A/N: Could this have taken any longer?

I'm going with yen even though it should probably have a different name. Ah well.

Enjoy!

Chapter 17: Reject

Their progress was slow. So painfully slow because of the surprising amount of early morning traffic. Lana frowned, "Are you sure this is the way we need to go?"

Zain nodded.

"I," Vincent began with a great amount of feeling, "can not believe we are taking directions from a blind man."

"One that just so happens to be a Seer," Damien whispered harshly. Vincent shrugged. Moonbeam shook out his main that matched the motion as closely as a horse can.

Zain, however, was not listening intently. He was concentrating on combining his Sight to the now. In a rare moment of success, he heard the argument he'd been looking for.

"You expect me to pay that much for beets? Especially beets of this quality?" The older woman scoffed. "I've got to get back to Yurasu Isle by nightfall and if I'm held up by a greedy little man like you I'll--!"

"No, less than thirteen-hundred yen." The shopkeeper said firmly.

"Ten." the old woman argued.

The man made a disgusted sound. "Eleven."

The elderly woman slapped down several coins. The man handed her a crate which she nearly snatched from him. She turned and Zain was there, already off his horse.

Lana tried to hear what he was saying but it was next to impossible since his voice was so soft. She wasn't even able to catch the older woman's words whose voice was harsh in comparison. There was nodding and pointing, then a pause as the old woman looked at each of the triplets in turn. Finally she nodded.

Lana dismounted and went to Zain, "What is it? Who was that?"

"That is Hisa, the woman who will take us where we need to go," Zain took one long, slow blink and said, "She won't leave for hours yet and the only thing she asks is that we help her get everything she needs."

It seemed fair. "Is that all?"

Lana conveyed the message to her brothers who agreed that it was a good deal.

"You," The old woman pointed to Damien, "the big one. I need you to carry these."

She pointed to a box behind her that was much larger than the one full of beets that she pushed at Lana. It took a moment to understand that this small woman was giving the orders. They couldn't take too long though, because partnered with the small and bossy she was also impatient. It didn't take too long to realize that the rest of the day wouldn't be fun.

The sun was making its descent onto the horizon hours later and Lana was trying to withhold a groan. Her muscles reduced to useless leaden weights she tried to find the most comfortable position on the rickety boat.

Lana closed her eyes against the light reflecting off of the waters. Damien would be in worse condition by now. Perhaps--

"Aieeee!" A shriek pierced the. Lana whirled despite her exhaustion. It was Hisa. Everyone aboard the Ishi could hear her shouts long before they ever saw her face. "You little whelp! Hide aboard my ship will you? I have have a mind to dump you into the ocean!"

Hisa dragged a small girl out from hiding. The old woman's hand looked like old roots wrapped around a pale arm, gnarled, thick but still strong. The girl she had such a tight hold on squirmed but could not get loose. The fact that even if she was free of this one's hold, the boat was small and getting a hold of her again would not be very difficult didn't matter. The matted brown hair covered most of the face.

"Might I ask what is going on here, Hisa?" Lana dredged up enough spirit to sound polite and yet demanding. Vincent called it her princess voice.

Hisa didn't seem to care much for it. Her weathered face snapped to Lana, black eyes hard as flint. She measured Lana with a look. "She's been hiding out. I found her trying to pick at the seeds."

"She's hungry," Lana bit her cheek to keep from frowning. It was something Arra told her to do because, as her mother said, her feelings showed far too true on her face.

"Hungry or not, she's not invited to pick at my stores." Hisa jerked the girl hard enough to make a chunk of hair slide away revealing a face. One that Lana recognized from yesterday . Half of the pretty face was still covered but one eye regarded Lana. The look was direct but it asked nothing. It was not pleading nor questioning nor anything at all. In fact, the apathy of the look was matched by her body as she stopped struggling though her movements before had been weak.

Lana saw that one dark eye and wished that it did ask and beg. Had no one ever given her hope in her life that she dare not want it ever? It made Lana's heart ache.

"Leave her to me," Lana requested. "I can give her half of my portions."

Hisa didn't look happy but her puckered face hardly ever did. Lana suspected that it wasn't so much that the old woman hated everything but that a long hard life had taught her a rough sort of caution. With a grunt, Hisa threw the girl to Lana. Lana caught her before she stumbled to the ground.

"Come, sit with me where neither of us will bring about her attention again." Lana whispered in Yamani. "I don't think she'll like either of us for a while."

The girl didn't say anything. She followed Lana, though, and that was enough. The princess sat down and pulled the small girl onto her lap. She couldn't help it. Lana knew that this person was more a young woman than a girl but she was so small! She weighed nearly nothing!

"Rijekuto," The girl whispered. Reject? Lana translated. She frowned and began to hum while working out the knots in the brown hair. Lana was thinking about how a bath for the girl would be nice when Vincent found her.

"My, my," He said. The girl didn't make a move to look at him though Lana did. "Zain said that we might want to find you but I didn't imagine anything like this."

"What do you mean by that?" Lana asked, completely unrepentant.

"Just that it seems you've adopted yet another person," Vincent laughed. "Damien won't be happy."

Lana shrugged. "It can't be helped."

Vincent walked away humming. His tune stopped when Hisa spotted him and told him to reorganize the boxes below to make more room. Lana could almost seem him bristling at her commanding tone but she heard him agree all the same.

"You were the young woman trying to steal my brother's purse weren't you?"

There wasn't as much of a reaction as Lana was expecting. There was no shock, she wasn't ashamed or sorry. "Of course. I've told you everything."

Lana's black brows furrowed. She'd said nothing at all! "What do you mean?"

The person in her lap turned her head to face Lana. Black eyes studied hazel ones. For one intense moment Lana had the feeling the girl was seeing more than her irises. Finally, she turned around and said, clearly, "I guess I haven't told you anything."

Well, yes, that made more sense but there was still something odd about what she'd said and how she'd said it. Lana couldn't help but want to hold onto that fact. Suddenly, she let it go. One moment, it seemed terribly important and the next it was as if someone were whispering that it wasn't, quite the contrary, it meant nothing at all.

Lana blinked for several moments, trying to fight it and eventually gave up. It wasn't important.

"What's your name?"

"Rijekuto."

So she'd been saying her name. Lana sighed. "You are welcome to come with me, if you haven't got anywhere else to go from here."

"Of course," Again, Lana was struck by the oddness of it. "I go with you."

"If you're tired, I'm sleeping in the fifth bunk. You can have my area," Lana offered as once again her suspicions were brushed aside.

Rijekuto stood without a word, bowed to Lana, and left. Frowning, Lana assumed she was going to sleep.

"When are you going to tell Damien?" Zain's soft voice didn't startle Lana. It seemed to flow with her surroundings.

"Whenever the time comes," Lana shrugged. "He won't be happy but he won't be surprised either."

Forgetting that he wouldn't see, Lana turned a smile up to him. "Have a seat next to me. We can stay here for a while. Damien won't come out."

She reached up and tugged him down with her fingers tangled in his. His hand was long and lean, bordering on feminine like the rest of him if they weren't so large. He folded down beside her without a fight but he was stiff and uncomfortable. Lana thought about letting him go to make him more comfortable but in a selfish fit she held on and placed her other hand on his forearm. The feel of his hand was nice against hers. Bit by bit he relaxed. Lana sensed some small release in him and smiled.

"I didn't think you the type to hide from your brother," Zain said.

"I'm not hiding! I'm...enjoying the moment."

Lana couldn't have known but those moments were one of the few that Zain truly enjoyed in his life. He lifted his face to the sky and closed his eyes relishing in the moment. Heart swollen, Zain thought that this almost made up for years of living too many lifetimes of pain.

Arra closed her eyes to the world. Legs crossed and hands on knees, she spent this small space of free time in meditation. It was never easy. There was so much to worry about. The Yaman Princess. Emereth's state of mind. The triplets. Not to mention all of Karucia.

A deep breath.

But... her mind tried.

Another cleansing breath.

Nothing.

Until, that is, her chest pounded in a familiar way. The initial shock wore off as the pounded became more regular, a constant thing. Arra relaxed her mind further, opening it up like a flower and letting go. She went into something like a half-sleeping state. A sharp pain in her chest shook her from her progress.

"Oh, no, dearie," a voice as old as dirt chided. "You'll not slip from me."

Arra coughed. "I didn't think I could."

"Hm," Fate said skeptically. Features were lost behind wrinkled, sagging skin. Two blind white eyes were tucked away under folds of falling skin. The hair atop of that old head was no better than ruined wire stuck in clay. Two hands came together. Fate's hands were thick-knuckled with veins pressing up against the thin-looking skin. And yet, watching the hunched body walk across the room someone would have to be daft to think their wasn't some kind of power in the wizened husk.

Arra could no more be surprised to see the old woman in her room than she could to see rain clouds coming from the east.

"What have I done wrong this time?" Arra sighed wearily.

Fate shook her head. "Am I so horrible to look at? Can't I simply come for a visit?"

Arra noticed Fate's attempt at a joke but didn't take to it. "It's been busy around here."

"So, then, it's reasonable that something should fall through the cracks," There was the smallest hint of reproving in her words. As if Arra were some kind of cracked bowl, spilling important contents that was her job to keep in. The words themselves seemed comforting but they made her lips tighten in anger.

"See here! I've done my best--"

"And for anyone else that would be fine." Fate's voice stopped any further argument. "But you are not anyone."

Arra glowered but said nothing. Tired. Fed up. Enough. Arra closed her eyes slowly.

"Retrieve your children," Fate said.

Arra's eyes snapped open. "What?"

"Bring them home."

Arra sat speechless for moments. She tried to examine why she was so against bringing them back and right then she knew why. She wanted to give her children what she wanted, had always wanted. Even if this was a semblance of freedom, perhaps it would be enough to know.

"I don't see how my children doing a little bit of exploring can--"

Fate cut her off again. "Of course you don't. I see the paths."

"Which is why you have to explain to this lowly person why it matters!" Arra roared.

Fate stood facing a window for long moments. She cast a lumpy, scragged silhouette. "Because your daughter is your opposite. Where you see the bad she sees good. Where you are careful she is spontaneous. And where you guard your heart she gives it freely."

Fate turned to Arra.

"And where her heart goes so shall all of her. And though she knows it not, she wants to give her heart to entirely the wrong person."

A/N: Yes, I know, its short. I think things will pick up in the next chapter.

Please review and tell me what you think. Where do you think this is going? Where do you want it to go? Tell me.