Yuki,+Magical+Girl+of+Love,+&+The+Beguiling+Wren,+Talk+Aboard+the+Destiny+Twenty-Five+Years+into+a+Dark+Future

“I’m fine. Really...I...I think...under the circumstances. But I did find ‘this’ out from the people in the Temple of Sune in Sanctuary.” Yuki sighed softly and dropped onto Wren’s bed aboard the Destiny and folded her legs beneath her, settling in for one of their long (and HIGHLY informative) girl chats… Her heart was all over the place and...this latest revelation was…more difficult that she had imagined...now, after seeing him again. She just had to talk to her dearest friend as soon as possible. If anyone...could make sense of it all..all the stories and gossip...it was Wren...

“It seems...Helena left the temple when it was discovered she was having an affair with Axton. Axton, of course, was excommunicated for seducing her. It’s...complicated but after that...it seems Helena vanished and...Alain...died at the battle of Lyrabar.” Yuki seemed sad. It was painful for her to speak of these things. She...had admired Alain and Helena...and, when she and Axton fell in love, they were the couple she looked up to. That...they could be in love and still serve their goddess together. They were everything she hoped she and Axton could be…

...how...Twenty five years...changed a lot of things. It wasn’t so much the discovery of Axton’s relationship with Helena. Axton…was a very handsome man and Helena was a beautiful woman. And...twenty-five years were a very long time. It was the thought that Alain and Helena’s love did not last… And that Alain...was no more… And Helena was alone. “That’s what the other priestesses told me at the Temple of Sune here in Sanctuary...anyway…” Yuki sighed softly again...

“Helena and Axton?” Wren looked at her confused.

Yuki nodded uncertainly, “That's what the rumours say.”

Wren blinked and shook her head, “So... Axton wasn't faithful?”

“I...Mmm… I don’t know Wren. Quill never once mentioned Helena.”

“That all seems very odd… I thought Helena was with Alain.”

“Alain and Helena had...an amazing love. I have a much harder time believing...that it’s no more. But...Axton is...a very handsome, charming man, Wren. He and I...we...” Yuki’s eyes glanced down on the ring upon her finger, “...were just beginning. And he was always kind of a playboy. Helena is...was a very beautiful woman.” Clearly even now, the younger woman had no clue of the depths of his affection.

“Yes... but…” Wren shook her head, still refusing to accept it, “...his letters all seemed like his heart was faithful to you... and Helena and Alain were in love… Surely those are rumors being spread as crazily as axton single handedly taking down the undead that came to Lyrabar… Lies and Deceit!”

"But Wren..." Yuki would hug her tightly, "I didn't...I mean...I'm not so greedy as to expect him to love no one else… I MEAN! That guy is...er...was a PLAYBOY AFTERALL!!!! With all those women always hanging around. Poor Helena! She didn't have a chance!" She smiled, “I'm much more shocked that he...abandoned our goddess for the Lady of Loss… And that...he is ‘her’ Harbinger now."

“I agree that i was a bit shocked to see him in his new purple and black attire…” Wren nodded, “But did you see the look on his face when he saw you... when he slammed open those doors in the tower?!”

Yuki pulled her knees up beneath her chin, "...yes... Goddess...yes..."

“I'm telling you... Lies and Deceit!”

Yuki smiled, “...he...My heart..beat so fast… AND...then....ALL BLACK! And the symbol...WOW! Axton...so SEXY in black....er... NOT THAT I CONDONE THIS but…”

Wren laughed, “He's looked good in black before if i recall…”

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #a64d79; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Yuki would smile, "Mm MMMM! Myth Coramanth.... ah...Wren…. I thought he would....look much older… I thought...he'd be a stranger... I thought...he'd hate me..."

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">“H <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #3c78d8; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">ate you?” Wren blinked wide eyes at her, “Why?”

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #a64d79; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">"Oh Wren! Not a word.....for 25 years...Nothing... His writing… He must have hated me a little...to abandon him like that."

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #3c78d8; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">She sighed heavily, “Yes... 25 years is a long time... but you didn't abandon him and surely he knew that! He's been with us... he knows how it works. If anything... he had to have thought you died... because you would never abandon him... surely he would know this. You two were just getting close… You were so upset that he had to go back…” She sighed again, a little softer, “Why DID he get called back?”

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #a64d79; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Yuki bit her lip..."I don't know... Some secret mission for Alain.."

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #3c78d8; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Wren frowned, “Mmm... maybe something that started this deceitful rumor!”

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #a64d79; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Yuki frowned, her pretty forehead crinkling, "...something."

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #3c78d8; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">The young witch folded her arms in a huff, “Which I still don't believe a word of…”

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #a64d79; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">"That he seduced Helena?"

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #3c78d8; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Wren nodded, “The RUMOR that he seduced her yes... I still don't believe it.”

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #a64d79; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Yuki seemed a little relieved, “It’s so...strange. I just teased him...two weeks ago...I mean 25 years ago that he was a Spy!"

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #3c78d8; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">“A spy…” Wren giggled, “Spying for whom? On what?”

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #a64d79; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Yuki's eyes darkened a little, "...I've been thinking about that... Wren...Listen.”

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #3c78d8; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">The lovely elven woman sat down, looking at Yuki with concern as she listened.

"...I think maybe he was spying on the order of Shar...uhm well. I think."

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #3c78d8; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">“Really?”

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #a64d79; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">"When...I went on a date with the Harbinger...he took me to a place where everyone's identities were hidden..."

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #3c78d8; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Wren tilted her head curiously, “Was this the secret you talked about?”

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #a64d79; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Yuki nodded, "BUT! But...Mmm...Something in the way this one person acted and the things he said, I was sure it was Quill! Remember I told you about that..."

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #3c78d8; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">“Yes... i remember you saying you met him,” she nodded.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #a64d79; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Yuki shifted a little, tucking a lock of her hair behind her ear, "...right before Axton left for Lyrabar...I...er...was with him...in his rooms...and..."

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #3c78d8; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Wren raised an eyebrow, “WITH him?”

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #a64d79; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Seeing the look on Wren's face, Yuki's eyes widened, "BUT NOTHING HAPPENED!!!! REALLY!!!"

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #3c78d8; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">She laughed softly.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #a64d79; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">"..though...now...I...kind of wish something had.... I mean...it almost...well THAT'S NEITHER HERE NOR THERE! There were some papers..."

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #3c78d8; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Wren patted Yuki's back comfortingly, as she nodded.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #a64d79; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">"...on his desk... Spells he was scribing and things. So I went over and looked through them when he was getting something to drink and...I saw Quill's writing...Quill's writing on Axton's desk...and..."

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #3c78d8; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">“Like... he was writing it? was it the same handwriting as his scrolls?”

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #a64d79; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Yuki shook her head, “...no. I would have noticed before. These were private papers….different from the scroll spells he was scribing for us. But...they looked like...they belonged there and…they had parts of the story Quill have been sharing with me. A story he was writing. His first. ...is it such a leap to think...the two are the same? I mean they could be different people but...Quill knows all about Axton! I mean...I...er...tell...ah told him everything... He wouldn't have....approached Axton and become friends, right…? So.... So… I thought… I mean my mind went in the craziest direction but..." <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #3c78d8; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Wren shook her head as she pondered. “Mmm, It does sort of point to that…” She nodded.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #a64d79; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">“...after reading Quill's 16 years of writing...I know it now.”

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #3c78d8; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">“So this confidante that you've had the whole time…”

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #a64d79; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Yuki nodded, "Yes...that Quill is Axton... And Axton is Quill. AND ALL THIS IS A ROUNDABOUT WAY OF SAYING… ...that when Mr. Harbinger took me to that place... He knew Quill. And, even though their identities were hidden, the two men...got along really well. I don't think I've ever seen Mr. Harbinger get along like that with anyone else..."

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #3c78d8; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">She frowned, peering at her questioningly.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #a64d79; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">"So...on the trip to get Ori and Rue...I did a lot of thinking...and I wonder...If that place...had something to do with the mission Alain had for Axton...and that was why he was recalled to Lyrabar.""

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #3c78d8; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">“But you don't think that Harbinger knew that Quill... the person in disguise that you met... was Axton?”

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #a64d79; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">“No. I don't think Mr. Harbinger knew...Quill was Axton. No. ”

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #3c78d8; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">“But Quill... er Axton... Knew that the disguised person you were with was Harbinger?”

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #a64d79; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Yuki sighed, “And that’s where it all falls apart. I...don’t think so. I can't be sure... And a lot happened between the time we left and the Fall of Lyrabar but… When Mr. Harbinger stayed in the Sunite temple with us, the two had a VERY er...DIFFERENT relationship. I don't know."

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #3c78d8; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Wren nodded, deep in thought, trying to arrange the puzzle pieces in her head.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #a64d79; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Yuki frowned... "...I dont know… But that place.....if I was a spy, I'd go there. And Axton…” Yuki shrugged gently, “The mission felt more dangerous than he was letting on."

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #3c78d8; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">She frowned and nodded, “Well... He seemed like two different people to you as well…”

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #a64d79; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">"Well yes.” Yuki nodded emphatically, “YOU SAW HOW AXTON TREATED ME IN THE TEMPLE!!!!

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #3c78d8; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Wren nodded and hugged her.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #a64d79; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">“I mean....I DIDN'T EVEN REALIZE HE LOVED ME...let alone...be...that warm and encouraging person. My precious, important Quill. ...But there's no doubt for me now. ...Not after reading the entries...I know it. There is no doubt in my mind that Quill...is Axton.”

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #3c78d8; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">She laid a gentle hand on the priestess’s shoulder as she nodded. “I think he's loved you for a long time, Yuki... I saw it in his eyes… It was always like he had to be harder on you to keep you distant... to protect himself…” She shook her head, “But I never understood why…”

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #a64d79; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">"H...Hey!" Yuki started, misunderstanding "I....I'm VERY Lovable!!!!"

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #3c78d8; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Wren laughed! “Of course you're lovable!!” She hugged her warmly, “Everyone loves you! Perhaps that's why he had to keep you at arms length... You're very easy to love.”

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #a64d79; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Yuki just smiles the happiest smile…obviously deeply touched. “...but Wren...what I don't understand is how...Shar...owns him. Leaving Sune is one thing...but why join another order..."

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #3c78d8; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">She shook her head, “I don't know what happened either... To become Shar's… I mean... I can't imagine what he's been through to get him there. Whether it was intentional as some spy or not… It had to be so hard on him…”

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #a64d79; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Yuki shook her head sadly, "...on the roof...he kept clutching his chest... He...He told me he loved me...That he'd never stopped loving me..." Yuki buried her head into a pillow. Peeking out she looked at Wren, her eyes shimmering, "But he said his Mistress was reminding him who he belonged to… He said...it was all a very long story."

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Wren frowned deeply, looking heartbroken and sad, “Oh Yuki...that’s awful!”

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #a64d79; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Yuki shook her head,"...I will take him back...and I will make it all disappear. He's mine." And for a moment, Yuki looks every inch a woman...and not the young girl of seventeen… "Mine, Wren. Mine."

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Wren hugged her tight and:nodded emphatically, “We'll fix everything! We have to!” She held onto Yuki's hand and squeezed it, “If it takes my dying breath... I'll see this made right.”

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #a64d79; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">“NOPE! No more dying! There’s been enough already I won't allow it. Nope!” She sighs softly, "...I w...wanted...to see him longer... She took him away so fast...."

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">The elven woman smiled at her, a little teary eyed as she hugged her again tightly, “She had to... He's yours. He would fall to you in a moment…”

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #a64d79; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">“OH WREN!” Yuki hugged Wren tightly, “I NEED CAKE!”

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">She giggled, “L <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #3c78d8; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">et's get cake! I bet Thirteen can bake us up something delicious!”

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #a64d79; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">“Yeah!” Yuki smiled... "Mm Mmm!! Who knew someone SOOOOOO UGLY could make something SO BEAUTIFUL!!!!! There's beauty in everyone, I swear!"

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #3c78d8; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Wren laughed, nodding, “It seems so sometimes.” :Wren slipped her hand into Yuki's and walked out of their room in the tower. “Do you suppose we should see if there's somewhere in the city or here that bakes? I hate to wake 13 if he's sleeping... I wonder if... the young lady Sokolov who's been leading us around knows how to bake?” She smiled sadly, thinking about Samira, the lovely pink-haired sorceress and the Sokolov bakery, “I miss so many people... We have so much to fix.” <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #3c78d8; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">She brushed a tear back and took a deep breath, forcing herself to walk stronger. “I...I don't know how we're going to fix my mother, Yuki... but I... I can't leave her broken. Not like that! She betrayed everyone!”

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #a64d79; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Yuki hugged her friend fiercely and shook her head, "...She was scary but not the way your mom was scary... Your mom was...ah..formidable! And...regal and...her own person! So...elegant! Bowing to no one..." The priestess of love squeezed her friend tightly and Wren could feel the love and warmth flow into her...trying to ease her troubled heart, "...That...person was definitely, DEFINITELY not 'your' mother. ....but whatever...broke that will...is the key to the fall of Myth Coramanth. Without Raven...the mithil...."

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #3c78d8; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Wren nodded wearily, “She would never...never turn it off and betray them... if she was in her own mind.”

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #a64d79; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Yuki nodded, "...not the Wren's mom I met…”

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #3c78d8; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Wren hugged her tightly, “Thank you, Yuki.”

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #a64d79; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Yuki looked a little relieved. It had been a difficult subject to broach… She hadn’t known what to say..., “We should never have let her go off alone..."

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #3c78d8; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">“She was so... sure of herself.. so... angry with me... she wanted to go off alone and wanted me nowhere near there.” She sighed softly, “I never should have listened to her then…”

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #a64d79; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">“...was there really anything you could have done?” Yuki looked relieved, "...I was so worried for you Wren...I can’t imagine fighting with my mother… ...it must have been so hard on you…”

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #3c78d8; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">She nodded to her, “But… she was trying to kill all of you... I ... I just couldn't let her… My mother... wouldn't have wanted me... to... to let that shell win.” She swallowed and blinked back her eyes, “She would tell me to destroy her before letting her wreak such havoc on the world.”

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #a64d79; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Yuki shook her head, "...the tentacles...Wren..."

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">The young witch nodde <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #3c78d8; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">d wearily, “Like puppet strings... wielding all of them. That bastard god will pay for what he's done!”

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #a64d79; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">"The way Axton described him...in the journal... I wish there was a way we could push back his "sphere" before he even came close to ours.”

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #3c78d8; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">She nodded “Maybe we can find a way…”

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #a64d79; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Yuki sighed, "I wish there was a way to set Mr. Tentacle Evil God on Scary, Creepy Dungeon place and let them just duke it out. Then we wouldn't have to worry!"

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #3c78d8; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Wren laughed suddenly at the thought and nodded to yuki, “That would be an interesting fight… I'm sure the dungeon would love to suck up his power in a big red crystal.”

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #a64d79; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">"Yes! It already had a couple of Gods down in that big...huge chamber… I'm not sure who I'd put my money on. Hopefully they'd just destroy each other and everything could go back to normal! ...but then...we'd have to fight whoever the winner was...and I guess...that might be bad. ...if they sucked up the other's power or however it all works."

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #3c78d8; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">“Perhaps... there's a key to this god in his old temple…”

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #a64d79; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">"...old...temple?"

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">“ <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #3c78d8; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Didn't Azarius once tell us that his family found an old temple under water? ... They had taken things out of it... thinking it was abandoned...but then found out that it wasn't…”

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #a64d79; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">"OH! er..ah...Wren...uhm...you know some of us...er can’t swim...It would be worth...finding out..."

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #3c78d8; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">She laughed softly, “Mmm And I'm sure the water would love to have us both...but we would have everyone with us. We would be strong. Maybe... just maybe... there's a key to all of this there. We'll have to ask the mage what he can remember and if it's worth checking out.”

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #a64d79; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">"Oh! Kale would save you!!!! He's...er...done it before!" Yuki can't help but burst into girlish giggles, it's the first time the priestess has really laughed like herself since....coming back from speaking with Axton on the roof.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #3c78d8; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Wren laughed with her and nudged her, “Mmm... Soo many times…”

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #a64d79; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Yuki sighed happily, "...he's so good for you...Wren… ...he even stood up to your mother!!! My heart pounded for you! So....beautiful!"

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #3c78d8; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">She sighed happily, leaning her head against Yuki as they walked girlishly down the hall, hand in hand, "Aww... I love him so much... I really don't know what I'd do without him… He's always so brave... always so protective... and so loving."

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #a64d79; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Yuki squeezed her hand, "AND SO GOOD LOOKING WHILE DOING ALL OF IT!" She beamed knowingly at Wren. "...like a shining hero!!!"

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #3c78d8; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Wren broke out in giggles, nodding, "He IS! Isn't he?! I must be the luckiest witch ever..."

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #a64d79; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Yuki laughed, "Definitely. Definitely the Luckiest! Awww, it feels so good to laugh!"

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #3c78d8; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">“And so much is thanks to you!” She hugged her dear friend tightly, “My own personal priestess of love guiding us together!” Wren giggled, walking a little lighter and a little happier.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #a64d79; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">"PISH...SHAW!" But Yuki glanced up at the ceiling and whispered a quick prayer, "Hear that My Goddess?! I’ve done good! Now...if you could….help me a LITTLE with...'my' boyfriend?"

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #3c78d8; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">“You're amazing Yuki!” She hugged her again:: “You brought a witch and a ha... heroic warrior together! You can do anything! We'll get him back!” She bit her lip and frowned, looking like she really wanted to say more, but fell silent for a moment.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #a64d79; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">“Yes! ‘WE’ Will...er…?” Yuki looked at Wren...curiously a moment...."...er...what is it? A...Are you worried about someone else?"

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #3c78d8; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">“Aww... I'm worried about so many!” she smiled softly.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #a64d79; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Yuki nodded slowly...but she couldn’t quite help but feel she was getting further away from some hot piece of news… Certainly, Wren wasn’t...holding out on her, was she? Nah…. Of course not! “Mmmm… this is a very different world with...lots of worry... Gah! Rue would smack me if she heard me talking like that!"

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #3c78d8; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Wren threw her arms up defensively, expecting the smack.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #a64d79; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Yuki giggled!

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #3c78d8; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">“Okay, Okay... You're right! We'll fix it! We'll fix everything!”

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #a64d79; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">"Right! And eat cake while doing it! And no one will remember...Oh sweet Goddess..I hope no one remembers..."

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #3c78d8; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">“And when we do... You embrace that fire haired priest like he's yours!”

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #a64d79; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Yuki blushed brilliantly! “WREN!!!!!”

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #3c78d8; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">“Claim him... like you so long to.”

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #a64d79; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Yuki's eyes widened…

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #3c78d8; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Wren grinned wide and giggled.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #a64d79; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">"...Right! Ah... You're RIGHT! I should have! I...mean...I WILL! ...er... probably. I mean YES!

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #3c78d8; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Wren giggled again and hugged her. “Aww, I love you, Yuki! You just be you.”

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #a64d79; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">“er...Shouldn't we get married first! Just to be on the safe side!"

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #3c78d8; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">“M-married... first?” Wren blinked at her, stunned.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #a64d79; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">"er...well...or not."

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #3c78d8; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">“Is... is that ... normal for humans?” She looked at her perplexed.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #a64d79; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">"...Not for Sunite priestesses!! ...but...well… YES! I'd...er...have to stop being a Sunite priestess! Or...he'd have to stop being a Sunite priest!"

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #3c78d8; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">“What?! Why??”

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #a64d79; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">"It's not like SUNE would have a problem with it but...if we were discovered... I guess that was probably what happened to Helena and Axton...if they really did...have a...er...thing..."

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #3c78d8; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Wren raised an eyebrow and a slow smile spread over her lips.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #a64d79; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">"...ah it's nothing! Nothing! Just...ah...well...’The Church of Sune is not a Dating Service for young,unmarried, superficial young people!’" Wren gets the impression Yuki's quoting a former teacher.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #3c78d8; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">“Aww... You're none of those things! and neither is Axton!”

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #a64d79; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">"Yes but...Save the World first! Then...ah...we can talk futures!"

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #3c78d8; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">“If Sune knows you're in love and you’re happy ... and surely everyone else can see it... We'll just steal you away to make your own temple!”

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #a64d79; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">"...Oh..." It was like a lightbulb came on in Yuki's eyes...like she didnt even consider it..."...like aboard Destiny for...er...extra sphere...conversions!"

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #3c78d8; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">“See!” Wren smiled at her happily, nodding, “That sounds perfect!” She nodded, “But save the world first... That's a good plan. //Destiny// is already on her way to building you a lovely temple though…”

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #a64d79; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Yuki laughed, "...Yes! And I'm not sure I ever want to leave...it...If it doesn't hurt us. I mean...Well... SAVE THE WORLD FIRST!"

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #3c78d8; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">She nodded to Yuki emphatically, “Save the world! We'll figure everything else out as we go!”

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #a64d79; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">“Yup!”

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #3c78d8; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">She hugged her warmly, “I'm feeling a bit better…”

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #a64d79; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">"Oh me too Wren. Thank the goddess for you! Really. I don't know what I'd do!!"

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #3c78d8; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">She sighed happily, “I guess she must have known we needed each other.”

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #a64d79; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">"...Let's always be the best of friends, k? Even if...I grow ugly and senile with...bad teeth and smelly feet!!! Let's...always be the best of friends, k Wren?” Yuki squeezed the elven woman's hand, "...even if...even if...something were to happen and I didn't see you for twenty-five years...."

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #a64d79; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">"k?"

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Wren burs <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #3c78d8; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">ted out laughing as she imagined Yuki senile with bad teeth and smelly feet, but then she hugged her tightly and nodded, “Even if that happened… Know that I'm always thinking of you... always loving you as my dearest, best friend... and that I'm coming to you... as fast as I can.”

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #a64d79; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">The human woman looks happy...and very, very grateful, "...I want to get stronger Wren...Stronger and stronger...so...so...I can be a rock for you too."

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">She b <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #3c78d8; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">eamed at her and hugged her close:: “I want to be stronger too... we'll get strong together, okay?”

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #3c78d8; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">She leaned her head against Yuki's and sighed.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #3c78d8; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">“Yuki…”

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #a64d79; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">“er?”

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #3c78d8; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">“I…”

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #a64d79; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">“...”

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #3c78d8; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">“I... still have to rescue Loch…”

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #a64d79; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">"....we're going to get her. I'm so sorry...it's been this long. We'll get her."

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #3c78d8; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">“...even if I have to go off alone to do it and have to disappear for a very long time...”

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #a64d79; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">"Nope! I'm coming too! And Axton, if...er when he gets righted. And Kale! And...And...Maly! And Posy! Like she'd stay behind if there was anything really good to fight!"

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #3c78d8; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Wren laughed and nodded again.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #a64d79; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Yuki nodded emphatically. "...Maybe it'll only be 4 days instead of Rue and Ori's two. And she'll come back and terrorize poor Kale!"

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #3c78d8; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Wren laughed.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #a64d79; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Yuki made a face, "Wait! ...a...are...you...reallly sure you want...oh nevermind. We'll get her."

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #3c78d8; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Wren smiled knowingly and nodded, “She's going to be so disappointed when she finds out… I... I have to get her....but... i don't want the world to move forward like this again... what if it does?” <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #a64d79; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">"Even if we have to play with time to do it. We’ll get her."

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #3c78d8; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Wren nodded slowly, “You know...when we spoke with Rosche before...He told me then… Not everyone can be saved. Do you think he meant Loch? Do you think he knew ... way back then... that this would happen? But he just couldn't stop it?”

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #a64d79; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">...Yuki tightened her hand on Wren's arm, "...but he didn’t know...we could...play with time then..." The human priestess says as if it’s already certain they can do the impossible, "...let's not...doom it."

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #3c78d8; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Wren nodded. “You're right, of course!”

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #a64d79; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">"...I had fears that we would find Rue and Ori's graves and meet their granddaughters...but it had been so short....!"

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #3c78d8; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">“We might still meet Loch's…”

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #a64d79; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Yuki’s brow wrinkled thoughtfully, “....Everyone can be saved...I want to believe it."

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #3c78d8; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Wren nodded, "I want to believe that too."

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #a64d79; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">"We'll get her. And Esme. And then we'll have a really, REALLY big party!!! And...And INVITE everyone!!!"

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #3c78d8; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Wren laughed, "I'm looking forward to that!" She nodded.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #a64d79; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">"...you know...we'll string magical lights on Destiny! And....And make lots of cake! And...Saben call pull out all the....barrels she's been storing away - HAVE YOU SEEN HOW MANY!! ...and we'll all sit down together...and...and...just...be happy! Dance and sing and tell stories! ....until the sun comes up!!!!"

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #3c78d8; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">She laughed again, filled with excitement, “It will be a grand event!”

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #a64d79; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">"YES! ...With everyone we love. Maybe even Destiny will come too! Wouldn't that be wonderful?!"

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #3c78d8; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Wren smiled happily and nodded, "Yes... I don't think it would be a party without her..."

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #a64d79; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">"OH! Can you believe Samira and that handsome baker guy are going to have 5 kids?!?!?!?!!! Alexia too...So beautiful!!!! Though...I'm not sure I like the way she was looking at my...rod..."

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #3c78d8; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Wren bursts out laughing, "Just how was she looking at it?!"

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #a64d79; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">"I...I'm not sure...But..sort of like the way Thorn...looks at my cut of the gems..." Yuki scratched her head, thoughtfully, "No no, I'm sure I was just imagining things."

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #3c78d8; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">She giggled, "Mmm I guess we'll have to keep our eyes on that one..." <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #a64d79; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Yuki laughed, "Maaaaaaybe. And...Mr. Silvermane and Miss Magdalena...I was sort of hoping their son would be a redhead! Red is a very blessed colour for Sunites. Like being touched by the goddess herself. But...isn't he very handsome too?"

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #3c78d8; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">"...to lose...all his family..."

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #a64d79; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">"...that...ah..." Yuki just shakes her head, her eyes watering, obviously thinking of her own family back home in Waterdeep. “...yes.”

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #3c78d8; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">She hugged Yuki tightly, noticing her look, "That poor poor guy... No one should have to lose their whole family like that… The silver hair is lovely though, like his fathers..."

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #a64d79; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">"Mmmmm! So beautiful..like living precious metal!"

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #3c78d8; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Wren sighed heavily, feeling the weight of the death of someone she looked up to... seen as a hero... gone.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #a64d79; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">“...me too…” Yuki hugged her back and whispered, as if hearing Wren's silent thoughts.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #3c78d8; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">“We'll fix it for all of them.” Wren nodded determined. <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #a64d79; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">"We'll fix it" the human girl said almost at the same moment as Wren says it, a breath behind. “...And...AND then we'll know the future!!"

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #3c78d8; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Wren giggled and nodded.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #a64d79; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">"And we can hold Baby Alexia! And tell her about a handsome prince in her future! OH! It's going to be so HARD not to tell Miss Samira....about all the children! Though I don't want to tell Argent anything....Or Melanie...Or...anyone else.."

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #3c78d8; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Wren laughed and nodded, “Though some of it may change…”

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #a64d79; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">“Mmmm...true.... But maybe only the bad stuff!"

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #3c78d8; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">"I mean... you never know what might change events from all of this..."

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #a64d79; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">"...true… Mmmm.... But Wren? Doesn’t LOTS of children sounds like fun!"

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #3c78d8; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Wren giggles, "How many do YOU want?"

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #a64d79; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Yuki giggles!!!!!!! "I...I want 6!!!!!!!! Well..I wanted 6! When I was little, Because...it seemed like lots of fun! But then...there was this old lady down the road...who had 6 kids and she was SO FAT and she LOOKED SO TIRED! And I was like...er...maybe 3! In half! That seems more manageable."

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #3c78d8; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Wren laughed again! "Six would have to spaced out over a lot of years..."

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #a64d79; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">"Yup! 6 over years… ...but...but...if I could still look like this, I'd have lots and lots! My mother always wanted lots, y'know but...she...couldn't...and...she lost a lot of babies <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">. <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #a64d79; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">..and...almost bled to death...ah...twice I think...It's a miracle of Sune she.....lives, Wren.. So...I might be like her...I don't know. It's a little scary because I won't know til I try...."

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #3c78d8; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Wren's eyes widen. “Mmm. Well I want to be there! For the birth of every single one! I'll help!"

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #a64d79; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">"Then I'll be VERY lucky!!!! Witches are very good for birthings right? Or are those hedge witches… I want you there regardless! Axton will be useless! er...Did I say Axton I mean...er...er..."

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #3c78d8; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Wren laughed and nudged her. "Aww with beautiful red-haired children..."

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #a64d79; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Yuki blushed, "NO NO! I'm just...er...I was just talking!" But unable to help herself, Yuki squeezed Wren's arm, "They’d be SOOOOOOOO ADORABLE!!!!"

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #3c78d8; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">"You'll be such a good mother!"

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #a64d79; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">"No I'd be terrible! I'd feed them too much Cake. They'd hate it!"

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #3c78d8; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Wren grinned wide at her friend and hugged her again, nodding.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #a64d79; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Yuki laughed, "AND YOU WREN?!" The human priestess turned her sparkling eyes on her dear friend.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #3c78d8; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">"Me? Aww I would spoil them rotten!" She giggled.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #a64d79; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">"No NO! Yours?! Lots of your own! ...tell me you'll have lots! "

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #3c78d8; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">"Oh!" Wren blushed!

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #a64d79; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">"...you and Kale...such precious people should leave behind lots and lots of little Wrens and Kales to drive men Mad AND Save the world! ...though that really isn't the elven way, is it? There aren't huge families of 5 or 6...in Myth Coramanth....Not that I noticed..."

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #3c78d8; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">"Maybe... over lots of years..." She grinned.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #a64d79; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">"I can just see a little Wren! Batting her eyelashes up at Daddy Kale! 'But I WANT a pony!'"

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #3c78d8; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Wren burst out laughing! "A pony! Oh I can so see Kale crumbling to an adorable little witch who will wrap him around her finger..."

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #a64d79; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Yuki giggled, "I want to see that!!!"

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #3c78d8; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">"I'll have to be the strong one..." She giggled.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #a64d79; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Yuki nodded seriously, "And critique her honestly on her technique..." She glanced slyly at Wren then burst out laughing!

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #3c78d8; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">"Wh what?!" She blinked at Yuki, "I think I would like to have a daughter some day..." She nodded. "Watch her grow and become a woman..."

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #a64d79; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">"...and...a son?" Something like concern flickered in the priestess' eyes..."...would you let yourself have a son, Wren?"

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #3c78d8; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Her bright smile faded for a moment and concern crossed her face, "I...I don't know... witches in the coven aren't allowed sons... but..."

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #a64d79; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Yuki stopped and turned, her eyes searching her friend's face, listening attentively.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #3c78d8; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">“If i wasn't in the coven... but..."

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #a64d79; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">"...but?"

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #3c78d8; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">She shook her head softly, "I... I don't know that he would be safe. I would fear for him..."

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #a64d79; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">"...safe? With you...and Kale?" Yuki looked confused..

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #3c78d8; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">"Oh safe with us for sure... but... I just wouldn't want anyone else... to try and take him away.” She shuddered.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #a64d79; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">"But...but...why would anyone...try to...? You'd blast them with lightning bolts and Kale would run them through! "

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #3c78d8; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Wren laughed and nodded, "You bet we would! I... wonder if Kale would want a son." <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #3c78d8; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">She pondered a moment."I... I read a passage in a book... I found it when..."

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #a64d79; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">"...a...book?"

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #3c78d8; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">She nodded to Yuki, "A book… I found it in a secret room when we went to Myth Coramanth before Rue and Ori..."

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #a64d79; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">"...in the palace?" Clearly Yuki wasn't following where she was going...

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #3c78d8; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">"No... in my mother's alchemy room in the coven. I meant to talk to you about it and we were so busy..."

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #a64d79; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">"...er...OH...oooooh..." Yuki's eyes widened, "...coven secrets?"

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #3c78d8; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">"I've never seen it before... it was rows and rows and rows of books..."

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #a64d79; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">"...WHOAH!"

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #3c78d8; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">"All written history of events... the secrets they must hold… I couldn't stay long... I only got to read a little..."

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #a64d79; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">"...oh Wren...the knowledge..." Yuki's eyes were as big as saucers as she contemplated...years upon years of the secret knowledge of witches...

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #3c78d8; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">"But... there was this story... written by my grandmother... I ... I've never met her..." Wren shook her head.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #a64d79; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">"....grandmother? Oh! She was coven...head? ...before your mother?"

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #3c78d8; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">"She must've been... but my mother branched out to form her own long long long before I was ever born… But... the events she talked about..." Wren shuddered, "My mother's first birth was a boy..."

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #a64d79; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">"...Wait. YOU HAVE A BROTHER?! Yuki's eyes lit up! "A BIG brother! Oh Wren! I'm jealous! I ALWAYS wanted a big brother!!! Where is he? Is he with your father?"

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #3c78d8; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">"Well... the history is written by my grandmother... and apparently... sons were to be ... killed... upon their birth." Wren shuddered.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #a64d79; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">"...what...?" ...Yuki looks...shocked. "...what...did you say...?"

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #3c78d8; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">"It talks about... sending my mother off... to kill her own son... her... her first born child! ALONE!"

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #a64d79; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">"...kill her own...." Yuki's voice trailed off..."...but Wren...a mother's love is...is... In the hierarchy of loves...it's... what?"

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #3c78d8; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">"I... can't even imagine, Yuki... I ... I couldn't do it! I couldn't kill anyone else's newborn child let alone my own!!"

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #a64d79; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Yuki shook her head, "...you'd have to be...some kind of monster... Demon!!! To do...something like… Wren…? ...could your mother really...do that...I just...I just can't....imagine..."

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #3c78d8; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">"I mean... her first born... all the struggle of carrying that baby... the birth... only to... go off and... and have to kill him? I don't know... she's never ever talked about it... and I didn't get to read the history from her perspective in her own books yet..."

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #a64d79; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">"...I...I know witches are..." Yuki searched around for a word...she could not find, "...different but...elves.... Elves value life. All life....Don’t...they?"

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #3c78d8; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Wren nodded to her, "I was just shocked!"

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #a64d79; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">"....oh....wren... Poor....Raven...er I mean. Lady Dreamspinner...and your father....wouldn't...know...?

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #3c78d8; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">"My father wouldn't have been with her then... they didn't meet until after she brought the coven to Myth Coramanth... I am their only child. My mother has worked very hard to create alchemy to control our births... and she's ever watchful over the young and I ... just can't imagine..."

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #a64d79; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Yuki nodded....at first a little self consciously then vigorously. Wren had describing this amazing contraception to her before. She'd wanted to take a form of it back to the Temple of Sune for special cases...

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #3c78d8; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">"Crowe doesn't know her father... or any of the men my mother took for any of her other children."

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #a64d79; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">"...but she would have loved him...I don't believe...a mother could have. Abandonment yes...but...death..." Yuki frowned, shaking her head again, "...a mother's love without madness is...is.... A woman like your mother! I...I can't believe it... It's too....too....cruel.."

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #3c78d8; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">"If she didn't... I don't know what happened to him... and if she did... such a scar to bear."

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #a64d79; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">"....and manipulated...by someone seeking to gain control of her mind..."

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Wren shuddered and nodded, "Maybe... she hid him... took him somewhere safe."

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #a64d79; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">"Yes! Why not? We often get babies delivered to the Temple of Sune! Though most are taken to Chauntea, goddess of life in special cases they come to us. And we find good homes for them...or raise them in the Temple.” Yuki squeezed her hand, <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #a64d79; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">"...yes... That is...believable! The other thing is just too...too...horrible."

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #3c78d8; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Wren nodded, "Perhaps she took him to a temple..." It would have been back when my grandmother had the coven somewhere near the old Myth Coramanth…”

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #a64d79; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">"...perhaps...How long was your mother gone? Perhaps she traveled farther afield?"

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #3c78d8; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">“She could have left him there... or... the story talks about her acting strangely and she and Ibis left the coven around that time and traveled far away into Rawlinswood.”

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #a64d79; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">"Ibis… A person we can ask...but not 'this' time. Earlier...I mean after. But...A brother, Wren! A big brother!! Another person to love."

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #3c78d8; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Wren nodded to her, "The entry talks about Ibis being very young... her mother was killed... and she left with my mother." Wren smiled softly. "I've never imagined a brother... I don't even know what one would be like... of course he wouldn't know me at all... who knows if he even lives now... this was such a long time ago..."

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #a64d79; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">"Oh.........witches....are frightening...and amazing...aren't they…” Yuki's voice is tinged with a kind of awe..

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #3c78d8; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">"Some it seems are more scary than amazing..." Wren frowned “But yes... I was raised to a very amazing woman."

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #a64d79; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">"Hana had a big brother! He was fun!! He'd tease us and call us names and make fun of our looks but...he made us feel safe too. Like...we were worth...cherishing. I liked him."

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #3c78d8; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Wren smiled wide, "He sounds like a very special person to love."

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #a64d79; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">"He's the closest thing I have... I think that's why...I want to help you find yours! Because...to have a real big brother...wouldn't that be nice?" Yuki nodded, "...I can't imagine your mother allowing anyone to tell her what she had to do with her child. Not your mother."

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #3c78d8; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Wren laughed, "She is a little... stubborn and commanding."

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #a64d79; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Yuki laughed, "INDOMITABLE AND INTIMIDATING!"

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #3c78d8; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Wren laughed and hugged Yuki.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #a64d79; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">"...but then...she made you. And...you're incredible so....so...she had to be amazing too. And scary." <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #a64d79; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">"So. Save the world! Get Loch. Get Esme. Find your big brother! ...er...and somewhere in there...interrogate Ibis!"

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #3c78d8; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Wren smiled softly, "Am I scary?"

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #a64d79; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">"Nope! You're Wren!" Yuki beams a beautiful trusting smile at the elven woman!

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #3c78d8; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Wren laughed and tickled her.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #a64d79; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">"H...Hey! I like boys! BOYS!" Yuki giggles.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #3c78d8; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">"Aww It's so good to be Wren... with her dear friend, Yuki." She shook her head, giggling.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #a64d79; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">"You make....the world is a better place."

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #3c78d8; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">"Oh, the things we will do..."

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #a64d79; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">And Yuki exhaled a long, relieved sigh as if she'd been holding her breath ever since Myth Coramanth and only now...just letting it out… “WITH OUR MERRY BAND OF HEROES, OUR MAGIC SHIP ANNNNNNNND OUR BOYFRIENDS!" Yuki struck a heroic pose!

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #3c78d8; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Wren burst out giggling and nodded, "Yes! Yes, exactly!" She posed beside her heroically, but then started giggling too much to hold it.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #a64d79; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Seeing Wren, Yuki collapses! Laughing and laughing… "Only you Wren! Could make me laugh at the End of the World!" And for the first time in days...the only tears streaming out of Yuki's blue eyes are happy ones.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #3c78d8; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">"Right back at you!" She grinned wide, "Apparently we do need each other! Someone had it right..."

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #a64d79; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">"Sune of course! Or one of your Powers! Or both!"

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #3c78d8; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">"Mmm both! Oh... can you imagine Liera and Sune playing games together?! ...Oh my!"

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #a64d79; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Yuki blushed! "Somehow...that sounds a LITTLE perverted Wren!"

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #3c78d8; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Wren burst out laughing all over again! <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #a64d79; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">...and Yuki with her. <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #3c78d8; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">"Cake! and then Sleep!"

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #a64d79; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">"Yes! Huzzah!"