Chihiro helped with the decorations. Rin was a hard woman to work for and she found herself snapping back at her sharp orders. However, her belligerence always seemed to raise a smile from the spirit woman. After an hour or so Rin stopped her.

"You're still recovering, don't push it."

"I'm fine," she said from the top of a ladder. She wanted to finish hanging the lights.

"Come down! Or I'll get Haku to bring you down and spank you!" Chihiro laughed.

"He'd have to catch me first!" But she did come down. "You never know I might like it!" She said in a mock sultry voice. Rin grinned.

"Now run along and play, I've got work to do."

"What am I supposed to do now?" Chihiro half whined.

"Have a look around. This place is huge; even I don't know it all." Chihiro sighed and walked away.

After a while, she became quite excited. She had the whole bathhouse to herself and all sorts of places to explore. She walked to the old disused upper west section, very few came here now. It appealed to her sense of adventure. In truth, most doors were locked or the rooms were empty. It was a little disappointing. She found a few old halls, the floors inches deep in dust. She also found lots of old musty chests, with rotten clothes or linen in them. After an hour of aimless wandering, she was bored and about to turn back. But she stopped to open a white bleached wood door she had missed on the way up another featureless corridor.

The room inside was white, bright white. Even the floorboards were painted white. Her eyes were immediately drawn to the only colour in the room. In the middle of the floor, lying across each other in an X were two black lacquered hair sticks. They had red roses painted on them, and a thin band of what looked like gold leaf about an inch from the thick end. She stepped in and gingerly bent down to pick them up. They were beautiful; the roses looked so lifelike she could almost smell them.

"No!" Squealed the voice in her head, "don't touch them, they are..." the voice was cut off, Chihiro frowned. She had always taken the voice to be part of her slightly unstable mind. Now she was beginning to suspect otherwise. It was something to ask Kamaji or Haku about.

This room was magic she knew that now, she could not see it but she could certainly feel it. It was cold and made her shiver; also there was a tang in the air, almost metallic. These hair sticks were magic too, they tingled in her fingers. They felt heavier than they should be. She looked more closely at them. There was an even crack across the gold band on both of them. She slipped one into her waistband and gripped both ends of the other one and pulled. A wicked needle-like blade came out of the lower half of the stick, the upper section served as the blades hilt.

"Thorns for a rose," said a deep, throaty female voice. Chihiro was almost afraid to turn around. Magic crackled in the air, wild and untamed, like static but worse. She did turn and saw nothing except white walls.

"Who are you?" she asked.

"No one and everyone," said the voice. 

"That's no sort of answer," Chihiro hated riddles.

"If you want better answers, ask better questions," The voice laughed. It made her feel terrified and euphoric all at once.

(Art credit DavinArfel) 

"Okay," she said steadying her voice. "Why give me these?"

"You will need them, the dragon was right, you can't defend yourself. Ask him to provide you with the means. Your thorns are for you to lash out when you most need to. They will harm both mortal and spirit."

"Thank you," she said stiffly, they were beautiful. She slotted the stick she was holding back together; it joined its twin in her waistband.

"I made them just for you my daughter. The transcendent one needs protection. Your dragon knows this, even if he does not know why. His instincts seem to be as keen as ever," Chihiro's head swam.

"I'm not sure what to do? Why am I here again? Is it all just an accident?"

"Philosophy! Ha! A waste of time, are we all just one big cosmic accident? What nonsense, just be you and everything will be well."

"Why did you call me daughter and transcendent one?"

"It's what you are; you are of two worlds therefore transcendent. You are my daughter because you are of nature, as much as your kind tries to remove yourself from it."

The voice lost it's slightly amused tone.

"I have two messages for you," Chihiro nodded. "First tell the dragon he has a new preoccupation, he must enable you to defend yourself. Second, tell that witch who lives in the swamp to stop medalling; she will not aid my plan by doing so."

"Meddling? Zeniba does not meddle." 

"Ask her about the talisman that you took in good faith. It's quiet without the voice, isn't it?"

"The voice? That was me, it was just a voice in my head, like you." The woman's voice laughed again.

"No daughter, I am real I just chose not to show myself to you yet." She gave another laugh. "He looks for you now, he senses the strange magic but he is always aware of you within these walls. Give him my message; tell the witch when you see her." The voice took on a more affectionate tone.

"You've had a difficult time getting here and things will not be easy now you're back. Have faith in yourself and your friends and you won't stray far."

Chihiro felt the awesome presence fade away. She felt like weeping in its absence. The white door rattled open. She felt him before she saw him.

"It's his magic," she thought. "It's familiar to me now; it leaves a taste in the air too, only lighter and smoother than that other spirits."

He crept into the room a careful step at a time. In one hand he had a dagger, held point down, ready to use. He shifted his weight as if he thought the floor would not hold him, he had moved only a few steps from the door and seemed unwilling to go further.

"Chihiro," he said in a very calm very clear voice. "Carefully walk over to me, don't run, just walk."

"What's the matter? Why are you so afraid?" The green eyes could have pinned her to the floor with their intensity, she could see the fear in them.

"Just please do as I say." He said it like he was asking her to clean the tubs. She shrugged and moved towards him.

"Okay but I don't see..." He grabbed her hands and pulled her roughly through the door. She yelped in surprise. He did not let go of her in the corridor. Instead, he wrapped an arm around her waist and pulled her close. He touched her cheek and smoothed her hair. He was breathing quickly as if he had run hard. His eyes were wide and full of emotion.

"Haku," she whispered, "what's wrong?" He shook his head unable to speak. She glanced over his shoulder at the open door. There was nothing there, just the sky. There had been a balcony there at one point; she could see the rusty railing jutting from the wall. It had long ago fallen down, leaving a yawning drop of at least a hundred feet.

"But there was a room, I was walking around it, a woman was talking to me!" Haku swallowed and seemed to find his voice.

"Chihiro you were walking on thin air. Linca saw you. When I came in, you were still standing on nothing." He seemed to have calmed somewhat, but he did not seem to be willing to let her go yet. Chihiro decided to let him be, after all, her legs were not so steady now.

"She had a message for you." She said meekly, "that I need to learn to defend myself." Haku's eyes hardened.

"It was a lesson; to show me how easy it would be to trick you. Humans can't see through illusion." He clenched his fists; she could feel powerful muscles tense in his arms and chest. He stepped away from her.

"That was a cruel way of showing me!" He shouted at the ceiling. He sighed and looked back down at her.

"I thought Yubaba had stooped low enough too...never mind, she wouldn't I know that." He appeared really shaken. She moved closer and put a hand on his arm. She was still aware of the tension there, it made her feel a little giddy.

"Haku, I'm sorry, I've brought you nothing but trouble. I'm a bit of a burden I guess." He slid his hand over hers, his eyes burned green fire.

"You are no burden to me, don't say such things." His voice sounded rough. "I thank the old ones every day for allowing your return. It's just your so naive and trusting. I can't watch you all the time..."

"Haku," she interrupted gently "Don't...I'm not your responsibility..."

"But you are!" He protested, "I saved your life once, which means I'm responsible for it." Chihiro sighed, she was obviously not going to win him over and his distress was painful to see. She switched tactics.

"If that's the case then teach me!" she took the dagger from his belt and held it on her palm. "I don't have a clue how to use this except that the pointy end goes into the other person." That raised a slight smile from him. "Teach me and you won't have to look after me so much, not that I need THAT much looking after." He did smile then and took the dagger back from her, returning it to his belt in a smooth, practised motion.

"I was planning to but just not so soon. However, seeing as I have been instructed to do so, we will start tomorrow. Then you will know a little before you go back to the human world. We can start again on your return."

Chihiro bowed her head.

"Yeah, good idea, I might need to know stuff like that going back to a place I dislike so much." The thought of returning filled her with dread.

"Chihiro," he said softly, "look at me." She did so and suddenly nothing really mattered anymore accept looking into those beautifully expressive eyes.

"I'm going to tell you this only once, if you need me I will come for you. Whether you are in this world, or the other I will come for you." Chihiro suddenly could not really breathe.

"Promise?" she whispered.

"I promise," he replied. Suddenly she was in his embrace. He hugged her tightly; she fitted just under his chin, her head resting on his chest. "Believe what I say. I don't want you to go but this is the right thing to do." She nodded against him and let him hold her for a moment before gently pulling away from him.

"I believe you," she said her voice a little shaky. Her nostrils were still full of his scent and her knees threatened to buckle. She took a deep breath, desperately trying to order her thoughts.

"And I'd just like to say likewise, I'd come from my own grave if you needed me to." He grinned then and the worry cleared from his face.

"I'm sure you would," He said.

"Chi?" Linca stood behind her. Linca gave a sigh of relief to see her and then started shouting.

"You stupid, idiotic fool! I nearly fainted with fright seeing you walking around on nothing. Tell me, where did you learn to fly? Because you seemed not to care if you fell!"

"Linca," Chihiro held up her hands. "It was an illusion I did not see the drop."

"Well, now I see Haku's point! You should go home!" Linca hugged herself, blue lip trembling. She was like a frightened child.

"O,h Linca!" cried Chihiro and hugged her. "I did not mean to scare you. I just apologised to Haku as well." She glanced over her shoulder but Haku was gone. She sighed. Linca sobbed a bit, but after a few sniffs, she seemed to return to normal.

"Don't do stuff like that to me Chi. I've never had a sister before I don't want to lose you now."

"Sister?" Chihiro was bewildered. Linca wrung her hands nervously.

"Well seeing as you were going to bond to this world I thought that maybe...well...you know I could be your sister... you know when it's all done. That way you could have family here as well as in the human world." Chihiro was touched.

"I...I would be honoured." Linca danced on her toes.

"O,h that's wonderful!" she clapped her hands. "Now will you take some sisterly advice?"

"Depends on the advice," said Chihiro.

"Kiss that dragon and put him out of his misery."

"What are you talking about Linca?"

"He's desperate to kiss you; I can see it in his eyes. But I bet that you see him as just a friend. You really have no confidence! Has it ever occurred to you that he might have an interest in you? It was the same at university! Men fell at your feet and you didn't notice."

"Shut up Linca!" Chihiro laughed, "Your talking nonsense, except this time you're not drunk."

"Seriously, when you get back he will try something, mark my words."

"Stop teasing me..."

The voices faded away and Haku watched the two women head for the elevator. The land spirit was quite astute. Had he been that transparent? He had been in turmoil since she had returned Chihiro to him. Chihiro had become more beautiful than he could possibly believe. Yet she was Human, not only that but fragile in spite of all her stubbornness. He had not heard her story yet and would not ask her to tell it. She would tell him when she was ready. However, he had gathered that she had been far from happy. Now she seemed to be coming back to herself and he had no intention of complicating things for her. Nonetheless, over the last few days he had been making excuses to see her, and thinking of a million reasons to touch her. Like yesterday, when he had pretended to tuck a strand of hair behind her ear, just so he could trail his fingers along the achingly soft skin of her cheek.

His dreams had been troubling him also, but not with images of her crying in the dark. No these were a torment of a different order. He had dreamt of her sitting in his study, curled up in his chair reading a book. When she saw him she had stood, greeted him with a kiss and told him everything about her day. All he had really wanted to do was hold her, but he had listened anyway. Another was of her asleep on the same chair and he had picked her up and carried her to bed. There were numerous others, some were charmingly domestic others were not fit even to think about, but think about them he did. He sniffed the air savouring her lingering scent.

"I'm pathetic" he sighed to the shadows.