Yes, I finally updated! -cheers- Never give up on me! Anyway, yesterday was the last day of school, so you can all expect a lot more updates now. Oh, and since I made you wait solong (I didn't mean to! I had exams, and my Nana was staying, and, uh...) this chapter is extra long! Almost a full 3000 words and 7 pages long, making it the 2nd longest chapter yet! (I think 3rd was longest?)As always,please remember to review! Enjoy!

Disclaimer: I do not own On Fortune's Wheel, Cynthia Voigt does. I make no money off of this, all that's mine is the plot of this story. And Griffin. He's mine too.

Lyss walked happily alongside the lords as they continued to make their way back towards the capital. Orien had wanted her to ride with him again, but after yesterday... well, it had been fine while actually riding as well as all day after that-- but... let's just say that she hadn't ever really ridden a horse any real distance before. When she'd gotten up that morning, she'd barely been able to walk! Orien had assured that that stopped happening after you rode a while, but the very idea of getting on that horse again now made her weak-kneed. So, she was walking.

Looking over her shoulder at a muffled clopping sound coming from behind her, Lyss saw Orien coming up.

"Hello, Lyss,"

"Hey, Orien."

"Tired of walking yet?" He asked her teasingly. "The offer to ride is still open..."

"I told you, if I tried to ride right now I'd fall apart." He laughed.

"All right! Go ahead and walk if you must." There was a comfortable silence for a few moments. Then, "So, you said you were on your way to the capital so you could go to the Trader's Day, didn't you?"

"Yes," Lyss answered him, and wondered where he was going with this.

"I was just thinking, if you were going to the capital, then what were doing in the Forest in the first place? Besides nearly drowning, I mean. It's not exactly included in any of the usual ways to get there."

Lyss hesitated. "I didn't plan on being there... I'd really rather not talk about it, if you don't mind."

Orien glanced at her quickly, his expression suddenly very different than it had been a moment before. For the first time since she had started, in a sense, being friends with Orien, Lyss felt nervous. He was still the Earl, after all... come to think of it, very few people probably ever told him that they 'didn't want to talk' when he asked about something.

"Lyss... you were pretty deep in that forest to have not planned on being there. And don't tell me you have a bad sense of direction or something, because no matter how bad you are with directions, you can still tell whether or not you entering a forest." Lyss didn't say anything, so he went on. "You said you got separated from your friend..." He trailed off, and Lyss looked up. Lyss thought she knew where he was going with this now... she no longer feared that he was angry, but she didn't think she liked this too much more.

"Orien..."

"Lyss, if something happened, if someone-- did something, I can do something about it! I am still the Earl, after all. ...I can help you, if you need it." Lyss looked up at him. She truly was touched by this, but the fact was that nothing along those lines had happened. But, she really didn't want to talk about Griffin.

"Orien, nothing like that happened. No, I didn't plan on being where I was, and I didn't get there because I have a bad sense of direction or anything. But Orien, no one... attacked me or anything! Had I not gone there, no one would have hurt me, I swear!"

"Well then, what were you doing there?" Lyss didn't know what to say. He waited a bit to see if she would come up with anything, then continued when it became obvious she wouldn't.

"Lyss..." he said gently. "I am the Earl, Lyss. People lie to me, and try to cheat me, try to talk their way out of punishment and various things all the time. And I can tell when they are." He held up a hand to stop her, as Lyss opened her mouth angrily. She most certainly had not lied to him! "I don't think you've lied to me." Lyss closed her mouth, but gave him a look before doing so. "But I can also tell when someone is trying to avoid the truth." He finished meaningfully. Lyss's angry look vanished, and she now looked rather guilty. There was an awkward silence for a few moments, and then Orien asked her,

"Do you know what you're going to do, when we get there?" Lyss hesitated.

"Well, not exactly... look for my friend, I guess."

"Do you know where to find him?" After a pause, she shook her head quietly.

"I'm just hoping he'll be there... it was where we were going after all. And I don't know where else to look."

"I see... do you know what you'll do, while you're looking for him? What if you can't find him, or he's just not there?"

"I don't know..."

"Well, you'll just have to stay with me a little longer than we expected then," Orien told her with a small smile. Lyss looked up at him.

"Oh, Orien, thank you so much!" she cried. Had he not been riding a horse, she would have hugged him.

"I know you would do the same for anyone else..." he trailed off. He still didn't know what had happened to cause her to be where he'd found her... He opened his mouth to ask her, once again, to tell him, and then...

"Hey, Orien, c'mere for a minute!" It was Gladaegal. Orien looked over at him, and then at Lyss once more, then sighed before going to see to his brother. However, Lyss was sure that this wasn't over.

--

They had been walking all day, and Birle was tired. Seeing Cinano walking by, she called out to him.

"Hey, Cinano! How long do we have to keep walking for? The sun's going down, which nobody but me seems to notice."

"Sorry, but we'll probably be walking for a while more. Maybe through the night. Capital's less than a day away, and the captain wants to 'get there already,' as he puts it. Sorry to say, he doesn't really like your little group."

"I don't blame him," muttered Birle, glancing around the dirty- and grumpy-looking men surrounding them. "And they're not 'my group.'"

"If you say so..." Birle glared at him. He winked, and then moved on so he could continue keeping watch on others as well as them.

"You know, you don't seem very worried, considering we're on our way to be brought before the Earl himself on charges of disrupting the peace, promoting an Inn he definitely doesn't like, resisting his authority, shooting at one of his captains, and in your own special case, one rather pathetic escape attempt." Birle turned to see Griffin standing behind her, looking slightly amused. "I would've thought that you'd want to put off getting to the capital for as long as possible, not hurry it up."

"Well, if you were listening, then you heard me saying I wanted to stop for the day. That doesn't really fit me wanting to hurry it up, now does it?" Birle didn't feel in a particularly good mood.

"Yes, but that's just because you're tired and grumpy." Griffin told her cheerfully. She glared again. "Ever since your stupid escape attempt, you've been trying to get them to hurry up, asking how much longer." He gave her a questioning look and continued. "That doesn't really seem to make much sense, considering how panicked you were when we first got arrested. It's like you don't think anything could possibly happen once we get there."

"Well, not like you mean I don't," she answered without thinking. Griffin stopped and gave her a very strange look.

"Uh... are you okay?" Birle looked sheepishly up at him.

"I'm fine. I, uh... just think that if this has to happen, we might as well not wait around for it."

"But you don't think anything'll happen." Birle didn't want to lie to him, but she couldn't quite figure out how to get out of this one.

"I just... well, no, I don't really. And I have a very good reason for thinking that— I do!" she added insistently, for Griffin looked very skeptical.

"If you say so..." he told her, echoing Cinano, and walked away from her.

Both shook their heads as he did so, each thinking the same thing.

"They're in for a shock..."

--

"What is it, Gladaegal?" said Orien in an annoyed voice as he approached his brother. Of all the times for him to interrupt...

"Look." He told him, and that was all that was needed to convey his reason for calling him over.

Orien looked, and smiled as he saw, off in the distance, the misty outline of a city. They were getting close... judging by what he was seeing; they would probably reach the capital before noon tomorrow. About time, too... not that he hadn't enjoyed the trip or anything, but he just wanted to get back. Besides, there was no doubt that they had put together a long list of things that the Earl had to do before the great 'Trader's Day,' he thought with a tiny, resigned smile. However, he still had to finish talking to Lyss... he had truly grown to like the girl over the short time he had known her, and felt that he needed to know what had happened. And from the look on her face a few moments ago, he knew that something had indeed happened. Sighing, he called out to the group at large,

"All right, everyone! Time to stop for today. We've been going long enough, and I'm glad to report that home is now visible on the horizon!" A cheer went up through the men, and they happily began setting up camp.

Orien glanced over at Lyss, who had sat down on a large boulder conveniently nearby. With a sigh, he walked over to her once again.

"Lyss..." She looked up at him, and then looked away. She wanted to tell him, and she knew he was just trying to look out for her, but she couldn't seem to come up with the right words. Why should he want to look out for me anyway? She thought angrily. We've only known each other for, what, three days? But she knew she wasn't being fair, and did reluctantly look up at him again when he sat beside her.

"Look, Orien, I swear, nothing happened," she told him. She wanted to go on, but, once again, words failed her.

"Lyss, I'm the Earl. It's my job to look after those of the people. And... I like you, Lyss. If someone hurt you, or tried to, I want to know."

"Nothing—"

"As I said, you were pretty deep in those woods for 'nothing.'" Lyss was speechless for a moment. That seemed to be happening a lot today.

Orien said nothing, and finally Lyss, sighing, told him, "Fine. You're right, something did happen, but it wasn't anything... dangerous, or whatever you think. No one hurt me, or tried to, or even threatened to! It's nothing for the Earl to worry about." She finished quietly. Orien was silent for a moment as well, and then said,

"Perhaps it was nothing for the Earl to worry about. But I'd like to think of myself as your friend too, Lyss, and I am worried about it." Lyss looked up at him, up into those eyes that looked so much like her own, and suddenly it all came out. She told him how she had been going to the Trader's Day with Griffin, how he had confessed his secret love to her, how she had only ever thought of him as a best friend before and how she had panicked. She told him how she had run away from him, how she had fallen into the lake and how confused she was now about how she felt about Griffin. She told him everything. He let her talk herself into silence, and then gave her a small smile.

"Well, I'm not sure how good I am at giving advice, but I was once in a situation very like the one you say you're in now with your friend Griffin." Lyss said nothing. "There was a girl once... young, and a lot like you really. I met her, while... traveling, and somehow we ended up traveling together. This... girl, she... well, she liked me. I tried to get her to go home a couple of times, but she always seemed terrified at the very idea. At first, I thought it was because she didn't want to marry her betrothed back home, so I told her she could stay until it was certain that he would no longer want her. But then that time came, and went, and still she couldn't stand the idea of leaving. I did try to be firm, but somehow she always ended up staying despite me. After a while, I'm not sure exactly when, I realized her real reason. But... I viewed her as a child, and never with anything even close to romance. It seemed to me she was simply harboring a childish attachment. I did not return her feelings, and she knew it, yet despite this she still insisted upon staying. I'll never know why." He sighed. "Well... things—changed; several events took place. I myself nearly died at one point. She saved me from my... situation, with the aid of a simple man called Yul, and then nursed me back to health completely alone and by herself for several weeks up in the mountains." Orien was looking up at the stars, a misty expression on his face. "And... somewhere along the line, I noticed... how beautiful she was. How intelligent, and how unlike the stuffed-up Ladies of the court. I finally realized that, despite her youth, she wasn't a child at all. I fell completely and utterly in love with her." A silence fell.

"Is she waiting for you now, back at your home?" Lyss asked softly.

"No," whispered Orien. "She left." Lyss didn't know what to say.

"...Thank you, for telling me that, Orien. It... helped." He smiled weakly at her.

"I'll see you in the morning, then."

Little did he know, Birle was in fact waiting for him back home, even as he denied it.

--

Finally, exhausted and barely able to walk, Birle and Griffin stumbled through the gates to the Earl's manor. Birle shivered as she looked around... she certainly hadn't ever intended to return here again. Now, however, she was too tired even to be nervous about Orien. The captain then gruffly ordered his men to hold the prisoners where they were for a few minutes while he went to do something. Faintly, she thought she heard the sound of hoofbeats in the distance...

--

As Orien headed towards his sleeping roll, Gladaegal stopped him. "What do you want now?" He asked him tiredly. Unfazed by the Earl's annoyance, Gladaegal answered him.

"Do you think I should travel ahead to the manor, announce that we're on our way?"

"Fine... go, do as you wish..." muttered Orien grumpily. With a nod, Gladaegal walked away.

About ten minutes later, he had his horse re-saddled and was about leave when he saw Lyss, still awake and sitting on her rock. And just like that, Gladaegal knew that he had to know before he left... no matter how stupid it was; he had to know one way or the other. Now. Taking a deep breath, he made his way over to her.

"Uh, hey, Lyss," He began uncertainly. He didn't quite know what to say... he couldn't exactly just demand to know, 'are you Orien's daughter!'

She looked up at him and smiled. "Hey, Gladaegal." He gave her a weak smile in return.

"So..." Not knowing exactlyhow to go about this, he said, "I was thinking; I don't really know much about you, do I?"

"Um, no, I guess not..." said Lyss uncertainly as he sat beside her in Orien's vacated seat.

"So, uh, tell me about your family. What about your father?" He figured, that must be the most direct way to prove himself wrong, right?

"Oh... I never knew him. My mother raised me by herself."

"I see," said Gladaegal, deflated. "Well, your mother then... you said she taught you to fish?" Lyss nodded. "So, uh, what's her name?" Gladaegal was shocked by his own daring with this last question. He waited for her answer, holding his breath, hoping against hope...

"Oh... her name is Birle." Gladaegal positively stared at her. "Um... are you okay?" He shook his head quickly to clear it.

"Oh, yes, of course... very nice name. I, uh, need to go..." And he left.

Lyss stared after him. Well, that was strange...

--

Gladaegal was galloping towards the manor; his head spinning... there was no way there could be that many coincidences... Lyss was Orien's daughter. His own niece. She had to be. God, how would he tell Orien!

He stopped his horse short in the courtyard, and quickly handed it over to a stable boy. As he strode over to the manor, he saw a group of arrests huddled in a section by the stables. Glancing over them, he thought, looks like another load of drunks... then he stopped dead. No way... this could not be happening...

"Birle?"

She looked up, and seemed to pale a bit at the sight of him. "Gladaegal!" He stared at her for a moment, and then turned to practically run back into the manor. In his state of mind, it never even occurred to him to help Birle with her situation. This was so not good...

Griffin looked quizzically over at Birle. "You know him?"

"Not now, Griffin..."

--

Gladaegal threw himself down on his bed. All he could think was, 'Oh, my god...'

And they had no idea what was coming.

Getting closer to that moment you're all waiting for, isn't it? Did you like how Lyss and Orien had a sort of father/daughter moment there? And Gladaegal knows who Lyss is now, and he knows that Birle is there. Next chapter looking good? Please review, I still want at least 3!