After about half an hour of walking we got to the village. Dawn had broken a deep blue across the sky. We walked through the square past the fountain; I looked back to where I had fallen unconscious. Seph caught my gaze.

"Sorry about that. The plan was for me to knock you out, to kind of prove my loyalty, if I had told you. You may have tensed up and not go under from the hit...sorry"

"That crack would have put a grand dragon under" I rubbed the back of my head. I had healed as much as I could when I was in the cell. It was sort of an automatic thing for me to heal my own injuries without thinking about it.

The village square had begun to fill with early risers, workers and merchants. Some of them noticed us crossing with the wolf and stood in timid ness. We didn’t hang around; we got onto the high street and walked down to the Inn. We walked in to find Atlas waiting for us in the bar.

"Hey, are you alright?" he said as he approached me.

"Yeah I'm fine now... where’s Kelva? Is she alright?"

"She's...I don’t know, Adell is talking to her in her room. We'll go upstairs, get Brox out of the way." we went out of the bar and up some stairs.

"What are we going to do about all them up there, at the site?" I said as we got to the top of the stairs.

"Adell has contacted someone in the Alliance to come and clear up everything."

"That’s handy..." I said "I'm tired and were leaving later, can I just go to bed and talk to you all later." I opened the door and let Brox into my room, Keaden followed him in saying he wanted a lie down.

"If you want, but you might want to hear this..." Atlas said

"Yeah, your right" I shut my door and we went to Kelva and Atlas' room. When we got through the door Seph was the first to talk

"How is she? What happened?" I was shocked to see he actually looked worried

"I wont go through everything that happened, no point. But basically I think that Kelva is possessed by the spirit who made that ring, which happens to be the late princess Bakira of Dualcia, apparently. Either that or Kelva is a reincarnation of her. She somehow knew where the ring was exactly, I was lost in the place. It was that castle up the road. Anyway she found the ring and, something happened, she wasn’t Kelva anymore. Well she was, I mean she knew who everyone was but there was something wrong with her" He sat on his bed and looking at the floor.

"It was like she... I Dunno, she went off to save you, she knew something had gone wrong, so I went after her, barely keeping up, eventually we were in the clearing with about twenty or more vampires and you on the floor, I ran straight for you. Every time I thought one of them were going to jump me, Kelva blew them to the other side of the platform" He let out a small smile "I got you moved you out of the way and watched the fireworks, what happened with that by the way?" He looked to me

"I have no clue, Volden told me to stand in the circle and to power it up, and when I stood on it nothing happened. It took a few seconds then it started to take my mana and got stronger and stronger. Before I knew it I was on my knees fighting to stop it taking whatever micro-scraps I had left. I could feel what ever part of me makes the mana. It was being ripped from it, it still feels numb. Its going to take a while to heal" I finished.

"Right well Adell is going to try and sort out what ever is wrong with Kelva. I just have to sit here and wait..." he saw the look on my face, half concern half tired "Tell you what... you go to bed. I will fill you in later"

"Are you sure, I feel guilty leaving you to it like this." I said

"You have been through a lot, get some rest" Seph started, his eyes on the floor

"What about you?" I said to him

"I’m not tired, I will wait here, see how she is" he glanced at Atlas and looked back to the floor. I noted that something was wrong, but was to tire to bother with it.

"I will see you guys in the morni- Later; I will see you guys later." They smiled and I walked out.

I walked into my room next door and found Keaden lying on the bed with Brox. I stood there watching him cuddle up to Brox wearing a pair of shorts.

"If I didn’t know any better, I would never think you the feral beast I have come to know and l- know" I joked and took my jacket and belt of, then walked over to him and he sat up on the edge of the bed

"Grr, shift Brox you have been replaced" The wolf let out a low growl and dropped of the bed.

"I was so worried about you" I said putting my hands on his shoulders, I put our foreheads together; I instantly sent my mana into him and continued my healing.

"You don’t have to do that, you know half of these will be gone by tomorrow." He said moving back and lazily landed on the bed, I laid beside him as best I could. Then he pulled me to him.

"Well now you will be fully healed by tomorrow" Although I couldn’t see him I knew he smiled. He stroked then kissed my hair. I kept focusing on healing him. I wasn’t doing it as strongly as I was before. I couldn’t, because of my injury I wasn’t reproducing my aura properly. I only had what I had got earlier so I had to take it easy. I started to drift of to sleep, and then pulled myself awake again. I thought of something to say. "Oh yeah, your dad phoned just before we left"

"What...what did he say" his tone suddenly serious.

"Oh nothing, just wanted to talk to you, by the way if he asks, one of Adell’s students father has kicked it and you have been covering some business in Dianto for mummy dearest, for say...four days, and don’t forget to apologise for not telling them" I said, he sat up. Face hard "What’s up?"

"Erm...I need to tell you something..."

"Are you going to tell me what’s up or what, it sounded important this morning?" I said, we were stood on the deck of the boat going back to Falvia. Since there was no room in the car, me and Keaden decided to walk down to the Port and we met up with everyone before we got on the boat. Keaden just smiled looking out over the sea to the coast line in the distance. But the smile was fake, there was something in his eyes.

"Leun... remember when I said I had to take a more active role in the pack" he said, smile fading.

"No..." he looked at me "You said they asked you to take a more active role" I corrected, he looked down into the sea. "You said you wanted to talk to us before you made your decision... Is that what this is about? You want to talk about it..."

"Not exactly, Kale has asked me to move up there" I went cold, move away? I looked at him hard, His face reddening.

"Define Asked?" I stared at him

"He told" he let out a heavy breath he had been holding, he lowered his head "I have no choice, I have to go" I had a hole ripped into me, like I was hit my a train at full speed. I know what his rules are. What the pack says goes, if they say run, he says how fast and I knew all to well I couldn’t interfere with that. He was leaving.

"I wont bother trying to argue with you, I wont say: 'you don’t have to go if you don’t want to', 'that’s what free will is for' or my personal favourite that 'your, your-own person, they don’t own you', but they do when it comes down to it, and saying all that wont work, I know it wont."

"Leun..." he had a tear in his eye. I looked away, I felt my body shake, I couldn’t decide which was worse. My hurt or my anger. I chose anger.

"Why did you leave it till now? on our way back."

"I couldn’t find a right time, I was supposed to tell you in that phone call, say that I'm coming home to get some stuff. I couldn’t do it like that" I let out a breath, I was dying to cry but I wouldn’t let myself, I held it together, but I couldn’t stop the red in my face or the tears in my eyes. "I told them I would tell you when I came to get my things, but with the relics and everything that’s been going on, I just...couldn’t find a right time."

"How longs this for?" I said leaning my arms on the railing, a spark of hope, I knew the answer... his silence confirmed it, I looked away. "You had better tell everyone else then..." I started to walk away. But he stopped me. He put his arms around me and cried into my shoulder. I don’t know how I stopped myself from doing the same. But I just stood there, paralysed. He put his hand on my cheek and moved to my face. Our lips met but I didn’t do anything. I just stared downwards into oblivion.

"Leun, I love you..." He whispered, "Too much" I closed my eyes and waited. He moved away slowly. His breath shaky. I walked past him. "Leun" He called after me I kept walking. I went into a room that was empty. I sat next to the window and looked out, the shore line clearer; I rested my head on my arms on the table.

Something passed the door slowly, and then I heard the door next to mine open. People were talking, I realised that everyone else was sat next door, I listened. I couldn’t hear much above the engine wailing, but I could make out who was talking, Kelva, then Keaden then Adell then Keaden again for a while, Kelva shouted something at him. Something about being ignorant and an idiot, I agreed. Then their door slammed. I stretched my mana out and sensed someone outside my door; I didn’t put much effort into it so I could only tell they were looking at me, Kelva.

My door opened "Hey..." I lifted my head to look at her; she looked as upset as I felt. Her eyes red she moved to sit next to me, and pulled me into a hug. "You okay?" she whispered I nodded

"Will be" I took a deep breath and wiped my eyes "I still have you anyway" I smiled dimly

"You know, you will always have me" She whispered into my ear, I did know, she had been my best friend ever since we met.

"I think I'm going to sleep for a while... will you wake me up when we get home" I said, I knew I wouldn’t sleep.

"Sure" she kissed me on the cheek then got up. She opened the door and I heard Seph ask if she was alright, I looked back out the window and put my head on my arms again. It was obvious to me that Seph liked Kelva, I don’t know why after the way she was with him most of the time. But who was I to judge on that type of thing. I don’t know how long I was there, I just sat staring at the sky. Eventually the boat came into dock.

I sat up, and I saw Keaden staring at me through the window, I took a deep breath, and then walked to the door. I stood there, him not saying anything to me.

"How long have you been standing there" I said glancing at him. he shrugged his shoulders.

"Don’t know. Don’t think I intended it to be like this, I never wanted it to be this way" he muttered

"There's no point saying that, its not going to be any other way is it?" I said coldly. He looked down. People started come into the corridor moving past us to get to the steps to the deck. "Come on, no point staying here".

We got to the car to find Adell in the drivers seat and Seph sat next to her, Kelva in the back and Brox in the boot next to a suit case.

"Where’s Atlas?"

"They asked him to work, can you believe it. He will be home later so there's room for you both this time" Kelva answered. We got in, with me in the middle next to Kelva. I rested my head on Keaden' shoulder, looking out of the front window. Not long after we set off, we stopped at one point so Kelva could chat to Atlas, When we set off home, The five minute ride went by faster than I'd hoped. We pulled in through the gates and saw two figures by the front door. I felt Keaden move, and I moved away from him. He brushed his hand next to mine, so I moved mine away, he took the hint and left me alone.

"Evan. Who’s that with him?" Adell said toward Keaden

"Lance, one of my pack brothers" I shifted when he said that. He got out of the car first, me, Kelva and Seph followed. Kelva threw me the house Keys and I walked straight for the door.

"The wonderer returns" Evan said to Keaden

"Nice choice of words" I said as I walked past Evan. Lance threw me a look. Not a look of confusion, one of discomfort for the situation. Evan turned his head to apologise but I just threw my hand up to wave it off. Keaden took Lance and Evan to one side to talk and Kelva joined in. Adell parked the car in the garage and Seph walked up the steps to join me.

I opened the door and went straight to my room, I knew Seph wanted to keep me company, but I wanted to be alone so I walked off ahead of him, a pang of guilt hit me, I wondered if he may have taken it the wrong way, so I gave myself a mental note to make it up later and carried on walking. When I got to my room I shook my jacket off, and went under the bed to find the spare suitcase and my old sports bag. I got them and put them on the bed then sat cross legged in the middle.

I did my breathing exercises and began meditating to find the problem with my mana-maker. It was hard to find the source of it, when I looked into myself it was like looking through fog, a thick blanket of mana. I went deeper into it and focused on bringing my concentration closer to the source. When I felt like I was close to it, something shook me back to my physical self, a door opening.

I opened my eyes and saw Keaden closing the door.

"Hey..." he said under his voice

"I found you some bags, you might need a few more, and you have a lot of stuff..."

"...yeah" he walked toward the chest of drawers then opened them and slowly started getting some of his clothes out. After a few minutes I stopped watching him, I couldn’t watch him leave. I got up and walked to the door. "Leun...wait" he ran over and grabbed my arm. His breathing heavy "I can’t help thi-"

"DONT..." I shook my arm loose "It’s hard enough as it is, I don’t want to hear how sorry you are, how you hate all this, how you wish it could be different, Because I already know." I started crying he tried to put his arms around me, I moved away then his face grew red again "I wont do this, I need to get away from you, so I can start getting over you..."

"Leun" he grabbed me hard, and pulled me to him "No. You wont. I wont." I pushed him away

"Yeah but I will have to... Finish packing" I walked out tears rolling down my face. I got to the stairs and stopped. I took a few deep breaths, and then wiped my eyes. I cooled some energy over my face to take the reddening down a bit, and then swallowed hard. I walked down, Kelva and Seph at the bottom.

"We need to figure out what to do with these artefacts..." Kelva said lightly

"I have an Idea, I will see to it." I was going to walk right past her, part of me was peeved at her for being insensitive; the other part thanked her for trying change the subject, so I stopped. "What happened with yours? Are you okay, Princess Bakira of Dualcia" she blushed

"Yes I'm fine. When I was on Dualcia I got these subconscious messages telling me to do things, Showing me images, parts of memories, yada yada yada, anyway, my past self created the ring of Kavolis, therefore imprinting past me into it therefore reawakening past me when present me put it on..." she said in one breath, looking around playfully as if she had just said something that happens everyday, Seph smiled "All I had to do was take it off, I can more or less remember everything that happened but the life and the memories I remembered have become really hazy so don’t worry about it, I'm still me" she said merrily

"And praise the Order for that" I put my arm around her and kissed, her forehead.

"So what’s this idea you have?" Seph said quickly, I gave him a look of is-that-jealousy-I-detect-because-I-can-get-a-kiss-and-you-can-get-a-slap, but he looked at me with a flat No-clue-what-your-talking-about. So I half smiled and answered him.

"I will call in a favour, that’s all I'm saying... do you want to keep the ring?"

"I don’t know, would come in handy, but I quite like being who I am now, I mean I never wasn’t who I am now, but, all them memories, it was quite confusing. No, take it, I will make do without it" she said

"Ok then, I’m going for a walk" I said

"But..." she pointed upstairs then caught the look in my eye "Ok... take your time", I nodded the turned around and walked out towards the garage. When I got there I pulled a suitcase down of the roof rack. I opened it on the floor then rooted through it, I found the Malceic and the Kavolis, and then I zipped up the suit case and walked out the garage door. I walked down the path attaching the gem to my belt and putting the ring in my pocket. I set off toward the cove. I got to the gate then stopped, I turned and looked to my bedroom window and saw Keaden watching me. I turned and put my head against the bars of the gate, a fresh well of tears forming. I walked to the side of the gate opening the side door, and then I walked through, turned left and kept walking. This time he could see me going away.