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I came back to conciousness a few moments later, my vivid green eyes looking at the elf despairingly. As if unwilling to look into look into my hopeless eyes, he turned. For a moment, I wanted to weep, until he spoke."I brought someone I want you to meet."
When he said that, my heart fell and the blanket of misery settled even more heavily around me. Another. He has another.
He opened the door and beckoned. I assumed a look of false happiness, even though I felt as if I wanted to crawl away and mend the shattered remains of myself. She stepped just inside the door, her vivid green eyes staring at me from her soft, golden face. A Tyberan.
"Katja," she smiled.
My heart made a great leap from misery to joy at her voice. Ylena. She was Ylena; she was my sister.
"Lenna," I smiled at her and took her hand. She smiled in return and Krol slipped out to let us be alone.
Once he was gone, she frowned at me, "You've made a regular mess of yourself, Kat-dear."
I shrugged, "Sorry, Lenna. It couldn't be helped."
She wrinkled her nose at me and laughed, "Just like old times."
Lenna had always been there when I was young, helping me get out of scrapes. I had always known she would be destined for the Cloth. It suited her. She was always chiding me about "proper feminine conduct". I always laughed, but I never could imagine how I could ever have gotten along without her. She and Olan were always on my side.
She placed her hands over me and her gentle healing magic caused the burns to heal and vanish. She sighed, pushing her short brown hair out of her eyes, and smiled at me, "There, good as new."
She sat on the edge of the bed and patted my shoulder, "Now, care to tell me what's going on?"
I looked at her, "Whatever do you mean, Lenna?"
She scowled at me, "Don't pretend you don't know what I'm talking about, Kat," she gestured to the door, "An Outsider would not help one of Us unless they had a good reason."
I looked at the door, smiling faintly; my thoughts momentarily going to that pointy-eared object of my affection, "He's not an Outsider...not like any we've ever known--"
Ylena looked at me and giggled, "Perhaps there is even more here than meets the eye. You care for him, don't you?"
I looked at her, then at the door, "Lenna, he means more to me than anyone I have ever met. Those eyes. Those grey, wonderful eyes hold me captive like no other."
I looked back at my sister, "It sickens me to know that I will have placed him in the middle of all this. I do not wish to see him come to harm."
She nodded, "Have you asked him if he minds?"
"What??"
"If he cares for you, Katja, these dangers mean nothing to him."
"Ylena, you don't understand."
"What is there to understand? You love him; he obviously cares for you--"
I stared at her in surprise. Was I that obvious in my feelings? I blinked, suddenly feeling very confused and vulnerable. I rubbed at my shoulder in discomfort.
Ylena looked at me with that green gaze that was so like my own.
"Katja," she said softly, "Please, don't be stupid. Love is such a precious gift. Don't lose it--and don't throw it away."
I smiled at her matter-of-fact attitude, "Thank you, Lenna."
She grinned, "Anytime."
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© 1999 E. Angeli Mansfield
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