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Sweetening of Jealousy (Peyla pt 1)
1676- words-

Dyakida was taking a break, her head out her window to enjoy the sounds as the daily Jahuar storm caressed the leaves of the tree she had lived in for nearly a year now.
Well, enjoy as best she could...She was in a terrible mood this day.

She had been feeling off-kilter ever since Teiluj had arrived.
THAT had been a surprise that had begun as a series of obnoxious noises at Maya's end of the tree. Everybody but Kishku had complained about Maya's loud attempts to make a new room, but for Dyakida it was more than just loud- it was painfully disruptive. The noise not only hurt, but drowned out other sounds and left her ears ringing afterwards. She could not have that. Her ears were her second most important sense, aside from her hands.
So, she had asked Maya to keep it down. She was sure that Maya probably had complied. Maya wouldn't intentionally hurt her sisters. But what exact measures she had taken, Dyakida didn't know as she had simply started avaoiding Maya in the most polite way possible. Whatever they were, they really weren't effective. The ringing had only faded a week after construction was finished, and the headaches hadn't gone away... She was having a miserable one right now. So clearly, Dyakida groused, she was more sensistive than she thought.

And that was just for the lotus.

Dyakida was ashamed to admit it... but she was jealous. When Teiluj emerged, suddenly all eyes and antennae were on her.
Maya's attention was on her daughter that Aisha had, in her infinite (Dyakida mumbled sarcastically as she twitched her antennae in the breeze)wisdom, granted her.
Kishku's attention was on the girl as well, helping Maya take care of her.
The other sisters, too, were focused on Teiluj.
Even Niebet hadn't been in Dyakidas way lately. She was more upset and bitching about the mixed-ness of the girl. Apparently she was barely alkidike. Dyakida considered it a mixed blessing. Niebet wasn't bitching at her, but she was still bitching and it was just as unpleasant to hear it directed at another than at ones self. Worse, in some ways.

Briella was the biggest betrayal. Briella was the one that Dyakida REALLY trusted. The one that she knew was her advocate, her ally, her friend.
And she was all over the damn youngling.
HER best friend. Was now that brat's best friend.

Dyakida was jealous. She wasn't above it.
She wanted her sisters to pay attention to her. How else would she 'help' them? How else would they help her?

She had managed to restrain herself from complaining about anything but the reasonable things. Noise after bedtime, running up and down the stairs, messing with her weaponcrafting tools, throwing food... and even those only mildly.
So Dyakida felt she could be forgiven if she sulked in her room a while.

That wasn't to be, though. She hadn't eaten today, and her growling stomach coaxed her to walk downstairs.
She didn't want to talk to anybody right now, not in this mood, but- and this was one advantage of her blindness- she could ignore her sisters without worry. Hopefully her body language would prevent them from calling out to her. She wasn't sure what she was communicating with her body language, but she didn't try to hide her mood like she sometimes did.

She lifted herself from her window and set out for the doorway to the staircase, hands outstretched to find the frame and guide herself down the familiar living walls of the tree.

Dyakida rarely played with Teiluj, preferring to at most listen at the sidelines. But even that was miserable.
Hearing the little brat happily point things out and play made Dyakida more frustrated than usual.
The damn sprout could SEE.
And Dyakida would never stop feeling bitterness at her blindness or trying to hide the feeling beneath layers of liquid calm.
The truth was, Teiluj reminded her of what she did not have, of what she could not have and, though still technically a prentice, she felt very old.

Something tugged at her hair as she made her way down the steps. She brushed at it in annoyance, finding nothing.
Her hair was in need of a cut, but not so badly that it would have snagged on something! It was probably that kid, leaving strange things around. She hadn't been a prankster and she wasn't sure if Teiluj really was, but she wouldn't put it past the insufferable little...
Okay. That was not called for. Teiluj was sufferable. To an extent.
It was probably nothing. Just a trick of hair or the wind or something.

She continued downstairs and stalked into the pantry, grabbing a fruit and taking it outside with her. Sitting outside reduced her chances of snapping at somebody. She felt alone today. Very alone. Yes it was because of her own grumpy voilition, but she blamed the brat. The stupid brat, taking her family away.

Okay. that thought wasn't fair. She supposed that Teiluj was an addition, not a subtraction, but she mostly just wanted the girl to go away.

She raised the fruit to her mouth... only to close her mouth on air,

The hell?!

She felt the fruit with her other hand. Before, it had been a whole fruit, soft with ripeness and dewlike sweetness.
But now... now it was just a base and a core. This did not improve her mood.
She could not have mis-felt it, though...

She was not in the mood to care especially at this point, so she threw the core away and returned to get another. Then, on a whim, she got another. She took a bite out of one of them immediately as she returned to her eating spot.
The sweet juice of triumph filled her mouth as she took a bite of the fruit.
She chewed and went to take another bite... and found only core, yet again. With a snarl, she threw the fruit away. She didn't care if it ended up where the other fruit was, or if it hit anybody or not. She just wanted it to go away.
She reached for the other fruit. It wasn't there.
She felt around for it.
Still not there, though she felt a wisp of air on the back of her hand. Movement?

"Teiluj? Are you taking my fruit...?" she asked, quietly and cooly, trying to keep her anger at bay. If it was she wanted to slap the little brat upside the head so hard her antennae would ring for days, though it was odd that she hadn't heard the girl approach. She could hear her sisters even when they were sneaking. Surely an untrained little girl wouldn't be much harder to hear.

She heard a flutter by her ear, and turned to face it.

"Give me back my lunch." she said, still calmly. A giggle, light and bell-like rang near her ear again- it had to have moved, and suddenly another core was pressed into her hand.

She reached out to and maybe grab at whoever was doing it, but all she felt was a flutter of wind? Wings? As something evaded her clutches.

"Give it back!" some of her frustration began to leak into her voice. She flailed around. The giggling continued.

"Augh!"

It couldn't be Teiluj, could it? Her sisters wouldn't be so cruel as to let the kid torment her like this, and besides she was confident in her ability to grab even a small agile child.
She was blind, but she wasn't old and arthritic!

Besides, her sisters would have been unable to stifle their laughter by this point in the prank or whatever it was.

Something started tugging at her hair, then whipping around to tug at it again from the other side. She got to her feet, flailing at... whatever was doing this.
Finally, she retreated back to the tree and up the stairs.

To hell with lunch. She was going to go back to her room and sulkily work on something sharp and deadly.
She sat down on her workbench... only to find that her seat was covered in... some sort of pulpy goo. She brought it to her nose, smelling fresh sweetness. Was it... crushed mush? of fruit?

Why... how was her once-lunch ON HER SEAT???

"AUGHHHH!"
She wiped away as much as she could detect and tossed her wiping towel out the window. She could get a new damn cloth.
She sat back down, feeling absolutely pissed at the world, and reached for her current project- a single large blade. It was somehow placed further from her than she remembered it being, but she managed to maneuver it safely onto her workbench.
She reached for her tools, feeling for the one she wanted to use- something she could use with force and feeling, to get out the frustration.
Her tools were out of order. It should have been the third one from her, but instead it was the fifth.
And, to top it off, all of the tools were covered with sticky smudges, the same as her seat.

She stopped, hissing in annoyance before grabbing the tool and violently working on the sword. It needed carving. It needed sharpening. It needed balancing.

She drove the carving tool against the sword with a great weight of frustration and rage behind it, and snarled in frustration as the carving took snapped.
She threw it at her wall, hearing it's sharp working area stick in the wood with a dull thud.
She would need to finish the sword, and she needed the tool to finish the sword. And now the tool was broken and stuck in a wall. It would take her hours to find it.
She was grumpy
She was hungry.

She shoved herself away from her desk and sat down on her bedroll, curling her knees to her chest and just... sitting there, stewing in her own misery. Today... was just not a good day.
"Why me?"

Thank You - 156 words

Had she been mistaken, or did Dyakida sense that there was some distance between her and her dear friend?
That had never happened before. For years they had been as close as two friends could be.
But now... there was an insurmountable distance between them, something Dyakida was not accustomed to, and not happy about. She lay awake, listening to the sounds of Jahuar at night. Was that it, then? Was she being abandoned by her oldest friend at last?
If so, she couldn't blame Maya. After all, what was she but an old friend from childhood who had become damaged goods? Of course her newly Blade sister wouldn't want her. Who would?
Dyakida didn't know if anybody would ever want her. Would Mother Aisha still love her?
No of course she would. That was a given. And maybe that was okay- to only be wanted by her mother.
No. it was not okay.

And Then they Had a Tea Party - 723 words

Well Dyakida thought as she set her bed up for the night, That was interesting

She had encountered three earthlings that day, three times as many as she ever had before. Of course, it didn't count that she had already met Biroki, the inconceivably nervous. She had still never had this much contact with earthlings.
If Aminah or Zuri was any indication, not all of them were weakling cowards, which was good because she wouldn't have believed Biroki to be an example of his entire species. She was pretty sure they would all have died.

Although, he did seem to know his herbs and roots, if the tea was any indication, and Briella seemed to have fun playing that game with him. What was it... Mancala? Dyakida wondered if she could play as well. It seemed to have to do with pebbles in pits in a board- perhaps if she was allowed to feel them, then she could play. And she doubted that anybody would accuse her of cheating if she told them why.
Not that she liked telling them why. Blindness still felt like a shameful burden to her.

Not that it didn't have a few perks. For one thing, Briella stayed close, which Dyakida was not complaining about. For another thing, her other senses were making up for it and she did like to show off how sensitive she was to sound and vibrations and textures.
Not that it wasn't a b***h to deal with. Sensitivity to sounds was great- she could sometimes tell exactly where she was in the tree just by how the sound reverberated in the room, and she could hear a conversation a good distance away, even with leaves. She could identify individual creatures, if given the time to get to know them (the nest just next door, for example).
But it also meant that things that were at a tolerable volume for everybody else were horribly loud for her. In addition, there were a lot of sounds, a lot of noise to deal with. Sometimes, it was a pain to sort through it all. She didn't want to ignore it, though. When she did try to tune out things, a little bit of fear would coil around her heart- that by ignoring a sound, its existence would stop and another thing would be lost to the nothingness.
Completely foolish and unreasonable. Anyway, loud sounds and distractions were a problem.
And as for vibrations, it was impressive to notice a hidden earthling in a bush with her antennae, but it also meant that they were constantly being jangled and jarbled and sometimes a confluence of vibrations would happen and she would become nauseous. She hid it easily enough- the nausea never amounted to anything more than annoyance.
Maybe I should try some tea for that nausea? she wondered idly, stretching a bit.
Ah yes. The tea. It had been quite good. If The Shifter had no other talents, he at least could brew tea. Come to think of it, maybe he could cook too. Aisha knew Dyakida tried. It was something she could do- after she figured out how to not cut herself with a knife of course.
On the subject of Earthlings, Briella had told her that two of them were halfbreeds- half shifter. And that one was from the cold land that Maya had visited. The first three earthlings she meets, and two of them were halfbreeds. That she thought to herself, Is very good luck.
It also supported her pet theory- a halfbreed was just someone with a different parent. Both women had seemed like perfectly reasonable people, loyal to their tribes, and adept at things in their own way. At least as much so as the shifter Biroki- she assumed he was fullblooded- and certainly as much as would be expected of an alkidike. She hadn't met many alkidike halfbreeds, but they too seemed the same.
In the end, there was little difference between a halfbreed alkidike and a pureblood alkidike, or a halfbreed earthling and a pureblood earthling. They were earthling and alkidike. They were what they chose to be.
But was there a difference between alkidikes and earthlings, then?

Exhausted, she lay down on the bed and brought her leaf pillow to her, snuggling into it.

That would require more research.

Crime and Punishment - 1181 words

Peyla's misbehavior had put a hitch in Dyakida's plans. People at the Andile Market had been annoyed by her sprite's antics and, in the interest of placation, she had offered to either replace their goods, give them things of equivalent price, or pay for the damages out of pocket. Some had been kind and had waved her off, saying that it was only a sprite playing pranks, and she didn't need to worry. Some, however (the ones worst hit by the mischeif) had agreed that her offer was fair. For the most part, Dyakida was able to pay with goods she already had, or with small crafts that were simple enough to make.

There was however one rather gruff and rude sister among them, an Amazon, who demanded a new bow. She claimed that her bow was ruined, but Dyakida had checked it and was certain that the older woman was just giving her a hard time. Perhaps the woman didn't like sprites, or felt insulted by Dyakida's blindness. It happened. Dyakida did not want to ruffle any feathers, not so close to the festival, so she would make the bow, even though she wasn't sure if she could make things of that quality yet. She was taking her time on it, of course, using the best materials she could get her hands on. She wanted the Amazon to have nothing more to complain about once the bow was delivered, nothing reasonable anyway. Dyakida had a feeling that she wouldn't hear the end of this incident, not for a long time yet. But at least if the complaints were unreasonable then she would have some sort of leverage.

She was taking a break from the large bow's craft- it was trying and stressful to try to make something so out of her league- and was working on something far more enjoyable- Ilyra's practice bow.
It was special, not at all like a normal bow. It was going to be especially hard to string and draw, but that was the point. Ilyra would learn how to work with a difficult bow, and then would be an amazing archer once she got her Blade bow- Better, perhaps, thought Dyakida uncharitably, Than that Amazon The increased strength of the bow would also make it hit harder and faster. She thought that Ilyra might be pleased with it.

She hoped so. She actually liked Ilyra. Dyakida understood the desire to be treated with more respect than one actually got. It was one of those special longings that kept you up at nights and burned sinuously in your gut. It would worm its way into your soul until you just wanted to scream and strike at the walls to let it free, because at least some part of you would be. Respect set you free. Yansa had given her the respect she had craved, that she thought she had not deserved. Yansa had freed her to follow this path.

Ilyra was growing up so quickly now. It felt like only yesterday that Dyakida had come home from her rite of passage to find yet another new addition to their household. Then, the girl hadn't been as mature as she thought she was. She still wasn't. But, as Dyakida had learned, sometimes thought became reality.

She felt the wood shave off of the bow beautifully, leaving smoothness where there had once been the rough buds of twigs. It was a simple bow designed to build the wielder's strength. It told no story- Ilyra's story was just beginning. She gave it a simple design anyway, a small lotus-star carved into the broad shortbow cauterized with a small, heated piece of metal so that it stood out, darkened, from the wood. She could feel the difference. It was a change in texture and a dip in the level of the wood, a tantalizing change from the smoothness of the rest of the bow. It was, at least, something interesting.

She cut the notches for the bowstring, rounding off the corners of the notches. It was refreshing how simple this was compared to the other bow. She was done with Ilyra's practice bow and she stretched against the wall behind her, relaxing.

Peyla had caused a lot of trouble, but why? Dyakida relied on her to behave, and usually she did. But if Peyla misbehaved again, then Dyakida couldn't take her anywhere... and if she couldn't take the sprite anywhere, then she was trapped. Without Peyla, she had to rely on her sisters, and that would cost her some of her pride and independence, traits she held onto even though she knew that they had the potential to hinder her. Without Peyla, those traits had gotten her lost and injured, and she was lucky to be alive after all the stupid things she had done in the earlier years of her blindness. She didn't want to go back to those days.

She hoped that Peyla's punishment would do the trick. She was forcing Peyla to stay in the tree and help Briella while Amadi guided her. It wasn't perfect- Amadi wasn't very good at guiding, but the hope was that Peyla would remember being forced to stay home for the day while her rival took her job. Peyla obviously disliked her punishment, if the unhappy chimes coming from the house were any indication. The tricky part was getting it to stick, and stick in the right ways.

Would it have the desired effect? Would she reform and behave better? Or would Peyla respond with vengeance and act out against Dyakida and the world? Would the pranks increase in intensity? Would she intentionally lead Dyakida wrong? If that happened, and the punishment cost her her guide, then she would have been wrong and the consequences would be dire. Nobody could replace Peyla, that, to Dyakida, was a given.

She rubbed the practice bow down with oil, letting the grain of the wood absorb it and protect it from water. If she lost Peyla to a punishment, she would just have to find a way to cope. She would adapt, she was certain. She wasn't sure how yet, but she would. Somehow... She wouldn't have a choice.

She set the bow aside. She'd give it to Ilyra and tell her to string it herself- it would be better that way for her to learn how to string the difficult little bow. Reluctantly, she picked up her new project, feeling along it's smooth-carved length. Every time she put it down and picked it back up, it seemed more and more daunting. But she could not back down. An Alkidike never backed down, or so the prideful warrior women claimed.

Though Dyakida did not fight foes or avoid the sharp edges of their weapons, she knew: This bow was her fight, her challenge, her struggle. And she could not back down from it. She began to wrap it with the hide strips that would give it the right sort of torsion, conviction forcing her forward. She would make that woman a damn good bow.

A Small Hope - Meta Ch 4 - 277 Words
Dyakida, as she packed her things with her sister's help, couldn't stop fighting herself. She worked hard not to let her feelings slip out and infect her sisters. They needed their heads clear so that they could train for the war ahead.

Dyakida knew she had never known war, and that she would never know a warrior's place on the battlefield. That was part of the problem. She wanted to be with them there, on sacred bloodstained ground, fighting for glory and defeating the enemy.

Except she couldn't. Aside from the occasional morning meditative staff practice, she had neglected her training since her accident. Even if she did still have her old skill, she would be behind. So far behind. She would only hold up her sisters.

No, the only way she could fight beside them was to make them weapons with love. But what if the Oba-nese somehow reached her home tree? She didn't know. She supposed she'd have to think of something. Or move to the isles temporarily. Or... something.

Peyla sat by, bored, as shiny things got put away. There wasn't much for her to do other than hand her Alkidike things occasionally. She wanted to not be near the leader-people anymore. If she couldn't look at shiny man's shinies, then they couldn't either! It wasn't fair! She looked at Dyakida, watching her. Peyla understood nothing, but she felt conflicted too. She hadn't forgotten her punishment of before, nor the occasional scoldings, but she also hadn't forgotten that she liked her alkidike and that she needed Peyla. Peyla liked being needed. And sometimes they had fun! Peyla didn't forget, but she decided to forgive.

Of Pride and Stupidity - 1079 words

Dyakida had been proud of her idea to set up a weapon stand in the faire. She had gotten a lot of business and gossip and had talked to people from all over Tendaji. Best of all, she had repaired and handled weapons she didn't usually get to play with. She had learned a lot and had made a nice sum of money. It had been a day and, with mental conflict resolved, she had gone on to more practical matters. At the sister's campsite on the way home, she counted her stock and her take while the others slept slept warm and content with her decisions over the past few days. Allright, so the staffs had not been usable, but the explosion that Biroki had made revealed things about the magical leylines in the staff that she knew would be key to improving her magic work. She was excited to try out what she had learned today and hopefully build on that. One day... maybe soon... she could work with magic!

She held back her excitement so that she could finish counting and cataloging. Peyla snored melodiously nearby- she could only assume that her sprite had had an exciting day too.She didn't want to have to deal with an unruly sprite again, so she hoped that Peyla remembered that she had an important job to do. But for now, she just basked in the wonderful feeling of having had a series of good sales. It had cost to set up the stand, but she had made a profit, and it felt good to have coin in hand and purse.

Something worried her though, something that she couldn't quite put her finger on. She picked up the small wood plank that she had carved her records and total take and sales in and felt along it. Things seemed to add up properly- each item and commission was accounted for. As she ran her hand down the list and added it up in her head, she stopped at the total and frowned. That couldn't be right. It was a good sum of money and she had made a profit, but something just wasn't fitting. She went down the list once more, and again the same discrepancy appeared. She had less total money than she should have. She checked her stock column, just to be sure. A discrepancy there too! She had fewer of the small items- daggers, arrows, and replacement parts- than she ought to have remaining. Less money, fewer arrows... It clicked in her mind. She felt suddenly cold and exposed, even in the humid Jahuar air. These items and the money were small and light and easily pocketed. It couldn't be an error on her part- she had been very careful. Someone must have somehow taken them out of her stock.
But when?! How?!
She had been so vigilant! She hadn't left her stall at all, not even to place her bets- she had had a sister run the money to the bookie, and run back with the winnings afterward. How had anybody stolen anything? Surely she would have sensed them! She would have heard them or felt them moving around and through her stall. She would have... should have... known. Somehow.

She ran through the sales and pitches she had made that day. Had she been particularly distracted? No. She had always kept a hand or a hip to her counter. She could trust her sense of touch, and her antennae, couldn't she? Nobody could have gotten by her. Nobody! But obviously... somebody had.

~~~

Dyakida had, on occasion, wondered whether she was right to feel as much pride in herself as she did. She knew her hearing was keen and her hands were sensitive and she was agile, strong, and healthy. She could feel people around her with her antennae and could almost tell people apart from voice alone. She felt good about the practice it had required to make her senses work this way. It was better to feel invincible and amazing than worthless and broken, and she had started to swell with confidence in herself and her abilities.

But, as she tossed and turned sleeplessly on her sleeping mat, the figures from her records dancing in her mind, she wondered if she was right to put such faith in her abilities. She was still missing a sense. Hadn't Rastian mentioned that she could be taken advantage of? She had heard his words but it hadn't really registered. Obviously, someone had taken advantage of her and made off with a significant sum of money and items. Literally under her nose.

Perhaps she wasn't as capable as she thought she was. Perhaps it was time to start listening to Rastian and stop pretending that she could handle everything as if she was sighted. Peyla had given her so much freedom. She must have gotten drunk on it. Now she knew- she needed someone with her. Someone who wasn't a sprite and was capable of speech. Someone who would protect her from the things that she couldn't see coming and be her eyes when she needed them.

But that reminded her too much of the days when she could barely leave the tree without being lost... The days when she would return home with bruises and injuries because she had been unable to stop from running into trees or scraping herself on rocks and thorns. She didn't want to go back to those times again. She didn't want to feel so lost again.

But, she realized, thinking like this was less like backtracking and more like acknowledging that she wasn't an incredible super-alkidike. What Peyla had done for her and what she had done for herself did not make her super, special, or awesome. She had improved a great deal and had carved out a measure of real independance for herself, but in the end she could not escape the fact that she was still blind. The accident had still happened. That venom had stolen away her sight. It was not coming back, and it did not make her better than anybody else.

So. She needed help. But how would she get it? Well... I guess I'll just have to find a way.
She closed her eyes in the hopes that she could find some measure of rest before the sun rose. Planning for acquiring this new help could be done tomorrow on the long road home.

Get your Own Alkidike! - Peyla, Amadi, Briella, Dyakida
275 words

Peyla perched by Dyakida'a bed, pissed all to hell. This was her space, undeniably hers. If that... that horrible creature... had to take part of the tree, it had better not be her part. Or her Alkidike.

Dyakida had had a lovely conversation with Briella, as always. She had eaten and, only just now did she return to her room to work on her projects and, maybe eventually, sleep.
Today, she had made a remarkable discovery- Briella had a Sprite.
Two sprites in the tree was a fairly miraculous thing, considering how elusive the creatures were. They had fought so bitterly and loudly though. How fascinating!
It was so strange how badly Peyla had behaved today. Normally she behaved well for something known to be a trickster. How could two of the same creature hate each other so? Well... That was the great mystery of Tendaji, wasn't it?


Peyla chimed a slightly sullen greeting to her Alkidike. She had behaved perfectly well! She had attacked the bad sprite! She had tried to chase him off so his evil would not affect HER alkidike.
But she had failed.

Either way, Dyakida had projects to do.
"Peyla, could you help me find that piece of crystal I was working with?"

Sullenly, complainingly, Peyla did her job and guided Dyakida's hand to the crystal she was carving.
HER Job.
NOT Amadi's job. Amadi didn't have a job.
That meant she was better. She chimed with pride. See, you ugly black sprite? SHE WAS BETTER. He may have beaten her in a fight, but she was still better!

Oblivious to her Sprite's delusions, Dyakida began her work anew.

[Hammertime in Hammerspace , Dyakida and Yaholo - 311 words

Dyakida was cooking that night, which was a good thing because she was a better cook than the other sisters in the tree. As meat- freshly acquired from her sister's hunt - sizzled on her fire, she thought back on the interesting encounter she had had that day. It was rare that she met a halfbreed, rarer still to meet a male. She had been happy - for once - that she couldn't see them, because that had allowed her to treat them as any other and not recoil at their, likely, huge physical differences. They probably appreciated it.

Vision was a fast way to tell what something was, but too fast, she thought. The fastest answer to a question was not the best... that was, at least, what she told herself in her better moments, when she was convincing herself that she didn't miss it terribly.

Either way, Yaholo, as the sister-brother had called himself - was a very kind person. He had been willing to help her, even as he was visiting his mother in andile. And... he did that every day? Such a trek to a place that wouldn't accept him. Dyakida felt a sort of respect for him.

She had inspected his weapon of choice - a hammer - and gotten a measure of him as a person: Strong, resolute, and blunt. She had decided, then, that this man was likable, though Peyla had obviously decided that earlier. She stood by that decision now.

It had been so nice to talk to a sister - male or not - who understood so well. Though she hadn't told him that - even though she was a pureblooded child of Aisha herself - she had felt the same sort of pain as he. They were alike, she and he.

She smiled to herself. She hoped to meet him again.