"Inventing the Future"

Author's Note: This week will probably be a busy one, so I'm not sure if I'll still be updating every other day or so like I have been. So much for once a week, eh? Anyway, I sort of wrote myself into a corner with this Balance Valley 'side quest', but I can write myself out of it again. I've got big plans for the next several chapters! If you make it to the end of this chapter, you'll probably guess what one of them is. ;)

"Chapter 33: Complications"

'Whoever thought that suspension bridges were a good idea probably never had to cross one at night!'

Jaming carefully held onto the ropes as he stared straight ahead, doing his best to ignore the way an occasional breeze would cause the bridge he was on to sway. Intellectually, he knew that as long as he used the bridge correctly, he should be all right. The trouble was that the feeling of 'I am about to fall' was based on pure instinct, which had little to do with the rational mind.

'Half-way there...not long now...'

Meredith had chosen to stay behind, and Jaming thought she looked rather pale. When he mentioned this to her, she waved it off and said that it was nothing. He didn't quite believe her, but he agreed with her that turning in early was probably a good idea. He wondered if he shouldn't have insisted that she stayed behind, but he probably would have been wasting his breath.

Jaming nearly bit his tongue as the suspension bridge gave a jolt, and he realized that someone had begun to cross after him. Keeping a solid grip on the ropes, he turned his body enough so that he could look over his shoulder without experiencing too much vertigo, and he struggled to make out the approaching silhouette. "Meredith? Is that you?"

"No, sir," came a young female voice, and as the speaker got a little closer, Jaming could just make out that her hair was in pigtails. Meredith often wore her hair in a braid or a ponytail when it wasn't down, so even if the girl hadn't spoken, her outline would have told him enough. "I was just on my way home."

Belatedly, he realized that he was blocking her path, and he turned his eyes forward once more and crossed to the other side. He breathed a sigh of relief as soon as his boots made contact with the soft grass, and he moved aside so that the girl would be able to pass. There was only one house there, for this wasn't one of the four plateaus. Jaming deduced that the girl must live with the owl, and therefor they had the same destination. Well, this was awkward! He was sure to look suspicious.

Indeed, the girl had slowed to an uncertain walk, and she seemed ready to turn back. "Um..."

"I beg your pardon," Jaming moved a little further off in an effort to reassure her. "I didn't realize until now, but we're going to the same place. The owl that lives there...Argo is his name, I believe?"

"Yes, sir," The girl still seemed hesitant, but maybe a little less so. "What about him?"

"I had a question for him, but he told me to come back when it was dark. So...here I am." Jaming shrugged. "If I frightened you, I didn't mean to."

"You seem very familiar..." The girl came a bit closer, stepping off of the bridge and tilting her head.

As she stepped forward, Jaming took a few steps back. He didn't know exactly why, except that something in the back of his mind was telling him that he had missed something important. As he stepped back he entered the light of the torches, and she drew close enough to them for him to see her face.

Light purple pigtails, a little on the spiky side. A slight frame. Large eyes.

Eyes that slowly filled with a terror that he had seen once before, albeit from a distance.

'No...'

Jaming didn't know her name, but he knew who and what she was. This was Crest's young apprentice. This was the ward of the man he had murdered. He thought he was going to be sick!

"You..." The girl trembled as she took a step backwards. "You were there. You were on that ship..."

"I..." Jaming's voice failed him, and he simply stood there like an idiot.

The girl was backing away now, attempting to keep an eye on him and reach the bridge at the same time. She didn't know exactly where she intended to go. She only knew that she needed to get away from this man immediately. If she had only watched where she was going instead of keeping her eyes on him, things might have ended very differently.

Jaming realized that she was going to miss the bridge and go over the edge. "Watch out!"

His sudden shout startled the girl, and she took one final step. Her foot made contact with nothing. She flailed her arms desperately, her breath catching in her throat so that she couldn't even scream.

And then a warm blue hand, bearing the calluses one got from working constantly with one's hands, clamped itself around one of her wrists and yanked her forward. The jaws of death would have to wait many, many years to claim the life of Lin.

Jaming guided the girl away from the edge, still holding onto her wrist, at least until she began to fight him. He let go, but not before taking a fist to the stomach. The girl couldn't hit very hard, but it still knocked the wind out of him. "Oof! A-all right, just-"

"You killed him! You killed Master Crest! I-I hate you!" Lin was screaming, quickly becoming hysterical.

Jaming put up his hands to keep her from hitting his face, but that didn't stop her from hitting the rest of him. She beat her tiny fists against his chest and arms, and she even tried to knee him in the groin, but fortunately he was ready for something like that and twisted to avoid it.

Then, as abruptly as the attack began, it stopped. All of Lin's energy seemed to have left her, and she stared at the ground in front of her, crying almost silently.

Jaming cautiously lowered his hands, unable to absorb the full force of what had just happened. That was sure to come later, he knew. He took in the sight of her, and he knew that he was the cause of her suffering. What could he possibly say?

"You killed him..." Lin shook her head, "but you pulled me away from the edge just now. Why?"

He swallowed, trying to get rid of the lump in his throat, but it didn't do much good. "Knowing what you know, would it matter what I told you?"

Lin glared up at him, her lip trembling in her rage and grief, and for the longest moment she said nothing at all. Then, stepping closer so that they would have been nose-to-nose if she were taller, she ground out, "I want you to leave this valley. Go. And never come back!"

And, without waiting for a reply, she turned and ran into the house. When the door opened momentarily, Jaming could hear Argo calling frantically for Lin, as he must have been doing while all this racket had been going on.

So much for questioning Argo. But then, Jaming already had the answer to the question of where Crest's apprentice might be found. Not that it would do any good!

Jaming turned away from the house and crossed the suspension bridges much more quickly than he had a few minutes ago.

Of course the girl hated him! He had taken away someone who was very dear to her, and as much as he now wished he could do so, he could not bring her teacher and friend back to life. He knew he deserved every bit of the beating she had given him, and then some. He would probably have a few bruises later on, but he didn't care. So what if he pulled her away from the edge of the cliff? That didn't excuse his past wrongs, and he knew it!

Meredith looked up from her book as the door opened, and even as she opened her mouth to comment that Jaming's meeting with Argo hadn't taken very long, the words died on her lips. He stood with his back leaning against the door, clenching and unclenching his hands as if he didn't know what to do with them. His face was as pale as she had ever seen it, and he looked like he was about to cry. She put her book down, got out of bed, and went over to him.

Even as she crossed the room, he slid down the door and sat with his back against it. She saw his face twist with agony before he hid it from view, and she put her arms around him. "What happened?"

"We're leaving in the morning," Jaming said, haltingly, "Coming here was a mistake."

Jaming had told Meredith about what he feared would happen if Crest's former apprentice were to spot him there, and it didn't take her long to connect the dots. "Oh, Jaming...I'm so sorry."

He shook his head, wiping his face on his sleeve. "You've got nothing to be sorry for. I don't know what I was thinking of! Dragging you all this way, and for what? I...I wasted your time, and I put that girl through hell. Twice now!"

Meredith frowned and put a hand to his cheek, turning his head so that he had to look at her. "Don't say that. You didn't 'drag' me anywhere. I wanted to go with you."

"I blew it. Almost as soon as she saw me, she nearly went over the cliff."

Her eyes widened. "You mean she..."

"No, she wasn't going to jump, but she nearly fell when she backed away." He sniffed, looking away. "I know I promised Julia, but I...I just can't do this. I made things so much worse by coming here."

Meredith lowered her hand from his face, placing it on his shoulder instead as her other arm remained draped around his shoulders. "Let me try talking to her."

Jaming shook his head. "No...Too much damage has been done already. Argo saw you with me. She won't listen to you, either."

"You don't know that," Meredith told him, "He might not have mentioned me. And besides, you did make a promise to Julia. You still have a chance to keep it, slim as it might be."

Jaming was understandably less worried about his promise to Julia than he was about the harm he had done to Lin, even though he didn't know her name. "She'll never forgive me..."

Meredith lowered her eyes and settled into a more comfortable position. Whether or not Lin forgave Jaming was really her prerogative, and as much as Meredith loved him, she couldn't lie to him about that. "That's possible, Jaming. But if that turns out to be the case...you can live with that, can't you?"

Jaming choked softly, wiping his face on his sleeve again. He was trying so hard to keep it together, but it was so difficult. "I...I guess so..."

"Hey..." Meredith rubbed his shoulder. "Do you know what we're going to do?"

He shook his head without looking at her.

"We're going to do what we came here to do," she went on in a quiet, earnest voice, "I'm going to ask her about the gold paint. And, if it's possible, we're going to make things right. If it isn't possible, then we'll leave her in peace."

"I don't know if I can take this." He put his head in his hands, heartsick and immensely tired.

"You won't have to," she squeezed his hand, "Not alone, anyway. I'll take it with you."

He nodded, and after they sat in silence for a while, he got up and announced that he was going to get ready for bed.

As Meredith put her book on the bedside table and sat on the edge of the bed to wait for him, she decided that her news could wait for a more appropriate time.