The first thing Astrid became aware of was the biting night air and the crinkling cushion she was sitting on. Then gradually her other senses came back to her and she heard Will and Alyss stirring on the ground beside her, but her vision remained dark. Apparently all of them were still blind judging from the sounds the others were making as well.

"Hm," a silky voice sounded not too far from the three of them. At the familiarity of it, Astrid stiffened and sucked in a breath while the others tried to figure out the source.

She tried with all her power to push the darkness from her eyes but it wouldn't even budge. Above and a little to the right of her someone chuckled smoothly and she lunged for it, the element of surprise on her side. She missed by a hairs breadth and went sailing by, cloak billowing behind her then snapping taut as the end was snatched up and held steady.

Astrid dropped the dagger in her hand as she scrabbled at the clasp, gasping for air while the cold chuckle resumed, but before she could release herself, a strong arm snaked around her waist and pulled her upright. She was held against a solid body that smelled of moonlight and rain. Just like… "Ryruil," she gasped at the realization. He undid the clasp of the cloak single handedly and sent it billowing to the ground a few meters away.

"I am glad you remember me, Astralania. I've missed you so very much. And thank you, by the way, for taking good care of my cloak." His voice was velvety and warm in her ear and sent shivers rolling up her back. "I was sent to find you."

Astrid grew still and quiet and as she hoped, the arm around her waist relaxed fractionally. "Ryruil, I will not return home until I have enlisted help for those very people," she said, abruptly jerking her head back into her captor's nose. Bone crunched and the darkness lifted from her eyes. Elvin swears rang through the trees as Ryruil desperately tied to stop the blood gushing from his face.

Will was already on his feet and helping Alyss to hers when Astrid turned to them. "Do you know where we are?" she asked, glancing at the dark trees around them.

Taking in his surroundings, Will replied, "I think—" a thin tendril of shadows coiled around his throat, constricting his airway stopping the words short. Astrid managed to throw up a shield around Alyss, a solid dome of compacted shadows, before anything could happen to her, but now she had to free Will.

As strong as her magic was, she couldn't break the hold of the tendril squeezing his throat, so she turned on the source. Gathering up a wave of shadow, Astrid coaxed it to form hundreds of razor sharp needles and sent the volley flying as fast as she could towards Ryruil. His eyes widened as he saw the attack and he quickly tried to shield himself, loosing his concentration momentarily.

Astrid used that momentary lapse to shatter the thread around Will's neck. He fell to his knees gasping air and Astrid quickly threw a shield around him and focused on Ryruil who was bleeding from the dozens of tiny punctures left behind by the shadow needles.

"You've grown weak," Ryruil said, shaking his mane of silver hair that just kissed the tops of his shoulders, "you used to be able to bend my shadows behind my back."

Astrid's lip twitched, she knew he wanted her to admit that he was now stronger than her, but she wouldn't give him the satisfaction, "I've just been healing. It's quite taxing as you should know."

He scowled at the dig- he had never bothered learning to heal with the darkness. "And while you were learning that, I was learning this," he growled, a midnight whip coalescing in his hand. Ryruil brandished the whip over his head then brought it down with an echoing crack. He snapped it at a tree, scoring a deep gouge in the rough bark and sending splinters flying.

Thinking on her feet, Astrid padded her entire body with a protective layer of shadows and charged straight for Ryruil, sliding the other dagger out of her belt and switching her grip as she ran. Now too close to use a whip against, she leaped for his throat.

No longer able to use his whip, Ryruil allowed it to vaporize and pulled a gleaming short sword from his belt in time to knock Astrid to the side. The impact of the blade glanced off the shadow armor but she still felt the force behind it. Astrid rolled then sprang back up into a crouch. Her now gray and foggy eyes shone in the scant light of the stars and leaves poked out of snowy locks laced with black. She felt her tiger's fangs as they grew in her mouth and her fingers itched where her nails were sharpening into claws.

Ryruil turned his sword point in her direction. "It kills me to do this," he said, shaking his head slightly, "you are so beautiful when you're trying to take my head."

Astrid hissed and reached down to pull the dirk from her boot with her free hand and switched her grip on the dagger in her right hand again. The clang of fine steel rang through the forest as they charged each other, Astrid striking lightning fast right, overhead, right, left, each time Ryruil's hands deftly rose to fend her off with a quick flick of the wrist.

Blood spattered the forest floor from the many punctures on his body, the viscous red liquid making it slick so their feet slid slightly before settling in place. This makes it all the more interesting, Astrid thought as she dove for Ryruil's chest again. She dug her weight in more with each step to steady herself while she ran headlong at him.

Ryruil ducked under her blades as they scissored over his head, switched his grip on his short sword, and sunk the pommel into her stomach, hard. Astrid doubled over, her mind numb of all but the throbbing in her abdomen. The shields over Will and Alyss faded then dissolved into tiny wisps of darkness.

Astrid coughed, eyes shut tight against the pain. She sank to her knees, maintaining her grip on her weapons.

"Get up," Ryruil demanded, "get up and fight, Sorceran." Then he kicked her. Ribs cracked and she flew backwards and slammed into a tree, both the dagger and the dirk flew out of her hands and her head sagged to the side. Blood trickled down the back of her neck from where she hit the tree, and her chest hurt with every breath she took.

Alyss could only watch in horror as Ryruil yanked Astrid to her feet by her arm and shove her to the middle of the clearing. She just stood and glared at him defiantly from beneath her sheaf of bloody hair.

"Fight me!" Ryruil was yelling at her, though she barely heard him. She was focusing on Will who had slunk behind one of the trees and was now pulling his throwing knife out of its sheath. He stepped from the cover so he could focus on his target and released the perfectly balanced blade. Hearing him at the last possible moment, Ryruil jerked backwards and the knife hissed by between him and Astrid. Will reached for his saxe knife and was able to draw it before his hand was pinned to the tree beside him with a ring of shadows.

Astrid took the few seconds that were not focused on her to swipe at Ryruil with her claws, scoring deep gashes on his cheek and after a second swipe, across his chest. She growled and leaped back before he could catch her with his sword again as he swung back to face her.

"Come on!" he taunted when she danced away. Ryruil grinned savagely and brought his dark whip to existence in his hand again, while keeping his sword in the other.

Astrid tried to run at him again, tried to get too close to use the whip against, but he flicked his wrist and caught her ankle, jerking her backwards with a pained yelp. She landed with an audible thump on her stomach and Alyss called her name, her voice muffled by the trees. With visible effort, Astrid pushed herself to her knees and stood.

Then she staggered, crying out in pain as fire ripped across her chest. The whip jerked her sideways along its path and quickly she felt its white hot bite lance through her back.

"How can you do this?" she gasped through streaming eyes.

Ryruil paused, a vicious look on his face. The allowed the whip to disintegrate and closed the space between them quickly. He gently raised Astrid's chin to look into her eyes, his own stony and guarded. He wiped the tears from her eyes and ran his salty thumb over her bottom lip. "My dear," he said quietly, "you do not know me at all. You don't know what I have been through." A single bead of iridescent moisture began its trek from the outer corner of his eye, the only sign of any emotion from him.

Astrid's eyes solidified, rage bubbling inside her, threatening to spill over. "I 'don't know what you've been through'? You do not deserve to say that. Do you have any idea what any of the rest of us have been through ever since you opened the tower doors for those bloodthirsty creatures?" Her voice broke with her anger and she slapped Ryruil, her claws scoring deep furrows in his fair skin.

"You betrayed us all. Your own people. I do not know why, nor do I want to. A sickening belief that maybe you could be powerful once they took over? Is that what it was? A play for money and power so you could live like a prince while we sprawled in squalor?"

"Astralania—"

"Or was it for revenge because you couldn't be with the one you loved?" By this point, the floodgate of emotions had been blown wide open and there was no stopping the torrent of words.

"Astral—"

"Your dearest Jarriaera. My oldest friend. I loved her very much and we never left each other's side. Until, you know, she was run through before my very eyes! To this day her magic courses through my veins, reminding me of what I have lost and how frail even our lives are."

"Astrid!"

"What?"

"Listen to me!" Ryruil said, a little exasperated. "Yes, I was sent to find you by the Sanguine Council, I am not really going to kill you, and yes, every day I regret my decision to betray you. The reason that I came to find you was because of this," he paused and pulled a ring out of a pouch at his belt. "It is the only reason I was able to find you at all."

The ring, a thin pure diamond circlet, glowed softly with its own magic. Astrid gasped, fresh tears welling in her eyes. "My mother's ring," her voice was soft with astonishment. "How did you get this?"

"I, um," he knew the memories were still painful for her so he didn't exactly know how to phrase his next statement, "I picked it up off the floor of the lyceum after you were dragged away."

Memories resurfaced as Ryruil slid the ring onto her middle finger. The stone flashed and heated up as it settled onto her skin, then dimmed to a comfortable luminosity, but none of the heat left it. Then every repressed emotion came rushing back to her, they slammed into her like a stone wall.