Korlon left Kara's chambers for the training fields, his restraint wearing thin. Kara was no longer the little girl he'd once shown how to braid her hair, or how to heft a sword.

This would be the last time he'd enter her chambers unannounced. The little cut of her breast coverings, while tauntingly humorous a few years ago, was no longer appropriate. He couldn't tease her the same way he had as a child. She wasn't one.

Moments before, he had watched as Kara swung herself to a standing position, gracefully, without pretense. Her body had changed even in the last six months since he'd seen her. More lithe, less baby softness. Her movements were predatory and comfortable.

Kara demonstrated no patience for the customary learning of her time. Rather than ice skating and poetry, she preferred archery and swordsmanship. It wasn't unheard of for a girl to be taught these skills, but it was extremely unusual for a Princess to be afforded them.

He'd fought the Council on her behalf many times, but as long as she continued her studies of the more feminine virtues, the Council overlooked her inclination toward war training and engineering.

Until the day she'd received permission from her father to attend University in the province of Galantyne. At that point he'd become one of her bitterest opponents, privately urging her to come to the surface and enjoy the blessings of her amazingly revealed second meld. She had not.

Korlon strode purposefully onto the practice field. Before he could set up the targets for Kara, or continue his reverie and analyze the advent of her second meld, he heard the thunderous swooshing sound overhead indicating her imminent arrival.

In her mind, he inserted the thought, "You know better." And when she alighted, he still had to calm himself.

In the air, Kara was the most imposing creature he'd ever seen. He'd only seen her in this transformation twice, counting this evening. With an eleven foot wingspan, a brightly glowing cream head, perfectly shaped, with wicked reddish talons, she could rip him to shreds if she wanted to. Her wings were stretched wide, and the softly glowing colors of the sand, the wheat, and the sunflowers lit her to complete glory.

Korlon watched her touchdown, knowing from her infrequent correspondence that she was as ungraceful as an Onanaphant. She lit, tumbled, transformed and landed, skidding across the dirt, getting a chin full of seeds and pebbles.

He stood there shaking his head. "You'll have to change for dinner."

Undeterred, Kara scrambled up, her cheek scratched and bleeding, straw in her hair, both hands scraped and filthy. She grinned. "The Kai is an Albatross! She is the most majestic of birds, and can fly for decades at a time without landing."

"Oh, it lands, my dear." Korlon informed her, dusting off her tunic and leggings. "To breed."

Kara screwed up her face in distaste. "I've not landed successfully yet." She admitted, not realizing the double meaning in her words. Korlon pretended not to notice, but the inner smile he wore was his own.

He had a fleeting thought of the Aerie back in Valdemar, his homeland. There a few women had adapted without the use of kai. The similarity to Kara's golden bird was startling. He wondered if her second kai were indeed a kai, or an adaptation as was theirs. He shook himself. There were those in the Aerie who might know-- but he was not at liberty to ask them at the moment.

Out of her hand the two sea arrows he'd given her appeared. His thoughts returned to the moment at hand.

She eyed the bow and quiver on his back in delight. "I didn't bring my bow, I'm hoping to use yours."

"Oh, you are, are you?" He examined the care she'd taken of the two arrows expertly, testing for endurance and plausibility. They had been treated with meticulous vigilance, he allowed, and returned them to her.

Her dazzling smile was brilliant in the artificial light inside the fortress. Acres and acres of practice field under the sea, the largest practice field in the tri-realms, but Korlon knew, it didn't compare to being on the land.

She'd never handled his bow before, in all of their lessons, his bow had been off limits to her unskilled hands. In the ten years he'd been her guardian, he'd always told her the day would come when he would allow her to use it. He suspected she was pushing things by not bringing her bow, but he also knew her to be ready.

It would be a momentous occasion if he allowed her to use his bow now. He swallowed hard, catching her curious expectant gaze. Kara shuffled her feet, kicking at the tufts of straw like grass, not wanting to seem too eager, but she too knew she was ready.

In Valdemar, where he was from, a ritual had been instituted to teach the use of the bow and arrow, the most prolific hunting weapon they used. Korlon and his father Archer also used the sea arrows, less prolific, and harder to master. Their secrets were guarded religiously. No untrained person could simply walk on and use sea arrows.

Korlon took a deep breath. "You know the history. Name it." He ordered forthrightly.

Kara's eyes lit, and she stood straighter.

"The sea arrows are a part of Folara, not our original planet. The plant that they are made from is indigenous to the regions north of Sentinel, called the forbidden plains. It is toxic to humans. When the settlers arrived on Folara and found that they couldn't survive on the planet's surface, they built the underwater fortresses utilizing the materials from the ships they'd arrived in and began to study for a way to take the toxins out of the atmosphere." She closed her eyes and took a deep breath, giving herself a moment to organize her thoughts.

"There were some, though, who adapted to the land. The toxins took their toll, and those who stayed on the land had a high mortality rate, many dying by the age of thirty, and many infants were lost. In order to survive, these adaptees ingested the toxic plants found in the Swamps of Narin and Parlan, to build up immunity. This was somewhat successful. The adaptees found that the toxic plants they ingested could help them on the land or in the water."

Kara shuffled one foot nervously, now that the time for induction was here, Korlon seemed strict and unbending, his eyes boring into hers, judging her worthy. Or not.

"The sea arrow, because it is indigenous and also has been adapted by the survivors is the only thing that can traverse all three environments. It is the sign of the allegiance between the tri-kingdoms and the kingdom of Valdemar. A sea arrow can only be broken by a member of Valdemar first family bloodlines. No tri-realm inhabitant has been taught the secrets of the sea arrow."

She stopped suddenly, staring at his eyes that had gone very dark and opaque. It was like his face had frozen in a hard expression, and Kara felt a moment of non-recognition. "Korlon?"

Korlon's hand reached out and lifted the sea arrows he'd made out of her hands. He held them reverently, lying across his fingertips as if they were fragile relics. His eyes closed as he held them and his lips began to move as he whispered words Kara couldn't understand.

Overhead the sky seemed to lighten imperceptibly, and Kara knew it wasn't real, that they were actually inside a large dome-shaped reverse aquarium, and so any change in the weather or lighting was either her imagination or actually a time change. Storms didn't occur inside the practice field. As she watched, the light in the huge room seemed to gather around Korlon's hands.

His eyes bored into hers. "They are blue now, indicating that they were mine. I made them for you."

Korlon closed his eyes again, this time lifting the arrows away from his body. He held them up, not like some kind of medieval sacrifice they might have read about from an ancient history that no longer mattered, but as if he were dedicating them. His lips moved once more in soundless chant or supplication.

Kara shivered as a slight breeze seemed to ruffle her hair against her neck, causing tiny beads of sweat to stick to her forehead, she could see the same beads lighting on Korlon's fair skin. Effort oozed from every pore.

Without warning, he was loading the arrow into his bow, and almost without any movement at all, he had stepped behind her, wrapping her in a warrior's embrace, as he placed her hands on the limb grip of his bow. In seconds, his hand rested over hers, and Kara felt for the first time the heavy locked positioning of a full grown warrior in battle ready stance.

At first, she couldn't concentrate on his prowess or instruction. Her eyes closed and she let herself feel the way his arms covered hers. Her heart beat pounded nervously as she turned her cheek ever so slightly to see his face so close. She could smell his skin, see the pores of his clean-shaven cheek. With every fiber of her being she wanted him to turn right now. To look at her, to see her interest in him not as mentor, not as guard, but as a man.

With his hand over hers, Korlon drew the arrow across the bow string, "Between you and the string is the energy. A bow does not create energy, Kara, you do. A bow stores and releases energy. As you pull the string back, you create the energy field. The more effort it takes to draw it, the more skill it will take to shoot accurately." His powerful instructions caused her to shiver.

"I give you my bow, my arrows, my skill, my effort and my energy, Kara. I give you these things as your teacher. I believe in you Kara." His breath in her ear softened the sting and snap of the string.

Kara realized that she had not been able to pull the bow string even a five inch span on her own. In this moment, he taught her. Her face turned again, just barely, and caught his eyes as he stared carefully into hers.

"I accept you, Korlon, as my teacher." She had said these words before but wondered now if they held a different meaning.

Before she could bat an eye, he had notched and let fly the second arrow, and now her arrows had flown from his bow. Both landed squarely in the bulls eye of the target.

I will do that, someday, Kara vowed, I will do that on my own!

The breeze she'd sensed once again fanned across her face. Kara would have released the bow and gone after her arrows, but Korlon held her to him. In silence, she realized this was the ritual.

*****