Xena: "This is not your fault. This is not your fault. It's mine for setting you on a path you were never meant to walk."

Gabrielle: "Any path is okay, Xena, as long as it's with you."

Jerusalem was all that Arielle could ever imagine and so much more. She soaked in the vibrant city like a sponge. She marveled at the place where such diverse faiths gathered to worship according to their holy customs and histories. It stood proudly against the backdrop of the blue sky as if it itself knew that it was special amongst the other cities of the known world.

The thick, massive defensive walls along with the countless towers made the city seem unconquerable and it convinced Arielle even more that it must have been divine providence that led the Crusaders to breech its defenses and tear it away from the Muslims' grasp about half a century ago. It remained a jewel that all rulers, Christian and Muslim alike, hungered for, but the city itself didn't seem to notice that lingering tension. It was regal; it overflowed with great and splendid buildings and architecture, colorful, bustling markets that contrasted with the sandy colored walls lining the large maze of streets, and exotic peoples, animals, and plants that the blond had never seen before. It seemed to her that all the roads of the world met at a crossroads there in Jerusalem.

Eden, on the other hand, felt very alone. The blond didn't know that the guardian had also never seen Jerusalem before. Even as Zauba'a, Eden had made herself a solemn promise that she would never enter the Holy City as such a person. Eden had wanted to discover, admire, and feel the welcome of the city together with Arielle. Instead, the guardian felt horribly out of place.

Dorian did his best to steal Arielle away from the guardian under the most various of pretenses: to show her a church, to buy her a trinket, or even have her smell a flower. He showered her with gifts from shoes and dresses to rings and necklaces. But his grandest achievement was showing off the grand house that he lived in. It had an elegant arched entrance in the eastern style that already announced that the owner was an influential citizen or at least had enough money to be. It was a large dwelling with a spacious hall and stairs that started in the middle and then split to either side to the higher floor. The rooms that faced out onto an inner courtyard had quaint, stone balconies, while those that faced out onto the street had narrow, covered, wooden balconies decorated with hanging plants. The impressionable bard was shown one thing after another until she thought that her imagination might explode; she was absolutely swept away.

Eden watched it all happen right in front of her with her sharp eyes. But what pained the guardian the most was not that the bard was drifting further and further away, but the fact that Eden couldn't do anything about it. She had saved her from demons, storms, falls, sicknesses, and a vast range of different enemies, but this time, Eden could only look on helplessly. She tried to tell herself that maybe it was all better this way, that keeping quiet meant sparing the bard's life, that maybe she would find a way to pull the young blond out of trouble still. But something deep inside her remained unconvinced, arguing instead that there was something very wrong going on.

Arielle spent most of her days with Dorian and would come back in the evenings to the room she and Eden were staying in at a nice tavern in a quieter quarter of the city. The evenings were uneasy, both women trying to stay away from the subject of the nobleman. They both hated the awkwardness between them, but neither knew what to do with it so they just let it be. One evening, Arielle announced that Dorian had invited the both of them to supper. Eden was surprised and was about to decline when she saw that innocent look in the bard's eyes; the eyes she could never seem to say no to. So Eden agreed grumpily and Arielle rewarded her with a smile.

Eden didn't even need a minute to severely regret agreeing to the meal. Dorian showed Eden around his home while Arielle followed closely behind and he then introduced the warrior to his family, each person more condescending than the other. His father was rude and arrogant and his mother resembled a pompous, walking jewelry collection. The rest was a strange gathering of aunts, uncles, and cousins that had all conveniently found themselves in the same place at the same time with the same hostility towards the guardian. Eden had the strong impression that he wasn't even trying to be nice or get her to like him for Arielle's sake, but just the opposite. And the supper itself only confirmed her suspicions. They all talked of either topics that Eden had nothing to say about or would express an opinion that Eden always seemed to strongly disagree with. The family also picked up conversations with Arielle that they evidently had before and Eden was kept out of them. Generally, the warrior was either ridiculed, interrupted, or completely ignored. And though the guardian had the indescribable urge to thrash them all with the large dinner table until it turned into a pile of splinters, she gnashed her teeth instead and stayed quiet for the sake of Arielle. Yet, the bard was so concentrated and busy with fitting in and getting everyone to like her, that she didn't notice just how badly Eden was being treated.

After what seemed a grueling eternity, the supper was finally over and the two women could take their leave. They said their goodbyes and were down the middle of the stairs when Arielle abruptly stopped.

"I'm... I'm staying." she stated shortly.

Eden whirled around.

"What do you mean you're staying?" she asked in surprise.

"I want to stay here."

"What? Why?"

"They're a noble family, Eden. I think I could help them in all kinds of ways." the bard explained and Eden couldn't help but scoff, "Eden, you don't know them."

"And neither do you really... You've only heard what they tell you. They aren't who they make themselves out to be. It's an opinion you can even hear in the streets."

"Well, I don't care. People always talk." the bard said with annoyance.

"You're serious about this, aren't you?" Eden asked with disbelief and knotted her brows.

"They're not a perfect family, no," the blond tried to explain, "but they want to change. They want to find God. I can help them. I can save them just like I did with Dorian."

"You can't save them." the guardian contradicted vehemently, shooting forward and grabbing the bard's shoulders. "They're far darker than you think. They'll drag you under much faster than you could ever bring them to the surface."

Arielle abruptly grew annoyed and brushed off the warrior's grasp.

"You never thought much of me, have you?"

"What? This isn't about my opinion of you. This is about the trouble you're walking straight into."

"Well, I know what I'm doing and I can take care of myself."

"Arielle-"

"No, Eden! I am staying here!"

The shout from the bard surprised the warrior somewhat and caused a few seconds of silence between them.

"And what about me?" the warrior asked almost shyly.

"What about you?" the bard asked a little roughly and some part of her was just as shocked and pained with that question as Eden was.

A faint echo of that same question asked once in the middle of a desert ran through the warrior's head. I guess that serves me right.

"What about me?" she repeated, an anger that sensed betrayal beginning to taint her voice.

"Well, you don't have to stay. You can continue your journey."

"I was traveling with you."

"Well, I want to stay. You can travel without me. You don't need me."

"You're wrong..." the warrior admitted painfully and there was something at that moment that wanted more than anything to leap out of the blond's heart and embrace the guardian, yet she sighed instead, keeping it down forcibly.

"I want to stay here and help these people. Maybe... maybe I'm just tired of wandering here and there, watching people die and suffer. I want to find peace. I want to belong to someone... to something. I... want to have a home and a family." Arielle explained absently.

The warrior heard the words and grabbed hold of the hilt of her sword with both hands as if to support herself. The words became warriors, her worst enemies and they charged at her in full armor and with full force and Eden was helpless against them. In the end, the guardian was defeated by a few sentences. She had thought that they were friends, that they were bound to each other in some inexplicable way. She believed that they had found some kind of comfort within each other, being able to trust, care for and rely on each other. In that there was a sense of purpose and belonging. And it was true that they moved a lot, but it was the bard who wanted to travel and see the world in her life quest. And death and destruction wasn't all they saw because amidst all the darkness there was also good, light, and truth to be seen. Even Eden had begun to see it, but now all that turned out to be a fantastical lie. She had started to give her heart to her friend only to have it tossed back in her face. There was no point in trying to explain to Arielle things that should have been evident.

"Well," Eden said, finally composing something sensible in her raging thoughts, "I didn't know you were so miserable."

"Eden-"

"Don't." the warrior interrupted, raising her hand and the bard could see the warm blue in her eyes begin to freeze over into ice and her face turn serious.

The warrior stood up straight and faced the bard with a warrior's countenance.

"Listen to me because I will say this once and only once. These people are not who they claim to be. You won't save them because they aren't looking to be saved. And you have a choice now. Leave here and find your happiness elsewhere because it's not here, Arielle. Or stay... and bring misery upon us both."

"Are you telling me this as a friend or guardian?" Arielle asked, cocking an eyebrow and crossing her arms in front of her chest, yet somehow feeling a little nervous.

"A guardian. It seems we weren't the friends I thought we were." the warrior returned, her tone laced with hurt, noticing another new ring on the bard's finger.

"Eden... you don't know the future. You may have some visions, but that doesn't mean you know everything."

Eden's shoulders slumped and her defiant countenance was gone and now she simply looked like a defeated deserter. The bard now even doubted and belittled her guardianship. There was nothing left to take away from Eden.

"Of course... Well then, I hope you're happy. I wish the best for you... and Dorian." the guardian said quietly, looking at the floor and turned to leave.

"It's not like that-"

"Don't you dare insult my intelligence!" Eden suddenly roared in her heartache, spinning back around and facing the bard. "Say what you want, believe what you will. Think that you've found your garden, that you're doing what is right when in truth you're just running away and being played for the fool. You can fill yourself with your pathetic excuses, but don't you dare feed them to me because frankly they make me sick."

The words and tone hit a chord in Arielle. She suddenly heard her father, her mother, her sister, friends of family, and everyone else that had ever seen something wrong with her. The words burned in her ears and in her gut, drudging up all the pent up frustration she had felt over the years. Eden had now become just like everyone else, the bard heard an enemy in her. Why can't I just belong to someplace? To someone? Why can't I just have what everyone else wants and has and be happy? They were the same questions she always asked her confessor, the only one who had never thought her strange. Why, Eden, have you turned against me? Please, just not you...

A tired irony found its way between them. They both had spent their lives being different no matter how hard they tried to escape it. And despite their different natures and histories, they were inherently the same. Fate shook its head when at the time they needed each other, they decided to push each other away.

"Well I am sick of you! I am sick of you knowing everything, I'm sick of you telling me what to do!" Arielle began to scream and she lost control of herself and her irrational feelings found their way to the surface, obscuring her friend Eden and presenting a foe with many different, ugly heads. "I want to decide for myself, I want to know what's right! I want to stand up for myself! I want to love and be loved! I am sick of you suffocating me and protecting me! I never asked you to! I don't need someone pretending to be God! I want to be my own person, kind and caring! All your constant fighting and darkness, it's like being in hell. You criticize Dorian, but I would never end up like you!"

A smack was heard when Arielle slapped Eden across the face with her hand as hard as she could. A thin line of blood appeared on the warrior's cheek caused by the ring Arielle had on. Eden only slowly turned her head to look back at Arielle, but betrayed no emotion. The bard was breathing hard and slowly began to realize both what she had said and done. Her anger disappeared quickly and confusion set in.

"Oh Eden, I'm-" she started quietly and moved to touch the warrior, but Eden raised her hand silently. They stood there in that stance, neither moving and neither knowing what to say. After a few moments, the guardian slowly lowered her hand. She silently opened her satchel and took out another small, carved, wooden angel. Do I... Did I ever really know you... my young bard?

"They were a pair... of friends..." she whispered roughly, betraying a great pain as she placed the angel in Arielle's hand, "Goodbye Arielle."

She lowered her head, turned, and walked towards the door.

"Eden. Eden! Please don't leave like this!" Arielle begged, but it fell on deaf ears and she was left alone with the deafening echo of Eden closing the door behind her.

Arielle glanced down at the angel in her palm. This one had its wings slightly outstretched and was holding a sword with a very solemn look on its face. Arielle suddenly wanted to cry.

"You know, my sweet," Dorian said to Arielle, "I am so lucky to have met you."

They were strolling through the inner courtyard that belonged to Dorian's manor. The bard's arm was linked through the nobleman's as they slowly made their way along the stone paths laid out amongst the flowers and bushes that he had there. It was a nice evening and quiet. The bard had realized how quiet she and everything else had become ever since Eden left. Dorian noticed the blond's more pensive mood, but never asked about it. Arielle herself had tried to raise the matter a few times, desperate to have someone close to talk to, but Dorian somehow always managed to quickly change the subject. So the bard simply turned her loss around over and over in the lonely corners of her heart. The nights were the worst, where the bard would torment herself with decisions and indecisions. Her rational mind argued that she now had everything that every maiden would gut a cow for. Yet her heart would tell her that she wasn't at all as happy as her logic told her she should be. She had someone beside her, yet she couldn't stop feeling incredibly lonely and hollow. And even now, her hand in his, she felt nothing similar to what she once felt when she held the hand of a warrior in a dark cave in the torrential rain.

But Arielle had made a decision and decided to keep with it. She thought that God had put Dorian on her path and that the two of them had met for a reason. She believed that she was doing what she was supposed to be doing and that she would find favor through it from Dorian to her parents and up to God Himself.

"Tell me truly," Dorian said slowly, stopping to gaze so deep into Arielle's eyes it almost made her uncomfortable, "would you do me the honor of becoming my wife?"

"What? Me?!" Arielle answered, absolutely stunned.

"You must see that I am completely and wholeheartedly taken with you. If I did not know any better, I would think you a sorceress, you have forever taken both my heart and soul. Please, be my wife and make me the happiest man in the world." he purred, sliding down to one knee, taking both her hands in his and looking up at her.

Arielle was utterly stunned and couldn't get a single word out. Arielle always thought that she wanted to get married but as she grew older, her appetite for adventure grew larger. What she had now with Dorian reminded her a little of all the childhood pretend weddings that she played along with her sister. The bard remembered the day before her sister's wedding, when Thea told her that it had almost all been different from what they had both imagined as little girls, but that that was just life. It was that day that Arielle solemnly realized that her childhood dreams would forever remain with the little girl she had been. Now, Arielle was an adult and her dreams changed along with her. She felt something within her pulling and pushing her down some path that she didn't yet see. And she felt that she had finally begun to listen to that voice when she traveled to the Holy Lands. She met Dorian, but somehow she didn't feel that he was the destination she was meant to reach. But then again, maybe that was just the way life was.

She glanced down at Dorian, dazed and confused. There was one thing that struck her as surprising. She had always thought she would be happy. More than happy, she thought she would be elated. She imagined herself jumping in joy and her heart bursting with happiness and thinking that nothing in the world would ever make her happier than that moment. And when the moment finally did come, she felt... nervous. A faint voice deep within her rebelled, begging and pleading for her to take a breath and a step back, repeating Eden's words- 'Something here isn't right...'. But when she looked into Dorian's steady gaze, she felt herself slipping down a muddy slope and into the center of his eyes. She couldn't control it, it was almost like she was being pulled in by an unseen force. And seeing no other way out, she just let herself slide, hoping for the best as she always did and hearing the faint voice shout in despair.

"Of course..." Arielle whispered.

"Thanks be to the Lord for having heard my prayers." Dorian answered, standing and embracing Arielle fiercely with a grin on his face, "I've never been happier."

Arielle hung on to those words and held him closely. She waited for something similar to fill her heart and spill out through her mouth.

"Dorian... I'm so... This is... wonderful..."

Arielle baffled herself a little with her lack of eloquence in a moment that demanded it, but she wrote it off as nervousness.

"It must be even more than wonderful if the beautiful bard has found herself at a loss of words, no?" Dorian underlined.

Arielle simply nodded and smiled. Yes, it must be...

"Oh, my sweet," he purred into her ear in a slightly different tone, "you are mine now."

The statement sent a slight chill down the bard's spine, but not for the reason she expected.

When Arielle asked if they were going to announce the news to Dorian's family, the nobleman answered that it could wait for some reasons she didn't quite understand. But her mind was taken off the subject when he took her by the arm and led her down to the end of the corridor and let her into one of the great bedrooms with a balcony.

"This will be your personal bedchamber." Dorian announced with a big grin and then snapped his fingers and a young man ran in, "And this will be your personal steward, Aldric."

"At your service, my lady." Aldric said, bowing as if on cue.

Arielle looked at Aldric and couldn't decide whether she was looking at a man or a boy. He had the most youthful face that Arielle had ever seen, his dark, brown hair falling gently into his eyes. Yet there was something in his stance that went beyond his lean figure and betrayed that he had seen his fair share in life and that he was not one to ever back down. There was something in his stance that almost reminded her of a certain warrior...

"Aldric is at your beck and call, my dearest. Now, I have some affairs to attend to so I will leave you for now." Dorian said, kissed Arielle's cheek, and quickly took his leave.

Aldric and Arielle were left by themselves in the bedchamber. She noticed how a certain warmth and kindness began to radiate from him the moment Dorian was gone, his walnut brown eyes becoming much softer. She never had anything other than a wetnurse before and had no idea what to expect from him.

"You must forgive me," Arielle said, taking a chance with innocent truth, "but I've never had a steward before."

"I am at your service, my lady." he replied warmly.

He stood tall with his hands behind his back, patiently waiting for her orders. Arielle took a deep breath and looked around. The room was larger and more lavishly decorated than most that she had seen. The bed was large with a dark, sturdy frame and posts that held thin silk curtains around it. A small, wooden table stood next to the bed and on it there was a vase with flowers that Arielle had never seen before. The windows were also large, letting in the sunlight during the day. There was a table and a wooden chair with a padded seat. A large closet stood opposite the bed and through the opened door, she could see new dresses waiting for her in it. Arielle was convinced that her family would have been delighted; her mother would faint from the splendor, her father would puff up with pride and her sister would be horribly jealous. But Arielle didn't feel any of those things.

"How do you like this chamber?" she asked Aldric, turning back to him.

"Very much. It's my lord's finest."

"Yes... Perhaps... I could move to a different room? One a little less... decadent?"

"I'm afraid not, my lady. My lord's orders were quite specific. You are to have the finest things available."

"Your lord? Aren't you my steward?"

"Naturally, my lady. Nevertheless, my lord is the head of this manor. His command is the law for everyone here."

The statement hit Arielle blindly. She had never seemed to realize that blatant and painfully obvious truth. She was so fixed on separating herself from her parents and old life that she failed to notice that she was not becoming free, but simply changing hands. What Aldric said sounded more like she had agreed to move to a prison instead of becoming a happy wife of a nobleman.

Eden knew that Lawrence had returned to Jerusalem. And she knew where to meet him. Just like he knew.

Lawrence didn't need to be told that something troubled the warrior; he saw it after his meeting with the Templars in Acre and then felt it when he came in sight of Jerusalem. He felt such sympathy towards the constantly battling wounded warrior. He clenched his jaw in disapproval of the fate she was constantly being served. It was too much for anyone, warrior or not.

When Eden raised her head to greet the approaching Hospitaller, he could plainly see a deep, troubled hurt in her eyes. It pained him to no end. He outstretched his arms for a hug, a gesture the warrior always scoffed at, but secretly enjoyed. They embraced and then pulled away, looking at each other warmly.

"The Templars left you in one piece I see." Eden remarked sarcastically.

"A fact they'll probably regret sooner than later." Lawrence returned in the same tone.

They chuckled lightly and then turned and strolled off leisurely in the same direction, side by side.

"Did you find anything out?" Eden asked, looking at the ground ahead of her.

"I did. But it doesn't make things any easier to understand unfortunately."

Eden turned her eyes up to the knight and knotted her brows.

"There was one seer there who said that he too felt a dark force approaching, looming overhead. Something from deeper within Hell. Something more numerous than one demon..." Lawrence explained slowly, "And then the Templars told me that scouts returning from Jaffa had noticed separate bands of mercenaries traveling towards Jerusalem."

"Do you think the two are related?"

"I don't know... None of these things seem to form a whole... Why are mercenaries on their way here? And who were they hired by? And who is this demon that we can sense, but still seems to lie dormant?... I don't understand it."

"If it is all connected, then it almost seems as if the demon was... waiting..." Eden thought out loud.

"But for what?"

Eden looked up at the sparse clouds in the sky, closed her eyes, and took a deep breath. She suddenly longed for the innocent and naive oneness she had once felt with God at the very beginning, but had lost in anger and hurt so long ago. Tell me... Tell me what I need to know... Show me what I need to see... She felt something was terribly out of place, but didn't know where or who and what to do with it. Her relationship with God was strained at best, yet Eden couldn't find it in her heart to think that everything that had happened since that memorable day in the desert was simply a cruel joke. The guardian and Arielle had both ended up in Jerusalem together so far outside their individual plans. There had to be a reason or plan to it, but Eden couldn't see it. Normally, she would have simply brushed off the bard, stormed out of the manor and have been half way up the coast by now, yet something within her kept her planted in Jerusalem. So Eden stayed with no plan and no idea why and only a faint premonition that there was still something that needed to come to pass. It was frustrating, like being on the verge of a discovery, like having the perfect word on the tip of your tongue. Eden knew that she could do nothing more now than wait patiently, a virtue that she definitely didn't possess.

"Eden... I know... Arielle..." Lawrence said, breaking through Eden's thoughts and trying to find the right words.

"If you know then, please, let's not talk about it."

"Alright." he replied solemnly, knowing full well that the less the warrior said, the more she actually hurt so he tried to change the subject a little, "So will you be staying here long?"

"Perhaps for a little while..." Eden answered simply, "Maybe there's a tavern or inn you could recommend?"

"Well, come to think of it, you are actually in luck today."

Eden turned and gave him a quizzical look.

"I happen to know of a quaint, though perhaps slightly drafty, room available in a murky, little corner that might be quite to your liking. The tenants might all be of one company, but they mostly keep to themselves." he announced.

A tiny grin crossed Eden's lips.

"Murky sounds just perfect."

They turned towards the Hospital of St. John and Lawrence grew sad with the emanating hurt that even Eden's stoic presence couldn't hide.