Guess who actually remembered that today in Thursday? Me! I'm so proud of myself. :) Anyway, here is chapter 19, the second to last chapter! I can't believe that this is almost done! Please let me know what you think. Also, now is the time I need to start thinking about whether I'm going to continue this AU into the books themselves... What do you guys think about that? Would you want to read that?

-owl

It was Rollan's day off of training and he was about to begin a game of jacks with the set that Nicolai and Lucette had gotten for him at the winter solstice celebration, when there was a knock at the door.

Reluctantly, he got up and opened the door that exited into the stairwell. Outside the door was Lucette. Bryer was next to her, like he often was. His tail was swishing back and forth and his tongue was sticking out of his mouth as he 'grinned' at Rollan

"Did something happen?" Rollan asked. "It's supposed to be my day off."

Lucette shook her head. "No, nothing happened, but I thought that I should help you with something important before Tarik and Olvan return in the next day or so."

Now that got Rollan's attention. "What are we going to work on?" he asked as he hurriedly scooped up the jacks and placed them in the box where he kept them, leaving the box on the table in the common room.

Lucette giggled a little at his enthusiasm. "I wanted to work with you and Essix with trust. She won't enter passive state until she trusts you. And, though I can't force her to trust you, I can work with you two."

Even if it wasn't guaranteed that he would get Essix into passive state that day, Rollan was eager to start training for it. He was, afterall, constantly surrounded by people who could use passive state at a wim.

Lucette had Rollan and Essix work on trust building activities for the entire day. Other than a break for lunch, they kept training until dinner was served. After dinner, Rollan was invited with Lucette and Nicolai to a cliff top at the north end of the island that Greenhaven had been built.

Once there, Rollan saw a small fire pit, ringed with large, smooth stones. Three logs made triangular seating around the pit. There was a fire roaring, tongues of orange fire licking the darkening sky. Diata and Bryer seemed to be supervising the flames. Essix flew around their heads, performing tricks as she flew.

All three of them took a seat on the logs, stretching their hands out to the flames. While it may have been near the middle of summer, it was chilly when the sun went down and the wind didn't help that either.

"I didn't realize that Greenhaven had this up here," Rollan said once he had gotten settled and was confident that he was not going to fall from the log.

Nicolai nodded. "Most people don't come up here. Mainly me and Lucette. Mom loves the smell of smoke like this and when we were younger she did things like this often."

Lucette smiled as she nodded along with her brother. "We thought that we'd take the chance to bring you out here at least once before Tarik returns. He doesn't really approve of it."

"Where is Tarik?" Rollan asked, looking between Nicolai and Lucette. The question had been weighing on his mind since the other man had left the fortress without giving any hint of where he was going or what he was doing. "Or is it a secret that I don't get to know?"

Nicolai sighed before answering. "Lenori had a vision. That the other three Fallen were going to be coming back, and whereabouts they would appear. Tarik and Olvan have gone out to retrieve the children that summon Jhi, Briggan, and Uraza."

"Only two people to collect three kids?" Rollan mused.

"No, Lenori said that she herself would find the summoner of Jhi. There was no need to send anyone else therefore."

"Tarik was sent to Eura, he wouldn't say where, Lenori the same to Zhong, and Olvan is going to Nilo," Lucette added. "Oh, and speaking of the other three, that means that you will need to clean up the common room and the bedroom you've been staying in."

The moon was nearly at its peak when Lucette sent Nicolai to get water to douse the fire. Once it was out and sufficiently taken care of so that it would not relight during the night, Lucette led the group back to the fortress.

Rollan branched off from the siblings when they reached his tower, and he climbed it slowly. If Olvan and Tarik were going to be returning with two of the other three Four Fallen, and the other was going to show up of their own accord, he was not going to have the tower to himself much longer.

He was torn between that being a good thing or bad thing. On the one hand it was nice to have a place that was his and only his, after so long on the streets of Concorba. On the other hand it was going to be nice to have people to share with, as he did get quite lonely up there by himself.

When he reached the top of the tower, he went directly to his bed and almost immediately fell into a dreamless sleep. He didn't even stir when Essix swooped in and nipped at his ear with her beak before taking her usual perch and going to sleep as well.

In the morning, Rollan decided to get it over with and clean up. He hadn't thought he'd made as much of a mess than what Lucette had insinuated the previous night, but he somehow had.

He started by removing his traveling cloak and traveling bag from the other bed and straightening out the gray bedding. Nothing else was out of place, so once his stuff was thrown into his wardrobe, he closed the door and left the bedroom.

The common room was much more messy. Books that Rollan had been learning to read were strewn around the room as well as papers on which he was practicing writing. The multitude of loose papers were collected into a neat pile and set by the doorway that led to his bedroom. The books were stacked nicely and placed on the small table from which Rollan removed his box of jacks.

Once he had thrown the papers into his wardrobe and placed the jacks under his pillow, Rollan descended from the tower. It must have been perfect timing, because just as Rollan got to the bottom of the steps, he ran into Lucette.

"They're here!" she exclaimed, a smile on her face.