((wow, I missed alot, like, five years worth oh, well, we'll say that Sielio met them half way and esorted them to the city, blah blah blah...here we are, five years later...))

Sielio sat motionless on his bed, staring out the open window, a gentle breze blew whisping about his long strands of dark wavy hair, and the full moon brought a soft light into the large bedroom, Sielio gazed out over the sleeping city, two or three gaurds walked here and there, staying true to there posts. He sat up and pressed colser to the window as he watched the shadow of a figure and his horse draw near the gates, he was given passage, but did not dismout,probably just a scout. Resting his elbows on the windowsill sielo turned his mind to more important things, the Kiani's training was nearly complete, they could all use there powers well, and were all very powerful, Sielio finally understood why his father had wanted this to say a secret to the rest of the world, but he still didn't understand why he wanted it to be a secret to they themselves. His own training was not nearly complete, not training in natral power, but training of a different kind, training of how to ba a king. Training of how to be a good, kind, and protective, king. He sighed he thought about how long the last sevral years had been, the death of his father, the start of this war, the finding and training of the Kiani, and of himself. Sudently a flickering light penetrated the semi-darkness of the quiet room, Sielio turned, startled, to see one of his men standing with a torch in the hallway, pushing the door open.
"My Lord?" he asked "forgive me, but when you did not answer..."

"How long have you waited, Sielio enterupted the man, obviously he had been waiting for an answer to an unherd knock.

"Not long, my lord. But you must come, one of the scouts has news, new of Genrik's army." he answered, turning to lead the way down the hall.

((ok, sorry if I controlled Mordev too much, but I assumed that he made it to the city safly and brought news about what he had seen, I can change it if that's not what you had planned...what is a Wyvern anyway?))

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Go out and spread the Gospel. Use words if necessary.

NeverAlone

We are The Redeemed, we are the ones who are free! We belong to Jesus! We are now alive, and in this world we will shine! We belong to Jesus! ~ "We Shine" by Unhindered

Outside the palace, which was where the Kiani had been living for the past five years, one of the carefully clipped trees in the royal garden swayed slightly. Hidden by the foliage, a tall young woman of eighteen, barely recognizable as the diminutive thirteen-year-old of years, opened a large, thick tome of a book and relaxed into a more comfortable position.

Rhaeryn's wildly curly brown hair had subtly shifted to an attractive auburn and relaxed into waves, and she was tall and slender but strong from years of training. She was still reminiscent of the wayward girl, but this time the book was not one of fairy tales. And unscholarly Rhaeryn, who never picked up a book of anything besides stories if she could help it, was taking notes from an ancient record of battles where one side or another had been aided or abetted by the Ignae Kiani. She chewed on the end of her quill, and the tree spontaneously sprouted a few limbs and reached them up as if to curl around her. This ability had only recently manifested itself, around her eighteenth birthday a few months before, and over the years she'd gotten more proficient at invisibility and a few other abilities that she gradually grew into.

However, as she read, Rhaeryn still flickered in and out of sight, a habit she'd never broken or tried to. And though she might miss the years of being innocently protected by Aivon, she was now practically more capable of protecting him than the other way round.

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[smaller version of dragon]

Feeling none too patient, Mordev paced the antechamber outside Sielio's audience hall. His silver eyes snapped up when one of the servants appeared with a bow. "His Majesty will see you now."

The oak doors were pushed open, and he strode boldly inside. Perhaps too boldly, but the news was urgent and Mordev had never been one for protocol. He stooped into a curt bow before the King. Straightening, he went directly to the point. "Genrik's forces are camped twenty miles east of Cerlian. Fifteen thousand strong, take or give five thousand. They should be at your gates by dawn."

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Sila stood at the window of her room looking out at the dark and quiet city streets. She had been unable to sleep. As she stood, idly studying the peaceful streets, she contemplated the last five years of her training.

As a woman of now 23 years, she had almost mastered her abilities. She could created and control earthquakes, ranging in power from small tremors to quakes of catastrophic proportions. Also, when she concentrated hard enough, she could see for distances far greater than anyone else.

But she had found out early in her training that along with those powers came weaknesses.

When she first began to gain a mild control over her abilities, she found that she delighted in using them and was eager to learn more. Foolishly, she went against the orders of her teachers and tried to work with her powers in her own time. Once in the first year of her training, she had so exhausted herself by using her abilities that a strange sickness came over her. She was extremely ill for days and was in a nearly unconcious state. That was when she first learned of the weaknesses.

An involuntary shiver overcame her as she thought of what would happen to her if that sickness overcame her in battle.

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I'm back!

Oh. Wow. Five years ahead. Fun. Uh....let's see, now Aivon would be doing....

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Aivon Tagon stood silently in the garden, ignoring the young lady who sat reading nearby. She was his ward, and he was bound to protect her. Thus, he ignored her.

I was, and I always will be, he thought to himself. Over the years, as they grew a little more distant, Rhaeryn had seemingly decided that he wasn't her bodyguard anymore--that she didn't really need him. She didn't, really, but she didn't seem to understand that he was bound to protect her at the cost of his own life, if necessary. Just because she was better able to protect herself didn't mean he should stop.

As a result of that, he had taken to standing near enough that he could get to her swiftly should any problem arise, and yet still out of her sight. In the garden, crowded as it was with fruit trees, it was a simple task. Soon, though, she would probably realize that he still held himself to his vow. Mayhaps it would be even before the battle that he knew had to be soon.

Aivon smiled--he had trained, too, over the last five years. Now he could at least hit what he was aiming for with the bow most of the time, and he could hold his own against five opponents at once with a sword--any less and he almost always won within minutes. As for hand-to-hand combat, well, he hoped it never came down to that.

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Suakii, not knowing of her sister's musings, calmly walked into the room quietly, looking over the steets as her sister was.

She had grown much in five years, and her control over fire, and the ability to freeze grew with her. She often did small feats, such as encasing a leaf in a coat of ice on a whim. Several of her teachers had often pointed out to her that the term 'Playing with fire' could be used literally with her. She ignored the teasing though. However true it was, for she did often play with small flames when she was bored. Or, just to amuse herself, even if she had something to do.

Turning her attention back to her sister, she tilted her head when she saw her sister staring out the window.

"Something wrong?" She asked, her brow knitting upon seeing her sister's troubled face.

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You may (or may not) know me elsewhere as Elfpen

One of the fruit trees in the garden rustled slightly, as if reporting something to the reading girl - well, not so much a girl anymore. She glanced up. "Really? I see. I do thank you," and went back to her book. Rhaeryn wasn't really reading, though. She found Aivon's insistance upon guarding her fathfully simultaneously irritating and endearing, and wondered if he might ever give up on it. Probably not.

And besides, it wasn't as though she were completely without her weaknesses. She shuddered. The first time they'd entered the city she'd had to have her mind, and it had been a singularly unpleasant experience. The others hadn't had too much trouble, but Rhaeryn had practically fainted as what seemed a hideous probing finger laid her mind bare - nothing hidden. Even if she'd had the chance she couldn't have hidden it. And she still avoided any sort of height if at all possible.

So Rhaeryn said nothing about Aivon or to him, and kept reading. Maybe she did still need him.

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Any sort of height? Lol, Meldawen--she's in a tree.

----

Aivon heard the tree rustle, and Rhaeryn's response to it, but stayed quiet. It was almost certain that Rhaeryn now knew of his presence, but there wasn't any point in giving away the fact that he was there if, by some small chance, the tree hadn't told her about him. At least she had another way of knowing if someone was going to sneak up on her. Of course, Genrik likely wouldn't send ordinary assassins to take out the Kiani. He would want them dead or alive, but not with a foreknowledge of his attempts. He would send mages, or come himself. Since the latter was not very likely at all, he would likely do the former.

Aivon would stand a very small chance against a mage, unless he was close enough to use his sword; and very, very fast. Otherwise, the mage might use a small spell to hold him fast, or just cast a fireball or who knew what else. And as for Rhaeryn--in all their training, they had never discovered an effective way of blocking their minds; for some reason, the usual methods didn't work. It had something to do with their lineage--it was recorded that it had been a problem among all of the Kiani. The end result, though, was that a mage could use a mental attack, and Rhaeryn would be helpless against it. And she, for some reason, seemed to have a problem with them. He remembered the first day, when they arrived and had had their minds searched. Rhaeryn had nearly fainted, her eyes wide and frightened. Aivon himself had needed to be told how the situation was resolved--he ended up being knocked unconscious after he attacked the mages, unsure of what they were doing his ward.

He smiled. Some of the guards in the palace still held a grudge against him for that--several of them had been slain trying to stop him, and their friends had not been pleased by that at all. Thankfully, though, most had forgiven him.

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((Oh yeah. Oops. Maybe it's a small tree. Or maybe I forgot ))

Tapping the end of her quill against her lips, Rhaeryn flipped a few pages thoughtfully. There seemed to be a great many battles that the Kiani had almost won - only to have the tables turned by a clever mage who discovered their weaknesses and used them. More often than not it was by mind control, causing the Kiani to turn against their own troops, but there were others as well. Rhaeryn frowned. But nothing to help her use her abilities here.

Slipping out of the tree - she didn't need to climb, as it was a rather small one and so did not bother her odd fear of heights ((aha)) - she tucked the large tome under her arm and pushed back a few of the tree's limbs, which trailed beguilingly after her.

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Sila jumped slightly when her sister unexpectantly came up beside her. She turned her head and offered her a small smile. "Just thinking," was her quiet reply.

After a moment she continued, "Suakii, do you often worry about what we have to do? About Genrik? Do you think we're prepared?"

They had had five years of very rigorous training, but still she wondered if it would be enough. She told herself she was just being silly. She was a grown woman; she shouldn't be worrying all the time.

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I'm back!

Lol. You forgot her fear of heights?

----

Aivon trailed her surreptitiously, trusting that she was too busy admiring the garden yet again to see him. As he followed her, he pondered on a way that the Kiani could be able to avoid having mages take advantage of their weakness. Since a spell that got interrupted had to be started over again, the matter really was as simple as making sure no mage could concentrate hard enough to complete a spell. Unfortunately, while the idea itself was simple, the actual action was not. It would require someone to be hounding the mage constantly, regardless of whatever soldiers might be guarding him, staying close enough that the mage had no time to speak. Or knock him out. But unfortunately, both required finding the mage and then reaching him, which was not an easy task.

Why couldn't mages dress in flowing robes and carry tall staves anymore? Aivon wondered to himself. That was what they had done in the old days, but nowadays, they dressed like any other man, and had mastered the art of magic using their hands, unlike former ones, who had found it necessary to focus their magic through something else, for which staves were well suited.

Aivon shook himself out of his backward-sliding reverie and focused once more on their surroundings, wishing Rhaeryn didn't seem so oblivious all the time. Her mind seemed to almost constantly be caught up in whatever book she was reading--at the moment, he had no idea what it was.

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((Yes, yes I did. So sue me ))

Rhaeryn was indeed studiously contemplating what she'd read. A chill wind swept through the garden and she shivered, glancing at the moon - it was high in the sky, which meant it was also high time she went to bed. But first, to put the book back.

Trotting through the empty hallways, torch-lit and cavernous in the dark, Rhaeryn turned to go down the hall that led to the extensive library, but stopped, hearing voices. "...take or give five thousand. They should be at your gates by dawn."

Did he mean Genrik? Rhaeryn caught her breath and went closer, now catching sight of one of the anteroom doors, which was ajar. This could mean battle - imminent battle.

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Aivon's curiousity was aroused as he saw Rhaeryn pause on her way to return her book.

What could make her pause like that? he wondered to himself. When she moved over to listen at a door that was slightly ajar, he sighed to himself. If only he didn't feel the need to not let her know he was still guarding her--he dearly wanted to hear whatever was being said that so interested Rhaeryn.

Maybe it has something to do with Genrik, he mused. Possibly he was making his move at last, his long-prepared assault ready. If that was the case, they might not have a chance to arrange ways to stop mages--those who could do so might be in battle before messengers could reach them, or might not have time to spare for such a thing.

If the worst happened, and a mage took possession of Rhaeryn's mind, would he have the ability to kill her to save the kingdom? He wasn't sure.

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(i'm back! sorry for my absence, could someone possibly fill me in?)

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Hello, I'm Amoniel
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(ok. we've cut ahead to five years into the future, everyone's finished with their training now. and... i'm still figuring out the rest)

Latanya sighed and a small gust of wind shook the trees. She stood outside, wondering when... if... Genrik would attack. Her gray eyes scanned the horizon, yet she knew nobody was near. She cleared the clouds from the sky and wandered along.

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- married fingon fingolfinion 6/4/13 -
~art credit~

(do i fit in there? i am very confused but i will try to read the pages i missed and see if i can jump in somewhere!)

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[font=Times New Roman]
Hello, I'm Amoniel
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