Yeeeeees, etcetera-cat, and here is your answer to your review…

Erm… the Brytha/Brutha question first: page 85 of Storm Breaking: 'punctuated by the staccato clicking of Brytha's cloven toes.' So that, at least, is correct.

You were correct about the word 'dyheli' not being capitalized. It has since been fixed.

The time-to-get-to-Plains-thingy: I am so sorry. I committed a horrible mistake and based all of my distance/time estimations on Magic's Pawn's Vanyel-going-to-Haven-for-the-first-time thing, and I missed the very important sentence, 'It was quite enough to keep him wrapped in silent, apprehensive thought for every day of the remainder of the journey, and to keep him sleepless for long hours every night.' Yes, I was being a dumbass yet again, and, yet again, I apologize.

Seven more pages to add to the growing story that is Circles of Change…

I know I'm disappointing One Week fans, but I had to get this up; I spent hours researching stuff for this, and had to explain once again to the librarian that I never saw those Abraham Lincoln books. (Really, I haven't.) They've been annoying me for over two years to return them, and every time I borrow something, I have to waste twenty minutes explaining that I already sent it to Claims Return. Not to mention this huge headache that I've had all day that… five cans of Diet Coke isn't exactly helping at 2 in the morning… But enough of the ranting. My point is don't complain; I spent way too much time on this to… #trails off#

… … …

Whatever, I forget.

Some of you might be wondering why I wrote the entirety of this thing at 1:30 am. There's actually a very good reason for that; I'll let you know when I think of a logical one.

Fireblade K'Chona- #cries# You called my story a work of art!

Wizard116- That's gotta be the longest and most descriptive review I've ever gotten from you. Not that I have a problem with that!

mischakitsune- #feels honored#

Breezefire- Yesh. The jealousy just makes the story more complicated.

'Why does Julian have to be so complicated? The way he's actin' really has got Row'n frustrated…'

Reanna: Not Avril Lavigne… .

Pepito: But I like Avril Lavigne.

Hiro: You would…

Notes: If I've messed up on any of these facts, or I'm going too far with some of the ideas, someone please tell me. I have no intention of going beyond the boundaries of believability (if I haven't done so already…)

And I honestly don't know that Brytha would have been able to do the language-implant thing to Outlanders, and I couldn't check, since the upper floor of the local library's been closed because the roof fell in. (I have no idea.) so if I'm wrong about that, tell me, please, and I'll fix it.

I also don't know when Bards go out on their Journeyman… journeys, and I don't have my copy of Magic's Price on hand right now… Amber Stag borrowed it.

One more thing; I'm not very good at writing travel scenes i.e. stuff like pages 45-130 of Storm Warning. In fact, I suck at them. I'm sure that you don't want fifty pages of just walking and talking, so I didn't do that. So here's the story.

Chapter Nine: Open Up Your Heart and Let Someone In.

Five days later…

The Council had fought, the Council had refused, the Council had come to close to several screaming matches, and the Council had finally elected to let Rowen go, with a guard.

"Well, that was marginally easy," Julian sighed from his position atop his horse, remembering what had happened before they were allowed to leave Haven, and shifted in the saddle. A few quick equestrian lessons hadn't been enough to knock off his dislike for riding, and he already felt saddle-sore. They were about half-way to the former Tale'sedrin campsite, and Julian hadn't enjoyed most of it. The only things distracting him from complete annoyance were Sa'heera's almost nonstop conversation and Rowen's incessant worrying about Nadar, the boy they were going to find. Not to mention the bell-like tones being produced every time that Inyam's hooves hit the ground. Julian never got tired of hearing them, and he was almost able to put himself into a light trance when listening to them. Sa'heera had exclaimed over them nearly the entire first day of riding, until Lisha had explained it to her. Lisha was keeping a close eye on the female Shin'a'in, even though she seemed fine. Sa'heera really shouldn't be riding in her condition; Rowen, Julian, and Elspeth had agreed on that, but it was inevitable that she go; because Nadar most likely wouldn't trust Rowen straight off the way he was now, and Julian himself was an unknown, and not someone a young boy would likely be very eager to make friends with. Not to mention that amongst the three of them, Sa'heera was the only one who could get them through the Plains without much trouble.

It wasn't that the Shin'a'in wouldn't let them pass through, it was just that Rowen would be likely to raise a lot of questions, and possibly be followed or even stopped by the well-meaning guardians of the Plains. Not that there was much left to guard, with all of the mages working in the tower in the center of the crater to disarm the few remaining weapons, and Kal'enedral guarding Tayledras Mages with strong Magesight searching the rest of the Plains for more problems buried under the earth itself.

Getting away from the Council itself hadn't been easy, because half of the Council had been convinced that Rowen would make a run for it once he got out of the boundaries of Haven. The other half were divided between trusting Rowen (mostly Elspeth, Darkwind, and the Heralds, joined by Karal and the Gryphons and Outland Envoys, Karal's Firecat, Altra, a few of the Healers, Bards, and all of the Shin'a'in,) and the ones that thought that he would turn wild and attack his companions when he saw the opportunity. Thankfully that group was small, with only a few of the Commoner Representatives and one of the stuffy older nobles set in her ways. Treyvan and An'desha were working to disabuse them of the notion, but when the rescue party left, they weren't having much success.

An'desha and Karal, conniving together, had managed to convince Altra to Jump them to the edge of the Dhorisha Plains one at a time, which had cut months off their trip. Rowen had initially balked at using an apparent cat to allow them to move from Haven to the Plains in the blink of an eye, but with persuading from An'desha and Julian, he'd finally given in, and Karal had said that Altra had enjoyed himself while messing with Rowen's head before and during that first Council meeting. Altra had grumbled good-naturedly before apologizing to Rowen, who had shakily accepted it and made himself scare in Altra's presence. Apparently the fact that Altra had spoken in his mind and made him think he was quite possibly going insane had frightened him a little, though he wouldn't admit it. After Altra had Jumped them all, (which was an experience that Julian would not care to repeat,) and after his stomach stopped insisting that it'd been left in Haven, Altra had promised that he'd come back for them when Lisha contacted Haven. Then he'd vanished, leaving them alone at the edge of the Plains, under the bright mid-morning sun.

Now they were on the middle of the Plains themselves, past the area that had served as Rowen's home not even a month ago. Sa'heera and Julian were both mounted on Shin'a'in palfreys, bred for both speed and endurance. Rowen was the only one among them qualified to ride a battlesteed, but obviously he was able to provide his own transportation. Julian's mount was one of the Clan's horses that had been lent to him for the trip, and he was extremely grateful for it; a normal horse would have foundered under their current pace, and this palfrey was a sweet creature, placid and altogether stoic, and not likely to spook at anything.

It had taken them three days to get this far across the Plains, and it would be another one or two until they reached the campsite itself. So, two days from here, but if they really pushed it, one.

Julian shifted again, and tried to think about other things than riding for so long and hard until he hurt. Rowen had postponed a meeting with An'desha and another with all of the Shamans, and Council meetings for two weeks. That was how long that Rowen, Sa'heera, Jadrek, and An'desha had thought that it would take to find Nadar. Julian would have stayed out of the whole thing, but Sa'heera had asked him to come, and Julian didn't really want Rowen to leave without him. Plus there was also the fact that Herald Lisha had also asked him to come. Kyndri had stayed in Haven, teaching a class on Changechildren, and Lisha was the only Herald that knew and trusted Rowen, and had the Gift of Animal Mindspeech. That would be useful in finding Nadar, because birds- especially birds of prey- had excellent eyesight, and might be able to see Nadar where human vision could not.

Lisha was there because of a compromise made with the first half of the Council. They had agreed to let Rowen leave if a Herald was with him, and Lisha was the only logical choice, since she was fluent in Shin'a'in, which she obtained when the dyheli Brytha was in the Haven. She and a few of the other Heralds, and two Healers had approached Firesong, and asked him to ask Brytha if it was permissible, after Lisha had heard that the dyheli could do such a thing. Brytha and Firesong had consented, and, using the late Shin'a'in Envoy, Querna, had had the language implanted in their heads. Most of the Heralds and the Healers were now in positions where they might come upon Shin'a'in, where the language would be useful, and the three Heralds who had opted for Tayledras instead of Shin'a'in were serving as Envoys to the Kaled'a'in and the Vales.

Now, however, she was useful as an authority in Valdemar, however, that little bit of usefulness had ended five days ago, back when Altra had Jumped them here. Now, however, she was just another sword with a pretty white horse.

Julian sighed again and turned to Sa'heera. "So, what exactly makes you think that Nadar won't come back this time?"

"It was what he said," she told him in accented Valdemaran. "He declared Rowen dead, outcast, and… he declared him Oathbreaker and annulled all of his oaths to Rowen. Then he tore off his Hawk pendant, flung it to the ground, and declared himself dead as well, and he just left." She sounded frightened. "All other times he just up and left without reason, but this time he sounded serious. And the removal of his medallion… it was completely unlike the old Nadar, and I'm really scared for him, for Rowen… for all of us, really. Rowen signifies a great change to the Clans, and I can only wonder what's next. Nadar… Rowen, Nadar, and I were really close, spirit-sibs, you might say, despite the age difference between us and Nadar. Rowen saw Nadar and I as the siblings he'd never had, and Nadar looked up to Rowen as the older brother that didn't exist. I just saw them as the true family I'd always wanted since I was adopted into Tale'sedrin from Firefalcon Clan nine years ago. Firefalcon had a different way than most of the other Clans; they produced the most Shamans, and the occasional Mage. You could say I was the gray sheep of the family, just a normal Shin'a'in child with no magical tendancies whatsoever. In short, I was my mother's disappointment after my father died. My brothers and I still keep in touch, but I've never gone back to Firefalcon, even though the rest of the Clan had no problems with me; it was just the bad feelings between my mother and me."

Julian gave her a sympathetic expression. "All I've got are my father and brother, and I only speak with my brother on occasion; he and I were never close."

"What about your father?" she asked.

His mouth tightened. "Father never agreed with my choices in life. I always wanted to be a Bard, and he wanted me to go into the Guard, just like he did; just like Rojer didn't- couldn't. My brother's a Healer, and a Healer on a battleground is never a good thing. I hate fighting, but Father never saw it that way. He wanted me to go into the Guard to become a man, not stay at home playing music and reading all of the time. He never liked Yentan, either. He was my… my friend, and he and Father never agreed, even though he was in the Guard. He died when I was fifteen, from a bandit raid on his eighteenth birthday. When I was sixteen, I went to the Collegium and presented myself for training. I was a little old to begin training, but I knew how to read and write, and could read and write music as well, which was more than a lot of Bards could say when they came. I finished the schooling when I was seventeen and a half, and set out on my Journeyman period, assigned to the Rethwellan Border.

"Six months after that, I was in an inn, playing my lute for board and food. A mercenary stumbled in… and drank himself into a mood. He asked me for a song I didn't know- Morrison's Jig- ironically, I took the time to get it down perfectly after that, I don't know why. He didn't like that, and when I stood up to stretch my legs, he punched me, and I went down. He jumped on top of me, and I couldn't get him off. He… he tried to slash my throat, but I brought my head down… and he got my eyes, instead." He lifted his head, letting her see the thin, pale vertical line that crossed his face from temple to temple, interrupted only by his light eyes. Most people missed it, shadowed by his blonde bangs as it was. "That was three years ago," he finished quietly.

He was startled to feel her hand clasping his, and her voice whispered, "You're alive, and that's what matters. A lot of people care about you, Rowen included."

Julian thought about the occasionally cold Shin'a'in, now accompanied by the image that he'd built up in his mind of the man's face- angular planes, strong features, and a mouth that hadn't smiled in a while. Green eyes and shoulder-length sable hair, confined in a ponytail, sitting on top of a human torso… that joined with a horse body at the waist. That was the one image he had yet to reconcile, but he was working on it.

"How far along are you, Sa'heera?" he asked, changing the subject.

"Let's see… about eight months. The baby's due just after the Summer Horse Fair." At Julian's blank expression, she took pity on him. "It's right before Midsummer."

"Oh. Do you know what it's going to be?"

"The Clan Healer knows, but we want it to be a surprise."

"Any hopes?"

"Well, Clopin's sort of hoping for a boy," she said, "but I don't really care what the baby is as long as they're healthy."

"That's sweet," he said. After that, Lisha rode up to speak with Sa'heera some more, surprisingly not about Nadar, but about female things- babies, men, jewelry, and the like.

He let the horse drop back a bit- the animal knew to follow Sa'heera's mare, and he turned inward to think about some songs that he'd picked up before he met Rowen, and to digest some of the information about Nadar. If he was a thirteen-year old nomad, running away from home, where would he go?

The morning after the next, they were supposed to be close to the site, and Julian was pretty useless, considering his lack of sight to find the camp, and his Empathy was useless when looking for an abandoned campsite. Rowen was understandably nervous, even though his Clan had moved to a new encampment a few days before. Sa'heera was now in the lead, being the only one among them to have been at the campsite, and from the sounds of it, they were minutes from finding it.

'Scratch that,' he thought. Make it seconds.

"There it is- they've covered it well, but I still see it!" she called back to the others.

They sped up a bit, and Julian was glad that they were almost there. He was sure that he had oozing sores on his buttocks and inner thighs, and even though he was used to the pace, it didn't keep him from wishing that they had a cart or something of the like to use instead. He would have even preferred walking to this. Oh, well. The horses slowed and abruptly stopped, and he heard the others dismounting. He swung his leg over the saddle and carefully felt for the ground, wincing at the feel of having his legs a reasonable distance from each other.

"So, now what?" he asked Sa'heera.

"Well, after Rowen stops twitching at every noise, we'll start looking for signs of the boy."

Julian sighed. He wasn't going to be much help at this, since he couldn't see.

"Is there anything I can do?"

"I'm not much of a tracker, so I'll help you set up base camp," Sa'heera said.

He heard her rummaging around in the bags, pulling things out.

"We only took the one big tent, but we shouldn't need it. The weather ought to hold, but if it doesn't, well, we'll set it up and all crowd in. Let's just get a fire pit set up, and then we can take everything off the horses and let them roam a little. Between the two of us, I think Inyam and I can keep them in line."

"Alright. Er- where do you want me to start digging?"

"Well, first we have to cut out a lot of the turf for a short distance around the pit, or it could start a grass fire."

Well, that made sense.

"Do you want to show me where to dig while you cut the sod?" he asked.

"Sure" She gave him a small collapsible shovel, pointed out the area and demonstrated how big she wanted the dimensions, then left him to his work. He dug for a while, enjoying the feel of the earth between his fingers, while Rowen and Lisha searched the ground in the direction where Sa'heera had said that Nadar had headed off into. Julian had just finished the pit, and was piling the rest of the dirt carefully around the pit in the area that Sa'heera had already cleared, when a cry from Rowen turned everyone's heads.

"He came back after the Clan left. He came back- and they were all gone. What would he have thought?"

"He knew where the next campsite was, Rowen." Sa'heera pointed out. "He rode off once before while we were moving, and found his way back to the camp then."

"But they left while he was missing. What would you think if you came back and they were gone?" Rowen retorted angrily.

"I would move on," Sa'heera said. "I would go to the next campground, and if they weren't there, I would wait. Then, if they didn't arrive, I would ride to another Clan and ask them for help."

"But he's just a boy! A young, angry, alone, and probably very frightened boy!" Rowen half-shouted.

The shouting match escalated as they both switched to Shin'a'in, and Julian was about to say something, when Lisha intervened. "Listen to yourselves! Your bickering is not going to find Nadar, and indeed, if he's anywhere near here, you two have probably scared him off with all of your shouting. Do you want to find him, or not? Calm down, let's have something to eat and finish setting up camp, then we can decide what to do."

Apparently both of the Shin'a'in agreed, because there was some shuffling amongst the packs and a few hoofbeats against the ground near Julian.

"I'm going out to look for wood," Rowen announced. "I'll be back in a little while."

True to his word, Rowen reappeared some time later with a lot of wood, which he set down next to Julian, who was now lining the pit with some bricks that Sa'heera had given him.

"Thanks."

Rowen just made a noncommittal noise, knelt down, and started breaking sticks and placing them within the hole.

"Is something wrong?" Julian asked after a while. "Besides the obvious, I mean?"

"It's just… Nadar. He's all alone out there, and probably frightened to death, but what if- what if he doesn't like me the way I am now?" Rowen confessed. "What if he sees me as a monster, just like those bandits did? He'll probably be even more terrified of me than he is of anything else, and he'll run from me. If I go after him, that'll just make it worse, and if I don't, he'll completely renounce me forever, and this time he can do it, since he'll have seen me alive."

Julian considered the problem, and finally came up with a suggestion.

"Look. Was Sa'heera afraid of you?"

"No, but she-"

"Was Jadrek afraid of you?"

"No. But he's a-"

"Was I afraid of you?"

"I don't know. Are you?"

Julian wanted to scream, and maybe slap the Changechild. "No," he said forcefully. "How could you think that? There are many things that you are to me, but fearsome is definitely not one of them."

"Oh."

But Julian wasn't finished. "You are one of the kindest, nicest people I've ever met. You've never made me feel bad about my sight, you gave me shelter when I needed it, you gave me food, you saved me from bandits, you trusted me to keep the Heralds from killing you, and most importantly of all, you gave me a friend. How could I be afraid of you?"

There was a pregnant silence, and Julian was suddenly afraid that he'd said too much.

"Rowen?" he ventured timidly after the quiet became too heavy to bear.

"Hmm?"

"Oh- never mind, I thought there was something wrong."

"No, Julian. There's nothing wrong. I'm just… I'm touched by your trust in me. It moves me that you find me kind. Most people would not use that word in a description of me, even if it was a thirty-page dissection of my life."

"Maybe that's because most people don't bother to try and see the real you," Julian said quietly.

"No… it's because I don't let them in," the quiescent horseman said.

"Then maybe you should let someone in." The normally tactful Bard let the words slip before he knew what he was saying, and he nearly clapped his hand over his mouth in horror.

There was a heavy silence, then finally- "You're right, Julian. I should open the door to my heart. Maybe there's someone out there who can fill the void. Somewhere…"

And without another word, he rose and left Julian alone, next to the now-full fire pit, in the darkness of the encroaching night… and the permanent darkness around his world.