magic - the house shuddered about him and that could have been Honda, could have been him. He didn't know, and he didn't care.

Aveo was the first into the room, bursting through the door not a minute after the spell had burst apart. "What in the Pillar's name was that?"

Shoving past her, Getz skidded to his knees beside Clef, reaching for Umi. "Was that a backlash?"

"I don't know." Clef's voice broke. "I wasn't watching her close enough. I just let her straight into the Circle and she -"

It had been so much power, Clef wasn't sure if he had felt Umi losing control of the spell and letting it go, or if it actually had exploded back on her in that final burst of energy. Either way, she shouldn't have been handling so much magic after the day before and now -

But Getz didn't ask any more questions. "She's alive, and she's going to stay that way. But you're going to have to let go of her for me to do anything else." He lay a hand on Clef's arm. "You're overwhelming every diagnostic spell I cast. I can't feel anything from her with your magic in the way, mate."

Clef sucked in a breath and tried to pull his magic back in, but it kept washing out into the empty space under Umi's skin, as if trying to coax some response out of her.

"Yeah, that ain't going to work," Getz told him. "Help me get her up on the bed, then you need to actually let go of her. Aveo -"

"Here," Aveo murmured, and she was beside them to help life Umi to the bed, then pulled Clef away, he hand steady on his shoulder.

Clef only let himself be chased back as far as the edge of the bed, where he sat warily watching Getz check Umi again. Warmth gathered in the air around Getz as he worked, and more colour eased into Umi's face after a few minutes, but Getz just shook his head when he finally stopped. "I've soothed what I can. I can't find evidence of the damage from a backlash, but there's absolutely no magic left in her at all. Might just be she threw everything she had at Honda and the shock of it's stopping her pull anything new, or..."

The words echoed through Clef, freezing him, so it was Aveo who took a deep breath to ask, "You think she's burnt-out her connection to Cephiro?"

"Possibly. But there's no way to check when she's unconscious. I've lain a healing sleep on her for now. We'll see in a few hours. There wasn't that much damage. I think she may have just used every scrap of power she could pull."

Clef's voice was scratchy when he made himself ask, "You think, or you hope?"

Getz didn't answer.

.*.*.*.

Clef refused to leave Umi's side for the rest of the night and into the morning, no matter how many times Getz grouched at him to go get some rest or he'd be no good to anyone. There was nothing he could do, but Clef didn't care. He kept shifting from the side of the bed to a chair, standing and pacing the room, and then back again, all the while never going far enough he couldn't watch the shallow rise and fall of her chest to reassure himself that she was still breathing. Beyond that, she never moved.

Umi's hands stayed cold - as did the rest of her - despite the warming spell and the extra blankets he dragged out of the cupboard, the others he sent for. No matter how much he bundled her up, the chill still seeped through her empty skin.

The rest of the house was just as awake. Umi had effectively used the entire ocean as a hammer to slam Honda back onto Mazda, and it had worked - with a few changes to geography of both wards, which were keeping the rest of the Circle busy as Aveo organised a thorough check on their stability, bringing Clef progress updates along with a new pot of tea and a snack for Getz every hour as he kept monitoring Umi between being called out to deal with other people's minor injuries.

What jamming Honda back on had also done was create a literal wave spreading out from where the impact had happened, which had struck the closest other wards as well as parts of Mazda, doing some damage as it hit. His Circle had been awake and already working, so they'd defended most of Mazda even without Clef, but no one else had been expecting a seventeen-foot wave in the middle of the night.

When Aveo brought him the first reports from Dacia, Clef waved her off. The injuries had thankfully been both minor and few in number, but he couldn't find the energy to care about the other damages. "Send them whatever they need. I'll pay for the repairs."

Aveo paused. "If Mazda pays, it will look like reparations - like we're admitting responsibility," she said, carefully. "If the Council had done as we asked and appointed a Warden already -"

"The Council moves too slowly, and Dacia's only just getting on its feet. Take the money from my personal accounts, then Mazda won't be involved; it's not like I do anything with it. Aside from buy apparently ridiculously expensive clothes for -" his voice cracked, and he couldn't say Umi's name, staring at the bed she lay in.

Aveo clasped him on the shoulder again, the familiar touch easing a fraction of the panic in his throat. "And then hide them in a wardrobe and refuse to give them to her for months," she teased, quietly. "I'll get in contact with Dokker and arrange things."

"Thank you."

Late morning, Umi stirred slightly, easing from the healing sleep to a natural one as Getz was convinced Clef out to meet with the rest of the Circle and do his job. He promised to stay by Umi's side until she regained consciousness.

"Go on. If you have the meeting up here, you'll only be a few doors away. We need to get a report to the Council about this. And if you try finding any more blankets, I'm going to throw you out anyway before you smother her."

Extra chairs had been brought in before they could all fit in the little neglected sitting room just down the corridor, even with Kalos out organising prayers for stability and Koeru out with the rest of the summoners and herders, taking news back and forth about the damage and starting the heavy lifting, making sure the creatures were all reassured into settling back down. Teana was out and about with him, looking into what repairs were needed - Holbio would have been doing it, as head of the smiths, but he was both exhausted and required for the report, so he'd asked her to step in - her merchants would need to supply the materials anyway.

Aveo told him all of this as she arranged everything and ushered him into the room, where everyone else was settling in and helping themselves to snacks and tea. Clef just paused in the doorway, blinking in the sunlight that streamed in through the windows, feeling as though he was hearing all their chatter from behind a muffling blanket.

Brisa leapt out of her chair - probably at some signal from Aveo which Clef couldn't see, as she shot a worried glance in her direction before reaching to take Clef by the arm and steer him into the chair beside hers, right by the door. She got him a mug of tea and he drank, mechanically while Aveo checked on everyone else and called the meeting to order.

They would all have felt Umi in the spell, and that spectacular crash out of it, but no one asked him anything - or expected him to take charge of the meeting, so Aveo must have told them all something. Clef was quietly, sharply grateful he didn't have to answer anything, but straightforward questions about Honda's disintegration and that Brisa nudged him gently each time he was asked something; he wouldn't have noticed otherwise.

All his mind, all his heart, was with the girl asleep down the hall, and all his will was praying for her recovery.

.*.*.*.

When Umi opened her eyes, there was daylight streaming in the window. She blinked up at the ceiling trying to remember anything after tumbling out of bed and grabbing hold of Clef's spell. Or had that been her own spell? Rio and someone else were going to fall, and she tried to stop it?

Her entire body ached, every muscle screaming out when she tried to sit up like she'd been stepped on by Selece. Her chest was the worst. There was a throbbing under her breastbone and her lungs burned with each breath.

"You're awake," hissed out a relieved voice. Getz bolted up from a chair by the door and over to the bedside. He grabbed her hand and pressed it firmly between both of his, a warm pulse of magic coursing off his palms and making her itch all through. "Oh thank heavens. We were afraid you might've burnt yourself out with that trick."

Umi blinked in confusion as he let go to grab a glass of water and instruct her to drink some of it, but she was desperately thirsty. She had to use both hands to steady the glass. The water was cool on her tongue, but her throat burned as she swallowed it.

"That's what I thought," Getz said, taking the glass and setting it aside. He pressed his fingers just under her jaw and traced the muscles down the sides of her neck as another warm spell into her skin that rolled through her throat. "That should help a little, but I can't do much for the strain you've caused. You're going to be sore for a while."

Swallowing didn't hurt as badly when she took the glass back, and she finished it without argument. "Another?" she croaked out, voice rasping.

"Here, try this first." He took the glass and handed Umi a little crisp bread like thing next. "You ought to at least eat a little before I let Clef know you're awake, and he starts getting in the way again."

The first bite was sickeningly sweet and made Umi wrinkle her face at him. She swallowed that mouthful and tried to hand the thing back. "Too sweet."

"You need to replenish your energy after that, physical as well as magical," Getz said, refusing to take it back. "Clef said you don't like sweets, but that's one of the best things for refueling your body."

"Maybe, but I'm not going to eat it." Umi shoved it back.

"Just a few bites?"

"No," she said, and dropped it on the bedside table, where it shattered.

"Fine. "Getz refilled the glass from the jug and passed it back to her. "I'll find you something else."

Umi wondered what he'd meant about burning herself out, but he bounced back to his feet and over to the open door to shout for Clef before she had a chance to ask.

Moments later, Clef appeared in the doorway. His face was even paler than usual - which was a feat given he always looked like he hadn't seen the sun in several centuries - and creased with worry.

"Umi," he breathed, crossing the room and nearly throwing himself across the bed. He held her hand in one of his, pressing his other against the centre of her chest, just where the worst of the ache was, but whatever he sensed made him relax a little. "You foolish creature," he said. "What were you thinking?"

"I was thinking 'That ground's going to collapse and they might die', so I just -"

"Grabbed hold of the entire ocean and slammed it against the coast!" Clef glared at her, but there was no heat in it.

"It seemed like a good idea at the time?" Umi shrugged, then winced when her chest twinged. "Did it work?"

He frowned. "Honda is in roughly the same place, if not the same shape. ...Rio and Pao are fine. But you could have killed yourself!" Clef said, voice breaking and his eyes glittering damply. "What would I have done if something happened to you? I can't even contact your family."

Umi looked at Clef in horror. It had been years since she'd wondered what would happen in they died in Cephiro; her parents searching for her if she didn't come home. They would probably contact all of her school friends, then reach out to Hikaru or Fuu, who would then have to not only be told the news, but take it home to Mama and Papa. Scrubbing a hand across her now burning eyes, Umi shook her head. "I'm fine. I'll see them tomorrow, and they'll never know."

Clef pulled her into a tight hug. "Please don't scare me like that again."

"I'll try not to?" Umi leaned into his warmth.

With a broken laugh, Clef pressed a soft kiss to her temple and pulled back to look at her. "You just like to complicate my life, don't you?"

"You never seem to complain too much when I'm doing it."

"Well, I'm complaining now No more complicating like that, please!"

Umi moved back toward him, tilting her head to catch his lips with hers. Clef tenderly kissed her back, one hand cradling her face. His magic jolted through her like the sharp prick of blood returning to a limb, not like the normal reaction, more like it was reaching out for hers. She hissed in a sharp breath, but still crept closer.

"Okay," Getz said, startling them both apart. "I'm going to go and leave you two alone for a few minutes, but I'm telling you to take it easy, Umi. No magic for now." Then he turned to Clef. "And no vigorous sex for at least a few days." He paused in the doorway. "Should I tell them you'll be a little while?"

Clef glanced at Umi as if looking for her opinion on this, but as she had no idea who Getz was talking about, she just shrugged - and winced again - even as she blushed at the mention of sex. "What's happening?"

"Oh - of course, you've been unconscious," clef pulled rueful expression at her. "We're in the middle of a circle meeting down the hallway. I'm probably meant to check we're responding all the ways we should, and writing up a report for the Council to yell about until they finally give in and appoint a warden for Honda."

Umi blinked at him. "You're all arguing over who has to do the paperwork? She guessed, and both Getz and Clef grinned at her.

"Pao gets stuck with that - you haven't met in person yet, but Pao's our Clerk," Clef told her.

Getz was snickering in the doorway. "Pao actually likes paperwork. The meetings without them are interesting, though…"

"Can I help?" Umi asked, and both men paused.

"Your account would probably be useful, actually, if you feel up to it?" Clef glanced between her and Getz. "And if our healer thinks it's okay? It's not quite a full Circle meeting, a few people are still out and about, and you've met most of who's here."

Getz gave her a long, considering look, during which Umi tried to look healthy and awake and not like she was leaning on Clef to stay upright. "If you really feel up to it - just don't push yourself. If you start wilting, we can bring you back again, Clef refused to move out of earshot, so the meeting's only a few rooms away."

"Getz!" Clef hissed, flushing.

Nodding, Umi grinned at Clef. "I'll come. But could you find me some clothes, maybe?"

"I'll see both of you in a few minutes, then," Getz said, and left them to it.

.*.*.*.

Clef had to help Umi get dressed once he'd brought her clothes. She kept having to pause to rest after holding her arms up for him to help her into an undershirt, then a dress, and a wrap over that, the slightly erratic mismatch of Cephiran clothes and the things she'd brought with her hopefully comfortable and warm; her skin was still cool to the touch, though not as clammy as it had been.

She leaned heavily against him while brushing her teeth, and didn't exactly let go while they walked down the corridor to the little sitting room, where the meeting was continuing. Getz had been parked in the chair by the door, adding his version of events to the report around bites of food from a plat Brisa was keeping well stocked when he wasn't looking.

Clef hadn't remembered the low table being covered with so many plates of high-energy foods when he'd left the room, but he hadn't exactly been paying attention.

One of the settees had been cleared for them. Clef eased Umi onto it before sitting down beside her. Aveo had the chair on Umi's other side and passed her a cup of tea before Clef was even settled.

"You should eat something when you're finished with that, dear," Aveo said to Umi, and then was passing a full plate across to Clef. "You should have something, too."

He knew better than to argue and kept the plate where Umi could steal from it without reaching too far.

"That was a very impressive display." There was a flicker of a smile at the edge of Rio's lips where he sat across from them. "But I would expect nothing less of one who carries such a strong connection to our Guru."

Getz muttered something like "An impressive display of idiocy," then Brisa thumped him on the shoulder.

"I overreacted didn't I?" Umi said, her voice quiet and tinged with embarrassment.

"You saved both Pao and myself from falling through into the water." Rio said, his voice full of gentle reassurance. "Our little clerk cannot swim, and even a water-spirit may drown if enough earth is dropped on top of them." He gestured at Pao as he said their name, and Pao peeked out from behind a stack of papers to give Umi a tiny wave and a nod in agreement. "Just worry about regaining your strength. You'll need it for far more important things soon."

Aveo called them back to task once Umi had eaten a reasonable amount, asking Umi for her account of what had happened. (Which started with them in bed together, but not one person commented.) Umi started talking about the land feeling like badly made dough, but Clef wasn't paying attention to her words. He was watching her movements, listening to the growing strength of her voice, and keeping her close enough he could feel the subtle pulse of magic beneath her skin telling him that she was going to be alright.

Once Umi had finished telling her side of what happened she tucked her feet up underneath herself on the settee and leaned into his shoulder, drooping more and more heavily against him, as the discussion about what they ought to do continued on.

A little while later, Aveo prodded Clef - who was starting to drift off himself - and suggested that he take Umi back to bed. Clef looked over. Umi's face completely hidden by the curtain of her fringe, but her breathing was slow and easy, and her magic lay quiet.

.*.*.*.

Umi woke again to fading sunlight. Clef murmured sleepily against her neck, his arm wrapping more tightly about her waist when she tried to move, so she let herself lean back into his warmth. She might as well enjoy this while she had it; she would be going back to Tokyo tomorrow afternoon, and she wouldn't be back to Cephiro for a few weeks. Even then, chances to do this were going to be rare.

"It's probably dinner time," Clef said after a few more minutes, his voice low and rough with sleep. "We should both eat something."

"Can it wait?" Umi asked, snuggling in closer.

Clef kissed her neck, his warm breath making her shiver. "Only until someone comes up to get us. Aveo isn't going to let either of us miss dinner twice in a row, especially not after last night."

Clef seemed just as reluctant to let Umi go as she was to move away from him, but they did manage to crawl back out of bed and head downstairs before anyone came to fetch them.

Dinner was relatively quiet. The rest of the Circle had returned to their own homes, including Brisa, who had apparently vanished with Kalos the moment she appeared, promising Kalos's report on papa 'later, after she's slept' and whisking her away. So it was only the six of them at the table. Everyone was relatively subdued - most of them yawning between mouthfuls - and the conversation mostly consisted of asking each other to pass dishes and drinks.

It was Aygo who finally broke the calm. "Did you really move the whole ocean?" he asked, looking up at Umi with wide eyes.

Umi nodded. "Yeah. I think I did."

"That's so cool!" He turned to Clef, waving his bread at him. "Why don't you do anything like that? Aren't you supposed to be more powerful than anyone?"

"Because it's a stupid thing to do," Clef said.

"Someone had to do something!" Umi snapped back at him.

"I was trying to." He made a wild gesture with his hand, nearly splattering some of his dinner across himself. "If you'd just waited another moment, I would have had them."

"But you weren't fast enough! You heard Rio. They were going to fall."

"That doesn't mean you should do things like that, Umi!" Clef snapped.

Umi picked up her plate and moved over to sit by Aygo. "Clef's being a twit again. Will you be my friend instead?"

"Sure!" Aygo answered, then looked at her thoughtfully for a moment. "I'm not going to kiss you, though."

Aveo coughed at that, while Getz snorted out a laugh, and Elysion giggled.

"Fair enough." Umi turned and stuck her tongue out at Clef - who just rolled his eyes - before going to back to eating her food.

"Are you coming back here after the meeting, Clef, or will you be staying at the Castle?" Aveo asked.

Umi looked up. "What meeting?"

"Emergency Council meeting. They finally want to do something about Honda." Clef answered, not sounding particularly happy about it.

"Oh." Of course there would be a meeting about what she'd done. It had affected more than just Mazda, hadn't it? It was just - she'd wanted to spend a little more time with Clef before going home. If he was in a meeting she wouldn't get to. Umi poked at her food, no longer feeling that hungry.

"It shouldn't last all day." Clef said, apologetically. "Perhaps we could have dinner before you leave tomorrow?"

"You're leaving tomorrow?" Getz asked, straightening from his slump at the table to look worried. "Don't you have to transport yourself back to your home? I'm not sure that's a good idea - can't you rest a few more days?"

"My parents are expecting me, and I have to go back to school next week," Umi said, shaking her head.

"School's stupid," Aygo commiserated. Elysion nodded in quieter agreement.

Getz reached across the table to ruffle Aygo's hair, though he still looked worried. "You hardly even go to school."

"Even when I don't, Master Clef still makes me read lots of those boring old books," Aygo argued, shoving Getz's hand away, "and write reports and things. I don't think all those words can possibly fit inside my head."

"But isn't there any way for you to get a message home, and at least stay another night?" Getz asked, looking back up at Umi.

"No." Umi shook her head. As much as she would like the excuse to stretch her visit out longer, she couldn't. "My parents expect me home tomorrow night, and I won't make them worry."

Umi was chased away from the table when she tried to held clear it, Aygo and Elysion turning into a united front before the adults could even react; she excused herself to go pack, instead, shoving everything clean back into her bag - the washing might as well stay here. Clef would get it back to her.

Dropping the bag at the foot of her bed, Umi slumped into the dressing table chair and stared at the jewellery still scattered haphazardly across the tabletop. She hadn't put any of it away. She picked up the bracelet she'd worn to the village and emptied out everything she'd put in the gem. The coin purse she tossed at her bag - she'd tuck it away somewhere in her room at the Castle before she went home - but she sat there a moment staring at the little promise box again.

Umi traced the gentle curving letters across the lid, before opening it and putting in all of the jewellery she had worn this week, every little hair clip, ear cuff, and bracelet. It was just a few days of things, but so much had happened, and she didn't want to forget any of it.

What was she supposed to do with it? She couldn't take it home - nothing from Cephiro ever made it back, no matter how many times they tried - and she certainly couldn't take it back to the Castle to keep in her room. With that sort of quote on the top, Caldina would start asking questions if she saw it - which would be almost certain given how often she dropped into the girls' room unannounced.

It was chance Umi shouldn't take.

As if sensing her quandary, Clef chose that moment to knock on the open door. Turning around in her seat, Umi held the box out to him. "If I give this back to you, will you keep it safe for me until I can move here?"

"Of course." Clef stepped forward and held out both of his hands, taking the box from her as delicately as if it were made from the finest cut crystal. He held it a long moment before vanishing it into the ring he always wore.

Once she'd gone through the room another time to make sure she hadn't left anything - Clef went to fetch one of her books and some shoes from his bedroom - Umi let him talk her into joining him downstairs for a quiet bath, before they both curled back up in bed for one last night together.

.*.*.*.

Clef would have liked Umi's last morning with them to be a slow and relaxed affair before finally travelling back to the Castle. Unfortunately, the Council meeting was due to start well before lunch time.

They did manage to have a rushed breakfast together before Clef translocated them into the main receiving hall of the Castle, and they walked down to his office together - with a brief pause at Umi's room for her to put some things away and enough privacy for a kiss goodbye.

"I should probably leave you here," Umi said when they stopped at Clef's office door.

Clef's hand lingered on hers. "Are you sure you won't stay for dinner?"

Umi shook her head and laughed as she reached out to take her bag back from him again. "I still have my summer homework to finish, and only two more days to do it."

"Umi."

"It's only a few things! I got most of it done before coming." With a brief glance down the empty corridor, she leaned in and kissed him on the cheek. "I hope everything goes well, and they get the whole Warden business settled."

"Hopefully." He paused, hand on the door. Umi still looked pale and was swaying slightly on her feet. "Are you sure you're safe to get back?"

"It doesn't take that much energy to get there, and I can pay for transport home. No extra walking involved. I should have enough money on me." She slung the bag around and dug through the side pocket to pull out her purse and did a quick count of the notes inside. Paper money did seem more sensible for a world that didn't have a way to make coins lighter with magic. "Yeah. It'll be fine. Next weekend I have plans with Satomi, so I won't see you for… two weeks, I guess?"

"Will that be just the afternoon or were you staying the night."

"Just Sunday afternoon." Umi said, her cheeks flushing. "I can come and… say hi?"

Clef smiled. "I'd like that."

"Good. So, you get to work, and I'll go home." She took a slow step backward. "I'll see you in a fortnight."

He watched until she disappeared into the archway of the spiral, then finally pushed open his office door to find Ferio waiting for him. Ferio unfolded himself from the chair and shook a sheaf of papers at him - presumably a copy of the report they'd sent over yesterday.

"Do you want to tell me exactly what happened this week?"

"I had a guest," Clef said, making his way around his desk to the kettle.

"Oh, I can see that. Trust me, everyone now knows that." Ferio rattled the papers again. "What I want to know is how you expect me to mitigate the damage you're doing to your reputation?"

"What does it matter what everyone knows? Everyone should know it wasn't illegal, and that those laws are terrible anyway!"

"That doesn't mean you should be taking people to your house for a - a week of debauchery!"

Clef snorted a laugh at that. While it was true he'd spent more of the week tangled up in bed with Umi than he would ever have imagined, Clef wouldn't have called it 'debauched'. He opened the tin for the strongest tea he had and held it up. "Drink?"

"Yes - No - Are you even listening to me?"

Two large spoonfuls of tea went into the teapot before Clef snapped the lid back on the tin. "I'm allowed to have friends, Ferio."

"And how many of your friends do you plan to have sex with?"

"It's not like it's never happened before, as Sandero reminds me every time I try to give him a job he wants to worm out of by claiming it would look like favouritism." Once the water was in the pot, Clef dropped the lid down with loud clank. "Are you feeling slighted or something? Because I thought you went for people with breasts, but if you really-"

"No!" Ferio raised his hands defensively. "I am not - Can you please just keep all of this, with Umi, a little more… I don't know… subtle?"

"Well, it's not like I expected an entire ward to try falling into the sea." Clef poured two cups and handed one to Ferio - who automatically took it - on his way round the desk. "As you said, it's not like my feelings have ever been that much of a secret."

"You didn't have to go parading her around dressed like-" Ferio waved a hand up and down in the air, a faint blush on his cheeks "-your companion for the evening."

"I didn't choose her outfit!" he snapped.

Ferio remained unimpressed. "Maybe not, but you bought it, didn't you."

Clef pinched the bridge of his nose and took a slow deep breath. There was no point in getting annoyed with Ferio suggesting it looked like he'd paid Umi to be with him that night when there were undoubtedly other Councillors thinking exactly the same thing, and he had probably as long as it took him to finish this cup of tea before he had to face them.

"I'm not saying you should cut off all contact. Even if I didn't think Umi would murder me for the suggestion, it would be strange for you two to suddenly never been seen together again, but… couldn't you be less blatant about it?" Ferio set his cup down, his expression severe. "These people can make your life difficult, Clef, especially when you have two more laws to go. Neither Verna nor Torneo seem interested in pushing them through, so it's literally for your sake they're being debated."

"Do you think I don't know that?" Clef looked somewhat bleakly at his cup. "I've been living with these laws longer than you've been here. Is it so wrong to finally want a life outside my job?"

Ferio sighed, "I honestly don't care if you keep sleeping with her, but I don't want to know about it. If I don't know, hopefully, no one else will either." He pushed his chair further away from the desk and stood up. "I'll see you in fifteen minutes."

Downing what was left in his cup, Clef reached over and finished Ferio's while he read through the latest damage reports, trying to steel himself against the arguments to come, and the papers were the only forewarning he was likely to get.

He took his time getting to the Council chamber. He wasn't precisely late, but he was cutting it closer than usual by the time he opened the door

When he walked in, virtually every head in the room turned to stare his way. Clef faltered mid-step; okay, that was a little more attention than he was expecting. The business with Honda was unfortunately timed, but it wasn't like Umi had made it fall off by getting him into bed. In fact, she'd helped it stay stable a day longer than it probably would have otherwise… He just wasn't sure, looking around, that most of the people in this room were going to believe that.

Ferio was busily ignoring his entrance, talking to LaFarga as though nothing had happened, but Miura, the Master Healer, rolled her eyes at him and more than one person was shaking their head.

More than that, both Soru Torneo and Gorham, the head of the southern mountain spirits, looked like they wanted to kick him right back out of the room. They were both glaring with the same expression of disgust; as they generally agreed with each other on precisely nothing, the united front was particularly disturbing.

Verna - who got the joy of chairing these things due to her role as Teru, the head of the Judges Guild - opened the meeting right on time, as Clef took a seat next to Ferio, and threw it straight over to Clef to explain what had happened for all the people who hadn't bothered reading his Circle's report this morning. (Or, more charitably, for those who had been travelling to get to the meeting and hadn't had time.)

That went well enough - no one was disputing the fact that Honda had attempted to separate from the mainland - until the very first question he got was 'is the Knight of Water still recovering in Mazda, or is she prepared to give her statement today?'.

Blinking, Clef stared back at Verna. "She - no, Umi returned home this morning."

Verna's stare turned sharp. "You didn't think we might need to talk to her?"

"No?" Clef blinked, while Ferio sighed heavily next to him. "I thought you might want to speak to my Circle, but…"

Possibly, he should have thought that through before Umi left earlier than planned. He'd been more focused on not letting himself beg her to stay.

Across the room, Murano the Warden of Arnage, sighed theatrically. "The Guru seems to have somewhat compromised judgement when it comes to the Knight of Water."

"I agree," Gorham said, folding his arms. "You allowed an untrained mage into the workings of your Circle without, so far as I can see, gaining their consent-"

"It wouldn't have worked without their consent!" Clef snapped back. He made himself take a deep breath. "Ryuuzaki Umi is a powerful mage - or she wouldn't be the Knight of Water. She might not have so much formal training as others-"

"You mean you haven't taken her on as apprentice because you were planning on getting that law repealed as soon as you could," Gorham said, flatly. "Which is why you forced us to stay so long last session, so you could take her to bed on this visit of hers."

Clef clenched his hand into a fist under the table. "Any apprenticeship of someone not resident in Cephiro ends badly, Gorham, as the Guild records show plainly enough. Umi's certainly never asked for an apprenticeship with anyone. In fact, I believe she plans on entering the Academy when she has finished her schooling in her homeland." He ignored Ferio sitting up straighter and staring at him when he mentioned Umi moving - of course Ferio, unlike most of the people in the room, knew that Umi's school career would be ending in less than a year.

"The question remains," Murano drawled, "would things even have come to this if you hadn't been distracted all week?"

"Honda attempting to fall off has nothing to do with Umi!" Clef snapped, losing any grip he had left on his temper. "As you will see from my reports from the last six months the whole province has been unstable from the start! That would be why I 'kept rattling on about it', as I believe Sylphy phrased it in the meeting before last. Without even an interim to support it, this was always going to happen! In fact it nearly happened a day earlier; as you can see from the report I had already submitted about having to tie the cursed thing back on again!"

Torneo gave him a wholly unimpressed look. "And was the Knight of Water involved in the incident earlier this week?"

Clef hesitated - he couldn't say no, it was detailed in the report. But he could see the trap even as he fell into it, and his silence was all the assent Gorham needed to take off from Torneo's lead.

"Perhaps, then, letting an unqualified mage without even Iru status and no formal training play at assisting with a highly important bit of magic intended to, literally, hold our land together, was another example of your poor judgement on this topic!"

"All she did was hold the groundwater back so the rest of us could work. She had no part in the actual stabilisation," Clef ground out. "As you would know if you actually read my-"

"And why was she even there in the first place?" Navara snapped. Her voice startled Clef; Toyota's Seneschal, Latil, had been representing them the past two sessions due to Navara being very pregnant and on medical leave. She now looked very pregnant and livid. "One-off encounters are now allowed under the law, but sharing company with someone for an extended period is not so easily dismissed."

"I do find it hard to believe," Murano added, with a false air of thoughtfulness, "that the Guru should find it so hard to keep one extra ward together - not even fully formed! And as soon as he gets distracted, 'poof', there it goes, so unstable that it tries to fall even after it's been formally stabilised by your Circle. Or is it that you chose your Circle out of people you like, not people actually up to doing the job?"

Presea actually grabbed onto Clef's arm at that point, and Ferio kicked him under the table, but he was glad to see that they, too, were glaring at Murano. It was, at least, too far for some of the other Wardens to let Murano's claims go; Stanza spoke up while Clef was still too angry to form words.

"Now, just wait a minute. We agreed when we started setting up the Wards that each Warden would be responsible for their land, their boundaries and no further. Yeah, some of us have helped when something starts developing beside us, but it's never been more than a few miles of extra land before a Warden has been appointed, before now."

Ouran nodded, looking serious for once. "Expecting our Honorable Guru to do more than the rest of us when he already has two jobs seems more than a little backwards to me."

Stanza agreed. "Surely we should be giving him more support, rather than less! I understand that there has been trouble finding a permanent Warden, but as I've said before, the request for an interim appointment was perfectly justified. This council chose not to appoint one, therefore it's this council's fault this happened. He's been warning you for months something was going to go wrong!"

"That's as may be," Torneo cut in, "but the fact remains, if he had not let a mage of too much power and too little control into his Circle's connection to the land, there would have been no tidal wave and no damage to Dacia or your Datsun! For that slip of judgement, the Guru does have to answer to this council - and I find it highly convenient for him that he 'didn't realise' we might want to talk to the Knight of Water before she left."

At that point, Clef was just about calm enough to speak again. He didn't get the chance; Auris, who governed the spirits of the rivers, snorted derisively and leaned back in her chair.

"Really?" she said, staring about. "It's bad enough we got dragged out to this meeting - I had plans today which did not involve listening to all you complaining - but you want to argue about what that girl did? If Honda had managed to fall, the wave that girl made would look like nothing in comparison to what would have happened. If you don't think that water suddenly slamming upriver gave most of my people a headache, then you obviously can't reason for shit; yeah, it was a pain, but I'm bloody glad she did it."

"She's right," Dokker agreed, and as his Ward was the one which had been worst hit, that carried a lot of weight.

"Look," Clef managed, while half the room stared at Auris and the rest of them rolled their eyes, "I didn't think you'd need her statement when you have my entire Circle prepared to come before the Council. I'm sorry about that, but I stand by my statement that Honda has been increasingly unstable, and this could, and would, have happened at any time. It would have been distinctly worse, however, if I had been resident here at the time and not in my ward, with my Circle. You expect me to do that on a regular basis; my having some company is hardly as distracting as looking after an entire Guild! And I doubt all my fellow Wardens would appreciate being told that their families and lives are 'too much of a distraction' any more than I do. What was barred to me as Guru, what is still barred to me, has nothing to do with my role as Warden."

One of the spirits snickered quietly. "Is 'company' what the humans are calling it these days?" was muttered, but mostly Clef's point had rung true enough there was a room full of grumbling rather than shouting.

Verna took that moment to take control of the room back. "If you're all quite finished," she bit out, "perhaps we can stop prattling on about what already happened and get on with doing something about it. Which is, I must point out, the whole point of this emergency meeting. For whatever reason - and I could personally have done without these dramatics - Honda is blatantly unstable and in need of a Warden. I move that we elect one now. Will someone please second me so we can all get out of here before we grow old."

"I will," said Miura, waving a hand in the air. She was sat just beyond Presea, and Clef was pretty certain she'd been doing completely unrelated paperwork the whole time. "Do you have the candidate list, Avenir?"

The head of the Clerks waved a hand at the poor woman who had been scribbling down notes to write up this meeting later, and she pulled a piece of paper from the official Council Records stone, and handed it back. "We have seven candidates who have been put forward. I note that two of these, Vezel and Yanmar, had not taken their qualifications when the list was put together. Have they since passed, or should they be removed from the list?"

Clef winced - as head of the Mage's Guild, that was aimed at him, and he'd not looked at a single piece of Guild business since he got to Mazda. Presea, however, elbowed him discreetly and handed over a piece of paper; he looked down, and tried not to grin. "Both took their trial yesterday, as it happens, and both passed. They haven't been formally invested with their titles, but they've qualified; the Mage's Guild has a long history of appointing before people have their shiny piece of paper, so I see no reason they should not be included."

"The qualification is enough, yes," Verna agreed. "Right. Which Wards are next to this thing and discounted from the vote? Mazda, obviously. Who else?"

Dokker waved his hand - Dacia wasn't exactly touching Honda, which stuck off the edge of Mazda alone, but it was their next neighbour along the coast. Datsun, too, was close enough to be disallowed a say, so Stanza joined the two of them in leaving the room.

Clef eyed both of them as the Council door shut, and they grinned at him - the same mischievous looks they'd had at Ouran's party.

"So," Stanza said, speculatively. "You had a good week?"

"I take it you don't care who takes Honda now?" Clef asked, more than a little pointedly.

Dokker shrugged. "Nothing more we can do now. But at least you and your Knight managed to hold onto things one more day - Vezel or Yanmar would be decent neighbours, I reckon."

Sighing, Clef dropped into one of the waiting chairs.

"Hey, don't let Gorham get to you. He wouldn't know a good time if it jumped up and down in his bed blowing a horn," Stanza said.

"Doubt he's ever had anyone blow his horn," Dokker snickered. "Hopefully whoever gets Honda won't be such a stick in the mud."

The two of them continued to chatter, while Clef leaned back against the wall and just let the conversation roll on without his input. Instead of wondering how the debate was proceeding, or going over the mess the meeting had been so far, he found himself just hoping Umi had got back home safely.

If the people inside knew, they'd probably take that as proof he should be kicked out of his post, or at least yelled at about it for several hours. But even with the fuss it had already caused, he didn't care.

.*.*.*.

Umi reappeared in Tokyo and wished instantly she had stayed in Cephiro until dinner, preferably sleeping the whole time. She felt like the whole world was tilting beneath her. Bracing a hand on the wall, she made herself breathe through the ache in her chest. The first few breaths were agony but slowly eased off as she forced herself not to panic.

The crowded elevator down didn't help her sense of balance one bit. She made it as far as the cafe before she decided a sit-down and a cup of tea might make things better.

She'd finished her first cup when she considered getting food to help with the drain. Maybe eating would still help on this side of the divide, since the dizziness was probably still related to the magic use.

It did. She still felt foul, but less frail. Once she made it outside, Umi splashed out on a taxi, like she'd told Clef she would, so she wouldn't have to worry about standing on the train. It wasn't like she had used her spending money for very much that summer since she'd only spent three out of the six weeks of her holiday in Japan anyway.

The ride was long enough she nearly fell asleep, but the taxi driver woke her from her drowse asking where she wanted to be dropped off.

She was greeted at the door by a screaming ball of orange fluff - her mother's cat, Peach. It was still too early for anyone to be home; both her parents were still at work, and neither the cleaner, nor her mother's assistant, Kumiko, were around either. The cat wound around Umi's feet as she tried to walk through the door, nearly knocking her over twice before she managed to kick her shoes off.

"Don't you dare try to tell me you haven't eaten," she complained. "You and I both know that's not true. If Mama or Papa didn't do it, I know Aunty Kumiko did."

Peach trotted after her down the hallway and upstairs - making loud burring noises as he ran. Umi opened her bedroom door and he shot past her and onto the bed before she'd even set her bag down. "Did you just miss me, you stupid cat?" she said affectionately as she dropped down onto the bed beside him and ruffled the fur on the top of his head. "I had a really good week. How about you?"

The only response Umi got was a contented purr as the cat curled up against her side. Tugging the pillow down under her head, Umi bowed to the inevitable, for once, and let her eyes drift shut.

.*.*.*.

To be continued... in Chapter 11

In the next chapter, Umi's two lives begin to collide, and her mother starts asking questions about her new boyfriend.

All feedback is loved. Any questions, comments, or happy thoughts are welcome.