Disclaimer: This dearest of characters does not, alas, belong to me, nor does anything but Ileana and the objectionable Ambassador!
Beta'd by trustingHim17!


Rilian doesn't go to the library the next morning. Guhen will study without him, he knows, and he wants to have Ileana spend as much time with Puddleglum as possible. They eat breakfast before anyone else arrives—including, Rilian sees with relief, the Ambassador—and head to the stables. Since most of the stableboys are sleeping, Rilian gives a quiet, impromptu lesson about tacking up the horse, showing her on his own thoroughbred, and then walks her through it on old Clip. They lead their horses through the gates, nodding at the guards, and then Rilian kneels to help Ileana mount.

She climbs onto her horse with more confidence then she's yet shown and gathers up the reins.

"Well done, lady of the sea!" He stands and reaches for his own horse.

"Thank you. It's—easier, now that I know how things work."

"Of course," Rilian thinks out loud, before swinging up himself. "I should have thought of that." She smiles, and it's as pretty as the sun coming over the horizon.

"It is all right that you didn't. You know that, don't you?"

Rilian laughs. "Kings are not often given grace to be wrong."

"Too much rides on them being right; I know. But you do not have to be right with me."

"And I am grateful for it. Shall we go?"

She nods and tries to cluck to her horse, but it's a sound she struggles to make. Rilian clucks for both of them, and they set off.

There's another reason Rilian left so early. He likes this easiness, though, and so he waits. He doesn't bring it up, not at first. Only when the sun is completely up, when they have ridden in companionable quiet for about an hour, does he break their contented peace.

"Ileana."

She turns her head to look at him, away from the trees she'd been contemplating. Her raised eyebrow invites him to continue.

"I have been having one of the librarians look up the tales of Mermaids."

"Oh," she says softly. She doesn't say more, though Rilian hoped she would. He doesn't want to tell her all he found; he wants her to help him, to trust him. To tell him what is wrong and if it can be solved.

"I was looking for a way to fix your breathing," he explains, for it suddenly feels like he is spying on her, looking for information she didn't want to tell him. But it's not that she doesn't want to, he reminds himself, it's that she's not allowed. It's fine if Rilian finds it on his own.

"Not just the breathing," she mutters, but the words slip out like water between cupped hands, and Rilian feels like he wasn't meant to hear. Yet he has, so—

"What else?" he demands. Ileana shakes her head, a golden strand falling over her blue eyes, and Rilian tries again. "Ileana—what else?"

She fidgets with the reins. Clip shakes his head and snorts, and she lets them lie slack. "Strength," she says at last. "It is harder to breathe, and it grows more difficult to move. After a time, our bodies fail."

Rilian knows this, or least he has guessed it, and he swallows the fear that springs into his throat. "Guhen—that's the librarian, he's Galaxah's cousin—found stories about Mermaids who have struggled on land. There's been a few, in Galma, one in Archenland, and one here. From the clearest record—it said they lived thirty days." He pauses, but she does not speak. "Will that happen to you?"

She does not answer, and he reaches over and pulls Clip's reins as he pulls his own. He holds them both, keeping her beside him. "Lady of the sea?" She will not look at him; all he can see is her hair and the back of her dress. "Will this happen to you, at the end of your thirty days? Ileana," he says, and it's a command, a king's command, but she still will not look at him, so he changes it, and asks her, tone pleading, because he needs to know if this is why she's leaving, "Ileana?"

He can see from behind that she is wrapping her arms around herself, and he wonders if she's cold, if this is something else that will happen to her, but he can also see her fingertips rubbing up and down her crossed arms.

"It's one full circle of the moon." It's a whisper, as if she shouldn't be saying it but can't refuse him.

"A circle of the moon?" he asks, because he thought it had to do with water, and he cannot change the cycle of the sky for her, perhaps not even his mother or grandfather could have, and this might not be something he can fix.

He sees her nod, her hair rising and then tumbling. "The moon pulls the waters; even in the sea, our strength fills and wanes as the moon does. On the nights of the new moon, we—no, I cannot tell you that. But we are tied to the moon as the water is tied, and by it we keep time for our lives."

"Thirty days," Rilian says, and while it's not a question, she answers yes. "I'll take you back," he promises her. "At twenty-nine days, or sooner if you need it—I'll take you back to the sea, Ileana. You won't be like the Archenland Mermaid."

"No," she says, and she turns to look at him now. Her blue eyes look at him steadily, and her voice is firm. "There are things you don't understand," she adds, when he begins to protest.

"Then tell me!"

"I can't. The laws of the sea may be bent in the water, but they are unalterable on land. And going back—no. There are things I chose, things I've done, and they change—they change me, they change the sea's welcome. I cannot go back."

"What you've done?" Rilian asks slowly. "What have you done, Ileana?"

"I've chosen," she replies, as if this is the simplest thing in the world, as if she has no regrets, and the choice was obvious.

"What makes a Mermaid choose to come on land?"

She looks at him and does not answer.

"Ileana, I cannot—I cannot help you, I cannot trust you, if I do not know what is going on!"

"There are consequences to my choice. I knew that when I made it," and her voice is soft, comforting. "It is not your responsibility to lift the consequences for my choice. And is trust truly reached by knowing all that happens?"

Rilian has no answer. He knows that his trust in Aslan, like a child's trust in his parents, doesn't come from knowing what will happen, but from knowing the Lion. The who is more important than any other word.

In the stories, the Merfolk came ashore, once for a message, and for the others—they always came for a person.

Though Rilian realises that's true only in the stories he knows. Which are all stories that humans wrote, and his own kind (especially outside of Narnia) are notoriously self-centred.

Rilian cannot doubt Ileana came for him; but what had she done, when she came? What did she have to choose?

Was—had someone taken those she loved, and offered her a choice? Was that why she never introduced her family, never called the Merfolk to shore?

Was her choice dangerous for Narnia?

Puddleglum might be able to answer that, and now Rilian wants that answer so badly it feels like a need.

She is still waiting for him to answer, oblivious of the road ahead, and so it is the King who starts them moving again. "Let's go."

She lets them ride in silence, but Rilian sees that she doesn't look at the woods, the sky, or the birds any longer. Her eyes are on the rail, and there is no smile on her face.

He finds himself speaking, hoping to distract her, perhaps even make her smile again. "We're going to see a friend of mine."

"A friend?" she asks, and Rilian can see her bringing herself back to the present, sitting straighter, and regathering her attention.

"A very dear friend. He was one of the three who rescued me from the dark, and the one who was wiser than all of us."

"Tell me more about him," Ileana asks, then hesitates. "If it is fair of me to ask things of you, that is, when I—I cannot answer your questions."

"It is not fair. But Kings are called to be generous," Rilian adds quickly, for her face grows shadowed at his first sentence. "He is taller than I, by a good deal, and spends most of his day fishing or mending things…"

They talk as the forest changes to hills, and perhaps half an hour later Rilian changes the subject. "We're approaching the marshes, lady of the sea. It is not a place for horses. We will leave them by that hut on the hill." He offers her the reins he's been holding.

She takes her reins back with a smile of agreement, and they ride up to the empty hut with a long pole for horses. Rilian dismounts, tying his horse before helping her down. Another place where she lets herself be weak, he thinks to himself. The Enchantress had never once let him help her, nor steer her mount, but he has no doubt Ileana would. And perhaps "weak" is not the right word. It is said the greatest heroes are the ones who receive Aslan's gifts with open hands.*

He still likes taking her hand, and reassured by the way she lets him help, he keeps her hand as they walk through the last of the trees and onto the plain.

Ileana stops. Rilian feels the tug on his hand and turns to see her staring at this part of the world with wondering eyes, her mouth half-open. He looks back, and sees it the way she must—the plain of ground like a flat expanse with little waves, the reeds and rushes like the cresting waves, and the birds rising in flocks, landing, chattering, and startling back into flight. There were wigwams, popping out of the ground like boats floating on the water, and beyond the great, long plain lay the sandhills by the sea.

"It's so much water, without being a sea; it's still land," she whispers in wonder. "And the wind—"

She takes a step forward, towards the nearest mini-island, and Rilian walks beside her. When they reach the first stream he jumps over it in one quick leap, then turns and holds out his hand.

Her grin reminds him that for her, all new things are adventures, and she loves adventures. She lands beside him and takes his hand. Her laugh rings out over the plain, and the nearest Marshwiggles rise in various places like ghosts suddenly appearing. They had been fishing, it seems, judging from the long poles in their hands.

"Company," the nearest one, who'd been sitting two streams away, remarks gloomily. "There won't be enough food to go round now."

"Oh, we won't need any food," Ileana quickly reassures him. "We came to see someone. And we can bring food, if you're hungry."

"To give bad news, no doubt. But I'd take that over spoiled food. Because your food would be spoiled, walking in weather like this. And where do you carry it, your skirt pockets? No, no, it's a bad morning and about to get worse."

"I do hope not, good cousin," Rilian interrupts, though he can't help enjoying the way Ileana's face grows more and more confused. Though Marshwiggles often sail on the sea, they weren't one for socialising with the outgoing Merfolk who normally stayed near the ships. "We are merely here to see Puddleglum. Do you know where he is?"

"Ah, he went towards the Northern mountains. He'll be smashed by a giant there, we told him. Aye, we warned him, but he wouldn't listen. 'I want to see the place again, though I shouldn't wonder if I die doing it,' he said back, and off he went. Perhaps you'll catch up to him in the next year, then."

"When did he leave?"

"A cold half-hour ago."

"Then thank you for your help," Rilian says, bowing, and pulling Ileana forward. He can hear from her hiccuped breathing that she's trying not to laugh. But they're still within ear shot, so he says nothing to her. He calls greetings to each Marshwiggle they pass, and Ileana pulls him a little closer and begins jumping over the streams at the same time as he does. It quickly becomes a competition, as they both try to jump further and higher than the other.

"You'll fall in," came the dour predictions from around them, right after the "Good morning, Your Majesty. And company," but it got them over the islands quickly, and both were having fun, so Rilian saw no reason to stop.

An hour later he sees a tall figure with a familiar amble. Puddleglum often walked closer to the mountains and looked at them, remembering.

"Puddleglum!" he shouts, and feels Ileana jump. "Sorry," he says in his normal voice.

"You have quite the roar, King of Narnia."

"Sorry," he says again, but he's smiling, because he can tell she is.

"What ho, King Rilian? What news? Is there an invasion from Calormen? Bad news from Archenland? They'll become our enemies sooner or later, I shouldn't wonder. Or is it a cancellation of the next festival because of a plague?" The incessant gloomy questions somehow relax Rilian. The world is what it should be, when a Marshwiggle gives such a greeting and only gets good news in return.

He remembers the first moment he saw Puddleglum, the last of the spell dropping away, remembers Narnia, freedom, making his own choices—oh, the sweet freedom of making his own choices.

"What brings you here?" Puddleglum asks, reaching them and nodding his head.

"Good Puddleglum, I made a new friend I'd like you to meet. This is Ileana, the lady of the sea."

Ileana steps forward, hair whipping around her face in the wind, and she smiles.

Rilian could almost swear the plain grows lighter.

"Lady of the sea? Does your house remain above the waves? That'd be very open to drafts. But rather safe, I would think. You'd have to make the best of it."

"Not quite above the sea," Ileana says, her voice like music, with laughter the soft percussion bubbling in the background. "I am a Mermaid, good Marshwiggle. My home was beneath it."

"Ah, much more solid than a house on the sea, and with few drafts! Though there were other dangers at sea. Sharks, for instance. I shouldn't think they'd make good visitors. Come, come, we will go back to my wigwam. Though it's probably blown down in these winds, I shouldn't wonder. Over the stream—you're sure to fall in, though. Perhaps we'd better use the ford. Here we are! What brought you on land?"

Rilian catches Ileana's elbow on one side and sees Puddleglum catch the other, and together they swing her over the next large stream. Puddleglum is leading them much farther into the plain.

"I came to see King Rilian," Ileana says, a little breathlessly as she jumps.

"Now there's a good reason to come ashore. It's best to know the worst of things, and Kings are the heart of any land. Not that we can tell them so to their faces, if we're disappointed. They'd probably cut our heads off, or order us on unpleasant adventures. Or maybe they would lock us up."

"King Rilian lets me tell him exactly what I think," and that's an impish grin from Ileana. Rilian realises he'd been so busy thinking about getting Puddleglum to test Ileana's trustworthiness that he hadn't even thought about what might happen if the two of them became friends.

"Just over this next streambed, here. Though perhaps we'd better go around. Old Swampfoot doesn't like visitors. He might chase us off the island. What ho! Swampfoot! We're coming through."

"Just like death will some day," says a high, gloomy voice, and Puddleglum shakes his head.

"It's a poor Donkey who wants to be a Marshwiggle," he says in low tones. "But the poor fellow gets it all wrong. His seriousness isn't about real things. It's all about cheerful things, like death and funerals. We wish it comes soon for you!" he adds in a louder voice, and then the three are crossing the last stream and there in the middle stands Puddleglum's familiar wigwam. "The inside will be damp and cold, I shouldn't wonder, since I've been away all morning. And then you might catch a chill, and have to stay a while. But we'll put a brave face on it." He lifts the flap with one long arm and lets them in. Rilian rubs his hands together happily. It's much warmer out of the wind.

"I don't have lunch. That's to be expected, of course. All company comes on days when one doesn't expect it! But we'll make the best of it. I've some left-over breakfast, and we'll all have a bite to eat. Not enough to fill our stomachs, but we won't starve. But it might disagree with you. I don't know what Mermaids eat, but it stands to reason it won't be Marshwiggle food. No, land people and sea people would eat the same foods."

"We have to be back by lunch anyway, Puddleglum, but we thank you for inviting us."

"I've been eating land people food for ten days now, and I seem to be fine," Ileana says, sitting with a demure smile on the blankets laid neatly on one side of the circle.

"Ah, it'll be a delayed reaction then. Or maybe when you go back to the sea, it will all come out again. But it's nice to see you've got courage. That's good. So what do you think of King Rilian?"

Ileana looks at him and Rilian can't help smiling, because she looks at him and her whole face lights up. "I think I like him as much today as I did the first day I met him."

"And when was that? Probably when he was drowning. It's a bad idea to go boating on the sea. But if we don't then we'd have war with other nations who felt slighted. No, the King has to sacrifice his safety for the good of the kingdom."

"I came to listen to the song of the stars, and he was there in a small boat. He stayed quite safe in it." Ileana sends a silent laugh to share with Rilian, a memory of the two of them, and Rilian loves it, loves that feeling of sharing.

But there's a shadow over it, a wondering if perhaps he had been in danger. If that had been the beginning. His smile fades, and Ileana's fades with it, her eyes and eyebrows asking a question.

Rilian shakes his head; he is here for Puddleglum's opinion. He looks at the Marshwiggle, who is watching Ileana.

Ileana looks over at Puddleglum as well. "And then I wanted to see him again, so I gathered the things I would need to come on land, such as clothing, and I practised walking and breathing, and then I came to find him."

"It shouldn't have been very hard to find him, Unless he'd met with a great misfortune, of course; it was very hard to find him for a good ten years."

"I didn't know he was the king then. I found him in the marketplace," Ileana explains. She smiles again. "He bought me a blue stone."

"What do you want with a blue stone? Ah, for prettiness, I shouldn't wonder. Many Daughters of Eve love stones. Especially coloured ones. I always thought it might lead their babies to choke. But a blue stone isn't the colour of most food. Still, I don't see that it has many uses."

"It will," Ileana says, like a promise.

"Well, I wouldn't be surprised if someone who knew water could polish a stone to good use. Now, King Rilian, what brings you to the plain? Something serious, no doubt."

"Just her," Rilian says with a jerk of his head towards Ileana. "I wanted you to meet her."

"What a surprise. Though I am a good-looking chap, she's a bit young for me. And marsh water and the sea are very different types of water. No, I'd introduce her to a good sailor. Of course, when she returns to the sea he'll get a broken heart, but he'll get a bit of happiness in the meantime."

"No! I just…thought you should meet her."

"Well, I have. You're a very nice young lady. A lady from the sea; land won't agree with you, most likely. How do you like it so far?"

"I love so much of it," Ileana answers. "Ships and glass plates and strange people and creatures like Squirrels. Oh, so many things. I never knew the world had so many things I'd never imagined."

"Loving things can be dangerous, very dangerous. But most of us do it anyway. Our hearts are made for it."

Puddleglum keeps talking, but Rilian knows the Marshwiggle does his best thinking when he thinks out loud, so the King listens. Gradually, Ileana draws Puddleglum into talking about his neighbours, his friends, the two who went on the journey with him, all of it. Rilian loves listening to this as well, and somehow, in that tent—even while they discuss the journey to find him—it seems like the darkness and the enchantress are very far away. There is only the friend who rescued him, the friend who delights his heart, and the stories of their lives.

Listening, Rilian knows that Puddleglum doesn't find Ileana alarming; he doesn't stand, stiff and polite, or change the subject when she asks questions.

And Rilian hates knowing, suddenly, that even that won't be enough to allay his fears. Because Ileana was right, earlier, when she spoke about trust and knowledge being two different things. Knowledge can lead to trust, but it can't replace it. And no matter how much proof Rilian gets, it won't be enough to silence the fears in his head.

He wonders, a little despairingly, what will. Because he wants those fears silenced; he wants the niggling in the back of his head to be quiet, to accept that Ileana is who she is, bright and loving and eager, adventurous and laughing.

And mysterious and magical, with secrets she hides, Rilian reminds himself. A Mermaid with no family, no past, and a choice.

A Mermaid who came ashore to find him, and that, Rilian knows, is the heart of the matter. Because if she came only because she loved him, Narnia would be safe, and perhaps Rilian could ignore the fears in the back of his head.

But Rilian is a King, and because he is a King, he's rarely sought out just for himself. The enchantress sought him only for his kingship and tried to destroy his self and soul.

They leave after a couple of hours, as they still have the ride back, and Puddleglum waves goodbye from the door of his wigwam. Smoke, black and heavy, curls up from most of the other wigwams as they leave.

"I hope we didn't make him late for cooking his lunch," Ileana says, looking around her. "I like him. Quite a bit. He has a lot of common sense; in the sea we would call him a trechat—the one who guards the water's clearness and who fuels the strength of the current."

"Aslan chose him to guard Narnia's future and Narnia's adventurers." Rilian looks back as well and smiles. He wonders for a moment what Puddleglum would say to all his fears—but then, Puddleglum is a Marshwiggle. Puddleglum would tell him it was highly likely Ileana was an enchantress, but to put the best face on it.

Fear only has power when you forget it's a shadow, Rilian thinks. He rouses himself to help Ileana mount once more, and to entertain her on the ride. She keeps the conversation light, taking her cue from him, and they make it back to the Cair just as lunch is ending.

Waiting just inside the gate is a Faun, leaning against the wall. He straightens up and runs the instant he spots them, and Rilian frowns, wondering if anything happened while they were gone. Less than a minute later, just as Rilian swings off his horse, Drinian marches into the courtyard. He comes right up to the King, bows, and says through clenched teeth, "May I have a word with Your Highness?"

"Of course." Rilian hands his reins off to a nearby guard and heads for the nearest entrance—whatever Drinian wants to tell him is obviously better done in private—but stops at a gentle hand on his arm. Drinian spins and scowls.

"Should I come?" Ileana asks, her tone low enough only Drinian and Rilian can hear.

"No."

"No," Rilian repeats, more gently, and Ileana nods.

"I'm going to work with Jarmu and the others a bit more. I think, if the Captain permits, I can show them what exploring in the Cair is like. And I can help them find places to hide."

"Good. Go," Drinian bites out, and Ileana gives him a puzzled glance before gracefully moving away. Rilian turns and hurries to catch up to his old advisor. The instant they're in the Cair and in a small room, Drinian begins pacing.

"What were you thinking, Your Majesty?"

"I beg your pardon? Drinian, what—"

"What are your plans for the afternoon?" Drinian asks flatly.

"I'd been planning on checking at the library, checking with you about the destruction of the ship, and then working with the group of children, as Ileana is."

"And after that?"

"I don't have any plans? Why, have you heard that I do?"

Drinian takes a deep breath and releases it, sinking into a chair. "Your Majesty, there's someone using magic going around Narnia and destroying things, and you disappeared for hours."

"I left word where we were going—"

"And you broke your promise!"

Rilian pauses. "My promise?"

"You promised me, in a room like this one, that you would not go off with her alone. Your Majesty, if she is the enchantress—and she has magic, she's said so herself—spending hours alone riding with her is not wise!"

And Rilian thinks back, things to the day after the rest day, when he'd promised Drinian he wouldn't be alone with her, and bows his head. "I'm sorry," he says, because he is in the wrong, and he has broken his word.

"'I'm sorry' won't keep you safe! Nor Narnia safe, if she's put ideas in your head for something for you to do!"

"So you asked about my plans…"

"And there doesn't appear to be anything you know about. Which is half a relief. But not all squalls are visible from a distance, and Your Majesty, this was just plain foolish."

"I know, I know, I can see that now. I won't do it again," he offers, and then winces, because Jarmu said those exact same words in the cell, and they held no weight. But Drinian lets it pass.

"Where did you go? Your message said the Marshwiggle Plain—"

"I took her to see Puddleglum." Drinian cocks an eyebrow in question, and Rilian gets up to pace. "I thought—maybe, if she was an enchantress, he could see through her."

"I see," Drinian says slowly. "Did he?"

"No, they became pretty good friends. But there's nothing in her circumstances that arouses suspicion, like there was in the first—a Mermaid in the sea, that's expected."

"A Mermaid coming on land?"

"And finding a King in a marketplace." Rilian walks around a chair. "I don't know, Drinian. I just want the fears in my brain to quiet!" He stops walking to rub his eyes. "But I can't make them. Tell me, is there any reason to fear?"

"Not from her actions," Drinian admits slowly. "And I do like her. But—"

"No, not from her actions, but just who she is—her beauty, her magic, that cursed, cursed magic, and her attention—"

"And the fact that we know nothing of her except what she has said," Drinian reminds him, sharp and pointed. Rilian paces another circuit of the small room.

"I can't risk being wrong, can I?"

"About her? No, Your Majesty, you can't. But you have twenty days. And as long as you don't do anything foolish during that, you might find something that quiets your fears."

"Like what?" Rilian asks with a hollow laugh. "It's been ten years, and I still get nightmares if I remember that other woman too clearly. If nothing in ten years could banish those fears, why should Ileana be able to?"

"Because something about her recognises the dark," Drinian shoots back. "We can't go putting the damage done by a snake on the head of a Mermaid. That's blaming a ship's mast for the wind's power. If there wasn't something going on, I'd be a lot less cautious by now. But there is something going on, and till we find out what, no more solo trips, Your Majesty. None."

Rilian heaves another sigh, and looks dismally at the walls. "I hate any cages," he whispers. "Even Cair Paravel. Even other people."

"I know. And so does she, which makes me less afraid of her caging you. But for now, Your Majesty, you'll have to remember that a crown can be a cage the same way a ship is—it's the place you can't leave 'cause it's your life."

Rilian glances at Drinian. "You're giving away a lot of proverbs today," he says, and the old man scowls.

"I'm hoping some of that common sense rubs off on you. Going off alone! I passed ten years of my little remaining life, waiting for you to come back. I had guards on every gate, and one on every tower."

Rilian laughs and finally sits, muscles a little sore from the way they've been so tense for so many days. "I will do all I can to keep my word this time, and not forget, not for the next twenty days."

"Not till the destruction is solved, you mean. We don't know the Mermaid is the problem."

"Not till the destruction is solved," Rilian agrees.

"Good. And now, let's go look for damage in the other ships. It's been worrying me, that instead of smashing the others into smithereens, perhaps the sailors only put strategic holes in place."

The two spend the rest of the afternoon down by the remaining ships, and Rilian notes the other skeleton is farther along than he thought it would be; it seems the sailors want it finished, as it's more difficult to destroy when whole, as most things are. There seems to be no other damage.

He returns late for dinner, already missing Ileana and glad to see her again, only to find the Ambassador claimed the seat next to her, and Ileana is listening with a polite look on her face and no sign of a smile. Rilian ends the dinner as quickly as possible, and Ileana slips away.

"Wait," he calls after her, once they're in the hall, and she stops at once. "Where are you going?" he asks, though he keeps an eye on the rest of the people leaving. Once they're all gone, he's going to have to find someone else to be with him, to keep his promise.

"To my room," she says, "unless you needed me for something?"

"Oh, no, I—didn't realise you were doing something," Rilian finishes, feeling foolish.

She smiles. "It's something I want to finish, before I run out of time. But if you have something you want to do, I don't mind—"

"No," Rilian interrupts, because the last few people are leaving the hall, and he's running out of time. "Good night, lady of the sea."

He watches her walk away after one more smile, and he tries to ignore how grumpy he feels. He goes to bed early, determined to find something to do with her the next morning.


Response to Guest: I have two more crazily busy weeks (including this one) and then I hope to have a regular posting schedule again, either once or twice a week. Thank you for commenting!

A/N: Whew. We're a third of the way through the story (or hopefully more).