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A Rose In The Wind: A Saga of the Halmae -- Updated June 19, 2014
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<blockquote data-quote="Ilex" data-source="post: 6173097" data-attributes="member: 82687"><p><strong>35x01</strong></p><p></p><p><span style="font-size: 10px"><span style="font-family: 'verdana'"><span style="color: #000000">As they stepped out of the teleport building in Overlook, a stray nighttime breeze fluttered Rose’s cloak. She grabbed the hood and pulled it more tightly forward around her face, her hand holding it clenched at her throat. Twiggy couldn’t see her expression at all.</span></span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 10px"><span style="font-family: 'verdana'"></span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 10px"><span style="font-family: 'verdana'"><span style="color: #000000">As they walked back to their lodgings through the darkened city, Savina was the first to venture a comment.</span></span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 10px"><span style="font-family: 'verdana'"></span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 10px"><span style="font-family: 'verdana'"><span style="color: #000000">“Rose…?” she said. Rose’s free hand made a brief gesture that Twiggy understood well: <em>not now</em>.</span></span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 10px"><span style="font-family: 'verdana'"></span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 10px"><span style="font-family: 'verdana'"><span style="color: #000000">“What Orchid told us… it’s almost good news,” Savina continued.</span></span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 10px"><span style="font-family: 'verdana'"></span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 10px"><span style="font-family: 'verdana'"><span style="color: #000000">“There you go,” Kormick chimed in encouragingly. “You’re not going to destroy the world after all, yes? It’s just that any random stranger who stabs you… might.”</span></span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 10px"><span style="font-family: 'verdana'"></span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 10px"><span style="font-family: 'verdana'"><span style="color: #000000">Twiggy said nothing, understanding that Rose didn’t want to talk. As silence fell again, Twiggy simply hoped that her presence at Rose’s side was at least a little comforting.</span></span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 10px"><span style="font-family: 'verdana'"></span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 10px"><span style="font-family: 'verdana'"><span style="color: #000000">In the morning, they all settled into two carriages to continue their interrupted journey to Divine Mark. They had gone as far as they could go by teleport: the Lord High Regent’s home city had no public teleport circles. Now they would have a three-day journey over the high plateau beyond Overlook, slowly climbing, until they reached the holy city among another range of mountains in the west.</span></span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 10px"><span style="font-family: 'verdana'"></span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 10px"><span style="font-family: 'verdana'"><span style="color: #000000">Twiggy craned her neck out the carriage window to see as much of Overlook as she could before they left it behind. This town was perched high on the edge of a plateau with vast views to the east, toward Cauldron and beyond. Twiggy thought of how far they’d traveled since leaving Pol Henna, and she wondered how much farther they might go. In the profound distance, where the land blurred into sky, she imagined she could see a twinkle of water—the Halmae Sea? But she was certain she was imagining it. <em>We’ve come farther than I can see, even from up here</em>, she knew.</span></span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 10px"><span style="font-family: 'verdana'"></span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 10px"><span style="font-family: 'verdana'"><span style="color: #000000">The first day of travel took them across farmland: a smooth ride past workers in fields. Except for the unhappy silence emanating from Rose’s corner of the carriage, the day was pleasant. Twiggy wondered how long she should let Rose brood. At some point, they had to talk, not only to give Rose support but to figure out the meaning of everything they’d been told. She caught Mena’s eye and guessed that Mena was thinking the same thing; Mena gave her a sympathetic look and a head-shake that said <em>not yet</em>. </span></span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 10px"><span style="font-family: 'verdana'"></span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 10px"><span style="font-family: 'verdana'"><span style="color: #000000">Twiggy settled for mentally reviewing everything <a href="http://www.enworld.org/forum/showthread.php?251423-A-Rose-In-The-Wind-A-Saga-of-the-Halmae-Updated-August-15-2013/page52&p=6165044&viewfull=1#post6165044" target="_blank">Orchid had told them</a>. It had been such an infuriating conversation: beyond the obvious fact that Orchid had been trying to kill her best friend, Twiggy had found her refusal to explain things maddening. <em>How</em> had the Council of Mothers reached their conclusions? What spells? What divinations? What was their level of certainty about this Agent of Destruction business? She found herself getting angry all over again.</span></span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 10px"><span style="font-family: 'verdana'"></span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 10px"><span style="font-family: 'verdana'"><span style="color: #000000">Up above her, from where he was riding outside with the driver, Twiggy heard Kormick exhale comfortably—she could almost imagine him stretching—and say, “Now <em>this</em> is more what I was expecting when I agreed to escort a rich girl on a trip.” She tried to follow his lead, rolling her shoulders to loosen them and forcing herself to look out and enjoy the views. </span></span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 10px"><span style="font-family: 'verdana'"></span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 10px"><span style="font-family: 'verdana'"><span style="color: #000000">It wasn’t easy.</span></span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 10px"><span style="font-family: 'verdana'"></span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 10px"><span style="font-family: 'verdana'"><span style="color: #000000">That night at the waystation, Nyoko played and sang, to the delight of the travelers gathered there. Then Unsuku took the floor to dance, and Nyoko sat down next to Twiggy with a small cup of rice wine.</span></span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 10px"><span style="font-family: 'verdana'"></span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 10px"><span style="font-family: 'verdana'"><span style="color: #000000">“Have you ever been to Divine Mark?” Twiggy asked her.</span></span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 10px"><span style="font-family: 'verdana'"></span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 10px"><span style="font-family: 'verdana'"><span style="color: #000000">“I have not.”</span></span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 10px"><span style="font-family: 'verdana'"><span style="color: #000000"></span></span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 10px"><span style="font-family: 'verdana'"><span style="color: #000000">“Is that because it’s kind of a forbidden place?”</span></span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 10px"><span style="font-family: 'verdana'"><span style="color: #000000"></span></span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 10px"><span style="font-family: 'verdana'"><span style="color: #000000">“Not at all,” said Nyoko. “It’s merely very remote. Also quite formal.”</span></span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 10px"><span style="font-family: 'verdana'"></span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 10px"><span style="font-family: 'verdana'"><span style="color: #000000">Twiggy thought that every city in the Sovereignty was, to put it mildly, quite formal; she wondered what nightmare of bureaucratic rigidity they were riding into. Nyoko must have caught the expression on her face, because she smiled.</span></span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 10px"><span style="font-family: 'verdana'"></span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 10px"><span style="font-family: 'verdana'"><span style="color: #000000">“Don’t worry. Many pilgrims visit there,” Nyoko said. “They welcome and understand travelers in that sense. But it is a place of intense tradition. I will be shocked, for example, if we catch a glimpse of the Lord High Regent, even though we have been invited by Lady Akiko-san herself. By custom, he would never interact with heathens… or an Adept of my level.”</span></span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 10px"><span style="font-family: 'verdana'"></span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 10px"><span style="font-family: 'verdana'"><span style="color: #000000">“What exactly do pilgrims do there?” asked Twiggy. </span></span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 10px"><span style="font-family: 'verdana'"></span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 10px"><span style="font-family: 'verdana'"><span style="color: #000000">“Well, there are shrines, of course. And on certain festivals the Lord High Regent might hold a public celebration and bless the crowds… hold on…” Nyoko leaned forward, observing Unsuku’s gestures intently.</span></span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 10px"><span style="font-family: 'verdana'"></span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 10px"><span style="font-family: 'verdana'"><span style="color: #000000">“What is it?”</span></span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 10px"><span style="font-family: 'verdana'"><span style="color: #000000"></span></span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 10px"><span style="font-family: 'verdana'"><span style="color: #000000">“This is the Dance of the Earth United. I’ve working on it in my spare time.”</span></span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 10px"><span style="font-family: 'verdana'"></span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 10px"><span style="font-family: 'verdana'"><span style="color: #000000">“—You’ve had spare time?”</span></span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 10px"><span style="font-family: 'verdana'"><span style="color: #000000"></span></span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 10px"><span style="font-family: 'verdana'"><span style="color: #000000">“I hope never to be obliged to say it to her face, but Unsuku is… frustratingly good. Watching her is instructive.”</span></span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 10px"><span style="font-family: 'verdana'"></span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 10px"><span style="font-family: 'verdana'"><span style="color: #000000">Twiggy settled back and watched the dance, too. It <em>was</em> good. In fact, it was mesmerizing, knitting the crowd into a sense of such shared experience that, at the end, they all collectively sighed. Twiggy found herself smiling into her fellow travelers’ faces as if they were old friends, all of them sharing the enjoyment of the performance they’d just seen. She even felt connected to Unsuku herself, and remembered that Unsuku had, in fact, helped save Rose’s life the night before. Perhaps the self-involved, ambitious Adept was becoming part of their family, after all.</span></span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 10px"><span style="font-family: 'verdana'"></span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 10px"><span style="font-family: 'verdana'"></span></span><span style="font-size: 10px"><span style="font-family: 'verdana'"></span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 10px"><span style="font-family: 'verdana'"><span style="color: #000000">On the second day, out of nowhere, Rose finally spoke up, as if voicing her conclusion from a long process of silent thought: “I agree, in the final analysis, there is—perhaps—good news. It’s just that, in the moment, it hurt.”</span></span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 10px"><span style="font-family: 'verdana'"></span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 10px"><span style="font-family: 'verdana'"><span style="color: #000000">“In more ways than one,” said Twiggy, thinking of Rose’s battered body during the fight. </span></span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 10px"><span style="font-family: 'verdana'"></span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 10px"><span style="font-family: 'verdana'"><span style="color: #000000">“I am glad to know more about your situation,” stated Mena, picking up the conversation as if they’d been chatting about nothing else throughout the journey. “This information about an Agent of Destruction who seeks your death is disturbing but clarifying. That said, the Council of Mothers’ research is not complete. We must not mistake knowing <em>more</em> for knowing <em>everything</em>.”</span></span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 10px"><span style="font-family: 'verdana'"></span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 10px"><span style="font-family: 'verdana'"><span style="color: #000000">“Exactly,” said Twiggy. “Orchid wouldn’t tell us everything she knew, and it’s obvious even her people only understand part of the puzzle.”</span></span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 10px"><span style="font-family: 'verdana'"></span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 10px"><span style="font-family: 'verdana'"><span style="color: #000000">They spent the rest of the ride going over everything they had learned—and getting nowhere. Somewhere out there, a Sedellan agent waited to kill Rose. And if that being (a person? an angel? something else?) succeeded, then… “The end of all that has been made,” mused Twiggy aloud. “Not ‘the end of the world,’ exactly. The wording seems extremely precise.”</span></span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 10px"><span style="font-family: 'verdana'"></span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 10px"><span style="font-family: 'verdana'"><span style="color: #000000">“And yet extremely vague,” sighed Mena. “Didn’t I teach you to refrain from passive voice when you were trying to make your point clearly? ‘Made’…by whom? By the gods? That would, indeed, be catastrophic. Made by Culetto the cobbler during a particularly eventful visit to the outhouse last Tuesday? Less terrifying.” </span></span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 10px"><span style="font-family: 'verdana'"></span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 10px"><span style="font-family: 'verdana'"><span style="color: #000000">“I don’t think it’s the latter,” said Rose.</span></span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 10px"><span style="font-family: 'verdana'"></span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 10px"><span style="font-family: 'verdana'"><span style="color: #000000">On the third and final day of their journey to Divine Mark, the traffic on the road slowly increased, as did the number of roadside stands. By afternoon, the road was lined with merchants’ stalls selling snacks and trinkets to the pilgrims entering the city—Kormick bought a red chapbook to send home to his mentor Brother Scribe—and sunbeams shot over the mountains that rose directly ahead. </span></span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 10px"><span style="font-family: 'verdana'"><span style="color: #000000"></span></span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 10px"><span style="font-family: 'verdana'"><span style="color: #000000">They were still talking.</span></span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 10px"><span style="font-family: 'verdana'"></span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 10px"><span style="font-family: 'verdana'"><span style="color: #000000">“So you want to know more information,” said Rose. “So do I—I think. But is this going to keep happening? These attacks by the Alirrians? By others? What about next time, and the time after that?”</span></span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 10px"><span style="font-family: 'verdana'"></span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 10px"><span style="font-family: 'verdana'"><span style="color: #000000">“We’ll protect you,” said Twiggy.</span></span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 10px"><span style="font-family: 'verdana'"></span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 10px"><span style="font-family: 'verdana'"><span style="color: #000000">“But who’s protecting all of <em>you</em>? I’m not the only one who nearly died last night…”</span></span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 10px"><span style="font-family: 'verdana'"></span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 10px"><span style="font-family: 'verdana'"><span style="color: #000000">“We make our own choices,” said Mena.</span></span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 10px"><span style="font-family: 'verdana'"></span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 10px"><span style="font-family: 'verdana'"><span style="color: #000000">“And I choose to be here, with you,” said Twiggy.</span></span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 10px"><span style="font-family: 'verdana'"></span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 10px"><span style="font-family: 'verdana'"><span style="color: #000000">“Balls of stone!” hollered a shockingly familiar voice from outside. “Big balls of stone! Big, tough balls of stone!”</span></span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 10px"><span style="font-family: 'verdana'"></span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 10px"><span style="font-family: 'verdana'"><span style="color: #000000">The carriages jerked to a halt and Twiggy glimpsed Arden—who’d been riding on the outside, like Kormick—leap down and stride into the crowd, a chill gaze locked on something up ahead. Kormick was two steps behind her, growling “You have <em>got</em> to be kidding me” as he passed the carriage’s window.</span></span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 10px"><span style="font-family: 'verdana'"></span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 10px"><span style="font-family: 'verdana'"><span style="color: #000000"><a href="http://www.enworld.org/forum/showthread.php?251423-A-Rose-In-The-Wind-A-Saga-of-the-Halmae-Updated-August-15-2013/page43&p=5745900&viewfull=1#post5745900" target="_blank">Vatik</a> was back.</span></span></span></p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Ilex, post: 6173097, member: 82687"] [b]35x01[/b] [SIZE=2][FONT=verdana][COLOR=#000000]As they stepped out of the teleport building in Overlook, a stray nighttime breeze fluttered Rose’s cloak. She grabbed the hood and pulled it more tightly forward around her face, her hand holding it clenched at her throat. Twiggy couldn’t see her expression at all.[/COLOR] [COLOR=#000000]As they walked back to their lodgings through the darkened city, Savina was the first to venture a comment.[/COLOR] [COLOR=#000000]“Rose…?” she said. Rose’s free hand made a brief gesture that Twiggy understood well: [I]not now[/I].[/COLOR] [COLOR=#000000]“What Orchid told us… it’s almost good news,” Savina continued.[/COLOR] [COLOR=#000000]“There you go,” Kormick chimed in encouragingly. “You’re not going to destroy the world after all, yes? It’s just that any random stranger who stabs you… might.”[/COLOR] [COLOR=#000000]Twiggy said nothing, understanding that Rose didn’t want to talk. As silence fell again, Twiggy simply hoped that her presence at Rose’s side was at least a little comforting.[/COLOR] [COLOR=#000000]In the morning, they all settled into two carriages to continue their interrupted journey to Divine Mark. They had gone as far as they could go by teleport: the Lord High Regent’s home city had no public teleport circles. Now they would have a three-day journey over the high plateau beyond Overlook, slowly climbing, until they reached the holy city among another range of mountains in the west.[/COLOR] [COLOR=#000000]Twiggy craned her neck out the carriage window to see as much of Overlook as she could before they left it behind. This town was perched high on the edge of a plateau with vast views to the east, toward Cauldron and beyond. Twiggy thought of how far they’d traveled since leaving Pol Henna, and she wondered how much farther they might go. In the profound distance, where the land blurred into sky, she imagined she could see a twinkle of water—the Halmae Sea? But she was certain she was imagining it. [I]We’ve come farther than I can see, even from up here[/I], she knew.[/COLOR] [COLOR=#000000]The first day of travel took them across farmland: a smooth ride past workers in fields. Except for the unhappy silence emanating from Rose’s corner of the carriage, the day was pleasant. Twiggy wondered how long she should let Rose brood. At some point, they had to talk, not only to give Rose support but to figure out the meaning of everything they’d been told. She caught Mena’s eye and guessed that Mena was thinking the same thing; Mena gave her a sympathetic look and a head-shake that said [I]not yet[/I]. [/COLOR] [COLOR=#000000]Twiggy settled for mentally reviewing everything [URL="http://www.enworld.org/forum/showthread.php?251423-A-Rose-In-The-Wind-A-Saga-of-the-Halmae-Updated-August-15-2013/page52&p=6165044&viewfull=1#post6165044"]Orchid had told them[/URL]. It had been such an infuriating conversation: beyond the obvious fact that Orchid had been trying to kill her best friend, Twiggy had found her refusal to explain things maddening. [I]How[/I] had the Council of Mothers reached their conclusions? What spells? What divinations? What was their level of certainty about this Agent of Destruction business? She found herself getting angry all over again.[/COLOR] [COLOR=#000000]Up above her, from where he was riding outside with the driver, Twiggy heard Kormick exhale comfortably—she could almost imagine him stretching—and say, “Now [I]this[/I] is more what I was expecting when I agreed to escort a rich girl on a trip.” She tried to follow his lead, rolling her shoulders to loosen them and forcing herself to look out and enjoy the views. [/COLOR] [COLOR=#000000]It wasn’t easy.[/COLOR] [COLOR=#000000]That night at the waystation, Nyoko played and sang, to the delight of the travelers gathered there. Then Unsuku took the floor to dance, and Nyoko sat down next to Twiggy with a small cup of rice wine.[/COLOR] [COLOR=#000000]“Have you ever been to Divine Mark?” Twiggy asked her.[/COLOR] [COLOR=#000000]“I have not.” “Is that because it’s kind of a forbidden place?” “Not at all,” said Nyoko. “It’s merely very remote. Also quite formal.”[/COLOR] [COLOR=#000000]Twiggy thought that every city in the Sovereignty was, to put it mildly, quite formal; she wondered what nightmare of bureaucratic rigidity they were riding into. Nyoko must have caught the expression on her face, because she smiled.[/COLOR] [COLOR=#000000]“Don’t worry. Many pilgrims visit there,” Nyoko said. “They welcome and understand travelers in that sense. But it is a place of intense tradition. I will be shocked, for example, if we catch a glimpse of the Lord High Regent, even though we have been invited by Lady Akiko-san herself. By custom, he would never interact with heathens… or an Adept of my level.”[/COLOR] [COLOR=#000000]“What exactly do pilgrims do there?” asked Twiggy. [/COLOR] [COLOR=#000000]“Well, there are shrines, of course. And on certain festivals the Lord High Regent might hold a public celebration and bless the crowds… hold on…” Nyoko leaned forward, observing Unsuku’s gestures intently.[/COLOR] [COLOR=#000000]“What is it?” [/COLOR] [COLOR=#000000]“This is the Dance of the Earth United. I’ve working on it in my spare time.”[/COLOR] [COLOR=#000000]“—You’ve had spare time?” [/COLOR] [COLOR=#000000]“I hope never to be obliged to say it to her face, but Unsuku is… frustratingly good. Watching her is instructive.”[/COLOR] [COLOR=#000000]Twiggy settled back and watched the dance, too. It [I]was[/I] good. In fact, it was mesmerizing, knitting the crowd into a sense of such shared experience that, at the end, they all collectively sighed. Twiggy found herself smiling into her fellow travelers’ faces as if they were old friends, all of them sharing the enjoyment of the performance they’d just seen. She even felt connected to Unsuku herself, and remembered that Unsuku had, in fact, helped save Rose’s life the night before. Perhaps the self-involved, ambitious Adept was becoming part of their family, after all.[/COLOR] [/FONT][/SIZE][SIZE=2][FONT=verdana] [COLOR=#000000]On the second day, out of nowhere, Rose finally spoke up, as if voicing her conclusion from a long process of silent thought: “I agree, in the final analysis, there is—perhaps—good news. It’s just that, in the moment, it hurt.”[/COLOR] [COLOR=#000000]“In more ways than one,” said Twiggy, thinking of Rose’s battered body during the fight. [/COLOR] [COLOR=#000000]“I am glad to know more about your situation,” stated Mena, picking up the conversation as if they’d been chatting about nothing else throughout the journey. “This information about an Agent of Destruction who seeks your death is disturbing but clarifying. That said, the Council of Mothers’ research is not complete. We must not mistake knowing [I]more[/I] for knowing [I]everything[/I].”[/COLOR] [COLOR=#000000]“Exactly,” said Twiggy. “Orchid wouldn’t tell us everything she knew, and it’s obvious even her people only understand part of the puzzle.”[/COLOR] [COLOR=#000000]They spent the rest of the ride going over everything they had learned—and getting nowhere. Somewhere out there, a Sedellan agent waited to kill Rose. And if that being (a person? an angel? something else?) succeeded, then… “The end of all that has been made,” mused Twiggy aloud. “Not ‘the end of the world,’ exactly. The wording seems extremely precise.”[/COLOR] [COLOR=#000000]“And yet extremely vague,” sighed Mena. “Didn’t I teach you to refrain from passive voice when you were trying to make your point clearly? ‘Made’…by whom? By the gods? That would, indeed, be catastrophic. Made by Culetto the cobbler during a particularly eventful visit to the outhouse last Tuesday? Less terrifying.” [/COLOR] [COLOR=#000000]“I don’t think it’s the latter,” said Rose.[/COLOR] [COLOR=#000000]On the third and final day of their journey to Divine Mark, the traffic on the road slowly increased, as did the number of roadside stands. By afternoon, the road was lined with merchants’ stalls selling snacks and trinkets to the pilgrims entering the city—Kormick bought a red chapbook to send home to his mentor Brother Scribe—and sunbeams shot over the mountains that rose directly ahead. [/COLOR] [COLOR=#000000] They were still talking.[/COLOR] [COLOR=#000000]“So you want to know more information,” said Rose. “So do I—I think. But is this going to keep happening? These attacks by the Alirrians? By others? What about next time, and the time after that?”[/COLOR] [COLOR=#000000]“We’ll protect you,” said Twiggy.[/COLOR] [COLOR=#000000]“But who’s protecting all of [I]you[/I]? I’m not the only one who nearly died last night…”[/COLOR] [COLOR=#000000]“We make our own choices,” said Mena.[/COLOR] [COLOR=#000000]“And I choose to be here, with you,” said Twiggy.[/COLOR] [COLOR=#000000]“Balls of stone!” hollered a shockingly familiar voice from outside. “Big balls of stone! Big, tough balls of stone!”[/COLOR] [COLOR=#000000]The carriages jerked to a halt and Twiggy glimpsed Arden—who’d been riding on the outside, like Kormick—leap down and stride into the crowd, a chill gaze locked on something up ahead. Kormick was two steps behind her, growling “You have [I]got[/I] to be kidding me” as he passed the carriage’s window.[/COLOR] [COLOR=#000000][URL="http://www.enworld.org/forum/showthread.php?251423-A-Rose-In-The-Wind-A-Saga-of-the-Halmae-Updated-August-15-2013/page43&p=5745900&viewfull=1#post5745900"]Vatik[/URL] was back.[/COLOR][/FONT][/SIZE] [/QUOTE]
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A Rose In The Wind: A Saga of the Halmae -- Updated June 19, 2014
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