Disclaimer: I don't own the Circle of magic, Tamora Pierce does.

a/n: hiya, thanks for all the reviews. sorry for the long wait for the update, but i honestly have been busy. final exams and such and then babysitting my younger cousins who are evil. -- most of them anyway, Sammy is a sweetheart :)

Purple Flowers and Blue Grass

Chapter 10: At the Gods' Feet

"How about Sengal. That new novice at the water temples. Isn't she sixteen and, more importantly, a mage?" Lark said

"She'll work, I'll..." Moonstream had begun before being interrupted by a quick efficient knock on the door. Who would be knocking at the door to her office at this late hour? "Come in!" she called crossing her fingers under her desk that it wasn't another emergency.

The thick, wide door opened slowly and in stepped a dark clothed woman. A very petite woman. "Excuse me, I was told I could find Rosethorn and Crane here." her voice carried lightly over the stunned group. Her light, lithe voice.

Instantly a tense silence filled the room and all of its' occupants. Briar was the first to break it. "S-Sandry?" From beneath her cloak the woman looked at him funnily. He had a cropped black curled hair and more importantly very familiar gray/green eyes. He couldn't be... Could he?

"No, you must have me confused for someone else." the light, lithe voice came again from beneath the cloak. Slowly she drew her hood down, revealing a soft, kind looking face, enhanced by her short chin-length black mane of wild hair. Sandry's friend Cecila and fellow member of the Women's Council. "My name is Cecila. Was my guide right? Is Rosethorn and Crane here?" she looked around at the group, but was unable to pinpoint who they were.

"Um-hm." Crane said, pitying the girl and standing straight, while pulling Rosethorn up with him.

"I can get up myself, thank-you very much Crane." she growled at the tall lanky man besides her, jerking her arm free of his grip.

Sandry had said they argued, but I didn't believe it would be this bad, Cecila thought, looking them up and down, while closing the door she had left open in case neither of them were here.

"Might I ask what it is that you want with my mages, Ms. Cecila?" Moonstream asked, motioning her down into the seat Briar had never sat in. Cecila sat gratefully, glad to rest her feet for a moment.

"I was sent by my country. We have recently been plagued by a strange disease that targets our children between the ages of six and nine. It's slow acting and not fatal."

"Then, why would you need us?" Rosethorn growled at her, reclaiming her seat as crane too begin to go back to his spot of leaning against the wall.

"What it does is far worse, or at least to us, it destroys their senses, hear, sight, taste, smell, all the things a human needs to survive." especially my people,she added silently. "We have what we may believe will cure it, but have a limited supply of it as we don't know the ingredients. So, I was sent to see if these two great mages would be kind enough to help us with deciphering it?" she spoke the last part to the two mages, ignoring everyone else in the room, because, at least according to Sandry, as long as they agree, Moonstream will as well. By Gods, let her be right.

"I really wish we could be of... Rosethorn!" Crane had started only to be elbowed sharply in his side as the woman stood up and walked by him, stopping in front of Cecila.

"We would like the night to think about your proposal." it wasn't a question, but a statement.

"But of course," Cecila said smiling at the room at large. "I believe I'll go back to Summersea and the room I had rented." she stood up, curtsied to the room at large, and left the same was she came. Quick and efficient.

No one said anything till they knew for sure she was gone. "What was that about Rosethorn? You can't help her and save Sandry at the same time." Evvy scolded getting up from her seat and poking her head out the door to see if the mysterious woman was truly gone. "We have to go see YinYin, didn't we already decide that." Crane nodded in agreement from his spot on the wall. But everyone else was staring at Rosethorn in sudden understanding.

"Yes, we can." Briar said, in awe.

"Of course. We can visit YinYin on our way to her country." Rosethorn agreed.

"But Cecila didn't say where her country was, for all we know it might be to the south, while YinYin's temple is to the north." Crane argued back.

"It's in the North," Lark said, agreeing completely with Rosethorn. "Her clothes are made of thick, fine material perfect for Northern weather. I would say it would be around Namorn, maybe a little further north."

"What countries are further north?" Tris asked.

"No one truly knows." Niko answered. "They normally keep to themselves and trade with other countries by ship, but refuse to have further contact. Most countries don't care or not what they do as long as it doesn't harm them." he paused to think looking at all gathered there, "One of the countries are rumored to be hidden deep beneath the sea." No one could hold back the laughter that bubbled in their throats.

"To clear up any further confusion, Crane and I will ask to bring our apprentices, one Glaki and Sengal, and other mages," she gestured at the others and waved vaguely behind her in the direction of Summersea and Tris, "for our help. Briar is my assistance, we'll use Tris as our scribe like during the blue pox plague, Daja and Lark and Evvy as observers, or some silly thing."

"And what about me?" Frostpine asked from his spot close to the fire.

"If they bring to many people it would look suspicious, though I wish I could go as well." Skyfire supplied, saying something for the first time throughout the meeting.

"Then its' settled, you'll meet the little novice Sengal tomorrow in front of the east gates and head to Summersea to tell Tris your plans and then you'll go and give that Cecila girl your answer and requests in return. At the best you can hope for a week or two to prepare for the upcoming trip. " Moonstream mused out loud to the group.

Everyone agreed and then split up for the night. Crane and Skyfire heading into the western part of the temple grounds towards their respective dorms, air and fire. Briar, Daja, Evvy, and Niko heading for the visitors' dorms. Rosethorn and Lark headed back to Discipline cottage.

"But still... what was with her eyes when Briar confused her with Sandry? It was almost like she personally knew who we were talking about? But it couldn't be." Moonstream murmured watching as they all went to their dorms for the what little remained of the night.

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"There's no way he is..." Cecila thought to herself as she entered the small inn room she rented for her stay here when her ship had first docked here earlier in the day. It was plain and white-washed, the room only containing a bed, a nightstand for the water basin, and her trunk of clothes and magic supplies. Cecila had rested here for a few hours before getting up and trying to find her way to Winding Circle, after two hours of searching she found her way there with no help thanks to the citizens of Summersea she had asked along the way, and then it took several hours, even with the help of the dedicates, to track Rosethorn and Crane finally at the Supreme Dedicate's office in the Hub, a giant tower with a clock at the top. "...just because the eyes are similar..." she finally broke off her train of thoughts by shaking her head rapidly from side to side. Sighing she dropped onto the bed and stared at the blank ceiling missing her home, family, and friends. Especially her mischievous children. It had been months since she seen them and it would be more months till she saw them again. They just had to say yes and they just had to be out at see and on the way back to Hope before next week was over.

Sighing once again, not her normal bouncy self, she stood back up and went to the basin by the bed. To a normal person who walked by or looked in the window in the room, and woman, beyond, would have seen nothing strange, just a woman bending over the basin and washing her face. But to someone who could see or feel magic it would be plain as the nose on Cecila's face that it wasn't what she was doing.

Magic of a light white with a tinge of blue color. surrounded and covered, the water in the basin. Ice quickly formed along the edges and began to spread towards the middle. In a matter of seconds the whole bowl was ice. Cecila bent further close to the ice, making it look more like she was washing her face, but she muttered a spell and the white/blue magic once again gathered on the surface of the ice. Yellow, cotton-y, magic, green, flowery, and many other type of magics began to swirl along the basin as well, mixing with Cecila's magic. Shapes started to form from the colors and the room in Hope with the Women's Council came into view.

The women of the Council turned around and looked at the ice mirror that had been brought in when it had been decided who would go to fetch the two green mages. Gwen and Sandry both stood from where they sat quietly in a corner talking in chairs and looked expectantly at the woman. Everyone else soon followed them in suite.

"How goes the misson, Cecila?" Sandry called out, airily waving her fingers in greeting. Most of the women laughed lightly at the young woman's childish antics, while a few were disturbed at how she could act serious one second and so childish the next, because a moment before her and Gwen were talking about what to do if she failed. Sometimes they believed Sandry had split personalities.

"Fair enough." She bent closer to the ice and managed to keep her voice low. Though she was excited on the inside, no one was too sure that the communications would work with her being so far away, especially considering she would be in a relatively warm region and ice is hard to find. "I've meet with them and told them our predicament, about the medicine and all, but I wasn't able to speak with them alone. There was a group of mages around them, including the Supreme Dedicate Moonstream."

"I hope there isn't some kind of problem." Sandry muttered softly biting her tender bottom lip. Cecila could tell, even through the mirror of ice she created, that it had been bitten roughly into these past few hours, or days, as they waited fretfully for her to contact them. If she could contact them. "If there is some sort of problem in Summersea, Emelan, as a whole, or separately, or, even worse, Winding Circle, they cannot come."

"I don't know if it was a problem, but they sure were discussing something, something," they obviously didn't want me to overhear." She watched Sandry out of the corner of her eye as she said this, but she looked nothing but relatively curious about what it was about. "They also, or a young man about your age, mistook me for someone else." at the mention of a young man it that was her age. She knew who her friend meant instantly.

Briar! she growled his name in her head, barely able to keep the rage she felt hidden from her face. Instead she smiled softly at her friend and muttered, "Really? Interesting." a warning not to go further ringing in her voice. She wasn't ready, for anyone, not even with a close friend as Cecila was, to discuss her past. Discuss the twins' father, mostly, she admitted to herself.

Cecila heard the warning and decided to heed it, at least till she was back at home. She decided then and there it was time for Sandry to spill her guts about her past. If only to her.

"You lived in Summersea before, correct Sandry?" another woman from behind Sandry and Gwen asked. Even before she stepped into Cecila's line of vision knew who it was. Corrine Doyle. A woman who had been in the Council since it was first started almost sixties years before. For some odd reason she did not approve of Sandry, not because she was a single mother of two, but because she refused to reveal her past and was surprisingly strong in magic.

"Once upon a time," Sandry agreed after a moment or two of thought, her eyes clouding as she remembered all the fun times she had had with her friends while they were children and life hadn't been so complicated as it was now, as it was the day she had been taken by the Titans from her home.

"Maybe, you know who she's talking about," Corrine injected again, once again trying to pry information of her past of the much younger woman.

Sandry shrugged and nodded as if bored with the conversation, but both Gwen and Cecila noticed the sparkling look in her eyes as she secretly agreed with the gossipy woman. "It's possible, if he was trained at Winding Circle, but then again, I 've met alot of people in my young, deprived life." once again her blue eyes became clouded with the past as she thought of times so far gone even she had trouble recalling them. Her, her mother, her father, on ship after ship going to country after country. Then her parents deaths. She closed her eyes in remembrance, recalling their faces more clearly to her mind. And the promise she made to herself, and her girls, the first time she held them in her arms. She would always be there...

As Sandry was locked firmly into her own little world. The conversation around her continued. "...swer tomorrow." was what she heard when she opened her eyes and mind back to the present. "I'll contact you when they've given their answer."

"They'll bring others." Sandry called out, as everyone else nodded their heads in agreement.

"They can bring anyone they need," Gwen told Cecila. The magic wavered again and soon each group was looking at blank ice.

Sighing in relieve and wandering about her friend's past Cecila let the magic go and collapsed back onto her temporary bed. Soon she was in a deep sleep.

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"How come I wasn't told sooner?" Tris demanded of her two oldest friends early the next morning as they explained what occurred the night before. They were in a small sitting room, done in light creams and whites, tapestries (SP?) of starlings, doves, and other birds and animals hung about the walls in between high stacked bookshelves tightly packed with all kinds of books. The new-born Lene lay comfortably sleeping on a soft blue blanket while her older brother, Dijon, and Clover's four-year-old son, Moline, were sitting on the floor nearby playing some made up game, ignoring the adults.

"Quite simple, really, you're still in a delicate condition," Briar teased stretching out his body on the only, cream colored, couch in the room. Daja and Tris sat in matching chairs opposite him, Tris mad and Daja as calm and cool as always.

Daja snorted from her seat before standing up and taking a tray of food and tea from the maid when she walked in the door, knowing full well how Tris would react when seeing her, as Keth had hired her behind her back and Tris didn't think "silly, foolish, maids can't don anything right the first time". Secretly Daja couldn't help but agree as the girl tripped and stumbled spilling half of the tea on the floor as Tris took her harsh glare from the one she called her brother to her "foolish" young maid.

"I'msorryI'msorry," the young girl's apologizes ran together as both Briar and Daja helped her clean up her mess before either Dijon or Moline got up and decided to play catch the tea or some equally pointless game. Thankfully though none of the tea cups broke.

"It's OK," Briar reassured her taking the tray and the remainder of their tea off of her, earning a light blush from the girl. After the girl was gone, all returned to their previous positions. "Coppercurls, you believe in no matter how you look or feel you're never delicate.?Your wrong. Childbirth is an extremely difficult and taxing process. Thank the gods I'm a guy and will never have to go through the ordeal. But sadly you just did."

Both women turned towards their brother and glared, causing him to chuckle nervously at the sudden...hateful... attention of his friends. He shrugged nervously as if saying 'hey it's true' before getting up from his lounging position on the couch and dropping himself on the floor between Moline and Dijon as they drew squiggles in the still damp carpet where the maid had split the tea. "You boys like me, don't you?" he whispered to them, ruffling their hair. Both boys smiled brightly at him before shaking their heads and running, wobbling in Dijon's case, to the other side of the room to play some twisted version of hide-and-seek, which consisted of them taking turns hiding behind the couch and the other finding them and smacking that boy on the top of the head.

Briar sighed heavily before dragging himself back up and lounging back on the couch watching as the two women talked about their plans. Only paying attention when they brought up the children "Well, I can't leave those two with that husband of mine. Besides we don't have a wet nurse (a/n: for those who don't know what a wet nurse is, it's a woman who breast feeds a baby because for some reason the mother doesn't or couldn't do it herself. normally only nobles could afford them.)."

"And what's the problem of bringing them?" Briar asked, closing his eyes and falling into a half-slumber.

"Says the guy who just pointed out that I just gave birth a little less then a week ago." she grumbled. "But of course I'm bringing them, when we find Sandry I want to introduce them to her." Because I don't know if she'll come back home, she silently added to herself, blocking the thought from her two friends. "Briar just has to help me convince Keth that it's in our best interest to go."

Briar's reaction was just what she thought it would be. He sat up suddenly and looked at her like she was crazy, mouth open in shock. Convince Keth what? was written all over his face. But his sisters weren't paying any attention to him, as soon as he sat up they were laughing hysterically, the two boys soon joined in, and the new-born baby, Lene, gurgled from her spot on the floor.

"So, anyway, where are Rosethorn and Crane?" she asked when things calm down again. She looked between her two friends as they shared a secret smirk and a laugh.

For once it was Daja who answered. Before this Briar had taken control of the whole situation involving Sandry and her situation. "They're having a little talk with that Cecila girl and telling her their needs and wishes."

"Hopefully she's gullible." Briar agreed snorting and laying back down onto the couch. Tris raised an eyebrow at her friends, knowing they'll tell her whether she asked or not.

Daja gave a quick bark of laughter before explaining what they meant to Tris. "They're telling her that it's a custom for southern mages to go to YinYin's shrine to pray when traveling and that young maiden girls are needed to say their prays since men and older women aren't allowed in it."

Tris rolled her eyes as her friends laughed, as Lene fell into a peaceful slumber

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On a warm Firesday day a week after the day the three friends meet and talked a single ship left the port of Summersea for northern waters. It didn't take them long to reach their first destination, they ere there within a week. The sun beat down hard on their heads as the ship, the Wanderer, pulled into the port of Yoshimiro, the town where YinYin was said to live.

Cecila sat in her room, finishing talking to the council, and resting up while those of the Summersea group began their journey to YinYin's shrine.

It was silently decided between them who would accompany them to the shrine. Obviously Crane and Rosethorn had to go so they didn't raise suspicions of their companion. Because they didn't want to be too big a group and cause unwanted attention from the locals, Daja and Lark volunteered to stay behind on the ship. Briar went for obvious reasons. And Tris stayed because she wanted more sleep, because she wasn't getting much of it because of a little somebody named Lene.

They slowly made their way through the gather large sized villages. Passing by house after house that managed to all look the same, they had the same two-story wooden structure and were all painted the same light blue. When Rosethorn asked a villager why all the houses were all painted the same color they told her it was because of the YinYin legend. Blue for the sea on a calm day.

After a ten minute short walk they reached the end of the village. And in another five minutes they stood in front of a stone shrine. Waves were carved in the stone. People with scales and fish with legs jumped free of the stone waves. And a beautiful woman stood above them all and protected them all. There was no doubt they were at YinYin's shrine and temple.

"State your name and business." a young voice rang out as two two girls of ten stepped out of the shrine dressed completely in white.

A girl wearing a similar dress to the two girls with her face hidden, stepped forth into their line of vision. "My name is Glaki and I and..." she paused her and pulled out another girl dressed like her out of her group. The girl's tremors were easily seen. It wasn't hard to tell she wasn't used to such strange stuff happening. "Sengal here have come to ask YinYin help in finding an old friend of ours whose life has been threatened lately."

"Only the young and pure may enter." the two ten-year-olds answered together.

"We are both pure and young." Glaki and Sengal answered together. Glaki sounding confident and Sengal a little wobbly.

"Then you may enter." they stepped to the side leaving the path open for the two older girls. "Draw down your hoods and bare your head." they called when both girls and stepped into the dark of the shrine. The two girls did what they were told, letting their dark black hair fall past their shoulders.

It was a dark and damp cave. The only light came from unknown sources. Rocks hung down from the ceiling and dripped water on the girl's bare heads and into the growing puddles of water that dotted the floor in various spots.

"Ewe..." Sengal moaned as her foot splashed into a deep puddle, soaking the bottom of her dress. Glaki rolled her eyes, she couldn't help it, Sengal was such a young and immature girl, even though they were the same age, Glaki felt like she was centuries older then her.

After ten minutes more of walking and several more feet dips into the deep puddles of sea water the two teenage girls reached a dead end, a cavern with a semi-large lake. "Now what?" Sengal grumbled. "Do we turn back?" Glaki ignored her and stepped further in the cavern and to the edge of the lake. A strange magic like she never felt before seemed to radiate from within the depths of the mysterious lake. Glaki just shook her head in answer to Sengal's questions.

The mysterious power built up faster and faster. Sources of power erupted up and out of the lake in multi-colors. Sengal backed up three steps, pressing herself in between the wall and two rocks. Glaki just took a few more steps forward till her feet were in the water. The multi-colored magic gathered into one spot in the center of the lake, but more importantly it began to take shape. The shape of a woman.

Slowly the woman made up of the magic took on a more solid form. She had long blue hair that reached her ankles, her skin had a green hint, and her eyes were a feral red, the pupils yellow. She wore an orange and purple dress that ended mid-thigh. "There's something you need of me child." YinYin, for it was indeed YinYin, said questioningly at Glaki, ignoring Sengal in the corner.

"We need to find Sandrilene Fa Toren."

YinYin stepped closer to the edge of the water and placed one of her greenish hands on Glaki. "I know the one you speak of."

YinYin stepped back from her and back into the center of the lake. She raised her hands above her head and began to chant in a language unknown to both girls. when her chanting was done, on the surface of the lake appeared a sleeping form Glaki knew all too well. Sandry. "At the feet of the Gods is were she lays, find her fast or forever she stays. The Hope of all is in her hands, at Iveline's feet she lays." A burst of light later and the image of Sandry and YinYin were gone.

Glaki grabbed Sengal and the two hurried out the way they came in. Not noticing the magic flashed again in the room and the image of Sandry reappeared, with more of a look at where she was. Laying besides her on a king sized bed were two identical little girls, their curls mussed. It wasn't only Sandry who as in trouble...

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the ending was a little weird and hurried. well anyway, I'm debating on something. should i do little pieces of the group's journey north to hope or just skip ahead to when they reach port? tell me what you want in your reviews, please.

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