A/N: Here's the first official chapter of One Wish. It's sorta short, I know, but it didn't look that way when I wrote it. It was three notebook pages. Shows you just how big my writing is. Thanks again to Aria-wolfstar for giving my the inspiration. BTW, I'm going to need a couple people to help me come up with some ideas, and to bounce ideas off. So, if you want to volunteer to help with One Wish, then email me.

Disclaimer: I do NOT own any of these wonderful charcters. If I did, this would be in a book and not on FF, and I wouldn't be here, would I? The plot is entirely mine.

One Wish-Chapter One: Numb

Too numb to even pretend to eat, Numair Salmalin stared at his untouched plate. It had been seven days since Daine had died in his arms, leaving him helpless and hopeless, and yet his heart had still not thawed. He had not even cried since the day she had died, limp and cold in his arms. Seven days ago. It had been seven days since his world had ended. Seven days since his life had come crashing down around him.

Every night, his mind rung with two simple words: I promised. Hr had promised Daine, had given her his word, that no matter what, he would keep on going. Even without her. Without Daine. The words still stung his bruised and frozen heart. What was life without his beautiful, cheery student, friend, and love? What other reason was there to live?

Beside him, Alanna the Lioness stirred uneasily. The man was torturing himself, but she loved him too much as a friend to get angry at him. She could see him wasting himself away, but there was no way she could find to bring him out of his grief. As a healer, she was helpless. As a friend, she was heartbroken. Alanna tried for the hundredth time to imagine the pain he was going through and shuddered. Would she be like that without George? Her heart still ached for Daine, who, despite her nineteen years, had been so young, so…innocent. No matter how much sorrow she felt, for both Daine and Numair, it pained her to see her friend like this. All he had done for the past seven days was stare coldly and unfeelingly out the window or at his plate. She knew that he had not eaten and hardly slept in the days since Daine's death.

His stare was blank as he recalled his love's funeral, three days before. But now, she lay beneath the ground, under a sight that he despised; her simple grey tombstone that remarked in bold, straight letters:

Here lies the Wildmage

Veralidaine Sarrasri

Of Galla and Tortall

Who knew that

Love is the mightiest Weapon

Of All

It lay in the palace cemetery, amongst many other Tortallan heroes, legends, and kings, her grave covered by perfectly serene grass and flowers. But something was missing. The People. No animals tread the ground where Weiryn's daughter lay, and even the palace animals seemed subdued and forlorn, even the most fiery-tempered seemed lost and biddable.

Numair unconsciously fingered the locket at his wrist, letting his tired and worn fingers trace every detail, every nuance of the engraved metal. His once warm brown eyes were hard and tired, but held no trace of a teary glimmer. He sat at his oversized desk. His head buried beneath stacks of paper. He picked up the nearest quill with a sad sigh, noting that the one he reached for was made from a feather Daine had shed in one of her many bird-forms.

With a limp hand, he tried to begin the report Jon was expecting, but each detail that sprung to life in his mind only succeeded in reminding him even more of his lost Magelet. His quill scratched at the parchment for over an hour, his cramped and angular but perfect script filling the page, but all that resulted was a page filled with the same words, written over and over again.

I wish…I promised…I love you…Magelet……I wish…I promised…I love you…I wish…I promised…Daine…

He fell asleep sometime during the night, his head cushioned on Daine's book of immortals. One single, unspoken word lingered on his lips as his breathing slowed: Wish.

A/N: There! It's done. Now, be good and click that little button down there and tell me what you think.

Mage of Dragons

(Razzi)