Okay, it's been a while. Quick summary of where we're at: Eran's lost his powers and he and Marina are living in Portland, Maine. Marina has a job at a bookshop, and Eran is trying to adjust to a world where he can't hear the sofa talking. They've had a letter from home that told them essentially that they're stuck there for a while yet, and so they're hanging around, waiting for news and/or plot twists.

CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

Eran was curled up on the couch, nose buried in a book. I smiled. I had brought it home from work one afternoon; it was on world religions and thought he'd be interested. I dropped my purse on the kitchen table and he looked up.

"This is fascinating," he said.

"I thought you'd think so."

"So many different ideas."

"Yeah."

He went back to the book. I turned to the newspaper. I'd gotten a subscription so I could keep an eye on what was going on in the world. If Rochelle appeared, perhaps there'd be some indication. So far we'd managed to keep a low profile, but it didn't hurt to be aware.

There was an article in the Local section that talked about a new yoga center that was opening up. One of the instructors was talking about meditation.

"It's a way to recover yourself," she was quoted as saying. "You start to hear things more acutely and become in touch with your feelings. So many of us have lost the ability to listen. Meditation helps you regain that."

I looked up at Eran, then back at the page.

So many of us have lost the ability to listen.

"Hey, Eran?"

"Yes?"

"Do you meditate?"

He looked mildly surprised, but said, "I used to. Every day. It's part of the shephard's practice."

"But you don't anymore?"

"Not since we came here."

"Why not?"

He shrugged. "I don't know. Too much silence. I don't feel like myself."

"I think you should."

I left it at that and went back to my reading. I felt eyes on me but ignored them.

The apartment was silent. I'd gone out to get the mail -- not that we had much, but pizza coupons and political pamphlets were there and they to be dealt with or society would crumble -- and had been sidetracked by Mandy, a friendly, talkative girl who lived downstairs. She was newly married and had discovered that I too had just entered nuptial bliss; she wanted to discuss the joys of matrimony. I faked my way through the conversation as best I could, silently praying that it wouldn't turn to a discussion of more intimate issues, and welcomed the sight of her husband getting home from work. She beamed, hugged him, and they had gone inside to be newly-married together. I was glad to escape.

"Eran?" I called. The usual flare of worry that rose up whenever I didn't know where he was started. I knocked on his bedroom door.

"Come in."

He was sitting cross-legged on the floor, looking at a blank wall. I hid a smile; he'd clearly taken my comment to heart. There was a moment of silence, and then he took a deep breath and turned to me.

"Why did you suggest this?"

"I thought it might help you," I said.

"It's awful."

I sat on the floor next to him and started sorting through the junk mail, feeling that the appearance of preoccupation might keep him talking. "Why's that?"

"I'm not used to this. I always have my feelings under control. Always."

"Yeah. I'd noticed."

"They're not anymore. They just… they rise up and it's everything I can do to stay sitting there."

"Welcome to my world."

"It's horrible."

"Sometimes."

He laid on the floor and stared up at the ceiling. "I don't know how much longer I can do this, Marina."

"What do you mean?"

"I need to get back to Merlana. Maybe Orion can help me."

I shook my head.

"What?"

"I don't think he can," I said. "I talked to him right after the whole thing in the garden. He said… he hinted that he couldn't help you. I have to."

He looked sharply up at me.

"You?"

"I think I'm offended," I said, then shot him a quick grin. The corner of his mouth twitched.

"I'm sorry, I just don't think you can help me."

"Come on, why not? I'm getting better."

"Because of what you just said. Your emotions aren't under control. You feel so much. I'm of the earth; I don't change so much."

"I'm earth, too."

"But you are also everything else. Your mother was a mermaid. Mermaids are among the most passionate peoples on the earth. I'm a sea shephard. We're calm by nature."

"I thought a shephard wasn't something you were born as," I said. I traced a pattern in the carpet. He seemed more willing to talk if I didn't meet his eyes.

"You're not," he said. "But it usually runs in a family. It takes a certain disposition. My father was a shephard, my mother a shephardess. My younger brother is in training."

I looked up in surprise. "I didn't know you had a brother."

"He's on another island."

We fell silent. He was breathing deeply. I looked up and saw that his eyes were not quite focused.

"You okay?"

"Yes," he said. "Just… it's too much."

I nodded. "You should get a job to take your mind off things."

He raised an eyebrow; I couldn't help laughing.

"I'd give us away in moments," he said. "I didn't know what the dishwasher was." An expression of concern flickered over his face. "Is it money?"

I shook my head. We didn't need more money -- the apartment lease had been paid for the upcoming year, and Ryne had arranged for funds to be deposited into an account here at our disposal. The whole thing had been a smooth operation from start to finish. Last time, Lisette had told me in the hurried hours before we left, it had been chaotic. In the years following, Ryne, Pearl, Lisette, and Roberto had carefully mapped out a plan in case such a need should arise again. I was grateful they had, but at the same time I had needed something to do in the beginning besides watching Eran's blank face around the apartment day after day.

"No. Just to keep your mind off things, like I did," I said.

"I thought it was because you'd had a childhood dream of working in a bookshop," he said with a slightly accusing glare. I looked appropriately sheepish.

"And I was stressed and needed to get out of the house."

"Truth prevails."

I grinned and leaned back on my elbows. "Yeah, well, it usually does." My mind flicked back to Mensonge and I firmly guided it away again. "Why are we here?" I asked after another moment.

"What do you mean? To keep you from getting killed springs to mind…"

"No, I mean why here? Wouldn't we be just as protected in Merlana?"

"Oh. That."

"Oh what?"

"The net."

"The what?"

"Haven't you learned about that?"

"I don't think so."

He blinked and stared at me with an expression that hinted at shock. After a long, very dramatic pause, he said, "What do you know about Merlana's magic?"

"Big, powerful, everybody's got some, and it all ties back to the sea."

"Everybody's got some. That's the net. Everyone there has some abilities. Some people are especially gifted, but even the most powerful, even Ryne, he can't do anything big without the help of others. It was a safeguard to keep the monarchy from misusing their power."

"How can it be a safeguard? It's magic. You're born with it."

"But our magic is from the sea. We got it from the mermaids, and they knew that human beings craved power, so they made us rely on one another."

"Oh."

I was quiet a moment, connecting the links in my mind. "So even though we're powerful together, Rochelle is more powerful alone, one on one?"

"Yes."

"So can't we all just work together?" It seemed simple enough, but Eran shook his head.

"No. It's… well, it's complicated."

"I'm not going anywhere."

He pursed his lips. "Okay. I'll try to make this make sense. Merlan magic requires a net, right?"

"Right, I got that."

"For the net to work against someone like Rochelle, we'd need large numbers of people with average skills, or a smaller group of those at Ryne's level."

"Okay."

"For those people to work together, they would need some way of communicating their intentions without Rochelle knowing about it."

My mind flashed back to that night in the gardens. People had been speaking silently, mind-to-mind. "Isn't that what thought speech is for?"

"In most cases. It obviously worked to a point when we were trying to defend you, but the trouble is that Rochelle uses a kind of magic we can't get at. Merlan magic absolutely recoils as soon as we get near black magic. We can't sense it clearly, and we can't do it. It's like… it's like mercury, or water on wax. Our magic is repelled by much of what she does."

"Like magnets, how they push away from each other."

He looked relieved that I had grasped the concept. "Exactly."

"So… you can't sense what she's doing."

"Right. And our spells are weaker against her. They get weak as soon as they hit corruption. She's found that if she weaves black magic into regular spells that we can't find her, and we can't fight against her as well as we'd like to."

"I thought spells were spells. How can you weave in black magic?"

"You make it hurt someone," he said. "So when she uses a simple spell, it at the same time robs someone of their strength. If it's something small, one of her servants will have a headache. Something bigger, someone has an accident and is wounded."

"And for the biggest, she kills someone," I said. I shivered. The air seemed colder than it had been a moment before. "Life spells."

He nodded. "That's the life spell. It's big magic, and it's evil, so someone has to die."

It was quiet.

"Oh," I said after a while. There didn't seem to be anything left to say; he nodded.

I picked up a pizza coupon and stared blankly at it, then looked up. "I've… got to think about this," I said. "Let's go get dinner."

A/N: Forgive me, readers, for I have gotten sidetracked and unmotivated. But I return to you as always and hope that ya'll are still with me... Especially after this chapter. There's going to have to be some sparkly chemistry in the next one to make up for this conversation, lol.

InChrist-Billios: I love your rabid fangirl mode. It makes me feel very successful. :D And fear not, all questions will be answered. Eventually.

KRM-EditorInChief: Thanks! You know, I haven't really played with the regret idea yet, but it might have to come out in the next few chapters... And YA editing? Hehe. High five.

Ally: I had a sneaking suspicion you'd like the Sebastian bit. Eran and Grett are still going to have to get together at some point. And yeah, Shush is a language that mimics the waves. Unfortunately, since I have not written for two months and failed to take notes last time, I have forgotten what the words say.

Audra Laudargue: Thanks. I'm glad it's coming across as gradual. There's a lot of danger of him getting really... spastic... which of course I may do for effect, but it'd be nice to have it be intentional, you know? And I love warm fuzzy awkward string-section-filled moments. tearyness :D

Bingo7: Sad but nice. Yay. :) Yeah, the husband thing is weirding me out just a little...

jinxywinxy: Thanks! And keep studying... it'll all be over someday... lol.

Twilightloverkaren: Thanks! Hope to see you again. :)

Daedra: Thank you!

Hunchbook: Okay, so, that was pretty much one of the most detailed reviews I've ever gotten, and in all honesty I should have updated sooner purely based on its thoughtfulness and attention, which inspired this chapter. (I was trying to think of a more subtle way to get this all out but I don't know how to do so without making the book about 20 chapters longer than it needs to be... hopefully it worked out okay.) Anyway... thanks much!

To everybody: Thanks for your patience!