Adversity is the fire that surrounds the soul. And through the tempering it provides, one is prepared for the challenges to come.

Lars Hedric, Priest of the Holy Order of Earoni

"They're still at it?" Wrapped in a heavy fur to drive away the chill, Sheala's fingers drummed on the hilt of the sword presented to her by Sayra during their stay in the Elven Kingdoms. She swore the breeze off the ocean, combined with being up on this mountain, was only adding insult to the fact that winter was nearly upon them.

"Yep." Reane nodded. The captain followed up her response by taking up a comfortable position. Reclining against a towering piece of rubble, she waited.

The First Daughter and First Son kneeled silently off in the distance within what had once been a grand structure. Based solely off of its current state of ruin, it was hard to understand what it once might have looked like.

Sheetah, curled up in a blue ball, hadn't left Sayra's side.

"Why here though?" Sheala attempted to mirror her friend's posture until a piece of jagged stone digging into her back forced her to stand. "I mean, ok, I get it. It's a holy site. I guess. My mother used to tell us stories about the Great Shrine of Earoni, The First Temple. But it's been in ruins for a century."

"Almost two." Reane corrected her friend's timeline of events. "Since about four years after the fall of Hitithe and the rise of Lord Hedric. That's when an earthquake from a volcanic eruption toppled it like children's play blocks." The captain held up her arm and swung it down, portraying the motion of a collapsing building. "They say Earoni herself sent the calamity to bury and protect sacred artifacts brought here after the fall of Hitithe."

"Yeah, I know the stories." With a sigh, Sheala focused on the place she'd never come to until now. "Mother used to take missions out here all the time. She'd be gone for a month sometimes." Pits dug around the site marked the landscape. Each a remnant of excavations in search of whatever was being sought. Some, she was sure, predated her mother's tenure as High Administrator of the Temple.

"You miss her, even though you didn't get to see her much."

Sheala took in the size and scope of the once grand structure that was now nothing but a pock upon the landscape. "Father raised my sister and me, mostly. Our mother was always at the temple during the day, managing the priesthood for our uncle."

"Those medallions your father gave you and your sister?" Reane pointed to the one prominently on Sheala's neck. "Your mother found them here. Those were what had been hidden away and protected. Waiting for the chosen ones to come."

The medallion laid in the palm of Sheala's hand as she pondered it. She rarely, if ever, took it off these days. Whereas until only recently, she'd all but forgotten about it. "Seems like a lot of bother for a piece of metal. I wished Mother had never found them." There was a tear in her eye.

"You'd rather the world burn instead?"

Silence first. Then came Sheala's answer. "If I could have my family back? My childhood? Yes."

Reane shuddered a breath in and out at her friend's admission. "You can't keep hanging on to the past."

"I never got to have a past." That grim statement blowed out of Sheala in a sorrowful exhale. "So I'll exact as many pounds of flesh as I can from those who took that opportunity from me."

"You can't live for hate, Sheala."

"What you call hate? I prefer to think of it as justice."

Reane closed her eyes, knowing she wouldn't like what would be seen before she even witnessed it. And the stark vision did not prove her wrong.

Sister against sister. Sheala, beaten, on the wrong end of her sister's blade. Fire. Brimstone. The death of the world. This is where her current desires and passions would lead them all. The former thief would not be victorious if she allowed such black and unfocused resentments to guide her choice of actions.

*Will you stop that?*

Like a crossbow's bolt right into her brain, the voice in Reane's mind startled her out of the trance that blanketed the captain. She stared down Sheala who glared back at her. *What?* she replied in the same mental manner.

*I know what you're doing. Stop reading my future.*

*I-*

"No. I mean it." Sheala switched back to verbal communication. She'd tried to break Reane out of her daze by doing so before, but couldn't. That's when she decided to communicate mentally with Reane, as she'd been taught. And to get a firm hold on her friend's attention. "You have to trust me. Please. More than you trust whatever it is you just saw. And by the look on your face? I could tell it wasn't good."

The captain pushed up from her perch. Reaching out a hand, she rested it on Sheala's shoulder. "You're the only person I consider a family in this world. I don't want to lose you."

"All I want, Reane? Is to do this without a fear in the back of my mind that you've got some control over me. That you're pushing me to do something because of some image knocking around in your thoughts." Pointing to Reane's heart, Sheala smiled. "Trust this." Then she pointed to her friend's head, planting a forceful but playful finger dead square in the middle of Reane's forehead. "Not this."

That caused Reane to smile back. "When did you get so philosophical?"

Sheala shrugged. "We've been here on these rocks for some time. Waiting for these two." She chucked a thumb towards the elves. "Been doing some thinking."

"About what?"

"Everything." Sheala turned away, drawing her cloak tight around her. There was a deeper chill upon her now. Not from the cold of the wind, but from the feelings inside her. "I know you know things. Things you don't want to tell me." She looked over her shoulder and locked on to Reane, holding her friend's gaze with her own. "And that's ok. I don't want you to tell me. Pretend we're just two normal people where one of us doesn't know what everyone around them is thinking. Okay?"

"Where's the fun in that?" Reane's words came out alongside a chuckle.

"I'm just going to think of it like an adventure." Then she added, "One where I'm going to make some heads roll."

With a sigh, Reane said, "By the Great Claw of Diur..."

"Hey, you're the one who started this whole fiasco. And I'll be the one that finishes it. But I'll do it my way."

Reane was stuck on how to feel about this conversation. While the tone was serious, there was a certain lighthearted nature behind Sheala's request. It left her thrown for a loop. "I should have just left you on that street. Paralyzed and waiting for the guards to pick your sorry ass up."

Sheala shrugged. "Maybe. But then we wouldn't be here. Now would we?"

"Just do me a favor, okay? Listen to Gregory and not get yourself killed? Your skills with that sword are awful."

"I'm getting better."

"Not good enough." In that moment, Ittan and Sayra rose. The act was so out of the ordinary it interrupted Reane's train of thought. The two of them had entrenched themselves in that same spot since their arrival here. Their only reprieves had been at sundown each day when they would eat a few bites of some thick, bread-like ration brought from their home and partake of some water. Day after day. "It's time."

"Ugh. Finally." All the tension remaining in Sheala's shoulders and built up during their idle time here on Fimmirra escaped. Her posture slumped.

The two women approached the elves who were silent but appeared to be exchanging unspoken words between themselves. At their feet, in the very spot they had been kneeling, was the sprout of a new sapling freshly poking out of the soil. The very tip of it was barely visible, but its purplish luminescence was a stark contrast to the gray soil of pulverized rubble.

Sheala stood over it. "Is that really what I think it is?"

"It's a Vessary Blossom, yes." Sayra hitched her own cloak up tight as Sheetah scampered on to her shoulder.

Sheala's face scrunched up. "We waited all this time for you to plant a tree?"

"Well," the siver-haired elf hedged. "Technically? We didn't 'plant it'."

"The will of Earoni made it grow," Ittan corrected. "We have now received her blessing, and the House of Tynara has risen once again."

"We really should go as soon as possible." Reane tried to respect their traditions as much as she could while emphasizing the need to be on their way.

Sheala slammed the balled fist of her one hand into the open palm of the other. "Great, let's go get this all-powerful rock you keep telling me about. Then I get to bash Lord Hedric's head in."

Sayra looked up to the sky and then to the Child of the Storm. "Patience. But yes, we must seek the Mount of Carnak and retrieve the Tear of Earoni."

"I assumed you've got like a map or something?"

"I can show the way." The First Daughter agreed. "But there is no map, in the sense that you would understand. The Greater Goddess will be our guide. However, the journey ahead of us will not be one that shall be taken quickly."

"Well, my preference is always for the direct route. Maybe we should just forgo this quest and head straight for the palace in Roatsburg. Give Lord Hedric a good beating?"

Reane shook her head. "You'd never be able to get that kind of army close enough to the city without being spotted. And never mind the fact that we don't even have an army."

"Who's talking about an army? I'll go in myself." Sheala puffed out her chest. "If your boyfriend can get into that place? Then I can do it. He might be better as an escape artist, but I'm still twice the thief he'll ever be."

"And then what? How do you plan to kill Lord Hedric? You wouldn't get within-"

"I'm quick on my feet." Sheala wasn't interested in debating the details of a plan she hadn't fully formed. "I'll think of something. Besides, I've been reading some of those books in your library. Couple of them talk about Blood Lords and how to kill those cursed blood suckers."

"Wait," Reane paused the conversation. "You've been reading?"

"Yeah," Sheala snapped back with a cock of her hip and a hand on it. "I've been known to. Sometimes."

"Ambassador Stormband," Sayra pleaded, "you have to have power to defeat power. Lord Hedric is not your only foe. Lady Noranda is also-"

"Fine." Sheala waved away the conversation with a groan. "But aren't you forgetting something? In order for us to get this rock, we're going to need Cassandra and her medallion. Our two will not be enough from what you've told me. Three keys. Remember?"

"Earoni will provide for us."

"In the meantime, we need to find the Rebellion." Reane added. "At least we'll have some muscle behind us."

Ittan latched up his own cloak. "Especially when our current strength is about fourteen knights and twenty elven guards."

"Plus three thieves," Sheala added. "And an assortment of other riffraff."

"Thief?" Reane balked. "Speak for yourself, young lady."

"Oh please. Don't act like you haven't picked a pocket or two in your years. You really think these rebels can help? Last I heard, they can't even stop fighting amongst themselves."

"It's a plan, Sheala," Reane reminded. "Better than kicking down the front door."

"Says you. By the way, here comes your boyfriend."

Anthony stepped into the ruins off the long since degraded path up the mountainside. He strode over to the small gathering, accompanied by Reane's first mate. "We should be good to go."

"The final repairs to Corsair's ships are complete?" Reane touched a small strand of silk kept in her pocket.

She pilfered the single thread from the swatch of elven fabric given for her use during their escape from the elven lands. Without Sayra's knowledge, of course. Besides her ship, that single piece of the material was the most valuable of all her possessions. It provided a missing piece to the puzzle for accessing the minds of the elves. And, more importantly, Anthony. Now that she had it, there was a link she could create and maintain with minimal strain.

She still didn't have complete access their thoughts, but she had access to at least impressions and now their general feelings as well. And she rather enjoyed sensing Anthony's attraction to her.

"Just finished a shakedown sailing," Brentai informed his captain. "They handle like they just slid off the ramp out of dry dock for the first time."

Reane's eyebrow cocked. "That bad?"

Brentai chuckled. "No, not that bad. Although the Northwind is a little sluggish to port. Captain Corsair is a little miffed about that, but otherwise they're just as fast as they used to be."

"Ok then, times a wasting. Let's not squander any more of it."

As the others began to leave and return to the ships, Reane used a firm hand on Sheala's arm to hold her back.

Sheala gave her friend an incredulous look, but a single finger to Reane's lips portrayed her desire to speak to her; alone. Once the others were far enough away Sheala decided it was time to inquire as to the intentions of the requested private meeting. "Ok, what's up?"

"I could ask you the same thing."

"About?"

"You and Brentai." That the two of them didn't even exchange a word just now was very odd, and spoke volumes to Reane.

The comment drew a scowl and then a glance into the distance from the former thief. "I'd rather not talk about it."

"Look, he cares about you."

"We don't see eye to eye anymore." A shrug that was not more than a twitch accompanied Sheala's reply. "Happens."

"No, what's happening is you don't care about his opinions and feelings."

"Is that what he's told you?"

A raised eyebrow was Reane's answer.

"Ok, fine." Sheala threw her hands up. "Forgot for a moment who I was talking to. He's not happy with my current life choices. The whole getting involved in a war thing and all."

"And yet, he's still here. Following you. Could have left anytime. You know? Turned in his papers to me and skedaddled as soon as we hit the mainland."

"Isn't my fault his stubborn as a mule. It's pretty much over at this point."

"If that's what you want."

A stern finger from Sheala was in the captain's face. "Never said it's what I wanted." Then she withdrew the appendage and resumed staring off. "Just said that's what it is."

"Sheala, if there's one thing I've learned over the years, it's that relationships don't work unless both people want them to work. And there will be disagreements. Even a fight or ten; probably a hundred. But take it from me. I've made a lot of bad choices when it comes to men. You're about to make one bigger than I've ever made."

"I love Brentai." Eyes down, Sheala looked as though she pondered something important in the dirt only she could see.

"Love is a strong word."

"But it's true."

"Maybe then you should fight as hard for Brentai as you are fighting for revenge for what happened to your parents?"

Sheala's gaze turned up and sank into Reane's own. The single tear that struggled to fall, hanging in the corner like it couldn't let go, told the captain how deep her friend's pain drove into the depths of her heart.