She could hear the horses' hooves trotting against the hard packed earth. She could smell the dust filling her nostrils; it almost tickled. She was waving goodbye to her friends who had stayed behind.

"Will you miss it?" she heard and turned towards the voice.

"I will..." Arielle replied to Eden, "Jerusalem was so different than I thought it would be and yet everything I had imagined... and more. I'll miss our friends the most... I wasn't ready to say goodbye..."

Eden was strangely quiet. She seemed worried and sad.

"But anywhere on this earth is fine as long as you're there." Arielle added with a grin.

Eden muffled a small smile and shook her head slowly.

"Yes, yes, I know," the bard replied, waggling her hand, "You're the fearless one so I'm left with being mushy. I am the bard after all."

Arielle turned back to see that Jerusalem was now far from sight. Arielle turned forward to call to Eden and saw that they were standing at the edge of a dandelion field.

"I promised you something." Eden said warmly.

And with that, Eden lunged towards the bard and grabbed hold of her. She pulled them into the field, kicking up the last of the seeds and then tumbled back, letting the laughing Arielle safely fall on top of her. Eden loosened her grip to let Arielle catch her breath. The bard then remembered the promise and dandelion seeds of a time when everything had been different.

"Why didn't I listen to you then?" the bard whispered.

"It's over now." Eden calmed.

"It's not." Arielle countered quietly, shaking her head slowly, "He's still out there somewhere... plotting..."

"As long as he's alive, I'll be right next to you, waiting." Eden replied, tightening her embrace when she felt a shiver go up the bard's body.

"I love you so very much." the bard whispered and shifted to kiss her.

The world disappeared and Arielle's heart began to pound. She wondered if it was because she was excited. She wondered if it was because she was scared. She opened her eyes and looked up at Eden who stood out against the clear evening sky.

"Here."

"Here?" Eden repeated.

"Here."

Eden looked at the stone steps that lead into the water and Arielle desperately wanted Eden to remember that moment, but the warrior's face showed that she was instead remembering her sickness.

"This was the place where I finally understood that I was in love with you." Arielle said simply but with her heart in her throat.

Eden looked at her quietly with surprise and endearment. Arielle calmed a little.

"Must have been quite a day." Eden replied somewhat awkwardly.

"It was." the bard agreed, "Do you know how hard it is to be in love with you? I was constantly thinking about what you felt... what I felt... wondering if I should tell you and then being scared to death that you would laugh at me, be disgusted, or just leave me somewhere... I finally decided that I wouldn't say a word... But sometimes, when you looked at me that way..."

"What way?" Eden asked, her gaze warm and gentle.

"That way." Arielle replied, wanting to drown in those soft yet sharp, blue eyes, "Urgh, you made it so hard."

Eden chuckled quietly as the bard smiled and rested her head against the warrior's shoulder. They looked out over the water surrounding Tyre. Then Eden took the bard's hand.

"Let's go. Before you catch that cough again."

Just as Arielle wondered where they were going, they were at a tavern that seemed so very familiar. The blond's heart began to pound again.

"Things is getting shifty round here." Berta said immediately, keeping her voice low and secretive as they stood in the tavern's kitchen, "Peoples here are just dropping like flies."

"What do you mean?" Arielle asked.

"I mean they is dropping like flies. You know, dead like."

"What are you talking about?" Eden asked slightly impatiently as she crossed her arms over her chest and it made Berta swallow hard.

"Alright," the innkeeper hastened to explain, "everything was quiet, see? But not too long back, things starting to be getting a little... strange. First, a couple people here and there end up in an early grave. But then peoples just started dropping dead all mysterious like. They're just walking around and then, boom!, they're eating dust an hour later. Now there got to be so many that the whole town got all panicky. So they set more guards outside and now you can hardly get in or out. Makes me a bit claustrophobic if you wanna know the truth... Anyways, didn't help none. Whatever's murdering folk, it ain't outside the walls asking nicely to come through the gate, see? So they got guards all over the place now, but still don't change much. Everybody's all tense and suspicious, see?"

"Do they have any idea what's causing these deaths?"

"Well, most being God fearing folk, they think it's demon's work, little one. Some kind of sickness or curse or the like... It's all random, see? Ain't no one knows if today ain't their day, see? Though it's a trifle strange thing that they always die alone."

"Alone?" Eden repeated.

"Alone." the innkeeper nodded, "Just all by themselves in some alley some place. Or even under their own roof, by Christ's nails!"

The bard turned suddenly to the pensive warrior.

"Do you think there's something we can do to help?" Arielle asked.

Eden sighed and took her gently by the arm and moved off a few steps to the side.

"You could just continue on home," Eden noted, "and no one would think any less of you. I don't even know if we can help here."

The bard's mind was telling her to stay, but her heart was pounding even harder than before.

"I know," she replied quietly, "but there's still the greater good, isn't there?"

Arielle smiled at Eden who smiled back at her.

But the smiles soon faded. Eden had a strange expression on her face, as if she had just found out she had been tricked. The bard watched Eden knot her brows, check her forehead and then her pulse. Eden had trouble breathing. Arielle's heart hammered in her chest and now she knew why. She heard the door of their room creak open behind her.

"Pois-" Eden whispered.

A then a sharp pain made everything vanish.

"Wake up already!"

Arielle awoke to a shark kick to her ribs. She curled up, wrapping her arms around her, and turned onto her side.

"You sure do make a lot of noise in your sleep. Either crying or whimpering."

Arielle opened her eyes at the voice. A young man was standing over her, his face young, but marred with a scar that went from his forehead to his ear across the eye he no longer had.

"Where am I?" Arielle whispered, noticing her dry mouth.

"I told you that yesterday. Now get up."

Arielle turned her eyes up to the dark, stone ceiling. Her churning guts and spinning mind were battling over what was real and what wasn't. Had they left Jerusalem? Had they reached Tyre? Did they meet Berta?

"I said get up!" the guard repeated impatiently.

Arielle sat up and felt a sudden pain rush through her mind from the back of her skull. She moaned and raised her hand, tentatively touching a rather large, rough bump on her head.

"Yeah, well, sitting around here isn't going to make it any better." the guard spat out unsympathetically, thinking that she was just trying to bide her time.

"Where are you taking me?"

"Look, countess, I don't want to get rough, but could you just get up and let me take you where they want you, huh? I'm sick of your questions."

Arielle's heart was telling her that there was something very wrong, but her mind was too hazy to understand what it was. She remembered only bits and pieces of things that she couldn't confidently say were truth or dream. All she wanted was a little time to clear her mind and quench her thirst.

"Water." she whispered.

"Upstairs."

The guard had lost his patience and took a large step into Arielle's cell, grabbed her by the arm, and hoisted her to her feet by force. Arielle let out a yelp and unconsciously grabbed hold of his leather armor as everything around her suddenly began to spin in every direction at once and her insides threatened to spill out.

"Hey there." the guard warned, pushing her away gently towards the bars, which she now leaned against as her hands dropped to her sides and she closed her eyes, "Get a hold of yourself, countess."

"I'm not a countess." Arielle replied quietly, wishing her stomach to stop rebelling.

"Makes no difference to me." the guard shrugged, putting shackles on the bard's wrists, "Let's just get you upstairs so I can go eat already."

"What in God's name is going on here?" Arielle asked softly as she opened her eyes and looked up at the ceiling again, almost not noticing the iron bands, but suddenly remembering the sound of iron chains from another time, "Eden?"

"Oh for God's sake, woman, move it!" the guard yelled, pushing Arielle forward, "You whined that name half the night. I don't want to hear it again!"

Arielle's mind scrambled to register where Eden might be. Had they been in Tyre together? Had Eden been poisoned? Was she alive? But the fog her mind was in, amplified by the throbbing from the back of her head wouldn't let her remember anything and her heart began to pound again, just like in the dream, in frustration, worry, and fear.

"Where are you taking me?" Arielle asked again with a hint of feeble protest.

"Shula wants to see you and so she will. Other than that, I don't give a damn."

Arielle could do nothing else than let herself be taken up the winding, echoing steps, wondering who or what was waiting at the top of them.