I couldn't see, I couldn't think, all I knew was running. To go as far away as possible, not caring where. I felt the necklace bouncing off my chest as I ran, and I knew it was probably due to the necklace that I was acting so erratic, but it didn't matter.

Running through a castle at night is a terrible idea, since I felt more lost than ever looking at more shadowy corridors than I could count.

Finally, my legs gave out and I staggered to a door, sincerely hoping I wouldn't meet anyone for the rest of the evening. That last meeting with Legolas--God, Legolas.

Nope, I scolded myself, not thinking about him. Not in the state you're in.

I was pleasantly surprised when the room was revealed to be a library. It was hard to see anything but rows of dusty shelves, piled with scrolls, in the dim, milky moonlight that spilled from a small window.

With this, I curled up on the window seat and tried to sleep, but my heart was still beating frantically and irregularly. Just thinking about what had happened...made me hot and anxious, pulse racing.

I looked a the small stone, seemingly absorbing the moon's pale glow, and irritably tore it from my neck. Instantly I felt my control return, but the feelings were still there, taunting me over and over again.

I shivered, remembering the distinct curve of his lips, the color of his eyes, everything...everything I shouldn't be thinking of.

What did they say, that everything looks better in the morning?

Ha, likely.

I sunk into uneasy dreams, and awoke staring at a white ceiling.

White?

I turned my head, groggily peeling open my eyelids.

Of course, the first thing I mumbled was, "What in Arda is on my eyes?" 

I blinked to clear the fog and saw my mother siting in the chair across from the hospital bed. How long had it been? Weeks, maybe?

"Gianna! Oh, darling, I was so worried..." I saw her sunken face, limp form. How long had she been waiting for me to wake up?

"Mum?" I said, struggling to sit up.

"How long have I been here?" I asked.

"Three days," my mother said shakily. "You were trapped in your room, it's a miracle that you had no burns."

Only three days? I thought disbelievingly. Oh, so the time did change.

"How is that possible?" I asked her, confused. "I felt the sheets burning around me."

"Maybe the heavens are sending a message," she said, a smile crinkling the corners of her eyes. "That you are a priceless treasure."

She bent over my bed and kissed my forehead.

"Welcome back," she said tenderly.

"Where's Dad? How did the fire start?" I asked, overwhelmed by the general situation.

"Your father is fine, he's recovering." she said gently.

"If he's recovering, he's not fine," I pointed out.

"He...was fine. We were outside the house, the firemen told us to wait there while they found you, but your dad...he ran in anyways. A burning timber fell on him. He has six broken ribs, a punctured lung, and severe burns on his arms and neck but the doctors say he'll be fine in a few weeks."

"Oh." I said stupidly, trying to find the words.

My father?

"The fire?" I said out loud.

"Gas leak, they think. Combined with a faulty electrical cord."

"God, Mom, I'm so sorry about all of this." I said, as if it were somehow my fault.

"Don't worry, honey," she said. "The insurance is covering most of it."

Despite the situation, I laughed. The insurance? What an absurd idea it seemed.

"We'll have to live with Riley and Trent for a while, okay? I'm only glad were all alive." she continued softly.

I groaned.

My mom's sister Riley was a nightmare, the total opposite of her.

Brawny, and blond, and loud, and...

But we would live somewhere. All together, I reminded myself.

"Alexa brought him in for you," my mom mentioned. She pointed to a large glass bowl on the hospital nightstand. In it was a beautiful violet betta fish with flowing, fan-like fins, staring at me dolefully.

The card beside the bowl read;

"Sorry about Pip. Glad you're ok. With love, Alexa and Reyna."

I sighed. "They were here too?" I asked.

"They've come every day since the fire," she said. "After they found out, they knew you'd want something to keep you company, instead of something that would die, like flowers."

"So Pip--" I started, but my voice broke.

A goldfish. He was a goldfish.

Granted, a good goldfish, but still. A fish.

So why was I crying?

Maybe because he was the only one I cared about who wasn't safe from the flames.

How ironic, a fish in a bowl full of water burning to death.

"Gia, I'm sorry," my mum said, rubbing my arm reassuringly.

I smiled through my tears and looked at my new friend.

"Betta fish need heaters," I hiccuped. "Someone go buy him one of those mini heaters from Pet World."

My mom snorted, trying to keep in her laughter, and hugged me tightly.

It felt so good to laugh.

"I'm going to tell your dad you woke up," she said, standing up and dabbing at her eyes. "Out of the ashes rises a Phoenix, so they say."

She hurried out of the room.

So they say, I thought wonderingly.

A light from the shadows shall spring...

I looked towards the fishbowl, at the shimmering scales of violet and burgundy that moved like the flames of a fire.

Phoenix, I thought with some satisfaction. That's your name.

I looked at Phoenix and my thoughts wandered.

Eyes the colour of a moonlit sea, the faint scent of honeysuckle...

I frantically tried to catch the offending thoughts with the traps and nets of my mind, tossing them haphazardly into large crates labeled "Do Not Open".

I'd been getting good at it, too, lately.

Ignorance really is bliss, I thought bleakly.

At any rate, I distracted myself by considering the manner of my return.

Since I wasn't in a coma anymore, how and when could I go back?

The necklace was supposed to help me somehow, I remembered, but being the emotional disaster that I am, I had left it in the library.

I sighed frustratedly. Couldn't I go back at will?

I thought of the library, only the library, remembering exactly the smell of the scrolls and the dusty light that washed everything in grey.

I opened my eyes, only to see the same scene. Hospital, monitors, white. White everywhere.

I growled under my breath. Why wasn't this working?

I sullenly glared at the only other being in the room, namely, Phoenix the betta fish. My eyes watched him as he zigzagged around the bowl, fluttering his fins like the sun in a clear pool. Maybe there wasn't a way to get back. Maybe it was better that way, I countered. How would I face him? My face burned just to think of it. 

Fled like a fool, that's what you did, I chided myself. 

But nobody would look for me there, not where it seemed the scrolls hadn't been touched for years, where the air even smelled like old ink and where small puffs of dust were left in the shadow of anyone who went in there.

I reached down and picked up the necklace, feeling a sort of relief to know that I hadn't left it where it would get lost. I casually noticed my thoughts had become a reality, and I was standing in the same library I had left seemingly moments ago.

Ah, so the trick is not concentrating, I observed.

I heard footsteps in the hall and I froze, but this time, I flung the necklace over my head and crouched down, just in case.

Sighing, I listened to the sound fade and resolutely opened the door. Faewyn would know what to do, I figured rationally.

As soon as I stepped into the corridor, I felt an overwhelming sense of panic.

There is no panic, my mind reminded me, the necklace is magnifying your emotions again.

I took a deep breath and ran up the nearest flight of stairs, praying that my memory wouldn't fail me as it did previously.

Unfortunately, I happened to narrowly avoid throwing over a passerby, who happened to be a confused King Aragorn.

"Forgive me, my Lord," I said, panting. "It was not my wish to injure you."

"Do not worry," he smiled. "Where are you headed at such a rapid pace?"

"I don't really know," I said, wincing. "Do you happen to know where Lady Faewyn is quartered?"

"You're nearly there, it's the third door from the one behind me," Aragorn smiled kindly. "Shouldn't you be asleep? There is a long journey ahead of you."

"I am afraid I am finding it hard to sleep," I said. "A journey?"

"Legolas just told me he felt it best if you left tomorrow instead of later this week," he said.

"What? Why?" I asked, confused.

To my surprise, Aragorn looked as puzzled as I felt.

"I do not know for sure," he said. "Perhaps he feels time is running out."

"Thank you for the direction," I said, curtsying slightly. "I will try to rest before the morning."

He inclined his head and continued down the hall.

After reconfirming the location of the aforementioned room, I hesitantly knocked on the heavy wooden door.

Faewyn opened it a few seconds later, looking perfectly awake and not at all surprised to find me standing on the threshold of her bedroom.

"Gia," she smiled. "Shouldn't you be asleep?"

"I need help." I whispered.

My wide eyes and tousled hair must have made the situation seem like an emergency. Which it sort of was.

She nodded and invited me in to sit in front of her at a low table.

"Please, do tell," she said simply.

Faewyn looked properly astounded as I told her, first of the necklace, then of the Prince.

The only thing she had to say was, "Do you understand?"

"Understand what?" I answered.

"If this isn't a passing fancy, if you are who Prince Legolas has given his heart to, you will break it." Faewyn said with a sad smile.

"How can you say that?" I asked, for the first time feeling anger towards her. "I never asked for this!"

"But it happened. And altogether not unexpectedly. Elves, though, we are strange in our ways. You see, Gianna, elves only love once. When they do, it is true and keen. It will be a curse of the worst sort to know that you can never stay here. You will never be more than a lingering shadow."

I blinked away tears, rejecting her gaze.

"This is how you console a wayward friend?" I said, my voice low and rough. "Don't you think I know I can never love him? And I intend to see that he never thinks of loving me." I bitterly added, "A curse of the worst sort indeed."

Faewyn dropped her saddened gaze. "I'm so sorry you must endure this," she murmured. "I only hope everything falls into place."

"Do you know where I was just now?" I asked, my eyes glazed with tears. "I woke up in my own time. No longer under the continuous inducement of a coma, not held in perfect symmetry with Middle-earth any longer."

"But you can return," Faewyn said. "You are proof of that."

"It's easy when I have nothing to do but sleep in a hospital!" I shot back. "How is this ever going to work? I can't guarantee that I will even come back within the same time!"

"That's why you must wear the necklace," Faewyn told me. "Didn't Legolas tell you? It allows you to constantly be in balance, to return when you will to the time you are needed. If time drags on here, the minutes, hours, days, are coexistence with your time. But--"

She faltered and looked at me. "I'm not sure about this, but I came to a conclusion about the star marks you bear," she continued. "And it's likely I am mistaken, but in the case I am not, I felt it best you know."

"What?" I asked, still fighting down the uncharacteristic anger that coursed through my blood. Control, I thought. Control it.

"The time you have with us is divided into three parts. Everything must be completed by the light of the three stars."

"That's impossible," I told her. "There's no way that I can only return three times and finish this."

"That is why you wear the necklace, is it not?" she asked. "You will know when you are summoned back, and it will be as if only a short time will have been spent here."

"I hope you're right," I said. "That would be convenient."

"It seems the only option," Faewyn said admittedly. "Gia, I'm sorry if I sound harsh. I just want you to know."

"Only a loyal friend would say the hardest of truths," I said, looking down at the stone floor. "And you are the truest, Faewyn Calathiriel."

She smiled, relieved, and embraced me.

"A lingering shadow who will never be a better friend," she whispered.

"By the way," I told her with a semblance of a mischievous smile. "Forgive my anger. It was purely accidental."

"Don't worry," she assured me. "I tend to make allowance for individuals wearing sensitive jewelry."

I flashed her a smile. "Together?"

"Till the end," she replied. "And what a journey before then."