Disclaimer: T. Pierce owns Tortall and it's inhabitants. Get used to it.

A/N: This takes place in Page. Starting directly after chapter 2. It ends just a few days later.

Chapter 4: First Days

Early Spring, the 14th year of the reign of Jonathan IV, and Thayet, his Queen, 453 H.E.

Kel, Aiden, Yuki, and Neal sat around a table by the window, dinner had been brought to the rooms and the kids had already eaten and were now playing quietly in the other room, for now. They all knew what they had come to talk about, but no one wanted to start. So, for the moment, they were all content to listen to the giggles coming from the other room. It was Neal who finally broke the near silence. Swallowing the bite he had taken he asked, "So…do you think we should tell them who we are?"

"I don't think we'll have much a choice," Aiden replied, setting down his fork, "Besides, they're looking at the crystal thing. Eventually they'll figure it out." The two women nodded agreement. They knew Numair had said that the pages would be linked to the crystal. It was not much of a leap from knowing that the pages are connected to the crystal to learning it was the pages that were pulled back in time.

"I'm not so sure. I can see where they may get confused. There were only five pages in the fight. Twelve people were pulled back, and not all of us were pages. That will take some explaining." Neal said, after pausing to consider what Aiden had said.

"I can understand that you two," Yuki gestured to Neal and Kel, "were pulled back, but what about the rest of us. I was nowhere near the palace fifteen years ago. I wasn't even in Tortall fifteen years ago. I can't be connected to the crystal."

"I was still at the University." Aiden volunteered. "I don't see how, if their theory is correct, anyone but the pages would be pulled back. But then, I'm a History Master. I don't claim to know much of anything about magic."

Everyone turned to look at Neal, as he was the only one that was familiar enough with the Gift and working magic to even put forth an idea. "I'm not sure." Neal said, "But it stands to reason that if Kel and I were brought back due to a magical connection to that crystal that both of you and the children were brought back by some magical connection as well. We've already established that you two were not near the crystal at the time, so you aren't likely connected to that. Hence, the most likely source of your travel back, and the children is a magical connection of some sort to one of the pages involved in the confrontation."

"What kind of magic would do that?" Kel asked.

When Neal and Yuki both shrugged, the people around the table fell silent. "I think…" Aiden said, capturing everyone's attention, he shook his head, as if deciding against something and asked "Does it have to be a strong connection?"

Neal closed his eyes as he thought, "I don't think so. Anything would do. If I'm right about a magical connection, the crystal, being such strong magic, could possibly strengthen, temporarily, the connections that were already in existence. Why?"

"It's something that some professor may have mentioned it in passing. Mated couples of any species, including humans, have a weak magical connection. Wild magic, that is, nothing like the gift."

Neal looked at Aiden. "I think I've heard something similar. I don't know where though. I don't know about the children though, they don't fit in, not with that theory. It could have been a parent-child bond, but…"

"Our parents would have been pulled back as well?" Kel asked.

"Maybe." Neal said. "The thing is, it could be that the crystal just wasn't strong enough to pull back our parents as well as our children. But if that was the case, we would more likely be seeing a mix of generations, depending on how strong the bond between people happens to be, rather than just our children."

No one had anything to say in response to that. Before the silence got uncomfortable there was a knock on the front door. It was Neal who got up to answer it. There was a guard at the door. "The tailor is set up. You will all be taken now to get fitted. Please follow."

The tailors, for there were two, were set up at the front of the hallway, in unused chambers. The chambers had two bedrooms, being used for the fittings, and a privy all attached to a main sitting room. Yuki and Kel were asked to bring the children up first. Kel watched the tailor sized Mikale up with his eyes and hand her two sets of un-dyed children's clothing, one for sleeping, and one for daywear. The tailor then asked Kel to step up on the pedestal and he began to measure her. After her measurements were taken, he handed over a set of nightclothes for herself, and a loose dress with leggings. It was the type of dress people wore when they could not afford to buy full closets of fitted clothes. It would hang straight off of the shoulders only brought in by a belt or sash, which Kel was also provided with. Kel knew she would be more comfortable in a tunic and breeches, and was about to ask for some of those in place of the dress. However, as soon as she opened her mouth to speak, the tailor cut her off.

"Those will have to do my Lady. The King has ordered one week's worth of clothing for each person to be made, but we will not have any done until tomorrow. The King has ordered that the clothes be dyed in the fief's colors and to be fitted. They will be everyday winter-wear. Those are the King's orders and I refuse to disobey them. If you have a problem, bring it up with him. I will get the colors from your husband, and start on the clothing tonight. You will be able to pick them up two bells before the mid-day meal tomorrow."

I took Kel until about halfway through his rant to realize that he thought she was about to complain about the quality and color of the dress he hand handed her. She decided to try and ask once more. "It isn't that sir, it's just…"

"The Kings orders were seven dresses for the ladies, seven pairs of tunics and breeches for the gents, and two sets of night clothes for each person. In the fief's colors. You will get what I, and by extension, the King, give to you."

He opened the door and showed her to the sitting room then gestured for Aiden to follow him to into the bedroom. This left only Kel, Yuki and the three children alone in the sitting room. Apparently Neal was already being fitted in the other bedroom. Yuki was sitting on a chair that had its back to the wall, with Asaharu curled up in her lap, asleep. Hanamiyo sat against the wall, tracing the outline of the stones. Kel walked over and put Mikale, who was squirming in an attempt to get Kel to place him with his favorite "cousin", down next to her. "Don't pull Hana's hair." Kel warned him gently before going to sit with Yuki.

"How long do you think he'll last?" Yuki asked, knowing of Mikale's fondness of pulling hair.

"Not long," Kel said regretfully. "He hasn't pulled anyone's hair since we got here. It is just a matter of time." Surely enough, as soon as Kel finished the sentence, Hana started to yell. This ended up waking Haru, who hearing his sister scream started to scream as well. Mikale just squealed, obviously amused at the reaction.

As Yuki tried to calm her children, the door to the hallway was jerked open. Vinson, Garvey, and Garvey's wife walked into the room. Garvey carried the older child on his hip, her head was on his shoulder and it was obvious that she was about ready for bed. The infant, cradled by the mother appeared to be asleep. As they entered, the guards shut the door and, presumably, continued to guard the hallway entrance.

"This is your fault!" Vinson hissed immediately, striding towards Kel.

"And how did you come by that conclusion?" Kel asked, and knowing he spoke about the time travel ordeal continued with, "I didn't fight by myself."

"We wouldn't have been fighting at all if you would have realized years ago that you were a girl!" Garvey said.

"I knew then that I was a girl, and I know it now. So I fail to see how our current situation is my fault."

"You should never have been at the palace." Garvey finished, as if that were the only possible answer.

"You are entitled to you own opinion, I suppose. But it does not make this my fault. You were part of the fight willingly. I did not force you to fight me."

"So you're blaming this on me?"

"I am blaming this on no one." Kel stated, "I am merely pointing out that I am not to blame for our current predicament."

"But you were the reason we were fighting." Vinson said.

"It may have been my ideas about your behavior that sparked the fight, but neither I nor my ideas made you fight. You could have released the page and been on your way, but you chose not to. I did not force you to fight. I could not have forced you. It was your own free will that got you into that fight. It may be true that had I not been there the fight may never have occurred, but it is a lie to say that the fight was my fault." Kel said.

"I fail to see how that makes sense," Garvey stated, "If the fight would never have occurred had you not been there, it must be you fault."

"The fight would never have occurred if your lot hadn't been there. Does that make this your fault? It would only have been my fault if it would have happened no matter who my opponents happened to be. It would be your fault if it would have occurred with anyone. Both cases are wrong. We would really have only fought with each other, or like-minded people. And if that makes this situation the combined fault of all five of the present pages, then so be it!"

Neither man had anything to say to that, but Kel could tell that they still did not believe her. Kel picked up Mikale, who was by now standing at her feet, clutching the skirt of her dress in his fists, and returned to her chair to wait for Aiden. No one said anything until Neal exited the room, carrying his clothes for the night. Garvey's wife was asked to bring in the children.

When Aiden exited the bedroom, both families were escorted back to their bedchambers. They had originally planned to return to Neal's room to talk, but seeing how tired the children were getting, they merely returned to their separate chambers and prepared for bed.

The time travelers were left to their own devices for three days before they were called to appear before again. It had been a long, boring three days. They had not been allowed to leave the hallway. Meals were brought in three times a day, and a bath for each person as well. The clothes that the king had ordered had arrived in pieces. One set on the first day, and the rest on the second.

Most of the day was spent trying to entertain the children, who were bored with no toys to play with. There was almost nothing in the rooms to capture their attention. The desks were empty, the wardrobe held only the clothes that had been delivered, and the shelves were bare. The only items that didn't come with the rooms were the things that the travelers had arrived with. Clothes, and weapons for some.

On the plus side, while keeping the children entertained was at time frustrating to the adults, it was a valid excuse for avoiding the other half of the group. In truth, there had been no sign of Vinson or Garvey and his family since the day at the tailors. When the children were occupying themselves, or asleep, the adults spent their time relaxing before they were called to duty once more by the children. Sometimes when they were bored, Kel and Yuki would attempt to teach Aiden and Neal how to play fan toss, but the lesson never went well. The usual training that ladies received consisted of attempting to play with a blunt, but heavy practice fan. A mistake then would mean a bruise, perhaps. With the real fan, the one Yuki had carried to the ball, a mistake would be much more debilitating.

Nevertheless, the three days passed, and now the entire group stood waiting for the escorts to arrive. When the escort arrived, it was led by Sir Gareth of Naxen. The escort consisted of five guards and two mages. Obviously, the king still found them to be potentially dangerous.

The group was brought to a room not far from their hallway. It was similar to the one they had arrived in. It was empty but for two tables, one in a squared U-shape and the other a rectangular table; some chairs, seven at the smaller rectangular table and too many to count at the U-shaped table; and a tumbling mat in the corner of the room, it had a small collection of toys against one wall.

One of the mages that accompanied them asked that the children, with the exception of the infant, be placed on the mat. Once all of the children were on the mat, the mage made a quick motion with his arm. "It will stop them from being able to run about the room, like last time." He explained before anyone could ask. He then led them to sit down at the small rectangular table.

Once Kel sat down, she felt a bit more at ease. The rectangular table that they were seated at was about the same width as the connecting piece of the U-shaped table. The connecting piece was the farthest piece of the U-shaped table from where the time travelers sat. It held two throne-like chairs, and four regular chairs. If the smaller rectangular table was pushed forward it looked like it would fit comfortably between the two side pieces, creating a rectangle table with a large space at the center. As it was, there was a space between the U-table and the rectangular table, enough for someone to walk through easily. It was obvious they were to be questioned, not interrogated as though they were criminals. As the travelers examined the room, people began to trickle in.

It was almost half bell's time before the last of the questioners arrived. Everyone stood as the King and Queen entered, taking their place at the head of the U-shaped table. Once everyone was seated again, the King called for Numair to present the mages' findings.

Numair got up and proceeded to the small rectangular table. Once there, he centered himself in front of it so that he was standing in front of the King and Queen, but everyone had a good view of him, save the time travelers. "After a good deal of close examination, we are relatively sure that these people were brought back in time due to the accident with the pages. All notes show that the crystal worked as expected in its unfinished state when it was tested last before its completion. This was about," he shuffled through a stack of papers for a moment, "two days prior to the completion.

"When the page fight occurred, the crystal, reportedly, glowed red and reacted violently. It was not recorded because crystal passed the next test without a hitch. Nonetheless, there was, obviously, a problem. While that leads to the question as to why it functioned properly the first few times it was used, and not when being demonstrated to a more public eye, it is more important at this time, to explain what we believed happened.

"The first theory is that the crystal would bring the five pages back in time. As you can tell," Numair motioned to the people sitting behind him, "there are more than five people present. The next likely theory is that at some point in time there was another disruption that linked the perpetrators to the crystal, and then pull them in from the future. The problem is, they would all have needed to be present, and the children, at that point in time, did not exist. Any theory after that depends on a disturbance and a random reaction that just happened to bring back these particular people. No one quite believes that one, it is seen as too much of a coincidence that three entire families were brought back, instead of random people.

"We may have a few theories, but we are not sure of the exact happenings. I think that at this point it would be prudent to ask that our guests introduce themselves, and tell us what they were doing at this point in their lives. We hope that this may help us discover what, exactly, took place." Numair, at this point walked back to his chair and sat down. The room was silent until the King stood.

"I believe that is a good idea." He motioned towards Vinson, who sat at the far left of the small table. "You start. Please tell us you name and fief and where you were in the year 453."

"Vinson stood and, after bowing, introduced himself. "Vinson, Sire, Vinson of Genlith. I was studying as a page."

This made the King blink. "Were you involved in the page fight? The one that is suspected to have been the reason behind the time travel?"

"Yes, Sire."

"And the others?"

"Not all of them."

"Not all of the fighters are present? Or not all of those present are part of the fighters?"

Vinson paused for a moment to think. "Both, Majesty." No one said anything for a moment.

"Who is missing?" Lord Wyldon asked when it became apparent no one else was going to speak.

"Only Joren of Stone Mountain."

"So the other four pages are present?" The King asked. Vinson nodded uncertainly. "Why was Stone Mountain not brought back with the rest of you?"

Vinson looked reluctant to say anything. The King, however, still wanted an answer. It was Neal who finally spoke, causing some people to jump. "He's dead." The room fell silent for a moment. Kel could tell some people wanted to say something, but they did not want to be the ones to break the uncomfortable silence that had fallen.

It was a man that Kel was unfamiliar with that finally broke the silence. "If I may ask," he began, "how did he…?" He drew out the last word, making it apparent that he didn't want to actually finish the question, but expected it to be answered nonetheless.

None of the travelers wanted to answer. Kel wasn't sure why the others didn't answer, but she knew why she didn't. Failing the ordeal was, obviously, not something to be proud of. Kel knew that if the people of this time knew Joren had failed, they would not look at him the same way, they would treat him differently knowing his future, and Kel wouldn't wish that on anyone.

When it became apparent to those gathered that no one would answer, people began to get restless. Kel knew that the silence increased the curiosity of those that didn't know. It was again Neal who answered. "They found his corpse. The," here Neal hesitated slightly, looking for the right word, "attack was expected. His death was not. It was magic that killed him." It seemed to Kel that Neal felt the same way she did about the matter, and she felt he did a good job of explaining his death without details. She was not sure if the audience would take it, but seeing as no one said anything she assumed they were satisfied.

The King motioned for the next person to stand. The next person turned out to be Garvey's wife. It was Garvey who stood, however. "I am Sir Garvey of Runnerspring. I was also a page. This is my wife, she was at the convent." When the king nodded, Garvey resumed his seat.

Neal stood as Garvey took his seat. "I am Sir Neal of…"

"Nealan" Yuki corrected him.

Neal rolled his eyes. "Excuse me, Sir Nealan of Queenscove. My wife," He gestured to Yuki, "Is Yukimi of Queenscove, formerly Yukimi noh Daiomoru. I was a page, and she resided on the Yamani Islands." He sat down and the room was silent.

The silence gave way to a low rumble, as everyone began to converse between themselves all at once. Kel could guess why, the heir of one of the oldest noble families in Tortall was sitting in front of them. Neal's family was well known and well respected. Many nobles secretly, and some not-so-secretly, hoped to climb the social ladder by marrying a daughter into Neal's family. So they were shocked to not only see the heir to such a prominent family tangled up in the mess, but to also come to see that their daughters would, in fact not be marrying into the Queenscove line.

When the voices faded to silence, Aiden stood. Every head turned towards him. "My name is Aiden of Cavall, I studied History at the University. This is my wife Lady Knight Keladry of Cavall. She was a page." There was silence for a moment, then the room erupted into a cacophony of voices, each one trying to be heard above the next.