Alanna awoke with a raging headache. What had happened? She looked around. She lay on the floor of an inn similar to the Dancing Dove. She surveyed the room's occupants.
Everyone seemed to have been thrown on the floor like rag dolls. Alanna stifled a giggle at the skinny ten year old that was apparently Nawat. Aly lay beside him and Alanna felt a surge of guilt. She had been gone from Pirates Swoop Aly's entire tenth year. The knight had come back to her worried daughter and husband bloody and unconscious on a stretcher.
She stood up with a groan. Touching the back of her head where it hurt she felt her cropped hair. She gasped and felt a familiar tightness around her chest. She looked down her shirt to see a corset similar to the one ruined in her duel with Roger.
She turned when she heard two groans behind her. Jonathon and George were sitting up, softly cursing. The two men started when they saw Alanna. The small knight looked terrified.
"Lass, what happened? Why've I got this blasted head ache?" George said, clutching his head. Jon nodded his thanks when Alanna got rid of his headache after George's with her Gift. She quickly explained that the gods had dumped them in the Dancing Dove.
"Alanna, sword...your...Lightning." Jon managed to squeak out when he beheld what was strapped to her waist. Alanna looked at the sword. It was indeed Lightning.
Alanna drew the blade reverently. This wasn't the half Lightning – half gray sword she had made when Lightning was sheared in half. This was pure Lightning, her blade.