Yet here, Laertes! Aboard, aboard for shame!

The wind sits in the shoulder of your sail,

And you are stay'd for.

There ... my blessing with thee!

And these few precepts in thy memory

Look thou character. Give thy thoughts no tongue,

Nor any unproportion'd thought his act.

Be thou familiar, but by no means vulgar.

Those friends thou hast, and their adoption tried,

Grapple them to thy soul with hoops of steel;

But do not dull thy palm with entertainment

Of each new-hatch'd, unfledg'd comrade. Beware

Of entrance to a quarrel but, being in,

Bear't that th' opposed may beware of thee.

Give every man thy ear, but few thy voice;

Take each man's censure, but reserve thy judgement.

Costly thy habit as thy purse can buy,

But not express'd in fancy; rich, not gaudy;

For the apparel oft proclaims the man;

And they in France of the best rank and station

Are of a most select and generous chief in that.

Neither a borrower, nor a lender be;

For loan oft loses both itself and friend,

And borrowing dulls the edge of husbandry.

This above all: to thine own self be true,

And it must follow, as the night the day,

Thou canst not then be false to any man.

Farewell; my blessing season this in thee!

-- William Shakespeare

Disclaimer-Stare really really hard at the following blank space, and you just might, might see a disclaimer.

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Those days spent in that small room were the hardest days Kalasin had ever faced.

Sure, she was being fed, and had a comfortable bed, but it was simply the lack of sunlight and human comfort that made her feel uncomfortable. She had been in contact with only two people over the past days-weeks? - and those people were Kaddar and Lukiem, both whom were not the most charming companions. The dark walls felt like they were closing in on her, and quickly.

She entertained herself with stories of the people she knew and how they got to where they are. She thought about how Alanna had disguised herself as a boy for eight years just to become her dream; she thought about how Daine had been born, and had nothing expected of her; she thought about how her mother and Buri had fled their own land for safety.

What would they do in a situation like this? She thought.

Alanna would easily knock out Lukiem or Kaddar with a punch or kick; Daine could simply turn into a mouse and escape through the door when Kaddar brought her food; and the queen and her companion would simply charge their captors and escape.

Being born as a princess in Tortall meant you had high standards to meet. With being born after the likes of the most successful woman in history you felt the pressure to be just like them. But how? She thought.

A sentence popped into her head, one from a poem her mother had read to her years ago. The actual poem Kalasin could not memorize, although there was one sentence that her mother had put emphasis on. She had never forgotten that one line.

This above all: to thine own self be true.

It was impossible to do those things that Alanna or Daine or anyone else could do. She wasn't one of them. If she was going to get out of there, she would have to do it her own way.

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It took all of Daine's willpower not to gasp out loud at who she saw.

It was Numair.

Time seemed to simply stop for a moment. Daine looked into Numair's eyes; he into her own. He seemed as genuinely shocked as her.

At that moment however, time started again. The crown backed against the wall, leaving the dance floor open to only Daine and Kaddar. Numair was caught in the crowd as they shuffled backwards. He found himself directly against a wall that was pushing into his back.

Daine's mind was in a jumble. She felt the comings of a headache, and a big one at that. She did not, however, have time to complain as the gentle melody of flutes rushed into her ears. She felt Kaddar grab her hands and place them in the correct spots. They both stood there, looking into each other's eyes, until more instruments joined in, which gave the cue to start dancing.

Kaddar put his left leg forwards; she put her right leg back. He stepped to the right, she to the left. She figured out that whatever Kaddar did, she did backwards. At first she was relieved to find that the rhythm of the music was slow, which helped her learn the steps better. Progressively the music became faster, and luckily she was able to keep up.

She would've learned the steps much faster, but Numair preoccupied her mind. What in the name of the Graveyard Hag is he doing here? Her thoughts asked.

A sudden jab in her shoulder brought her thoughts back to reality. "Smile," Kaddar hissed between his fake grin. She mirrored his image. The wonderful Carthaki dress lived up to every expectation; if she listened closely, Daine could here some whispers about how beautiful the dress was, which was the main topic among the female guests. It swirled around her in a sunset format, mimicking the suns every movement.

When the music piece blended into another and more couples came onto the dance floor, Daine relaxed.

"Numair's here!" she whispered quickly. "I saw him! Why in the world is he here? Did you know about this?"

His dark eyes snapped back into attention. "What?"

"He's here! I don't know where, but here!"

He looked down at her. "I have no idea why he's here, but it can't be something important! If it were, he would have already found us! And are you sure it's him?"

She glared at him. "Yes."

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Numair had felt the rush of familiar emotions thread through his body: emotions of joy, fear, anxiety and what-just-happened when he had met Daine's eyes. After a brief moment however, he was pulled into the crowd as they moved against the wall to make room for Kaddar and Daine.

He waited at the back of the crowd for the music to change. Moving up to the front would do no good to him, so he just waited and thought about why Daine was currently Kalasin.

When more couples went onto the dance floor, Numair did not know how to talk to Daine. Since she was dancing, she would not be able to leave for a while, not after having such a grand entrance. The only way to talk to her was to be dancing beside her, and talk to her amidst all of the noise.

But to get near to her, he thought, I'll need a dance partner, and one willing to dance for a long time! Not to mention, I won't even be talking to her!

Taking a deep breath and running his course hand through his dark hair, he looked at some of the guests who were sitting on the glass chairs on the sidelines. Every woman there had an escort, except one.

That woman was wearing a tight fitting red dress.

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Daine was dancing along quite gracefully with Kaddar, whilst thinking of how to talk to Numair, and figure out why he was so far away from Tortall.

Or maybe it wasn't Numair, and she just missed him so much that she envisioned him there…but when she looked over Kaddar's shoulder and saw the sharply dressed man leading a curvy blonde onto the dance floor, she immediately recognized him. Although it was hard due to all of the turning and twirling, she watched them start dancing.

Jealousy flooded Daine's mind as she saw how close the blonde was to him.

"Who is that?" Daine asked, motioning with her head to the blonde.

Kaddar turned so he could see the woman. "Her? That's Junika Kingsford…Varice's sister."

In her mind, Daine spat.

"Varice? No wonder. But then again, at least the Kingsfords have good taste in men…"

Kaddar chuckled softly, but didn't say anything else.

She noticed that very progressively he and Junika were moving towards her. Finally, they were close enough to talk.

"Numair!"

"Daine!"

That's all they had the time to say before the music changed, and different steps were needed to match the beat. More couples started dancing, and Daine found it difficult to find Numair.

Luck was with their side. The new song required couples to change partners periodically. During a high pitch in the rhythm Daine switched partners and found herself with Numair staring across from her.

"What are you doing here?" They both asked at once.

"Me? What about you?" they both said at the same time again.

They both grinned. "Nice to see you," Numair said, then added, "Kalasin."

"Long story. Why are you here?"

Numair had no chance to answer as another high pitch sounded and they were forced to separate. Daine found herself paired with a gentleman who luckily knew how to dance, so she didn't make a fool of herself. He had both dark hair and eyes, and his body was tanned from the sun.

Switching partners again, Daine was paired with Kaddar.

"Did you have a chance to talk with Numair?" he asked.

She nodded. "Not much time…darn music…he didn't really say anything."

"Well, I talked with Junika Kingsford. Apparently, she and Numair are 'together'. She said that he wanted to talk with you, supposedly to 'break up the relationship'. It's just a ruse of course, so that you can talk with him. You aren't jealous, correct?"

"Of course not," she lied.

"Eyebrow," he said coolly.

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It had taken much persuasion on Numair's part to convince Junika he was actually in love with her, and he had only 'lied' about not being interested to make sure she wouldn't go running off with another man.

It was the worst story Numair had ever made up.

But since Junika was only interested in the words 'I still really like you', the whole rest of the story blew right by her. The important fact was however, that Numair was able to get onto the dance floor.

The brief conversation had gotten nowhere. Daine and Numair needed to talk, although if they danced together for a long time guests would notice, and comment on Kalasin's being 'unfaithful'.

The dance he was currently participating in was uneventful, due to the fact Daine was on the other side of the room. He had to live with Junika's stare, which was directed into the cores of his eyes.

But how to get to Daine! He thought. Then another thought popped into his head.

I have an idea…it said.

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A/N-Currently I'm in the habit of doing one idiotic thing a day.

First: I'm playing football in Gym class, and a do a beautiful interception from the other team. It was priceless. But then I ran the wrong way, towards my end of the field. Luckily I didn't get very far before someone tagged me, but I still get made fun of for it. :)Oops.

Second: I do morning announcements in my school. I thought I had it all set up, and all of the right pretty buttons were flashing. So I press 'play' on the stereo for the national anthem to play. But I forgot to switch over the CD player, so when I pressed 'play' the radio came on, blasting. It took a long time for the vice-principal to figure out how to turn it off.

And in response to questions about the ear-piercing thing: I don't want my ears pierced, although my Dad says I'm like the only female teenager who doesn't want them. I said I can't possibly be the only person, so that's why I posted it. And no Ariana, it'll have nothing to do with my story :).

Please review!