Karigan listened for the shuffle of feet on the half frozen ground and swept her sword in the defensive arc, low and to the left where she though the attack was coming. Again she was wrong and earned a smack to the ribs on her right side for her troubles. A foot was planted on her back sending her toppling into the dirt. Karigan lay there humiliated and frustrated before pulling herself to her feet again.

"Need a rest form standing still?" Drent laughed. "You are not even trying."

Tearing the blindfold from her face Karigan marched towards him, stopping just short of his face and glaring up at him.

"I don't know if you've realised, but this" She gestured to her bandaged eye. "isn't going away. I'm stuck with it and you're stuck with me. I'm going to learn to fight with it, even if it kills me."

Taking a deep breath Karigan collected her practice sword and moved back to the centre of the ring.

"So come on, hit me again."

"Enough," Drent snapped. "That's enough for today." And he left her standing bemused, exhausted and bruised in the center of the practice ring.

Shrugging, Karigan dragged herself back to the rider wing for a well-earned bath


Karigan stoked the embers of the fire in her room back to a cheery little blaze and settled in one of the armchairs with a book. She spread her unbound hair out to give it a chance to dry properly. A fresh bandage was loosely applied over her damp hair; perhaps another would need to replace it when she made her way to dinner.

As Karigan was getting into the book there was a knock at the door. Assuming it was probably Cade returning early and only knocking out of his ingrained politeness Karigan called "Come in!" and glanced over her shoulder.

It wasn't Cade.

Karigan quickly scrambled out of the chair and dropped into a bow. "Majesty."

Zachary stood in her door way. Two Weapons remained behind him in the corridor as he tentatively stepped forward. "Hello Karigan."

No Rider G'ladheon, so Sir Karigan.

She had not known the last time she stood before him, everything that had happened in her absence. She had seen the changes but not known the cause. The assassin's arrow and its poison still cast a shadow over him and a part of her heart bled because of it.

"The queen wished me to deliver her fondest greetings."

"How is the queen?" Karigan asked doing her best not to wince. She would not be sure of the sincerity of Estora's well wishes until she spoke to her, and Karigan was dreading that.

"Resting in bed as ordered by Master Vanlynn. We are expecting twins." Zachary smiled.

"Congratulations, I am very happy for you both." And Karigan found she meant it. A thought in the corner of her mind reminded her that she had only hear of one child. She banished it, not wishing to cast a shadow over there happiness. "Please return my greetings to the queen."

"I will. I have advised Captain Mapstone that you are to take as much time as you need before you return to duty."

"I have told her that I would like to go home for a visit. I would like to see my family, and I think that I should, after everything they will have heard."

"I didn't believe it, that you had died." Zachary said dropping into a low tone, suddenly making their stilted-unreal conversation intense. He drew a letter from his pocked and looked at it in his hands.

Karigan felt her heart lurch when she recognised her own writing and the green wax seal.

"I didn't read this." He began. "Because I felt reading it would be giving up hope that you yet lived. Perhaps you are glad, because you will not be held to words that you may wish unwritten."

He held the letter out to her and she took it with trembling fingers.

"It doesn't matter now." She said for both their benefits.

He looked at her with pain and loss. "I am glad you are alive and I hope you and your young man are very happy together. He must- must love you a lot." He half turned to leave before stopping. "You deserve every imaginable happiness, Karigan." And then he left.

Karigan wasted no time, she stepped quickly to the fireplace and tossed the letter onto the burning log and watched the corner catch.

"Karigan?"

At the sound of her name she turned to find Cade standing behind the chairs. He looked up from the burning letter to her, the hurt on his face made it clear to her that he'd seen the king leaving their quarters. And now he found her burning a letter, it must look as bad as was possible.

Her mind in turmoil Karigan reached towards him, with the only clear though being she had to explain this as best she could. "Cade…"

He took a step back from her and the mistrust in his gaze cut like a knife in to her chest.

"I thought I understood what was between you and him," Cade said shaking his head and looking away. "I could accept you having a history but I thought it was over, that it must be if you…" He trailed for and then looked back at her, anger mixing now with hurt.

"Why did you bring me here? Are my feelings just a game to you?" He asked angrily.

His words hurt deeply, but it was hurt Karigan new she had brought on herself by not being honest with him sooner.

"Because I love you," She told him truthfully. "I love you Cade, and because the thought of a life here without you was bleak and empty."

His expression softened slightly and he let her approach him and take his hand, but his eyes remained wary.

"I swear to you Cade, when you asked me if there was another man whose arms I would return to I spoke the truth when I said no. Whatever was between Zachary and I is over, it was over before I met you."

"Does he know that?" Cade asked.

"He does." Karigan nodded. "It never really began anyway."

Cade looked thoughtfully for a moment at their joined hands. Karigan was comforted that he didn't take his away, but it was far from a comfortable silence.

Eventually he asked tentatively: "What was he doing here then, why did he need to see you secretly?"

Karigan bit her lip. She didn't really have any option now if she wanted to keep Cade's trust. She recognized now that the only way out of this was the truth. "I wrote him a letter." She confessed, watching him as she watched her. "Before I went to Blackveil. We hadn't spoken in such a long time, not since the night he told me he loved me and I said I'd never be his mistress. I thought I was probably going to die, I was upset and I wrote a foolish letter."

Cade didn't say anything, he watched her quietly with a slight frown. She could see her words hurt him.

"He returned the letter, un-read which is for the best. And he wished me happiness with you."

"Really?" Cade looked surprised.

Karigan nodded. "He said he wished me 'every imaginable happiness'."

"Do you wish he'd read the letter?"

"No!" Karigan stepped closer to Cade and held his gaze. "Everything is different now; I wouldn't write it now, I wouldn't say those things. Yes, I had those feelings for him but now I've moved on and I can let them go."

Cade held her gaze for a long moment and she could hardly breathe. She still didn't know what was going to happen, everything between hinged on this moment; they would either move forward together or break things beyond repair.

"Can I ask you something?" Cade said seriously.

Nervously, Karigan nodded her agreement.

"If, tomorrow" Cade begin, "Zachary abdicated, left the crown to Estora and their unborn son, dissolved their marriage and asked you to run away with him to Hillander province, what would you do?"

That wasn't what she had expected him to ask. Karigan couldn't imagine that happening; Zachary would never put his own desires before the common good like that. Taking a deep breath she realized if he did she would lose a lot of respect for him.

"I'd stay with you," She said truthfully.

Cade had been watching her face closely; he seemed to see what he expected in her gaze and nodded, losing some tension in his frame.

"If you'll still have me." Karigan added.

"Of course I'll still have you." Cade said hurt. "I gave up everything I knew to be with you, I'm not going to throw that away because I have learnt you have a past." Cade pulled her into an embrace. It was with great relief that Karigan relaxed into his arms.

She shouldn't have doubted him. As she rested her head against his shoulder she realized they both had to learn to trust each other.

"What I feel for you is so different." She whispered into his collar.

Cade grunted questioningly.

"I mean, I love you and I loved him, but it never brought me any happiness. With you I feel loved, I feel valued and contented. You make me happy, Cade."

"I'm glad I make you happy. You make me very happy." Cade pressed a kiss to her head. "I love you Kari."

"I was going to tell you about this, I'm sorry you found out this way." She told him.

"I had a suspicion, that there was a reason you so greatly understated your familiarity with the king." Cade admitted. "I hoped, with time you would be comfortable enough to share whatever it was you were keeping from me."

Karigan nodded. She looked up and they smiled at each other and Karigan knew they were going to be all right.


AN: Hi, Soooo with in a week of when I posted the last chapter of this story back at the end of June my life was turned upside down. While I wasn't sent 200 years into the future (my attempt at a joke) what happened to me does mirror story line and themes from Mirror Sight/Blackveil. The last 7 months have past in a horrible rush and I have neglected things far more important that writing fanfiction.

This is probably going to be the last chapter of the story that I post. Trying to write this is no-longer an enjoyable pastime but rather a painful reminder of events I am trying to move past. I found this chapter as it is on my laptop and decided to post it, I hope it offers some kind of closure for the story. If it seems patchy that's because I had planned other scenes.

I hadn't planned to write anything very long, this would have been at max under 20 chapters, but I was going to write as far as Karigan and Cade taking a trip to visit her family and try to portray Cade settling in and making sense of his role in both Kari's life and the up-coming fight. Spoilers: they lived happily ever after.