Author's Note: This is the penultimate chapter. The last one will be up in a few days.

Enjoy!

Caius left Yeul asleep on the floor, a light blanket on her legs to keep her warm and the folded ceremonial robes under her head as a pillow. As he exited the room, he turned back to look at her. Yeul's face was peaceful in repose, but even from the doorway he could see the evidence of tears on her grey face. He watched the slow, regular rise and fall of her chest.

This is what I am protecting, he thought. Not the title of the seeress, but her. This girl. Yeul.

He went to his room, but he had overestimated how much time had passed; judging from the sun's position, it was still mid-afternoon. He sought for something to occupy the hours until nightfall - activities that would keep him in his room, close to Yeul. He polished his stealth knife and his sword, then gradually removed his armor to clean and shine it as well. He tidied his sparse chamber and organized his belongings, but still the sun hung above the horizon.

Wearily, Caius sat down on the edge of his bed, dressed only in his dark leggings and undertunic. He look out the tall, narrow window at the angular skyline of Paddra. The Temple of Etro framed the right side of the window, the aging light turning the white marble gold. The flat-fronted alabaster buildings beyond were cast in shadow, looking like rigid sentinels beneath the looming jagged mountaintops.

As the sun began to sink behind those mountains, Caius tried to imagine what they would look like after the trial by time. Surely those pointed, razor-like zeniths of stone would erode and trees might populate its bare face. The valley might be cut off from the rest of Pulse by a rockslide, or it could be opened up by the same elements that transformed the mountains.

And what of Paddra itself? Vines might creep up the weathered columns of the temple. Wild goblins or herds of the fuzzy sheep could wander through the ruined, abandoned market places. In his mind's eye he saw the tall, abandoned buildings, the evenly-spaced rectangular windows looking out like melancholy eyes.

That, Caius thought, is how Paddra would look if all the Farseers were dead. That would have been Paddra's future if Yeul did not fight back. That was a future that Etro wanted.

He wasn't sure what he thought of the goddess now.

The Farseers prided themselves on being Etro's chosen people; she showed them her goodwill by sending Yeul visions that would aid and guide Paddra's future. Despite Etro's responsibilities for death and chaos in the world, the Farseers had generally seen the goddess as more benevolent than threatening.

Caius knew he could not go back to believing that now.

He wondered how much Etro knew about his blasphemy. He wondered if the goddess would consider his fading faith as equivalent to Yeul's direct, though inadvertent, betrayal. For that matter, could Caius consider himself a true willing servant to her any longer, now that he had seen behind her facade?

No.

In a flash of perception, Caius suddenly realized that Etro and Yeul were, in a way, the same: both wore masks to their followers which concealed quite a different, secret character. Of course, this also implied that Etro perhaps did not trust her people enough to show them her true nature, as Caius suspected Yeul had felt almost two years ago.

The comparison made him uncomfortable. Yeul is nothing like Etro, he told himself firmly.

He shifted on the bed and looked again out the window. The sun had nearly set now, and the sky was grey-blue in the failing light. His room had become so suddenly dim that it took him a few moments to notice the girl standing in his doorway.

Caius started. How long had she been standing there? "Yeul," he greeted her.

"Caius." She walked out of the shadows to stand before him. She had changed clothes; now she was dressed in the light halter top and short, feathery lavender skirt that she preferred to wear privately, which Caius was used to. "I've been thinking," she said.

"Of what?"

She paused. "If you could live your life any other way, what would you change?"

Yeul had spoken casually, but Caius felt as if the wording was carefully arranged. He looked through the half-light up at her face. She was staring back at him, her dark eyes solemn. Heavy foreboding filled him again and it seemed as though his answer was extremely important to Yeul - that she was depending on his response.

Pushing aside the worry that she would turn this into another opportunity to degrade herself as a seeress, Caius replied honestly. "Nothing. My existence, such as it has been thus far, is satisfactory." When her expression didn't change, he added, "I am content to serve you."

Yeul closed her eyes briefly and sighed. "I am envious," she said, and Caius wondered if he had passed her silent test. "I told you that a part of me has always wished to be free of the visions, and that is true."

She looked away. Caius watched her. He noticed the way her dark, beautiful eyelashes brushed her flawless skin when she blinked.

"I have seen the light, carefree natures of the village girls," she said quietly. "Many times I have wished to be like them: to know little, to want little, to be little. They, in their expendable lives, can dare so much. If I were a simple girl such as them, I think I might dream of you. You have strength, courage, and kindness. But, as the seeress's Guardian, you are utterly unobtainable." Her low voice was still casual, but Caius could see the tension in her jaw, as if it hurt her to speak so lightly of her feelings.

"But, being the bold, reckless village girl that I am, I find a way to talk to you." Yeul turned to look at him at last. Her eyes were very bright in the near-dark. "I would tell you that I loved you," she said, her voice shrinking to a whisper. "That I've always loved you, and I - I never want to be apart from you."

His heart was pounding, pounding so loudly in his ears. Yeul stepped close to him and he watched as she bent a little. Her cool lips pressed against his forehead, her hand curling gently along his jawline.

Caius let his breath out in a slow, controlled sigh. His mind was a cloud of half-formed thoughts. Was he allowed to touch her in return? Etro - no, he wouldn't think of her. Yeul's hip brushed the inside of his leg and Caius flushed with heat. His hands felt so useless at his sides.

Yeul placed her other hand against his cheek and tilted his face up to hers. Caius gasped as she pressed her lips against his. It was an innocent crush of skin and Yeul blushed self-consciously, as if she knew how inept she was.

She didn't appear that way to Caius. He leaned up into the kiss and raised a hand to caress her cheek. His other arm wrapped around her waist, pulling her flat against his chest. Through the thin fabric of her skirt, Caius could feel the firm ridge of her ribcage beneath his fingertips. His broad hand drifted slowly up her back, burning against her frigid skin, and she shivered against him.

Yeul's hands were knotted in his hair. She twisted her head to the side, pushing the kiss deeper. Caius could feel her body pressed against him, his throat betraying him by uttering a low, hungry groan. His hand found the collar of her shirt on her back and his fingers dipped beneath it, feeling her soft, smooth skin.

She raised her head. "Caius."

Caius slowly opened his eyes. He heard their ragged breaths in the silence as he stared up at her. Yeul's long hair hung around them like a curtain and he could see her eyes looking down at him from within.

"Would you," she said breathily, "have felt the same?"

His voice was rough when he replied. "Yes."

Her hands untangled themselves from his hair and she lifted one of those hands to gently cup his face. He strove to see her expression, but all the light was gone. "That is not the life we live," she whispered.

Caius thought he felt something, ice cold, fall on his cheek. Yeul stepped back, letting her arms fall to her sides. She turned away and, without another word, walked back through his doorway, disappearing into darkness.

Caius sat on his bed, feeling stunned. He took slow breaths and calmed his erratic heart, managing them into an even rhythm. His first impulse was to follow Yeul, but his slowly-returning judgment told him it wouldn't be wise. He stared out the window at the sky, sprinkled with faint stars, and tried without success to clear his mind. He touched the place that he thought he'd felt Yeul's tear fall.

There was nothing.

When he awoke the next morning, Caius knew something was wrong.

The first thing he noticed was the silence. The absence of sound was so disorienting that Caius, for a brief moment, wondered if he had somehow crossed into the goddess's realm of Valhalla, where legends rumored that no auditory sound would break the stagnance until the dreadful bells rang.

Then Caius tasted the stale, flat remnants of magic on his tongue. Someone had used a spell on him, and recently. He dragged his eyes open and stared blearily at the ceiling. The light was weak and, struggling a little, he judged that sunrise was yet another half hour away.

His mind was so sluggish. He couldn't help thinking that the spell still had him in its hold. Surely he would have understood what happened if he didn't feel half asleep -

Ah. That was it: a sleeping spell.

He slowly pushed himself into a sitting position. He had slept peacefully, without the restless nostalgic dreams, which should have been his first indication that something was wrong. The last thing he remembered was staring out the window, wondering how he could persuade his mind to relax enough to sleep.

"Sir! Caius, sir!" A guard skidded to a stop outside Caius's doorway. His uniform was crumpled, as if he had dressed in a hurry, and his eyes were red with exhaustion. Caius's own eyes narrowed at this. "Sir, the seeress - " He gabbled. "I mean, she - "

Caius was up and striding past the panicked guard before he could finish. Caius walked into Yeul's room and stopped, staring. Her room was cleaner than the Guardian had ever seen it: the bed linens were stretched taunt across the wide bed; the ceremonial gowns hung respectfully in their place; the box that held her crown sat on the dresser. Caius had been expecting to see Yeul, but...

"She is gone," Caius murmured.

The guard gulped noisily behind him.

Now that Caius looked again, he caught a glimpse of scarlet beneath the window where Yeul had sat for the past two days. He walked to it, already knowing what it was. "The beads," he said to himself, scooping them up into his hand. They sparkled innocently in his palm, looking like blood against his skin.

The guard muttered something behind him.

"What?" Caius snapped, turning to glance back.

The man blanched. "Er - I said, that's why I was sent to get you. The seeress, she's gone. One of the guardsmen at the gate saw her leaving Paddra just twenty minutes ago."

Caius rounded on him. "She left the city?"

"Yes, but - I mean, some of the guards were going to follow her and then the spymaster asked me to come get you - "

"Fools," Caius growled. He stalked back to his room and quickly slapped his armor into place while the guard blubbered in disjointed fragments.

"We - we realized you weren't with her," the guard continued as Caius ran out into the streets of the still-quiet city, "and we didn't know - that is, we weren't sure if it was the Ugallu again, or - don't you know what happened?" He asked worriedly.

"Why in hell would I know?" Caius said in low, clipped tones. The idiotic guard made to speak again and Caius made a swift motion with one hand. "Keep your mouth shut," he commanded and the guard nodded, wincing.

They negotiated the narrow streets to the main gate. Caius shot through it, only to be met by waves of Paddra's City Guard.

"Thank Etro you're here," one said.

"We couldn't stop her. We tried calling out..."
"It happened so fast - "

Caius roughly brushed past them all, feeling as though he was fighting through tall grass. Why didn't they pursue Yeul? As protectors, they were pathetic. Why hadn't he noticed how useless they were before now?

His heart beat light and fast in his chest. He scanned the open valley, searching for the familiar, slight form of Yeul. But there were too many guards - they stood idly around wherever he looked. Where was she?

He could still taste the residue of the sleeping spell in his mouth. His suspicions clawed at his brain, making his motions jerky in growing anxiety. Yeul couldn't have put him to sleep herself. She couldn't have; she didn't know enough of the symbols to complete an incantation.

She wouldn't have.

What was she running from?

Not from... him?

That was the worst thought of all.

Caius snatched his arm back from the tuggings of the disheveled guard. "Stop. Stop," he told the crowd gathered around him. "Have you found the seeress?"

A few men turned and looked, others pointed, and one man said, "up the hill. She - "

Caius didn't wait for the rest. He charged up the steep incline, up toward the cragy rocks. It was here, his mind reminded him, when the Ugallu came to destroy Paddra. I challenged him, and Yeul banished him to the silent realms.

Yeul...

He reached the crest of the hill. There, looming suddenly above him, was an enormous red sphere. The air directly surrounding it wavered, like the orb was giving off heat. Despite his agitated condition, Caius stopped short.

"What is this?" He asked, his eyebrows rising slightly. "Where is the seeress?"

"Here," said a deep, quiet voice. The spymaster rose from his knees by Caius's side. He avoided the Guardian's eyes. "The seeress is here."

"Where?"

The man looked up at the sphere. "If I had not seen her change, I would not have believed it for myself," he said quietly. "She is there - she became that crimson orb."

Caius turned his eyes up to look at it. No, he wanted to say, but his faith was shaken. Could Yeul truly have transformed herself? But how?

As if the spymaster had read Caius's thoughts, he held out a thick book. Without looking, Caius knew it must be the tome that held the banishing spell. "She dropped this when it happened," he said.

"No," Caius murmured then. Everything seemed to be falling apart. Yeul, capable of casting a sleeping spell? Yeul, able to transfigure herself into - this? What sort of a Guardian was he, that he did not know? So she had been secretly learning more, then. Teaching herself.

"No," Caius said louder. He stepped toward the sphere and held out his hand. He watched the air through the rippling aura shift yellow and orange, staining the sky beyond. His hand pushed through the color, feeling a slight fizzle along his skin. The air was warm near the sphere, but not in an unpleasant way.

"Yeul?" He whispered.

His ear crackled, like static. Distantly he heard a wail, long and tearful, and in that sadness there were words.

I have brought ruin to my people. I am a disgrace to the goddess I serve. I wish to be away - taken from this world that I have wronged so gravely. Let those who come after me erase my mistake; I will hold my sins to my heart and scream in the silence, where I will not burden anyone. I seal myself away in an act of honest penance and pray that one day I can be forgiven.

"You were forgiven," Caius said softly. He lowered his hand.

"What was that?" The spymaster asked, glancing at Caius. "Is there a way that we can bring the seeress back?"

He slowly shook his head. "We cannot. This is old, powerful magic. Yeul has torn herself from this world through a tear in time." He gestured to the orb. "This is a Ruby of Grief; it merely holds Yeul's memories and remorse."

"Then... we cannot return her?"

"No. She is gone." Caius's heart twisted in his chest. The words, once spoken, were more painful than he was expecting. Yeul was not simply gone; she was as good as dead.

He shuddered.

The spymaster turned to order the guards to send word to the priestesses of Etro at once; that they should begin to look for the new Yeul among the newborn girls. Caius ignored the man's insubordinace, for he suddenly felt utterly tired. He couldn't summon the words to tell him off.

Instead he stared up at the Ruby as it hung suspended above his head. When the spymaster returned to politely ask if Caius was returning to the city, Caius silently shook his head. After all the guards finally retreated inside the city gates, Caius allowed himself to sink to the ground.

"Yeul," he sighed. "I am sorry."

He thought about her as she had been: serious, with her head held high when Caius became her new Guardian; wide-eyed, as she glanced at the dead assassin crumpled on her floor; determined, when she recited back the quickest way to disarm a swordsman; alarm, there and gone again, when she prophesied of the Ugallu in her sermon; anxiety, as she hovered at his side, peering around him to see pages of magical texts she couldn't understand; fear, as she glanced back at him in the city streets during their run to meet the Ugallu; relief, when the weight was lifted from her chest; horror, in those weeks before her final day; her voice, soft in the darkness, asking if he loved her, too.

Caius held the beads tightly in her fist.

That Yeul was gone forever.