A/N: At first Nehima was going to be just a briefly-mentioned character, like Malfas, but she started to grow on me. This chapter was the result. Enjoy!

Thanks for the suggestion, Lady!

Plans at the Wall

Nehima was not a popular woman.

It was a prevalent opinion that she was extremely arrogant. This was a great fault indeed for a person of her relatively few years, and a woman to boot – never mind that her considerable talents as a Wallmaker merited some pride in her handiwork. Whispers of "bighead", "suck-up", "know-it-all", and "clever clogs" followed her wherever she went. The fact that a sword was named after her did little to help her reputation, and she was heavily criticized for fact that she "signed" all of her work.

That much, at least, was true. Within the Charter marks of every object that she had ever made as a Wallmaker, she had hidden the inscription: "Remember Nehima."

As a little girl, Nehima had not been frightened of death. What had truly frightened her was the idea that she would one day be completely forgotten. It would be as if she had never existed, and that was a terrifying thought for a young girl. Throughout her life she had strove to accomplish noteworthy deeds in order to be remembered, and this driving ambition had taken her to the foremost of the Wallmakers.

But then something unexpected had happened. She had left her cozy little workshop at the West end of the Wall to become the Wallmaker's personal assistant and, as luck would have it, one of her duties as said assistant had been to take care of the ailing Master Felio. The Wallmaker, after all, was a very busy woman; thus Nehima had taken on the greater part of the task, for Ghidreth would not trust Felio's care to anyone less skilled.

The poor man had lain in bed for a month, often plagued by nightmares from which he could not wake. Nehima had spent many a sleepless night placing cold cloths on his brow and trying to shush him whenever he grew restless. She had found that singing some of her mother's Northern lullabies helped, although she felt ridiculous doing so. She had also fed him, which was a daunting task in itself. Thin soup and gruel had to be spooned into Felio's mouth, and Nehima was forced to massage his throat to induce him to swallow. It had been a slow, painstaking process, and normally Nehima would have thrown down the spoon within a minute. But in tending the sick man she had found patience within her that she'd never known existed. She supposed that buried inside of every woman was an instinct to mother those in need.

Despite her careful feeding, Felio had grown quite thin and weak by the time he finally opened his eyes. Nehima had been shocked at his sickly appearance, and her motherly healing instincts had kicked in. That first evening he hadn't spoken much, but had allowed her to feed him. She'd chattered on about this and that, not really noticing what she was saying. It was all to cover her embarrassment, although she hadn't really known why she was embarrassed. Perhaps it had been the strange way he looked at her. He certainly possessed the most unsettling pair of eyes she had ever seen: light grey eyes like twin moons, which looked odd against his black hair…

Nehima had soon realized that she was growing fond of Felio. It was an odd situation, because she was essentially his replacement. Nevertheless, the would-be rivals had become good friends during Felio's period of recovery – to everyone's immense surprise.

But strangest of all was the fact that Nehima no longer worried about being forgotten. As long as she was known to those people who really mattered to her, then that was all she needed. It was a peculiar philosophy, but there it was. Of course, this transformation in her attitude towards life wouldn't matter to the other Wallmakers. To them, she would always be the arrogant young lady from the North who happened to be distantly related to the Clayr.

She was going to come face-to-face with some of those other Wallmakers right now. Ghidreth had called a meeting between a few of the Masters to discuss the major projects facing the Wallmakers, and it was to be at Ghidreth's hut. Felio would be there, of course, along with Masters Russen, Iva, and Malfas. Russen was an expert in weaponry and specialized in gethre armour, the Wallmakers' best-kept secret. Iva spelled smaller objects, such as toys and tools. It was she who had come up with the spell to place on Princess Penemue's copy of Kile and Aurina. And Malfas, of course, designed buildings, and had contributed greatly to the planning of the Wall itself. There were many other Masters of great repute in the Kingdom, but these were the finest ones at the East of the Wall.

Nehima entered the Wallmaker's hut without knocking, and was mortified to see that she was the last one to arrive. Iva smirked up at her, and the younger Wallmaker ground her teeth before taking her seat. Her belligerence faded when Felio tipped her a small smile, which she gratefully returned.

"As we were saying," Ghidreth carried on as if nothing had happened, "The construction of the Wall is well behind schedule. We have determined that this is due to the intricacies of the spells that need to be put into every single stone. Any suggestions?"

"We need more Wallmakers," Malfas said simply.

Russen nodded his red head. "That really is the only solution," he agreed gruffly. "We've stretched our workforce to the limit."

Murmurs of assent filled the room. All of the Masters were immersed in their own projects, and lately the workload was beginning to overwhelm them. Nehima herself was behind schedule, a fact that stung her pride. She had two swords yet to forge, swords which were supposed to have been finished a moon ago, and her section of Wall was three feet shorter than it should have been.

"I'll need to send out more recruiters," the Wallmaker declared, making a note on a scrap of grubby parchment.

Iva banged her fist on the table. "That is not going to work," she said flatly, and Nehima glared at the older woman. "We've recruited countless times," Iva carried on. "There are simply no others left in the Kingdom, with the required Wallmaker abilities, that haven't been found yet! We'd be pulling even more workers from the Wall and sending them on fruitless missions."

"No others left in the Kingdom?" Nehima repeated incredulously, unable to keep silent. She made an impatient gesture with her hand. "Who are the people making bells for the necromancers, then?"

Felio let out something that could have been either a laugh or a cough, and Malfas grinned behind his scrubby black beard. Iva did not seem to find the situation humorous, but she did not voice any more objections to the plan. And for that, it was well worth being disrespectful – at least, in Nehima's opinion it was.

"Right," said Ghidreth, rummaging through a mess of papers in front of her. "On to our second topic of discussion: the Charter Stones."

Everyone turned to stare at Felio, who looked rather uncomfortable under such intense scrutiny. "I'm fine," he said nervously. Iva gave a snort of scepticism, and Nehima felt an instant flutter of anger.

"Well, he is," she said crossly. "Master Felio has recovered almost all of his previous magical ability." That much was true. Although he still looked a little ill, Felio could once more work Charter spells with ease. It had taken them the better part of three months to build up his magical strength once more, but they had done it.

"Is this true?" Russen said sharply, turning on Felio.

The other man cringed slightly, but nodded. "Yes," he said, a tiny hint of irritation creeping into his voice. "Anyone who wishes to make a Charter Stone will be severely weakened initially, but they will be able to make a full recovery in time."

"Well, that's settled," said the Wallmaker happily. She was overlooking the obvious tensions present between the Masters at the table. Either she was oblivious, or these petty rivalries had gone on for so long that she ignored them. Nehima believed it to be the latter. "Now, we've mapped out the locations for the stones." Ghidreth pushed herself to her feet and walked over to a large map pinned to the wall. She tapped the parchment, and red dots lit up all over the map, marking the future Charter Stones. "The only thing left to do is choose the Wallmakers," Ghidreth explained. "We've had a large number of volunteers for this. I narrowed the list down to a thousand, and it needs to be further trimmed."

"How many volunteered?" Russen asked curiously.

"Nearly twice that, but I removed anyone I judged to be of insufficient strength."

"Two thousand!" Iva murmured wonderingly. "So many!"

Felio reached for the list, and scanned it. "I know most of these Wallmakers," he said. "I'll narrow down the list."

Ghidreth nodded gratefully. Nehima knew that the Wallmaker, genius that she was, wasn't the most organized person in the world. That had been Felio's job, and now that he was hale again he could take up his bookkeeping duties once more. Nehima had found the clerical part of her duties as Wallmaker's assistant to be quite irritating. She lacked the patience essential for secretarial tasks.

"Thank you, Felio," the Wallmaker was saying. "Now, in order to make these Charter stones we need sources for the Charter. There are hundreds of locations, and we cannot ask the remaining Bright Shiners to go hopping all over the countryside. I have a feeling they wouldn't agree."

The Wallmakers fell silent as they pondered this new dilemma. Nehima was struck by a sudden thought so brilliant that she silently congratulated herself. "We can send messages to the Royal Family and the Abhorsen for help," she announced triumphantly. "They're sources for the Charter now, aren't they?"

"Clever girl," Malfas muttered, and Nehima beamed.

Ghidreth smiled her thanks, nodding her grey head. "See to it, Felio," the old woman instructed. "Dispatch messenger-hawks to King Berillan and Abhorsen explaining our predicament." She shuffled the mess of papers in front of her, trying and failing to look efficient. "Right. Er – Now we're on to our final topic of discussion. It's about a home the Clayr has Seen in some northern glacier. Malfas?"

The bearded Wallmaker took his cue and cleared his throat. He unrolled a large map of the north of the Kingdom, and tapped a spot among the mountains. At his touch, two of the peaks turned green. "The glacier in question is called the Moon's Mirror, situated between these two mountains, Starmount and Sunfall," explained Malfas. "It is already pitted with caves and passages, which we can build from. However, the home that Lady Tirelle has Seen is very complex." He unrolled yet another piece of parchment, which turned out to be a detailed building plan. "The King has ordained that we pull three teams of Wallmakers from the Wall. The home would take an estimated twenty years to complete. I would prefer to have more workers."

"Twenty years?" Nehima repeated dully, then almost smacked herself on the head for sounding so stupid. She always tried to keep her composure before the older Masters, but sometimes it slipped.

Felio frowned. "Even three teams of Wallmakers are quite a workforce," he remarked. "Removing them will delay the completion of the Wall even further."

The Wallmaker shrugged fatalistically. "We will have to pull Wallmakers from lesser projects," she sighed. "I cannot give you more than three teams, Malfas. I'm sorry."

"That will reduce my production of gethre armour," Russen argued, flushing with anger. His pink face clashed horribly with his red hair. Nehima knew that this particular Wallmaker took the projects he oversaw very personally. Indeed, every Wallmaker thought the projects they were working on were of utmost importance, never mind what others were up to. Nehima knew that to ask a Wallmaker about their work was to receive an enthusiastic five-hour lecture full of boring technical details. Of course, Nehima wasn't like that. She wasn't deluded by false conceit. She knew that the Wall was the most important project of all, and the fact that she was working on it had absolutely nothing to do with it.

"We shall all need to make sacrifices," said Ghidreth patiently to Master Russen. "I suppose that gethre armour will never be mass-produced as you so wished, and shall remain a rare and valuable artefact." The old woman sighed heavily, running a hand through her long wavy hair. "It all comes down to needing more Wallmakers," she concluded tiredly. "Nehima, could you organize a round of fresh recruiters?"

The younger woman nodded obediently. She was glad that Ghidreth was keeping her on as her assistant, along with Felio. Nehima rather liked it here at the East end of the Wall, and not only because of the presence of a certain dark-haired Master. Sharing duties with Felio would be fun, too.

"Is there anything else?" the Wallmaker asked. The Masters shook their heads, and Ghidreth waved her calloused hand. "Dismissed."

The Masters got to their feet and shuffled to the door, murmuring goodnight to one another. Felio and Nehima walked together in the direction of their huts, heads bowed against the light rain that had begun to fall.

Now that they were alone, Nehima felt the tenseness leave her shoulders. Around other Masters she was constantly worrying about her image. But around Felio, who had been the youngest Wallmaker to be made a Master, she could be herself. Nehima couldn't understand why the Masters all respected Felio and yet treated her with barely-disguised contempt. She was just as good as him, and better than most. She decided that it must have something to do with her personality. Those old Masters wanted young Wallmakers to be courteous and deferential, and Felio was not the type of person to offend anyone. But Nehima wasn't going to roll over for some old codgers who erroneously thought themselves superior to her.

"So," Nehima said at last, wrenching herself away from these unpleasant thoughts. "We have received our sentences. You will be buried in bookkeeping, and I will be riding around the countryside to recruit more poor sods to our noble cause."

The man's mouth twitched. "Interesting way to put it," he remarked lightly. "How long do you think you'll be gone?"

The young woman shrugged and tossed her yellow braid over her shoulder. "I'm not sure," she admitted, twisting her mouth into a half-smile. "Perhaps a moon or two."

"That long?" asked Felio, voice quiet. His next words were mumbled to the ground: "What should I do if something were to happen to you?"

Nehima stopped short, and Felio walked on a few paces before realizing that she was no longer at his side. The woman was lost for words – was Felio saying what she thought he was saying? "Well," she replied carefully, measuring every word, "In that case, I want you to do one thing."

"And what's that?" the other Wallmaker asked softly.

Nehima smiled. "Remember me."

A/N: I'm starting to like Nehima. Okay, so she's a conceited little know-it-all, but I still like her! I've figured out that this story will be around 25 chapters long. Unfortunately I can't write a full-length novel, so we'll have to do some skipping through time in order to cover the forty years spanning this story. Also, school starts in a week, so the next chapter might be a little late in coming. Just a LITTLE late, mind you! Until then, reviews are most welcome!