After speaking briefly with the innkeeper to rest his worries about Tiara's "death", they all retired to the room Alissa and Aenea had planned on sharing. There was really no reason to share a room, but there was the unconscious and unshakable feeling that there was safety in numbers and that anything could happen.

Aenea, Alissa, and Hans sat talking in the center of the room, and Aurian lay sleeping in Aenea's lap. They tried to keep the curious glances at Tiara and Stephen, who sat in a corner of the room talking very quietly, to a minimum.

"Where are we going now?" Aenea asked Alissa.

"I don't know, I have been thinking about that, and I'm just not exactly sure. I need to decide soon, though, before he comes looking for me," she answered absently.

Hans looked at her, raising his eyebrows. "That's the second time you've mentioned this 'he', Alissa." She looked down at her hands. "What happened out there in the forest?"

Aenea sat silently, watching their expressions and listening carefully. They didn't notice, but Tiara and Stephen stopped talking when they heard this subject come up, and thus the full attention of the room, excepting that of the sleeping Auri, of course, was on Alissa and Hans.

"I don't want to talk about it," she answered, finally.

"Come on, Alissa. We've known each other since we were kids, and I can tell when you are upset." She started to open her mouth to reply, and he held up a hand, stopping her. "And don't you tell me that it was nothing. If it were nothing, you would not be so distracted and have such a worried look on your face."

Alissa sighed. "You're thinking along the wrong lines, Hans. Nothing that bad happened to me. I just had a close encounter with someone I was trying to avoid."

The room was silent for a moment while Hans thought. Tiara and Stephen rose from their corner and sat beside the other three, completing the circle.

Suddenly Hans's eyes widened and he nodded as if he understood. "Kale."

Alissa's back stiffened.

"That's it, isn't it?! You met Kale, didn't you?"

She hesitated for a moment, then nodded. "Yes, I did."

"Then he knows who you are. And where you were headed."

"He doesn't actually know who I am. I didn't tell him. He has an idea though. I made the dumb mistake of mentioning Celestra out loud. I was alone at the time, or at least thought I was. He was listening and watching me. I made an even bigger mistake by not killing him when I had the chance."

"And why didn't you?"

"Well at first, I thought he was you. So I used ice shard on him. Then when I realized he was a Fierstyrian warrior, I transformed and tried to attack him. Then he got the idea that I might be the girl he was supposed to keep an eye out for, so I ran."

"I see. So that's why we were running that night. Well you shouldn't worry too much about him. Not until you encounter him again anyway."

~~~~

Around that same time, Kale sat alone in his tent, his one reprieve from Celestra's tyranny, and thinking to himself. ~I wonder... that girl back there. Is she the girl that I'm supposed to be looking for?~ He sighed. ~I hope not. She seems interesting. Something about her though. She seems like a pleasant, carefree person. But it also seems like she's running away from something. At the mention of my master's daughter's name, she became almost scared. Was it me? Or was it what I am?~ He sighed and shook his head sadly. ~I think we could've been friends....... Maybe I could renege on all my deals with my king and find her and offer her my help in avoiding those that are chasing her....but I don't want to upset him. I can't break those promises just because I don't like the way things are turning out.~ He sighed, determined to follow King Nolan's orders, but to get out of this deal as soon as he could. He hoped that the girl he met wasn't the girl he was to be looking for. Even if she was though, he was sure he could find a loop hole in the deal. But he wanted to find that girl and see if his instincts were right--see if they really could be friends, if not more.

~~~~

Those around the circle sighed along with Alissa. No one knew exactly what was going on, but they were sorrowful that she was being denied friendship because of simple fate.

Auri opened his eyes and jumped onto the floor beside Aenea. He stretched, and then softly padded across the floor to Alissa's lap, making himself at home. Alissa wrinkled her brow in an expression of distaste, but when he started purring, she relaxed her facial muscles and petted him.

Aenea smiled, and then yawned. "I suggest we all try to get some sleep."

Tiara nodded, yawning a little. "You're right, this is the second consecutive day that we have been up and about, and with all that has been happening," she said with a bit of a wry smile, "we need to rest."

The others indicated their agreement, and everyone bedded down for some much-needed sleep, albeit in the middle of the day.

~~~~

Hans looked around the room in the dim light of eventide, seeing that he was the only one awake so far. Everyone had very pleasant expressions on their faces, as if they were having good dreams. He thought a bit, trying to remember if he had also had agreeable dreams; what little snatches he could remember seemed nice enough, so he decided that he had.

He noticed that Auri was no longer laying beside Alissa, as he had been when Hans had drifted off to sleep. He looked around, and didn't see the feline anywhere. Getting a bit worried, he got up and tiptoed across the room to where Aenea was sleeping. He knelt to wake her, and realized that she wasn't there, either; only her blankets and belongings, except for the grey cloak that she never removed, were there.

He raised his eyebrows in surprise. "Now where could they have gotten off to?" he whispered to himself. He sat beside her unoccupied blankets and thought.

"Hans, what are you doing?" asked an equally quiet, sleepy voice. He turned and saw Tiara had raised her head and was regarding him with a curious, if still somnolent, expression.

"Aenea and Auri aren't here. I was just wondering where they could be."

Tiara looked more awake immediately. "They aren't here?" she whispered back.

He shook his head. "No."

She frowned, and got up, careful to be quiet and not wake the still-sleeping Alissa and Stephen. "Might they have gone downstairs to eat?"

Hans shrugged. "I don't know. Shall we go see?"

She nodded and approached the door, glancing over her shoulder at him. "Are you coming?"

"Yeah," he said, getting up and joining her.

~~~~

They looked around the main hall of the inn, which was much more crowded now that it had been that morning. Delicious smells had greeted them as they had entered, and they viewed the roomful of people and food.

"Do you see them?" Hans asked her.

She shook her head. "No."

Hans's stomach growled. "This food smells so good. Should we wait for Stephen and Alissa, or just eat now?"

"Let's concentrate on finding Aenea and her cat first," she replied. "Where's the innkeeper? They might have left a message with him."

He pointed at the short, round man, who looked so much like an innkeeper that it was hard to imagine him in any other profession, and led the way to him. "Excuse us, sir, we know you are busy," he said, placing a hand on the man's arm to keep him there to listen attentively to them, "but could we talk with you a moment?"

The man nodded, and indicated an empty table within a few steps. "Please, have a seat," he said, snapping his fingers and gesturing for one of the serving girls, "and tell Leena what you would like to drink. On the house, of course."

Leena hurried to the table, and took their orders for a few glasses of wine, and the disappeared into the bustle behind the bar.

"Now," he continued, "what would you like?"

"You remember us, correct?" asked Tiara.

"Yes, you are the one who we thought was dead." He snorted in amusement. "How could I forget? You are with the young warrior-woman and that other, grey-cloaked woman. And you've added that foul-looking man in green to your number, I believe."

They nodded, and Tiara restrained herself from retaliating to the slight on Stephen; they needed the innkeeper's help, and they wouldn't get it by angering him.

Leena returned with their drinks, set them quickly and quietly on the table, and then hurried off to help with serving food.

"And what is it that you wish to know?"

"The woman in the grey cloak. Have you seen her and her cat? Did she come down for food and then leave? She seems to be missing from our room."

The innkeeper sighed heavily. "Not again. You lot are turning out to be more trouble than I've had in a few months. No, I have not seen her or her feline, and you had best find her or find somewhere else to take yourselves. This much trouble will make it seem like bad things happen to those who stay at my inn, and I can't have that. I depend on this place for my livelihood, and the people around here are very superstitious. Most times, rightly so. If they are afraid to stay here, I'm ruined!" he concluded, pounding his fist on the table for emphasis.

Tiara raised her eyebrows at his vehement reaction to their inquiry. "We apologize, sir, and will endeavor to keep any problems associated with our stay here to a minimum."

He nodded, but didn't say anything else.

Hans spoke up. "If this is any consolation, we'll advertise for you along our journey. We'll let every traveler know that this is a warm, clean, comfortable inn." He smiled.

The innkeeper frowned. "If it's all the same to you, I would appreciate it if you wouldn't do that. If these things keep happening to you, and people see that you are associated with my inn, then the effect will be just the opposite of what we're trying to achieve." He shook his head and rose from the table. "Now, if you don't mind, I need to get back to keeping my customers happy. In a while, I'll send Leena back to your room to see if you want some dinner."

They nodded their assent as he walked away.

Tiara finished her wine and looked around the room. "Where could they have gotten off to?"

Hans frowned. "Let's get back to the room and see if Alissa and Stephen are awake. Maybe they'll have some ideas."

Leaving their empty glasses on the table, they left the main hall and walked back to their room.

~~~~

They reached the door just to have it jerked open, and they narrowly avoided being run over by Alissa and Stephen.

"Where have you two been?!" demanded Alissa from the doorway. "We woke up and you were gone, and we didn't know what to think. We were just about to go looking for you."

Stephen didn't seem as upset as Alissa, but he looked quite glad to see them alive and well--especially Tiara. He smiled. "What kept you?"

"We had an interesting discussion with the innkeeper. Mind if we come in?" she asked, a touch of sarcasm in her tone.

Alissa frowned and backed out of the doorway, and they walked into the room to an unexpected sight.

"Aenea!" Hans said, a look of surprise on his face. "Where were you?"

Alissa acquired a confused look. "What are you talking about? She's been here all along, it's you two who were missing."

He shook his head. "When I awoke a little while ago, neither she nor Auri were in the room. As I was wondering where they were, Tiara awoke and after we discussed it for a moment, we decided to go see if she had perhaps gone downstairs to eat. When we saw that she was not in the main hall, we asked the innkeeper if he had seen her, and he got somewhat angry and said that he hadn't. Apparently, he's worried that our presence is bad for business, and if anything more happens, we must leave. We came back to see if you two were awake yet and had any ideas about where she might have gone, but it looks like that's an irrelevent question now." He frowned at Aenea.

She sighed. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to startle you. I was hoping to get that done before any of you awoke, but it took a bit longer than it should have."

"Get what done, Aenea?" asked Tiara. "Where were you?"

"I have responsibilities elsewhere that I must tend to, and so, from time to time, I need to leave for a bit and take care of them. I was hoping to get this little bit done before any of you awoke, because the less anyone here knows about me, the better."

Stephen looked completely puzzled. "I'm sorry, I know I don't know anything about any of you, so forgive me if my questions are those that have already been answered. What are you, Aenea, some sort of mage-ruler, that you can disappear like that and do those odd tricks that you do, and that you must take care of 'responsibilities elsewhere'?"

She laughed lightly, briefly. "No, I am nothing of the sort."

Alissa interrupted: "Wait a minute. You said when you met us that you were no one of importance. Since when do unimportant people have such pressing responsibilities?"

She sighed again, her expression losing its mirth. "You are very astute, Alissa. I am not, exactly, 'no one of importance'. I am the first daughter of two races, neither of which is of this world, and both of which naturally have the different aspects of....what would you call it...talent, I suppose....anyway, both of which naturally have the different aspects of the talent I myself possess. I am the result of putting those talents together." Her eyes glazed over a bit; she became lost in memory. "My parents, as a punishment for having broken the rules of two heritages that were at odds with each other, were confined to this world for the duration of my childhood. Once I was raised--which took more time than you might think; I am a few centuries older than any of you--they were re-admitted to their homeworld. Over the period of their absence, many changes had taken place. It had been decided that the two races were better together, rather than separate, and not only were marriages like their own accepted, they were quite common and encouraged. No one had been able to tell them that they had been the start of the end of millennia of strife, because they had been confined in EVERY way to this planet. Upon their return, they were given places of high honor--and high responsibility--in the newly-combined governing body of the planet. I stayed on with my parents for a few years, long enough for myself to be given the dubious honor of a place in the government. Then, the strangest thing, by their estimation, happened--I got homesick. This place was the only home I had ever known, and I wanted to return. After promising them all that I would come back often and take care of my governing responsibilities, I left." The glazed look left her eyes and she seemed to be fully in the present again.

"I had been here for a few years, wandering about, seeing what there is to see, when I saw you two on the road," she said, nodding to Tiara and Alissa. "I knew you were going on a journey; that much was obvious; what I needed to discern was if this journey might be the type I would enjoy. After talking with you for a bit, I decided that it was, and asked to join you. Luckily, you agreed, once I showed my most common form. You know the story from there."

Everyone was silent, taking all this in.

Aenea sighed again. "One thing I am not allowed to do is interfere in any way with the normal flow of events on this world--or any world. An aspect of that is not divulging my past to any inhabitants of this world. We knew that they had wizards and mages, but we didn't want to scare them with the thought of a race of people like that. Besides, power like that, in the wrong hands, can be disastrous and deadly, as we saw this morning. And since what I use is not magic, someone of my race would not be banished from this world as Norridt was. We have strong, stiff rules, and the leaders who enforce them have the power to strip someone of their talents, so they are seldom broken." She stopped for a moment, her brow creased in thought, and then she laughed again. "I've said enough. I trust that this information will stay between us....."

They all nodded.

She sighed in relief. "Thank you."

There was a knock at the door. "That would be Leena," Tiara said.

"Leena? Who is Leena?" asked Alissa.

"The serving girl that the innkeeper was going to send up here to see if we wanted dinner," Hans supplied.

"Oh," she said.

There was another knock, this one a bit louder. Aenea laughed and rose to open the door, but Stephen got there first. A young woman stood in the hall, looking shyly into the room.

"Come in, Leena," Tiara said.

"Thank you," she answered, curtsying. "Dinner is ready. I can bring it up to you, if you would like." She gave them a questioning look.

They all looked at each other.

"It's pretty packed down there, isn't it?" Aenea asked.

Leena nodded.

Aenea grinned with a mischievous twinkle in her eyes. "We could use some entertainment, and I know if we sit up here and eat, we'll stay serious and rehash the events of the past few days. Let's go downstairs."

No one objected, so down the stairs after Leena they went.

~~~~

The main hall of the inn was even more full than when Tiara and Hans had been down, which was hard for them to accept. How was there enough room for all those people?

A small group was assembling on a very large, sturdy-looking table at one end of the room; they had what looked to be musical instruments. Everyone was quieting down, in anticipation, it was assumed. Alissa, Hans, Tiara, Stephen, and Aenea (Auri had, reluctantly, stayed in the room; a rowdy place such as this was sure to be was no place for a beloved cat) were led to a table by Leena. They sat down as she went to fetch their food, watching the goings-on on the make-shift stage with much interest.

As the group on the "stage" finally got settled, soft strains of music could be heard. There was an eager rustling in the crowd as some people stood up. The music started very very slowly, but its pace quickened, and tables were pushed against the wall to create more room.

When the music reached what was soon seen to be the rhythm they had all been waiting for, the dancing started. Simple-looking foot movements and geometric arrangements of the dancers added with the hurried tempo to create an easy but exhilarating exercise. People swirled by the tables at which there were still seated diners, and the serving girls had a bit of trouble getting the trays of food to their intended destinations in an intact state.

Hans and Stephen, appearing to be, by far, the most ravenous of the group, watched eagerly for Leena's return, while Alissa, Tiara, and Aenea enjoyed the spectacle of the dancing.

"There she is!" Stephen said to Hans, elbowing him. They watched her approach, the smell of the food wafting towards them.

Alissa snickered. "Try not to drool so visibly, please."

Hans frowned at her, nudging her leg with his foot.

Leena reached the table with a tray covered in plates heaped with food. It was amazing that she had made it from the kitchen to their table and not spilled anything. She set the plates, utensils, and drinks in front of each of them, and then disappeared into the rushing, whirling crowd.

They ate the good food, talking about the festivities which, they had learned from Leena, were a nightly occurrence in this inn, and being generally jovial.

As they finished eating, the celebrations showed no sign of abating. Aenea was obviously restraining herself from getting up. Finally, she couldn't help it anymore. "Come on, I know you don't really want to, but let's all dance. It looks like so much fun!" she pleaded.

Alissa and Tiara sighed simultaneously; Alissa embellished her sigh with an eye-roll, Tiara added a head-shake to hers.

"No," they each said.

Hans and Stephen looked at them, not exactly surprised, but somewhat dismayed that they had refused. It did look like great fun.

Aenea sighed. Somehow, she had just known that they would refuse. Shrugging, she got up from the table. "Fine then," she said with a slight smirk, "you can watch me."

She looked down at her grey cloak, frowning slightly. She looked around for something which would adequately hide her from the view of the whole inn. She decided that the best thing, really would be to sit back down, so she did. They gave her an odd look.

"What are you doing?" Alissa asked, raising an eyebrow.

Aenea merely grinned and snapped her fingers, and, in a flash of light she succeeded in dampening down slightly, her grey cloak was replaced with a dress that, as she stood and it was seen more clearly, was obviously meant for dancing. It was a sunny yellow, with a fitted top and a knee-length, broadly-circular skirt. Simple slippers of a matching yellow were on her feet, and before she or they could say anything, she was grabbed and swallowed up by the flurry of movement.

As her companions laughed at her cheerful antics from their table, she worked her way towards the center ring of dancers, who were doing a faster and much more complicated version of the dance that the outside rings were performing. Just as she reached her goal and was struggling to match step with the others in this middle circle, the entrance of the inn burst open. A girl with blond hair that went down to her shoulder blades, blue eyes, about five feet five inches in height, wearing thigh-high black boots, a short yellow skirt, a black blouse, a small gold crown and a ring with the Fierstyrian crest came through the door. She was followed by several Fierstyrian soldiers.

"ALISSA!" the girl demanded, scanning the crowd for her enemy.

Alissa moaned. This was not the place for a battle--there were too many innocent bystanders. "Celestra. How am I going to get out of this one?" she asked her friends quietly, for Celestra had not yet noticed her.

Aenea appeared beside the table in a flash of light. "Allow me," she said, snapping her fingers.

The main hall of the inn disappeared from view.

~~~~

They found themselves standing, slightly disoriented, in the center of their room. Aenea started packing up her belongings. "Come on. We need to get this stuff together and get out of here," she said, finishing with her possessions, disappearing and then reappearing wearing the ever-present grey cloak, and stooping to pick up them and Auri.

Her companions, having recovered from the odd feelings generated by their quick transport from the main hall downstairs to their room upstairs, gathered their clothing and whatnot and started for the door.




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