The blond warrior knelt beside the prostrate dahl'reisen and laid a hand on his throat. "He's breathing and his heart's beating. He's alive." Then Kiel swore an astonished curse. "Spit and scorch me. Vel Serranis's dahl'reisen scar-it's gone!”

"Aiyah," Bel confirmed.

Kiel's gaze flew to the girl Bel held in his arms. "Did she-? Does this mean what I think it means?”

"Aiyah, she did. And I think it means exactly that. But restrain him anyway, in case I'm wrong." Bel shifted Ellysetta more securely in his arms.

"But how is that possible? How could she have restored his soul?”

"I gave you an order, Fey," Bel snapped. "Restrain vel Serranis now. Quickly, before he wakes." He carried Ellysetta across the park to where Rain lay motionless and laid her beside him. «Marissya, where are you? »

«Not far. What happened? There was so much agony, so much rage, and now I cannot sense anything.»

«I’ll explain when you get here. Just hurry.»

When Marissya arrived, the sight of her brother Gaelen, unconscious and surrounded by an impenetrable shield, made the shei'dalin stop in her tracks. "Dear gods. Gaelen." She gave a small, choked sound and started towards him, but Dax held her back.

"Nei, shei’tani, do not go near him. See to Rain and the Feyreisa”

"Dax, his scar is gone and I cannot sense his pain. How can that be?”

"I don't know, beloved, but I do not trust it. Come away." Dax pulled her away from her infamous brother.

After a brief resistance, Marissya went with him. Rain needed her. He was just waking and she could feel his dull pain throbbing at her. He was her primary concern. His bones were broken, but, more alarmingly, his internal defenses were all but decimated. Ellysetta's torment had ripped through his shields and nearly driven the tairen into madness. His first waking thought was fear for her safety, and that fear made the tairen surge against the last thin threads of Rain's control. Quickly Marissya poured her strength into him, helping him to rebuild his tattered barriers as he came back to consciousness. Only once she was sure he could keep the tairen in check did she turn her attention to his broken bones.

She'd barely begun to fuse the bones back together when Rain grabbed her wrist, his eyes snapping open. "Stop.”

She sucked in a breath and drew her hands away from Rain's side. "The bones aren't knit. You're not fully healed.”

"Conserve your strength for Ellysetta. Something is wrong with her." Pain from his broken bones stabbed deep enough to draw a quiet hiss as he sat up, but he waved Marissya off and gathered Ellysetta's limp body to his chest. Lines of worry bracketed his mouth as he laid his hand on Ellysetta's bare skin. "I cannot sense her at all.”

"Let me try to reach her." Marshaling her strength, Marissya summoned the full complement of her shei'dalin's powers, pooling magic within her until it filled her body and pulsed like the very blood that sped through her veins. She sent her consciousness into Ellysetta on a rich flow of healing magic.

The younger woman's life force was strong, her colors bright and vibrant, but the essence that was Ellysetta was absent. Marissya called to her softly, infusing her mental voice with hypnotic compulsion in an attempt to draw her out, but utter silence greeted her efforts. She called again, strengthening her summons.

«Rain, call to her. Bel, you too. You have a connection.»

As their voices replaced hers, she felt the faintest flutter of a response, quickly snuffed out. She sped towards the source of that faint response, and came to an abrupt, shocked halt.

What should have been the bright glow of Ellysetta's consciousness was hidden behind rope after rope of glowing magic. «A weave. Lord of Light, bless us all. She's built a fortress around her mind. Rain, I've never seen anything like it. »

It was a shei'dalin's Spirit weave, but in a pattern so dense and so complex that Marissya could not begin to fathom it. Cautiously she sent out a rippling tendril of her own power to test the barrier, and started with surprise as a shining thread fell away. She moved closer, and realized that the dense weave was actually many lighter weaves, layer after layer of Spirit that formed a deep thicket around whatever it was protecting.

Consciousness returned to Gaelen, but not by one flicker of an eyelash nor a minute change in breathing did he let it show. Wariness honed by centuries of battle had made such still wakings second nature to him.

He was still alive. He'd laid deadly dahl'reisen hands on the Tairen Soul's mate, yet he still drew breath. How was that possible?

Surreptitiously he extended his senses to evaluate his surroundings, only to find them rebuffed by humming walls of power. Dense five-fold weaves surrounded him, caging him in.

He risked opening one eye and saw the warriors ringed around him, saw through the glow of their weaves the Tairen Soul clutching his mate's limp body against his chest. Marissya crouched beside them. His heart clenched as he drank in the sight of his sister, as beautiful as the last time he'd seen her beloved face a thousand years ago. Dax, Belliard vel Jelani, and Rain Tairen Soul knelt beside her, worry plain on their faces.

He'd not succeeded, then. He'd not slain the High Mage's spawn.

He braced himself for the cold fury, the dahl'reisen hate that had driven him here with such relentless, deadly determination. It did not come.

Only then did Gaelen realize what else was missing. The pain. The anger. The despair.