This story is copyright 2004 Jeff Hall / The Original Version may be viewed at http://www.darkthoughts.com

The Chronicles

Book One: The Lot in Life

Chapter 10

Liandron glanced around the dense forestry but couldn't make out where the voices were coming from. All of them that she could make out were the cries of a young girl and the jeering calls of a group of men. She looked down at Allen, who was fitfully sleeping on the bier that they had strapped one end of to Kaine's horse, and had the other end resting on improvised skis. Her mind started drifting back to how completely shredded his skin had been and how long they had spent sewing it back together, when the renewed cries of the girl brought her out of her reverie. It sounded like the girl really needed help, but the others had all gone ahead to scope out the nearby village, and she couldn't very well leave Allen alone. Not that he could go anywhere, the multiple ropes lashing him to the bier assured her of that, but he was also absolutely defenseless this way. Especially if a Quarter happened upon him for whatever reason, in his current condition, he'd never survive the journey back to Charista for his execution.

�gNo! Stop it!�h, the girl yelled and Liandron thought that she could finally make out their forms in the distance. As she had thought, it was a small girl ringed by a group of adolescent boys; the girl kept trying to move through them, but the ring of boys never let her get very far. Instead, they continually pushed her down and kicked her. Liandron glanced down at Allen again, decided that he was okay for the time being, and stalked off in the direction of the mob scene. �gWell if I let those idiots find out about Allen there's no telling what they'll do to him,�h she muttered angrily as she neared the group.

�gHey, little whore�cwhere's your momma, big whore?�h, one of the local boys asked while holding a handful of the little girl's hair. The girl merely stared up at him defiantly with a tear stained face while she hugged a stuffed animal tightly to her chest. �gWe can't have the village whore turn up missing,�h he said, leering around at the seven other boys standing around the circle. �gMe and the boys thought today might be free day for groups, so we was gonna pay your momma a visit.�h He pushed the girl back away from him and took a swig from a clay jar that was being continually passed around. �gBut�cwe can't find your momma!�h The thug leaned in towards the girl and grabbed her face so that his hand covered her nose and mouth. The girl struggled to get away, but was no match for the strength of the drunken older man. �gSo why don't you be a good mini-whore and tell us where your momma is.�h

�gI�cI don't know where momma is,�h the girl whimpered after the boy finally let go of her face; fresh tears poured down her cheeks.

�gWhat good are you, bitch?!�h, one of the others asked as he brought up his boot and kicked the girl hard in the back. �gYour momma just keep you around if the customers don't have enough money or something?�h This got a raucous laugh from the group as the speaker drank deeply again from the bottle.

The girl didn't know what they were talking about, but from their faces and the mean way they said things, she knew she should be mad. Gathering up her courage and hugging her stuffed animal tightly, she planted her foot firmly into the man's shin.

�gOww! You little whore!�h, the boy screamed as he rubbed his leg; his friends laughing at his duress didn't help matters. �gI'll teach you�c�h he seethed as he punched the little girl in the stomach as hard as he could, which sent her flying backwards into the sparsely snow covered ground.

The girl tried hard to breathe, but she was glad that she kicked that mean boy. She stared warily up at him as he drunk more of the nasty smelling stuff from that jug, then he lifted up his leg and held his booted foot over her head. �gWhat's that you say, bitch? I should go ahead and crush your little whore head and make the village a nicer place for decent folk like me and the boys to live?�h The boy was about to bring his foot down when a woman broke through the woods at the end of the clearing and screamed �gwhat do you think you're doing?!�h The girl was really happy at first because she thought the woman might be her momma, but as the woman got closer she could see that this woman was too young to be her momma. The woman walked over to her quickly and shoved away the boy who was about to step on her head.

Liandron glared around at the eight idiots. They all seemed to be pretty drunk, and from the shabby, dirty appearance of their clothes, they probably were all the time. �gWhat do you think you're doing, hitting a little girl?�h, she seethed at the one she'd just pushed away from the child.

�gI didn't hit her,�h the boy said, taking another drink from the jar and handing it off to one of his mates as he eyed Liandron up and down. �gI was training her for her momma's line of work,�h he said, smiling while the others had a good laugh at his joke. They had originally lost some of their bravery when Liandron had come charging into the clearing, but they regained it once they realized it was just one girl. �gLike we were telling the mini-whore there,�h he said, looking down at the girl�chis lapse in concentration cost him as he never even saw Liandron's hand until it had already slapped him across his face. The others laughed again at the amount of abuse at the hands of women he was taking today. �gAnyway, like we was telling the little slut there,�h he said, wiping blood from the corner of his mouth with the grimy back of his hand. �gMe and the boys wanted a freebie from her momma today, but we can't find her.�h Liandron looked sadly down at the little girl as she suddenly had a very bad suspicion of who the girl's mother was. She was grabbed from behind as two of the other boys from the circle got hold of her arms. �gBut since you walked in here so willingly, you musta wanted to take her place,�h the boy said as he and the others laughed while sharing an appraising look at her.

�gLeave her alone!�h, the little girl shouted while pounding on the boy with her little fists. The boy pushed her roughly to the ground and turned his attention back to Liandron. �gDon't worry, little one,�h he said to the girl. �gYou can just sit there and watch�cmaybe you can pick up some tricks for when you go into your momma's line of work.�h

There was more drunken laughter at this, and one yelp as Liandron managed to get an arm free and used it to knock free a tooth from one of her captors. This brought on more laughter as the injured boy was passed the jug for his pain, while one of the others tried standing in front of her, but he was quickly met by her foot landing solidly between his legs. He dropped to the ground squealing while the others laughed at him. Two more of the circle swooped in from behind Liandron to secure her legs, while she struggled vainly against the four holding her. �gNow you make sure to pay close attention, little one, we're gonna make this bitch feel real good,�h the leader called over his shoulder to the little girl as he slapped Liandron across the face, then ripped the front of her dress down. He glanced back at the little girl to get her reaction, but stopped when he saw that she had gone deathly pale and was staring at the edge of the clearing. The little girl slowly started screaming, and when the boy followed her line of sight and saw what was standing at the tree line, he felt like screaming, too.

A half naked man stood at the edge of the clearing; all of the skin on his chest and most of his arms and legs was bunched up into tall ridges, where it had been sewn together with a heavy, black thread. If that sight wasn't macabre enough, it was made worse by the fact that most of the stitching had broken open, revealing large gaping wounds that were bleeding freely down the man's body. The most unsettling part was that the man was smiling wickedly.

�gAhh, I see we've all come out to play�h, the man said in a voice that sounded like the calm before a storm.

One of the drunker boys in the group stumbled over to where Liandron was being held and pressed himself against her. �gHey new whore, you oughta tell that corpse over there to shut up and go back to being dead.�h He was too drunk to notice that he was the only one laughing at his joke; the others just looked at the newcomer with wide eyed fear. �gHe looks like if he got into a fight that he just might fall apart.�h

The only one laughing this time was the mangled figure of Allen. Liandron was looking at him worriedly; not because of his obviously strained injuries, but because of the madness in his eyes. During their lives, she had known him to come pretty close to losing it on a few occasions; the most recent being the incident with Maren�cbut this was the first time she had seen him looking so completely�cdangerous. Allen continued laughing as the very air around Liandron seemed to crackle as if it was being charged with power. She could see a slight distortion begin to take shape around Allen. It looked like the same sort of heat waves that she had always seen over fires, but these waves were forming above her friend. Allen laughed on as the air seemed to grow thicker with power and the local boys started to sense that there was something very wrong going on, as well. The branches on the trees around the clearing began twisting and snow from the grass began lifting on a wind that wasn't there at all. The distortion field around Allen continued to increase in size as he ran his hand down his chest. Liandron went wide eyed as he easily brushed away all of the stitches; and more remarkably, his skin was perfectly smooth and healed after his hand passed over it. He seemed to take his time doing this to every portion of his body that had been injured in the battle with the Lempakas, yet all the while the sense of power and danger around him continued to coalesce.

The head troublemaker of the group was one of the first to try running to the relative safety of the woods, but Allen merely glanced at him and the distortion surrounding him reached out like a tendril and struck the boy in the back. The boy screamed at the touch of the tendril and Liandron couldn't help but scream at the copious amounts of blood that seemed to literally erupt from every orifice of the boy as he crumpled to the ground. Before any of his cohorts could even register what had just happened, more tendrils of power began to seek them out. Some screamed as death touched them, and others seemed like they were too much in shock at what was going on to even think of doing anything other than dying. Yet, all of the boys were touched by the tendrils and all of them lay dead on the snow within a few short moments.

Liandron watched Allen warily as the distortion around him suddenly died out and his eyes went from madness to glazed confusion. He looked around the clearing as if seeing it for the first time, then chuckled uneasily before he fell unconscious to the ground.

The little girl was looking around the clearing as well. She was a little frightened of all that she had just seen, but she wasn't sad to see that all of those boys who had been so mean to her and that lady were all dead. She went over to the lady who'd come to help her, but she wasn't noticing anything other than that man who had killed all of those boys and then fallen down. That man was pretty scary, especially how he looked with all of those scars, but he did save them from those boys. Erynne knew those boys were really bad, and she'd seen them do mean things to women before, so the lady was really lucky that the man had shown up when he did. �gAre you okay?�h, Erynne asked the lady as she pulled on her skirt to get her attention. The lady didn't even seem to notice that the front of her dress was hanging open.

�gI'm fine,�h Liandron muttered, half to the little girl and half to reassure herself. She looked down at the girl and noticed for the first time that she was putting on quite the bawdy show; luckily the only audience was the unconscious Allen, a little girl, and a bunch of corpses. She quickly fixed her dress as best she could and knelt down to face the girl. �gYes, I'm fine,�h she said again, sounding more confident this time. �gAre you okay? Did they hurt you badly?�h

The girl puffed her chest out and pointed to it with her thumb. �gI'm okay..I'm tough!�h

�gYes you are,�h Liandron smiled at her as she brushed some of the snow off the girl's dress. �gBut we'd better go see how my friend is doing.�h

�gThe scary man is your friend?�h, Erynne asked, wondering why the lady had seemed so scared of him if they were friends.

�gYes, I suppose he is a little scary sometimes,�h Liandron mused as she and the girl hurried over to Allen's fallen form. �gBut he's usually really nice and not scary at all. He's kind of like a�c�h, she paused, thinking how best to put it. �gHe's like a really overprotective big brother.�h She checked over Allen, but he looked like he was just deeply sleeping. �gA big brother who just killed eight people by no more than just looking at them,�h she added to herself.

�gA big brother to protect you?�h, the girl asked wide-eyed. �gThat must be so nice,�h she added dreamily, clearly very fond of the idea.

The memory of who the girl probably was landed heavily on Liandron's heart. The boys had been teasing her about her mother being a prostitute, and the girl's mother had apparently vanished. �gSay, what's your name?�h, Liandron asked her kindly.

�gI'm Erynne,�h the girl answered. �gWhat's your name?�h

�gI'm Liandron, and this is my friend Allen,�h she said, laying a hand on Allen's chest. �gWe've been friends since we were younger than you are now.�h

Wow,�h the girl said, once more wide eyed. �gI wish I had a friend like that�cnone of the other kids will play with me�ctheir moms won't let them because of what my mom does for work.�h Tears started to well up in the girl's eyes, but Liandron didn't know if it was for the lost friends, or from thinking about her missing mother. Liandron felt tears well up in her own eyes for this poor girl who was shunned by the village and literally kicked around for what her mother was. Now she didn't even have her. Liandron couldn't be sure of her guess, but from what Raine had told her, Lempakas didn't leave much evidence around of their birth.

�gHey! I found them!�h, Gabe called from the edge of the clearing, the others having fanned out in the woods to search more efficiently. He half ran over to where Liandron and Erynne were sitting with the unconscious Allen. �gWhat the�c�h, he muttered as he took in Allen's vastly improved appearance. He also took in all of the dead bodies and the vast amount of blood covering the snowy clearing. �gWhat happened here?�h, he asked, looking at Liandron's torn dress.

�gNever mind that for now,�h Liandron muttered, glancing around as the rest of the group began to filter into the clearing. �gWe need to get him off of the snow.�h Allen was basically wearing nothing more than a strip of cloth that they'd wrapped around his waist for modesty's sake, but otherwise he was pretty much lying naked in the snow.

�gRight,�h Gabe agreed as Jaun and Kaun arrived to help. The brothers looked at Allen's perfectly healed chest, and then glanced at each other, but they didn't say anything about it.

�gAh, Allen attracts women wherever he goes,�h Raine said, looking down at Erynne. Kaine showed up right on her heels, and the two of them observed Allen's condition, and they shared a brief glance as well. Like the brothers, they also said nothing about his greatly improved state, which Liandron found pretty disturbing. It was like they had been expecting something like that to happen. �gKaine, a think there's a few too many dead bodies lying around,�h Raine said, and he nodded his agreement.

�gYou shouldn't let her see this,�h Kaine said to Liandron, which assured her that whatever he was about to do to get rid of the bodies wouldn't be a pretty sight.

�gCome on, Erynne, lets go with Allen,�h Liandron smiled down to the girl as they started walking behind Gabe and the brothers, who were carrying Allen back towards the horses. Despite the warning, Liandron couldn't help but glance back at the clearing, but she immediately wished that she hadn't. Kaine was standing there with his glowing hand on one of the dead bodies, which was basically decomposing, only doing so at a very fast rate. Despite the grizzly death that they'd met, she still couldn't feel sorry for the boys.

-----.-----

The others had reported that the village seemed pretty normal, and that there were no signs of Quarters around, so they took up residence in the local inn. Maren had apparently come and gone without too much incident, aside from having used Erynn's mother to create the Lempakas. The girl from New Load was apparently still with him, and according to the local dressmaker (that Liandron sorely needed to pay a visit to,) was quite a lovely girl and a pleasure to create dresses for. Liandron and Raine had both visited the dressmaker and had taken Erynne along with them, since they were acting as her guardians for the moment. The dressmaker had been a bit hesitant to make anything for Erynne, and she had been busy giving the girl nasty looks when Raine dragged the portly dressmaker into the backroom of her shop. A very nervous looking version of the dressmaker returned from the backroom a few moments later, more than happy to make a dress for the little girl, and more than happy to tell them everything she could think of about the girl from New Load's visit to her shop.

�gOh yes, I made her one winter dress of my finest light blue wool, and two summer dresses; one white and the other one pink,�h the dressmaker offered as she had Liandron stand on a stool so that she could fit her. Liandron wished that whatever Raine had told the woman hadn't unhinged her so much as the dressmaker stuck her with a pin for the dozenth time. �gShe wouldn't say much about herself,�h the woman continued with a muttered apology to Liandron. �gOther than that she was headed South with her cousin, the Duke Erolstrom.�h

�gCousin, eh?�h, Raine asked.

�gOh yes,�h the dressmaker said as she guided Liandron down off the stool and helped Erynne up. �gJust between us girls, he seemed an unsavory sort, Duke or no.�h Raine and Liandron shared a look; unsavory was a pretty mild way of describing Maren. �gI don't know why a nice girl would be around someone like that, but I guess you can't choose your family,�h she said with a meaningful look at Erynne. Raine cleared her throat and the dressmaker stopped talking and became very absorbed in measuring Erynne. �gBut I don't know that I believe those two were cousins anyway,�h she continued. �gThat girl came to town wearing some shabby peasant dress.�h She shut her mouth again as she realized that would adequately describe Liandron's dress. �gUmm�coh yes, and all of a sudden her male friend has her dressed up quite nicely. Will the child's mother be by to pay for the dress?�h, she asked suddenly, obviously afraid of having that sort of woman seen going into her shop; it was bad enough that her daughter was here.

Liandron thought that she might have a turn at dragging the dressmaker into the back room and having a little chat with her. Erynne was staring down at her old, dirty shoes and hugging her stuffed animal quite tightly. �gWe'll be taking care of it,�h Liandron said, trying hard to keep the anger out of her voice. Raine had actually offered to pay for everything, but Liandron had enough money with her for this.

�gOh good,�h the portly dressmaker said, sounding relieved until she caught the looks that Raine and Liandron were giving her. Erynne yelped as the dressmaker was struck with another case of the jitters, which caused her to try using Erynne as a pin cushion. �gSorry, dear,�h the woman sighed, and then seemed quite put out that she'd accidentally been nice to the girl.

The only other incident was when Raine was being fitted, she took off her long cloak and the dressmaker nearly fainted when she saw that Raine was wearing pants that ended at her calves. Liandron, having shared a room with her, knew about her pants, and while she found it shocking, she could see how the Symbion would need to wear something like that with all of the fighting and horse riding she did. Before they'd left the inn, Liandron had asked Raine why she wanted to come along to have a dress made, and she'd simply said that it was fun to dress up like a girl sometimes.

The dressmaker worked quickly to get Liandron's dress done before they left, since she didn't really have anything else to wear now that the only dress she had along had been ruined. After a while, Liandron slipped into her new dress, which was cream colored and lightweight, which she thought would be better for the climate around Faren. She also set the dressmaker to work on a full cloak to match Raine's, which would keep her warm while they were still in the colder weather of the North. She was also getting another dress made of the same style, except this one was a light green. Raine was having two made as well; one cream colored to match Liandron's and one dark blue. Raine complained quietly to Liandron that sometimes she hated her light blue hair as it was a pain to match clothes to it. They also had two dresses made for Erynne; one the same cream color as the others, and the other one a vivid pink. Her dresses were to be made a little large so that she could grow into them. All of the girls also had more stockings made.

�gSister Liandron,�h Erynne said, walking between Liandron and Raine and holding both of their hands. Raine had explained earlier in the day to Liandron that children in this area would often address older people that they liked as �gbrother�h or �gsister.�h

�gHmm�cwhat is it?�h, Liandron asked as the three of them walked to the local cobbler to have new shoes made.

�gWhen is my momma gonna come get me?�h, the little girl asked, a catch in her voice as she fought back tears.

Liandron and Raine exchanged a look; Liandron had been wondering all morning how she ought to answer that question. It seemed cruel to give the girl false hope that her mother would be coming for her, but it seemed equally as cruel to tell her the truth.

Raine looked sympathetically at Liandron, and then shrugged her shoulders. �gI would be honest; there's no point in lying to her,�h she whispered to Liandron.

Erynne dropped her question as they reached the cobbler's store and the three girls ordered new shoes. As they left the cobbler's and neared the inn, Liandron stopped Erynne and knelt down so that they were almost eye to eye. �gErynne�choney, it's about your mother.�h

Tears started to form in the girl's eyes as she read into Liandron's tone. �gWhere's my momma?�h, she cried.

Liandron hugged the girl to her as tears welled up in her own eyes. �gI'm so sorry; Erynne�cyour mother won't be coming back.�h Erynne sobbed against her.

Raine knelt down and smoothed the girl's hair. �gYour mother was killed by a very bad man�cthe same one that we're chasing. He's killed a lot of people and we're trying to stop him so he can't do it anymore.�h

Liandron didn't know if the girl was still listening, or if she could even hear them through her uncontrolled sobbing. Passerby's stared at them, but Raine literally snarling at them kept them at bay. After a while, the girl's physical and mental exhaustion of the day finally won out and she fell asleep nestled against Liandron, who carried her back to the inn.

�gWell,�h Raine began. �gThat could have gone worse�cwe could have let Kaine tell her. �eYour mother is dead. This man killed her. Here is a knife. Go and seek your revenge.'�h, she said in a fairly passable impression of Kaine.

-----.-----

That evening Allen sat by the fire, wrapped in a thick blanket and holding an earthen mug of warm spiced brandy between his hands. He couldn't remember much past the attack of the Lempakas, but from what Gabe told him, he had come out of that battle pretty badly. Then there was something about killing a gang of local thugs earlier in the day, but that didn't seem very possible, especially given how he felt now. While the only physical damage that he could see from his encounter with the Lempakas were some very fine, white scars all over his chest, he still felt like he had been beaten to a pulp. No one had managed to explain to him how, if he had been so injured in the Lempaka battle, he was already completely healed from it. Apparently, the only one who had seen what happened earlier when he supposedly killed all of those thugs was Liandron, but she had been out shopping for a while and when she had returned to the inn, she made a study out of pretending he wasn't there. The Symbions seemed to know something as well, but naturally, they weren't very forthcoming with any answers. And for someone who had apparently spent the past few days unconscious, he didn't feel rested at all. If anything, he felt like he'd gotten no sleep at all recently. He glanced over at the dark corner where Raine and Liandron were talking quietly; Liandron had that little girl asleep on her lap. Allen wasn't really sure where Liandron had found her, but they seemed to be pretty inseparable. The women both felt his stare and looked over; Liandron looked away quickly as if scared by him just looking at her, but Raine held his gaze for a few moments, as if she was mentally measuring him. Allen looked away and glanced to the other corner of the room, where Gabe and the brothers were chatting amiably with some of the locals. Kaine was sitting with his back to the wall, staring at Allen is if measuring him, too. Allen was getting used to strange behavior from both of the Symbions, but they seemed to be taking more of an interest in him lately, which wasn't very comforting. Symbions had always been, to the people of Gilder's Hollow, more of a being of legend than something that really existed. They were always wise, mysterious, and extremely powerful in the tales they were in; and now there were two of them studying him like he was the most interesting thing in the world. It was just another of the things that seemed to be unraveling the fabric of his life. In a very short time he'd gone from running a pretty respectable stable business in a sleepy village, to being on some quest with Symbions, chasing down DarkHearts and being attacked by Lempakas along the way. Yet, going on this quest had been a choice he'd made; it was something that he felt that he had to do in order to keep the horrors of New Load from being revisited on some other village. And while he felt that the fabric of his life was being unraveled, he realized that it was just the fabric of his old life being unraveled so it could be spun into the weave of the fabric of his new life.

�gYou seem lost in thought,�h Raine said as she sat down next to him on the wide hearth of the fireplace. To Allen, it seemed like she had about three different modes. There was the hyper, overly perky Raine who was bound to do, or say anything. Then there was the hard-core, battle ready Raine who would take on a village of Reborns or a pack of Lempakas with a savage grace. Lastly, there was the current, yet fairly rare serious Raine, which was where it seemed like she left herself the most unguarded. Although, Allen realized as he looked at her light blue eyebrows and hair, that he still had really no idea how she became a Symbion, or what she might have been before the Core's power transformed her. She might have been a farmer, or a princess, or she may have been raised from birth to become a Symbion. He also still knew nothing about the actual process of becoming a Symbion, other than that it had something to do with the Core's power. He didn't know if it was painful, or blissful, or if she felt nothing at all while it turned her hair blue and infused her with power. So, as he thought about it, she might have very good reasons for keeping her guard up all of the time. Kaine certainly wasn't a study in an open personality.

Allen looked up at Raine and realized that the whole time he'd been debating her existence; he'd been blankly staring at her. She smiled a little on noticing that he'd regained his focus. Gabe had said that during the time he was unconscious that they'd fed him copious amounts of Frelim leaves for the pain, so he guessed that he still had a lot of that medicine in his system; which would explain why his thoughts still seemed pretty hazy.

�gYeah, I guess I am a little,�h he finally answered Raine, who was looking off into the fire as if lost in thoughts of her own. �gHow's the little girl?�h, he asked, looking over to the hallways that Liandron had just passed through to take the girl to bed.

�gErynne? She's fine�cas far as anyone could be who just learned that their mother was killed by giving birth to a pack of Lempakas,�h Raine said sadly as she flagged down a passing serving girl and got a mug of spiced brandy.

�gAhh�cso her mother was the�c�h, he let the statement trail off. It did explain why no one had shown up at the inn looking for the girl, and why Liandron and Raine had basically adopted her. �gThat's got to be pretty rough for someone her age,�h he added, taking a sip from his drink.

�gMaybe it would help if she had someone to talk to whose parents were killed,�h Raine suggested gingerly, watching him for his reaction.

�gYes, but my parents weren't killed by Lempakas,�h Allen said slowly, looking like he was staring off at his past.

�gYeah, yours were killed in a much, much worse way,�h Raine said to herself as she dropped the conversation. It was strange for her to be sitting here by the fire, drinking and chatting in such a natural way with someone who, according to prophecy, would end up becoming so much. So much to the Symbions; so much to the world at large; and so much to her personally. She had come pretty close once or twice to letting him know everything, but that was a lot to lay on someone's shoulders, and she thought he might need whatever relative normalcy he could get before things started to get really bad. She also had to be careful of the questions he asked, because he used his power to compel without even thinking about it, and she could wind up telling him everything if she didn't stay on guard against it. �gSo, are you ever going to level with me and tell me everything?�h, Allen asked her, and there it was again, that wave of compulsion, making her want to open herself up to him completely and tell him everything. There was also the unsettling aspect of it seeming like he had just been reading her mind. The Symbions didn't know everything about the LastBorn, so that very well could be one of his subconscious powers. �gHmm, no�cnot yet I don't think,�h she answered and studied his face as he watched the fire dancing on the logs, looking lost. She felt pretty stupid; here he was one of the most powerful people to ever exist, and she found herself wanting to scoop him up in her arms and protect him.

�gFair enough,�h he sighed as he finished his drink and stood up. �gI think I'm going to head for bed�cgoodnight.�h When he said he was going to bed, what he really meant was that he was going to lay in bed all night, trying to get to sleep, and then when he finally did get to sleep he'd just have dreams of that door.

�gGoodnight,�h she said, more cheerfully than she felt. She was sorry that their conversation was over, because she had been really enjoying it. Most people tended to avoid her because she was a Symbion; or they would talk to her, but would stay out of arms reach like they were afraid she would touch them. Which, as she thought, they had a right to be. �gMaybe I should have told him everything,�h she thought as she watched him walk to his room.

Kaine walked over and rested one foot on the hearth. �gYou know, if you fall in love with him, it'll just make it that much harder when he dies.�h