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A/N: Sorry about the length, as well, but it wasn't a very long chapter to start with.

Chapter 5 - Beyond the Borders

"Damn, they're persistent..." Lyn muttered, glancing over her shoulder. A large group of bandits were following them, as they had been since two days before when they'd camped in the old castle.

"They're catching up..." Rei replied, slightly fearful. For her sentiment, she recieved a dirty look from Florina.

"We'll be fine, as long as Lyn's with us." The pegasus knight replied from where Huey walked beside them, wings held tight in.

"If you say so. This is not good ground for fighting on. Too hilly and rocky - what would you or the cavaliers do if your mounts turned a hoof?"

"We would fight on foot, until the last, lady Rei." Kent replied, stiffly.

"Aye, and we'd protect the lovely ladies too!" Sain finished, grinning. "Come, don't worry. We're all here, and if there's anything we can't deal with, then the horses won't matter anyway."

"If you say so..."

"Really, Rei. Don't worry so much. The bandits suffer the same problems we do."

"I hate to rain on this parade, m'ladies, but... that might not be the case so much." Wil's voice startled them as he appeared out of seemingly nowhere. He'd been scouting ahead, and from the look on his face he didn't like what he'd seen.

"There's a cleric and her escort up in those woods you can see, and they're right in the path of the bandits' second party," the archer continued. "Somehow they got a group in front of us. I've warned the priestess about them, but she seemed... confident. I don't know if she'll heed my words or not."

"Blast." Lyn swore, thoughtfully. "We'll have to make it a stand then. This priestess' escort - did he look like he might be able to help?"

"Not really. He looked like he's a couple of years younger than me, and he didn't have any weapons with him. Might have been hiding them under his cloak, I guess, but..."

"We can't rely on him being any use. Alright... Rei? What do you suggest?"

"Fighting isn't the best option... we should move into those trees though. Do your priestesses not learn to use the power of the elements?"

"Some powerful clerics can wield holy magic," Kent replied as they started moving again, Wil slinging up behind him to ride pillion. "but not elemental magic. Only mages are permitted to practice that in most of Elibe. I can't really tell much more than that."

"I see. We cannot assume anything

about these two, so I'll have to plan without them. We'll make our stand in the forest outskirts if possible. Wil, what is the cover like?" The Kanhi girl directed her suddenly cool and professional gaze at her scout.

"Pretty sparse, but some of the trees are solid. This isn't the most fertile land."

"When we get there, I want you to find one of those solid trees and get the priestess into it. I want you protecting her and her guardian, at least until we know what he can do. Florina, I want you to go off to the left and lay in wait to ambush them as they past you. Hide yourself if you can find cover, otherwise..."

"They won't look up until it's too late. I... I'll come at them out of the sun. That's what my training says..."

"I'm sure you can do it, Florina." Lyn smiled at the knight, who nodded. Lyn gave her confidence, Rei noticed. It may be best to keep them near each other when the situation favoured it... Without letting it show on her face, the dark-haired girl squashed the surprisingly negative emotion attached to that idea.

"Kent, I'd like you to do something similar from the other side. Ambush them from behind when they're past. Sain, I want you to give Wil you horse and play the man-at-arms. Lyn and I will be the bait. For the ambushers - remember. Wait until we have engaged before springing the trap. We have to destroy their kenki here, or they'll hound us all the way to Caelin. Take out anyone who looks like a leader."

By this time, with the quickened pace they had taken after Wil rejoined them, they had made it to the edge of the woods.

"Um.. Rei?" Lyn asked as soon as she finished talking. "What do you mean by... ah... 'Ken key'?"

"Oh!" Rei flushed red, embarassed. "I'm sorry... I don't really know the translation exactly... the characters for.." she waved her hands vaguely in the air, guiding her horse with her knees. "It's pretty much the will to fight and win. Fighting spirit?"

"Ah. I think I understand. There is a word in Sacaean, but again... it doesn't translate exactly. Kent, there's a good place to conceal yourself. Florina, you should wait here, too. Wil, will you show us to where you left the priestess?"

"At once. It's just up ahead..." His directions were rendered mute a moment later by raised voices from the other side of the slight rise the wooded area sat astride.

"Eek! Erk, do something!" A shrill voice commanded, frantically. "He's shooting at me!"

The group crested the rise to see the second group of bandits clustered around the cleric and her escort.

"No... it can't be... Lyn, please, forgive me, but... I can't let that girl see me..." Rei spoke softly, doing her best to hide the fear that struck her heart at the sight of the bright pink hair of the staff-carrying woman with the person she assumed to be the priestess.

"Rei? Why not? Are you..?" Whatever Lyn was going to ask was cut off as the red-cloaked one shoved the other into the leaf litter, the arrow that was about to strike her shoulder tangling in the red hood instead.

"Enough of this," the young voice came to them. "You there, archer. See if you can match me!" The shugenja threw up their arms, pushing their cloak back to reveal a tunic and trousers, belted at the middle with cord that seemed mostly there to hold the various pouches that hung from it. "Eygyas, Barias, Varuel!" were intoned, as though summoning servants. "Cleansing Flame!" came the call, before hands dropped to make several sigils in the air, each of which burned brighter than the last. Finally, the spirit-magic userr threw hands at the archer, palms towards the spell's target. Flames rose from the floor, twisting in a trellis-gate pattern until they met above the mage's head. A moment later, the fire spell was released, a head-sized globe of flame shooting forth from the sigil at the top of the flame-gate to explode between the archer and his sword-bearing companion with catastrophic effects.

"She's a shugenja. That's good." Rei muttered, before dismounting. "Wil, you should take her and deploy in hiding, one either side." That said, she disappeared into the woodland, her cloak forming effective camouflage.

Lyn frowned to herself, worried as she walked away from the small camp they'd made. The battle had dragged through half the afternoon, and by the time the last of the bandits had been defeated the entire party were exhausted. The mage – Erk, who had turned out to be not only male but an escort to the Elimine cleric Serra - had elected to remain with them for the night before moving on. She'd asked the knights not to mention Rei to them, considering the girls' attitude on first seeing the cleric, and also to avoid mentioning what they were about.

Now, though, it was past dusk the tactitian hadn't returned.

"Rei?" She called out softly, caught in the dilemma of wanting one person to hear you but no others. "Are you there?" There was no answer, and she moved further from the camp. The horrid thought that the essentially noncombatant islander might have been caught by a group of bandits they'd missed crossed her mind, but she squashed it.

A moment later, she heard a soft thump behind her and turned, hand going to her weapon from instinct.

"It's me..." Rei whispered, leaning against the tree she'd just walked past. Lyn relaxed, dropping her stance.

"Are you alright?" Lyn waited for Rei to nod before pressing on. "Why did you dissapear like that? What is it about that girl?"

Rei opened her mouth to answer, but was cut off by a surprised exclaimation.

"Oh! Who's this? I was suspicious when you sneaked off, but I didn't expect this!" The cleric's high-pitched voice grated on both girls' nerves immediatly, but Rei's reaction still shocked her companion when the girl stepped out into full view and bowed deeply from the waist.

"Gomen nasai, Nadeshiko-sama. Anata no oniisan Kojiro-san ni miemasen desu!" she spoke very quickly, as though rushing to get the words out, and neither witness had a clue what she was saying.

"Wow. I don't think anyone's ever bowed to me like that before!" Serra exclaimed, at once joyous and slightly embarrassed. "What's she saying?" She looked at Lyn, who just looked blank.

After a moment, Rei straightened slowly, switching back to the trade-language.

"You don't..? You mean.." she stammered coming to look at Serra more closely. "You... you have the hair, and the features... you're definitly related, but you don't..." The dark-haired girl collapsed back against the tree, every line of her body suggesting relief. "Please forgive me, my Lady."

"That's alright. Who did you mistake me for?" As Serra blathered on, Lyn made her own examination. Apart from the difference in colouration - Serra had none of Rei's dark tan, and her eyes were blue rather than black. Not to mention the hair - the cleric had the same basic features. She was slightly taller, but she was as similar to Rei as any two Sacaeans were alike.

"You're the very image of my betrothed's sister. I had thought that you were sent to find out why I hadn't found him yet... The fact you're travelling with a priestess helped..."

As she trailed off, Lyn it was all Lyn could do to suppress a chuckle.

"Ah, Rei? Serra is the priestess. Erk is a boy." she said, and Rei blinked at her while the real cleric smothered a giggle behind her hand.

"You look like someone hit you over the back of the head with a board." the cleric told her, and Rei stammered a few times before managing to speak.

"But... he was using elemental magic... calling on the spirits to make it work... how did.. then... but.." The tactician was clearly dumbfounded.

"Priests and Clerics use healing magic and Light magic. Mages like Erk use elemental magic." Lyn explained to the foreigner, who shook her head slowly and made as though to reply.

"Then there's druids as well. They use horrible, evil Dark magic." Serra interrupted her, shuddering. "They trade in their souls for the knowledge and slowly go mad. Or not so slowly in some cases."

"O.. oh. I see... But... who intervenes with the spirits then..? If you have a drought or a bad storm... how do you make peace if your priests don't talk to them..? Do the... the 'mages' do it?"

"Er.." Serra looked completely blank. "spirits? Saint Elimine speaks with God for such problems... but... we haven't had a drought or a storm that bad in centuries..."

"Your countries are very strange." Rei told both women, and Lyn giggled to herself.

"Not everywhere follows the teachings of St. Elimine. Most Sacaeans still follow the spirits, and Mother Earth and Father Sky. My Mani-katti is a spirit sword, remember. Perhaps it is simply that Elibe does not suffer these problems because our priests and the mages of other lands do it without telling anyone."

Serra didn't look happy with what the Sacaean was saying, but any tirade she might have given was interrupted by the young, high voice of her escort.

"Serra! Where are you? I swear, you are not the woman I agreed to escort!" he came scrambling down the embankment they were at the foot of, scowling from under his purple fringe. When Rei saw him clearly, she suppressed an exclamation even as Serra protested her innocence.

"I put out the advert for.." she was saying as Lyn leaned in to hear Rei's thoughts.

"What is it?"

"He's so... young! How old is he, fifteen, sixteen? I've never seen a Shugenja younger than thirty before... and I saw how he handled that magic."

"He's fourteen, and a journeyman. He's the apprentice of the Magelord, Pent... or so I'd gathered. He seems rather proud of his master, so I think he must be someone fairly important, though I've never heard of him."

"No! You're my escort, Erk! Mine!" Serra's raised voice cut into their whispered conversation, and they both looked up to see a cowed-looking journeyman spellcaster backed up against a tree.

"I think we should rescue him..." Rei whispered back. "Since she's not one of my... one of Kojiro's family, I think I'd like to invite them to join us... the mage at least, and they seem to come as a pair."

"If you're sure... it would make travelling the last few days outside Lycia safer. After that, Kent's promised us aid from the marquis."

"Exactly." Rei finished, before moving forwards. "Lady Serra, Journeyman Erk... myself and Lady Lyndis have come to a decision. I do not know whether you have a mission of your own or not, but... we would like you to join up with us, at least until our paths must part. It would be safer for the both of our groups."

"Where are you going? We're travelling to Ositia." Erk responded, but Serra cut him off with a wave of her hand.

"We would be delighted to accompany you. Erk's magic, and my healing powers are powerful, but... on our own, we're easy pickings." Then she whispered something to Erk with an excited look. For his part, the mage responded with a somewhat ill look.

"Alright, then. Welcome to Lyndis' legion. We generally break camp shortly after dawn, so you should join the others and get some sleep."

"Alright. Run along, Erk, and ask Lady Lyndis to show you where we can set up." Serra commanded her escort, who rolled his eyes and went over to the Sacaean. The swordlady smiled at him and they started talking as they walked back to the camp.

"No... who are you? Who is this woman you thought I was?" Serra started, moving closer like it was some kind of interrogation.

"er..." Rei stepped back, uncertain. "Not so close... please... my name is Rei, I'm a tactitian from the Kanhi islands to the north of Elibe. The woman I thought you were... her name is Nadeshiko Naoki, and she's the daughter of the local daimyou... um... warlord."

"Is she pretty? Rich? What does she do?" The cleric pressed on, making the tactician very uncomfortable.

"Yes, very... on both... um... mostly she doesn't do anything... she's married to the master of a martial arts school."

"So she's a fighter? Female warriors are so amazing..." Privately, Rei agreed with her - though likely for different reasons. However;

"No, she's a wife," she said aloud. "That's all she does. Manage the school and look after the students, I suppose. I don't really know, since that's not how I let my father raise me. It is what he wants me to become, though..."

"Why didn't you stay then? Why run away?"

"... I didn't run away." Rei scowled at the cleric. "I was sent. I'm on a mission to find my betrothed, as I said before. Besides, I don't want to marry him."

"Isn't he rich, though? And handsome?"

"I don't want to talk about this any more... but I wouldn't marry Kojiro Nadeshiko if he was the overlord of the fire isles."

"But.." Serra started, but the kanhi girl was already bowing and walking away. For a moment, the cleric was almost certain that she saw a dark shadow hanging over Rei, but then her usual self-absorbedness reasserted itself and blanked out the sign that someone else might have a problem.