Heirot

Mizuki sat bext to Soran, placing Blade close to her, and plaved her hand cmfortingly on Soran's shoulder. She wanted to say Rai will be fine. She wanted to say soon Rai would be healed and they could deal with the matter at hand. But she could not voice them into words. Instead, she comforted Soran and wiped Rai's damp locks of hair from her face.

Blade cooed and clutched her leg.

Soran's nerves calmed slightly under Mizuki's touch, as if just having her next to him made the whole situation more bearable. At about this time, the severed tissues began forming back together in Rai's leg as Marelda visualized the proper organic structure in her mind and channeled the knowledge through the light. The major things were done first, followed by the smaller details. Within four minutes, the hole in her leg was gone along with most of the pain. All that remained was to complete the reparation of smaller details and muscle damage to restore the leg to full health. Soran watched intently and held Rai's palms, focusing on to the warmth of Mizuki's hand on his shoulder like a lifeline. Finally, the light glowed and faded, and Marelda straightened up. For several moments she looked dazed, still lost in the intricacy of the spell, but soon her eyes refocused and she looked down at her work. "You should be alright now, little one, as soon as your strength returns." Seeing the tear-stains on her cheeks, she added apologetically, "I'm sorry it hurt so much. You're a very brave girl."

Rai looked at the woman and nodded softly, stilling holding Soran's hand but not as hard. "T-thank you..." she whispered, hugging Soran's hand to her then.

Mizuki let out a breath she hadn't realized she held. Rai was going to be alright. She sighed in relief and sat back against the base of a chair, pulling Blade into her lap. But her relief didn't last long, it was soon replaced with anger and rage again. She wanted to tear out Tensho's eyes.

"We need to kill him.." she murmmered.

Soran looked over to Mizuki thoughtfully. Tensho had taken Mizuki and Siren down so easily; he wasn't just bluffing when he threatened to do worse without the rogue's cooperation.

As if in answer to his dark thoughts, the window at the edge of the room abruptly shattered as an arrow of blue energy shot through it and lodged itself in the wall between Mizuki and Siren's heads. A rolled note was tied to the shaft. Its unread contents were:

"Mister Nightblade,
You seem to be a more entertaining target than I first thought! I knew this job would be fun. Clever job saving the girl, though I must admit if you were aiming for personality, you chose the doctor poorly. Meet us for our date at midndight, alone, and no further harm will come to them."

Soran eyed the arrow coldly, suspecting what it contained.

"Just what in the world is going on?" Marelda growled disapprovingly, marching toward the arrow to retrieve the message.

Rai's eyes widened at seeing the magical arrow. She began to breath rather staggeringly. "Soran..." she said softly. "Don't let her shoot me again, please don't let her shoot me again!"

She was clutching his hand tightly again and hugging it to her as if it were a stuffed animal she could cling to.

Jhaptal waited for Soran at the expected meeting place. Earlier, he had sent Mayn to give Soran a reminder that he was to meet with him, lest he turn his wraith upon the rogue's surrogate family. It was necessary for if he had read Soran correctly, it might have slipped his mind with the severity of the injury that Mayn had dealt to Rai.

"No one will hurt you again." Mizuki said passionatly, glaring at the arrow. She scooped up Blade, thought for a moment, then hugged him tightly and kissed his forehead. She tried to hold back her tears.

"S-siren?" she started, with some difficulty. But she had to save her son in some way... "How fast can you fly?"

Siren looked at Mizuki in mild shock at the strange question.

"What do you have in mind?" she asked, flexing her wings out and in a bit subcontiously.

Mizuki took a moment to breath. She was letting her son go. She peobably wouldn't see him for a long time...

"I need you to take Blade and--" she almost choked, but she regained herself and continued. "Take Blade back to your home. Leave him with people who will keep him safe and teach him..." Tears fell from her eyes as she hugged her son for the last time in a very long while.

Siren was astonished. "You're serious..." she breathed. "I can have him there and be back before tomorrow night," she said tentatively.

"Despite the communal raising atmosphere, there is still a heirarchy. This you must decide on before he leaves, if that is really your wish: As a known decendant of Gaberial he will be raised with other noble born children and educated in political matters and such. If you wish to keep his identity unknown and have a greater chance of retrieving him he would be placed with all the other children, taught in one of the other occupations and would be taught fighting. Who knows, the stay may be short enough that none of this matters."

She paused awkwardly.

"But realize that if something should happen to me, your son would be unreachable. Unless he came back on his own eventually or something."

She looked at Soran questioningly. Ultimatley, whether she went or not would decide on his wishes, being her master, and the others would still be guardless temporarily if she did go.

"Absolutely not," Soran broke in sternly. "That won't be necessary. I'll take care of the situation." This whole thing was related to him alone. There was no way he wanted Mizuki to separate from her son over him.

Marelda had finished reading the note, and threw a suspicious look at Soran.

Mizuki listened to Siren. If he was raised with the nobles she may never see him again, but if he was raised like a normal child, she could. The black bob on her shoulder pipped up. She looked at it, the blob nodded towards the wide eyed child in her arms and MIzuki understood. The blob would stay and watch over her son. Oddly, she trusted its judgment.

"Absolutely not," Soran broke in sternly. "That won't be necessary. I'll take care of the situation."

"What about any other attack?" she started. "Soran, we can't raise a baby while always being attacked. It'll be difficult to teach him his heritage even with Siren! I don't want to lose him but don't think I have any other option!..." she paused, watching Soran with shinning eyes. She loved her son and did not want to raise him in their normal conditions. They were always attacked for one reason or another. Even Rai shouldn't be here.

"I think... it's for the best." As if on cue, Blade clung to his mother.

"Tomorrow." Soran's voice was firm. He couldn't believe this was all happening. "Wait until tomorrow. If there's still trouble, do whatever you have to." He held the frightened Rai gently as he looked at Mizuki with determined eyes.

Tearfull, Mizuki leapt forward and hugged both Soran and Rai and Blade together. 'I can't risk him,' she thought, 'You must understand Soran.'

"I'm...sorry..." she apologized. Both to Soran and Rai. She had promised Rai that they'd protect her, and they couldn't even do that. They couldn't save her parents in time, she was constantly getting hurt. SHe was just a child... And Soran... she was his biggest weak point. They had finally confessed their feelings to each other, and she, along with the others, were being used against him in a twisted plot.

She must look like the biggest mistake he had ever made...